smg 120 route commentary

IF YOU ARE JUST USING THIS TO KNOW THE ROUTE, LOOK OFF OF THIS INSTEAD: http://pastebin.com/1G8GrSH5
THIS PASTEBIN CONTAINS ONLY OBSERVATORY MOVEMENT FOR USE OF OPTIMIZING ROUTING


// This is an annotated version of the observatory movement of my 120 route

// >to = travel from where mario is to this location
// >enter = go into the dome's door and watch the short cutscene play before grabbing the pull star
// >exit = leave through the dome's door (slow and should be avoided)


// Overall:

// Anypoint where I get pulled out is already optimized to it's extent
// You have to get pulled out when you do, there's no avoiding it
// There are 2 different points when you get pulled out
// 1) Collecting a certain star (i.e. ghostly 1, grand stars, honeyhive 1, etc.)
// 2) Collecting a certain number of stars (i.e. 13, 60, 120)
// I've already paired up 13, 60, and 120, which means i get pulled out of domes as few times as I possibly can
// The only interesting point is i can select one green star to not get pulled out for
// In this run I choose to remain in the bedroom after dusty green
// And get pulled out of the Kitchen and Fountain for Buoy Base Green and Battlerock Green, respectively.
// Notice that I use both of these to be pulled out of Kitchen and Fountain right when i would want to leave anyway
// This cannot be accomplished in Bedroom since you'd have to return for Bowser 2
// As far as I know, this is the fastest way to do this
// However there is a possibility that there's a faster way to route the green stars

// Points where I exit domes could possibly be optimized further

S E G M E N T  O N E:

//TERRACE 1
>pulled out (grand star)
>to Terrace
>enter Terrace
>pulled out (honeyhive 1)
>to Terrace
>enter Terrace
>pulled out (grand star)
// This is entirely unskippable, no optimizations to be had here


//FOUNTAIN 1
>to Fountain
>enter Fountain
>pulled out (luma + comets appear)
>to Fountain
>enter Fountain
>pulled out (grand star)
//This block is as optimized as possible
//I will get pulled out at the 13th star, which always falls in fountain
//I couple this with the luma to save trips to the center of the observatory
//Getting pulled out from the grand star is unskippable

//KITCHEN 1
>to Kitchen
>enter Kitchen
>pulled out (ghostly 1)
// Pretty straightforward, nothing here.

//TERRACE 2
>talk to Weegee
>pulled out (luma)
>MAIL
>to Terrace
>enter Terrace
>exit Terrace
// While returning to terrace is unoptimal, the luigi stars require us to make a minimum of 3 trips to terrace
// because of luigi's positioning, it's optimal to get sweet sweet as you talk to him
// and then we want to get good egg luigi done asap to make way for the next luigi star
// although this isn't perfect, it's the fastest way to do this i can possibly think of

//KITCHEN 2
>to Kitchen
>enter Kitchen
>pulled out (grand star)
// Returning to kitchen after getting pulled out by ghostly 1 is required to progress

//FOUNTAIN 2
>MAIL
>to Fountain
>enter Fountain
>pulled out (first green)
// once again, returning here is required because of the luigi stars
// we want to get the terrace purples and honeyhive luigi in one trip
// so we need to come back to fountain once to get battlerock luigi

// BEDROOM 1
>to Bedroom
>enter Bedroom
>pulled out (grand star)
// because dusty dune green is our second green star, bedroom can be done in a single block

// KITCHEN 3 + TRIALS
>to Kitchen
>enter Kitchen
>pulled out (last green)
>to Trials
>pulled out (trials)
>to Trials
>pulled out (trials)
>to Trials
>pulled out (trials)
// the primary optimization that makes this route the current fastest route is doing trials this early
// completing the rolling gizmo trial before doing rolling green allows you to skip the tutorial
// which saves a decent chunk of time
// this, however requires that we return to kitchen an additional time in order to get the third green star
// otherwise, you'd get the third green star during kitchen purples and get pulled out then
// (which is slightly faster, as talked about in my kitchen 4 block)
// we don't have to walk over to kitchen an additional time actually
// but we do have to walk into the door and watch that small cutscene once more
// so to use my own terminology:
// we do not have to GO TO kitchen once more
// we do have to ENTER kitchen once more
// the door cutscene, while trivial, is time loss that should be optimized out
// this is the primary thing i'd like to work on routing out

//ENGINE 1
>to Engine Room
>enter Engine Room
>pulled out (60 stars + grand star)
>GO MARIO
>FINAL B0SER

// This is another potential time save
// I'd need to look more into this
// right now, this route does engine room in 2 blocks
// although there's no real reason you'd need to
// again, this only loses the time of walking into the door
// you still need to ride the teleporter up to engine room twice
// the issue is that because of purples you'd need to skip engine room entirely until segment 2
// and there's simply not 60 stars to collect without delving into some luma stars
// i use these lumas later to warp back to the observatory quicker
// and it's better to do lumas at the end of a dome block
// so although it's possible to collect 60 stars before going into engine room
// i'm fairly certain it's slower



S E G M E N T  T W O:

//TERRACE 3
>MAIL
>to Terrace
>enter Terrace
>exit Terrace
// as i've said before, you have to go to terrace 3 times
// here's the third

// FOUNTAIN 3
>to Fountain
>enter Fountain
>exit Fountain
// we must return to fountain to get purples
// once again, we can do fountain in 2 blocks but it means much more observatory movement overall
// which is slower
// still maybe worth looking into condensing fountain into two blocks
// i highly doubt it's worth it however
// EDIT:
// let me clarify this
// we need a fountain in between two terrace trips
// to obtain the 3 luigi stars
// fountain in 2 trips is possible to do
// but it means going directly to fountain after starting segment 2
// which means that instead of having observatory -> terrace and terrace -> fountain
// we have observatory -> fountain and, at some point later, observatory -> terrace
// this would cut out one observatory -> fountain trip so it would be faster
// however, because this is as green star, we won't be able to do trials before rolling green
// so as of now because of skipping the tutorial fountain in 2 blocks is slower
// also important to consider is that the green star will pull you out
// so although we do save one observatory -> fountain
// what was previously fountain -> bedroom is now observatory -> bedroom
// so it ultimately works out that you have to pick from these sets of observatory movement:
// observatory -> fountain, observatory -> terrace, terrace -> fountain, fountain -> bedroom
// observatory -> fountain, observatory -> bedroom, observatory -> terrace
// once again, this potential timesave is only possible after we find another way to skip the rolling green tutorial
// likely with garden early

// BEDROOM 2
>to Bedroom
>enter Bedroom
>exit Bedroom
>pulled out (luma)
// we must return here for purples
// no way to skip this
// exiting the dome could be skipped if dusty green was left until now
// but that would mean walking back to bedroom for the luma
// which is slower

// KITCHEN 4
>to Kitchen
>enter Kitchen
>exit Kitchen
>pulled out (luma)
// we must return here for purples
// no way to skip this
// exiting the dome could be skipped if buoy base green was left until now
// if we move kitchen luma earlier into the run, we can feasibly do this
// this would skip exiting the dome here
// this time save would be coupled with what's talked about in the kitchen 3 block
// this would skip, all together, entering and exiting kitchen once.

// ENGINE 2
>to Engine
>enter Engine
>exit Engine
>trigger teleporter
>pulled out (luma)
// we must return here for purples
// one important thing to note is that kitchen luma must be completed before engine room is 100%'d
// because of bonefin
// i think this is the fastest point to hit the teleporter
// i could be wrong, but i can't time this until thursday

// GARDEN
>to Gateway via teleporter
>pulled out (gateway)
>fly to Garden
>enter garden
>exit garden
>pulled out (luma)
>to Gateway via teleporter
>pulled out (luma + 120 stars)
// gateway is completed first so we have access to red star to get to garden
// gateway is completed now so that we can use the teleporter activated in engine 2
// garden is so far away from everything else that it's best done in a single unbroken block
// this is put near the end of the run because we need the teleporter from engine 2 to get to gateway quickly
// and in turn, engine 2 needs drip drop so, with my route, engine must be done after kitchen purples

>GO MARIO
>FINAL FINAL B0SER

//RECAP

// i tried to highlight all of the optimizations i made, and any point where there might be a faster route
// i would love to look into cutting that dome entry for kitchen 3
// cutting engine 2 is looking much much much less promising
// i actually put in about 3 hours looking for a way to cut engine 2 a few months ago
// and found nothing

// i just thought of this
// i move kitchen before the rest of the domes in the downstairs purples block
// and do trials in between kitchen and terrace
// this *should* work out
// it's not tested
// but here's the route:
// http://pastebin.com/Gv05c5Ju