Florida, USAWhen I did my most recent TAS for Any%, I calculated the minimum possible "throws" required to complete the run. While I never gave it the time to fully manipulate a run to that extent, my "theoretical" TAS minimum time for 100% (Easy) was in the 4:24 range, based entirely on the "fastest possible throw and return" multiplied by the "minimum number of throws" to defeat the toughest member of each team not named Swami.
The only level you can't carry the other through is E (Thanks RetroAchievements for that knowledge) and it does make many parts of the game substantially more difficult if you aren't allowed to let the other player die. While I would be interested to see routing tech happen in a category like this, I personally wouldn't put myself through it again. xD
In the Category Extensions, Horsehead% is pretty much just Palace 1.
Just topic bumping the list here.
Category Proposals:
KaiserKrab% - A short run through the first boss. No known glitches effect this run at the time of this posting. I like this as a shorter introductory category. I personally have recorded times for this should it ever become one.
Any% - Normal any% rules. Anything is permitted. This will likely become dominated by Acmlm's Credits Warp route as it becomes better known.
Any% (No Credits Warp) - Allows the use of all known glitches except the Name Glitch Credits Warp.
Any% (Glitchless) - Disallows the use of the Name Glitch entirely and likely any future bugs or exploits we find. This is also essentially a 100% category, as it forces you to play through the entire game and defeat every boss to reach the end.
This would give the game 4 categories to play with, including a "shorter" one that could attract newer players to the game. :) As always, any input or other suggestions are welcome!
I have a Krab% Theory Route that could potentially get it done by Level 5, but it hard requires an Awesome Hit during the fight. I've stabilized a Level 7 strategy, but I don't see it going much farther than barely sub 30. A solid Level 6 strat would be excellent to see.
I'm going to study your routing on the Any%. Hopefully with enough prodding we can get the mods back in action here!
I have a KaiserKrab% run at 31:22. I feel like that category could be a fun short one, as there's little we can do to manipulate anything on the run that has been found so far. At least until one of us learns how to force drops or something of that nature. xD There is at least one other person interested in this run, and it could perhaps bring other runners into the game.
I am also interested in learning your any% route but I haven't had the time to fully analyze what you did to create the Castle State after the Wisdom Mural. Thank you for the explanation here. :) I will certainly give it a try in the near future.
I sincerely hope a category restructure can happen. I feel like every game deserves to have more than one category. Especially longer RPG's and maze games like this one. :)
Hello! This game was recently recommended to me by a good friend and I've found it to be really enjoyable. I've been developing an Any% speedrun in my spare time and I wanted to offer my thoughts on two new categories that could be useful for this game.
Krab% - Timer ends upon defeating the first KaiserKrab. This is mostly to get a short category in there, but in my own efforts, I've found this run by itself to be challenging and interesting.
4 Trials% - Timer ends upon activation of the 4th and final Trial Mural. Normally this would be the Wisdom Mural, but they can be completed in any order.
These would offer shorter categories to play with in addition to the full 8-10 hour Any% speedrun.
Any input would be appreciated! Thanks for your time!
Normally I would say yes, but the Pacifist Rules specifically state:
Only bosses and unavoidable barriers are permitted to be destroyed.
I would assume this restriction includes powerups, just as a Runner. Hopefully a Mod will clear it up for everyone. :)
We've added Milliseconds to the categories. At this time, they are only required for "Single Game Victory - Custom" runs under 3:30. But as these categories become more competitive and optimized, this may change!
Smash Those Homers!
We have all the time in the world to iron out the kinks now that you're the boss here!
Congrats on becoming mod! :)
I would offer that with a "base" Custom%, your opponent wouldn't really matter. We can all build the "Absolute Zero" team to play against, so playing against the pre-built teams would only make it more difficult, and thus not really worth it.
In the future though, we could have Custom% Vs. Dreams, Custom% vs. Ninja Black Sox, ect. as sub categories. :D
@zanth @Seydie I'm sorry I never followed up on this. The Zelda 2 Tournaments have been sapping much of my free time.
At current, there are at least four runners with runs holding for Baseball Stars that I am aware of, including multiple world records. There is also a category restructure proposal that the community would like to see done. We really need an active representative. Anyone you choose will likely be fine, but both zanth and myself are capable of doing the work should you choose someone from within the community.
Thank you for your time!
Category Restructuring Proposal
-Preserving The “9-Inning Runs” as their own category. Categories would become 100% Single Game Victory and 100% League Victory. Added specifically to their rules would be the requirement for the game to go the full 9 Innings and prohibit use of the Slaughter Rule
-Creation of New Categories
New Categories would be the following:
Any% Single Game Victory – Win a Game with non-Custom Teams. Slaughter Rule Okay Any% League Victory – Win a League with non-Custom Teams. Slaughter Rule Okay Custom% Single Game Victory – Win a Game with Custom Teams. Slaughter Rule Okay Custom% League Victory – Win a League with Custom Teams. Slaughter Rule Okay
My run in the current “Single Game Victory” would be moved to the new Any% Single Game category. The current “Custom Teams” category would become the Custom% Single Game Victory category.
I feel that Baseball Stars, and its community, would greatly benefit from a restructure like this. As always, feel free to tell me how you all feel about this proposal and offer any thoughts you may have!
-Schmidtty
@Daravae I'm not doing this as a dig on RantronBomb, as I'm sure they are very busy in life and is a Super Mod for numerous games as it is. RantronBomb has also been a very good mod for a very long time and I have no problem with them. However, the Baseball Stars community saw one run out of at least four approved in the last month and Baseball Stars is looking to rise in popularity. World records are being broken, new categories are being thought up, and the community needs an active representative rather badly. Even if it isn't me, I still ask that you install a second overlord in Baseball Stars to help ease the burden on our lone moderator.
Hello. I am requesting the moderator (or super moderator) role for the NES game Baseball Stars. The lone moderator for the game currently doesn't play and seems to be rather overwhelmed currently. We (myself and a few others) have a few runs (Including a world record) that have been waiting for approval for up to a month.
If given the role, I would update the games leaderboards to reflect modern changes in the run. I would be glad to answer more questions on that statement in more detail, but I dodn't want to bombard this thread with otherwise meaningless data.
Thank you for your time!
I can try it, but it will have to wait until after the Big 20 Marathon, as that is consuming all of my free time. Sadly, that also negates it's usefulness to the group. :(
I have done some work with the other three guys. The only one that I've successfully completed the run with is Geoffery, and it seemed fairly tight. The other two both get pulverized by castle 2 usually. But my experience is still limited thus far.
1 – A TAS is only as good as the person who created it. As such, they are not necessarily “perfect” for any game, and are only the sum total of what is known at the time of creation. Any new discoveries, at any time, can invalidate any claims of “perfection” on any TAS ever created. That is just the nature of the evolving game.
2 – Contra's Beating Heart – Contra seeds itself with your inputs, literally adapting to your play. This mostly effects the spawning of lag trolls, but also has a part in the Snow Field boss spawn location and JJ's patterns of attack (Energy Zone Boss). That is why it feels like doing the same exact things renders the same exact results. It does. But this mechanic is “frame perfect”, and even a single frame varied can change what's coming in the near future. It is important to note that whatever this “seed” value is, it resets at the start of each level.
3 – Waterfall and Ledge Skips – This is difficult to explain properly, but I will try my best. First, lets call the thick green ledges we're running on 1 high. That's the entire platform. Your “normal” jump can get you onto a platform 3 High. Ledge Skips get you on to platforms that are 4 high. A Ledge Skip can only occur where you can land moving right and make an entire jump moving right, corresponding with a correct value for your jump (0094 in Memory Viewer – I simply call it “Jump Value”) that changes with every jump you make, and also with every movement you make in the air above a certain height.
There are a number of values that allow you a “Ledge Skip Jump” that can clear 4 high ledges, but only one specific value will work on any given jump. Due to the nature of these variables, my method for discovering the ledge skips in my route was simply brute force. There are, in my estimation, nine total ledge skips that can be achieved in a single run. However, due to human patience limitations, 5 was the best I could do on this effort.
Given how precise these variables are, it really opened my eyes to how skilled our Contra runners are. Even repeating the current “2 Ledge Skip + No Fire Jump” route is very difficult.
4 – Tight Jumps
Jungle: “The Jungle Jump” - 3 Frame Window - After avoiding the “L”, getting the “R”, and killing the turret, there is this first difficult jump of the game. This is the most practiced tight jump in Contra and it has the benefit of a visual edge to jump from. It is better to miss this one late, as falling lets you catch the platform below. Doing so loses 0.3 over the 0.7 you'll lose jumping early and pulling back.
Waterfall: “Ledge Skips” - Frame Perfect Variable Setup – Ledge Skips are covered above.
Waterfall: “Fire Jump” - Varies between 3 and 7 frames depending on if you have a ledge skip jump loaded up or not. One of my least favorite jumps in the entire game, as you are jumping over something moving toward you on the platform above you. This jump is unnecessary in the current routing, but is still good to know.
Snow Field: “Two Bomb Jump” - 3 Frame Window – This infamous run destroyer is actually a 3 frame window like the Jungle Jump, but doesn't have any visual markers to jump from unless you use the far right tree somehow. I personally use the audio cue.
Energy Zone: “Frame Flame” - Frame Perfect – At the vertical flame where we all simply take a split stop before jumping over the pit, you can hit a frame perfect jump here without stopping at all. Worth it? Probably not. xD
Energy Zone: “The Exo” - 15 Frame Window over 5 Jumps – 3 Frame Drop Window – The Exo is pretty well documented. I was able to do little other than verify known information. You can pause buffer all of the horizontal fire pillars in this section if needed.
Enerzy Zone: “The Leap of Faith” - 18 Frame Jump Window – Random Overhead Fire Pillar Timing – This is actually pure RNG seeded by your inputs and is not on either the Global or Proximity Timers. I was able to manipulate the overhead pillar in a similar way to lag trolls, but that doesn't help the player in real time. There is no good way to do this, and thus, “Leap of Faith” is an apt name. If you choose to take this jump, there is a very high chance that you'll die.
Energy Zone: “Frame Flame 2” - 3 Frame Window – The very last vertical pillar before JJ has a 3 frame window between getting killed by the fire and losing forward frames to the ledge. Still better to miss this one late.
Hangar: “Cart Catch” - 22 Frame Jump Window on to the Cart – After getting the “B”, you'll come to the gap with the cart on the other side. It is not a hard jump, but listing here because every frame you are late costs you a frame of forward movement on top of the cart. Doesn't equal much in real time, but every little bit helps.
5 – Pause Buffering – I once thought pause buffering to be a frame perfect thing. It is not. The game only has to be paused when the “target” goes off to cancel it. A Pause Buffer can be used on anything triggered by the Global Timer. This includes many flame pillars in Energy Zone and almost all of the Hooks in Hangar. A perfect pause buffer is a 3 frame loss, but in reality, a human pause buffer looks more like 6 or 7 frames, as frame perfect isn't a human thing most of the time. This trick is very powerful, and should be mastered by every runner, even if it feels cheap. It can save runs, but it does cost time to use.
6 – The Cost of Missing – Most of us simply pound away on bosses, as our mash is ballistic. But when your mash gets over 8 per second or so, those missed shots on bosses you're right up against can cost you quarters of a second at a time. I've seen one missed bullet cost me 24 frames in extra button presses against the Dogra's in Snow Field. I've seen one missed bullet cost me 15 frames in extra presses against Falcon's Heart. I know it seems ridiculous, but the cost of missing shots on the bosses you pulverize is actually quite steep. 15 frames is 0.25 seconds.
As always, any questions you may have are welcome. I will try to answer them to the best of my ability.
Thank you for your time!
Upon further study of the pause buffering effect, it turns out that the game only needs to be paused for the duration of the global timer in order for the pause buffer to work, so it can actually be quite easy to pull off. You will lose frames every time you use it, but it can be used to shut down a lot of the hazards in Energy Zone and Hangar, so it might be worth adding to your bag of tricks for the game. However, it can only be used if you can anticipate needing to use it, so it does very little to appease the stress of that first horizontal pillar.
