Topic by bkDJ

Posted: 1/4/2007 12:35 PM

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bkDJ

Joined: 7/26/2006
Posts: 1215

imo savestates are unnecessary and users are perfectly capable of making their own if they can vew the m64 at all, and if they can't then they don't need it. so I don't mind plain m64s.

Posted: 1/4/2007 2:39 PM

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Mitjitsu

He/Him

Banned User, Experienced player (532)

Joined: 4/24/2006
Posts: 2997

One generic mistake I've noticed from the movie is when you go into new areas often there is a slow rising door, normally you're hugging it until you can go through, but what I've only learned to do until just recently is to go as far away as possible and do a full charge at the obstacles like this and so pass under them at the optimal time and speed, it saves little time but I'm willing to bet that it'll add up in the end.

Posted: 1/4/2007 3:58 PM

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Comicalflop

Editor, Experienced player (730)

Joined: 6/13/2006
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Location: Massachussetts, USA

alright, so no more savestates. I was posting them because some people can be lazy and this is a long movie, but I guess that'll make it easier for me. about the sliding doors- they really are very, very slow moving. so much so, that I do not lose a lot of time by hugging them, because Juno can walk underneath them as they rise up; yet in such a long movie, it really won't add up to too much time, because it is only a few frames wasted instead of, say seconds. Juno actually slides a bit when he stops his movement, and takes a bit of time to regain full running speed, and it is just generally easier for me have him slide up against the wall a bit and then readjust his direction so that when Juno finally goes through (after a minimal amount of time) he'll go in the right direction. but in the future I'll see if I can find a way around it, I can't remember if Sekhmet has fast or slow opening doors.

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Posted: 1/6/2007 6:53 PM

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zdk1

Joined: 12/17/2006
Posts: 16
Location: New, Jersey

greetings, castle was fun to watch. tri-rockets definitely open the slugs mouth. In fact, a single homing missile does so as well. for vela's plasma shotgun, I hardly ever use it. Its fires every time I press the Z button, and pretty fast too so it may be that it can fire every other frame like floyd can. Of course, thats only about 6 shots before it has to cool down. Non tool-assisted its pretty useless except against unshielded enemies (not many anymore) I think plasma shots travel more slowly than pistol shots as well. My basic intuition would be to skip it. It would not be a bad idea to test running through a room with it and without it. To be worth it it would pretty much have to make up the 10 or so seconds it takes to walk over and get it on sekhmet itself. You do get the tri-rockets on cerulean (have to get them, the gate won't open if you don't have them) and I don't see the shotgun being so useful after that. EDIT: actually, I forgot that the pistol needs to cool down as well. in a room with lots of enemies it might be faster to unload with one, switch when it needs to cool down, and use the other and alternate them. It still might not make up enough time to warrant picking it up. You should test that. Lupus should definitely take his machine gun since its right there and you don't get his tri rockets until the middle of Rith Essa

Posted: 1/6/2007 8:19 PM

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Shadow_Byrn

Joined: 3/16/2006
Posts: 289

Doesn't Floyd magically transfer to the other characters after you get him? If so, then the only real weapons you should be worried about are the ones that you absolutely need.

I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.

Posted: 1/6/2007 10:30 PM
(Edited: 1/6/2007 10:47 PM)

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Comicalflop

Editor, Experienced player (730)

Joined: 6/13/2006
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zdk1: excellent thoughts/testing. edit: answered. I skipped Vela's plasma shotgun, especially since there are precious few capacity upgrades in Sekhmet. However, I am going to get Lupus's plasma shotgun in Spawnship, since it is right next to the machine gun, and there's lots of capacity upgrades for the PS in that level, plus more tough enemies to shoot. the plasma pistol has 7 shots before it needs to cool off. I use it more to snipe weak drones. the shotgun is unique among the handheld weapons in that it works like Floyd- turbo Z for fastest fire. the reason is because you need to hold Z to charge it up, and releasing Z to launch the charged shot. turbo z of course makes the shotgun run out of ammo extremely quick, and doesn't pack as much punch as a fulyl charged blast does. for these early stages, weapons with oomph: Juno has his tri rockets and sniper rifle, Vela has homing missiles and tri rockets, and Lupus has shotgun and tri rockets. Later on, everybody should have everything that they need, so it won't matter too much. Shadow Byrn: Floyd + machine gun cannot absolutely kill everything. But yes, no more weapons than required. Plus, I'm going to be picking up weapons to add variety- it'd be no fun if all I did was kill drones with the tri rocket and Floyd, now would it? I can find a use for the shotgun with Lupus, and the sniper rifle has been pretty good, as well as the tri rocket and homing missile, plus the machine gun and plasma pistol. and some grenades, but I hate using them because they slow me down and can't be thrown far. and now, some Sekhmet updates: this is taking me a while to do, but I'm nearly done. The level is turning out very well, and I've found some funny tricks/glitches and great shortcuts. the firefights are fast, intense, and totally one sided, so they should be aesthetically pleasing. Vela is about the same as Juno, with a slightly higher jump. speaking of jumps, I made her do one very daring leap of faith which saves 30+ seconds in one of the rooms with rotating/moving platforms. more walking on midair that was taken out of SS Anubis... Vela is a sex object (not mine, she's not my type but someone might have the hots for her), and in frame advance I can see her undies slightly, which disturbs me a little. So that the audience can enjoy it too, I make her transparent and look straight up, so that everyone can see right up and through her undergarments. Enjoy! also, drones in MIzar's Palace and here can walk into walls, if only Juno/Vela?Lupus could do that... they also can jump accross distances, but not before getting machine gunnified by Vela hehe... final glitch: when opening a chest with the green key, I activated it weird and made the sequence take a much shorter time. very cool, hope it works on future chests. One more big room in Sekhmet that I have to plan carefully and then a WIP will be ready!

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Posted: 1/6/2007 10:36 PM

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zdk1

Joined: 12/17/2006
Posts: 16
Location: New, Jersey

comicalflop wrote:

zdk1: excellent thoughts/testing. are you sure one homing missile will do the trick? it seems that Marsmallow needed like 5 grenades...

1 homing missile will certainly do it. I just tested it myself. just aim for the fleshy area behind the tongue (hitting the tongue does nothing)

Posted: 1/6/2007 10:49 PM

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Comicalflop

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ok excellent. That means that I can skip the grenades right next to that area, fire off one homing missile, wait a little for the death sequence, then rush right in. and inside, when you shoot the *organic* pipes that are everywhere, they make metallic sounds. makes me wonder...

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Posted: 1/7/2007 3:54 PM

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Comicalflop

Editor, Experienced player (730)

Joined: 6/13/2006
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Location: Massachussetts, USA

I bring you Sekhmet goodness! phew stage finally done. over 3 in-game minutes saved, and some non in-game seconds saved as well. On to another very long level: Cerulean! and guess what? it's there that I'm going to attempt to write some words with Floyd, since I have some wide open places to run in with nothing to do. specific notes about Sekhmet can be found in an earlier post. as always, I can answer any questions people might have. enjoy!

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Posted: 1/7/2007 7:17 PM

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DeHackEd

Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Former player

Joined: 11/6/2004
Posts: 833

I bring you AVI goodness. I remind users that using a download accelerator is not allowed.

Posted: 1/8/2007 5:48 AM

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Shadow_Byrn

Joined: 3/16/2006
Posts: 289

Alllllrighty. Still looking good. Just one q: It looked close, but is it possible to catch that ONE moving platform? It totally looked like you were really booking it through there too, so I don't think you could....but then again it looked like you might not have gotten the one as Juno.... Very good use of everything though. Keep it up!

I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.

Posted: 1/8/2007 3:05 PM

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Comicalflop

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Joined: 6/13/2006
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Location: Massachussetts, USA

which platform? there's two seperate rooms with platforms, it's hard to know which one you describe. I think the one you mean is where I watch it go up by holding R? the one that goes up and spins around some? yes, I booked it over there and couldn't catch it. it's definetly because of the huge time saver I did in room #2, where I jumped across the huge gap and skipped two platforms; if I didn't take that shortcut, that platform would've been in a closer position. Vela can jump higher than Juno (I think, aesthetically it seems so) but I couldn't reach that platform as it went above me. The platforms are very fast moving, so it's not as bad as the 30 second wait for the one in SS Anubis.

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Posted: 1/8/2007 8:33 PM

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Joe

Joined: 6/10/2006
Posts: 152
Location: Wisconsin

I noticed that one of the furry tribals was killed in Sekhmet. That seemed to be the only "flaw" I could see. Other than that, great job. I remember having nightmares doing a couple of the later first-person Floyd flying missions

Posted: 1/9/2007 3:27 PM

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Comicalflop

Editor, Experienced player (730)

Joined: 6/13/2006
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tribal that I slayed with Floyd was intentional, for shock value and because I'm not penlized since I'm going back to rescue them later; I did hear one die or get hit off screen, which was due to enemy fire and not something that I A) could control or B) need to be concerned about. Neither of them are mistakes. The Floyd Missions I at first was excited about TASing, but now I dread them. The Mizar's Palace one was the easiest of all to play; yet difficult to do because of fine controls. It required a lot of slowdown and rerecords because the controls are so responsive. thank god I'm required only to do 3 missions for ship parts. zdk1: I'm nearly done with Cerulean, I think I need Ichor and spawnship maps for Vela and Lupus

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Posted: 1/9/2007 4:03 PM

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zdk1

Joined: 12/17/2006
Posts: 16
Location: New, Jersey

the next couple of maps should be up later today. just got the watch sekhmet. I thought vela's machine gun was going to be skipped? It's just about 1 minute out of the way. Then again, over the course of the rest of the game it could make up that time. Its harder to say than with Juno or Lupus. for the machine gun door, is there any reason you stopped while shooting it? seems like you could have continued running towards the door while floyd was shooting. The room right before the green key with the swarm of fliers was nice. a quick burst of fire and all of them go down. The floyd missions were concentrated evil, especially the one where you had to collect gas canisters that where grouped 4 apiece, and if you didn't hit the center, you had to turn around and go back for the ones you missed.

Posted: 1/9/2007 4:10 PM

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Comicalflop

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The only part I wish I did in Sekhmet was skip the grenades and get the plasma shotgun, since I've only thrown two grenades so far, and they have a tendancy to make me slow down to throw them. I think the plasma shotgun could be very useful in a TAS, if used correctly, and I'm at a part in Cerulean where I wish I had more guns with oomph, and the grenades won't cut it since they really slow me down despite their exposiveness. Vela's Machine gun was not skipped; concentrated fire+ Floyd does wonders. I did stop for the machine gun door; even if Floyd was perfectly aimed, even while moving, he still needs to hit the target a certain number of times, or else it won't open. I did the best that I could, by sttarting to run on the first possible frame. I love the room before the green key. Ordinarily I would've used Floyd turbo and aimed randomly, but I wondered if every other frame Floyd can aim one shot at a different enemy, and use Floyd to get them in order and for Vela to shoot at ones Floyd's not aiming at, and it turned out very nicely. perfect use of two characters. the SS Anubis mission? yeah. not looking foward to it. although I asusme Floyd's turbo firing can be put to good use there.

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Posted: 1/9/2007 9:49 PM

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Comicalflop

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Bug guts! Goo flying everywhere! CERULEAN MADNESS! ok, Cerulean. It's not THAT much of a massacre, except for the tunnels part. For those itching to see drones dying in great numbers at rapid speeds, see next level, Ichor base. I'm kind of regretting getting the grenades, and wishing I had the plasma shotgun. BUT, I make do without, and Lupus picks up the shotgun and more importantly, many shotgun upgrades, and I have plenty of explosives now. Cerulean is big, and I had to run around to get the three gold bars. I thought I'd play around with the music. it came out not perfect, but still not terrible. Unfortunately I could not write words with Floyd. I was strafing, which messed up a lot of where shots were supposed to be in the sky. So no Floyd writing, for now or I think ever. sorry. There were a lot of shielded drones in this level, and I constantly had to think of ways to kill/get past them, with conserved rations in mind. What I have is good, fast, and varied. so I'm keeping what I have. once inside the caverns, I saved the 8 tribals and got the yellow key pretty fast; it desynched just before that room leading so far to only 2 desynchs in the entire game. Pretty good, I'd say. I go and get the homing missiles; unfortunately, this doesn't have a crosshair either, like the tri rockets. (maybe I chose the wrong video setting? shrug can't cahnge that now.) I also thought how the hell am I going to kill those flying drones that fly so close to each other; but who can shoot in a rapid, straight line? a certain flying robot of course! (it looks pretty when all the flying drones fall and die in the same place real quick.) The tunnels. OH GOD. it took an entire day of TASing for this segment, a solid 6 hours for 2-3 minutes. It was so hard straferunning inside, and shooting everything, making sure everything dies, and not bumping into anything/keeping a fast pace. I'm exhausted, but I hope the results are impressive. So this level has a few tiny flaws (the music playing, but I don't play any instruments so I suck a bit, tried to get it as close as I could) and very small/few places where I bumped into something. so I'm keeping it, and moving on to: Ichor! imagine the Tawfret castle; think an entire level like that.

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Posted: 1/10/2007 1:45 AM

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zdk1

Joined: 12/17/2006
Posts: 16
Location: New, Jersey

ichor base is up (not perimeter yet) omitted base N since you'll never go there (just a secret bonus totem)

Posted: 1/16/2007 10:57 PM

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Comicalflop

Editor, Experienced player (730)

Joined: 6/13/2006
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Location: Massachussetts, USA

Ichor: Bile, blood of the gods. In JFG: A GOOEY MASSACRE haha hey. sorry for Ichor taking a week. Once I sat down and actually started, it came along pretty fast. So Tawfret castle was a massacre. SS Anubis/Sekhmet were nice shortcuts that drastically recuded the in-game time compared to marshmallow. This is a combination of both. Vela absolutely loooooovesssss her tri rockets. It's just my luck that a) practically all drones in this level are shielded b) there's a lot of tri rocket ammo boxes so yeah. one word for this stage: explosive. I think I made two tiny mistakes, where I take 3 steps back in order to homing missile explode two sniper drones, but it was because of the angle they were at. the other was I think I grabbed a tri rocket ammo box when I had like 15+ tri rockets. at the time I thought I was low and didn't know when the next one was coming. right off the bat we have drones dying to the lovely tri rockets. we have more ants dying to tri rockets. then we get inside and there's more ants dying to tri rockets. we skip some tribals, tri rocket some ants, save a huge amount of time here and there from being fast, tri rocket some more ants, go past the the room with the moving platforms and buttons, tri rocket some more ants, found a great way to get past some of the platforms that push me off the edge, tri rocket some MORE ants, then face the boss. Ok, the boss. you have to go to video settings, and select frame buffer (experimental) otherwise you won't see the fight. this boss was weird, in that on the final hit the boss flew around for maybe 10 seconds before registering a death. Floyd was on because in those ten seconds I was expecting it to die, and was going to have Floyd help in shooting, but apparently my last tri rocket blast did the trick. Floyd did help in the first phase though; he helped destroy two of the laser arms earlier than intended. I hope you enjoy! form here it's either selecting Lupus and going to spawnship, or Vela for Mizar's palace; both take the same amount of frames to choose, so it's personal preference. zdk1, I think I'm going to need... lessee... Vela's Flume/Mizar's Palace, Spawnship, Rith Essa, and Eschebone. Danke. DeHackEd: maybe AVI of Cerulean + Ichor?

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Posted: 1/17/2007 5:16 AM

Post subject: New AVI.

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DeHackEd

Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Former player

Joined: 11/6/2004
Posts: 833

As you wish. Usual rules. Don't use download accelerators, don't try downloading it multiple times (this happens!), and please have patience. My poor DSL modem only goes so fast, and BitTorrent demands much bandwidth in the first place.

Posted: 1/18/2007 3:23 AM

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Comicalflop

Editor, Experienced player (730)

Joined: 6/13/2006
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Location: Massachussetts, USA

Flume: Floyd is waterproof? ok, boring swimming level. But it's gotta be done. I let Floyd pick off some ants just for fun. Not too much in the way of saved time; straighter paths, straferunning, and always moving helped. Oh, and found a funny bug with turbo A/B, and made Vela glide into the area cleared doorway. On to: LUPUS!!! everyone's favorite JFG cyborg dog.

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Posted: 1/18/2007 6:55 AM

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bkDJ

Joined: 7/26/2006
Posts: 1215

It's never lupus!!!

Posted: 1/18/2007 6:59 AM

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DK64_MASTER

Joined: 10/24/2005
Posts: 1080
Location: San Jose

But once it was ALMOST Lupus.

<agill> banana banana banana terracotta pie! <Shinryuu> ho-la terracotta barba-ra anal-o~

Posted: 1/19/2007 6:19 AM

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Shadow_Byrn

Joined: 3/16/2006
Posts: 289

Okay, watching the latest in WIPage. My notes/questions: I liked the music/switching weapons during the running parts. Good way to fill in the time. The Floyd shooting down the waves of flyers while on the run is just COOL! I always wanted to do that in real-time. The closest I ever got was I once hit them with a perfect Tri-Rocket... Was that Homing ammo at about 5:55 really neccesary? It really wouldn't make too much of a difference if you skipped it really, but I guess when attempting something like this, you want to get every segment perfect as possible. At the firefight during 7:12 -7:30 why didn't Floyd shoot the snipers? True it was cool to see the homing missle kill 'em good, but would Floyd have been quicker? You do the same thing later on, but with a pistol this time. Again, could you have sniped the snipers with Floyd without having to stop, aim, shoot? At the fourth piston, is it possible to just run across and jump off then back on? Or would the piston just push you off anyways? Okay, that's all!

I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.

Posted: 1/19/2007 5:14 PM

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Comicalflop

Editor, Experienced player (730)

Joined: 6/13/2006
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Shadow Byrn wrote:

Okay, watching the latest in WIPage. My notes/questions: I liked the music/switching weapons during the running parts. Good way to fill in the time. The Floyd shooting down the waves of flyers while on the run is just COOL! I always wanted to do that in real-time. The closest I ever got was I once hit them with a perfect Tri-Rocket... Was that Homing ammo at about 5:55 really neccesary? It really wouldn't make too much of a difference if you skipped it really, but I guess when attempting something like this, you want to get every segment perfect as possible. At the firefight during 7:12 -7:30 why didn't Floyd shoot the snipers? True it was cool to see the homing missle kill 'em good, but would Floyd have been quicker? You do the same thing later on, but with a pistol this time. Again, could you have sniped the snipers with Floyd without having to stop, aim, shoot? At the fourth piston, is it possible to just run across and jump off then back on? Or would the piston just push you off anyways? Okay, that's all!

Homing missiles in the Cerulean Caverns: at this point, I only have a capacity of 5. so I'd blast them off until I had 0-2 left, and get a ammo box for it. the reason is that there are tri rocket upgrades, but no tri rocket ammo boxes, and I ran out of tri rocket ammo. the homing missiles are guaranteed one hit kills on the orange drones, and 1 homing missile+Floyd or 2 homing missiles kills the big guys. homing missiles going for the snipers: yes, it saved time. they were really far away, and actually did not spawn from where I was with Floyd's range. I noticed that a homing missile would just go over in that general direction and 70% of the time kill them both in one shot, whereas Floyd's shots have a tendency to not register when off screen, and usually did not hit the snipers. Plus, I thought to use the homing missiles here, since I wouldn't use them anywhere else in the level and had a full ammo box at the end. when I used the plasma pistol inside: yeah, meh. I'm not 100% sure if Floyd can reach that far. his crosshair is tied pretty close to the middle of the screen. at the fourth piston: no. the ones that I ran ahead and jumped when they pushed me off was because I was slowly being pushed off. The other pistons were unskippable, because they were going too fast.

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