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My first TAS speedrun! Yay! (Second submission)
This is a River City Ransom EX Wussy TAS, with the goal to beat the main story line at any% in the fastest time possible, while avoiding taking damages, with maximum multipliers, without RNG manipulation, and without entering any cheat codes.
The controls have a delay input for each and every actions per frame. This delay is used to measure how long the input button is pressed down, and then evaluated to execute certain special moves, called Skills, in the game. For instance, when you required to start your punch, you must be in your Idle animation state. This Idle animation state then waits how long your input button is pressed down, until you release the button. If you wait a bit longer, it will go into Idle state 2, and then Idle state 3. Idle state 2 is preparing a punch with a higher damage, and Idle state 3 is where it launches the maximum punch damage.
I rarely use them because it takes up a lot of time charging your punches and kicks. But the results are hilarious when executed correctly.
I go through the main game as if I'm playing the game normally. The first thing I did was I tweaked the Options at the start. This allows me to set the Game Difficulty to Wussy, and the Text Speed to Very Fast. After applying the new Options, we go though the game intro, and then have control of our protagonist in the game. By then I quickly go to the Pause Menu, and change the 2nd Options menu where you are able to change your character's default attributes, such as Movement Speed, Weapon Throw, Damage, and so forth.
Once that is done, the rest of the gameplay goes as follows:
1. For each boss, beat all the gangs.
2. Beat the bosses in order: Moose -> Rocko -> Blade -> Turk -> Mojo -> Thor -> Ivan -> Otis -> Randy & Andy -> Slick
3. Cutscenes must not be skipped, else the Bosses won't appear. This is why you see me waiting for the cutscenes to end before moving to a new area.
All other optional bosses and characters are ignored / skipped to save time. There is one cutscene that cuts Slick's battle time down, and that has to do with Shel saving Ryan's girlfriend, Cyndi.
I didn't do a lot of research here to check and see if there are hidden stats that would affect the gameplay. There are several notable ones, of which is the hidden attribute, Reputation. It increases when you die, when you ram into walls, and you get hit while you're down on the ground, and when you recruit new characters. Another one is Foul Play, which increases whenever you hit someone while they are talking, you hit your ally (allies), when you hit someone who is lying down on the ground without waiting for them to get back up. It's really hard to research because most of the calculations of the values are calculated on the fly in the RAM, so it's difficult to pinpoint what affects what in the game.
All in all, I do believe there is a large room for improvements in this run. But that requires me needing to figure out what the RAM values are and what they point to in the game.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #5868: tom_mai78101's GBA River City Ransom EX "Wussy" in 10:03.24
Spikestuff
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I'm just going to say that the menuing and ending input is sloppy/full of mashing between Start and A... which isn't a good thing. Apparently according to you, you used TAStudio to create this. I'm pointing this out to everyone, due to the low rerecord count appearing. You wouldn't need to mash the input to advance the screens. Also the first mash you did with Start and A only reads the Start input, never the A. When you go into the options to Change the Difficulty and text you hit down, it's faster to hit up and going from the bottom up through the menuing. Your branch is a lie. You're playing on "Wussy" not "Regular". This is a well made first attempt, just minor errors within. I'll Spike the input (and hope it doesn't desync) and provide a fixed opening and ending input. Ha, it desynced... dangit. Ending input corrected (2082 frames): http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/download/45882935960391393 It might be better to TAS this as Alex only. Unless..... Random fun fact: You can end your input at frame 33118 (09:14.48) and have Ryan deal with the fight and he'll deliver the final blow at frame 35166 (09:48.77)
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
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Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. These colours are pretty neato, and also these.
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This is a River City Ransom EX Wussy TAS, with the goal to beat the main story line at any% in the fastest time possible, while avoiding taking damages, with maximum multipliers, without RNG manipulation, and without entering any cheat codes.
Why not? I don't know this game, but a TAS has to manipulate luck if it saves time.
Current project: Gex 3 any% Paused: Gex 64 any% There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
tom_mai78101
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Spikestuff wrote:
I'm just going to say that the menuing and ending input is sloppy/full of mashing between Start and A... which isn't a good thing. Apparently according to you, you used TAStudio to create this. I'm pointing this out to everyone, due to the low rerecord count appearing.
On the hardware, I was actually button mashing during the transition screens, so I guess that's a habit of mine. I didn't know mashing buttons during inactive transition screens is sloppy. So I need to reduce the amount of inputs? Or this is just discouraged?
Spikestuff wrote:
You wouldn't need to mash the input to advance the screens. Also the first mash you did with Start and A only reads the Start input, never the A.
Ah, true.
Spikestuff wrote:
When you go into the options to Change the Difficulty and text you hit down, it's faster to hit up and going from the bottom up through the menuing.
Oh right! I totally forgot about that one...
Spikestuff wrote:
Your branch is a lie. You're playing on "Wussy" not "Regular".
I thought the "branch" refers to TAS user submission categories, and has no relevancy in actual gameplay. Like, "test" branch, or "gimmick" branch? Something that is identifiable to the submitters? Darn, I can't change it. :(
Spikestuff wrote:
This is a well made first attempt, just minor errors within.
Thanks for the encouragement!
Spikestuff wrote:
I'll Spike the input (and hope it doesn't desync) and provide a fixed opening and ending input. Ha, it desynced... dangit. Ending input corrected (2082 frames): http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/download/45882935960391393
I'll take a look at it when I get home. Thanks. And yeah, the button mashing in the ending was me not knowing when to stop. I should probably cut those out from TAStudio instead.
Spikestuff wrote:
It might be better to TAS this as Alex only. Unless..... Random fun fact: You can end your input at frame 33118 (09:14.48) and have Ryan deal with the fight and he'll deliver the final blow at frame 35166 (09:48.77)
My assumption was, with the AI allies, they can help me get rid of offscreen enemies, so I can save some time. Reason is, when you start the game, Ryan is much stronger than you, and you need that extra raw power to stomp through some enemies, even when you have max multiplier enabled. And yes, I can try to manipulate Ryan to hit bosses, but frankly, I haven't found a way to directly or indirectly control Ryan to trigger a punch/kick.
andypanther wrote:
This is a River City Ransom EX Wussy TAS, with the goal to beat the main story line at any% in the fastest time possible, while avoiding taking damages, with maximum multipliers, without RNG manipulation, and without entering any cheat codes.
Why not? I don't know this game, but a TAS has to manipulate luck if it saves time.
I did check to see how far I can do with RNG manipulation, and it turns out the core that I'm using, mGBA, is pretty accurate enough such that the RNG has fairly minimal effect in this game. The only randomness you can control are where the enemies spawn in from, when it starts spawning in, and where it is moving to. I thought I could get away with it by abusing the transition screens from one area to the next, but then it turns out that state is set, even when you rewind all the way back to the beginning area. I'll see what I can do with this, but since I'm starting off with very little information to process, it will take a while I'm afraid.
Chamale
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I created the current NES River City Ransom TASes, for 1 player and 2 players. This run appears to be slower than the RTA world record. I suggest watching that for inspiration. Button-mashing is seen as sloppy, because it's preferable to use savestates and frame advance to figure out the first frame that you can take an action on. This applies to the opening menus, but it also applies to finding the first frame at which you can effectively throw a punch, or start to sprint, or jump to the end of an area. I spent a lot of time on my RCR TASes just saving a state and then narrowing down the exact frame I could start an attack successfully. On the NES RCR, I found that the frame I exited a stage could alter enemy spawn positions and enemy types in the next area. This was important for reaching enemies quickly, being able to hit multiple enemies with one attack, and for spawning the weakest enemies possible in every boss fight area. Good luck with your next run. I've always thought an EX TAS would be interesting to see.
Spikestuff
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Chamale wrote:
This run appears to be slower than the RTA world record. I suggest watching that for inspiration.
No it isn't.
Spikestuff wrote:
Ending input corrected (2082 frames): http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/45882935960391393
(Changed it from download to info to point out the time)
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. These colours are pretty neato, and also these.
tom_mai78101
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Chamale wrote:
I created the current NES River City Ransom TASes, for 1 player and 2 players. This run appears to be slower than the RTA world record. I suggest watching that for inspiration.
I see. I can take a look at that when I have the chance.
Chamale wrote:
Button-mashing is seen as sloppy, because it's preferable to use savestates and frame advance to figure out the first frame that you can take an action on. This applies to the opening menus, but it also applies to finding the first frame at which you can effectively throw a punch, or start to sprint, or jump to the end of an area. I spent a lot of time on my RCR TASes just saving a state and then narrowing down the exact frame I could start an attack successfully.
I see.
Chamale wrote:
On the NES RCR, I found that the frame I exited a stage could alter enemy spawn positions and enemy types in the next area. This was important for reaching enemies quickly, being able to hit multiple enemies with one attack, and for spawning the weakest enemies possible in every boss fight area.
It doesn't seem to happen for the GBA RCREX, as you're always in the same spawn spot when entering the next area. Tried tweaking other variables just to make sure the enemy types (gangs of different colors) are different, but I haven't been able to narrow down what the determining factor is.
Chamale wrote:
Good luck with your next run. I've always thought an EX TAS would be interesting to see.
I tried. :P Thanks.
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tom_mai78101 wrote:
andypanther wrote:
This is a River City Ransom EX Wussy TAS, with the goal to beat the main story line at any% in the fastest time possible, while avoiding taking damages, with maximum multipliers, without RNG manipulation, and without entering any cheat codes.
Why not? I don't know this game, but a TAS has to manipulate luck if it saves time.
I did check to see how far I can do with RNG manipulation, and it turns out the core that I'm using, mGBA, is pretty accurate enough such that the RNG has fairly minimal effect in this game. The only randomness you can control are where the enemies spawn in from, when it starts spawning in, and where it is moving to. I thought I could get away with it by abusing the transition screens from one area to the next, but then it turns out that state is set, even when you rewind all the way back to the beginning area. I'll see what I can do with this, but since I'm starting off with very little information to process, it will take a while I'm afraid.
If you just couldn't find a way to do it, that's fine. It's just that because of the way you mentioned RNG manipulation in the submission text, it came off as an intentional restriction. And that would be a very arbitrary restriction.
Current project: Gex 3 any% Paused: Gex 64 any% There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
tom_mai78101
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Chamale wrote:
This run appears to be slower than the RTA world record.
Unfortunately, that video is no longer available to view.
andypanther wrote:
tom_mai78101 wrote:
andypanther wrote:
This is a River City Ransom EX Wussy TAS, with the goal to beat the main story line at any% in the fastest time possible, while avoiding taking damages, with maximum multipliers, without RNG manipulation, and without entering any cheat codes.
Why not? I don't know this game, but a TAS has to manipulate luck if it saves time.
I did check to see how far I can do with RNG manipulation, and it turns out the core that I'm using, mGBA, is pretty accurate enough such that the RNG has fairly minimal effect in this game. The only randomness you can control are where the enemies spawn in from, when it starts spawning in, and where it is moving to. I thought I could get away with it by abusing the transition screens from one area to the next, but then it turns out that state is set, even when you rewind all the way back to the beginning area. I'll see what I can do with this, but since I'm starting off with very little information to process, it will take a while I'm afraid.
If you just couldn't find a way to do it, that's fine. It's just that because of the way you mentioned RNG manipulation in the submission text, it came off as an intentional restriction. And that would be a very arbitrary restriction.
I see. I just wanted to be blunt and straight-to-the-point for those who are viewing my submission.
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