Posts for adelikat


adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4739
Location: Tennessee
Maza wrote:
But because we are not voting for the game it self, but to a well-made, fast and entertaining run, I'll give this a Yes vote.
As a matter of fact: no. Not all games will be represented on this site even if a high quality run is made of them. Therefore, it is very important to judge the game itself when the run is of a new game. Of course we aren't looking for whether the game is good in its gameplay or graphics but rather if it gives us something interesting for a TAS; a way to show something extraordinary. In that category, I think Nitsuja succeeds [/quote]
Hmm... I just noticed that this run was already accepted but i guess saying out loud my oppinions isn't a bad thing. :)
YES, opinions of submissions is greatly encouraged :) Even in submissions that are already decided.
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adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
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Thanks man, glad to see I'm not the only one interested in this game :D As a matter of fact I have recently discovered that flint spearhead does affect bosses as well. (In the first run through I basically copied walker's route because I didn't know very much about the game). Bosses have a 75 frame invulenerability period. The flint spearhead will mean 5 hits instead of 9 with the basic weapon. Thats a 300 frame savings with only about a 30 frame cost of stopping and manipulating a spearhead. The spearhead is as powerful as the optimal weapon is for each boss, 5 hits instead of 9 (the spearhead does not affect other weapons though). Because of this, I don't have to worry about having the right weapon for each boss. Therefore I have changed the route to: ice cave, cliff, woods, fire, forest. This way I can have the time saving spear in all the levels. The cloud is ncessary first because it saves loads of time in the cliff level. As for the refills, I am making sure I have all 3 when I get to the boss. I am experimenting as seeing where I can get them optimially. In the new wip I get one in the intro level with a cost of about 15 frames. I should be able to get the last one from a random enemy drop without losing significant time. I will post a wip of the new run after I complete the forest stage. This new run should be significantly faster :)
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adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
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yes 21 accepted submissions is not that bad at all. And also, the 4 unjudged submissions are no more than a month old. Submission limbo has been eliminated for now at least.
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adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
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good run. I liked Baxters version, so naturally I am voting yes for this 2 seconds faster movie.
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adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
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Sabikage wrote:
This isn't a criticism on the performance of the author so much as the fact that a 100% run is just not entertaining. The hack doesn't really introduce anything new to the game beyond a different map, nor is the map design inspired or new enough to make the different level design interesting for a TAS. 90 minutes is a long time to be sitting watching any individual speedrun, especially speedruns which do not significantly vary from existing runs (the regular Super Metroid runs on the site were actually more interesting because I was unfamiliar with the tricks associated and seeing them used in familiar places to do unfamiliar things made the runs interesting. Seeing them used again in unfamiliar places is not as novel).
I would like to re-iterate Sabikage's post as it sums up my arguments more eloquently than I probably would have. There is no doubt that this run is entertaining but I question whether it is a better choice than an any% run. Would any of the yes voters here vote no on an any% run? I doubt it. But you would also get a lot of others (including me) voting yes.
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adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
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Here is my first version of my TAS of this game. At the point that the last boss appears I am 857 frames ahead of Walker's run. It is flawed in that I didn't have enough energy to use the dragon weapon against the boss. Finishing this run would require going back and getting some energy refills. Since this is just my first version, I will just start a new run. Any comments would be most helpful. Also I am testing possible route changes but it seems that getting the cloud or spear immediately fails due to boss fights. The bosses have a 72 frame invulnerability period. Having the wrong weapon is an immediate 288 frame loss. These weapons save a lot of time in the early levels but not enough to compensate.
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adelikat
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well, for the record: YES!
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adelikat
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fortunately hp values are easy to find - get FCEU version .16 - get to a spot a few frames before a shot hits the boss and savestate - open the cheats menu and click "reset search" all ram addresses should appear in the left column. Close window - frame advance until you know for sure the shot did damage. Open the cheats window and click "value decreased" then hit "do search" The left column should be limited down to only values that decreased in that time. - hit "set oringal to current" and close window - advance until you have for sure hit the boss a 2nd time - open cheats window and hit do search. The addresses should have gotten smaller since it is now only values that decreased both times. -repeat this procedure until there are a manageable number of addresses left. - open memory watch and plug those values in - play the game with the memory watch open and visible. It should be pretty clear which one is the boss hp at that point.
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adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
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Some sort of published criteria for accepting hacks would be nice. As far as the metroid hacks are concerned, I think there should only be 1 allowed. It seems metroid redesign is the superior one so it should be accepted and legacy should not be allowed. I guess my opinion could chang if there were aspects of metroid that could be featured in legacy that could not be in redesign.
The TAS of the hack must show something not seen before in the TAS of the original game (for example, doing some good looking move that is infeasible in the TAS of the original game timewise, but made mandatory in the hack)
I feel this is the most important requirement for any hack.
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adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
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I promise you I have tested this area and that is the fastest. It takes more time to scroll through the level ups than it does to walk out of the cave. You say it takes mara 45-48 sec to level up from the metal slime but you also have to factor in the battle sequence as well since leveling her up will require an additional fight. In my first run, I used the silver taro cards to double the xp of the balzack fight so that mara could get outside without an additional encounter. But the time it takes to get the cards + the additional level ups is not enough to compensate. Keeping her alive for the lighthouse bengal fight is not a good solution either. As a spell-caster, Mara has extremely poor AI and does bat-shit things in this fight. Casting useless spells eats up a lot of time in addition to having to level her up. Also, as you mentioned, you would have to kill her off in the cave so that will take time as well. There is a possible faster solution but none of those are it. I think I should have just sent the lone hero into the cave, that way I could kill him off to get out. I haven't tested this for sure but I think it may be faster. I didn't come up with this solution until much later in the game. I didn't want to redo it for this especially since it will be only a marginal savings. One day I will redo this run but it won't be for the aeolus shield trick. I am almost positive that it is slower. Should I redo it, it will be for even more insane luck manipulation.
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adelikat
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I admire your persistance at redoing this run. It shows some good work. Unfortunately, this game still isn't very interesting. I vote meh. If it weren't for the precision of the run itself I would have probably voted no. Sorry, I know how much work you've put into it.
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adelikat
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Nibelung wrote:
The pacifist idea is very good in Contra games because of the insane amount of enemies in the screen.
Yes, when you can pull it off without an extraordinary amount of stopping to avoid enemies. And then of course there is the inevitable lag. I found this run rather boring. It lost its impressivness quite early when you frequently had to stop or backtrack to avoid being hit. Also, it would be quite unecessary to have this as a 2nd run for this game. Perhaps a normal 1p but only if it were faster than the 2p for some reason. (We have a pacifist of the NES contra but I find it unecessary too). Voting No.
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adelikat
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I rather see someone creatively losing them.
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adelikat
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I managed to find the rom without much problem and it synched just fine. It seems that this game is a TASable game but this run needs more work. I encourage you to do another run: 1) use the good rom dump for the next one. A game on THIS rom will not be accepted. 2) My opinion is to skip all minigames, they aren't interesting enough for a TAS. 3) work on optimizing movements. This run looks very improvable. Maximize the amount you are dashing especially. I would estimate more than 30 sec can be saved with more optimized movements.
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adelikat
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WOW. Easy yes vote.
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adelikat
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wow, this is a no-brainer. YES I wondered about the possible differences with this U & J versions but there didn't seem to be any except I don't remember there being speed upgrades in the U version. If this is the case this run should still clearly obsolete it as they make it far more entertaining. Also I am really impressed by these creative time savers: 1) jumping up the ropes instead of climbing them 2) at one point you set a bomb and got a key and timed it that the bomb would kill you right as you got the key. Excellent trick.
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adelikat
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randomly skipping stages? That sounds like a good thing to me O_o Secret warps? again, a good thing. Someone make a warped run of this.
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adelikat
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Guybrush wrote:
At first I doubted that this would make an interesting run, I was wrong. Voting yes.
ditto This turned out to be an easy yes vote.
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adelikat
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Yes, watch Guybrush's WIP carefully, there are many common TAS trick that could help you improve your runs. Some things I noticed: 1) definately a cool, publish-worthy game. Good choice here. I wonder why we don't have a TAS of this yet? 2) If you don't use frame advance you should be at least slowing the game down to 3% in order to get perfect accuracy when jumping / wall climbing, etc. 3) the wall climbing looks slow you should jump on and off at the earliest possible frames. 4) you should jump down from ledges instead of falling. This is a common TAS trick. by jumping you increase your acceleration and therefore get to the bottom faster 5) the tornadoes in the 2nd level seem to move you faster than regular flying. You should try to be one them for as long as possible. 6) in the mouse level you walk on the ceiling longer than necessary. you walk faster than you can wall climb so you shouldn't be on the ceiling any longer than necessary. If you want some help on using various TAS tools, PM me and will glad to help :)
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adelikat
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I did that with my wrath of the black manta run and I saw NO difference in frames (after subtracting the intro screen on the avi). However I tried with DT2 and it seems the avi was recorded at 60fp2 and the frame counts were nowhere near accurate.
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adelikat
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Excellent, can't wait to see the new submission :D
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adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
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josh l. wrote:
But the game isn't really finished no matter where I stop it, so I figured it doesn't really matter. And stopping it right after the final blow is always the most impressive way to do it.
Agreed. I will vote yes. This is an entertaining game and is a good addition to the GBA category. The run is well done. Normally I prefer fast as possible at all costs, but I think the author did a good job here balancing that with avoiding repetition. I also agree with you decision to not play hard mode and not complete the "Rebirth" game. Good job.
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adelikat
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Big improvement over the published run. I found no loss of entertainment as Ans suggested. Sure, Phil & Genisto's characters looked more independent form each other but that was because it was 2 people controlling 2 characters. For 1-p controlling 2-characters, this run is grade A. Good Job.
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adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
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Easy yes vote. This is a very fast paced game, even more so with the excessive glitching. It looks well planned and well executed.
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adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
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This work shows a lot of improvement in your TASing abilities. Keep it up :)
Sorry for the late submission!
3-4 is not a late submission by any means. I was expecting it to take weeks.
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