Posts for Tompa


Tompa
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Because forcing either Easy or Hard is bad for obvious reasons.
Tompa
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Truncated wrote:
Q: How much input was done by each author? A: I did the majority of the input, while Tompa did a few improvements, in particular the beginning of the reactor and a bit in the rancor pit. Tompa is listed first, though, because without him the route and most of the tricks in said route wouldn't exist whatsoever.
Two questions here: 1) It says Tompa did some input, and that he is "listed first". Is Tompa supposed to be included in the list of authors? 2) If Tompa did contribute to this run as the submission text suggest - shouldn't someone other than Tompa judge it?
I suppose, yeah, I shouldn't really have judged it, now that I think of it, it was a pretty dumb thing to do, my bad :/. He put me in as an author first, but I asked to be removed. It's true that I helped out with a few sections, but for 50% of the run, I hadn't seen anything. And if I want to be included as an author, I would want to be with the entire project, helping out with each section, giving ideas, saving the frames. Because that wasn't the case, for my standards I didn't deserve to be there.
Tompa
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If the only difference is that enemies damage more and you never ever wish to take damage because it is slower anyway. Easy and Hard will use the same inputs for both runs. Without knowing if it's Easy or Hard: Which run is the most impressive? Here the only thing making one run more impressive is the knowledge that it was done on hard. People would probably complain, as they always do, that it was done on easy, despite hard mode would look identical. But we are easily fooled by those four letters to believe it is a more impressive accomplishment.
Tompa
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Sometimes higher difficulty doesn't mean a higher challenge. Despite enemies dealing more damage or enemies having more HP. Or what it may be. If it's slower to take damage in the run, the damage factor won't matter at all. Considering the TAS will just avoid everything anything, which is often easy to do in a TAS compared to a real time run. Doesn't matter if the enemies do 1HKO attacks, for a TAS it will be all the same. Enemy HP is another "pointless" factor at times. Doing the same routine to damage the boss a few extra times also doesn't add an extra challenge. It's just extended the same pattern longer. This, again, is different for real time, as it could mean a challenge to stay alive longer. From an outsider's perspective, just knowing that the game was played on Hard will make the run feel more impressive by the difficulty choice alone. But in reality, when you look into it, it can be the same overall difficulty as on Easy. Of course, there will always be exceptions. In games were taking damage is faster, planning it on a higher difficulty would mean more health management and planning the boosts more carefully. But if Hard would mean 1HKO, it will simply be "easy dodging" that will also be a lot slower than damage boosts. Enemies having more HP could mean that you have to plan your item usage, stats and level, so that'll you'll be strong enough to beat the boss quickly or not, or having enough missiles to even kill it at all. This doesn't mean it adds an extra challenge however. Could only mean a detour to grab an extra item, or being forced to fight an extra enemy in order to increase your level. Both which are simple to do in a TAS, both of which may or may not have been a challenge for a speedrun. It will always be a case to case basis. But higher challenge does not always equal higher difficulty.
Tompa
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"use the bot"? I assume you mean the Gust Jar. And yes, I tested it, the best I could do was roughly 12 frames slower than to grab it. That does not take into account the change in RNG that would be needed for the strategy to work. As the Peahat will hit your most of the time. The 12 frames slower method was tested with a fixed RNG to see how well that strategy would compare. Edit: Also, here's a WIP that gets the Bow: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/25393192604657831
Tompa
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Alright, "some" WIP notes! You didn't hold forward at the start of 1-1 when you get blasted out of the house. Which means less speed at the start. When you do the "extra roll" trick, it has to be done on the first half of the roll, otherwise you'll lose speed (Be sure to check the RAM watch I posted!). Sometimes this loss of speed is unavoidable, like when you have rolled to a different platform or after hitting an enemy. At which times you have to make two quick rolls as soon as possible, to avoid losing too much speed. Already at hitting the first Gnawty, you lost 7 frames. You may have noticed that you sometimes get a lag frame when hitting enemies (Lag counter: ON, in case you haven't already :)). Sometimes it is faster to slightly lose some speed so that you'll hit an enemy a frame later to avoid the lag. This lag management is very tricky throughout the run. You can see this being done in my any% TAS: http://tasvideos.org/3936S.html It shows an example where I lose some time when I start the roll, by releasing both right and Y, to avoid getting lag from the Gnawty, which was faster than not lose speed and get the lag frame. There can also be a lag frame when you break a DK barrel. So make sure you check that too and come up with ideas if it could be faster to avoid it. And in situations where you have to wait for something, like a moving platform, you should never kill any enemies. Such as in Trick Track Trek, Elevator Antics and Tanked up Trouble. As even if the game doesn't always give you lag, it will always pause for 1-2 frames. Corner boosts is another thing to look after. For some platforms you roll of, and even run off such as with Expresso, you can get a small speed boost from. They depend on which pixel you land on the corner, pretty much. Here it can also be faster to delay you speed/position in order to get the boost. But it may also result in hitting an enemy earlier to get a frame of lag later on! Meaning many methods have to be tested. The boost itself is very noticeable if you check the ram watch. Other notes about the WIP: You jumped very late after throwing the barrel towards the Rambi box and why not start the roll instantly? The only real reason why I jumped in the other WIP was to change the color of Rambi gold, because of the Animal Token :). If you jump and roll at once, it's just as fast to do it at the bottom as the above platform. Just that the graphic glitch can only be done by jumping. Also: The speed and subpixel position you have when you land on an animal, will be kept over. So if it is possible to land on the same frame, but with a higher speed/sub value, that is prefered. You touched the wall a bit with Rambi when exiting the first bonus, which cost about 2-3 frames. By using Rambi's attack, press Y, to open up the second bonus, you could have jumped into it several frames earlier. When you exit a level or bonuses. If you don't hold right you can roll further into the "exit section". The level won't end until Diddy/Donkey has walked to the far right of the screen. So try to roll a bit further before you press right to exit. The time saved from this differs between the levels. For the first one you can only save like 2 frames I believe. While in other times it can be much higher. This was explained in the submissions of my old TAS: http://tasvideos.org/2876S.html "The right trick"... I can't remember what we actually changed the name to :D. Next level: *Ignoring general things I've already mentioned*. You jumped off the first rope two frames later than possible. You could have kept the roll after the kritters at least one frame longer. Here's also another example of where it can be faster to be slightly slower in order to save time. I'm not sure if it actually applies here though. But in your WIP, you jumped at frame 5197, jumping at 5198 for a single would also work without hitting the wall, while 5199 would not. However, sometimes it is faster to jump for more than one frame in order to roll for one frame longer, despite landing later. In this situation, it was not. But losing a little bit of speed to make it possible to jump at 5199 instead could be faster. It's another thing to look out for while TASing =). For the first bonus, when I TASed it I got it to be equal to roll from to the left instead of the right, but only if it's 100% optimal. I'm actually not positive that left is even faster. But your version lost over 20 frames to it. Last bonus: If you make the extra roll close to the platform your roll won't drop instantly. Doing that + release Y when hitting the Kritter, will end up in the bonus like 2 frames earlier. If you jump out of the bonus, you'll only land further on a later frame. As rolling is faster than jumping, it's better to simply run down to land early for and early roll. Third level: As a barrel boost is faster than to walk normally, you should keep this speed as long as possible by jumping further. Better turnaround management for higher speed to the left when entering the second bonus could have saved some time. For all bonuses that you are shot out from, if you only hold right, not Y, you'll be put one pixel further to the right. You did it in the first level, to avoid landing on the hidden item, but it should also be done at all other similar bonuses, like the second one in 1-3. And why the late roll? One reason could have been to avoid lag from the kritters or a corner boost, but that wasn't the case here. Another example where you could have kept a roll one frame longer: after the triple kritters. The barrel boost into the bonus: With better speed and position for grabbing the barrel, as well as jumping shorter to avoid pushing against the wall, like 7 frames could have been saved. After killing the snakes: Again: Too early of a jump, could have kept the speed longer. General note: When you are starting a roll after landing. Depending on your current speed, and other factors like lag/corner boosts, it can be faster to either release Y for the roll as early as possible (For the roll to happen on the same frame) or as late as possible. Depending on the section, you sometimes have to try all different frame when to release Y. OK! Lots of notes here, I hope this won't discourage you too much :D. A lot of your mistakes can easily be fixed by studying my WIPs in the emulator as well as checking the RAM Watch. Also read my submission notes for my three published TASes as they may include useful information!
Tompa
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http://forum.romulation.net/index.php/topic,1359.0.html/ That list will explain most of them =).
Tompa
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And it's done! Final time (RTA timing) of 3:08:13! For those who missed it, here is the Twitch VOD for it: www.twitch.tv/gymnast86/v/14934332 It will also be up on Youtube eventually: https://www.youtube.com/user/zeldafreak943
Tompa
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http://dkcspeedruns.com/Main_Page Also has some information that is not included in any TAS WIPs so far. Such as the Superjump glitch that is used in 2-5 and 3-3 for example. A route change is to skip the second world boss, Master Necky, as bosses don't actually count towards the % counter. Skipping Master Necky saves roughly 20 seconds. I only did a testrun of it, nothing optimised (See it here: SMV 1.51) You can also use the Invisible Barrel warping to skip bosses, but I didn't manage to find a new setup for it to be able to save time for other boses. But thanks to the map warp from W1 to W3, that's the only boss that is faster to skip as of now. And here's the main RAM Watch I've been using: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ox7sp0zprfmcaed/DKCDiddy.wch
Tompa
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It's a very nice TAS, despite the minor flaws. It's a very painful to story to optimisie this... Lots and lots of lag and lots and lots of RNG. Making and optimised TAS is incredibly unlikely to accomplish because of that. Yes vote indeed!
Tompa
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Alright! If you really want to get into this, I'm your knowledge base. I have wished to get back to TASing this after starting it 8 years ago, but after restarting it 10+ times it has now been put on hold for the last years. But I really really want to get back to it again, it just hasn't happened because of other project + real life. I would like to work along if you actually decide to pick it up. It would likely be easier to chat to you directly for a couple of things. But I could write up a lot of notes and info anyway! The furthest I got was to complete Trick Track Trek, made with SNES9X 1.43: SMV This is the same run that I uploaded to Youtube, except the smv includes Oil Drum Alley and Trick Track Trek: Youtube One of the restarts got up to Croctopus Chase: SMV I also restarted on 1.51 a few times, but nothing really worth posting... More optimised, but didn't get far. Same goes with the version I started on Bizhawk. But yeah, neither or those WIPs are fully optimised. A lot of new tricks had been found and better ways to optimise things. I'm quite busy the upcoming days. If you want to chat about this (IRC, Skype, whatever) in more detail, I'll be happy to do so. Otherwise I'll just try to add more things in here.
Tompa
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I hope Trioct won't mind that I post his old WIP... That one saves about 550 frames compared to Badda's "optimized" version: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1207231432/Kaizo%20Mario%20Bros.%203%20TAS.fm2 Improvements have already been found for that, which he has added in already. Not sure if he's still working on it or not however. For the second level, it's possible to skip the leaf, which saves time in later level(s). Done like this: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1924792379/Kaizo%20KeepLeaf.fm2
Tompa
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I've been working on redoing the whole run from scratch the last 1½ months, to fix some of errors and use new strategies. We are now back on track and a total of 1352 frames ahead! http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/769823083/Zelda%20no%20Densetsu%20-%20Fushigi%20no%20Boushi%20%28Japan%29.vbm
Tompa
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I knew about that pushing method, have done it accidently many many times in runs, like in the one I posted above. I never did check where it could be useful though. Nice one!
Tompa
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Just as good as the SNES version in my opinion. Beautiful.
Tompa
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I would love to see any kind of progress and help out if I can at least, Phi. But as Truncated said: It's up to you if you want to share or not =).
Tompa
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I just shoot that one as I will eventually have to shoot one human because they'll be in the way later, might as well do it on the first possible victim as he may be in my way. The message that appears is the same no matter who you kill as #1.
Tompa
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Seems like I only had the first (I believe) recording I did, which is a terrible 14 minutes run... Notes are in the description Link to video
Tompa
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As far as I know, no one is working on this game currently. I would absolutely love to TAS it, but I'm terrible at using the emulator... I used to speedrun this game 8-9 years ago. I think I still have one of the recordings on my laptop, I'll find it and upload for you. It's not the fastest run I made, as that one was never recorded, and it only consists of Act 1. Took me about 12 minutes I believe. Yes to both the screen transitions as well as turbo. There are in-game features, so no reason not to use them. I didn't use them in my first attempts simply because I didn't know of them, I believe my recorded version use them both, not sure.
Tompa
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There are many many different effects and glitches you can get in the doghouse. I haven't researched much at all with it, but in general things are still not figured out. That specific effect, I have seen before actually. No idea what's actually going on though :D.
Tompa
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It should be fairly obvious by the video and description really... =P Taylor did a "no doors" TAS two years ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGeLcnaudnI) but because of new discoveries in the game, real time runners have now beaten that TAS. So he decided to make a new one and put a lot more effort into making it.
Tompa
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Also a new glitch was recently found. Some videos and where it can be used: www.speedrun.com/ladx/thread/e1so8/
Tompa
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What I would like to see is some actual TASing done live. Yes, it might be a tedious process, but I know (After testing it during ESA) that a lot of people find it interesting. I didn't make a great job with the presentation myself at ESA however. But people have enjoyed watching me TAS backstage at ESA/AGDQ, one reason being that I'm very quick with my fingers when TASing, speed TASing FTW. You had a brief test with Mega Man where you showed the concept at least. It would make it more interesting if it was an actual TAS project that you worked on optimising and then replaying the result in real time to show what you managed to accomplish and how long that took. One downside with this TAS presentation was that there were practically no surprises (Apart from which game was picked for the competition.). As the other three runs were already known, anyone can have looked them up on Youtube long before the actual stream. It doesn't have to be a crazy ACE TAS, but just a new TAS that has yet not been shown to the public.
Tompa
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7 months later... I'm curious about the state of this project.
Tompa
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Hmm, not the best time for Europeans... I'm free on Monday though, so I might stay up the whole night for it. We'll see.