Posted: 9/16/2015 5:45 PM
Post subject: Difficulty choice for a "new" TAS (Zool genesis)
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Ploplo
Player (84)
Joined: 5/31/2013
Posts: 17
I'm planning to (hopefully more seriously this time) "re"start my TAS project on Zool for the Genesis. Now there is one point i did not think of back then (although important... damn i'm stupid sometimes), it's the difficulty setting to use for the game. As for what difficulty changes: Basically, to finish levels, you have to get a certain number of "collectibles" in the level (they're like coins in Mario pretty much), to activate the exit of the level. The amount depends on the level... but it also depends on the difficulty. Havn't tested all levels in difficulties (yet), but the pattern seems to be that Normal has a certain amount, then in Easy you need 15 less, while in Hard you need 5 more. Obviously it's pretty much impossible to gather the required amount in the fastest path from start to the end "point" of a level, so more Collectibles to gather means longer times. As far as i know, it's the only significant (if not only) difference between difficulties. The only other different i was maybe expecting, was a difference in the HP of bosses, but so far it seems there's no difference at all (i will do a complete comparison before deciding though, to be sure) To sum it up, it seems that sometimes the hardest difficulty setting is preferred, but here playing with the easiest setting would end up in a faster run. So.... is there a choice i should favor in this case? And is there a "mandatory" choice as a criteria for submissions?
Posted: 9/16/2015 7:25 PM
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Warp
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Well, the discussion is still ongoing, but I would say that the (perhaps somewhat weak) consensus is still that by default you should always choose the hardest difficulty level unless you have a good reason not to. "It makes the run faster" is probably not such a good reason. In this case it sounds to me (although I haven't seen the game) that the hardest difficulty level would actually be the more interesting, because there's more to do, and more to see, and more room for tricks (rather than it being solely a question of enemy HP).
Posted: 9/16/2015 7:43 PM
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scrimpeh
Editor, Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2086
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I would argue that, if the hardest difficulty makes you collect more stuff, you should pick that for more interesting routing. Of course, that is unless there is nothing interesting about picking up extra collectibles, in which case you should go for the easiest difficulty. Incidentally, there is one game (An Untitled Story for the PC), where the difficulty setting influences how many items you need to collect to unlock the final area, leading to significantly different times and routes between runs, as you need to complete far more areas in harder difficulties. The difference is so big there's both "Easy" and "Masterful" runs for both types of routes. Maybe this game is similar.
Posted: 9/16/2015 9:21 PM
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TehBerral
Active player (257)
Joined: 8/14/2014
Posts: 188
Location: North Kilttown
I've played Zool (great game, surprised no one has finished a TAS of it already) and I don't think it would hurt to use the hardest difficulty. The cool thing about the game is that the movement is fast and interesting enough to make picking up extra collectables possibly more fun to watch. Plus seeing as it's only five more per stage than normal it can't be that bad to collect. Good luck with the TAS!
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Posted: 9/16/2015 11:38 PM
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Ploplo
Player (84)
Joined: 5/31/2013
Posts: 17
Well indeed in this case the Hard setting would lead to a more interesting run that is a bit less straightforward, and needs more routing. (Which is more interesting to me, even for a 1st full TAS =p) On Easy a lot of levels could be done in a rather "straight" line. (Game is not "go from left to right" in most levels). Don't know if i can talk of more "tricks" though, since i don't really have such things, at least at that point, and i've never found much information on this game. Anyway, that would have been my choice, so i'm gonna work on the run in Hard.