Assassin's Creed II

2011-01-06 01:28:12 pm

Waiting hurts my soul...

As the soft time limit continues to be tested at SDA, it has yet to prevent a good quality run from being submitted. The latest is a 12 hour long RPG run. If it's well planned, I think it'll be accepted.

Fed981

2011-01-11 03:12:10 pm

I agree, you're right. But a 100% run for this game would still be very difficult to plan.

After having finished the game again today, I've brought some little modifications to the plan :

- to collect Petruccio's feathers, after the first one, I jump on the wood boards, instead of walking on the wire,

- the battle against Mario is much faster by running at the beginning, so that the first hit is very strong ; I'll try to do this,

- at the very end of sequence 9, I don't kill the last guards, I throw a smoke bomb near the last two groups,

- after the second kill of sequence 13, the way to the next mission is more safe by climbing directly on the rooftops, instead of walking on the balcony,

- the hands battle against Rodrigo is much faster if I grab him directly when he's on the ground.

Incoherence

Edit history:

Incoherence: 2011-01-12 01:17:00 am

Incoherence: 2011-01-12 01:12:28 am

2011-01-12 01:11:11 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Only watched two parts so far, more comments when i watch the rest:

Part 1 - Car park fight. Lucy can take out guards very quickly off screen. Get yourself into a corner and turn the camera away till you can't see Lucy.

Part 2 - Boys Will Be Boys. Second part where you take damage, you can taunt 2 guards quickly to hit you in quick sucession.

Fed981

Edit history:

Fed981: 2011-01-12 09:19:02 am

2011-01-12 09:12:55 am

Quote from Incoherence:

Part 1 - Car park fight. Lucy can take out guards very quickly off screen. Get yourself into a corner and turn the camera away till you can't see Lucy.

I'll try, I did not think to this because Lucy seems to be very long to fight. Thanks in advance for help Smiley

Edit : it would be very good if I could reach less than 6 hours!

Incoherence

2011-01-12 12:25:10 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Part 5 - Beat a Cheat. If you grab and throw the guy, when he tries to get up you can do a quick 'execution' from behind.

Your route planning seems spot on, which will save the most time overall. I don't think there are any major sequence breaks in AC2, so you have to be very optimal to get close to 6 hours. Oh and that would be nearly 3 hours of cutscens in there!

Fed981

2011-01-12 01:02:18 pm

For beat a cheat, I just found something better : I hit him once at the very beginning, and when the fight begins (when I can aim him), I taunt and I do a counterkill. It's faster than grab him, throw him and hit him again, I think.

I know this plan is close to the most efficient one (a little less than 7 hours, including 6 hours in the animus, and 3 hours of cutscenes).

Remember I'm french... What does "Your route planning seems spot on" mean? ^^

Incoherence

2011-01-12 02:13:59 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

More time overall will be saved picking the fastest way to get to targets/missions than any luck manipulation or perfect fights.

Fed981

2011-01-12 02:58:31 pm

I understand the sentence this time, but... I'm already picking the fastest way to get to targets or missions, am I not?

I don't see what you mean by saying "luck manipulations or perfect fights". Anyway, I know that fights are sometimes hard to do quickly, and I know I have to improve my fight skill also.

Incoherence

Edit history:

Incoherence: 2011-01-12 03:09:54 pm

Incoherence: 2011-01-12 03:09:29 pm

Incoherence: 2011-01-12 03:07:43 pm

Incoherence: 2011-01-12 03:02:55 pm

Incoherence: 2011-01-12 03:02:48 pm

Incoherence: 2011-01-12 03:02:45 pm

2011-01-12 03:01:14 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Part 11 - Casa Dolce Casa. You can be alot closer to the shops, as long as you don't go past the desyncronise barrier Mario will keep on talking. This obviously applies to all talking cutscenes where you are free to move.

Part 12 - What Goes Around. At the start where you help Mario out clear the guards, try to manipulate it so the last guard is near the gate Smiley

. Again while the wounded guy is talking you can move further (i think...). I like the method you used to kill Vieri btw.

Part 13 - Novella's Secret. The guard that runs from you can be caught and killed. If you are close enough to him at the start the first gate will not come down and you can catch him on the wooden bridge. You can also catch him further on where he runs on the low path, you can run on the ledge on the side and air assinate him.

Non! I was trying to say your routes were good!

Fed981

Edit history:

Fed981: 2011-01-12 03:22:18 pm

2011-01-12 03:20:41 pm

Thank you very much for the auto-scrollers tip ; I'll try to apply this more. The only thing I've already noticed is that sometimes the persons stop to talk if you're far away, even before the desyncronise barrier.

You can not move while the wounded guy is talking, otherwise I would have moved, don't worry! Er... what's "btw"? "by the way"?

For Novella's secret, I know both methods you're talking about, and that's what I thought : you're watching the first version of the plan. There's a new (ACII Plan V2), watch this one!

Incoherence

Edit history:

Incoherence: 2011-01-13 12:17:05 pm

2011-01-12 03:25:24 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Ah cool, i'll watch version 2.

The embeded youtube links are buggy! Direct link to youtube videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Fed981981#p/c/ACFDDDB8DF17D44B

Fed981

2011-01-13 10:50:38 am

I can confirm now : I can not move as I want during the auto-scrollers. For instance, I just did the end of sequence 3 (codex pages of Monteriggioni). When Ezio talks to Mario, if I'm more than 3 steps away from him, when he stops talking, the game does not continue to the next mission, it waits for Ezio to come closer to Mario.

Incoherence

2011-01-13 11:59:17 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

I checked, you're right. It seems you can only move the maximum distance away if the auto-scroller leads to a checkpoint.

Fed981

2011-01-13 12:09:17 pm

Anyway, I had tested this the first time I established the plan. I've written the maximum distances during the talk and also at the end. For instance at the beginning of sequence 11, while talking to Leonardo, I can begin to run when he begins his last sentence "Good luck, my friend".

I wish you can help me to find some more shortcuts! Smiley

Incoherence

Edit history:

Incoherence: 2011-01-13 12:15:51 pm

2011-01-13 12:15:06 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

I havn't looked at all these videos from thehiddenblade.com but some of it might be helpful http://www.thehiddenblade.com/category/assassination-style/ac2/blitz

Also i've watched up to V2 Seq4 Part5, think you can kill Francesco like this ? (from thehiddenblade again) Time saved seems low though since you have to climb the tower Cheesy

Fed981

2011-01-13 12:32:41 pm

Thank you very much, I know hyperblending method from this site, but I hadn't thought to look at others videos. I'll do it!

Fed981

Edit history:

Fed981: 2011-01-13 02:00:01 pm

2011-01-13 01:59:51 pm

All right, I got some new tips from this site. For Francesco de' Pazzi, I think the best is : leap of faith and then throw 2 knives into him. I can also try to jump and grab the building right next to him and then air assassination.

I don't think I'll post a third version, I'll "only" wait for your comments, then train myself, and then record the run.

Fed981

2011-01-14 05:40:11 am

I just discovered a "big" shortcut for the end of sequence 5, while following Jacopo de' Pazzi. I can go to the checkpoint as fast as I want, considering that I stay before the desyncronise limit (about 45 steps). This saves at least 1 minute, compared to the other versions.

Thiradell

2011-01-15 01:33:21 am

Mr. Twishall

Watched sequence 1.

Part 2/3/6: Your combat is great, good job! Just one suggestion: Sometimes it might be better to attack weak enemies (I probably would've attacked the second guy in part 6, in the first fight right by the Villa) as opposed to waiting for the counter kill. Especially when fighting a larger group, you can hack away at some of the guys' health, basically doing damage while waiting for other people to attack. If you can get into a rhythm of countering, attacking and countering the next guy as soon as he attacks, it can make for a very entertaining fight that will be faster and much more fun to watch.

Really nice route planning in general. I'm not sure if you meant to incite the two guys in part 6 while going to Alberti's house, but if you do need to fight those two, the way you caught the guards' attention and then fought them was perfectly done and great to watch. If you didn't mean to start a fight, try to avoid them in the future, of course. Tongue

Your free-running/climbing looks excellent. Hasn't been much in the run so far but it's good.

Watched sequence 1.

Part 2/3/6: Your combat is great, good job! Just one suggestion: Sometimes it might be better to attack weak enemies (I probably would've attacked the second guy in part 6, in the first fight right by the Villa) as opposed to waiting for the counter kill. Especially when fighting a larger group, you can hack away at some of the guys' health, basically doing damage while waiting for other people to attack. If you can get into a rhythm of countering, attacking and countering the next guy as soon as he attacks, it can make for a very entertaining fight that will be faster and much more fun to watch.

Really nice route planning in general. I'm not sure if you meant to incite the two guys in part 6 while going to Alberti's house, but if you do need to fight those two, the way you caught the guards' attention and then fought them was perfectly done and great to watch. If you didn't mean to start a fight, try to avoid them in the future, of course. :P

Your free-running/climbing looks excellent. Hasn't been much in the run so far but it's good.

Fed981

Edit history:

Fed981: 2011-01-15 02:42:35 am

2011-01-15 02:42:05 am

As I've already said, fights are sometimes very difficult, and I know I have to train for that. I'll try to make them more entertaining!

For the guards near Alberti's house, I tried to avoid them in the first version, with the following method : as they've spotted me, I climb on the white tissues and then on the rooftop, they try to climb to me, but after a while, I get to the ground, near the mission's door, until the alert stops. But this method is very random and, for 5 seconds of difference, I prefer to be sure to fight and kill them. And as you see, not so much time is lost while waiting for them to attack (in order to counterkill).

Fed981

Edit history:

Fed981: 2011-01-15 03:41:31 am

2011-01-15 03:41:22 am

Also, for a great majority of fights in this game, my method is firstly double assassination (low profile if possible) and then throwing knives ; I think this is the fastest way.

Fed981

2011-01-16 05:36:34 am

I just finished the game again. I picked up some things from the blitz videos of thehiddenblade, and I managed to use mercenaries/thieves/courtesans for about half of the codex pages. So I think this saves about 2 or 3 minutes again Smiley

honorableJay

2011-01-16 12:49:03 pm

The Dork Knight himself.

How viable is simply throwing a ton of money on the ground to get the codex pages?

Fed981

2011-01-16 02:55:08 pm

I think this way could be used instead of killing the guards. But it has some disadvantages. The cost in florins is negligible, but you mean a ton of money, so it would be some time (about half a second per 10f) to throw. Also this brings some people near the entrance of the rooms, which can "block" Ezio sometimes. And if the money you've thrown disappear after a given time (I believe that), instead of disappearing after all people have taken their part, this time is less than the time spent inside the room, so the alarm will start each time.

Finally, according to me, as the manually thrown knives, this method has a significant amount of randomness, and for a 6-hour run, I don't like it at all. Smiley

Incoherence

2011-01-16 04:13:22 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Seq7 Part7 - Everything Must Go - Is it faster to kill the guards just by throwing them off the roof? I think saving throwing knives will be better in the long run.

I'll try to watch more in the next few days, but front page ustream of people playing terrible NES games is too funny.