Assassin's Creed

2010-04-22 11:29:20 am

Glitch advocate

I noticed there was a strategy guide for this game in the knowledge base, but a forum topic might be useful as well. So, I played around this game, not completely finished yet. Found some tricks and strategies which might come to an use.

First of all, you can leave the first town early using a glitch, as soon as you get out of the Solomon's Temple to be exact. You retain all your power and can roam around the game world quite freely. I haven't found any objectives or other threads you could cling onto to skip complete memory segments, but I haven't searched very thoroughly yet.

Second, you can save a lot of time with save warps. At least in the later memory segments, you can warp into assassin bureaus from anywhere in the city by just exiting to Animus screen and returning to the most recent memory. This saves time when arriving into town and after completing an investigation.

There are some other small physics things here and there I've noticed but nothing useful as of yet.

Thread title:

I noticed there was a strategy guide for this game in the knowledge base, but a forum topic might be useful as well. So, I played around this game, not completely finished yet. Found some tricks and strategies which might come to an use.

First of all, you can leave the first town early using a glitch, as soon as you get out of the Solomon's Temple to be exact. You retain all your power and can roam around the game world quite freely. I haven't found any objectives or other threads you could cling onto to skip complete memory segments, but I haven't searched very thoroughly yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP7fW-E0lnk

Second, you can save a lot of time with save warps. At least in the later memory segments, you can warp into assassin bureaus from anywhere in the city by just exiting to Animus screen and returning to the most recent memory. This saves time when arriving into town and after completing an investigation.

There are some other small physics things here and there I've noticed but nothing useful as of yet.

moooh

2010-04-22 11:45:33 am

Exoray

A good place to start might be to skim through the previous threads for the PC version:
http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php/topic,8168.0.html
http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/index.php?topic=10155.0

AKheon

2010-04-22 12:26:43 pm

Glitch advocate

How strange, the forum search didn't allow me to see these topics. No matter. Thanks for linking to them.

najzere

2010-04-23 06:58:08 pm

Hey, I'm glad to see a glitch-finder of your caliber looking into AC. Cheesy

It's a bummer you can't get to any objectives with this particular glitch, but maybe it would come in handy as a simple geographic shortcut, if not a sequence breaker later on. I started the strategy guide, but gave up on it when I started getting other games. I've got it on the PS3 as well, and I'd love to help you get a good route down for a runner. Looking forward to any updates. Smiley

AKheon

Edit history:

AKheon: 2010-04-27 06:03:22 am

2010-04-24 03:43:50 pm

Glitch advocate

I don't know if I'll play this game enough to actually plan for detailed routes. Currently I'm still finishing my first playthrough, finding physics oddities and out of bound locations just for my own amusement. Here's some info from recent findings. EDIT: re-wrote things all around.

There's a technique with which you can step outside catwalks while retaining the state. You got to do a catwalking punch while holding to the direction opposite to where Altair is moving, as simple as that. You got to keep pressing towards the opposite direction until Altair turns around or he just warps back to the catwalk. Done to a floorless area, Altair either stops and falls down or stays standing on nothingness. You can then turn around and do a quick jump for a slightly extended jump from almost any catwalk in the game. Done against walls or curved catwalks, Altair may become displaced to some extent. On one occasion I've seen Altair get displaced enough to start slowly sliding away from the catwalk he left from, only to warp to another catwalk that was nearby.

Jumps to a cramped space can end up with Altair warping strangely or gaining height extremely quickly. I've made a vid with a few examples of this, linked below. You might also be able to create cramped spaces of your own using the horse. On one occasion, I got Altair temporarily stuck in air between the horse and a cliff, as evidence of sort.

There's also the curiosity of "horse's ass jump", which is done by jumping off a horse's back at a correct time when moving at slow speeds. Often Altair flies up in air about 2 times his own height, but the results vary a lot. If only you could control it better...

This vid has catwalking on nothingness and "horse's ass jump" examples:

Here's some jumping physics stuff:

Has Assassin's Creed on PS3 any patches made for it which fix glitches? I hear AC2 has.

I don't know if I'll play this game enough to actually plan for detailed routes. Currently I'm still finishing my first playthrough, finding physics oddities and out of bound locations just for my own amusement. Here's some info from recent findings. EDIT: re-wrote things all around.

There's a technique with which you can step outside catwalks while retaining the state. You got to do a catwalking punch while holding to the direction opposite to where Altair is moving, as simple as that. You got to keep pressing towards the opposite direction until Altair turns around or he just warps back to the catwalk. Done to a floorless area, Altair either stops and falls down or stays standing on nothingness. You can then turn around and do a quick jump for a slightly extended jump from almost any catwalk in the game. Done against walls or curved catwalks, Altair may become displaced to some extent. On one occasion I've seen Altair get displaced enough to start slowly sliding away from the catwalk he left from, only to warp to another catwalk that was nearby.

Jumps to a cramped space can end up with Altair warping strangely or gaining height extremely quickly. I've made a vid with a few examples of this, linked below. You might also be able to create cramped spaces of your own using the horse. On one occasion, I got Altair temporarily stuck in air between the horse and a cliff, as evidence of sort.

There's also the curiosity of "horse's ass jump", which is done by jumping off a horse's back at a correct time when moving at slow speeds. Often Altair flies up in air about 2 times his own height, but the results vary a lot. If only you could control it better...

This vid has catwalking on nothingness and "horse's ass jump" examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7fBMBr-obE

Here's some jumping physics stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omw72uOlmJE

Has Assassin's Creed on PS3 any patches made for it which fix glitches? I hear AC2 has.

AKheon

Edit history:

AKheon: 2010-05-03 11:23:00 am

2010-04-27 11:33:54 am

Glitch advocate

Countering an attack which an enemy makes from behind a wall can cause Altair to bravely step through the wall. I got a taste of this at de Sable assassination, in the part in which Altair is ambushed. An enemy attacked me through the memory barrier, and Altair stepped through. This caused an immediate "desynchronization", though, so at least here it won't save time.

Also, a technique which might save time somewhere is alternating between running and 'blend'. Altair moves at nearly running speed, but from quick testing your enemies are prone to noticing you less.

EDIT: I've tried more stuff using the block 1 town leaving trick. Early Arsuf ended up in a disappointment, because though the level became loaded and a memory barrier appeared behind Altair (preventing leaving), no objectives or ambush fights were to be found. I've also tried to visit nearly every assassination location early, but nothing happened at any of them. Also, all the bureaus except Masyaf's are abandoned. Anyone have any more ideas?

EDIT 2: I'm currently trying the early town leaving during block 2's beginning. View points synchronizations and side-missions are doable in Damascus, though I haven't managed to get the bureau leader to appear or begin the actual investigations. Here's a small time save I found: at the beginning of the second memory block, you become demoted. For about tens of seconds, all you can do is walk about while the screen lists the things you've lost. If you exit during this time and then 'Continue', the action starts off right after demotion and you can move freely again.

EDIT 3: Ended early town leave glitch by returning. Now playing normally through block 2. Save warping in Kingdom at block 2 start (as soon as you get there) is possible after having visited the View point and then continuing along a short way. You can exit and 'continue', after which you begin from the mid-way of your journey to Damascus.

EDIT 4: I could save warp to bureau as soon as I ran through the city gates, but keep in mind that this was in a game in which I had visited the town early and activated multiple view points. A small skip: it's possible to skip the short intro cutscene of Damascus by jumping off the cliff before the spot it activates.

Countering an attack which an enemy makes from behind a wall can cause Altair to bravely step through the wall. I got a taste of this at de Sable assassination, in the part in which Altair is ambushed. An enemy attacked me through the memory barrier, and Altair stepped through. This caused an immediate "desynchronization", though, so at least here it won't save time.

Also, a technique which might save time somewhere is alternating between running and 'blend'. Altair moves at nearly running speed, but from quick testing your enemies are prone to noticing you less.

EDIT: I've tried more stuff using the block 1 town leaving trick. Early Arsuf ended up in a disappointment, because though the level became loaded and a memory barrier appeared behind Altair (preventing leaving), no objectives or ambush fights were to be found. I've also tried to visit nearly every assassination location early, but nothing happened at any of them. Also, all the bureaus except Masyaf's are abandoned. Anyone have any more ideas?

EDIT 2: I'm currently trying the early town leaving during block 2's beginning. View points synchronizations and side-missions are doable in Damascus, though I haven't managed to get the bureau leader to appear or begin the actual investigations. Here's a small time save I found: at the beginning of the second memory block, you become demoted. For about tens of seconds, all you can do is walk about while the screen lists the things you've lost. If you exit during this time and then 'Continue', the action starts off right after demotion and you can move freely again.

EDIT 3: Ended early town leave glitch by returning. Now playing normally through block 2. Save warping in Kingdom at block 2 start (as soon as you get there) is possible after having visited the View point and then continuing along a short way. You can exit and 'continue', after which you begin from the mid-way of your journey to Damascus.

EDIT 4: I could save warp to bureau as soon as I ran through the city gates, but keep in mind that this was in a game in which I had visited the town early and activated multiple view points. A small skip: it's possible to skip the short intro cutscene of Damascus by jumping off the cliff before the spot it activates.

AKheon

2010-05-03 11:33:22 am

Glitch advocate

There are (at least) two types of walls in this game which your enemies can pass, but Altair can't: (most) memory barriers and (most) chasm edges. In either case, Altair can breach the wall by luring an enemy to the other side, and then countering his attack so that Altair steps forward through the wall. Unfortunately memory barriers apparently always kill you if you try to do this. Chasm edges are exploitable, but Altair will be in danger of falling and the use is specialized at best.

Found a few more horse glitches. By trying to jump on another horse while on horseback may either cause your horse to warp slightly (if the other horse was above your level) or sink into the ground (if the other horse was beneath your level). Sinking is especially interesting. Your control of your horse becomes limited and you may zip inside the ground strangely. Too bad this movement seemingly can't be controlled for consistently fast movement.

Here's a vid of the above:

Oh, also found an alternative way of escaping the first town early and a way to clone horses outside Masyaf. Neither trick seems super useful. I suppose I should post vids of those two eventually as well. Might take a break of AC now.

There are (at least) two types of walls in this game which your enemies can pass, but Altair can't: (most) memory barriers and (most) chasm edges. In either case, Altair can breach the wall by luring an enemy to the other side, and then countering his attack so that Altair steps forward through the wall. Unfortunately memory barriers apparently always kill you if you try to do this. Chasm edges are exploitable, but Altair will be in danger of falling and the use is specialized at best.

Found a few more horse glitches. By trying to jump on another horse while on horseback may either cause your horse to warp slightly (if the other horse was above your level) or sink into the ground (if the other horse was beneath your level). Sinking is especially interesting. Your control of your horse becomes limited and you may zip inside the ground strangely. Too bad this movement seemingly can't be controlled for consistently fast movement.

Here's a vid of the above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZjzN6JOG40

Oh, also found an alternative way of escaping the first town early and a way to clone horses outside Masyaf. Neither trick seems super useful. I suppose I should post vids of those two eventually as well. Might take a break of AC now.

najzere

2010-05-25 10:33:25 am

Hey, I tested leaving the town early and came to post about it only to find that I missed a bunch of your posts somehow. Undecided

I found the same as you: no objectives, can't synchronize viewpoints, all areas of towns are open, no one in the bureaus, etc. I also went to Arsuf and got excited when it appeared to load the memory, but no one was there. It looks like they did too good a job with the event scripting, so even these great OoB glitches aren't going to be too helpful. All those little time savers you're finding are awesome though! Cheesy

I'm thinking if there is a skip, it might be from Arsuf on, once we get away from the "do missions, then talk to bureau leader for assassination" formula.

AKheon

Edit history:

AKheon: 2013-09-16 08:25:41 am

AKheon: 2013-09-16 08:25:14 am

AKheon: 2010-06-25 12:56:50 pm

2010-06-25 09:59:41 am

Glitch advocate

This is the sort of game I really enjoy playing because of the rich physics motor/level design and the extremely immersive atmosphere. To be honest, I less play it than just put it on and chill out (after all, the actual assassinations are somewhat dull in a long run...) Therefore, at least for a moment I've returned to this game, and I'm trying out a few new techniques for breaking this game.

Here's clipping through walls by climbing:

It has a pretty specialized use, because I think that the ledge you climb on has to extend past the wall you want to breach, and the ledge has to be at a correct height too. This technique was not completely new, I've seen a variation of it at Youtube (someone climbs behind a market stall, though in a bit different way).

And here's clipping through floors:

It's basically just a normal running jump, done in a correct angle against correct spot. Altair builds up some strange momentum if he tries to move towards a wall during a jump, and it can be utilized for zipping (or "cornerboosting") and super high jumps elsewhere. But in staircases (and at least one other place with a bit unstable floor collision), however, he can actually breach the floor.

I think with the prospect of finding out effective cornerboosting locations, in addition to trying out other collision flaws, etc. route planning to this game might actually be... fun. I dunno. I didn't think I would ever feel this way, but now I do.

I'm starting a new game. Found a fun trick in the first room of the game: you can grab the high window to the right of the glowing figure (Al Mualim) who is isolated by invisible walls at the bottom of the stairs. From there, you can get inside the invisible collision box, and start smacking the guy around with your fists!

Another trick is to kill yourself by using the floor breach glitch during the "intro". The results are... interesting. But it's not much use speedrun wise (except for entertainment).

EDIT:

If you hit Al Mualim 12-13 times during the "intro", he will actually fall over and say something, presumably his death line. Unfortunately the scene changes to the messed up town square very soon afterwards, and you can't win the game prematurely.

This is the sort of game I really enjoy playing because of the rich physics motor/level design and the extremely immersive atmosphere. To be honest, I less play it than just put it on and chill out (after all, the actual assassinations are somewhat dull in a long run...) Therefore, at least for a moment I've returned to this game, and I'm trying out a few new techniques for breaking this game.

Here's clipping through walls by climbing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qexnji63oAE

It has a pretty specialized use, because I think that the ledge you climb on has to extend past the wall you want to breach, and the ledge has to be at a correct height too. This technique was not completely new, I've seen a variation of it at Youtube (someone climbs behind a market stall, though in a bit different way).

And here's clipping through floors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OcnnE7Q5ew

It's basically just a normal running jump, done in a correct angle against correct spot. Altair builds up some strange momentum if he tries to move towards a wall during a jump, and it can be utilized for zipping (or "cornerboosting") and super high jumps elsewhere. But in staircases (and at least one other place with a bit unstable floor collision), however, he can actually breach the floor.

I think with the prospect of finding out effective cornerboosting locations, in addition to trying out other collision flaws, etc. route planning to this game might actually be... fun. I dunno. I didn't think I would ever feel this way, but now I do.

I'm starting a new game. Found a fun trick in the first room of the game: you can grab the high window to the right of the glowing figure (Al Mualim) who is isolated by invisible walls at the bottom of the stairs. From there, you can get inside the invisible collision box, and start smacking the guy around with your fists!

Another trick is to kill yourself by using the floor breach glitch during the "intro". The results are... interesting. But it's not much use speedrun wise (except for entertainment).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWhQ3qeH4z8

EDIT:

If you hit Al Mualim 12-13 times during the "intro", he will actually fall over and say something, presumably his death line. Unfortunately the scene changes to the messed up town square very soon afterwards, and you can't win the game prematurely.

najzere

2010-06-25 02:22:40 pm

Dang I don't know how you got in there! I tried for like half an hour to get to Al Mualim to see if you could skip the whole game by killing him, but I couldn't get through the invisible walls.

These glitches look great! Hopefully they can be put to good use in a run. Maybe dying during a cut scene to cut it short? Awesome job man, thanks for finding these. Cheesy

I was messing around with manipulating the AI characters with the gentle push, and I could move them all over the place including off cliffs to kill them, but it seems like most of the important ones they've made immune to pushing, like the guy at the top of the hill you talk to when you first get to Masyaf.

In the first video, when you went through the time wall and it reloaded at the bureau, did it skip anything?

AKheon

Edit history:

AKheon: 2013-09-16 08:28:09 am

AKheon: 2010-06-28 03:49:37 pm

2010-06-25 02:32:01 pm

Glitch advocate

I think the "clipping through wall by climbing" effect is at work with the early Al Mualim whooping. To get through the wall, simply go to the right of him, face the wall to the bureau, jump against the wall. Altair should grab the window, and after he has done it, you can just drop yourself off, ending up on the other side of the wall.

In the Temple of Solomon, I pushed both of my companions into the second hole, but they just teleport back up after I assassinate the templar. Later, the companions were protected by a sheen of protective collision. Yeah, it seems there's some care seen to not being able to kill important characters...

Dying during a cutscene sounds good, other than that you can't run & jump during (most of?) them. But maybe there are ways to get around it somewhere...

The trick in the first vid didn't skip anything. You'd have to quickly pick up a flag or something after reaching the other side to checkpoint yourself, or so I'd assume. And with the rigid level structure, you'd probably just get stuck if you ended up in a "wrong" part of the town in some memory block.

I've found 3 out of bounds spots from Temple of Solomon before meeting Robert. But none are useful for skipping anything... darn, this place seems so ripe for skipping the scenes!

EDIT:

Two random occurences which strike me as interesting. 1, at Masyaf, I approached a corner of a house which had a ladder on the back of it. I tried cornerboosting as usual, when all of a sudden Altair grabbed an invisible ladder in front of him. Too bad there was a low roof above, so I couldn't climb the ladder but a few steps upward. 2, at Masyaf's bureau, beside the exit door from the main hall there's a small box. Once, when jumping on top of the box and becoming sandwiched between the door and the shelf, Altair flew up to the roof of the room very quickly, then fell down just as quickly.

There's a technique with which you can do walljump using walls that you normally can't. At least in the variation I've tried lately, you need two walls (that form a corner). The first wall should be one that Altair refuses to make any sort of jumps towards. I don't know if it matters too much what the second wall is. Simply face the second wall, then press X (you already have R1 held down, right?) but suddenly turn towards the first (normally non-responsive) wall. Altair does the jump using that wall instead.

EDIT 2:

If we could get to the courtyard at the end of Memory Block 1 somehow, could we assassinate de Sable early? EDIT: in 2013 we now know that we can get to the courtyard early, and that killing De Sable does nothing interesting.

I'm having a blast with "corner boosting", and the OOBs it produces accidentally at times. This game has surprisingly many breaches in the wall/floor integrity, try it out sometime.

EDIT 3:

Found a way to skip the Assassin trainer guy!

As you reach the first view point of the game during Memory Block 2, memory barriers manifest both behind and in front of the area. I corner boosted through the barrier which blocks the route to Masyaf, and to my surprise, Altair did not die. So all that looks like memory barrier does not kill you if you breach it, apparently. I left the area, but nothing had changed except that the first memory barrier had dissipated - i.e. couldn't skip the view point romp.

What the...? Came back to this topic to notify that I had apparently succeeded in using corner boosting to breach a wall using a horse, when all of a sudden even the second memory barrier was gone! I think I know what this means... the first view point use can be skipped! I think the sudden change was because I exited memory and then came back. Unfortunately, skipping the first view point makes the bureaus stay empty, etc. So this one won't work out.

EDIT 4:

Verified: you can breach walls using your horse. I'm expecting that this and "corner boosting" will allow miracles at Arsuf.

Other than that, I got a few 'leads' for skipping some early segment things.

I'll take a (at least) short break from this game to try out AC 2 and possibly other games as well. Guess I'll finally make a new post once I'm back. P.S. wrote something in the knowledge base of AC. It might do good to set up a "glitches" page for it, so that you could list these wall breach techniques and such.

I think the "clipping through wall by climbing" effect is at work with the early Al Mualim whooping. To get through the wall, simply go to the right of him, face the wall to the bureau, jump against the wall. Altair should grab the window, and after he has done it, you can just drop yourself off, ending up on the other side of the wall.

In the Temple of Solomon, I pushed both of my companions into the second hole, but they just teleport back up after I assassinate the templar. Later, the companions were protected by a sheen of protective collision. Yeah, it seems there's some care seen to not being able to kill important characters...

Dying during a cutscene sounds good, other than that you can't run & jump during (most of?) them. But maybe there are ways to get around it somewhere...

The trick in the first vid didn't skip anything. You'd have to quickly pick up a flag or something after reaching the other side to checkpoint yourself, or so I'd assume. And with the rigid level structure, you'd probably just get stuck if you ended up in a "wrong" part of the town in some memory block.

I've found 3 out of bounds spots from Temple of Solomon before meeting Robert. But none are useful for skipping anything... darn, this place seems so ripe for skipping the scenes!

EDIT:

Two random occurences which strike me as interesting. 1, at Masyaf, I approached a corner of a house which had a ladder on the back of it. I tried cornerboosting as usual, when all of a sudden Altair grabbed an invisible ladder in front of him. Too bad there was a low roof above, so I couldn't climb the ladder but a few steps upward. 2, at Masyaf's bureau, beside the exit door from the main hall there's a small box. Once, when jumping on top of the box and becoming sandwiched between the door and the shelf, Altair flew up to the roof of the room very quickly, then fell down just as quickly.

There's a technique with which you can do walljump using walls that you normally can't. At least in the variation I've tried lately, you need two walls (that form a corner). The first wall should be one that Altair refuses to make any sort of jumps towards. I don't know if it matters too much what the second wall is. Simply face the second wall, then press X (you already have R1 held down, right?) but suddenly turn towards the first (normally non-responsive) wall. Altair does the jump using that wall instead.

EDIT 2:

If we could get to the courtyard at the end of Memory Block 1 somehow, could we assassinate de Sable early? EDIT: in 2013 we now know that we can get to the courtyard early, and that killing De Sable does nothing interesting.

I'm having a blast with "corner boosting", and the OOBs it produces accidentally at times. This game has surprisingly many breaches in the wall/floor integrity, try it out sometime.

EDIT 3:

Found a way to skip the Assassin trainer guy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgYwS-iJnh8

As you reach the first view point of the game during Memory Block 2, memory barriers manifest both behind and in front of the area. I corner boosted through the barrier which blocks the route to Masyaf, and to my surprise, Altair did not die. So all that looks like memory barrier does not kill you if you breach it, apparently. I left the area, but nothing had changed except that the first memory barrier had dissipated - i.e. couldn't skip the view point romp.

What the...? Came back to this topic to notify that I had apparently succeeded in using corner boosting to breach a wall using a horse, when all of a sudden even the second memory barrier was gone! I think I know what this means... the first view point use can be skipped! I think the sudden change was because I exited memory and then came back. Unfortunately, skipping the first view point makes the bureaus stay empty, etc. So this one won't work out.

EDIT 4:

Verified: you can breach walls using your horse. I'm expecting that this and "corner boosting" will allow miracles at Arsuf.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzE7U9HAfv0

Other than that, I got a few 'leads' for skipping some early segment things.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9VplahfZao

I'll take a (at least) short break from this game to try out AC 2 and possibly other games as well. Guess I'll finally make a new post once I'm back. P.S. wrote something in the knowledge base of AC. It might do good to set up a "glitches" page for it, so that you could list these wall breach techniques and such.

AKheon

Edit history:

AKheon: 2010-07-21 08:45:18 am

2010-07-07 07:09:05 pm

Glitch advocate

Ok, I think I'll be returning to this one. Assassin's Creed 2 is a bit like Grand Theft Auto with the mission-based system, some design choices and the gimmicks. For now, I favor AC 1 as a game, though AC 2 has a lot of speedrunning potential as well - especially considering it has two killer glitches, air running (exactly what it says) and "hyperblend" (with which you can bring the state of anonymity almost anywhere, lasting indefinitely). Unfortunately the physics glitch which allowed breaching walls & floors in AC 1 seems to have been removed. Air catwalking still exists, but that's a small comfort. When the time is right, let's start a topic on that game as well...

Anyway, I've tried more cornerboosting around Damascus (memory block 2). No significant time saves exist in the fastest route to complete two investigations (pickpocketing + eavesdropping), it's just running on ground level and avoiding pedestrians. After that, save warp gets you straight to bureau.

Random testing: I breached the outer walls of Damascus from three places, but nothing could be done from there. I also tried to find a way to enter the Bureau through the ground level. I got halfway in at best, but from there I could already see that no one was inside, meaning that you probably couldn't win any time using this potential route.

Aha, but then I found a small time save, and it's better than nothing. At least before the block 2 Damascus assassination, you can keep moving Altair during the time memory is fastforwarding after having received permission from the bureau leader. If you jump towards walls, Altair might cancel his rising up animation halfway through, allowing you to start moving earlier, saving about 3 seconds per use - that's right, this trick might be possible at other assassinations as well.

EDIT:

I'm thinking about the route for block 3. I would imagine it's worth it to go to Acre first to get throwing knives for Tamir. There's that "eavesdrop" right inside the city gates, so there's no excuse for not doing it. After that, there are two approaches. There's an informer at the southwest corner of the area. Since you can skip informer dialogue by bumping into him, and at this point you only have 1 target to assassinate, it's not too bad. But then again, there's an asshole templar nearby, limiting your route choices a little, and there's some running to be done to even get to the informer. Second choice is pickpocket mission to the north of bureau. It's an even longer running trip if you don't use save warp (first to bureau, and from there to the pickpocketing mission). The two carpenters that talk aren't protected by invisible collision, so you can jump up to them while targeting them, and then position Altair right behind the pickpocket victim for a very fast steal.

EDIT 2:

The Hidden Blade folks have compiled a sort of speed guide to the game, including maps of "easy investigations".

http://www.thehiddenblade.com/guide-speed-play

Ok, I think I'll be returning to this one. Assassin's Creed 2 is a bit like Grand Theft Auto with the mission-based system, some design choices and the gimmicks. For now, I favor AC 1 as a game, though AC 2 has a lot of speedrunning potential as well - especially considering it has two killer glitches, air running (exactly what it says) and "hyperblend" (with which you can bring the state of anonymity almost anywhere, lasting indefinitely). Unfortunately the physics glitch which allowed breaching walls & floors in AC 1 seems to have been removed. Air catwalking still exists, but that's a small comfort. When the time is right, let's start a topic on that game as well...

Anyway, I've tried more cornerboosting around Damascus (memory block 2). No significant time saves exist in the fastest route to complete two investigations (pickpocketing + eavesdropping), it's just running on ground level and avoiding pedestrians. After that, save warp gets you straight to bureau.

Random testing: I breached the outer walls of Damascus from three places, but nothing could be done from there. I also tried to find a way to enter the Bureau through the ground level. I got halfway in at best, but from there I could already see that no one was inside, meaning that you probably couldn't win any time using this potential route.

Aha, but then I found a small time save, and it's better than nothing. At least before the block 2 Damascus assassination, you can keep moving Altair during the time memory is fastforwarding after having received permission from the bureau leader. If you jump towards walls, Altair might cancel his rising up animation halfway through, allowing you to start moving earlier, saving about 3 seconds per use - that's right, this trick might be possible at other assassinations as well.

EDIT:

I'm thinking about the route for block 3. I would imagine it's worth it to go to Acre first to get throwing knives for Tamir. There's that "eavesdrop" right inside the city gates, so there's no excuse for not doing it. After that, there are two approaches. There's an informer at the southwest corner of the area. Since you can skip informer dialogue by bumping into him, and at this point you only have 1 target to assassinate, it's not too bad. But then again, there's an asshole templar nearby, limiting your route choices a little, and there's some running to be done to even get to the informer. Second choice is pickpocket mission to the north of bureau. It's an even longer running trip if you don't use save warp (first to bureau, and from there to the pickpocketing mission). The two carpenters that talk aren't protected by invisible collision, so you can jump up to them while targeting them, and then position Altair right behind the pickpocket victim for a very fast steal.

EDIT 2:

The Hidden Blade folks have compiled a sort of speed guide to the game, including maps of "easy investigations".

http://www.thehiddenblade.com/guide-speed-play

Fed981

2011-11-27 05:56:17 am

Bump here also! Either on PC or console, this game really deserves a run on SDA. No one wants to do it?

fluojn

2011-12-06 11:08:22 pm

Actually, I truly have interest to do runs anything AC related, (okay, maybe not Discovery x)) but I should finish the ACB run first Cheesy

Seriously, isn't there anyone considering this? Or Revelations? That one should be super fun to plan with hookblade and bombs Tongue

velocikiller

2011-12-07 02:01:13 pm

I've been considering it for a while, but I just wouldn't do it justice. I COULD try a run and see how fast it is, but I don't think I'll really try to go for a submittable run. Who knows, I might end up trying to go for one after my test run.

AKheon

Edit history:

AKheon: 2012-02-08 12:57:01 pm

2012-02-08 12:56:35 pm

Glitch advocate

I found an use to something I had previously overlooked, and lo, we now have a way to breach walls even easier than before. Basically, the normal momentum jump glitch relies on your jump continuing uninterrupted. You got to do a jump with a slight angle, for example, lest Altair just fumble against the wall and nothing works. But I noticed that there's a way to disable this fumbling animation for the most part... just "grab ledge" towards Altair's backside. This way you can jump directly against walls without the fumbling, and reap the benefits of being able to do momentum jump in a lot more varied situations. Doing this against angled surface usually causes Altair to fall through the floor, while normal corners make him zip.

velocikiller

2012-02-10 12:06:56 am

Wow, now you don't need to spend an extra 5 seconds jumping down into the stupid room! That's actually pretty handy! Could you use that to get from say, the top of a bazaar to the ground floor?

AKheon

2012-02-10 03:22:58 am

Glitch advocate

Top of a bazaar... like where exactly?

I know you can breach other ceilings too and generally cut corners using this trick. But it's not 100% reliable, and so I imagine a speedrunner might not want to mess up a long segment by involving this trick in it.

mikwuyma

2012-11-28 09:36:37 pm

My feelings on The Demon Rush

So question about this game. I just got the game for my 360 (yeah just starting the series, I'm a bit late) and I was wondering if patching the game was detrimental to a speedrun. I'm just wondering because I know you don't want to patch Assassin's Creed 2.

Fed981

2012-11-29 02:05:34 am

I don't think there's any reason not to patch the game... But to be sure I will ask on TheHiddenBlade.

161803398874989

Edit history:

161803398874989: 2012-11-29 04:54:26 am

2012-11-29 04:51:43 am

MATHEMATICS

I have absolutely no idea, since I've never played it without patch. Is there even one?

If you're going to run it, I've got an excellent thread up at thehiddenblade.com here. I still plan on running this game, but with Dishonored I currently don't have much motivation.

mikwuyma

2012-11-29 11:08:56 am

My feelings on The Demon Rush

I don't know if I'm going to run the game, but I just wanted to know in case if I have interest running it. Smiley

Anyway, thank you for answering my question.

Paraxade

2012-11-29 11:31:56 am

You can remove 360 patches anyway, so if you're just about to play through it casually, there's no risk in patching it for now.

KGeeB

2012-11-30 02:18:33 pm

Why does this keep happening to me?

Ah, It's been a long time since I've played Assassin's Creed 1. Maybe I should dig it back out of my closet and give it a play? Tongue

I remember trying to get all the flags - not fun!

Lag.Com

2012-12-02 05:17:44 am

sda loyalist

Hmm, I didn't really read this thread until now but AC running interests me greatly. Just watched that video of clipping through the bureau ceiling, would this let you trigger the scene without even being anonymous? The ceiling gate closes usually, but if this could remove the need for hiding, that would be neat-o.