So as some of you may know, I've been casually working on this game when I'm not busy with shmups/arcade stuff. Now that I've got a proper recording setup for consoles, I'm looking to really push forward with it.
The current SDA run (33 minutes) is one of the older ones on this site, and is seriously outdated. I can consistently beat that time (my best so far is 28:xx) even with bad luck, as long as I don't die more than once. It needs to be improved.
However, while I could easily get a 28-29 minute run, I want to bring my run to a level of serious quality. One thing that makes this difficult is a general lack of resources. There is no TAS, nobody has really looked into the mechanics, and the SDA run is about as much routing that has been done.
Looking to change that, I created (in a couple hours) a quick, real time TAS, using only savestates and not being particularly picky about optimization. This run finishes in 26:xx and is viewable here:
(part 1)
(part 2)
Some random notes about the game mechanics that I've looked into:
Most weapons in the game do exactly 1 damage. Regular enemies generally have 2-4 health. All enemies in the game, with the only exception being the final boss, have an invincibility window during which they eat extra shots. This means that timing your firing so that each bullet hits the enemy at the precise moment their invincibility wears off is faster than mashing and praying. However, special weapons that contain piercing effects are easily the most efficient, as they remain onscreen for longer and can stay inside an enemy's hitbox while their invincibility wears off, providing perfect timing.
In regards to leveling up, it does three main things
*increases either your max health or your max ammo (Neither are filled, so it basically has no effect until you kill a boss or die)
*increases the size of your special weapons (the plasma laser becomes longer, the light arrow becomes larger)
*at around the 700 experience mark, Triton's damage from everything is increased from 1-2 (this is nowhere near worthwhile in a run)
The grenade weapon travels until it goes offscreen or collides with a non-enemy hitbox. If the latter occurs, a very annoying explosion animation occurs that provides very inefficient damage, can actually hurt the player, and prevents you from firing another grenade until it ends. Therefore it is almost required to shoot it in a way that allows it to travel offscreen, even if a small amount of time is lost positioning yourself. The exception is the wall of faces boss, where it allows you to damage all five parts simultaneously in the first phase, and the explosions can actually damage the core of the second phase while it is behind the wall (though it MAY possibly be faster to switch to plasma at that point, I need to test this).
You lose one pixel of movement every time you land from a jump, but there is significant knockback from enemies unless you are midair, so it is almost always better to jump into an enemy if you are going to tank a hit.
If anyone is interested in giving suggestions for routing, I'll be happy to answer more questions about the mechanics, but those points are the obvious ones I've considered.
The current SDA run (33 minutes) is one of the older ones on this site, and is seriously outdated. I can consistently beat that time (my best so far is 28:xx) even with bad luck, as long as I don't die more than once. It needs to be improved.
However, while I could easily get a 28-29 minute run, I want to bring my run to a level of serious quality. One thing that makes this difficult is a general lack of resources. There is no TAS, nobody has really looked into the mechanics, and the SDA run is about as much routing that has been done.
Looking to change that, I created (in a couple hours) a quick, real time TAS, using only savestates and not being particularly picky about optimization. This run finishes in 26:xx and is viewable here:
(part 1)
(part 2)
Some random notes about the game mechanics that I've looked into:
Most weapons in the game do exactly 1 damage. Regular enemies generally have 2-4 health. All enemies in the game, with the only exception being the final boss, have an invincibility window during which they eat extra shots. This means that timing your firing so that each bullet hits the enemy at the precise moment their invincibility wears off is faster than mashing and praying. However, special weapons that contain piercing effects are easily the most efficient, as they remain onscreen for longer and can stay inside an enemy's hitbox while their invincibility wears off, providing perfect timing.
In regards to leveling up, it does three main things
*increases either your max health or your max ammo (Neither are filled, so it basically has no effect until you kill a boss or die)
*increases the size of your special weapons (the plasma laser becomes longer, the light arrow becomes larger)
*at around the 700 experience mark, Triton's damage from everything is increased from 1-2 (this is nowhere near worthwhile in a run)
The grenade weapon travels until it goes offscreen or collides with a non-enemy hitbox. If the latter occurs, a very annoying explosion animation occurs that provides very inefficient damage, can actually hurt the player, and prevents you from firing another grenade until it ends. Therefore it is almost required to shoot it in a way that allows it to travel offscreen, even if a small amount of time is lost positioning yourself. The exception is the wall of faces boss, where it allows you to damage all five parts simultaneously in the first phase, and the explosions can actually damage the core of the second phase while it is behind the wall (though it MAY possibly be faster to switch to plasma at that point, I need to test this).
You lose one pixel of movement every time you land from a jump, but there is significant knockback from enemies unless you are midair, so it is almost always better to jump into an enemy if you are going to tank a hit.
If anyone is interested in giving suggestions for routing, I'll be happy to answer more questions about the mechanics, but those points are the obvious ones I've considered.
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