Aquaria

[groobo]

I remember trying that with divine soup. It didn't work, though. Maybe you'll have more luck with it than I did.

[groobo]

Any progress on the research?

[see.blue]

Yes actually. I talked with the lead programmer over on the bit-blot forums and he seemed to think it was impossible but advised me to check the code, which I did which confirmed that it is impossible. Right now I've actually been running the first segment (Intro through Energy Temple Entrance) over and over (I want to run it 50 times before I even start trying to record an acceptable segment just to get fluent moving through those areas).  I've actually found that rushing through the Nightmare segment (as long as your health doesn't get into the red so you avoid the slow-mo thing where the screen turns red) is approximately as time consuming as trying to die as you get periods of invincibility after each hit and when you enter critical health, during the "We're not going to make it" animation.  I'm going to sit down and actually time it out (I have a poor sense of time when playing so I want to make sure  ).  I've also been looking into using food glitch to skip cutscenes, trying to skip the Nightmare segment freezes the game, and has no effect on the post-Energy God cutscene.  Have yet to try to avoid the Bind scene but I doubt it will work as you get Bind before you gain control again.

[groobo]

IIRC scenes where you're "transported" to a different map file to see a cutscene or whatever (all post-boss cutscenes, the scene where you get bind, or the energy form, etc.) cannot be skipped with the food glitch. Cutscenes where the camera just focuses on something else in the same map can, though.

Yeah, timing then comparing different strats for a given area is the best way to really be sure. Often you'll be surprised that the easier, risk-free methods end up being actually faster than everything else.

I'm also interested in knowing what's your "ingredients for the divine soup gathering" plan is.

Also public WIPs would be nice. It's the best way of making sure you didn't overlook something that saves time. WIP videos don't have to be finished segments - it's better to release WIP videos of early attempts, so that you don't have to redo parts of the run that you thought were already perfect just because you didn't notice an obvious improvement.

[see.blue]

Divine Soup Components:

1. Fish Oil in Starting Area
2. Small Egg in Starting Area
3. Hearty Soup underneath Mia after the Nightmare
4. Leaves in the vertical, upside-down L-shaped shaft at beginning of Home Waters
5. Jelly Oil in Energy Temple shaft

The advantage of taking the time and going out of my way to pick up the Small Egg in Starting Area (rather than picking it in the Energy Temple) and the Leaves in Home Waters (rather than Song cave where it's right on my path), is this lets me gain access to Royal Soup (+2 Speed /30sec) right after getting the Leaves in Home Waters which I can use to boost speed (just without the healing effects) until I gain access to Jelly Oil.  This would also allow me to save time in the Energy Temple by not having to go out of my way to kill the Jellies in the shaft, rather I can get the oil from the two directly along my path after the Energy God.

This brings the full first segment to around 8 minutes (I still reaaally need to work on movement in enclosed spaces while under the effects of soup).  I'd like to try to get down to ~7 minutes for the segment (Beginning - Energy Temple Entrance).  The way I'm cooking now, I use the glitch to create Sea Loaf to skip the Mia appearing cutscene, and I try to time my soup to run out right when I need to glitch past the "Hey look its a health tank!" cutscene in the Song Cave right before Bind.  Also, when I first get Leaves I cook two royal soups and eat one, this way whenever it runs out I have one waiting to consume then make another, minimizing trips to the menu.  I'll try to get an acceptable WIP run recorded and uploaded sometime soon!

[groobo]

My plan was a little bit different:

1. oil in starting area
2. hearty soup in secret passage (use it)
3. leaves in home waters
4. meat in home waters
5. egg in home waters
6. jelly oil in energy temple (vertical shaft)

Number 1 is obvious. Now I used the hearty soup as soon as I got it. Even if you grab the leaves, it'll last till you grab the meat - at which point you can use another +1 speed soup before you grab the egg which allows you to spam royal soups. I remember considering your route when I was planning my run, but ended up using this one (IIRC I had a lower time at the start of the energy temple with this route). Why do I think this one's faster? You don't waste time grabbing the egg then returning to your path in the starting area (which takes forever). You get to the area with the meat twice as fast compared to saving the hearty soup for cooking. You get to the spot where you get the egg at home waters sooner than when taking the "royal soup at the beginning of home waters" route. It'd be a good idea to time both routes. Also, I picked jelly oil in the vertical shaft in energy temple because you need to go down there for the spicy roll anyway, plus I thought that the healing effect of the divine soup will come in handy during your stay at the energy temple (all that and because it's the first jelly you encounter after the first save point, which makes this segment easier).

edit: Oh, yeah - I also picked the hand roll in the secret passage for the food glitch at mia. I think it still ends up faster.

[see.blue]

OK great to know, thanks. I've been slogging through a set of midterms but I should hopefully have some time tomorrow to record at least a preliminary to post.