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A couple things.
First, regarding the "save corruption" bug that was the key inspiration behind this run in the first place. There's a concern that if save corruption is allowed, then it would be arbitrary to not just use the same sort of save corruption as in the PSX ACE run to allow swap overflow to be performed, which would likely be even faster than this route if improvements to the ACE route that have yet to be implemented into the current ACE TAS are done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmD9VyTGz58
However, I don't think the save bug used here works in the same way as the PSX save corruption, so I wouldn't say this is a concern. I'm not even sure swap overflow is possible in the Saturn version; I'm not very familiar with the Saturn version of the game at all. Perhaps the authors could shed some light on how this save bug works?
Second, in regards to the question posed in the submission about which version of the run to publish, I strongly recommend using the one that does not use SRAM. Unlike the PSX runs that have been accepted using SRAM, which use it to take wildly different routes and navigate the castle in faster and more interesting ways not possible without it, this run only seems to use it to skip the cutscenes before the final bosses.
Additionally, allowing the use of SRAM in this category causes an interesting problem: if you have a clear file at the start of the run, you could just have the SRAM verification make its way back to the correct save point near the start of the game after making Alucard as strong and capable as possible, getting maxed out stats and any weapons you need, etc., and activate the save glitch using that file instead of making a Maria file from scratch, as is done here. This much more closely emulates a true new game+ than simply having replay mode enabled, which is all the submission here used SRAM for. It would also completely remove the part of the run done as Maria, as well as remove a lot of the combat and RNG manipulation done in this run. This would be getting closer to the territory of simply loading a file partway through the run than I am comfortable with, and regardless, I don't see any way how such a run wouldn't be less interesting than the one that's been submitted here.
To put it another way, allowing SRAM for skipping cutscenes but not for use in the save bug seems too arbitrary to me.
Those issues aside, the run seems well optimized as far as I can tell, and the combination of the crazy save bug and Alucard's full, unchained movement being available from the start make this a sufficiently different submission from the PSX runs to be worth accepting in my eyes. Yes vote.
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Do not be fooled by Flameberger's admission that this is his first rodeo with TASing; he is an extraordinarily skilled and experienced RTA runner who has pushed real time runs of this game to frankly absurd levels of optimization that I never thought I would see in a somewhat niche game as this, and he likely knows more about this game than anybody else on the internet - a cursory glance at the game's leaderboards will reflect both of these things. This TAS is something he's had in the works for a very long time now and was not an endeavor that he took lightly, so I can think of no one else more qualified to improve one of my favorite runs on the site.
A very long overdue and significant improvement to an already excellent run, yes vote.
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Hello, I've created an improvement to my Zero Bosses/Dracula Only TAS from eons ago.
Link to video
It saves about a minute thirty through an updated route and improved optimization. To be more specific:
General:
+Improved experience route all around. Despite having to stop for level ups fewer times than before, I actually end up one level higher. Therefore:
+More MP than before. This gives me enough to either wing smash one extra time or mistbrake after more wing smashes in succession than before, making lots of rooms much cleaner.
+I found while making the 12:44 that you sometimes save a frame making short jumps by shield dashing for one frame longer than needed to make the minimum height jump. This saves frames throughout the first castle.
+Screen pause override was implemented, saving the better part of a second each time I level up or get a relic.
+Better bat movement all around - the key idea is that overshooting goals horizontally is good while traveling vertical areas as wing smash goes upwards faster than flying does. This saves entire seconds over the old TAS alone.
+Normally it's better to avoid traveling uphill on foot as wolf, but with Power of Wolf getting the extra acceleration from staying on the ground is more worth it. I removed these erroneous jumps from the old TAS.
+This was made using the shield dash direction randomizing script that I made for the 12:44 TAS. It looks very silly.
+Old TAS used unnecessary manna prisms, which caused a few additional lag frames. I removed pointless item usage in this one.
+Old Zero Bosses was a practice TAS that I made before I made any submissions that I still think are actually any good today. The update was made with everything I learned over all my work in mind. Optimization is therefore improved in general.
Prologue:
+Fight slightly improved. First phase visibly dies a few frames faster and second phase got the cool strat where you throw the holy water bottle on drac's face and damage stack with it to work, which is a plus regardless of actual timesave either way.
Entrance 1:
-Slightly worse zombies. Not worth it to manipulate, zombies are a function of in game time as far as I'm aware. Better money drops I guess
+I save a frame by jumping into the first skeleton after Death skip at a different timing than before, to get the maximum horizontal movement from the damage boost due to the wall in the way.
Alchemy Lab:
+I do not damage boost off the Blood Skeleton in the first room. I found a faster strat that does not require taking damage anyways, I'm not sure why I did this in the old one besides it was an old TAS and I was bad at SotN back in those days.
+I heal while waiting on SlograGaibon skip, which lets me do more damage boosts later in Marble Gallery.
+I make Alucard do a silly dance while waiting on SlograGaibon skip, which I think is more entertaining than what I did in the old TAS.
(I did not waste time on the elevator, it always pauses for a moment when it hits the second floor)
Marble Gallery:
-I found out later that using summon spirit to skip two skeletons at once is very slightly slower. I think I lose one frame total having done it both times I pass this one pair of them.
+I use the strat from ABRSR where I force the diplos to walk backwards when I go back through them, saving a damage boost on each of them.
+Much faster Meal Ticket drop and collection. Thank you oh goddess of randomness
+Instead of just doing it and being done, I manipulated the skeleton on the way back to throw his thick, hard bone at me with greater X velocity so I can get hit by it sooner by positioning Alucard at a specific distance from it, and get hit by it faster still by coordinating Alucard's X position just right to brush right past the Skeleton's hitbox instead of having to go entirely around it.
(For those uninitiated into the SotN cult, this is needed for the Toadstool skip to work.)
-I don't waste time manipulating the Flea Man on the return trip; RNG manipulation in general is better in this section.
Olrox's Quarters:
(The breakable wall here works oddly, hitting it again while the spark from hitting it the first time makes it look and sound like your second hit does something but it actually doesn't. I instead delay my hits to avoid this phenomenon.)
Colosseum:
+I do a corner boost jumping up to the platform at the end of the first room. This is one of the only practical corner boost opportunities in the whole game. It's so minor, I don't know if it even adds up to a whole frame saved.
+I found a way to do the version of MinoWolf skip from ABRSR with the summon spirit happening even sooner, when the ABRSR skip was already faster than what I did in the old Zero Bosses TAS. Almost no time is spent waiting on anything in this version of the skip.
+I avoid having to jump to land in the corridor after hitting the switch by the mist relic by forcing Alucard's X position to a specific number that lets him just barely hit the ledge with just fall speed.
+Much better Claymore room; I manipulate some solid crits, and use screen pause chains to get a level up that only stops Alucard's movement for a few frames.
(Yes, the Herculean leap after the Claymore room is optimal as far as I'm aware.)
-I had to fight extra enemies getting to the library card; this was an unavoidable consequence of changing the experience route but ultimately worth it.
+However, I alter my menuing to end up with a shield this time around, which saves time over the fast backdashing all the way to the library card I did in the old TAS.
+Through intense RNG manipulation I also ended up with many more hearts than the old TAS did and this allows further timesave in the Library.
+I grab the Library Card with the horizontally extended hurtbox you get from turning a backdash around; this saves a couple frames.
Long Library 1:
+I clear the legendary Book Jump using one less mist than before. Although this requires waiting for a moment on the book to move closer to Alucard, this is still faster.
+I jump from the Fairy Card ledge instead of falling, this is faster.
+I do Library Escape using three axes instead of a summon spirit and two axes; this is faster. I also jump into the shiftline sooner.
Outer Wall 1:
+I hit the elevator switch using two body checks and an axe instead of three body checks. This saves 5 frames despite looking ugly as hell.
(Opening the door near the wolf relic optimally looks like I'm wasting time getting too close before opening it. I'm not, it just looks weird for some reason.)
Entrance 2:
(Jumping up to the descending wall like that is actually optimal despite looking ugly. You can delay when you start the jump quite a bit actually, but Alucard still lands on top at the same time and X position (or worse, if you take too long) no matter what you do.)
+++Approximately 50 second time save by not getting Skill of Wolf for Lesser Demon skip.
-This makes first hallway a tiny bit slower because I can't skip the zombies and part of the hallway with the wolf clip, but I can briefly say hi to that one boss I didn't fight.
+The second boomerang jump up to Power of Wolf is slightly faster.
Long Library 2:
+I do the wolf jump up to the back of the library earlier, getting a much lower jump that lets me skip mist braking, saving time.
+I big toss off a Flea Armor instead of wolf superjumping through the ohdeargod room, this saves a bunch of MP and lets me start doing the Lesser Demon skip faster.
+I get up to the ledge to start the Lesser Demon skip with one less mistrise.
+Faster mist zip during Lesser Demon skip that saves travel frames and lets me divekick once I'm out of the floor.
Outer Wall 2:
+Better bat movement is really noticeable here. At least an entire second is saved here alone.
Clock Tower:
+Wing Smashing all the way to the first Harpy room is actually faster than the wolf charge I had to do in the old TAS.
+The awkward movement in the start of the Sword Lord room is actually optimal, as it lets me fit through the first corridor with a wing smash faster than any other way I could find, even though it looks very ugly.
+Faster movement before Karasuman skip; more intricate wing smashing beforehand let me get much farther ahead before changing back to human.
Castle Keep:
-No Skill of Wolf, so no wolf charge Richter skip. Low mana also means cutscene Alucard has to walk part of the way into the teleporter.
Inverted Keep:
+First fire boomerang jump is done sooner by exiting bat quicker. Optimization logic error in old TAS
-Slower wolf run momentum stall over the tombstones at the end due to no Skill of Wolf; could not wing smash the whole way because I needed to conserve mana, so this was still optimal.
Inverted Chapel:
+More mana equals faster first room strat.
+I kill the Balloon Pod and Black Panther slightly faster; I also manipulate a Masamune for killing the Guardian later.
+I half blood off Medusa several frames sooner by flying a bit towards her instead of just waiting.
+I save a chunk of lag by manipulating the Imps' positions instead of mistbraking through them once, but could not avoid the second one I did in the old TAS.
-I had to waste a fraction of a second to avoid hitting any with my wing smash, as new experience route means they would have leveled me up. Perhaps finding a way to not kill the owl back in Entrance 2 would have avoided this?
+Moderately faster and infinitely more badass-looking Mablung Sword drop. I also avoid one more level up pause here than my old TAS did.
+Mablung Sword strat saved a menu over old TAS.
Reverse Colosseum:
+I believe wing smashing through the whole upper route would have been faster even with Skill of Wolf. Blatant optimization overlook in the old TAS, I have no excuse.
+Not burning all my mana on wolf charge means I can avoid the big toss at the very end, saving even more time.
Black Marble Gallery:
+I kill the Guardian with Masamune crits instead of Alucard Shield spell, saving a bit of time.
+I do a totally different relics skip that saves a menu and a mistrise.
+I grab the Heart Refresh with wing smashes instead of boomerang dashes. I believe the old one stayed in human form because I didn't learn wolf could trigger events until partway through working on ABRSR.
Inverted Center:
+I wing smash while under the floor instead of flying to the left, this saves some frames.
(Unfortunately, wallgrabs are still the Worst Thing.)
Final Drac:
+I do a strat that Desquall found that lets you hit him more before he reaches the ground at the beginning. I also manipulate some juicy crits.
I've been wanting to make this for well over a year, since ZX497 informed me you could skip Lesser Demon without Skill of Wolf some time ago, but I always lost motivation until the past few weeks. It was kind of fun working on this game again.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S20NJKzNOM8
Beating the previous Richter All Bosses (previously called All Enemies) by a whopping 6 minutes and 38 seconds (or so the author claims, the full run is cut off in his encodes) due to far superior route planning, boss strategies, and movement optimization, I present a full TAS of Richter All Bosses after a long hiatus.
This turned out alright, but not great. I can't say I'm proud of it at all, but I seriously lack the drive at this point to go back and change much of anything about it. It was started back when psxjin was still the only option, and serious emulator issues bogged down a run I already didn't really like making due to having few ways to manipulate RNG which is still important in several segments, Richter's movement being awkward and just not fun to work with in my opinion, and too few differences from RTA to really make the final product feel special in my eyes. The result is that I didn't implement the tons of review and revision that I had done with other works and I think it shows with minor frame losses and a feeling of less creativity in the run. I hope that others enjoy this work more than I do.
There are several spots where movement is blatantly unoptimal due to severe issues with psxjin that prohibit me from making the inputs I want at specific times and there's even fewer things that can be done about it than in Alucard mode and since this was never meant to be a submitted run anyways I lacked the patience to eliminate it like I did with my other runs. I hope psxhawk eliminates this problem for any others interested in this game or should I ever return, and if it fixes psxjin's serious problems replicating the game's actual lag, that would be even better.
But anyways, to explain some stuff about the run:
Richter's movement is stiff; sliding is his fastest form of transportation, but you are very limited in where you can use it and ways to exit the slide animation are oftentimes awkward. He can do a vault kick out of slide which retains its momentum for a while and can be canceled into air slash by hitting something or by hitting a slope. Air slash, his 8236 > whip special in the air, is more versatile, but travels a fixed difference slightly slower, and causes him to go into a long recovery if it ends on the ground. Richter has no hurtbox during this, and doing it in the air gives Richter several frames to jump as if he were on the ground.His last resort for horizontal movement is running, which is the slowest of the three and mostly only used on difficult terrain or to make minor adjustments for air slashes.
He can go upwards by using the uppercut special 28 > jump, which carries him upwards a set distance fairly quickly but is limited by a cap on the screen's vertical scrolling rate. Thus, delaying chained uppercuts grants more height. Hitting ceilings causes Richter to stall for a fraction of a second, so missing the ceiling or just using his normal jump is almost always better if available. Richter can avoid hard fall recovery by jumping after landing, timing a whip to end right as he lands, or by doing a special move as he lands. Certain actions (vault kick being the main offender) disable Richter's options in the air until he either jumps or finishes a hard fall recovery, which means he cannot influence his horizontal position while falling and always goes into fall recovery upon landing, careful jumps are used to avoid this.
The route is basically the same as the current RTA route. I had done some testing of my own to create a new second castle method during my first go at this, but the RTA guys eventually found the same route that I did independently of me, oh well. Due to late changes to a couple boss strategies as well as a number of lucky heart drops from enemies that could not optimally be accounted for while routing, I ended up with a really strange looking number of hearts at the end. Revenge for getting exactly as many as I needed in Richter any% I suppose.
I use knife crash as an all purpose weapon when neither holy water nor axe provide an advantage for a specific fight. Holy water can be combined with a glitch called damage stacking to do tons of burst damage, but is very slow to startup and is mostly only used when I have time to kill anyways. Axe is generally weak but it is the strongest of the three against enemies you can hit with the very center of the axe spin. Besides that, I usually use the air slash or the quick combo of vault kick > air slash to tack on fast additional damage. The whip cannot crit and is weak and slow, air slashes, vault kicks, and uppercuts can crit though air slash is the most common due to having the highest potential damage (can do upwards of 360 damage with one hit on crit). Each knife of knife crash can crit, holy water cannot, axe can though this is never relevant. Crits are random and also give a randomized damage bonus that can vary wildly. All I have to manipulate luck is the whip which is very slow and map buffer to wait on a better RN, so luck manipulation is ugly.
A good comparison is the RTA WR of 23:54 (Xbox loads + RTA timing lower the time a lot) found here:
http://www.twitch.tv/pksl_/c/6597951
Though if you really want to see the old TAS, it is found in two separate videos for some reason here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbVZvSebelQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGqSSZHvIyo
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For those who would prefer to enjoy this TAS without being interrupted by Ciel's soliloquies about the horrors of war, here is a decent encode with all major cutscenes removed:
Link to video
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I made a joke TAS of some dumb game called Symphony of the Night to epic troll the TASing community (and especially that nerd arukAdo) but I enjoyed making it so I jumped at my chance for easy internet fame after arukAdo vanished into forever into the night while updating any% and it only took me like 5 tries or something to make a run that isn't garbage. I had become the very monster I had set out to slay on day 1
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arandomgameTASer wrote:
That description is incredibly easy to read.
You do not have to be too difficult for the poor! People in order to avoid ULTIMASTER, he had his best apparently - according to acceptable, including his "nonsense" dialect and English a large wall, who is the=Taser and / or we may, if not ridiculous reasonl you attempt to enter a book in Latin America, perhaps you na? bevelieve;I want to know about it is not, ha ha, you lose the person (ex:all glitterzx?/?) you are!
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TAG wrote:
While I was reading the rules and regulations, I came across a line of text saying that vice administrators are subject to sensitive information.
I am wondering you any of you guys have backed up everything on tasvideos.
what happens if an vice administrator gets hacked, or worse the actual Adelikat himself gets hacked.
just saying.....
Too late, good sir. I have already hacked Adelikat's entire database with my advanced knowledge of Javascript I obtained from my high school Computer Science II course. What I have found shocks and appalls me, and should you as well, and is worth sharing even if Adelikat will have me executed for high treason:
TASVideos is a front for the Illuminati. We are all being watched. When you make a forum account, nanomachines are injected from your Anteriormonitor through your iral cannal into your brain, whereafter Adelikat gains complete access over what you can see, as well as the ability to jam your vision and alter your memory. We have all been his soldiers this whole time; the world outside Adelikat's sick virtual reality is a hell we hath wrought unawares. We must raise up and stop this madma
(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
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kusoman wrote:
augh I have ALOT to explain do I?
you don't need bomb jump to do this
you can do a simple SDC
Scan Dash Cancel (no not saber dash cancel
this isn't mega man x5) where if you scan the object
near the Impact Crater it will say
object out of range something like that but
then do a scan dash and exit the dash
after a few frames (must be very precise)
you will be standing on the platform on the left
than go on to the space jump
(I have done this on my real gamecube before)
you can do this on console too.
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Well, let's look at the title of this topic.
"Yet another" - Why yes, you have pulled this shit before. Here is just one fine example:
http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11543
"warp" - That's you! You are indeed the subject of this topic! :D
"derail" - Starting long, inane debates about shit nobody cares about because you feel like you have to push some sort of agenda. Nobody wants to hear your obnoxious opinions on resets in a topic that has nothing to do with the rules/standards of TASing.
Yep, it all checks out. I don't see any insults in the name of this fine topic, it all checks out to me.
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Nach wrote:
And yet our wiki provides at least one acceptable answer!
TASVideos Wiki wrote:
No, Color A Dinosaur... (doesn't) have gameplay with any meaningful technical content.
Gee, just because you are SUPER MASTER TASER doesn't mean you have to go and assume that we're all on your amazing level, Professor Nach. I'm sure many here would agree with me when I say that Color A Dinosaur is a challenging and interactive experience, just because you're pro at it doesn't mean everyone else is. Think about someone else for once, please.
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kusoman wrote:
those 2 links didn't help
every link ive ever gotten on how to make people not run away from me hasnt done jack shit to help me, so count yourself lucky
most people dont even give me links and just run away :(
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Perfect. This TAS is the epitome of the TASing standard set for the rest of the site and all newcomers should look up to submissions such as this to know what it truly means to be a TASer. This is an important piece of TASing history and it and its author should get nothing but respect for his amazing achievement.
1/10
