Posts for Derakon

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Posted: 9/15/2009 4:07 AM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
It certainly wouldn't hurt to change it. I suggest "For Beginners" instead of the current name.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/15/2009 12:29 AM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
The newbie forum is brand new, and its stated rules include that there can be a thread for every game in it in addition to the "official" game threads. So feel free to make a thread there if you like.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/15/2009 12:23 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
It's a nontrivial chunk of change, yes, but it's not completely absurd. Basically what I'm saying is that a trivial brute-force implementation would still be quite usable. Given the linear way in which rewinds are used (i.e. always loading the state at time T+1 before loading the state at time T), you could chop a large chunk off of that cost by just storing the difference in memory from one state to the next. Most of the memory shouldn't change in any given frame, after all. But that would make the difficulty in implementation significantly higher.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/14/2009 11:15 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
And? Savestates are cheap. Maybe it'd be a problem for N64 emulation, but the total RAM capacity of the SNES is only about 256kB; if you had to replicate all of that uncompressed for each savestate, you could store 600 frames' worth in 150MB of RAM.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/14/2009 2:19 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
For my part, I suggest trying to get 100% kills in Recca (NES). As an autoscrolling game, there's not a lot of pressure time-wise except on the bosses, but the levels still take a crap-ton of planning if you're going to successfully kill everything given the sheer number of enemies with very small on-screen times. In short, you get a goal that's impossible in normal play but entirely feasible in TAS play, which should make for a nice introduction to TASing. For added fun, turn on the death bullets mode. :) The main thread has some WIPs. I made it about 75% of the way through level 1 (including beating the first boss) before getting distracted by other projects.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/13/2009 5:18 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Hah, very nice! You have a good eye for entertainment. Well done. I think my favorite bits were nullifying Dive Man's missiles and the waiting game with Skull Man.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/12/2009 9:06 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Keep in mind that regardless of whether or not we'd legally be in the clear, a lawsuit would be disasterous for the TASVideos maintainers, who'd have to dedicate a lot of time and money to defending themselves. Thus I tend to err on the side of recommending caution whenever someone gets into one of these legal gray areas; even if you're actually in the clear (and again, you'd need a lawyer to tell you if you were), the cost of getting sued even if you win generally makes it not worthwhile.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/12/2009 1:11 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
For a "what is a TAS" video, the viewer doesn't need to know the exact process. You can do things at regular speed instead of frame advance (obviously some parts would be drastically slowed down), you can gloss over exact techniques, et cetera. Some things I could see happening in such a video: * Link enters a room full of Darknuts and kills them as quickly as he can. Then he tries again after waiting one frame before entering. Then again after two frames, etc. A little running counter would show how many frames were wasted before entering and how long it took to clear the room each time. * A slow-motion, zoomed-in view of some well-known glitch or speed technique that takes frame-precision to execute (for example, high-speed movement in one of the portable Castlevanias, the jump-dash stuff in one of the Sonic Advances, doing a walljump in SMB). Controller input would be prominently displayed. * A montage of damage/death abuse. Samus flies through a long diagonal room on one boost. Simon Belmont gets knocked onto a high ledge. Megaman X gets hit by an enemy and then runs onto the spikes. * Another montage of playing around. Ninja Five-O, RBI Baseball, Gradius, etc. These would serve to highlight things like luck manipulation, precision, creative problem solving, and entertainment, and I think they'd stand pretty well without needing too much explanation. All told they should give you a decent idea of the kinds of things that are possible in a TAS.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/11/2009 9:48 PM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I applaud the desire to educate people on the nature of TASes. However, people being the way they are, I doubt anyone will listen to an informative lecture unless they already know the content or they sincerely want to learn about it, and I don't think the people disclaiming TASes as cheating are interested in learning how they're made. If you want to bring them around, you'll have to be subtle about it, which is why I'm pushing for showing as opposed to telling. There can be plenty of talking in the "learn to TAS" videos, but the videos that justify TASing are going to be trickier. I wonder how well a TAS "music video" would work. Show the process of TASing along to the beat, kinda thing.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/11/2009 8:06 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I can almost guarantee the offer was made automatically. As for whether these videos are infringing, I don't know; you'd have to ask an American copyright lawyer.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/11/2009 6:08 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
That's a pretty good explanation, but I don't think it's a very good demonstration. The video I'm envisioning would be largely of gameplay, highlighting different aspects of how TASing works. For example, his SMW speed comparison would be done by showing a segment of an SMW level with ram watch on to show position and speed, and highlighting how these compare when you run straight vs. when you make jumps at the peak horizontal speeds. Leave the explanatory text for the video description, IMO; the video itself plays better when it demonstrates without explaining.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/11/2009 2:54 PM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
The "What is a TAS" video might work well by showing the changes you make when you go from being simply a skilled player to being a TASer. That would help to emphasize the difference between SDA-style speedruns and TASes, which many people seem to have trouble with (viewing the TAS as "cheating", for example). Other useful things to show would be manipulating luck/AI (show multiple quick takes of a short scene, with different things happening based on how the player moved), showing some frame-by-frame glitches, showing use of memory watch, that kind of thing.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/10/2009 2:29 PM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
The longer he can hold off of leveling the Force, the faster they'll be able to level once he does start letting them kill the grunts. ...well, that would be true, if it weren't for the 49 EXP cap per action. Bah.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/10/2009 2:28 PM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Flygon wrote:
I see no reason not to, it is your account and you do whatever the hell you want with it, though I do see it ethically correct to donate to TASVideos the proceeds.
My only major concern is that if uploading TASes becomes profitable, then we might start getting many accounts uploading TASes in the hope that they'll be able to make some quick cash off of it. Some of them might be uploaded without the permission of the author, or without the "this is a TAS" disclaimers, etc. I can't really just how likely this would be, though.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/7/2009 11:05 PM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Because our publishers are very busy people. They'll get to the movies when they can.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/6/2009 6:37 PM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
On the contrary, I felt the E. Ryu fight was the best part of the movie. As for enemy manipulation, most of what I saw was the AI trying various attacks and getting soundly beaten each time; nothing wrong with that. :)
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/6/2009 3:16 AM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
They must've they added that after DW4, which is the last one I played. Meh. Much props to Koei for bringing back the brawler genre, but they get kinda samey after a while.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/4/2009 3:08 AM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Hmm...you can always figure out your time by subtracting your time at the start of the run from your current time. It doesn't look as clean, but it'd avoid the stigma of using a cheat. This is especially important since it's the convention when making videos that require a save to submit the movie that generates the save along with the movie that uses the save. So I'd be inclined to say leave the cheats off, even though they don't actually do anything important.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/4/2009 1:04 AM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Whatever you end up doing for Hard Mode, I definitely recommend ditching all your equipment, souls, and money before starting the run. I always thought it was lame that DoS didn't support a "clean" Hard Mode start. It's not nearly so interesting if you carry all your cool toys over from normal mode.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/4/2009 1:02 AM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
As I understand it, FM2 movie files are text. Just rename it from ".txt" to ".fm2" and you should be good to go. :)
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/3/2009 3:03 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I thought the Dynasty Warriors series was purely experience/luck-based, no shopping involved.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/2/2009 1:53 AM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I strongly recommend not distributing the login info for any official TASVideos account beyond the admins and moderators. There's way too much potential for mistakes or deliberate abuse otherwise, and it sounds like you can work with each person just making their own account anyway.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 9/2/2009 1:44 AM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
When I was in highschool, I got up at 5:15 regularly, so I could get to school at 06:00 for swimming/water polo practice (practice from 06:00-7:30 and then from 15:00 to 17:00). I also went to bed at around 21:00, though.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/31/2009 2:18 AM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Hah! Very nice, and I agree, the video presentation on Nicovideo is excellent. I was also amused by your imitation of NESVideoAgent's screenshotting. :) Congratulations on an excellent TAS!
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/30/2009 9:12 PM
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Derakon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Very nice work! Hagane is one of the ultimate "ninja runs right for justice" games, and it shows. :) How do the tumble attacks work? They seem to deal way more damage than they rightfully should since you can apparently one-shot most of the bosses with them.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
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