Dragon Age: Inquistion

2015-01-26 11:21:47 am

Quote from kazardcode:

Congratulations , need to watch it sometime later when I get the time :p , and Haven raid is always fun right ? <3

Thank you! I'm in the process of uploading it to youtube aswell, so it should be available there aswell. And, Haven is not that bad once one figures out what to do; which, I've. :3

letterswords

2015-01-26 11:28:54 am

twitch.tv/letterswords

I'll have to see if the route develops a bit, but I feel like a lot of the additional time it takes is (IMO) not filled with particularly interesting stuff. I still might do a run eventually but it won't be a focus for me.

kazardcode

2015-01-26 11:57:09 am

The frames

Just watched a bit of it, and electric cage and ice mines are fun :p , also three mage stack is nice :O , tier 2 weapons and armour help out well , and nice with the corphy skip , always get the flank :D. Also PlaideWeave is Fashion <3

letterswords

2015-01-26 07:32:58 pm

twitch.tv/letterswords

Tested out new Hinterlands route (with Ritts), think I found a pretty good one:

Start:
Crossroads first (this is faster now that we are skipping the rift near the ruined keep; it takes less time to get to the camp near the lake and eliminates the second trip down from Outskirts camp)
Templars in the West
Farm camp
Horse
Farm Rift
Val Royeaux
Sera
Vivienne
Haven
Outskirts Camp->Rift on the way to Dwarfson's pass
talk to scout
Winterwatch Keep (Speaker Anais + Rift)
Save Ritts
Level 8 rift (down hill from Ritts)
Travel to Dwarfson's Pass camp
Talk to scout
Travel to Crossroads
Rift just north of Crossroads
Rift outside of Redcliffe
Fade-Touched Obsidian

letterswords

2015-01-27 10:49:27 pm

twitch.tv/letterswords

http://www.twitch.tv/letterswords/c/5982756 3:00:37 with loads. Sub 3 should be possible even with worse plaideweave RNG; new route saves a good deal of time and there are some other notable mistakes here and there. I think a really good run with amazing RNG (so pretty much what this run got lol) should be able to hit around 2:55, maybe lower. That should work out to a sub-2:30 without loads being possible.

DashingSplash

Edit history:

DashingSplash: 2015-01-28 03:53:10 pm

2015-01-28 03:52:31 pm

Really nice run! :3 Super fast. Ö -Ö

Did a casual run today and got 3:15:12, which I think is about 2:40 without loads, so I suppose about 5 minutes slower than your 3:00:37 run. Also, I think we might be able to skip the level 8 rift as I ended up with 9 power in Skyhold. That'll save about 1.5 minutes. I also had to do 5 tries of Plaideweave, but i had a 9:47 prologue (faster is possible).

letterswords

2015-01-28 06:38:54 pm

twitch.tv/letterswords

Yup, you prbably didnt see but i noticed the same thing about having an extra power. If we do cut the level 8 rift we will still have to find something else to do because it gives 2 power, not 1. So we can either add a rift back in that we cut or skip a rift and continue to do the level 8 rift. I'd guess farm rift or the first one on the way to redcliffe would be the potential cuts. If adding back and dropping the level 8 i guess the one we used to do first is best.

DashingSplash

2015-02-01 03:51:01 pm

Nightmare run 3:43:54 without loading screens:

I can probably improve this by 20-30 minutes. (:

letterswords

Edit history:

letterswords: 2015-02-02 12:32:24 pm

2015-02-01 08:43:24 pm

twitch.tv/letterswords

Nice, did you make any major route changes or something or just a ton less mistakes?

Also, fastest route on casual for hinterlands should still involve doing the level 8 rift if my calculations are correct. The 2 power from it isn't worth dropping even though the route we both used had 1 extra power after Hinterlands, because we'd have to add back in the rift we cut at the beginning of the hinterlands, which is slower then just cutting out the first rift on the way to redcliffe and continuing to do the level 8 rift.

DashingSplash

2015-02-02 02:05:56 pm

Quote from letterswords:

Nice, did you make any major route changes or something or just a ton less mistakes?

Also, fastest route on casual for hinterlands should still involve doing the level 8 rift if my calculations are correct. The 2 power from it isn't worth dropping even though the route we both used had 1 extra power after Hinterlands, because we'd have to add back in the rift we cut at the beginning of the hinterlands, which is slower then just cutting out the first rift on the way to redcliffe and continuing to do the level 8 rift.

I just made less mistakes, but it still contains a lot of mistakes as I mentioned. So, a 3:13:00 might be possible, and with some work on route and potential skips etc. we might eventually get a sub 3 hour without loads.

I've actually been thinking a lot about potential routes that would save time over the level 8 rift, and I've come to the same conclusion as you. The thing we would want is probably a way to traverse different areas using slingshots; I'll make a video explaining everything I know about the slingshots, since the more we are that look for spots, the better. Another thing would be to find a glitch for us to gain access to areas without power, or find a way to gain influence without having to do requisitions and the like (rather unlikely though).

Then again, I never thought we would be down at around 2:30 without loads on the casual run this fast. xD

[quote="letterswords"]Nice, did you make any major route changes or something or just a ton less mistakes?

Also, fastest route on casual for hinterlands should still involve doing the level 8 rift if my calculations are correct. The 2 power from it isn't worth dropping even though the route we both used had 1 extra power after Hinterlands, because we'd have to add back in the rift we cut at the beginning of the hinterlands, which is slower then just cutting out the first rift on the way to redcliffe and continuing to do the level 8 rift. [/quote]

I just made less mistakes, but it still contains a lot of mistakes as I mentioned. So, a 3:13:00 might be possible, and with some work on route and potential skips etc. we might eventually get a sub 3 hour without loads.

I've actually been thinking a lot about potential routes that would save time over the level 8 rift, and I've come to the same conclusion as you. The thing we would want is probably a way to traverse different areas using slingshots; I'll make a video explaining everything I know about the slingshots, since the more we are that look for spots, the better. Another thing would be to find a glitch for us to gain access to areas without power, or find a way to gain influence without having to do requisitions and the like (rather unlikely though).

Then again, I never thought we would be down at around 2:30 without loads on the casual run this fast. xD

letterswords

Edit history:

letterswords: 2015-02-02 02:24:35 pm

letterswords: 2015-02-02 02:24:18 pm

2015-02-02 02:20:53 pm

twitch.tv/letterswords

I'm kind of curious if going to the dragon area in casual for the fade-touched obsidian might be faster. If we are no longer doing the rift I just mentioned, we could do a 1:1 swap of the redcliffe gates rift for the dragon camp. We'd cut out the fairly inconsistent clip as well and no longer would need to travel into the chantry after val royeaux (we could go directly back to hinterlands, since we don't need to advance the mage quest 1 step to allow us to get into redcliffe). Also, is the regular obsidian in the dragon place guaranteed (i see you got it there in your nightmare run)?

And yeah, sub 2:30 being possible already is crazy. I wouldn't be shocked if more improvements get it down even further.

letterswords

Edit history:

letterswords: 2015-02-04 09:19:21 am

letterswords: 2015-02-03 09:19:40 pm

letterswords: 2015-02-03 07:02:19 pm

2015-02-03 07:00:47 pm

twitch.tv/letterswords

Two things: http://www.twitch.tv/letterswords/c/6028334 2:29:19/2:56:53

Pretty good, improvable by maybe another 3-5 mins at least. I also put up leaderboards for the dragon age series now at http://www.speedrun.com/dragon_age (pretty barren but its good to have there I guess).

Also, we've successfully found a way to backpatch (thanks to withinatale for the help). The method is spelled out in this link: http://answers.ea.com/t5/Dragon-Age-Inquisition/Rolling-back-to-pre-patch-state/m-p/4271439#M43799 and here's a link to download all those files listed as required from a patch 1 copy of the game (my install) http://www.mediafire.com/download/974a13zndv4o18s/patch1files.rar .

DashingSplash

2015-02-07 08:14:15 am

Amazing run once again Letters! Not sure how I shall beat that. x) Probably with a new route, or something. And, I was going to suggest putting the game up on Speedrun.com but it seems you beat me to it; good way to keep track of all the runs.

*Gasps* Now, that'll make it more accessible to people as well! Too bad so man people don't feel too interested in speedrunning this game though, we could improve the time a lot if that was the case.

I might do another Nightmare run today, but I'm not sure. Question is, when will I do another casual run. xD Also, I don't think going the dragon route will save any time at all, we just need to play the level 8 rift well.

letterswords

2015-02-07 08:54:20 am

twitch.tv/letterswords

Hopefully it being more easily accessible will get some people to do it. Withinatale, who helped me figure it out, PMed me here to try to get patch 1 files to be able to potentially speedrun it, so maybe we'll get at least one more.

DashingSplash

2015-02-07 08:56:58 am

Quote from letterswords:

Hopefully it being more easily accessible will get some people to do it. Withinatale, who helped me figure it out, PMed me here to try to get patch 1 files to be able to potentially speedrun it, so maybe we'll get at least one more.

That's really great to hear. (:

withinatale

2015-02-07 08:12:12 pm

I've been mentioned enough times that I should probably pop in here and say hello!

I've just finished my first run of the game -- I didn't have splits active because I knew the times were going to be awful due to my pausing to check my route notes and whatnot, but it took around five, five and a half hours, I think.

I'll probably start streaming it in the next day or two. Enough time for me to get some baseline splits and start committing some of this stuff to memory so I don't have to refer to my notes constantly.

Here's hoping to get more people on board, now that we can easily downgrade the patch.

PapaCharlie9

2015-02-25 09:48:11 am

What do you think of the possibility of doing a Dragon's Bane speedrun, where the objective is to kill all 10 dragons in the shortest amount of time?

I'm thinking of trying it, but the minimum level requirements to unlock missions on the War Table might be a problem. It looks like getting to Vinsomer, the Storm Coast dragon, requires both a quest and a mission, and the mission unlocks at level 16 or higher, according to Wikia: http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Red_Templars_on_the_Storm_Coast

I'm not sure if that is reliable or not. Some other lists of missions do not include that level requirement. What do you think?

Same idea posted on Reddit here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/2x4k0z/spoilers_inquisition_minimum_level_to_unlock/

letterswords

Edit history:

letterswords: 2015-02-25 10:06:47 am

letterswords: 2015-02-25 10:05:51 am

2015-02-25 10:02:53 am

twitch.tv/letterswords

It seems like a reasonable thing to do for fun (I was actually thinking of doing it at some point). It may be possible to clip through the door that leads to that part of the storm coast (its a door in the middle of a mountain at the southern end of the Storm Coast, near a bunch of dwarven statues and stuff). I'd try to get through the door without doing the quest before attempting it, because grinding to 16 isn't going to be a ton of fun. On the other hand, if you leave that dragon for last, you may get to level 16 anyways because killing dragons gives you a ton of experience. You'd probably get to around 7 or so by unlocking Skyhold (which you need to do to be able to reach all the zones). Then you'd probably want to grind out some influence/power like in Any%, then I think you'd want to go to Emprise du Lion to get tier 3 schematics by capturing the keep (you need to do this anyways to unlock the area with the 3 dragons in EDL: http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/They_Shall_Not_Pass). Its possible that the Western Approach's dragon (activated by doing a bunch of sidequests) may also have a level requirement to trigger as well.

ogam

2015-02-25 01:35:10 pm

On my first playthrough I didn't do the quest to unlock the door at storm coast to get to vinsomer. I actually just clipped through with lightning since I started to get impatient and it eventually worked. Majority of the areas inside won't trigger but you can cross the broken bridges by jump across with leap off rogues or something else. The boat at the end to take you across the waters still works so at least that's nice.

PapaCharlie9

Edit history:

PapaCharlie9: 2015-02-25 07:45:19 pm

PapaCharlie9: 2015-02-25 07:44:52 pm

2015-02-25 07:43:23 pm

Quote from ogam:

On my first playthrough I didn't do the quest to unlock the door at storm coast to get to vinsomer. I actually just clipped through with lightning since I started to get impatient and it eventually worked. Majority of the areas inside won't trigger but you can cross the broken bridges by jump across with leap off rogues or something else. The boat at the end to take you across the waters still works so at least that's nice.

That's what I was hoping for. I was going to do a clip test to see if the final Red Waters mission triggered. That's the key to getting to Vinsomer. A relief to hear that this may not be the obstacle I thought it was.

@letterswords, I agree that the side quests for the Western Approach will be annoyingly time consuming, but looks like there is no way around that. If it has a level check also, that might have to be the last dragon I do, as you suggested.

I'm planning to duplicate the letterswords/DashingSplash path from start through acquire Skyhold, why mess with perfection right? That said, I saw in the discussion above that you were considering killing (or sneaking past?) the Fereldan Frostback in the Hinterlands to get the Fade Touched Obsidian in the rear of the area. For a Dragon's Bane speedrun, maybe that makes more sense?

[quote="ogam"]On my first playthrough I didn't do the quest to unlock the door at storm coast to get to vinsomer. I actually just clipped through with lightning since I started to get impatient and it eventually worked. Majority of the areas inside won't trigger but you can cross the broken bridges by jump across with leap off rogues or something else. The boat at the end to take you across the waters still works so at least that's nice.[/quote]
That's what I was hoping for. I was going to do a clip test to see if the final Red Waters mission triggered. That's the key to getting to Vinsomer. A relief to hear that this may not be the obstacle I thought it was.

@letterswords, I agree that the side quests for the Western Approach will be annoyingly time consuming, but looks like there is no way around that. If it has a level check also, that might have to be the last dragon I do, as you suggested.

I'm planning to duplicate the letterswords/DashingSplash path from start through acquire Skyhold, why mess with perfection right? That said, I saw in the discussion above that you were considering killing (or sneaking past?) the Fereldan Frostback in the Hinterlands to get the Fade Touched Obsidian in the rear of the area. For a Dragon's Bane speedrun, maybe that makes more sense?

letterswords

2015-02-27 04:36:06 pm

twitch.tv/letterswords

I was actually planning on cutting out fade-touched obsidian completely going forward, but you'd probably want it in dragon's bane. However, unless you are killing the dragon in the same trip it is probably just best to stick with the redcliffe method i think

PapaCharlie9

2015-02-28 11:22:39 am

For your main quest run, what order did you pick up Perks? Any adjustment worth considering for a dragon run?

PapaCharlie9

2015-03-24 11:25:37 pm

Quote from ogam:

On my first playthrough I didn't do the quest to unlock the door at storm coast to get to vinsomer. I actually just clipped through with lightning since I started to get impatient and it eventually worked. Majority of the areas inside won't trigger but you can cross the broken bridges by jump across with leap off rogues or something else. The boat at the end to take you across the waters still works so at least that's nice.

Well, after banging my head against the door to the Red Waters area for 2 hours, I finally gave up. No matter how I tried the lightning clip, I couldn't get through. I've never had a problem with lightning clip before, always got through any other door in 3 tries or less.

So just for lulz, I went to see if I could get over the top instead of through the door, since there is a beach area with two boats just on the other side of the door chamber. If I could get over the top, I should be able to jump down to that legit area.

On the first go, I found a promising area up the slope, to the right of the dwarven statue. There are some rocks there that look like they were designed for climbing, but there is an invisible wall about halfway up. Just a half a minute or so of Tactical spamming got me over that and then one lucky Fade Step to get over another corner of the invisible wall, and I was on top! Everything else was just an easy walk and a jump, not even a fatal one. Wish I had thought of that sooner.

[quote="ogam"]On my first playthrough I didn't do the quest to unlock the door at storm coast to get to vinsomer. I actually just clipped through with lightning since I started to get impatient and it eventually worked. Majority of the areas inside won't trigger but you can cross the broken bridges by jump across with leap off rogues or something else. The boat at the end to take you across the waters still works so at least that's nice.[/quote]
Well, after banging my head against the door to the Red Waters area for 2 hours, I finally gave up. No matter how I tried the lightning clip, I couldn't get through. I've never had a problem with lightning clip before, always got through any other door in 3 tries or less.

So just for lulz, I went to see if I could get [i]over the top[/i] instead of through the door, since there is a beach area with two boats just on the other side of the door chamber. If I could get over the top, I should be able to jump down to that legit area.

On the first go, I found a promising area up the slope, to the right of the dwarven statue. There are some rocks there that look like they were designed for climbing, but there is an invisible wall about halfway up. Just a half a minute or so of Tactical spamming got me over that and then one lucky Fade Step to get over another corner of the invisible wall, and I was on top! Everything else was just an easy walk and a jump, not even a fatal one. Wish I had thought of that sooner.

letterswords

2015-03-25 09:34:29 am

twitch.tv/letterswords

nice to see you are still working on it. I intend to get back to this game eventually; I'll probably do a bit more any% then do any% nightmare then I might check in to the dragon's bane run since that seems cool to me. Also, I don't think I asked earlier but were you intending to kill the Red Lyrium dragon (final boss fight) or the dragon you can tame when you drink from the well of sorrrows? I know neither of those technically count towards the achievement but they are still dragon fights so I figured I'd ask (not saying you should have to include them either).

PapaCharlie9

2015-03-25 10:13:46 am

Quote from letterswords:

nice to see you are still working on it. I intend to get back to this game eventually; I'll probably do a bit more any% then do any% nightmare then I might check in to the dragon's bane run since that seems cool to me. Also, I don't think I asked earlier but were you intending to kill the Red Lyrium dragon (final boss fight) or the dragon you can tame when you drink from the well of sorrrows? I know neither of those technically count towards the achievement but they are still dragon fights so I figured I'd ask (not saying you should have to include them either).

Still doing practice and planning. Many, many mistakes along the way.

No, I had intended only to count the 10 for the achievement. Going for all 12 could count as the 100% category.