Posts for FatRatKnight

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Posted: 10/6/2008 10:06 PM
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FatRatKnight
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1174)
Joined: 9/27/2008
Posts: 1085
In that case, I guess I'll submit the run shortly. If WTF-level runs are appreciated, then all I can say is "what am I waiting for?" Now to think up what to put in the submission texts... Should I suggest a shot of seeing the final boss while at 1 HP?
Posted: 10/6/2008 5:40 PM
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FatRatKnight
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1174)
Joined: 9/27/2008
Posts: 1085
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin wrote:
What the $%^$% hell just happened?! I mean $#^%#^@!!!! That's not a movie, that almost resembles the Rockman glitchfest.. things in a blur from excessive speed, confusing moments of clarity... Can we please get an explanation?!
Even if someone knew this game pretty well, I expect to hear this type of question. There's two main factors to this: Visibility and speed. It should already be obvious, even in a TAS, that this is supposed to be first-person perspective. You see everything through the eyes of your character. Now, the main problem here is the fact the character should be legally blind due to the fact he can only see like two squares ahead. There are map spells I can cast, but they freeze the game for a few seconds while displaying the area, then the map disappears and gameplay is back to normal. If I could move while showing the map, I would have done so. But since it even stops doors from opening, I can't show the maps without losing time. As for the speed, the game accepts movement every frame. When you tap up, you instantly move one square, unless there's a wall or something else in the way. Then the game waits for you to release up before accepting the next up input. So, of course I hit, release, hit, release, at 30 Hz. Needless to say, 30 squares per second should be a blur in itself. Then there's a lesser factor: The game updates the wall display every four or so frames. It's also a little behind on the display, so of course even with frame-by-frame, you can't even tell what's up ahead, or even what you're seeing relates to what paths you saw before. Combine these factors, and you have a wonderful blur the whole time I'm not faced with countless doors, talking to three people, or destroying two of the monsters. As for the two moments where you actually see me attack something, I'm using a damage underflow glitch. If I didn't mess around with my spells even before the attack spells hit, you would have seen them go through their normal animation and deal one damage. For some reason, attempting to cast a different spell while an attack spell is still going through its animation causes the spell to transform, taking on the parameters of the new spell. If you were attempting to cast an attack spell as the second spell, you are not charged any extra HP for it. For a normal run, this is typically useful for firing a monstrous 54 HP-cost killer attack spell while spending only 2 HP. But this isn't a normal run, is it? If you try to cast a non-attack spell while the attack spell is still going through its animation, the effect of the non-attack goes through (HP cost included) AND the attack spell also changes. The base attack power of a spell transformed this way is -1, and with luck, deals at most 6 damage (before you take into account the enemy magic defense). A bit of luck manipulation later, and I hit that -1 every time! Since the game treats the negative as though it were unsigned, I nail maximum damage every time. Too bad it's cropped to 255, then further reduced by their defense... Hopefully, that counts as a good enough explanation. My impression of my own run is that it will find a home in Gruefood if I submit it. But at least then it will be in a list of submissions, if someone wants to bother looking for it. That is what I get from watching my own run. I want to hear more thoughts before I decide to submit away, though.
Posted: 10/6/2008 3:48 AM
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FatRatKnight
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1174)
Joined: 9/27/2008
Posts: 1085
Hold on... 17 minutes? Where are you getting that number? My run should be a fraction under 1 minute 15 seconds... Something happened. I want to know what.
Posted: 10/6/2008 2:33 AM
(Edited: 10/9/2008 3:20 AM)
Post subject: Dungeon Magic - Sword of the Elements
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FatRatKnight
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1174)
Joined: 9/27/2008
Posts: 1085
About the game Some dark overlord named Darces returns, and of course, only one person can drive him away. You need to travel around the world to unite the five elements, Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Faerie, so you can defeat Darces and save the world. Or something to that effect. Do I do any of that? No way, man! I "unite" only one element, fly straight to some sky dungeon, get the required item, and then run into the final dungeon, only to skip by Darces without even touching him and pay the king a visit to end the game. Oh, kingly guy, you love to exaggerate! As far as gameplay goes, it's a little odd. Movement is done merely by tapping in a direction. Left/right turns you, and up/down moves you. If you attack, it takes a little time for it to hit, and you can only strike whatever is right in front of you. All the spells are made using runes, and since there is no MP in this game, casting spells eats up your HP. Also, vision is rather limited, and it's very easy to get lost without using the right spells. EDIT2: Complete run v2 I guess all that's left is check a few last things before submitting it. In particular, what should I do about the record count? Other than that, nothing else to say right now. I'll leave in some of the older texts in place: Old run is here. EDIT: I have submitted this run now! I just didn't feel comfortable submitting it before putting it up for discussion. Although it does say 431 records, I have two other runs, a test run at 440 records and my first real attempt at 178 records. The total count before I got the final run is 1049 records. I suppose a question of mine is how to present the count. Given that it's as optimal as I can make it, and the fact this is the game where I first tried the tools on, that should say something about the simplicity of the game. Before getting into this run, I had a pretty thorough knowledge of this game. What spells do what, what route I should take, and where to get a few things. Some of the more tricky stuff involved how to completely stop enemy attacks, how to get damage underflow, and primarily what the game bases its luck off of. Don't worry, I didn't know everything ahead of time, like precisely how many enemies I needed to kill in the route, the 8-frame rule of the doors, and how to manipulate enemy movement. If I'm told to submit now, I'll do so. Else, I'll submit it on my own time, probably in a week, unless there's an overflow of posts telling me not to. If nothing else, I want to say "this game is now TASed, and exists in the database of games that has been attempted."
Posted: 10/6/2008 2:04 AM
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FatRatKnight
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1174)
Joined: 9/27/2008
Posts: 1085
The fact you're entertained tells me I'm doing pretty darn good so far. If you're actually not waiting for it to end when watching it, then I had more success than I expected. As long as I'm patient, then it seems that being relatively inexperienced should not be too much of a problem. As for that sound... I had to check it out myself. Flying at that spot by the giant claw gave me a score bonus, and I saw my score change. Imagine it like that score bonus in Gradius for flying in that "tunnel" in the first level, but without the 5000 showing up. While letting it run to hear that sound, I watched the lag counter go up. So now I have lag to deal with... Usually solved/reduced by destroying some enemies in the area. Less things to detect hits with makes it easier for the game to run smoothly, by my understanding.
Posted: 10/5/2008 6:50 AM
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FatRatKnight
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1174)
Joined: 9/27/2008
Posts: 1085
I try to make it look like Red is shooting at Blue. I mean, come on! If one player takes some power-ups while the other clearly didn't get as much, wouldn't you complain a bit? Heh. Note that the only "missed shots" so far are aimed towards Blue... I did over a minute so far! Though I got a bit more lazy towards the end... At least I'm making some progress. I may want to hold on to the next WIP until I beat the first boss. ... Actually, I probably would rather dump these WIPs in regular intervals, unless the end of the next interval is really close to something important, like a boss battle. If I mess up royally somewhere, I might want it to be pointed out. In any case, I get the impression I'm uploading these files correctly. Otherwise, I'd be seeing messages which say that link doesn't work. At least that much is good. As it stands in my latest WIP, I should have gotten a total of 18 power-ups, 9 to each player. Watching it myself, some of the action I wanted to show goes a bit too quickly...
Posted: 10/2/2008 8:45 PM
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FatRatKnight
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1174)
Joined: 9/27/2008
Posts: 1085
I'm hoping for feedback. Even negative feedback is more welcome than no feedback. I've been moving slowly, mostly because I got busier, but I think a small part has been that I got no one saying anything about my 30 second run. Then again, it's hard to say whether the lack of these posts did contribute... I now realize that when I said I was going slower than I hoped, the pace I was going actually would count as pretty fast. I've got another five seconds now, but I don't think it's enough to actually upload those five seconds. About those 30 seconds, I see a few things I could have done differently. While 1P is spinning around that power-up, I probably should have lowered 2P's first shot by a few pixels. Another thing is possibly add in a little action at the times the players are holding still and not doing anything interesting. Any advice on hex-editing? Since the .fm2 files are in ASCII, I've been using Notepad on a run of another game (Dungeon Magic, the first game I TASed. This is my first mention of my TAS on it). I'll try to hex in lowering the shot for a start, and see if the rest of the run survives the hex-edit. I saw the Gradius TAS. Fwee! That ship is fast! Okay, circles ARE interesting! That, and the general craziness of insane speeds made for a great watch. If I can't think of anything better, I might steal a few of those designs, with adjustments to them as needed... Now, as for the speed, I can't even go at half the insane speed. My speed limit is at 3.75 pixels per frame, after 10 speed-ups on each ship. However, with two ships and as many as three Options, I might come up with more complex designs that work with 5 controllable sprites that can go on two separate paths. I don't think the entertainment I may produce will be on par with adelikat's Gradius TAS, given how new I am at this, but I can try. Somehow, making this post made me feel a bit better about things. I will see if I can continue on this TAS.
Posted: 9/28/2008 8:28 PM
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FatRatKnight
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1174)
Joined: 9/27/2008
Posts: 1085
Salamander (J), over 30 seconds so far! Going slower than I hoped, but rushing things would only reduce the quality. I think I did well, but there's the WIP so everyone here can tell me all the points I messed up in, or just enjoy what I did. True, I have 3 "missed shots" in there, but given the context that those shots were made (I hope some player rivalry is shown...), leaving them in should be more entertaining than removing them. I will continue on with Salamander (J). After reading the above post, I don't believe there's any further reasons why I should pick the (U) version, so (J) it shall be. All further TASing from me will be done in (J). The lack of any significant dialogue is a help, so thanks for helping me decide. I agree on the Missiles. Poor offense, can't avoid firing them if I need to shoot, and so forth. We could have 22 player-related sprites (2 ships, 10 bullets, 10 missiles) capable of colliding with numerous enemy sprites on any particular frame. If that doesn't cause lag, then what does? The earliest I'll get them will be the last level, if at all. I'll go watch the Gradius TASes soon. As auto-scrolling shooters, I shouldn't have too much trouble working out the ideas for use in this run. Besides, I've been meaning to do so for a while, and I haven't gotten around to it, so far.
Posted: 9/27/2008 7:43 PM
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FatRatKnight
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1174)
Joined: 9/27/2008
Posts: 1085
Well, seeing as I'm still largely new at TASing, going quick won't happen. I've already poured hundreds of rerecords in those 10 seconds. Know of any good methods for running 2 players? Possibly a way to record one player, then go back and record the other player without destroying the first player's input? I've been using the hold button feature most of the time, but I generally need to memorize the sequence of input for both players for at least a few frames at times. I'm inclined to go with Salamander. I believe (U) ROMs are generally suggested, but if there are significant differences or the (U) ROM just isn't available, then you may use another region. The (U) ROM is available, but I think there are significant enough differences to justify picking (J), such as three Options instead of two. Alright, I should try a bit of planning... I've looked through the first level. There appears to be a total of 28 power-ups in there, as far as I know. 6 of them is needed for Force to insta-kill the boss, leaving 22 power-ups for other things. With two players sharing the power-ups, and my goal of maximizing speed first, with 10 power-ups each to do so, that leaves only 2 power-ups for... Not much else. No, I'm not picking up Missiles for this level. I've played around with the second boss on both versions, on a mostly normal run-through with save states. Apparently, I spotted another difference in versions: Salamander is just fine in the hit detection, but Life Force seems to completely ignore the main body of the second boss, letting a player fly right through it as though it weren't even there! At least, it is that way in a 1-player game. Again, Salamander detects this just fine.
Posted: 9/27/2008 5:04 AM
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FatRatKnight
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player (1174)
Joined: 9/27/2008
Posts: 1085
Reviving an old thread with my interest in this game. I had a choice between three topics, but this one is my choice, due to the title... http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=929 http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4513 I'm thinking about running a two-player TAS of this game. I have roughly put in the first 10 seconds of gameplay in both Life Force (U) and Salamander (J), and I can already note some minute differences. It's definitely taking some effort just to get a few seconds of gameplay in. Since I've already long since lurked around here, I know about Microstorage. I assume it's alright to go ahead and use it in this case. If I assume wrong, let me know. Life Force (U) Salamander (J) They should be a little over 10 seconds each. My own start, but I need some thoughts. One difference I noted while TASing two-players between Life Force and Salamander is the hit detection. Life Force alternates between players on hit detection each frame, while Salamander checks both players simultaneously (Though P2 isn't checked if P1 crashes into something on the same frame). This is part of the reason why I can charge right through enemies without slowing down much in Life Force, while I must move more slowly in Salamander. It's also generally why I can wait as long as I do on the upper wave of enemies in Life Force, but must get in front of them first in Salamander. Of course, due to the similarities between games, I doubt they'd be published side by side. I'm trying to decide between Life Force's odd hit detection and merely 2 Options or Salamander's flashier intro/ending and those lovely 3 Options. Again, any thoughts? I don't like being new... Always a shaky start, or at least feels like it, no matter how careful you are... But it's unavoidable. I hope to contribute something after a long time reading through the forums here.
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