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Posted: 3/11/2010 12:04 PM
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FatRatKnight
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Joined: 9/27/2008
Posts: 1085
Hmm, I don't think it's the item exploit bug, this time. While I was spending time on GameFAQs watching MeteorStrike unravel the game, it was said that the act of hitting B in battle to back up when you haven't even placed any orders yet will flag a specific general dead. This is done because the game is attempting to clear out general -1's actions, but needless to say, there's no general -1 -- there's other game data there. It doesn't matter what battle you back up in. Watch address 6312, fight the first random encounter that comes, and hit B when figuring out what to do with Liu Bei. Apparently, the life of one general hinges on whether the player isn't too indecisive somewhere in his career. Looking at the various memory addresses, I'm guessing the game, in an attempt at clearing out the TP cost of the "previous action", ends up overwriting a 0 at a spot 255 bytes ahead. I'm guessing this Guo Si just happens to be the particular unlucky general whose life is dictated by the player's will. I don't think you can redirect this wrath to anyone else.
Posted: 3/12/2010 5:34 AM
(Edited: 3/12/2010 6:24 AM)
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Twisted_Eye
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haha such silly bugs. Nothing changes if you hit B if the first party member is dead and the second is now leader, and I can't really think of anything else to alter the bug's effect. heh, I'm going to go to that battle, kill everyone else, and do the bug and see what happens. --nothin, he's already in battle so why would it affect him? Anyway, wouldn't be hard to add the B button to an earlier battle when a wait is long, I'm sure. I'm also curious what happens during one of the points when a character has to leave a party, but what if that character was the only one alive in the party? -- this does, hahahaha: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1885322646/DoaE%20Xu%20Zhe%20left%20%28U%29.fcm I imagine if you create a party of all non-tigers that this would happen when you lose a single battle, as well, and would have to go to the Bulleting House to switch in a live character just to use a Resurrect!
Posted: 3/12/2010 6:22 AM
Post subject: 141
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Acmlm
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Joined: 11/14/2004
Posts: 169
Location: Mirabel, Québec, Canada
I've tried that just now with Liu Bei when he leaves, but Guan Yu and Zhang Fei come back to life ... even if it worked (maybe one of the later cases do), all you'd get in battle is an instant loss after one enemy turn. (looks funny, though) $6300-63FF seems to determine whether each character is alive, captured, maybe recruitable too (not sure, but it's at least 4 things), and $6312 just happens to be Guo Si (id $12) ... I tried setting other bytes to 0 in there, and it made other characters vanish from their battles (sometimes leading to funny things like "Prepare to fight Rebel Force" or even empty battles), even town NPC's were gone! The glitch is exactly as said, it decrements the "current character" variable from 0 to 255 then uses that as the TP use index: 
9EE7:C6 78     DEC $0078 = #$00
9EE9:20 1B AE  JSR $AE1B

AE1B:A6 78     LDX $0078 = #$FF
AE1D:A9 00     LDA #$00
AE1F:9D 13 62  STA $6213,X @ $6312 = #$98   ;farewell, Guo Si
$0078 is set back to 0 after this, so that's probably the only byte we can clear that way. After optimizing my bruteforcer a bit (mostly making it keep every turn's result in memory instead of recalculating it), I got it to run about 10x faster! I can also make it look deeper (more cancels) into a good combination to try improving it ... I tried it on the Han Zhong fight from my earlier test and found a way to improve it by 5 seconds, even getting about 40% critical rate: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1487244271/doaetest1b.fm2 It's also possible to beat 2 high rebel forces in about a minute and half, using only All-Out (canceling/waiting on almost every turn). It's still not worth the time for a single level up, but shows again how far this can be manipulated: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1330208196/doaetest2.fm2
Posted: 3/12/2010 6:35 AM
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Twisted_Eye
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While I was digging around tryinig to set up that Xu Zhe Leaves .fcm up there, I was also looking at this area of memory, so I was able to pick out that, in hex, 80 is 'can't be found outside', 90 is recruitable, 98 is recruitable after defeated in a castle/gate battle first, C0 is recruited, and there may be another value for recruited but in billeting. Wow, 5 seconds on that one little fight? That's quite the improvement! The second demo was sweet, too. --and yeah, the Item Exploit glitch only affects data in a range that affects items on the map or in chests, spell casting data that is uncorruptable, and a blank area that doesn't ever affect the game at all, so I doubt it'll be helpful in the run. Maybe to pick up an extra sword in the castle south of Chang Sha since you have to go back, or for the same reason the Scimitar in Cheng Du (--edit, this scimitar can't be glitched to reappear except by one guy just before the last Luo Yang fights anyway.) I doubt it'd be worth the set-up time.
Posted: 3/14/2010 8:56 PM
Post subject: 143
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Acmlm
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Joined: 11/14/2004
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Location: Mirabel, Québec, Canada
I've looked at the code for tactics now (but I still have to implement it), and found a few more things: - The success rate depends on the difference between the caster's INT and target's INT: (for some reason, the lower part is backwards ...)
+100>255: 15 (/16)
+ 50> 99: 12
+ 10> 49:  8
+  0>  9:  6
-  1>  9:  1
- 10> 49:  2
- 50> 99:  4
-100>255:  6
- For An Sha, multiply the above by the caster's INT / 256, and always fail against Sun Quan, Cao Pi, Si Ma Yi, or empty slots (it checks 8 values, but 5 of them are 00) - Fire, water and healing tactics each have a "potential" value, multiplied by max(STR,INT)/256 and (except for healing) a random value between 0.6 and 1.4 - Wan Fu (full heal) simply has its value set to 65535, so a weak general like Song Yong casting it would only heal about 15000 - Wuo Jian and Shui Jian drop fire/water damage by half - Defend, Ji Rou and Bei Ji (and the +1) affect tactics just like normal attacks - HP, castle defense and Cheng Nei have no effect - The tactician doesn't matter either (except for which tactics you get, of course) I still have a lot more coding and testing to do, but the real fun will start once that's done!
Posted: 3/16/2010 6:28 AM
Post subject: 144
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Acmlm
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Joined: 11/14/2004
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Now that most tactics are handled properly (at least the ones used in the first few battles), I started a more serious attempt at a new improved run: Past Hua Xiong's gate, in 7:50 (1 minute ahead of the published run) I only used the inn once in the entire first chapter (between Zhang Jao (1) and Zhang Liang). Notice how few damage I took against Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang, too ... that cost a few seconds to manipulate, but it's worth saving another inn trip or holding over 100 HP longer for the next battle. I first tried skipping Han Zhong, but the front side battle took too long (it was quite hard just to manipulate a win with only All-Out) and it came out slower, before even counting Han Zhong and the third Ax: Past Hua Xiong's gate, in 8:01 (without Han Zhong) Now I'll have to find out whether Guan Ping and Lu Bu are worth the time (about 2 minutes) before getting to Yuan Shu, since they both have good HP and more STR than anyone else available by then ...
Posted: 3/16/2010 10:19 AM
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Twisted_Eye
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hahaha the sequence of criticals in the first fight alone is hilarious, wow. heh followed by a series of misses from Zhang Jao, this is great. Interesting that you didn't hire Han Zhong before the Zhang Liang fight, would the extra firepower make the fight faster or would his low strength actually make it slower? And I believe that in one of MeteorStrikes comments I read that Cheng Nei when successful multiplies damage by .7, though I don't if that's really necessary to program your script for since the damage lowering will be noticed and accounted for automatically anyway. If you do skip Han Zhong, you can just pick up Yang Jin in Hua Xiong's guarded gate. A few more health and strength with one less fight. Wouldn't be worth picking him up for any other reason, and if you came this far without Han why bother anyway i dunno. Also, would it be worth testing picking up Han Zhong and just not going the back way? The extra hp and hit per turn might outdo the time it takes to nab him? --After watching the second run, wow, losing Mi Zhe sure hurts. Han's worth a try to keep him alive, and it would reveal if killing weak hitting tacticians is actually better for time. I guess what I'm trying to ask is how long did it take to do these two runs and how much work was it for you? Relatively comfy and painless? It definitely looks awesome so far. A minute saved in the first eight, man, that's a large improvement!
Posted: 3/17/2010 7:08 AM
Post subject: 145
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Acmlm
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Joined: 11/14/2004
Posts: 169
Location: Mirabel, Québec, Canada
I gave it a try with Guan Ping + Lu Bu for now: Yuan Shao ambush at 22:00 At Yuan Shu's defeat, I'm now 9:35 ahead of the published run. And I've still never used tactics (or set a tactician), or even commands at all (except to use the Gemsword)! I've only used the inn 4 times so far, as well. But there's still a few minor mistakes I only realized later: - When I left Han Zhong to die in front, I should have put him in second instead, so I wouldn't have to pass the gold key and gemsword - I had to buy 2 gullwings and go back to Xu Zhou so I could make space for Lu Bu, but I'd have to either miss out on Huo Hu (and a TP gain) or dump Han Zhong earlier (before fighting Hua Xiong) to avoid that I'll have to try the alternatives later, but having Guan Ping and Lu Bu (full STR party) really helped ... if it's any hint, just by removing Lu Bu from the fight after using the Gemsword, I regained 15 seconds out of the 40 it cost to get him (+ 65 for Guan Ping). The manipulating went pretty well and really isn't hard most of the time, it usually goes like this: - Enter battle, savestate on the first frame I can do All-Out - Run the bruteforcing, until it finds a few winning combinations (doesn't take more than a few minutes unless the odds are too low) - Look deeper into the best ones to try improving more - If I need to save up HP for more battles, bruteforce again with "minimum HP" conditions and hope I can gain enough remaining HP without losing more than a few seconds - It also helps to run 2 instances of it trying different ranges or conditions, to speed it up - Before finding a winning combination, it checks for minimum enemy HP and shows how close it gets, which can be useful for harder battles to tell whether I have a chance - When it's really too hard or impossible, I can manipulate just a few turns at once with longer delays, minimizing damage or doing more to enemies, until I can finish it normally (that's how I managed to beat Zhang Jao without Han Zhong) You can see the whole thing in action here. It's not really user friendly (all hardcoded in and recompiled each time) and the code is a bit of a mess to look at, but it does in just a few minutes what no one would have the patience to do manually, hehe.
Posted: 3/17/2010 11:37 AM
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FatRatKnight
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Posts: 1085
It seems the most sensible routes so far are: - No Han Zhong, Lu Bu route - Get HZ, no Lu Bu - Get HZ, Lu Bu route The Yuan Shu chapter doesn't seem to have anything of interest that would affect our plans earlier. Skipping Huo Hu will lose us 5 MTP later on, if we want to avoid dropping Han Zhong. According to what I saw in the published run, anyway. What I don't know is how important is it to keep that 5 MTP at the end. If we get MTP from everything besides Fu Bing, we'll have 155 MTP. Skipping MTP from Jie Ce (skip Huo Hu) brings us to 150 MTP. Skipping Li Jian as well (any ideas on who we might want for that level anyway?) gets us down to 145 MTP. If we use Zhou Yu as our tactician like in the published run, we'll have 130 TP in the 145 MTP case, for use at the endgame. What I'm wondering is, how much do we need that 5 MTP from Jie Ce? From that point on until the endgame, is there some tactic-critical strategy that would speed things up then and there that needs this boost? Additionally, if we have someone who can learn tactics in the 7th spot, for whatever reason, we'll need to make sure it doesn't corrupt away important things like brand new shiny weapons or plot-required items on level up. A reminder, in case it's ever needed. By the way, that movie file has player 2 attached. Is there a need for it? Regardless, your program seems to be working out very well, and things definitely seem rather impressive already. It looks as though testing routes aren't incredibly painful when you can simulate battles faster than what mere humans are capable of. Progress is definitely a whole lot faster than I expect, in any case.
Posted: 3/17/2010 11:52 AM
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Twisted_Eye
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Already almost 10 minutes saved, excellent! Another idea, possible less attractive, is to wait until after the Chang An battle to bring Lu Bu into the actual party, since you have to walk by the building several times anyway. Just throwing that in there. I'd be willing to help test any of the odd ideas I come up with but it does sound pretty tricky for someone who didn't make the actual code itself. You're screenshot's pretty sweet looking though, that's quite the set-up.
Posted: 3/18/2010 5:13 AM
Post subject: 146
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Acmlm
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Joined: 11/14/2004
Posts: 169
Location: Mirabel, Québec, Canada
- Keeping Lu Bu in the reserve until Chang An was worth a try, and does give a much shorter path, but it was 144 frames slower (at the next battle) - I tried without Guan Ping and Lu Bu too (got Hua Xiong instead, which took 23 seconds), and was still 36 seconds ahead after defeating Dong Zhuo, but that'd be all lost on the way to Yuan Shu - If I go without Han Zhong, the only gain would be an additional open spot for Lu Bu (and another after he leaves) before dropping anyone, which still has to be done later ... so I'm not too sure I'd regain the 10 seconds lost earlier I ran into that tactic learning glitch when trying the "no Lu Bu" route, and the Club in Yang Zhou was gone ... I had to go back to Xu Rong's fight and manipulate Guan Yu's HP to drop to a specific value to avoid it, then it happened again with Dong Zhuo (2). But at least the earlier one up to Yuan Shu wasn't affected, and it looks like I'll be continuing from there after all. I cleared the unused player 2 input too (never realized that was there), just had to disable player 2 in Input.
Posted: 3/18/2010 8:44 AM
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FatRatKnight
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Hmm... The most efficient possible Billeting... I think the best we can do is one trip to the Billet at Nan Yang. It's possible to go with zero until sometime after we pick up Zhu Ge Liang, but that involves things like skipping Han Zhong, Huo Hu, and probably Zhou Cang (maybe grab him anyway and auto-shove Wei Yan into Billeting), as well as being stuck with Mi Zhe for a long time. In any case, if we use Billeting once at Nan Yang, we should leave with the following party: 0 - Guan Yu 1 - Zhang Fei 2 - Liu Feng ? - Guan Ping 6 - Lu Bu We'll have four generals after Lu Bu leaves us on that surprise encounter. No tactician, but we can't get MTP from Fu Bing anyway, and Xu Zhe isn't far off. We can pick up and use Zhou Cang, Wei Yan, and Xu Zhe this way. What I'm thinking is, if we go the Han Zhong route, and skip Huo Hu, we should reach Nan Yang with: 0 - Guan Yu 1 - Zhang Fei 2 - Liu Feng 3 - Mi Zhe 4 - Han Zhong 5 - Guan Ping 6 - Lu Bu Bags 3, 4, and 6 will be open for Zhou Cang, Xu Zhe, and Wei Yan. We lose a potential 5 MTP. Without Han Zhong, we might want to pick up Huo Hu. Partly because we are short-handed from the current Han Zhong-less route with Mi Zhe defeated. We'll end with: 0 - Guan Yu 1 - Zhang Fei 2 - Liu Feng 3 - Mi Zhe 4 - Guan Ping 5 - Huo Hu 6 - Lu Bu Bags 3, 5, and 6 will be open for Zhou Cang, Xu Zhe, and Wei Yan. We get the 5 MTP. A different index, but I can't see how it would change things.
Posted: 3/19/2010 6:26 AM
Post subject: 147
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Acmlm
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Joined: 11/14/2004
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Location: Mirabel, Québec, Canada
All the way up to Liu Kui in 40:25, now 13:14 ahead (the .fm2 is too big for the microstorage now ...) - Still 100% All-Out all the way and no tactician, even the "hard" Huang Zhong fight wasn't that bad (I gained a minute and half in that alone!) - I missed Fu Bing's TP gain by 50 EXP - I picked up Huang Zhong, since his higher HP and STR (from Guan Ping's) should save more time than it costs for the level ups. And I can replace him anyway later ... - I (unintentionally) made the Trident in Nan Yang reappear with the glitch, but it's no longer useful by the time I could pick it up (already got the swords) Now I'm wondering whether I should get Zhang Ren (and drop Zhou Cang on the way there), since he'd be great help until everyone passes 1000 (less STR, but much higher HP for damage and tanking) ... Yan Yan is about as good too, but wouldn't get as much use, especially with Ma Dai coming right after. I'm also not sure how much TP is really going to be needed later (for An Sha killing sprees mostly), since skipping Huo Hu would save some time, and I could maybe keep Zhu Ge Liang in reserve as well ... this would help figuring out the optimal character switching, too.
Posted: 3/19/2010 7:59 AM
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FatRatKnight
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Now that you're not using MicroStorage, I suggest putting it in a zip whenever you upload something. Much smaller file size and such. Yeah, wow. Still no actual actions besides All-Out? I didn't think it would be that "easy" to do! Keep going! Fu Bing... 50 EXP away? Much closer than I expected! But seeing the run, you recruit Lu Bu, erase Guo Si out of existence, and manipulate most of the smallest Rebel Forces you can. And it's still not enough. I'm not sure if that remaining 50 EXP is possible to drop... Huang Zhong's level up messages should eat up somewhere over 30 seconds from when you pick him up until the end of the whole game. If the strength and growing HP saves those 30 seconds easily from the start, then it would no doubt be worth it to pick him up. Attempting to shove Zhu Ge Liang into the reserve is a bit clumsy, considering that Xu Zhe leaves your party and between then and when you get Zhu Ge Liang, there are no convenient points where you can fill up the now vacant spot. Besides, at the point you stopped, Ji Rou is available, which can help us tank hits much better. Something a dead Huo Hu certainly won't help us with. I guess it is true that you need to know how much TP the An Sha spree is going to use before we can assume we can ignore the bonus MTP. There are also other useful tactics like Ji Rou, Bei Ji, Yi Xin, and Ji Mian. If the manipulation before the An Sha spree requires is eating up too much time, we might want to cave in to one or a few of these tactics. I want to eventually insert input for Yoshi's Cookie myself. I like the idea of having a second game being played, without interfering with what we have for DoaE. I'd rather have the WIP be one with a finalized route, so I don't have to mess with things twice. And lastly, it appears that equipping flails first thing at the start of the game begins the first battle around 6 frames faster than your current run. Apparently, anything that involves dialogue or menus are fastest if you can lump the menus together. Or perhaps it's the area.
Posted: 3/19/2010 3:57 PM
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Tristal
Joined: 7/10/2007
Posts: 280
Acmlm, your latest fm2 desyncs in Fceux 2.1.2 for me right after the first battle. Is there a setting I need to switch? ROM checksum matches.
Posted: 3/19/2010 5:57 PM
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FatRatKnight
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Posts: 1085
It syncs fine with me. I see your desync and raise you use Old PPU. I switched on New PPU. Indeed, after the first battle, I spotted our heroes failing to pick up the first Ax. I use [ Config -> PPU -> Old PPU ] again, and sure enough, the Ax is picked up. If that doesn't solve your problem, let us know.
Posted: 3/21/2010 10:01 AM
Post subject: 148
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Acmlm
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Joined: 11/14/2004
Posts: 169
Location: Mirabel, Québec, Canada
Entered Jian An at 55:07, 15:20 ahead - I've tried both with and without Zhang Ren, and it's faster without, partly because I have to defeat Lu Bu (7003) before anyone else can show up - I finally used tactics for the first time, against Ma Chao. I froze everyone with Yi Xin (which I've just gotten after the previous battle) and boosted my top 2 attackers with Bei Ji, then destroyed them before they could even attack at all! I tried without tactics first and managed to win in 44 seconds (after hours of bruteforcing), but that was about 10 seconds slower (+ inn). - I used Yi Xin and Bei Ji against Liu Zheng too, but the gain was much smaller, like 2 seconds - I did it again against Fan Zhang, this time I really had to (yet the next battle with similar enemies was easy) - I also ran out of TP there (barely, and I did fine), but I could avoid that by not using any on Liu Zheng - I haven't used the inn at all since Yan Yan, only had a free HP refill (but not TP)
Posted: 3/22/2010 2:59 AM
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Twisted_Eye
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Ha, two levels gained at once after the last fight. Yeah, using those tactics there sure was pretty! Yi Xin was a great idea. Also, now that you have Hong Shui, I wonder if it's worth using that in a battle. Maybe one round of All-Out to kill Rebel Forces, Bei Ji on the two casting Hong Shui to help the others do their damage without using a bunch of time, and then have two or three people hit the waves doing enough damage to knock the enemy generals down multiple thousands of soldiers in one turn. The need for a river nearby will hurt the potential for use a little sure, and it's a larger amount of TP than Yi Xin, yeah. Lookin' great, still! 15 minutes saved so far is awesome.
Posted: 3/30/2010 5:15 AM
Post subject: 149
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Acmlm
Active player (493)
Joined: 11/14/2004
Posts: 169
Location: Mirabel, Québec, Canada
After Cao Pi's defeat, at 1:14:57 (18:56 ahead) I spent last week figuring out how the random encounters worked, so I could bruteforce them as well: 
Encounter chance per ground type:
  Bridge, castle: 0
  Grass, roads:   1/32
  Forest, caves:  1/16
  Hills:        1/8

Number of enemies:
  2: 2/16
  3: 4/16
  4: 5/16
  5: 5/16

- 1/4 chance for the first enemy to be a general (1/2 in Shu and later)
- 1/4 chance for each following enemy to be a general, only when the previous enemy is
- Higher id generals have slightly higher odds to show up, since they're listed first and picked by [random % total in list]
- Enemy forces (rebel, pirate, etc.) depend on the ground types in the 3x3 area around you, but will always be rebel forces in Shu and later
Each step (except on ground types without random battles) also changes the random values, with different results depending on surrounding water/hills/mountains, so this could allow even better All-Out manipulation by trying different step delays before each battle ... but there's so many possible results that finding the best one would be just about impossible. Random battles could be avoided better as well, but bruteforcing every path in the game would be a lot of work for just a few frames each time ... So, with this, I got Zhou Yu with a single rebel force, only waiting a few frames. I also got Tai Si Ci and Lu Sun alone in one battle (about 1/10000 chance), with only 5 steps + 24 frames! I picked them up since they both have over 10000 HP and good stats, and will definitely be more useful than Ma Dai and Zhu Ge Liang. I eventually lose Yi Xin and Bei Ji, so the strategy usually goes like this: - Wipe rebel forces with All-Out, unless it takes too long - Use An Sha on each general (except immune ones) - If there's immune/untargeted enemies, use Ji Mian - To determine who does what, I go by agility rather than INT, since the turn order is harder to manipulate (and matters as much) than success rates (this is why I don't use Zhu Ge Liang's 255 INT, his agility is too low) Hong Shui does nice damage but takes too long compared to All-Out (or even Ji Mian when stopping rebel forces), even with how much defense they have now, so I didn't use it. That and TP is actually put to good use now with An Sha and Ji Mian, enough that I needed a refill on the way to Cao Pi.
Posted: 4/4/2010 6:12 PM
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FatRatKnight
Editor, Skilled player (1202)
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Posts: 1085
I've seen your submission. I would like to know what you've been doing so far since then. Plus, I still would like to see if I can sneak in a Yoshi's Cookie input somewhere in there. And hopefully I can finish my own bot for Yoshi's Cookie by then so I'm not inserting something suboptimal. Also, I'm still around in case you need further help on route planning, but having run through this game yourself recently, you probably have things covered anyway. If nothing else, I don't mind documenting a few things in an attempt to assist in subtitles and submission text.
Posted: 4/4/2010 6:36 PM
Post subject: 151
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Acmlm
Active player (493)
Joined: 11/14/2004
Posts: 169
Location: Mirabel, Québec, Canada
I've been working on the improved run since then, currently at Jing Zhou just before fighting Huang Zhong and Wei Yan ... and 1:23 ahead of my earlier run so far. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1836707403/doae-new2a.fm2 Now I bruteforce the paths between battles to avoid any random encounters (I never waited more than 1 or 2 frames yet), and try a few different step delays before each battle (then bruteforce each case and pick the best one). Nearly every battle is a few seconds faster than before! I missed Fu Bing by 28 EXP this time, with absolutely minimal Rebel Forces, so it's definitely impossible to get that. I've also done a few route changes so far: - I skipped Huo Hu, which only costs 5 TP and a punching bag. The lowest my TP went before was 5, and I hardly lose any time from not having him, so this should be fine. - Since I don't get Huo Hu, I can use Lu Bu without dumping anyone - Yuan Shu isn't executed. This saves 5 seconds, and fighting him later (with Yuan Shao) won't cost that much. - Some weapons aren't given to the same characters.
Posted: 4/5/2010 1:38 AM
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Antoids
Joined: 8/27/2009
Posts: 159
Location: California
As an AVI because I had free time this morning.
Posted: 4/5/2010 11:15 PM
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FatRatKnight
Editor, Skilled player (1202)
Joined: 9/27/2008
Posts: 1085
End at R2, S3 Started my attempt at mixing in my Yoshi's Cookie input to your run. (Did R2, S10) Though my own bot needs either better pruning or I somehow find a useful algorithm that can do nearly as well as brute-forcing every combination. The fairly plain brute-forcing I'm doing is certainly taking much longer than I hoped. So, keeping Yuan Shu alive longer really won't eat up 5 seconds worth of attacks and manipulation? Although, I suppose you would have fairly potent weapons by then, and other than being in another castle with better defense (not zero this time), isn't any more threatening. Things do appear more efficient. The second run through is certainly changing things. But other than my attempt to insert extra input, I don't really have anything important to say.
Posted: 4/13/2010 1:46 AM
Post subject: 152
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Acmlm
Active player (493)
Joined: 11/14/2004
Posts: 169
Location: Mirabel, Québec, Canada
http://acmlm.cjb.net:2/emu/nes/fceux/movies/Destiny%20of%20an%20Emperor%20%28U%29-2a.zip I got halfway into Wu (after getting Zhou Yu), 2 days ago ... but I then realized I wasted 3 seconds on menu controls I forgot to optimize (played in realtime) when buying the gullwings, all the way back in Chang Sha. It's not that bad of a loss (for a run of this length, and the potential improvements on luck manipulation still), but it's such an obvious mistake that I really can't keep it there ... I tried fixing it up, and even got the random number (32bit) and frame rule (16) to sync back (only losing 14 frames), but the timing would eventually go off by a few frames, causing a desync after the next 3 battles. So it looks like I'll be redoing everything from that point (almost 30 minutes), but I'll probably keep the same route changes: - I buy all 17 gullwings in one trip, instead of splitting it in 2 - I don't heal at all from there to Yuan Shao - I don't use the inn after Yan Yan either, but after Ma Chao (going into that fight with everyone near dead and still winning it was interesting) - Another I forgot to say earlier is that I picked up the Chi Tu Ma and gave it to Zhang Fei, since killing/weakening an enemy before his turn more often could save enough time. Later in the run, Zhang Fei's inventory will go to Lu Sun and give him 255 agility, which should make his 240 INT really useful for manipulating An Sha (+ turn order). Hopefully I'll be able to save a few more seconds from redoing it, but it'll probably take another week ...
Posted: 4/21/2010 6:08 AM
Post subject: 153
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Acmlm
Active player (493)
Joined: 11/14/2004
Posts: 169
Location: Mirabel, Québec, Canada
Back to where I was, in Wu It did take another week as expected, but what I didn't expect was how many new changes I came up with, and how much more than 3 seconds I could gain: - First, I found out you don't have to talk to Xu Zhe outside of the castle (when he leaves) before warping away, which saved about 10 seconds - I got into Shu, then thought about going back a bit (again) and picking up Wen Hun on the way to Yuan Shao, since he has over 1000 HP (1449) and enough STR (190) to be useful. Getting him only took 13 seconds, that I had fully regained early in Shu (and it made the easiest part of the game even easier) - I was planning to switch him out for Zhao Yun after defeating Liu Zheng (when he'd finally reach 1000 HP), but instead dropped him for Ma Dai and kept Huang Zhong (who already had 1000 by then). Zhao Yun is better, but probably not enough to regain the time it'd take to switch ... I ended up gaining 38 seconds, and I'm now 3:01 ahead of my previous run!
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