So I was messing around on Storm Creek trying to land closer to the finish line than the current strat does and I stumbled upon this:

When you go from wrong phase to correct phase while not pressing A or B on a jumpplate (while going forward? I can't replicate it in slowmo), you don't get any forward momentum from the jumpplate untill you press a button. We can abuse this to land closer to the finish line instead of landing all the way in the back.

Comparison:

Now I'm not entirely sure how this exactly works yet and if you need to touch the rails or anything, but this is very useful on this track and potentially others, as you now don't have to make weird zig zag pattern jumps (Turbine Canyon) to get near the landing area you want to go.

Trick in action:

Thoughts?

Comparison vid is private :P But this is interesting. Could you land just before the finish line in Storm Creek like that? Or does that make the game think you didn't complete the lap?

Ah sorry, I made it unlisted now haha.

My experience is that you always have to drive back for a small amount. But the closer you land to the finish line, the less distance you need to travel (from the point you drive backwards to to finish line).

18 month relevant necropost

As I'm not speedrunning anymore, I'm looking to get into TASing instead, and I thought of this as my first game. When testing the Storm Creek skip, I tried going to the right, around the rock so I could land facing the right way, but I found I had to land right on the corner otherwise the lap wouldn't count. So that confirms needing to go back a bit (you can also crash and the lap will count, but if you don't crash, it doesn't). There must be some complex flagging system going on. Also if you cross the line in first but the lap doesn't count, it instantly sets you to 8th.

I did more testing on other circuits. One thing was Scorpio Circuit. On the second skip, I found a smooth drifting boost in the air that landed just before the grid positions, and the lap didn't count. Again, I tried doing the same thing but landing a bit further back and it counted. But I also did the smooth closer turn, crashed, and the lap counted. Strange stuff.

So, yeah, the point of all that was you need to go back a bit or crash or be far back enough to avoid some kind of trigger. I think the same thing can happen with the Breeze City skip.

EDIT: After more testing, I found that landing facing right way is fine if you reverse for a split second. So it must have something to do with the REVERSE! warning. Maybe, because you're going the wrong way around when you go on the jumppad, the game thinks, when you cross the line, that you went backwards over it, so it doesn't count the lap. But if you then reverse/go the wrong way on the spot you land on, and then go the right way, the game thinks you've gone round the track as normal.

EDIT2: If you land facing the wrong way, you do need to be the wrong way for a bit, but the game tracks you before you land, so it's not as big a time limit as facing forwards.

I managed to get a 15'16 lap on Storm Creek with a boost, without preventing forward momentum, and with landing just before the finish line and reversing for whatever the set amount of time is. With TAS optimisation this could easily be a sub 14.

Hey man I'd love helping out with the TAS, maybe we can brainstorm a little together about strats

Sure! I've got draft routes done but there are a lot more ideas to go through. I joined the FAST Discord server if you want to talk there.