Command & Conquer: Generals

Edit history:

TheVoid: 2010-05-10 03:32:15 pm

2010-05-10 02:32:11 pm

Pretty funny to see the stuff in the map, their mass spawn place outside of the game area Wink

Anyway, chopped off another 3 seconds down to 6:54. Got a perfect A-10 timing, I guess it helped somewhat on some Scorpion Tanks 8)
I shall encode and upload this one. I didn't use any kind of scattering of the Comanches by the way, it doesn't really seem to slow down to keep them as 1 group. Those last Rocket Buggy's are also taken care of by my other units and meanwhile the Rocket Barrage (Or is it actually Rocket Pods? Rocket Barrage is from the Rocket Buggy's I think, but it sounds more awesome) is done shortly after those Rocket Buggy's appeared. So I don't really see any timeloss with it, or otherwise it's extremely minimal.

EDIT: The run is uploaded, check first post.

heledir

2010-05-10 05:33:10 pm

It's actually a crustacean!

Wow, this is looking so damn nice. Can't wait to see the rest. Keep up the awesome work.

2010-05-10 06:04:03 pm

Dragon Power Supreme

Excellent job, flawless for me.

You let that pilot at the end there die to the GLA, could be a reason to reject Wink

nubonamission

2010-05-11 06:41:32 am

I <3 speedruns

Nice work on USA3, the second is much better than the first run

2010-05-12 08:45:05 am

Just wanted to say that I chopped off a second from GLA 7 to a 6:04 Smiley

No video though as I'm not entirely satisfied with it yet, another second should be possible to chop off.

By the way, Nihilus, you could check China 7 and also try the strategy IsraeliRD posted about to see how it works out (Taking over the GLA buildings in the very first little base and then build a SCUD Storm and use the bug to wipe out the big base).
Other levels could be GLA 5 as I don't really have a very solid strategy for that one yet, or some of the USA levels. Oh and also China 5 (Or was it 4?) where the level is at night and you start with a base on a dock and then you need to take out 4 Stinger Sites so that you can destroy the base on the middle-left (I'm pretty sure that taking out all those Stinger Sites isn't needed, just get to the base and destroy it I guess).
Feel free to check whatever level you want Wink

Edit history:

Nihilus: 2010-05-12 09:29:06 pm

2010-05-12 08:35:46 pm

China 7's an interesting one. Scud glitch works like a charm, the problem is scouting first.

Money is a problem early on. Maxed out cash hack on the supply center before taking it helps.
Taking the arms dealer is hard and may not be worth it. It spams tanks, wasting their money for the cash hack. Destroying the tanks immediately tends to also kill the building. Backing your tanks off leads their new tanks to squash the capturers.
Therefore maybe best to destroy it and build a new one. Appears slower, unless you can somehow pull off a max amount cash hack while it's spamming tanks. Definitely simpler to kill it.
Scouting problem solved with radar vans and the black market upgrade. Tried migs, but they die like crazy. Haven't tried rushing in the overlords to scout yet, but I think they're required for defense.
Other commander point used on lvl 1 artillery strike, for extra scouting

I'll post a replay once I get a solid run.

Edit: Migs make decent yet cost-ineffective scouts after all. No problem scouting that small supply base on the left, but they won't be coming back if they go to scout the main base. Got 2 scud storms up with enough cash for a 3rd after another cash hack. I'll try Technical scouts now instead, and march the main force straight up to hit those 2 buildings away from their main base blob. Got radar scan and the 2nd scud up just in time to destroy their scud storm. It was at 0:00, but they still didn't fire before it died.

China 7's an interesting one. Scud glitch works like a charm, the problem is scouting first.

[list]
[li]Money is a problem early on. Maxed out cash hack on the supply center before taking it helps.[/li]
[li]Taking the arms dealer is hard and may not be worth it. It spams tanks, wasting their money for the cash hack. Destroying the tanks immediately tends to also kill the building. Backing your tanks off leads their new tanks to squash the capturers.[/li]
[li]Therefore maybe best to destroy it and build a new one. Appears slower, unless you can somehow pull off a max amount cash hack while it's spamming tanks. Definitely simpler to kill it.[/li]
[li]Scouting problem solved with radar vans and the black market upgrade. Tried migs, but they die like crazy. Haven't tried rushing in the overlords to scout yet, but I think they're required for defense.[/li]
[li]Other commander point used on lvl 1 artillery strike, for extra scouting[/li]
[/list]

I'll post a replay once I get a solid run.

Edit: Migs make decent yet cost-ineffective scouts after all. No problem scouting that small supply base on the left, but they won't be coming back if they go to scout the main base. Got 2 scud storms up with enough cash for a 3rd after another cash hack. I'll try Technical scouts now instead, and march the main force straight up to hit those 2 buildings away from their main base blob. Got radar scan and the 2nd scud up just in time to destroy their scud storm. It was at 0:00, but they still didn't fire before it died.

Edit history:

IsraeliRD: 2010-05-12 10:02:09 pm

2010-05-12 09:42:37 pm

Dragon Power Supreme

Quote from Nihilus:

Got radar scan and the 2nd scud up just in time to destroy their scud storm. It was at 0:00, but they still didn't fire before it died.

They never fire the SCUD Storm while your cash flow is less than $5,000.

Edit:

Your MiGs will be safe to scout the main base from two possible routes:

- Go right on the edge of the map and you'll pass over 1 stringer site and 2 tunnel networks. Keep going up to the top right corner and turn left. The base is guarded by 1 tunnel network and south to it a stinger site which won't be enough to destroy you MiGs. Keep pushing left, you're at the base. Feel free to scout it but south-left of the base is a black market (after arms dealer) which will kill your MiGs. The base doesn't have more stuff than that.
- Go left and stick to the side, only 1 stinger site is there. Top left corner cut right and scout the base. The black market will be near so your MiG could be a target but you should clear the base.

Edit history:

Nihilus: 2010-05-13 07:56:12 am

2010-05-12 10:51:21 pm

It's looking like migs are out of the question because of the total cost involved. I'm only building the Chinese command center and barracks, everything else is GLA. That means I would need to first build a power plant, supply depot, then airfield. Flame tanks move pretty fast, gunna try to keep them alive in the first encounter and use them.

Time to beat is about 12 mins currently, though I always get hung up at some point due to the lack of scouting.

Edit: 11:35 Smiley

Still losing time from bad scouting. Maybe migs are best, instead of the 2nd scud storm.

Lawl, scratch all that. 9 mins with migs, and enough for the 2nd scud storm somehow.

I need to stop jumping to conclusions.

2010-05-13 08:14:17 am

Dragon Power Supreme

For once the SCUD glitch is put into good use Wink

That was seriously awesome. Interestingly enough, the Black Market does not count as a building for GLA purposes. Glad to see the MiG did work out at the end of the day.

Also, would upgrading to Anthrax Beta be useful? 25% extra damage if I recall.

Again, very well done. And how the heck did that ending movie even played? I never had it. Probably regional differences...

2010-05-13 05:35:39 pm

Thanks! Next step is to maphack and find the best places to target them. Or figure out how to take that arms dealer consistently. I noticed the black market thing by accident, in a different run the camera just happened to be there when the last building fell, and I noticed the black market was still standing. Good thing too, since it's in such a crappy spot.

Huh, never thought about actually USING that palace. I'm inclined to say 'no', since it would either postpone the 2nd scud storm, or be taken near the end when it wouldn't have time to finish, but I'll try it out. It increases their direct damage and not just the toxin cloud after, right?

Weird about the ending movies. Not that it's any big deal, since it's just a crappy montage of all the other movies.

2010-05-13 07:46:29 pm

Dragon Power Supreme

Did someone say maphack and didn't receive his map yet? Find China 7 map attached. Open with World Builder.

- Note the red lines. These trigger the GLA city and GLA main. All time you don't enter the city, then the script goes like this:
Set timer 'City Base Startup Delay' to expire in 600.00 seconds.
Set timer 'Scud Startup Delay' to expire in 180.00 seconds.

- Note that if you send a unit to the front where both oil derricks and 2 tunnel networks are, you'll find 6 crates. For $1000 each, its worth sacrificing an overlord plus it solves your cash problem (gets you Anthrax Beta or a SCUD Storm). Maybe even a red guard to capture while the overlord is taking down the area (getting a Gattling Cannon on top of it would help).

Hope this helps.

Attachment:

CHIfinal.map

Edit history:

Nihilus: 2010-05-14 06:51:28 am

2010-05-14 12:33:24 am

Oooooo, fantastic! Gunna have fun figuring out all the little details tonight. Thank you!

I've been dreading going after those boxes because it means micromanaging the army while building the base and scouting, but I suppose that's what it takes. I bet if the beginning part is done well enough, there will be enough guys left over to rush it with everything except the artillery and Overlords.

Edit: Here's the ticket. Put attached file in generals\Data\INI\Objects. INI and Objects didn't exist before, so I created them and it works. Essentially a maphack, it gives your command center nearly unlimited vision. Great for planning stuff, ESPECIALLY the shooting of the SCUDs while blind, normally. It's just an ini file, so no problems getting rid of it for an actual recorded run. I think I already found the ideal 3 points that lead to all buildings dead except one, which an airstrike can handle.

Edit2: Great success!
Keep the ideas flowing IsraeliRD!

Oooooo, fantastic! Gunna have fun figuring out all the little details tonight. Thank you!

I've been dreading going after those boxes because it means micromanaging the army while building the base and scouting, but I suppose that's what it takes. I bet if the beginning part is done well enough, there will be enough guys left over to rush it with everything except the artillery and Overlords.

Edit: Here's the ticket. Put attached file in generals\Data\INI\Objects. INI and Objects didn't exist before, so I created them and it works. Essentially a maphack, it gives your command center nearly unlimited vision. Great for planning stuff, ESPECIALLY the shooting of the SCUDs while blind, normally. It's just an ini file, so no problems getting rid of it for an actual recorded run. I think I already found the ideal 3 points that lead to all buildings dead except one, which an airstrike can handle.

Edit2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH0CwNhLSaU Great success!
Keep the ideas flowing IsraeliRD!

Attachment:

FactionBuilding.ini

Edit history:

IsraeliRD: 2010-05-16 06:18:32 am

2010-05-14 07:22:36 am

Dragon Power Supreme

Very good video, even faster than I expected. A couple of things I want to point out:
- Use hotkeys on dozers and buildings etc. Each building and unit has a bolded letter on it. Press the level to show up the building. Example, U for Supple Centre. You did it with the workers though.
- Since you build 3 more supply trucks, set each of them on a different supply stash so that they will gather cash even faster. Useful especially for getting the 3rd SCUD Storm even faster. You can probably also use the first 2 SCUD Storms as well since you had so much time (you were busy with the central GLA).
- Dragon Tank could've gone with a flame wall closer to the palace to barbecue everything there.

That was around 5:30 minutes (from control gained until control lost). Very good, loved it. edit: I ignored time until the you are victorious shows up.

Some stuff for China 5:

The moment a single overlord is built, the North base will immediately start a timer that takes 4-5 minutes to expire. Once its done, SCUD Launchers start to be built. Then the West base starts the timer and gets SCUD Launcher, then the South and then North and so on.
No overlords = less firepower on the battlefield = no SCUD Launchers to worry about
ALL BASES: If we have 5 or more Gattling Cannons and all buildings have power, Rocket Buggies will be built and start attacking.
We start the mission with 5 Gattling Cannons, so we have 4 minutes before Rocket Buggies start. Assuming we remove one manually it MIGHT stop the timer instantly. If not, there will only be a single wave of Rocket Buggies since we keep it as 4 or less Gattling Cannons. It does make things a lot easier.

Ignore spoiler. It's just previous attempt edit, mainly for myself.

Edit:
About 20 minutes for a first attempt. I honestly sucked big time.
- I should get more forces and be better. There are demo traps and I can't be bothered getting those troop crawlers to help me out.
- I got 4 MiGs for main base defense: great but can probably use 2 instead
- Go napalm and gattling upgrades on start
- Removal of the gattling cannon didn't stop buggies from being produced, but their numbers was a lot less than usual
- I messed up my target bases, I hit 2 wrong targets :\
- I noticed oil derricks to southwest. It's worth getting a red guard capture buildings upgrade as its a lot of money PLUS an oil refinery which means cheaper tanks.
- Level 2 artillery and level 2 cash hack did well, but maybe go lvl 3 cash hack and 1 level artillery... depends on money I guess.
- I lost my main force a bit too much. Those terrorists are pissing me off. I need to clear the land as I go instead of sending all units to a certain spot; that means micromanagement.
- A good attack force seems to be 6 gats/6 dragon tanks
- I get tank hunters just for the bunkers, 3 each (6 total).
- Carpet bombs are once every 2:30 minutes and I should use it more often
- The main base DOES need barracks destroyed in order to completely win the mission, else condition isn't met.
- Possible suggestion: spam dragon tanks only, they're slower but tougher and their wall of flame is absolutely great in the main base (palace+CC owned in seconds!)
- Possible suggestion: spam MiGs only, they're fast + upgrade + black napalm upgrade = powerful. Slower since tons of stinger sites have to be cleared but god they are powerful and repair fast. Also no need to worry about demo traps.

2nd Edit:
New tactic, and its powerful:
- Get prop centre and lotus
- Get 4 MiGs to defend base
- Capture the supply centre at the south, make an arm dealer and 2-3 quad cannons
- Send them with lotus to the west and get rid of the quad cannon and capture all buildings
- Spam quad cannons from 2-3 arms dealers
- Get Palace followed by black markets (2 of them, but maybe more?)
- Get junk repair and armor piercing bullets so quad cannons are uber.
- Massacre all bases with Lotus as main scout for demo traps.
- North base is handled by MiGs and Carpet bombers. Napalm upgrade might not be useful. No need for any gattling upgrades.
- Rocket buggies either did not attack or were not present, I didn't see any of them; guess gattling tanks count towards gattling weaponry hence why I didn't see any.

Better strats are possible, but this map is really hard and imo Quad Cannon spam will be useful.

3rd edit:
Down to 15 minutes using a quad tank spam. Can go way lower imo.

4th edit:
Down to 13-14 minutes (yes, I suck) but the strategy is rather in place. I'm sure both of you can pull this way down.
I'm attaching the replay file for that last attempt, it's 1am and I gotta hit the sack.
I'll probably try more tomorrow, hopefully shave off more time. I know I can.
(I accidentally hit cluster mines instead of artillery, so I missed on 1 lvl of cash hack. Also maybe I shouldn't go for palace/bm and upgrades and instead just dual AD asap and spam quad cannons. Dragon tank died to car bomb, it should survive for longer to help me out there on the west)

5th edit:
Working on this pretty hard, I keep failing my start. I lost all quads at the end of the mission once which really pissed me off, I was getting a good time too. My start is improved and faster.

Very good video, even faster than I expected. A couple of things I want to point out:
- Use hotkeys on dozers and buildings etc. Each building and unit has a bolded letter on it. Press the level to show up the building. Example, U for Supple Centre. You did it with the workers though.
- Since you build 3 more supply trucks, set each of them on a different supply stash so that they will gather cash even faster. Useful especially for getting the 3rd SCUD Storm even faster. You can probably also use the first 2 SCUD Storms as well since you had so much time (you were busy with the central GLA).
- Dragon Tank could've gone with a flame wall closer to the palace to barbecue everything there.

That was around 5:30 minutes (from control gained until control lost). Very good, loved it. edit: I ignored time until the you are victorious shows up.

Some stuff for China 5:
[list]
[li]The moment a single overlord is built, the North base will immediately start a timer that takes 4-5 minutes to expire. Once its done, SCUD Launchers start to be built. Then the West base starts the timer and gets SCUD Launcher, then the South and then North and so on.
No overlords = less firepower on the battlefield = no SCUD Launchers to worry about[/li]
[li]ALL BASES: If we have 5 or more Gattling Cannons and all buildings have power, Rocket Buggies will be built and start attacking.
We start the mission with 5 Gattling Cannons, so we have 4 minutes before Rocket Buggies start. Assuming we remove one manually it MIGHT stop the timer instantly. If not, there will only be a single wave of Rocket Buggies since we keep it as 4 or less Gattling Cannons. It does make things a lot easier.[/li]
[/list]

Ignore spoiler. It's just previous attempt edit, mainly for myself.
[spoiler]Edit:
About 20 minutes for a first attempt. I honestly sucked big time.
- I should get more forces and be better. There are demo traps and I can't be bothered getting those troop crawlers to help me out.
- I got 4 MiGs for main base defense: great but can probably use 2 instead
- Go napalm and gattling upgrades on start
- Removal of the gattling cannon didn't stop buggies from being produced, but their numbers was a lot less than usual
- I messed up my target bases, I hit 2 wrong targets :\
- I noticed oil derricks to southwest. It's worth getting a red guard capture buildings upgrade as its a lot of money PLUS an oil refinery which means cheaper tanks.
- Level 2 artillery and level 2 cash hack did well, but maybe go lvl 3 cash hack and 1 level artillery... depends on money I guess.
- I lost my main force a bit too much. Those terrorists are pissing me off. I need to clear the land as I go instead of sending all units to a certain spot; that means micromanagement.
- A good attack force seems to be 6 gats/6 dragon tanks
- I get tank hunters just for the bunkers, 3 each (6 total).
- Carpet bombs are once every 2:30 minutes and I should use it more often
- The main base DOES need barracks destroyed in order to completely win the mission, else condition isn't met.
- Possible suggestion: spam dragon tanks only, they're slower but tougher and their wall of flame is absolutely great in the main base (palace+CC owned in seconds!)
- Possible suggestion: spam MiGs only, they're fast + upgrade + black napalm upgrade = powerful. Slower since tons of stinger sites have to be cleared but god they are powerful and repair fast. Also no need to worry about demo traps.[/spoiler]

2nd Edit:
New tactic, and its powerful:
- Get prop centre and lotus
- Get 4 MiGs to defend base
- Capture the supply centre at the south, make an arm dealer and 2-3 quad cannons
- Send them with lotus to the west and get rid of the quad cannon and capture all buildings
- Spam quad cannons from 2-3 arms dealers
- Get Palace followed by black markets (2 of them, but maybe more?)
- Get junk repair and armor piercing bullets so quad cannons are uber.
- Massacre all bases with Lotus as main scout for demo traps.
- North base is handled by MiGs and Carpet bombers. Napalm upgrade might not be useful. No need for any gattling upgrades.
- Rocket buggies either did not attack or were not present, I didn't see any of them; guess gattling tanks count towards gattling weaponry hence why I didn't see any.

Better strats are possible, but this map is really hard and imo Quad Cannon spam will be useful.

3rd edit:
Down to 15 minutes using a quad tank spam. Can go way lower imo.

4th edit:
Down to 13-14 minutes (yes, I suck) but the strategy is rather in place. I'm sure both of you can pull this way down.
I'm attaching the replay file for that last attempt, it's 1am and I gotta hit the sack.
I'll probably try more tomorrow, hopefully shave off more time. I know I can.
(I accidentally hit cluster mines instead of artillery, so I missed on 1 lvl of cash hack. Also maybe I shouldn't go for palace/bm and upgrades and instead just dual AD asap and spam quad cannons. Dragon tank died to car bomb, it should survive for longer to help me out there on the west)

5th edit:
Working on this pretty hard, I keep failing my start. I lost all quads at the end of the mission once which really pissed me off, I was getting a good time too. My start is improved and faster.

Attachment:

China5Attempt3.rep

2010-05-16 08:29:22 am

Dragon Power Supreme

I would like to serve up a 10:05 minutes run of China 5 Cheesy

A few things that I should do for my next attempts which will speed it up by 1-2 minutes if not more:

- Stop losing those troop crawlers/red guards for the train Angry

- Activate terrorists earlier
- Remember about hackers earlier as well...
- While my GLA forces are building, Lotus + Dragon Tanks take over the derricks
- Then I need to steamroll the western base followed by the northern one using lotus (demo traps) and dragon tanks. Army builds meanwhile.
- Then I can do a massive attack on the main base and win.

Major mistakes in replay:
- I forgot about the western base completely.
- Lost way too many quads early on, I need to save them by using Lotus/Dragons combo as aforementioned so that I can attack final base earlier.

Would this strat be the fastest? I have another one planned out, so I wanna give it a go as well.

Attachment:

ChinaAttempt4.rep

Edit history:

Nihilus: 2010-05-16 09:00:23 am

2010-05-16 08:39:08 am

Oh man, that looks like a hard one. I notice an arms dealer very close to the north, is it worth it to capture it? It's only guarded by 2 garrisoned buildings, so a flame tank could cover it. Speaking of which, there's garrisons everywhere, you should definitely use a few flames or toxin trucks. Looking good so far!

Also, massive LOL on my end. I don't know how I didn't notice before, but it IS possible to attack ground in the black fog, so scouting isn't necessary at all. I must have assumed since superweapons can only target in gray fog. I think I have the strategy down for sure now, so it's just a matter of luck that my force gets attacked by quad cannons or scorpions and not rocket buggies or suicide trucks, and landing 3 shots totally blind. I notice it helps aiming to give someone a 'defend ground' order up there, since the big circle shows terrain features.

Aaaand you posted while I was typing Tongue

Go dragon tanks!!! Will watch the new one now.

Love it! All you need to do is use more carpet bombs. And at the end, I noticed all your quad cannons focusing on a bunker for a few seconds, then a flame tank came up and killed it instantly. The very end might be faster if Lotus only takes the Command Center and they kill everything else.

Oh man, that looks like a hard one. I notice an arms dealer very close to the north, is it worth it to capture it? It's only guarded by 2 garrisoned buildings, so a flame tank could cover it. Speaking of which, there's garrisons everywhere, you should definitely use a few flames or toxin trucks. Looking good so far!

Also, massive LOL on my end. I don't know how I didn't notice before, but it IS possible to attack ground in the black fog, so scouting isn't necessary at all. I must have assumed since superweapons can only target in gray fog. I think I have the strategy down for sure now, so it's just a matter of luck that my force gets attacked by quad cannons or scorpions and not rocket buggies or suicide trucks, and landing 3 shots totally blind. I notice it helps aiming to give someone a 'defend ground' order up there, since the big circle shows terrain features.

Aaaand you posted while I was typing :P Go dragon tanks!!! Will watch the new one now.

Love it! All you need to do is use more carpet bombs. And at the end, I noticed all your quad cannons focusing on a bunker for a few seconds, then a flame tank came up and killed it instantly. The very end might be faster if Lotus only takes the Command Center and they kill everything else.

Edit history:

IsraeliRD: 2010-05-16 06:19:20 pm

2010-05-16 09:26:31 am

Dragon Power Supreme

Impossible Sad

way too many stinger sites and quad cannons on the way. This makes it useful only for removing the north base and that's about it. I tried getting it further but it's not practical.

The ending I agree and you just gave me an idea for a new strat, thanks!

Also, sounds like the aiming of 'defend ground' could make a lot of difference for the blind shots. Especially if you can memorize the terrain as-is. You only need the top right (easy) and the middle. Since the SCUD Storm is on lower ground at the top-center of the base it should be a lot more easier anyway.

Edit: Who wants a 6:30 minutes speedrun of China 5? Grin

Big thanks and credits to Nihilus on this as if it wasn't for his Dragon Tank comment I'd never think up of this strat.
The strat? 4 dragon tanks and lotus own the shit out of the mission.

The level went very well. Only things I want to cover are:
- It is possible to get the bomb car to destroy the demo trap (happened once) so I don't have to sacrifice the second troop crawler, which then allows me sending it to the other demo trap at the west just next to those stringer sites. It has plenty of health. (Could it be possible sending it to the west anyway without the demo trap activating? maybe)
- Don't destroy that tower next time; seems as if its fall animation IS random and I got super unlucky this time (first time it went into my direction too)
- Probably use dragon tanks ahead to destroy the demo trap to the north followed by the base WHILE lotus captures the southern base.
- When I start my attack on stinger sites and bunkers on the main base I need to use my Artillery strike on the barracks so I don't have to worry about terrorists AND finish mission faster (was ~30 secs slower coz of that).

If everything goes as aforementioned and really fast/aggressive and probably use dragon tanks on the CC instead of lotus capture (or try with lotus capture while these guys attack) then I see sub-6 minutes done. Yes, sub-6. I didn't believe sub-10 was possible to start with Wink

Impossible :( way too many stinger sites and quad cannons on the way. This makes it useful only for removing the north base and that's about it. I tried getting it further but it's not practical.

The ending I agree and you just gave me an idea for a new strat, thanks!

Also, sounds like the aiming of 'defend ground' could make a lot of difference for the blind shots. Especially if you can memorize the terrain as-is. You only need the top right (easy) and the middle. Since the SCUD Storm is on lower ground at the top-center of the base it should be a lot more easier anyway.

Edit: Who wants a 6:30 minutes speedrun of China 5? ;D
Big thanks and credits to Nihilus on this as if it wasn't for his Dragon Tank comment I'd never think up of this strat.
The strat? 4 dragon tanks and lotus own the shit out of the mission.

The level went very well. Only things I want to cover are:
- It is possible to get the bomb car to destroy the demo trap (happened once) so I don't have to sacrifice the second troop crawler, which then allows me sending it to the other demo trap at the west just next to those stringer sites. It has plenty of health. (Could it be possible sending it to the west anyway without the demo trap activating? maybe)
- Don't destroy that tower next time; seems as if its fall animation IS random and I got super unlucky this time (first time it went into my direction too)
- Probably use dragon tanks ahead to destroy the demo trap to the north followed by the base WHILE lotus captures the southern base.
- When I start my attack on stinger sites and bunkers on the main base I need to use my Artillery strike on the barracks so I don't have to worry about terrorists AND finish mission faster (was ~30 secs slower coz of that).

If everything goes as aforementioned and really fast/aggressive and probably use dragon tanks on the CC instead of lotus capture (or try with lotus capture while these guys attack) then I see sub-6 minutes done. Yes, sub-6. I didn't believe sub-10 was possible to start with ;)

Attachment:

China5Attempt5.rep

2010-05-16 11:59:17 pm

I've been busy mainly with Serious Sam lately so I didn't have any new stuff to post here, but now I just wanted to say great job guys, that's some cool stuff Smiley

Edit history:

Nihilus: 2010-05-17 07:13:21 am

2010-05-17 05:57:19 am

Hazaa! Got a 6:06 abouts on China 7, timing by the "Victory" message, 5:14 if timing until loss of control.
What was different:

No radar!
Getting really good at using that starting army!
No scouting!
Saran wrap over my screen with sharpie marks for targeting purposes!

What could still be better:

Haven't quite perfected bouncing between the army and building, a couple seconds could be saved maybe
Botched the 3rd SCUD storm glitch, it selected the worker instead of the building, but upon watching the replay, its target died less than a second after the command center
Speaking of their CC, it had the smallest sliver of health left before the last missiles, so slightly better aiming could kill it one volley sooner, so the end will depend on that 3rd building firing quick. 5 seconds to be saved?
Not sure if my economy is perfect. 9 workers had quite a wait for the 3rd storm, went to 12 and it was much faster, no idea what would be optimal though.

Found a glitch that probably isn't allowed. Saving a map location with ctrl+F1 is remembered when you load up the same map again, so there could be a run where those are used to jump to locations, without having to save them first. I found a good time to save the location so I don't think any actual time would be saved doing this, it would just make things simpler.
Attached replay, video encoding now.

Haha IsraeliRD, from 10 minutes down to 6?!? Maybe that should be the magic number for this game, under 6 minutes for all the hard ones Tongue

EVERYTHINGS BETTER WITH FIRE!!!!!

Edit: Also need to move the army to take the money faster, and kill the dozers so that the 'next builder' button will be useful.

Hazaa! Got a 6:06 abouts on China 7, timing by the "Victory" message, 5:14 if timing until loss of control.
What was different:
[list]
[li]No radar![/li]
[li]Getting really good at using that starting army![/li]
[li]No scouting![/li]
[li]Saran wrap over my screen with sharpie marks for targeting purposes![/li]
[/list]

What could still be better:
[list]
[li]Haven't quite perfected bouncing between the army and building, a couple seconds could be saved maybe[/li]
[li]Botched the 3rd SCUD storm glitch, it selected the worker instead of the building, but upon watching the replay, its target died less than a second after the command center[/li]
[li]Speaking of their CC, it had the smallest sliver of health left before the last missiles, so slightly better aiming could kill it one volley sooner, so the end will depend on that 3rd building firing quick. 5 seconds to be saved?[/li]
[li]Not sure if my economy is perfect. 9 workers had quite a wait for the 3rd storm, went to 12 and it was much faster, no idea what would be optimal though.[/li]
[/list]

Found a glitch that probably isn't allowed. Saving a map location with ctrl+F1 is remembered when you load up the same map again, so there could be a run where those are used to jump to locations, without having to save them first. I found a good time to save the location so I don't think any actual time would be saved doing this, it would just make things simpler.
Attached replay, video encoding now.

Haha IsraeliRD, from 10 minutes down to 6?!? Maybe that should be the magic number for this game, under 6 minutes for all the hard ones :P
EVERYTHINGS BETTER WITH FIRE!!!!!

Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCBhNYAFgEM&feature=channel Also need to move the army to take the money faster, and kill the dozers so that the 'next builder' button will be useful.

Attachment:

china7 11.rep

2010-05-17 09:56:28 am

Dragon Power Supreme

I am accepting your run based on making the worker clean the ground (seriously, tons of dust just got cleaned) and using saran wrap (take a photo!!)

Besides the Shocked

factor which I loved, I can only agree with better SCUD Storm usage and perhaps getting a worker to get the northern supplied just next to the building. Wouldn't that be faster? I dunno.
But just wow man, I seriously was shocked at those fast skills there. I can't micro like that Sad

your strat was amazingly well done and I really enjoyed the video. Seeing it going sub-6 is absolutely mindblowing.

IMO timing of the game should be set in this way: from the moment the cursor appears until the moment you lose control (black bars for ending cutscene).

Edit history:

Nihilus: 2010-05-18 07:00:16 am

2010-05-17 11:28:10 pm

The 2 green lines are the arches in the terrain I initially line up with, before scrolling all the way north, zooming all the way out, and saving that location. The 2 middle crosses are my original targeting locations, but I've been tweaking that so now they're just reference points. The lines on the outline are because those crosses are hard to see against the all black backdrop. The top corner cross is not necessary, it's the 3rd shot which is easy to line up blind. Top right corner, zoom out, then about 2 inches in on each side.

EDIT: NEW STRATEGY.... just messed it up quite a bit and STILL beat that previous time.
Wanna know what looks awesome? An Overlord driving back and forth at the entrance of the enemy Arms Dealer squashing all their tanks flat while my guys capture it. AHAHAHAHAHA

2010-05-18 08:05:09 am

Dragon Power Supreme

This is beyond epic. I have to congratulate you for even THINKING UP this amazing idea of using saran wrap and markers and all. Seriously, this shaves a ton of time and it proves useful. And an overlord driving on their arms dealer is pure lol. I can see this mission ending soooo fast now. I always hated this mission but you make it look so easy Wink

Is this IL will be TheVoid only? If not, I guess I can record as well as Nihilus (who's owning China 7). I have no problems recording but I do it at 1600x1200 @ 30fps (seems max the game can handle).

2010-05-18 08:15:52 am

Quote from IsraeliRD:

Is this IL will be TheVoid only? If not, I guess I can record as well as Nihilus (who's owning China 7). I have no problems recording but I do it at 1600x1200 @ 30fps (seems max the game can handle).

Let's make it a team run then and get a full table on SDA Smiley

And yes, the Overlord thing is awesome, heh. Nice work.

2010-05-18 09:36:14 am

Here's a replay of it, a few seconds better than the one I said I 'messed it up quite a bit' earlier.
Oh man, it was getting a little on the easy side before after a dozen or so attempts, but not this new strategy. The army is now split into THREE separate groups with their own separate and nearly simultaneous goals. I don't think a 3rd SCUD storm is going to happen so I need to retarget them at the right time. I also don't think I'm going to be able to take out those buildings with tanks like before, so that's another SCUD retarget.

COMPLETELY ideal circumstances I think would be a total of 5 SCUD shots, but more realistically 6 or 7. Since there's either 2 or 3 SCUD storms, that really means I need to make 6 work. I also noticed if I retarget while it's still shooting, it will put some missiles on the first target and some on the second, so that trick will help. Also, there's now much more marks on my screen. I'll take a 'final' pic once I'm done with this level, which now seems like it's just a matter of pulling it all off! Then I'll probably start going through the USA levels, since they're who I was always best with.

Here's a replay of it, a few seconds better than the one I said I 'messed it up quite a bit' earlier. 
Oh man, it was getting a little on the easy side before after a dozen or so attempts, but not this new strategy. The army is now split into THREE separate groups with their own separate and nearly simultaneous goals. I don't think a 3rd SCUD storm is going to happen so I need to retarget them at the right time. I also don't think I'm going to be able to take out those buildings with tanks like before, so that's another SCUD retarget.

COMPLETELY ideal circumstances I think would be a total of 5 SCUD shots, but more realistically 6 or 7. Since there's either 2 or 3 SCUD storms, that really means I need to make 6 work. I also noticed if I retarget while it's still shooting, it will put some missiles on the first target and some on the second, so that trick will help. Also, there's now much more marks on my screen. I'll take a 'final' pic once I'm done with this level, which now seems like it's just a matter of pulling it all off! Then I'll probably start going through the USA levels, since they're who I was always best with.

Attachment:

china 7 3.rep