Randomizer Thoughts: Capture the Flag

Hello and welcome to another installment of Randomizer Thoughts! Where we unravel the mysteries and complexities of Zelda randomizers and discuss what’s new in the world of randomizers. This week, we’ll be talking about the major part of cutting time in Randomizer runs: Programming flags. We also have the first results of the finale matches of the A Link to the Past Randomizer League 2020 Invitational! We also have a Wind Waker Blind seed that’ll see you scouring the Great Sea for items this week!

If you’re new to Randomizer Thoughts, check out our FAQ for a little bit of a lesson on what exactly Randomizers are as well as our previous installment covering the differences between Casual and Race-based Play. Without further ado though, let’s get into this week’s topic.

Understanding Programming Flags

One of the biggest things that surprises people when they first get into randomizers is just how many sequence breaks you can manage when you’re no longer beholden to the pre-designed order in which progress items are dulled out in a Zelda game. A number of these sequence breaks were mentioned in our Randomizer FAQ article, one of note being in Ocarina of Time how one can actually have the rainbow bridge to Ganon’s Castle appear if they are in possession of the Shadow Medallion, Spirit Medallion, and the Light Arrows. Of course, to get the Light Arrows, one needs the first three medallions as well, which is how the game prevents you from doing any skipping around, but if Light Arrows no longer hold that requirement, it’s entirely possible to just skip those three medallions entirely.

Within the game’s programming, these are what are called flags. Within computer programming, we call these binary values as the two possibilities they can hold are ‘true’ and ‘false’. Oftentimes, game code will check these values for a ‘true’ response in order to determine if a progression event should occur. We, as humans, try to see a lot of game events in a more narrative fashion and quite likely overthink just how much actually goes into how a game figures out when it’s time to have Ganondorf chase Zelda from Hyrule Castle. The reality is, the less code that has to be typed out and handled, the better for production times and on top of it, it means less ways a game can be crashed due to conflicting values. To this end, these determining factors tend to have an Occam’s Razor approach in figuring out the most simple way possible for the game programming to have things happen at the right time.

Going to our previous example with the rainbow bridge, if it’s required to have the Light Arrows to summon the bridge, that already covers the check for the Forest, Fire, and Water Medallions, so there’s no sense in doing an additional superfluous check. I’ve no clue why the Shadow and Spirit Medallions are checked as they’re also required for the Light Arrows, but I’m sure it probably has something to do with the wild duct-tape like glue that holds Ocarina of Time together. The amount of bizarre choices in Ocarina of Time’s programming could be an editorial piece in and of itself.

That’s a bit more technical than the typical player is used to though. The point here is that in every Zelda game, (and plenty of other games) there are a plethora of these “flags” that the code uses to determine your progress in the game. It is through taking advantage of these very simplistic ways the game figures things out in that we can skip entire portions of the game in both Speedrunning and in Randomizer play. Each game has it’s own unique points of manipulation, but a couple of interesting examples include

• In The Legend of Zelda, the checks for the White Sword and Magic Sword are actually how many hearts you have, so you can obtain those item spots without even entering a dungeon at all.
• In A Link to the Past, the Dark World dungeons have very little that stop you from doing them in any order basically. The hammer is the only major required item to do any of them. Having some future items even make some dungeons a joke, like using the Cane of Somaria in the Ice Palace.
• Ocarina of Time has so many of these breakable flags that the Randomizer community has made an entire wiki page full of them. And these are just the Glitchless ones.
• Odolwa in Majora’s Mask is actually weak to fire arrows funny enough. As well, it is entirely possible to get to Ikana Valley without Ice Arrows. Simply kill the Octoroks and step to the very edge of the dock where your hookshot can reach the tree above. The Gibdo Mask can also be used in lieu of the Garo’s Mask to gain access to Ikana.
• The trading sequence in Oracle of Seasons is completely pointless if you know the solution already.
• The fully powered Master Sword and fully formed Triforce are the only requirements to get to Ganon’s Castle in Wind Waker. You may want the light arrows, grappling hook, and mirror shield if you actually want to beat the King of Thieves though.

There are more and many of these little bits of finagling as far as the game goes, and if you’re really trying to learn a randomizer, it’s pertinent to know which of these skips are considered within the logic of the shuffle as it’s entirely possible you might get stuck since the game is aware of the potential skip but you may not be. Even in just writing this article, I came to learn of a few skips I hadn’t even been aware of prior to this which had held up a couple of my past runs. Always research your randomizers!

Randomizer Spotlight

Next up, we have our Randomizer Spotlight for the week! Each installment, we’ll be covering various individuals in the randomizer in the community as well as highlighting their developers! As often as I can, I’ll be trying to reach out to them to get their direct input on the process and development of the randomizer, but regardless, we hope we can bring attention to a lot of unique randomizers and enlighten people on the complicated and devoted process that many of these developers go through to make these work.

This week, I spoke to BigSharkZ, a modder who has contributed an incredibly large number of models to LagoLunatic’s Wind Waker Randomizer and has in fact even made an entirely brand new gameplay experience using the Wind Waker Randomizer as a base, called Dark Linka & The King’s Revenge. BSZ is in fact the modder behind Linka, the female Wind Waker Link model who is often featured in the screenshots on Randomizer Thoughts (as she is my default model), but he has also created a whole slew of other models for the game and even gave me a peak at some upcoming projects.

Go ahead and introduce yourself!

“Hello! I’m BigSharkZ, also known as BSZ. I’m a professional artist that enjoys a wide variety of art forms, such as music, storytelling, animation, 3D modeling, drawing and modding games. With almost 15 years of experience, I have been modding all sorts of video games, most notably known for my work in the Super Smash Bros. Brawl, EarthBound and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker communities. I found the Wind Waker Randomizer community by complete accident back in June 2019, and it was one of the best things to happen to me. Not only because it’s what reignited my enjoyment for 3D modding (As I usually focus on modding 2D games), but also because I’ve learned a lot from it, helped in the advancement of many tools, and met tons of wonderful people. You could consider me one of the main modders of the community as I like to try doing a variety of things, such as animation edits, custom music or cosmetic mods that change more than just Link himself.”

What are projects you’ve done and which one’s are your favorites?

“So far I’ve made 8 Link [model swap] mods: Ashley from WarioWare, Red from Pokémon, CJ from GTA: San Andreas, Vacation Link, my own take on a female Link called Linka, Postbox Man, the result of many requests for a playable Postbox, Malon / Romani from OoT & MM and Dark Linka, a smug, snarky and mischievous version of Linka. Alongside Red, CJ and Dark Linka are also mod packs that include additional content.

As for favorites.. that’s a hard one! They all stand out on their own for different reasons but if I had to pick one, it would be Dark Linka, as she is the latest mod I’ve released, and thus I’ve been able to put in more effort and polish into it due to all that I learned over the past year. For example, she makes use of various optimization techniques, has multiple new materials, animation changes, extra meshes for most items, and even a dark boat with wings that can expand when sailing! Compared to Ashley which was my first mod, the difference in quality really shows.”

In terms of Dark Linka and the King’s Revenge, what prompted you to use the Randomizer as a base opposed to modding the base game?

“The short answer: Modding takes an extremely long time, especially for one-man projects! One of the features of the Wind Waker Randomizer is that it cuts a lot of unnecessary content for a more streamlined experience; such as removing cutscenes, or having the whole world be open from the start. Due to this, it takes less time and effort to modify what the Randomizer’s world offers, as opposed to the entirety of the vanilla game. Changing the entire game’s script and cutscenes to reflect my story / mod would take an insane amount of work and I just do not have the time for it, especially when I don’t like to stick on one project for too long, and this one took 4 months!

Another reason is because I have removed certain story events for memory optimization, and also completely changed important maps such as Orca’s house, which would not be available to the player in the vanilla game, and thus create a softlock.”

Any other things you’d like to mention at all?

“I’ve met a lot of people that were hesitant in trying out the Randomizer or modding in general, so here’s something I’d like to mention about both subjects. The Wind Waker Randomizer is actually the most approachable Zelda Randomizer in my opinion, suitable for complete beginners, even people who are not too familiar with the original game. So if it interests you, give it a shot! Use a tracker and it’ll be smooth sailing from there. Get it? Sailing? I’ll show myself out… Anyway, when it comes to modding, it’s definitely a difficult hobby to master as you need experience in various forms of art, as well as a lot of patience if you want to make something good and functional. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try if you lack the knowledge, we all gotta start somewhere! There’ll always be people happy to guide you throughout the various processes of modding, so try it out if it intrigues you!”

I actually have all of BSZ’s publicly available models loaded into my randomizer, and they are absolutely some of the best mods I have seen on any game period with a lot even having additional models for items and entities like the King of Red Lions and even new sound effects to fully integrate the new elements. I am planning to run Dark Linka and the King’s Revenge on my personal streams too as I haven’t had the chance to play it just yet.

You can download Dark Linka and the King’s Revenge right here, and support BSZ on his YouTube, Patreon, Twitter, and his GameBanana modder’s profile. In addition, you can join the Discord for LagoLunatic’s Wind Waker Randomizer here where BSZ is active and open for conversation.

League Update

Next up, we have some news from the world of Randomizer Leagues, a community of folks who specialize in streamed one on one matches through the routed/race format of randomizers.

The big event for this week is the first finale matches of the A Link to the Past Randomizer League’s Season 3 Invitational tournament that we’ve been covering. After each division of the tournament was broken down to three teams remaining, this week saw one team eliminated from each division. From the Kakariko Division, Pugtrio unfortunately saw an end to their winning streak against The 2019 Titan’s Mitts of 2019, and now the Mitts will go on to face off against Error 216. In The Lost Woods Division, Triple Dino Disaster knocked out I Like Big Boots and will heading forward to face off against Last Locationers.

Over on the other side of the map, WJPDTB won out against Did You Check Your Boot? and will be facing off against Shaktool’s Digging Game for the champion of the Misery Mire Division. Over at the Skull Woods Division, Tile Roomies were knocked out by Team Kappa who will now face off against Phendrana Drifters. After this week’s matches, we will have the champions of the four divisions and will see matches to see who take home the champion positions for the Light World and Dark World Conferences. Next update, we’ll have word on which two teams will be facing off for the grand finale, so tune in. To watch the matches live, follow Speedgaming and A Link to the Past Randomizer League’s Twitch pages, and see the A Link to the Past Randomizer League’s website for schedules.

In addition to these, just a small update to say that the qualifiers for Season 4 of the Ocarina of Time Randomizer League are still going through January and are open to join to the public! They welcome new folks as well as a veterans to try and 96 people will be making the eventual matches in both their major and minor leagues so give it a try! You’ve got nothing to lose. You can find schedules and information for that on their Discord server right here!

Zelda Dungeon Seed #003 (Ace in the Hole)

Finally, we have our bi-weekly official Zelda Dungeon Randomizer seed! Essentially, using the seed provided here, you can receive the same exact randomization as anyone else who uses the seed. This allows for both potential discussion of the contents of the seed among others and an opportunity for the particular run to be quality checked beforehand to ensure it’s fun and engaging and meets certain themes. I alternate

between Blind and Race seeds, so there will be one of each, each month! Race seeds will also come with a Zelda Dungeon time (set by yours truly) to try and beat.

This month features LagoLunatic’s Wind Waker Randomizer! This blind seed will set you in a random spot in the middle of the Great Sea and task you with reaching Ganondorf starting off with only a sail and the Wind Waker. This one is a little harder than last month’s Ocarina of Time seeds, but once you get on a roll, this one starts to flow really well. I think you guys will quite enjoy it.

In order to play the seed, you’ll need to go to this link right here and download the rom patcher executable. From there, submit your base rom to the patcher and then you’ll want to put the following into the permalink at the bottom of the screen:

MS44LjAAU2hhZHlEaXN0aW5ndWlzaGVkUGFyY2VsAJNpgwFPEMAMAAAAAAAAAA==

Note, that it will need to be English copy of the original Gamecube Wind Waker in order to work. If you did it correctly, the Seed box at the top should read ‘ShadyDistinguishedParcel’. From there, modify the cosmetic settings if you so desire, patch the rom, and stick it into your preferred method of play and have fun! Submit stories and screenshots of your most bizarre experiences and achievements, and you might be featured in next month’s Randomizer Thoughts!

A couple hints for your run here!

• No major items are hidden behind regular Treasure Charts. There is no reason to dig those up. There are however some behind the Triforce Charts!
• It’s a good idea to take your time around Windfall Island.
• The Boomerang is a huge key to solving the first half of this seed.
• The objective markers on the map mark which dungeons have important items. There is no need to complete any dungeons that aren’t marked.
• … Just don’t expect the dungeons you come across to be what you expect.
• The Goddess Pearls are required to unlock The Tower of the Gods, but they do not need to be placed. The Tower will just appear when you get your third pearl.
• The Bow is not obtained until quite late in this run, so be prepared to resort to some interesting alternatives for ranged combat.
• There are a number of rupee gates in this run. There’s a specific pillar you can detonate repeatedly for some quick cash on Stonewatcher Island if you’re a bit tight on dough.

That’s all for now, but check in next time where we’ll be talking about methods for using trackers and their history within the Randomizer community!

Featured Image Source: Dark Linka and the King’s Revenge by BigSharkZ