User Files from FatRatKnight

f23518 *** STAGE 1 ***
f24482 Segment 0: 964
f25066 Segment 1: 584
f25163 Segment 2:_ 97
f25347 Segment 3: 184
f26108 Segment 4: 761
f26600 Segment 5: 492
f27412 Segment 6: 812
f27647 Segment 7: 235
f29066 Segment 8:1419
=== END OF STAGE 1 (Frames: 5548) ===

Well, I fixed up the traversal of the flame tunnel after miniboss. 2 frames there.

Applied Shot Counter glitch again. +2 lag, -4 frames taken to climb past an enemy we once had to delay for. Might be possible there's a better enemy to shoot the laser on for lag purposes.

Optimizations in the final rightward segment, and threw away a frame intentionally to sync boss. I feel we have 4 frames delay on dialog frame rule.

f23518 *** STAGE 1 ***
f24482 Segment 0: 964 (pr: 963)
f25066 Segment 1: 584
f25163 Segment 2:_ 97 (pr:_ 96)
f25347 Segment 3: 184 (pr: 210)
f26108 Segment 4: 761 (pr: 760)
f26605 Segment 5: 497 (pr: 496)
f27418 Segment 6: 813 (pr: 812)
f27653 Segment 7: 235 (pr: 236)
f29072 Segment 8:1419
=== END OF STAGE 1 (Frames: 5554) === (pr:5576)

Compared against previous bests. Did what I could to resync. Currently delaying 24 frames at stage select.

Don't like transition of Segments 4 to 5, particularly as we delay for an enemy we have to destroy. That is my suggested next target for improvements.

Basically, the Shot Counter glitch allowed us to switch weapons while the charged spikeball was going. It is triggered by firing an uncharged laser and having it hit an enemy many times, generally by using the screen edge for rapid respawns. Not my doing, ThunderAxe31 was doing some intricate analysis and determined Team 2 had the right idea somewhere.

f36993 *** STAGE 5 ***
f37726 Segment 0: 733
f38205 Segment 1: 479
f38512 Segment 2: 307
f38635 Segment 3: 123
f38712 Segment 4: 77
f38827 Segment 5: 115
f39283 Segment 6: 456 (Saved 2 frames here)
f40017 Segment 7: 734 (Wot. 2 frames here as well. How?)
f40294 Segment 8: 277
f40411 Segment 9: 117
f40653 Segment10: 242
f42060 Segment11:1407
=== END OF STAGE 5 (Frames: 5067) ===

I kept getting reminded of that ledge landing in Segment 6. Well, okay, it was only three times, but it clearly wasn't stylish. My only solution to it was to select a different height to solve it, ultimately by climbing down the ladder for 9 additional frames.

Let's talk about the falling cycle. Address 1E6C. At terminal velocity, this cycles through 34 going up to 42, then snaps back down to 34. It is 9 frames long. When it reads 42, the next frame will be zero-speed (or, if camera is scrolling, then the frame after that). So we have 8 frames of 4-speed and 1 frame of 0-speed. The terrain is positioned in such a way around that ledge that I get three or four frames of this 0-speed. It is also positioned so perfectly that I need four of these 0-speed frames in order to get the time I need to fall past the ledge. Because of how the fall cycle works, it only matters where I begin falling, as opposed to when, so the only real hope here is to adjust the height where I began falling in the first place. Ladders are slow, I had to climb down 9 pixels, 1 at a time per frame.

We're sitting on 4 frames before the door, a frame on the ladder leading up to the door, and one more before the Flame Charge underneath that wall on the way to the up segment. We're 3 frames away from a frame rule. Oh, and I basically ran out of useful ammo at the boss, but at least it was just enough.

The reason why the delay before that Flame Charge I mentioned, is because I fall through the floor I wall jump up to without the delay. Apparently this is due to some frame rule.

Oh, and I did change up the 1st boss re-fight to something less satisfying. My weapon choices pretty much force me to take damage either because I can't reach the boss on the first vulnerable frame, or because it would trigger lag frames otherwise. But at least I consume ammo I won't be needing too much of.

Huh, so now we have five boss skips. I don't think ammo management is a problem anymore. Knew that one enemy looked fishy.

Basically, there's this fish enemy we can spawn. Exonym's previous attempts didn't get this one to move, but I then found we can face left and jump early enough. Our important pixel gets us past the floor tiles, and down low and early enough. Once it's out of the de-spawn zone, it's a matter of delaying it long enough to meet the boss, then kill it. That enemy moves rather quick and will de-spawn off the right side of the screen without the ouch delays.

If anyone's curious, the base movie the savestate came off of was Team 4's run.

Stage 4, end of Segment 6. Some time before that last ladder of the stage.

Didn't like making that jump at all. Not after the Flame Charge, and not before it either. Let's get rid of it entirely!

This did mean I needed to adjust my dash, throwing away two pixels so that I remain on the platform for one more pixel. This was exactly enough for a turnaround landing after Flame Charge.

From there, I spent some saved frames by avoiding save platform lag, as otherwise the frame rule would eat my savings,

Seg7 - 120 (Current: 95)
Seg8 - 112 (Current:134)
Seg9 - 281 (Current:253)

Our total is 513 frames. The latest movie is 482 frames, so this alternative path I just uploaded is 31 frames slower.

Shame. Would be a nifty "what the snap" factor.

f56656 *** STAGE 2 ***
f56880 Segment 0: 224 (**: 224)
f58479 Segment 1:1599 (T3:1554)
f58540 Segment 2:_ 61 (T3: 265 ; T7:_ 61)
f58641 Segment 3: 101 (T3: 105)
f58869 Segment 4: 228 (T4: 236)
f59063 Segment 5: 194 (T4: 189)
f59841 Segment 6: 778 (T4: 792)
f59937 Segment 7:_ 96 (T3:_ 96)
f60064 Segment 8: 127 (T5: 127)
f60156 Segment 9:_ 92 (T6: 106)
f60428 Segment10: 272 (T7: 234)
f61756 Segment11:1328 (T3:1378)
=== END OF STAGE 2 (Frames: 5100) ===

Looking over the starter input for Segment 0, there is a fix we need to do. I would leave it an exercise to experienced Zook TASers, or anyone who has read my latest post (well, it was the latest until I make one linking to this file), but basically, first dash tap before jump is the clear frame improvement. Fix that, later.

We miss the frame rule by one frame. Snap. At least I got rid of an Ammo Tank refill. Frames were lost on item manipulation, so this stage is extremely sensitive to the 32-frame cycle. Met the boss of s2 on two barrier HP left, which is a problem because I need to take damage to reduce lag, so lose the HP against two of the shots.

Oh, and implemented Boss Skip for the second boss re-fight. SegmentCounter script claims 180 frames on that fight now.

All frames from earlier stages have been carried forward to the end. We've lined up on the 32-frame cycle after Stage 3, so sync happened without issue on Stages 6 and 2.

The basic strategy was to use the billions of frames we've saved, and incrementally lose them on the way to the end until we're left with only a few. Somehow, the stage had a lot of added lag, apparently 4 extra lag, so we'll need to reduce that. I have thrown away three frames, two of them at the end of the stage, so now might be the time to find ways of strategically delaying to get around the lag. However the delays work, as long as we don't leave our current frame rule, this will not affect sync of the remainder of the run.

I've carried all the saved frames we had into Stage 3 now. This would be the 8 frames from before s5, but I had to find more hidden about in various spots, and ultimately ended with another frame rule pulled right out from s5.

I went ahead and changed a dash right at the breakable blocks. Keep in mind, when jumping out of a dash to a short ledge, it is faster to do the first tap as you make the jump, and finish the second tap when you land, as this way, you have one of the zero speed frames from tapping overlap with the zero speed of ending a dash with a jump. Actually, a lot of savings in Stage 5 was thanks to implementing this trick.

I made a few attempts at the lazy-sync for the segments after the miniboss. Well, we did save a touch over 32 frames, did we not? The game wishes not to sync on this matter.

Well, I saved frames in Stage 7, carried that through Stage 1, and here we are in Stage 4 trying to squeeze out more savings. I removed a pause thanks to better item drops. This dropped a frame rule. I had 2 frame rules before this stage and 2 frame rules after. Now that I carried the 2 frames rules forward, that would be 4 frame rules, which I can trivially remove for the 32-frame item cycle, but since I saved an extra frame rule, I'm now stuck with 8 frames delay in stage select after Stage 4. I guess I'm not getting a free ride in manipulation if I want to get rid of that delay. I saved too many frames for my own good!

In other news, I copied Team 3 straight to the first boss we can skip. Having not put in much time on trying the skip (I took more time typing this paragraph than trying the skip), I have not succeeded. As Exonym is the one who confirmed the skip, that's the one to ask to make it happen again, as first-hand experience should make it a lot easier.