Posts for arkiandruski


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I made a commentary for anyone who's interested. http://ia360927.us.archive.org/0/items/GunstarHeroesTasCommentary/gunstarheroescommentary.mp3 It's not on the level that adelikat and Baxter are suggesting, but I lack the tech savvy to set that up (I also lack a good video capture program).
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I watched International Soccer, and while I enjoyed it immensely, I think other sports games do the playarounds better, like Tecmo Superbowl. Now that is nonstop laughs (could be just because I understand football, though).
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But yeah, I'm really looking forward to some adelikat commentaries, and some from anybody else that would like to do them.
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I think Nach is saying our publishing rate has increased recently. However, it would still have to be an absolutely huge rate increase for us to have to worry about this any time soon.
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I agree with sgrunt too.
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Thank you for the support, Baxter, and also for the files. I'm watching the run right now and the commentary is very good. As promised, I've completed one of my own commentaries. You can find it here. This is my first commentary for anything and it may show a bit. Let me know what you think.
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Anyways, Warp and Nach seem to agree on system-game-category-movienumber-authors.fileextension. I don't really have too many problems with it either. Does adelikat have any protests? Can we move on to some of the other issues?
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This would be to cater to people who like different ways of watching. For people who like the submission text, it's still there, but for me personally, I have trouble connecting what's said in the submission text to what happens in the run. I can read it beforehand and not understand anything that's said, or read afterward and still not understand anything that's said because I don't know what they are referring to. No matter how well they make the submission text, I still would prefer it if there were an immediate explanation to what's happening in the run which I can hear (or see) while it's happening.
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No, actually, I think we're getting somewhere. Also, Xkeeper: Doesn't every emulator on the site have a browse function?
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It's also the point I make. I'm trying to think like a user. If I want to watch the Bionic Commando run, for example, I'll go to "b" for "bioniccommando" That would be my first instinct. Now say I wanted to watch Prince of Persia. I go to "p" for "princeofpersia". Wait, there are multiple systems for that run. Well, I'm watching the Genesis one, so "princeofpersia-genesis". There it is. (I should note that I do see system-first as viable and understand the logic behind that too)
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Really, my goal here is to encourage more people to make commentaries. On the other side of things, I think commentaries can really be used to introduce new people to the ideas of TASing. Really, I think the biggest requirement for the commentary is that the person making it has a lot of knowledge about the run and the game going into the commentary. I still think the fun commentaries are fun, but I was thinking we could really make this a useful feature of the site. That's also the reason I said authors would have first dibs, since they are the ones who know most about the particular run. Second dibs would be people who have put work into TASing the game. For example, even though CpAdolf doesn't have the current any% run of Super Metroid, he could probably make a pretty good commentary for Taco and Kriole's run. He wouldn't be able to go into the details of decision-making, entertainment and discovery, but he would be able to explain it very well. Also, no offense to JXQ, I still think he's a great guy and respect him a lot, but I didn't like his commentary for Oot. He admitted in the beginning that he knew very little. It was obviously the first time he had watched the run all the way through, and half way through he got bored and left the microphone. Imagine someone who didn't have the same sense of humor as JXQ watching it. They would get nothing from it. So anyways, what I'm trying to do is put the idea in people's heads and really seeing if we can get a lot of quality commentaries (or subtitles) on the site. Usually, even if you have an idea that will take a lot of work, there will be people who are willing to do the work to get it done, especially if they think it's a good idea. (Again, look to Earthbound's commentary as a good example. I also think that Comicalflop's commentary of Banjo Kazooie serves this purpose rather well, too. I haven't listened to his other commentaries because I haven't watched the runs yet).
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Nach, if I'm reading correctly, the system you propose seems needlessly complicated and has a lot of extraneous information. Why do we need author version numbers, for example? I really can't think of any useful information they provide. If they are used to differentiate movie files, then movie number or whatever sorting mechanism we try to use on the movie files will cover that just fine. To tell you the truth, I never had any problems finding the torrent I wanted to watch. They sort pretty well, although if there is a movie that's obsoleted, finding the one that comes later is a problem. I think that's really the only thing that needs to be addressed with torrents. Why do you think movie numbers should be at the end? If we must use movie numbers, we should have them serve a double function and let them be used as a sorting mechanism. At the end of the filename, they don't serve that function and just feel like they are tacked on, not serving any real useful purpose. The two most important things in my mind with input files and torrents is that they sort correctly and that users know which movies obsolete which. Anything that's added to the name should serve that function. Putting system first, I have no problems with, except to say that it almost feels unnecessary, but I keep movie files for different systems in different folders. Also, on input files, the extension tells you what system they are from, and if you can play a movie file on an emulator, you know how to look for a proper extension (also, emulators won't let you try to play movie files they don't support). On torrents, from what I've seen, the naming has been pretty good about giving the system when it was needed. I almost feel that if we have to, the system name should come after the game name still.
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Yes, I prefer audio commentaries, but subtitles are also quite acceptable.
Post subject: Project: Commentaries to accompany all runs
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I really enjoy most of the commentaries added to the site, and if done correctly, they really serve to bolster a run, even if the run is rather straightforward. I think I would like to see more official commentaries. They would be a great way to introduce users to certain TAS tricks because the tricks are being explained as you see them on screen. Also, it may serve to make some of the odder runs more entertaining. Every run could benefit from a commentary (Yes, including King's Bounty) Some ideas for guidelines: - Assume this is the first run of the game they've seen. If it obsoletes a previous run, don't just talk about improvements. Cover some of the old tricks that were there since the first run. - Aim for being informative first, entertaining second. As a guideline I listened to Comicalflop's commentary for Banjo Kazooie, and I thought he skewed a little too far toward the entertaining side. Don't get me wrong, the commentary still made the run rather enjoyable, but I would have liked to hear more about what went into the run and the idiosyncratic aspects of the game. The commentary for Earthbound, I believe, had the right balance. - Commentaries should be of good quality, both in sound and style. Try to minimize artifacts in the sound file. It might help to make an outline before you start, so you know what points you will touch on and when. Make sure you can be understood at all times. Practice. Things to include (in order of importance) - Explanation of tricks and techniques used in the run, and why they are faster (Explain as they are being used) (If the run is a pure entertainment run, you don't need to explain why techniques are faster, obviously). - Explanation of game mechanics (this may be covered by the previous item) - History of the run - If some things are done in unconventional ways, maybe explain how they were originally supposed to be done. - Fun facts about the game - Sync points Authors have first dibs on their own runs. It is not required that an author do their own commentary though. I think etiquette for this should be people announce their intention to do a commentary. If the author then says they were planning on doing their own, the first person drops it. Does that work? By the way, I claim my own runs, and I may be doing Aria of Sorrow all souls unless Kriole wants to take that.
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Not entirely. Even after you memorize patterns, there's still precision jumping.
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Well, if you look at my zip file, you'll notice I used two digits. That will hold for quite a while. The movie with the most obsoletions only goes up to v15 if I remember correctly. (and I do now. I checked since I posted this message)
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Well, let's start with the universals and work from there. For example, does everyone agree that it should be game name first author name last? That's a good place to start. Do we want to avoid spaces and capitals like in the current naming convention? Should names with spaces have the underscore, or should we just go straight no spaces to keep the size of names smaller. What do we want the files to be able to do? I personally believe that the naming convention we eventually arrive at should do a few things. - It should sort by game name so that files are easy to find when I want to find it. - It should sort correctly through the obsoletion chain so people know which files to delete as well being able to track the progress on a certain game - By that token movies on separate obsoletion chains need to sort in a different place than each other. - The author should be mentioned because we do need to give credit to the people who are making these - It should be user friendly as possible - I think making it automatic might be a completely different headache, and in my mind it is unnecessary Using this I sorted the different things by order of importance - Game name first is the most important. The big discussion here is whether to use the U.S. name for all games, preserving the obsoletion chain even after version switches, or to use the rom name (for example: will we use "bioniccommando" for all of those games, or call some of them "hitlernofukkatsu"). I prefer preserving the obsoletion chain, but I can see the reasons for the other method. If we can't reach consensus put it to a vote. - The second most important is what category the movie is in, since that means movies on different obsoletion chains won't be mixed together in the sort. Whether or not we need a separate category for the generic fastest at all costs movies is up for debate. Should we have a list of categories to choose from or should we go case by case? I think the second might be required because we have some character specific runs which throw a wrench in the works. Some ideas for generic categories: -glitched -lowitems -allitems -nowarps -alllevels -allsecrets -pacifist I prefer "all___" to "100percent" because I think it looks better. "100percent" is applicable to more situations, though. - Third most important is obsoletion order. There have been a few suggestions on the site - version numbers: which is what I settled on. It had to be entered manually, but it allowed for proper sorting with minimal keystrokes. - movie numbers: Allows people to know what the movie page for the movie is so they can go to it. However, there is the one problem of historical movie files, which have numbers in the 600s. If we feel this is not an issue, it's still very possible - date of publication: yyyymmdd sorts properly, still has to be inputted manually, but is probably easier to automate. Makes file names slightly longer than movie number or version number does. - time: hours.minutes.seconds.hundreths. In my opinion, the worst of the options. While the time does reveal new information about the movie, namely how long it lasts. There are many, many examples of slower movies that have obsoleted faster ones. Thus time is the least likely to sort properly. -The author name is the last important bit of information here. My suggestion is that this should be listed as the username on the submission file. I've noticed that Inzult is sometimes listed as "philc" I wonder why? I think I covered all the issues here. My suggestion on how to proceed is to take one issue at a time and reach consensus on each before proceeding to the next. It will focus the conversation, although it might take longer. If two options reach a stalemate, you can either decide that adminstrator's opinion is what we'll go with, which will get things done faster, or you can put up a poll for a set amount of time (I say no more than a few days) and the winner of the poll is what we do. I suggest the latter. Usually is two ideas have about equal support it means both options are viable.
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Just did, but I wonder if I'm the best person to ask them.
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It's not happening is it? What has to be done to get something to change around here? I don't know why this site continues to inconvenience their users for so long. I don't know maybe there's a good reason that the movie files absolutely have to be author name first besides an aversion to the work involved or a resistance to change. I'd volunteer to do the work myself, but I can't. Heck I'll still volunteer. If someone gives me the ability, I'll zip all the files myself and put them all up on the site in the right place. Figure it'll take about a week to do so. It'll be the only thing I do and I'll relinquish the privilege after I've finished my task. The work will be done and we'll have file names that actually make a modicum of sense.
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The thread already exists, so this discussion should be moved to the old thread. I personally don't see this being an interesting TAS unless we can glitch the game somehow. While the game is quirky, I don't see much room for a show of skill, and from what I remember, all the scares are kinda "blah".
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I saw a really good suggestion for the tag of movies that we're trying to deal with here. Something along the lines of "new time saving techniques found." This implies that the movie was considered good for the time it was published, but progress has obsoleted it.
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Maybe "stale" could work as a category. "Known large improvements", "Highly unoptimized", something. We want a category that draws attention to these movies so that people may be more willing to obsolete them, or something easy to find if you want to find it. On that note, I vote the picture be a biscuit.
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Yes, I am and people have been for over two years. I know the TAS community moves slow and everything, but this is ridiculous. Twice people have done the work to help the process along, but it's been ignored both times. EDIT: Scratch that, it's been over three years
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Okay, why are we still naming input files that way? At least make it game name first.
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If this gets accepted, I think Solomon's Key will be the only famtasia run left.
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