Posts for Nitrodon

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Posted: 5/8/2007 5:17 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
Are you still working on this run? I'm interested in seeing it. Anyway, a few things I forgot to mention: First, hold L while choosing characters. It makes that window scroll faster. Second, the cheat to completely remove fog of war is 3202BCFD 0000. The same disclaimer that came with my other cheat (all units vision +15) still applies: use it for planning only, since the movie will desynch if you record with this cheat on. Third, I'll explain the bug I used to make multiple characters move to the same location in FE7. I've tested, and it works on all 3 GBA FE games. Basically, the path-drawing routine is one frame behind the cursor. If you press up on one frame and down+A on the next (whether holding B or not), the path will be drawn to the space above the cursor (assuming a path can be drawn there), but the game will check the cursor's location to see if you can move there. Since you can draw paths to locations where your characters are standing, this means you can make someone follow such a path. I also used this to subvert a few Lyn's mode restrictions, but that doesn't apply here. Obviously, this works in any direction, as long as the cursor reaches the square you make the game check on the same frame that you press A. If you have multiple characters on the same space, the character with the highest slot number is used whenever the game wants to know which character is in that space. (e.g., if that space gets attacked or you press A or L on that space) NPCs have higher slot numbers than PCs. If the game wants to know where a certain character is, it correctly identifies that space. This also means that pressing L repeatedly won't always reach everyone on the map under these conditions.
Posted: 5/3/2007 2:44 AM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
INTP: 72 12 1 33 You are: distinctively expressed introvert slightly expressed intuitive personality slightly expressed thinking personality moderately expressed perceiving personality
Posted: 4/17/2007 6:11 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
16 minutes is indeed possible. I made a mistake navigating through the room west of the ice room and thus hit a teleporter, so I'm surprised at my time.
Posted: 4/15/2007 4:26 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
I just finished listening to the commentary, and I enjoyed all of it. I apologize for not contacting you before you recorded the commentary, but I tend to be shy, and the game wouldn't let me use the "Overcoming Shyness" book on myself when I played it.
Posted: 4/3/2007 4:40 AM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
I sent you a PM about manipulating the RNG. In a run like this, the more RNG abuse you do, the better. A few other things I noticed: You press buttons far too late. Experiment to find the earliest time that pressing certain buttons has an effect. You may be surprised at the result. For example, when you move a character and tell him to wait in your current run, you lose 2 frames starting movement, 2 frames ending movement, 2 frames pressing up, and 3 frames pressing A, for a total of 9 frames. Nearly all cutscenes can be skipped before they appear, but some require that you press start in a 1-frame window. I usually turbo start twice while testing these (once for odd frames and once for even frames). If you're aiming strictly for lowest time, you may want to minimize the time spent trading before battle. Of course, since you need to buy a lot of javelins, you'll probably want to go to the pre-battle trade menu sometimes. I think there were some strategies which could be improved, both on a large scale and a small scale. Small things like unnecessarily killing an enemy with Franz in chapter 1 or missing in chapter 13 tend to bug me a bit.
Posted: 4/2/2007 6:08 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
The scene moves you to the window of the candy shop, so it saves time to activate it while moving south.
Posted: 3/30/2007 2:31 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
The "vision range" of Medusas and Don Medusas is about 3 pixels wide, so simply moving the opposite direction won't let you avoid them. There are a few possibilities which may look like what you're talking about: 1. You can move 2 pixels behind or ahead of a Don Medusa without getting killed, since that's barely out of its range. 2. If an enemy stepped into a square between you and a Medusa or Don Medusa by even one pixel (as in the end of 3-1), its vision is considered blocked. This seems to be because the enemy is considered to be at its destination square (0-7 pixels ahead of its location on the screen). 3. If you're overlapping with half of a Heart Framer in a direction perpendicular to a Don Medusa's vision, it won't attack you. (Medusas can't be in range under these conditions, so they won't attack either.) 4. If your top or left half overlaps with a Heart Framer, a Medusa or Don Medusa won't attack you. 5. I have no idea how 2-3 works. From my limited testing in level 2-5 of Lolo 3, the fact that the Don Medusa is moving in the opposite direction seems relevant, but I have no idea beyond that.
Posted: 3/17/2007 5:33 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
I've been lazy recently, so I've only beaten one more level. I'm probably going to post a WIP at the end of Smuggler's Cove.
Posted: 3/15/2007 5:55 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
#7 - Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (Chapter 1: Escape!) - from the graphics, Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken could work too, so I had to look at chapter maps to identify it. #12 - Mario 64 - score screen (check file)
Posted: 3/14/2007 7:09 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
Rridgway wrote:
You could do a 2 button sequence before the input is allowed and do it immediatly after first input.
Without any context, I have no idea what you mean by this. When is your statement applicable?
Posted: 3/3/2007 9:08 AM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
CrimsonPride wrote:
Does the Demon King's weapons come in the form of items? If they do, using the glitch..they're stealable. Although I'm not sure who can use them.
The Nightmare staff is usable by anyone (and gives them a staff level), and Demon Light and Ravager should be usable by Myrrh. Of course, this is all moot, since Fomortiis will never get a turn, and thus the glitch won't be activated.
Posted: 3/3/2007 6:58 AM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
hero of the day wrote:
He could not have killed lavos during the ocean palace since that would contradict his statements about doing the underground side quest at the end of the game.
If you're referring to helping Fiona restore the forest, that entire quest is available as soon as you tell the woman in Zeal to plant the seed in secret.
Posted: 3/2/2007 10:58 AM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
Spamming Moulder's staff level is only useful if you're strictly aiming for minimum turns. I don't think staff spamming has a chance of being worth it otherwise. Hence, he's not worth using. Syrene has 8 movement, and thus will certainly play some part in chapter 18. I don't know what you meant when you said you didn't know if you could recruit her, since she joins automatically at the end of chapter 17 if she survives. As for the triangle attack, it's useless unless you have a 0% critical rate against the target (such as Fomortiis). When possible, it's faster to just manipulate a critical hit. Also, you forgot to mention Saleh.
Posted: 3/1/2007 8:49 AM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
Fomortiis has 20 luck, so it's hard to get even a 1% critical rate against him. Since you won't be spending enough turns to gain supports, there are a few options available for a 1-battle kill: 1. Any WK with a killer lance (or other critical-increasing lance), 2 pierces, one of which is a critical. Requires 22 speed. 2. Tana or Vanessa WK with Vidofnir, pierce triangle attack. 3. Myrrh with Dragonstone, critical hit. (4. Lute with Excalibur, 2 criticals. Not going to happen, but included for completeness. Saleh will run into a magic cap, so he won't work.) Tana and Vanessa can promote with the Master Seal from chapter 15. Training one of them shouldn't be too hard with RNG abuse. As for Wretched Air, I'm not sure I see a point. Dragonstone deals more damage to every monster in the game (including Fomortiis), and the only human you'll want to kill after Wretched Air becomes available is Lyon. The 1-2 range is an advantage, but I don't see any use for it. Dragonstone had 20 uses left after killing Fomortiis in Molotov's run, so I doubt breaking the weapon would be an issue. Of course, this is assuming that you even use Myrrh in a TAS. While she is useful in a console run, you will have better RNG-abused units by the time you recruit her, and any role she has as a boss killer is easily replaced by manipulating Pierce. Her low movement means that she can't keep up with your units without the Swiftsole, which should probably be used on your wyvern knight instead. Also, watching the "level up" animation takes time, and Myrrh will do that a lot if you use her.
Posted: 2/28/2007 3:15 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
cheetah 7071 wrote:
14Eir: 9 turns 15Eir: 6 turns 16Eir: 8 turns
Actually, Molotov beat these chapters in 8, 5, and 6 turns respectively in his run.
CrimsonPride wrote:
I'm gonna see if I can dig up the old forum site on the infamous "Knoll Bug".
That was most likely a hoax. Even if it somehow turns out to be true, I don't think it would be useful. You have enough RNG-abused units at this point, and I don't see any places in chapters 15-21 where giving Knoll additional weapon types would be useful for speed purposes.
Posted: 2/28/2007 4:19 AM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
petrie911 wrote:
Molotov wrote:
petrie911 wrote:
Also, has anyone considered a TAS of FE6?
While Fuuin (Hard) would be interesting as well, shouldn't you have said Thracia SSS rank? ;) I'd personally love to see Seisen, but the best I could do a while ago was sub-8 (I think)...with heavy glitching. I'm getting off-topic though, so no need to mind me.
I'd like to see those, too. Although would the English translation patches be used, or would that not be allowed on the site?
Translation patches wouldn't be allowed on this site. It's not a big loss for Fire Emblem games, since a run would be fairly easy to follow even if you don't understand any of the text.
Posted: 2/28/2007 4:05 AM
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Nitrodon
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Posts: 341
I'll try to do a chapter-by-chapter analysis. Chapters 12 and 13 are switched for easier comparison. Chapter 9: Eirika gets a large rout chapter, but Ephraim gets Fort Rigwald. Eirika wins, unless the enemy control glitch can be abused. Chapter 10: Flyer abuse to kill the boss quickly. Ephraim probably wins, and he also gets Cormag and early Duessel. Chapter 11: Rout chapter with fog of war. Ephraim wins easily, since Eirika's chapter is large and filled with walls that flyers can't cross. Ephraim 12/Eirika 13: Charge to kill the boss. Eirika can win in 1 turn, so she wins easily. Ephraim 13/Eirika 12: Another rout chapter. Eirika gets a large chapter with baels on mountains and a couple distant monsters who refuse to move, while Ephraim gets a lot of rivers. Ephraim wins. Chapter 14: I'm not familiar with either chapter, but Molotov thinks Ephraim might win this one due to a more direct route. Chapter 15: Ephraim gets both armies available on turn 1, so he wins. Chapter 16: Eirika gets a better starting point, so she wins. Based on this, I am unable to easily determine which route is faster.
Posted: 2/24/2007 9:58 AM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
Another three levels beaten. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/4054/Lost%20Vikings%20II%2C%20The%20%28U%29.smv
Posted: 2/23/2007 10:36 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
Even if a run with those special abilities is accepted here, I would hope that it wouldn't obsolete one that doesn't use them. I'd certainly watch both runs, but I'd prefer one without the abilities first. Anyway, I beat a couple more levels. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/4047/Lost%20Vikings%20II%2C%20The%20%28U%29.smv
Posted: 2/23/2007 12:01 AM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
The best characters to use are prepromotes, units with high movement, and fliers. Seth will be your main fighter for the first part of the game. Flying units with manipulated stats are extremely powerful, so train at least one of them. He/she should be promoted to wyvern knight to abuse the Pierce skill. RNG manipulation is especially important in a TAS. The RNG state is stored at 03000000-03000005, and consists of the last 3 (16-bit) random numbers that were generated. The formula for the RNG is a simple bitwise XOR of those RNs shifted in a certain way. You can waste lots of RNs by drawing paths, and longer paths waste more RNs. Use this to manipulate stats, criticals, dodging, Pierce, and anything else you can think of. Finally, there are some runs you might want to check for reference: My TAS of Fire Emblem (Rekka no Ken): thread, full test run, latest WIP (chapter 10) - sort of abandoned, but I plan to continue it eventually cheetah7071's abandoned TAS of Sacred Stones: thread, latest WIP (chapter 13) Molotov's speedrun of Sacred Stones: http://speeddemosarchive.com/FireEmblemTSS.html
Posted: 2/22/2007 12:05 PM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
I'm aware of the effects of killing Erik in the first level, but I felt that would be considered a cheat code, so I didn't do it. There is no 3-player mode in this game. Otherwise I would have used it, even though 2 players is hard enough on my sanity at times.
Posted: 2/21/2007 11:50 PM
Post subject: Lost Vikings 2
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
I started trying this game a few days ago, partially to test myself and partially out of a desire for revenge against some of the more annoying puzzles. This is mostly a test run to get a feel for the game, so there are several places that could use much better optimization. This will not be the version I submit. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/4012/Lost%20Vikings%20II%2C%20The%20%28U%29.smv A few general notes: * On a few occasions, I trade all of the necessary items to Erik. This is because he will reach the end faster, and the level won't finish until the items finish spiraling. * I don't know the fastest way to swim, or the best way for Scorch to ascend. Memory watch could help with that, but the relevant addresses elude me. * I only recently learned how to switch the focus to the second player, and there are many places that that could save time.
Posted: 2/16/2007 10:16 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
I just checked, and Starman Jr. is immune to PK Beam γ. This means some leveling is required before the fight, considering that attacks deal 1 damage to him at level 2, and Ninten dies in one hit.
Posted: 2/16/2007 1:46 AM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
Technically there's also a battle at the entrance to Duncan's factory, but that fight is easy and not worth worrying about. As for the dragon, my thought is to just make Loid kill it with a super bomb. Anyway, how do you plan to kill red snakes quickly at such a low level?
Posted: 2/15/2007 2:41 AM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
I felt like seeing what I could do with this. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/3889/Earthbound%20Zero.fcm This movie was recorded on an unpatched ROM, and uses the names listed on starmen.net. This movie desynchs on the patched ROM before the game starts.
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