Hey all,
Recently, I've been playing Balloon Fight, where you don't reset because of bad RNG on the first run post-reset. So you just start over after you die... well... I just found this in UA. I think we reconvene the rules so we SKIP THAT DAMN INTRO!!!!!!
thx guys. I'd like beardstrength amd t1ishero to weigh in as they have equal weight in this in my mind.
I chatted with McFly in his stream and he said T1hsero is good with it. Let's say at this point that resets are no longer necessary tentatively and I'll change the rules once Beard has weighed in.
^ meaning any runs submitted between 11:30am EST on 7/1/22 until the decision is finalized can be submitted without resets. The run must show you transitioning out of the last run (i.e. dying) so we can tell it's not a save state. If you complete a run, you are better off resetting because you start the next loop with the same health you left the last run with.
I do agree that having to watch the intro over and over really sucks, but without including the reset how would we know a save state wasn't used?
In theory a player could load a save state right before a death, die, have the game go back to the menu, start a new run, and have the RNG be impacted, such as the positioning of the bats and slorbs and the direction they are moving.
I don't know if it would be possible to lock in the RNG that way, but I also don't know that it's not possible. It's only certainly impossible if the reset is included.
At the very least I think we should do some tests to confirm, to the best of our abilities, that RNG will not be locked in without a reset. My concern is that RNG is decided on initial boot which would lock in the RNG after a death, which would allow a player to keep playing until they find favorable RNG after a death.
Thanks Beardstrength. For what it's worth, we were chatting with CutterCross in either T1shero's or McFly's stream the other day, and they said there were multiple factors and random algorithms that change the RNG of each stage in real time. That includes any movements on the screens in between stages. T1shero/McFly, can you point CutterCross to this forum to offer some notes on that?
Also for what it's worth from a subjective perspective, if we keep the resets as a requirement, I won't be running it anymore, but if we remove them, I will run it again. The 20 seconds intro screen in between runs gives me too much time to sit in my frustration. If I can just move to the next run, I'll be motivated to get to my final goal. Not sure if others feel the same way, but figured I'd offer my emotional perspective beyond the obvious and appropriate (and more important) technical conversation.
And if anyone is able to test, that would be great. I do want to point out that I have save states in between each stage and at least the slorbs will go in different directions from the same save state.
That does sound good regarding the RNG. If it's persistently random even without a hard reset then I see no reason to enforce a reset if the player dies and goes back to the main title menu.
I just tested out the savestates on 2 of the most RNGed level stage 3 and 7. It was still completely random and still had to adjust depending on their initial movement on screen. Having no reset will save everyone's sanity including the viewers who are watching the intro over and over. It will also make runs a lot more enjoyable.
