Posts for BrutalAl

Posted: 12/22/2012 4:05 PM
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
The glitch is surprisingly simple. The field that is the Canon's Main Frame is used during a cut-scene and then later when your party reaches the field by by foot. Since we are not supposed be there or walk around freely the first time we see this field the game is scripted to among other things, disable movement. The paralysis is however not instant and we actually get a frame of movement before we are paralyzed. And as luck would have we have actually spawned right next to the trigger that triggers the Boss scene with hojo, so all you have to do is hold Down+Right+RunButton while the game fades to this field and voila, Cloud will move onto the trigger before he is paralyzed and the boss scene will play.
Posted: 11/12/2012 5:39 PM
Post subject: SKIPPING THE SPLIT-SCENE IN NORTH CRATER
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
HOW TO SKIP THE SPLIT-SCENE IN THE NORTHERN CRATER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfuSVyhVh84 The party split half way down the North Crater may be perceived as slow and long winded, especially in a TAS, so why not just skip it? If a Save Point is placed where Cloud situates himself during the first split and the player exits the crater directly after, the split-scene will be replayed when you return, and this time Cloud will, thanks to the Save Point, be able to move around freely (aka Paralyze Dodge) and skip the split, this would also trigger the infamous unclimbable stalagmite-glitch, but that's of no concern to the speedrunner! THE SPEEDRUN SPLIT SKIP Now, having to exit and re-enter the crater just to skip the split may not sound faster, and it wouldn't be. But as luck would have it, it's actually possible to paralyze dodge already on the first visit! Just stand Cloud next to the 2nd stalactite ready to descend, enter the menu and select the Save Crystal and *hold* the Confirm-button, if done correctly Cloud will start descending with the text-box is still open, now move the cursor to "No" and wait until the game tries to use the text-box for something else before you hit confirm, paralyze dodged! RIGHT PATH If you plan on taking the Right path just pick "Right" for Cloud and head on out, no need to direct the others. LEFT PATH If you plan on taking the Left path you can *not* just hurry on, if you do the entire party will greet you on the next field. Instead you got two options. 1) You send everyone where you want them (Cloud Left) and then proceed Left, skipping all the good byes. 2) You head Left, but pick the option "Right" for Cloud just before you leave. This way no one will be waiting for you on the next field, but Cloud will also be unable go any further, that is unless you place the Save Crystal here, and perform a paralyze dodge to get past the message that normally hinders you. SIDE NOTE ABOUT THE UNCLIMBABLE STALAGMITE If the split scene isn't terminated correctly the stalagmite will remain unclimbable regardless of where (any field) you place the Save Point. FINAL NOTE This video was originally uploaded and released "in Japan" to congratulate youtube user "letrangerstranger" on his FF7 RTA done in late 2011, clocking in at 8h 22m 26s (US/NTSC-timer, SDA-timing), so anyone following Japanese speedrunners may have seen this skip before.
Posted: 9/12/2012 6:17 AM
Post subject: How to copy the Save Crystal
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
Ever wanted to save in the Northern Cave but still keep the Save Crystal? Well, now you can! HOW TO The trick to copying your Save Crystal is combining the Paralysis Dodge Glitch with Clouds ability to open chests from afar. The topmost chest on the 3rd field of the Left-Down path can be opened on the same frame as Cloud jumps down from the ledge above it, and when Cloud lands both menu and movement will be enabled, even if the message "received X-Potion!" is still open. With this setup, since closing the X-Potion message will enable movement, Cloud's movement will remain enabled when you select the Save Crystal from the menu. Now, you won't be able to move whenever there is a Choice present in a textbox, but you will be able to move as soon as the Choice is made (as opposed to having to wait for the textbox to close). Fortunately the game places the Save Point first, it then removes the Save Crystal, and normally both happen before you can move, but thanks to the paralysis dodge movement comes early and you can exit the field before the Save Crystal ever is removed (which also happens to cancel the removal altogether). Now, while this trick may not have an apparent use in a TAS someone might always figure something out in the future, and either way it's a neat trick that might interest some people regardless. Video: http://youtu.be/s9rlydCVFTs
Posted: 8/12/2012 10:41 AM
Post subject: FF7 Track and Field - Diner Dash, and Relay Barathon.
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
Being the 2012 Summer Olympic Games I figured I'd give this months video an Olympic twist to it. The athletes, Cloud and Aeris, will be participating in two racing events, Diner Dash, and Relay Barathon. Apart from any eventual medals, good performance in these events can of course also be put to good use during Speedruns and TAS. THE TRICK TO BEING A TOP ATHLETE Most of the time your ability to move Cloud is disabled when texboxes and/or scenes play out. However, given the right circumstances it's possible to avoid this paralysis, roam around freely and as a result sometimes skip unwanted events. A paralysis dodge can occur when e.g. two textboxes are triggered (one by cloud moving, the other from pressing the action button), or poor programming fails to paralyze but still enables movement at textbox/event end. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_Z8lwk6Jo0
Posted: 7/16/2011 9:38 AM
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
Can't vouch for every one of antd's actions but: -Barret can of course not use bolt. -Guard Scorpion has got an attack pattern that is partly set in stone. Don't know what manipulation you have in mind, but you can not avoid the search scopes (who and with what attack GS attacks when he attacks is manipulatable though). -Clouds attack animations is vastly shorter than using bolt and bolt might not necessarily reduce the number of attacks required, because... -It could be that the fastest method antd found left GS with more than ~60hp pending the final attack (not being a limit in this example), meaning that GS would still have been standing at that point (just with less HP) even if antd had used only bolts instead of crits. All that aside, note that it is possible to attack two times during 1 "turn" (cloud action, barret action, scorpion action = 1 turn) by using a limit-wait-trick one time in battle. Only cloud can use the trick (if he gets a full limit-bar) and the 2nd attack of the two must be magic (because the regular attack is blocked by the limit). Do you use any instant messenger service?
Posted: 8/23/2009 11:33 PM
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
Yeah. Knowing how many steps you'll take in total is basically only for telling if the battle that requires the most steps to be dodged (out of all those that will be dodged) is worth to dodge or not, seeing how it could spawn an extra (undodgable) encounter at the very end of all the steps you’ll be taking. If the very last battle is undodgable though (for whatever reason) then this is where FF8’s menu-glitch could come in handy. On Another Note FF7s wait-trick seems to be somewhat applicable in FF8. The wait-trick allows one (or two) character to get two moves in between an enemy's two turns where that (those) character normally only would have gotten one turn. FF8's ATB-Wait is far more restrictive than FF7's though so it wouldn't surprise me if it turns out there's no use for it in this run. Regardless, here is how it works (could work) Normal (no Trick) - Enemy does attack; All ATBs are on wait. - Squall has queued up his move (before or during enemy attack animation). - Enemy attack ends; All (including enemy's) ATBs start to move (but Squall's ATB is already at max, so his wont). - Squall begins his attack, All ATBs are put on wait. So, in this scenario when Squall's ATB start to move (once his attack is over) the Enemy's ATB will be ahead of Squalls by a tiny bit, and this tiny bit could be the reason why the Enemy will get his next turn before Squall. Wait-Trick - Enemy does attack; All ATBs are on wait. - Squall has queued up his move (before or during enemy attack animation). - Have a 2nd character enter a sub menu (e.g. Item), this will force a wait. - Enemy attack ends; But you are forcing a wait, so the Enemy's ATB won’t start to refill. - Squall begins his attack (a wait wont stop queued commands from executing). Now, in this scenario when Squall's ATB start to move (once his attack is over, and once you have exited the Item menu) the Enemy's ATB will not be ahead of Squall's by a tiny bit, and the lack of that tiny bit could be the reason why Squall will get his next turn before the Enemy. Note: I haven’t RAM-read the Enemies ATBs while playing so I’m only assuming this is how their ATBs behave.
Posted: 8/23/2009 12:03 PM
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
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Are you implying I should have known you were at step 84 prior to you telling me? If you're trying to aid me in an estimation of how many steps you'll take in total I thank you but I'm afraid you'll have to do that entire estimation for me seeing how I honestly wouldn't have a clue. My knowledge of this game is rather limited to things identical or similar to those in FF7, I've played through FF8 only once. I do however vaguely remember darkwasabi estimating something in the lines of not even get close to (or at least not get to) step 256.
Posted: 8/23/2009 12:40 AM
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
Er... How? By step 65 my DangerValue is 50, and its DangerLimit is 13. I think you're mistaking this TAS with a segmented speedrun, which I'm not making one at the moment.
Walking 66-67 is to remove the battle at stepID 74, not the battle that occurs before you even start to do the walk. That is "Er... How" sir.
Well, my TAS so far ends at step 84
Are you telling me you get enc-none at step 84, or what?
If you still think that walking all the frames for ~25 steps is faster than escaping a single battle, maybe we're just playing different games.
"still"? If you still think I ever did maybe we're just reading different posts? PS. Do I sense an attitude?
Posted: 8/22/2009 10:31 PM
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
I had a quick glance at the first 256 steps The following StepID ranges will remove one battle each (if walked that is): 66-67 98 121-126 131-133 145-146 162-171 191-195 208-210* That's 32 frames in total and 8 battles removed (X means walk during the frame the StepID goes from X-1 to X). *I have no idea if you will get all the way to stepID 210 before you get enc-none though. EDIT: Sloppy me. Walking 1-22 will remove the very first battle (along with some new that spawns in it's absences), and walking 226-240 will remove one too.
Posted: 8/22/2009 6:55 PM
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
mz wrote:
So... All in all, darkwasabi and I were right about it not being any useful so far.
To my knowing darkwasabi had an entire sheet where he had worked out when and how many steps to walk all the way up to when enc-none is received (none of this is demonstrated in his demo run though seeing how I told how about all this after it was produced) and he had started applying it in his new run (which unfortunately never saw the light of day) with great success. But if that's what you call "not being any useful" then I guess I can only agree.
Posted: 8/22/2009 6:25 PM
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
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mz wrote:
Thanks for all the help so far, but I already know very well how the mechanics work. The problem is, if, for example, you only walk 3 or 4 steps to skip a battle, you've not only wasted time by walking, but you're also still left with a rather high DangerValue, and you most probably won't be able to skip a battle in the next few steps...
In most (or at the very least many) cases that 2nd battle wouldn't have been avoidable by walking anyways. And again, the idea is not to always walk, the idea is to simply do it only when it's beneficial. Example Let's say step 10 has got a dangerlimit of 36. And let's say step 20 has got a dangerlimit of 9. You can avoid the battle at step 10 by walking 5 steps and running 5 steps (35<36), this will however make it impossible to dodge the battle at step 20. But, the battle at step 20 would have been unavoidable anyways, since if you had gotten the battle at step 10 and from there walk all the way to step 20 your dangervalue would have been above 9 anyways. Simply put The time save (from a skipped battle) is just as great in a TAS as in a regular speed run. While the time loss however is smaller in a TAS than in a regular run (due to the possibility to walk only at the very exact frame needed). So the overall time gain from the walk-trick should be greater in a TAS than in a regular run, and the walk-trick is worth it in a regular run... Oh, Btw, on a side note (but on the same subject) In FF7 a random battle (that is escaped instantly) is only slightly faster than saving, resetting, and then loading. The situation could be the opposite in FF8 (saving, resetting, loading < random battle) this should be tested (if it hasn't already been that is) seeing how saving (under the right circumstances) can remove the next random battle.
Posted: 8/22/2009 11:55 AM
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
Well, as I said in my previous post, walking will just be a waste of time at some times since the dangevalue is set back to 0 after a random battle anyway. If step 50 has a dangerlimit of 0 (and there is no battle on step 1-49) it is obviously not possible to dodge the battle on this step, so walking any steps prior to it is just a waste of time. Just because a battle can be dodge by walking doesn't mean you have to walk all the steps up to it. Yet another example Let's say step 5 has a dangerlimit of 19. If you run all steps up to it your dangervalue will be 25, and you'll thus get a battle. If you instead walk all the steps your dangervalue will be 10, and you'll thus dodge the battle. But, you don't have to walk all the steps prior to the 5th one. If you walk 2 steps, but run 3, your dangervalue will be (2*2)+(3*5)=19, and battle will be dodged. So, walking wont always work, and for when it does you don't have to walk all the steps up to the battle you want skipped. Here's a list of each StepID's DangerLimit (can be found @ address 800C3520 to 800C361F)
Stp	DngLmt
00	7
01	182
02	240
03	31
04	85
05	91
06	55
07	227
08	174
09	79
10	178
11	94
12	153
13	246
14	119
15	203
16	96
17	143
18	67
19	62
20	167
21	76
22	45
23	136
24	199
25	104
26	215
27	209
28	194
29	242
30	193
31	221
32	170
33	147
34	22
35	247
36	38
37	4
38	54
39	161
40	70
41	78
42	86
43	190
44	108
45	110
46	128
47	213
48	181
49	142
50	164
51	158
52	231
53	202
54	206
55	33
56	255
57	15
58	212
59	140
60	230
61	211
62	152
63	71
64	244
65	13
66	21
67	237
68	196
69	228
70	53
71	120
72	186
73	218
74	39
75	97
76	171
77	185
78	195
79	125
80	133
81	252
82	149
83	107
84	48
85	173
86	134
87	0
88	141
89	205
90	126
91	159
92	229
93	239
94	219
95	89
96	235
97	5
98	20
99	201
100	36
101	44
102	160
103	60
104	68
105	105
106	64
107	113
108	100
109	58
110	116
111	124
112	132
113	19
114	148
115	156
116	150
117	172
118	180
119	188
120	3
121	222
122	84
123	220
124	197
125	216
126	12
127	183
128	37
129	11
130	1
131	28
132	35
133	43
134	51
135	59
136	151
137	27
138	98
139	47
140	176
141	224
142	115
143	204
144	2
145	74
146	254
147	155
148	163
149	109
150	25
151	56
152	117
153	189
154	102
155	135
156	63
157	175
158	243
159	251
160	131
161	10
162	18
163	26
164	34
165	83
166	144
167	207
168	122
169	139
170	82
171	90
172	73
173	106
174	114
175	40
176	88
177	138
178	191
179	14
180	6
181	162
182	253
183	250
184	65
185	101
186	210
187	77
188	226
189	92
190	29
191	69
192	30
193	9
194	17
195	179
196	95
197	41
198	121
199	57
200	46
201	42
202	81
203	217
204	93
205	166
206	234
207	49
208	129
209	137
210	16
211	103
212	245
213	169
214	66
215	130
216	112
217	157
218	146
219	87
220	225
221	61
222	241
223	249
224	238
225	8
226	145
227	24
228	32
229	177
230	165
231	187
232	198
233	72
234	80
235	154
236	214
237	127
238	123
239	233
240	118
241	223
242	50
243	111
244	52
245	168
246	208
247	184
248	99
249	200
250	192
251	236
252	75
253	232
254	23
255	248
Posted: 8/22/2009 3:49 AM
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
I honestly don't get how that fact would be the one to change your mind on the subject. Walking one (or a few) steps is much faster than having to face and flee from a random battle, and this holds true even if you walk all of the frames during the steps. Also note, you will not want to make every step a walking step because it can not always remove battles. Force instance If the DangerLimit for the 5th step is 1 it will not matter if you walk or run all the steps up to the 5th one, because you will still get a battle on the 5th one no matter what, and since walking is slower than running it would just be a waste of time to walk (The DangerValue is set back to 0 after each random encounter anyway).
Posted: 8/22/2009 2:03 AM
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
You should familiarize yourself some more with the walk-trick (aka repm, aka stuttering). If it is your belief that it is not applicable in a TAS you need to think again. In very Short There is a DangerValue that is incremented with each step you run/walk. Each Step has it's own DangerLimit (the limits are randomly distributed, but set in stone). If your DangerValue surpasses the current step's DangerLimit you'll get a battle, but if your DangerValue is below or equal to the step's DangerLimit you won't. A running step increases the DangerValue by 5. A walking step increases the DangerValue by 2. An example Let's say the very first step's DangerLimit is 3. If you run the first step your DangerValue will be 5, and you will thus get a battle (5>3). But if you walk the first step instead your DangerValue will be only 2, and you will thus not get a battle (2<=3). A step is registered as a running or walking step on the frame the StepID goes from X to X+1, so you will only have to walk for one frame in order to get the entire step registered as a walk.
Posted: 7/9/2008 5:25 AM
(Edited: 2/11/2011 7:27 PM)
Post subject: Final Fantasy VII
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BrutalAl
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Joined: 7/9/2008
Posts: 15
Go to antd's progress post » Original Post GarlandG has just started a FF7 TAS and is uploading any finished segments of this run to his Youtube channel. This TAS is only supposed to act as a demonstration of how a regular (non-TAS) "perfect" speedrun of FF7 could look like and he will thus not be utilizing those extreme TAS luck manipulation tactics that some of you might be used to (like having every attack go critical). As of now Segment 1 is up, unfortunately with no sound though, but that's life; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pctVanWOfY For more information read his video description. Enjoy :)