Posts for Samsara

1 2
85 86 87
106 107
Posted: 1/17/2015 11:09 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Anty-Lemon wrote:
You couldn't call it a new game+ or something?
Yeah, about that... It's basically no different than just loading a premade save file at the final boss, beating the game from there, and calling it an NG+ run.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/17/2015 11:03 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
EEssentia wrote:
But that definition, we wouldn't collect any beam in super metroid because we lose them all at the end, yet we collect them anyway.
That would be a decent point if it wasn't so blatantly faulty and based off of comparing two different games. OoT doesn't have a 100% counter. Super Metroid does. Collecting beams counts towards Super Metroid's 100% counter. Therefore, they must be collected. With OoT, we have some freedom in limiting the amount of arbitrary stuff we need to collect because it doesn't count toward the non-existent 100% counter. The definition is defined by the community who actually speedruns the game, not by a bunch of unrelated jackasses on an only slightly related forum who think they know better than people who have studied the game inside and out. If the eventual TAS doesn't follow ZSR's definition of 100%, there better be a good reason for it.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/17/2015 8:55 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Thanks for the support! It's nice to know people are interested in my insane planning posts, though I've sort of put all that on hold in order to focus on DTC5. I'd also like to fact check my planning before continuing by actually playing through the game again, since every planning post I've made barring the Alen-Tax battle has been completely off the top of my head. Once February rolls around, I can start playing through the game on Bizhawk and posting massive walls of text again. As for the Cave of Trials, I was considering a sort of "100%" run of the game where I accomplish the most content possible in a single playthrough, though it would only be as a personal project and not something I'd submit to the site due to how arbitrary the goal is. I'll give the Cave of Trials a shot for fun, though, as I'd love to see it done when severely underlevelled... That being said, I'd like to see it done with the best setup as well (level 255, best possible equipment) just to see how fast it can be blazed through. I might do both in the far future, who knows?
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/17/2015 8:14 AM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
I don't consider any definition of 100% to be what you collect, I consider it to be what you keep. There's no reason to go out of your way to collect items that you won't be keeping until the end of the game.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/17/2015 4:35 AM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
It's a nice way to bring people into the community, since TASing is still pretty niche, and I've been using it as a way to watch and vote on runs I wouldn't have otherwise watched on my own. Something like this coupled with the recent exposure at AGDQ could do a lot of good for the site and the hobby in general.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/17/2015 3:59 AM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
TASAttack is apparently mass following/un-following people on Twitch to gain viewers. Quite a few people in the chat are reporting it for spam, so it might be taken down pretty soon. I'm all for advertising the channel, but doing it in that way is awful and shady so I'm fine with this. If the channel remains up, we could probably start an actual thread for discussing it.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/16/2015 7:06 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
electricslide wrote:
What 'shortcuts?'
How about every time damage was needed to boost up onto a platform or an enemy that was higher than Pikachu's normal jump height, allowing Pikachu to reach a higher platform? Did you even watch the movie?
All I saw is Pikachu jumping, hitting enemies, taking damage. In a relatively slow and simple game. I'd much rather see a slower game without taking damage (which looks sloppy), since the game is already pretty dull.
The game would be far more dull without taking damage, it'd just be a lot more running and jumping onto platforms that don't need to be used at all to get to the level exits. Plus, it would make the run sub-optimal to remove the damage boosting, meaning this would be instantly rejected when compared to the RTA WR.
I'm willing to wager there's more optimal strategies with tighter work.
Not really. I'll admit I did some testing on the first level when the submission first popped up and this is really tight work already, given how awful the physics are in this game. Not all the damage was necessary, but it doesn't hurt the movie any in my opinion, especially after trying the game myself. It's actually pretty hard to avoid taking damage when setting up for certain tricks. The jumping in this game is absolutely atrocious and a pain in the ass to attempt to control, especially under a TAS setting, meaning there are points where you just can't jump over an enemy and still be in the proper position to set up for a shortcut without wasting a few seconds.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/15/2015 8:30 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Nope. Hourglass is our only tool, given how intensely complicated the act of TASing a PC game is. There's a new Hourglass in the works, but only one person is working on it at the moment so unless more people join the project, progress will be slow.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/15/2015 1:34 AM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
I voted for Spyro and Magician Lord. Magician Lord came out of absolutely nowhere and stunned me with just how much it managed to pack in such a short time, while Spyro was just amazingly solid and entertaining all throughout its long run time, which is something that you hardly ever get in TASes of that length. TAS of the year, to me, means showing off something new, something unexpected, something the community has never seen before. The other runs, while all amazing in their own right, didn't really give me the same sense of excitement that I felt while watching these two runs. It was either optimizing things I'd seen before or different applications of things I'd seen before. These two runs, however, actually kept me excited and entertained all throughout since so much was new to me.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/14/2015 6:30 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
One of the best tips I can honestly give is this: After you complete a practice run, watch it multiple times looking for improvements, since you're bound to find quite a few, and write them down somewhere (Notepad or a spreadsheet) with the frame time and as detailed of an explanation as you can give yourself on how that section can be improved. Once you feel as though you've gotten a fair number of improvements, start the next run... And once you finish that run, look for improvements again. Doing this helps in quite a few ways: With each run you do, you become more familiar with the emulator and the TASing process as a whole, so your future runs will become more efficient as you learn your way around the tools as well as becoming more optimized since you'll know more about what you're doing. Alongside becoming more familiar with the emulator, you become more familiar with the game itself, and you have more of a chance of finding new speed tricks or glitches that can shave even more time off of future runs. The other best tip I can give is just echoing what I previously wrote: Post WIPs to your userfiles and get advice from the community by posting in the game's thread (look for a previous one before you start a new one). Different people will catch different improvements: You'll find some on your own, someone else may find some small frame optimizations, someone else may find a brand new glitch that shaves off a good 10 seconds over the course of the run... Even people who don't know the game all that well can help just by asking questions and getting you to think about things you may not have considered otherwise. As long as you have the patience to stick around in the community, you'll get better in no time.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/14/2015 4:20 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Well, there it is. We've reached the logical conclusion of Castlevania glitching, where unexpected things happen as a result of literally just standing around doing nothing for a full minute. All these finds are awesome, by the way. The next generation of HoD TASes is going to be insane.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/13/2015 8:00 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Hey, welcome to the forums. Hope you stick around for a while! I suggest checking to see whether or not the game runs in Bizhawk, as that's the recommended N64 emulator for the site. If it works, then by all means go ahead and start a run! If there isn't already a thread in the N64 Games forum, then start a thread and post your progress frequently to get feedback from the rest of the community. There's a place for every game on the site, even ones that might not be considered entertaining by everyone. What we look for is technical quality more than anything, so if you put a lot of work into optimizing a run then it'll definitely be published.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/13/2015 7:08 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
For anyone else having problems with the Twitch stream: http://www.tasattack.com/ should always work, since this site is what's being streamed on Twitch (the current issue is just a tab popping up unexpectedly on the streamer's browser with the streamer not being around to fix it, apparently).
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/13/2015 4:23 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
arkiandruski wrote:
You know what might be cool for that TASAttack channel is if we could have people dedicated to answering questions on the chat. The "why"s and "how"s basically. For example, maybe PM the author a few days out to say "hey, your run will be shown at this time", or maybe someone who's knowledgable about the game, or TASing in general. I think with that and a little advertising, the channel to be a great community reach out tool. To clarify, author will be answering questions by typing in chat. They don't have to talk on stream.
Unfortunately, that wouldn't work, since the run selection is completely random. I've seen at least one run come up twice within 5 votes, for example. The best way to accomplish this idea would just be to have people hanging out in the stream in their free time, answering any questions that may come up. I'll be doing that myself whenever I can. I do agree that this could be a great community reach-out, though. There were people in the chat asking if it's an official TASVideos channel, so maybe we could contact the person who runs the stream and actually sort of "officially" endorse it.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/12/2015 10:32 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
There's a link to TASVideos in the Twitch infobox, though I agree there could be a lot more exposure on the page and website.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/12/2015 8:24 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
dwangoAC pretty much said everything I wanted to say, though I do have another piece of advice to add on to it: The marathon needs to be something other than just livestreaming TAS after TAS, as that doesn't really give any incentive to watch. You need to plan something unique, add something that people would only get during this marathon and can't get anywhere else. Even something as simple as asking the TASer to give commentary on the run via Skype would give viewers a reason to tune in... But I'd recommend something a little more unique. Here's an idea I just came up with: You have people sign up to the marathon (removing the permission issue), and you give them a set period of time to TAS games that have yet to be TASed. Maybe a week or a month or so? Once this time period is up, you collect their runs and livestream them all in a row. It needs more fleshing out, of course, but I think it could be interesting if it's well-executed. If enough people sign up and finish their runs, it provides you with a wealth of material for the marathon, and all of that material is brand new, which is a solid reason to watch as even if you're heavily invested in the TASvideos community, you're guaranteed to see something you've never seen before. We're not being pessimistic, we're just being realistic. You need to put a lot of effort into planning something like this, and you may even need a team of people to help put it together and perfect it. It's not something you can just decide to do one day: You have to think about every aspect, even the stuff that isn't immediately obvious. If you want an optimistic comment, I truly believe that a TAS marathon could work, but as I said before: It needs to be well-executed and thoroughly planned out, it needs to bring something new to the table, and it needs a dedicated team behind it to ensure that it goes off without a hitch.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/12/2015 7:34 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Something about using other peoples' work without permission to raise money for "charity" strikes me as just a little bit off. What charity is this for? How do you expect to handle donations, assuming anyone actually donates? What are the incentives for donation? Are you actually going to get permission from any of the runners whose work you're stealing using?
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/12/2015 3:15 AM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
electricslide wrote:
Blah. Watched it, not impressed at all. Put it on hard and avoid damage.
That would make the movie much longer and much less entertaining, since it looks like damage boosts are needed to pull off a lot of the shortcuts.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/11/2015 2:33 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Killing an enemy in a pacifist run should either be because it's absolutely necessary to continue (i.e, bosses) or because it'll help you avoid killing more enemies later (i.e, manipulating a health drop to damage boost through more enemies). If arrows help you avoid the enemy, then don't ban arrows. It's far more arbitrary to ban the usage of an item than it would be to use that item only in certain locations, especially since it seems like the item actually helps you accomplish your goal. To play off Archanfel's last post, this is like making a "100%" Super Metroid run where you miss items because you banned wall-jumping and shinesparks.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/11/2015 2:07 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
^^^Yessss, new logo/team name is canon.
ALAKTORN wrote:
Can I mention that the time frame for this DTC was a terrible, terrible idea? What with AGDQ and all the other stuff going on this month.
Speaking as a participant in the contest, I haven't seen the time frame as an issue. Watching AGDQ live was a choice that people consciously made, so they don't really have a right to complain about the timing of the event, especially with VODs being available to watch literally any time they want. The only people who can use AGDQ as an excuse are the people who actually participated in it, so if anyone has the right to say DTC5 has terrible timing, it's them. Actually, I can't really think of any unsuitable time frame for a DTC as long as it's a decent length. I even feel like there could be multiple contests a year as long as someone's willing to run them: Something like 2 months per contest, then a 1-2 month break in between each one? That may be a bit optimistic, though.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/10/2015 7:11 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
It's a great BIOS screen, I wouldn't want it to be skipped either. Even if the option is going to be added, I doubt it's a high priority or even a priority at all since it really makes no difference whether or not it's there.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/10/2015 7:07 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Well, you mentioned that you didn't know how interesting people thought Q*bert was, so I was just pointing out that the run we have on the site was pretty well-received, so this one shouldn't be any different, especially if it's more complex than the NES version.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/10/2015 3:19 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Is the outcome changing at all, or are you getting the same result every time? If it's changing, then it's just a matter of patience to figure it out. If it hasn't changed at all, then you might have to go back further and look for other ways to manipulate the RNG. I'm not sure about the black screen thing. Perhaps it'd be better to wait until Bizhawk 2.0, which should be out relatively soon with a much better PSX core than psxjin.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/10/2015 3:12 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Snes9x is alright, though it's considered deprecated by the site now, thanks to Bizhawk's SNES core being far more accurate. I'd suggest finishing up this first run on Snes9x, then doing a more optimized run on Bizhawk using everything you learned from the first run. There's a place for Q*Bert on the site, so don't worry about the game choice.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Posted: 1/10/2015 3:06 PM
Quote
Samsara
She/They
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2120)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Northern California
Homebrew TAS of 2023 Exotic platforms TAS of 2020 Sega TAS of 2016
Link to video Super quick encode. I trimmed out the long intro sequence to get right to the action. This is looking awesome so far!
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 | Cohost
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
1 2
85 86 87
106 107