Metal Combat - Falcon's Revenge Speedrun

2010-07-24 07:31:51 pm

Goatragon!

Decided to give the segmented run attempt another try. Not quite confident enough with my strategies on Thanatos, Arachnus, and Cobra, so I figured that doing a segmented run would also be a good way to perfect strategy execution. Thanatos and Arachnus (especially Arachnus) can be a bit random at times, so I really want to have a good feel for how to react to their randomness. As for Cobra, getting a good feel for his movements will help me target his weak spot, which will be key for a quick time.

Also, I have discovered that resetting your game on the map screen to save may have something to do with how your opponents act. I'm not quite sure about the other opponents yet, but it's definitely true in the case of Wong. If I've been playing through normally, he almost never goes offscreen at the start of the battle (although, so far for me he hasn't actually gone offscreen under those circumstances). However, every time I've reset and then resumed, he has gone offscreen. Also with each subsequent retry and reset he keeps with the same pattern.

Aside from that, in my current run I've completed up through Wong and here's how I'm doing so far:

Garam2 - 0'06"30
- This is the time I get most consistently on this guy. It's not the fastest time I've ever achieved, but I think it's still a good time as it really comes down to mere split seconds to achieve a better time. Everything was executed quickly and perfectly (as it should be) here.

Siamang - 0'08"48
- My first attempt was a successful one. I did very well on this one and only missed my personal best by .07 seconds.

Wong - 0'05"99
- Ah, Wong. He was rather irritating as he dashed offscreen during each attempt. This really doesn't cost a lot of time, if any, but it means you have to really place and time your shots well to keep it from costing time. I was able to time a shot that I could hit every time and then just had to make sure to execute the rest of my chain properly. It took me a few times to do it, but I succeeded. Was a little slow with the last shot and lost a few split seconds, but it was at least nice to still end up with a time under 6 seconds, even if it practically is 6 seconds. Tongue

Total time so far: 0'20"77

More as I progress.

Decided to give the segmented run attempt another try.  Not quite confident enough with my strategies on Thanatos, Arachnus, and Cobra, so I figured that doing a segmented run would also be a good way to perfect strategy execution.  Thanatos and Arachnus (especially Arachnus) can be a bit random at times, so I really want to have a good feel for how to react to their randomness.  As for Cobra, getting a good feel for his movements will help me target his weak spot, which will be key for a quick time.

Also, I have discovered that resetting your game on the map screen to save may have something to do with how your opponents act.  I'm not quite sure about the other opponents yet, but it's definitely true in the case of Wong.  If I've been playing through normally, he almost [i]never[/i] goes offscreen at the start of the battle (although, so far for me he hasn't actually gone offscreen under those circumstances).  However, [i]every[/i] time I've reset and then resumed, he has gone offscreen.  Also with each subsequent retry and reset he keeps with the same pattern.

Aside from that, in my current run I've completed up through Wong and here's how I'm doing so far:

[b]Garam2 - 0'06"30[/b] 
- This is the time I get most consistently on this guy.  It's not the fastest time I've ever achieved, but I think it's still a good time as it really comes down to mere split seconds to achieve a better time.  Everything was executed quickly and perfectly (as it should be) here.

[b]Siamang - 0'08"48[/b]
- My first attempt was a successful one.  I did very well on this one and only missed my personal best by .07 seconds.

[b]Wong - 0'05"99[/b]
- Ah, Wong.  He was rather irritating as he dashed offscreen during each attempt.  This really doesn't cost a lot of time, if any, but it means you have to really place and time your shots well to keep it from costing time.  I was able to time a shot that I could hit every time and then just had to make sure to execute the rest of my chain properly.  It took me a few times to do it, but I succeeded.  Was a little slow with the last shot and lost a few split seconds, but it was at least nice to still end up with a time under 6 seconds, even if it practically is 6 seconds. :P

[b]Total time so far: 0'20"77[/b]

More as I progress.

ZakkyTheHybrid

2010-07-27 07:27:36 pm

Goatragon!

Okay, finished the Griffin segment, currently working on (and being massively irritated by) the Viscount segment.

Griffin - 0'12"66
- Took me a fair amount of attempts to get the first shot right and then when I did, I messed up the next shot and hit him in the wrong spot. Normally I would have tried the segment again, but something compelled me to keep going. Much to my disbelief, I set a new personal best time and finished him off in the same number of shots it would have taken if I'd pulled off my strategy the way I'd intended!

Unfortunately my celebration was short-lived. My Viscount attempts started off well, until he decided to be exceptionally random with each attempt. It seems he's decided to alternate between a good attack pattern and a bad attack pattern each time I attempt to take him on. I tried until I lost my patience and decided it was time to cool off. I figured that while it might be awesome to want to blast him into oblivion, it probably won't happen if I'm not calm and collected. One thing I can say for sure is that I'm really looking forward to facing him when I go for my run with the Tornado. This is why:

Aside from the Viscount difficulties, I'm pleased with how the run is going so far. My current total time is 0'33"43. The total of my previous best times to this point add up to 0'32"83. With only a difference of .6 seconds I have high hopes I might best my cumulative best time of 3'40"26.

More progress updates soon...if Viscount cooperates. Tongue

Okay, finished the Griffin segment, currently working on (and being massively irritated by) the Viscount segment.

[b]Griffin - 0'12"66[/b]
- Took me a fair amount of attempts to get the first shot right and then when I did, I messed up the next shot and hit him in the wrong spot.  Normally I would have tried the segment again, but something compelled me to keep going.  Much to my disbelief, I set a new personal best time [i]and[/i] finished him off in the same number of shots it would have taken if I'd pulled off my strategy the way I'd intended!

Unfortunately my celebration was short-lived.  My Viscount attempts started off well, until he decided to be exceptionally random with each attempt.  It seems he's decided to alternate between a good attack pattern and a bad attack pattern each time I attempt to take him on.  I tried until I lost my patience and decided it was time to cool off.  I figured that while it might be awesome to want to blast him into oblivion, it probably won't happen if I'm not calm and collected.  One thing I can say for sure is that I'm [i]really[/i] looking forward to facing him when I go for my run with the Tornado.  This is why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1v0LdHnCK4

Aside from the Viscount difficulties, I'm pleased with how the run is going so far.  My current total time is [b]0'33"43[/b].  The total of my previous best times to this point add up to [b]0'32"83[/b].  With only a difference of .6 seconds I have high hopes I might best my cumulative best time of [b]3'40"26[/b].

More progress updates soon...if Viscount cooperates. :P

ZakkyTheHybrid

2010-07-28 05:30:33 pm

Goatragon!

Viscount down (good riddance!) and Thanatos down. Only the threatening weather outside is keeping me from tackling Arachnus, Cobra, and Groken right now.

Viscount - 0'21"75
- It must have taken nearly thirty attempts as well as a fair bit of luck to complete this segment, but what's likely going to end up having been the most frustrating part of this run is finished. My best time is .78 seconds faster than this time, but I think that was under almost completely ideal conditions, which happens very rarely with this guy.

Thanatos - 0'21"26
- Thanks to a new strategy and some luck I bested my previous best by 3.34 seconds! It was also rather anti-climactic compared to my Viscount attempts as I managed to nail this one on the first shot.

With those two battles, my total time so far is 1'16"44 and it's ahead what the total of my previous bests at this point is by 1.96 seconds.

ZakkyTheHybrid

2010-07-30 03:29:21 pm

Goatragon!

Segmented run is complete!

Here are the final results:
Garam2 - 0'06"30
Siamang - 0'08"48
Wong - 0'05"99
Griffin - 0'12"66
Viscount - 0'21"75
Thanatos - 0'21"26
Arachnus - 0'19"63
Cobra - 0'20"76
Groken - 0'33"06
Virvius 1 - 0'19"41
Virvius 2 - 0'08"36
Giga-Desp 1 - 0'18"21
Giga-Desp 2 - 0'12"68

Total Time: 3'28"55

I'm sure it's possible to shave a few seconds off, but for the most part that would require more precision firing timing (firing the very instant your charge bar is ready) and the time saved per opponent wouldn't be more than a few split seconds.

That being said I'm very happy with this time as almost everything worked out to plan or better. I also used some revised strategies for the first time and saved at least 3 seconds over my previous best times in each instance.

Planning on taking on the single-segment run soon, but for now I'm going to take a little break from the game.

Segmented run is complete!

Here are the final results:
[b]Garam2 - [i]0'06"30[/i]
Siamang - [i]0'08"48[/i]
Wong - [i]0'05"99[/i]
Griffin - [i]0'12"66[/i]
Viscount - [i]0'21"75[/i]
Thanatos - [i]0'21"26[/i]
Arachnus - [i]0'19"63[/i]
Cobra - [i]0'20"76[/i]
Groken - [i]0'33"06[/i]
Virvius 1 - [i]0'19"41[/i]
Virvius 2 - [i]0'08"36[/i]
Giga-Desp 1 - [i]0'18"21[/i]
Giga-Desp 2 - [i]0'12"68[/i][/b]

[b]Total Time:[/b] [i][b]3'28"55[/b][/i]

I'm sure it's possible to shave a few seconds off, but for the most part that would require more precision firing timing (firing the very [i]instant[/i] your charge bar is ready) and the time saved per opponent wouldn't be more than a few split seconds.

That being said I'm very happy with this time as almost everything worked out to plan or better.  I also used some revised strategies for the first time and saved at least 3 seconds over my previous best times in each instance.

Planning on taking on the single-segment run soon, but for now I'm going to take a little break from the game.

ZakkyTheHybrid

2010-08-08 06:22:30 pm

Goatragon!

Having taken a short break from the game and with my segmented run about to be submitted for verification, I've begun work on my single-segment run. These have been the biggest run killers so far, though not necessarily in this order:

1. Garam2 - Easiest opponent to defeat, not as easy to defeat quickly. While he's not difficult to defeat quickly, for me there's a certain rhythm to it. If I fall out of that rhythm I tend to repeatedly fail. In addition to that, the pattern he uses adds to that difficulty, as well. Since he's the first opponent, failing to have a good battle here is an instant restart.

2. Siamang - Like Garam2, an easy opponent to defeat, not so easy to defeat quickly. You literally have split seconds to fire your shots at a target not much larger than a few pixels and if you're off you miss. If this goes perfectly, then that's awesome, but if not then I allow myself up to two missed shots due to the difficulty here.

3. Griffin - I think I've just had problems timing some shots here. In a segmented run you can keep trying until you successfully peg him as soon as he flies up on screen, which will allow you to defeat him without him firing a shot. In a single-segement run if you guess wrong as to where he enters, you have to deal with him firing shots at you. In this case, taking damage saves time, but only if you time your shots correctly. Naturally, failing costs a lot of time and looks sloppy, so that's been an instant reset, too.

4. Scope Issues - I don't know if it's my tv, the scope, the sensor, the fact that the system is hooked up to a DVD recorder, or any combination of the above. Occasionally my scope will fire way off in the middle of the run, not fire at all at a crucial time, or not calibrate correctly. Fortunately it seems that these instances are rare, although when I can, I think I might invest in a Super Scope that's in better shape.

5. Myself

Ironically, it feels like once I get past Viscount, everything is going to seem easier, but maybe that's just because I feel like I need to do as well as I can on the earlier opponents.

Having taken a short break from the game and with my segmented run about to be submitted for verification, I've begun work on my single-segment run.  These have been the biggest run killers so far, though not necessarily in this order:

1. Garam2 - Easiest opponent to defeat, not as easy to defeat quickly.  While he's not [i]difficult[/i] to defeat quickly, for me there's a certain rhythm to it.  If I fall out of that rhythm I tend to repeatedly fail.  In addition to that, the pattern he uses adds to that difficulty, as well.  Since he's the first opponent, failing to have a good battle here is an instant restart.

2. Siamang - Like Garam2, an easy opponent to defeat, not so easy to defeat quickly.  You literally have split seconds to fire your shots at a target not much larger than a few pixels and if you're off you miss.  If this goes perfectly, then that's awesome, but if not then I allow myself up to two missed shots due to the difficulty here.

3. Griffin - I think I've just had problems timing some shots here.  In a segmented run you can keep trying until you successfully peg him as soon as he flies up on screen, which will allow you to defeat him without him firing a shot.  In a single-segement run if you guess wrong as to where he enters, you have to deal with him firing shots at you.  In this case, taking damage saves time, but only if you time your shots correctly.  Naturally, failing costs a lot of time and looks sloppy, so that's been an instant reset, too.

4. Scope Issues - I don't know if it's my tv, the scope, the sensor, the fact that the system is hooked up to a DVD recorder, or any combination of the above.  Occasionally my scope will fire way off in the middle of the run, not fire at all at a crucial time, or not calibrate correctly.  Fortunately it seems that these instances are rare, although when I can, I think I might invest in a Super Scope that's in better shape.

5. Myself

Ironically, it feels like once I get past Viscount, everything is going to seem easier, but maybe that's just because I feel like I need to do as well as I can on the earlier opponents.

Blxz

2010-08-12 10:17:46 am

Been a lurker and following this run for some time now. Once you submitted it you managed to bring me out and sign up on the forum to help verify. Some incredible times, hopefully mike will accept my offer to verify it. Best of luck for the SS run.

ZakkyTheHybrid

Edit history:

ZakkyTheHybrid: 2010-08-12 07:46:33 pm

2010-08-12 06:32:41 pm

Goatragon!

Thanks! I'm going to need that luck. Getting better, though.

So far I've done two single-segment runs with the ST Falcon, neither of which is satisfactory to me, but the second run is considerable progress over the first run, so it's a step in the right direction.

My first single-segment run attempt finished with a time of 5'56"12. I decided to just play right through no matter how badly things went so I could evaluate what I needed to work on.

My second run, which I completed today, was a bit cleaner and quicker, but there are still a lot of things that need improvement.

The times for this run:

Garam2 - 0'06"38
Siamang - 0'14"68
Wong - 0'04"97
Griffin - 0'18"86
Viscount - 0'31"85
Thanatos - 0'27"93
Arachnus - 0'24"11
Cobra - 0'40"95
Groken - 0'32"20
Virvius 1 - 0'31"31
Virvius 2 - 0'08"36
Giga-Desp 1 - 0'27"75
Giga-Desp 2 - 0'15"03

Total - 4'44"38

It's an improvement of nearly 1"12 over my previous attempt, but I made some mental mistakes in addition to missing a few shots.

Garam2, Wong, Groken, and Virvius 2 I was pretty happy with. The only thing of note is that I missed a shot or two on Groken, but in this case it didn't cost a lot of time, if any.

Siamang - Acceptable. It's hard to hit his tail, so missing one shot is okay, but no more than that.

Griffin - I was happy with this one too, but wanted to make a note about my time here. The time is 6 seconds slower than the time I mentioned in an earlier post for my segmented run, but that's because it's very unpredictable where he will enter the screen from.

I know where to aim for each possible entry area, but not only do I have to be lucky enough that he enters the screen from the area I'm guessing, but I have to have held my aim properly. I have nothing to lose by attempting this as I still have plenty of time to charge up another Treble Shot before I need it, but I decided to start passing on that since I guess wrong about 95% of the time and when I do guess right I miss anyway and I feel it looks somewhat sloppy.

Viscount - Usually I end up improvising due to missing one very difficult shot at the beginning or because he doesn't attack using the right pattern. 30 seconds isn't ideal, but Viscount is very frustrating so, for now, I'm willing to accept that provided I haven't been sloppy.

Thanatos - I had to improvise here, since trying to carry out a planned strategy depends on general attack patterns and I didn't get one of the good ones this time. I think the cutoff here has to be at worst 24 seconds.

Arachnus - Should be easy, but every so often I'll get a bad pattern. In this case, I did well improvising until the last shots. I aimed for his stomach while it was open to try and hit it, but he had so little energy left I could have shot him anywhere. Instead the stomach closed and the shot missed as a result. The time is still decent, but I lost about 3 seconds I shouldn't have.

Cobra - I think I'm going to practice this one a bit. Defeating him fast, right now, relies on him starting to the left instead of the right. If he starts to the left, I will later have a clear aim at his weak spot. If not, his gun arm will obscure most of it and make it extremely hard to hit. Only once have I gotten the right pattern and it didn't happen this time. I'd like to cut this time down by 10 seconds if he gives me a bad pattern and if he gives me a good pattern, my time should ideally be 20 seconds less than the time here.

EDIT: Actually, it turns out I can cut down my "bad pattern" time more than I thought. I decided to research a strategy for that instance and I found a way to defeat him in only around 5 seconds more (maybe even less depending on execution) than if he gave me a good pattern. That'll make this battle a little less stressful, though no less challenging.

Virvius 1 - Not so good. I missed a shot here and it resulted in the need to improvise. I lost at least 13 seconds as a result. It easy to pull off the strategy I use, but it should be doable virtually 100% of the time.

Giga-Desp 1 - Ugly. I didn't get all of the orbs with my bomb and only managed, by luck to get the last one with a defense shot. I also forgot that I can't have any charge in order for him to start his critical attack and reveal his core for me to shoot. By the time I remembered, I'd taken a lot more damage than I should have. Oh yeah, and then my Scope didn't want to fire for some reason, but luckily it did in time after about 5 attempts to shoot.

Giga-Desp 2 - Decent. Unfortunately, the amount of damage I took in the previous battle made me have to shoot a skull that I usually let hit me. This resulted in me actually shooting Giga-Desp and causing him to regain a little energy. So though I still was able to charge a full shot in time, the final bomb didn't do enough damage and I had to fire several more shots to finish him. However, this would be acceptable provided that most other things have gone right to this point.

With all of this in mind and accounting for luck, I think I can get my time pretty close to 4"00 if not under. So that's my current goal, at the moment.

Thanks!  I'm going to need that luck.  Getting better, though.

So far I've done two single-segment runs with the ST Falcon, neither of which is satisfactory to me, but the second run is considerable progress over the first run, so it's a step in the right direction.

My first single-segment run attempt finished with a time of 5'56"12.  I decided to just play right through no matter how badly things went so I could evaluate what I needed to work on.

My second run, which I completed today, was a bit cleaner and quicker, but there are still a lot of things that need improvement.

The times for this run:

Garam2 - 0'06"38
Siamang - 0'14"68
Wong - 0'04"97
Griffin - 0'18"86
Viscount - 0'31"85
Thanatos - 0'27"93
Arachnus - 0'24"11
Cobra - 0'40"95
Groken - 0'32"20
Virvius 1 - 0'31"31
Virvius 2 - 0'08"36
Giga-Desp 1 - 0'27"75
Giga-Desp 2 - 0'15"03

Total - 4'44"38

It's an improvement of nearly 1"12 over my previous attempt, but I made some mental mistakes in addition to missing a few shots.

Garam2, Wong, Groken, and Virvius 2 I was pretty happy with.  The only thing of note is that I missed a shot or two on Groken, but in this case it didn't cost a lot of time, if any.

Siamang - Acceptable.  It's hard to hit his tail, so missing one shot is okay, but no more than that.

Griffin - I was happy with this one too, but wanted to make a note about my time here.  The time is 6 seconds slower than the time I mentioned in an earlier post for my segmented run, but that's because it's very unpredictable where he will enter the screen from.

I know where to aim for each possible entry area, but not only do I have to be lucky enough that he enters the screen from the area I'm guessing, but I have to have held my aim properly.  I have nothing to lose by attempting this as I still have plenty of time to charge up another Treble Shot before I need it, but I decided to start passing on that since I guess wrong about 95% of the time and when I do guess right I miss anyway and I feel it looks somewhat sloppy.

Viscount - Usually I end up improvising due to missing one very difficult shot at the beginning or because he doesn't attack using the right pattern.  30 seconds isn't ideal, but Viscount is very frustrating so, for now, I'm willing to accept that provided I haven't been sloppy.

Thanatos - I had to improvise here, since trying to carry out a planned strategy depends on general attack patterns and I didn't get one of the good ones this time.  I think the cutoff here has to be at worst 24 seconds.

Arachnus - Should be easy, but every so often I'll get a bad pattern.  In this case, I did well improvising until the last shots.  I aimed for his stomach while it was open to try and hit it, but he had so little energy left I could have shot him anywhere.  Instead the stomach closed and the shot missed as a result.  The time is still decent, but I lost about 3 seconds I shouldn't have.

Cobra - I think I'm going to practice this one a bit.  Defeating him fast, right now, relies on him starting to the left instead of the right.  If he starts to the left, I will later have a clear aim at his weak spot.  If not, his gun arm will obscure most of it and make it extremely hard to hit.  Only once have I gotten the right pattern and it didn't happen this time.  I'd like to cut this time down by 10 seconds if he gives me a bad pattern and if he gives me a good pattern, my time should ideally be 20 seconds less than the time here.

EDIT: Actually, it turns out I can cut down my "bad pattern" time more than I thought.  I decided to research a strategy for that instance and I found a way to defeat him in only around 5 seconds more (maybe even less depending on execution) than if he gave me a good pattern.  That'll make this battle a little less stressful, though no less challenging.

Virvius 1 - Not so good.  I missed a shot here and it resulted in the need to improvise.  I lost at least 13 seconds as a result.  It easy to pull off the strategy I use, but it should be doable virtually 100% of the time.

Giga-Desp 1 - Ugly.  I didn't get all of the orbs with my bomb and only managed, by luck to get the last one with a defense shot.  I also forgot that I can't have any charge in order for him to start his critical attack and reveal his core for me to shoot.  By the time I remembered, I'd taken a lot more damage than I should have.  Oh yeah, and then my Scope didn't want to fire for some reason, but luckily it did in time after about 5 attempts to shoot.

Giga-Desp 2 - Decent.  Unfortunately, the amount of damage I took in the previous battle made me have to shoot a skull that I usually let hit me.  This resulted in me actually shooting Giga-Desp and causing him to regain a little energy.  So though I still was able to charge a full shot in time, the final bomb didn't do enough damage and I had to fire several more shots to finish him.  However, this would be acceptable provided that most other things have gone right to this point.

With all of this in mind and accounting for luck, I think I can get my time pretty close to 4"00 if not under.  So that's my current goal, at the moment.

Blxz

Edit history:

Blxz: 2010-08-20 02:38:17 am

2010-08-20 02:25:20 am

Ok, I have done my verifying. But in the last week or so the forum seems to have totally changed and I cannot seem to access/find my PM's or send a PM to Mike in order to explain my verdict on the run. I'm posting here now so that if mike see's it he knows I'm done. Will try and email him.

Otherwise if anyone could explain to me what the hell happened to the forum and how to use it now?

EDIT: Ohh, so they are called 'private threads' now. I figured it out. BTW, I hate this new forum design.

ZakkyTheHybrid

Edit history:

ZakkyTheHybrid: 2010-09-07 09:59:02 am

2010-09-07 09:58:41 am

Goatragon!

Segmented Falcon run accepted!

I want to thank the verifiers for being candid. Your objectiveness was invaluable and appreciated and I agree that I need to go back and redo Wong. The first verifier made a very good point and since I have a solution to the pattern problem, it should be a cinch. Though it would have been nice if I'd thought of it before I submitted my run. Oh well. It's fixable.

But for now it's on to what I've really been waiting to work on...a segmented run with the Tornado!

While I enjoyed the Falcon run, I did that because no one really uses (or likes) the Falcon (after they unlock the Tornado) and I wanted to show it could still do all right in battle. That and since you're obligated to use it the first time through the game, I felt like it would be more appropriate to have a Falcon run first. Though I'm sure I'm probably the only one who feels that. Wink

In any case, now I get to tear apart opponents with the Tornado's awesome power! So let's see how it all goes. Cheesy

Segmented Falcon run accepted!

I want to thank the verifiers for being candid.  Your objectiveness was invaluable and appreciated and I agree that I need to go back and redo Wong.  The first verifier made a very good point and since I have a solution to the pattern problem, it should be a cinch.  Though it would have been nice if I'd thought of it before I submitted my run.  Oh well.  It's fixable.

But for now it's on to what I've really been waiting to work on...a segmented run with the Tornado!

While I enjoyed the Falcon run, I did that because no one really uses (or likes) the Falcon (after they unlock the Tornado) and I wanted to show it could still do all right in battle.  That and since you're obligated to use it the first time through the game, I felt like it would be more appropriate to have a Falcon run first.  Though I'm sure I'm probably the only one who feels that. ;)

In any case, now I get to tear apart opponents with the Tornado's awesome power!  So let's see how it all goes. :D

ZakkyTheHybrid

2010-09-09 08:50:54 pm

Goatragon!

Segmented Tornado run is in progress, sort of.

Most of the time I've spent so far has been on coming up with, refining, and practicing strategies, but there's a small bit of actual run progress to report.

Garam2 - 0'03"05
- When battling Garam2 with the Tornado, he will use a few patterns he does not use when you battle him with the Falcon. These patterns allow you to score a one-hit kill on him as they typically involve him leaping almost right as the battle starts and exposing his weak point without you having to provoke him into doing so. It's a very difficult shot, but fortunately he's the first opponent. A little pattern and shot location memorization, as well as a few resets until he followed the correct pattern, left timing as the only challenge. And I met it.

More coming very soon. With the strategies all set, I'm ready to take on the rest of the battles.

ZakkyTheHybrid

2010-09-10 11:59:01 am

Goatragon!

Siamang, Wong, and Griffin down.

Siamang - 0'08"50
- Took a couple of attempts this time, but all went exactly as planned.

Wong - 0'05"20
- Went exactly as planned. He dashed off screen at the start, but unlike when I ran with the Falcon, it neither cost time nor complicated anything.

Griffin - 0'10"86
- This segment turned out to be a bit more difficult than I thought as Griffin tried to pull a Wong on me. It didn't work as I was able to adjust to his pattern to prevent it from costing any time, but it took me a fair amount of attempts to realize he wasn't going to change pattern and then the revised strategy required precise timing for one shot. But I kept at it and got him.

Total time so far: 0'27"61

ZakkyTheHybrid

2010-09-11 02:48:09 pm

Goatragon!

Viscount, Thanatos, and Arachnus down.

Viscount - 0'10"00
- Everything went as planned here.

Thanatos - 0'09"45
- I pulled off my strategy perfectly here and the battle overall went much better than I'd planned.

Arachnus - 0'08"16
- I have no kind words for Arachnus. Maybe it's me, but he seems far more random in a Tornado run. Although that might be because my Falcon strategy was adaptable to most, if not all of his patterns. I have no idea, yet, how many times I tried before I finally finished this segment, but I must have seen him follow the same pattern no more than two or three times.

It makes coming up with a pattern specific strategy pretty much impossible because you can't rely on him to ever give you the pattern you want. In the end I just went in with a general plan that could be adapted and reacted to the circumstances. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it actually worked out far better than I had planned.

The rest of the run is going to be a cakewalk compared to what I went through with Arachnus and I'm totally not kidding about that.

Total time so far: 0'55"22

Viscount, Thanatos, and Arachnus down.

[b]Viscount - 0'10"00[/b]
- Everything went as planned here.

[b]Thanatos - 0'09"45[/b]
- I pulled off my strategy perfectly here and the battle overall went much better than I'd planned.

[b]Arachnus - 0'08"16[/b]
- I have no kind words for Arachnus.  Maybe it's me, but he seems [i][b]far[/b][/i] more random in a Tornado run.  Although that might be because my Falcon strategy was adaptable to most, if not all of his patterns.  I have no idea, yet, how many times I tried before I finally finished this segment, but I must have seen him follow the same pattern no more than two or three times.

It makes coming up with a pattern specific strategy pretty much impossible because you can't rely on him to ever give you the pattern you want.  In the end I just went in with a general plan that could be adapted and reacted to the circumstances.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but it actually worked out far better than I had planned.

The rest of the run is going to be a cakewalk compared to what I went through with Arachnus and I'm totally not kidding about that.

[b]Total time so far: 0'55"22[/b]

ZakkyTheHybrid

2010-09-13 11:38:09 am

Goatragon!

Run complete.

Everything went either as planned or better with the last battles. Cobra was so easy it wasn't funny. Groken was annoying, but not difficult. Virvius 1 took many, many tries, however, due to bad luck getting the pattern I needed, something going wrong when I did get the correct pattern (firing a charge shot instead of a bomb, missing, Super Scope issues, etc.), and just me trying to get the battle as perfect as I could. Virvius 2 also took its fair amount of tries due to the fact the quickest strategy I could use doesn't work 100% of the time. It took over 30 tries for me to get it to work, but it did and quickly. Giga-Desp 1, easy. Giga-Desp 2, quick and easy.

All Times:
Garam2 - 0'03"05
Siamang - 0'08"50
Wong - 0'05"20
Griffin - 0'10"86
Viscount - 0'10"00
Thanatos - 0'09"45
Arachnus - 0'08"16
Cobra - 0'10"88
Groken - 0'26"33
Virvius 1 - 0'11"30
Virvius 2 - 0'10"36
Giga-Desp 1 - 0'17"13
Giga-Desp 2 - 0'11"31

Total Run Time: 2'22"53

ZakkyTheHybrid

2010-09-29 08:15:40 pm

Goatragon!

I'd planned on leaving this game alone for a while, but I just can't seem to escape it. I was fooling around on an emulator one day and found a couple of better strategies with the Falcon. It seems that it's possible to beat Viscount in at least 12-13 seconds, which is about 5-6 seconds faster than my run's time, and Thanatos at 13-14, which is 7-8 seconds faster than my run's time!

I tested the Thanatos strategy on the console and it works. I have been unable to successfully test the Viscount strategy on the console so far due to the fact that it requires a lot of pattern luck and a very precise first shot. But I do know that the shot is very possible on the console. So the strategy should work.

There's a slight drawback to these new strategies. It requires an extra bomb for each of those two battles. This means I have to choose two battles to not use a bomb. The first and obvious choice was Groken. If played right, not using a bomb should not cost any time. The other battle that I chose was, ironically, Wong. After weighing my options, I decided it was the battle that not using a bomb during would cost the least time during. It also solves the problem of Wong dashing offscreen at the beginning as now it's inconsequential. I determined that it will cost around 2.5 seconds to not use a bomb during the Wong battle.

It's a gain of 9.5 - 11.5 seconds. And even if the Groken battle does take longer as a result of not using a bomb, it shouldn't be a loss of more than 2 seconds, which means it's still a pretty fair gain of 7.5 - 9.5 seconds.

It really sucks that can't use my sub-5 strategy for Wong, but if I worked out my numbers correctly, it's faster overall to give up those few seconds on Wong.

When I have time, I'll be trying to improve on my segmented Falcon run (though time will be scarce for a while). The single-segments will follow eventually, but I'm probably going to hold off on those for a bit, just in case I manage to discover something new. It hasn't happened yet for any Torndao strategies, though that might be due to the fact that I learned a lot from my first run. It appears I was overenthusiastic about the Falcon segmented run.

Although it's possible I just wanted to get that over with since I felt obligated to do that run before using the Tornado. Tongue

I'd planned on leaving this game alone for a while, but I just can't seem to escape it.  I was fooling around on an emulator one day and found a couple of better strategies with the Falcon.  It seems that it's possible to beat Viscount in at least 12-13 seconds, which is about 5-6 seconds faster than my run's time, and Thanatos at 13-14, which is 7-8 seconds faster than my run's time!

I tested the Thanatos strategy on the console and it works.  I have been unable to successfully test the Viscount strategy on the console so far due to the fact that it requires a lot of pattern luck and a very precise first shot.  But I do know that the shot is very possible on the console.  So the strategy should work.

There's a slight drawback to these new strategies.  It requires an extra bomb for each of those two battles.  This means I have to choose two battles to not use a bomb.  The first and obvious choice was Groken.  If played right, not using a bomb should not cost any time.  The other battle that I chose was, ironically, Wong.  After weighing my options, I decided it was the battle that not using a bomb during would cost the least time during.  It also solves the problem of Wong dashing offscreen at the beginning as now it's inconsequential.  I determined that it will cost around 2.5 seconds to not use a bomb during the Wong battle.

It's a gain of 9.5 - 11.5 seconds.  And even if the Groken battle does take longer as a result of not using a bomb, it shouldn't be a loss of more than 2 seconds, which means it's still a pretty fair gain of 7.5 - 9.5 seconds.

It really sucks that can't use my sub-5 strategy for Wong, but if I worked out my numbers correctly, it's faster overall to give up those few seconds on Wong.

When I have time, I'll be trying to improve on my segmented Falcon run (though time will be scarce for a while).  The single-segments will follow eventually, but I'm probably going to hold off on those for a bit, just in case I manage to discover something new.  It hasn't happened yet for any Torndao strategies, though that might be due to the fact that I learned a lot from my first run.  It appears I was overenthusiastic about the Falcon segmented run.

Although it's possible I just wanted to get that over with since I felt obligated to do that run before using the Tornado. :P