Joined: 8/3/2008
Posts: 157
Location: The Land Down Under
Kirkq wrote:
Do you get health refills after areas or worlds?
Worlds, im pretty sure. On the other hand, ive thought about it and there aren't that many locations where it would be useful to abuse damage, apart from the start of world 2, so it shouldnt be too much of an issue anyway.
Kirkq wrote:
Can you bomb midair without losing time? If so you should bomb enemies to improve entertainment value. (The chicken in Stage 3 jumps out at me among other things.)
I found out that dropping a bomb using R while jumping either loses bomberman a frame or doesn't affect him (and sometimes gains a frame?!), ive done up to the end of level 3 again and you'll be glad to know that i managed to kill the chicken without losing any time :P
Kirkq wrote:
Also, Bomberman needs to dance to Nitros's theme (such a good track)
I'm assuming you mean the song in the nitros battles? If you do then i couldn't agree more, when i get to the Vs. Nitros stages i will put tremendous effort into owning nitros while dancing along!
Joined: 8/3/2008
Posts: 157
Location: The Land Down Under
Ok, so what ive discovered is that running/jumping is equally fast, with no apparent effect on whether there are slopes or not.
Horizontal speed when moving diagonally is slower
And (here's the big one)
Jumping down is faster than falling down
I redid the first level and chopped off a whole 40 frames total, i imagine that i will be able to do similar on some other levels, like sky room, which was done quite poorly
Joined: 8/3/2008
Posts: 157
Location: The Land Down Under
Captain Forehead wrote:
Level 4 or 5 or whatever: At the bottom of the conveyor belt, there's a little boardwalk that you can jump on and then jump directly to the otherside, of the conveyor belt. Plus afterwards, it'll probably be faster if you jumped on the platform and then here on out.
Level 3: Don't fall down all the way to the floor. This is gonna be hard for me to explain but I'll tell ya. You know those two lonely platforms that you can jump on? When your on the second one, jump to the corner of the edge of the "cave" that your going to exit it in. That was hard for me to explain, I hope you understand it.
I had a look and i can see the sky room one, i'll implement that in my next attempt
Can you explain the other one though? I had a look and i don't think i understand, i tried jumping up to the exit platform from the other ones like you said (that is what you meant isnt it?) and i couldn't, not that i tried very hard, is there a bit in the invisible wall he can jump through or something? or can bomberman jump around it?
Thanks for your help btw!
Joined: 8/3/2008
Posts: 157
Location: The Land Down Under
Kirkq wrote:
Stage 1: (0:29) Falling down into the pit at the beginning seems to me to be slower than jumping, you should test this. Also, I'm not very familiar with N64 TASing, do moving 'right' and moving 'down and right' give you the same velocity to the right or not?
It does look like falling is slower than jumping and i forgot to test that, i'll check. By the way with 0:36 at stage 1, doing another jump is faster than holding on to the ledge.
Kirkq wrote:
Stage 2: (0:58) It appears you are running into that wall longer than necessary, is it possible to bomb it from the previous jump or perhaps jump shorter on the first jump making the second one occur earlier. Is jumping as fast as running on flat ground, what if you're going uphill, what if you're going downhill?
I jumped up as soon as i could, the jump from the conveyor belt was done as early as possible, and if the second jump was done any earlier, it wouldnt have been high enough. As for jumping vs running, this is what i know so far:
Jumping is as fast as running on flat ground
and they are equally fast uphill (even though jumping looks faster)
i didnt test for downhill though, so i will.
Kirkq wrote:
Stage 3: (1:38) I think you should not go out of your way to bomb this before getting there.
You are most definately right about that, i don't know what i was thinking :P
Kirkq wrote:
Stage 4: (2:12) I think jumping on that platform on the right may be faster. (2:20) Jumping from the upper platform directly onto the conveyor may be faster. (2:25) Why do you jump for the back of the trampoline and not the part closest to you?, and opening the box appears unoptomized, (You used a bomb to help you change direction?, Is this necessary?) Perhaps getting a firepower upgrade would be beneficial for opening this box?
2:12 - i didnt try jumping for it because i assumed that you couldnt jump from it to the next platform, ill try when i redo this level
2:20 - again, ill do a frame count test on falling vs jumping down.
2:25 - the jump onto the trampoline was sloppy, ill redo that. However i did discover that randomly throwing a bomb appeared to make bomberman land several frames faster, which is why i threw that bomb. (I'll see if i can get it to hit something to make it look less sloppy but i doubt that it would be practical)
Also i think that i might be able to grab onto the ledge of the platform with the box after throwing the bomb at the box, which would save more time.
Kirkq wrote:
Stage 5: Running downhill may be faster than jumping.
I doubt it but ill check
Kirkq wrote:
Stage 6: If you plan on submitting this run you will need to put some effort into entertainment.
Ill make sure that i make a better looking run of that level when i reach it again.
Kirkq wrote:
Stage 7: Is there any possible use for damage boosting in this game? Perhaps hitting yourself can get you past the bombs at the end better?
Damage boosting is going to be a big feature of the TAS but as i don't want to really go out of my way to pick up health (and dying isnt an option) i will have to be cautious in how much health i use up.
I'll check whether it's any faster though (and there is health in dragon road that i could get so that might actually be ok)
Kirkq wrote:
Large issues: What is the order of speed on walking, walking uphill, walking downhill, jumping, jumping uphill, jumping downhill, and falling.
I'll get back to you on that after i have done some tests.
Thanks for your feedback!
I'll start the run over and try and aim for some improvement.
Joined: 8/3/2008
Posts: 157
Location: The Land Down Under
Ok, ive done a quick WIP that goes up to (and completes) red cave, so just over half way through the first world.
Here's a link:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=VkUUjoF1Mv8
I'll be continuing along with this whenever i get time (got exams soon though) along this sort of line, comparing it with the SDA run, it's 29 seconds faster by the time red cave is finished.
A few questions though:
I rushed through the water level and it does look a bit sloppy, considering that entertainment should be a factor, and the speed doesn't seem to change as long as a is held down, should i redo it?
Just it would be easier to redo it now than have to erase a lot of stuff later on (i dont have time/knowledge for hex editing)
Also i have been discovering very minor (<0.5sec) improvements in much earlier levels that im reluctant to go all the way back and change now, would it be worth doing them, or would you rather see a completed run at all? (if i keep going back for minor improvements the run will realistically never get finished)
And finally does anyone know of other improvements?
Joined: 8/3/2008
Posts: 157
Location: The Land Down Under
The *few tricks up my sleeve* is mainly abusing the invincibility that bomberman has after he takes damage.
Anyway i got my hands on a ROM and found the right video plugin, ill get started soon.
Main thing i might need help with is the bosses (e.g. underwater bolban) but that wont be a worry for me for a long while
Joined: 8/3/2008
Posts: 157
Location: The Land Down Under
Although i wouldn't be surprised if i ended up going down the same path as Captain Forehead, im going to start doing an any% run. Ive played the game a lot and i think i have a few tricks up my sleeve for getting a decent run (assuming the game works).
I love the feeling of nostalgia this game provides :P
ill tell you all when i finish/give up/release a WIP
wish me luck!