Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
I just found some new controls that will help-
R+C- make a unit group, Z+C select a unit group
this creates a select group that you can easily highlight all units, no matter where they are. especially useful in missions with one hero that you want to keep alive
L+D- screen bookmark, D select screen bookmark
while Z+ scrolling is fast, this makes one part of the map become saved, and the press of a button you instantly go there- very helpful with bases, as you can instantly go to up to 4 bases without scrolling to them
Repeatedly press B on a building to make it build faster
If this does indeed work.... Turbo B anyone? :P
R- select all units of one type, pressing R alternates between different types of unit on screen
Edit: Woopsies some of these already listed
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
I think that they'll be done seperately:
Bisqwit wrote:
comicalflop wrote:
Correct, they all can be played individually without needing to complete the others. My started WIP skips all the way to #4, which is the first one of the sequel PC game.
The thing is that more than one campaign are good (#4 and #5 are the favorites, with #6 also potentially good), so would seperate submissions of this game be acceptable since they are all different campaigns?
submission #1: Campaign #4
submission #2: Campaign #5
submission #3: Campaign #6
submission #4: Campaign #1
submission #5: Campaign #2
submission #6: Campaign #3
(these are in order of preference of completion)
I don't see why not. But of course, they all _need_ to be good in order to be published... and hopefully significantly different from each others.
so that's settled, tackle each campaign seperately in the order that I mentioned. And that way they can be sliced together if anyone desires, but for the website 6 seperate submissions of roughly 1 hour each average.
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Well, it would be better to hang out in the thread on SDA. New improvements pop up ALL THE TIME, but it takes a long time to get them up on the scoreboard.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Yeah I downloaded the SDA runs, my feeling is that they are fast but improveable. I'm currently going through the 78(!) pages of the SDA thread on starcraft, to see when and where addendums to missions are made. I'm also reading stretegy guides on various websites so I can refamiliarize myself.
Flagitious made a chart of all TBW and PTW missions times, as well as TAS expected finish times. how accurate are those/should those projected times be the ones to shoot for?
One of this things that worries me is the analog stick in this game, my gamepad is not the best for tilting it slightly and overshooting with the cursor is going to happen frequently, since in frame advance at full tilt it moves 1/3 screen per frame. I'll probably have to resort to the GUI to fine select individual units and such.
with my finding of map/unit selecting with the D pad and c buttons, I think that a lot of map teleporting is going to happen, especially in missions where you have to destroy all structures, the "bring so-and-so to certain destination" will actually be relaxing, in that not as much macro-managing will be needed.
I wonder what glitches are available on 64...
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Silly TASers.
I meant to work on this tonight, but a 4 hour long IM conversation with someone totally sucked up a potential 4 hours that I could've spent test running the first protoss mission... I'll see if I can redeem that with the next 3 hours to work on it. Not making any promises though.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
The projected length of the TAS Protoss mission 1 is 2:15, whereas the SDA is 2:42. Since it's a mission to get Zeratul to the warp gate, and the SDA run has Zeratul moving most of the time anyways, how can that much time be saved? With TAS I can have Zeratul moving 100% of the time, but besides that and having him always walking in straight lines can that much time relle be saved?
Hey, comicalflop, I took your avatar and added varying amounts of blur (with transparency) to the edges:
I thought you might like one of those better than what you are currently using.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
oh yah the one on the left. much thanks.
mmm much better.
Um, the run.... I have not started quite yet, I'll try tonight but with the other things I did I only have like an hour to work on it before hitting the sack...
Once this game gets really rolling (if it works plz no desynchs!!!!!) I won't be procrastinating with it at all.
Totally OT, but sometimes the music in this game sounds like the B-Movie Space Mutiny. That was one terribly funny Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode.
Joined: 3/17/2006
Posts: 243
Location: Back to good old Germany
I think I might want to see a short sample to see what TAS potential this (great) game has...
I've never played it on a console. Only (heavily) on the pc.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
The N64 has the analog stick which is very hard to control in real time. In Frame Advance at full tilt it's hard to control as well, but GUI should fix that. I can't wait to start working on this, the first mission is going to be boring but the whole run looks very promising.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
One itty bitty problem I've encountered thus far is all units' penchant for attacking enemies that are in the way. This is going to be most frustrating when trying to get one unit somewhere- I'm going to have to move that unit way out of the way to go around enemies, because by pressing attack to go somewhere he'll attack whatever is in his way, and once an enemy is in melee range it wastest an incredible amoutn of time to make him leave, because he/she wants to keep fighting. I thin there's a button to make the unit move, since B is attack and that's what I've been using so I'll try to find the move button and see if that fixes things.
There absolutely is a button for Move instead of Attack. I have great difficulty believing otherwise.
You should look at FAQs and such before starting, if you haven't done so already.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
I found it, it's one of the C buttons. The PC version left click is attack, and I always had played never needing the move button since attack moved the units anyways. Now that I'm doing speedruns then needing move becomes essential.
I've found many FAQs that I'm researching, I've downloaded the SDA runs, I'm about ready to start. I just need to make a test run of the first mission.
Edit: Just configured Move to one of the easy buttons on my gamepad, and there is way less stopping to get enemies. I just need to multitask by moving the enemies away and have Zeratul not touch anything, like in the SDA run.
The projected length of the TAS Protoss mission 1 is 2:15, whereas the SDA is 2:42. Since it's a mission to get Zeratul to the warp gate, and the SDA run has Zeratul moving most of the time anyways, how can that much time be saved? With TAS I can have Zeratul moving 100% of the time, but besides that and having him always walking in straight lines can that much time relle be saved?
The projected times were made just to give me an idea which campaign scenario I should choose, just ignore them and always try to do it as fast possible.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Alrighty good to know.
Just started PBW01, it's definetly different controls, and the entire mission is going to just be moving Zeratul around so it's not quite interesting yet
The move button does wonders in these cases, the units don't always move in straight lines but if the area you click them to move is a straight path from their current position to destination, in most cases they themselves create the shortest possible path that that unit could take. So it may look like they're not walking straight but they calculate for themselves when to turn and go sideways to reach the path the shortest way. You could in theory make them really move straight by clicking a few inches away from them constanlty, but this causes more prblems than it solves and does not actually get the desired effect (plus it makes the sound the units make when receiving a command quite annoying.)
Just got to the first big battle, the SDA Strategy is the best to lure all the monsters away
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Agh I cannot use the SDA strategy, the zealots do not move the enemies away as much as I'd like and as a result there are no spaces for Zeratul to squeeze through. The fastest way (I've tested a lot of different options) is to go down and around them, it is unfortunate but this is only a test run.
This is why I hate non battle missions...
I'll grin and bear it, and see if I can finish the level.
Dios mio this is difficult... aaaaaannnnnd desynch #1. garrrr.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Fixed Desynch, now plays up until message to come to the zealots aid. Only 20ish seconds of moving Zeratul, but just showing what I've got so far. I'll keep trying to find a way to draw the enemies away, but based on my units increased desire to attack I think going down and around will just have to be accepted.
test run 1 min 30 sec
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
I don't know how he's spotted... however his life is a resource, so he keeps on trekking. Wjat's more worrisome than that is like previously mentioned a unit's irrestible temptation to stop and whack at enmies.
Interestingly, I found in the setting that I can increase the speed. It's not increased bya huge factor, but still increasable so I may just start from the beginning by going to the menu and increasing the speed, because over time it'll make a difference.
BTW, I just played bloodbath single game, there is no way that this game is beatable on N64 in real time playing (at least not by what I've observed.) I tried, and was slaughtered. The controls are both hard and easy at the same time (the shortcuts are simply amazing, but the analog stick to control units is frwaking hard.) I get the feeling that with the resources that are avaliable that everything has to be perfectly planned to avoid the inevitable end.
Good thing I'll be TASing this and have perfect reflexes and planning.
I thought you might like one of those better than what you are currently using.
