Posts for Svimmer


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Joined: 9/27/2011
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Location: Finland
Tompa wrote:
After TSA was exposed, all of his runs were deleted from both SDA and archive.org. So this problem technically exists there as well.
I'm not sure how this ties in with what I said? I didn't say cheating has never happened on SDA, just that people tend to overdramatize this. It's like saying because some drugs always make it through border control, sniffing everyone with one of those dogs is pointless? It's still more likely on SRC.
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grassini wrote:
SDA is a thing of the past, it had the necessary rules for the time it was created but even then there was still cheating; a huge audience and community peers reviewing is way safer for run verifying than having a small number of verifiers for obscure stuff. The process was convoluted because it was the only way it could be,but it's not relevant anymore.
Cheating is, as far as I'm aware, an extremely rare occurrence, and if you actually knew what you were talking about, if you really want to cheat, there's not much anyone can do about it in some cases. SRC, just to compare, has had FAR MORE cases of abuse if you also look at times when the moderators were waving each other's (or their own) runs through. Also an argument based on the size of the userbase completely ignores the actual fundamental differences between the sites. If SDA was the popular site, you'd be saying the exact same thing about SRC right now. And WTF are you even talking about with "having a small number of verifiers for obscure stuff"? Do you mean small games shouldn't be run at all then? You've hit both buzz phrases though: "Thing of the past" AND "not relevant anymore". You're a very specific kind of sheep, you know.
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theripper999 wrote:
Although one point I never liked in SDA was how only the current fastest run would be allowed for a category. Previous runs might be useful in the future and those get removed.
They do NOT get removed off archive.org. If we didn't remove them off our server that would mean even more server costs. Past that, I swear I once posted a thread on the topic of "do we need more than one run per category" on SDA. I just can't find it now. The main point I made in it was simply... there's almost always a better way to store any information the old run might have held. It's not efficient. You'd have to argue something else here.
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The fact that both SDA itself and also Archive.org host every run on SDA is one of our selling points for sure, but again something a lot of people don't want to think that far ahead about. With stuff like article 13/17 in the EU... can we rely on gameplay videos being kept on YT even if the runner didn't delete them? Let's plays, longplays, and speedruns and TASes. I guess for now they're going to be region-blocked only.
Mitjitsu wrote:
SRC doesn't save any videos on their website which can cause problems when videos links get deleted. However there is resources like tools, saves, patches and time splits which can be uploaded, which is better than uploading it to some external link which may expire or get deleted.
I don't know if that's a comment on SDA or not but something most might not know about is you CAN also upload such files onto the SDA server if you're building a wiki in our Knowledge Base. Some people have also provided us stuff like blooper reels. If it's to do with the run, and not overly bloated, we should be happy to host it.
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"Thoughts comparing and contrasting SDA and SRC." The thing is... it doesn't have to be either/or. In fact we have nothing against SRC. We, also, plainly see what it's good for. It's just a lot of people really don't get SDA, or don't know about it. To be sure, in theory we still have the two-tiered system of verification but virtually no runs get verified in the private "tier". We could really use more active verifiers as well as more runs and general volunteering. Yeah so the verification etc. publication cycle is faster these days but that's not the point. The point is if you believe in SDA's philosophy, but you're not even willing to wait a couple of months before publication (and we're not even telling you you can't submit it somewhere else as well), what exactly have you done to earn such luxury treatment? Can you realize all these sites are built on somebody volunteering their time to do things other than what their first choice might otherwise have been?
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TiKevin83 wrote:
Hi Svimmer, I'm not sure I understand what niche SDA is trying to fill in speedrunning. The post you linked says that there's a gap between SRC's community-driven RTA boards and TASVideos' curated TAS archive. This gap involves curated human and TAS "pure speedruns," just bare audio and video of the record. If this is the standard for SDA, why make it ridiculously difficult compared to other sites to submit and watch your runs? One of my favorite SDA submissions is a Pokemon Ruby segmented run. It's quite difficult to watch because the video is split across the 40 segments. With the right encoding, the video could easily be stitched together and hosted on YT, BitChute, etc. And because the submission process is so complex, the video is now so outdated that it's been surpassed by single segment human runners. Despite this, the segmented 1:54:21 is still claimed on SDA as the "best time." Clearly the community driven boards have a better understanding of which runs are legitimately the fastest in a given category, so "pure speedrunning" under the definition in that post is far too restrictive. Curation from what I've come to enjoy at TASVideos rather helps ensure a standard for game/branch/category quality, so that runners trend towards bigger game communities and gain some focus towards common goals.
The post I linked doesn't mention TASVideos at all. "Why make it ridiculously hard": nobody deliberately made anything harder than necessary. It gets kind of frustrating being leveled this crap at like it's just a question of "why won't somebody do something". What we're able to do with the backend is a factor of what skills our volunteers have, and their available time. There are so many people like you who just can't fathom this. If you used your imagination, you might recall there was a time when uploading 1+ gigabyte files was not possible or reliable. I'm not the most technically oriented but I'd imagine there were reasons why files got split (or more like were left in that state). We don't replace runs with ones that haven't actually been submitted to us any more than TASVideos asks for permission to post runs off YouTube. The submission process is a drop in the ocean compared to the effort put into a) researching b) routing c) grinding out and d) documenting and annotating your runs. I'm looking FORWARDS to getting to do that when I'm finished with my first run. "the community-driven boards have a better understanding of the fastest runs so pure speedrunning under that definition is too restrictive": These are two completely different questions. 1) SDA never claimed to host just WR runs any more than SRC does, speed is not the only factor for getting a run accepted. That having been said the discussion about whether we could make this more obvious to casual visitors has been had, and I personally do think there are probably ways to improve on that. I still don't really care if there is a faster run out there, not everyone does. The communities can get a bit self-important sometimes (to say the least). 2) Setting up the necessary A/V recording in OBS is actually pretty simple. 3) That's not even what I meant by "pure speedrunning". "Curation from what I've come to enjoy at TASVideos rather helps ensure a standard for game/branch/category quality, so that runners trend towards bigger game communities and gain some focus towards common goals." This is one of SDA's purposes and a part of the verification process. The reason is nothing to do with the runners though, but rather the audience not wanting to see too many lesser-quality runs with arbitrary definitions. I'm sure you were implying the same.
Post subject: Speed Demos Archive is still a thing
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So SDA doesn't get a lot of shout-outs these days. It used to during GDQ marathons and such. When it was first founded it was the only site that hosted speedrun videos for almost any games. Speedrunning was also new, and cool in and of itself. The years have rolled by and new forms of running emerged, namely those marathons and other live streaming. Direct competition is easier. These and other reasons make SDA a less likely choice for many runners. However, its remaining users still see it having a distinct purpose that isn't really different from that of TASVideos. To serve an audience a feed of quality-ensured speedruns without anything extra... well except for commentary which is still more than appreciated in many cases. I've written a long answer to the question "why SDA isn't a poor man's Speedrun.com". I'm sure most people here will appreciate where we're coming from, and I'm obviously really just writing this here for all the new folks that may not actually have been exposed to SDA as a concept. If you have real-time runs as well as TASes, keep sending them our way! Feel free to check out our verification listing from time to time. It's much-appreciated!
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Yeah, same with SDA: occasionally SRC rules make zero to no sense and we have to explain it to a runner.
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Hmm... would a "no-shooting" category make for anything interesting, except during that one boss fight? If it wasn't for that 1hp run you already did, I'd suggest turning this into a low% where you get the lowest values for everything that's displayed at the end of level, damage taken, kills and failed cracks. I guess few games have their own pacifist endings so TASers usually have to define that category themselves. I'm sure there's games out there where going by the game's own definition will make sense, but I have limited knowledge of TASes.
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When I watched this run, I never in my right mind thought a Pacifist run of this game couldn't possibly be too similar to any%. I underestimate the power of TASing (and how surprisingly unrestrictive the pacifist plot branch is) as is turns out. In any case the Pacifist run has the value of showing exactly where the true differences lie even if it's stepping on the any%'s toes. In the video on the left in the comparison feos posted: https://viewsync.net/watch?v=MZLeKvwdnw0&t=0&v=-jtb7r-uo0o&t=0&mode=solo at 17:19, there's a forced fight. That's one of the most obvious differences I guess aside from the final boss. The pacifist approach is certainly entertaining as well. Could this be vaulted?
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Radiant wrote:
Alyosha wrote:
It's not just this game though, the star tier in general seems to have lost it's luster. It seems like something we do just out of inertia / habit. I don't know, maybe it's just me.
I've checked, and overall it looks fine to me. But perhaps certain games or series are overrepresented (e.g. there are several Mario games with two starred runs per game).
My two cents: Some games and game series can systematically furnish more entertaining TASes by virtue of what the tricks tend to be like.
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Yeah, for the record, while I don't even watch that many TASes, I was really surprised this was given a star, for the same reason Memory outlined: The run is definitely a bit of a one-trick pony. There's lots of yes-votes but I'm sure you guys get this is liable to happen with such a popular game series. I mean just to find some comparison, there was that Bisqwit Star Control II TAS several years back that you didn't even want to publish at all (I think that's when the vault tier came along) because it was mostly riding around the cosmos on a space ship. Well, because all the traffic and even pedestrians have been RNG manipulated off, this TAS is also mostly riding around a city in a car. What am I missing? A 100% TAS of this game will probably be much more likely to deserve moon or star tier.
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While I respect the amount of work that must have went into RNG manipulation and such, I really don't see the incredible entertainment value, seeing as so much of the run is the same one trick repeated in every disctrict. Objectively a star TAS? I guess there isn't any speed-entertainment trade-offs either.
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Right, looks like there's more things that could be considered part of a "100%" definition but those can't be accessed during a single playthrough? This has, again, different strategies from any of the other runs in many places, and looks every bit as carefully planned and has a lot of action. Worth a 'yes' again from me.
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Matslo123 wrote:
I have done a 100% (kinda) TAS and will submit it shortly if there is enough interest.
Remember that most people only watch TASes/runs after they're through this stage.
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Using the hardest setting is the baseline in TASing so just explain why you haven't in the submission comments if you don't want people wondering about it (your explanation is impossible to follow without knowing more about the game). Of course people shouldn't assume it's the worse choice before they hear you out. I like the various damage boosts not all of which I think were used in the other two TASes, and generally the changes resulting from the pacifist approach. Worth having done this category. I guess the only thing missing now is some kind of 100% thing.
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Hmm... so you speedrun the game as well? You know about Speed Demos Archive #shamelessplug? Truth be told, I'm an admin on that site and more active there in general. We're always happy to see submissions of a relatively similar calibre, and the site's philosophy is very similar to the TASvideos one (though the kinds of runs you can do more restricted). This site also has a part that's meant for storing information: http://tasvideos.org/GameResources.html Also one idea would be to put anything that's more about real-time running in a wiki page on SDA: https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Category:Games I personally feel run notes belong in an openly editable and accessible format. BTW: Whichever site, and whatever the reason, pointing out what could be improved in your runs is useful for future TASers and runners. Someone could be left wondering if there's some special purpose to that extra nano pickup.
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At 4:25, you pick up extra energy in a detour, but you don't have armor damage and you're not using energy for getting skills so... why? 6:30 whoa what a boss fight! :) 8:35 The restricted storage I found super-tough to get through in my no-damage, no-kill real time run (on the easiest setting!). Yeah this attempt that I'm talking about... I only ever got to level five I think so I have some perspective on how stupid the luck has to be. 24:00 I can't even imagine what this would be like... 25:30 Nice that you could work in some of that slapstick humor. I don't know, something comedic about this moment. 31:53 o_O Is there a lot of manipulation to get Asha not to warp around so much? Radiant: You don't think you owe an apology for your hasty conclusions about the other run?
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Thanks for taking the effort and good luck with future submissions! Everyone who runs DOS or Windows games is automatically my homie... ;)
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Location: Finland
Right, so having seen several runs before (probably the previous TAS or TASes too), I can't immediately see any obvious fault with this, like some kind of trick completely missing. It seems clear the author is up to date on what is deemed the best strats for the game. I believe the game was programmed in a rather solid way (e.g. you can't move while on elevators to prevent getting stuck anywhere, or whatever the reason) and I don't think I ever saw anything like OOB tricks. That having been said, there's a lot to think about in ammo routing and the AI manipulation can probably always be a bit better, as evidenced by a few moments here and there where a shot needed to be ducked or something of that kind. But yeah, I'm seeing Iji pre-jumping before every fall and generally things look deliberated and so this kinds of 'i's have seemingly been dotted. And yeah I think that while the pace is a bit languid in the early levels, things get hectic enough later on especially during the few non-trivial boss encounters. The soundtrack doesn't hurt bringing on this impression. :D So it's going to be a yes vote from me. If you're going for a challenge run later, are you considering doing a "low %" where you neither take any damage nor kill anyone? I don't know what's the most entertaining, I just know that was really tough to do when I once tried just casually.
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Is this REEAALLYYY all that entertaining? Sure it could be a masterpiece in terms of technical achievement, I don't know, but otherwise looks pretty standard through most of it.
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Well this is about six notches more professional than the game deserves, but if you're ever doing more TASing, I seriously can't wait for what you come up with...
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I'll ask the other guy (he might actually understand any of that) to take a look if he finds the time.
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DrD2k9 wrote:
Do we know if Alone in the Dark works on JPC-rr?
I didn't know the emulator had limitations as to what it could run. I don't think I know anyone who's tried it. I've got tons to do even without the TAS and the trick requires some serious technical ability anyway. Sorry to off-topic this. Here's the AitD thread. Thanks once again to c square for making DOS TASing better for everyone!
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From a scale from success to Charlie Sheen, I'd like to give this a very stocky "Winning!" This will directly improve the odds someone will want to TAS Alone in the Dark some day (a game I've been studying for years to run segmented: a TAS-only category is speculated to exist).
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