Jabo made a lot of subtitles and other text/numbers disappear. I didn't really notice before because apart from a bit of multiplayer, I've never played it. it was d3d8 1.6, maybe my system deals with it badly. :v Either way, no more jabo for this game.
And the game is normal 4:3 format by default but you can make it widescreen in the options. I wonder if the time wasted doing that would be beneficial in the end since floyd would have a bigger area to aim at. Otherwise, every cutscene will just be squished horizontally because mupen is too dumb to letterbox them (they are 16:9 natively). So I won't make any other videos in widescreen either.
I started using the wide view (but not the 16:9 option because Rice can't handle it in window mode so it looks awful) option for fun in perfect dark, appears 16:9 anyway. There's black bars but those can be cropped if a video was made. Yeah, i'll probably keep it that way if i ever get back to it.
My turn.
Starts from reset, then you can see me loading a savestate at the start. I made it widescreen mode just for the hell of it. This is representative of what the AVI would look like if I were to encode it for publication, except the bitrate is still a bit low. Have mercy on my poor DSL modem. :)
After end of input, I took the liberty of calling up Juno's next mission, just for the sake of the game's overglorified cinematics.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
wow. if that AVI is going to be what the end result looks like, then me doing this run is even further justified. that was real great quality, and in dolby surround sound and widescreen! And the black screens in the Vela cutscene appear in the AVI, that's good.
It was a little weird to see it start from a reset then load the savestate (can't you pause at a savestate and start recording from then?)
I need a big break today. I foolishly did not sleep last night in order to finish a take home final essay. I goofed off from 10 PM until 6AM, then finished the essay in less than 2 hours, so I deserve the sleep deprivation I'm experiencing now. Once I recover I'll fix the last room of SS Anubis and start Tawfret.
Hm, I am considering doing a restart from 3/4 through Goldwood, where mistakes start showing up... I can snipe the sniper drone faster, and kill the 2 drones and big drone guy better, and go through that exit smoother without sliding against the wall, in the next area try very hard to make the machine gun not miss by aiming each recoiled shot towards the next enemy when those flying drones appear from the horizon, in the next room possibly take out that 'oomf' landing, and in the very last room again use the machine gun's recoil to place the next shot towards the next enemy.
and SS Anubis I think can be improved as well, although only in the 4th and 5th rooms. (1-3 were very good IMO.) I can try to catch that moving platform to save a bunch of time, and room 5 I did some tiny mistakes that I think I can improve on.
My thinking for this is something Vidar once said... 'since no one else is probably ever going to do this run as well, I might as well make it as perfect as possible'. (something to that affect.) So while I am a BIG fan of NOT restarting, I think trying to complete making this run as soon as possible is just not going to fly. It's going to take me a long time to do regardless. It'd probably get 8-10 in entertainment; I'd want it to get 8-10 in technical quality as well.
And I was gonna redo the last room to fix running between the cell doors; I may as well be more thorough and remove all mistakes.
This is why I said over at SDA that you should do a practice run. You spend less time finding out what you'll have to fix later. I personally recommend going through the game once and then recording the real thing after all is said and done. Turn this run into a testrun or something...
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Those mistakes that I mentioned have nothing to do with having not played the game before. I just got a teensy bit careless in Goldwood because I wanted it to be completed soon, and Anubis the 4th room isn't really a mistake but a potential huge time saver that might not work, and the 5th room's mistakes are incredibly minor.
Trust me, I got this. I just need to a be a wee little more careful next time. Plus, I really consider Marshmallow's movie to be my test run of sorts; I really cannot afford to play throughout the entire game, it'd be way more work than is nescessary.
edit: I was finally able to view Twisted Eye's Floyd test movie... holy crap can Floyd shoot fast with turbo!!! The plasma shot gun too, however if I recall correctly it has very limitited number of shots, and should be used primarily for it's charged shot for the same use that players use to reduce shields of elites in Halo/Halo2.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
I shoot the cell block opener way off in the distance because at the speed I was running to the platform, I wouldn't have made it in time, so I stop, walk backwards a bit, snipe the cell door block, then deactivate the last one underneath my feet while standing on mid-air, and wait for the platform to come around.
When I redo and get to SS Anubis, I'm going to try and really push Juno's speed to kill the 3 drones (maybe leave some to suffer, because they'll die eventually so maybe I don't need to make them ghost immediatly) save the tribal, deactivate the first cell door block, and get the capacity upgrade. What's going to change is instead of shoot 3 drones, go back and get the cell door block, Tribal, and then ammo capacity, maybe 2 drones, cell block door, 3rd drone, tribal, capacity upgrade, and haul major ass to see if I can get to the platform in time.
if I were to get to the platform in time, I'd turn around and shoot the cell door block that's behind and below me, then turn around and snipe the one above and to the right of the trigger door, then step off and kill the last 3 drones.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
unfortunately no. They do not spawn until the platform is halfway to the other side, and at that time they are actually too far away for even something as precise as the TAS input plugin to aim at. I tried, and at distances that far sniping is impossible with the pistol. Plus, my guess is that since they are trigger door drones they won't die from one sniped head shot. And, most importantly, if I do catch the moving platform, I'm going to be busy deactivating the 2 cell door blocks before I jump to the other side, so I won't have time to snipe the drones.
Ok! I finally got to watch the m movie. I think that you know where you need to fix things up a bit. All in all a very soildly done run till now.
Just a few ??? for you.
Are the life capacity upgrades really worth it? I mean you have 5 of those little meters (each green on the center thing is 1 meter), and when normally playing I rarely lost more than 1 or 2 rings when being careful. The only spot that I really had trouble in was with the final boss (evil.)
The ammo upgrades would be very nice to get as they would make planning ammo-use later much easier. How many for each weapon are you going to get? Also, how hard is is to grab the guns the drones drop? I remember going for very long amounts of time off of those until I got a real box.
One last thing, I'm not sure how quickly the game switches weapons. But would it be possible to jump from pistol to machine-gun to drop the weak drones and then wail on the strong one? Or is there a pause of waiting for the gun to come out.
Anyways, keep up the good work. Looking forwards to updates!
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
Also, are the life capacity upgrades really worth it? I mean you have 5 of those little meters (each green on the center thing is 1 meter), and when normally playing I rarely lost more than 1 or 2 rings when being careful. The only spot that I really had trouble in was with the final boss (evil.)
Hmm, I guess it depends on if you plan on getting hit by any big, explosive weapons. But they're also nice in that they refill your health as well.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Shadow Byrn wrote:
Ok! I finally got to watch the m movie. I think that you know where you need to fix things up a bit. All in all a very soildly done run till now.
Just a few ??? for you.
Are the life capacity upgrades really worth it? I mean you have 5 of those little meters (each green on the center thing is 1 meter), and when normally playing I rarely lost more than 1 or 2 rings when being careful. The only spot that I really had trouble in was with the final boss (evil.)
The ammo upgrades would be very nice to get as they would make planning ammo-use later much easier. How many for each weapon are you going to get? Also, how hard is is to grab the guns the drones drop? I remember going for very long amounts of time off of those until I got a real box.
One last thing, I'm not sure how quickly the game switches weapons. But would it be possible to jump from pistol to machine-gun to drop the weak drones and then wail on the strong one? Or is there a pause of waiting for the gun to come out.
Anyways, keep up the good work. Looking forwards to updates!
I'm going to be charging head first into battles and such, and ignoring damage instead of trying to avoid it, so I've been collecting the gemini health upgrades just in case. They are also very good health refillers when collected, making it so that I don't have to collect the gems (even though they are on the way.) Plus, the Gemini health upgrades are all practically on the direct path, so might as well.
Capacity upgrades = less picking up ammo. and capacity upgrades is ESSENTIAL for the rockets and sniper rifle. U nfortunately, the ammo that drones drop only adds ammo for the pistol, machine gun, or plasma shotgun (I believe? I know it only gives for 3 weapons, the pistol and machine gun two of them.)
The game switches weapons VERY fast, especially if using turbo A or B, as evident in Twisted Eye's Floyd test run. So I don't need to save certain weapons to the D pad fortunately. In the two levels I've done so far I reserve the pistol for sniping and the machine gun for killing, since the pistol cannot fire mor ethen 7 shots quickly before needing to recharge. In my redo, I might just use the machine gun the entire time becuase the shots are faster, and the recoil only happens in consecutive shots. Or maybe not, the pistol works fine on the sniping drones.
The final Mizar boss? bah, with Floyd, Tri Rockets and a very solid strategy I'm going to tear him apart like he was a piece of sponge cake. In fact, that applies to all the bosses in this game, since I'll have Floyd and the Tri Rockets for all characters at their respective bosses.
oh, question about bosses: Can I chuck a grenades at them? I'm thinking of thowring grenades at them beforehand, so it'll explode once the boss is ready to be hit, and fire a tri rocket early to also hit them on the first possible frame, so hitting them witha grenade and tri rocket at the same time basically. And see if I can hit more than once area at the same time (like in the very first boss.) With Floyd helping, is it possible to kill the boss in 1-2 rounds? :P
I think it just depends if the boss is close enough. With Mizar, if you can get the things to hit, they will. I'm not sure about the Manits boss, because they spend most of their time really far away. Others might be a real possiblity with the grenades. Keep it up!
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Or far I can throw the grenades, because I remember them not going very far. Meh maybe Juno and Floyd can kill the bosses fast enough anyways. It was just a thought, I'm sure that Floyd's turbo firing and perfect Tri-Rocket Firing will dispatch the bosses quickly.
Ooh man, staying up all night last night has completely thrown off my sleeping shcedule. I'll try working a little more on v3 at Goldwood, see if I can get maybe one or two areas done. I do have two straight days of potential solid TASing, so assuming I go nonstop I might be able to catch up to Tawfret with an improved version fixing the mistakes I've spotted.
saved one second so far in the first area I was improving, hitting the sniper drone better and causing the big enemy to die earlier, and preserved more ammo by using headshots against the normal drones. Next area hoping to improve the flying drones section by aiming and walking towards them, and using the recoil machine gun to hit 100% of the time. Tricky, but I hope I can do it.
Joined: 12/17/2006
Posts: 16
Location: New, Jersey
grenades go decently far. definitely far enough to reach the slug boss. Most bosses vulnerable spots are too high for grenades on the ground.
If grenades detonate on contact with boss parts though It would definitely be cool, and probably faster to chuck the grenades early, switch to rockets, and have both hit at the same time. plenty of timeto set this up during the long invlunerable periods.
In that case, I think all bosses are reachable this way, except for the mantises when they're on the sides or in the background and final mizar.
Regarding sniper rifle. I suggest taking it. its pretty much on the way.
I'm also thinking of the required battle in Ichor perimeter (come back as Juno w/ blue key). The drones are much farther away, than they were in that room in Anubis where you said pistol sniping would have been difficult.
Also, Floyd zooms in with the sniper rifle so you get a sniper machine gun basically.
I'm also working on making the Twisted evil's route more verbose. (I'm using the same naming conventions for rooms that the guide does, for simplicity and consistency with the maps.)
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
I guess aim up and chuck a grenade, and hope I can time it perfectly. But that's (technically) 3 levels away, so I'll worry aboyt that later.
I noticed the bosses' invulnerable moments, is there a visual trigger for that? obviously I'm going to fire and have the tri-rocket/Floyd/grenade/whatever hit on the first possible frame, but is there a visual change to signify when you can hit the boss?
Sniper rifle I am definetly going to take. There are way more places where you have to snipe them from afar (especially far away and up high), and someone on SDA mentioned that the Sniper rifle is very powerful, and like you suggested makes Floyd's crosshair Zoom as well. And, sniping enemies from VERY far away as I'm approching sounds like a very attractive idea.
Just saved 12 seconds total. 1 more room to go and then Goldwood revised is done.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Redoing the last few areas was the best idea:
Goldwood Revised
overall, 15 seconds saved!!!!! no mistakes, much smoother, enemies were killed faster, some were skipped, a little more damage was taken but that's ok because it'll all be refilled at the start of SS Anubis anyways.
Oh wow, 15 seconds of improvement! That's very impressive. For some odd reason, I have trouble viewing the run, so I guess I'll have to wait for the eventual AVI. Don't worry about it.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
this is a savestate at the beginning where I made my changes.
if you have correct settings and ROM and everything, the last thing that seems to be pretty common is the .fla file in the mupen save file directory, which you must manually delete all the time if you want to watch the entire movie from the very beginning. if you load a savestate however, it should work fine, so try loading the savestate I just provided and see if that helps.
this is a savestate at the beginning where I made my changes.
if you have correct settings and ROM and everything, the last thing that seems to be pretty common is the .fla file in the muepn save file directory, which you must manually delete all the time if you want to watch the entire movie from the very beginning. if you load a savestate however, it should work fine, so try loading the savestate I just provided and see if that helps.
Yeah, I've done all that stuff, I'll try playing from the save-state. Thanks!
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
You either have wrong settings/ROM, or didn't delete the .fla file. I have just reviewed the entire thing from the very beginning, no savestates used, after having deleted the .fla file and it ran perfectly. This is not a game that desynchs at all, unlike Rayman 2 or Majora's Mask.
as I start SS Anubis, is there anything you'd want to see changed/mistakes that you may have noticed?
Comcast had an outage for 2 hours which was just when I was going to post that I made a video of the latest progress. but now that internet is back I am posting now. hooray.
I tried out "Glide64 Wonder Plus" as the video plugin this time. Everything is there but textures are blocky as hell. I also change the aspect ratio for cutscenes. Meh. http://tas.monotoli.org/mov/jfg
Joined: 4/30/2006
Posts: 480
Location: the secret cow level
it started desynching again when you switched to 2 controllers, right in the very first room, but I got it working again.
I had to watch a few parts of that more than once just to see what the hell was going on... nice job
