Posted: 4/25/2010 4:48 PM
Post subject: Shining Soul 1
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DarkKobold
Skilled player (1652)
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 2202
Location: Killjoy
Arcade TASer of 2010 PCE TASer of 2010 Arcade TAS of 2010 Lucky TAS of 2009 Lucky TAS of 2007
WIP Here. Shining Soul 1 is turning out to be a more interesting run than Shining Soul 2. Thanks to the RNG, which is based on both input and frame, (as oppose to the sequel, which is only frame), there is a much wider variety of outcomes easily available. Additionally, the monument system provides a great way to set a TAS apart from a normal run-through. You'll notice in the first level, I pick up two monuments in the first part of the level, and afterwards it becomes a slaughter fest. A note, while you only have to defeat one 'boss' enemy per floor, it is often difficult to get that enemy to spawn, as only 5 enemies can be spawned per floor, and unlike the sequel, you can't simply scroll enemies away. Additionally, the game has a habit of not spawning every other possible enemy instead of the 'boss' enemy. Once again, Lua helps me determine the optimal dungeon layout. Dungeon layouts (monuments, start locations, and chests) are fixed from the moment you enter a dungeon. So, all floors/monuments must be manipulated in advance. (Except for the monument type, that is per-floor).
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Posted: 4/27/2010 4:10 PM
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DarkKobold
Skilled player (1652)
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 2202
Location: Killjoy
Arcade TASer of 2010 PCE TASer of 2010 Arcade TAS of 2010 Lucky TAS of 2009 Lucky TAS of 2007
To hopefully generate some interest, I posted the first 4 levels on Viddler. http://www.viddler.com/explore/DarkKobold/videos/6/ I really like levels 9 & 10 of the Otherworld Forrest. I have 3 Monuments of Power effects stacked.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Posted: 4/27/2010 5:10 PM
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Derakon
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
It would help to know more about the game. I take it this is a randomly-generated dungeon crawler game with the goal in each area being to proceed through a few "floors" and fight a boss? What's your goal on each floor? You seem to spend a fair amount of time sometimes fighting enemies without a clear reason, while othertimes you walk right past them all. The game reminds me a lot of "Zelda clone" Flash games I've played, though rather better-executed. The hero even looks like Link! What's the blue circle with the counter above the hero's head? Some kind of charge attack? And why are you choosing to use bows? Are monument effects duration-limited? Every once in awhile, you're dipping into your inventory screen, but I have no idea what you're doing there. In short, it looks like this game could be interesting to watch if I had a clue what was going on. As it stands though, it seems to be a fairly generic dungeon crawler with the TAS nature only really being evident when you get a really brief dungeon level.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 4/27/2010 6:21 PM
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DarkKobold
Skilled player (1652)
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 2202
Location: Killjoy
Arcade TASer of 2010 PCE TASer of 2010 Arcade TAS of 2010 Lucky TAS of 2009 Lucky TAS of 2007
The dungeon 'level' layout is fixed. The only possible available randomness is in your start location. Thus, when possible, I spawn near a 'boss spawn' point. However, all 3-15 levels of the dungeon are fixed from the moment you enter that dungeon - that includes chest and monument locations. In this TAS the otherworld forest has 5 monuments; however, it is possible to go through the dungeon and encounter zero monuments. Additionally, all but two monuments where manipulated to be Power Monuments, which doubles attack power. This is one aspect that sets the TAS apart from a normal run. Also, when you have 3 power monuments, you attack power is actually x8, not x3, which is why I deal large amounts of damage in levels 9 & 10 of the otherworldly forest. The way to get the next level of a dungeon is to kill a (fixed) boss enemy. However, since only 5 enemies can be spawned in a given level, if you just ignore them, the boss enemy will never spawn. There are 2 ways to get a boss to spawn - kill all enemies you encounter before you get to the boss's spawn point, or lure the first 5 spawned enemies to the boss-spawn point, and kill one of them, allowing the boss to spawn. Enemies in this game move really slowly, so, along with massive boosts from Monuments, it is much faster to just manipulate a ton of criticals, and clear the level of all but 4 enemies before you reach the boss-spawn. The 5 enemy limit is also why I seem to walk so far with no enemies after a boss is dead. Other enemies spawn, and I outrun them. Additionally, although it generally goes by too fast to be seen, I pick up lots of stat boosters. These are supposed to be rare drops. As this is a TAS, I've manipulated around 10-12. The two are the Power Wine (+1 Atk) and the Quick Chicken (+1 Dexterity, Dexterity reduces the chance of a miss, which becomes ridiculously frequent if you don't increase this stat) Also, you only get 4 points to increase stats per level, which means that I've gained ~3 extra levels worth of stats from manipulation. In dungeon 2, I assign the stat boosters to slots in my right hand, and leave 1 of each there. This means I don't need to go to the item screen to use them, saving quite a bit of time. The archer is used for his range, his walk speed, and his charge attack. The charged arrow attack (little circle above head) fires a volley of 3,4,5,6 or 7 arrows, based on level, in rapid succession. These volleys can be used to rapidly kill dungeon bosses, as seen. Generally, I try and keep enough monument power so that normal enemy can be killed in 1-2 hits. The distance also benefits, as I can use it to clear out a circle of enemies without having to walk to them.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Posted: 4/28/2010 7:16 PM
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Sticky
Joined: 2/26/2007
Posts: 1365
Location: Minnesota
The biggest problem I have is the speed. The game seems to play very, very slowly. Seems like a cool game to play, but unless someone has some background with it, I don't see what would be entertaining about a full run. Nice random manipulation, though.
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
Posted: 4/29/2010 9:19 AM
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Snake
Joined: 6/27/2007
Posts: 137
Location: Germany
Very nice :) I really like the Shining Soul Games. Awesome what you can do with Luck Manipulation :) Keep up the great work!