Here’s an updated run of Katina
Link to video
“That’s a lot of hits!”, you might say, and you’re right! In fact, this score plus the new high score on Meteo means that the optimal high score route is now completely different from my published run. But it can always be better lol. At the very end even though I get the hatches to open before the core appears there are no enemies that come out : (
The only guess at this point is that the enemies have to actually start spawning before the core would actually appear. In order to try this out I would have to completely redo this level… again… and there are in fact limits to my perseverance.
I’ve been able to take a good break with the DTC contest, so the willpower to start over might come through, but that aside, I’m stuck between two options: I can either take Sector X for 397 into Macbeth 319 or I can take Solar 999 into MacBeth 319. The problem is that a run using Solar 999 would take over 2 hours to complete whereas the Sector X route would be 50 minutes (the same as the current published time). I would love to do both of these routes, but it guarantees that I have to redo all of Venom 2 because of RNG (and that’s assuming both MacBeth AND Area 6 somehow line up).
I’m currently working on the Solar route which is a nightmare since I can’t seem to pin down exactly where the lava arc’s hit box is. I need to get like 80 points before the first enemy appears :/
It has been discussed that my original submission would be more entertaining for a GDQ event since it uses the hard route Versus the new Meteo and Katina route.
With that in mind I am going for the absolute maximum score… So 2 hour video here we go 😅
{Obsoleted 425 Hit video}
With DTC 11 finally being over I could get back to this game. I learned partway through the level that the lava arc's hitbox is just a single point on the surface and in no way follows the actual animation. The lava mounds also have a hitbox that can only be shot once. I missed one in the beginning before I realized this, and I'm tempted to take another pass at this level, but I definitely need to take some time away. On a more positive note, I once again beat the old tas by so much that Solar (and not Sector X) is now part of the optimal high score route even without infinites.
Now for the 999! I did some testing and much to my delight I can get 8 hits on the lava arc every boss cycle. Each cycle takes 40.5 seconds to complete, but if you destroy the left arm it reduces the time to 33.3 seconds since he does 2 less moves. This strategy (combined with my much higher starting score) will bring the boss fight to a mere 40 minutes.
Link to video
Got an extra 8 hits using my improved knowledge of the lava arc hit boxes and making sure I hit all the lava mounds.
Now it's time for the real grind to get up to 999 points.
Link to video
We were researching a JP-only glitch that softlocks the game in Sector Z which would allow for a 999 score, but there is no known way to end the level once the glitch occurs.
You have to watch the entire intro cutscene in order to charge shot your teammates for points. The exact reason for this is unclear, and I mistakenly thought it was also JP-only (which is why this video is in Japanese). The score of 321 is improvable, and I may tackle this stage again in English.
Link to video
It started out with the discovery of 1 new point. Then it turned into wanting to add entertainment throughout the whole level. And then I found five more points. And then the RNG gods struck me down and I got two less points on the final section compared to my previous video. I genuinely hate leaving those points on the table, but after six months of banging my head against the wall trying to figure out the moles at the end I just had to call it.
Please give it a like, though. I’m really pleased with how it turned out overall.
Link to video
Wow, I can’t believe I’ve been working on this new route for two years now. Granted, I took a bunch of time working on other levels, but this was always in mind. I used basically the same screenshot as my current submission because there really isn’t a better one to represent the whole movie.
Enjoy!
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4111
Location: The Netherlands
Cool stuff! Love how refreshing it is compared to the old route, with half the levels being different. Looking forward to submission, would love to read more about some of the new strategies, such as how the Katina hatches/boss work.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa
<dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects.
<Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits
<adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Cool stuff! Love how refreshing it is compared to the old route, with half the levels being different. Looking forward to submission,...
Sooooo..... There is not going to be a formal submission of this TAS. Purely for vanity reasons: I don't want to knock my current publication out of Stars tier.
There was very little information known about the saucer or hatches in Katina until 2 weeks ago. Here is a video by Wordsayer19 explaining everything. I picked up on a basic strategy over the course of re-doing the level 3 times which was to kill as many enemies as fast as possible; It may sound simple, but that means using lasers to kill as many enemies as possible in between charge shots. I did not fully optimize this strategy, so I will be taking another look at Katina in the future with this new information in mind.
Link to video
This is a very unfortunate situation. A TAS that really should be published on this site is not being submitted because it would most likely lead to the author losing a star-tier publication. And it makes sense for him to do so, it's not his fault at all: The new TAS really belongs to the exact same category, it's just that a second grind to 999 points was added that happens to be much, much longer than the one already featured in the published TAS, greatly diminishing the entertainment value of the whole TAS.
This does feel like a flaw in our system, but I can't think of an easy fix.
Current project: Gex 3 any%
Paused: Gex 64 any%
There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
I haven't been sitting idle since my recent max score run. There were several loose ends I wanted to tie up and here are the results.
First is Fortuna. This was a relatively straight forward level. A new ship will spawn from the base every 80 frames until there are 10 enemies on the screen at once. Naturally, I never let it hit that limit. They also stop spawning once Star Wolf appears. The self-destruct at this point is to re-spawn all of the satellite dishes for an extra 8 points.
Link to video
Second up is Corneria's boss on the easy route. There wasn't too much extra content, but I still had to contend with the moles popping out of the ground.
Link to video
Third is Meteo without the warp. I was able to get a dozen or so extra points in the corridor because I wasn't moving nearly as fast, and the general chaos that ensues with all the asteroids hurtling towards you makes for an entertaining watch.
Link to video
And Finally we have Sector X without the warp. This was a whole new path for the second half of the level and it definitely took some work to get all the bonus points.
Link to video
Enjoy it all!
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4111
Location: The Netherlands
Nice stuff!
Does that mean all levels except Titania and Bolse/Venom 1 have a max score TAS now? (either as IL, or as part of a full run)
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa
<dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects.
<Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits
<adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Those are the only three levels that I haven’t done. (I’m not sure if there’s going to be a ‘yet’ at the end of that sentence). But there’s a user named brrr890 that created a max score TAS of every level over a decade ago, and I frequently studied them to see if there was anything I missed.
After four years I don’t mind leaving some room for someone else to pick up the mantle. There are several other games calling my name that I want to dive into.
