Thanks Assassin, I'll pass that along to the person working on it next chance I get.
Progress Update:
- Recycled Any% TAS file to get the same RNG on the introduction guardbot fight as well as all of Southern Forest
- Figured out how to properly implement Fire Eyes' Cutscene skip
- Currently working on getting flowers taken care of in Eastern Forest
- They're not cooperating...
I'm still very worried about how the route will look post-Thraxx. It's incapable of being tested without abusing TAS capabilities to get there in the first place, at least with any sort of accurate representation. The core problem lies in the Mammoth Graveyard fight with the Viper Commander. We need X Hardballs (amount unknown, unfortunately, due to massive fluctuations in damage output RNG) and Y Call Beads, which we should get from Fire Eyes. This leads us to the following questions/problems:
a) How many do we need of each?
Realistically, there's no telling. I may have to do this part over quite a few times unless I get lucky.
b) Do we pick up extra Call Beads in various places?
Initially, I'm not going to, because I want to know the absolute bare minimums and picking any of them up wastes ~20-30 frames. Adds up after 1 or 2 when they may not even be needed.
c) Money and 100% equipment requirements?
Yeah, it's a pain to route, and there's no telling.
d) Crystals?
The current theory is to knock one of the enemies post-Thraxx down towards a container which has crystals and then use an ingredient pickup glitch to grab the drop amount out of the container, similar to the method in Any% for the 99 Call Beads in Pyramids. That being said, this is mostly due to money constraints, so finding a better money solution means we can just buy crystals instead of this option. However, nothing I've come up with personally yields any positive results, and nobody within the community seems to have any other ideas.
So yeah, I don't know when the next update about this will be, but I'm definitely working on it every day for at least a couple hours. Also trying to learn the 100% Illusion of Gaia route so I can get that TAS going as well as learning Prehistorik Man (All Levels) for running and possibly TAS'ing also. Busy busy...
Progress Update #2:
- Both Eastern Forest flower manipulations are done and optimized to the get the best outcome for the RNG seed I have on that map. I thought about going back and changing it, but considering the delayed amount is only 1 frame of manipulation, it's going to break even if I went back and changed the seed by delaying a single frame before leaving the village. So this is about as good as it gets so far. :)
- Quicksand area + Jaguar Ring Cave went great, the guy's manipulation cost 0 frames and I got both quicksand positions perfect so no losses there either.
- The 4 Crystal container introduces a new thing to TAS'ing this game, which is grabbing things with the dog and transferring that "event" to the boy. So as opposed to Any%'s TAS, where I waited for the boy to reach the end of the area, I now just swap to the boy while the dog is "attacking" the 4 Crystal container, then swap back really fast to keep going.
- All that combined, and this TAS is off to an awesome start. I still have no idea what's going to happen post-Thraxx though. Will continue updating this post until I do see what the outcome is after things with Thraxx and my current route idea.
Progress Update #3:
- W.I.P. Video:
https://youtu.be/aPmeNMzEL04
- Really happy with how things are turning out so far. Blows Any% out of the water for the most part in terms of even further optimizations/manipulations.
- Speaking of Any%, it's more or less completely outdated now. If anyone's looking to start a somewhat large project and is also interested in this game, let me know so we can start up a co-op on Any% to get it up to a much better state.
- Not sure when I'll continue working on this, I'm juggling a bunch of projects at the moment but now that Thraxx is out of the way, the real fun can begin.
~~~~This project is currently on hold because I ran out of interest~~~~
If you'd like to pick up where I left off, I am more than happy to help you do so. You can contact me on twitch.tv/theangrypanda1 , SDA forums (Theangrypanda) , or on here/various discords/twitch chats. My interest ran out because certain people tend to overstep their respective boundaries when questioning things and after explaining things repeatedly over the past 3 years regarding these things, I'm just simply too tired of it to care anymore. Sorry guys. :(
<3 Panda