@bahamete: My suggestion for when chuck-eat is this: No repeating levels to do it over. So you get one goal sphere from, say, YI1, and then that's it. Same for any other level you can do it in.
If you have to backtrack all the way to YI1 every tiume you need a goal sphere, what exits will actually be faster with one?
Also, if that and CI5 (Chocolate Island 5?) are the only places you can get them, then doing those over and over will (for me) get boring in a BIG hurry. (How quickly can you reach CI5 in a 96-exit, anyway?) I would personally suggest that, if there are any other levels you could possibly get goal spheres from, you do it exactly once from each of them.
Whether or not it's publishable depends on whether or not it offers a sufficiently different experience from the any% run (in which case it could be published separately) or if not, whether people prefer it to that run (in which case it might obsolete the any% run.)
Looking at your latest WIP, I see a slight gap between the first hit on Robotnik in Chemical Plant 2 and the other 7 hits. Was there a reason for that?
Otherwise, looks fantastic! Keep up the good work!
Seconding this for screenshot.
ALSO: It's going to need to be addressed that this run uses cheats; specifically, the Kool Stuff menu, to enable pausing. Considering what it's used for, (mostly the "turn your character into a projectile" glitch) I don't see it as being a big deal, but I do think that means it should be published as a concept demo.
Actually, going that route, I'm changing my previous opinion. I no longer think this should obsolete SDR's solo UMK3 run if it's published.
And these runs have a dangerous level of precedent, due to the Super Mario Land 2 run that obsoleted the "defeat final boss" run with a "warp directly to credits" run
DarkKobold made an excellent point about that in the submission thread for the Super Metroid RBO run; the previously published any% run used the pipe glitch too, just not to the same extent that the glitched movie which obsoleted it did. He further went on to say that he'd welcome an any% without the pipe glitch.
I like the "Thank You!" version better, with the bonus stage in the background, followed by the enemy roll call and then the "The End" screen.
I agree, please post the smv with the enemy sequences.
Because this run and the any% use heavy glitches, it would make the most sense to me if this obsoleted the any%.
I see this run as analogous to the Pokémon Yellow run; it skips (almost) the entire game through the use of memory manipulation. (The Yellow run also uses SRAM corruption to set up the memory manipulation, but that's beside the point.) The any% on the Workbench plays through the game (mostly) as intended, like primordial#soup's Pokémon Blue run. (Which I think should not have been obsoleted by p4wn3r'd Pokémon Red run which used the door glitch to skip to the Hall of Fame.)
My vote is Yes, and I believe this should obsolete the current UMK3 run, because there are a number of fights that are extremely similar in terms of what's done. The 2-player Rain/Nightwolf and 2-player Shang Tsung/Shang Tsung fights especially.
DarkKobold, can you explain to us all why you feel that the number of categories for any given game needs to be restricted?
I see three arguments against multiple categories:
The first is the obvious slippery slope argument. Given that any route through Super Metroid could be considered entertaining, where do we draw the line? This is not a Super Metroid fansite, nor should it be.
I don't think anyone said that. I do kinda see your point, though. But as Derakon and hero of the day have both pointed out, a "Reverse Boss Order" run is a well-defined category, and it brings a lot of new material to the table by never collecting either suit. (Which also makes it a "Suitless" run, but that's just nitpicking.)
Perhaps the concept is dated, but the site was predicated on having the best quality, most up-to-date runs on the site. The more branches to a game, the less likely it is for each branch to get a movie that uses the most recent tricks and findings. Thus, if we accepted all 9 SM categories, then over time, the majority would be woefully out of date. The end result is a muddy mess of movies, with the user not sure which is the best quality.
Having seen hero of the day's arguments against the "low-glitch low%" runs, I have to agree with him and you on that; the 14% category is obsolete, as it does not offer much that the any% runs do not, and does not beat the game as fast as the "glitched" runs.
When movies become outdated, they can always be obsoleted by movies from different branches. This was done when hero of the day's Chrono Trigger any% was obsoleted by inichi's glitched run. I believe adelikat also toyed with the idea of having the GrueBot obsolete outdated movies, although I don't remember what the outcome of that discussion was.
Finally, many users have complained over the years that the site focuses far too much on popular games, and less popular games get ignored. As a judge, I see accepting numerous, or unlimited categories of a popular game working to reinforce that issue.
I don't agree with this at all. Just because a popular game gets a lot of runs does not mean that there's no room for a lot of runs of a less popular game; the runs just have to be up to our quality standards. It just depends on whether or not people actually have the time and/or the inclination to go out and DO them.
Super Metroid, because of the nature of the gameplay, lends itself to a large number of different challenge runs. And as I said previously, the goals of this run are well-defined: "Beat the four main bosses in reverse order."
DarkKobold, can you explain to us all why you feel that the number of categories for any given game needs to be restricted?
Personally, I'm of the opinion that if a run gives us something unique as compared to the currently-published runs of the game, it should be published, number of existing branches be damned. Derakon has already done a fine job of explaining what unique things an RBO run brings to the table, so I won't rehash that.
..I would also very much like to see one which does not use sram corruption (which I think was being worked on and had lots of new tricks, but was abandoned when the reset glitch was found).
inichi completed a test-run about an hour faster than Hero of the Day's published run, but declined to submit it for various reasons. It's somewhere in the Chrono Trigger thread.
Chrono Trigger's any% being obsoleted by the glitched run was because the any% was extremely out-of-date, which is clearly not the case with SMW. (Except for maybe the 96-exit run, but that's not relevant here.)
Highlights of the run for me:
Using Mocktroids to create a lane with which to acquire sprinting speed and charge a Shinespark.
Using the Crystal Flash-Shinespark glitch to kill Draygon.
Escaping Draygon's room. (How the hell did that work?)
This is a fantastic run, and I was entertained by almost the entire thing. (Sorry guys, there's just nothing ANYONE can do to make Ceres Station entertaining anymore.)
Voting Yes, and I'd like to propose a solution to our woes with so-called "arbitrary" restrictions: Add an "Unconventional Goals" tag to the publication system. Of course, I'm not proposing that we accept EVERY movie with a nonstandard goal, but I think it's a good solution for runs that otherwise wouldn't have a place on the site.
EDIT: I'd also like to go on the record as thinking that the Judge guideline of "minimum branches per game" is a pretty bad restriction. In my opinion, if a movie offers something new as compared to other movies of the same game, and is up to our standards, there's no reason not to publish it.
The problem is that, as has been stated, there are some levels where the Perfect Bonus is unattainable because of rings on a split path past a Point of No Return™, or stuck in the level geometry. So going for "Perfect Bonus" on every level doesn't work, but "Maximum Rings" does. Or you could go "Maximum Rings, No Ring Monitors" but that's getting into arbitrary distinctions.
While the scene with Saya would be nice, I don't think it's really necessary; she's an extremely minor character.
EDIT: You might consider at least doing The Ranch Owner before you leave Motavia the first time, to get some power-leveling for Rika and Rune.
