Posts for IdeaMagnate

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Posted: 1/9/2006 1:41 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
nitsuja, you're right. The only reason I can think of that I kept the perma-charge was that I was recording a version with and without, and forgot to record the version without. I'll also try shooting off a flash arrow to avoid the volteccer animation when catching onto a wire. I may not be able to do it everytime I need to catch onto a wire while charged, since firing slows me down slightly, but I'm sure it will work more often than not. It would be very helpful if you could figure out what's going on in the s7a4 boss battle. I'd like to do more bosses like that one. Twisted Eye, check my post here. If you've got Perl installed on your system, it should make your job easy. If you're on win32, you can use ActivePerl. If you can't get it to sync, try deleting or adding a frame. If that doesn't work, recording a single instance of the bug is as helpful as anything.
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Posted: 1/8/2006 10:03 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
Your suggestion about the ice maze saves about 11 seconds, but I can't get the change to sync right now. It'll definitely be in the final version. Thanks for the tip. I'll also see if I can't provoke dark Pulseman into attacking earlier. That's one of the slower battles, making it an excellent place for optimizations.
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Posted: 1/8/2006 2:03 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
Heh. I didn't even notice that alternate exit in level 01 of the ice maze before you mentioned it. I should have suspected something when my map didn't have any level 07. I'll test if it's faster before I submit. If you feel like testing it, start from this state. If you can get the first nonblack frame of level 08 before 17:21:30, the alternate route is faster. I can imagine getting dark Pulseman stuck in a wall while he's vulnerable and will definitely see if I can duplicate it. Let me know if you remember anything else about how you did it. It may look like I'm almost done with this, but I've still got a lot of optimizing to do. At the very least I'm going to redo the Stage 1 boss and be sure I can't improve most of the bonus levels, in addition to what you brought up. Since school starts on the 10th, it could be a while before I find time to finish this to my liking.
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Posted: 1/6/2006 11:00 PM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
Sorry about that. The pogo guy on level 4 was what I meant. If he can't hurt, it sounds like fair game not to count him as an enemy.
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Posted: 1/6/2006 10:21 PM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
Didn't you kill something near the beginning of the 3rd stage?
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Posted: 12/31/2005 6:48 PM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
My New Year's resolution is to break my New Year's resolution. It should be interesting.
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Posted: 12/30/2005 11:43 PM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
Thanks for the quick translation, Truncated. edit: I've got stage 4 done, and I encourage people following this to look for improvements. I've had great success hexediting in optimizations with the script I posted here, so even a small improvement would be welcome. (I plan on trying to improve the hand and casino bosses before submitting anyway, but wouldn't mind if someone posted improvements in my technique or exectution.)
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Posted: 12/30/2005 8:14 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
I'm curious what the intro says. If someone who knows Japanese wants to help, I took some screenshots.
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Posted: 12/28/2005 9:59 AM
(Edited: 7/19/2006 12:45 AM)
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
I came up with a Perl script that does a similar thing to eme, except that it converts gens movies to/from a plaintext format, so I can use a normal text editor. The text file contains the gmv header in base-64 encoding followed by one frame per line. When the script reads in the text file, it ignores anything before the semicolon, making it easy to add and delete frames. The timing information is in the same format that Gens uses, so it's also easy to find which frame you want to delete. The script is here for those interested. edit: I fixed the script so it outputs correct timing info (it was off by one frame) and does some basic checking on the input files you give it. edit: The output looks like this, other than the header. 
1 : empty
2 : s1,a1
3 : b1,b2
4 : a1
5 : u1
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Posted: 12/24/2005 7:08 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
nitsuja, I mean that I won't use the backwards jump glitch at all, but anything else is fair game. There's at least one smaller bug and I don't want to close off the possibility of using it. Twisted Eye, I'm not against either method in the long run. For now I feel like there's not enough strategy involved, but I can easily imagine doing mostly glitchless now and glitchful later. I was thinking of s3a3 (casino) and s4a1 (first area w/ water) as areas that would be more impressive without the glitch. Of course, there are areas where the glitch shines too. I also think it will work better to do mostly glitchless first so people will know what's missing in a glitchful tas. There's important stuff in most (all?) stages that's very easy to glitch past. Seeing the obstacles navagated quickly will give the viewer an appreciation for when they're bypassed completely. Edit_n+1: It seems I can edit previous areas quite nicely now. I've managed to fix the opening and s1a2 and still keep everything up through s4a1 (where I was when I decided to redo it) working. The s1 boss is faster but looks sloppy. I may redo it and the s3 boss later now that I know I can.
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Posted: 12/22/2005 9:23 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
You're right. Knowing that saved me 14 frames in s1a3 and will be an important consideration later on. Thanks for figuring that out. Edit: I'm starting to get tired of just using the bug over and over. It seems to take most of the strategy out of this game, other than "which position will be best to use the bug in?". After watching my bugless and buggy movies, I found the bugless one much more entertaining and less disorienting. I appreciate you finding the bug, nitsuja, but it changes the game too much for my tastes. Glitching through walls occasionally, like in JXQ's Sonic 1 tas, is different from doing it several times in any given area. When I get back from home on Tues, that I plan on continuing the (mostly) glitchless version.
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Posted: 12/22/2005 2:53 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
I intuitively understand that movement depends on the camera rather than Pulseman, since he jumps back to the edge of the screen if he's blocked by a vertical barrier for part of a glitched jump. I also know I need to run for about 10 frames and be jumping backwards for about 10 frames before I can glitch to the left side of the screen and back. Sticking to the left side of the screen looks necessary, though it's hard to say whether it's cause or effect. However, the inability to use the glitch I mentioned is different. In that state, etc, it's not even possible to jump backwards. When I try, I end up facing and jumping to the left.
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Posted: 12/21/2005 6:45 PM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
There's some progress, but it's slow and deliberate. I'll work on the s1a3 (TV station) today and seem to be getting about one non-trivial area done done per day. s1a2 (Integrated City, according to the sound test menu) took about 12.5 seconds. I fly into a lot of walls, but I don't think it's avoidable in a constrained level like this. Edit: One thing that's been bugging me is that sometimes the trick won't work for a short while. (I can try it, but I just change direction right after taking off instead of jumping backwards like normal.) A good example is this state, where I can't perform the bug on the floor, but I can if I jump onto the blocks in front of me.
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Posted: 12/21/2005 6:54 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
It motivated me to find a better route and to reconsider how I plan routes in general, whatever your intent.
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Posted: 12/21/2005 6:52 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
Kitsune wrote:
Yoshi does have Increased running speed. I just watched that movie. It can be done, but it doesn't look like it can be maintained for an extended period of time. From what I saw, it's too hard to keep Yoshi afloat.
In our world, there's not such thing as "too hard". ;) I think the reason that hanzou only flew for a short while with Yoshi was because he was just showing that it could be done. You'll notice that he did fly up and down a couple times.
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Posted: 12/20/2005 12:14 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
I especially liked how you'd fall a short distance to die, then seem to fall a longer distance and survive. It seems like there are parts that could be a little faster, but it's probably just that I don't know the game very well. You have my "yes".
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Posted: 12/18/2005 9:38 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
Bag of Magic Food wrote:
Wow, this game looks... dark...
You're right. I've posted a couple little less evil shots. The ones I picked at first made the game look like Mortal Kombat, when it's much closer to Price of Persia.
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Posted: 12/18/2005 7:22 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
Thanks for the detailed responses. The movie makes much more sense now. If this doesn't deserve a star, I don't know what does. The pervasive abuse of bugs and the way you avoid taking damage do a great job of demonstrating what this site is all about.
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Posted: 12/18/2005 6:35 AM
(Edited: 12/18/2005 4:33 PM)
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
If anyone wants to publish this, I'd suggest one of these two pictures as screenshots: Edit: Picked something less dark. Look here and here for what I originally had.
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Posted: 12/18/2005 6:09 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
Is this still alive? Does luck-manipulating gem drops work?
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Posted: 12/17/2005 9:32 PM
(Edited: 12/17/2005 10:54 PM)
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
I understand why you owned my Pulseman WIP now. That was amazing. I want to pick it apart before I vote, but I seriously doubt I'll find anything major. Edit: I found some strange things: * 1:12 - Why do you use that wierd movement pattern to get by the octopus. It looks like there's a window you could go through between the spike and the octopus' tentacle. * 1:54 - Why do you do the weird loop instead of hugging the rock. Can't the jellyfish be avoided or stunned and killed without circling backwards before going on? * 2:27 - That crab evasion is unlikely. Very unlikely. * 2:48 - I thought those spiky shells were supposed to hurt you. * 2:52 - Why do you use the sonar here? There were several other places I couldn't figure out its purpose (mainly when you didn't use it to stun enemies in your path). This is only an example. * 2:54 - Where you hit the floor looks a little too far to the right of the rock. * 11:52 - Um, you're cheating or something. Those horseshoe crabs are supposed to hurt you. * 17:29 - Interesting bug. It doesn't do anything useful as far as I can tell, but it's cool to see Ecco jump between two locations at 30 Hz.
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Posted: 12/17/2005 11:21 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
That's more than I'd expect to gain. Filespace isn't letting me connect at the moment but I'm not going to look at your improvement for now anyway. It won't do me much good if I keep posting levels and you keep improving on them. I to learn to look for and find improvements myself. So far, I've cut off 117 frames. I hope I eventually get an instinct for what's not optimal, because I didn't expect what I made to be so far from it. Edit: I'm now down to 50:34, which gives me a 336 frame improvement over the 56:10 movie. I'm still not sure it's optimal, but it's getting closer. Edit2: I'm done with this area. I've got it down to 50:12, and if you can beat that I'm quitting. It's in my sig now. Thanks for the competition. Hopefully what I post in the future will be good enough the first time so you won't have to own me again. ;)
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Posted: 12/17/2005 9:55 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
Thanks. Hexediting in the improvement didn't even desync the movie.
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Posted: 12/17/2005 8:54 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
It looks like I can't skip that schematics level. I can get through the barrier between the "in" and "out" signs, but the game won't let me through the exit to the TV station. I can't either run through it or use the bug. On a more positive note, I've gained 870 frames in the first area of the first stage, and I'm not entirely convinced I can't do better. A tarball with the state and gmv is in my sig. I would appreciate any thoughts.
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Posted: 12/16/2005 8:22 AM
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IdeaMagnate
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
After playing with it some, I agree that a submission using it could be accepted. The bug is powerful and changes how I'll need to think about the game, but there will still be plenty of strategy. Thanks for posting. I'll try to put the bug to good use.
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