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Posted: 4/4/2006 7:12 PM
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DLH112
Joined: 2/22/2006
Posts: 43
Action mode is like Proffesional mode I think. It's a different mode with just the action stages.
Posted: 4/5/2006 8:53 PM
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mazzeneko
Former player
Joined: 6/26/2004
Posts: 139
Location: Kuopio, Finland
I have the european cartridge over there and I can select Sim mode or the Action mode right from the start.. and no, I don't have any playthrough-saves there. And I can play the Action mode from the Europen version of the rom too.. so there.
- mazzeneko
Posted: 4/5/2006 9:51 PM
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OgreSlayeR
Former player
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 524
Location: USA
Heres one time saver I found. I tried that same jump a while back, but couldn't get it to work. Guess I didn't try hard enough. Only problem is you have to kill that flying ball thing first or you can't do the jump. Still faster than waiting for that platform though.
Working on: Command and Conquer PSX Nod Campaign
Posted: 4/17/2006 11:49 PM
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Sir_VG
He/Him
Player (40)
Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1913
Location: Floating Tower
DLH112 wrote:
Action mode is like Proffesional mode I think. It's a different mode with just the action stages.
Professional! Mode is a fast run though ActRaiser with the following differences over Normal Mode: 1) You start with the full 24 HP. 2) Magic is removed. 3) Simulation Mode is removed. You just go from act to act. 4) When starting an act, the initial "statue inhabiting" animation has been removed. You simply start the level right away. 5) Enemy damage does 2 damage. Terrain damage still does just 1. 6) Enemies that normally take 1 hit to kill now take 2. Multi-hit enemies don't take any more. Certain "destructible terrain" like the floating skulls in Aitos Act 1 still only take 1 damage to kill. 7) Certain enemies have a different pattern, though not very many. 8) Magic Scrolls in the acts have been replaced by crushes. 9) NO CONTINUES. You lose and it's game over. 10) After an act is cleared, there is no life/time bonus. Your life gets refilled and you move on to the next level. 11) Projectiles in Aitos Act 1 is removed and replaced with a 1-UP. You still get them for Tanzara. 12) Ending is removed and you just go straight to the credits, with the final image changed from "THE END" to "YOU ARE THE BEST PLAYER!" OgreSlayeR, hope the tips I sent you via PM are helpful for the normal game mode. ^^ And for anybody that does Professional! mode for a TAS, my fastest on a console is 0:31:30. I've submitted it to SDA, but I have a copy that I could encode if somebody really didn't want to wait for them to get it up.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Posted: 4/24/2006 12:51 PM
(Edited: 4/28/2006 2:37 PM)
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Sir_VG
He/Him
Player (40)
Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1913
Location: Floating Tower
OgerSlayeR, I found a TON of great information for you for when you redo the normal mode. This is all simulation information. I'm not quite done analyzing things yet, but here's what I've got so far. 1) Each area features 2 lairs that when sealed, improve the simulation level (you get a message). This increases how fast the population grows. Fillmore: Bat (upper right), Dragon Bloodpool: Bat (upper left), Dragon (near temple) Kasandora: Both Red Demon lairs Aitos: Dragon (upper left, lower left) Marahna: Red Demon, Bat Lairs Northwall: Doesn't matter (but for the record, it's the dragon and far east skull lairs) 2) Wheat does improve the population level if you hit the 1st field right away. Kasandora w/o wheat took 2 increases to hit a population of 14. When I used wheat right away, it hit it in one increase. 3) The red demon's lair can be sealed in Bloodpool w/o destroying the trees. 4) Bloodpool can go 4 rounds after Act II before the civilization starts fighting. After this, growth comes to a stop. Upon further examination, if Bloodpool is post-Act II and the population hits 300, the civil war will commence. Your population can go over 300 w/o using music if you're away from Bloodpool before you hit the mark. 5) [strike]Kasandora gets 3 rounds after Act II before the plague. Again, population stops. [/strike] I'm sure this is a population mark too. 6) Teddy running away from home and Aitos' windmills stopping kills the population growth until they're solved/fixed. I'm sure Northwall getting the chills does too, though I'm not positive. I figured out a lot in a couple hours of fooling around with the game on an emulator which allowed me to go back and repeat stuff over and over. I still need some more time to analyze Marahna though and then plot the perfect route though everything. Hope this helps with your TAS.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Posted: 4/28/2006 6:10 AM
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Sir_VG
He/Him
Player (40)
Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1913
Location: Floating Tower
OK, I think I've found an EXCELLENT simulation strategy for you. I'm using it myself and I decided to share the wealth. Fillmore: Basically the exact same you did, but wait an extra turn at the end so the road hits the left side of the screen. Bloodpool: Dry up the two marshes straight south, use bridge, then build towards that dragon lair just SE of the temple. But let the road hit the right edge of the screen. This joins Bloodpool with Fillmore, leading Bloodpool to teach Fillmore how to make wheat that helps population growth (not totally positive, but I did have a +128 pop gain in Fillmore after I left by the end of the game). After this, build back to the temple, up 1, then straight over to the bat. Partway there, you should get the "Teddy runs away from home" scenario. Grab a wheat when you get the bread. Use the bread and when you get the skull, grab another wheat. Use the skull (you DO NOT need to zap the trees at the Red Demon's lair!) and work up towards the lake for the scene. Grab your magic and about this time the bat should be sealed. Then work your way back to the temple (hitting the space on the left side) and you should get to the south river by the time you run out of spacing. Let the town get there then finish the route to the other dragon lair. Seal it and complete Act II. Get your MP from the town and wait about 1 turn (your road will get to the bottom of the screen). Kasandora: Use rain on the two spaces to the right of the temple. Start moving out. When they build a field, use wheat on it. Continue using rain east of your last use, then south. Continue building the town to that lower red demon lair. After sealing it, send the town south to that tree. Let it build there and then build back to the bat lair and continue up all the way to the red demon lair. Keep clearing sand in a square (upper left the demon lair, upper right the dragon lair, lower right the lost man, lower left just above the bat lair). Right after the demon lair seals, built the town around the square counter-clockwise. Let the town build until that square is complete. Grab your MP (2 of them!) and complete Act II. Aitos: Clear rocks and build the town W, W, S, W (1st seal), then seal the skull lair. Build back to the temple then straight up to the waters and all the way to the east (so you get the MP from the mountains). After the climber goes up, build back straight west and towards the other dragon lair. By the time you get done, you should be about at 1500, you may need to wait a round. Get your MP and sheep and complete Act II. Marahna: Use earthquake right away, and intermix moving and zapping palm trees while you work NW through the dragon and red demon lairs. As you get SP, clear stuff to get to the other lairs. After the red demon is sealed, build back to the temple then south, then west to the bat lair. After it seals, build back to the temple, then east towards the last dragon lair. After you get 1900, finish Act II. Northwall: Pretty much how you did it. North to the red demon, then the skull, they learn bridges, use sheep, build past the dragon lair, then the final skull lair (getting your MP). Finish Act II. My final population at the end of my last attemp was 2124, and a ton was gained after leaving areas (128 in fillmore, 160 in Bloodpool, 152 in Kasandora, 24 in Aitos, 48 in Marahna, 0 in Northwall). I don't have differences in action level times, but my total time (from the fade just before you can set the text speed/enter Fillmore Act I to after losing control at Tanzara's defeat) was 1:14:29, though I may be able to get it under 1:14 if I don't make any stupid mistakes next time. Hope this helps you out.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Posted: 8/3/2006 12:31 PM
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Sir_VG
He/Him
Player (40)
Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1913
Location: Floating Tower
Yeah yeah, I'm bumping this thread AGAIN. Since SDA is taking forever to post my videos, I uploaded them elsewhere. I'd thought I'd give you a link, because I REALLY want to see this TAS done. Unless somebody wants t help me with it. Because this is a good game. Normal in 1:12:27
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Posted: 4/13/2007 12:54 AM
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zidanax
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
That jump trick may prove to be useful elsewhere. I don't know if this is known already, but when the hero goes into his sword-behind-the-back pose during a big jump, his forward speed increases somewhat (I watched the memory location for X position to make sure). That jump trick could let the hero stay in this position for a longer period of time. I don't know about the other levels, but this could make the time for Fillmore Act 1 faster because of the tree branches that let the hero get above the ground for big jumps.
Posted: 4/13/2007 7:56 PM
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zidanax
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
Sir VG: I notice that in the Fillmore sim section, both you and OgreSlayeR seal the upper-left bat lair first, then the upper-right bat lair. Why don't you seal the upper-right bat lair first? When I tested sealing the upper-right bat lair first, I still got an increase in civilization level, even though I'd only sealed one lair. If you're wondering why I'm asking, I'm starting work on an improvement to OgreSlayeR's TAS. Is anybody else working on an improvement right now? EDIT: Oh, and here's a WIP up to just before one has to decide where to have the angel start building the roads. I saved 164 frames by going through menus and messages faster, using a faster boss 1 strategy, and a different strategy for moving through the second part of Fillmore Act 1 that takes advantage of the previously mentioned method for scrolling forward faster, combined with usage of the jump trick. WIP 1 EDIT: Then again, which lair one seals first may not matter--once the upper-right lair is sealed, the upper-left lair can be reached without using another construction phase. EDIT: I found the memory location for the timer that keeps track of when the construction phase happens. It's a 2-byte value starting at 7F91FE. It counts up to 719, then resets to 0 on the next frame. When the value resets to 0, there is some lag where the angel can't move, usually between 12-30 frames, then the construction phase begins. So that's about 12 seconds between construction phases. Notice, however that I said 12-30 frames for the lag, so the lag varies. I did a little testing last night, and as far as I can tell, the lag isn't affected by the angel's position as long as the building location is still on screen, nor by whether it's firing arrows, how many enemies it's killed, or by casting spells. But it is affected by what your building path is. When I tried the two possible routes for sealing the 1st two lairs, sealing the right lair first gave me 15 frames less lag. So if there are two ways to get somewhere that take the same number of construction phases, one of those ways may be better than the other. EDIT: eh, maybe your guy's route is best after all: somehow I'd failed to notice that if you go to the upper-right lair first, your population growth is much slower for some reason.
Posted: 4/14/2007 6:23 PM
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zidanax
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
I'm up to the beginning of Fillmore Act 2. Right now I'm actually behind OgreSlayeR by 393 frames, but there's a good reason for this:I've adopted Sir VG's strategy of waiting one more construction phase in Fillmore so that the road can be built to the left edge of the map. When I build a road to the right edge of the map in Bloodpool, the people of Bloodpool will use this connection to teach the people of Fillmore how to grow wheat. Since the population of a town grows somewhat even when you're absent, the people of Fillmore being able to grow wheat should help with that behind-your-back growth. The WIP
Posted: 4/14/2007 6:41 PM
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OgreSlayeR
Former player
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 524
Location: USA
I'm glad someone is finally working on an improvement for this game. It needs it badly. I'll check out your WIP soon and give you feedback on it. I think 3-5 minutes could be saved as there are some big mistakes as far as playing goes and strategy. I did this at like 20% speed so you can save TONS of time using frame advance alone. For future reference, use the earthquake ASAP at Maranha and not kill everyone like I did in my TAS.*smacks head*
Working on: Command and Conquer PSX Nod Campaign
Posted: 4/14/2007 6:48 PM
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zidanax
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
Actually, I may revert to your strategy. I did a little quick testing by stopping your run at the end of Bloodpool. When I kept the fields of Fillmore as corn, the maximum population that could be attained was 390 if the connecting road was built, 366 if it wasn't. If I converted the fields of Fillmore to wheat, the maximum population that could be attained given the connecting road was still 390. So I think there may be no point in waiting for that connecting road to be built, since the maximum population of Fillmore seems to be limited by the number of roads built/the civilization level of the houses.
Posted: 4/14/2007 7:00 PM
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OgreSlayeR
Former player
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 524
Location: USA
Okay, I watched it and it seems pretty good so far. I believe I skipped one or two magic scrolls that VG got in his speed run so you might want to look into that. I believe it might of been the one from Bloodpool and Kasandora. One annoying thing I think you might have trouble with is the magic stardust. It seems pretty random and you will want as much stars as you can to hit the bosses.
Working on: Command and Conquer PSX Nod Campaign
Posted: 4/14/2007 7:09 PM
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zidanax
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
I just did the same test with my own run by stopping my movie just before Fillmore Act 2 then playing in realtime. Giving the people of Fillmore wheat still didn't make a difference to the maximum population. So unless it turns out later that I should go back and cast earthquake to make them build more of the high civilization houses, I'll revert to OgreSlayeR's strategy. BTW, if you're wondering why I built towards the third lair with a slightly different path, it's because that path lets me move the construction pointer back to the shrine quicker. EDIT: Given the date your run was submitted, I suspected that you may have been using slowdown. Amazing how precise you were able to do some of the stuff in Fillmore Act 1 in spite of that. EDIT: I just checked what the maximum population was in Sir VG's latest run. He says it was 386 for Fillmore. Thanks probably at least in part to my different route to the third lair, my maximum population for Fillmore is 390 sans extra road. And I never had to revisit Fillmore to get that amount. I was able to get 24 more by revisiting Fillmore because they were almost finished with the extra piece of road at that point, probably thanks to the behind-my-back growth, but considering that I could certainly get more than 24 in one construction phase in other places, I'm pretty confident that OgreSlayeR's strategy is better. Oh, and I just reverted to that strategy. The results were quite amazing. I'm now exactly 999 frames ahead of OgreSlayeR's run as of the beginning of Fillmore Act 2(!!!) and there haven't even been any really major changes in sim strategy yet. If you want to see it, here's the WIP
Posted: 4/15/2007 9:01 AM
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zidanax
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
OgreSlayeR, I'd just like to compliment you on your TASing of Fillmore Act 2. I'm up to the beginning of the long vertical ascent before the boss, and I must say that up to that point at least, your TAS is amazingly well optimized considering that you used slowdown. I've only managed to shave off 11 frames, and even that was quite a pain. I had to look at your run several times to try and get some idea of how to do certain parts better.
Posted: 4/15/2007 10:57 AM
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OgreSlayeR
Former player
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 524
Location: USA
Heh, thanks. :) I spent a long time on the action scenes. More than I did on the sims I think. That level is very annoying, especially the vertical platform part with those white bug things you have to kill or you'll get hit and knocked back. Maybe you can find a way to not have to waste time killing them. I doubt it though. Bloodpool A1 isn't as bad I don't think.
Working on: Command and Conquer PSX Nod Campaign
Posted: 4/15/2007 8:23 PM
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zidanax
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
Alright, after many rerecords, I managed to shave 105 frames off of Fillmore Act 2. I don't think I would have managed that many frames saved without OgreSlayeR's run as a guide. The WIP is here
Posted: 4/15/2007 9:05 PM
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OgreSlayeR
Former player
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 524
Location: USA
Strangely looks like mine..only kidding it looks fine. It's not like there are many ways to do that level anyway. BTW, one thing I never tested when I worked on this is if it's faster to zoom the palace all the way out to move to each area. I guess you can see for sure.
Working on: Command and Conquer PSX Nod Campaign
Posted: 4/15/2007 9:40 PM
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zidanax
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
I did some quick testing with your zoom idea by moving from one X position on the map to another at different zoom levels. Regardless of the zoom level, it always took exactly the same number of frames to move a certain distance. The game adjusts the scrolling speed to compensate for the zoom level. To make absolutely sure, I also found the memory locations for X and Y position. Regardless of what zoom level I was at, the values changed at the same rate.
Posted: 4/16/2007 2:36 AM
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zidanax
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
I just found a new trick to make the hero move faster off of jumps, although I'm not sure if this is already known. Depending on when you start a jump, the hero will move faster than normal for a few frames. Perhaps this has something to do with why I had such a hard time matching the times you had in some segments of Fillmore Act 2. EDIT: wow, just knowing that trick really helps me know what I'm doing in these platform stages. I'm not having to fumble around nearly as much to get good segment times in Bloodpool Act 1.
Posted: 4/16/2007 6:16 AM
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zidanax
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
Well, that was quick. Bloodpool Act 1 is not as hard to TAS as Fillmore Act 2. I saved 165 frames, mostly in the boss fight. The WIP is here
Posted: 4/16/2007 9:45 AM
(Edited: 4/16/2007 10:16 AM)
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OgreSlayeR
Former player
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 524
Location: USA
Looks fine. I guess do what VG did for the sim unless you find a better strategy. I'm not sure mine was great here. I'll check out both runs and see. I guess I'm the only one interested in your progress.. :\ Edit: I believe I skipped a magic scroll here for some (dumb?) reason, so that's something you'll probably want for sure. It would definitely help in the boss re-fights. Edit: nvm I didn't skip the one here. It was Kasandora I think and I know it was Aitos where they find a scroll in the mountains.
Working on: Command and Conquer PSX Nod Campaign
Posted: 4/16/2007 10:07 AM
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zidanax
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
With sims, I can test different strategies in real time/fast forward, so I can mess around a lot with stuff and see what works best. As mentioned, I did make some strategy changes in Fillmore from what Sir VG did based on my analysis in Fillmore, such as the different route to lair 3 that lets me move the construction pointer back to the shrine faster. I may find more changes like that in Bloodpool. If my strategy changes turn out OK, I wonder if Sir VG will be interested?
Posted: 4/16/2007 10:23 AM
(Edited: 4/16/2007 6:31 PM)
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Bisqwit
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
In the sim scenes, please try to avoid meaningless movements like flying in circles. Not only it wastes bitrate when it's encoded as AVI, but it only helps your boredom and for the audience it only induces needless nervousness, much like the wobbling. Remember that you are flying the camera. Practice good cameramanship. Go and view scenes that are interesting. Avoid excess movements and jerks. Let the audience see the every part of the scene at least once. [EDIT: This post was not a comment in response to the WIP. I have only seen the published TAS; this was an instruction to avoid a certain problem seen in that movie.]
Posted: 4/16/2007 10:50 AM
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OgreSlayeR
Former player
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 524
Location: USA
Even though you aren't here yet, here's the exact spot to build to get the other scroll I missed in Kasandora.
Working on: Command and Conquer PSX Nod Campaign
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