Alien Shooter Vengeance - September 29th, 2009

2009-09-29 07:05:41 pm

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Game Page: Doesn't exist yet.

Patrik 'Cremator' Salonen's normal difficulty run as Nina Rossow with deaths

Verifier Responses

Quote:

Verifier: regarding the alien shooter run
Verifier: the resolution on the verification video is too low, I can't read the stats properly
Verifier: however, the playing is overall good, there was a small miss in the beginning of segment 10 where the runner "dropped" an item in the shop and had to pick it up again
Verifier: I don't think such things should happen that early in a segment
Verifier: clever death abuse/death warping
Verifier: segment 12 is really impressive, doing that without using the tank is quite hard
Verifier: the small issue with the shop is the only thing I can really complain about, but I can't say accept on this run because I can't verify any of the stats
Verifier: based on the playing I can accept the ASV run, but I still can't verify some of the stats in the run, I guess it's up to the others (and you) to decide if this goes up or not
me: okay fair enough

Quote:

Despite the d1 copy looking a bit ugly, the text was legible enough to determine that the runner's cash and inventory are consistent between segments.

Segment specific:
1-4 - Runner exits menus by clicking ok rather than pointing the cursor in the direction he intends to go and hitting c/i/escape/whatever. Most obvious in segment 1, seems to have little impact if any, though.

4 - After shutting off the first pump and deathwarping closer to the other, runner briefly gets stuck on the fence on the side of the ramp up.

9, 10 - Was interesting to learn that there are immediate cash awards for objectives in these missions.

14, 15 - This is my favorite trick in the run - runner skips two of the alien queens and the alien commander by walking through gaps in the spike gates. Fighting the commander is a drag even on normal.

The route is good, and apart from the two minor complaints above, so is the execution, so I say accept.

Quote:

Alien Shooter Vengeance verification:

No cheating observed.

Audio quality was good.

Video quality was decent - some occational problems though, like the slowdown in level 2 (5:30 - 5:50), and the ½ second skip in level 12 (at around 1:23). Also, couldn't make out the smaller texts, but I'm guessing that's due to the low bit rate of the verification copy.

Didn't find any inconsistencies between the segments - Disappearing shotgun in level 2 due to the glitch happened to me as well on my test run.

Good planning and execution, as far as I know the runner took the shortest paths, and wasted minimal time getting items. Smart usage of death warping and good choice of weapons at each point of the run. I would probably have used the shotgun alot farther into the run and switched straight into rocket launchers, but it appears that energy weapons were far more viable than I thought. Good allocation of skillpoints and usage of implants in order to maximize speed and to equip the best weapons at the time.
There's that silly death in level 2, but I don't really care since he didn't lose time on it, and he didn't need that life later on.

Overall it's a good run, although personally I might have redone level 2 due to the lag & death just because it looks a bit bad (unless the lag happens every time), but I'm not going to reject based on that - the rest of the run makes up for it, in my oppinion. Accept.

Decision: Accept

Reason: It's a tight, well-optimized run.

Question: Should characters be separate categories?

Thread title:

Game Page: Doesn't exist yet.

Patrik 'Cremator' Salonen's normal difficulty run as Nina Rossow with deaths

[b]Verifier Responses[/b]

[quote]Verifier: regarding the alien shooter run
Verifier: the resolution on the verification video is too low, I can't read the stats properly
Verifier: however, the playing is overall good, there was a small miss in the beginning of segment 10 where the runner "dropped" an item in the shop and had to pick it up again
Verifier: I don't think such things should happen that early in a segment
Verifier: clever death abuse/death warping
Verifier: segment 12 is really impressive, doing that without using the tank is quite hard
Verifier: the small issue with the shop is the only thing I can really complain about, but I can't say accept on this run because I can't verify any of the stats
Verifier: based on the playing I can accept the ASV run, but I still can't verify some of the stats in the run, I guess it's up to the others (and you) to decide if this goes up or not
me: okay fair enough[/quote]

[quote]Despite the d1 copy looking a bit ugly, the text was legible enough to determine that the runner's cash and inventory are consistent between segments.

Segment specific:
1-4 - Runner exits menus by clicking ok rather than pointing the cursor in the direction he intends to go and hitting c/i/escape/whatever.  Most obvious in segment 1, seems to have little impact if any, though.

4 - After shutting off the first pump and deathwarping closer to the other, runner briefly gets stuck on the fence on the side of the ramp up.

9, 10 - Was interesting to learn that there are immediate cash awards for objectives in these missions.

14, 15 - This is my favorite trick in the run - runner skips two of the alien queens and the alien commander by walking through gaps in the spike gates.  Fighting the commander is a drag even on normal.

The route is good, and apart from the two minor complaints above, so is the execution, so I say accept.[/quote]

[quote]Alien Shooter Vengeance verification:

No cheating observed.

Audio quality was good.

Video quality was decent - some occational problems though, like the slowdown in level 2 (5:30 - 5:50), and the ½ second skip in level 12 (at around 1:23). Also, couldn't make out the smaller texts, but I'm guessing that's due to the low bit rate of the verification copy.

Didn't find any inconsistencies between the segments - Disappearing shotgun in level 2 due to the glitch happened to me as well on my test run.

Good planning and execution, as far as I know the runner took the shortest paths, and wasted minimal time getting items. Smart usage of death warping and good choice of weapons at each point of the run. I would probably have used the shotgun alot farther into the run and switched straight into rocket launchers, but it appears that energy weapons were far more viable than I thought. Good allocation of skillpoints and usage of implants in order to maximize speed and to equip the best weapons at the time.
There's that silly death in level 2, but I don't really care since he didn't lose time on it, and he didn't need that life later on.

Overall it's a good run, although personally I might have redone level 2 due to the lag & death just because it looks a bit bad (unless the lag happens every time), but I'm not going to reject based on that - the rest of the run makes up for it, in my oppinion. Accept.[/quote]

[b]Decision[/b]: Accept

[b]Reason[/b]: It's a tight, well-optimized run.

Question: Should characters be separate categories?

Pjoxt

2009-10-03 05:13:38 pm

Yes, I'm a wizard.

One thing to add is that the in-game timer is stopped while in the menu / shop.

Quote:

Verifier: however, the playing is overall good, there was a small miss in the beginning of segment 10 where the runner "dropped" an item in the shop and had to pick it up again
Verifier: I don't think such things should happen that early in a segment

Quote:

1-4 - Runner exits menus by clicking ok rather than pointing the cursor in the direction he intends to go and hitting c/i/escape/whatever. Most obvious in segment 1, seems to have little impact if any, though.

Therefore those 2 issues by the first two verifiers shouldn't matter unless you're timing the run manually, and including time spent in shops & menu.

65

2009-10-04 06:18:24 am

That's correct. I planned a lot of things based on the fact the timer stops in the menu (also gave myself some leeway with the menus as you can see; it handles a bit awkwardly). Whenever I exited menus with the cursor I used the keyboard to move in the desired direction ASAP, although I changed that later since mouse moving is more accurate.

I strongly counted on that we'd be using the internal timer, and all leveling, shopping and other strategies (such as the armor & megahealth switch in level 11, I think) would be horribly unoptimized if I happened to be wrong. The game's timer is accurate and reliable, so there's no reason not to use it.

I'm also pretty sure the game didn't count the lag in level 2, so I went with that. That level was one of the hardest ones to optimize with all the semi-timed fights (those fights last, AFAIK, as long as the enemies keep spawning and you've see them, or something to that effect). The game doesn't always lag like that, but I can't help it when it does. Pretty much the same thing with level 12, although admittedly I didn't even notice it myself until you pointed it out.

Some things do look a bit ugly, but I didn't want to focus on optimizing those things in particular since it won't affect the outcome. I'm not very accurate with the mouse and the way the menu loads the item data a little bit every time you grab one doesn't help either.

Regardless, the points made are valid, even if ever so slightly tilted towards Style Demos Archive. The verifications seem fair & balanced. Thanks.

That's correct. I planned a lot of things based on the fact the timer stops in the menu (also gave myself some leeway with the menus as you can see; it handles a bit awkwardly). Whenever I exited menus with the cursor I used the keyboard to move in the desired direction ASAP, although I changed that later since mouse moving is more accurate.

I strongly counted on that we'd be using the internal timer, and all leveling, shopping and other strategies (such as the armor & megahealth switch in level 11, I think) would be horribly unoptimized if I happened to be wrong. The game's timer is accurate and reliable, so there's no reason not to use it.

I'm also pretty sure the game didn't count the lag in level 2, so I went with that. That level was one of the hardest ones to optimize with all the semi-timed fights (those fights last, AFAIK, as long as the enemies keep spawning and you've see them, or something to that effect). The game doesn't always lag like that, but I can't help it when it does. Pretty much the same thing with level 12, although admittedly I didn't even notice it myself until you pointed it out.

Some things do look a bit ugly, but I didn't want to focus on optimizing those things in particular since it won't affect the outcome. I'm not very accurate with the mouse and the way the menu loads the item data a little bit every time you grab one doesn't help either.

Regardless, the points made are valid, even if ever so slightly tilted towards Style Demos Archive. The verifications seem fair & balanced. Thanks.

zoonel

2009-12-05 08:22:46 am

Go play spacechem !

Great run

The second half of the game was so fast ^^
Did hypnosys really helped you?
Exploding barrels is a neat trick, but in advanced difficulties everyone fears the barrels and green spiky things :p
next step would be a run in hard if it is possible Wink

65

2009-12-05 03:10:39 pm

Hypnosis was useful for getting rid of those spike enemies early on and for crowd control whenever I lacked firepower to just run for it (enemies always attack the hypnotized minion first - and spiky things detonate when a hypnotized enemy is near them - so I could conveniently draw their attention away from me when necessary on the earlier levels). I'm not sure if some other skill could be more beneficial overall, since Hypnosis pretty much loses its value later on. On harder difficulties some other skill might prove to be better if the monsters happen to be more resistant to hypnotism.

I'm not sure about harder difficulties. Some barrel boosts might be doable with proper armoring, and the strategies would probably need to be re-evaluated because you can take very little damage. It might be worthwhile to see if some other character would be better than Rossow, too. Doing level 12 as I do it now might not be possible on Impossible, either.