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I genuinely didn't know about possibility that you might get these error messages if you try to dump the video. Added requested info here:
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/62294559060047795
Also fixed "Disabling "Prevent writing to disk"". Want to mention that this step was "stolen" from previous submission's instructions of TPE: http://tasvideos.org/6452S.html
You might wanna edit it there as well. Previous rejected TPE had correct description on this matter.
Thank you, I added it in description and annotations. I failed to find an opportunity to update the movie file in submission, so I followed your suggestion in another thread and uploaded it here.
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/62278983308173257feos wrote:
Also this seems to be needed for video dumping:
Post #490172
This request is confusing me. Are you sure this issue is related to my case? I don't remember having this problem nor fixing it. It wasn't mentioned in LibTAS/Undertale installation guide that was made by Luke for UT Community 10 days ago either, and there are people that started to do TASes by following this guide.
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Fortranm wrote:
TommyeAsY wrote:
You need to have some weapon equipped, but why would you change it after Undyne? You're reaching damage limit with it in Astigmatism fights, and, as I mentioned, Ballet Shoes have the fastest weapon animation in the game, which generally makes it preferable weapon for most of the run once you get it.
Why do you get Burnt Pan via the glitch if you don't ever use it then?
There are several reasons:
- I used Burnt Pan twice in scripted fights with Knight Knight and Madjick;
- I read this item several times in order to manipulate RNG;
- Early Burnt Pan lets you to get wrong warp when you exit the lab.
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ThunderAxe31 wrote:
Wouldn't be overall faster of you un-equip your weapon after beating Undyne? Since that weapons requires three inputs and you're going to use it many times for the rest of the run, but you don't need any extra power.
You need to have some weapon equipped, but why would you change it after Undyne? You're reaching damage limit with it in Astigmatism fights, and, as I mentioned, Ballet Shoes have the fastest weapon animation in the game, which generally makes it preferable weapon for most of the run once you get it.
Pokota wrote:
Why the Japanese version?
1.02+ versions are faster than 1.01, which originally was most common one. It lost some skips based on Punch Card Exploit because it changed inputs mechanics, but there is no known way to get Punch Card item in Genocide category (otherwise we would skip Sans fight entirely).
1.08 is the most recent version for today, and the easiest one to get. Japanese text is optional for it, but it was chosen because it leads to shorter dialogs. For instance, japanese Chara's text in the end saves about 40 seconds over english alone.
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EZGames69 wrote:
my only worries about this is how do you define the end of the game? could it end as soon as Chara destroys the world or would it end with the extra dialog at the end?
RTA speedruns rules set that timer ends on selecting either "ERASE" or "DO NOT" on the final choice. I think it's a reasonable to consider it the ending point because you can't really do anything other than skip last part of unskippable text and accept your fate.
Thank you for your feedback.
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feos wrote:
Otherwise, it's fine to use a different region version for a different branch if the version difference showcases more unique aspects of that branch. And for this game, since it seems to be a PAL original tweaked later to work on NTSC, using PAL is alright.
Thanks, that was my main concern.
feos wrote:
First of all, we can't guarantee that a run avoiding a glitch (or using the game version without the glitch) will be entertaining enough to be accepted to Moons. Here's the rating of your any% movie.
I understand that. I plan to get a new run because I've got many comments as feedback about run being not as interesting as it would be with full health. I used half-health glitch which essentially gave me opportunity to OHKO almost every enemy unit without walking anywhere, so most of my gameplay was just accurate shots with weapons I have from the very beginning.
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I need help with choosing PAL/NTSC version. I had Hogs of War Any% done on PAL because of exclusive glitch which affects health of every unit (it's twice lower) which changes gameplay and strats in general, also saves a bunch of time (at least 15-20 minutes).
Site rules say: "Due to this, PAL versions of ROMs are generally not allowed, unless there are significant technical and/or entertainment merits to using this version."
The thing is - I plan to make a run without doing that glitch. Game runs on approx. 25 fps on both versions, but NTSC version generally runs slightly slower - for instance, you lose an entire second on NTSC over PAL if you chrage grenade throw for 3 seconds or walk on the map for 13 seconds. Can it be considered as "significant technical merit" in my case?
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Spikestuff wrote:
TommyeAsY wrote:
I mentioned that in description. Having 4th gunner instead of 2 scouts generally saves a lot of time on later missions, but cost time on m4.
This leaves a question then.
What's the difference between poisoning the enemy about to have a turn first rather than the two on the side?
Left Grunt acts first, and his turn takes forever. And you have to get extra turns to make profit of poisoning right gunner while you can OHKO him instead.
I actually tried to get profit of double poison strat, but with canceling act of left Grunt. There is a video with it: https://youtu.be/OWrPjdwQkFU
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I found the way to avoid that issue (and it's silly - it requires to play my old movie which has markers in .tasproj but doesn't make the error to appear - and if I play my new movie - it suddenly works) and yeah, I will redo full run.
That's what I got for now. It's 24 seconds faster than old run. I don't know if I can save more for this segment, but I'll try to look at it again
Link to video
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Update: it looks like I'm not really able to redo this run since I've got an issue similar to this https://github.com/TASVideos/BizHawk/issues/1151
And it looks like there is no known fix for many months, so idk what to do for now :/
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Spikestuff wrote:
TommyeAsY wrote:
Did you press anything for that?
The same button when you kill a pig and want to get on with it.
Excuse me, what do you mean by that? This link is broken.
Btw, it's probably better to cancel my submission. I keep getting ideas after such huge feedback and managed to save 11 seconds on 1st mission for now.
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Spikestuff wrote:
I've made a few mistakes which is evident in the mission by mission comparison with yours:
Link to video
I don't understand one thing you did twice on Morning Glory. You got shorter animation before death cam when you used gas grenade. Did you press anything for that?
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Spikestuff wrote:
TommyeAsY wrote:
There is a major glitch called "Half Heath" which is PAL region exclusive.
You may have wanted to clarified this point better. The half health glitch isn't region exclusive.
From your YouTube:
Николай Кузнецов wrote:
1/2 HP works in the North American version ”HoW” (NTSC), the only difference is that it does not work right away, but it's necessary to boot from the mission saving.
I'd argue that PAL is more beneficial in the use compared to NTSC.
To be honest, I never knew that. I knew that it doesn't work the same way it works on PAL, but if there is another way to make Half Health glitch to work, none of community runners know about it, to my knowledge.
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Spikestuff wrote:
Ok, now unfortunately we're at the end of this submission.
~38 seconds improved from Start to Hogshead for a test file.
I've made a few mistakes which is evident in the mission by mission comparison with yours:
Link to video
There's one hidden issue and it's related to what the game does with controllers.
I put in the analog controller thinking I would need to use it. Best controller choice is D-pad.
Every time a mission is loaded the game checks and spends time figuring out what controller is inserted, d-pad is the quickest. (That's what I'm hypothesizing is the case)
When doing a simple convert (which worked) when placed for a longer period of time, the game will decide to desync.
Again. This is a well created first timer TAS but the issues are hard to overlook with just a quick pickup.
I have provided my input for you to go over if you'd like but I do heavily suggest go over this game again and take your time from scratch.
Move towards the enemy.
Walk in a better direction.
Don't always go full blast.
Don't go on the towers.
Angle your shots.
And
Poison chain multiple enemies. After all, it gives a sneaky victory and less effort.
Thank you for all your effort you put into it. I honestly got very few ideas not long time ago, but it felt like it would be less than 10 seconds of timesave in total. I was limited in time to finish it before marathon and, regardless of what do I know now, I think it was a good showcase for the event. But I agreed that this run has pretty big room of improvement for TAS. I appreciate the time you spent on it.
New999 wrote:
First was Mission 10 with that mortar rifle shot. It wasn't really that funny and it wasted more time than a more direct shot.
Sorry, can't agree this this in particular. Direct shot absolutely wasn't an option because of ground surface - it was between our units, so to get actual direct shot I'd have to walk for a while first. The only potentially faster option I had in my head using gas grenade - to be honest, I didn't test it.
New999 wrote:
Mission 11, the mortar shot where you tried to get the pig into the minefield. You say it's too far for him to reach it. Then why bother? You actually wasted time doing that, especially with the death explosion from the enemy destroying that piece of wall, that actually wasted time due to being unskipable. You could've just killed him away from the walls instead, your shot would do the work no problem.
My bad, this is totally my fault. I should've just come back to my previous shot with faster death, but didn't even notice wall destruction during actual run process, noticed that only when I rendered the full video.
New999 wrote:
But your use of Rimski in Mission 13... i honestly think that's the biggest downfall to me. First off, you going for that health pickup. It honestly didn't do that much. Maybe it could've helped with avoiding the speed slowdown from low health, but i doubt that. But the worst part was your positioning after throwing the grenade. I don't really know what you were thinking with going right next to the pillbox there and letting it smack Rimski down the hill. The next time you used Rimski, you went all around the hill to climb back up and take care of the OTHER pillbox. I felt like you would've been better off throwing the grenade at a distance that both isn't close to the pillbox and doesn't make you fall off. Sure, he might aim at Rimski instead, which may have been a bit slow, but it still would've been faster than the 10+ second walk around you did there. And if he came out of the pillbox, which is sometimes the case when close to an enemy pillbox, that's an even better advantage to kill him off with the mortar at the end. This would've saved you more time from what i saw. As it stands, i see your Mission 13 to be the weakest because of this.
Sorry, strongly distagree with most of this comment. I marked this mission as one of the most difficult for a big reason which is AI manipulation. I don't think you can make an accurate prediction without actual tests, because, as I mentioned before, even team formation and unit's health affects the way AI acts, so I've seen a lot of differet ways to act from AI on this mission. For example, before I did what I did on m13, I did test runs without using promotion points after m12. I was very surprised when one of AI's unit just randomly decided to jump off his pillbox and used bazooka instead, despite the fact none of my units were close.
I had reasons to do certain things for every action on this mission. I know, it's not the most optimal yet - I don't think anybody know it about this particular part of the run. But there are explanations for things you mentioned above:
1. I totally didn't expect that AI gonna miss 160 dmg to my units in a row. Health kit gave me an opportunity for freedom of actions with letting AI to hit me from pillbox once. I can't say what exaclty would be changed if I'd skip this kit, but it would not be 100 % the same scenario. I'll have to do more tests next time.
2. This certain position of Rimski made many of AI's units focus on him (and act faster because of that). When he got damage with pillbox rotation - it was also a part of the route. AI didn't focus on him because my unit was moving when AI has control over his own character, so he instantly focused on another unit on middle distance.
3. The order of destroying pillboxes in certain order also was planned because of order of AI's units to act.
4. AI generally not supposed to jump off pillboxes on this missions until he'll be out of ammo (3 acts for each of pillboxes). I have no idea why he jumped off once on test run, but level layout is very opened, so it should not be the case.
New999 wrote:
Ultimately you did manage some very good runs in some missions, especially Mission 24. I was very impressed with that. But there's definitely alot of room for improvement. So i give it a meh.
Thank you for kind words, I appreciate it. I agree with your words about potential improvent in my run. It's much easier to notice like that when there is video material of full run, but it's fair, regardless.
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Spikestuff wrote:
And you don't have an explanation on character choice as it hasn't been addressed?
Which I'll assume the answer to is due to the event that your run for the Hogs are based on the Soviet Union.
That's correct. The marathon was local (with only russian commentary), so I chose Piggystroika because of the reason in your post.
Spikestuff wrote:
The cancelling can be figured out further in that section and be addressed correctly when it either brings out the worst or better for it.
But if shaves frames here and there (away from duping) then that might be an important enough revision to treat this as your first attempt and to remake a new one.
It wasn't known in community when I found that in the middle of the run, but I noticed that animation cancel is not a problem after regular missions (not last mission on the island, when you get only 2 PP), but it's a problem on last island missions. I eventually want to figure out why this is happening, and, maybe, find a way to dupe PP on early game (after 5th, 10th missions etc), but I don't think I'll come back to it soon because of other games I need to work on. The reason is - animation cancel is not the only issue with losing PP. There is a timestamp with perfect menuing without losing PP: https://youtu.be/nlNHj9UFIws?t=24m26s
I literally was not able to make first promotion even after playing the whole animation because it also led to losing few PPs
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Honestly, I'm not exactly sure how does TAStudio count attempts, considering I used playback option a lot (and it doesn't look like it add rerecords counter for this case). I put rerecords counter from .bk file, but on fact I lost my progress few times, so I had to use backups and re-do a bunch of missions again. So I lost count for at least few hundreds. Also, this game doesn't require to use analog stick, which makes optimization much easier than games like SA2.
I worked on this run in particular because of special event which was a local marathon (RUSC). Long story short - WanWan is something like spirit of our community. It's most known emote and it was also a main logo.
I assume that you saved menu using animation cancel. Unfortunately, I have to agree that I didn't do that at the very beginning because I figured out that's a thing after few missions. I started to use it a lot afterwards, but I met a bunch of problems with game. For example, if you get PP (promotion points) after missions, but do animation cancel, it also might cancel (or even dupe) PP, which affect future gameplay. I recorded a little demonstration here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNesnfm-Qgk
Didn't expect it to be a problem since with current rules for this game run starts right after you answer "No" before going to first mission.
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Hello and thank you!
Yeah, I know that NTSC is preferable than PAL, but there is a major glitch called "Half Heath" which is PAL region exclusive. This particular glitch is the reason why this category was separated with "normal" Any% (glitchless), which requires to use different strats such as promotion and used weapons. So, despite FPS issues, PAL is way faster than other versions.
Sorry for ROM filename. Apparently, we both did changes at the same time, so I could mess it up more. I think I fixed that. If not, please, let me know. I'm kinda new to this stuff.
