I finally decided to redo the aging any% TAS for this game. Not only was the WR faster than it, but my own sad excuse of a PB was faster than it. I initially didn't because a fellow runner in the community had already done so, but that TAS is lost to the sands of time, leaving me to do it myself. Very pleased with this one, even if there are still obvious improvements to be made.
A boatload of new discoveries were made in the last three years.
There were three major discoveries
- First, a new way to clip into levels: No longer do we need a custom character, all we need is a Jedi (or Sith) and the janky ceilings above the chapter panels. While facing the panel, jump and slam into the sign above a door, and you will be on top of the sign, which clips you into the ceiling. From there, we can jump around behind the doors and enter any level we want. This finally allows us to completely bypass the first level, Negotiations, but as a consequence all episodes will NOT unlock after beating a level. The next episode will still unlock after completing the final chapter in an episode, however. You can Yoda clip behind episode doors, but it isn't likely to save time over doing the episodes in order.
- Second, double cutscene skips: While skipping cutscenes was discovered in time for the last TAS, in classic Knux fashion, double skips and skipping only the second cutscene in a pair was discovered mere weeks after it. To do a double skip, it's a frame-perfect pause, then unpause (with A) and buffer start, then unpause again. To only skip the 2nd cutscene in a pair, buffer Start just after the first cutscene cuts to black, then unpause (felt useful to mention).
- Third, Vader Skip: Yep, we can skip the Vader fights in Cloud City Trap. It's another door deload trick like in the final room of this level, but it is done wildly differently. You have to land a shot from Chewbacca on the last frame before you're about to land, while in the earlier portions of the room, and far enough from the wall. If a glitchy load happens, you got it: swap to another character to deload the door.
- and a Bonus non-discovery: I brought over "ending input early" ideas from the still in progress Free Play TAS. To end input earlier than in the current TAS, autosave had to be triggered, which does cost some time, but it saves over 12x the amount of time it loses. The final level (Into the Death Star) is a vehicle level, which all have the mechanic of your vehicle always moving the direction its facing (albeit slowly) without user input. In addition, the final 30 seconds of the level is an autoscroller. This allows us to end input over 2 minutes earlier than in the last TAS.
Known major improvements
- Darth Maul: Force field skip in the second to last room. Saves 5-15 seconds.
- Cloud City Trap: Boba Fett Skip. An accidental discovery that spawned its own related glitches, but it has not yet been reproduced on emulator or by others apart from the individual who discovered it. Another 5-15 second save.
- Yoda RNG: not much to say about this
- Cantina movement: some of the movement is definitely suboptimal.
Note that the credits are longer than the TAS. This was so long that I chose to speed up the credits (10x speed after music looped) via video editing.