SMO: Studying Metro route - session #37

# Summary:

SMO: Studying Metro route #37. I decided to do more untimed trials aimed at improving all my individual gameplay skills that I worked on in the last session and continue until I get a 4-trial cycle average of 2.25 or better. I failed to meet or beat my metric though I've made visible progress on various child problems, and I've identified my worst bottleneck and made next steps to deal with it.

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# Context:

Audience: me, FI people, speedrunners, people interested in speedrunning, people interested in learning.

History: I've been practicing the boss fight of the SmallAnt SMO Any% speedrunning beginner route, Metro kingdom [1]. Along the way I created my guide on speedrunning as a way to learn philosophy [2]. Then I created and started following my learning plan [3] (which helped me get back to speedrunning after I had taken a break). Then I created, followed, and continuously improved my speedrunning template [4] and my guide on creating blog posts [5].

Latest gameplay problem: I'm still working on consistently beating the boss in 2 cycles using a metric called 4-trial cycle average. 

# Goals:

1. Learning goals:
1. Improve learning processes:
1. of creating the speedrunning blog post.
1. of creating the sections of the blog post.
2. Activity goals:
1. Improve gameplay processes:
1. Do 4 untimed trials aiming at achieve 4-trial cycle average of 2.25.

# Action Plan:

1. Pre-gameplay phase: 
1. Document as much as I can document prior to gameplay.
1. Review the trial analyses from last session.
2. Remake list of things to keep in mind during gameplay:
3. Analyze the pre-gameplay phase.
2. Gameplay phase: 
1. Do 4 untimed trials of the boss fight.
1. After each trial, 
1. record the initial analysis made during gameplay.
1. as I'm writing, also do more analysis of the gameplay (from memory) and record that too.
3. Post-gameplay phase:
1. Evaluate whether or not my 4-trial cycle average <= 2.25.
2. Do analysis of this session's trial runs, also the older one's documented here, and older ones from memory. Look for trends or systemic problems.

# Work:

Here's the trial analysis from last session: 

• Individual trials:
• 32: 3 cycle win. Similar problem to before, during 2nd cycle, the last snake segment was so high up the building that I had to back up to get it, and it was too late. No overheating.
• 33: I died in the 2nd cycle. Got hit too many times by projectiles. No overheating.
• 34: 3 cycle win. I spent too much time shooting projectiles during the 2nd cycle, leaving not enough time to shoot the snake. There was one segment left to get. No overheating.
• 35: 3 cycle win. Again I missed one segment in the 2nd cycle. I noticed that I sent off one shot when I could have sent 3 quick shots at the last segment. Send 3 would have had a much better chance of hitting the segment. No overheating.

• 32-35: I'll treat the death as 6 cycles (as an estimate) because it means repeating the boss fight. So my 4-trial cycle average for this session is 3.75.
• The shadow never came in handy. Or maybe it could have and I didn't notice the shadows.
• The idea of shooting in the middle where the snake crosses itself seems like a bad idea because it competes with SmallAnt's idea of shooting the snake in a way without changing aim as the snake moves along its path.
• Unsolved problem that occurred a few times during the past few sessions: I don't know how to prevent the situation where the last snake segment is high up the building and I fail to get it before the snake goes invulnerable.

Here's what I want to keep in mind during gameplay:

1. During the invulnerable phase, wait until the segments turn purple (indicating that it's now stunned), then slowly shoot the snake for 2 successful shots, then speed up shooting.
2. During the projectile phase of the 2nd cycle, shoot 2 to 3 projectiles, move away from the rest, and then start shooting the snake segments.
1. Try to shoot near the head of the snake before the rest. 
2. With the last snake segment, send off 3 shots at it instead of just 1.
3. Pay attention to the shadows of the projectiles so I can try to avoid the projectiles while not looking at them.

Pre-gameplay analysis:

• I made some improvements over last session. One was to move some of the details from the Action Plan to the Work section.

Gameplay trial analysis: 

• 36: 3 cycle win. I had 2 sections of snake segments left over (total of 3 segments) during the 2nd cycle. I did better about shooting near the snake head before the rest. Shadow came in handy. No overheating. 
• 37: 2 cycle win. I did better about shooting the snake without changing aim as the snake travels along its path (while also moving laterally and adjusting with motion control so that the target stays positioned on one point on the snake's path line). Forgot about shadows. No overheating. 
• 38: 3 cycle win. I think my limiting factor is motion control aiming. I had 2 sections of snake segments left over (total of 3 segments) during the 2nd cycle. No overheating. 
• 39: 3 cycle win. I forgot how many snake segments were left over after the 2nd cycle. No overheating. I did much better during the snake-train phase such that the train went the shortest path. 

Post-gameplay analysis:

• 35-39: 4-trial cycle average = 2.75.
• I think my worst bottleneck for achieving 2.25 is my use of motion control for aiming.

# Session analysis:

I've made visible (to me, during gameplay) progress on many problems I've been working on (and documenting). I've identified my worst bottleneck for the goal of meeting or beating a 4-trial cycle average of 2.25.

# Next steps: 

Keep practicing the boss fight while paying primary attention to motion control for aiming.

• Don't use direction pad unless to readjust aim so I can center my arms.

# Footnotes:

[1] SmallAnt SMO Any% speedrunning beginner route Metro kingdom

[2] guide on speedrunning as a way to learn philosophy 

[3] my learning plan

[4] my speedrunning templates are what I copy/paste from last speedrunning blog post to the current blog post I'm working on. here's a description of my process of doing that.

[5] guide for creating blog posts