Post subject: Avatar the Last Airbender - Burning Earth
Joined: 3/3/2007
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It looks like a good game to TAS, so I was wondering if someone wants to try this one out. There are a total of 13 levels. The 13th level is basically all previous levels glued together. You can only access this level by getting A-Rank on the first 12 levels.
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It seems the game was released pretty recently, which makes it very hard to find a ROM. Could you describe the gameplay a bit, please? What genre is it?
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You could say it is kinda the same as the previous Avatar GBA game. Only that they have improved the gameplay and system. It has puzzles, fighting and 2 minigames as levels(Flying with Appa) Sometimes you have to beat all enemies on the screen before you can advance. And you control 2 characters. You switch them with L and let your partner attack with R. I have a rom available if needed
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It's very cool. If I had a (working) machine right now, I'd try it out. It can be VERY VERY fast with some clever use of L/R and using Aang's dash.
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Not going to lie, playing it for 5 minutes and it seems kinda interesting.
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theenglishman wrote:
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Omg, you are so funny >_>
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Frankly, I didn't like it as much as the original A:TLA. I thought about speedrunning it. Maybe later.
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dirk456 wrote:
Omg, you are so funny >_>
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The gba is really dead... All the newer games are like this one... pure crap, looks like homebrew!
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I wasn't sure whether to make a new topic for this game or not, but here is an old WIP (May 2011) I made of this game that I was planning to improve when VBA24-M came out, but I never did because I had other projects. If anyone wants to start running this game, I hope this helps them get started.
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I alrady see"d the anime so let's try the game :P
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Here's an encode of my short WIP, to make things easier for solarplex.
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CoolKirby wrote:
Here's an encode of my short WIP, to make things easier for solarplex.
The game looks sooooooo much more interesting than the first one! Much more high speed with Aang's Wind Dash.. edit: after testing, Into the Inferno on NDS, it wouldnt be as entertaining as Burning Earth would be.
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CoolKirby wrote:
Here's an encode of my short WIP, to make things easier for solarplex.
If you start boosting towards the crate at about 0:41 you can clip through it. Though, it would have to be timed so that the clip would be faster than having to wait for Katara to follow up behind Aang for the next switch. I have an example of it here. I hope CoolKirby doesn't mind I used his WIP file to show this off real quick. I started the edit just before the clip and didn't want to take forever with the fighting just before this. Also, there's a screen of enemies right at the end of Omashu with Aang and Sokka where they can kill one less enemy than intended and still be able to scroll to the next section of the stage.
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TehBerral wrote:
I have an example of it here. I hope CoolKirby doesn't mind I used his WIP file to show this off real quick.
That looks cool! I hope it turns out faster than my input. Maybe it could also be used to skip some puzzles later on. And I don't mind.
TehBerral wrote:
Also, there's a screen of enemies right at the end of Omashu with Aang and Sokka where they can kill one less enemy than intended and still be able to scroll to the next section of the stage.
Thanks for sharing that, I'll keep it in mind.
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http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/17178710904764276 I actually forgot I made this WIP a while ago. It shows off a more optimal crate clip and the enemy skip I mentioned at about the 12000 frame mark. The WIP is faaar from optimal, as I really suck at TASing beat 'em ups, but hopefully those tricks will help later on in the run.
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I've been working on this TAS on and off for about a month. First actual attempt at one. I know there's a time save around the 18300 frame mark. Any criticism, opinions, help, etc is encouraged. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/20410668883458214 As an aside, how do you guys normally go about finding glitches? I mean honestly. They seem like arbitrary actions that happen to work somehow. Is there like a list of common glitch mechanics that you work with? Also, after looking through the forums a bit, is it not normal to play a game 1 frame at a time when you're TASing it? I thought that's how you knew it was fastest is that every frame is perfect...
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Really good work! It was cool to see you stack all those enemy combos, and make use of the partner's ability while attacking with Aang/Zuko (especially Dragon Breath!). You thought of plenty of surprising ways to use two attacks at once to save time. Is it possible, by waiting a few frames or entering different input, to make Azula throw more small fireballs instead of the huge ones? Or does she follow that same pattern every time? Also, in Level 2, around frame 15000, you held onto that charged fireball for a long time. Couldn't you have used it to help fill that red crystal or defeat the firs two enemies in the next room, and then started charging another one? Sometimes you stand still and wait for enemies to get into a certain position before attacking. You can skip this wait sometimes by changing your own character's position to make them move differently, into a position where they can get hit faster. I used to wonder how everyone found such cool glitches too. Basically, just play around with the game, while recording a movie so you have a record of whatever you find. Try things that the developers didn't expect you to do, and you just might find something useful. One common trick is making two things happen at once, which can lead to things like midair jumps and cutscene skips. Yes, frame advance is essential to making your TAS the fastest it can be, almost as important as savestates.
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Man, that WIP looks tasty! So glad that clip find didn't go to waste (I honestly thought it would end up being sub-optimal in practice.) By the way, has anyone gathered some RAM data from this game yet; enemy HP, X, Y, attack charge / invincibility timers, crits (if they exist) etc? I think with that in hand this game could get pretty thoroughly wrecked. I could start poking around if no one's done that yet.
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Skykingcst wrote:
As an aside, how do you guys normally go about finding glitches? I mean honestly. They seem like arbitrary actions that happen to work somehow. Is there like a list of common glitch mechanics that you work with?
Every glitch or speed trick I've found has been... pretty much by accident, just randomly trying things in different places and suddenly something new and weird happens. In my experience, the less you look for glitches at first, the more you'll find.
Also, after looking through the forums a bit, is it not normal to play a game 1 frame at a time when you're TASing it? I thought that's how you knew it was fastest is that every frame is perfect...
Generally, when you're finalizing a run, you'll want to do it one frame at a time. When you're route planning or making an initial unoptimized test run, it's less important to use frame advance as long as the final submitted run uses it extensively. Like CoolKirby said, it's essential for speed.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
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CoolKirby wrote:
Is it possible, by waiting a few frames or entering different input, to make Azula throw more small fireballs instead of the huge ones? Or does she follow that same pattern every time?
She follows the same pattern every time regarding big fireballs. Best I could do with the little ones was get 2 shots in when possible, or get the hit on the second fireball to start her big attack animation sooner.
Also, in Level 2, around frame 15000, you held onto that charged fireball for a long time. Couldn't you have used it to help fill that red crystal or defeat the firs two enemies in the next room, and then started charging another one?
I'll try this out when I get home. [quote ="TehBerral']By the way, has anyone gathered some RAM data from this game yet[/quote] I'm not experienced with memory addresses but from what I've seen either I'm doing something wrong or x,y positions change every map. The most useful memory address to have would be the camera position to see where enemies are spawning off the screen. Thanks for the help guys. I look forward to making more progress!
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Skykingcst wrote:
I'm not experienced with memory addresses but from what I've seen either I'm doing something wrong or x,y positions change every map. The most useful memory address to have would be the camera position to see where enemies are spawning off the screen.
Ughum, I was worried about that. That would explain why I've been having trouble trying to find the proper X, Y. Yeah, I guess the camera position would be the next best thing. I'm somewhat new to RAM watch stuff myself but if someone is able to find a pointer to correct addresses (or some bollocks) that might be an option. I only stress this because I think knowing X, Y and if subpixels are going to play a significant factor in this game will help with some of the puzzle sections (i.e. things like the crate clip).
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I'm not that great with memory addresses, myself, but I can share what I've gathered about X/Y position. I'm assuming it's no different than NES or SNES. If it is, then disregard this post. Maps are more or less made up of several screens the size of the console's resolution. In the GBA's case, it's 240x160. Your X and Y coordinates refer to your character's position on a specific 240x160 screen within the map. An X/Y position of 0/0 is the center of that particular screen, so in theory X position should never be above 120 or below -120, and Y position should never be above 80 or below -80. Someone more knowledgeable of the subject should fact check me on all this, since I've never searched for addresses on GBA.
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warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
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I just finished playing through this game and it was really awesome. It has really fast gameplay and I found a ton of glitches and tricks with one of them breaking the game completely. I've decided to make a TAS of this game since it should be pretty fun and the actual end time of the run should be decently short. One thing I've been wondering though is if I would be allowed to enter a password to get A ratings in the first 8 levels. Unlocking the last levels requires to get an A rating in those levels and actually getting them without the password doesn't add any entertainment value and actually would cut out of some cool skips I've found. I'd like to know if this is ok before I start the TAS because I would have to route each level completely different.