Heh, I guess I'm just overthinking about this.
How much I have to write depends on how much I feel is relevant to mention. So this will take the time it needs, though I think it should be sometime soon.
"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential.
Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."
"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential.
Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."
This TAS is awesome! I'm curious about how far a no-piledriver TAS could go, though. We don't usually have categories that don't finish the game, as most games aren't impossible. But I think these rules would make for an entertaining cateogry:
No piledriving
Complete as many levels as possible as quickly as possible
Complete as many rooms as possible as quickly as possible in any incomplete levels
Kill as many enemies as possible as quickly as possible in any incomplete rooms
I think obsoletion would be unambiguous under those rules, and one would hopefully see TASes getting gradually further in the game, against those staggering odds.
Countering sounds OK to me, and would allow the good ending. It would mostly be seen in the boss fights, I expect, since there won't be much time for countering when you're trying to keep being swarmed.
I can say it'll certainly be hard to accomplish. Especially considering the rooms where enemies spawn faster than you can kill them... the last room before the second boss comes in mind. How many was it? Four enemies every five frames for 25 seconds? I could say it's impossible, but that word has been proven wrong so many times it's almost getting silly. Instead I'll just say it's really hard to accomplish and I would love to see a run that could pull it off.
"An artist who can’t take constructive critique on their work is only hurting themselves and their potential.
Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."
It would be awesome if somebody actually managed to finish the game in this category. But my main point was that one could compete in how far one could get, even if one eventually dies. That's why I suggested those category goals. They would let a TAS that dies after 4 rooms obsolete one which dies after 3 rooms, and one which kills 250 enemies in room #4 and then dies would obsolete one which dies in the same room, but only kills 220 enemies. And one which reaches stage 2 would beat them all.
I think this sounds like something that could allow for some interesting life and ammo management, herding and route choice. And since one dies pretty quickly, it would make the barrier of entry for the category relatively small. This is the sort of thing I would love to see frame wars in, much more than for SMB1, for example.
The "no piledrive" challenge seems fun yet almost impossible, so why not using the soon to be published run to help us a bit.
Thanks to Truncated for those maps:
Truncated wrote:
Rows are letters and columns are numbers, starting at A1 from top-left, so in Stage 1 Pitch starts at E1 and the boss is at A4.
Every room that could be done with only bricks (maybe counters but no piledrive/throw), without losing life, will be labeled Brick perfect.
Every room that need Ice to be done without piledrive/throw and without losing life will be labeled Ice Perfect.
Same for Rainbow Perfect.
RIP is self explanatory.
Remove the Perfect if you can't avoid damages but still can defeat the room. As HP are filled up again after each level, this could be exploited.
"Death" if you need to die in the room to defeat it. As we gain one life after each main level, this could be exploited. If you can't have enough lifes to completes the room with deaths, just jump to the next notation.
NO if whatever you try, you NEED to piledrive/throw.
A low piledrive/throw% run could be done if it's proven to be impossible to reach the end of the game without piledrive.
Stage 1:
E1: no enemies
E2: I have the impression that this room could be Brick Perfect. Tseralith goes in between the two elves stream but it might be possible to make them walk after you while you shoot them backward (impossible in RTA).
E3: Same impression, as Pitch seems to be able to handle the elves stream, after that the beyblade's pattern is easy to manage.
E4: ? Doesn't seem Brick perfect.
D4: I don't think it's Brick perfect.
C4: Easy Brick Perfect, Tseralith doesn't even use piledrive, and he only uses Ice to gain time.
B4: I don't think it's Brick perfect.
A4: Brick Perfect!
Stage 2:
B5: Brick perfect. It would just be slower.
B4: ?
C4: ? Maybe by avoiding the flying elves shoots while slaloming going to top-left of screen this could be Brick perfect?
C3: Surely not Brick Perfect.
B3: I would rather go to C2 instead lol. Suicide perfect.
B2: Brick perfect.
B1: I don't think it's Brick perfect.
A1: Brick Perfect!
Stage 3:
D1: Maybe one beyblade's stream could be cooled down by not destroying the boxes? And such not need any piledrive?
C1: Suicide perfect, or rather NO room, another route should be tried at D2 instead.
C2: Not Brick perfect.
B2: Suicide perfect! Why not another route?
B3: Why the fuck do the elves shoot through walls? oO Not Brick perfect.
B4: I don't know if Tseralith shoot at the boxes to optimizes piledrives or if it's done automatically, still not Brick Perfect.
A4: The beyblades and the mecha santa hats are pretty easy, the droids and the metal elves are hard.
A5: Brick Perfect!
Stage X: NO
Stage 4:
A2: I don't think it's Brick Perfect.
A3: Rather hard room.
B3: ? The beyblades are easy, the bubbles and the mechas are meh. Maybe Brick Perfect, but Rainbow Perfect is more likely.
B4: Brick Perfect, or Rainbow Perfect just to kill the big droid faster.
C4: Surviving the two flying elves stream while shooting the robot stream seems hard.
C1: Brick perfect I don't know, but Ice and Rainbow Perfect is likely. Rainbow to kill the sickle and Ice to make up with the small beyblade team?
D1: Definitively not Brick Perfect.
D2: Tseralith uses piledrive/throw to kill elves before a Legendary Charge (could be killed without that), many times during a Blast on Blast off to kill elves and avoid shots (not sure this could be avoided, maybe with Ice), before a Death Metal Disaster Zone (seems like there is enough time to kill the elves with bricks). After that, unless there are others moves between the Disaster Zone and the Multi-Hand Storm, it's just counter against Artic Thunder and counter + shoot against Deep Freeze, so the hardest would be already done.
These are assumptions and haven't been tested at all.
Every room before the boss seem harder than the boss itself, so one would need to take damages before entering the boss's room.
A lot of Ice has been used in Stage X, which won't be done in a no piledrive/counter run, so this could help in many rooms.
Watching Tseralith's run doesn't show even a quarter of all the rooms available, hopefully HPP's sources are available so the game could be tweaked a bit to make the exploration easier (let's get 99 lives in RJM!).
Awesome TAS. The only thing that could possibly make it better in my opinion is if it included the sub-boss fight in stage 4.
Actually, I guess there's a sub-boss in every stage but the one in stage 4 would likely be the most impressive in Reallyjoel's Mom difficulty.
