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SS any% run

Verifier Responses

Quote:
Regarding visual/audio, I'm curious if there's a bit of desyncing.  Especially, the ending video of Douglas Adams speaking (starting at 30:27) doesn't match up the voice with the picture.  I might need to fish out my old game & reinstall it to see if it was a game issue, or a video encoding issue.  Granted, for this type of game, you really wouldn't notice if the audio were a bit out of synch (except for the part I just mentioned).

The gameplay route seems well-designed.  I'd need to sit down & plan out a route myself to really check, but there seemed to be a lot of elevator riding (annoyingly, you can't skip those transition videos).  Part of it was done to only require one visit to the fuse box by Titania, but since visiting it is theoretically quick (skip all the screen transitions, which you can't do with riding the elevators), I'm wondering if multiple visits to the fuse box to have a more streamlined elevator route would be faster.

That brings me to my real complaint of the run: clumsy with the controls.  A few wrong turns here & there (costing less than a second each, mind), a bit of fumbling with the inventory (accidentally putting the wrong sauce on the chicken, and needing to wipe it off; also costing only about a second -- great recovery!), and inserting Titania's parts was awkward (but that's partly due to the unclear hotspots in the game).  The typing seemed a little slow to me, especially the one-word responses.

Overall, I'm feeling a little hesitant to accept this.  The gameplay skill is a little rough around the edges, and I haven't had time to "proofread" the route (although it seems solid enough).

Also, the runner clearly hacked the game, as the ending credits list "Kim Bread" as the voice of the Bomb, when it is really John Cleese.


Quote:
Unfortunately, I don't have access to a computer that can run this at the moment and probably won't until Thanksgiving. I also never quite finished it when I realized that the remaining puzzles required you to think exactly like the designers or use a guide. But I'll do my best.

The audio does seem to be slightly slow, ending up maybe almost a second behind. Otherwise quality is good.

In general the execution seemed pretty fast, with little delay in moving from screen to screen. However there were a number of errors. Most were just a single misclick and were corrected almost immediately, but a few were more serious, e.g. forgetting which side of the top of the well the pellerator and Titania's chamber were on, accidentally heading towards Titania's chamber rather than going through the top of the well, turning around a bunch of times outside the arboretum, and going to the wrong elevator at the top and bottom of the well. I got the impression the runner had to wait to send text to the bots at times, but if this isn't the case then the typing could be faster. The chicken was unfortunate. The star navigation at the end seemed slow, but I never played that part so maybe it's really hard. Overall, while some of the execution errors are ugly, the time lost is fairly small, so it could be forgivable in SS, given the funny hotspots and counterintuitive paths.

However, I also have some issues with the route planning. Getting the glass from the bar could have been done on the way to or from the music room or promenade deck. In fact, I think all the Pellerator trips except the last one to the bar could be done at the same time, although this would require vising the fuse box before (to activate the fan on the promenade deck) and after (to activate the arboretum with the fuse from the restaurant). I'm pretty sure it would be worth it though, since it takes about 20 s each way to get to the promenade deck and only about 10 to the fuse box. I assume you can't get the arms to release by taking them to the music room and playing the music there? If you could then it would be best to go to the restaurant first, then the fuse box to insert both fuses, then the three Pellerator stops in the other direction. Also, where is the last stop beyond the restaurant? Is it in the 1st class canal? And is it closer to the restaurant than the top of the well is?

Similarly, I'm pretty sure you can combine many of the elevator trips. You have to go to floor 29 and back to the top before you can go to most of the other areas, but I think then you can get the 2nd class upgrade, fiddle with the deskbot's controls, and immediately get the 1st class upgrade. Then after the first set of Pellerator trips you should be able to do 1st class, 2nd class, the second visit to SGT class, the bottom of the well, and getting the eye from elevator 4 on floor 27 all in one trip, using elevator 1 (and 2 if 1 doesn't go to your 1st class room) in one direction and elevator 3 (switching to 4, I guess) in the other. If this works, then you could also delay the first visit to to the parrot lobby until after the 2nd class upgrade, so you could get the perch and crush the tv, leave and get the feather, then go right back in and send the parrot to 2nd class. Out of curiosity, do you actually need to fix elevator 4, or can you just get the eye and go back to elevator 3? Maybe it doesn't really matter since you have to go to the bottom anyway.

Also, I seem to recall that you can use the perch in the arboretum, allowing you to skip the hammer and the long stick. Could someone check this?

I'll reserve judgement on the run until someone tests some of my suggestions. But assuming some of them work, I would encourage the runner to try again and (after making sure the route is optimal) make a list of instructions and a map of the main level to consult during elevator and Pellerator rides.


There was a bit of discussion between the two verifiers after this ^^^ and it led to this VVV

Quote from First Verifier:
Okay, let's wrap this up.  Sorry for taking so long, I tested this stuff a week ago, but only now have time to collect & report my findings.

Points:
- ***, your strategy works.
- If you have collected the intelligence core from the parrot cage, then the parrot will never return.  However, you can always remove the core from Titania, place it back in the cage, and then return to find the parrot there again (this means having to redeliver a chicken to recollect it, though).  As long as the perch is there, and the parrot isn't floating about in the Succ-u-bus system, then it will always immediately return to its cage when you leave its chambers.  It seems you can only permanently mess yourself up in this game by getting the parrot lost in the Succ-u-bus system before acquiring its feather (you need to use it to clear the blockage in the mother Succ-u-bus in the bilge room before you can get back your lost items from it).
- The absolute fastest way to get the feather is to collect the parrot, then immediately throw the tv (you'll acquire the feather during the throwing cutscene).  Then leave & immediately reenter to send the parrot to your 2nd class room.
- The 1st class room containing the eye is always Floor 7, Elevator 2, Room 3
- Your 2nd class & 3rd class rooms are randomized each game.  I would recommend redoing a run until you luck-manipulate rooms that can be reached from the ground of your floor, without needing to use an additional elevator.
- When doing the star-charting at the end, don't use the mouse at all except to swap to-and-from the photo, and to select the stars.  The keyboard controls prevent wild spinning.  Also, I found it fastest to select 3 stars close to each other.

Route used in run (compared to ***'s route):
-go to the parrot lobby, get the perch, have Krage throw the tv, and take the parrot out, getting the feather
-go to the bottom of the well and get the crushed tv and liftbot head
-take elevator 3 to your SGT room to get the pamphlet
-go to the bilge and get the blue fuse and olfactory center
-go back to the lobby and get the 2nd class upgrade
-go back into the parrot lobby and send the parrot to your 2nd class room
-go adjust the deskbot's settings
-take the pellerator to the bar and get the glass
-take elevator 1 or 2 to your 2nd class room and get the ear
-take elevator 3 to floor 27 and get the eye from elevator 4
-go back to the lobby and get the 1st class upgrade
-then the music room and get the phonograph and ear
-then the restaurant to get the napkin, arms, green fuse, and auditory center
-take elevator 2 to floor 7, room 3 and get the eye
-go to Titania's chamber, insert the blue fuse & green fuse and throw the swiches
-then the promenade and get the hammer and turn on the fan
-take elevator 1 to an SGT floor to get the long stick and starling puree and send the chicken to the parrot lobby
-take the canal to the arboretum to get the lemon, speech center, hose and mouth
-go to the parrot lobby and get the nose and intelligence core
-take the pellerator to the bar and get the vision center
-go to Titania's chamber and win the game



For comparison, here are the all the times elevators are used in each route:

current run's:
- nobby 1->39
- nobby 39->3rdclass
- nobby 3rdclass->1
- bilge top->bottom
- bilge bottom->top
- pellerator well->bar
- pellerator bar->well
- nobby 1->2ndclass
- nobby 2ndclass->1
- nobby 1->27
- nobby 27->1
- pellerator well->bar->music
- pellerator music->bar->well->restaurant
- pellerator restaurant->well
- nobby 1->7
- nobby 7->1
- titania well->chamber
- titania chamber->well
- pellerator well->bar->music->promenade
- pellerator promenade->music->bar->well
- nobby 1->28
- nobby 28->1
- pellerator well->bar
- pellerator bar->well


***'s route:
- nobby 1->3rdclass
- nobby 3rdclass->1
- bilge top->bottom
- bilge bottom->top
- titania well->chamber
- titania chamber->well
- pellerator well->bar
- pellerator bar->music
- pellerator music->promenade
- pellerator promenade->music->bar->well->restaurant
- pellerator resaurant->well
- titania well->chamber
- titania chamber->well
- nobby 1->7
- nobby 7->2ndclass
- nobby 2ndclass->28
- nobby 28->39
- nobby 39->27
- nobby 27->1
- pellerator well->bar
- pellerator bar->well


Double-check me, but the results are that the current run, in exchange for one less trip to Titania's fusebox chamber:
- it takes the equivalent of two extra round trips in the pellevator: well to bar & back, well to music room & back
- around 100 extra floor transitions with nobby


So: my final verdict is to reject this run.
- poor route planning
- slightly sloppy mouse control
- quite sloppy star-charting control
- no luck-manipulating to get more ideal rooms


Decision:Reject

Reason: Better route planning can lead to a significantly better run.

This run will be available for a month. PM me for a link.
Thread title:  
Well, I'm glad to finally know what SDA thought of this submission. I did this almost a year ago, and I gotta say this isn't my best work. I actually wrote up an improved plan with less pellerating after doing this run, but I guess I wasn't very patient, as I think this was only my third or so complete run to the end. Thanks for all the feedback and ideas. I hadn't thought of going to Titania twice; I honestly don't know whether it's faster with all the shells on the fuse box. My (as yet unimplemented) plan managed to condense all the pellerator rides into one, as noted above, but I hadn't thought of doing floor 28 in the same trip as 1->7->(2nd class if E1 or E2)->39->27->(2nd class if E3 or E4)->1. I'm not sure what Verifier 1 is referring to by luck manipulation. If the submitted run is any indication, it takes ~10 minutes before I know what my 2nd class room is. There are 20 floors in 2nd class, IIRC, so if I were to discard all rooms other than those on floor 27, elevator 3, it would take 6 hrs 40 mins on average between attempted runs, which is so slow of a turnaround that there's no way it could make the 2 second penalty worth it. I could luck manipulate the SGT or 2nd class rooms to be on one side or the other, but I don't really see a reason to, since it doesn't really slow me down, except for having to figure out where my room is. I could also try to luck manipulate myself onto the ground floor, but the penalty for that it currently eclipsed by my own mistakes, so I figure I'll just keep running and presumably the runs closer to the ground floor will have an advantage, although I may happen to get lucky enough in a run on the upper floors to make it good enough anyway.

I most certainly plan to try again. Here's my route plan for the next submission:
- Embarkation (check in)
- Parrot Room (feather, room number, tv, perch)
- SGT Room
- Bilge Room
- Embarkation (upgrade)
- Parrot Room (parrot -> 2nd class)
- Cellpoint Room
- Embarkation (upgrade)
- Titania's Room (blue fuse)
- Music Room
- Promenade (hammer?, starlings)
- Bar (glass)
- 1st Class Restaurant
- Titania's Room (green fuse)
- Floor 7, Elevator 2, Room 3
- 2nd Class Room (if E1 or E2)
- Floor 28
- Bottom of the Well (TV, head)
- Floor 27, Elevator 4
- 2nd Class Room (if E3 or E4)
- Arboretum
- Parrot Room (nose, CIC)
- Bar (vision)
- Titania's Room (assembly)
- Bridge
Wiggle wiggle
Can you perhaps post an encode of the run anyway, for those of us who are curious? Inquiring minds want to watch.
Haters gonna hate
You can PM Flip about it and he'll send you a link.