Hey all,
I'm wondering if we can somehow gather/explain the strats used in the 11:05 (or just strats in general) to try and boost the level of competition here.
I'm personally interested in playing again. I've analysed the 11:05 (current TC Singles world record) and I'm curious about all the factors that go into a successful sub 12 run.

Example questions off the top of my head:
- Why is Baby Mario used?
- When do we know to sidestep when serving?
- What are different characters' AI patterns like?
- What are best strategies used against all characters?
- When is the run a reset due to bad matchup RNG?
- How much time loss is x?
- etc.

Hoping we can gather some details and get some discussion going at some point.
Cheers!

Hey TroubleClef! Glad you're coming back to MT64. I'm more than happy to contribute to a collection of strats we can use to get closer to dicedeus's 11:05. Perhaps it's finally time we make a discord for this game.

I'll try to post some strats I use and observations I've made in detail later today, but one thing I think needs to be mentioned is N64 vs VC. It appears to me and 0xwas that Geoff's 11:13 and dicedeus's run are done on VC despite being submitted years ago as N64 runs, possibly (probably) due to the fact that the game lacked a WiiVC option to go along with WiiUVC until recently. The problem that this causes is that the VC has fewer/no lag frames (i.e. while skipping the replay cutscene after each point) as well as shorter load times (for the cup presentation cutscenes).

I'm not sure what to do about this considering that Geoff and dicedeus haven't been active on the site in a while but I imagine neither would be happy about seeing their runs moved to a VC only board or removed entirely, but it's also unfair that original console players start at a disadvantage.

I know none of that was related in-game strats lol but it's something the community needs to think about. Don't worry, I'll be contributing actual strats too!

-KreatorKat

The case of how runs should be measured based on the system is a tricky one. Too many games have different rules and standards for what is allowed. Really we need a system for this website as a whole that either stamps a rule on original hardware being the standard or not.

While that would be ideal, the unfortunate truth is that a set of rules that extends to all games isn't realistic at this point. I think that we may need to make a determination as to the rules of the MT64 board as it relates to emulators, Wii and WiiU VC, and N64 runs being timed.

I don't want to derail this thread with discussion about external leaderboard issues, so let's get to some in-game stuff.

I'll be back later with some more stuff but I wanted to get the question of "why baby Mario" out of the way first. While I chose him at first simply because he was fairly easy to control and many top runners on the board used him, there is defiantly a lot that baby Mario has going for him. I think it all comes down to versitility and the ability to end points quickly from all around the court. Baby Mario has a very direct serve that can score aces in Mushroom (and occasionally elsewhere), which many characters cannot do. Any character that can't get consistent aces on their serve in Mushroom isn't really a viable candidate to do runs with, which eliminates some of them. The thing about baby Mario is that he possesses enough power to get aces (and to make backcourt winners on occasion) while still having fast and fluid movement, unlike other strong characters like the power class (bowser, DK, etc.) Baby Mario can serve hard and still get to the net for volleys and make positioning adjustments. He also has a fairly good midcourt game if you get caught there and his power allows for passing shots on serve returns. His range or reach isn't ideal, but he possess many characteristics that seem to outweigh the cons.

Could there be a better character that I'm not seeing? For sure. But I think that baby Mario may be as good as we can do.

-KreatorKat