Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
nymx wrote:
I need some information here. Obviously this run is good to go for my judgement; however, the previous, https://tasvideos.org/3718S, was not so descriptive and doesn't help me understand the difference between the two.
My initial thought is to obsolete, but the previous submission has a category that is not mentioned in this submission. The encodes are different, but is that because of the routes? So my question is...does your run intend to obsolete or is this another category?
I think you should leave that one be and not have this obsolete it instead accept this to a different category. There are some differences to take into consideration and both of these pages might need updating.
1. There are three main paths in this game and each offers different abilities with 7 unique bosses, different side powerups, and routing opportunities. I intend to in the future at least go through that tas with the route "Search For Wily" you linked since I think there are some good time saves to be found there.
2. My submission is on Normal while in the linked submission it was stated to be on the hardest (Very Hard I guess). In Bizhawk I noticed there are no dipswitches for the difficulties so I left it be. In the piano roll there is a button "S" I believe which brings you to a select menu to manually select the difficulty. I found the menu to be kind of slow and jarring and once you finish the game restarts, this felt like a waste of time since I by the time I was done with changing the difficulty a boss would already have been defeated with no real differences.
3. There is one difference with the difficulties "4 Very Hard - Phase 2 Animation Trigger in Round 1" and that is with the "Phase 2" Danger mode or whatever activation cutscene. On normal it just activated two rounds later. So...that would be like 4 extra seconds about between Normal and Very Hard? Other than that I am not completely convinced there would be any significant differences between the difficulties for a TAS considering you can through delays or through position changes manipulate the enemy AI to select moves in any case. As far I could tell casually playing the game the enemies seem slightly more aggressive on higher difficulties, but that is all I noticed. When they die in seconds it does not really matter that much probably. At this point in time I am not going to go through and give it an exhaustive comparison. But...while saying that it might be worthwhile to tag these with the difficulties? I do not know.
If you want to look at the different routes look at the current leaderboards here:
https://www.speedrun.com/mega_man_2_the_power_fighters?h=Solo-Search_for_Wily-2_Normal&x=zd38oynk-38djwk08.zqo3wp4q-ql6r6x7l.ln84g86l
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
Seems like a very good game. Of course this is a tas of what is a full length rpg so there is tons of text...which goes by really fast. Skipped around to the action parts and what I saw I liked. Yes vote.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
GJTASer2018 wrote:
The stage isn't wide enough to knock Cutman completely offscreen with your final blow?
So before I replied to you I tried one more time this time on the far LEFT side and that worked. Not sure why that would be the case but it is. Although it will defeat him later than usual, but the overall end of the bonus stage should be shorter overall I guess?
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
Challenger wrote:
Nice to see another TAS of this game after several years, when the NGP version was submitted in 2017 :)
Getting orbs allows you to finish every stage as soon as possible, but it's also possible to force these orbs to start falling down immediately if you move the camera far enough away that the boss is fully offscreen - you can still control both players during the boss death animation.
Btw, great job with the optimization and knownledge. Yes vote.
So going through the game again using that tech of hiding the boss and causing the orbs to fall fast. Found a problem boss though, Cutman, where the stage's width is not enough to cause the camera to fully hide Cutman. Anyone have a way to avoid waiting for the orbs to go offscreen here? Annoyingly they only start falling once all of the orbs are offscreen so even hiding part of him is ineffectual.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
I am a complete novice at almost every tool you mentioned, would probably need to see a video of tasing using this in action to really understand. A starcraft tas would be incredible though!
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
Challenger wrote:
Nice to see another TAS of this game after several years, when the NGP version was submitted in 2017 :)
Getting orbs allows you to finish every stage as soon as possible, but it's also possible to force these orbs to start falling down immediately if you move the camera far enough away that the boss is fully offscreen - you can still control both players during the boss death animation.
Btw, great job with the optimization and knownledge. Yes vote.
Just did a quick test and looks like you are right Challenger. It will be probably a couple days until I can come back and test properly and probably over a week until I can submit a new file.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
Feels like a discount Armored Core, but I like seeing a 32x game that is actually pretty good. Lots of movement and enemies all over the place and it is amusing how fast some of those missions are completed. Yes vote.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
Well right now tasvideos is on its way to allowing more types of runs. Specifically Showcase type submissions and this could possibly qualify. I personally would love for that type of crazy tool driven gameplay to be accepted.
Maybe someone that knows more of that process could comment on this?
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
Is there really no other option than that.... purple/yellow stripe strip "color"? That kind of makes it look like now those areas are conflicting with surrounding areas too.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
Very nicely done. Looks like just a generalized improvement in every section afaik. Do some of those final robots Airman and Crashman not have weaknesses since both of those got the pellet treatment?
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
FractalFusion wrote:
CoolHandMike wrote:
Huh. So I take it CUI's inputs using the actual previous publication rom do not sync then?
CUI is using the same ROM as woabclf (previous submission).
However, the ROM used differs from the one posted at romhacking.net, by a single byte.
More details at https://tasvideos.org/Forum/Posts/235094
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
eien86 wrote:
So now I made an [https://youtu.be/SyORA4TyHh8|explanation video] where I clarify aspects of the lore and the gameplay, if you'd be interested in watching.
Yes, thanks a lot for that great explanation video. Found it was much more enjoyable when I knew what was going on. Is there some way to change my vote from Meh to Yes?
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
Wish I knew what was happening in more detail so it could be a bit more interesting. Maybe more detailed author notes would help? However this is obviously a very good (6 minute) improvement over that older submission. This game reminds me of the Godzilla game for NES in a way since they have the two main modes. Meh vote.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
I am torn on this one. The tas is well done and entertaining with tricks being used, but certain things rub me the wrong way with this hack. Music seems messed up in the encode itself so I cannot praise or condemn it. There are reviews about this hack that mention just how the music was from other Megaman titles not whatever this turned into then muted for the rest of it. Also, 21:04 shows that the jet mode can be used to clip through areas in the hack, but I only see it used once when I would expect a glitch like that to be more frequently used.
The Good
Snake mid boss skip 6:06
Cirno Statue 10:55
Spark Man and Top Man Levels seem designed well
This unusual puzzle 10:30
The robot bosses after the initial batch are bosses from previous MegaMan games which is neat
The batch of bosses were cleared quite well
Some Demons' Crest images I thought were fun 29:57
The Bad
Hard to tell what is foreground and background. Seems to be deliberate at times. 0:45 24:12
The Ugly
The palette is horrendous. The worst I have seen in any MegaMan hack. 6:49 12:24 15:25
Meh vote.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
After watching for a bit you are avoiding the little sparkling things in the stages which I guess are stardust. At 2:09 could you slide underneath or jump and land on a falling rock to avoid that spinning stardust? The first stage did look a little off, like that jump around 0:23 for example, as you even said in your notes. How hard would it be hard to go back and improve it? A lot of those later levels looked really fast. Good game choice.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
Good tas for a terrible game! I suppose it is not surprising that such a terrible playing game has stage breaking OOB glitches. The game design of these levels really feels half baked and baffling. Like that desert stage it looks like they intend the player to jump and hit multiple invisible small platforms to get up higher. Maybe if the developers spent a couple more months on the game it would have been at least a decent title for the Jaguar. Yes vote.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
I applaud your goal of total domination over your chosen victim instead of merely manipulating your opponents to fail and you forfeiting the rest of the races. The tas gives a good sense of speed, but as you noted it is monotonous. I could not watch more than a couple minutes before wanting to do something else. That JaffarPlus bot generated inputs I find very interesting and would like to read more info on that so will probably investigate that github page. Meh vote.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
Hidden warps are fun, too bad the actual game design is pretty bland. Most of the time is spent waiting for elevators or moving through corridors getting keys. The platforming sections I found the most interesting. Good routing and speed movement improvements though. That ending graphic of the kid and his parents is cursed looking lol.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Reviewer, Experienced player
(636)
Joined: 3/9/2019
Posts: 582
Well that was something. One thing I have to say is the sound tracks they put in are extremely bad, the hackers/bootleggers should have just kept the original sound tracks. The pacifist option hurt the entertainment for me since it reduced the game more to just running through with the invincible pickups. I did like the jumping up through the wall through, but not enough to prevent a No vote.
