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Posted: 8/27/2015 2:25 AM
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Zekna
Player (28)
Joined: 8/10/2015
Posts: 22
Short update: Tested some more values for the $D2 skip using HHS' info. The skip is doable from the acid fountain room past the lab, which I think will be faster than the current route since it avoids backtracking out of the lab and the door opening animation. I can just do the inventory overflow, go to the lab and grab the horseshoe, then go to the fountain room and win. Also, Randil has pointed out to me a way to get $D2 on the first EI page, via items in the dragon room, so I'm going to check if that's faster as well. @HHS, I did notice that screens 72 and 73 are the hallway where we are doing the glasses overflow, and were included in your list of screens with $55 in the first row. The actual RAM values for these screens are, starting at $309: $00, $55, $00. However, the skip doesn't actually work here, which I'm wondering about. I get instead "This stone is almost perfectly round", followed by "The troll says the toll has been raised[...]." Screen 7 does work exactly as you're saying, displaying the riddle and then the ending. Seems like there's something off about command $00 -- my guess would be that whatever it calls jumps somewhere. Do you have any info on this?
Posted: 8/28/2015 5:18 AM
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HHS
Active player (286)
Joined: 10/8/2006
Posts: 356
Commands vary in length. Command 0 is used to display text, and takes 1 byte as a parameter. So in this case it displays message $55, and then it displays message number $ff.
Posted: 9/1/2015 8:35 AM
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Zekna
Player (28)
Joined: 8/10/2015
Posts: 22
Thanks HHS, that makes a lot of sense. Changing route to the acid fountain room at the end is 103 frames faster than the grand hall route. Most recent WIP movie is here: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1564875220/zekna_randil_shadowgate_v4.fm2. I've also tested all the EI values in the current run in all the rooms around the red carpet hallway, and it seems that the current acid fountain room setup is the fastest out of all these values. All values were tested with every verb. Rooms tested: Red Carpet Hallway ($14) Library ($15) Lab ($17) Courtyard ($13) Acid Fountain Room ($18)* Grand Hall($1A)* Values tested: $76 $8D $79 $FF $73 $DC $D2 $F3* $BA* $95 Starred values weren't necessarily tested in starred rooms, as they'd most likely be slower than the current setup. There's not many more values possible on the current route -- maybe 20 or so, and not all are meaningful to test. Getting close to being decently sure that this is the fastest end skip setup. Been collecting footage of some interesting glitches I see while testing -- I uploaded one here, which shows that LEAVEing $8D without crashing altered the event that happened when LEAVEing $44, though there is something wrong with this Key 4, since looking at it always results in "It's a beautifully woven rug." I may post a compilation of things like this, if anyone is interested.
Posted: 9/15/2015 4:02 AM
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Zekna
Player (28)
Joined: 8/10/2015
Posts: 22
Quick post to say I am still working on this, and some progress updates. I've been testing all possible values for the item display flags on the current route. Possibilities in rooms before the courtyard are slim, because the rooms have to be in a certain state to proceed past the mirror/fire drake/troll bridge rooms. Once we get to the red carpet hallway, we don't need to make any game progress, so we can make quite a few possible values (probably 300-400 total between just the library and laboratory state addresses, $04E4 and $04E5). If you're interested in the details of my testing so far, please check out this: https://gist.github.com/zekna/e725f688baf5d5423ccb. The most important takeaway is that the following values will also result in an end skip in the same situations that using $D2 would: $D0, $D7, $D9, $DD, $DE. Some of the setups for these seem like they would be faster than the current route, so I'll be testing these routes soon!
Posted: 9/15/2015 7:55 AM
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Randil
Skilled player (1827)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2161
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
I'm glad to hear that you're still working on it, I was just about to ask how you were progressing :) Keep it up, I look forward to the finished product!
My own page on this site.
Posted: 9/18/2015 9:12 AM
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Zekna
Player (28)
Joined: 8/10/2015
Posts: 22
Thank you! ^^ I've been a bit slow, but I do plan to keep at it. Tested more values and found that $C5, $C7, $C9, and $CE all also result in the ending skip, once again in the same conditions. It seems that only invalid trashcan objects will lead to this particular skip -- and somehow, fairly consistently. I tested all spell values as well, with nothing of note -- updated the gist from earlier with details. Also, the new skip values have been put to good use, and I have a new movie 185 frames faster than the previous. fm2 can be found here: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1589758643/zekna_randil_shadowgate_v5.fm2 The old lab setup and route to the acid fountain are abandoned in favor of raising the bucket in the courtyard to make $DD in $04E4, which is used to skip to the end. As a side note, I have been using the tas editor/fm3 format to make this. They've been a pain to upload through the usual means, so I've been exporting to fm2. If anyone wants the actual fm3 file please let me know! I'm happy to provide it, and intend to submit using fm3. And, as always, please take a look. Any feedback is very welcome.
Posted: 9/19/2015 4:28 PM
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Randil
Skilled player (1827)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2161
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Amazing. I have a hard time seeing how this can be significantly improved (unless you find something new).
My own page on this site.
Posted: 9/20/2015 2:13 AM
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Zekna
Player (28)
Joined: 8/10/2015
Posts: 22
Thanks! I think I'm in agreement here. I've just finished testing the rest of the invalid values in the red carpet hallway and the grand hall (gist has again been updated). No other setup I know of now is faster than the one I do in that last movie. My inventory management feels solid -- it's one of those things that's hard to really know though. Overall, I don't see any other improvements, so I think I'm going to submit the last movie I shared. Any other suggestions on things to experiment with or to try and improve are welcome!
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