Batman: Arkham City

2012-01-23 02:11:20 pm

actually, now that i think about it, it is 3 signigicant errors and 2 minor errors, plus general better performance in some combat that would add up.

jeremysaint

2012-01-26 08:57:08 am

robosparkle, i have been trying this for a while:

7) GCPD Silent Predator: Going through the vents takes too long. If you Quickfire Gel past the nearest door, the guard will see you and call everyone out to the corridor. Between the smoke pellets, gel and batclaw, you should have no problem taking out all 5 in no time! It's a riskier strat than yours, but you should be able to cope.

and i am getting nowhere. i am not sure what i am missing, maybe it is an issue from playing on hard, more likely i am just missing something serious. if you have any new information on this i would appreciate it.

RoboSparkle

2012-01-26 09:25:11 am

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

It's possible it's a problem with difficulty - I've cleared the room like that in easy but I leant my game to my brother so haven't been able to try in hard mode - I get my game back next weekend so I'll give it a try then and let you know, I'll see if I can record something as well, but I don't have anything to record with yet.

jeremysaint

2012-01-30 06:13:52 pm

ugh. i was 2 hours 13 minutes at the snipers before joker and suddenly died. and what is worse i cant figure out what i did wrong. i am about ready to give up on making a new single segment run. the thing is i have other games, and i would like to play them... and that was just plain heart breaking. i had no deaths up to that point. my finger slipped off the a button on one of the ra's gliding segments, which caused me to crash and return to the pillar but that only cost me maybe 20 seconds. my best run ever and i was killed for no damn reason that i can fathom. i had managed to shave about 10 minutes off my previous time, and it was frankly tiring. there were moments that the enemies acted in strange ways, a couple of incredibly close calls, and well, i give up.

arkham city is 8gigs of my puny launch day hard drive. soul calibur 5 is coming out tomorrow and my soul still burns. i need some of that 8 gigs back. i wish anyone else who is trying this the best of luck, and for the record, the techniques i demonstrated are to the best of my knowledge optimal or near optimal.

ugh.  i was 2 hours 13 minutes at the snipers before joker and suddenly died.  and what is worse i cant figure out what i did wrong.  i am about ready to give up on making a new single segment run.  the thing is i have other games, and i would like to play them...  and that was just plain heart breaking.  i had no deaths up to that point.  my finger slipped off the a button on one of the ra's gliding segments, which caused me to crash and return to the pillar but that only cost me maybe 20 seconds.  my best run ever and i was killed for no damn reason that i can fathom.  i had managed to shave about 10 minutes off my previous time, and it was frankly tiring.  there were moments that the enemies acted in strange ways, a couple of incredibly close calls, and well, i give up.

arkham city is 8gigs of my puny launch day hard drive.  soul calibur 5 is coming out tomorrow and my soul still burns.  i need some of that 8 gigs back.  i wish anyone else who is trying this the best of luck, and for the record, the techniques i demonstrated are to the best of my knowledge optimal or near optimal.

RoboSparkle

2012-01-31 12:28:08 pm

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Quote from jeremysaint:

ugh. i was 2 hours 13 minutes at the snipers before joker and suddenly died. and what is worse i cant figure out what i did wrong. i am about ready to give up on making a new single segment run. the thing is i have other games, and i would like to play them... and that was just plain heart breaking. i had no deaths up to that point. my finger slipped off the a button on one of the ra's gliding segments, which caused me to crash and return to the pillar but that only cost me maybe 20 seconds. my best run ever and i was killed for no damn reason that i can fathom. i had managed to shave about 10 minutes off my previous time, and it was frankly tiring. there were moments that the enemies acted in strange ways, a couple of incredibly close calls, and well, i give up.

arkham city is 8gigs of my puny launch day hard drive. soul calibur 5 is coming out tomorrow and my soul still burns. i need some of that 8 gigs back. i wish anyone else who is trying this the best of luck, and for the record, the techniques i demonstrated are to the best of my knowledge optimal or near optimal.

Man that really sucks when that happens. Once I have my game back I am going to start running this more frequently, although I know from watching other games practices (FFX is the main one that springs to mind atm) is that the SS category is evil when it exceeds 2 hours. If you want to quit then I can't stop you, but make sure that it is because you genuinely do not want to run it anymore and it's not a "argh this is frustrating, I don't want to play the game right now" as I feel you have a genuine talent for this game and you may want to come back after a day or two. Although Soul Calibur 5 does look pretty exciting.

Regardless, I'm going to get in on the speedrunning action here whether or not you continue your attempts, but either way I think we can really benefit from working together on this one. Or having casual SS races against each other when this game isn't busy killing your soul like that.

[quote="jeremysaint"]ugh.  i was 2 hours 13 minutes at the snipers before joker and suddenly died.  and what is worse i cant figure out what i did wrong.  i am about ready to give up on making a new single segment run.  the thing is i have other games, and i would like to play them...  and that was just plain heart breaking.  i had no deaths up to that point.  my finger slipped off the a button on one of the ra's gliding segments, which caused me to crash and return to the pillar but that only cost me maybe 20 seconds.  my best run ever and i was killed for no damn reason that i can fathom.  i had managed to shave about 10 minutes off my previous time, and it was frankly tiring.  there were moments that the enemies acted in strange ways, a couple of incredibly close calls, and well, i give up.

arkham city is 8gigs of my puny launch day hard drive.  soul calibur 5 is coming out tomorrow and my soul still burns.  i need some of that 8 gigs back.  i wish anyone else who is trying this the best of luck, and for the record, the techniques i demonstrated are to the best of my knowledge optimal or near optimal.[/quote]

Man that really sucks when that happens.  Once I have my game back I am going to start running this more frequently, although I know from watching other games practices (FFX is the main one that springs to mind atm) is that the SS category is evil when it exceeds 2 hours.  If you want to quit then I can't stop you, but make sure that it is because you genuinely do not want to run it anymore and it's not a "argh this is frustrating, I don't want to play the game right now" as I feel you have a genuine talent for this game and you may want to come back after a day or two.  Although Soul Calibur 5 does look pretty exciting.

Regardless, I'm going to get in on the speedrunning action here whether or not you continue your attempts, but either way I think we can really benefit from working together on this one.  Or having casual SS races against each other when this game isn't busy killing your soul like that.

jeremysaint

2012-02-01 01:49:18 pm

something like casual races could be fun. the thing is that my run borderline perfect and all it had saved was 10 minutes. it doesnt seem worth the extreme effort. either way i wish you luck on this, but if nothing else i want my 8 gigs of hard drive space back so i can try some other games i like.

RoboSparkle

Edit history:

RoboSparkle: 2012-02-18 02:40:48 pm

RoboSparkle: 2012-02-18 02:38:46 pm

RoboSparkle: 2012-02-18 11:40:56 am

2012-02-08 05:44:41 pm

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Found a couple more little tricks today as well as having a very satisfying Ra's fight - once you're in Freeflow Focus every crit is a OHKO so there's no point in using any of the special combo moves.

On the way there I found you can skip the first "Batman is dying" cut scene. But I'm not sure how I did it as once I did it the first time, every time I reset to get it right, the move was already skipped. I think it was one of two things.

Either:
1) Using a non-quickfire gel on the floor so it moves you past the point where Batman drops tohis knees and then restarting
Or:
2) Attacking the nearby thugs with a remote batarang and starting a fight.

Gonna need a new game to test, is there a way to copy save files on XBox 360?

EDIT: So, you can only skip the first "dying" cut scene by resetting when you are most of the way through it. Oh well, I was so chuffed!

However, In about 30 minutes I'm going to attempt a whole playthrough. I can't submit it, no matter how well it goes, because a) There will be about 10 things I forget to do or discover later and b) I don't have a recording device yet so it's going up on webcam

The point of this is to really get used to doing entire playthroughs rather than practicing individual sections to death until I can consistently get a fast run on that section. Hopefully all that practice will help when I chain them all together, but we'll see.

You can watch on http://www.twitch.tv/robo_sparkle

EDIT: Got a 2:29:39 with about a kagillion deaths. So the route is pretty solid although the execution is not; I think I should be aiming for a 2:15 on this.

Freeflow Focus is now officially useless since the only reason any of us got that was for Ra's but his clones will go down to any critical strike, so no need for it there. I have substituted the Shock Wave Attack to cut down the time and risk from rescuing/interrogating Quincy Sharp since it knocks down and disarms all of the inmates holding him and makes the rescue a breeze.

I'll write more notes later.

Found a couple more little tricks today as well as having a very satisfying Ra's fight - once you're in Freeflow Focus every crit is a OHKO so there's no point in using any of the special combo moves.

On the way there I found you can skip the first "Batman is dying" cut scene. But I'm not sure how I did it as once I did it the first time, every time I reset to get it right, the move was already skipped. I think it was one of two things.

Either:
1) Using a non-quickfire gel on the floor so it moves you past the point where Batman drops tohis knees and then restarting
Or:
2) Attacking the nearby thugs with a remote batarang and starting a fight.

Gonna need a new game to test, is there a way to copy save files on XBox 360?

EDIT: So, you can only skip the first "dying" cut scene by resetting when you are most of the way through it.  Oh well, I was so chuffed!

However, In about 30 minutes I'm going to attempt a whole playthrough. I can't submit it, no matter how well it goes, because a) There will be about 10 things I forget to do or discover later and b) I don't have a recording device yet so it's going up on webcam

The point of this is to really get used to doing entire playthroughs rather than practicing individual sections to death until I can consistently get a fast run on that section. Hopefully all that practice will help when I chain them all together, but we'll see.

You can watch on http://www.twitch.tv/robo_sparkle

EDIT: Got a 2:29:39 with about a kagillion deaths. So the route is pretty solid although the execution is not; I think I should be aiming for a 2:15 on this.

Freeflow Focus is now officially useless since the only reason any of us got that was for Ra's but his clones will go down to any critical strike, so no need for it there.  I have substituted the Shock Wave Attack to cut down the time and risk from rescuing/interrogating Quincy Sharp since it knocks down and disarms all of the inmates holding him and makes the rescue a breeze.

I'll write more notes later.

jeremysaint

2012-02-18 07:12:10 pm

thanks for the video robosparkle. you are trying for single segment i assume?

jeremysaint

2012-02-18 07:30:10 pm

hmm you have made some changes to my route. i really like gliding over the ice. it is one of the spots i decided just wasnt worth the risk.

RoboSparkle

Edit history:

RoboSparkle: 2012-02-19 04:11:02 am

2012-02-19 04:08:08 am

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Yeah this is single segment. I discovered that gliding is actually fairly risk-free assuming you boost up and then do a short dive to maintain height.

Other Changes:

1) As Wayne, sliding under the crawl spaces on the way up the Ace building saves time (assuming you don't get too close to the edge and hang off like me...)

2) Dive rolling at the last bit before the batsuit arrives means you're closer to the ladder when the cutscene ends (I have got him right up to the ladder on a couple of occasions but it's tricky to get that close)

3) I ignored the riddler trophy that jeremy got and got the one at the Church instead as it's on the way. Saves about 10 seconds but I can't start getting any challenge awards until I leave the church.

4) Dive through the window in the Courtroom rather than climb the stairs. Surprisingly, he only shoots at me about 40% of the time (and one in every 5 of those he hits me like he does in this run) but imo it's a small risk quite early on in the game.

5) Beat downs are arguably the fastest way to take out an inmate on full health when he's not alone (unless he has armour when you should REC->Ground Pound him) so I use those more often

6) Grapnel-cancelling (used in a few places) are where you grapnel toward a ledge or gargoyle and then press B (Xbox) to cancel and hold A to glide. It's first used in the church but I use it a few times. Far quicker than running.

7) Pressing A when taking out the last thug in any situation cancels the slo-mo camera bit, saves a few seconds per use.

8) Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't but make sure you already have the next gadget selected when you aren't doing something that requires both hands. Or get some extra hands. Otherwise you will lose a couple of seconds selecting the next tool to be used.

9a) Not a speedrunning tip but something I only learned after practicing this game - if you don't dive out the church window, the Joker gives a great speech when the timer runs out. Play through and listen. You can still carry on as the church doesn't explode until well after the speech.

9) Different route to the Steel Mill - I attempted to go as the bat flies and it worked pretty well. Despite all the guys with guns, I have NEVER been shot at when flying overhead. Having said that, due to my pisspoor combat early on I needed to pop a balloon to have enough exp for the multi-takedown upgrade, so it may be worth going via the water and getting the "Glide 30 meters over the water" riddler award. Although that is a tough one to do in an SS...

10) Timing for the pipes being cooled in the first bit of the Steel Mill - once you open the hatch, run immediately to the red-hot bars, Batman will be stunned and once he has recovered you will be able to get on them. I don't know if this is the earliest instant that you can get on but it's easier than waiting and guessing!

11) Different route for the predator section. This always works and requires no waiting. I also get my "smoke takedown" award and 2/5 of the "knockout smash" award.

12) No I didn't take any of the guards out outside the GCPD building. Yes I did screw it up. Next

13) I have two routes for the GCPD Predator bit. One if I haven't been hit (and therefore Batman can take two shotgun rounds) and one if I have (and therefore I must get through unscathed) despite it happening like 10 seconds ago, I forgot that I had been shot. And got shot again. But that route takes between 28 and 35 seconds, assuming I don't get killed because I forgot to do the safe 45-second version.

14) You can skip the explanation of how to blade dodge if you attack quickly enough. I also hit the penguin for the exp.

15) I used jeremy's route for the disruptors since they are the fastest, but I first tried my route on the second to see if I could reliably use in in an SS. I can't.

16) In the museum, you glide past the dinosaur to avoid the beat down explanation. You also don't use the beatdown if you can avoid it. I was meant to have the "5x special combo" upgrade for this one but screwed it up so much.

17) I experimented to see if you could hit the switch before the fight. You can't.

18) Rolling dive when exploding gel through walls - taken from B:AA but I find it far easier here.

19) Gliding across the ice is a lot easier than it sounds - as I said if you grapple boost to the tall tower, glide from the wall and do a short dive you can easily make it to the other side - I've even made it into the door before.

20) The quickest way to take down the three guys before Freeze's room is a 3 hit combo on the first guy, REC the armoured guy, crit the third, and then multi takedown.

21) Also, you can slide on the ice. It's actually safer than crouching and moving quickly. It's also quicker, unless you fail to walk from the ice to the platform like me...

22) Yes that predator route in the museum does work and yes I did go too soon. Oops

23) Throughout the run, throwing batarangs while running is penaltyless, so easy to hit penguins and joker teeth on the move.

24) Grundy: It is possible to gel the plates while they are active, you just need to be far more careful than I was. Very happy with the first two stages though.

25) I used the map to find the assassin because I kept getting lost somehow. I will learn it.

26) Getting to the sewers, I have never hit that balloon before, but I'm going to try it more often now!

27) That Wonder City predator bit went very badly. What was supposed to happen is you sonic shock one of the first three guys and rec another. While everybody is running to the lift, you batarang and ground pound the guy on his own in the bottom corner (you know, the one who i failed to batarang and who killed me, who never ever even shoots or sees me) then the other guys come up via the steps under where you start and you can either batclaw them over the edge or smoke bomb them.

28) Gliding early in the Ra's trials should be risk-free if you don't do it too early. I have never been able to glide INTO a tower because you couldn't grapple to it!

29) Ra's's clones will go down to a critical strike. It wasn't my best fight (I have got 20 critical hits from those guys with about 10 dodges before and finished with a 61x combo) but I was reasonaly happy with that.

30) Shock Wave for the Quincy Thugs. That was the best that fight has ever gone.

31) That is not my Freeze route. My Freeze route is less risky, less improvised, and doesn't involve me screwing up the glide at the start...

32) The combination of Freeze grenades, Sonic Shock Batarangs, and Gun Jammers make Batman an unstoppable battle tank predator. If I remember to use them and do it correctly.

33) Beat down to knock down the Joker in one round.

34) You can glide while scanning choppers, although it's tricky. I too am convinced that it's basically whichever helicopter is the 6/7th one you scan.

35) Fighting the TYGER guards I tried laying explosive gel before Strange's speech but the gel just disappears, which is very disappointing as I was quite proud of having thought of that. Freeze grenades are awesome in combat.

36) The wonder tower predator strategies do work, although by this point I was tired and starting to get frustrated. Also I hate Strange's stupid smug face and want to use a freeze grenade on it.

37) Climbing up the wonder tower, I was trying to boost up to the panel rather than climbing. As you can see it does work, but I didn't gain any time as it took me three gos.

38) Should have taken my time with Strange's guards. Didn't

39) Not sure if the Sonic shock doesn't work with the snipers or if I just screwed it up. Needs more testing.

40) Should have got the combat upgrade for the Clayface fight. Also I shouldn't have forgotten everything I know about B:AC combat. That was very bad. It also marks 2 out of the 3 times I have ever died to Clayface.

It's sort of a combination of route notes and self-critique. I'll probably have another go today, see if I can't iron out any of the many problems.

Also is there a list somewhere of exp values, how much to gain levels, how much you gain from which challenges, predator or combat bonuses, etc?

Yeah this is single segment.  I discovered that gliding is actually fairly risk-free assuming you boost up and then do a short dive to maintain height.

Other Changes:

1) As Wayne, sliding under the crawl spaces on the way up the Ace building saves time (assuming you don't get too close to the edge and hang off like me...)

2) Dive rolling at the last bit before the batsuit arrives means you're closer to the ladder when the cutscene ends (I have got him right up to the ladder on a couple of occasions but it's tricky to get that close)

3) I ignored the riddler trophy that jeremy got and got the one at the Church instead as it's on the way.  Saves about 10 seconds but I can't start getting any challenge awards until I leave the church.

4) Dive through the window in the Courtroom rather than climb the stairs.  Surprisingly, he only shoots at me about 40% of the time (and one in every 5 of those he hits me like he does in this run) but imo it's a small risk quite early on in the game.

5) Beat downs are arguably the fastest way to take out an inmate on full health when he's not alone (unless he has armour when you should REC->Ground Pound him) so I use those more often

6) Grapnel-cancelling (used in a few places) are where you grapnel toward a ledge or gargoyle and then press B (Xbox) to cancel and hold A to glide.  It's first used in the church but I use it a few times.  Far quicker than running.

7) Pressing A when taking out the last thug in any situation cancels the slo-mo camera bit, saves a few seconds per use.

8) Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't but make sure you already have the next gadget selected when you aren't doing something that requires both hands.  Or get some extra hands. Otherwise you will lose a couple of seconds selecting the next tool to be used.

9a) Not a speedrunning tip but something I only learned after practicing this game - if you don't dive out the church window, the Joker gives a great speech when the timer runs out.  Play through and listen.  You can still carry on as the church doesn't explode until well after the speech.

9) Different route to the Steel Mill - I attempted to go as the bat flies and it worked pretty well.  Despite all the guys with guns, I have NEVER been shot at when flying overhead.  Having said that, due to my pisspoor combat early on I needed to pop a balloon to have enough exp for the multi-takedown upgrade, so it may be worth going via the water and getting the "Glide 30 meters over the water" riddler award.  Although that is a tough one to do in an SS...

10) Timing for the pipes being cooled in the first bit of the Steel Mill - once you open the hatch, run immediately to the red-hot bars, Batman will be stunned and once he has recovered you will be able to get on them.  I don't know if this is the earliest instant that you can get on but it's easier than waiting and guessing!

11) Different route for the predator section.  This always works and requires no waiting.  I also get my "smoke takedown" award and 2/5 of the "knockout smash" award.

12) No I didn't take any of the guards out outside the GCPD building.  Yes I did screw it up.  Next

13) I have two routes for the GCPD Predator bit.  One if I haven't been hit (and therefore Batman can take two shotgun rounds) and one if I have (and therefore I must get through unscathed) despite it happening like 10 seconds ago, I forgot that I had been shot.  And got shot again.  But that route takes between 28 and 35 seconds, assuming I don't get killed because I forgot to do the safe 45-second version.

14) You can skip the explanation of how to blade dodge if you attack quickly enough.  I also hit the penguin for the exp.

15) I used jeremy's route for the disruptors since they are the fastest, but I first tried my route on the second to see if I could reliably use in in an SS. I can't.

16) In the museum, you glide past the dinosaur to avoid the beat down explanation.  You also don't use the beatdown if you can avoid it.  I was meant to have the "5x special combo" upgrade for this one but screwed it up so much.

17) I experimented to see if you could hit the switch before the fight.  You can't.

18) Rolling dive when exploding gel through walls - taken from B:AA but I find it far easier here.

19) Gliding across the ice is a lot easier than it sounds - as I said if you grapple boost to the tall tower, glide from the wall and do a short dive you can easily make it to the other side - I've even made it into the door before.

20) The quickest way to take down the three guys before Freeze's room is a 3 hit combo on the first guy, REC the armoured guy, crit the third, and then multi takedown.

21) Also, you can slide on the ice.  It's actually safer than crouching and moving quickly.  It's also quicker, unless you fail to walk from the ice to the platform like me...

22) Yes that predator route in the museum does work and yes I did go too soon. Oops

23) Throughout the run, throwing batarangs while running is penaltyless, so easy to hit penguins and joker teeth on the move.

24) Grundy: It is possible to gel the plates while they are active, you just need to be far more careful than I was.  Very happy with the first two stages though.

25) I used the map to find the assassin because I kept getting lost somehow.  I will learn it.

26) Getting to the sewers, I have never hit that balloon before, but I'm going to try it more often now!

27) That Wonder City predator bit went very badly. What was supposed to happen is you sonic shock one of the first three guys and rec another.  While everybody is running to the lift, you batarang and ground pound the guy on his own in the bottom corner (you know, the one who i failed to batarang and who killed me, who never ever even shoots or sees me) then the other guys come up via the steps under where you start and you can either batclaw them over the edge or smoke bomb them.

28) Gliding early in the Ra's trials should be risk-free if you don't do it too early.  I have never been able to glide INTO a tower because you couldn't grapple to it!

29) Ra's's clones will go down to a critical strike.  It wasn't my best fight (I have got 20 critical hits from those guys with about 10 dodges before and finished with a 61x combo) but I was reasonaly happy with that.

30) Shock Wave for the Quincy Thugs.  That was the best that fight has ever gone.

31) That is not my Freeze route.  My Freeze route is less risky, less improvised, and doesn't involve me screwing up the glide at the start...

32) The combination of Freeze grenades, Sonic Shock Batarangs, and Gun Jammers make Batman an unstoppable battle tank predator.  If I remember to use them and do it correctly.

33) Beat down to knock down the Joker in one round.

34) You can glide while scanning choppers, although it's tricky.  I too am convinced that it's basically whichever helicopter is the 6/7th one you scan.

35) Fighting the TYGER guards I tried laying explosive gel before Strange's speech but the gel just disappears, which is very disappointing as I was quite proud of having thought of that.  Freeze grenades are awesome in combat.

36) The wonder tower predator strategies do work, although by this point I was tired and starting to get frustrated.  Also I hate Strange's stupid smug face and want to use a freeze grenade on it.

37) Climbing up the wonder tower, I was trying to boost up to the panel rather than climbing.  As you can see it does work, but I didn't gain any time as it took me three gos.

38) Should have taken my time with Strange's guards. Didn't

39) Not sure if the Sonic shock doesn't work with the snipers or if I just screwed it up. Needs more testing.

40) Should have got the combat upgrade for the Clayface fight.  Also I shouldn't have forgotten everything I know about B:AC combat.  That was very bad.  It also marks 2 out of the 3 times I have ever died to Clayface.

It's sort of a combination of route notes and self-critique. I'll probably have another go today, see if I can't iron out any of the many problems.

Also is there a list somewhere of exp values, how much to gain levels, how much you gain from which challenges, predator or combat bonuses, etc?

RoboSparkle

2012-02-19 09:45:01 am

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Just got a 2:14:16 using the exact same route and merely tightening the execution. I didn't realise the mistakes took up that much time. I still died 3 times plus a restart due to impending death, all of which occured from the first TYGER predator bits! Up until then the run was almost at submission quality for a good proportion of the time, so I'm readjusting my expectations. I'm not sure if sub-2 is possible, but I'm certain sub 2:10 is so I'm going to try and get a sub 2:05 next.

velocikiller

2012-02-19 07:28:32 pm

Just so you know, the first time I ever played Arkham City, the cutscene showing the Batwing dropping of the Batsuit never appeared. I don't know if it was a glitch, or if it's a skippable trigger, maybe one that can be activated by dropping down and moving along the side past the trigger.

RoboSparkle

2012-02-20 12:26:32 pm

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

I think those are mostly bugs, there was one that happened in Jeremy's run that forced to restart the museum silent predator room as the trigger to talk to the hostage didn't appear. I had another when rescuing the nurse near wonder city as the rescue trigger never appeared.

There is a glitch where you can glide under the city, but it doesn't appear to do anything useful because it isn't a faster way to travel and you can't break any sequences with it.

jeremysaint

2012-02-22 08:26:15 am

what is submission quality? i mean this is single segment over a 2 plus hour game. anyways, i am very interested in how your run ends up robosparkles. if i didnt need the hard drive space back from the install i would still be taking an occassional stab at arkham city still too. i found a couple of better gliding routes and before i stopped i had actually refined my technique for a couple of the trickier spots, but i really also wanted to install some xbla games.

RoboSparkle

2012-02-22 02:11:50 pm

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Quote from jeremysaint:

what is submission quality?

Mostly not having 4 death/resets, recording on something decent rather than a webcam, and less general sloppiness throughout. The sloppy fights in the beginning meant that I didn't have enough exp to get the 5x special attacks upgrade before taking out penguin's jammers - that won't happen in the final submitted run. Lots of little things like that really.

RoboSparkle

2012-03-10 08:32:28 am

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Right just had a run where almost everything went smoothly, the only major problem was one death against freeze and I achieved 2:09:46. I think I can target sub-2:09 for a submission-worthy time. Very happy with how that's going.

Had a few hacking tests and by the time I get the crypto upgrades the time saved isn't worth the time spent bringing up the menu. I'm just going to pile all the upgrades after Shock Wave into ballistic armour to reduce the risk of dying in the last few silent predators. It also means I'll be able to use the risky strats where Batman will probably get shot twice. Although that just makes him angrier so no probs there...

RoboSparkle

2012-04-02 01:52:59 pm

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Hah. Triple post.

Well my playing seems to be getting better but much more sporadic. Had a run where I died 7 times and still managed a 2:16:03 somehow

New things I've discovered:

When deactivating the second of Penguin's jammers, you don't need to take out all the guards. But you will need to use a smoke bomb so the remaining guards don't shoot you.

Found a few extra places to grapnel-cancel to save time before getting the boost.

I'm now getting enough exp to get the Sonic Shock Batarang before the museum predator mission, which changes the route to one which is not only easier, but faster and safer!

Use a smoke bomb on the thugs in the steel mill (1st encounter ONLY) to get the "thugs twatting each other" riddler trophy. If that doesn't work you're practically guaranteed success if you do it during the museum combat bit.

Also, my Hauppague arrived so I can start recording. I'll be able to get a complete run in good quality soon (good quality video that is, not necessarily gameplay) but to start off, a glitch I found in the museum while showing off the Bat Shark-Repellent Skip:

Hah. Triple post.

Well my playing seems to be getting better but much more sporadic.  Had a run where I died 7 times and still managed a 2:16:03 somehow

New things I've discovered:

When deactivating the second of Penguin's jammers, you don't need to take out all the guards.  But you will need to use a smoke bomb so the remaining guards don't shoot you.

Found a few extra places to grapnel-cancel to save time before getting the boost.

I'm now getting enough exp to get the Sonic Shock Batarang before the museum predator mission, which changes the route to one which is not only easier, but faster and safer!

Use a smoke bomb on the thugs in the steel mill (1st encounter ONLY) to get the "thugs twatting each other" riddler trophy.  If that doesn't work you're practically guaranteed success if you do it during the museum combat bit.

Also, my Hauppague arrived so I can start recording.  I'll be able to get a complete run in good quality soon (good quality video that is, not necessarily gameplay) but to start off, a glitch I found in the museum while showing off the Bat Shark-Repellent Skip:

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toRWx8Z9OEs&feature=youtu.be[/url]

jeremysaint

2012-04-03 02:12:10 pm

i am so looking forward to your run!

RoboSparkle

Edit history:

RoboSparkle: 2012-04-07 04:30:35 pm

RoboSparkle: 2012-04-07 04:29:52 pm

RoboSparkle: 2012-04-07 04:29:05 pm

RoboSparkle: 2012-04-07 04:28:20 pm

2012-04-07 04:26:43 pm

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Hey so I streamed a run using some new routes and tactics and got 2:10:53. With 6 deaths. I'm not sure how that works either. Unfortunately my internet isn't exactly wonderful so the run on twitch is of poor quality and it cut out 5 times during the run, but you get the idea at least!

Part 1:
http://twitch.tv/robo_sparkle/b/314229828

Part 2:
http://www.twitch.tv/robo_sparkle/b/314231348

Part 3:
http://www.twitch.tv/robo_sparkle/b/314238205

Part 4:
http://www.twitch.tv/robo_sparkle/b/314239987

Part 5:
http://www.twitch.tv/robo_sparkle/b/314241283

Part 6:
http://www.twitch.tv/robo_sparkle/b/314253303

jeremysaint

Edit history:

jeremysaint: 2012-04-07 06:47:56 pm

jeremysaint: 2012-04-07 06:29:31 pm

2012-04-07 06:16:15 pm

wow, i really like the improvements over my route i am seeing so far. taking it in 30 min or so bites.

so far i am at the disable the jammers, and am seeing lots of small changes and improvements. but i can not imagine what let you did to shave off over ten to 15 minutes from my run. damn!

the spot where you fell in the shark water made me feel bad. i made the exact same mistake enough time i slowly target the middle ring just to avoid that.

hmm, are you invulnerable for the entire summon bat stun animation?

RoboSparkle

Edit history:

RoboSparkle: 2012-04-08 04:39:19 pm

RoboSparkle: 2012-04-08 08:51:48 am

RoboSparkle: 2012-04-08 03:15:08 am

RoboSparkle: 2012-04-08 03:14:22 am

2012-04-08 03:09:06 am

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Quote from jeremysaint:

so far i am at the disable the jammers, and am seeing lots of small changes and improvements. but i can not imagine what let you did to shave off over ten to 15 minutes from my run. damn!

Thanks, that 10-15mins is basically made up of small changes, such as 30 seconds saved on the predator runs due to route recklessness, avoiding more encounters like the gunman in Two-Faces courthouse, and gliding in the museum instead of ice skating probably saves a minute alone!

Quote from jeremysaint:

the spot where you fell in the shark water made me feel bad. i made the exact same mistake enough time i slowly target the middle ring just to avoid that.

I hate, HATE the ice section, Batman seems to be able to find the teeniest gaps to fall in during that part. I used to diveroll over that bit to jump the gap, but often he'd overshoot and fall in the water near the cop! You'd think the "world's greatest detective" could detect a gap that he'd need to step across, he wouldn't last five minutes on the London Underground...

Quote from jeremysaint:

are you invulnerable for the entire summon bat stun animation?

You are invulnerable from when you start jumping to when you land, which isn't a problem in most cases as it will stop all normal attacks regardless of whether or not they are caught in the swarm. It will sometimes stop a Titan charge, or the Titan might get caught in it. If the timing is precisely bad, then you'll get stomped to the ground. I was thinking of using it during the Ra's fight to avoid the power slashes, but I don't know if it'll work or even if it's faster.

EDIT: Just achieved 2:06:xx but died loads of times so I'm now thinking that sub-2 is actually possible. Managed to die on the museum silent predator twice by not getting enough exp to get sonic shock batarangs which threw my route. Now I remember why I was supposed to keep using the REC gun in combat!

Other deaths included going down to the Titan in the funhouse, dying to Strange's personal bodyguards, Joker's snipers and the last part of the final boss annoyingly enough

[quote="jeremysaint"]so far i am at the disable the jammers, and am seeing lots of small changes and improvements.  but i can not imagine what let you did to shave off over ten to 15 minutes from my run.  damn![/quote]

Thanks, that 10-15mins is basically made up of small changes, such as 30 seconds saved on the predator runs due to route recklessness, avoiding more encounters like the gunman in Two-Faces courthouse, and gliding in the museum instead of ice skating probably saves a minute alone!

[quote="jeremysaint"]
the spot where you fell in the shark water made me feel bad.  i made the exact same mistake enough time i slowly target the middle ring just to avoid that.[/quote]
I hate, HATE the ice section, Batman seems to be able to find the teeniest gaps to fall in during that part. I used to diveroll over that bit to jump the gap, but often he'd overshoot and fall in the water near the cop! You'd think the "world's greatest detective" could detect a gap that he'd need to step across, he wouldn't last five minutes on the London Underground...

[quote="jeremysaint"]are you invulnerable for the entire summon bat stun animation?[/quote]
You are invulnerable from when you start jumping to when you land, which isn't a problem in most cases as it will stop all normal attacks regardless of whether or not they are caught in the swarm.  It will sometimes stop a Titan charge, or the Titan might get caught in it.  If the timing is precisely bad, then you'll get stomped to the ground.  I was thinking of using it during the Ra's fight to avoid the power slashes, but I don't know if it'll work or even if it's faster.

EDIT: Just achieved 2:06:xx but died loads of times so I'm now thinking that sub-2 is actually possible.  Managed to die on the museum silent predator twice by not getting enough exp to get sonic shock batarangs which threw my route.  Now I remember why I was supposed to keep using the REC gun in combat!

Other deaths included going down to the Titan in the funhouse, dying to Strange's personal bodyguards, Joker's snipers and the last part of the final boss annoyingly enough

jeremysaint

2012-04-10 07:34:29 pm

i am surprised by a death to stranges personal bodygaurds. although you seem to have eclipsed me, and rightfully so, in many areas, i think my route for stranges bodygaurds is optimal and has a bit of leeway in execution. the snipers on the other hand can kiss my ass.

as for the last part of the final boss, i actually had a little trouble with it originally too, but then i realized that if you spam y it is mechanically impossible for the mudmen to harm you. if you feel even the slightest bit threatened just spam y. yes it is faster to attack them, and you still can attack them, but knowing that you are absolutely invulnerable to them anytime you want might help. as for the mud spit, remember he does one spits, then two spits, then three spits, etc.

do you catch a remote controlled batarang for early xp? i watched one of your runs and didnt see that, so i figured it might help.

RoboSparkle

Edit history:

RoboSparkle: 2012-04-14 09:10:32 am

2012-04-14 09:10:00 am

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

In my defense, I'd already tied twice due to the cock up with the exp planning and the sonic batarang so I knew I wouldn't have a submittable run. I just didn't realise how good the time was (or could have been) so I was being a little devil-may-care with my tactics to see what happened.

Cheers for the "spam y" tactic, Jeremy, I might try that if it's a real run. I could have got some armour as well, but again by that time I had no intention of submitting and wanted to carry on with the "really not careful" thing.

I do catch a remote batarang but it's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it in the church as soon as I get the trophy. Hard to see because of the swarms of bats and the riddler menu popping up, but also it's never formally acknowledged by the game except in the form of an exp boost once I get up the bell tower.

Anyway, here's the run:

TheThrillness

Edit history:

TheThrillness: 2012-04-17 10:49:28 am

TheThrillness: 2012-04-17 10:43:56 am

2012-04-17 10:43:08 am

thethrillness.blogspot.com

Was really inspired to speedrun this game after watching that. Might be hard but maybe sub 2 and no deaths is the target for SDA?

There are some things that you probably cannot do but worth seeing if they have any merit. I only played this game on release. At times when you need to beat enemies to progress or make something easier wouldn't it be better to just throw a smoke pellet? For example at 30:30 when going to the museum instead of fighting you would throw the pellet and it should give you enough time to break the key and open the door? Also are the keys random? If not, I would be drawing which ways the sticks should be positioned on paper and referring to them when Batman steps down to break the key.

Edit - Just saw another speedrun in which the key was the same and stick positions were identical. You could easily save 2-3 seconds per key here using drawings. Could be difference between 2:00 and 1:59.

RoboSparkle

2012-04-17 12:12:38 pm

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

Thanks for the support Anubis.

1) Sub 2 and no deaths is the target for SDA. Definitely doable if you add up all the time lost, plus time saved for new ideas I've had and tried since then.

2) I'm certain that the game does not allow you to crack the code without taking out the guys. I'll give it a go though.

3) I was also sure that the stick positions do change, but that thought had occured to me too as there are a couple of occasions where I'm getting them almost instantly.

I'm going to stream a live run later this week I think but not a speedrun - a full story run, where I can try out everything that's written in my notes to see if it's faster than what I'm currently doing, as well as a few new predator routes and combat tactics, slightly different ice path in the museum, plus some experiments to place the gels better for Grundy and play with a few Freeze routes. There's quite a lot there although I feel the majority of it will either a) not save time or b) be too risky for an SS, but I'd be shocked if I didn't come out with at least a minute of savings against my current strats.

Thanks for the support Anubis.

1) Sub 2 and no deaths is the target for SDA.  Definitely doable if you add up all the time lost, plus time saved for new ideas I've had and tried since then.

2) I'm certain that the game does not allow you to crack the code without taking out the guys.  I'll give it a go though.

3) I was also sure that the stick positions do change, but that thought had occured to me too as there are a couple of occasions where I'm getting them almost instantly.

I'm going to stream a live run later this week I think but not a speedrun - a full story run, where I can try out everything that's written in my notes to see if it's faster than what I'm currently doing, as well as a few new predator routes and combat tactics, slightly different ice path in the museum, plus some experiments to place the gels better for Grundy and play with a few Freeze routes. There's quite a lot there although I feel the majority of it will either a) not save time or b) be too risky for an SS, but I'd be shocked if I didn't come out with at least a minute of savings against my current strats.