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I'm the only one who voted Deign I guess. Obsoleted two movies I thought could not be further optimized (Marble Madness and SMW2 glitched) and made that awesome Wetrix run.
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HHS wrote:
However, when imaginary numbers are involved logrithms to weird stuff. The logrithm function isn't actually a function in the imaginary plane.
No, every function is a function. To prove this, if there was a function f that wasn't a function, there would be numbers a, b and c where b ≠ c, f(a) = b and f(a) = c, thus giving b = c (an impossibility), indicating that the function that wasn't a function, had to be a function after all.
If we have a function f and numbers a, b, and c such that b ≠ c and f(a) = b and f(a) = c, then we have judged incorrectly - either f is not a function or b = c. Remember, a function cannot return two different values given the same value.
When we say "The logarithm function is not a function in the imaginary plane," we mean that ln(x) does not exist if x is imaginary. It is not a "nonfunction" or whatever you were talking about, it simply is not there, just like sqrt(x) doesn't exist for x < 0, and just like a function a^x doesn't exist if a is negative.
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By definition, yes, your HL2 run would qualify as a TAS. As for whether or not Bisqwit would accept it is another matter - in addition to meeting basic requirements of quality, getting through the submission process, etc., Bisqwit also has to add a new section (for games that are TASable because of internal tools), and depending on how many games are likely to be TASed this way, it might not be worth the trouble.
The other thing to consider is that not everyone on this forum has HL2 and, as such, would have to wait for somebody to encode the run before they could even vote. (That's another issue - how feasible is it to encode an HL2 demo file to .avi format? I know nothing about it)
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qFox wrote:
But... bots themselves can be used fine to run through a game efficiently. didn't bisqwit do this for some rockman? i don't remember how fast it was compared to the record though.
He also used a genetic algorithm that one time to work with the Cutman glitch.
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GeminiSaint wrote:
Can't vote.
Movie desynched when Link tried to buy the Kokiri Shield with just 38 Rupees... probably because a couple of patches of grass gave out no Rupees when cut.
Sounds like bad ROM version, so either not 1.0 or not U.
I haven't seen this yet, so I'm not going to vote.
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Final Fantasy VI for me. For many RPGs the soundtrack is what I remember long after I kill the big bad foozle, and FF6's brilliant soundtrack remains in my mind to this day.
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Bisqwit: I may be wrong, but there are a number of times in the game where you have to wait for some trigger to happen (for example, waiting in safety with those two moogles until the forest fire stops burning), and I think that's what was happening with those moogles. (If I even remember which scene you're talking about correctly...)
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this run. As an aside, though, I think some explanatory subtitles in the avi (similar to what we did with Might and Magic) would be nice - I've played the game and I barely understood what went on.
But yeah, yes vote. Nice job.
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Hina98 wrote:
upthorn wrote:
Warp wrote:
Given that the new one is not worse than the existing one, I see no reason to not to replace it.
Consider that encoding a video for this site takes a minimum of something like three times the length of the movie. Consider that the end result of this would probably be less than 1% different from what we already have on the site. And most people who download it probably wouldn't watch it.
(Note that I am not even factoring in the work it takes to make a torrent and publish the movie, because I don't know what all that involves)
To turn down the run on the basis of it being too time consuming to publish is ridiculous. How many hours, comparatively, did it take to make this TAS in the first place? Many more than the four or five relatively straightforward hours it would take to encode the movie and make a torrent out of it.
Not to mention that we have quite a few TASes of actionless RPGs that are over 2 hours. Heck, Final Fantasy 6 is over four and a half hours (if you include the ending, which you should if you're referring to the avi).
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I voted yes. The movie demonstrates a firm grasp of the game's engine - especially abusing the horrendous sprite collision detection (used for balloons and silver coins) to pick up items at a great distance. It does admittedly get a bit repetitive though.
Some of the tracks reminded me of the Carebears theme song, you know, the "bouncing here and there and everywhere" part.
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I don't want to make it my avatar (gotta love the multihued glass gumball), but I made this one for the fun of it:
And no, that is not what I look like. But don't I wish.
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Hah, love it. You can just imagine the consequences...
But anyway, good work on getting this thing finally finished. Definitely looking forward to this.
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RT-55J wrote:
Unfortunately, there are no fancy tricks for this game.
Wrong. When starting up the game select Mouse. If you hold P (Pause) and use the mouse to move, everything else is practically frozen in time.
Wow. Thanks. That completely changes my route. Let's see here...
Completely skip the castle, just bribe the troll and quickly slip in, grab that taunting key right at the entrance, and slip back out. That means skipping the Labyrinth (especially the Six Dragons) and the Throne Room, which shaves at least ten minutes off the total time.
MUCH less ammo is needed for the two forest boards - I just checked, and it's possible to take an energizer all the way through to the House of Blues!
The Bug Maze is pie with this.
Since boards do not run while they are not the current board, it might actually be possible to run through the prison, grab the white key, and use it to get to the Here It Is room, get the purple key, and run back before the guards close the gate. If that doesn't work out, I can use my spare green key (see below) to at least skip the Sliding Puzzle and the Think Fast board.
This could be shortened even further if there was another white key I could grab and not have to use, but the only one I can think of is at the very end of the Labyrinth, which I'm skipping. As it is, I'm planning on using the green key from the Vendor to avoid having to fight the gauntlet of bears in the Prison (thus wasting ammo pick up time).
A couple of things I noticed about the trick, though. It seems that if there's a long enough wait, another cycle will occur, followed by the immediate pause. Of course that's not a problem with TAS timing since I'll never stop moving unless I have to. Also, while it's possible to open doors, get keys, and (unfortunately) take damage while maintaining time dominance, it is not possible to interact with an object - while you can touch it, you have to wait and let it get a cycle to react to your touch.
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I got the idea to do a TAS for the game ZZT. The world in question would be TOWN, obviously (that's the one that came free with the unregistered edition, so more people would be familiar with it). Unfortunately, I tried starting one earlier today (with the rerecording DOSbox) and discovered that it has some bugs. Long story short, the new DOSbox complains when a program tries to use file IO and console IO at the same time. It is possible that there is no way to fix this. However, in case it is ever fixed, I thought I'd post my (tentative) route for this game:
I'm getting the keys in this order: Bank, Prison, Rube Board, House of Blues, Castle.
In the Bank, I'm going to grab ten gems to later bribe the troll guarding the entrance to the Castle.
In the "Think Fast!!" board by the prison, I'm going to make sure to grab as much ammo as I can - I need it pretty much everywhere later on, especially in the castle and the forest.
I'm still debating whether or not to grab the bonus at the Rube Board or the ampersand. It'd be cool, but there wouldn't be any point other than that.
Unfortunately, there are no fancy tricks for this game. All puzzles are set up so that there is no way to get around them, except to do them. This actually isn't all that bad, though, since it forces me to find the fastest way to complete them - good mental workout.
Anyway, further bulletins as events warrant.
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So far, the optimal strategy against the midboss that I've been able to work out is this: Go up to him and spear spam. When he uses his flame breath, jump away from him, turn around and throw a holy water special, then approach when safe.
I can probably gain a second or so on the midboss by manipulating him into not doing the flame breath, and possibly from more frame-precise attacking. This is just a first-draft run, I plan on going through it one more time after I'm done with this.
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Saturn wrote:
For information, Frog sucks as a overall character. He has no powerful fullscreen single magic attack, nor does he have any powerful physical attacks. Frog Squash is always dependent on your HP, so it's not a very useful tech (who wants to fight a boss with 1 HP all the time just to get max damage power of the Squash?). Robo on the other hand is the exact opposite: Powerful fullscreen single magic attack, powerful physical attacks, best single-healer in the game and on top of that, capable to use 3 out of 4 magic elements: Lightning, Shadow and Fire.
You don't necessarily have to go with 1 HP. At 150ish Frog Squash deals 3500+ damage, and that's plenty at the level I usually face Lavos at (low 50's). Frog's major strong point is in his double techs anyway - Spire and Swordstream are both powerful (especially if you can type match), and he has that one really powerful one with Ayla (Bubble Snap I think?), plus Double Cure with Marle. Leap Slash is also fairly powerful.
(For the record, I'm speaking from a regular gameplay perspective - I know nothing about speedrunning Chrono Trigger and never really intend to.)
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hero of the day wrote:
Well, I actually agree with you about the use of certain bugs. In many games, obviously abusive and ugly bugs are exploited. It can ruin the whole feel of a game.
Murder Beam anyone?
But yeah, it's stupid to single out a single cutscene that's skipped when the entire game is skipped. Besides that, this run definitely does not qualify as "glitch abuse" when it comes right down to it. There is only one glitch "abused" in the entire game.
Will vote a few minutes after I watch it. The vote will probably be yes, mostly since I could never imagine beating Lavos without what I like to call the Pwn Squad (Frog, Marle, Crono - Ice Sword 2 + Leap Slash and Double Cure, plus Frog Squash when the moment is right).
Yeah, that's a yes vote.
By the way, does anyone else find it odd that the Marle and Crono act exactly like they do at the end of the natural game when they defeat Lavos this early on?
Also, is it just my brain playing tricks on me, or did Marle say "This is my, Crono's, everyone's - and I mean EVERYONE's world!" when she should have said Satur's?
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Well, I figure since it's been awhile, I may as well post a WIP for my competition run...
here
To anticipate most questions:
Q: Why didn't you get the flaming spear from the book?
A: The flaming spear is lost the moment you get hurt, and I have to get hurt by the floating eye moments after I would get it to avoid losing time. Besides that, I had no idea how to manipulate it into happening.
Q: Then why do you get the book anyway?
A: It's actually impossible to make the jump from the starting platform to the middle platform. To get up on top of the middle platform without going through the mermen below (definitely a waste of time), I have to hollow out the alcove with the book and perform a super-jump. It's impossible to do so without collecting the book.
Q: Why do you get hurt by the floating eye to get boosted to the right, since the damage boost is about the same speed?
A: I have to. Stop the input just before the jump and try getting off any other way without wasting time. There's no way to avoid the floating eye.
Q: What's the real point of getting the holy water anyway? It doesn't do any more damage.
A: Actually it does, because of how I throw it. In mid-air, the boomerang special won't hit the full three times like the holy water special will.
Q: Why do you get score bonuses?
A: Why not?
And no, that is not what I look like. But don't I wish.