SwedenHello, I'm here to propose some new timing rules for when the timing for runs should end.
Why?
Recently there was some discussion about the top 2 runs in BTD1 glitch%, with two runs that were of a very similar time. For the discussion see: https://www.speedrun.com/bloons_tower_defense/thread/aft7e I misstimed my run by timing a local file while youtube seems to introduce some lag, but for fairness sake timing should ofcourse be done by the youtube videos. The problem with ending the timer at "congratulations" is that it fades in, so if the video is blurry, what resolution is used, and how readable the text should be is all pretty much arbitrary choices as anyone who has timed bloons TD runs would know.
The solution?
End the timer on the first frame on which no projectile particles are visible on screen after the last bloon is popped. That's darts, tacks, bomb explosions etc. https://imgur.com/a/y6U2NpM for an example. The downside of this is that sometimes darts will fly for many frames before leaving the screen, but atleast it's objective when time should end.
I retimed both runs using the same tool, the start times seem correct but ofcourse the ending times are harder to discern as it's a "fade in" of the "congratulations" message.
It looks like your run was a few frames faster, I guess uploading to youtube introduces some lag as my local recording gives a time of 13:07.180, honest mistake.
I think the easiest timing rule to implement for BTD1 and BTD2 would be ending timing at the first frame with no visible particles from tower shots, seems pretty measurable.
I retimed gerbungis run with a listed time of 13:07.660 just to make sure that we timed it the same way when i now got my faster run of 13:07.180 by watching the video, checking the first frame where the "start round" button was pressed which was at 9.270 seconds and the first frame where any semblence of the congratulations could be seen which was at 13:17.160. This gives a time of 13:07.890 as I see it.
Thoughts?
Your thread doesn't even say why you left BTD2, so I have no idea. What did MrJocrafter do that caused you mental trauma?
For speedrunning you don't really need a timer, I used to run on linux and just used some shitty stopwatch application, but timing is done with video frames anyways.
Your post seems pretty dramatic to me, but if you want to speedrun BTD2 and you don't like the mods on speedrun.com, just run it yourself and if you get a record you will be recognized as the king of balloon popping for whatever that's worth.
I'm currently using the file at https://dagobah.net/flash/Bloons_TD.swf after some googling.
Is this the correct version of the game? Does flashpoint provide the swf file as well and can someone share it with me? :)
This is just my opinion as of now on when to use the different towers in the game. I am actually unsure of the efficiency of some upgrades but i'll try to go over the upgrades as I understand them. Some of this carries over into the other difficulties but the prices on the towers are different and therefore changes their cost efficiency.
Dart Monkeys: They shoot fast and are the most accurate of the towers, great for picking of bloons travelling alone that survived your AOE damage. Piercing darts is worth it if it will kill 2 bloons 72% of shots. Long range can be worth it in some situations.
Tack shooters: Shoots every 1.5 seconds I think and can pop 5-7 bloons if placed well (placing them not in a corner is not worth it, you'd be better off buying piercing dart monkeys). Can be inaccurate. The faster shooting speeds up shooting by 50%, and costs a little more than 50% of the tower cost but if well placed it's worth it and it's nice that it's cheap. Longer range meh.
Ice Tower: Thought to be useless, and not used in any runs yet, I could see this tower being useful in runs if you can build an army of mainly boomerangs and give them sonic boom and cannons. The upgrades seem useless as you probably just want to stack several of them after eachother in a line and they're expensive.
Cannon: I hate this tower. I don't understand it at all so take what I say with a grain of salt. Extremely inconsistant. I think it can pop 6 bloons in one shot which is not bad but when they are even a little spread out or come from a slightly off angle they can pop anywhere from 0-3. Need at least 2 or 3 for lead balloons in later rounds. Bigger bombs seems just worse than saving for a new bomb tower although if it does allow it to pop say 12 bloons in one hit on a stack it would be amazing, seems really hard to test this out though. Longer range is cheap so worth it if it lets you hit a new part of the map.
Boomerangs: Expensive with multi shot, 745. Extremely good, when he shoots boomerangs into stacks of bloons it will kill 8 bloons and shoots every second. Like a well placed upgraded tack shooter with longer range. Unlike the bomb tower it can pop black bloons. Inacurrate so you need dart monkeys and maybe bomb towers for cleanup.
Super monkey: The high cost alone makes it unattractive to me. Maybe there's a strat where you sell a bunch of towers to buy super monkey quickly. Obviously good but is it better than 4.8 multishot boomerang monkeys? I doubt it. Also doesn't go well with cannons because the darts won't hit the black bloons hiding behind the bigger ones. I've never bought the laser upgrade but maybe it's good.
All these categories are the same as the non NLL runs. At least move them to category extensions with the glitchless NLL (which is more of a challenge but still kinda pointless)
https://www.speedrun.com/chgj/
3D platformer with wonky physics that let you go really fast and some crazy tricks not implemented in the full game run yet.
Lots of practice and you can beat my run maybe ;)
I like playing zoomed out completely so I can see things I normally wouldn't be able too, especially if the plunger jump is messed up in 9.
This is not against the rules on the leaderboards, although it does feel a little cheaty and I don't see any other runs playing like this.
Any clarification on if this is allowed or not?
Why is there no PC version? I definitely own this game on PC
Good luck with the runs, it's a very good speed game except for stage 18 which is random. You can DM me any questions or tips on how to do some stages.
I finally managed to ride the wall if you go to the right on 34 straight to the cake. Just try to take the longest line holding w+a on the grey platforms, jump late but with as much forward momentum as you can then hold w+d so as to not lose height on the wall. Doing this it was possible to just barely get straight to the cake, saving probably around 15 seconds. No recording of this is available yet.
Post all glitches you know here:
Holding two directions gives more speed similar to movement in DOOM and morrowind
Sometimes on stage 3 I will glitch through the walls if im going high speeds, this is in the corner when you land on the left side. Maybe wall clips are possible in other places too.
Any corner can be climbed up the wall by using two direcitonal keys into the wall, this is very slow though and haven't found any use.
