A friend of mine out here has a usable setup for speedrunning so I tried to get started on the segmented run.
After about 50 attempts I never once got to Rimuldar, so I decided to split it into two segments for the time being. Time was about 10 minutes + 3 minutes.
Then I realized: the Death Necklace's appearance probably isn't 1 in 32. That's an easy assumption because the gold value is 100 to 131, but that's 32 possible values, not 31. The Death Necklace odds could be a separate variable altogether, which explains why it seemed to take me so long to find one even on emulator.
While I do have the patience to continue with this (stupid) run, the world will march on ahead without me. This run seems like a dumb idea to me right now because it borders on TAS territory in terms of luck and has absolutely no bearing on how fast someone can beat Dragon Warrior. I will work on a single segment run at a later date. Maybe I'll do the segmented run when I'm retired or something.
Just something to note for the single segment speed run, Darkwing is grinding way too high. Level 4 is enough to get to Rimuldar, and the odds of beating the Knight at Level 11 aren't THAT bad (I beat him twice in eight attempts).
Actually, they ARE that bad. Try more than 8 attempts. I found the Axe Knight simply would not die unless I got more than one Excellent move.
Level 4 should be plenty to reach Rimuldar. The segmented run aims to get there at level 3. I think PRG1 is just harder than PRG0 somehow, all my carts are PRG1.
Well what tactics did you use? Whenever I was on the verge of dieing, and I didn't think one more hit would be enough to bring him down, I would cast SLEEP, and it actually worked on one of the attempts.
I just say this, because I know one guy on Gamefaqs who actually managed to beat the Knight on Level 10 by relying on SLEEP. I just think it's something that might be worth resetting for. Heck, even if he dies like once, I still think it'd be faster than his current plan as long as he wins the second time (it'd certainly be less mind numbing anyways, as an additional note).
No I'm not trolling you. And I'm perfectly aware that the Knight has 15/16 resistance to Sleep. That means there's still a 6.25% chance of it working, which means it's worth a shot if you end up not being able to kill the Knight in one more hit, and he's just about to kill you. Seriously, read this thread...
That's IF you have to resort to SLEEP though. I've been thinking, and maybe Level 11 is a little low, but I still think grinding to Level 13 is going to be too long for a speed run. Personally, I would try to beat him at Level 12. I mean, even the segmented speed run plans on grinding outside Haukesness until 12 before actually doing anything, so I don't think you'd be losing much time if you went that route.
But of course, I have not tried a speed run of this utterly mind numbing game, and honestly, I don't plan on EVER trying to, so I don't blame you if you decide your going to do it at 13, no matter how much time you lose that way. I'm just saying, if you're going to try really hard to make it the best single segment speed run possible, I think Level 13 is too high.
There isn't really much time lost to begin with. First, getting the Armor raises defense from the Full Plate Armor by a measly 4 points. The only real benefit is the HP regen. Unfortunately, that regen won't last against Hauksness enemies since their offense will still be way higher than your defense. It's the Silver Shield that really adds the defense, which you need to save up for anyway.
So you can't reliably kill things around Hauksness 'til you get the silver shield. Given the longer kill times for enemies there at lower levels, is the gold per minute and experience per minute really better at Hauksness without the Silver Shield? And is it worth the immense chance of death? Even if sleep works, it'll likely wake up before you kill it. Just not feasible on such a long single segment, especially given the odds against the Dragonlord.
Not sure if I posted about it in this thread or not, but I think it saves about 5 to 10 minutes if you can pull off an Axe Knight kill at level 11.
The extra 4 defense makes Wyverns easy kills at level 11, so grind in the north rim of the Hauksness desert (this is also faster than hills by Rimuldar because of no walking lag, and regen saves you any trips to the inn) until level 12. Or was it 13? I think that's too many Wings to carry around for all the activities out there that need to be done, so it was probably 13, even though Erdrick's Sword at level 12 is usually wonderful.
A cool intricacy, sure, but only practical in our semi-TAS world of segmented running. Ryan8bit said the odds of beating the Axe Knight at level 11 were something like 8%, right?
1) Z has the advantage over L both because of the fact that he has more HP to survive the boss fights with, and because he's better than L at running to Rimuldar right?
2) Which enemy zones are you going to grind in for each level?
Again, way to not read the thread, I'll paraphrase...
1) Z starts with 6 Agility instead of 4. This gives him 1 point of defense over L at level 3. At level 3 Z has 40 defense, enough to resist Wolf attacks; L has 39 defense, and gets mauled by Wolves badly.
2) For the segmented run, it was to go like this:
LV 1-3: zone 1 (hills south of Tantegel, Drakees are usually fled from) 3-10: sandbar in front of Rimuldar 10-11: hills south of Rimuldar (Wolflords) 11-12: Hauksness desert north (Wyverns) 12-13: Hauksness desert north (now with Erdrick's Sword...wait, maybe that was at level 13) 14-17: Hauksness desert north or south 17-18: Hauksness itself
Again, way to not read the thread, I'll paraphrase...
1) Z starts with 6 Agility instead of 4. This gives him 1 point of defense over L at level 3. At level 3 Z has 40 defense, enough to resist Wolf attacks; L has 39 defense, and gets mauled by Wolves badly.
Really? I thought he also had better chances of running at low levels, and surviving some boss fights.
2) For the segmented run, it was to go like this:
LV 1-3: zone 1 (hills south of Tantegel, Drakees are usually fled from) 3-10: sandbar in front of Rimuldar 10-11: hills south of Rimuldar (Wolflords) 11-12: Hauksness desert north (Wyverns) 12-13: Hauksness desert north (now with Erdrick's Sword...wait, maybe that was at level 13) 14-17: Hauksness desert north or south 17-18: Hauksness itself
Ok, for the record, I did too read the thread, and I thought that those were the zones you were grinding in. I was just making sure, because I have misinterpretated things before, and you and some others also complained about the Wolflord taking too long when done too early. I thought you meant lower than Level 10 when you said "too early" but again, I just wanted to make absolutely sure. Please don't be so presumptious ok? I'm rather hurt, I've learned since then!
Hi. I've actually been thinking about this for a while, and since there's only one Dragon Quest game that has been run on this site, I thought why not try to add another one: Dragon Quest I. This is my first time here, and for some reason, I think this would be a good first run, even though this is a horrible, horrible game to speed run in the first place.
Before anyone asks, I prefer calling the games Dragon Quest instead of Dragon Warrior. That's just how I roll.
Here are some things that you should know about Dragon Quest I, and this run, if you've never played the before:
1. Starting stats and stat growth depends entirely off of the first four letters of the name you input. So I can't just make my name blank, because then I'll have poor starting stats, which will ultimately cause problems later in the run, particularly the final boss.
2. This is probably the worst game EVER to speed run. I'm not changing my opinion about this. Because you absolutely have to fight difficult enemies in order to beef up your defenses, and even to get to a certain town (Cantlin), a low level speed run will not happen. Neither will any of the nonsense that happens in the TAS run, either (Not saying I hate it, I think it's awesome).
3. There will be grinding. Lots and lots of grinding. This is why I was concerned about running this game, but at this point, I don't care if it gets accepted or rejected - I just want to run it, and if it gets accepted, whoopee.
4. Check out this site: http://dw.freewebsites.com/battle.htm . This is a battle simulator, in which you can enter your name, level, equipment, and other stuff, to see if you have what it takes to beat an enemy, assuming luck is at your side. It's because of this site that this will make the making of this run a lot faster. I didn't make this site, by the way. I stumbled upon it while looking at the Gamespot forums there
5. The plan is to leave the princess rotting in a cave, forever under the watchful eye of a Green Dragon. Who cares about her, m i rite? No, seriously. The entire ordeal with saving her and getting her love is only optional, and you can beat the game just as well without her. The only purpose she serves is telling you where Erdrick's Token is - something you can get even without her. So no carrying the princess.
Okay, so let's talk about segments. I start timing before I talk to the king, like right as the screen fades in. I do this because I have to move in order to make the conversation trigger, so technically, I have complete control over my character when the game starts, both new game and loading. The only exception to this is when I'm entering my name in.
I stop timing when I select 'No' when the king asks to end my game after he saves it. I do this because even after you go through all the text that the game goes through, the game hangs (because you said you were going to stop playing, lol), so recording after that would be pointless, if you ask me.
Okay, so here's the segments so far:
Segment 1: 0:00:00 - 0:01:59
I enter my name, get a club, kill two red slimes, and people stand in my way when I try leaving the castle. Nothing really to note, except that the first red slime I encountered was an ambush, which I thought was funny considering I had horrible luck before just trying to encounter a normal slime!
Thanks for reading, and I'll update whenever something good happens.
Is anyone still working on this? It'd be a crying shame if no one is.
I've decided to try and run this game, but I think it'd be the worst game to speed run.
The worst in what way?
Well, I'm sure it's been discussed, but worst as in not being fun to watch, and you're at the mercy of luck in this game when you're just playing through it normally, so speed-running it is a nightmare.
Ryan8bit posted it on the GameFAQs boards a while ago, I think. It's not the complete simulator though.
I started doing the segmented run and gave up because it is kind of retarded and will take forever to complete. It also does not at all reflect how quickly someone can beat Dragon Warrior 1. So it's worse than the Diablo II runs in that regard.
I would try some single segment runs but I don't really have the time since I have to go to someone else's place and run on their setup, I don't think they'd be able to stay there for a single 6-hour attempt. It's not in my hands right now, basically. Maybe when I go back to school I can look into buying a capture setup...