Now that I think about it, it might be not be the most principled stance to accept a run because another community will like us. I still stand by that we should accept the best runs and that the naysayers are missing this forest for their trees.
If reading the text is a big deal, why don't we edit in subtitles (or add YouTube annotations) to explain the cutscenes?
This TAS steps over a petty rule, but there's a bigger picture: this site is about showcasing the best TASes and accepting this run will help cement relations with the Zelda community.
Also, I have a question about Trainer-Fly, if I glitch a Gym Leader fight and defeat him, will I get the badge after that? It's probably useless, but it could help Thomaz with his unassisted run, SDA is not likely to accept the ZZAZZ glitch...
This is worth a test. Skipping even just Erika and Blaine's gyms would save tons of time.
Re: the two-game TAS, you'd also be looking at the trading screens a lot. I like the idea and it looks like fun to route, but it wouldn't be easy to watch.
Total [exp. from Elite Four] = 56237
Total/2 for piggybacking = 28118 EXP
Watch out. I think the game rounds down each Pokémon's experience when you divide it among your party members, so the total you get from piggy-backing will be less than 28118 (significantly lower if you're using Exp. Share with a full party).
Also, I think you can use the Trainer-Fly glitch to encounter Missingno. (or one of its friends) and duplicate items. That way you could get 128 rare candies pretty early, which might save time in small ways (box management, smoother routes), though maybe not enough to justify the extra Trainer-Flying.
Good luck everyone, I'm looking forward to this!
Edit: oh, just remembered another possible time-saver. Glitched stone evolution! A basic description can be found at the bottom of this page. The main use I see is catching an Exeggutor at Mt. Moon and using it to evolve a few Moon Stoners, letting you skip duping the stones or glitching the Pokémon.
All right! Looks like this game can be broken yet. I found that in addition to the door you found, there's at least one more roughly southeast of where you started. It leads to the left door of the room with all the statues.
I also tested it with a few other caves and areas but haven't yet found any more hidden doors.
That is a phenomenal note, I didn't think of that. It is very possible that 3 sturdy characters is better than 4 weak ones.
Also of note: during Colosso, the game recalculates your party size, but NOT your party members. After its conclusion, if you didn't recruit Mia you'll end up with a "doubled" party member (which you can change by switching the order of your team) -- he'll act twice in battle and get hit twice by multi-target moves. You still only have to share Djinn among three members.
(Sadly, there don't seem to be any good tricks with this glitch and Kite)
You'd have to weigh these perks against the time you'd lose from Imil to Tolbi and being crimped for Water Psynergy and healing for awhile.
Also, as the final boss goes, last time I played I ran from every random battle and ended around level 20. That's high enough to win without resorting to super-defensive strategies like Flash and Ground, especially if you can luck-manipulate Fusion Dragon into doing mostly physical attacks. Which gives you more time to just wail on the Fusion Dragon with your own attacks :). I'm fond of making Isaac a double-Ninja and having him Annihilate the dragon over and over, but I wonder if a summon-only strategy would be faster.
Edit: I forgot this was with full Djinn. Since Djinn (and equipment) matter to your stats more than level, not having many would make the fight much harder. In this case you probably would need Flash, Ground, and/or Granite to tide you through.
Hi, I know this TAS is just getting started but I'd like to throw out a far-sighted idea: the Retreat glitch. Put Retreat on a shoulder button, use it without PP, and enter a door, and you can be teleported strange places. For instance, you can skip most of both Lighthouses, including the part where you recruit Mia if that strikes your fancy. Most of the time it just sends you to the dungeon entrance which wouldn't be useful (besides a slightly faster way of actually Retreating) and some doors lead you back to Vale, which would be helpful for a 28-Djinn run.
But I've only messed around with the glitch; with more research we could find something more gamebreaking.
I was combing this board to see if anybody was working on a Pilotwings run and I was thrilled to see XIF. I'm another GameFAQs SSBM board alum -- there I'm known as MaskedSheik. Maybe there's something about Melee and Pilotwings...
I'd like to see this project run again. Maybe XIF will come back. If not, I would pick it up myself but I've never done a TAS and I think Pilotwings would be a hard first try (also I have a Mac and I don't know how compatibility works with my Snes9x, or whether I can even get the programs I need). Still I'd really like to see the things you could do with this game.
Incidentally, there's a trick to play the GP with the 2nd player (on the starting screen, hold L and R and press Start to go through the menus) and I imagine it would save a fair bit of time on the initial race of each cup because you start in the seventh position, not the eighth.
EDIT: actually it's probably better just to use two players anyways; even if the other player never races seriously, it's faster for him to Give Up during the winner's fanfare than to listen to the whole thing.
Hey guys, I've been playing Super Mario Kart a lot lately and came up with a few ideas for a fun tool-assisted demonstration:
- 2-player GP. In fact, there may well be tricks to allow 2-player GP to finish faster than 1-player, if we're looking for a pure speedrun; if not, then at least you have the interest of having two players.
- Perhaps see how much you can mess with the placement of the computers. You know how when the 2nd place computer gets knocked back, how he furiously rushes to get back to 2nd and the other computers oblige. That means that most of the time it's the same four people getting points each race. But with a TAS (especially with 2-player) we can harass the computers with so many items and so much bad luck that we could totally change the order.
- Along those lines, at the end of the GP we could go for some numerically interesting results. For instance, it's possible to have a seven-way tie at 12 points (with the last person at 11).
