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I watched most of your WIP, and it looks pretty good. I noticed you used different dragon attacks, sometimes even on the same boss. One looked considerably slower (I think it was the ice one) leading me to believe that they all aren't the same speed. Wouldn't it be best to use the dragon attack with the quickest animation everytime? I was thinking you were mixing them up for better entertainment.
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Jumping and walking are the same speed unless you jump at the same frame that X lands, then he pauses one frame for some reason. As far as screen transitions, are you refering with going through doors? In that case, I never bothered finding that out. Never thought it'd be easier to know. As far as route goes I wouldn't count on being able to snag that heart tank in Sting Chameleon's level before defeating Launch Octopus. You're better off following the same route.
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Let me know when you start. I want to help as much as I can. Also I decided to do the intro stage. I was curious how much better I can get it. I managed to shave off 8 frames. 6 of them came from the Vile fight. 1 from less lag with one of the bees. And the other one from the jump after the slope. It turns up that the part with cars can't be improved. At least not to my knowledge. The frames seem to have been lost due to some sort of frame rule regarding Vile's ship.
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As far as lag goes, I think your best bet would be to constantly compare your wip with my run and make sure I don't get ahead, because I was very methodical in lag reduction. The biggest lag reductions come from the boss explosions by killing the bosses at the right frame or killing Storm Eagle and Flame Mammoth so that they explode out of view. That saves anywhere from 25-30 frames a pop. There's also a ton of lag reduction involved with the explosion of the ship in Lauch Octopus's level. The rest of the lag reductions consists of mostly shooting the Buster. Also dancing around on the cart in Armored Armadillo stage get's rid of some.
With luck manipulation, the only trouble I had was with Armored Armadillo and Bo Spider. Those were the only times that hex-editing was an absolute must for me.
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Thanks, Hero. I never fully understood the physics of the boomerang. I don't think I ever would've figured out on my own how to grab that heart piece while jumping from the ledge. BTW, it saves at least 33 frames by doing that.
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Rick wrote:
So, I did enjoy your run, dezbeast, good job!
I think, if nobody minds, when I get some time in May here, I'd like to claim the run to see if I can tighten things up. I thought I could see a few places of improvement, and I'd like to be able to tighten it up.
The planning period, however, can start now, and if I get a really free day between now and the end of school, I could probably start on the intro stage.
So let's talk possible improvements, shall we? *Throws hat into the arena!*
Alright here are all the improvements that I'm aware of.
Intro stage:
At the part where I jumped near the end of the downslope, if you wait a bit later before jumping you can save 1 frame.
The part where I get damaged by the cars can be done 2 or 3 frames faster, but I don't know how.
See if you can get the Vile fight done faster. Though it was 12 frames faster than Fractal's any% run, I'm not 100% sure it's optimized to the fullest.
Chill Penguin:
At the part with the ostrich looking enemies shoot the second ostrich and dash one extra time before jumping. That will save 1 frame.
At the first high metal stump, I was dashing before I made the jump. Doing so required me to press back 4 frames. If you dash jump and land at your jumping spot you'll only have to press back twice, saving 2 frames.
Boomer Kuwanger:
Boss battle is the only improvement that I know of in this level. If you manage to beat BK as fast as Fractal did, you'll save 6 frames.
Storm Eagle:
Right after getting the head armor, wall jump from the right. That will save at least 7 frames. And when reaching the top, wall jump from the left. That will save 3 frames.
At the part right before reaching the 3 platforms suspended in mid-air, dash one extra time and land in the middle platform. That will save 1 frame.
Spark Mandrill:
If you're lucky, you may be able shave off 8 frames at the miniboss. You just have to hit it 4 times instead of 3 before you land on the ground.
Armored Armadillo:
When dash jumping off of the carts make sure you do it as early as possible so that you have as much time in the air as you can. When you're in the air you go the speed of the dash plus the speed of cart. I didn't realize that the first time through and lost around 13 frames by not doing it.
At the end when you die from the bird, make sure the cart doesn't go by. It causes 6 frames of lag.
Sting Chameleon:
Manipulate SC to jump lower and you'll save 4 frames.
Chill Penguin revisited:
When you approach the first enemy with the axe, you can bypass the metal trunk in front of it without the trunk stopping your horizontal movement by using Rolling Shield on it. That will save 6 frames.
Armored Armadillo revisited:
I see no errors this time around, however I suggest you try out the strategy that Hero of the Day posted. It could be faster.
Sigma 3:
If you have better luck with the lag in this stage, you can gain a couple more frames.
Sigma 4:
The wall climbing can be done 1 frame faster.
hero of the day wrote:
I know that the spark mandrill heart tank can be collected a bunch of frames faster. After dashing off the left most ledge, a boomerrang can be fired upward that will grab the tank. You don't need to make X hug the wall to grab it.
Do you know how many frames faster it is?
Edit: Ok I was messing around trying to get the heart tank from the ledge, and I didn't find a way to destroy the turtle without wasting time. Hero, could you post a demo on how it's done?
Edit 2: It turns out you only waste a few frames killing the turtle. However, I couldn't grab the heart piece for the life of me.
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I'll post all the improvements I know of later on. I have to look through my run again to do so. I calculated that around 67 frames can be saved just from what I know.
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PreddY wrote:
Will you provide your WIPs while you progress?
I will provide WIPs.
Bag of Magic Food wrote:
I made a .zip file containing all the test runs I made that could possibly be of interest. I think I tried to organize them by which revision of VisualBoyAdvance you need. The descriptions aren't always very good, though, and a few of them have added colors because I was into that for a while.
http://www.box.net/shared/0quxt714ga
I probably already mentioned this before, but make sure you have a working plan for weapon energy for the rest of the game before you go beyond the first 4 levels. Then you won't get stuck wondering if you should have conserved or refilled somewhere.
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Just to let you guys know I've started working on this game already. Right now I'm in the process of researching this game. Hey Bag, it's great that you posted all this info about the game. I shall definately put it to use. Is there anything else I should know?
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I'm glad you figured it out. I tested it and there was no frames gained or lost. It still should be done in any future run just to show off this glitch.
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Turambar wrote:
I'm assuming this concerns only the refight. Luckily you don't have to redo too much.
I'm waiting eagerly for publication and encode.
Yes I was referring to the refight. I'd quit before I would go that far back to redo the first Sting Chameleon fight. I should have my improved run done in no time. I'm going to copy paste where ever possible. If it takes longer than 3 days to re-submitt I'd be surprised.
hanzou wrote:
That was great pulling a little hadouken combo on Sigma's 2nd form.
I doubt I'll be able to pull that off again in my revised run. He just happened to raise his hand high enough at the right time.
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I like all the positive responses but I'm going to cancel this submission and revise my run. It turns out that I can enter the Sting Chameleon battle fully charged using a trick in FractalFusion's run. This will put me under the 34 minute mark. Fractal, I don't know how you come up with these tricks, but you are the man!
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FractalFusion wrote:
Before Sting Chameleon refight, isn't it better to charge up completely or as much as possible before going in?
I think I did charge up as early as possible. You see I couldn't figure out how to get passed those stupid miners without getting hit by their pick axes. And I would have to cancel the charge to shoot them anyway.
alucard wrote:
When the capsule is rising for the armor after the miniboss in Sting's stage, there's a way to get behind it. I've done it on console AT LEAST two times. It has something to do with wall jumping/sliding at the right time as it comes up. I don't remember if you actually land on top of the platform for the capsule, or stuck 'behind' it.
I couldn't get the trick to work. Are there any other details you remember about it.
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Thanks for the comments.
Fractal, I didn't bother trying the other way. I just compared to your any% run and it turned out to be 4 frames faster. I took into account not ending in the middle.
Hanzou. Killing both eyeballs with one shot using mid-air hadouken wastes time. I don't have enough time to charge up the ice block without wasting a huge amount of time. The way I did it is much faster.
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Please don't let the lack of replies discourage you. I would very much like to see this game done. If you complete this, I'll be motivated to work on 4 and then this site will have the whole GB series.
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I decided to finish up the level. I couldn't find a way to make the Storm Eagle battle any quicker.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/879626494/mmx100ptas.smv
edit: Do you have any comments on Sigma 2 and tips for the rest of the game? If not, this will be my last WIP and I will finish the game and submit. But please don't leave me hanging. I want this run to be as good as possible.
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FractalFusion wrote:
Try to manipulate Storm Eagle so that he does the wind as short as possible.
I got him to flap his wings for 120 frames but it didn't come close to saving any time in the battle. And dashing forward until he stops flapping is no option because the lag caused by the explosion is a killer. Do you think it's possible to get him to flap for less time or even better, get him to not flap at all?
