Note, the nethack TAS will have a similar issue, if not worse issue. Check out the WIPs. Granted, it is a far more loved game, so people will probably receive it better.
I strongly suspect that most appreciation of the NetHack TAS will be through reading the turn-by-turn action descriptions or by watching the run with frame advance. The encode will be practically useless except as a novelty.
Fortunately, the turn-by-turn descriptions are quite entertaining!
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
The Greek Crisis wasn't caused by the banks. It was caused by government overspending and excessive borrowing.
The government had a hand in the crisis but you can't pretend that the banks had no fault here either. Hundreds of billions of dollars of financial "product" that was rated at AAA and was actually completely junk? That's gonna have serious repercussions when it comes home to roost.
Of course the places that were on shaky footing already are going to be hardest hit when the world economy tanks, but that doesn't mean that it's their fault the economy tanked. It's just their fault that they weren't as ready for it to do so.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
In the "first world" people are educated. That's why when disaster struck Japan everyone helped each other, even in a desperate situation.
In Africa you don't think of others, you think of yourself. Yourself first.
You do realize just how terrible this sounds, right? Perhaps not intentionally, but it really is horribly racist. "Yeah, us smart people know how to work together, but those backwards barbarians are too greedy to pull themselves out of the mud."
Not to mention that the "first world" is the reason so much of Africa is in such a bad state. Colonialism really wreaked havoc there.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
The problem with that, alden, is not capitalism, it is human nature.
Actually not so much. Humans individually are pretty decent people on average. It's when you glom them together into large organizations and remove the connection between actions and consequences that they become sociopathic.
Not at all coincidentally, the nominal goal of most governmental regulation is to artificially recreate the costs to being a sociopath in a manner that large organizations can understand.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
I like how Bowser is afraid of the implacable walking Mario, and always jumps out of the way. I also like how the Bullet Bills move at exactly walking pace. All in all, a good run, and a worthy replacement for the existing walkathon.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Personally, I can't enjoy TASes of vanilla Super Metroid any more. I've just watched too many and the improvements are too marginal. I have the same problem with SM64 and SMB1, both games that have been iteratively improved over the course of years.
That in mind, I'm not gonna bother watching or voting this time, and I'm staying the hell away from this thread from here on out. I've done that dance a few too many times too.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Uh, sounds like someone mistaking a giant conglomerate of people for an organization with unified views. Or are all Republicans against gay marriage (abortion, tax increases, etc.) just because that happens to be a common Republican talking point?
Wall Street funds everyone. Why not? They're the people with all the money. Spending a small portion to ensure that politicians are favorably inclined towards them is a no-brainer. The purpose of Occupy Wall Street is to point out that just because someone doesn't have enough money to meaningfully contribute to a campaign's finances doesn't mean their opinion doesn't matter. I would think that kind of attitude wouldn't be affiliated with any one party.
Also, MoveOn.org isn't so much an Obama campaign organization as they are a liberal organization. Of course this means that they tend to side with Democrats, who are marginally more liberal than Republicans.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
There's multiple valid opinions on the proper way to end a TAS, as is discussed...somewhere, I can't find the page right now. Off the top of my head, there's:
* End input as soon as the game will end on its own (with no further input)
* End input as soon as it is impossible for further input to prevent the end of the game
* End input as soon as the game begins its ending
But anyway, given that there are multiple valid opinions, it doesn't make sense either to discriminate against one, or to publish an "improvement" that just consists of changing the ending method.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Suppose I cut a piece out of this TAS; crumbly but good; and now suppose we cut this piece in half (or, more or less), then we cut this piece in half, and keep going. How many cuts before we get down to an individual bit?
At 337211 frames, after 18 subdivisions you're down to 1.286 frames. If you want to count individual pixels (of a 256x224 display), then you need to divide 34 times to get to a single pixel (plus a bit).
</answer_nobody_wanted>
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
There are rules. If you don't follow them, don't call them "rules".
They're more what you'd call "guidelines". (sorry)
The judges have demonstrated the ability and inclination to ignore any and all rules when it suits them. As it should be. The alternative would be to try to rewrite the rules to cover every potential eventuality. That way lies madness.
And Synx, just because your favorite game is a contentious subject doesn't mean TASVideos is in danger of fading into obscurity. :p
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
OoT is a bit of an edge case in the whole language thing, because a) everyone's played it and memorized the plot already, and b) the text scrolls. so. bloody. slowly. The site's not above making exceptions to the rules for edge cases.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
I don't think any translation hacks are going to sync in both the original and translated versions, simply because it takes several times more characters to present a given concept in English than it does in...er, whichever of the Japanese texts is being used (they have, what, four? Hiragana, kanji, katakana, romanji?). You try being more compact in English when you're fighting against a syllabary.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
I don't think the "expanded top view plus stacked view on the side" is too hard to interpret, and it seems like a good compromise. I don't think you're going to be able to convince anyone to just leave the useless view out entirely for official encodes.
One idea I've seen is that apparently you can have multiple video streams in a given container, which should be displayed in separate windows; thus, you could let the users decide how they want to arrange the screens. But that's more work on the users end.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
I rewatched it at 25% speed. That seems to be more accurate to what I remember, though I'm not certain the sound should be that slow.
Ehh, it's mediocre at best.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
I'd like to see this test run. The game adapts to your tactics, though, which could well mean that the best strategy overall requires suboptimal play in earlier levels. For example, IIRC armor will be more heavily built-up over areas that you attack first, which means that going straight for the core on the first level would make future levels slower...
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
BEEP BEEP I AM A TASVIDEOS COMMUNITY MEMBER BEEP BEEP
NEW MEGAMAN GAME TAS. MUST VOTE YES. BEEP.
Really? Sorta seems like an unfair comment. This is the second worst rated run on the Workbench. (Right after a sonic run, amusingly.)
I actually haven't voted yet because I haven't decided on how the speed impacts my decision. I was mostly just poking fun at the "all Megaman/Mario/Metroid/Castlevania runs get published" trend. No offense intended.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
BEEP BEEP I AM A TASVIDEOS COMMUNITY MEMBER BEEP BEEP
NEW MEGAMAN GAME TAS. MUST VOTE YES. BEEP.
I actually played this once as a kid, and it definitely didn't move as quickly as this run does. I'm guessing this time is based on 60FPS or something along those lines? My memory's fuzzy enough that I can't remember how fast it ran (let alone what the specs were on the computer I was playing it on), but I'd guess a 50% slowdown would be more realistic.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Random idea: a Vs. Lemmings TAS. Thesetwo videos are hilarious; I have to wonder what two godlike players could accomplish in terms of perfect play while also having to continually deal with each others' interference...
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Dang kids these days.
The current ready availability of encodes is fantastic. It wasn't that long ago that encodes weren't available at all until the movie was published. Sure, it's always nice when the encodes show up sooner rather than later, but look at your possible sources for encodes:
1) The encoders for this site, who are all donating their time and computers. You really want to "force" them to provide encodes?
2) The creator of the TAS. Leaving aside the fact that just making the TAS is typically a monumental effort, many don't even speak English. How are you going to communicate the requirement and procedure for making an encode to them?
This is one situation in which I can safely say you should be grateful for what you already have. That applies to everyone whining about encodes in the submission threads too.
tl;dr encodes are a privilege, not a right
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Even if the Prez were to go for this, Congress wouldn't, and they're who you need to petition. This is a legislative issue, not an executive one. Fortunately your Senators are easier to contact than the President is -- just send them a physical mailing (AIUI email is broadly ignored since it doesn't represent any notable effort).
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
You should be able to determine the timing for RNG calls by finding the RNG state in memory and waiting for it to change -- it changes each time it gets called.
IIRC the RNG can also be updated by dashing (obvious impossible in the opening stage) or by sliding down walls. Basically creating dust will invoke the RNG.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
I watched maybe a fourth of this run, and it was pretty dull. Walk around avoiding or running from monsters, engage boss, slowly whittle boss down, repeat. It's a good demonstration of what's possible with luck manipulation, but in that regard it's nothing I've not seen before, and the trimmings (art, music, etc.) weren't all that great this time.
Meh vote -- well executed, bad game choice. It might've been fun to TAS but I didn't enjoy watching it.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
