Damage boosting
8 years ago
Denmark

I've been playing around a bit with damage boosting for an all collectibles run. Grigori's Tower + The Guard is the only place where I've had success getting any significant time saves using damage boosts. The following is a comparison video of various strategies I've been playing around with.

I really like the first example, but it uses all our health and is a little hard.

In Grigori's Tower I differentiate between 3 approaches: Approach 1: Do double damage boost like I do in example 1. Approach 2: Yolo, try to shoot a teleport shot under the ghost first and then force the ghost down after hitting the second ledge. This is the fastest strat in any% IGT, but requires quite precise timing at first and is easy to mess up. Doesn't require any extra hp though. This is shown in example 2 and 3 in my video. Approach 3: Cautious. Wait for the ghost to pass first and then go up by teleport shooting the ledges. I do this in example 4.

In The Guard I differentiate between 2 approaches: Approach A: Do damage boost off the brute. I do this in example 1 and 2. Approach B: Kill the brute like in any% IGT except we shoot 2 shots every jump since we have upgraded Gauss gun. I do this in example 3 and 4.

Using this numbering the examples in my video are: Example 1 (11.94): Approach 1A Example 2 (12.98): Approach 2A Example 3 (14.90): Approach 2B Example 4 (15.90): Approach 3B

My timing shows the following: Approach 1 saves 1 second compared to approach 2. Approach 2 saves 1 second compared to approach 3. Approach A saves 2 seconds compared to approach B.

In terms of HP requirements: Approach 1 requires 2 extra HP. Approach 2/3 requires no extra HP. Approach A requires 1 extra HP. Approach B requires no extra HP.

So if you go for approach 1A you need the full 4HP.

I generally think approach 1 is easier than approach 2 (with some practice of course) so I would always choose approach 1 or 3 for Grigori's Tower.

This also has applications to any% IGT. If in Jumping Over you do the jump over the map, then you can pick up an Alien Artifact in Outpost Cache with under 1s time loss. This will allow you do do Approach B in The Guard though which saves 2s overall compared to upgraded Gauss gun, but we only have normal Gauss gun so it saves even more time. This triggers an additional dialogue box when picking up the Alien Artifact, but for IGT runs that is irrelevant.

I just thought I'd share my findings and open up for any discussions of damage boosting as it seems very unexplored at present.

EDIT: I completely forgot to include some stuff on how to actually do these damage boosts. Given how underused they are I imagine many people don't actually know how they work.

Orientation: Once you take damage you are paralyzed for some time and you usually face towards the monster you hit which is the wrong way. If you turn around after shooting the teleport shot, but before hitting the monster, then you will face the correct way when getting boosted into the air.

Height: A normal damage boost does not boost you very high at all, but it counts as a teleport so if you stand on a platform when the teleport hits then the game treats you as standing on a platform for the first 7 frames (at 60FPS) after hitting the teleport shot. This means that if you press jump shortly AFTER you take damage you will get boosted much higher into the air, and if you face the right way you will be able to shoot a teleport shot near the highest point even if you can't control yourself yet.

So for the ghost dmg boost where you are to the left of the ghost (just reverse everything if you're on the right) you do the following:

  1. Shoot teleport shot to the right towards the ghost.
  2. Hold the left direction key, and make sure to be on a platform by the time the shot hits.
  3. Once the shot hits after 3-7 frames press jump
  4. When you're high in the air press teleport shot.

For the brute dmg boost you do the following:

  1. Shoot the teleport shot above the brute so that you touch it, but the damage boost will take you out of range of the brute. This just means as high as possible in The Guard, but even if you don't attain maximum height it will probably work out.
  2. Land on the little platform and wait a little, ideally stand by the right side of the platform.
  3. As the teleport shot is about to hit hold the left direction key. If you are facing the wrong way in the air you were too slow. If you fall off the platform before being teleported you were too quick.
  4. Once the shot hits after 3-7 frames press jump
  5. When you're high in the air press teleport shot.

There is a small variation on this mechanic which I think is useless but I might as well share. If you shoot a ghost, and as soon as you teleport into it you shoot another teleport shot you will get teleported into it again, but because of the upwards speed from your first damage boost you will get a high damage boost as if you had jumped. This could be useful if for some reason you didn't have time to land on a platform. I think it's impossible to turn around with this variation though which makes it useless as far as I can see.

PrettzL likes this
Bretagne, France

Very good work. It's true that damage boosting wasn't that explored before because tradtionnal runs are one heart run. I tried them and they are actually pretty easy. The timeframe when you have to press jump after the damage is actually pretty lenient.

But i think i can add a few things that could help with this damage boosting.

First, i'm stupid. I misread your instructions and because of that i think i found a new glitch ^^' Basically, instead of jumping AFTER the hit i jumped BEFORE the hit as if the ghost acted like a wall. And... This happened:

I got the damage boost but not the damage. After some testing it apparently happens when you touch the top of the head of the ghost. It also works whatever it's movement is (if he goes from top to bottom or the opposite)

It's pretty difficult to do because it seems to only work on a few pixels and the ghost is moving constantly. I don't know if it can be used yet but it's pretty neat!

Secondly, i'm currently scanning the code of the game. I don't understand most of it but i got some little data that can help. Here is the function coding what happens when you get hit.

    public function onTakeHit(param1:int, param2:int, param3:String) : void
    {
        if (this.invulnerable <= 0)
        {
            SoundManager.playSound("takeDamage");
            this.jumping = false;
            _ySpeed = -170;
            _xSpeed = -140 ¤ param2;
            this._hp = this._hp - param1;
            this.lostControls = true;
            this.invulnerable = INVUNERABLE_TIMER;
            this.checkHp(param3);
        }
        return;
    }// end function

It tells us that we get expulsed with a vertical speed of 170 (for comparaison, for a jump in the air it's 325 and for a jump in the water it's 30) and an horizontal speed depending of the monster.

We also lost control of our character and gets invulnerable for 0.8s. Because of the following lines:

    private static const INVUNERABLE_TIMER:Number = 0.8;

        if (this.lostControls && !this.invulnerable)
        {
            this.lostControls = false;
        }

Nothing ground breaking. It's just more precise data.

PrettzL likes this
Denmark

That is a pretty cool glitch as well. I tried it out and it's quite precise as you say, but if we could get it consistent I bet it would be useful in any% IGT at least.

The game code seems quite accessible. Never used ActionScript but it's pretty self-explanatory. When I get time I'm going to try to see if I can dig into it to further understand the green beam glitch.

PrettzL likes this
Bourgogne, France

Haven't read all this post yet, but rezoons message has gotten my interest, it's been 2 months or so I, myself, started looking at the code. Though, in the last month, I lost a lot of time on the levels' code... for... reasons... What file (OTS.oep I guess) and line is this from ?

Well ok... A little could be nice so here's my "reason" : I'm working on a small level editor for OTS. I'm gonna create a separate post for this later this morning ; cause yeah, it's already fuckin' 2am here. :'(

ps : if there's at least 3 or 4 people interested, I might also work on a "beginners decription guide" so people with programming background could understand a few things when reading the code.

Edit : Well... apparently I'm not the first one and my "secret projects" are useless... Fuck me, right ? -_-'

Bretagne, France

Actually, OTS.oep is an old (and even obsolete) version of the ogmo project file of the game used to create the levels. You can delete it and the game will still work the same. All the level code is in OTS.swf. Prettz extracted all the file in it and you can found it here: http://puu.sh/jueqg/bfa3429f82.rar

These lines are in the file Action\game\player\Player.as at line 593.

There are A LOT of code so it's not always easy to find what you're looking for.

P.S. Sorry for your secret project ^^'

Just discovered that this is possible while messing around with damage boosting.

And a slowed down gif of exactly what happened. http://puu.sh/mEbfp/f9969faf74.gif

MIDIbusker likes this
Michigan, USA

I can't see the YouTube vid because it's marked private, but that's really interesting! I am wondering if it could have a use in the room after the GIF, with very creative positioning and a little good luck/manipulation from the ghost movement?

PrettzL likes this
Bretagne, France

It's possible to do so but it's way slower and more difficult than just damage boosting over the brute. Nevertheless this is a pretty neat trick and it doesn't work just on ghost but also with other enemies. Unfortunately, i haven't really found a use for it yet.

PrettzL likes this

I've marked the video unlisted. Not sure why it was private.

Bretagne, France

After messing with the game a little bit (and struggling with the way it deals with hearts) i managed to create a save where you start with 42 hearts. (You also start with the gauss gun upgraded and most of the game events already triggered) You can find it here: http://www.speedrun.com/ots/resources

The save folder should be at Steam\userdata\73542301\263980\remote.

This is mostly for those wanting to test/train damange boosting strats without dying every 2-3 attemps.

http://i.imgur.com/5KxFDNL.jpg

PrettzL, Timbouton and 2 others like this
Bourgogne, France

So I worked on this a week ago but having some problem with my PC, I couldn't make the video, so here it is.

Pretty much self-explanatory, but basically it's just an idea for damage boosting on "Grigori's Tower". First with damage : Easy but requires one additional heart (= 3hearts total if you plan on doing the damage boost in "The Guard"). Then without damage : slightly harder as it's almost pixel perfect (but once you get the timing right, it's not that hard) and does not require any additional heart to do it.

Bonus : a small compilation representing about a fourth of all the ghost jumps I got where it didn't hurt me... Just to show how "easy" it is to do it once you get the timing right.

abbyss and PrettzL like this
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