Yeah, computer problems, lost the WIP. I had to restart anyway. And I don't have the means to restart even if I wanted to.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure upgrading the gun after is better. You only get a couple of shots in in between kicks.
It seems to me that some combo of kick/select and punch/duck should be used, because occasionally there's some small number of frames where you can't press select. So my strategy was probably not optimum (but reasonably close).
It doesn't work all the time, though, some bosses get knocked back when you hit them. The strategy is similar, except occasionally you have to jump, then kick to get closer while still attacking (not jumpkick, that knocks you back iirc).
At some point, I sort of remember discovering I was even a few frames slower than BoltR on the title screen and menus. I didn't even check against him at first because I assumed I could do the menu as fast as possible just by being careful with it, but I guess I was wrong!
Good luck with it. I'll try to borrow my brother's computer sometime and show some other boss strategies if I can.
Okay, I figured how I lost a frame on menu transition, You have to press start at 3 differents times to get to the Atlantis Map... I figured that if you wait 1 or 2 frames (depending) after you can press start, the map will appear up to 10 frames faster... That's really weird, there is some randomness on when the menu appear... Damn, I've spend more than 5 hours for 1000 frames just for skipping the first menu and animation...
I will continue tomorrow, anyway I have free time left, I've lost my job!!!
Omg, my first WIP... This is really short I know (sorry about that) but :
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/890708928/MetalChurch%20First%20Wip.fcm
I'm 3 frames faster at this point than Inzult... I'm very happy !
And I discovered something (that Inzult have already discovered...)
The second soldier I kill, I kill it with one single action... You can shoot a gunfire, press select, and you will automatically give a punch... That's how I killed the second guard, and I will kill the first boss this way...
Woohoo, I'm on a good way I guess... I will finish this stage today I guess, that will be my first TASed boss fight
Edit : I had to redo nearly everything... I discovered that when there's more than 5 moving object on the screen, the game begin to lag and moving become 2x slower... But I'll keep going
Edit 2 : http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/20321908/MetalChurch%20First%20Wip.fcm
Now I'm 15 frames slower... damn, I wasn't able to do what I wanted to do, I think that Inzult run of the first stage is perfect... Anyway that's all I will be able to do this week, I will redo the whole thing as soon as I can
I'm still doing it, I was very busy this week and I will be more busy this week but I will find the time needed to improve my wip...
If I finish this game, I don't think I will make history with it ... :-P
As for strategies, I played this games a lot back in a day and I know every of its secret. My handicap is that I didn't do a TAS before and I discovered a lot of thing unexpected like the lag which forced me to change my strategies...
Boss figthing tactic of inzult is probably perfect (unless someone find a better way) until the laser gun is taken.
First I tought that I will be faster than inzult but lag and the fact that the bullet fired disappear when you switch to your fist made my strategie slower...
So the first two level will look identical to the Inzult wip...
I will post a new wip when I will finish the first 2 levels... Except it in 2 weeks
(damn, my english is bad sorry, I know there's a lot of mistakes in all I said)
Well, my stategy involves pressing select every other frame, but since you're going so fast, sometimes pressing select does nothing. So you have to wait an extra frame or two here and there. So if you get unlucky with it, and end up having to wait 3 extra frames in between kicks, using a punch (or two?) in stead to is probably faster than what I did.
Come to think of it, if you have to wait 2 frames, one punch might 'fix' the select problem temporarily.
I haven't tested this, though, it was just an idea I had.
Wow, amazing speedrun. This is a VERY hard game, and you made it look relatively easy. It was great fun to watch, and it was very well executed.
Btw, I'm posting this here, both because there wasn't a topic of it at SDA, and to motivate people to finally make a TAS of this game.
My ass cheeks clenced when you shot the wall those couple of times vs Cobra Commander. I thought you were going to run out of ammo. Even so, really good ammo management and seriously masterful playing, LigerOfFortune.
Yeah, I'd like to see this TAS.
You should have posted this in the existing topic though. There are also wips in there, be sure to read through that thread.
Okay, I chose to see what I can pull as this becomes my next project. It is so obvious that quite a few have started this attempt and not found the nerve to finish it. Not very many updates were given, until now.
Based on the video from speeddemosarchive.com, that player picked a pretty good route to the Cobra commander, while killing some of the bosses and mini-bosses seemed like a piece of cake. Here, I chose to take the exact same route
I already learned some of the techniques from Inzult's first stage, but this is the road to a building where 8 women need to be set free.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/26393593/gi-joe-p0rtal0frain.fcm
There can be improvements along the way if any. However, this is a first draft I will be doing just to see how long the game will be beat roughly. I predict 7:50.
_______________________________________
Updated with a new strategy technique against a mini-boss that launches something that looks like band-aids. =/
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1162969150/gi-joe-p0rtal0frain.fcm
The key here is to keep your distance from the mini-boss in the "women-taken-hostage" building before going into a room with Overkill, it's main boss. The strategy involves shooting bullets as he walks up to you, then switching to fists to knock the mini-boss backwards, then immediately switching back to gun (Gen. Hawk automatically punches upon switch, I thought it seemed useful almost). The key is also to ensure you stay away from them look-alike bandages that shoot across the screen. Gen. Hawk can score several hits from behind the mini-boss should it decide to launch "bandages."
Ahh, nice to see someone taking it up again. I'll be sure to watch this when I have a free moment!
edit: I'm pretty sure my old wip is quite a bit faster than this, through Route 2-- probably just on the bosses, but I haven't looked too closely. As you said though it's a rough draft so you can worry about that later. I never posted my Area A before I lost all the work but I'll put together a quick .fcm of the strategy for that mini boss I came up with later on for you to check out. Might be a good strategy, might be bad I sort of forget what it looked like in action.
Keep it up though, I'd love to see this one get done!
Moving right along, I reached Overkill and used the best strategy possible to kill him off quickly. For some entertainment, I was able to float Gen. Hawk (by not moving his legs) while he was waiting for an elevating platform to come down. Remember, this is to be based on the exact route to the Cobra Commander (final boss) adjacent to the video at speeddemosarchive.com.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1953969279/gi-joe-p0rtal0frain.fcm
Though it's ironic that the video for the women-hostage stage is a little faster than mine, possibly because he already had fist LV4 and mine was LV3 but I could be wrong, we're still moving right along.
Also if any of you see any glitches, please let us know! A glitch can be an impressive foot-in-the-door for serious publication. ^_^
Here's the strat I was talking about for that 3rd boss.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1233231813/boss3strat.fcm
(about 350 ish frames faster than what you've got)
It's certainly not optimized, and jumping like I did in the first part is probably more trouble than its worth but it's the sort of the basic idea. Just walking should be fine, forget about jumping. If you can refine it and optimize this strat properly it could still be a bit faster. Also be sure to not turbo shoot because there are invulnerability periods to worry about (I've been using 00f6 in the memory watch to view boss HP but it's glitchy so I assume it's not quite the right value-- but it works).
Also please note that kicks are 3x stronger than punches for when you're doing bosses-- you're still using the punch on Overkill. Kicks can be canceled by switching to the gun, so should be used heavily before you get the laser (but not always if the weapon switching needs to cool down for a few frames). Kicks will still be the best option for hits between shots after you get the laser.
And that appears to be better than mine. I wish the game would give me the laser gun sooner. Or nothing else, don't worry about guns and put your hands and feet on LV4 for stronger punches and kicks. And by the way, I already learned how to cancel unnecessary kicks.
Level 4 punch just gives you the knee drop, your old punch and kick are the same power-- iirc the knee drop is slightly more powerful than the kick and you can cancel with the gun the same way:
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1234140309/knee_drop.fcm
Not too useful on bosses except for as a finisher-- because you bounce away, but the knee drop does 8 damage; kick does 3.
As far as I know right now, kick and the full powered laser are still the winning combo ;)
edit: it's probably better to try to get your gun powered up while waiting for the laser rather than getting level 4 punch. At level 2, gun does 2 damage in stead of one (assuming both bullets hit), which would be very handy for that band-aid shooting boss. It should be fairly straightforward to get 4 POWs without slowing down on the way to him.
Also if jump kicking in stead of jumping/shooting gets you close enough to start kicking the bosses 4 frames faster (before you get the laser), it's better to not shoot them as you approach. I never even thought to check when I was working on this way back then.
Oh no doubt. Jump kicking is the fastest way to move left and right, if at all possible 0 frames should be spent walking.
Actually. Speaking of movement. Using the knee drop sends you to the ground faster than just falling. So level 4 unarmed skill may still have use. You can't move left or right while knee dropping, but you can gun cancel both the jump kick and the knee drop. So when you can afford to move straight down for a while it's better than just falling. If that makes sense. We're talking small numbers of frames saved here and there though so I'm not sure if geting L4 unarmed should take priority over L2 gun considering how useful L2 gun would be on that bandaid boss.
And getting both will probably mean slowing down quite a bit. Unless you get POWs while waiting for platforms.
asfd why did you make me think about this game again it drives me nuts