Posts for FractalFusion

Posted: 11/13/2008 5:35 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Derakon wrote:

I must be missing something here -- why would that be so impressive?

No water where the heart tank is (one needs to beat Launch Octopus for that). So far, no one has succeeded without X-Buster Upgrade, including OgreSlayeR and me. OgreSlayeR even said he was "one frame away", though I personally consider this an exaggeration.

Posted: 11/13/2008 4:07 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Almost done Bubble Crab's stage (8th boss). First and only WIP up to Morph Moth done (5th boss): http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/769485676/MegamnX2%20FractalFusion%20moth%20done.smv I since figured out that Violen is weak to Silk Shot in Wire Sponge's stage and Agile is weak in Bubble Crab's stage. The fact that Serges is weak in Crystal Snail's stage as well as the abnormal Silk Shot behavior in Crystal Snail and Wire Sponge stages gave me the hint. Anyway, Violen in Wire Sponge is the only issue, but I can't think of a way to take advantage of it. It's too late to try anyway.

Blaise wrote:

I remember on zbattle.net this guy showed me that if you beat crystal snail while you're frozen you can move around after you break out during his death sequence.

Not so much a secret as it is a glitch. But yes, there are a disproportionate number of secrets and glitches in MMX2 more so than MMX1 or MMX3.

Posted: 11/12/2008 5:22 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

I'm still wondering how you ended up with 32433 rerecords. That seems like a lot (maybe not to you). Are you using Snes9x Watch? It would be helpful for Storm Eagle's stage to find out the health of the exploding blockade (near the capsule). (I'm assuming you're doing Storm Eagle next. If you have better ideas, let us know.) Storm Eagle notes: - The Sub Tank can be obtained either from the left or from the right. I haven't tested it but the way as shown in my 100% test run looks faster. - The exploding blockade near the head capsule has 32 health. Damages are as follows: X-Buster uncharged: 1 X-Buster uncharged dashing*: 2 X-Buster blue charge: 2 X-Buster yellow charge: 4 Boomerang Cutter: 2 - Against Storm Eagle, you can try to use the right side of the airship to luck-manipulate, if you can. *) Only one shot maximum on-screen can be designated as doing special damage of 2. For example, if you fire three shots on-screen, the first does 2 damage and the second two do 1 damage. That's why it is good to be very close to the target, so that every shot does 2 damage.

Posted: 11/9/2008 7:53 PM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Bag of Magic Food wrote:

I don't care that they don't care! Not everything can or should be obvious.

Derakon wrote:

This is what explanations in the submission text are for. Same as e.g. missed shots or walking out of your way for luck manipulation.

Unfortunately, most people (especially the casual observer) base their judgment on the movie alone, some not even bothering to read the submission text or know how the game works in particular. I am one of the few who would (sometimes) prefer concept over entertainment, but that's the minority.

Posted: 11/9/2008 7:39 PM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Record an input movie (VBM). It will keep track of the time. Then you can savestate all you want without changing the time. You can AVI-record later.

Posted: 11/9/2008 8:31 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Bag of Magic Food wrote:

Ugly? Avoiding random battles cannot be ugly, especially with such a funny method!

The problem is that no one other than the author knows why, and 80% of people don't care even if you told them. Entertainment above concept, right? It only works if it is obvious just by looking that some battle was supposed to occur but didn't.

Posted: 11/8/2008 9:26 PM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

parrot14gree wrote:

I figure out how to pass through the wall. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/761732501/Mega%20Man%20X%20%28U%29%20%28V1.1%29-bk-NoArmorzip.smv

O_O Good job as always. dezbeast, just remember that you don't need to be on the far right side when dashing to chase the screen to the right.

Posted: 11/6/2008 2:24 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

I see the problem. Perhaps parrot14green should stop experimenting with 100% savestates where unnecessary. parrot14green's AVI:

my attempt in emulator:

Exact same thing, exact same position, different X recoil. Reason: Armor Upgrade. The problem with the X recoil is that, without Armor Upgrade, X rises significantly while recoiling. This rising will actually push X downward as he passes through the wall, making it impossible to escape even if he is very close to the other side. If I wait so that this downward pushing does not occur, then X does not make it far enough. I have not exhausted all options yet. I'll see if X can gain even more height beforehand (but this requires taking another hit, even for no damage).

Posted: 11/1/2008 10:52 PM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

I've finished Wheel Gator and am halfway through Morph Moth. I found out how to climb the spike shaft to the X-Hunter room in Wheel Gator without using the moving platform. I'll leave you to figure it out before I post a WIP. In other news, I found out how the Serges barrier works. The game doesn't actually look at when X shoots; rather, it polls your input and puts up the barrier when you press Y (fire). Of course, I need to press Y to fire :|. However, it only puts up the barrier after 8 frames. I discovered that if you press Y repeatedly within 7 frames of each other, the barrier will never appear! This is probably due to overwriting the events related to the barrier, since the game always starts to put up the barrier but never finishes. In fact, you can stand on the edge of Serges' platform and autofire him to death, since he will keep falling down. If you have autofire mapped, it's easy to do even in realtime. I saw some information somewhere that said that Serges is weak to Silk Shot only in Crystal Snail's stage. I verified it and noted that Silk Shot does 3 damage. Unfortunately, Crystal Snail's X-Hunter room is one of the worst rooms to go to. I'm pretty sure Morph Moth's room is faster by over 5 seconds.

Posted: 10/30/2008 7:44 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Briefing for Boomer Kuwanger stage: - parrot14green's trick: http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=96153#96153 . I don't know if it saves time or not. If the net gain is 0 or more, do it. If the net gain is less than 0, it's your call. - My 100% test run shows how to get the heart tank in this stage. - Boomer Kuwanger tends to either dash around, throw a Boomerang Cutter, or teleport. Don't let him teleport because it wastes frames. I settled for shooting him at 3/4 screen distance (when he dashes) but see if you can do better. This one is also a pain to luck-manipulate.

Comicalflop wrote:

Oh well. I noticed in Chill Penguin you did some downslope-boost jumps up uphills in places where you weren't going for height. When I tested the trick, it didn't seem to save me any X pixels; it only seemed to be a trick to gain more height. The boost achieved didn't make up for pressing left for two frames.

Uphill downhill-boost jumps only save time on some of the steeper uphills. Normal speed is 1.5 p/f. Slight slope jumping is 1.6 p/f. Steep slope jumping is 1.8 p/f.

Posted: 10/30/2008 2:40 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Bag of Magic Food wrote:

Okay, now I've read that Zero runs around your ride chaser if you don't get any armor but still get all the heart tanks and sub tanks. Does anyone feel like playing through this game a few more times to figure this out? Maybe look for different values in RAM for each kind of ending to see where it changes? Actually, I just read some more reports that say you only need to have no armor parts to get that ending, and it doesn't matter what else you get. So... I'd be happy just calling this the "inverse of the any%" run.

I verified it by playing (Edit: with savestates of course) up to Sigma's stage (just before the door with Zero) and beating it with nothing, then going back and beating it with one subtank. Both result in the secret ending with Zero. I admit that I have never seen this ending before today, and it isn't much. Come to think of it, considering how hard Sigma's stage was with nothing, it would definitely be overkill to make players beat the game with nothing in order to see this secret ending. Until today, I never understood why no one at SDA wanted to do a MMX2 0% speedrun. On a less serious note, BoMF, you have just over 17³ posts.

Posted: 10/29/2008 6:34 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Hold on. I'll see if I can improve it. Edit: Saved 19 frames in the Chill Penguin battle: http://files.filefront.com/mmx+tassmv/;12191136;/fileinfo.html dezbeast, it requires perseverance to do boss battles well. How I saved 19 frames was because I knew I could spend two non-alternating opportunities, and to try something else if it does not work. It's all yours now (at least until the next boss battle :) ). Edit 2:

Comicalflop wrote:

When dashing, if you stop at the end then dash again, are you stopped for 1 frame? It looks that way. shouldn't you always end each dash with a jump?

Only if X is not limited by a ceiling. If there is a low ceiling, X is better off dashing only. That is because landing costs 2 pixels (so about 1 frame for every 2 landings). If X's head hits the ceiling, it costs a whole frame, but there is hardly any need to do such a thing. There are other instances where it is better to do a dash-dash, depending on the position of the obstacles ahead.

Posted: 10/28/2008 7:48 PM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

I had to read a walkthrough to understand what was going on. This movie is OK, but I prefer the Dungeon Magic one for RPGs beaten fast. I'd still take this one over RPGs beaten slowly. The other issue is the bot. I don't care that a bot is suboptimal if the result is optimal. But seeing that you disassembled some part of the game, yet used a random input bot (which may not yield optimal results), is puzzling.

DarkKobold wrote:

You can, and it has, been changed before. It has ALWAYS been meaningless.

These people disagree: http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6026 http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6029 On a serious note, I only see rerecord counts as meaningless when people start believing that it is the most important item in a movie. I frequently use the rerecord count to guess the amount of effort an author put in a movie, just as I look at the submission description to figure out what is going on.

Posted: 10/28/2008 7:19 PM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

I've done the run up to and including Wire Sponge (the third stage). I figured out why Flame Stag only has a 54-frame recovery against Bubble Splash (instead of normal 60-frame recovery). It's not directly because of Bubble Splash, but it is because when Flame Stag does his flame-throwing animation, it resets his invincibility. I managed to abuse it partially in this run so far. The thing is that it is possible to use Bubble Splash so that the blinking reset occurs just after being hit on the ground by X-Buster, so he can be hit again right away. In this regard, it is possible to save around 3 or 4 seconds with Bubble Splash.

Posted: 10/26/2008 6:04 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Keep in mind that I am aiming for no upgrades (as well as no heart tanks and no sub tanks) in this run, so I cannot use X-Buster upgrade and I cannot use Flame Stag's weapon to air-dash. Wire Sponge and Magna Centipede are just as fast to beat without their weakness (since their weakness only does 2, same as dashing X-Buster). Flame Stag without weakness only costs 1.5 second. It is not necessary to have anything to beat Wire Sponge without berserk. Here's a list of time wasted against boss without weakness (no X-Buster upgrade): Wire Sponge: 0 Wheel Gator: ~15 seconds Bubble Crab: ~5 seconds Flame Stag: ~1.5 seconds Morph Moth: not certain; seems like 5-6 seconds Magna Centipede: 0 Crystal Snail: at least 20 seconds Overdrive Ostrich: ~6 seconds The list given is the weakness order, by the way. I also planned the location of the X-Hunters. The X-Hunters appear after the second stage, and ideally I want to fight two of them in the two next stages and the third one in the last stage. I also need to beat Magna Centipede before fighting Agile (3-damage weakness). I settled for fighting the first two in the fourth and fifth stages, rather than the third and fourth. This costs 2 seconds from X-Hunter shuffling during the stage select. In addition, I want to fight the X-Hunters in the Wheel Gator, Bubble Crab, and Morph Moth stages, which have the best entries and exits (though Morph Moth is arguable with Flame Stag, but I couldn't fit Flame Stag). There is also some time lost by taking Wire Sponge third (because Strike Chain is very useful), but Speed Burner might make Wire Sponge's level a little faster (turning rainy weather into hot weather).

Bag of Magic Food wrote:

Does that mean a best ending run of Mega RockMan X3 would collect everything but Zero's saber so that Zero would be intact and X would have the golden armor in the ending?

Perhaps, although the Beam Saber is more than just a plot item (though this doesn't matter). I could claim that it is a best ending 100% run, just as I can call this a best ending 0% run. If anyone wonders, the relevance of 0% to best ending is because if you beat the game with no conventional items, Zero appears on the highway and runs alongside X (or so I read).

Posted: 10/24/2008 8:20 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Intro stage now 8 frames faster than the published run: http://65.93.101.29/microstorage.php/info/1449362617/MegamnX2.smv I plan to do a "best ending" run (0% conventional items, 100% plot items (i.e. Zero Parts)). I haven't finalized it yet, but the planned route is as follows: Flame Stag, Magna Centipede, Wire Sponge, Wheel Gator (Violen), Morph Moth (Serges), Crystal Snail, Overdrive Ostrich, Bubble Crab (Agile). The X-Hunter cycle is as follows (with starting points):

        A                    S                        V
gator->moth->sponge->crab->stag->centipede->snail->ostrich->

Posted: 10/20/2008 7:15 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Well, the clock is a real-time 7-day 24-hour clock, not a timer. There is a gameplay timer (shown whenever you save or continue), so use that one. It only displays down to the minutes. By the way, the issue of gameplay timers (or lack thereof) should never stop you from doing runs of games. Edit: Sorry, misunderstood you. I assume you don't want to submit a run to SDA. If you want to segment a run, wanting to stop the clock is not really something you should aim for. Unless you want to make the clock process appear single-segment, in which case you must use emulator savestates.

Posted: 10/19/2008 10:45 PM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Good enough. Some things looked a little suspect (I'm pretty sure walking further before jumping at least doesn't hurt) but the only thing that matters is that you did it and you saved time. I couldn't save more than 3 frames on the jump anyway.

dezbeast wrote:

Edit: Does anyone happen to know the conditions that must be met in order to drop an extra life?

As far as I know, you don't need an extra life, except possibly when doing the suicide near the end of Armadillo's stage. Since you can always get a life (literally) in Chameleon's stage, the only question is whether it matters to try to suicide by running out of HP and hitting a flying bird rather than falling in the pit. Tests seem to indicate that it can only be done once, on the first time through.

Posted: 10/18/2008 7:34 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

I'd like to see a WIP. How does it compare to the published run?

dezbeast wrote:

Why did OgreSlayer stop even though he was ahead of your run?

Stress.

Posted: 10/18/2008 5:53 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

I'm glad you liked the description. I added the part about GameFAQs because I looked for FAQs earlier and saw your guide and message board topics, and you seem to be very dedicated to this game. I admit though that this sentence was possibly excessive POV on my part:

movie description wrote:

It's everything an RPG TAS should be, without warping or save glitching.

I'll try to reword it if I can.

Posted: 10/13/2008 4:57 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Zowayix wrote:

http://glitchcity.info/docs/celebitrick Could this be used to get powerful Lv100 pokemon early in the game? On Step 11, it says the pokemon generated (in this case, celebi) might be at a very high level.

According to the description, this cannot be done until after the Elite Four, when the Pokemon you used can easily beat most opponents in Kanto. It also requires cloning many times, which takes a long time. I didn't know this glitch though, so thanks for bringing it up.

Posted: 10/13/2008 4:51 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Insert this in your Snes9x Watch file (s9xwcnf1.txt):

[MEGAMAN X]

; 149 blue 79 yellow 1 pink
; 255 jump/stop/redash 0 and 1

7E0BCA,2s,Pos X
7E0BCC,2s,Pos Y
7E00B4,2s,Cam X
7E00B6,2s,Cam Y
----
7E0BFA,1u,negDash
7E0BFF,1u,negCharge
----
7E0E8F,1s,enemy HP 1
7E0ECF,1s,enemy HP 2
7E1F7E,1s,Hadoken visits

dezbeast wrote:

Anyway, you posted that jumping at the bottom of the down slope saves frames. I can't get it to work. Do I have to jump at a certain height or spot or both?

Anytime you walk downward on a slope and jump, you move horizontally faster than normal. It is usually best to do this as late as possible on a slope. In addition, you increase the height of your jumps when you do this. This page has more information. It is outdated though. As an aside, OgreSlayeR made an intro run which is faster by 2 or 3 frames (posted in the MMX thread I linked above), but the important thing is that you do what is reasonable. It's a 100% run, so relax. Leave perfection pursuit to the any% run.

Posted: 10/12/2008 6:31 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

Are you planning to do this on Snes9x v1.43+ or Snes9x v1.51? Anyway, I can help with certain parts that are tricky (such as giving info). There is a trick by parrot14green that is cool to include in the run.

Posted: 10/12/2008 6:20 AM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

In fact, I've implied previously that I abandoned this run. A new run should definitely be on Mega Man Legends if PSX is accepted.

blahmoomoo wrote:

Mega Man Legends 2 would probably look even better ... since the enemy targeting button allows you to move and jump at the same time.

Can MegaMan move around while looking upward (with C-up, not the enemy target button)? There is better control to shoot a moving enemy, and it looks cooler.

blahmoomoo wrote:

(cutscenes may not be skippable in MML1 either, I don't know).

Most cutscenes are skippable in Mega Man 64, so I think it should be the same for Legends.

blahmoomoo wrote:

By the way, when I played this game, I had no knowledge of the story behind the NES Mega Man games. So I enjoyed the game even though it did not line up with any of the previous stories.

The most likely people to be turned off from this game are those who are well-versed in traditional Mega Man games. This game is just a totally different game with a few Mega Man shoutouts. P.S. Traditional Mega Man games have no real story.

Posted: 10/11/2008 10:37 PM

Quote

FractalFusion

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1941)

Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247

I re-encoded the videos with sound and placed them on YouTube: Intro/Town: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiALyJII-M0 Bonnes/Marlwolf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHUqnfCpw20 Cardon/Refractor Cave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ejKVmZUZ-M Lake Jyun/Barcon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Ab9VUc4c4 The cause of the gridlines was because of the previous graphics plugin I used. I used Rice previously; this time I used Jabo's Direct3D8 1.6 without problem (though, in Windows Vista, mupen.exe->Properties->Compatibility->Disable desktop composition must be checked to allow video recording to work).