SMO: Studying Metro route - session #36

# Summary:

SMO: Studying Metro route #36. 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.

# Context:

I've been practicing the boss fight of the SmallAnt SMO Any% speedrunning beginner route, Metro kingdom. I'm still working on consistently beating the boss in 2 cycles using a new metric called 4-trial cycle average. I've also been focussing a lot on my process.

# Goals:

1. Learning goals:
1. Improve learning processes:
1. of creating the speedrunning blog post.
1. of creating the sections with that.
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.
2. Review the trial analyses from last session.
3. Keep the following in mind re the Metro boss fight:
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. 
3. Pay attention to the shadows of the projectiles so I can try to avoid the projectiles while not looking at them.
4. Analyze (and record analysis) 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: 

• 28-31: 4-trial cycle average = 2.5, which does not match or beat my goal of 2.25.
• 28: 2 cycle win! No overheating!
• Interesting thing: I noticed that in the 2nd cycle vulnerable snake shooting phase, I was shooting kinda in the middle of where the snake was crossing itself, which resulted in shooting an area where it was harder to miss because there were more than one snake segment in the general area of aim.
• 29: 3 cycle win - there was only one snake segment I missed in the 2nd cycle. No overheating.
• Interesting thing: I noticed for the first time that the projectiles have shadows. That means I can now tell if a projectile is coming at me without looking at it.
• 30: 3 cycle win - there were 2 sections of 2-segments (4 total segments) I missed in the 2nd cycle. No overheating.
• 31: 2 cycle win! I overheated once during the invulnerable phase of 1st cycle.

Pre-gameplay analysis:

• Made some improvements over last session.

Gameplay trial analysis: 

• 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.

Post-gameplay analysis:

• 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 session: 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.

# Session analysis:

This session was at least as good as my last session (so tied for best). If I factor in the time I used, this session beats the last session (cuz less time). Also my goals and action plan were better documented/organized this time than compared to last session, though I'm not sure that that resulted in a better work product.

# Next steps: 

Continue working to achieve 4-trial cycle average of 2.25 or better.

# Footnotes:

none