Page 1 of 3

Speed Runs

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:56 pm
by Nullpointer
First of all a brief introduction: Speed runs are about finishing a game as quickly as possible. Usually this involves techniques such as not taking the path that was intended by the level designer, doing rocket jumps to jump over walls that were meant to be too high or just cold-shouldering monsters.

If you are interested in this topic there's a famous speed run done in Quake 1 and a site that has collected many speed runs from a large number of games.

What do you think about doing something like that with Giants? (One problem must be mentioned, though: AFAIK there's no easy way to record Giants game play)

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:28 pm
by Samurai
well, in Mecc story 1 i kno u can bypass the reaper guard walls by flying round the side somehow, and get straight to the 'Sorcha Island' mineshaft :wink:

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:58 pm
by SSJBardock
There are many, many shortcuts in Giants.

But what are the rules of such a speed run? Does the whole speed run have to be made by one person etc..?

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:09 pm
by Zopharks
With a decent computer (and an arseload of HDD space) you should be able to record somewhat decently with da fraps.

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:20 pm
by [NEO]Vortex
Just record in segments with fraps, each mission being a segment. When you get a time you're happy with just encode the video, delete the uncompressed video and do the next. When you're done, you can either compile them together or put them up for download in segments... good luck finding a host, though. Speed runs are fun in some games, but I personally don't think Giants' sp is interesting enough to bother.

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:28 pm
by Nullpointer
What about these rules? Feel free to comment or correct them :-)

* version 1.4
* no cheats or other manipulations (at least those that affect gameplay in any way)
* no taking advantage from restarting a mission (with base build missions the base is not lost when just restarting the mission)

But what about weapons? AFAIK you continue with the equipment left over from your previous mission, ammunition filled up, also if any grenades, mines, flares and spells were left they are also carried along but filled up again. Some missions add a new weapon (which is dropped when all slots are occupied from the previous mission). So what about that? This would mean that a huge number of different individual level speed runs are possible depending on equipment...

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 9:31 pm
by SSJBardock
[NEO]Vortex wrote:...good luck finding a host, though...
I can probably host it on olympus-studios if it's not too big
Nullpointer wrote:...But what about weapons? AFAIK you continue with the equipment left over from your previous mission, ammunition filled up, also if any grenades, mines, flares and spells were left they are also carried along but filled up again. Some missions add a new weapon (which is dropped when all slots are occupied from the previous mission). So what about that? This would mean that a huge number of different individual level speed runs are possible depending on equipment...
I guess we could:

1. Use the 'allmissionsaregoodtogo' cheat, and use only the weapons available to you then (which are very little, hard to get a good time)
2. Make rules on which weapons/items/backpacks you are allowed to use at the beginning of each mission.
3. Make no rules and let everybody figure out what's best for him/herself. (more competition, by having to find the best weapon combination for each level)

We could turn this into a competition, and look who can get the best time on each mission.

BTW another way to record video very efficiently is to use 2 PC's, one with a Video-out connection on which you play Giants, and one with a Video-in connection with which you record the game. (I think this is how lolly does it)

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 10:05 pm
by |AFTA|Yankee
Well...it seems like you kno what ur doing! I think that it would be a good idea to make it a compititon! A lil' competition is always good for the giants community! :D :) :) :)

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:16 pm
by [TO]Semore
Heh, well, after I became kinda good at the game, I went back through SP and everything was alot easier, especially w/ the rocket jump. You can skip through many levels using it in one minute that would normally take much longer. If you were gonna do something like this, you would have to explain in extreme detail about how to do the rocket/RPG jump.

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 5:14 am
by Zopharks
[TO]Semore wrote:If you were gonna do something like this, you would have to explain in extreme detail about how to do the rocket/RPG jump.
Indeed, because in general the people who make speedrun videos generally don't know everything there is to know about whatever game they're playing. Oh, wait...

Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 11:55 pm
by [TO]Semore
I mean for the people who would use the speed run. DId that not come across right?

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:50 pm
by Zopharks
"shoot the ground, you go up"

I think seeing it in the video would be explanation enough. :P

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:14 am
by [TO]Semore
I thought we decided that a fraps video would be too hard? Oh well, w/e, a video would be alot better though. Then we could get some gangsta commentary.

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2005 5:46 am
by Zopharks
[TO]Semore wrote:I thought we decided that a fraps video would be too hard?
Uh... Where?

[TO]Semore wrote:Then we could get some gangsta commentary.
I hate you.

Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:02 am
by [TO]Semore
[NEO]Z0PharX wrote:
[TO]Semore wrote:I thought we decided that a fraps video would be too hard?
Uh... Where?

[TO]Semore wrote:Then we could get some gangsta commentary.
I hate you.
1. Up there when we thought it was gonna be too big and we'd need a beastly machine to do it.

2. <3