While playing around with TASing this game, I've written an lua script that prints the answer to the puzzle in the upper left corner of the screen.
Would runners using lua enabled emulators be allowed to use this script? It does not do any inputs for the player, just prints the answer onscreen.
In my mind this is the same as having the list of answer sequences in front of you when playing, it's just on the game screen instead of on a paper (or different screen).
If this would be acceptable, let me know and I'll make it available.
Side Note: I'm also using this script in conjunction with TAS tools to further develop the spreadsheet with the answer sequences. I'm focusing on sequences not currently on the sheet. Hopefully this will ultimately help all runners including those using consoles instead of emulators.
First of all, really good work.
I really don't know how to wrap my head around this one. If I'm understanding correctly, wouldn't this entirely remove the luck element from the game in terms of grabbing a seed? As this would work on any seed.
I guess it's up to the mods if they want to allow that. The seeds are a recent development, and it would certainly allow for faster times, so I say go for it. Yogi already sucked the fun out of it, we might as well loot the corpse.
There's 0% chance that running a lua would be allowed. However, I am very interested in this lua script and/or finding the best possible frame to start the game on, because that's all we would have to do anyway.
LUA scripts, RAM watches, or any such viewing of the game memory(displayed or not) has always been and will always be banned from any respectable board and is typically used as a learning tool only. The best use for this LUA would be to map out a large # of seeds in order of framecount, then assign each seed a speed value based on the distance you have to move the cursor to input 6 words, (for example the word NO would be valued at 1 point since the cursor moves 1 space). Compare all the sums and see if there are other fast seeds like the NO seed.(the word NO itself is allowed to appear in a different seed but not twice in the same seed) Drive bys(where you hit a letter without stopping the cursor) might affect this speed value slightly.
Thanks for your perspectives.
Regarding distance traveled from letter to letter, I have found that it is often (but not always) faster to wrap around the alphabet than it is to change directions when traveling between letters due to decelleration/acceleration time for the shoe cursor (this assumes drive-bys). So calculating distance between letters may not yield the fastest choice.
I'll see if I can determine how many letters apart one has to to be to make a changing directions more worthwhile than just wrapping around the alphabet.
Also, based on my current work, "CUP" and "TEARDROP" may be early sequence starters that yield the fastest runs. Over the first 6 words in the sequence, these two starters yield only 27 total letters and 28 total letters respectively. Other seeds I've worked through average about 40 total letters over the first 6 words.
WOLF, ANTENNA, and WINK also are all on the lower 30's end of this range so should be worthwhile seeds from an RTA standpoint.
I'll keep working on this as I'm able.
Here's a link to my current spreadsheet of word sequences. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12_ealGeGx_VdxQLL0J2xylnTWGoEjA7itqnwEeJF7wc/edit?usp=sharing
I've included the first 10 words of every sequence I've tested through.
There are two sheets. One has the words sorted in order they appear based on what frame the 'start' button is pressed to enter your team name. The other is sorted by length of the first word in the sequence. I will update this spreadsheet as I am able.
Beware! (Thus Far) the following starting words have multiple sequences: ARM HONEYCOMB
Final note: For anyone who cares or is just wondering, the glitched puzzle's answer is DRAINPIPE.
Could I see the lua script? I tried to find the word in the memory but failed miserably, so I'm curious. I was planning to make a script that automatically went frame by frame to find the best starting point.
Here's the script: https://pastebin.com/v4K33cs8 It may not be the most efficient way of doing it, but I'm a novice when it comes to programming. And hey, it works.
As far as the best starting point....from what I've been able to discern based on my work, A theoretical fastest game (which I've created via TAS) pushes the 'Start' button to enter the team name on frame 481 and yields the word sequence starting with 'CUP'. This theoretical perfect game also always rolls 6 on the die requiring only solving 6 words to complete the game. This also limits all previous 'Start' presses to a two frame window leading up to the 481st frame as the 481 frame is only the third possible frame on which to press 'Start' for the team name.
For RTA runs: CHEESE, WINK, and NO should be desired sequence starters with some of the fewest inputs over the course of up to 10 words. Their starting frames are 492, 496, and 502 respectively.
The WINK sequence has the fewest inputs over the course of 7, 8, 9, or 10 words. CUP only beats WINK for number of inputs through 6 words. From this WINK is probably the ideal desired starting word for an RTA run. NO only trails WINK by about one letter input, but is also a later seed.
I tried traversing the game with some different scoring systems, based on the distances between letters. Frame 630 seemed like the best one I could find: fish, pen, gun, moon, short, apache, scar, drink
Not really relevant to TASing though, since it didn't take velocity/momentum into account.
Also, looks like there are a lot of duplicate seeds, it's probably safe to assume there are only 256ish seeds.
Regarding duplicate seeds... Some solutions are used as the starting word for multiple sequences with differing latter answers.
