Posts for ikuyo

ikuyo
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Joined: 7/8/2021
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As someone who primarily works (or intends to work) with Linux games, I think it's also important to improve the rules to account for the fact that Linuxgames are now acceptable. And this involves reworking some rules or adding better clarifications:
    * What is the preferred update/patch number for Linux and DOS games? Is latest available preferred always? can we accept an earlier full release (v1.0+ or after launch date) if it produces faster movies? * What is the stance of TASVideos about games tied to DRM (such as Steam or EGS) that might eventually be lost due to this DRM issue? * Are early access games and episodic games acceptable? For episodic games, does a movie released later that includes more episodes automatically obsolete a movie with less content? * For games with variable graphical settings that can affect performance (such as RE games or the Towerfall 1000fps movie), is there a preferred setting? Is it explicitly the responsibility of the runner to state the environment? (environment rules such as fps are set in libTAS atm, but it's not a bad idea to futureproof)
Those are the questions that I can come up with right now, and I would expect more questions to come up as the rules get revisited.
ikuyo
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I've decided to uncancel the TAS and let it have its fair shot. While the skip found shortly after submission causes this movie to no longer be the fastest route that forgoes the Airswim glitch, I can now see the potential for this run as a "No Major Skips" route. Given that the RTA community is small and hasn't arrived at a consensus about how to handle this now outdated (but important) route, and given the overall positive feedback the movie received upon submission, I think it's best for this community to figure out that question.
ikuyo
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As expected, a new No Airswim RTA run is using the new skip and beats this submission by several minutes. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1124011565
ikuyo
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PracticalTAS wrote:
I'm curious about the end credits softlock. Is a no airswim route faster than a route which uses airswim but detours and stops airswimming to set the end credits flag, then resumes airswimming? If the answer is "No", then that other route would be the fastest completion possible and therefore qualify for publication. I believe this route is eligible either way though.
No, definitely not. any% with airswim has a TAS for a much faster ~27 minutes, and a detour that activates end credits would add 5 minutes at most. (any% TAS by Serena here for reference, she's working on a submission document as we speak) Link to video
Post subject: Any% TAS by Serena
ikuyo
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BTW, Serena made an any% TAS as I was wrapping up the No Airswim one: Link to video
ikuyo
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Link to video Just a little section i'm particularly proud of.
ikuyo
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Since it never hurts, here's some documentation about speedrunning/TAS techniques for the game <h2>General movement mechanics</h3> Robin has a max running speed of 470 units per frame, assuming no modifications (this will come up later). She takes 6 frames to reach max speed from idle when on ground, and 7 when in midair. As such, accelerating from ground is best for speed. Robin's running speed is preserved when transitioning from air to ground or visa versa assuming no horizontal collision, and the cap is enforced in both ground and midair so we can reach max speed in any of them. <h2>Boosts</h3> The way Iconoclasts enforces movement speed caps only applies when Robin has less than her max allowed speed and is accelerating. This means that if Robin somehow were to obtain speeds greater than her max movement speed, the cap would not be enforced. There are two known ways to preserve speed and exploit this: <h3>Slopeboosts</h3> Robin can perform an stomp by pressing jump+down while in midair. After some frames of animation, she will plummet to the ground. This can be used to destroy blocks and kill enemies. When Robin lands from an stomp, she performs an animation and then proceeds to return to idle. If Robin lands in an steep slope (usually steeper than 45°), she will instead start sliding down the slope. We can then press jump to cancel out of the slide and keep the slope speed into our regullar running/jumping speed. Pressing jump for just one frame causes us to cancel into run, while holding the button cancels into jump. This gives us 700 speed and it's the best way of obtaining long term speed. <h3>Gunboosts</h3> Releasing a charge shot from Robin's gun gives her recoil in the opposite direction of 600. By inputting opposite direction when releasing the shot, we can preserve this speed boost and carry it with us in any horizontal direction as long as we don't turn or stop. However, it's worth noticing that guns have a cooldown after releasing a charged shot during which no shots can be fired or charged at all, so we have to manage the gun resource carefully for boosts. Additionally, we can use the gun boost to boost up (for an extra midair jump) or down (for a fast fall). While this method is more versatile than slopeboosting (since it requires no slopes and we have our gun available at almost all times), we need to be mindful to use it when we do not need our gun otherwise. <h3>F*** up shots</h3> For gunboosts, the game determines the direction the shot is released at using the direction Robin's facing and if any up/down input is being held. If those are being held, they take priority over the facing direction. However, the game only determines the direction for recoil the frame the shoot button is released. This means that with a frame perfect input, we can basically redirect our gunboost independently from the direction we shoot at. RTA runs use this trick once, but a TAS setting can abuse it in many more places. <h2>Kill Jumps</h2> Killing an enemy induces 4 frames of lag. We can release and press jump during those frames to obtain a midair jump, which acts consistently with regular grounded jumps. The run abuses this to quickly ascend vertical sections or reach points without having to climb ledges.
ikuyo
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Joined: 7/8/2021
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For a PC game, can a settings file be provided for an option that is permanently set on first startup, not modifiable from within the game, and not tied to save data? Iconoclasts has a flag in its data directory called settings, which contains a flag to know if this is the first time you've opened the game. This is used to allow players to skip an intro cutscene before the title screen that is unskippable otherwise, guaranteeing that the player will see it during their first time booting the game. Once the player has selected New Game, and enters a game, this flag is permanently set. Since iconoclasts uses manual saving otherwise, you don't need to save your new game at all (you can essentially close the game right away and generate no save data while still keeping the first_time flag).
Post subject: Iconoclasts
ikuyo
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Joined: 7/8/2021
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Link to video Iconoclasts is a Metroidvania-styled indie game released in 2018, available for PC, PS Vita, PS4 and Switch. The game is known for being the passion project of a single developer for almost a decade, its gorgeous animation and some surprisingly heavy themes. It also has a native Linux port and plays nice with libTAS 1.4+! As of this writing, I'm already working on a No Airswim TAS. I explicitly chose No Airswim because I want the first TAS of the game to convey as much of the game as possible while also making it accessible to me as this is essentially my first major TAS project ever.