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Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Post subject: Take a good look
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Note the four divergent paths in the upper right quadrant. Edit: If there's not enough fuel for any of these. We'll instead need to start by jumping to the left, getting fuel and retracing our steps.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Twisted_Eye
He/Him
Active player (398)
Joined: 10/17/2005
Posts: 632
Location: Seattle, WA
Tompa wrote:
Just posting to tell that the progress is looking nice and I'm always eager to see more =). Keep up the work!
Seconding. Y'all are killin it so far!
Reviewer, Expert player (2435)
Joined: 5/21/2013
Posts: 414
Level 15: Link to video Not much to say about this one, I tested every section and this was the fastest way. This is actually the longest level so far!
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
slamo wrote:
Level 15: Link to video Not much to say about this one, I tested every section and this was the fastest way. This is actually the longest level so far!
I'm actually surprised that out of all the routes we discussed, this turned out to be the fastest. But I guess the enemies had a hand in determining that, more than the sheer distance each route required. Looks good!
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Reviewer, Expert player (2435)
Joined: 5/21/2013
Posts: 414
Level 17: (glitched sound) Link to video A couple things about this one. First of all I couldn't do the exact route I wanted - the marble prevented phasing through the brick right away so I took a detour to the upper right, which I would have done later anyway. Also, it turns out that if there are more than 2 teleporters of a certain color then your destination is randomly chosen between the remaining teleporters. The same rule applies to enemies. This, of course, can and will be manipulated.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
That was essentially a slight rearrangement of my second route above. Which is a small variation on first route we both planned. Overall, looks good, and I doubt any other route if successfully would've saved a significant amount of time anyway.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Post subject: Beginner's Labyrinth
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
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Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
This should be the shortest route. However, due to the enemy's I don't think the shortest route will be possible. They're really really annoying in this level.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Reviewer, Expert player (2435)
Joined: 5/21/2013
Posts: 414
Level 18! (glitched sound) Link to video Fuel management was a big factor in this one. I saved some fuel for the section after the teleporter, as it's much faster to fly over the spear than to fall and jump (you actually need two jumps, since you can't clear the spear and ledge in one). The trade-off is that you sacrifice some speed by walking through certain tunnels, but I tested both and it does pay off.
Reviewer, Expert player (2435)
Joined: 5/21/2013
Posts: 414
A general idea for 21. Since there are no fuel pickups, I'll have to hang out in the charging square for whatever fuel is necessary, and if I end the level with any fuel left, then it's not optimized. I'll have to investigate the holes on the top half of the level - there's a depth at which it will be more worthwhile to dig through than to fly out and fall in. It might even be better to skip a lot of fuel and just dig through all of them...
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
That's the same general idea I had for the level. The main thing I'm wondering though is if you can really outrun the marbles, or if you need fuel.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Reviewer, Expert player (2435)
Joined: 5/21/2013
Posts: 414
Into the 20's now! Link to video The enemies were actually sort of cooperative in this one. The marble at the beginning got in the way but the missiles were lined up almost perfectly. The extra fuel is probably not necessary to beat the stage, but I pick it up anyway because I need to wait a bit for the last missile.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Getting the gem right below the barrier is really faster on the way there as opposed to on the way back?
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Reviewer, Expert player (2435)
Joined: 5/21/2013
Posts: 414
Here's what I've got for level 21... Link to video I was able to do almost everything I wanted here, but the ending is terrible. The springs are holding me back way too much. I did learn a key thing about planning around fuel chargers: it is not worth the time charging fuel for flying across surfaces that you could have just walked across. The speed gain vs charging time is just not worth it. Any other skips are subject to testing, for example it's worth flying out of the first hole but the rest are just phased through. I don't know if this is the fastest way to go about this level, but I'm out of any alternate ideas of how to get around the spring problem.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
I liked the beginning of that video very much, you looked awesome. Here's some ideas, most of which I doubt, but room for thought. All these alternates change fuel requirements, and time point differences will mean different enemy placement at other time points. 1) Grab the rightmost gem before heading to the left, if the Marble and Missile are out of the way, no enemy's to bother you, and a more direct finish to the level. 2) Perhaps bust a wall on your way up? You can bust the brick directly to the right of the gem, or the one above it, on your way there, and then go through it on the way back, which direction you need to go in anyway. 3) Go above, maybe you can more effectively go around the springs this way. For one thing, it looks like a cleaner way to get to the door on return.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Post subject: Scatter Brain
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
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Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Reviewer, Expert player (2435)
Joined: 5/21/2013
Posts: 414
Finally, level 22. (glitched sound) Link to video I'm pretty sure this level has the most gems in the entire game. I had to finesse the hell out of this one - this level alone counted for almost 2000 rerecords! Hope you enjoy the insanity though.
Editor
Joined: 3/10/2010
Posts: 899
Location: Sweden
Idea: release the blue trackbot and manipulate it into tripping the red switch for you.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Wouldn't getting some of the other stunners speed up the collection?
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Reviewer, Expert player (2435)
Joined: 5/21/2013
Posts: 414
Nach wrote:
Wouldn't getting some of the other stunners speed up the collection?
Not necessarily. They can help in some cases, like the last one, but most of the time enemies will either completely block a passage or land directly on top of a gem you need. Given the amount of enemies I was better off letting them move.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
You can grab gems while enemies are stunned on top of them.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Reviewer, Expert player (2435)
Joined: 5/21/2013
Posts: 414
Nach wrote:
You can grab gems while enemies are stunned on top of them.
So you can...that ought to speed things up. Take 2: Link to video
Editor, Expert player (2073)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
Here's my idea. Don't know if it works or not. Edit: Exchanging where the path first crosses is better, if possible. Edit 2: Or maybe switching the initial start direction with the part of the path that goes through start later, by going down and right instead.
Reviewer, Expert player (2435)
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FractalFusion wrote:
Here's my idea. Don't know if it works or not. Edit: Exchanging where the path first crosses is better, if possible. Edit 2: Or maybe switching the initial start direction with the part of the path that goes through start later, by going down and right instead.
I've been thinking about a new route as well...here's a similar idea with less overlap. This plus better horizontal movement should shave some more time off this...
Editor, Expert player (2073)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
Looks good. About the end though, I wonder how early you can phase the block before getting the last few orbs and make it through. Probably requires some testing.
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