Posts for Nitrodon

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Posted: 8/27/2006 8:28 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
I found the (U) ROM without the intro hack, and the movie plays without desynch if the first 422 frames are removed. (The hacked intro uses the start button once, and the game accepts the start button on frame 52.)
Posted: 8/27/2006 4:38 PM
(Edited: 8/27/2006 5:03 PM)
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
I don't know what you meant when you said the artillery is on the rocket's way. The rockets and artillery can both fire from where they are at the beginning of day 7 to finish the mission easily. The lower infantry is unnecessary, since you have plenty of funds to buy rockets. Lash Out can be done in 4 days by letting your cruiser and sub reach 1HP and sacrificing your lander and T-copter to get the needed stars for Victory March. I suppose a Double Time on day 3 would also be a 4-day win. Which one is faster would depend on whether Lash can be manipulated to not have enough stars for Prime Tactics on day 3. The next mission is probably Flak Attack instead of Lash Out, since Test of Time is required to reach Liberation. With enough luck manipulation, it should be possible to leave only a lone enemy infantry at the end of day 2, for a quick 3-day victory by rout. EDIT: You're right, Orange Dawn is Max's first mission, and Sami's second mission is Lash Out. What's your strategy for Orange Dawn?
Posted: 8/26/2006 10:59 PM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
The RNG is at 03001fd4-03001fd7. It seems to advance 3 times each frame whenever you can press A to select a target for an attack (and at no other convenient times from what I see). You can also advance the RNG by drawing paths as in my Fire Emblem run. I don't see what needs manipulating in Andy's Time, but perhaps your strategy is better than mine for a TAS. My strategy involves blocking the enemy base on day 4 after building two recons.
Posted: 8/25/2006 4:12 PM
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Nitrodon
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Posts: 341
Here's a short run of the beginning I put together with that improvement and a few more. I used the same intro hack ROM since I haven't found a good (U) ROM yet. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1739/Advance%20Wars%202%20-%20Black%20Hole%20Rising%20%28U%29%20%28Intro%20Hack%29%20%28Mode7%29%20%5B1060%5D.vbm I've beaten the game several times, so I'm sure I could help with this run.
Posted: 8/16/2006 10:11 PM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
cheetah 7071 wrote:
Why can't this run be submitted? It seems fine to me. I haven't noticed any mistakes.
First, I didn't cancel enemy attack cursors until the end of chapter 12, and I didn't use B to move until chapter 14. These alone cost me a few minutes overall. Second, some of my strategies were suboptimal. For instance, I should have manipulated more critical hits early, and I should have blocked the spawn points in chapter 4. My strategy got better later in the game, but there were some things I tested (e.g., recruiting Jaffar) which cost time and didn't compensate by saving any time later.
Posted: 8/16/2006 7:08 AM
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Nitrodon
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Posts: 341
I can't plow through those enemies? I beg to differ. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1627/FE7.vbm Total movie length: 1h48m46s29f. Displayed time at final save: 1:48:40. I welcome any suggestions for my improved (and hopefully submittable) run.
Posted: 8/15/2006 12:51 PM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
I didn't think chapter 28 was long enough to deserve its own update, so here's chapter 29. Lack of foresight in choosing weapons caused the rout in chapter 29 to take 3 turns instead of 2. Annoyingly, there is an unskippable (without SRAM) 8.5-minute scene between chapters 28 and 29. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1620/FE7.vbm
Posted: 8/14/2006 10:59 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
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Posts: 341
The question is wrong. If the ladders hit the walls at the points specified, then the distance from the intersection to the ground is easy to calculate, and it is not 10 metres. Besides, the data given has absolutely no information about the horizontal scale. I think the correct statement of the problem specifies that the ladders have lengths 30 and 40 metres respectively, which would make the problem solvable.
Posted: 8/9/2006 4:31 AM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
Chapter 27 completed. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1563/FE7.vbm The only hard part remaining is Light part 1.
Posted: 7/28/2006 1:42 AM
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Nitrodon
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Posts: 341
The bug was caused by having more than 22 sprites in memory, not including party members (who get their own sprite numbers outside the usual numbering). This causes the game to lose track of the memory allocated to a sprite, and thus that memory is never freed. This occured in the old Lost Underworld segment, since sprites are not cleared from memory during a teleport. This memory was still marked as used when the game tried to load the Runaway Five bus much later, so the game froze with an "out of memory" error (0xFF02). This was discovered by tracing the instructions leading to the point where the game froze, and investigating the memory range that was read before the error code was returned.
Posted: 7/27/2006 5:43 AM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
cheetah: There are two "seize throne" chapters left, sort of. Chapter 28 (technically not a seize throne chapter) has enemies which will probably get in the way, and chapter 30 is large enough that I will have Florina carry Eliwood to the throne. Molotov: I couldn't know my strategy was going to be so slow until I tried it. I'll improve it in the real run. I can't see many places where Jaffar would benefit from extra movement though. My tentative plan is to give Florina the boots, but this isn't set in stone yet. I'll do CoD and the rest of the game after I make a final decision on this as well as whether to get the Warp staff. I'd guess that the extra movement as well as not entering the region labeled B may be worth it in VoD, but B is avoidable even without Warp. (Warping doesn't trigger those regions.)
Posted: 7/26/2006 6:49 AM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
After a long hiatus, I have resumed work on this run. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1435/FE7.vbm I managed to kill Ursula in 4 turns, thus stopping any more reinforcements from joining the battle, as well as getting rid of the "enemy phase" message when I routed in turn 5. I also recruited Jaffar to see if his Silencer skill is worth the time taken. The second turn would have been the most difficult to manipulate, except that I somehow got the desired result with no manipulation whatsoever. Next is CoD, and still more strategic choices. Any advice on whom I should give the boots to would be appreciated, as well as any advice on CoD or any other chapter.
Posted: 6/29/2006 1:57 PM
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Nitrodon
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Posts: 341
I made it not desynch by simply making Eirika enter the item menu 4 times on her first turn that chapter. The formation you encountered the first time is the less common of those two, which may be why you didn't think that RNG affected it. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1308/FE8Speed.vbm
Posted: 6/28/2006 11:13 PM
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Nitrodon
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Posts: 341
There is a second RNG in the game, which until this post I assumed only affected the items in the desert and various graphical effects. That RNG (at 03000008-0300000b) is advanced when you do your shopping, causing a desynch when the game chooses a formation. The only way to advance that RNG before Ephraim shows up is to go into the item menu during your turn. I tested, and doing this 4 times will make Ephraim's troops arrive in the desired formation.
Posted: 6/18/2006 9:25 AM
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Nitrodon
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Posts: 341
RNG abusing with a character you don't intend to move isn't sloppy per se; it is quite useful when the last character to move needs to attack. In this instance, however, RNG abusing with Vanessa (the last character to move that turn) would have been better. The only idea I have for finishing the chapter in fewer turns is to let Seth carry a cavalier at the beginning. This will allow you to kill the door guard before Seth arrives, gaining one space. If you manage to maximize Seth's move for the rest of the turns, this should provoke the archer to attack Seth and be killed, thus saving another turn. As for fog of war, I don't have a code to eliminate it, but I have the next best thing. Note that anything affecting fog of war will cause timing desynchs, but this will not affect the RNG in any way. All units get vision +15 (side effects: status always normal, pure water ineffective) 4202BE7C 0F00 00000089 0048
Posted: 6/17/2006 5:10 PM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
It's probably too late to put this into the current run, but I found a shortcut in Sky Garden. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1262/ Played in realtime after clearing out the enemies and getting the crystal ball.
Posted: 6/11/2006 6:13 PM
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Nitrodon
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Posts: 341
The Rhodox rage uses Snare. Vanish + Snare (like Vanish/Doom, Vanish/X-Zone, Vanish/SabreSoul, etc.) can instantly kill any enemy without Clear immunity.
Posted: 5/31/2006 2:41 AM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
Did you let the game load (at least until the Nintendo64 logo appeared) before playing the movie?
Posted: 5/31/2006 12:52 AM
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Nitrodon
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Posts: 341
It would be useful to get better stats on each levelup, at least for the characters you plan to use. HP: Don't bother manipulating this, as you get enough naturally. Str/Mag: Get this every level. It helps defeat enemies in fewer turns. Skl: Get this when it's not too much trouble. It makes it easier to manipulate critical hits. Spd: Get this every level. It helps you double enemies, defeating them that much more quickly. Def: More useful than it sounds. Helps you survive crowds of enemies. Don't worry about this too much, but take it when it's convenient. Res: Mostly useless in a FE7 TAS. I'd guess the same is true in FE8. Luck: I don't find this very useful, but it does help slightly. Of course, if you're manipulating some crazy sequence of dodges and criticals, that takes precedence over manipulating the levelup in the same turn.
Posted: 5/30/2006 6:04 AM
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Nitrodon
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That's just the simplest way to force the game to choose a path, not the fastest. The fastest way is to move the cursor to the end of the unit's movement range and move diagonally between two spaces. On a flying unit or cavalier with nothing blocking it, this gives an average of 4.8 RNs per frame.
Posted: 5/30/2006 4:27 AM
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Nitrodon
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Posts: 341
It does not take 15 frames to advance the RNG by one. In the worst case scenario, it takes 2 frames. Select the character, then press up-left and down-right (or up-right, down-left) in alternate frames. If you use the memory viewer, keep an eye on 03000000-03000005 to see the RNG advance. Also, the cursor moves faster if you hold B, and the enemy attack cursors (for lack of a better term) can be cancelled with A. L should be used on the map and in battle. For more advice, I direct you to my partial test run of the other US-released GBA Fire Emblem game. The run may be found here, and the relevant thread is here.
Posted: 5/29/2006 1:48 PM
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Nitrodon
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (283)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
Nifflas moved all of the times which involve skipping balls to the Glitchrun category, or at least the ones he knew about. This includes some runs that only skipped 4, not requiring any glitching.
Posted: 5/29/2006 12:26 AM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
For an outside corner, I generally line up my fall just outside the corner, then press toward the corner shortly before I hit it. I've never intentionally done the glitch on an inside corner, but I imagine a similar method would apply. My method appears to give me some amount of consistency, as I broke the glass ball fewer than 20 times in my run.
Posted: 5/28/2006 11:46 PM
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Nitrodon
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Posts: 341
My 32:18.22 was sloppy throughout (except the Shadowlands) and was mainly to show that the skip was viable in a speedrun. I did a version that wasn't as sloppy and got a time of 21:29.52, 45 seconds behind Nifflas.
Posted: 5/21/2006 2:52 PM
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Nitrodon
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Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
The patterns Callmewoof noticed are due to how the game randomly selects targets. It generates a random number, uses the bottom 3 bits to decide a target, and repeats until the target chosen is valid. In this way, starting the random number sequence at different points may end up with the same random seed after choosing targets. As for patterns in the PRNG itself, I only generated 1000 numbers and didn't see any.
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