I finally had another look at NES Monopoly, after thinking about adelikat's TAS (was it really 4 years ago?). I eventually put together a plan to make this TAS.
This TAS aims for fastest input. It improves my own previous fastest-input TAS from a long time ago by 1625 - 1564 = 61 frames.

Goals:

  • Aims for fastest input (minimum input frames)
  • 1 human player vs CPU

Strategy used

adelikat's TAS showed that you can trade (I'm assuming with Ollie, who gives away money like free candy), select No, and once the other player selects Yes, mortgage the properties you put up for trade and then agree to the trade. This I am sure is illegal in an actual Monopoly game, but NES Monopoly doesn't care.
Anyway, Ollie gives up to $1360 for both utilities, enough to scheme a plan where he goes bankrupt on his turn. Actually it is a little faster (for minimum input frames) to get $1304 from him. When zooming the amount up on the trade interface, the trade amount goes from $1291 to $1391. So it is faster to mash up from $1291 to $1304, than to mash down from $1391 to $1360. Now if you're wondering why $1304, there is a reason, but you'll need to watch the video to find out.

Lua code

As old as it was, the C++ code I used a long time ago, posted on this page, was instrumental in helping me remember what I was trying to do in the first place. I was able to create a Lua version which is a bit cleaner than the C++ code. I posted the code on the same page (HomePages/FractalFusion/Source/Monopoly). Points of emphasis include creating a lookup table of RNG1 values and addressing them by index, so as to not force the program to run RNG1-calculating code a zillion times over. Of course the code can still be improved.
Anyway, I used the code to find the delays and get the dice rolls I wanted (6+6, then either 4+6 or 6+4, then Ollie's 1+1 & 1+1). For the dice rolls, I only needed 12 total frames of delay.
I also made a dump of Chance and Community Chest card order based on RNG, so I can manipulate the correct cards. The decks are set after pressing A to start a new game. I also went through a number of scenarios during the naming screen (the fastest way to scroll RNG) to manipulate RNG1 to the correct value as soon as possible. It turns out to be faster by taking Player 2.

Notable strategies

The two key strategies are:
  • Instead of walking all the way to Water Works, let the nearest utility Chance card take you there. (And it allows you to get both utilities in two turns.)
  • When trading with Ollie, raise Ollie's cash offer first before attaching the utilities; this turns out to be faster.

What about the minimum time to actual ending TAS?

adelikat already has this TAS. But if you were wondering, I have a movie which improves on it, based on the above two strategies. And it can still be improved.

ViGadeomes: Claiming for judging.
ViGadeomes: The new strategy used here is clever !
After discussions with the staff, we originaly came to the conclusion that both adelikat's TAS and this submission should be treated as different branches as the different end goals chosen (fastest input vs. fastest bankrupty) leads indeed to different gameplay & strategies different enough that they can coexist. This submission should have then been accepted to Alternative.
But then FractalFusion uploaded an userfile using the same strategy as this submission but with the same end metric as the current publication so the Alternative solution isn't one anymore because strategies are almost the same now. We are then back to the original plan: replace the submission file with the userfile given by the author and use the current submission file as an alternate movie on the publication.
Replacing submission file with Forum/Posts/529900 and uploading original submission file to userfile.
Accepting to obsolete [4104] NES Monopoly by adelikat in 00:29.53 with this movie as an alternate movie file.
fsvgm777: Processing.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #8973: FractalFusion's NES Monopoly in 00:28.92
GJTASer2018
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mortgage the properties you put up for trade and then agree to the trade. This I am sure is illegal in an actual Monopoly game, but NES Monopoly doesn't care.
And even if it was technically legal, any human player with a reasonable amount of understanding of the game rules would call out this strategy as manipulative BS and shut it down that way. The AI bots aren't that perceptive. :P
c-square wrote:
Yes, standard runs are needed and very appreciated here too
Dylon Stejakoski wrote:
Me and the boys starting over our games of choice for the infinityieth time in a row because of just-found optimizations
^ Why I don't have any submissions despite being on the forums for years now...
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From my research, it seems possible that a variant strategy of the former TAS (using a different card) may possibly be faster (in terms of ending input sooner) than this submission; it would be very close and would depend on RNG. I'll need to do more research on that, but I'm a bit busy at the moment so it might take a week or longer.
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I'm generally not a fan of TASes that ends input early, but I'm voting Yes anyway here because this strat is hilarious. 🤣
Post subject: Little informational question
ViGadeomes
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Hello FractalFusion, Clean new strat that you used here! Out of curiosity, Approximatively how much time would this strategy save if we were going for the fastest completion time ?
adelikat
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adelikat's TAS showed that you can trade (I'm assuming with Ollie, who gives away money like free candy), select No, and once the other player selects
Saying no works on any CPU player. Combined with the ability to mortgage after your opponent agrees to a deal really breaks the game. I just want to say I really like this TAS but I don't think it should obsolete the fastest completion movie. We could go on and on about whether completing the game the quickest, or use the least number of input frames is superior, but ideally we would just put them side by side.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
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Yeah it'd be ideal if the main submission obsoleted the current record within the same metrics first, and then the one that aims for a different type of ending could co-exist as a secondary publication file.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
DrD2k9
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feos wrote:
Yeah it'd be ideal if the main submission obsoleted the current record within the same metrics first, and then the one that aims for a different type of ending could co-exist as a secondary publication file.
Why a secondary publication file instead of a different publication?
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Because they both aim for fastest completion, just using different timing. Unless one happens to be cool enough for Alt.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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ViGadeomes wrote:
Hello FractalFusion, Clean new strat that you used here! Out of curiosity, Approximatively how much time would this strategy save if we were going for the fastest completion time ?
Sorry, I fell asleep. Here is the fastest completion time TAS in 1738 frames (bankruptcy at frame 1976), with the new strats. It is 37 frames faster than adelikat's TAS.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [6041] NES Monopoly by FractalFusion in 00:28.92
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Oh, didn't know my userfile was going to be used to replace the original submission, lol. Btw, in case anyone is wondering, I was not able to improve "early input end". Strategies similar to those used in #1166: FractalFusion's NES Monopoly in 00:27.08, which initially were potentially faster depending on RNG, turned out not to be faster because the RNG did not work out.