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Fortranm wrote:
Again, while games have different "ending points " for timing in RTA, in most of those cases the definitive ending screen can be reached in a trivial manner after the such points, but here it is stuck in a state before the final required inputs can even be made.
Does skipping a few dialog boxes not count as "in a trivial manner"? It can be done optimally with only 2 button presses, you can hardly call that important gameplay (or even gameplay at all)
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Fortranm wrote:
If you do make a visit to the zone in question, how similar or different would the section of the movie be compared to the section in that zone from runs of other categories, be it low%, no major skip, or completionist? If the section would be identical to the counterpart in any of those, then it can be a good reason to not do so in this movie just so that each category is more different from each other, and vice versa.
Rocket platform is extremely linear and straightforward with no collectibles, the only major difference between runs would be whether or not the category allows the skip for the boss at the end of it. The second section to get through, midway, is essentially a very long glorified cutscene. All there is to do there is run in a straight line right, then back left as an npc talks to you.
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feos wrote:
With this game however, it only takes a few minutes to make the credits properly run, so I don't think the RTA consensus is automatically a good reason to not reach the credits in a TAS.
As far as I'm concerned, the entire point in making this TAS is for it to be comparable to the RTA runs of the same category. So it wouldn't make sense to me to purposefully choose a slower route, regardless of whatever decision is made here. Additionally on the "only a few minutes" comment: in low%, which is unable to do the skip in question here, the RTA record loses 4 minutes making the detour to open impact zone. This would be slightly less in a TAS scenario, but it's still hard to argue that isn't a very significant change for such a short run.
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Radiant wrote:
Fortranm wrote:
I think one easy way to resolve this is to consider whether the game unlocks anything after completion, the same criterion used for many other cases like this.
That's a good point actually. According to its wiki, the game unlocks New Game+ and Challenge Mode and Boss Rush upon first completion.
I just checked to be sure, these are not unlocked by this ending
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Fortranm wrote:
the game will fail to reach the credits after completion.
What happens instead, out of curiosity?
After the fade to black, the game puts you back into a gameplay state but remains fully blacked out.
Fortranm wrote:
I think one easy way to resolve this is to consider whether the game unlocks anything after completion, the same criterion used for many other cases like this.
There's no postgame content, the game just loads you back to your previous save if you choose to continue after the credits play.
Fortranm wrote:
Also, would a properly played-out ending have required any more input after the end of input in this movie?
Yes, there's a few dialog boxes you would normally have to skip. This is actually the part of the end sequence that breaks in this run.
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feos wrote:
A couple seconds after your encode ends, there's a sound similar to an in-game dialog appearing. Would you mind checking if it's possible to skip through it in the dark and maybe make the ending continue in some form?
This is from an unrelated cutscene where you bring Mina into your house. You can skip it, but doing so doesn't allow the ending to progress. Robin's house is actually two entirely separate scenes, and the version containing the next piece of the end cutscene is only loaded if the impact zone has been opened properly.
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Info Teddy wrote:
In any case, you should try making a new .ltm with new annotations, as the ones we have now are busted. And these annotations should contain sync information (as outlined in the libTAS page).
No idea how that happened, but I've added proper annotations now. I couldn't find any way to replace the movie file myself though, so I've uploaded the new one to my user files here instead. Apologies if this wasn't the correct thing to do.
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feos wrote:
annotations.txt in this movie is not a file but a folder containing config.ini, editor.ini, and input once again, and these are different from the ones in the main movie.
Unsure what this is referring to, is that something libTAS generates automatically? I never did anything regarding annotations.
feos wrote:
How do I obtain the correct version and how do I identify it?
The correct version can be obtained using depotdownloader, assuming you own the game on steam, using the command:
The app, depot, and manifest ids are taken from steamdb, and should work with any program capable of downloading old steam game versions if there's something you're more comfortable with than depotdownloader. The sh1 hash of the executable at /bin64/Chowdren should be eec10904702e0a5004f2e224f934835724fe822f.
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Radiant wrote:
EZGames69 wrote:
£e Nécroyeur wrote:
Agreed!
Did you read the explanation given by the author above as to why hard mode isn’t worth it?
Sure, but I don't agree with it. Extra enemies maybe easy to avoid... but that's still fun to watch in a run. And based on Serena's comments, it looks like the highest actual difficulty will also have a different route, so I'd be more interested in seeing a run of that, than a run of the "assist mode". $.02
Challenge mode uses a different route RTA, but would likely end up being the same route in a TAS. The main added limitation is Robin can't run out of breath without instantly dying, but by swimming slower to conserve air it should be possible to do all of the swims done in standard mode. The only iffy part is getting into impact zone at the end, but a small detour could be made to refill air an extra time.
On the topic of extra enemies, I just ran through the areas seen in this run and counted a grand total of 3 added enemies. One of these is entirely irrelevant as I'm already doing a damage boost in the spot it appears, leaving only 2 to avoid. I fail to see how this would in any way be a meaningful addition.
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Radiant wrote:
Looks pretty cool.
I'm curious why you're using the middle difficulty setting, instead of "relaxed" (which would be faster) or "harder" (the hardest difficulty available without a prior save)? Since the harder difficulty has more enemies, it may be more entertaining to watch?
Relaxed difficulty completely trivializes the run due to having infinite breath/hp, while harder adds nothing of value. The few extra enemies are easy to avoid, and the extra damage taken could potentially prevent some damage boosts from being possible. As far as I'm concerned, standard is the lowest actual difficulty setting and relaxed is more akin to an assist mode. That said, I may end up doing a relaxed difficulty TAS as well at some point since it would use a completely different route.
