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Empire Earth (Any %) (Segmented) [Campaign: Russian]
Verifier Responses
Replacements were sent in for the last two missions and the following was the response:
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to Maik 'Onin' Biekart!
Empire Earth (Any %) (Segmented) [Campaign: Russian]
Verifier Responses
Quote:
General notes:
Cheating: none spotted. I have confirmed that the glitch works as advertised, and that the strategies he uses work.
A/V Quality: Seems good to me. There is at least one point where the audio makes a gut wrenching screech, but I have experienced this while playing the game myself; it's not a recording error.
Playing quality: In general, the APM does not compare to, for example, the Starcraft runs. It's still not bad, though; as a platinum level SC2 player, I can reproduce the strategies he uses well enough to win the missions, but I'm minutes behind his times in each level. Well, apart from A Change of Heart, where I made it to the time machine countdown faster than he did on my second try.
Notes on the missions:
The Crocodile:
Seems pretty optimal. There certainly isn't any strategy that's going to be faster than atomic bombs, and those arrived as quickly as possible.
Novaya Russia:
The rebels could probably be killed faster with howitzers than with artillery, but given that the time of the win is gated by the kill on purple, that's irrelevant. Transporting the artillery for killing purple could have been microed slightly better, but this is still quite good.
Changing of the guard:
Complaining about this level would require getting as specific as worrying about a couple shots from Grigor II that were intercepted by buildings.
Jewel in the east:
There's probably room to resource glitch the priests in order to get one or two more Ares into the battle on time to be relevant, but only barely.
A Change of Heart:
This mission needs work.
He builds an airport and leaves it idle after making just one Pegasus, when there's plenty of ground units from the initial forces available to be brought over. He makes a dock to resource glitch some wood, when he could clearly have made a siege factory to actually produce artillery or howitzers (which, as he had noted earlier, are overpowered, particularly when killing buildings, which is what these forces spend most of thier time doing) while also generating wood.
So, he could have easily improved his time by a lot by replacing the dock with a siege factory and making a second Pegasus.
Even better, according to my tests, would be to construct buildings like so:
2 Siege Factories (start resource glitching for wood as soon as first finishes)
1 Airport
3 Cyber Factories
1 Airport
The Cyber Factories make enough Ares deal with the landing site's AA and then fight the unit based defenses, while 5 Pegasus trasports' worth of ground units land (Howitzers from your factories as well as the portion of the initial forces that survive clearing the AA). Howitzers vaporize laser towers and the capitol in a single volley, whereas the runner's mass Ares strategy spends 3 real-time minutes whittling buildings down.
The time machine defense portion of the mission is, of course, fine.
A bad case of deja vu:
There's room here to resource glitch another time and thereby get more attack upgrades on the main army. Case in point, he had enough time to order his civilians to mine resources he never used.
He could also have spent 4 of his 5 remaining Civ Points on an attack upgrade for his tanks.
I'm inclined to REJECT the run on account of the last two missions. The rest is quite good, but it doesn't seem like he was working/thinking as hard at the end as he was at the beginning.
Cheating: none spotted. I have confirmed that the glitch works as advertised, and that the strategies he uses work.
A/V Quality: Seems good to me. There is at least one point where the audio makes a gut wrenching screech, but I have experienced this while playing the game myself; it's not a recording error.
Playing quality: In general, the APM does not compare to, for example, the Starcraft runs. It's still not bad, though; as a platinum level SC2 player, I can reproduce the strategies he uses well enough to win the missions, but I'm minutes behind his times in each level. Well, apart from A Change of Heart, where I made it to the time machine countdown faster than he did on my second try.
Notes on the missions:
The Crocodile:
Seems pretty optimal. There certainly isn't any strategy that's going to be faster than atomic bombs, and those arrived as quickly as possible.
Novaya Russia:
The rebels could probably be killed faster with howitzers than with artillery, but given that the time of the win is gated by the kill on purple, that's irrelevant. Transporting the artillery for killing purple could have been microed slightly better, but this is still quite good.
Changing of the guard:
Complaining about this level would require getting as specific as worrying about a couple shots from Grigor II that were intercepted by buildings.
Jewel in the east:
There's probably room to resource glitch the priests in order to get one or two more Ares into the battle on time to be relevant, but only barely.
A Change of Heart:
This mission needs work.
He builds an airport and leaves it idle after making just one Pegasus, when there's plenty of ground units from the initial forces available to be brought over. He makes a dock to resource glitch some wood, when he could clearly have made a siege factory to actually produce artillery or howitzers (which, as he had noted earlier, are overpowered, particularly when killing buildings, which is what these forces spend most of thier time doing) while also generating wood.
So, he could have easily improved his time by a lot by replacing the dock with a siege factory and making a second Pegasus.
Even better, according to my tests, would be to construct buildings like so:
2 Siege Factories (start resource glitching for wood as soon as first finishes)
1 Airport
3 Cyber Factories
1 Airport
The Cyber Factories make enough Ares deal with the landing site's AA and then fight the unit based defenses, while 5 Pegasus trasports' worth of ground units land (Howitzers from your factories as well as the portion of the initial forces that survive clearing the AA). Howitzers vaporize laser towers and the capitol in a single volley, whereas the runner's mass Ares strategy spends 3 real-time minutes whittling buildings down.
The time machine defense portion of the mission is, of course, fine.
A bad case of deja vu:
There's room here to resource glitch another time and thereby get more attack upgrades on the main army. Case in point, he had enough time to order his civilians to mine resources he never used.
He could also have spent 4 of his 5 remaining Civ Points on an attack upgrade for his tanks.
I'm inclined to REJECT the run on account of the last two missions. The rest is quite good, but it doesn't seem like he was working/thinking as hard at the end as he was at the beginning.
Replacements were sent in for the last two missions and the following was the response:
Quote:
A Change in Heart:
A third Pegasus probably could have loaded up the two civilians that get left behind, and the Paladins / Molotov / the Ares probably could have done a better job of being decoys for the shots that kill off some of the civilians while they're building. But at that point were're talking about saving maybe 30 seconds rather than over a minute.
Some consideration should in principle go to whether the civilian movespeed upgrade is worth it here or if instead the attack upgrades for the next mission are more important, but which option is better is not at all obvious to me. The movespeed might be handy with getting around the abysmal AI during the time machine construction.
I'll note for future runners that I feel like there might be some way to use ultra-cybers here.
A Bad Case of Deja Vu:
This is an even bigger improvement than I was expecting.
With these improvements, my RTS-shoutcast-watching sensibilities are satisfied. ACCEPT.
As for timing the run, the runner's notes contain the in-game timers for each mission, and they match up with what the video shows. The total, provided my arithmetic isn't failing me, is 62:25.
A third Pegasus probably could have loaded up the two civilians that get left behind, and the Paladins / Molotov / the Ares probably could have done a better job of being decoys for the shots that kill off some of the civilians while they're building. But at that point were're talking about saving maybe 30 seconds rather than over a minute.
Some consideration should in principle go to whether the civilian movespeed upgrade is worth it here or if instead the attack upgrades for the next mission are more important, but which option is better is not at all obvious to me. The movespeed might be handy with getting around the abysmal AI during the time machine construction.
I'll note for future runners that I feel like there might be some way to use ultra-cybers here.
A Bad Case of Deja Vu:
This is an even bigger improvement than I was expecting.
With these improvements, my RTS-shoutcast-watching sensibilities are satisfied. ACCEPT.
As for timing the run, the runner's notes contain the in-game timers for each mission, and they match up with what the video shows. The total, provided my arithmetic isn't failing me, is 62:25.
Quote:
No cheats detected, good A/V.
I think there's improvable sections as the verifier before me mentions, as well as optimizing the APM, however, we're talking about improving the execution on an already well-executed run.
Sadly I wasn't able to try the strategies myself, as it turns out my EE disc got corrupted over the years, but I digress.
Giving this an Accept, and looking forward to the other campaigns from the runner.
I think there's improvable sections as the verifier before me mentions, as well as optimizing the APM, however, we're talking about improving the execution on an already well-executed run.
Sadly I wasn't able to try the strategies myself, as it turns out my EE disc got corrupted over the years, but I digress.
Giving this an Accept, and looking forward to the other campaigns from the runner.
Quote:
The Crocodile: Was the mindless violence towards the citizens in the potato truck necessary? The slight attack on the ground troops heading towards Volgograd seemed to cost a bit of time, then I realized the bombers weren't even close to arriving. Observation balloons to draw fire from the bombers was a clever idea.
Novaya Russia: Siege weapons with range boosts are best for taking out buildings, and that's what this scenario is about. The starting troops take out the first capital, and 3 artillery make quick work of a second. While this is going on, the runner is producing artillery to destroy the rebel base. All 3 are defeated in quick succession.
Changing of the Guard: Only 3 casualties were taken during the entire mission-all near the end. I doubt more than a few seconds could come off this...
Jewel in the East: Sending the priests from farthest to nearest town while systematically crushing resistance along the way...this is why cybers are so fun to use. I find it amusing that Molotov said he would go to Xi'an to steal secrets...but then destroyed the...blue...thing...the time travel part of the Russian Campaign never made any sense to me.
A Change of Heart: The resource glitching is very effective and multitask-y at the start: though it likely would have been faster to do it WHILE attacking the Caribbean League base-unless I misunderstand the point of it? The loss of a few citizens in the landing is unfortunate, but costs only a little time-and the simultaneous defense of the citizens and attack on Cuba while leaving most of the infrastructure alive is nifty, and the return to Cuba builds the Time Machine ASAP. It's one of those missions that just works.
A Bad Case of Deja Vu: The reversal of fortune in this mission is interesting-you control the city you attack in the first mission. Under the commands of a more experienced leader, however, they execute a complete and total victory over a more technologically advanced opponent in about 3 minutes through atomic bombs and diplomacy.
A/V quality is up to par. Easy accept.
Novaya Russia: Siege weapons with range boosts are best for taking out buildings, and that's what this scenario is about. The starting troops take out the first capital, and 3 artillery make quick work of a second. While this is going on, the runner is producing artillery to destroy the rebel base. All 3 are defeated in quick succession.
Changing of the Guard: Only 3 casualties were taken during the entire mission-all near the end. I doubt more than a few seconds could come off this...
Jewel in the East: Sending the priests from farthest to nearest town while systematically crushing resistance along the way...this is why cybers are so fun to use. I find it amusing that Molotov said he would go to Xi'an to steal secrets...but then destroyed the...blue...thing...the time travel part of the Russian Campaign never made any sense to me.
A Change of Heart: The resource glitching is very effective and multitask-y at the start: though it likely would have been faster to do it WHILE attacking the Caribbean League base-unless I misunderstand the point of it? The loss of a few citizens in the landing is unfortunate, but costs only a little time-and the simultaneous defense of the citizens and attack on Cuba while leaving most of the infrastructure alive is nifty, and the return to Cuba builds the Time Machine ASAP. It's one of those missions that just works.
A Bad Case of Deja Vu: The reversal of fortune in this mission is interesting-you control the city you attack in the first mission. Under the commands of a more experienced leader, however, they execute a complete and total victory over a more technologically advanced opponent in about 3 minutes through atomic bombs and diplomacy.
A/V quality is up to par. Easy accept.
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to Maik 'Onin' Biekart!
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