My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: Doesn't exist yet
'Lenophis's single-segment new game + run
Verifier Responses
Considering we're going to use the in-game timer for these games, and the timer doesn't count the menu time, this run is acceptable.
Decision: Accept
Reason: It's our first Dynasty Warriors run.
This is my last verification topic. Flip will be taking over from now on.
'Lenophis's single-segment new game + run
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Verification for Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires single-segment New Game+ run by Lenophis
Starting notes:
Audio and video seem fine, no sign of cheating.
By starting on Normal difficulty, generals are pretty strong but not overwhelming. They take a while to kill though, even when using a maxed out character with a maximised weapon. However, by stacking various abilities, it is possible for powerful attacks from your own playable generals, and it is even possible (at least on DW5 and DW5:XL) to kill a general in one powerful hit. Commanding generals have higher stats so that isn't possible, and it will generally take a while to kill a Normal commander, even with a powered up character.
With the Officer Death option on, enemies that are killed in battle die permanently, which means that they can't be rehired for generals to use in other battles. This option is important in getting a fast time since there is a limited amount of general to choose from, and with this run using just the 6 starting generals to do all the combat, eliminating as many enemy attackers as possible is necessary. Without this option on, it is very possible for lords to rehire defeated powerful generals to come back later and stock up on enemies to make retailation possible, and having to defend a region means a failed run. The set of generals used is moved several times throughout the run since the defend status is actually quite predictable, and having a few generals with full troops will counter that from occurring in most cases (if a enemy has equal strength and some tactics to play with, it might fancy its chances, but this is more likely to happen in long playthroughs).
The three custom characters used all lend themselves well to speedrunning in different ways. Gan Ning's moveset (used on romscout) has the fastest land speed when using his musou attack, which allows for getting around quickly when not on a horse. His normal attacks are slightly higher to compensate for the awkwardness of using his Musou in actual combat. Zhou Tai's moveset is great for horse combat, slightly worse than Ma Chao but still great for quickly ripping through generals. Guan Ping's moveset (on RaneofSOTN) is not one I prefer to use but its still a solid choice for grounded combat, reasonably fast and strong.
All the playable generals gain weapons very differently in this game compared to DW5 and DW5:XL. Weapons are fixed at the basic level - 4 attacks - until they are upgraded with policies, which is quite a slow and expensive process. The various mods on weapons are found at the end of battles on scrolls, each weapon can hold up to 5 basic mods, and the Power/weight can also be improved through scrolls. Weapon Power rates as high as 40, and the weight affects the damage and attack speed of the characters. There are many other factors which affect how much damage a character does in combat, such as getting the Attackx2 temporary power, use of the Green Scroll, and even the difference between the enemy being on the ground or in the air (grounded enemies take full damage, enemies comboed in the air take half damage). Weapon mods can be saved and transferred to other playthroughs, however the best mods (up to 20) can only be found on the hardest difficulty, Chaos, requiring an already significantly powered up character to achieve. There is a lot of groundwork in building up a character before they can be used for speedrunning.
First phase:
The number of starting generals and areas occupied by each general are randomly generated on the Gathering of Heroes session, meaning each one starts very differently each time. By starting in Wu Ling, the runner has a nice healthy choice of options with which area to start with. If you attack the ruling general and win, you also win control of all the areas he previously controlled, so aiming for lords is the best option for a quick finish.
Combat is less determined by the general's stats and are heavily influenced by the number of troops a general controls. Higher rank generals can control more troops, so they directly affect this, but the number of troops is just as important. With this in mind, the first action before attacking the runner chooses is to maximise one general's troops to full (20,000) to make the combat easier. After a quick check of which options to start with, the first invasion is in the south controlled by Huang Gai. Huang Gai only controls one area, but it can reach the far east and west of the maps so it is an important controlling area from the south.
Very different to the regular games, combats are won by either building a supply line from your starting base to the enemy general's base, and clearing it out of all defenders (generals and Guard Captains), or by defeating the ruling general. By not starting in the main base, it seems the only option was to directly beat the enemy leader, which was complicated by the other generals that decided to drop by. Despite a few errors, the battle went pretty quickly. By using the Charge 3 attack, extra attacks are performed followed by a stunning attack. The subsequent attacks however do less damage since a general is lifted into the air.
Second phase:
By controlling 2 areas, a general can perform 2 actions before the station and combat sections of the phase. The two actions here are to use the areas unique item selections to generate a Red Hare Saddle (granting the user the fastest horse in the game) and the Wind Scroll (for extra range on the weapon attacks). The items generated in each area are somewhat random, so it was pretty lucky to get both of these in close proximity so early.
After that, he chooses to head west to invade Cheng Yu's region of Nanman. Surprisingly it only needs 2 bases beaten before the general appears. More use of the C4 attack might have made the base capture quicker, but it still went ok. Ruling generals do not appear on the map until the supply lines are brought as far as the base before the main base, which is why this had to happen.
Third phase:
Once again, uses his controlled areas to produce the Red Hare Saddle, and Wind Scroll. Items are held until used in one battle, and up to 9 of each item can be held. After that, he heads to battle Xiahou Yuan in Jiang Ning, who controls 2 areas.
Building the supply line took a while simply because there were several bases in the way of the main base. It took 4 bases to build all the way to Xiahou Yuan. Fighting him directly was pretty slow and awkward, and it would have again been faster to knock him out of the main base. If no enemy generals or Guard Captains are in a base for more than 5 seconds and an enemy general enters it, it is considered occupied. Xiahou Yuan did not want to cooperate here, and it took a while to manipulate him out of the area.
Fourth phase:
Now that he has more than 5 areas, the runner can use 3 actions. His first action was to start a short alliance with Diao Chan, who from the start also controlled a few regions, and this stopped her from trying to invade the unoccupied areas. The same goes for Zhou Yu, who controlled 1 area but still had a good chance to invade this turn. Finally, another alliance was made with Huang Zhong, who controlled 2 areas. By moving his generals he prevented Xiahou Dun from invading, which makes his controlled areas almost completely safe. Since he doesn't have an alliance with Xiahou Dun, he can invade him and gain control of the 3 areas Dun has.
I was informed by the runner he was distracted in the middle of this run, which explains the minute or so delay before
starting this combat.
Since this area has only a few bases, it takes only one base to be beaten before the lord appears. Dun was more cooperative than his brother in combat, requiring less manipulation to move him outside the base for the runner to seize.
Fifth phase:
At the start of this phase, the AI Xu Zhu offers a 3 year alliance which he accepts. This can be suspended at any time with the use of a policy, so it means Xu Zhu will not invade even unoccupied territories.
He uses this turn to produce another Red Hare Saddle and Wind Scroll, and after considering his options chooses to Promote Craft+, since cash is tough to get in a speedrun and almost everything (even invasion) requires an amount of money to perform).
The AI decide to use this turn to start attacking other AI controlled areas.
Sixth phase:
Huang Zhong's areas became controlled by Diao Chan. Sun Ce offers an alliance which was rejected.
2 of the 3 actions were used to build the troop numbers of the other two main generals to full, and the third was used to Promote Craft+. Once again, he decides to let the AI move this turn and not interfere. Xu Zhu takes another area.
Seventh phase:
Since the northern regions of the runner's area are now safe, the forces are moved to the south in order to start invading that side of the map. In order to make the battle go quicker, the 3 Lieutenants get their forces maxed out here.
The AI Diao Chan decided to invade the immediate southern area to the runner. Xu Zhu's areas also come under Diao Chan's rule. She now controls around half the map.
Eight phase:
A new alliance is accepted with Zhou Yu to stop him interfering. A second Red Hare Saddle and Wind Scroll are produced. No invasion by any side this turn.
Ninth phase:
Here, the runner starts developing in Cheng Du. He has waited for Diao Chan to move to an adjacent area so he can take all her controlled areas in one move. Since the alliance ended, he didnt need to use Annul Alliance, so instead Produce Craft+ is used to keep the cash flowing. Since she is not moving close enough to take in one move, he needs to take one occupied area to reach her.
Zhao Yun is not a lord, but he controls this region. Beating him does not cause the battle to end, but possessing a
controlling supply line to the main base will. Being a bit of an awkward map, this requires several bases to be beaten to reach the main base. Otherwise, it went relatively quickly. Zhao Yun was nowhere near the base so there was nothing stopping an immediate seize.
Tenth phase:
First action here was to improve the Ginseng item. The first two went on improving it (from 5 to 15) and the final action
was to producing 1 Ginseng. This allows the Musou bar to fill faster, managing combat easier.
After that, he decides to invade Luo Yang to take out Diao Chan. This stage only required 1 base to be captured before the lord appeared, making this battle go pretty quickly. With the Sorcerers on the enemy side, this combat was made pretty awkward, especially with Guan Ping coming to interfere, but after clearing out the Guard Captains and keeping Diao Chan out of the base it went reasonably quickly.
Eleventh phase:
Now that the runner controls most of the land, this part of the run can go pretty quickly. Zhou Yu is in a single isolated
area and can be managed at any time. Wei Yan controls the north-eastern regions but requires no intermediate areas to be beaten before taking him down.
Since he now has 5 actions, he can produce 5 items - Red Hare Saddle, Wind Scroll, Ginseng, and the fourth was a Fire Orb, allowing for extra fire damage on charge attacks. The fifth item produced was a Green Scroll, which raises Attack in favour of Defence, turning your character into a glass cannon. Since he is invading Wei Yan's areas, he can ignore the attempted invasion of the southern area.
All 5 items produced this turn were equipped. After that, there are only 3 bases needing to be beaten before the lord
appears. With the Green Scroll combat goes much faster, Ginseng helping to keep the Musou attacks frequent. Archers caused a bit of difficulty in the 3rd base, but the route to the boss went quickly. Once again, the use of Sorcerers made this battle a little awkward, and with the Green Scroll he came dangerously close to dying, but the base seize still went well.
Twelth phase:
The only area left to conquer is Zhou Yu's. The first few actions are used to generate more items - Red Hare Scroll,
Fire Orb, Wind Scroll, and Green Scroll. The final action was to produde the Neutral Start tactic, allowing for a change to
the starting bases. All of the bases on the map become neutral with the exception of the main bases, so the first part of the battle becomes a case of seizing as many bases on the way to the main base. This can be a double-edged sword, but it worked well in this case to cut down the number of bases before the main base needing to be captured to 1. After that, it was surprising that the final general was the only one to be beaten in combat rather than knocked out of the main base.
Final summary:
Since this game is so very luck based, not only in how the AI controls other areas not your own, but in combat itself with what enemy units and strategies might be employed, this run went very well. There were some awkward points, most notably the slow battle with Xiahou Yuan, and any of the battles with Sorcerer units, but those were managed reasonably well and still produced a very fast time. Most of the time saved actually came from Diao Chan controlling half the map and having her eliminate most of the enemy generals, requiring less overall combat. The use of items really make the difference, especially the use of Red Hare Saddle to cover distance. I'm not convinced the Wind Scroll is always necessary - the increased range is nice, but its more useful on characters with short range weapons to compensate, I feel. For a good combat on Normal difficulty, it can take around the same time to beat a general with Green Scroll as it does to clear out the base of the Guard Captains and keep the lord out of the base. With other generals sometimes coming to interfere, this sometimes cannot be avoided and so the Green Scroll is definitely faster in this case. This difference is most notable in Xiahou Yuan's battle. More liberal use of Charge 4 rather than an immediate resort to the Musou attack might help moving the lord general out of the base more easily - different characters have different knockbacks with this attack, so that is a notable factor when it comes to choosing which movesets to use. Despite several layers of luck causing problems throughout the run, there was a lot that went in the runner's favour and I feel it should be accepted. Of course, any run with this level of randomness can be improved, but it will be a rare occurrence unless new strategies or better AI manipulation (in both combat and strategy mode) is discovered.
tl;dr, accept this run!
Starting notes:
Audio and video seem fine, no sign of cheating.
By starting on Normal difficulty, generals are pretty strong but not overwhelming. They take a while to kill though, even when using a maxed out character with a maximised weapon. However, by stacking various abilities, it is possible for powerful attacks from your own playable generals, and it is even possible (at least on DW5 and DW5:XL) to kill a general in one powerful hit. Commanding generals have higher stats so that isn't possible, and it will generally take a while to kill a Normal commander, even with a powered up character.
With the Officer Death option on, enemies that are killed in battle die permanently, which means that they can't be rehired for generals to use in other battles. This option is important in getting a fast time since there is a limited amount of general to choose from, and with this run using just the 6 starting generals to do all the combat, eliminating as many enemy attackers as possible is necessary. Without this option on, it is very possible for lords to rehire defeated powerful generals to come back later and stock up on enemies to make retailation possible, and having to defend a region means a failed run. The set of generals used is moved several times throughout the run since the defend status is actually quite predictable, and having a few generals with full troops will counter that from occurring in most cases (if a enemy has equal strength and some tactics to play with, it might fancy its chances, but this is more likely to happen in long playthroughs).
The three custom characters used all lend themselves well to speedrunning in different ways. Gan Ning's moveset (used on romscout) has the fastest land speed when using his musou attack, which allows for getting around quickly when not on a horse. His normal attacks are slightly higher to compensate for the awkwardness of using his Musou in actual combat. Zhou Tai's moveset is great for horse combat, slightly worse than Ma Chao but still great for quickly ripping through generals. Guan Ping's moveset (on RaneofSOTN) is not one I prefer to use but its still a solid choice for grounded combat, reasonably fast and strong.
All the playable generals gain weapons very differently in this game compared to DW5 and DW5:XL. Weapons are fixed at the basic level - 4 attacks - until they are upgraded with policies, which is quite a slow and expensive process. The various mods on weapons are found at the end of battles on scrolls, each weapon can hold up to 5 basic mods, and the Power/weight can also be improved through scrolls. Weapon Power rates as high as 40, and the weight affects the damage and attack speed of the characters. There are many other factors which affect how much damage a character does in combat, such as getting the Attackx2 temporary power, use of the Green Scroll, and even the difference between the enemy being on the ground or in the air (grounded enemies take full damage, enemies comboed in the air take half damage). Weapon mods can be saved and transferred to other playthroughs, however the best mods (up to 20) can only be found on the hardest difficulty, Chaos, requiring an already significantly powered up character to achieve. There is a lot of groundwork in building up a character before they can be used for speedrunning.
First phase:
The number of starting generals and areas occupied by each general are randomly generated on the Gathering of Heroes session, meaning each one starts very differently each time. By starting in Wu Ling, the runner has a nice healthy choice of options with which area to start with. If you attack the ruling general and win, you also win control of all the areas he previously controlled, so aiming for lords is the best option for a quick finish.
Combat is less determined by the general's stats and are heavily influenced by the number of troops a general controls. Higher rank generals can control more troops, so they directly affect this, but the number of troops is just as important. With this in mind, the first action before attacking the runner chooses is to maximise one general's troops to full (20,000) to make the combat easier. After a quick check of which options to start with, the first invasion is in the south controlled by Huang Gai. Huang Gai only controls one area, but it can reach the far east and west of the maps so it is an important controlling area from the south.
Very different to the regular games, combats are won by either building a supply line from your starting base to the enemy general's base, and clearing it out of all defenders (generals and Guard Captains), or by defeating the ruling general. By not starting in the main base, it seems the only option was to directly beat the enemy leader, which was complicated by the other generals that decided to drop by. Despite a few errors, the battle went pretty quickly. By using the Charge 3 attack, extra attacks are performed followed by a stunning attack. The subsequent attacks however do less damage since a general is lifted into the air.
Second phase:
By controlling 2 areas, a general can perform 2 actions before the station and combat sections of the phase. The two actions here are to use the areas unique item selections to generate a Red Hare Saddle (granting the user the fastest horse in the game) and the Wind Scroll (for extra range on the weapon attacks). The items generated in each area are somewhat random, so it was pretty lucky to get both of these in close proximity so early.
After that, he chooses to head west to invade Cheng Yu's region of Nanman. Surprisingly it only needs 2 bases beaten before the general appears. More use of the C4 attack might have made the base capture quicker, but it still went ok. Ruling generals do not appear on the map until the supply lines are brought as far as the base before the main base, which is why this had to happen.
Third phase:
Once again, uses his controlled areas to produce the Red Hare Saddle, and Wind Scroll. Items are held until used in one battle, and up to 9 of each item can be held. After that, he heads to battle Xiahou Yuan in Jiang Ning, who controls 2 areas.
Building the supply line took a while simply because there were several bases in the way of the main base. It took 4 bases to build all the way to Xiahou Yuan. Fighting him directly was pretty slow and awkward, and it would have again been faster to knock him out of the main base. If no enemy generals or Guard Captains are in a base for more than 5 seconds and an enemy general enters it, it is considered occupied. Xiahou Yuan did not want to cooperate here, and it took a while to manipulate him out of the area.
Fourth phase:
Now that he has more than 5 areas, the runner can use 3 actions. His first action was to start a short alliance with Diao Chan, who from the start also controlled a few regions, and this stopped her from trying to invade the unoccupied areas. The same goes for Zhou Yu, who controlled 1 area but still had a good chance to invade this turn. Finally, another alliance was made with Huang Zhong, who controlled 2 areas. By moving his generals he prevented Xiahou Dun from invading, which makes his controlled areas almost completely safe. Since he doesn't have an alliance with Xiahou Dun, he can invade him and gain control of the 3 areas Dun has.
I was informed by the runner he was distracted in the middle of this run, which explains the minute or so delay before
starting this combat.
Since this area has only a few bases, it takes only one base to be beaten before the lord appears. Dun was more cooperative than his brother in combat, requiring less manipulation to move him outside the base for the runner to seize.
Fifth phase:
At the start of this phase, the AI Xu Zhu offers a 3 year alliance which he accepts. This can be suspended at any time with the use of a policy, so it means Xu Zhu will not invade even unoccupied territories.
He uses this turn to produce another Red Hare Saddle and Wind Scroll, and after considering his options chooses to Promote Craft+, since cash is tough to get in a speedrun and almost everything (even invasion) requires an amount of money to perform).
The AI decide to use this turn to start attacking other AI controlled areas.
Sixth phase:
Huang Zhong's areas became controlled by Diao Chan. Sun Ce offers an alliance which was rejected.
2 of the 3 actions were used to build the troop numbers of the other two main generals to full, and the third was used to Promote Craft+. Once again, he decides to let the AI move this turn and not interfere. Xu Zhu takes another area.
Seventh phase:
Since the northern regions of the runner's area are now safe, the forces are moved to the south in order to start invading that side of the map. In order to make the battle go quicker, the 3 Lieutenants get their forces maxed out here.
The AI Diao Chan decided to invade the immediate southern area to the runner. Xu Zhu's areas also come under Diao Chan's rule. She now controls around half the map.
Eight phase:
A new alliance is accepted with Zhou Yu to stop him interfering. A second Red Hare Saddle and Wind Scroll are produced. No invasion by any side this turn.
Ninth phase:
Here, the runner starts developing in Cheng Du. He has waited for Diao Chan to move to an adjacent area so he can take all her controlled areas in one move. Since the alliance ended, he didnt need to use Annul Alliance, so instead Produce Craft+ is used to keep the cash flowing. Since she is not moving close enough to take in one move, he needs to take one occupied area to reach her.
Zhao Yun is not a lord, but he controls this region. Beating him does not cause the battle to end, but possessing a
controlling supply line to the main base will. Being a bit of an awkward map, this requires several bases to be beaten to reach the main base. Otherwise, it went relatively quickly. Zhao Yun was nowhere near the base so there was nothing stopping an immediate seize.
Tenth phase:
First action here was to improve the Ginseng item. The first two went on improving it (from 5 to 15) and the final action
was to producing 1 Ginseng. This allows the Musou bar to fill faster, managing combat easier.
After that, he decides to invade Luo Yang to take out Diao Chan. This stage only required 1 base to be captured before the lord appeared, making this battle go pretty quickly. With the Sorcerers on the enemy side, this combat was made pretty awkward, especially with Guan Ping coming to interfere, but after clearing out the Guard Captains and keeping Diao Chan out of the base it went reasonably quickly.
Eleventh phase:
Now that the runner controls most of the land, this part of the run can go pretty quickly. Zhou Yu is in a single isolated
area and can be managed at any time. Wei Yan controls the north-eastern regions but requires no intermediate areas to be beaten before taking him down.
Since he now has 5 actions, he can produce 5 items - Red Hare Saddle, Wind Scroll, Ginseng, and the fourth was a Fire Orb, allowing for extra fire damage on charge attacks. The fifth item produced was a Green Scroll, which raises Attack in favour of Defence, turning your character into a glass cannon. Since he is invading Wei Yan's areas, he can ignore the attempted invasion of the southern area.
All 5 items produced this turn were equipped. After that, there are only 3 bases needing to be beaten before the lord
appears. With the Green Scroll combat goes much faster, Ginseng helping to keep the Musou attacks frequent. Archers caused a bit of difficulty in the 3rd base, but the route to the boss went quickly. Once again, the use of Sorcerers made this battle a little awkward, and with the Green Scroll he came dangerously close to dying, but the base seize still went well.
Twelth phase:
The only area left to conquer is Zhou Yu's. The first few actions are used to generate more items - Red Hare Scroll,
Fire Orb, Wind Scroll, and Green Scroll. The final action was to produde the Neutral Start tactic, allowing for a change to
the starting bases. All of the bases on the map become neutral with the exception of the main bases, so the first part of the battle becomes a case of seizing as many bases on the way to the main base. This can be a double-edged sword, but it worked well in this case to cut down the number of bases before the main base needing to be captured to 1. After that, it was surprising that the final general was the only one to be beaten in combat rather than knocked out of the main base.
Final summary:
Since this game is so very luck based, not only in how the AI controls other areas not your own, but in combat itself with what enemy units and strategies might be employed, this run went very well. There were some awkward points, most notably the slow battle with Xiahou Yuan, and any of the battles with Sorcerer units, but those were managed reasonably well and still produced a very fast time. Most of the time saved actually came from Diao Chan controlling half the map and having her eliminate most of the enemy generals, requiring less overall combat. The use of items really make the difference, especially the use of Red Hare Saddle to cover distance. I'm not convinced the Wind Scroll is always necessary - the increased range is nice, but its more useful on characters with short range weapons to compensate, I feel. For a good combat on Normal difficulty, it can take around the same time to beat a general with Green Scroll as it does to clear out the base of the Guard Captains and keep the lord out of the base. With other generals sometimes coming to interfere, this sometimes cannot be avoided and so the Green Scroll is definitely faster in this case. This difference is most notable in Xiahou Yuan's battle. More liberal use of Charge 4 rather than an immediate resort to the Musou attack might help moving the lord general out of the base more easily - different characters have different knockbacks with this attack, so that is a notable factor when it comes to choosing which movesets to use. Despite several layers of luck causing problems throughout the run, there was a lot that went in the runner's favour and I feel it should be accepted. Of course, any run with this level of randomness can be improved, but it will be a rare occurrence unless new strategies or better AI manipulation (in both combat and strategy mode) is discovered.
tl;dr, accept this run!
Quote:
Out of all the different kinds of games we have on SDA, there has always been one kind that has always been looked down on: the Dynasty warrior type games. People seem to criticize how repitive the gameplay style is, but really that is the most stupid thing that can be said, but I diegress, I have a game to verify.
So for those who don't know what DW5: Empires is about, basically it can be seen like a half beat em up, half strategy game: first man to conquer China wins. Runner plays on "Gathering of Heroes", which has no tie in with the three Kingdoms and starts in Wu Ling, which actually is a very good starting point since Red Hare Saddle can be collected there. The characters he uses are his own custom characters. The ruler, Lenophis and his Besides the runner himself, he also uses his generals, Romscout and RaneofSOTN (winning over people with flatlery?) and Normal difficulty.
One thing that can easily be seen as a negative by others is how the runner goes into the options before every battle to change the music. I share in the runner's annoyance of having to hear the same song again and again, and I normally find myself wanting to change it as well, but if during the time where going from the menu to options changing the song, and then starting the map is also going to be counted as part of the time, then this might be frowned upon by others who may think that this is the biggest waste of time ever. Not to mention that the runner seems to take time to show the weapons and... Did he not do anything during the 17-18 minutes?!?! *Sigh* Good thing the regular Verifiers aren't verifying this... I did read Verifier 1's comments, and did see something about "a distraction" that caused this. I can understand that my have been the case, but that is something I am not really sure off (Saying that you got distracted isn't really an excuse when you are recording; most people who get distracted normally just restart the run from the beginning if that's the case)...
In regards of the actual fighting itself, I admit that I was mixed. Most people do not understand the difficulty of these kinds of games; make one false move, and the enemy can drop your lifebar fast. Meanwhile the difficulty of actually landing hits and how it takes little damage off, truly this is a game genre that is hated by all reviewers (Stupid one-sided reviewers, calling these kinds of games repeitive and how it is the same thing every game. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU CALL "CALL OF DUTY" FOR THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS!?!"
...
*Takes a few minutes to calm down*
Back to what I was saying, the fighting is hard, and very apparent in the run. There were times the runner got some good hits in and took care of the enemy officers fast, other times, the player was a punching bag. The first stage that used Gan Ning as the character worked well when it came to actually getting to the enemy commander fast, but then the fight against him was... dragging... Still it went as well as it could. Meanwhile using Guan Ping's was also a bit slow, but a good choice considering how he is meant more for crowd control. Last, there is Zhou Tai... Just by using him, the runner gets my praise, since not only is Zhou Tai my favorite character, but also is very good to use when it comes to 1v1s, and while he is on a horse, he hits to one side, thuse he is more controlled.
To the Runner's credit, everything went as well as you can hope, and the runner did have some very good luck considering being able to minimize the amount of fights that are needed and the fighting, (again while hard at times and can be questionable to some) went very well, and how the runner also makes use of either/or taking all the bases or killing the commander went well. Personally I feel it is much easier to just take the base nearby, go to the commander and stab him several times until he dies, but this still worked fairly well...
In the end, it is very difficult to say. The fighting was good, and the runner knew what he was doing, and if I was to base my verdict on fighting alone, I would say accept. On that note however, just the use of the menu makes me bite my lip since how the runner uses the menu should warrant a auto-reject.
*takes a deep breath*
Overall, I say accept, but with the way the menu was used in between the fighting and the strategy phase makes me question my verdict.
((To Mike: I don't know if you have seen the video, but I am really questioning this thing with the menu... If the time during the menu is going to be counted towards the final time, then I can't say for sure in this case... If only we had more verifiers, I would feel more confortable with my decision...)
So for those who don't know what DW5: Empires is about, basically it can be seen like a half beat em up, half strategy game: first man to conquer China wins. Runner plays on "Gathering of Heroes", which has no tie in with the three Kingdoms and starts in Wu Ling, which actually is a very good starting point since Red Hare Saddle can be collected there. The characters he uses are his own custom characters. The ruler, Lenophis and his Besides the runner himself, he also uses his generals, Romscout and RaneofSOTN (winning over people with flatlery?) and Normal difficulty.
One thing that can easily be seen as a negative by others is how the runner goes into the options before every battle to change the music. I share in the runner's annoyance of having to hear the same song again and again, and I normally find myself wanting to change it as well, but if during the time where going from the menu to options changing the song, and then starting the map is also going to be counted as part of the time, then this might be frowned upon by others who may think that this is the biggest waste of time ever. Not to mention that the runner seems to take time to show the weapons and... Did he not do anything during the 17-18 minutes?!?! *Sigh* Good thing the regular Verifiers aren't verifying this... I did read Verifier 1's comments, and did see something about "a distraction" that caused this. I can understand that my have been the case, but that is something I am not really sure off (Saying that you got distracted isn't really an excuse when you are recording; most people who get distracted normally just restart the run from the beginning if that's the case)...
In regards of the actual fighting itself, I admit that I was mixed. Most people do not understand the difficulty of these kinds of games; make one false move, and the enemy can drop your lifebar fast. Meanwhile the difficulty of actually landing hits and how it takes little damage off, truly this is a game genre that is hated by all reviewers (Stupid one-sided reviewers, calling these kinds of games repeitive and how it is the same thing every game. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU CALL "CALL OF DUTY" FOR THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS!?!"
...
*Takes a few minutes to calm down*
Back to what I was saying, the fighting is hard, and very apparent in the run. There were times the runner got some good hits in and took care of the enemy officers fast, other times, the player was a punching bag. The first stage that used Gan Ning as the character worked well when it came to actually getting to the enemy commander fast, but then the fight against him was... dragging... Still it went as well as it could. Meanwhile using Guan Ping's was also a bit slow, but a good choice considering how he is meant more for crowd control. Last, there is Zhou Tai... Just by using him, the runner gets my praise, since not only is Zhou Tai my favorite character, but also is very good to use when it comes to 1v1s, and while he is on a horse, he hits to one side, thuse he is more controlled.
To the Runner's credit, everything went as well as you can hope, and the runner did have some very good luck considering being able to minimize the amount of fights that are needed and the fighting, (again while hard at times and can be questionable to some) went very well, and how the runner also makes use of either/or taking all the bases or killing the commander went well. Personally I feel it is much easier to just take the base nearby, go to the commander and stab him several times until he dies, but this still worked fairly well...
In the end, it is very difficult to say. The fighting was good, and the runner knew what he was doing, and if I was to base my verdict on fighting alone, I would say accept. On that note however, just the use of the menu makes me bite my lip since how the runner uses the menu should warrant a auto-reject.
*takes a deep breath*
Overall, I say accept, but with the way the menu was used in between the fighting and the strategy phase makes me question my verdict.
((To Mike: I don't know if you have seen the video, but I am really questioning this thing with the menu... If the time during the menu is going to be counted towards the final time, then I can't say for sure in this case... If only we had more verifiers, I would feel more confortable with my decision...)
Considering we're going to use the in-game timer for these games, and the timer doesn't count the menu time, this run is acceptable.
Decision: Accept
Reason: It's our first Dynasty Warriors run.
This is my last verification topic. Flip will be taking over from now on.
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