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Level 17: (glitched sound)
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A couple things about this one. First of all I couldn't do the exact route I wanted - the marble prevented phasing through the brick right away so I took a detour to the upper right, which I would have done later anyway. Also, it turns out that if there are more than 2 teleporters of a certain color then your destination is randomly chosen between the remaining teleporters. The same rule applies to enemies. This, of course, can and will be manipulated.
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Level 15:
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Not much to say about this one, I tested every section and this was the fastest way. This is actually the longest level so far!
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Level 14:
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Trackbot manipulation really shines in this one. Not only do I get them to stay out of my way, but they also hit the blue switch favorably so I don't have to go out of my way to press it.
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Level 13 (glitched sound)
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Out of the three routes I tried for this, the last two took the same amount of time, and the first was only one frame slower. I take out my frustration with the right marble by walking around inside of it to get to the exit.
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Nach wrote:
Did you test starting off by grabbing the gem below you instead of on the way back? Or does the missile get in the way?
When getting the gem in the lower right corner, did you test taking the ladder to the right of it back?
Yeah, the timing of the enemies caused problems with that gem. Getting it on the way back by phasing the wall next to it would have been way faster, but the spring gets perfectly in the way. I tested both ladders in the bottom right, the first one is a little faster.
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Level 12 (glitched sound)
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Enemies cost some time here, but not too much. Credit goes to Nach for the phasing at the top - the timing is very tight but it saves TONS of time. When watching the ending, keep in mind that it takes some time for the door to open, so finishing near the door may not always result in the best time...
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Level 10 (glitched sound)
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My route turned out to be the fastest, but not by much. Had to do some slight modifications due to enemies though.
Level 11...not really much route variety, as it's just going between four corners (probably want to do a Z pattern?). This is the first level that requires real maneuvering behind secret passages, but I've modified Ilari's Jetpack script to display a "dummy" where the jetpack guy is, it should make moving around not incredibly frustrating.
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Here's a full video of levels 0-9. With non-glitchy sound! Whoa!
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Up to this point -
Rerecords: 4981
Movie length: 2:56.83
Level 10 idea:
Like Nach said the first and second halves are interchangeable.
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Level 8! (glitched sound)
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I tested the ladder theories by doing the first section with the two ladders, as they converge at one point at the top. Using the down-scrolling ladder was much faster just because there's less distance traveled. Jumping up the ladder mitigates the time loss quite a bit.
Level 9 seems pointless to discuss, as there's only one sensible route. Once that's done I'll post the 10 level WIP.
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Meanwhile, level 8:
Things to note for routing:
It's not clear by the picture, but you can differentiate the scrolling ladders by looking at its bottom block. The leftmost ladder is scrolling down and the rightmost is scrolling up.
Jumps of 2 block wide are possible, 3 blocks can't be done.
The middle section has a few possibilities that I'll play around with.
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Well, it appears that I should have doubted using the red switch! Level 7 (glitched sound):
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This is Nach's route, about 1.2 s faster than mine. The phasing choice in the bottom right corner may be puzzling, the reason for this is that the missile gets in the way and this sets you up better to keep your horizontal speed towards the left.
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I just tried Nach's first route and it was slightly slower, and we've discussed a ton of optimizations so I think I'll move on. Level 7 idea:
I don't think there are too many possibilities with this one. The blue switch is required, the red one isn't but I think it's undoubtedly faster to use it.
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Nach wrote:
When going down the middle of the screen from the very top, it's really faster to take the ladder than busting the floor out from under you?
Yes, this is one of the areas where I tested a few things. Using the ladder was faster by a few frames (probably saved by the fact you can just fall off halfway.)
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Level 6, route #2 (glitched sound):
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It will never cease to amaze me how totally different routes can result in such close times. This is 22 frames faster than the first WIP I posted, and if I factor in Nach's idea about the 2nd gem this is still faster than the optimum route #1 by a whopping 3 frames.
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Nach wrote:
Thinking about it, would it be faster to ignore the second gem on the way up, and instead nab it on the way down from the ladder directly to the right of it?
You're right, in fact that part turns out to be even faster since you're falling down a portion of a ladder instead of climbing it! I keep forgetting about this, have to minimize climbing when possible...
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FractalFusion wrote:
It seems to me that a lot of sounds are missing. Shouldn't there be a sound whenever you collect an emerald?
Yes the sounds are glitched, I forgot to mention that. For a full video the sound will be normal, Ilari knows the technical explanation better but the sound is weird because I started dumping after the game started.
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Level 6 WIP:
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This is my route #1 with Nach's alternate ending (faster by ~10 frames) plus some minor optimizations. I'll try another couple routes before moving on.
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Svimmer wrote:
So Slamo and co, it occurred to me that isn't ladder climbing faster when jumping up the ladder? It only became relevant with level 05. Was that taken into account?
Further about moving on foot: Could a table showing what jumps are make-able and what aren't be useful for fast reference in planning routes in levels where you go without fuel? I started listing them in the tricks section, but my information is based on non-TAS trials so the list should be updated by using frame perfect jumps. I don't think things like moss or conveyors affect how far you can jump, but you seem to fall off ladders a bit sooner so those would be different unfortunately.
Jumping up ladders is indeed faster, it's crucial for hitting certain cycles in level 5. For longer ladders I can just come up with a cycle of inputs to optimize the speed, I will definitely figure that out for level 6.
Interesting point on the jump possibilities, I will have to check that out. e.g. I just barely miss a 3-block jump in real time but it might be doable in a TAS.
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Nach wrote:
Edit:
We're all doing this build your own staircase technique in the lower right corner. Is that really possible?
Good route, even if it doesn't pan out I may incorporate the ending as an alternate to the end of my 1st route. The "staircase" technique does work, I was able to do it in real time.
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New level 5!
Link to video
I'm pretty damn happy with this one, as it saves 2.6 s off the previous video. There's a lot less waiting time and very little backtracking. I'm gonna call this one done unless someone sees something significant I can do to improve this.
EDIT: Video is not working right now, taking way to long to process... FINALLY working now.
Level 11...not really much route variety, as it's just going between four corners (probably want to do a Z pattern?). This is the first level that requires real maneuvering behind secret passages, but I've modified Ilari's Jetpack script to display a "dummy" where the jetpack guy is, it should make moving around not incredibly frustrating.
Like Nach said the first and second halves are interchangeable.
Things to note for routing:
I don't think there are too many possibilities with this one. The blue switch is required, the red one isn't but I think it's undoubtedly faster to use it.
Route 2:
I will try both of these for sure, I have no preference between either of them.