Post subject: Grand Theft Auto Advance - Staunton Island Complete!
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Staunton Complete - 80% complete (33/41 missions complete) Only 8 missions left. If you spot any places for improvement, or just want to comment, please post.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Joined: 2/26/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: Minnesota
No damage would mean not losing any health, and, if applicable, not losing any armor. You are God, who is faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than car crashes; YOU CANNOT DIE! I think it would be a better idea to go without the one star, for now. Would you lose that much time with the Banshee? Once the "go to the red dot" text appears at the bottom, I lose control for a while. A bullet hits me, but suprisingly causes no damage. Look into this, it may be a glitch of some kind.* Do you have to be on the red dot, or could it be when text starts, too. It would be cool to see this in a no damage run ;3 Sounds like you are doing some good work! As soon as I can I will watch your WIP and comment, but it may be after work :( *After re-reading for errors, I realized that is a "no shit, Sherlock" statement. Sorry :P
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
The bullet no damage thing is definitely a glitch. It still makes all the sound effects as if I were hit, but I take no damage knockback or anything. I think it's just because I have no control over my character; maybe with some experimenting I can get it to carry over past the "cutscene", meaning invincibility. I doubt it, though. I'll redo mission 2 to take no damage, it shouldn't be all that hard to get through the entire game without taking damage with the poor hit detection. And please, do comment after you watch the video. This is only my 2nd attempt at making a TAS, so I don't know all the tips + tricks (Memory Watching, for example) which could make the run better. This is only a test run to get a general route down, etc. I'll be redoing the entire thing more optimally (if that makes sense) after the entire game is complete on the test run.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Joined: 5/9/2005
Posts: 748
Though I would be against you dying or getting busted, I would prefer you take damage to save time. The fact that the only time you only took damage was in an uncontrollable 'tutorial' where your not supposed to get hurt was kind of neat. There also seems to be several points when driving down long straight roads, you adjust you angle slightly several times? Is that not slower?
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
I'm definitely NOT gonna die or get busted, as that wastes far too much time. As for the adjustments on long roads, the game only lets me turn a certain amount, and only seems to accept input every 5 frames. I can't go completely straight, so I go as close as I possibly can.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Joined: 8/31/2006
Posts: 48
What about the possibility of death warping? i.e. if you end a mission without a car on a dockside somewhere (Disclaimer: I don't know if you actually do! :P) it might be faster to drown and steal a car at the hospital rather than walk back to the nearest road and steal one.
There is a whole new world beyond these walls. Break them down.
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Dying or getting busted makes me lose all my weapons. While in some places it might be faster in terms of travel, I'm going to need weapons. The game likes to force you out of your car in situations where you have to kill someone, and punching takes a while to kill. Also, in later missions just running someone over with a car isn't enough to kill them. One thing I can think of is getting busted, because it's instant transport to a place with police cars, which are one of the fastest in the game, plus I get a free shotgun. Unfortunately, completing a mission removes your wanted level, so I'd have to waste some time killing people to get the police to arrest me. Thanks for the suggestion though, I'll look into it and see if it can't save time in some places. Most likely I'll keep the run death/arrest free though, because it looks better.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Joined: 2/26/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: Minnesota
I would have never guessed you are a TAS n00b... you sound like an expert XD Can't help with memory watch, but try messaging mmbossman. He does a lot of memory watching, especially for VBA, so he should be able to walk you through it. It may be more entertaining if you keep the cops after you, and you find ways to dodge them. Otherwise it looked good.
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Interesting... I think I could find a way to get the cops after me in every mission. Droppin' Bombs, mission 10, is insanely hard with the police after you. I think I'll get a 4-star wanted level for that one.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Player (244)
Joined: 8/6/2006
Posts: 784
Location: Connecticut, USA
Are you sure that dying makes you lose all your weapons? In all the GTAs I've played, dying just takes cash away. Of course, they could have screwed up the system in GTAA but I have to wonder...
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
No, you've always lost all your weapons plus some cash.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Player (244)
Joined: 8/6/2006
Posts: 784
Location: Connecticut, USA
I guess I've been playing GTAIV too much.
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Mission 3's almost done, I'll edit when it's complete. Edit: Mission 3 complete! http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1636609507/GTA.vbm
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Don't expect many updates for a while, guys. I've been very busy with work lately since 2 people got fired (meaning the rest of us have to do their work plus our own), and on Thursday I'm going on a 10 day cruise vacation for my graduation present. While I'll be taking my laptop with me for the days we're stuck at sea, don't except too much (if anything) to get done.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Joined: 2/26/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: Minnesota
Don't TAS on a cruise! Enjoy the possibility of the Titanic 2, and all things good like, say, sun or something... staying inside is boring ;P
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
I'm not really planning to TAS on the cruise :P
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Joined: 9/20/2006
Posts: 8
Location: Germany
I just watched the movie: By pressing B you can skip the mission text messages (those with close-up images of the people) - that saves a bit of time. I don't know if that's the only thing that made me faster but my frame counter was below 29880 after finishing the three missions when I once tried TASing the game. But I gave up. Here is what I did finish: GTAA 1:27'27 Feel free to use anything useful of it.
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
I'm back from the cruise now. The only work I did was while stuck in the airport and on the plane: thunderstorm = delayed flight = nothing to do for about 3 hours. Add in a couple hours on the plane (couldn't fall asleep). We visited New London, Halifax, Boston, and Bar Harbor, and I had a great time. Anyways, I have a random test run (up to around level 7, before I noticed the B-skip-text that Grizzly mentioned). Levels 1 and 2 have been optimized as well. Grizzly, thanks a TON for that video. It's going to help a lot in determining routes to take, and mission strategies. Edit: Level 3 as well.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Mission 4 complete. It turns out Vinnie's text message lasts so long I can turn around my car in preparation for the next mission. And for those wondering, yes, I am going to get max wanted level on every mission (except possibly mission 6, the pay n' spray is pretty far away. I'll have to see how many frames I lose on it.) Max wanted level does create some lag, though. I was also thinking: would people want to watch a slightly longer video, if it's more entertaining? I'm considering doing the last mission on foot (with a mandatory 6-star wanted level). I should barely be able to make the 5-minute time limit by running as much as possible, and to complete that mission on foot without taking damage is a feat I believe is humanly impossible. I may not end up doing it, but I think that would be a great way to end the movie. I'm definitely not going to take damage at any time, this game has HORRIBLE hit detection (watch the end of mission 6 on the test run).
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Joined: 9/20/2006
Posts: 8
Location: Germany
I think going for the fastest time is better than walking five minutes on foot. But of course that depends on how much is going on while walking. If it looks really interesting and impossible to do in real time, that could also be nice.
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Well, during those 5 minutes walking and running, I'll have police cars trying to ram me, police shooting, military guys firing a ton of shots and throwing grenades, police blockades, and maybe a tank or 2 trying to kill me. Oh, and mission 5 complete.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Hmm...I dunno. Watching the police fail to be able to aim at all is reasonably amusing for 30 seconds or so, but I don't think it's worth 160 seconds. Maybe if there were more tanks and hand grenades. How much of that variety of enemy type would be shown in the driving version? I assume the police blockade would still be there, and it'd actually be more of an obstacle in a car since you can't just jump the cars. I assume there's some kind of hidden stamina meter that prevents you from running at full speed all the time?
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Yeah, otherwise I'd be running the entire time. Police blockades are randomly generated, delaying movement by a few frames could make more or less of them appear. As for variety in the driving version, I believe there would be a bit more. I'll make a driving version later today. Driving Version (1 min 20 seconds)
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Chamale
He/Him
Player (178)
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1352
Location: Canada
Well, having seen both videos, I definitely vote for the driving one. That was amazing when you jumped the lake.