I believe boss damage in this game only varies based on the character you use: 1 damage each hit from Will, 2 from Freedan and 3 from Shadow.
Although I'm almost sure you're right, this still needs to be tested. When I come up with a result, I'll let you all know.
Oh .. and I think Tim was Will's name in the Illusion of Time version of the game. It's not the first time he names him Tim instead of Will ...
Before posting the update, I want to apologize for the incredibly long time it took me to work that update up. I did a big mistake near the end of the raft scene, which made me lose all the long and boring raft scene ... I got discouraged and waited some days before restarting that part ...
Here it is:
* UPDATE *
The current progress goes up to the door of the Diamond Mines. There wasn't much work done since the last upgrade (apart from the new "server" which hosts my files, which is now my personal computer).
Here's the link: http://halamantariel.homeip.net/iog_wip.zip
Rom name and version: Illusion of Gaia (U) [!].smc
Please post any comments about the current progress.
Joined: 7/17/2004
Posts: 985
Location: The FLOATING CASTLE
Ah, pretty colors... Remember those stars!
Looks like you figured out the plot triggers pretty well, that's definitely less dialogue than I thought was necessary in Freejia. Planning and execution seem good so far, please journey on young Will.
The more I think about it, the more I think this game won't be good enough for time attacks ...
I mean, let's face it ... This game has way too much dialogue and too less action/fighting ... I'm actually considering on dropping the project ... unless someone convinces me that it would make a good time attack and fun to watch...
I logged in on an 11 year old Windows 98 box with a 33.6 kbps modem, and spent 10 minutes navigating to this page to warn you, if you quit this time attack I will steal your ears and feed them to rabid squirrels.
And now I'm going to lose all my unread posts. Damn.
EDIT: And blah blah blah, make a good timeattack, blah blah. Your ears are at stake.
Build a man a fire, warm him for a day,
Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.
Hmm ... oh well ...
* UPDATE *
The current progress goes up to Neil's Cottage. There wasn't a lot of work done since the last upgrade, considering I only completed the Diamond Mines and Freejia, but I thought I would post the update anyway since I just went through a figthing area.
Here's the link: http://halamantariel.homeip.net/iog_wip.zip
Rom name and version: Illusion of Gaia (U) [!].smc
Link to download savestates: http://halamantariel.homeip.net/savestates/
Please post any comments about the current progress, mostly if you think of ways I could go faster.
* edit: I added a link to download some savestates *
And once again, I hate double-posting, but there was no replies since my last update ... so here is a double-post :)
* UPDATE *
The current progress goes up to Seaside Palace (the place just before Mu). There was a lot of work done compared to the other updates, and I worked quite fast too! The whole Sky Garden in only 3 days.
Here's the link: http://halamantariel.homeip.net/iog_wip.zip
Rom name and version: Illusion of Gaia (U) [!].smc
Link to download savestates: http://halamantariel.homeip.net/savestates/
Please post any comments or suggestions you may have.
Thanks!
*EDIT*
I almost forgot to mention it ... the run is not a no-damage run anymore ... I got hit once in the west section of Sky Garden. There was a 3-fireball kind of enemy ... and I couldn't get past it without getting hit. Also, I didn't want to backtrack and wait for it to pass by. I just decided that I could add this little caption in the time attack description when I submit it: "Takes damage to save time" :)
Joined: 7/17/2004
Posts: 985
Location: The FLOATING CASTLE
Excellent work as usual. It's sometimes amazing how fast you can speed through the dialog. Anyway, dungeons seem to be planned and executed well and the boss fight at the sky garden is fast. Did you have to put any work into manipulation, or did he just behave for you?
Anyway, I'm glad you decided to stick with this. Though this is going to be a long run (45 min already) with lots of slow parts, I think the high quality of the graphics and sound will make it worthwhile for many people. Also, now that you are reaching some of the tougher dungeons, the action is getting more interesting.
Looking forward to seeing Mu, it's probably the biggest maze and easily the coolest boss fight. Good luck!
Did you have to put any work into manipulation, or did he just behave for you?
Actually, I didn't have to manipulate "it" in any way. I just went and hit "it" when I could and then he went down to shoot some .. uhh .. crystal-like flame .. What I mean is that I didn't manipulate it. It behaved for me :)
TheAxeMan wrote:
Looking forward to seeing Mu, it's probably the biggest maze and easily the coolest boss fight.
Yeah ... Mu ... I'll have to plan my way through and I think this will take a long time ... The bigger the place, the longer the planning. I'm looking forward to the boss fight though ... I remember that I beat that boss quite rapidly on the real console. It should look great when tool-assisted :)
*EDIT*
I just completed the planning through Mu ... thanks to the maps Mike Leatherwood (aka StarFighters76) made at GameFaqs. You can find the 7 parts of the plan at my savestates page here: http://halamantariel.homeip.net/savestates
Watching this WIP brought back a lot of memories; I haven't played this game in years. I liked seeing all the story rushed through and it surprised me how many enemies you could simply run past.
I was expecting the hit to look tacky and out of place, but it didn't bother me at all. While it would be nice to be able to say you beat the game without getting hit, I guess this will do.
Keep working at it. I am awaiting the finished movie.
* UPDATE *
For the people who know the game a little or who have played the game, this is THE update you've been waiting for!
The current progress goes up the Underground Tunnel. This means that Mu is done, as well as the Vampires fight. I don't want to give away too much, but if you've fought this battle at least once, you're gonna be really impressed. I was myself impressed of how fast I beat those guys!
By the way, I changed the way I give out links. I made a little PHP script allowing me to be lazy :) You can click on the game's name to get the WIP, and right underneath you have all the information you want to see about that WIP, and underneath that, you have all the savestates I can think of giving you. It should be easier for you and for me this way.
Here's the link: http://halamantariel.homeip.net/speedruns/
Rom name and version: Illusion of Gaia (U) [!].smc
Please post any comments about the current progress, mostly if you think of ways I could go faster.
Joined: 3/29/2005
Posts: 229
Location: The boonies.
Well, I've been working on a speedrun of this game myself, but I've got the wrong version of the rom to compare videos. I haven't reached Mu, yet, so I don't know how well you're doing, but I have a sneaking suspiscion it's better than I am/would.
I've got a cartridge copy of this game, by the way, and I got pretty good with it back in the day. On my run I've been trying to record at normal speed where I can get away with it, though that's admittedly only during conversations.
Well, anyway, if I can find the right copy of the game I'll be sure to look through your run and give whatever advice might be useful.
It's been a while since I played the game, but I never would have suspected that it would have been faster overall to NOT use Freedan against the vampires. There is a fixed amount of time required to transform, plus you'd have to go out of your way to get to a dark space where you could transform, which would negate any sort of speed increase you'd gain from dealing 2 points of damage instead of one.
Keep up the excellent work!
I never would have suspected that it would have been faster overall to NOT use Freedan against the vampires
Actually, I never fought the vampires with Freedan. The reason is simple: Will is invincible when he does his jump attacks AND when he does the Psycho Slider AND when he does the Psycho Dash. In fact, you could notice it in the current WIP that I totally abuse his temporary invincibility when fighting the vampires. When you see Will doing a jump attack, it's because if I didn't do that, I would have been hit.
Talking about getting hit ... that hit I took back in Sky Garden really pisses me off ... I could do a hitless time attack ... but that ONE hit ... damn! And I don't want to go back and change all this. There's too much work to re-do ...
Joined: 3/29/2005
Posts: 229
Location: The boonies.
Playing the game non-enhanced, Freedan's range makes up for any other lack he has. And if he had his Aura Barrier, or whatever it is, he'd have much longer stints of invincibility.
Now, all of that is different in a speedrun..... *smirks*
And why didn't you re-record over that hit in the Sky Garden? No recent enough save states?
I think it's because that one hit made the movie faster. It's annoying when you have so few hits separating your fast-as-possible movie from a no-damage run.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
* UPDATE *
(for the people who don't want to read it all, I put the important parts in bold)
Okay guys ... I know you are going to be disapointed, but that hit I took back in Sky Garden really pissed me off and I had to go back and change it. I really wanted to make a no-damage run, and now it is a no-damage run.
What I did is that I hex-edited the part where I took the hit, so that I wouldn't take a hit. Simple, huh? ... well ... not really. After that, the Viper fight desynched since it's movements were completely different from what they were. As a result, I had to redo that fight with Viper. Turns out that I beat Viper 79 frames faster than in the previous update. After that, I appended the rest of the time attack to the new one, but it desynched in Seaside Palace again. I hex-edited that part, and saved a few frames again.
After that, I realised that Mu would be a pain in the ass to hex-edit because of the monstruous amount of desyncs it would get. I just decided that I would re-do my time attack from the beginning of Mu. Sorry folks.
All in all, I lost 220 frames by not taking the hit, but I saved 79 in the Viper fight, and saved aroung 21 more frames at a few places in Seaside Palace. I'm also pretty confident that I will go faster throughout Mu since I already did it once. Overall, the no-damage run will be faster than the previous damage run.
Here's the link: http://halamantariel.homeip.net/speedruns/
Rom name and version: Illusion of Gaia (U) [!].smc
Please post any comments about the current progress, mostly if you think of ways I could go faster.
Joined: 3/29/2005
Posts: 229
Location: The boonies.
Hunh. I'm surprised you had to run all the way back. Seems like there should've been some way to sneak through the thing.
The only criticism I have is the amount of enemies you stop running to hit, specifically in the Diamond Mine. I realize that most of the time you do it to keep from taking a hit, because the monster's in your direct path, but it seems to me there's at least a couple of times you did it where you could have just as easily run around it. I dunno, I only got to the Incan Ship in my run, so I suppose the monster's "zone of control" is such that it's actually taking up the whole corridor, but it doesn't look that way.
Another thing I saw in your first runthrough of Mu is that once you've got the Psycho Slider, you used it at least once where you could have actually run around the enemy. (Right after you got it. You had just slid through those chomp-like energy thingies and there was a blue slime ahead of you. You hit the slime when I think you had a faster option.) The Slider takes so many frames that it's probably faster to take the time to run around it, especially since you start your runs about a frame faster than I do.
Haven't watched most of the run at a slower rate, so I haven't noticed anything that would only save you a couple of frames. I might do that this weekend sometime, if I get bored.
Edit - Something else in the Sky Garden: you collect the first two crystal balls and then place them in their slots. But you place #3 and #4 in their slots as you get them. Seems like one of those should be faster than the other. Any ideas or intuitions as to whether or not they are?
Hunh. I'm surprised you had to run all the way back. Seems like there should've been some way to sneak through the thing.
Nope. I really can't just sneak through it. If I could, I would have done that on my first "run". And the way I do it now, if I start to run a frame faster or a frame slower, I get hit. It's really the only way to do it without getting hit or without following the thing by walking under it and following it to the top.
---------------
quietkane wrote:
The only criticism I have is the amount of enemies you stop running to hit, specifically in the Diamond Mine.
Most of the time, hitting an enemy doesn't slow me down if I hit it while running. Of course, I do stop at some to hit them. In most cases, I start to charge up energy for the following enemies. Everytime I stop to hit an enemy is because I didn't have the choice or to go faster afterwards. Again, hitting an enemy while running doesn't slow me down at all.
---------------
quietkane wrote:
Another thing I saw in your first runthrough of Mu is that once you've got the Psycho Slider, you used it at least once where you could have actually run around the enemy.
Yeah ... for this one I could have simply stopped running, and then hitting it with the flute, and then run through it. It would have been faster. Anyways, I've already re-done Mu (I just need to re-do the Vampires fight) and that part is OK now.
---------------
quietkane wrote:
Haven't watched most of the run at a slower rate, so I haven't noticed anything that would only save you a couple of frames.
Don't even bother reporting something that saves 1 frame or 2 ... I won't correct them. Hex-adding things in this game (adding frames) screws up the rest of the run because the enemies in the next room won't be at the same place, and the boss' movements change. I know that. That's what happened with Viper, as I said in my last update.
---------------
quietkane wrote:
Things about the crystal balls in Sky Garden
For balls 1 and 2, if I placed the ball 1 as I got it, I would have to run all the way to the left, place the ball, and then run down to enter the second area, get the ball, then go up, place the ball and go down and left. I would then go twice at the same place, losing a lot of frames. That's why I place them at the same time. It's really faster. I tested this.
For balls 3 and 4, if I placed them at the same time, I would have waited a loooooong time for the blue platform tile to allow me to run on it. It also proved to be faster after I tested it. It's really optimized.
Joined: 3/29/2005
Posts: 229
Location: The boonies.
Halamantariel wrote:
quietkane wrote:
The only criticism I have is the amount of enemies you stop running to hit, specifically in the Diamond Mine.
Most of the time, hitting an enemy doesn't slow me down if I hit it while running. Of course, I do stop at some to hit them. In most cases, I start to charge up energy for the following enemies. Everytime I stop to hit an enemy is because I didn't have the choice or to go faster afterwards. Again, hitting an enemy while running doesn't slow me down at all.
*nods* I know you don't lose any frames while you're running, and I guess it makes sense that it's faster to stop sometimes. Like I said, I never reached the Diamond Mine, so I didn't know whether you could have just run by or not.
Halamantariel wrote:
quietkane wrote:
Haven't watched most of the run at a slower rate, so I haven't noticed anything that would only save you a couple of frames.
Don't even bother reporting something that saves 1 frame or 2 ... I won't correct them. Hex-adding things in this game (adding frames) screws up the rest of the run because the enemies in the next room won't be at the same place, and the boss' movements change. I know that. That's what happened with Viper, as I said in my last update.
*smirks* Well, I didn't mean literally 1 or 2 frames. I wouldn't expect someone to redo a large portion of a speedrun just to fix a 2 frame error. But I didn't realize the bosses' patterns changed based on what frame you reach them. O_o Anyway, I'll remember not to report minor details in the future.
Halamantariel wrote:
quietkane wrote:
Things about the crystal balls in Sky Garden
For balls 1 and 2, if I placed the ball 1 as I got it, I would have to run all the way to the left, place the ball, and then run down to enter the second area, get the ball, then go up, place the ball and go down and left. I would then go twice at the same place, losing a lot of frames. That's why I place them at the same time. It's really faster. I tested this.
For balls 3 and 4, if I placed them at the same time, I would have waited a loooooong time for the blue platform tile to allow me to run on it. It also proved to be faster after I tested it. It's really optimized.
Ahhh. Right. Sorry, I hadn't made the mental connection from the placement of the balls to the movement of the platforms.
* UPDATE *
Today's update features progress up to Angel Village. I've finally completed Mu (AGAIN!) as well as the Vampires fight. For those who watched the "old" Vampires fight, you're gonna think that this one is less impressive. The reason is simple: The path they take for moving on this one is really different than the other one. The lady gets killed really fast, but the guy moves on really long paths, forcing me to run after him. Nevertheless, the fight is still fast and impressive.
Note: I could NOT manipulate the path they take during the fight. Of course, if I investigated a lot more than what I did, I could have found a way to change that ... but after a few hours of trying to manipulate their behavior, I got tired and decided to fight them as they currently were.
I added a few savestates, so that you can resume the movie from whatever place you wish to resume it. There's a savestate for each different location.
Here's the link: http://halamantariel.homeip.net/speedruns/
Rom name and version: Illusion of Gaia (U) [!].smc
Please post any comments about the current progress, mostly if you think of ways I could go faster.
