I've played the PC version of this and I absolutely love it. I'd love to see a TAS of this that goes to a certain score as quickly as possible...10 million? 100? 1 billion? Or, say, it could end as level ten starts. Out of curiousity, are there any differences in gameplay between the PC and N64 versions?
I figure the major point would be to figure out a balance between ducky pools and the main one. And don't forget to leave a platform in the center of the main water body to stop ice.
I've heard that the N64 version of Wetrix plays much faster than any other versions of it, almost unplayably so. I haven't played any other versions of it, but can believe them since I find it almost impossible to play. (Maybe that's more because it's so easy to get very unlucky than it is the bad controls, though - what am I supposed to do when I get 6 uppers followed by 5 bombs and 15 water drops in a row at the start of the game?)
I'd say play Pro mode to start at a higher level, and, uh, either see if it's possible to overflow the score counter or stop at some high number of digits. I wouldn't stop at level 10 though, that could be too early. Actually, it might be better to play the Challenge mode, either 5 minutes or 500 pieces (whichever is longer), and aim only for highest points possible to get within that limit. That seems less arbitrary than picking a score to stop at.
Since you can manipulate luck and drop pieces very fast without worry, it should get pretty crazy compared to what anyone could do normally. (How many ducks is it possible to have at once? And you'll want to have a rainbow most of the time in addition to as many ducks as possible, right?)
I don't think there's a limit on how many ducks you can have, but I've never experimented much with it. I think the person with the high score for Wetrix filled half the board with ducks...well, keep in mind that you may be able to pack them closer together by use of lower pieces to thin the walls to one unit wide.
And, yes, you'll want a rainbow whenever you drain your main pool. Other then that, strike the optimal ratio between ducks and the main pool's size (factoring in how much time it'll take if it's an issue).
i remember playing this one for hours. is it just me or does it seem to run a little too fast? it would appear that this game was meant to go 15fps, but when i limit the fps, i guess the 60vi dysfunctions.
Joined: 6/4/2006
Posts: 97
Location: Everywhere including nowhere
I'm pretty sure Wetrix 64 was designed to run faster than the PC version.
I'm not sure if we could do a TAS of Wetrix yet as there are still many graphical bugs in the emulation.
By the way, I can't remember, do Smart bombs work in the N64 version? That'd be a neat way to end a TAS: get up to like level 15, make a few intentional mistakes until you're pretty much doomed, and then BAM! smart bomb everything.
I've aquired a bit of information I figured would be appropriate to post here for either:
A. Helping anyone that wants to obsolete my current submission (possible publication? Depends on the judge for now I suppose).
B. Helping someone interested in attempting a different challenge. i.e. 5 minute challenge, Classic, Pro etc...
C. Anyone that's just randomly interested.
-Pieces are not manipulable within in the game. They are of a predetermined set that is decided the moment you select the game (This for certain applies to 1 minute challenge and may not be the same for longer games such as classic and 5 minute challenge).
-Constantly holding A to drop a piece as quick as possible may or may not be a great idea. Normally of course this is good as you both speed up the movie thus making it more impressive, but also get points for how far you drop the piece. However, the following piece's starting location is affected by what frame the previous piece hits the board. Good methods to use this to your advantage are dropping water against a slope so that the water still goes to the desired location but finishes dropping sooner. Releasing the A button for 1 - 2 frames.
-Dry ice and repair bonuses can retain rainbow and duck multipliers if they were attributed to a meteor as long as the points are still ticking. I believe this works in the reverse as well, but I'm not 100% sure.
-The strategy "The ULTIMATE POINT GRABBER" (located here http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/file/199293/3432 )is extremely effective in longer runs. Most likely would be preferable for classic or pro modes, and possibly a 5minute challenge although this is doubtful because of the limited amount of pieces this would most likely be unoptimal.
-It is unwise to use the PC version to test different patterns of setting up duck ponds. This cause quite a bit of trouble for myself as the PC version was much more lenient. Not sure if this would be attributed to graphical limitations as that is almost what it seemed to look like.
Patashu wrote:
strike the optimal ratio between ducks and the main pool's size
This is 100% unnecassary, considering a longer run, the amount of duck pools created would most likely be enough water to have a constant rainbow. Allowing for ALL meteors to be used for points and given high enough barriers around the edge you should never ever leak. I know when I use the above strategy in normal classic play, just a single 37 water droplet would cause a rainbow to form.
-The board is 30x30 units. A line piece is 3x9 both upper and downer. An L piece is 3x9 with a 3x6 extension on the end = 45 units big. A T piece is the same as an L with the 3x6 extension moved to the middle. A Square is 9x9; the square is actually only 2 units thick leaving a 5x5 hole in the middle. Square downer is 5x5.
-Water comes in 4 sizes. 9, 21, 37, and 57 are the number of bubbles. This is presumeably the same as an upper or downer unit however this is nearly impossible to test due to rain.
-Many of the different sets of data that I recorded are located here: http://www.editgrid.com/user/deign
This is by no means the comprehensive list used to decide my final set of pieces. This is just the sets of data that I recorded while myself and Comicalflop still had planned to work together on the project, however he had too many projects that he was working on at the time and so I finished the project myself. The Key is as follows:
--- = Line Shaped Upper
L = L-Shaped Upper
T = T-Shaped Upper
S = Square Shaped Upper
D--- = Line Shaped Downer
Ds = Square Shaped Downer
B = Bomb
M = Meteor
# = Water Drop with # of droplets
These different sets of data were only listed to the 25th piece however I did have up to the first 40. This data is for the 1 minute challenge, however these sets of pieces could possibly be the same in other modes.
-It would be wise to move a piece to it's desired location if possible before it begins to drop. It seems that by moving the piece while it is dropping, the piece takes longer to fall, thus less pieces in the same amount of time.
-Meteors can be used as bombs if evaporating is undesireable.
-At level 10 each unit of "Bomb space" (Refering to broken spots in the board cause by bombs) adds up 50 points when repaired and of course is then multiplied by the ducks and rainbows.
-Downers can be used to cause dry ice bonus even in water. This is much harder to do on the N64 version than on the PC version. The few times I attempted this it had 0 frames of error to allow this to occur.
curtmack wrote:
do Smart bombs work in the N64 version?
Yes they absolutely do, but I would not think it useful or entertaining for a TAS.
This is all I can think of right now, if I think of more I will edit this list.
I'm sciencing as fast as I can !
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<adelikat> once more balls enter the picture, everything gets a lot more entertraining
<adelikat> mmmmm yummy penises
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Deign and I sought the highest score possible by watching the mem addresses of the game... and for classic mode, 1 billion (999,999,999) is the maximum score possible.
Classic mode TAS, go!
