This kind of TAS might not have occurred to the artists here.
In Street Fighter Alpha 3 it is basically it's a "strengthen your character" mode, you choose your path (with differing opponents) and level you your character. Sometimes the opponent need to be beaten with certain requirements, so the playback would not be the same combo over and over.
The differing paths determine your special skill acquirement, so if you choose to go with a certain fighting style (ISM) and get skills or face an opponent that don't do that ISM justice, you're screwed.
The amount of characters in the game and the variety of customization could equate to each character and ISM choice be different enough to be its own category. Just sayin'.
Hope this lights a fire under someone.
I truly would love to do this, as my first two TAS choices are shot down (MM2 DeusExMachina got rejected, and Tetris Attack SNES desynchs a lot), but my main computer is a netbook at the moment. =/ I've been watching for 5+ years and have a good grasp on what makes a good TAS and how to do it, and already love SFA3. I still regularly play it on my HTC EVO, PS1 emu HDMI mirrored to my LCD and using a Wii Classic controller, lol.
Only problem might be my character choice. I'd be using Sakura and that's that. I can already pull off lots of juggling in real time and with TAS abusing I think I could make some great variety. It would likely be an A-ISM run with the V-ISM Custom Combo ability ASAP, to get through those certain missions. She has essentially 9 different fireballs (3 strengths, 1-3 taps), Sakura Otoshi (the hop with up to 3 overhead smashes in mid-air), medium Shou'ouken is juggling beast, and Shunpuukyaku (hurricane kick) can be done in air, too. 3 Special Combos and Custom Combos would make for a lot of variety. And of course tweak for higher damage and lower defense... I really like the 'autofill -ism gauge' for normal play, but I'm not sure how that would do in TAS vs. other choices. Perhaps some entertainment/speed tradeoffs can be acceptable, like using the 'special attacks do more chip damage' ability to crush a turtling opponent with 40-50 custom combo hits all blocked, lol.
When I build my next desktop I'd love to take this on... But what do you guys think of Sakura? It's to my understanding that in general, any one character is acceptable for a fighting game TAS, as long as it's reasonable to keep that one character... But I'd hate to get rejected for character choice.
Oh, and also... first post. Woot. Finally not a lurker anymore!
Currently obsessed with: Mega Man 2 hacks, SFA3, Super Metroid Zero Mission, MM8BDM (Skulltag MegaMan mod, it's amazing!)
Fighting game TASes are rather contentious choices around here. People who aren't familiar with fighting games tend to get tired of watching the same character for extended periods of time, while people who are familiar are just generally very picky about the quality of the work with the character in question. I strongly recommend you check out the other fighting game TASes published here, particularly X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, where SDR kept things interesting by switching characters often and playing several 2P bouts so the game didn't entirely consist of an invincible player performing unanswerable combos on a series of punching bags.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Fighting game TASes are rather contentious choices around here. People who aren't familiar with fighting games tend to get tired of watching the same character for extended periods of time, while people who are familiar are just generally very picky about the quality of the work with the character in question. I strongly recommend you check out the other fighting game TASes published here, particularly X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, where SDR kept things interesting by switching characters often and playing several 2P bouts so the game didn't entirely consist of an invincible player performing unanswerable combos on a series of punching bags.
That's probably the biggest thing I'd be worried about, lack of variety. I have seen many fighting game TASes, and SF2 Rainbow Edition is probably my favorite. The luxury of all characters at your disposal during a match is mesmerizing. I actually haven't seen the XvSF one, thank you for the suggestion!
The problem with the World Tour mode in SFA3 is that you have to use one character only... however, being able to employ several different strategies through the leveling system, could be enough for people to enjoy. I'd say the biggest goal would have to be demonstrating all the different combinations for character configuration. I think the potential is there to make an awesome movie, but it has to be approached the right way... The -ISM Plus system is actually more complicated than I thought. Straight from CJayC's SFA3 FAQ-
In each Area, you will earn an ISM Plus, which is a special enhancement to your
character (such as extra damage or auto-blocking). All earned ISM Pluses are
active once you've earned them, but you can only earn a total of six.
The available ISM Pluses (and where they are earned) are:
Air Guard (U.S.S.R., A-5)
Allows your character to block in mid-air, which Z-Ism and V-Ism can
already do.
Auto Guard (U.S.S.R., C-4)
Automatically blocks attacks (both high and low) as long as you're
not currently attacking, with the side effect of having a much smaller
Guard Meter.
Damage Plus (U.S.S.R., A-6)
Adds extra damage to all of your attacks.
Guard Destroy (Europe, B-3)
Causes your blocked attacks to take off much more of your opponent's
Guard Meter.
Gauge Plus (America, B-4)
Causes your Super Gauge to slowly increase, and doubles the increase
given for attacks and blocks.
Guard Power Plus (Africa, B-7)
Decreases the amount of Guard Power lost when blocking.
Guts (see below)
Boosts your status maximums.
Hard Body (Asia, A-4)
Makes it impossible for you to be dizzied. A great counter to Stun
Attack battles.
Infinity Guard (Africa, A-7)
Removes your Guard Meter, allowing you to guard infinitely.
Limit Off (America, A-4)
Maxes out your attack power at the cost of your defense.
Original Combo (Africa, A-8)
Allows your character to perform Original Combos in X and Z-Ism modes.
Super Guard (U.S.S.R., B-4)
Allows your character to take no damage from blocked special moves. Nice
to have against Super Vega.
Super GP Plus (America, C-4)
Additional attack power against your opponent's guard meter.
Super Zero Cancel (Europe, A-3)
Allows you to cancel your special moves into super combos. Rules for
starting the Super Combo (i.e. on ground/in air) still apply.
Zero Cancel (Europe, B-2)
Allows you to cancel your normal moves into special moves.
Zero Combo (Europe, A-2)
Allows you to cancel your normal moves into other normal moves.
Zero Counter Plus (Asia, B-4)
Increases the damage done during a Zero Counter (Z-Ism and V-Ism modes).
There's a lot of potential through different -ISM Plus combinations as far as variety goes... When setting up the character before the next battle, only 2-3 -ISM Plus can be activated, some are worth 2 points, and some are worth 1. Mmmmm, cancelling with TAS precision.... ah well. These are still all "I would"s until I have a capable machine for PS1 TASing. :]
Currently obsessed with: Mega Man 2 hacks, SFA3, Super Metroid Zero Mission, MM8BDM (Skulltag MegaMan mod, it's amazing!)
Mm, I still suspect that most people who aren't familiar with fighting games won't notice that much difference. They don't have the in-depth knowledge to say "Hey, he just cancelled X move into Y move! I've never seen that before!"
I don't want to discourage you, though -- make the TAS! Plenty of people will appreciate it! It just may have trouble passing the bar for publication here. Then again, it might not...
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
