It's difficult for me to see the commentary given the fact I have a mac. Will you or anyone else be able to encode the movie with the commentary at least by the time this run gets submitted? I also would find that stuff interesting.
Too bad that WIP isn't encoded, and I guess there's no point in encoding it if you're going to restart anyway.
Outside of technical optimizations, do you have good handle on the route planning, item collection, and other strategies you'll use for the run? Will it basically follow that speedrun guide except with a few less battles?
Also, will you take damage to save time? Is it even possible to not take damage and beat the game?
If you want to for some reason connect the notion of free will to the 'unpredictability' of QM, then wouldn't that make every atom or at least every cell in your body have its own free will? Is "unpredictability" even required for free will?
What exactly do we have free will over? If game is to life as player is to free will and as controller is to available choices, then what are the fundamental buttons (aka choices) would we have control over? Is that even a good analogy?
I don't know much about quantum mechanics, but the more chaotic each particle behaves, then the less likely they could determine things on a macroscopic level. Hypothetically changing the outcome of one chaotic event of one particle to another possibility would virtually change nothing on a grand scale, unless it was in an extremely influential position, which could be astronomically unlikely due to the scale the event happened at.
Either you could consider there being one free will that determines all QM randomness, or that there is free will for each and every particle. Both ways free will wouldn't be something we all individually own one of. Any other definition involving QM would be too arbitrary, scientifically speaking.
Once again, I know little about what I'm talking about.
IIRC you can scroll through text really, really fast.
That's only after you've beaten the game once.
Also Zanoab, have you considered that midnight food trick I mentioned earlier, or will you not need to eat that much food?
Just so you know, the game play timer over compensates all the time (even if it doesn't lag).
How erratic is that behavior? I'm just wondering how different gameplay would be if you focused on in-game time as opposed to real time.
As a last resort, couldn't you just map out the whole RNG cycle? This question isn't meant to be rhetorical; I just want to confirm what I think I know about how RNGs work.
Anyway, I look forward to your WIP.
It's good that you finally found the RNG. I didn't see your edit until after I posted.
By "cracked" do you mean that you can tell what the next number in the cycle will be? As for the lower 16 bits, maybe the upper 16 bits affect it. You could try setting the lower bits to a fixed number at different times (also letting the upper 16 bits be different) and see if the same number always follow it just to verify it's not affected by other addresses.
One guess is maybe the overflow of the upper limit affect that +/- 1 difference.
Oh and input does not effect the RNG while Mingling.
How about closing the DS? It might be a false perception of mine, but I feel like having the DS closed increases my chances of getting an alien sooner. I don't know if the emulator gives that option or also allows you to simulate other DSs to mingle with or other WiFi networks. From what I've been reading, people seem to get more aliens when they're around many WiFi networks (even if the DS isn't connected to any of them).
Another question: Let's say it takes 10 minutes to get an alien normally. If you make the counter check every frame, does it take 10 frames to find the exact same alien? Is it the exact same alien just to be clear when you find an alien that way? What's the fps for this game anyway?
Yet another question: Did you look up any Action Replay codes for this game? Well, I've found some here and here though they're mostly the same. I don't much about how Action Replay works myself, but those codes can directly help you find addresses, right? Also, isn't the main point of "master codes" to first deactivate the anti-cheat system of games? That alone should be useful (I probably should have asked about this sooner).
Take a special note of the debug mode feature. I remember you said that you've messed around with the internal debugger, but I recently found out that there's a secondary debug menu, which I don't know if you're aware of. Once you activate the debugger, you can press Select again to access a little more graphically enhanced and much more mysterious menu. Basically it gives you the access to various letter and number combinations, which you can 'run' by pressing OK. Some of them are various sound or graphic tests. Others seem to crash the game. Maybe you've already looked into it, but for all I know, the RNG could be readily available somewhere in there.
Also maybe through hacking, you can see what happens when you force an unavailable combination (like, idk, "S-2" or something).
Another thing I realized is affected by the RNG is the music that plays at the start of each battle if that's another possible lead.
I honestly thought you didn't get pins from lower difficulties. Anyway, now that I know, I assume that the RNG changes between difficulty checks since I was able to get pins from the easy difficulty level even when the noise's normal-level drop rate is higher.
Even if leveling pins is practically useless, I thought it might be easier to figure out the RNG from alien mingling. That's just me being optimistic.
Do you happen to know the addresses that affect the "default" percentage for specific noise drops on the Noise Report screen?
If you can figure out how to compile, it sounds like it would fix most of your current problems. Unfortunately I don't know nearly enough about programming to help you with that.
In the meanwhile, you could look into how alien mingling works. It seems like it's affected by randomness. Although the RNG could be different all together from the RNG that affects pin drops, it could still be worth looking into. Also if it's reasonably manipulable, it could be the fastest way to level up pins. Nearby WiFi might help it work better, but I doubt it's required since I got an alien before with no known WiFi available.
Since I'm not engulfed enough with the programmer mindset, I would like to kindly ask you to clarify some things:
Zanoab wrote:
I was hoping to modify [the dumping code] to start dumping when it reads the drop rate multiplier and stops dumping when the drop rate multiplier is read a second time (I can manipulate the drop rate so it fails the first time and succeeds the second time which would make sure it doesn't start dumping again on a 3rd check).
By "drop rate", do you mean the game's listed amount? Wouldn't you also be able to set the drop rate at 2 to stop it from dumping a third time?
Zanoab wrote:
Final (For Battles)
02391872 (2 bytes)
This is the final drop rate multiplier from chaining battles
This address is called the frame after the enemy hp reaches 0 for each difficulty until success or no drops remains to be tested
I wasn't clear about how the game calls for the drop rate. Do you mean "difficultly" as in the actual game difficulty?
And does the game actually call for the drop rate as many times as it is big (calling for the "Should a pin drop?" function 99 times if the drop rate is 99)? Wouldn't that mean there's no true "100%" chance of getting a drop without a specific subroutine to guarantee those drops?
Zanoab wrote:
I tried unfreezing the addresses half at a time but after awhile, it fails because each half would modify the drops in each save state without getting it exactly the same in all the save states.
Are you focusing on more than one drop at a time? Shouldn't you be focusing on just one drop for now? I'm probably not understanding something, but anyway, it seems more than one address if not several is responsible for what drops. I'm not sure why that would be unless there's more than one RNG responsible or it's due to some cheat prevention system.
If you really need help troubleshooting the disassembly, I would probably ask about it in a different forum, maybe in Tool-assisted laboratory. However, it sounds to me that that might be overkill, and understanding it could take as long as just systematically narrowing down the address (although I guess the disassembly could be useful for more than just that).
Couldn't you unfreeze the addresses a half at a time? (Is it very meticulous to freeze and unfreeze addresses?) If unfreezing 250 of the addresses changes the drop, then obviously the RNG is in that 250. If not, then it's in the other half. By continuing this method, you would cut down the time to find it considerably.
I really want to get an optimized Day 1 WIP out but it will be a lot of pain without the RNG.
I understand. You might have already thought of this, but one way that might help find the RNG is to find out what affects it.
For example, if you could find a frame where a Dragon Couture would drop from a noise No. 45 on hard (which happens to be the rarest drop in the game) at a drop rate of 1, then virtually ANYTHING before that frame that would call the RNG would cause you to lose the drop. From my basic understanding on how a RNG works, it seems like you would just have to experiment with things while still killing No. 45 on the exact same frame each time to see what happens.
I don't think that Another Day should be done unless it's for a newgame+ run. A newgame+ run has to be played on the Ultimate difficulty as there should be no reason why it would need anything from the lower difficulties.
Also iirc, don't you need to sometimes reduce the difficulty in order to get some story-required items for the normal run? If so, it would make the "plays on the hardest difficulty" goal a bit more arbitrary.
I also noticed that the Gameplay Timer acts strangely during battles. It would occasionally increment twice in 1 frame and skip incrementing it on the very next frame. It doesn't look weird at all at first (possibly a built-in lag system to keep battles running smoothly) but sometimes it would instead increment 3 times and skip once which means the TWEWY will screw people using the Gameplay Timer by seconds every battle (changes the rules a bit if you are aiming for lowest Gameplay Timer value).
It surprises me that the timer would be that glitchy. Is it the timer trying to overcompensate for lag? Is there a secondary value for time that gets rounded off (similar to the function of subpixels) that would explain its erratic behavior? I'm just throwing those questions out there.
For curiousity:
What events intentionally stop the timer (does it stop when the menu's up, when a Fusion is performed, etc.)?
Does this game lag a lot and where at usually?
Some help would be nice but support is good enough for me.
Unfortunately, I only own a mac (no TAS support), which means I'm not able to provide much technical help. However, I do own the game, and I can at least try to test things in real time.
Also, I would appreciate if you kept providing encoded WIPs (probably after each day done) so I could give my thoughts on them.
I approve of your goals, but yeah, I would definitely stick to an any% run first. Will you be taking advantage of resetting and changing the date of the DS to level up pins and clear stomachs?
Apparently characters' stomachs (or more accurately, digestive tracts) reset at midnight, which means that you should always set the DS time whatever minutes before midnight so that you can basically feed them twice as many big food items if timed right. I don't if it would mess your WIP to go back and set the date (is the RNG affected by the date?).
Based on what you told me, it sounds like the fastest route from A to B may not always be a straight line, especially the more horizontal distance there is. Do combat maps have scaling btw?
P.S. They need to invent a "TAS submission writeup of the year award" just for ones like this.
I like this idea. It could encourage more people to write in detail (although the title should be a little more eloquent). This submission text made it a lot easier to understand the hard effort put into this TAS.
I would like to give you, Zanoab, my support if you're going to continue to do this. So far your WIP looks good. Have you decided on any specific goals?
All this talk about a Crystal/Yellow run should be in its own thread although I love the idea. Should it be a "Gotta Catch 'Em All" run for both of them or just Crystal?
Both, probably. I know there's a duplication glitch that can happen when you turn off one of the games while trading.
This I appreciate.
Voted yes because I've seen all the WIPs.
It seems like this will be the only submitted Wii TAS for a while. Still quite deserving of the title best Wii/New Platform TAS of 2011.
Next do a NES game made to look like a Wii game.