Let's Play Randomizers - Megathread Edition - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Let's Play Randomizers - Megathread Edition

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

Odd Wilson posted:

This reminds me that I should do a PoR rando run for the thread still, but I'm still behind on even getting to the Dark Souls videos.

PoR happens to be the DSVania I'm playing, actually (it's probably my favorite DSVania). Not saying you can't do it if you want, but... overlap. Probably less overlap, since you actually have the ability to do videos instead of being stuck with screenshots, but some.

Anyway, just so I don't start procrastinating again, have another update.

Mario RPG Rando 3, Revenge On Sweets

# ? Jun 10, 2023 04:33

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 29, 2024 08:04

Blaze Dragon: Aug 28, 2013; LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

What's up with "Korush"? Are the names also randomized, or am I forgetting something from SMRPG?

# ? Jun 10, 2023 20:11

Left 4 Bread: Oct 4, 2021; i sleep

CptWedgie posted:

PoR happens to be the DSVania I'm playing, actually (it's probably my favorite DSVania). Not saying you can't do it if you want, but... overlap. Probably less overlap, since you actually have the ability to do videos instead of being stuck with screenshots, but some.

Hey, it's my favorite DSVania too!

If you want to avoid overlap I can do a little more of a crazy rando. Mix up all the stats and movesets, enemy speed, the map, the whole works. I tend to play with some stat randomizing and map randomizing anyways.

Still, me running it is probably a way's off. Kinda got my hands full already.

# ? Jun 10, 2023 20:25

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

Blaze Dragon posted:

What's up with "Korush"? Are the names also randomized, or am I forgetting something from SMRPG?

I said in the first post that it changed Mario's name to Luigi because it rolled Luigi colors, remember? So basically, yes, the names are randomized (albeit in a manner tied to character colors).

That said, I don't get why "Korush" either; if it's a reference to something, it's a reference I don't get.

Odd Wilson posted:

Mix up all the stats and movesets, enemy speed, the map, the whole works.

This is actually pretty close to what I'm doing. Item stats (including users- think Charlotte's using some kind of sword last I left off), item animations, enemy placement, and, of course, the item placements and drops.

# ? Jun 10, 2023 21:10

Crumps Brother: Sep 5, 2007; -G-
Get Equipped with
Ground Game

Blaster Master Randomizer!

https://www.auriplane.net/blastermaster/
Here's the maps that I used. I didn't even read the paragraph at the top before playing so it turns out that I was right and the maps were pretty much just a rom dump. They were wildly useful for me though so I appreciate having them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs0GGpIAqkA
The robot voice returns. Still no clue where that's from.
The area two door that I first entered. If you don't break the majority of those blocks before entering the second room then none of the powerups will appear in it. That happens off camera a bit later.
Nice missle count.
LOL! I put in the wrong time when I fixed my accidental stoppage. Mental note if I do that again ctrl+8 will undo it.
Sorry for the detour, but we all learned something about mechanics today.
I keep saying "soft lock", but I turned off infinite lives so we could always get back to the top through death.
"If it's the crab we're in a bad place."

# ? Jun 10, 2023 21:30

Rigged Death Trap: Feb 13, 2012; BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

CptWedgie posted:

PoR happens to be the DSVania I'm playing, actually (it's probably my favorite DSVania). Not saying you can't do it if you want, but... overlap. Probably less overlap, since you actually have the ability to do videos instead of being stuck with screenshots, but some.

Anyway, just so I don't start procrastinating again, have another update.

Mario RPG Rando 3, Revenge On Sweets

oof the PoR Randomizer can be rough If you get a seed with nested paintings.
Still a lot of fun though.

# ? Jun 10, 2023 21:43

Left 4 Bread: Oct 4, 2021; i sleep

Rigged Death Trap posted:

oof the PoR Randomizer can be rough If you get a seed with nested paintings.
Still a lot of fun though.

I love the nested paintings. It gets a bit ridiculous sometimes, but it's fun for me, the map rando person.

CptWedgie posted:

This is actually pretty close to what I'm doing. Item stats (including users- think Charlotte's using some kind of sword last I left off), item animations, enemy placement, and, of course, the item placements and drops.

I can do a bit more of a vanilla challenge run with mine, maybe keep it to item locations, map + portraits, Hard Mode, something like that.

# ? Jun 10, 2023 22:22

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

Odd Wilson posted:

I can do a bit more of a vanilla challenge run with mine, maybe keep it to item locations, map + portraits, Hard Mode, something like that.

Hey, as I tried to imply before, if there're settings you want to play with, don't let anything I'm using too stop you- just the fact that you'd do videos should be enough to differentiate; Castlevania's one of those games that loses a lot if you only see screenshots, I feel.

# ? Jun 10, 2023 22:35

Simply Simon: Nov 6, 2010; 📡scanning🛰️ for good game 🎮design🦔🦔🦔

anilEhilated posted:

Curious to see the familiars in action, never bothered with them myself and the rebalance should help.

Lucky to get the double grips early, too.

There's something cool for you in the second video!

I try not to abuse the DGs too much. You'll see.

DoubleNegative posted:

When I played Circle as a teenager, I was kinda dumb because I never figured out what the brain floats were even for. To be fair, grinding for 1% card drops never occurred to me. They really just looked at Rippers from Metroid and went "but what if they were easily killable by accident" didn't they?"

Also ~~Mario~~ Luigi RPG randomizer looks neat!

At least they respawn if you go slightly off-screen...still. Not the funnest idea. Or the most necessary, all things considered!

PurpleXVI posted:

I haven't played Circle of the Moon, but a few observations.

Castlevania games' most banging tracks often seem to be playing in tower-themed sections.
Why the hell does every Castlevania game seem to have knockback that sends you flying half a screen? I loving hate this. Worst thing in platformers of any kind.

I think it's reasonable to add another factor to difficulty, as the knockback in more complex CVs (Symphony for sure, but this one too!) is not a fixed distance. In the original platformers, it was purely to make platforming even more deadly, of course. I address this a bit in the video!

C-Euro posted:

Circle is a weird game. Design-wise it feels like a transition state between your old-school platformer Vanias and your SoTN and onward Vanias. There are a couple of really bad design decisions, but they're all in the details rather than the core mechanics of the game. So the game ends up being just pretty good. I think this was also the first Metroidvania that I ever played?

Also the whip spin is hilariously useful, as it makes you impervious to many projectiles and some small swarming enemies like Medusa Heads. Don't sleep on it!

1) yeah it's slightly awkward and does a bunch of mistakes, but I think it ends up super solid exactly because the core is so strong
2) I did address this in my first recording but welp, you'll see. I meant that it's not obviously useful especially as an attack, the only time you NEED to use it to get everything is to open the floor/ceiling secrets, but it is absolutely vital to not get screwed by e.g. Dragon Zombies for sure! I do know how good it is

Odd Wilson posted:

I think it's a holdback from the original game where knockback is intended to punish sloppy gameplay with instant death.

Portrait of Ruin has an armor that makes the knockback higher, if you want.

This reminds me that I should do a PoR rando run for the thread still, but I'm still behind on even getting to the Dark Souls videos. DW III rando is ready to write up but I'm way behind even on my main LPs.

I think my favorite CV knockback thing is the (obsolete now, I think) trick in SotN where it scales with the amount of damage you take, so you can take off all your starting armor, get hit in a specific way, and the knockback yeets you completely through the room where Death steals your poo poo, entirely bypassing the cutscene trigger, so you keep the great starting equipment.

Anyway...

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon Randomizer

Second Session: Triumph Hallway - 1/2 Machine Tower - Eternal Corridor - Chapel Tower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f0RmsCIrFQ

# ? Jun 10, 2023 23:34

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

Mario RPG Rando 4, Wannabe Liberator

I think skipping so many areas was a mistake. Didn't quite pay for it, but it was a very near thing.

# ? Jun 11, 2023 07:41

NGDBSS: Dec 30, 2009

CptWedgie posted:

Mario RPG Rando 4, Wannabe Liberator

I think skipping so many areas was a mistake. Didn't quite pay for it, but it was a very near thing.

Does Speed do something more substantial in this hack? In OG all I remember it doing was setting the turn order, but here or in a prior update low speed seems to have given enemies multiple turns compared to you.

# ? Jun 11, 2023 18:42

Rosalie_A: Oct 30, 2011

NGDBSS posted:

Does Speed do something more substantial in this hack? In OG all I remember it doing was setting the turn order, but here or in a prior update low speed seems to have given enemies multiple turns compared to you.

Speed is only turn order.

All actors get one turn per round, but some enemies have counterattack scripts which makes it seem like they go multiple times.

# ? Jun 11, 2023 18:49

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

Rosalie_A posted:

Speed is only turn order.

All actors get one turn per round, but some enemies have counterattack scripts which makes it seem like they go multiple times.

There may be a bit of randomness adding wonkiness to it, too. Like, for example, I'm guessing the cake acted at the end of the turn in my first attempt, and then rolled the first turn to go again before I could retaliate. There's no other way it could've gotten three turns in a row when it's only a two-part boss, because I'm pretty sure it doesn't counter (and the turn order was wrong for that anyway, because it went "untargetable base of the cake" -> "top of the cake" -> "top of the cake again"). I mean, it sounds plausible if both fighters have exactly the same Speed, right? Or maybe Fear status (inflicted by Sand Storm) debuffs it, thus messing with the turn order?

The others may have skipped turns in the write-up, though; if my action is just "hit it with a hammer again" I don't bother.

# ? Jun 11, 2023 20:48

Crumps Brother: Sep 5, 2007; -G-
Get Equipped with
Ground Game

Blaster Master Randomizer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MrecbdIPAU
1:52:50 on the timer, So that's when I bumped the map window placement.
Homing missles will come in handy. It occurs to me that I never once show off the lightening bolt. That should be a hint as to exactly how useful that weapon ends up being.
Don't recall if this comes up or I mention it later. But similar to how pausing when bombing the bosses will blow through their i-frames and keep damaging them, the same can be said about Jason (the hero). If you pause while you're being hit then you'll blow through your i-frames in no time flat and die.
Feels like I really lucked out with the placement of the flashing hover drop in area 1.
Special guest appearance at the end of the video by my OBS window.

# ? Jun 12, 2023 14:48

Rosalie_A: Oct 30, 2011

CptWedgie posted:

The others may have skipped turns in the write-up, though; if my action is just "hit it with a hammer again" I don't bother.

It's this. SMRPG's battle system is extensively documented down to the byte: if there's randomness in turn order, it'd be news to everyone hacking the game.

# ? Jun 12, 2023 17:53

FeyerbrandX: Oct 9, 2012

Rosalie_A posted:

It's this. SMRPG's battle system is extensively documented down to the byte: if there's randomness in turn order, it'd be news to everyone hacking the game.

I still believe that freebies are timed hits, no amount of data mining can convince me otherwise.

# ? Jun 12, 2023 22:20

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

Rosalie_A posted:

It's this. SMRPG's battle system is extensively documented down to the byte: if there's randomness in turn order, it'd be news to everyone hacking the game.

I never claimed to be knowledgeable on the battle system; all I know is that the turn order somehow managed to finagle "Raspberry uses Sand Storm -> Bundt uses regular attack -> Bundt uses Diamond Saw" with no interruptions.

The only bit of leeway in that is that the regular attack could've been Raspberry instead, which still runs into the "two turns in a row" issue.

# ? Jun 12, 2023 22:43

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

Mario RPG Rando 5, Real Progress!

Still plugging away.

# ? Jun 13, 2023 07:25

Crumps Brother: Sep 5, 2007; -G-
Get Equipped with
Ground Game

CptWedgie posted:

Mario RPG Rando 5, Real Progress!

Still plugging away.

So you've been fighting a bunch of "bosses" this whole time, but none of them were actually Bosses? Do you know which ones are "bosses" and which are Bosses before you fight them or does it end up being a neat little surprise after various encounters?

# ? Jun 13, 2023 13:39

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

First off: An update.

Mario RPG Rando 6, Seeing Stars

I should've posted this like 6-7 hours ago, but I caught a case of procrastinitis. :effort:

Crumps Brother posted:

Do you know which ones are "bosses" and which are Bosses before you fight them or does it end up being a neat little surprise after various encounters?

There is no indication of which bosses are required until you've beaten them. Honestly, the racers might even take offense to that question, because half the race is finding out what you need to do to win. Again, I should've answered earlier, but I didn't want to double-post, and... well, :effort:

# ? Jun 14, 2023 10:50

Crumps Brother: Sep 5, 2007; -G-
Get Equipped with
Ground Game

Blaster Master Randomizer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V079SgugJeI
There we go, I do mention the innapropriate pause issue.
Driving down edges when you want to jump is the worst. Some of these area 8 jumps are terrible without using hover.
And I'm still death gripping that turbo button during the intense moments.
Yeah, totally abused the use of savestates here at the end.
INAPPROPRIATE PAUSE!
DOUBLE KO!!

Done and dusted. All in all this is a pretty cool randomizer to put a bit of life back in to Blaster Master. Doesn't do anything extra special, but mixes what's already there in fun and interesting ways. It's totally worth playing for anyone that enjoyed Blaster Master back in the day like I did.
Next up is my special little DWR project. That'll be two videos and won't kick off until next week. Then I'm ready to just sit back and take in all the goodies that everyone else is putting together in this thread.

CptWedgie posted:

There is no indication of which bosses are required until you've beaten them. Honestly, the racers might even take offense to that question, because half the race is finding out what you need to do to win. Again, I should've answered earlier, but I didn't want to double-post, and... well, .

Hey, if the mystery is half the fun then I'm all for it.

# ? Jun 14, 2023 15:40

Left 4 Bread: Oct 4, 2021; i sleep

Got myself sat down and did up all the rest of the footage I have for the Dark Souls rando, should be getting those uploaded regularly again soon.

DW3 is still on the table if I don't start a little something on the side first, and I might do up a Portrait of Ruin rando tonight, and see if I can get an interesting seed.

# ? Jun 14, 2023 17:06

cirus: Apr 5, 2011

Crumps Brother posted:

Blaster Master Randomizer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V079SgugJeI
There we go, I do mention the innapropriate pause issue.
Driving down edges when you want to jump is the worst. Some of these area 8 jumps are terrible without using hover.
And I'm still death gripping that turbo button during the intense moments.
Yeah, totally abused the use of savestates here at the end.
INAPPROPRIATE PAUSE!
DOUBLE KO!!

Done and dusted. All in all this is a pretty cool randomizer to put a bit of life back in to Blaster Master. Doesn't do anything extra special, but mixes what's already there in fun and interesting ways. It's totally worth playing for anyone that enjoyed Blaster Master back in the day like I did.
Next up is my special little DWR project. That'll be two videos and won't kick off until next week. Then I'm ready to just sit back and take in all the goodies that everyone else is putting together in this thread.

Hey, if the mystery is half the fun then I'm all for it.

Jason can hit those worms and mines that were giving you so much trouble

# ? Jun 15, 2023 00:10

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

Mario RPG Rando 7, Process Of Elimination

No real progress this time, unless you count finding out where the Plot Items aren't.

On a tangentially-related note, I hate insomnia. I can never bring myself to do anything after a couple days of bad sleep (not that that's unusual, but still). Had to go back to bed for about 4 hours to get enough rest to actually get around to playing.

# ? Jun 15, 2023 07:38

FeyerbrandX: Oct 9, 2012

unless they changed something or you chose a specific option the three mustifear checks are available immediately in the randomizer.

The rare frog coin unlocks the mushroom kingdom merchant, who'd give you the Frogfucious key item check in vanilla.

# ? Jun 15, 2023 12:03

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

FeyerbrandX posted:

unless they changed something or you chose a specific option the three mustifear checks are available immediately in the randomizer.

The rare frog coin unlocks the mushroom kingdom merchant, who'd give you the Frogfucious key item check in vanilla.

Fair enough. I tried to check the Rose Town one, but either I didn't get the right pixel or it just hadn't spawned. And good to know that the RFC check has been moved!

Anyway, since I'm on a roll right now...

DSVania: Portrait of Random 1, Entrance

...might as well post the first update of the POR seed I started before I got Mario working, right?

# ? Jun 15, 2023 12:30

Crumps Brother: Sep 5, 2007; -G-
Get Equipped with
Ground Game

cirus posted:

Jason can hit those worms ... that were giving you so much trouble

You know, that's really obvious in hindsight and I never for even a second considered it. My god. It almost makes me wanna play another round just to see it in action.

# ? Jun 15, 2023 13:43

Left 4 Bread: Oct 4, 2021; i sleep

CptWedgie posted:

On a tangentially-related note, I hate insomnia. I can never bring myself to do anything after a couple days of bad sleep (not that that's unusual, but still). Had to go back to bed for about 4 hours to get enough rest to actually get around to playing.

DSVania: Portrait of Random 1, Entrance

...might as well post the first update of the POR seed I started before I got Mario working, right?

I know the pain with insomnia. It's awful, and mine's been pretty bad lately as well.

I tried starting my PoR one last night and regretted trying to do it on Hard immediately. Then I got foolishly competitive with it and refused to back down until I beat at least the first boss. It was turning into a unique challenge that was asking me to attempt to grind items to maybe find anything useful to use, so that contributed too.

...I have yet to find a single weapon for either character. Anything, literally anything that isn't 8 Damage Vampire Killer and I could make progress... :negative:

I'll see how it comes together as a video, but I also doubt anyone wants to watch me die constantly for 30 mins - 1 hour depending on editing. Running it on Hard makes it a real hellseed.

Anyways, 8 more episodes of the Dark Souls rando are uploaded, and another 3 hours recorded last night, so expect to see regular updates for that again.

# ? Jun 15, 2023 15:15

Left 4 Bread: Oct 4, 2021; i sleep

very normal unjank darksouls playthrough #7

in which person obtains 5 big bedrooms

Spoiler Explanations:

- Finding a smith is nice, especially the one who can work with all the green titanite we have... if the Fire infusion didn't apparently become complete garbage.
- Our scythe is becoming increasingly irreplaceable. As much as I'm not a fan of the battle axe moveset it's got, the damage is huge and it's usable compared to all the other garbage we've found.
- Catacombs is going to be a strangely pivotal shortcut location in our future.
- 100% shield at last is finally quite nice. RIP Large Leather Shield, you served us well.
- Blighttown is annoying with spawns as what would randomly spawn more swamp flies now spawns copies of whatever replaced it.

>> Last Update HERE <<

# ? Jun 15, 2023 15:30

PurpleXVI: Oct 30, 2011; Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

Some of these triple-translated names remain high comedy. TOLERANCE TALIBAN.

# ? Jun 15, 2023 17:09

Left 4 Bread: Oct 4, 2021; i sleep

PurpleXVI posted:

Some of these triple-translated names remain high comedy. TOLERANCE TALIBAN.

Given it was supposed to be "Thorolund Talisman", it's not... that far off?

It's even more crazy to me that every single weapon gets a different name based on upgrade level and infusion. We will never see them all, unfortunately.

# ? Jun 15, 2023 17:36

ThornBrain: Jan 25, 2011; Hi. I forgot your name. Whatever.
My... point is...
Hi. Your head's on fire.

What a delightfully musical smith

# ? Jun 15, 2023 19:39

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

Mario RPG Rando 8, Starfall Ground Zero

This is... discouraging. Unfortunately, to my knowledge there is no good armor in this seed- either it's not enough defense to matter, it utterly neuters a different stat that I desperately need, or both.

# ? Jun 16, 2023 01:15

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

Simply Simon posted:

Anyway...

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon Randomizer

Second Session: Triumph Hallway - 1/2 Machine Tower - Eternal Corridor - Chapel Tower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f0RmsCIrFQ

"Sure would be nice to get a new card ability soon." - CircleOfTheMoon.txt
For the most part, the card drops are spread out pretty well in vanilla. It's just that the drop rates are so low and there's no rhyme, reason, or indication as to to which enemies drop which cards, that it's really easy to miss a bunch. Why does the Earth Demon drop the incredibly-important Serpent (Ice Element) card?

And yeah, Bloody Swords are an absolute menace. They're programmed to aggro on you from a huge distance, they'll just keep following you through those tall Chapel rooms until you deal with them.

# ? Jun 16, 2023 02:12

FeyerbrandX: Oct 9, 2012

Oh joy, if I remember right the clock uses a lot of magic spells. And since the boss you fight scales its stats off the boss that was randomized out, that means a clock with stats similar to Valentia. On the plus side since he's got 2 bells compared to Valentia's single dodo the HP should be a bit lower.

# ? Jun 16, 2023 02:51

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

Odd Wilson posted:

...I have yet to find a single weapon for either character. Anything, literally anything that isn't 8 Damage Vampire Killer and I could make progress...

If I could send you one of my seed's Undead Killers I would. It'd make things a lot easier for you; it rolled pretty good! And speaking of which...

DSVania: Portrait of Random 2, Valman-whip

That's almost as broken as it sounds.

# ? Jun 16, 2023 03:58

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

Mario RPG Rando 9, Storming the Clouds

Didn't feel up to playing yesterday (possibly due to not being over the Manager incident), but I'm back to it now.

# ? Jun 18, 2023 08:28

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

Mario RPG Rando 10, Clouds of Ash

Next update's gonna hurt.

# ? Jun 19, 2023 12:45

NGDBSS: Dec 30, 2009

CptWedgie posted:

Mario RPG Rando 10, Clouds of Ash

Next update's gonna hurt.

Belome 2 is between Land's End and Monstro Town, in OG SMRPG it's how you get to Monstro Town in the first place. And yes limited FP is absolutely a thing in this game. It's the most reliable way to deal with the Culex fight at a low skill level. All the crystals only use spells, and you can stick the Lazy Shell armor and a defensive accessory on Toadstool to weather the storm until they can't do anything.

# ? Jun 19, 2023 18:19

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 29, 2024 08:04

CptWedgie: Jul 19, 2015

NGDBSS posted:

Belome 2 is between Land's End and Monstro Town, in OG SMRPG it's how you get to Monstro Town in the first place.

Thanks, that helped!

Mario RPG Rando 11, New Management

I've been neglecting Castlevania rando for a bit; I should get back to that soon. Thankfully, the primary distraction's almost done.

# ? Jun 20, 2023 12:14

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Let's Play Randomizers - Megathread Edition

«‹›12 »