This topic is for the purpose of discussing #6781: sveniroth's PCE Neutopia "no fire wand" in 39:50.91

I need to correct a point that I made on the previous submission that I'll make here.

- Running towards the wall where the game corrects you is slower than doing the movement beforehand. I was afraid that might be the case, oops.

There are walls where edging is faster compare to others, but it would be better to make sure of it. Just to point out what I mean on certain walls: (bottom left corner) I am concerned about the amount of damage abuse used in this movie as you have great amount of health at certain sections. Similar to last time (only that it's more valid now since fire wand is out of the picture).

I need to correct a point that I made on the previous submission that I'll make here.

- Running towards the wall where the game corrects you is slower than doing the movement beforehand. I was afraid that might be the case, oops.

There are walls where edging is faster compare to others, but it would be better to make sure of it. Just to point out what I mean on certain walls: (bottom left corner) I am concerned about the amount of damage abuse used in this movie as you have great amount of health at certain sections. Similar to last time (only that it's more valid now since fire wand is out of the picture).

To be honest, I just made these for fun, and to bring the game to people's attention. And because, to my knowledge, no one else has made a TAS for it. I learned a lot from making them, but I wasn't going for perfection. If they aren't good enough to be hosted here, so be it. I appreciate your eye for detail. I guess I couldn't tell if the auto-correct walls were faster or not because they're not consistent, I just enjoyed seeing Jazeta wiggle along the walls. But it's not only the walls, you can save frames by turning on the right frame even in an open field! Considering how many times you turn in the entire game, just polishing your turning could be a pretty big time save, but I noticed that pretty late in making this TAS, so I didn't apply it until close to the end. You're definitely right about the damage boosting, there is a lot of room for improvement there. It's funny, in RTA the room by room dungeon combat is a slog to get to the fun boss fights. In the TAS it's the opposite, I love dissecting the room by room combat to finish close to the door, or close to the block I need to push. But I've already practiced the bosses so many times in RTA, I just copy/pasted from my first TAS or turned on "recording mode." I could've done Dirth's Illusion in 6 cycles, (or maybe even fewer! I somehow got 11 hits on one cycle, he takes 46 hits with the steel sword). But I settled for 8 cycles because every hit you land changes the timing and placement for the rest of the fight.

To be honest, I just made these for fun, and to bring the game to people's attention. And because, to my knowledge, no one else has made a TAS for it. I learned a lot from making them, but I wasn't going for perfection. If they aren't good enough to be hosted here, so be it.

I wouldn't be hard on yourself. This is generally your first experience with the community. I would like to point out that the community could find this game of high interest; however, the members will want to see things done as fast as possible. Please take note of one thing though...there is a great satisfaction from digging deep into a game's mechanics. When you find hard earned frames...you will enjoy it a lot more. There is nothing more grand than putting a lot of effort into finding these small cuts being pointed out.

Ok I am going to vote No, but let me explain why. Basically this needs to go through another round or two of refinement. I have watched 8 minutes and I think I understand where the problems exist, because I recognize them. Please tell me if I am wrong. 1) Resource Management. Health, bombs, and whatever else are all resources. You want to maximize the benefit you can get from them while at the same time reducing unnecessary actions. Ex: getting a health pickup that is not necessary. Bombs also do not seem to be used to the maximum benefit, which leads too... 2) Enemy Grouping. Make sure to hit as many enemies as possible in areas where you are required to kill all of them as fast as possible. Bombs for example are used to hit multiple in this, but it seems like there are missed opportunities. 3) Enemy Manipulation. Going to wager a guess that some of those critters can be nudged in ways that would make things faster overall, such as moving towards you more quickly. This game looks like one of the best on the system, so as others have said, there is definitely an interest for this game. And being an RTA speedrunner AND a taser (since you have made two now, if a little rough) puts you in a unique position as far as this game is concerned to really be able to refine the game using your knowledge. I hope you continue in your effort to refine this tas. Drop in on Discord since nearly everyone there are TAS fanatics, and will happily help you.

Link to video http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/64700486797598600 Turns out even my previous tests can be called sloppy, because this technique is faster than even hitting every corner. Every time you need to travel in a 90 degree angle, the best strat is moving diagonally by alternating each direction you need to travel, for 4 frames. This makes optimizing this game tedious at a first glance, but actually quite fun, because there's a TON of different turns that need to be solved in various ways.

om, nom, nom... crunchy!