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I've redone stages after Kasandora Act 1 as separate SMVs, so I should be able to hex in those and then just worry about beating the bosses as quickly as possible. So for the most part I'll just be on standby while Dunnius does the sims.
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You are right, it does start earlier. Fillmore Acts 1 and 2 are not affected by this trick. I am already on the highest platform in Bloodpool Act 1, so that is already optimal. This trick does affect Bloodpool Act 2 and possibly Kasandora Act 1. I will try to hex in relevant parts.
neo_omegon, are you familiar with the video submitted at the following link:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3944699? I would like the SMV file for that TAS but I don't know where to find it, or if it is even on the Internet.
EDIT: Although I was able to get to Kasandora Act 1 faster I got a worse Stardust pattern. The next pattern I tried didn't fare better. My best attempt coincidentally gave the exact same time as not using this new trick when measuring up to the start of the Kasandora sim. I did try to get to high ground after the boss, away from the moving sand, but there generally isn't quite enough time after killing the boss. So I'm sticking with my old attempt since I think the boss fight looks better. But I will be sure to try to use this trick in other places if I can.
EDIT#2: Not really a timesaver, but sort of an unconventional way to die: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/584165411/ActRaiser%28U%29%20weird%20death.smv
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Of course. The idea was and is that by including subtitles, watchers won't be totally bored during the waiting periods of the simulations. So Dunnius and I absolutely intend to include subtitles, at least as an option.
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Sorry about the long wait. Here's Kasandora Act 1 finished:
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1251052370/ActRaiser_%28U%29_Zidanax_and_Dunnius_v2_Kasandora_Act_1_Done.smv
I ended up having to stick some delays in the Sky Palace menu in order to get the Bloodpool Act 2 boss to spawn in good positions. I was having trouble getting the Kasandora Act 1 boss fight to be as fast as it was before. Dunnius gave me some ideas for other stuff to try to see if I could minimize the delay needed to get the Bloodpool Act 2 boss to spawn in good places. It turned out that the waiting has to be in the sim or in the Sky Palace and random button presses won't help, but nevertheless as a result of my experimentation I managed to reduce the waiting needed. And things fell into place rather nicely from there: it gave me a better Stardust pattern in Kasandora Act 1, so now that boss fight is actually 4 frames faster. Unfortunately it now takes 4 frames longer to get from boss death to crystallization, so it balances out to the same as before. Total time saved so far compared to our previous version of this run: 766 frames.
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Actually, it is in GoodNES. Maybe you don't have the latest version of GoodNES (3.14)?. The latest version can be found at http://www.allgoodthings.us/mambo/
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Yes, it is understandable that you would use the European version given where you live, but nevertheless your movie probably won't be accepted unless you use the US version. It would be a good idea to read the rules at http://tasvideos.org/Rules.html if you haven't already.
Anyway, I also wish you good luck. I think it would be really nice to see an optimized TAS of this game.
EDIT: it would also be a good idea to read the thread with responses to the rejected submission. There is an example in that thread with improvements to the first level over the submission.
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When you start on another run, I strongly suggest posting your progress in the appropriate game thread and using microstorage for the actual WIP input file. That way, people can give you feedback on what you've done so far and it will be easier to go back and make changes if people find flaws. Also, people can tell you whether what you've done so far is entertaining enough that you should continue.
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In my experience, it's faster to just hold the A button when going through the various messages that pop up when you gain a level. When I tried that at the point where you beat the goblins in Fritz's house, I saved about 15 frames over your run.
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I'm not sure mucking about with SRAM will be very useful for us given site rules anyway. A question however: Do you know how to watch memory locations? If you don't, you definitely should learn. It looks like it'll be useful here, if for no other reason than to minimize random encounters by manipulating that location that holds number of steps until the next battle.
EDIT: finally got Midia to join with a higher level than usual. Hardcoded GP to 999,999, restarted the game, played through to her. But she was only Level 22. That may have something to do with the hardcoding. Maybe obtaining 999,999 GP legitimately would get us a level 63 Midia. In any case, I suppose this won't be of any use unless a. a dirty SRAM is allowed or b. We can find some sort of money-making trick very early on.
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I looked a little further into the trick, and I'm not sure some money-making trick would let us get a powered-up Midia. I tried upping the amount of money in my possesion through PAR codes, but that didn't change her level upon joining my party. Nor did hacking the amount of EXP and Gold enemies gave, leveling up to around level 35, then having Midia join me. What had results was closely following what DaggerDias78 did: dying somewhere further along in the game. When you die, the game takes you back to the screen where you can start a new game or load one. Then, without resetting, start a new game. Then as DaggerDias78 said, Chezni will start with a bunch of money. I haven't tested further yet, but presumably Midias will start with a high level as they said.
EDIT: He also noted something else later:
DaggerDias78 wrote:
WARNING: Do not try to inherit money from a file that is in "the past" because the pakrats on the world map will be replaced with unirats and they are impossible for chezni to defeat at level 1.
While I haven't been able to duplicate Midia entering the party very powerful yet, dying in the past did result in unirats showing up on the world map (but not in the tower you go through with Duke). What's kind of funny is that the world is then in black and white. Even the world map music changes.
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Glad to see that someone's trying this one out.
There are a ton of PAR codes at http://gshi.org/?s=v2&sys=6&gid=554. Of course, it's only the first six digits of each code that matter, since that indicates memory location, which is what we really care about.I looked at the page's code for no random battles in this game, and it looks like the location (7E1868) is the number of steps before battle. Maybe you could try to find ways to maximize the value of that location? It seems, for example, that changing when you leave town changes the initial value.
There's also http://gshi.org/vb/threads/1536-My-PAR-Code-Proof?highlight=paladin%27s. The Paladin's quest zip has a file called "paladinq.txt" that may have some useful info.
EDIT: a guy called Daggerdias78 has posted some interesting stuff inside in a thread called "Ah where are all the topics about this game!!??" on GameFAQs's Paladin's Quest board. This one, in particular seems like it could save some major time, but unfortunately it probably wouldn't be accepted due to it requiring a pre-made save (and I haven't tested it to see whether it's true or not):
DaggerDias78 wrote:
THE ULTIMATE PALADIN'S QUEST SECRET ---- MIDIA JOINS AT LEVEL 63!
This is something that apparently nobody knows about, I found it by accident a decade ago. Midia's starting level is determined by how much money you have. If you have a file on the end of the game (or one with maxed out money, preferably) then start playing on that file. You need to lose a battle so fire any mercenary and have both chezni and midia cast hire until they die because it takes 150 HP and you want to die quickly unless your bored. When you have died, IMMEDIATELY START A NEW GAME! When you start out on your new game Chezni will have inherited all of the money that you had on the file you just died on. By the time you reach Midia she will join on a level in the early 60's with 1000+ HP, weapons you wont get until the saskuot missions, a highbl instead of a minibl, and a TON of magic already maxed out. Her bury spell will be doing 200 damage to anything. Have fun beating the first set of bosses in one hit! Just don't forget to level up Chezni because once you reach Lokiarn then Midia won't be your MVP anymore. ******WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT ON A FILE THAT IS AT THE PAST BECAUSE IT WILL CAUSE UNIRATS TO APPEAR IN PLACE OF PAKRATS WHEN YOU START OVER AND THEY WILL KILL YOU!******
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In case you guys are wondering: Dunnius says he's been busy with family and work, and given how much better he is at the sims than I am, I'll wait as long as necessary. In any case, it's dead week here and I'll be going to Taiwan with the rest of my family for spring break. So you may not see anything from us for awhile.
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I'm not too surprised about UMK3, personally. That run was, for me, one of the most entertaining runs I've seen on this site. Of course entertainment is very subjective.
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An admirable idea, though we'd have to be careful in how we go about this. It wouldn't be as simple as changing the input to give people time to read the text--that can actually affect luck manipulation. Or at least in Lufia and the Fortress of Doom it can because it modifies the RNG. TASers might already have carefully set wait times for messages in order to best set the RNG.
I suppose we might be able to write game-specific lua scripts that detect when text is being displayed, then play back the movie in slow motion until the end of the text is reached. Or in the case of especially fast text outright pause the game for a few seconds.
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Is there a way to assign a hotkey to enable/disable cheats? I don't see anything in the Hotkeys window for that. If there isn't a way, it would be nice to have such a feature for when I'm trying to understand certain memory locations I see in CPU traces.
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If that run will be anything like this one, people won't be able to read much of the text anyway due to going through menus and such so quickly. Therefore, I think you should TAS it in Japanese if that will be faster.
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It started off boring, but I think the stages eventually got more interesting. I think you did a good job keeping things entertaining during the autoscrolling sections. Voting yes.
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Would it be possible for you to upload your SMV?
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php
Allows you to upload various input files, including SMVs. It even gives some information for the downloader, like number of frames and rerecords and any comments you might choose to add.
