Ooo, really excited to follow this.
For your key question, they do spawn in acts as soon as the Chao are all collected. No need to replay acts. So of course map Chao should be grabbed before entering the 3rd Act you do of a Zone.
I'm assuming from that question you are not aware of the SDA run by mike89 here. (or on his YouTube.) Even if you don't watch the video, I'd check his notes as I do recall it has some info on how the keys seem to spawn.
As for your issues with the VBA and the reset, some versions of the emulator just don't support resets in the movie recording. When I have a sec I'll try and find you one that did. I forget if it was a standard feature in the later builds or not.
Edit; Looking at my files back at home, I've always had the 1.7.2. re recording v19.2 version for messing around with his run. But after a quick test knowing that, the first download under 'old downloads' at the emu resources on here, http://tasvideos.org/EmulatorResources/VBA.html , the 1.7.2 v19.4.zip, got past R99 boss to the character select and back to Sunset hill. I'm sure there is a better option, but till someone more knowledgeable gets back to you should be good to go with with that.
Neat fight. Does the relatively tiny amounts of chip damage Quina hits for during the fight actually contribute anything in the end? And I know his/her attack damage is all but randomised between next to nothing and the max, but even so that was a lot lower than I was expecting, especially as he/she is the highest level of the party by along shot, outside of maybe Freya. Guess it goes to show how unimportant levels can be in this game.
And for a couple of unrelated observations; these videos have made me notice how ridiculous Stiener looks with the overly flashy ExII whilst in his rusty Armour.
And I like how the early game boss killer Limit Glove, which is usually completely outclassed by this point in the game, gets a visual representation of this by its sphere being fully obscured by the bigger badder sphere that is Ozma.... yet it still finishes it off anyway.
Also, yeah, it was me asking what Blue magic would get used, I do enjoy strats where characters get to show of more of their repertoires rather than falling back on the same strats over and over; so this was a treat for me too.
Ah, bummer about having to redo, but I guess you'll be used to it by now! And the Ozma fight has to be more fun than those damn cards.
Quina expecting to replace Amarant or Freya in the re-fight? I guess either could potentially effect the exp routing as I assume Quina still has all s/he needs to level optimally. Though I forget what amounts of exp you need for level99, so the amounts that Ozma gives could just be a drop in the ocean as far as I know.
Not that its based off any real knowledge of the game or not, but surprised that you get to Ozma so soon. Looking forward to see how you fit everything else together.
Here's the final TAS of Knuckles in Sonic Advance 2:
I originally wanted to submit the movie, but in a cruel twist of fate the vbm file mysteriously disappeared after I recorded and uploaded to youtube.
All I have left now is an incomplete movie file up till XX Zone's Aero Egg, and honestly I can't find any motivation to redo the final parts.
Hope you enjoy the TAS.
Great run.
Shame about it not being able to be submitted. I hope after a break you do regain some motivation to finish it off again. Or failing that, at least posting what you do have so someone can maybe finish your work for a co authorship. Seems a bit of a waste considering how close a good run is to submission.
Regardless I did enjoy it very much.
Kiske wrote:
Oh wow. I thought you were just going for the A rank Cards for the collectors rank. I didn't realise you were maxing your card stats too! You are crazy!
Fantastic news about the lua froggy0025 managed to sort you out with though. Be interesting to hear how much faster it makes getting the Memoria cards this go through compared to last time.
Not much to add regarding the wip other than it was enjoyable, outside the necessary evil of the back and forth from Lindblum course.
Feared that might be the case about the cards. Hope they treat you better this time around.
Great news about being able to get the Nero family side quest all but wrapped up in time. Not to mention having only 30 seconds on the clock is alot more exciting than plus 11 minutes.
Would be nice to see all the guaranteed 9999 attacks do just that at some point during the run, but I assume they will come up outside of Hades.
Outside of that I'm kinda indifferent, as both options have their merits. If I had to pick I guess I'd go with early Hades. The EasterEgg Lapogne mentions would be the main reason I go otherwise, but I think the shock factor of being able to squeeze in Hades before ExII too would be more entertaining/shocking to most viewers. (Considering a few of the YT comments question if he could even get the sword at all after the disc 3 stats... and thats without being aware of the Lindblum stuff.) Also would be nice to see the Dragoon jump more than once.
But yeah, not a big deal to me either way. Looking at the frame difference like you say may make one appeal more.
Fantastic to hear the 150 project is underway. I'm looking forward to following its progress. Best of luck to Sharkey91, and everyone else involved in the run.
Ha; I was wondering if anything else could be squeezed in before ExII considering how much time you had to spare. Great to hear those small optimizations you have found along the way have come together and rewarded you with an extra (extremely cool) timesave.
Hope these improvements wont effect the work already put into the card games too much.
Looking forward to seeing the WIP of course.
Great news, happy to see things moving forward for you. In to uncharted waters for real in regards to routing now too, though not like you were following the guide word for word before.
Lil_Gecko wrote:
If anybody with assembly knowledge could take a look at Tetra Master and see how a card upgrade from M or P to X and then from X to A, it would make my life so much simpler, and progress would go way faster.
I really don't wanna spend another 40 hours in Tetra Master.
Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help.
I wouldn't know where to begin, sorry, but really wish you the best for this to happen before your next card games. Does sound frustrating.
It's good that FF9s other type of card game has no Arrows or stats to grind.
Finally got the time to watch the latest segment. Great stuff as ever, don't really have many things to ask as your commentary covered most things.
The only question I would have is regarding the Whale Zombie Quina ate; is it standard for undead enemies to be dropped to 0hp and not be removed from battle after using a Phoenix-down on them? I had assumed it would just be an instant KO.
Just as a personal observation; I was aware of the early Quina levels, but in retrospect had no idea why you did them. Amusing that the second Holy Mitre is picked up immediately after the event you would need it for... in a room you had already have been in but couldn't pick it up just to said event!
Chocobo stuff seemed to fly by. Shame that you couldn't keep the within 5 seconds bonus in the Air Garden, even with tools, but not a dam thing you could do about it. (Remind me are you intending to get a star in the Chocobo Hot and Cold menu by maxing out the points?) How many dug up chocographs were 'needed' to be dug up on this disc? I lost track of some of the digs, just thought they were alot of them and you just picked them up in the area. Hard to remember your run doesn't stop past being a speed run after 11.59.59 goes by.
Had to smile at the very last thing you did before heading to Terra was pass directly over the Lifa Tree.
Best of Luck on Disk 4!
Already sounds fun; unless I'm missing something obvious, playing cards in Treno before Malaris sounds like interesting routing, even with the back and forth from Lindblum.
As for whats left lapogne, also Frogs and Quale, Thievery grind afik, Stelazio, Beach world tour and after maxed Dragons Crest I'm guessing Yan killing? Oh, and the Garnet/Dagger/Sarah thing too I assume?
Speaking of which, I sorta made a miscellaneous category called All Stages (approved on speedrun.com by werster/zeupar) - http://pastebin.com/cNGHh3uk
tl;dr starting with a completed file, beat every stage & boss in time trial mode (main game for altar emerald & nonaggression). IGT would be used. This would encourage more team diversity and not make swapping teams a factor in team selection. Granted, the current TAS sorta does this, but not all characters are unlocked at the start, so someone could try TASing this if they want to.
Though the TAS would probably end up using T+S for half the stages anyways...
Yeah, I'm aware of your All stages runs; enjoyed the few IL practice streams I saw you do. Nice to see the variation the game has to offer on display.
I don't think such a run would be accepted here though, as looking at wersters and your playlists, even with out the possibility of T+S still coming out on top when tools are involved, it would be far too similar to the current any%. Personally I'd still love to see all the levels TAS'd with their optimal teams of course; maybe such a thing could qualify for the vault? At the very least I'm glad some ILs are being posted here for reference.
Speaking of which I should probably also have posted the vbm link the author of that OB2 run gave. I'll edit it into my last post too.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1125205877/qwerty-sonicadvance3-oceanbase2-k%2Ba.vbm
One possible use of your, essentially NG+ run idea I believe could work is adding it on to the (hopefully) eventual good ending run. Works for the reasons you mention, and completely removes my concern from above, instead maximising the potential in variance from the Any%. (A minor point, but it would also remove having to do Alter Emerald twice, as IIRC Non Aggression doesn't trigger first time regardless of your emeralds.)
Just would need a verification file unlocking the full cast and beat the 'last' boss with out picking up any Chao on the way. (Sadly the current any% grabs a Chao somewhere, so that can't be used in full for it, but I guess a few zones are already done for grinding it out.)
Not exactly a practical thing to do for non assisted runners course. Still, hope you make that OB2 work for you kirby.
Jeez, tell me the plumber redeems himself later on in the run; that was an embarrassing display from Mario.
Looking good. I'm not too familiar with the run but I assume you skipped 'mandatory' fights there?
Indeed. Frogs are caught as soon as possible. I finished my test run of Disc 3 with 45 frogs. So at the start of Disc 4 I can caught 6*4 for a total of 69. Then after Excalibur II I can take all the frogs from every marsh so 8*4 for 101 frogs.
Nice, sounds like the timings and your route come together very neatly.
Lil_Gecko wrote:
Well I found a big improvment (more than a minute) around the 8 hours mark. I could ignore it and continue but the perfectionnist in me doesn't like that. So I'm gonna take my run as a testrun and redo it. Some other things I didn't like so it's a good opportunity to change them.
A shame, but I can understand the feeling to get it done right first time if you have the motivation for a redo. What was the big error you found?
A small question regarding the route; do you need to go into the Tantulus hideout on disc2 for its treasure chests considering you have to go back during the Nero family nonsense during Memoria?
Do you mind posting the input file for your now 'testrun' so we can see how disc 3 went?
Best of luck on version 2!
Enlightening as ever Gecko.
Was surprised your Gargan Roo odds of encounter were as low as they were with my memories of the place, despite its tiny size.
I get it with the woods on the way to the Black Mage Village, but any idea why in Fossil Roo the odds of encounter don't reset between those three screens? I assume it had something to do with Armodullahan chasing you through those screens?
Didn't realise Beatrix was so close to not nailing the 1HKO against those two Bandersnatches in that first fight you have with her.
Your trip to the second Qu marsh, and leaving with only 12 frogs total so far in to the run makes me wonder about the Frog route. Grabbing the Blue Narciss/Airship going to quickly lead to a marshes world tour so they get repopulated (twice?) soon enough after doing everything else?
Shame that 'cards out of nowhere' inbetween all the Gargant ridding didn't survive in this version, as I thought that was neat, but at least disk 3 and Zidane in Treno isn't far off to make up for that. How is the redo of the new disc going?
Can't check right now, but from the top of my head, disc 3 end between 10h35 and 10h40.
The commentaries for disc 2 are done since a long long time ago, but I never got to encode it. But since you guys are my number one followers, I'll stop disc 3 for now and make that encode :)
Ah nice, still way under par time for the combined route then, even with your extras.
Much appreciated; looking forward to seeing it.
Old man Morrid would be proud!
Best of luck with end/post game optimisation then.Encode should be done in a week or two.