upthorn
He/Him
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You should be able to destroy everything else on the ship even if you do have to hit it all the time, and I would recommend doing that. But playing with the worms some before that would probably be entertaining. You could time it so that the battleship releases the first helicopter the frame before you kill it (the battleship). Then, you can destroy the helicopter on the last possible frame.
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
emu
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Joined: 1/2/2007
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Location: Germany, Munich
Thanks for the quick respond. I'll try that as far as possible. As a reward I'll post my WIP :) I didn't want to post it yet, because every intended improvement (except for the banana in Fun Forgiven) is included. So the rest of the movie won't bring anything new. As already said, I don't have much time at the moment. So unless anybody else continues the movie, progress will be slow (but not stop). http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/4775/Dynamite%20Headdy%20-%20emu.gmv PS: I can justify the boring run in Down Under, but I'll comment everything after finishing the movie. PPS: @Arrow: Nice Toejam&Earl run :) I didn't watch everything yet, but I'm already very impressed.
emu
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Location: Germany, Munich
Hi again, I need an advice about an asthetic issue. I'm at Fly Hard 2, where my test run didn't quite satisfy the expectations :) Here is my WIP so far http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/5029/Dynamite%20Headdy%20-%20emu.gmv The two questions: 1. It would basically look like this. Is it ok? 2. I fould a glitch, which does NOT save time and needs to take damage, but looks nice and unexpected. Should I imply it, and if yes, how often? Thanks in advance EDIT: Fly Hard 2 starts around frame 65600
Post subject: The glitch
Joined: 11/11/2006
Posts: 1235
Location: United Kingdom
I watched the whole WIP twice just to see where all the improvements were compared to your test run and I can say that its much more entertaining. Nice work. For the glitch, I'm not sure. if theres somewhere in which you stay inside for a long period of time (or better yet, a place where you go outside of the level!) I would definately stick it in, those 2 small places are nice but its not as cool as you destroying every enemy you see. Thats my opinion, anyway.
<adelikat> I am annoyed at my irc statements ending up in forums & sigs
emu
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Joined: 1/2/2007
Posts: 188
Location: Germany, Munich
Thanks for your fast reply and positive review of my wip. I couldn't pass the border anywhere else than at these edges, so I'll take your advice and better kill the enemies. Note: Only the broken bulbs in these areas damage Headdy. I assume they were programmed for the level, but not put on the path. However the programmers use them as decoration, though not having deleted their function. On Monday starts the new semester, not giving me much time to tas. However, since the flying levels slowed me down a lot, progress will be faster after them (hopefully:) ).
emu
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Joined: 1/2/2007
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Location: Germany, Munich
Hi there, I have some questions. It would be nice, if someone can help me. 1. Twin Freak is destroyed, but I noticed, that collecting all his pieces causes much lag (approximately 50 frames), which means I have an entertainment-speed-problem. Should I avoid the pieces this time? pros: - nearly a second saved - aiming for fastest time gives a better basis of valuation for future runs obsoleting mine cons: - pieces have been collected at every other boss so far (however lagless) - it is usually hard to do in real time, thus possibly entertaining to watch 2. Input end: After the final hit to Dark Demon there are approximately 12 – 15 minutes credits. After this there is input required to continue after total point calculation and to press 4 numbers on the panel to get back to the start screen. Including the input would make the movie longer and give wrong information for the longest ending statistics, but follow more the rules. Should I include the input? 3. Since I don't collect the secret numbers from the bonus levels, I won't enter the secret scene and not get the final ending. What title should the movie have? Aims for fastest ending? normal ending? 4. For the submission text: what is the plural form of "hangman"? hangmEn? hangmanS? Multitude-of-orange-smiley-like-thingies-headdy-can-grab-hold-of? Thanks in advance
Joined: 11/11/2006
Posts: 1235
Location: United Kingdom
Hi :) 1. We've seen it can be done. Its really up to you, but some smart alec might insist on avoiding them in the future just to obsolete you. 2. I don't know. 3. Does it not have a memory address with a random number in it that you could check anyway? Or is it generated after the bonus stage? 4. I would think 'hangmen'. Looking forward to seeing the finished run!
<adelikat> I am annoyed at my irc statements ending up in forums & sigs
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(judge hat on) 2. If all it does is return you to the title screen, don't include it. 3. Calling it normal ending is probably okay.
Joined: 1/6/2007
Posts: 14
1. I'm leaning towards speed being more important than entertainment in this case. People watching the run know that you could easily collect them all in a TAS, so I think they'll be understanding if you explain why the sacrifice was necessary in your submission text. I would experiment with it more, though... see if there's anything you can do that would possibly reduce the lag while still collecting the pieces. Maybe just not jumping, using very little left/right movement, or collecting them without shooting your head, etc. 2. I'm almost certain that I've watched runs that worked the same way (last "real" input being way after the game is finished), and the runner just made a note in their comments about the fact that the run is really XX:XX long, but there is one final input required at the end of the credits. Sorry that I can't remember which specific run for reference. It might be acceptable to just suspend play when it gets to the password screen, but I think that at the very least you still need to wait for the part where you're prompted to press a button during the credits. 3. I consider it the normal ending. Collecting the numbers is optional and unlocks a bonus stage. I would consider that to be a 100% ending (although, would 100% also require the SBPs?). EDIT: Also, I just watched your last WIP. I think that's a pretty cool glitch, and I would definitely include it. Any idea how much time you've saved so far compared to the last run?
emu
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Thanks, your honour :) To play it safe, I will post the finished run here without the credit input, to give everybody the chance to check, whether the additional input should be included. I think it might be finished in a week, maybe earlier. @arrow 1. I talked to Raiscan yesterday and we came to the same conclusion. I agree with you and will go for speed. However, Headdy's movements will be significantly constricted. Half of the pieces can only be gathered when standing in the explosion of Twin Freak causing massive lag. Every other collected piece causes additional lag. So the in the final version, Headdy will most probably be running in strange pattern, somehow avoiding everythink :) 2. Hm, so you tend to say the input should be included. Now I'm not sure anymore. I will post the movie here before submitting as stated above and see what is preferred. 3. Ok, I'll call it normal ending. About the glitch: It's an older WIP and I discussed with Raiscan, coming the conclusion, that taking damage, not saving time might not be sufficient for these short areas, so I didn't include it, I'm sorry. But the movie is available here for everybody who is interested. Up to that point in the WIP I was 15 seconds ahead. Thanks, for your answers
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Joined: 9/16/2006
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I wouldn't bother with extending the input just to push the numbers. Like Truncated said. :) If you could deal with the lag by making non-collection entertaining it would be great. I'd love to see you shoot your head into a pile of pieces, only to miss them all. :)
End of Line
upthorn
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I don't think any combination of numbers will work if the bonus stages haven't been done. I could be wrong, though, I suppose
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
emu
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Location: Germany, Munich
Nice, that was a cool idea, Trask. For this last piece collection I made Headdy look like he really tried to get them but failed miserably :) @upthorn: You are right about your assumption: Trask once did some testing with the result, that guessing the numbers is not possible. To enter the secret scene all four bonus stages have to be played.
emu
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Location: Germany, Munich
Done, here is my 2215 frames (~36,9 sec) improvement to my test run. Most improvement comes from optimised strategies for sparky (365 frames), terminate her too (327 frames) rocket tier (245 frames) and the moloch skip in fun forgiven (233 frames). I will need some time to write the submission text (lazy), so in the meantime, I would like to hear your opinions about the input end. The credits last approximately 17 minutes. finished movie of Dynamite Headdy EDIT: Since nobody complains about the input end, I think it is ok, to submit it now. Thanks to everybody who helped me doing this. THE REST of this post contains only in-depth information about Dynamite Headdy, intended for tasers, speed runners or gamers interested in further game facts. I do not include things that were already mentioned in this thread before, the submission text or are obvious to see in the movie. Feel free to delete this or inform me, if long posts like this are inappropriate. general: -horizontal speed (2 byte) is 512 (normal walking), 256 (tiny), 1024 (superhead), 1548 (normal hangman pull), 2560 (best hangman pull) -is Headdy's speed higher than his walking speed after a pull, pushing into the boosted direction resets it to his normal speed, but not when pushing into the other direction -falling from higher platforms resets the walking speed to 0 upon landing -to maintain a specific walking speed, autofire forward -if you barely pass an edge while falling, Headdy is pushed slightly away from it, gaining some pixels The escape -trouble bruins energy balls, can't hurt you, after the last hit connected Toys in the Hood -generally picking the hammer head before Catherine would be faster, however, in a tas Headdy can only get the next hangman with the speed of the super head, making it 1 second faster -going for snake eyes was 1 sec slower, due to the long waiting time, until he gets vulnerable Down under -lags easily, especially when walking over small gaps (short falling animation) -glitches: a)when pushing upwards, Headdy will cling to the upper edge with his walking animation. After some time he will go into waiting animation, while his head maintains the running animation. He then can slide up und down, without moving his body b)find a spot where you can slide down onto an edge the way that he will go into the frightened cliff animation. Go back up and make Headdy go into waiting animation (either by waiting (better) or a-glitch(not so good)) and let gravity slide Headdy down onto the edge. His head will dislocate hovering in the air for some time, while you can freely move his body. Clothes Encounter -Sometimes (like in the movie), if Headdy moves at the beginning (in the movie: the time Headdy stands in the middle), Wooden Dresser delays her second jump by 20 frames (when her legs aren't bend anymore, she will stand longer before lifting up) -her heart becomes vulnerable as soon as the head of the costume is off the screen. Hitting the head from below gives it upwards speed prolonging the air time. this can be prevent by hitting her from above with a warhead flying from the top (after choosing it from Headcase). -as soon as the heart becomes vulnerable she finishes her step and flies up -in the movie I could easily have shot off the head one step earlier, but only after the last step she stayed long enough to kill her -it seems, that if a star from the war head flying straight up while Headdy stands below Wooden Dresser, due to the timing of the stars, she is hit on the perfect frame later by the other stars Terminate her too - the Headcase before Mons Meg is sure to drop as soon as the copper ledge (you walk on) touches the left edge of the screen - the jump onto the first three slideable platforms can be done in real time too. jump anytime as soon as Headdy's head contacts the "shoot" sign -the platforms even slide when shooting straight down on them. they will move in the direction the head is facing -the campers will also move to the right when being shot from below or above -the jump onto the weird looking thing has only a time window of two frames (-> unsuited for speedruns) Mad Mechs -when dropping down the long shaft after getting the Hammer Head, land on the wheel in the middle to slow down the falling speed (or else speed is reset to 0 upon landing) -upthorn's technique of reaching the exit seems to be the fastest Mad Mechs 2 -you can also warp from the top to the bottom of the fourth wheel (however useless) Heathernapped -when successfully leaving Mad Mechs 2 earlier, there will be graphical errors on the curtain Towering internal -normally when Headdy pulls himself to a hangman, the game forces Headdy to pass the hangman's x-coordinate, which hinders you when you want to change the direction after the pull. This can be cancelled by shooting your head -during the fight with the balls the tower swings up and down, which stops after the fight. sometimes making the last hit positions the tower bad for the scrolling part thereafter, so it is better to check which frame hit results in which frame, that you regain control after the scrolling Spinderella -even after defeating the boss, the vulnerable part can be hit, making the typical "being-hit"-sound Flying games -as long as there is no movement away from each other, the constant pushed laser hits the battleship and Baby Face frame perfect (with very few exceptions) -the battleship turrets have 24 HP -the earliest moment the battleship can be hit can be memorized by listening to the music. Start shooting at the first note, of the three downward scales (with the four notes, every scale starting higher) -the mouth does not have to be open to be hit and has 6 HP Fly Hard 2 entering the areas glitch: When Headdy gets near a border he will be pulled to it, this enables him to be sucked into the area. It can be done either coming from the top or the bottom. I will explain it coming from the top. Fly diagonally down-right and contact the edge with the head, feet sticking out of it. Fly like this until there is enough space in that area where you can fit in and push up-right. To get out just let the sceen push you through, which unfortunately hurts Headdy. With a little practice this can be done in real time, too. Baby Face glitch: delayed death animation grandpa's head still can hurt you. If you are killed, by touching the head and the hand grabs you before having died, your head explosion freezes for the duration of grandpa face's death. However, after the hand explodes, too, the dying animation continues, and the level restarts. I later found out, that someone else on youtube found this glitch, too, so it is nothing new. Headdy Wonderland -the keys thrown into gatekeeper's back always needs the same time to fly into the box, independent from gatekeeper's position -I was wrong about nasty gatekeeper hitting the floor straight down being the fastest way. She will then rewind her arm up over the other side, which takes 15 frames longer in total. Instead, have her hit the floor more far away, so she rewinds her arm at the same side Rocket Tier -To get the perfect spike head boost, you have to shoot up-back when Headdy is about to fall down. He must not have any forward movement at that point. A successful pull has a 2 frames time window and gives a speed of 2560. - since the soldiers do less damage but give the same invincibility time, it is recommended to hit them first to get past a rocket Illegal Weapon 3 bug: as stated in the submission text, the tower hurts Headdy without dealing damage, giving you the invincibility time to pass the rocket unharmed Fun Forgiven -the moloch skip can be done in real time, too. Make sure, that you don't push any direction after the pull, which would reset down your speed, landing in the gap. If you push nothing you will land safely on the second moloch Vice Versa -when Headdy hits the switch after a ball hit Sparky, it will freeze the ball's x-coordinate, being perfectly positioned for the next fall. Unfortunately Sparky moves away each time during the fall of the ball, making it not a infinite loop technique -as seen in the movie, Sparky can be hit with three balls simultaneously (balls may not contact each other) - during the Sparky fight (not in the level), if Headdy starts to jump right when he hits the switch, he will fly into the ceiling (seen in the movie), however I could not use this anywhere Twin Freaks -As stated before the boss explosion creates lag, especially when collecting pieces. Dodging and jumping at a specific frame reduced lag Fatal Contraption likes to lag. lag sources are: a) boxes, shots from Trouble Bruin (minor) b) Cocoa Heads (a little more) c) shooting platforms up (major) - so another correction: at junctions the scrolling speed does not change. Paths with more sliding platforms just cause more lag. glitch: warping through blocks Tiny Headdy can warp through the blocks when he is positioned right. The first one has a tolerance of 10 pixels, the second one a tolerance of 2 pixels Far Trek - There exists a bug, which gives you a SBP even if Trouble Bruin grabs you. Since I this bug was not of any use for me, I did not check for it. The only thing I can say is, that I got the SBP when carrying TB over the point, where he runs for himself -when you don't leave the level, there will come bananas every once in a while and sometimes the music will change to a hidden track (0F in the sound menu) Dark Demon When hitting Dark Demon and a Head change item at the same time DD receives the damage which would have been dealt with the new head (example: you have the super head and hit DD and the hammer item -> DD receives the hammer head damage; you have the hammer head and shoot DD and the war head-> DD receives normal damage). I tested this with the Melon Head. It also only does 1 damage, now we know at least :) In Exchange for this information, it would be nice, if whoever obsoletes my movie puts at least the same efforts into entertainment. This is a great game, which deserves to be treated like that. Thanks in advance.
Joined: 6/19/2005
Posts: 180
Looks great. Very entertaining, and a great playthrough of a classic game. :D
emu
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Location: Germany, Munich
Thank you very much. I got a lot of input and support here and I enjoyed tasing the game. It makes me happy to see that other players also enjoy the movie and the game.
Blazephlozard
He/Him
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Joined: 2/27/2013
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I've started working on a new version of this TAS, as Dynamite Headdy is one of my favorite games, and there's some new tricks that aren't present in the old one. I'm so impressed by the notes and WIPs emu shared here while making two versions of his Headdy TAS, and they're all no doubt going to help me. Although I'm making my input from scratch, I'll still credit him as an author, as I'm going to be referencing his input quite a bit, and I expect most levels will come out even on frame count. He did an amazing job with this run, especially for a decade ago! And I figure I may as well keep the tradition alive and share WIPs as I go as well. I've completed the first major level, Toys N The Hood, and came out 184 frames ahead! http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/download/42865281621067953 The Getaway (+4): An autoscroller, aside from hitting Bruin as soon as possible. I minimized lag frames during the level, but ended up 4 frames behind still, due to more lag during all the opening titles I do a fun glitch where you get stuck in the wall Practice Area (+4): All you do here is hold right; I came out 4 lag frames behind, so that's a good estimate of how much time Bizhawk loses per level just from load times Toys N The Hood (-192): The basic goal is to have your speed above walking speed (2 pixels per second) as much as possible, from doing what I call Hangman flings. Normal Hangman behavior is that you get pulled towards it, with higher speed if your body is further away. (In some cases, I purposely move leftwards after shooting my head, so that I get a higher speed pull) The way the flings work seem to be that the game does not behave well when Headdy's head is inside the Hangman hitbox when you do a pull towards it. If your head is in the left half of the Hangman's hitbox and you shoot it leftwards, you get flung rightwards, often at 6 pps. On the ascending part, I get a 8 speed fling off the final Hangman where the old TAS got a 6 speed. I dunno how. I do an additional Hangman pull/fling right before getting the Super Head, which activates the foot enemies' cycles sooner. At this point, I'm at the whim of those cycles, as I was unable to get under the left foot before it comes down (the old TAS couldn't either). I purposely slow down to delay starting the right foot's timer. After fighting Catherine and destroying the SBP guys, hugging the right edge of the screen causes the camera to slowly (2pps) pan over to you. Instead, I end the fight in the middle of the screen, so there's no camera pan. I also maximize my Super Head speed as I grab the small head. (I still should try out the Spike Head path, just for thoroughness's sake, although I assume it will be slower, especially as I'd have to wait for Headcase.) 3 seconds saved on the first major level is better than I was hoping! It took like 10 hours to do it though, haha. The next few levels should go faster, although Terminate Her Too through Mad Mechs 2 are gonna be hell again. I stream most of my TAS work on twitch while listening to music: http://twitch.tv/blazephlozard
Blazephlozard
He/Him
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Joined: 2/27/2013
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new movie file: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/43189152983233978 preview video: Link to video Mad Dog and Headdy (+4): No change here. I think it's possible to squeeze in one more hit before Mad Dog jumps away, but that'd leave him with 3 HP, which is still 2 hits with the Hammer Head. Down Under (-1): No change, just lag reduction (falling into the floor before the miniboss saved a lag frame) The level ends on a cycle, and there'd have to be a major time save to reach the previous cycle Backstage Battle (-8): Pretty much the same, the only hit that really matters is the last hit, where you want to be as far right as possible, and bounce as low as possible, so Headdy exits the level sooner I think frame RNG is involved in the bounce, but however it happened, I saved some frames here The Green Room (-3): Every hit after the first hit is frame-perfect on both of them, and I also get my first hit on Gentleman Jim sooner (first hit on Puppeteer is on the first frame their hitboxes appear, so first Jim hit is the only variable here, you need to get head control back ASAP) The swinging attack was probably bad RNG for being able to keep the frame-perfect hits, as it makes Jim move a lot and be fairly far away from the Puppeteer, but with damage boosts to stay mid-air longer, I was just barely able to do it. The old TAS was frame-perfect after hit 3 or so, but wasn't perfect on the first 2 hits Clothes Encounters (-89): This boss is the first major case of RNG. The way that his arms and body move are very random, and to get a 1-cycle kill, he needs to do very long arm movements as soon as he becomes vulnerable, so he doesn't jump away. Luckily, changing the frame you take off the pieces influences RNG, because Beau calls RNG for which piece will be vulnerable next. I've also found that starting your idle animation changes RNG (this could be helpful for Stair Wars and Dark Demon), and with the very long intro to idle during (not to mention The Green Room's intro right before it), this fight basically has infinite possibilities. I'm happy to have saved a second and a half, but it's possible to save more, if you happened to get a really fast piece order (minimal distance Beau needs to move) and could take his head off on the first-possible frame, and get a one-cycle from it. The vast majority of options wouldn't have a one-cycle possible. Terminate Her Too (-398): This is the first level with major new tricks. The first is at the start, with a sequence break of sorts making the ball you need to stand on go through the wall, stopping quicker. When I grab the scene-change Hangmans, I jump afterwards, so the Hangman comes to Headdy sooner and saves a few frames. At Mons Meg, I cancel my explosion as soon as possible to get my head back sooner. The second major trick is Tank Skip, doing a damage boost to skip killing the tank mini-boss. Being stuck at the right side of the screen can let you exit levels early. Through the earlier parts of the level, the camera location (not Headdy's location) is what makes things spawn, so it's not advantageous to be stuck at the right except at the end. Fun fact: Because I didn't kill the Tank miniboss, Headcase isn't here. Loses a small amount of time, since the old TAS used a hammer head to get a bigger swing on the next platform Mad Mechs (+6): At the start, I slow down to avoid the knights instead of taking damage through them. This doesn't lose any time, because you'd be stuck waiting for the platform (on a global timer) to move high enough anyway. I saved 2 frames here (8 extra lag frames make it +6), from an extra corner jump at the end; I only hit the top hammer block, and clip into the corner to get a few extra pixels Mad Mechs 2 (-34): These rotating platforms are pretty crazy in how they move Headdy, but they don't adjust the camera; this means the level is actually simple to optimize. After I get the Hammer Head, I go right as soon as possible, and just keep the camera going right at 2 pixels per frame (with occasional clips forward due to the odd mechanics of the platforms; they can temporarily move Headdy off screen, then Headdy snaps back to the right edge of the screen, possibly getting pushed forward if he's inside an object) I've begun Stair Wars, and unfortunately, it seems that the real-time RNG manip is purely a placebo. It's frame timer RNG like everything else, jumping has no impact on it. It is indeed faster to have Bruin at the right part of the screen to reduce how long it takes to move back, and with a new trick (ducking and holding left/right moves Bruin as if you were moving around the tower left/right) and the knowledge that idle animation affects RNG, I hope to save time. Right now I'm 12 seconds ahead, with every level being either the same or having a small optimization!
Mecha_Richter
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Posts: 53
Wow, great progress man! I'm looking forward to seeing how many more improvements you find. How exactly does that ball skip work at the beginning of Terminate Her Too? Is there a generous window of timing to hit the target?
Blazephlozard
He/Him
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Joined: 2/27/2013
Posts: 175
Location: Ohio
Mecha Richter wrote:
Wow, great progress man! I'm looking forward to seeing how many more improvements you find. How exactly does that ball skip work at the beginning of Terminate Her Too? Is there a generous window of timing to hit the target?
Chronoon does it in real-time actually, I didn't come up with that :v It's not too tight to get under the blue girder in time. Then, all you have to do is hit the blocking-arm-thing, which will start the ball rolling once it's done exploding. Then hit the Hit Me thing before it actually does start rolling; now the ball will roll through the wall. I don't think I'll really be finding any real-time-viable improvements, just a lot of little frame stuff. I found a few nice little timesavers in Towering Internal involving the times the camera pans to you.
Blazephlozard
He/Him
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Joined: 2/27/2013
Posts: 175
Location: Ohio
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/43661155805535296 Currently over half a minute ahead, very happy with how everything's turned out and the number of time saves I've been able to find. Lot of comments for this part... (Heathernapped + Go Headdy Go +) Stair Wars (-8 total, -6 lag): The idle animation RNG manip didn't help here, but I saved a couple frames anyway, and was able to reduce a lot of lag. He has two attacks, and which he does depends on the frame an attack ends. I use a new trick where if you duck and hold left, you can move Bruin rightward without moving around the tower. Towering Internal (-203 total, -8 lag): A lot of small improvements here, especially with the parts where the camera has to pan to you. I abuse the insane height you get from damage boosts to save time on camera pans. Having high X speed doesn't matter, as the tower's rotation is capped. So no fancy Hangman stuff. I defeat the rolling soldier faster by purposely taking damage so that I can hit his otherwise inaccessible hitbox when he's on the ground. This saves a lot of time over using the time stop head. Spinderella (+5 lag): Spinderella is a simple boss for TAS, you do 8 hits in phase 1, get him facing a bit left (look at his little eyes during his second arm attacks), and then are able to do 9 hits in phase 2. I beat up Bino as much as I can too, eheh~ It looks weird, but I idle after the fight. I manage to still get enough pieces for a continue, though! This was mostly to try to manipulate the Gatekeeper, but it ended up not actually affecting Gatekeeper's RNG. However, I did save 1 lag frame exiting the level, so I kept it. Flying Game (+2 total, +4 lag): Fairly basic autoscroller that I had to do twice... Most of the input worked the second time, although my Bird shots and the Battleship's pattern desynced me. I did learn that the Bird Head calls RNG for how fast its birds fire, however! This was the key I needed to manipulate the Gatekeeper; I could fire with the Bird Head during the start of Baby Face! The Flying Battleship has 64 health, but if you try to take him below 8 health too early, he gets healed back up to 11. The clouds have to move all the way down before he can finally go down to 7 health. You want him to die at a low vertical position; I use the Bird Head at the end to manipulate this. That's what saved me 2 input frames! Fly Hard (-730 total, +6 lag): The big time save here is by saving a cycle. Normally, Trouble Bruin will go back into the background midway through the fight; however, he won't do this if you leave his little electric guys alive. Basically, whenever Bruin hits the center of the screen, he does something. The first time, he comes into the foreground; second time, launches electric guys; third time, launches electric guys and goes into the background. But leaving the guys alive messes that up! Once you've done 65 hits on him and he's in the background, he does a final bomb rush and the level ends. Fly Hard 2 (+4 lag): Basic autoscroller. I do an OOB glitch, and I bounce around the walls, whatever... At least it didn't desync at all... Baby Face (-277 total, +3 lag): This is a very cool idea for a 4-phase boss fight. Each phase has 33 HP, and will only switch to the next phase at the end of their current attack cycle. Man Face's cycles is a fixed length as far as I know, and you let Grandpa Face grab you and die of old age. Baby Face will move towards you, then move back to the center. Depending on your position, that will take longer or shorter, so that's where the time save here is. I deal the 33rd hit on the last frame before his cycle ends, so frame-perfect. Boy Face's cycles are a variable length based on RNG (which I can manipulate with the Bird head at the start). There's a potential 4 or 5 frames to save with better RNG here; this was the fastest RNG I could find (most RNG values are either too fast to do a 2-cycle, or are 30+ frames slower), and also led to the fastest Gatekeeper RNG. Headdy Wonderland (-57 total, +3 lag): Okay, ended up with a lot to say here, as I spent a lot of time messing around with manipulating this boss. This is another RNG boss, like Stair Wars, where I need to delay frames to make the boss do a specific pattern. I need Gatekeeper to hop 2 times each time; he can hop 2-5 times. The first hop can be manipulated by delaying entering the fight; the other hops can be manipulated with a combination of idle animations, and making his arm attack last longer. Manipulating the arm attack is a pain, as he has a few set angles he can shoot at. So, after the fastest possible shot, the next fastest is 2 frames loss, and after that is a 9 frames loss. Nasty Gatekeeper has 17 HP, and the fight basically goes like this: Hit him once to enrage him, and bring him to 16 HP He does quick attacks at you 5 times He grabs Headcase off-screen, which has a Bomb Head, and opens up. Hit the Bomb the first frame it appears, so it detonates as soon as possible. He'll do two more arm attacks, then open up to be hit again The Bomb will detonate just as he opens up, and hit him twice, dealing 8 each for 16 damage The frame that his fifth quick arm attack ends (the frame the target reticle disappears/readjusts), he decides how many slow arm attacks he will do before hopping around (sometimes zero). He also decides which arm to attack with first (Headcase arm or Heather arm). So, I need him to attack with his Headcase arm, and do two more arm attacks without hopping away. What he grabs offscreen (Bino or Headcase) is based on the frame his long attack ends; whether or not he opens up is also decided per arm attack. But the number of arm attacks before a hop seems to be fixed once his quick attacks are over. The majority of the possibilities either had him hopping immediately, shooting the Heather arm, or shooting the Headcase arm but hopping away after a third arm attack (which leaves no way to time him opening up). My original Gatekeeper fights needed 40+ frames to get the result I needed. In the end, both Gatekeepers combined, I waited 12 frames to manipulate what I needed. I also found a timesave outside of the RNG. When he does his long arm attacks, his arm keeps going until it hits the floor, and stays there for a little bit of time. However, if he goes straight left or straight right, although his arm travels for longer, it never stops, and then comes back much quicker. This allows me to get the Headcase sooner. I also have him shoot leftwards, so that Headcase appears on screen sooner than if he shot rightwards (the only thing that matters in all this really, is how quickly I can begin a Bomb Head's detonation timer, and Headcase only cycles through his options when he is on-screen). Being the first time I ran into bad luck, I went above and beyond trying to change it, which led to redoing Spinderella and the flying stages, with an idle animation during Spinderella. In the end, I came out 4 frames ahead (3 lag frames, and 1 actual frame from having the Flying Battleship die lower), yet Baby Face and Gatekeeper's RNG stayed the same... It seemed very odd to me, as Flying Game/Fly Hard desynced as expected. But, hey, I was right back where I was but 4 frames ahead, so that was a successful night. From there, with my newfound knowledge, I hoped that shooting the Bird head in Baby Face could change my Gatekeeper RNG. And it did! I also found out that Boy Face's phase length is random, and saved half a second there. In the end, I delayed 9 frames entering the fight, did one 2 frame arm attack, and my Nasty Gatekeeper ended up needing one frame of manipulation to not get Bino. Only 12 frames of manipulation is very good, and less than emu did! Now on to the spike head movement, which is probably the most impressive looking section of the old TAS... The only RNG left should be Dark Demon's attacks, and I should be able to idle during Fatal Contraption (and maybe even during Dark Demon between attacks) to help with that.
Blazephlozard
He/Him
Banned User
Joined: 2/27/2013
Posts: 175
Location: Ohio
I finished the TAS, and World 8 ended up being the best looking part of the run, just like in emu's! I'm really happy with how it all turned out, and it's really great to have given this underrated game some love! http://tasvideos.org/5763S.html