Alpha:Virgil:Brain

Started by TLMike, October 11, 2013, 02:29:42 AM

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TLMike

How in the world is it possible to have a time of 0:00 on that map? Especially since Frame Steps and Pausing don't seem to work. :/

Someone

resume it and then play it,its a puzzle

TLMike

I know it's a puzzle, and I beat it. For the sake of clarity, let me rephrase:

How is it possible to have beaten the map in zero seconds? (Note the high scores. Some people beat it in 0:00.)

You can't activate totems while the game is paused. You can't click and step time forward one frame, and have activated a totem. So, if you can't activate totems without time passing, how can you beat the map without time passing?

asmussen

Maybe after they beat it, they recorded the sequence of moves and fed it into a keyboard macro so that all they had to do is unpause and then hit one key to send the entire sequence, or something like that? Or, I suppose the P to unpause could start out the macro, even. Don't know if that's how they actually did it or not, but that's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head.
Shawn Asmussen

TLMike


teknotiss

"n" allows frame by frame play, perhaps it takes less than one second like that!
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.... Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.... Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?.... Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" --- Epicurus

TLMike

Quote from: teknotiss on October 11, 2013, 10:59:54 AM
"n" allows frame by frame play, perhaps it takes less than one second like that!

I did try that. I think the Crpl script in that mission disables it because of the way the mission timer works. 'P' as a hotkey for pausing and unpausing the action is also disabled.

teknotiss

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.... Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.... Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?.... Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" --- Epicurus

Harkler

You could probably hack the game so that all totems are always active. I don't see any other way it could be done. (I used extreme button mashing)

teknotiss

i believe there are some concerns about score hacking on the first mission, so perhaps we have cheater/s already?
oh well so it goes, some people are so sad  ::)
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.... Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.... Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?.... Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" --- Epicurus

knucracker

I've not been able to get under 20 seconds on the map... when I was a teenager I could do this puzzle (using the number pad keys) in just under 15 seconds.  It requires a perfect run to get that fast.  I fear I will never get under 20 seconds again, though, as my fingers can't move that fast anymore.  When I was a kid I wrote an assembly version of this puzzle and practiced daily for several months to get that <15 second time :)

teknotiss

Quote from: virgilw on October 15, 2013, 11:00:16 AM
I've not been able to get under 20 seconds on the map... when I was a teenager I could do this puzzle (using the number pad keys) in just under 15 seconds.  It requires a perfect run to get that fast.  I fear I will never get under 20 seconds again, though, as my fingers can't move that fast anymore.  When I was a kid I wrote an assembly version of this puzzle and practiced daily for several months to get that <15 second time :)

::)
...and that's why you made CW1,2,3 and i didn't, coding hurts my head :D
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.... Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.... Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?.... Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" --- Epicurus

iycgtptyarvg

I don't quite understand this map. So, it's a puzzle instead of a level? Can someone give me an idea/hint what I have to do? It's the only map I haven't finished in the star system.

TLMike

Quote from: iycgtptyarvg on October 15, 2013, 05:47:34 PM
I don't quite understand this map. So, it's a puzzle instead of a level? Can someone give me an idea/hint what I have to do? It's the only map I haven't finished in the star system.


It is, in fact, a puzzle. Victory conditions are met when you activate all 8 Totems. I recommend using the number keys to activate the totems instead of clicking, as that takes forever.

The solution is:
Spoiler
not here. But, I can tell you that you can only activate a totem if the number just before it is active and the other preceding numbers are not. Example: If you wish to activate Totem 3, you must have Totem 2 active, and Totem 1 offline. To do this, you must type: 1, 2, 1, 3, 1. This will activate Totem 1, which allows you to activate Totem 2. But, you cannot activate Totem 3 until Totem 1 is offline. If you follow this pattern all the way to Totem 8, the solution easily reveals itself.
[close]

Also, Good luck!

asmussen

Quote from: teknotiss on October 11, 2013, 07:00:31 PM
i believe there are some concerns about score hacking on the first mission, so perhaps we have cheater/s already?
oh well so it goes, some people are so sad  ::)

Although it's possible that this was score hacking, for this particular mission, since it's solvable using a predetermined key sequence, I still think that the 0 times may have been done using some sort of keyboard macro or other method to automatically send a sequence of keys to the program faster than anybody could possibly type them.
Shawn Asmussen