Posts for Tseralith

Posted: 5/18/2013 7:32 AM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Radiant wrote:

This looks really cool! ...but I do request an annotated video of the completed project, because most of the time I have no idea what the heck is going on in the game :)

I'll look into this.

zem wrote:

It’s been a long time since I played this version, but I don’t remember ever seeing an ammo count show up next to the handy scanner. What causes that?

That's because I optimize my inventory so fast the game doesn't manage to keep up with the item count before I exit it. Basically it shows the amount from the last item I passed by in my inventory before I reach the ones I need. This has no effect on the actual item count though and is only a visual bug.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 5/17/2013 8:45 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Quibus wrote:

Please remind me, what was the thing at 7:18?

Those were flares.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 5/17/2013 10:22 AM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Link to video Those elevators are annoying bottlenecks, though can't do much about them since they go at their own speed. Although I might've been able to reach the first one in time had the enemies positioned themselves just where I need them to and/or if I've had enough health. Of course they weren't that helpful right now, so I'll have to be fine with this and try harder for the next run. Also I should mention I've improved the Bahamut fight compared to last time.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 5/11/2013 7:17 AM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Just found out right now there's a new and faster La-Mulana run on SDA. Fortunately for me it doesn't change anything major which I have either changed or skipped completely already. There are a few places where it saves a little more time compared to my TAS, but it won't make that much of a difference if I went back to redo those parts for this test run. I'll have to watch through this run later on and see what route they've taken to make it faster.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 5/10/2013 4:22 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

scrimpeh wrote:

Close to the bottom of a ladder, it is possible to walk off, falling straight down. Have you investigated to see whether it saves any frames to do it? (Frankly, I doubt it, considering you walk down ladders fairly fast as it is, but still) In either case, I love you.

Yes, it is possible. But unfortunately it doesn't save any frames as it takes more time to reach the bottom compared to just climbing down normally.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 5/9/2013 7:24 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Link to video Second WIP, and now comes opportunities to skip things which I can get otherwise or don't need at all. There's surely other things I could also skip, but that's why I'm doing this test run here so we'll know afterwards. Next WIP will be Bahamut.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 5/7/2013 6:20 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

solairflaire wrote:

You won't have much use for the Gauntlet since you can abuse weapons so easily. And the quick damage works on bosses. The only ones you might have problems doing that with are Viy and Elmac. Also, people have been able to get hit and glitch into walls and the ceiling. Though people haven't been able to find a reliable way to do it. I've never had it happen to me personally. It's considered TAS only territory. If you could figure out how it works, that would be awesomeness. It would also change the route you'd want to take in some places.

Thanks for mentioning the Gauntlet, I do believe they would be more of a hindrance than help. Also we'll see if I might come up with something for Viy and Elmac, TASes has potential to do some pretty ridiculous things. ;) That wall glitch looks really interesting, though I couldn't replicate it either while trying for a while. I sent a message to Anonymous52555 asking about this, so we'll see if he can shed some light on this glitch. Unless I/others can discover any good spots to use this glitch, think I'll stick with the route with some minor changes where I deem them appropriate.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 5/6/2013 12:59 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Patashu wrote:

Looks good! I have a question, from a TAS perspective what are the mechanisms by which you manipulate enemy movement? You said that the RNG is popped whenever an enemy has to decide what action to take, but is that also influenced itself by where you are on the level / what you kill and when?

I haven't investigated it completely, but I believe it does change depending on your position, though I'd have to move quite a distance for it to matter. What I kill and when I kill them matters heavily in influencing the RNG since that'll mean the number of enemies to advance the RNG pattern changes. Of course the pattern itself changes as well so one has to experiment a lot in order to get a favourable one. For example in the room before the Grail, I have to hit all the skeletons and bats the way I did in order for the bats in the next room to move exactly where I want them to. Otherwise they'll just fly somewhere else and be a nuisance.

scrimpeh wrote:

Oh, this is wonderful. I wasn't aware you could turn around while swinging the whip like that. Can you use it to do extra damage to bosses? Because that would be seriously awesome. Great movement optimization and enemy manipulation too, I'm really looking forward to more.

Yes, indeed you can (ok, I haven't actually tried it on the big bosses yet, but it works on every other enemy you meet). You hit an enemy every new frame a weapon hits them, which means moving away the second frame and moving back in the third frame you'll hit it again. Since the whip animation (when extended) lasts for five frames and the dagger for six, you'll be able to hit an enemy three times with every attack. If you can manage it, you can use the beginning attack animation of the whip together with the final one. I do this all the time with the pots which all require three hits to destroy.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 5/6/2013 10:21 AM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Link to video I decided to give this another go, now using the (which I hope is this time) the "correct" route. "Correct" as in the best one I know of so far without considering TAS routes. I intend this to be a test run in order to see what can be skipped and not, so unless anyone thinks it'll be submittable I don't think I'll submit it. One thing I should mention that differs compared to RTA attempts is entering huts, doors and such is a little slower in this TAS, probably due to having a fixed 60 FPS at all time. Had I increased it some more the transitions would be faster, but the movie files would be way bigger. So I'll stick with 60 FPS for now. If anyone has any thoughts or questions I'll try to answer them. By the way, how do I post in the WIP section?

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 4/26/2013 12:35 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

I've been thinking of it on and off, but mostly had other things I've decided to do instead. Though I might try to continue this when I can get enough motivation for it.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 2/16/2013 9:44 AM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Is it possible to save time if you shoot the dynamite in the tower as soon as it appears instead of waiting for it to explode? Or would that put you in a worse position considering you won't have as much ammo in your sniper rifle then? Then perhaps using the TNP for that might be faster?

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 1/17/2013 3:54 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Any particular reason why you pick up two ammo boxes for the pistol at the cabin since you just ended up spending them all at the lift anyway?

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 1/15/2013 7:05 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Link to video Just some experimenting with manipulating the Cockatrice at the beginning to drop weights. A few things I've noticed is that every time the birds makes a new action (pecking, looking up, looking behind, walking) it changes the drop RNG. Also instantly exiting and entering an area won't change the RNG, but if you wait for any enemy to do any action first before re entering the RNG will change (as well as enemy actions). I haven't examined how much enemy actions will change depending on your own actions and position. Though killing one of them will will change the actions of everyone else. I mostly just wait for the right action before killing the birds, actions which sometimes lasts just a few frames before a new action, and the RNG changes again. With this I managed to get 20 rocks in three minutes, but it could be faster had I tried harder.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 12/31/2012 12:03 AM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Yeah, I heard the SDA run was out of date, but I didn't know where I could find the new route so I went with this one. I only rarely tried to manipulate enemy paths since I didn't want to spend too much time on a test run which I knew had an outdated route from the beginning, but of course better manipulation would save time everywhere. An interesting thing someone commented about in Youtube is that I seemed to enter shops much slower than normally. After experimenting a bit on Hourglass I noticed that if I increased the FPS the transition went faster. From about 4.3 seconds at 30 FPS it went to 2.2 seconds at 60 FPS, 1.3 seconds at 120 FPS and 1,1 seconds at 150 FPS. Even at 600 FPS it wouldn't go faster than 1 second. Even the blue MSX screen which you see when you start the game also dissapears faster with increased FPS (7.17 seconds at 30 FPS, 3.58 seconds at 60 FPS, 3.23 seconds at 120 FPS and 3.17 seconds at 600 FPS). Despite the increased FPS in Hourglass, the game itself runs at 30 FPS as it normally would, skipping ahead of the frames "in between". Though the encode of this both takes longer and is much larger than when I had set 30 FPS in Hourglass.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 12/30/2012 10:53 AM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

First thing first, I do not intend to finish this unless I claim otherwise; I just wished to try and see how well my laptop could handle this game. Link to video About the run itself, I followed the route of the singe segment run made in Speeddemosarchives.com with minor changes to make it a bit faster. This isn't perfect as there are improvements here and there, but I've tried to make this decently optimized... except from the last part unfortunately as I ran out of throwing stars and had to use shurikens instead. Despite this I still manage to save about six minutes. All enemy drops were happening mostly at random with little influence from me and so I got most things I need from pots. I played until I reached one of the Guardians as I feel it is long enough run to perhaps use as a comparison for future runs. If anyone has any questions I'll try to answer them.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 11/24/2012 10:02 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Nothing wrong with trying out several games to see which one feels worthwile to TAS.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 11/14/2012 2:16 AM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Super Metroid. The first time I saw it I was awed by every trick, bug and exploit that was made during the whole run.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 10/4/2012 11:15 AM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Yeah... no progress, sorry for not mentioning anything the past months. I just lost motivation and couldn't find the will to try again. I'll maybe continue, but won't give any promises. @PotatoHandle: Apologies for the late reply, but I just hit a time where I couldn't bother replying at all. Now that Plasma Storm, I've never really considered it but after trying it out a little I realize it might actually be pretty useful. I haven't tested it in a TAS envoriment yet so I don't know how effective it can be with optimized usage (or if it's actually better than just buying normal front/rear/side weapon). As I haven't tried the Plasma Storm I don't know whether it can be bought the way you mention, but I'll keep it in mind I've actually also found that turret and abused it way more than necessary (I left the computer for an hour, just shooting balls), but doing this in a TAS is probably not that entertaining. I could do it for a few seconds just to show it's possible, but it'd be quicker to just destroy it and continue. Lowering the graphics would indeed "fix" the headlight levels, and considering how I make the TAS there's two solutions to change this. I could change it myself and be done with it, and perhaps even change it back on the next level and consider it a "speed/entertainment tradeoff". Or, in order to make the game sync I actually have to start the game once before TASing. I don't mean I have to run the game once every time I try to TAS, only the first time right after downloading it. And so the viewer themselves could lower the graphics before replaying the imput, thus eliminating the headlight. This won't help if it gets up on youtube though, so it'd be easier to do solution one, either with or without changing back the graphics. I'm a bit unsure whether a story mode TAS will be appealing enough both considering the "cookie-cutter" loadout as well as the sub-optimal weapons. Sure, I'd love to see a full TAS even with the same weapons, but that's coming from someone who's played the game a lot, but it might not be just as appealing to people who hasn't played the game. I'm actually considering to try the Super Tyrian mode and see how well it fares, both gameplay wise and entertainment wise. Though have no idea when I'll start. Maybe some time when I have both time and motivation.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 7/9/2012 9:03 AM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Scout: Mostly stock, though haven't played enough to have a favourite setup Soldier: Black Box or Liberty Launcher, normal shotgun and Equalizer before the update at least. Pyro: Degreaser, Flare Gun or normal shotgun, Axtinguisher Demoman: Stock Heavy: Stock Minigun, Sandwich and Fists of Steel Engineer: Widowmaker or stock Shotgun, Pistol and Southern Hospitality Medic: Mix between the three mediguns depending on the situation, Crusaders Crossbow and the Vita-Saw. I had the Ubersaw at first, but after reading some interesting arguments I switched over to the Vita-Saw. Sniper: Stock Sniper Rifle, Jarate and Bushwacka Spy: Never play spy so I have no preferred setup.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 7/5/2012 9:42 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Been playing a lot of TF2 myself too and for some reason I got attached to the Medic since I started testing it out. And the Pyromania update was nice, though it would've been nicer had there been any new stuff for the medic :P

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 7/5/2012 9:17 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

No progress at all unfortunately, been taking a little break from TASing. Not because of anything in particular, just felt like taking one, though I'll continue with this again next week.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 6/20/2012 8:08 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Thanks for your opinion turska, I appreciate it. Score as a goal would probably be less interesting as the game progress, though I'd say it's more appealing to collect all the gems and such instead of just ignoring them. Though for the maximum destruction I've been alternating between new weapons every level to increase variety. But for Arcade mode I've thought of a "Weapon Hoarder" goal, which would mean I HAVE to pick up every weapon that appears in the game although that might end up sacrificing destruction % instead. I have only partly considered a playaround, mostly since I haven't considered how it would look like in the long run. Super Tyrian do indeed show potential to do great things with all those twiddles and I might look into that mode when I manage to learn how to do all those twiddles. And yeah, bombs... forgot they were actually labeled that.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 6/18/2012 9:31 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

You're not mixing my front weapon with the special missiles you only recieve in this level alone, are you? My ordinary Missile Launcher fires plain missiles like you'd expect. The Mine Missiles are pick-up missiles independent of my Missile Launcher and can be fired no matter what weapons you have.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 6/18/2012 7:00 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

Missile Launcher and Multi Cannon are the chosen weapons now, as well as a pair of Zica Flamethrowers as sidekick. Those flamethrowers have fast refire rate, do good amount of damage compared to what's available and penetrates everything, but has only limited range. So I have to be up in their faces to make good use of it. ^.^ This is another interesting, and difficult level. What makes it interesting is the constant supply of Mine Missiles (in lack of better name) which basically destroys anything they hit. Not the missile itself, but the mines that pop out of it when it hits something. Several mines pop from every missile, which allows me to both blow up what I shot as well as let the mines wander off to destroy anything else they hit. I make use of them as often as I deem helpful, though I've noticed the mines won't explode if they're too close to the top of the screen. Normally this level is troublesome with all the stationary turrets mowing you down in short intervals. By destroying them as soon as possible I eliminate that threat and the "biggest" problem I have with this level is just intercepting all those asteroids. There's no large asteroids fortunately so I just have to make sure my shots hit them. At the end of the level I can't use my Mine Missiles at the back row as they're too close to the top of the screen, and I kinda have to go backwards before the level ends. This game has an "delayed input" effect which, if I press too many keys in succession, will try to apply them several frames after I pressed them. I had to go lightly on my key presses to not fast forward through the "end of level" statistics and access the Data section in the menus afterwards. Despite everything I have now, I still don't manage to get 100% destruction... I'm not completely sure, but it could be because of enemies which appears "outside" the screen, but can still shoot at me, or asteroids also spawning outside the screen. And before you ask, yes, I have to do two shopping trips as certain weapons are only available before the bonus level. Encode here: http://youtu.be/lGMOpXBhVzs

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."

Posted: 6/17/2012 5:15 PM

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Tseralith

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (456)

Joined: 11/12/2010
Posts: 183
Location: Sweden

No progress right now unfortunately, been more interested in playing other games this week. Though... I do think I'll start playing the next level now actually. Results will be visible either later tonight or tomorrow.

"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential. Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."