Video HHM Low Turn Count

[ruadath]

Finally, something that looks half-decent (though there are still weird graphical glitches for some reason)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9vKTm57FTs

Again, comments would be appreciated, especially on the strategy, but also on how to deal with this YouTube blurriness issue (if you have had problems with it in the past).

[ruadath]

By the way, a couple of fun facts related to the above clear

- After Chapter 17 was completed I dropped a star in the ranking screen for the first time in Funds; however, thanks to the additional promotion item in Chapter 18, I'm now back at 5 stars everywhere!

- I was about to say that Erk, Lowen, and Marcus and Florina are all tied for highest Spd now (at 13), but Guy is still ahead of them at 14, and Raven even further ahead at 15!

- Erk now has more kills than Lowen :o

More seriously, it doesn't look possible to (reliably) get Florina up to level 10 before facing off against Darin, so it looks like I will need to find a way to get her to land the killing blow on him. In particular, during the 3 turn clear of Chapter 18, Florina spends the first 2 turns rescue-dropping people and the last one recruiting Fiora, so her gains there will be limited at best. One promising option is to keep Lowen from leveling up before facing off against Darin, so that a Heavy Spear crit takes him down to like 2 HP instead of killing him, but it remains to be seen how feasible this will be.

Edited February 14, 2016 by ruadath

[Espinosa]

It looks you are using some really shitty compression. How do you produce your video? Has anything changed about the way you do?

[Irysa]

Process the video at a higher resolution. I reccomend recording VBA at 3x native res.

[ruadath]

It looks you are using some really shitty compression. How do you produce your video? Has anything changed about the way you do?

I don't think I've changed anything about the way I record my videos (which is just the standard procedure of recording on VBA-rr). I guess there is a chance that I might have misclicked when selecting the codec, but the video looks perfectly normal when I play it using the file on my hard drive, so I'm not sure if this is the problem. I should note that I've almost always had problems (for GBA videos) with the quality being bad on the initial upload; however, putting the video in Youtube Editor and saving (no edits) usually fixes the blurriness. It still did that this time, its just that there are these weird remnant graphical effects...

Process the video at a higher resolution. I reccomend recording VBA at 3x native res.

How do I do this? I run the the thing at 3x the window size when recording, but I don't think it actually affects the output of the emulation. Do you use VBA-rr too?

[Espinosa]

I think you get the file of the same resolution no matter how big you make the window. I use Sony Vegas to edit my (generally uncompressed) footage and render it as .avi with an XVid codec, so you could try that. The YouTube editor isn't something I'm familiar with, but it has 'YouTube' in its name so I gather there's a high likelihood it will suck.

[Irysa]

Record with an external program (like fraps) instead of VBA so your source file is 3x res. Generally if you do this you'll have to re-encode in a video editor like Vegas before uploading. Either that or upscale the video you get from VBA's own recording 3x in a video editor.

Edited February 14, 2016 by Irysa

[Sniper Knight]

Are you too short a funds to pick up a javelin/handaxe or two, or do you not need any ATM? How many do you have left?

[ruadath]

I picked up a couple of Javelins and Hand Axes back in Chapter 16 (pre Merlinus). I've got 3 Javelins at this point with roughly 15 uses each, and 2 Hand Axes, one of which is unused and the other which is at roughly 15 uses as well. I figure this is good enough to last me until Chapter 21 (New Resolve), which is where I will get a whole ton of shopping done (both for weapons and staves/tomes) since most of the team doesnt get a chance to actually do anything in the 1-turn clear.

As for funds, I think I'm at 2720G or something like that, but I've got 3 Red Gems, a Hero Crest, and some statboosters to sell if I'm really feeling low on money.

EDIT: Also, IIRC, Dart shows up with another Hand Axe in the next Chapter, as does Fiora with a Javelin.

Edited February 15, 2016 by ruadath

[ruadath]

Does anyone have stats, in particular AS, of the shaman who surround Darin on Chapter 20? Asking because it is a potential source of EXP for Florina.

This might be useful to consider because I have an alternative clear of Chapter 18 where Florina doesn't kill the boss and ends up at like 7.22 EXP instead of 7.72, but pretty much everyone else gets more EXP (Erk gets to 8, Sain gets to 7, Lowen gets close to 9, Marcus hits 5; Priscilla doesn't get a level, although its a loss of only 3 EXP for her), so the team as a whole might be better off overall if that ends up being a possibility. On the other hand, they could just serve as extra fodder EXP for Florina, potentially taking her to level 10 before facing Darin, so that she can hit level 11 before promotion?

Edited February 15, 2016 by ruadath

[ruadath]

With the exception of the Nosferatu!Shaman (who has an embarrasingly low AS of like 2), the other Flux!Shamans have AS between 3-5. Looking at the average of 4, Florina needs 15 Spd to be able to double them with the Javelin, which means she needs to hit level 9 before facing off against them... Thankfully the Nosferatu Shaman attacks first, and after dying yields ~50 EXP to Florina, so she doesn't quite have to be at level 9 in order for this to work out, though it would probably be most convenient to avoid rigging dodges+good levels on enemy phases.

[ruadath]

I've had a little bit of time to game this weekend and managed to work out a Ch. 18 strategy where Florina doesn't kill the boss but takes almost no loss in EXP (she kills a bunch of PKs) and thus dramatically increases net EXP gain. The only thing that is somewhat problematic is that letting Florina get a great level causes Hector to get a subpar level (HP and Def only), while allowing Hector to get a great level makes Florina only proc Skill. I'm currently looking for a way to get both of them good levels, but if that is not possible, I think I'll probably just prioritize Florina, unless you think my level 9 (14 Str/9 Spd) Hector is going to give me problems in the long run?

EDIT: It appears as though in order to optimize levels in the last turn of the chapter, it will be useful for me to restart from Chapter 16 and pick up a Steel Lance from the Armory. This shouldn't affect anything, since I'm not in desperate need of weapons before Chapter 21 (when I can buy as many as I want), but I'll probably have to be a little bit more careful with Iron Lance uses... Alternatively the same effect can be reached by equipping Hector with Wolf Beil for a certain enemy phase, but (2 WB - 3 Iron Axes) = a loss of 384G, which isn't worth it considering the price of a full Steel Lance is only 480G, and I'm sure it will be useful in the future as well.

EDIT 2: Alternatively, a Steel Axe would also work, though I get one of these for free from Dart (whereas I get no Steel Lance for free), and I doubt I'll need to rely on a Steel Axe too much during the playthrough, so it is questionable whether getting a second one would be worth it at all.

Edited February 28, 2016 by ruadath

[ruadath]

I think I may have found an even better clear (more net EXP, significantly better level for Hector, still awesome level for Florina), although as far as I'm currently aware, it requires me to conserve 1 use of the Thunder for Erk... somewhere. The only place I can imagine doing that is in Chapter 17, if I can use Fire in one of the places where I had Erk use Thunder... while I'm looking for that, I'll try and list out the differences between the two playthroughs and see what you guys think:

Net changes between version 2 and version 1:

Hector (+16 EXP, +Skl, +Spd, +Luck)

Florina (+HP, +Skl, +Luck, -Def, -Res)

Need to somehow get an extra use of Thunder prepared for the chapter...

EDIT: Turn out this is actually not quite correct as Erk breaking the Thunder tome is actually what aggros a PK to attack him on the enemy phase instead of Priscilla... so not sure what to do about this. This problem would be easy to fix if I could purchase another Thunder tome, but the first time those are available is indeed on this chapter (Caelin doesn't have them)...

Edited February 29, 2016 by ruadath

[ruadath]

So the above issue should be resolvable if we are willing to take a pretty decent Erk level that misses Spd. Then everything should work out fine. One final question for you guys before I get to work on the video (which I expect to be up by the end of the week): should I purchase the Steel Lance?

It doesn't actually appear to be necessary in this clear if I'm willing to use the Heavy Spear instead. However, each use of the Heavy Spear is a hefty 80G, whereas a use of the Steel Lance is only 16G. The opportunity cost of purchasing the Steel Lance amounts to 240G (price of the weapon is 480G, can be immediately resold to recoup half of that), so if I'm doing my math correctly, it should be a worthwhile purchase as long as I use the Steel Lance at least 5 times during the course of the playthrough. I imagine the extra boost to Str could prove extremely useful to my cavs/fliers at many points during the campaign, so I'm definitely leaning toward purchasing it, as I think my 3 Iron Lances will suffice through New Resolve. I'd appreciate some comments regarding this, and hopefully the video will be up shortly afterward.

[ruadath]

I got a little bit trigger happy and decided just to go ahead and record the clear with the Steel Lance! Thanks to Espinosa and Irysa's suggestions, I've managed to fix the video quality issue I was having earlier.

I don't believe it! The video looked perfectly fine for like 5 minutes, then suddenly got blurry for no reason! I will try to troubleshoot and post a new link when the issue is resolved.

Fixed to some degree. I don't think I can do any better.

Edited March 1, 2016 by ruadath

[ruadath]

One additional minor improvement I just noticed: thanks to purchasing the Steel Lance, Sain no longer needs to attack the nomad on turn 5 of Chapter 17 with the Horseslayer. The Steel Lance suffices, saving (65-16)=49G.

[Irysa]

Did you make sure that you encoded the video file at a higher resolution? YT is only offering a 144p option which suggests you encoded it at a low resolution, which is why it gets blurry, as YT's upscaling sucks.

[ruadath]

Did you make sure that you encoded the video file at a higher resolution? YT is only offering a 144p option which suggests you encoded it at a low resolution, which is why it gets blurry, as YT's upscaling sucks.

I actually don't think I did this, so I'll try and remember this for next time if technical difficulties arise again.

On a separate note, I'll also say that I'm still relatively busy with real life stuff, so don't expect the next chapter to be up for quite some time (at least a week or two). That being said, I noticed something which Gradivus seems to have realized a while ago but I overlooked: without a second 8-move unit, Marcus can't get directly next to Uhai in 3 turns (as far as I can tell), so he's going to need to kill him with a long range weapon.

With the level up he got in the last chapter, Marcus in now strong enough to take out Uhai in 1 hit with a 4% Javelin crit. However, if possible, in order to have a better chance of rigging the guaranteed level that Marcus gains after his death, I may try to aim for a (32% not true hit, 4% crit) Hand Axe crit that leaves Uhai with 3 HP. That way, not only does Marcus gain a little more EXP, but he gets the chance to level off a 47% hit counterattack on the EP, which gives me much better odds of rigging him a Str+Spd level. One issue that arises with this, however, is that Uhai will have a tendency to try and run away to the forts on the EP instead of attacking. This may be possible to remedy by position Florina/Fiora/someone else close enough to him that he doesn't feel "safe" running away, in which case he will just default to attacking Marcus (or perhaps the other unit, which may be even better for EXP gain). But I guess I'll deal with this issue when I get there, unless anyone has some firsthand experience that they would like to share.

[ruadath]

One entirely feasible (though I'm not yet convinced superior) alternative to the above would in fact be to let Fiora take out Uhai with a Horseslayer crit. She has enough Skl to pull off a 1% crit against him, and while she is lacking in Str to OHKO in such a fashion, as long as Marcus lands a Javelin/Hand Axe hit prior to their attack, she is perfectly capable of dealing the finishing blow. It's unclear whether or not this is worth it though, not only would Fiora probably gain a terrible level, but I value ~80 EXP for Marcus from a boss kill far more than 100 for Fiora.

[General Horace]

Why not crit with Fiora then just hit with Marcus? Would be easier to rig Marcus's level that way too.

[ruadath]

One would think that seems like a viable option, but consider that in this case you've got 5 AS Horseslayer!Fiora needing to pull of a 1% crit (probably with hit% in the 60s) and then dodge at least one of 2 (~75-85% hit?) Killing Edge counterattacks by Uhai (and not get critted by whichever one hits her). It's something I'll try looking for but it seems rather improbable.

EDIT: The first RN string where this is possible appears at around position 2200:

6, 12, 0, 6, 62, 93, 2, 62, 60

which works if we assume Uhai's hit on Fiora is <78.

The game burns between 820-834 RNs setting up Chapter 19 (depending on where you hit start during the initial cutscenes)... so this may be possible. I don't actually have a great intuition for how many RNs I can expect to be burned during a 3 turn clear of a chapter, but to give a general idea, my last clear of Pirate Ship also began at around RN position 820 and concluded at around RN position 1200. So maybe expecting 1400 is a bit of a stretch, but the fact that there are more unit (both player and enemy) moving around on this map could somehow make this work out?

Edited March 4, 2016 by ruadath

[ruadath]

I've gone a long time without posting here, but I was inspired to take a look at this again by the fact that there is a good position (in the RNG) for Marcus to crit Uhai and gain a pretty decent level in the 1500s. I planned out the first turn (at least temporarily), and by the start of PP2 the RNG was at around 1000... so I don't think I will quite make it, sadly, and Marcus may have to settle for a subpar level up unless I figure something out. There's still hope though because a lot of my units were unable to reach the enemies on the first turn so I may be able to burn more RNs than expected.

The only big note I have to make from the first turn is that Florina's survival is extremely sucky. Without LHM training or the Seraph Robe, she gets one-shotted by all of the nomads and two-shotted by everything else. Thankfully her Avo is pretty high (and dodge tanking is a viable strat in this game, unlike the more recent ones) so with some effort I can occasionally find setups that let her dodge almost everything that hits her.

[ruadath]

OK, I got a clear, but I'm not terribly happy with it, primarily because of Marcus' terrible level (Skl, Res). Lowen missed a Str proc (again) and Erk missed a Mag proc (not too important). I also wasn't able to get a couple of the Torch drops (though I did get the Torch staff). Obviously, Fiora was recruited. I'll try to look for something better before I upload a video.

EDIT: I modified the clear to get one more of the Torch drops. The Marcus level still sucks though.

EDIT 2: I modified the same clear to change Marcus level. It still sucks (it's only Spd), but I figure that it's better than whatever I had before. Raven gets a kind of sucky level instead of a good one, but I don't think it particularly matters

Edited May 29, 2016 by ruadath

[ruadath]

I was planning on getting a clear up today, but believe it or not, in the process of streamlining the clear for real time controls (I try to make these videos as aesthetically pleasing as dondon's though I'm not sure I quite succeed in that) I may have actually found room for improvement!

Unfortunately, this means that I will be taking more time on this chapter, and probably won't get a video up for another couple of days.

[ruadath]

OK, this should be my last post here before getting the next video up. I've made significant improvements to the clear, with better levels for all and more EXP too (and for important units like Lowen/Florina/Eliwood)! The only thing I can't seem to fix is the Marcus level. I have two choices, a (Skl, Res) level or a Spd level. The latter sounds slightly better to me, but it foregoes roughly ~25 EXP for Florina and ~20 EXP for Erk. It might be the case that these losses don't matter anyway since both of them are going to promote soon, but Florina at 8.76 has a chance of hitting level 12 at the end of the next chapter, which I'm not sure she does at 8.50, while it's much easier for me to envision training Erk at 9.46 to level 10 in the next chapter than getting him there at 9.26 (which probably necessitates some EP action).

Thoughts on which Marcus level I should go for? I'm thinking the Skl,Res one because of the EXP gains for everyone else, and the fact that the extra point of Spd doesn't let him double anything extra in Chapter 20. The new version of the clear is pretty exciting, and it gets all the droppable items too, so I'm excited to share!

Edited June 2, 2016 by ruadath