No desynchs for me in any of the WIP you've posted...
Nor me.. Which is strange, because I'm apparently using a (J) version, and the crc's don't even match.
Anyway, amazing job. This game has been a favorite of mine for years.
-Oz.
If practice makes perfect, but nobody's perfect, why practice?
Then get the smash everytime. Fights will go so much quicker that way.
So uhh ... do I start it over again, so that I get SMAAAASH!!es on every round, except for battles in which I level up and in some rare cases where I wouldn't need to (like the Starman Junior fight)?
If so, I will do it. It will just take longer to make it.
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
If this is a test, don't worry about it. IF you are going gun-ho straight into this, maybe it would be best if you optimised some fights. I'm pretty sure no one will care if one shark takes two turns instead of one, but it's best to make a seemingly unbeatable movie.
When it comes to unalterably slower games like RPGs entertainment value should probably be a bit higher priority. I personally think this would be less entertaining were it an uber-perfect smashy-SMAAAASH!!y movie. It would be interesting if you managed smash hits to finish off particularly frustrating/epic battles or such, but it isn't necessary to have critical hits in every fight. The sound effect would quickly switch from being sweet to annoying.
The general goal of a TAS may be perfection, but in some cases there has to be some leeway.
Joined: 7/29/2004
Posts: 136
Location: Temple City, CA
The new movie desyncs for me after the Frankystein Mark II battle as well. Nothing seems to help this problem. CRC of the ROM checks out, and the settings are as they should be.
"How can you prove you exist? Maybe we don't exist..."
-Vivi Ornitier (Final Fantasy IX)
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
If we are going to go into semantics about optimising smashes...
the prayer command may be the definitive difference between entertainment and speed. I don't know every possible outcome of praying, but I'm sure one or two of them will outperform the girl's smash attacks. Trick is, can they be controlled?
the prayer command may be the definitive difference between entertainment and speed. I don't know every possible outcome of praying, but I'm sure one or two of them will outperform the girl's smash attacks.
That, I don't know at all. I'll have to experiment some things with that girl when I get her. Until then, this will remain a mistery... unless someone wants to find out on their own and share their findings here.
Uhh .. bad news guys ...
I don't have the patience to do that game, at all. I really like to play that game, and I feel like beating it one more time, but ... not in a TAS.
TASing that game is too much work for me. Manipulating each and every round of every single fight is just too much. I can't do it.
So ... that's it ... I'm giving up on this one. I don't have the patience to do it.
If someone else wants to do it, though, I'd be glad to help (tell what I've learn, tips and tricks, etc...).
Good luck to anyone who wants to take this one, and sorry for letting the fans of this game down, but I just can't do it.
I really don't know ... I'll take a few days (weeks?) off, and then figure out which game I might try TASing.
I will probably pick between these games:
- Harvest Moon (very unlikely, since it's REALLY repetitive and has no "precise" goal)
- Krusty's Super Fun House (unlikely)
- Simpsons, The - Bart's Nightmare
- Soul Blazer (unlikely, since I never played this game before)
- Super Widget (I played that game a lot as a kid...)
- Terranigma (unlikely, since I never played this game before)
- Uniracers (unlikely because it's a racing game ... lots of expectations that would be hard to match)
- Virtual Bart
Soul Blazer and Terranigma would probably get a lot of votes, if this was a poll, simply because these are the two other games in the trilogy in which is also Illusion of Gaia.
Virtual Bart might be a good one, since it's not too complicated. Bart's Nightmare seems to be a better choice though. Super Widget is also a good one, since I know that game really good and I played through it a lot of times.
I really don't know which one I'll TAS after my "time off". I could also take some suggestions from ou guys: e-mail me your suggestions at halamantariel AT hotmail DOT com.
Joined: 4/21/2005
Posts: 32
Location: Georgia, USA
Well, while I'm certainly disappointed to see you're leaving this on the table, I must admit, given how much I loved it when I was younger, a Virtual Bart TAS would be very interesting.
Joined: 7/29/2004
Posts: 136
Location: Temple City, CA
If it was a poll, you'd get my votes for Soul Blazer and Terranigma. They are both very good games (I consider Illusion of Gaia to be the weakest game in the trilogy). Good luck with whatever you pursue. Hopefully someone else will pick up the daunting task that is Earthbound.
"How can you prove you exist? Maybe we don't exist..."
-Vivi Ornitier (Final Fantasy IX)
Joined: 7/17/2004
Posts: 985
Location: The FLOATING CASTLE
Hala, you should do Soul Blazer. You already did one of the Enix adventures, though admittedly Soul Blazer will be much harder as a TAS. There was a thread which is buried aways now, but someone did the first level with a decent amount of planning.
There's only one problem: I never played Soul Blazer. Not even once. I'm currently playing through Terranigma though .. I'll see if I want to TAS it after I'm finished playing with it...
If someone were thinking about doing this run, what tips would you give?
I know I have the knowledge of the game required to do this run... but I don't know if I have the ambition. How much is snes9x's frame advance like VBA's?
Also, how much did you figure out about manipulating battles? And can enemies be manipulated to not appear easily?
<i>A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.</i>
Also, how much did you figure out about manipulating battles? And can enemies be manipulated to not appear easily?
Manipulating events in a battle is fairly easy, although sometimes it can be pretty time-consuming. And it you don't have the patience to, it can really become a pain in the a**.
You can view examples of what I've found out in the last WIP I put on the web. Basically, if the events don't happen as you want them to, move the cursor in the battle menu before attacking. Move twice, three times, four times, five times, six times, etc... until you get the results you want (or something that is "satisfying" enough). Sometimes you can't get anything good ... in which cases you go either for maximum damage from you or minimum damage from the enemy. You'll understand everything about that when watching what I've done.
As for manipulating the appearing enemies, I haven't found anything good, except that it all depends on the frame you enter the "spawning zone". Finding that spawning zone is nearly impossible, so the best way to manipulate enemies is by taking different paths to get there. As an example, in the first few fights, you'll see I take a very weird path. That was because I manipulated the next enemy to be a runaway dog.
Oh and as for leveling up, what you get at level up can somewhat be manipulated. At each level up, only some stats will grow, and which stats will grow cannot be manipulated. The only thing you can manipulate is how much you get in each growing stat, and it's not that easy to do. Basically, it works the same as for normal fighting. On the last blow (the one before level up), don't move in the menu and kill the last enemy, note what stats grew up and how much. Load savestate, Move twice, kill, note what grew and how much. Load savestats, Move three times, kill, note what grew up and how much, etc.. etc.. etc..
What I normally did was to try up to 20 battle menu moves, and then I picked the one that gave the most stats OR the one that gave the most offense (because that's what you should mainly want to grow up)
I'm sorry that you quit the TAS for EarthBound, I think it would have been great to see.
But as for other games I'd like to see a TAS for, here are ones I'd be interested in.
Bart's Nightmare , Super Widget, Terranigma and Virtual Bart.
Joined: 3/29/2005
Posts: 229
Location: The boonies.
Do Super Widget. It's got a lot of abusability to it with the different forms, testing and recording it won't be as much work as either of the two games you've tried your hand at so far, and it'll clock in at 15 minutes or less.
And after you've finished that game you might find that you'd like another crack at this one. =P
I will probably pick between these games:
- Harvest Moon (very unlikely, since it's REALLY repetitive and has no "precise" goal)
- Krusty's Super Fun House (unlikely)
- Simpsons, The - Bart's Nightmare
- Soul Blazer (unlikely, since I never played this game before)
- Super Widget (I played that game a lot as a kid...)
- Terranigma (unlikely, since I never played this game before)
- Uniracers (unlikely because it's a racing game ... lots of expectations that would be hard to match)
- Virtual Bart
I would very like to see Terranigma. It's one of the greatest games ever made in SNES, everyone say that in the reviews.
It's not a problem that you have never played this game because after I have seen your Illusion of Gaia movie you have definitely the needed skill to do a great timeattack of this game.
I know this game to 100% (was one of my favourites) and I would help in any case if you have questions, furthermore you can watch my Terranigma movie to see what routes and moves are good (it worked on the windows ZSNES so it shouldn't be a problem to playback it).
The only problem is you have to level up sometimes in order to survive some bosses, but it's unavoidable. The interesting thing is to find out where and how much to level up to make the end result as fast as possible. But the fighting moves are very quick and easy to perform.
For some information about leveling up and the problems if you won't, you can read this topic.
Hehe. The game isn't too hard to study.
Just some Items have a low drop rate. Like Poo's weapon, The Sword Of Kings, has a 1 in 250 chance of dropping off of a StarMan Super.
And the item Jeff needs for his ultimate weapon is a rare drop too.
Study a Gamefaq guide, hehe.
