Quote: (like did Ihavenoname248 miss the quicker way to get the fireball to the SE chip because it was only possible in the latest update?).

Quote:Probably- I made a different route for each of the first few versions (and this level is definitely non-trivial to route!) and so when the final version came out, I tested the route I'd made for the version with the broken teleports, it worked, it was somewhat fast, and I was drained from working on the level already. Not going back was "ugh, do I really want to make a route for this again?", especially when I'd already met my goal of scoring a faster time than Time Trial Mixed I.



http://pastebin.com/xaQc4JC0


Here's some thoughts I wrote up after optimizing.

Quote:Bathing in Battery Acid (MS): 282. Lots of boosting shortcuts and a few backwards overrides. Adjusting my Lynx route only gave 281.




Rivaldi: 95 (!)


Not sure if it was intended, but I found one singular path through the teleports without stepping on the same tile twice, and it was barely enough for 95. To aid in routing, I made a flowchart of each chip and which chips it could take, numbered in reading order. That was enough to note a few paths that had to be in a theoretical 95 route, and connect the dots from there to actually find it. My initial attempt was a 94.


Bathing in Battery Acid: 277


My first effort gave 276. Then I completely reordered things to cut back on backtracking, and it yielded a 1 second improvement.


Age of Ultron: 609


On the first version of the level, I had a busted 689 and was positive I had the best possible route for all 3 levels (watch as BiBA has a 278 route). On the second version, which was still busted with timing tricks, I had a route that would come out to about 645, but couldn't execute it in the hour before I went to sleep. In the morning, the level had been updated again and I had classwork to do for the forseeable future. The level saw another update to prevent further shenanigans, and on the 6th I rerouted the level...and forgot I needed a fireball in trap 3 (the lower of the two in the 3x3 loop) to get the paramecia to chip 5 (numbered counterclockwise from the top).


After rerouting again to account for this, I ran into the issue on the second to last version of the leftmost trap having monsters return to it. This was fixed quickly as it wasn't intended, and I could finally run through my 6th route for the level...and it worked. I scored 608 with a 2 move mistake, and a 2 move suboptimal (1.5?) routing choice. At least with this route, 609 is optimal, and though I feel solidly about this route, there may be better out there.


I'm too drained on routing this level to look further, though.


For reference, here were the notes I used:


BFP (EAST), unload all


Release fire x2, release para


Release fire, release para, release fire x3, take chip 7


Release bug, move fire past para


Release para, fire, bug, para, fire x2, para


Release para, take 2 chips, fire x2, chip, bug


Unload all 3. (PFB)


Release para & bug, fire, para


Release fire x2, release para, take chip 2.


unload both, release fire, release para x2


Take last 2 chips, finish.


As a final note, this route is 1 second faster than J.B.'s route for "Time Trial Mixed I" from a couple months ago.