Another Fallout Speedrun - Segmented Finished, Single Segment Planning

Edit history:

Lorashkar: 2010-07-23 12:59:01 am

2010-07-17 03:17:39 am

Hello
Recently I was able to get the 1st Fallout, after a few plays i decided to improve the old speedrun and my run is about 30 seconds faster, I used the same route, only instead of going to Boneyard for robes, I stuffed the seller in Cathedral with Superstimpacks. I was also lucky enough to go to Military Base without any random encounters.
I chose to speak with Morpheus rather than going through underground, just because I'm more used to that way, time is almost the same however you go.
Here is a link to speedrun on Youtube:
Let me know if you like it, then I'll upload the video file.

PS: If someone knows how exact time in Fallout speedrun is counted and where should I submit the run, I would be very grateful.

Thread title:

ZenicReverie

2010-07-17 07:32:45 am

Waiting hurts my soul...

Submission: http://speeddemosarchive.com/lang/submit_en.html

This thread should be moved since you've actually completed a recording of a run and plan on submitting it. The YouTube video gets really choppy, so I hope the original isn't like that. If you need help with the video, then you should post in Tech Support.

The run will be timed using real-time, so I suggest:

1) Clean up the missed clicks.
2) You can use numbers to select dialogue options, no need to move the mouse and click on each one. (the biggest improvement to your run)

Good luck.

Breakdown

2010-07-17 08:19:23 am

Haters gonna hate

Agreed on it should be moved, and it's great to see this title getting some love.

Moved to PC Games

Lorashkar

Edit history:

Lorashkar: 2010-07-18 05:13:38 am

2010-07-17 09:09:01 am

Thanks for help, as for using numbers for the dialogue, I know it already, only I need to remember the correct sequence of them, only talking with Morpheus sometimes is a bit random so I guess it would be better to do it manually. I'm not sure how long will it take for me to get to Military Base without encounters again, but I'll try.
Why I'm asking for help with the time-counting is that I'm not sure when the actual run starts and ends. Is it from the dialogue with the Overseer to the destruction of Cathedral?

Edit: After many tries I think about a minute could be shaved off the time if I was lucky enough with the encounters, because they take most of the time. Going to Military Base without an encounter isn't that hard, I pulled it off a few times but after leaving it, more than 3 encounters can heavily add seconds.

Edit2: Okay, I got to Military Base without encountering anything AND when I went to Cathedral I only had one encounter, funny tough it was a Special Random Encounter. I think the run is close to perfect, there are maybe a few little mistakes but I guess it's okay. Time is something about 8 minutes. Now I only need to cut off the first and the last frame, they show the program used for recording, tough I still don't know how to count the time.

Edit3: The whole movie is 9:10 long, counting the run time from the point when I have control over character to the point I lose is from 0:23 - 8:25 so the whole run is 8:02.

Edit4: The file somehow is unaccessable so I uploaded it again:
http://rapidshare.com/files/407590079/Fallout_SS_Speedrun_HQ_V4_Final.avi

Thanks for help, as for using numbers for the dialogue, I know it already, only I need to remember the correct sequence of them, only talking with Morpheus sometimes is a bit random so I guess it would be better to do it manually. I'm not sure how long will it take for me to get to Military Base without encounters again, but I'll try.
Why I'm asking for help with the time-counting is that I'm not sure when the actual run starts and ends. Is it from the dialogue with the Overseer to the destruction of Cathedral?

Edit: After many tries I think about a minute could be shaved off the time if I was lucky enough with the encounters, because they take most of the time. Going to Military Base without an encounter isn't that hard, I pulled it off a few times but after leaving it, more than 3 encounters can heavily add seconds.

Edit2: Okay, I got to Military Base without encountering anything AND when I went to Cathedral I only had one encounter, funny tough it was a Special Random Encounter. I think the run is close to perfect, there are maybe a few little mistakes but I guess it's okay. Time is something about 8 minutes. Now I only need to cut off the first and the last frame, they show the program used for recording, tough I still don't know how to count the time.

Edit3: The whole movie is 9:10 long, counting the run time from the point when I have control over character to the point I lose is from 0:23 - 8:25 so the whole run is 8:02.

Edit4: The file somehow is unaccessable so I uploaded it again:
http://rapidshare.com/files/407590079/Fallout_SS_Speedrun_HQ_V4_Final.avi

Ewil

2010-07-18 05:20:51 am

The run is great, but I can see some improvements:

1) You lost 6 seconds lockpicking the locker in Military Base, which is a lot in such a short run imho.

2) When talking to Morpheus, can't you use numbers like in other conversations ?

3) I timed the ending part and going out of the cave to trigger final cutscene takes 10 seconds while talking to Overseer takes 15 seconds.

niebezimienny

2010-07-18 05:28:11 am

pierdole zdejmuje kominiare

Yeah, that lockpicking was not too optimal, but I guess the random special encounter made up for it. Still with more luck manipulation, for example in a segmented run, this could be done much more smoothly. If you ever attempt a segmented run, perhaps you would consider using the english version of the game? I know it makes no difference, and the people familiar with Fallout are all gonna know what's happening, but still.

Lorashkar

2010-07-18 05:36:05 am

About the lock in Military Base: I know, I know, it wasted some seconds but I'm trying every run which is without encounter on the way to Military Base because it happens not too often.
About talking to Morpheus: I'm not quite sure what it depends on, but sometimes when you talk to him, you can trigger a bit diffrent conversation when he is angry about you entering the room, so after lucky way to Cathedral, I didn't want to risk.
About the cave: I didn't know that, thanks, tough I don't know will i be able to pull off shorter run.
And sorry, I don't have the English version off Fallout, maybe if you know where to download some patch to make it full English, I would appreciate.

Kotofei

2010-07-18 07:07:05 am

Приветствую! Надеюсь, понимаешь по-русски? Хотел дать тебе несколько советов, для улучшения твоего спидрана! В пещере и на базе (да и в любом бое) можно очень быстро бегать шагами. Просто в опциях выкрути скорость хотьбы в режиме боя (не помню точно как в переводе, но какой-то верхний параметр в опциях) на самую высокую. И во время боя зажимай Shift, когда будешь перемещаться. Таким образом можно двигаться раза в 4 быстрее, чем обычным игровым бегом. Ну естестсвенно, ещё стоит исправить ящик на базе, чтобы открылся с первого раза. Мне очень понравился твой пробег, надеюсь, будешь работать над ним и улучшишь по максимуму. А там можно и за вторую часть игры взяться.

niebezimienny

2010-07-18 07:22:15 am

pierdole zdejmuje kominiare

Quote from Kotofei:

Приветствую! Надеюсь, понимаешь по-русски? Хотел дать тебе несколько советов, для улучшения твоего спидрана! В пещере и на базе (да и в любом бое) можно очень быстро бегать шагами. Просто в опциях выкрути скорость хотьбы в режиме боя (не помню точно как в переводе, но какой-то верхний параметр в опциях) на самую высокую. И во время боя зажимай Shift, когда будешь перемещаться. Таким образом можно двигаться раза в 4 быстрее, чем обычным игровым бегом. Ну естестсвенно, ещё стоит исправить ящик на базе, чтобы открылся с первого раза. Мне очень понравился твой пробег, надеюсь, будешь работать над ним и улучшишь по максимуму. А там можно и за вторую часть игры взяться.

yeah we gonna need a translation here

Ewil

2010-07-18 08:22:47 am

Welcome! I hope you understand in Russian? I wanted to give you some tips for improving your spidrana! In a cave at the base (and in any fight) can run very fast pace. Just in the options unscrewed the speed of walking in combat mode (can not remember exactly how the translation, but a top option in the options) to the highest. And during the battle fix your Shift, when you're scrolling. So you can move twice in 4 faster than the usual running game. Well estestsvenno, still stands correct box on the base to open the first time. I really liked your mileage, I hope you'll work on it and improve on the maximum. And there can be and for the second part of the game to take.

Tongue

Lorashkar

2010-07-18 08:54:16 am

Combat speed is already set to maximum. Fallout 2 run would be much more complicated, I didn't think of this before but I guess I will not do it too fast from now.

ZenicReverie

2010-07-18 10:58:17 am

Waiting hurts my soul...

Quote from Lorashkar:

Combat speed is already set to maximum. Fallout 2 run would be much more complicated, I didn't think of this before but I guess I will not do it too fast from now.

If you're going to continue trying to beat the 8:02 run, and there's that random conversation, then I suggest you commit to memory the one that happens most often and use that to enter the numbers. Consider it another part of luck manipulation, and if you get lucky you trigger the correct dialogue. 8:02 is still a substantial improvement though, and you should be happy with that.

Lorashkar

2010-07-18 11:14:17 am

I'm pretty happy with the improvement already ;D, but I'll try some more.
I tested that conversation with Morpheus and I think the other dialogue happens very rarely (actually I think it occurs when my speech skill is low, because I couldn't encounter it as long as I'm going this route).
Somehow when I quicksaved at the end, where should be Overseer, he suddenly appeared, so maybe that will be fastest way?

niebezimienny

2010-07-18 11:53:37 am

pierdole zdejmuje kominiare

Please consider doing a segmented run as well, just to show what can be done with perfect luck manipulation (opening on 1st attempt, no random encounters - or if thats impossible - the special encounter whichever places you the nearest to the exit). Doing it SS would be incredibly frustrating but segmented it's np.

Ale fajnie że wreszcie ktoś się tknął fallouta :p

Lorashkar

2010-07-18 12:05:41 pm

Good idea, I think I'll submit this SS run because going to the Military Base without any enounter happens like 1/20 runs, the way to Cathedral is something about the same so it will take some time to improve this time, and the improvement won't be more than about 10-15 seconds, so I guess working on segmented speedrun is more interesting :).

Po prostu musiałem Grin

Ewil

2010-07-18 02:02:10 pm

Why not do both runs ? You already have a great SS run, so now do just a segmented one.

Lorashkar

Edit history:

Lorashkar: 2010-07-18 02:23:33 pm

2010-07-18 02:11:36 pm

Well that's just basically what I meant, I want to upload the SS one and go on working on the segmented.
I'm now encoding the segmented run i finished, want to see how much time I shaved off.
I tried to end the run with exiting the cave to trigger the final cutscene and this happened:

Edit: Segmented run is about 7:30, tough i edited the video badly. I don't think sub-7 is possible but with a lot of luck manipulation I could shave off about 10 seconds. The rats in the cave can be sometimes dodged, once or twice I could dodge 2 rats. If you know any other improvement, let me know.

Ewil

2010-07-18 10:13:39 pm

http://speeddemosarchive.com/Fallout.html

And finally, the vault overseer bug. For some reason, every time I try to record this run, the vault overseer doesn't appear at the end of the game. I have no idea what causes this bug, but I have found that examining the bones nearby will cause him to randomly appear behind you and start talking to you. I'll just leave this as another unexplained bug in the Fallout engine.

Lorashkar

2010-07-19 01:51:26 am

Ugh, I'm confused about the Overseer, it looks like he appears without a reason, sometimes you only have to wait a while for him to appear, sometimes when you move a little closer to vault door or closer to cave exit, but he always appears when I use the terminal to open the vault door so I guess I'll stick to it.

niebezimienny

2010-07-19 05:24:52 am

pierdole zdejmuje kominiare

Quote from Lorashkar:

Well that's just basically what I meant, I want to upload the SS one and go on working on the segmented.
I'm now encoding the segmented run i finished, want to see how much time I shaved off.
I tried to end the run with exiting the cave to trigger the final cutscene and this happened:

Edit: Segmented run is about 7:30, tough i edited the video badly. I don't think sub-7 is possible but with a lot of luck manipulation I could shave off about 10 seconds. The rats in the cave can be sometimes dodged, once or twice I could dodge 2 rats. If you know any other improvement, let me know.

Find out which special random encounter you can exit as quickly as possible. Is it possible to get no encounters on the run from the military base?

Also, optimize your clicking when distributing skills, find out the least amount possible to get the triggers to work. Are there any hotkeys you're not using? Maybe something to move inventory objects around? In a run this short, you gotta optimize everything.

[quote="Lorashkar"]
Well that's just basically what I meant, I want to upload the SS one and go on working on the segmented.
I'm now encoding the segmented run i finished, want to see how much time I shaved off.
I tried to end the run with exiting the cave to trigger the final cutscene and this happened:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsUyyHFcLKA

Edit: Segmented run is about 7:30, tough i edited the video badly. I don't think sub-7 is possible but with a lot of luck manipulation I could shave off about 10 seconds. The rats in the cave can be sometimes dodged, once or twice I could dodge 2 rats. If you know any other improvement, let me know.
[/quote]

Find out which special random encounter you can exit as quickly as possible. Is it possible to get no encounters on the run from the military base?

Also, optimize your clicking when distributing skills, find out the least amount possible to get the triggers to work. Are there any hotkeys you're not using? Maybe something to move inventory objects around? In a run this short, you gotta optimize everything.

Lorashkar

Edit history:

Lorashkar: 2010-07-19 11:17:40 am

2010-07-19 08:13:48 am

In both travels it is possible to get to the destination without encountering anything, going to Military Base is slightly more difficult, Cathedral way is much more clear somehow.
I think there are no shortcuts in character window and inventory except the ones to toggle those screens and you can exit them with escape, then again I gotta check in my recording program can I change the button which ends the recording (I mean always hitting escape will stop it).

Edit: I can't turn it off so I'll have to use my cursor instead.
I'm gonna tell some details about segmented run:
1. I changed a bit the distribution of S.P.E.C.I.A.L. - I'm now doing S9 P1 E10 C1 I8 A10 L1, I'm adding some points to strenght so I'll have more hp and it's possible to go through 2 force fields without need of healing, 8 intelligence is just enough for the proper dialogue (actually now I don't know why I used to pump it to 10), luck is 1 because in a segmented run the usage of luck is even lesser than normally.
2. There is gonna be 5 segments - first one from starting a new game to the exit of the cave, I'm doing this because I can dodge a rat this way and save about 3 seconds and it's easier to make another segment. Second segment is travel from Vault 13 to Military Base. Third is Military Base to the the exit of location. Third is travel to Cathedral and the last one is Cathedral itself.
3. I don't know how many tries I did today to get a clean way to Military Base but I guess it's more than 60 of them and I entered Military Base this way only once.
4. The locker in MB opens on first try about 50% of the time.
5. Hacking the computer to set off the bomb almost always is possible on first try.
6. From beginning to the end of MB (which is what I did today) I had the time of about 3:20, which is about 15 seconds faster than SS up to this point.

In both travels it is possible to get to the destination without encountering anything, going to Military Base is slightly more difficult, Cathedral way is much more clear somehow.
I think there are no shortcuts in character window and inventory except the ones to toggle those screens and you can exit them with escape, then again I gotta check in my recording program can I change the button which ends the recording (I mean always hitting escape will stop it).

Edit: I can't turn it off so I'll have to use my cursor instead.
I'm gonna tell some details about segmented run:
1. I changed a bit the distribution of S.P.E.C.I.A.L. - I'm now doing S9 P1 E10 C1 I8 A10 L1, I'm adding some points to strenght so I'll have more hp and it's possible to go through 2 force fields without need of healing, 8 intelligence is just enough for the proper dialogue (actually now I don't know why I used to pump it to 10), luck is 1 because in a segmented run the usage of luck is even lesser than normally.
2. There is gonna be 5 segments - first one from starting a new game to the exit of the cave, I'm doing this because I can dodge a rat this way and save about 3 seconds and it's easier to make another segment. Second segment is travel from Vault 13 to Military Base. Third is Military Base to the the exit of location. Third is travel to Cathedral and the last one is Cathedral itself.
3. I don't know how many tries I did today to get a clean way to Military Base but I guess it's more than 60 of them and I entered Military Base this way only once.
4. The locker in MB opens on first try about 50% of the time.
5. Hacking the computer to set off the bomb almost always is possible on first try.
6. From beginning to the end of MB (which is what I did today) I had the time of about 3:20, which is about 15 seconds faster than SS up to this point.

Ewil

2010-07-19 12:08:11 pm

Good luck with that, can't wait to see the ultimate Fallout speedrun !

atomicJo

2010-07-19 02:31:24 pm

Can't you use scroll up/down in the inventory ?

A question about travel speed on worldmap : IIRC it depends on CPU speed, in that case using a fast CPU would reduce time travel, isn't it ?

Lorashkar

Edit history:

Lorashkar: 2010-07-20 06:28:32 am

2010-07-19 02:54:55 pm

Yeah, you can't scroll in inventory, in Fallout 2 you could use Page Up/Page Down, but in the first Fallout you can only use those 2 buttons to scroll.
I doubt that using a faster computer would speed up travelling in world map, but I think that game slows down (or at least loading times increase) after a while of using, I guess it has something to do with RAM, once it is fresh the game runs more smoothly.

Edit: I ran some games just to check if it slow down the speed of travelling but nothing happened, I guessed the games I chose were to old to have any influence on this so I ran UT3 which drew away 60-70% of CPU usage then I checked the speed of Fallout and again, no diffrence in travelling speed only the loading times were maybe a little longer, then again I was also recording to check so I think the CPU I'm using either maxed out the speed of Fallout travelling, or the speed of CPU doesn't matter at all.

Edit2: If I'm counting correctly, the run I just made is about 7:20, I'm gonna encode videos and upload them to YT, each segment will be one video.

Edit3: Here's a link to the first segment, the next are in the playlist:

With my stopper I counted the whole run 7:18, including the 2,5 second added for 5 segments.
Let me know if You like it or if You see an improvement, but I guess I would need another recording program that will not stop recording when Escape button is hit.
Enjoy

Yeah, you can't scroll in inventory, in Fallout 2 you could use Page Up/Page Down, but in the first Fallout you can only use those 2 buttons to scroll. 
I doubt that using a faster computer would speed up travelling in world map, but I think that game slows down (or at least loading times increase) after a while of using, I guess it has something to do with RAM, once it is fresh the game runs more smoothly.

Edit: I ran some games just to check if it slow down the speed of travelling but nothing happened, I guessed the games I chose were to old to have any influence on this so I ran UT3 which drew away 60-70% of CPU usage then I checked the speed of Fallout and again, no diffrence in travelling speed only the loading times were maybe a little longer, then again I was also recording to check so I think the CPU I'm using either maxed out the speed of Fallout travelling, or the speed of CPU doesn't matter at all.

Edit2: If I'm counting correctly, the run I just made is about 7:20, I'm gonna encode videos and upload them to YT, each segment will be one video.

Edit3: Here's a link to the first segment, the next are in the playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM4N3DoFRuY&feature=PlayList&p=EBDE00DB66B92458&playnext_from=PL&index=0
With my stopper I counted the whole run 7:18, including the 2,5 second added for 5 segments.
Let me know if You like it or if You see an improvement, but I guess I would need another recording program that will not stop recording when Escape button is hit.
Enjoy

atomicJo

Edit history:

atomicJo: 2010-07-20 03:06:04 pm

2010-07-20 02:56:44 pm

Do you use Fraps ? if so it shouldn't stop recording when you hit escape

About travel speed : maybe it depends on framerate, then trying to change recording speed should have an effect on travel speed

EDIT: your segmented run is great !