Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

DK28

2014-12-08 12:09:24 pm

General Kong - Bullets and Bananas

Most excellent! Happy to see news. Smiley

It's only too bad you don't stream...

Uilnslcoap

2014-12-08 11:41:33 pm

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Aight, DK, you talked me into it. I did some A/V testing tonight. Video looks okay, not so dim you can't see what's going on, but the mic I have is pretty subpar. Might need to get a reasonable headset before I commit to streaming regularly. You can tell me if you have any tips (the longest Twitch broadcast is the one with the most reasonable audio--I did another after with a better mic (the Rock Band one), but it picks up too much background nonsense). Need to figure out the best breed of headset for this...

Uilnslcoap

2014-12-12 06:29:18 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Pasting from streaming forum/thread:

twitch.tv/Uilnslcoap

Hey all, I'm working on an improvement to my segmented run of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. The version on the site is at 2:08:43, and I hope to get down to 2:06:XX or perhaps 2:05:XX barring some very big glitch discovery. It's possible I'll move on to single-segment attempts in the somewhat distant future, but don't tune in for the next few months unless the proverbial resetting 100 times over sounds delightful. I've completed the first of probably twenty-ish segments (saving approximately two seconds over the old run), which you can see here:

I'll be streaming probably half the evenings somewhere in the 7-10 PM Pacific range and sometimes on weekend afternoons (basically when my kid goes to bed). My mic setup is not ideal, so you may only hear me speak between attempts. If anyone has a recommendation on a good headset, I'd love it as the ones I've tried feature too much crackling and pick up too much other noise, so I'm using a separate mic for now. Hope to see you there!

Pasting from streaming forum/thread:

twitch.tv/Uilnslcoap

Hey all, I'm working on an improvement to my segmented run of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.  The version on the site is at 2:08:43, and I hope to get down to 2:06:XX or perhaps 2:05:XX barring some very big glitch discovery.  It's possible I'll move on to single-segment attempts in the somewhat distant future, but don't tune in for the next few months unless the proverbial resetting 100 times over sounds delightful.  I've completed the first of probably twenty-ish segments (saving approximately two seconds over the old run), which you can see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_esadg0y3bk

I'll be streaming probably half the evenings somewhere in the 7-10 PM Pacific range and sometimes on weekend afternoons (basically when my kid goes to bed).  My mic setup is not ideal, so you may only hear me speak between attempts.  If anyone has a recommendation on a good headset, I'd love it as the ones I've tried feature too much crackling and pick up too much other noise, so I'm using a separate mic for now.  Hope to see you there!

Uilnslcoap

Edit history:

Uilnslcoap: 2014-12-15 08:17:58 am

Uilnslcoap: 2014-12-15 08:15:26 am

2014-12-15 08:13:59 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Probably 8 hours of attempts so far for a 5-minute Ellia segment. My hope is 9:39 on the in-game timer at the end, but I will settle for 9:40 since I've gotten 9:41 three times. More attempts tonight.

Uilnslcoap

Edit history:

Uilnslcoap: 2014-12-17 12:55:45 am

2014-12-17 12:54:48 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Got the 9:40! Could probably have been 9:39 if I hadn't flubbed a bit in the zombie room right after the staff grab...whatever. The luck and execution was otherwise good to very good.

EndlessPandemic

2014-12-22 04:37:47 pm

twitch.tv/pandaneversleeps

ABOUT TIME ULIN. ^.^

I've got to get back into running this I got my pious segment down to 4:32! I'm gonna go for the single seg record!

Uilnslcoap

2014-12-27 12:36:34 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

I've probably put in about 5 hours on Anthony now. Three mistakes in my PB earlier today of 15:27. Two small, one big. Horizontal scrolling flub on the green urn mixing, scrolled early on spell creation, and effed dropping off the last urn. I'm shooting for a 15:25 (5:45), and I would hope for at most only one small mistake, though I certainly believe an all-luck, all-performance run can happen to make a 15:24, maybe even 15:23. I had one run that might have been the one in the next session, but I blew it on dropping the urns (came up short of the pressure plate).

I *think* when I finish this segmented run, I'll want to do a reasonable, if not super-high-standard single segment run. But I reserve the right to be absolutely sick of the game when I finish the segmented run and put the SS off another few years, though.

DK28

2014-12-27 10:28:15 am

General Kong - Bullets and Bananas

So good Uilnslcoap! Keep it up!

Quote from Uilnslcoap:

But I reserve the right to be absolutely sick of the game when I finish the segmented run and put the SS off another few years, though.

LOL

Uilnslcoap

Edit history:

Uilnslcoap: 2014-12-28 11:07:41 pm

2014-12-28 12:38:53 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Okay, I'm settling for a 15:26. I'm pretty sure it's a "low" 15:26 and it has only one really significant mistake (a half-second loss picking up the third part of the green urn), and two extremely small ones (not getting the Ellia sprint perfect in the first couple rooms and a small steering derp that loses a tenth of a second or so on the way to the coffin). So I think I'm leaving about a second's worth of gameplay improvement on the table. At first I was upset at the thought of leaving the 15:25 on the table, but looking at the run on the whole, I'm actually really happy with it after another couple of views and maybe I just got screwed slightly on loading luck. It's really hard to put it all together. For me, anyway.

This stretch of gameplay, from the last couple rooms of Ellia to the Bishop's door as Anthony, is improved by about 6.5 seconds over my old segmented run (3.5 on improving the Ellia run/walk, about 1.5 from cutting a few corners throughout Anthony and another 1.5 from making sure to get the first two Mantorok zombies with the torch on the first swing, which I missed in the last run). So I'm pretty pleased about that. I believe I've improved on the overall run by about 10 seconds' worth of gameplay (2.2-ish secs in part 1, 1.5-ish in part 2 and 6.5-ish in part 3). We'll see at the end of part 5 in this run (part 4 will end with Karim after the elevator ride at the door out of dead soldier hallway...part 5 will end after Karim's chapter).

ETA: looking at it again, it's really very, very good. It's a shame about the half-second lost on the third urn fragment, but I'm very comfortable with that given some excellent stuff otherwise that most people aren't going to notice. 1) I was pretty far to the right grabbing the gladius as Alex, dangerously close to triggering the pillar of flesh prompt instead, which means I took a very direct route to the gladius which is great. 2) That may be the best I've ever navigated the church pew turn and the stairs one level up from there. It's soooo easy to get caught on the collision on one of those corners, and I avoided that while taking the corners rather tightly. 3) The trigger on picking up the tome and the "Yes/dismissal" actions thereafter were fantastic. Some great efficiency gets in that attempt. Definitely enough to outweigh my annoyance at the imperfections.

Okay, I'm settling for a 15:26.  I'm pretty sure it's a "low" 15:26 and it has only one really significant mistake (a half-second loss picking up the third part of the green urn), and two extremely small ones (not getting the Ellia sprint perfect in the first couple rooms and a small steering derp that loses a tenth of a second or so on the way to the coffin).  So I think I'm leaving about a second's worth of gameplay improvement on the table.  At first I was upset at the thought of leaving the 15:25 on the table, but looking at the run on the whole, I'm actually really happy with it after another couple of views and maybe I just got screwed slightly on loading luck.  It's really hard to put it all together.  For me, anyway.

This stretch of gameplay, from the last couple rooms of Ellia to the Bishop's door as Anthony, is improved by about 6.5 seconds over my old segmented run (3.5 on improving the Ellia run/walk, about 1.5 from cutting a few corners throughout Anthony and another 1.5 from making sure to get the first two Mantorok zombies with the torch on the first swing, which I missed in the last run).  So I'm pretty pleased about that.  I believe I've improved on the overall run by about 10 seconds' worth of gameplay (2.2-ish secs in part 1, 1.5-ish in part 2 and 6.5-ish in part 3).  We'll see at the end of part 5 in this run (part 4 will end with Karim after the elevator ride at the door out of dead soldier hallway...part 5 will end after Karim's chapter).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSI8Pd6cXbk

ETA: looking at it again, it's really very, very good.  It's a shame about the half-second lost on the third urn fragment, but I'm very comfortable with that given some excellent stuff otherwise that most people aren't going to notice. 1) I was pretty far to the right grabbing the gladius as Alex, dangerously close to triggering the pillar of flesh prompt instead, which means I took a very direct route to the gladius which is great. 2) That may be the best I've ever navigated the church pew turn and the stairs one level up from there.  It's soooo easy to get caught on the collision on one of those corners, and I avoided that while taking the corners rather tightly.  3) The trigger on picking up the tome and the "Yes/dismissal" actions thereafter were fantastic.  Some great efficiency gets in that attempt.  Definitely enough to outweigh my annoyance at the imperfections.

Uilnslcoap

2015-01-09 11:07:26 pm

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Well, even though it appears to have only gained about 2 seconds over the same stretch of gameplay in the original run (HOW? The trapper is MUCH faster, I evade a couple of zombies that I didn't in the original run, and I think I only lost a little loading luck here and there...), it looks a lot better...part 4!

Uilnslcoap

2015-01-14 11:35:29 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Ready to start attempts on part 5 after some practice last night. Fairly sure it will come quickly (possibly tonight, possibly another session or two). I've decided that there's going to be a "built-in" heal that essentially replaces finishing the rune horror early in the segment. Should save a second or so (the heal comes when you otherwise are waiting to fight monsters, so the only time lost is going into and coming out of the pause menu). It seems like an artifact of where I saved (based on practice last night) is that there are zero sanity effects (besides the automatic Edward/Pious talks to Alex cutscene) which is kind of a relief because it was one of the most random places in that regard in the previous run. Unfortunately it also seems to take away the random chance that the rune horror will do its "sanity drain" during the cutscene and thus not take away your sanity. So now every time it drains health at this point. But I'm satisfied that I would still have chosen to do a health boost to replace the finish move on the rune horror, so no time lost. Just doesn't look as good.

I also have decided to make saves such that we avoid the "Sanity's Redemption" teaser (that is, save every time we finish a given chapter along with any other saves). This means I'll have to hope for good luck on the Max "boss" teleport at the end of his level, among other things.

Planned segments:

5 - finish Karim
6 - Max (all--need lucky boss)
7 - E. Lindsey (all--not sure how much I'll have to avoid sanity effects with spells or just rely on luck, pretty sure you'll hit sanity effects if you don't do any spells)
8 - Paul to in front of drawer in cathedral
9 - Paul to 5-point damage field (might use meditation rod, may rely on luck depending on if sanity effects are 100% here)
10 - Paul finish (includes 5-point spell creation)
11 - Roberto (all--will probably have to use sanity pool to avoid effects as these may be 100%)
12 - Peter to lights on/7-point spell finish (I may split this up into two pieces depending on how luck-reliant/frustrating sanity effect avoidance at level start and 7-point spell creation is when combined)
13 - Peter finish (sanity effect luck + boss luck = ugh)
14 - Edward to bottom of stairs before Ehn'gha
15 - Edward finish (some luck required on trapper location, low chance of sanity effects)
16 - Michael to light puzzle (luck-reliant for no sanity effects/non-crap trapper location in Alex intro)
17 - Michael finish (sanity effects and horror barrier luck)
18 - Alex to just before horror barrier (looking for super luck such that only one Bind spell is necessary at beginning of next part)
19 - Alex to just before boss
20 - Final boss fight (I think I can manipulate teleport locations somewhat and otherwise get lucky)

So four (or five) more saves than last time.

Ready to start attempts on part 5 after some practice last night.  Fairly sure it will come quickly (possibly tonight, possibly another session or two).  I've decided that there's going to be a "built-in" heal that essentially replaces finishing the rune horror early in the segment.  Should save a second or so (the heal comes when you otherwise are waiting to fight monsters, so the only time lost is going into and coming out of the pause menu).  It seems like an artifact of where I saved (based on practice last night) is that there are zero sanity effects (besides the automatic Edward/Pious talks to Alex cutscene) which is kind of a relief because it was one of the most random places in that regard in the previous run.  Unfortunately it also seems to take away the random chance that the rune horror will do its "sanity drain" during the cutscene and thus not take away your sanity.  So now every time it drains health at this point.  But I'm satisfied that I would still have chosen to do a health boost to replace the finish move on the rune horror, so no time lost.  Just doesn't look as good.

I also have decided to make saves such that we avoid the "Sanity's Redemption" teaser (that is, save every time we finish a given chapter along with any other saves).  This means I'll have to hope for good luck on the Max "boss" teleport at the end of his level, among other things.

Planned segments:

5 - finish Karim
6 - Max (all--need lucky boss)
7 - E. Lindsey (all--not sure how much I'll have to avoid sanity effects with spells or just rely on luck, pretty sure you'll hit sanity effects if you don't do any spells)
8 - Paul to in front of drawer in cathedral
9 - Paul to 5-point damage field (might use meditation rod, may rely on luck depending on if sanity effects are 100% here)
10 - Paul finish (includes 5-point spell creation)
11 - Roberto (all--will probably have to use sanity pool to avoid effects as these may be 100%)
12 - Peter to lights on/7-point spell finish (I may split this up into two pieces depending on how luck-reliant/frustrating sanity effect avoidance at level start and 7-point spell creation is when combined)
13 - Peter finish (sanity effect luck + boss luck = ugh)
14 - Edward to bottom of stairs before Ehn'gha
15 - Edward finish (some luck required on trapper location, low chance of sanity effects)
16 - Michael to light puzzle (luck-reliant for no sanity effects/non-crap trapper location in Alex intro)
17 - Michael finish (sanity effects and horror barrier luck)
18 - Alex to just before horror barrier (looking for super luck such that only one Bind spell is necessary at beginning of next part)
19 - Alex to just before boss
20 - Final boss fight (I think I can manipulate teleport locations somewhat and otherwise get lucky)

So four (or five) more saves than last time.

DK28

2015-01-15 11:17:13 am

General Kong - Bullets and Bananas

Wow, keep this up Uiln. Your dedication to every shred of time is impressive. I'm enjoying the updates.

Uilnslcoap

2015-01-16 09:31:49 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Thanks, DK! I put in a couple of hours last night on Karim. I was wrong about sanity effects. They can still happen in a couple of rooms late in the segment, but it's still better than it was in the last run. Hopefully I get the segment at some point this weekend. Will be nice to compare directly how far ahead I am of the previous run.

Uilnslcoap

2015-01-18 12:32:14 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

I put one up earlier today on Youtube, decided it wasn't good enough, and got another two seconds better that is mostly really clean. Lots more to say at Youtube if you wanna read the personal/tech stuff, but here I'll just say: I'm really proud of this segment and even if the concern I have about the "already highlighted Xel'lotath rune" (see the YT link for more) causes it to be ineligible for publication here, I'm just really happy with the run and feel like it would be a bad technicality to get caught on, but I can live with that and will continue the run in good faith even if we as a community decide my mistake is worth not publishing the run.

Uilnslcoap

2015-02-19 09:30:01 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Zwajken has a new PB/WR! Sub-2:13:00! I'll be linking when he has the highlight up (unfortunately his capture card is having issues, so it's webcam, but still obviously an awesome performance!). Less than 4 mins from my old segmented run, man!

Uilnslcoap

2015-02-19 11:05:22 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Here we go! 2:12:27

http://www.twitch.tv/zwajken/c/6153584

EndlessPandemic

2015-02-19 11:07:54 am

twitch.tv/pandaneversleeps

I FINALLY FOUND A COPY

Mine was a bit busted up so I was waiting to find a better one before trying to run this again.

Still can't stream right now but hopefully I'll be able to soon!

Graviton

Edit history:

Graviton: 2015-02-24 10:48:09 am

Graviton: 2015-02-24 10:41:29 am

Graviton: 2015-02-24 10:28:02 am

Graviton: 2015-02-24 10:25:56 am

Graviton: 2015-02-24 10:25:16 am

Graviton: 2015-02-24 10:23:49 am

2015-02-24 10:21:53 am

Has anyone ever tried to TAS this game to anyone's knowledge? It works perfectly fine on Dolphin as far as I know... and I can't imagine too much of this game being difficult to optimize with TAS tools since most of it is spell casting and running. Most of the challenge would probably come in routing I'm sure. I would try to TAS some stuff myself, but I would need a file with all three alignments completed so I could skip every cutscene.

It would be interesting to see how it would compare to both the segmented and real time speedruns. I would imagine that TASing this game could reveal many new time savers that both a segmented run and real time run could implement as well. I might make a post on TASVideos to see if there is any interest out there because I would definitely be willing to put in some time in such a project. I ran the game very shortly, so I know the full route and am also aware of the things both zwajken does and what is done in the segmented runs.

EndlessPandemic

2015-02-25 02:09:35 am

twitch.tv/pandaneversleeps

Hey Grav! As far as I know no one has ever done a TAS run on this but I would love to see what could be done!

Uilnslcoap

Edit history:

Uilnslcoap: 2015-02-25 09:56:27 am

2015-02-25 09:55:01 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

I would be suuuuuuper-interested to see a TAS of this, of course. It would be great to see the exact place where you stop sprinting to trigger every door, that kind of thing. I'm also curious about perfect sprint patterns for Ellia and Roberto, and to see if there's a more efficient spell-assigning pattern and the like.

EDIT: do any of the saves at GameFAQs help?

http://www.gamefaqs.com/gamecube/913957-eternal-darkness-sanitys-requiem/saves

EndlessPandemic

2015-02-26 09:53:34 am

twitch.tv/pandaneversleeps

Oh, Grav, I almost forgot!

I actually discovered you actually DON'T need to have a file with all alignments completed in order to skip all of the cutscenes. All you have to do is complete the game with the desired alignment for the run (Xelo'tath), keep the completed save file, and start a new game WITHOUT using that file to start from. It will ask you something to the effect of "Use completed alignment data?" to which you will say no and just like that you are good to go!

^.^

Graviton

Edit history:

Graviton: 2015-02-27 12:57:45 am

2015-02-27 12:50:50 am

Really? I might do a run on Dolphin and see if I can TAS chapter 1 or something afterward... it shouldn't be too difficult and it would be nice to see how close it is to the segmented.

Edit: oh shit, I just realized you can import .gcs save files to Dolphin. the completed save file imported without a problem. thanks Uilnslcoap!

Uilnslcoap

2015-02-27 11:18:32 am

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Graviton, I would be super-nerd-excited to see a TAS of Chapter 1! I think the only significant RNG is loading time into the Pious statue room and the "insert 4 blocks" room (that might vary from disc to disc and hardware to hardware), but there might be similar minor RNG on all room transitions. There's also the zombie locations in the "insert 4 blocks" room, but I imagine you can manipulate that with perfect movement in a TAS...not sure if there's really any luck involved (sometimes in real-time runs you can go "inside" the final zombie after grabbing the purple block and heading for the insert location, sometimes you have to go "outside"--it's outside in both the run on the site and the segment I uploaded to Youtube 12-12-14 upthread).

I'm really glad the saves worked, too! Keep us updated. You have no idea how much I'm jonesing to take a look at this. You'll have to tell me if you learn anything significant about turning the character in certain situations, for instance after Pious hits the button in the second-to-last room. Turning there is slightly awkward (one of many places this is the case), at least in real-time.

Graviton, I would be super-nerd-excited to see a TAS of Chapter 1!  I think the only significant RNG is loading time into the Pious statue room and the "insert 4 blocks" room (that might vary from disc to disc and hardware to hardware), but there might be similar minor RNG on all room transitions.  There's also the zombie locations in the "insert 4 blocks" room, but I imagine you can manipulate that with perfect movement in a TAS...not sure if there's really any luck involved (sometimes in real-time runs you can go "inside" the final zombie after grabbing the purple block and heading for the insert location, sometimes you have to go "outside"--it's outside in both the run on the site and the segment I uploaded to Youtube 12-12-14 upthread).

I'm really glad the saves worked, too!  Keep us updated.  You have no idea how much I'm jonesing to take a look at this.  You'll have to tell me if you learn anything significant about turning the character in certain situations, for instance after Pious hits the button in the second-to-last room.  Turning there is slightly awkward (one of many places this is the case), at least in real-time.

Llyno87

2015-05-11 05:44:52 am

So Zwajken and myself randomly met up in a twitch chat of a casual run of this game. Guess who's been doing some offline derusting? Both of us :D.

Llyno87

2015-05-12 08:46:55 am

Also, let myself or Zwajken know and we'll update the leader board so we can get a more accurate picture of all the runners for this game. http://www.speedrun.com/ed_sr