Experienced player (704)
Joined: 2/5/2012
Posts: 1795
Location: Brasil
maybe do a normal run and the all levels run separate?
I want all good TAS inside TASvideos, it's my motto. TAS i'm interested: Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS? i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
Former player
Joined: 4/18/2015
Posts: 168
Location: Canada
grassini wrote:
maybe do a normal run and the all levels run separate?
Actually, I didn't realize it but there are actual credits and an ending after beating level 8. I didn't get it when I played because I input the password to unlock levels 9-12. Well, it looks like this TAS is good to go! If I have enough energy after the regular TAS I may do a levels 1-12 run!
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4036
Sounds great! If it doesn't hurt your motivation or ruin the skip, maybe you could post WIPs too.
Former player
Joined: 4/18/2015
Posts: 168
Location: Canada
CoolKirby wrote:
Sounds great! If it doesn't hurt your motivation or ruin the skip, maybe you could post WIPs too.
Yep! I'll be posting a WIP decently soon. I've been delayed making this TAS because I've been busy with some stuff IRL. I've also been trying to beat Bloodborne which I had started playing before this :P I still need to do a bit of testing too because of a glitch I found recently and I need to figure out how to recreate it. So hopefully it won't be much longer before I make some progress! ;)
Former player
Joined: 4/18/2015
Posts: 168
Location: Canada
Here's a WIP of only the first half of Level 1. I've been really busy lately and it's all I've been able to do. Link to video As you can see, I discovered a way to skip almost any fight sequence in the game. How it's done is, you enter a screen transition to a fight and exactly 4-6 frames after the camera has started moving you switch to your partner. You'll be temporarily put back behind the loading zone and this seems to glitch out the next transition and removes the invisible wall completely as if you defeated all the enemies. The reason I switched to Katara in the beginning was because of the textbox trigger that happens in the first fight. The textbox prevented me from performing the fight skip so I had to shoot Aang past the loading zone so I could activate the text when I was behind it. So when I switched to Aang it activated the textbox but I was still behind the loading zone. Then I was able to stay behind the screen transition to reactivate it again to perform the fight skip. I'd like to note that this works on any screen with a transition. So in the drill level, all the minigames requiring the pillars to be cut can be skipped since the invisible walls will be removed.
Active player (264)
Joined: 8/14/2014
Posts: 188
Location: North Kilttown
Wow that WIP looks good. Personally, I think skipping the enemy encounters avoids the biggest source of tedium this game has and puts most of the focus on "puzzle" solving and movement tech. I really look forward to seeing a full TAS.
Somewhat damaged.
Experienced player (704)
Joined: 2/5/2012
Posts: 1795
Location: Brasil
taht's a beautiful find!
I want all good TAS inside TASvideos, it's my motto. TAS i'm interested: Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS? i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4036
Great find! That should speed up the run itself, as well as the time it'll take you to make it, which is especially good for your busy schedule.
Former player
Joined: 4/18/2015
Posts: 168
Location: Canada
I'm glad to hear you guys like it ;) I'm hoping to have at least level 1 completed by Sunday or something. The level isn't too long, especially now that every fight can be skipped. I have an idea that I haven't tested to beat Azula quicker than normal so I can't wait to get to that fight!
Former player
Joined: 4/18/2015
Posts: 168
Location: Canada
I finished Level 1 last night but didn't have time to post it, but here it is now! Link to video In the run I figured out a few neat ways to compete some of the puzzles without the use of Sokka by doing some frame perfect movement and what not. I also discovered a way to beat Azula quicker than normal. First off, when you reflect a fireball almost as its about to hit you, it will shoot faster and do more damage. I use this to complete Azula's first phase in 3 fireballs as opposed to 5. Then the idea I had actually worked. I found out that in her second and third phases it's possible to skew the direction of her fireballs by jumping. It's nearly frame perfect but you can skew them enough so that you can reflect two fireballs without them colliding. This is done to damage her twice in one cycle. I managed to end phase 2 in one cycle doing this! The skewing technique really glitches the rest of the fight
Active player (264)
Joined: 8/14/2014
Posts: 188
Location: North Kilttown
The TAS is looking great so far. Here's to hoping there are similar tricks in the Zuko/Iroh sections that can save time. This is moving pretty fast for a beat em' up and I'm enjoying the progress.
Somewhat damaged.
Former player
Joined: 4/18/2015
Posts: 168
Location: Canada
Well, progress has slowed down a bit due to 2 new findings. One of the new findings is something I call corner boosting. First off, like most top-down games you move around on a grid of some sort. In this game the space between each grid is 512 pixels but it is actually possible to displace yourself halfway on a square by moving on different angles. So by moving in very specific ways, it is then possible to get yourself about 300-350 units away from a wall rather than the usual 512. When in this odd position it is possible to get boosted around a corner of a wall. When near the edge of a northern/southern facing wall, walking on an angle to the wall but away from the edge will oddly warp you around the corner. If my description is hard to visualize....here: I'm sure there's other variations of it depending on your position so it'll require further testing. Another thing I did was go OoB accidentally. I was just messing around with the camera transitioning, switching between partners at the invisible wall in a fight then ended up getting OoB. Unfortunately I wasn't recording and I have no idea how I did this. I couldn't move very far and only could move up and down. I got stopped by what seemed to be an invisible barrier. I would really like to recreate this as I'm sure this could break the game even further. If anybody would like to help recreate this, then please do so :) I don't mind any help! I've also noticed a few things that could have been done quicker in Omashu so i'll be redoing some parts. I'll also be glitch hunting a bit more just in case there's some significant new glitch to be found.
Joined: 2/15/2012
Posts: 5
Here's the WIP I was working on up until now lol. That's a really nice skip, but starting over from scratch again is disheartening XD. Hopefully something in here helps you out. Levels 1-4: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/29291075955361439
Player (74)
Joined: 8/29/2016
Posts: 14
Location: Toaster :0
I know I'm too late here, but I just wanted to point out that despite claims online that to unlock stage 9, you just have to A rank the previous 8 stages, it isn't actually true. I think it would be smarter to just TAS the "single run" stage with a password. But seems all the interest for the game vanished over the years so it doesn't really matter. Oh well.
Former player
Joined: 4/18/2015
Posts: 168
Location: Canada
PPLToast wrote:
But seems all the interest for the game vanished over the years so it doesn't really matter. Oh well.
Before I had stopped working on the TAS, I had found some new glitches that changed the game drastically. I never got around to implementing them as it was tiring having to start the TAS over and over. I'd still like to maybe make a TAS one day. I even found some helpful glitches in the first game in this series.
Player (74)
Joined: 8/29/2016
Posts: 14
Location: Toaster :0
Please document these somewhere!