Magical. Flying. Bathtub
Those three segments are amazing! Keep up the good work, yoshifan!
I crave more segments. Keep going! ^_^
SDA Forum
Since it's been about a month since my last segment, I thought I should mention that I'm still working on segment 4. The reason it's taking so long, I guess, is a combination of schoolwork and the difficulty of the segment (and I can get lazy when a segment seems difficult, too). Though, tonight I had two runs which were pretty good except for Kamella luck... so I think the goal is in sight.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for the encouragement, and I hope to get segment 4 soon.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for the encouragement, and I hope to get segment 4 soon.
yes, an iron knuckle riding a mechanical horse
Quote from Mystery:
I say if for whatever reason you simply cannot finish a long, difficult segment, break it in two.
It is better to have one slightly sub-optimal run than none at all.
But good luck to you and hope you nail it.
It is better to have one slightly sub-optimal run than none at all.
But good luck to you and hope you nail it.
I don't think a sub-optimal run is better than a lack of an SDA-verified run. You can find sub-optimal speed runs across YouTube for most games anyway, and Super Mario Galaxy is no exception.
The problem with splitting segments is that more time (10-15 seconds) is spent at the hub if you save/quit a segment in the middle. The only reason segmentation is an option at all is because Rosalina calls you back at certain points, placing you very close to the restart point. Splitting up segments is one thing, but extra time on the hub needs to be worth the improved luck.
There is a line between sub-optimal and bad, of course.
There is something called over-perfectionist. Obviously, you could abuse times when the games forces you somewhere to save, thus losing no time. But so again, doing so usually makes it so much harder.
We accept mistakes in Single Segment runs, so why is it out of the question to sacrifice a little time to save at certain points in the game, even if it costs slightly in time?
Not too much, yet not too little, or the game will become unbearably difficult. Balance in all things, as Dak'kon says.
There is something called over-perfectionist. Obviously, you could abuse times when the games forces you somewhere to save, thus losing no time. But so again, doing so usually makes it so much harder.
We accept mistakes in Single Segment runs, so why is it out of the question to sacrifice a little time to save at certain points in the game, even if it costs slightly in time?
Not too much, yet not too little, or the game will become unbearably difficult. Balance in all things, as Dak'kon says.
yes, an iron knuckle riding a mechanical horse
But it's also true that the balance is very different for a segmented run. Segmented runs are held to a much higher standard, because one can just restart if something goes wrong without losing all of their progress. As if to drive the point home, a Super Mario Sunshine segmented run was rejected from this very site a couple of weeks ago.
I'm sorry if I sound confrontational (I've been feeling this way for a while), but that's the way SDA would see it. The addition of segments in a game where you teleport after saving must be measured carefully.
I'm sorry if I sound confrontational (I've been feeling this way for a while), but that's the way SDA would see it. The addition of segments in a game where you teleport after saving must be measured carefully.
I plan to be a little more accepting of mistakes in segment 4, largely because of the (perceived) luck required. I don't think making an extra segment will help, though, because I don't think it will reduce mistakes/bad luck by 16 seconds (roughly the time needed to get to the Fountain). I would say my best attempts so far have managed to lose less than 16 seconds, compared to my IL expectations.
Anyway, I haven't actually put in a lot of full segment attempts yet (about 15), so I don't think I'm being overly strict. I did put in substantial amounts of time refining and practicing strategies, but considering it's been a month, I haven't played a whole lot overall.
Anyway, I haven't actually put in a lot of full segment attempts yet (about 15), so I don't think I'm being overly strict. I did put in substantial amounts of time refining and practicing strategies, but considering it's been a month, I haven't played a whole lot overall.
Theoretically, cutting a segment in half should improve the chances of it succeeding by 50%, unless it scales exponentially, which I suppose it might.
Still, even for the practice of it, making 2 segments out of the one might prove to be a good idea. Allows you to easily focus on the hard parts quickly and a lot.
Still, even for the practice of it, making 2 segments out of the one might prove to be a good idea. Allows you to easily focus on the hard parts quickly and a lot.
Segment 4
Well, looks like I was able to stick to my plan here. It even turned out better than I expected.
As for the Kamella fight, I have some new thoughts about it - I'll just paste this from my long video description:
"It seems that most of the time you get the last shell on the 3rd shot (after 2 fire shots), but here I got it on the 2nd shot. I'm not at all sure if this is right, but judging from the last 4-6 attempts, it seemed that I got the earlier shell when I went to the Wii Menu between segment attempts, instead of just pressing Reset on my Wii. The reason I thought of doing this was from my testing with comet patterns, sometime before I started this speedrun.
It's possible to get an even better boss pattern than I did here, but I think it has never happened in a real segment attempt. It seems to me that certain boss patterns only occur if you die and respawn before the ship, and then enter the fight. Compared to this run's 2-2-2 boss pattern, I have gotten patterns like 2-2-1, 2-1-1, and 1-2-3. Since I've never had patterns like these in real segment attempts (and there were around 20 that reached this boss), I'm not going to worry about this too much."
Anyway, I'm just happy to make another good segment. Up to 13 stars now, and comets are unlocked. The next segment, segment 5, will consist of Battlerock Barrage, Pull Star Path Speed Run, and The Fiery Stronghold.
Well, looks like I was able to stick to my plan here. It even turned out better than I expected.
"It seems that most of the time you get the last shell on the 3rd shot (after 2 fire shots), but here I got it on the 2nd shot. I'm not at all sure if this is right, but judging from the last 4-6 attempts, it seemed that I got the earlier shell when I went to the Wii Menu between segment attempts, instead of just pressing Reset on my Wii. The reason I thought of doing this was from my testing with comet patterns, sometime before I started this speedrun.
It's possible to get an even better boss pattern than I did here, but I think it has never happened in a real segment attempt. It seems to me that certain boss patterns only occur if you die and respawn before the ship, and then enter the fight. Compared to this run's 2-2-2 boss pattern, I have gotten patterns like 2-2-1, 2-1-1, and 1-2-3. Since I've never had patterns like these in real segment attempts (and there were around 20 that reached this boss), I'm not going to worry about this too much."
Anyway, I'm just happy to make another good segment. Up to 13 stars now, and comets are unlocked. The next segment, segment 5, will consist of Battlerock Barrage, Pull Star Path Speed Run, and The Fiery Stronghold.
yes, an iron knuckle riding a mechanical horse
Quote from yoshifan:
It's possible to get an even better boss pattern than I did here, but I think it has never happened in a real segment attempt. It seems to me that certain boss patterns only occur if you die and respawn before the ship, and then enter the fight. Compared to this run's 2-2-2 boss pattern, I have gotten patterns like 2-2-1, 2-1-1, and 1-2-3. Since I've never had patterns like these in real segment attempts (and there were around 20 that reached this boss), I'm not going to worry about this too much."
Considering that this is first party Nintendo we're talking about, I would doubt that the RNG is that deterministic. It could be possible that the game has built-in difficulty adjustment, changing up Kamella's pattern if you die at some point. At any rate, it's a solid segment.
Anyway, I noticed that you're not following the star order listed on the Speedruns Wiki (link from page 1). Have you planned out your entire route at this point?
Yeah, I'm using a different route than the one you're referring to. The route I'm using is on the SDA wiki. If you go a few pages back in this topic, you can find my ramblings which led to planning that route. At this point, the only likely route changes would involve moving stars around to make difficult segments easier.
Also, thanks to everyone for segment comments!
Also, thanks to everyone for segment comments!
Thanks again to all, that's a lot of comments for one segment.
Mr. Piggy: Oh, you gave up your run? It seemed that you were putting in a lot of effort to get recording set up... but I guess if you've lost motivation, then you shouldn't force yourself. But yeah, we did make a fair bit of headway toward a 100% plan.
Mr. Piggy: Oh, you gave up your run? It seemed that you were putting in a lot of effort to get recording set up... but I guess if you've lost motivation, then you shouldn't force yourself. But yeah, we did make a fair bit of headway toward a 100% plan.
Thanks, all the support is simply awesome. Though, I'm far from giving up either way, just so that's clear. I haven't gotten around to playing that much, but I've been working on Bowser's Star Reactor and it seems I have almost everything there figured out. I'll report back if there are any lingering problems.
By the way, a decent amount of my Star Reactor play has gone into attempting major shortcuts. I didn't find any, so the only one I have is the known trick of long-jumping to Bowser to skip the last few stairs. However, I wanted to post what I've tried to do so far.
- At the start, doing a triple jump + wall jump off of the huge pipe just sends me into a "death trigger" up above. So I don't think you can shortcut directly to the firebars. (Would be nice if you could, though it would probably be rather difficult and not all that time-saving.)
- Boosting off of the third thwomp (before the last stretch of firebars): A rising-thwomp-boosted backflip would be high enough to land on Bowser's tower, except there seems to be an invisible wall around the tower there. I've tried backflips at various angles, and I've also tried a boosted triple jump, but they were all blocked by an invisible wall. I also tried backflipping to the last green-and-white platforms before Bowser's tower, but there's another invisible wall that prevents you from getting very close to them.
- Trying to skip the Bowser cutscene (where he appears and shoots rocks at the platforms). After the last set of firebars, if you just keep running forward without jumping, Bowser will appear when you set foot on the part where the path gets wider. If you're jumping as you get to the wider platform, Bowser will appear when you're over the center of that wider platform. I noticed that if you don't go over the wider platform's center line, but you jump to the side of it, then Bowser won't be triggered immediately. One time I managed to long jump and wall jump in such a way that I avoided the wider platform's trigger, and landed two or three squares past it. However, as soon as I landed, Bowser appeared. This was as far as I could get, so I'm pretty sure there's no avoiding the cutscene here.
By the way, a decent amount of my Star Reactor play has gone into attempting major shortcuts. I didn't find any, so the only one I have is the known trick of long-jumping to Bowser to skip the last few stairs. However, I wanted to post what I've tried to do so far.
- At the start, doing a triple jump + wall jump off of the huge pipe just sends me into a "death trigger" up above. So I don't think you can shortcut directly to the firebars. (Would be nice if you could, though it would probably be rather difficult and not all that time-saving.)
- Boosting off of the third thwomp (before the last stretch of firebars): A rising-thwomp-boosted backflip would be high enough to land on Bowser's tower, except there seems to be an invisible wall around the tower there. I've tried backflips at various angles, and I've also tried a boosted triple jump, but they were all blocked by an invisible wall. I also tried backflipping to the last green-and-white platforms before Bowser's tower, but there's another invisible wall that prevents you from getting very close to them.
- Trying to skip the Bowser cutscene (where he appears and shoots rocks at the platforms). After the last set of firebars, if you just keep running forward without jumping, Bowser will appear when you set foot on the part where the path gets wider. If you're jumping as you get to the wider platform, Bowser will appear when you're over the center of that wider platform. I noticed that if you don't go over the wider platform's center line, but you jump to the side of it, then Bowser won't be triggered immediately. One time I managed to long jump and wall jump in such a way that I avoided the wider platform's trigger, and landed two or three squares past it. However, as soon as I landed, Bowser appeared. This was as far as I could get, so I'm pretty sure there's no avoiding the cutscene here.
Thanks, I'm doing my best.
Still at Star Reactor here, and I just realized that Mario has an advantage over Luigi in the gravity arrow section... he seems to pick up more horizontal momentum from one particular gravity change, for some reason. So, as much as I've tried with Luigi, I haven't been able to beat the second thwomp like in DJPhilanegro's video. I'll probably just have to settle for a fire boost over the thwomp, which is a little slower.
Another thing about the gravity arrow part: I often get turned around (to the left) when I try to long jump off of the ceiling, and I don't know why it happens. Yeah, the gravity section alone makes this a tricky level.
Still at Star Reactor here, and I just realized that Mario has an advantage over Luigi in the gravity arrow section... he seems to pick up more horizontal momentum from one particular gravity change, for some reason. So, as much as I've tried with Luigi, I haven't been able to beat the second thwomp like in DJPhilanegro's video. I'll probably just have to settle for a fire boost over the thwomp, which is a little slower.
Another thing about the gravity arrow part: I often get turned around (to the left) when I try to long jump off of the ceiling, and I don't know why it happens. Yeah, the gravity section alone makes this a tricky level.