Final Fantasy VII

2007-04-21 04:41:17 am

Word.

"I figure I'm going to find the answers to the following questions when these finally load (I'm also too lazy to try and find the answers in the earlier pages of this topic):
-In early segments, are you using Hypers to inflict Fury on your characters (which can be done as early as the Aps fight)? Limit Breaks are too powerful to NOT abuse that early, when there's not a lot of alternate strategies. Problem is, the miss chance imparted by Fury, while not affecting Limit Breaks, DOES affect magic.
-What characters are being used? I'll be surprised if Tifa isn't in the party for at least some bosses where she isn't absolutely necessary - again, this has to do with Limit Breaks.
-Do Vincent and Yuffie play a role in this run at all? I'll be honest, I suspect the answer to this is 'no'.
-Did you think to steal the Hardedge in Shinra HQ? Because of low character levels, stealing the Hardedge adds a fairly large amount of damage, enough that it'll guaranteed make up the time needed to steal the thing. "

Hypers:

Uh yes, but pretty much only for Cloud.

Limitbreaks:

Where applicable... Cloud's alot, none of the other ones are really all that powerful. Sled Fang is used once or twice, Big Shot a couple times, and I think Tifa's is used once or twice. Grenades and other throwable items (Molotovs, Right Arms) are really the way things go early on.

Tifa:

Absolutely. She is the focal point of the run, actually. However, not really because of her limitbreaks, but because of the Powersoul. Watch the Red Dragon segment, and you'll understand why.

Yuffie and Vincent:

Nope...

Andrew

"I figure I'm going to find the answers to the following questions when these finally load (I'm also too lazy to try and find the answers in the earlier pages of this topic): 
-In early segments, are you using Hypers to inflict Fury on your characters (which can be done as early as the Aps fight)?  Limit Breaks are too powerful to NOT abuse that early, when there's not a lot of alternate strategies.  Problem is, the miss chance imparted by Fury, while not affecting Limit Breaks, DOES affect magic. 
-What characters are being used?  I'll be surprised if Tifa isn't in the party for at least some bosses where she isn't absolutely necessary - again, this has to do with Limit Breaks. 
-Do Vincent and Yuffie play a role in this run at all?  I'll be honest, I suspect the answer to this is 'no'. 
-Did you think to steal the Hardedge in Shinra HQ?  Because of low character levels, stealing the Hardedge adds a fairly large amount of damage, enough that it'll guaranteed make up the time needed to steal the thing. "

Hypers:

Uh yes, but pretty much only for Cloud.

Limitbreaks:

Where applicable... Cloud's alot, none of the other ones are really all that powerful. Sled Fang is used once or twice, Big Shot a couple times, and I think Tifa's is used once or twice. Grenades and other throwable items (Molotovs, Right Arms) are really the way things go early on.

Tifa:

Absolutely. She is the focal point of the run, actually. However, not really because of her limitbreaks, but because of the Powersoul. Watch the Red Dragon segment, and you'll understand why.

Yuffie and Vincent:

Nope...

Andrew

Farringa

2007-04-21 11:06:48 pm

Word.

Update:

End of Disc 1: 4h 31m

RIP Aeris. Sad

Andrew

Carcinogen

2007-04-21 11:25:38 pm

SPOILER ALERT! Grin

I'd like to see how you handle Schizo myself. Schizo was always a tough cookie if I wasn't properly prepared.

Farringa

2007-04-22 01:01:17 am

Word.

"SPOILER ALERT!"

lol, I thought that went without saying in a speed run topic... :S Tongue

Andrew

Carcinogen

Edit history:

Carcinogen: 2007-04-22 01:46:17 am

2007-04-22 01:45:18 am

Quote:

"SPOILER ALERT!"

lol, I thought that went without saying in a speed run topic... :S Tongue

Andrew

I knows, I'm kidding =_=

Lag.Com

2007-04-22 10:28:07 am

sda loyalist

Schizo sure is a difficult fight in a speedrun, yes. Good job so far, Farringa!

You don't need to type Andrew at the end of every post, it's in your signature already.

Farringa

Edit history:

Farringa: 2007-04-22 04:44:43 pm

2007-04-22 04:37:05 pm

Word.

This next segment is going to kill me, I swear it. I'm at the Icicle Inn... long, very luck requiring segment. Wish me luck, it might be awhile before I complete it (read: snoboarding, and steal a circlet from a Snow).

Current time:

Worldmap, before Icicle Inn: 4h 34m

Edit:

About the stupid Snow. Because I am doing the run on the PC version, the random encounters do not change.... terrible isn't it? So in order to get certain battles at certain times, sometimes I have to run around, because the battles happen in the same order, where as on the PS version, you can just go until you get a lucky battle... This makes the PC version tougher to speed run... especially if you come across a random encounter that is a side attack, and you can't escape. Thank God that hasn't happened yet, but if it does, I'll either have to find a way to quickly kill one of the enemies so I can escape, or get the fight on a different screen (via wasting time running around). It's a major disadvantage to the PC version of the game, and it has already cost me along the lines of 3 or 4 minutes. You can see an example of this in the Cave of Gi segment on Youtube... you notice I waste time running in the area where I get in a battle with 3x Sneaky Steps so I can learn Death Sentence... Luckily the battle was the very next one... so it was always the very next one, so I could plan on running around just enough to get it... but the battle with Snow... it looks like I'll probably need to run around for 30 - 40 seconds or more (she is the 4th battle on the screen, I get one on the run, and I have to skip 2 to get to her). Not cool at all.

This next segment is going to kill me, I swear it. I'm at the Icicle Inn... long, very luck requiring segment. Wish me luck, it might be awhile before I complete it (read: snoboarding, and steal a circlet from a Snow).

Current time:

Worldmap, before Icicle Inn: 4h 34m

Edit:

About the stupid Snow. Because I am doing the run on the PC version, the random encounters do not change.... terrible isn't it? So in order to get certain battles at certain times, sometimes I have to run around, because the battles happen in the same order, where as on the PS version, you can just go until you get a lucky battle... This makes the PC version tougher to speed run... especially if you come across a random encounter that is a side attack, and you can't escape. Thank God that hasn't happened yet, but if it does, I'll either have to find a way to quickly kill one of the enemies so I can escape, or get the fight on a different screen (via wasting time running around). It's a major disadvantage to the PC version of the game, and it has already cost me along the lines of 3 or 4 minutes. You can see an example of this in the Cave of Gi segment on Youtube... you notice I waste time running in the area where I get in a battle with 3x Sneaky Steps so I can learn Death Sentence... Luckily the battle was the very next one... so it was always the very next one, so I could plan on running around just enough to get it... but the battle with Snow... it looks like I'll probably need to run around for 30 - 40 seconds or more (she is the 4th battle on the screen, I get one on the run, and I have to skip 2 to get to her). Not cool at all.

atro_city

2007-04-23 06:00:50 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Gotta love those RNGs.

Farringa

2007-04-23 11:38:28 pm

Word.

Update:

Snowboarding segment is over... whew.

I hit the walls a few times (I didn't fall over), and the time was only 3 seconds slower than my fastest ever. And I stole the circlet on the first attempt, so I'm moving on.

Camtasia doesn't record FFVII very well, when alot of things are changing on screen. Normally, you don't notice it very much, but during the snowboarding, it's pretty bad in spots... I mean, there is a timer in the upper left hand corner, so you can't really accuse me of cheating, but just from a video quality sake, that segment is going to be a little less than desireable. Nothing I can really do about it though... :S

Base of Gaea's Cliff: 4h 44m

Farringa

Edit history:

Farringa: 2007-05-02 02:20:48 pm

2007-05-02 02:28:01 am

Word.

This thread is in need of a bump, so here it is.

Firstly, I'm sorry for my inactivity lately. I'm currently holding down 2 jobs, while taking an 18 credit course load. I have 3 tests, 2 labs, and a final project due this week, and finals are next week. Not to mention my wife and I (I got married in March Smiley

) are finally moving in together at the end of next week (the dorms charge huge cancellation fees, so we had to wait... Angry

). Lately I've been sacrificing sleep in order to try and get this run done for you guys by the goal I set of the end of June. That's still my goal (I know it's lofty...), but expect updates to be as sporatic these next two weeks as they have been the last two. Once finals are over, and I get settled into my summer job and routine, I can really crank out some segments and try and get this run completed finally (I've been working on it for almost a year now, and I've still got about 3 hours game time left Shocked

).

With that said, heres the update. I finally finished the icicles segment ;D. It was an incredably difficult segment. You have no idea how infuriating it is to get through 11 Evilhead attacks only to have the 12th cast Ultrasound on Cloud, silencing him, and ruining the segment. But it's over. As is the next segment. This puts me just before Shizo. So for those who don't want to read everything else:

Just before Shizo: 4h 55 minutes

Anyway, thanks for your patience and support. Don't expect another update from me for at least a few days.

This thread is in need of a bump, so here it is.

Firstly, I'm sorry for my inactivity lately. I'm currently holding down 2 jobs, while taking an 18 credit course load. I have 3 tests, 2 labs, and a final project due this week, and finals are next week. Not to mention my wife and I (I got married in March  :) ) are finally moving in together at the end of next week (the dorms charge huge cancellation fees, so we had to wait... >:( ). Lately I've been sacrificing sleep in order to try and get this run done for you guys by the goal I set of the end of June. That's still my goal (I know it's lofty...), but expect updates to be as sporatic these next two weeks as they have been the last two. Once finals are over, and I get settled into my summer job and routine, I can really crank out some segments and try and get this run completed finally (I've been working on it for almost a year now, and I've still got about 3 hours game time left  :o ).

With that said, heres the update. I finally finished the icicles segment  ;D. It was an incredably difficult segment. You have no idea how infuriating it is to get through 11 Evilhead attacks only to have the 12th cast Ultrasound on Cloud, silencing him, and ruining the segment. But it's over. As is the next segment. This puts me just before Shizo. So for those who don't want to read everything else:

Just before Shizo: 4h 55 minutes

Anyway, thanks for your patience and support. Don't expect another update from me for at least a few days.

Carcinogen

2007-05-02 03:05:09 am

Good luck on Schizo. =|

DavizZz

2007-05-03 07:15:28 pm

youtube.com/DavizZz2106

7:35-7:45 wtf? i needed 22hours. i want to see that stuff

Farringa

2007-05-05 02:34:15 am

Word.

Just a quick bump so everyone knows I'm alive, and the run is progressing.

Schizo is down.

Bigger update later when I get some time to get through a few more segments.

Farringa

Edit history:

Farringa: 2007-05-08 04:32:15 pm

2007-05-08 02:51:08 pm

Word.

Update:

Right before the Gas Chamber: 5h 21m

The Shizo battle took forever. I got 4 battles that I felt had acceptable times, but I kept restarting until I got the perfect outcome, and I'm glad I did. The battle with Jenova*DEATH I thought was more annoying, because of all the text you have to skip before you get to fight him, even though the segment didn't take as many man-hours to complete. I changed my tactic for JD after I had already defeated Schizo, so I had to do the menu changes right before JD, instead of at the end of the Schizo segment which wastes a little time (not really much at all... just enough to open the menu and close it again, because I would have had to do the changes any way), but the tactic was much faster than the other one, so it was still a big time saver.

Sorry... I would normally put up videos of the boss battles now, but like I said, no more until I'm done with the run!

The next few segments are fairly easy, and so I should be able to get them done fairly soon. I plan on working on the run tonight, after I get off work, but I have a final at 8:00 am tommorow, so I may not get as much done as I want to. But, (edit: HOPEFULLY) only about 2 hours and 20 minutes of game time left!!

Update:

Right before the Gas Chamber: 5h 21m

The Shizo battle took forever. I got 4 battles that I felt had acceptable times, but I kept restarting until I got the perfect outcome, and I'm glad I did. The battle with Jenova*DEATH I thought was more annoying, because of all the text you have to skip before you get to fight him, even though the segment didn't take as many man-hours to complete. I changed my tactic for JD after I had already defeated Schizo, so I had to do the menu changes right before JD, instead of at the end of the Schizo segment which wastes a little time (not really much at all... just enough to open the menu and close it again, because I would have had to do the changes any way), but the tactic was much faster than the other one, so it was still a big time saver.

Sorry... I would normally put up videos of the boss battles now, but like I said, no more until I'm done with the run!

The next few segments are fairly easy, and so I should be able to get them done fairly soon. I plan on working on the run tonight, after I get off work, but I have a final at 8:00 am tommorow, so I may not get as much done as I want to. But, (edit: HOPEFULLY) only about 2 hours and 20 minutes of game time left!!

Bp_

2007-05-08 04:09:04 pm

men i seriously can't wait to see your run. I didn't watch 1 video on youtube cause I want to see it all at once Tongue

GL men !

Farringa

2007-05-09 09:47:22 pm

Word.

I will be gone for a few days, and progress on the run will basically come to a halt. I'm hanging out with my roomate tonight after work before he moves out, and after work tommorow I am going to a party at a friend's. Friday, my wife and I are moving into our new appartment, so for a few days after that I will be busy getting settled in. I will probably continue with the run come Sunday or Monday.

Andrew

GarlandG

2007-05-12 11:21:49 am

I will knock you all down!

I'm still alive too. I haven't been able to continue the run since so many new things have come up, but now the FAQ is finally 100% complete, done and finished and I can carry on.

BTW, nice to see you too here, Andrew!

Farringa

2007-05-20 05:37:28 pm

Word.

And I'm back.

Sorry for the delay... I know it took longer than I anticipated. I still don't have a desk, and am continuing with the speed run with my PC set up on the floor. I completed another segment last night, and will be continuing with the run when I get out of work in 4.5 hours.

DJS

2007-05-20 05:49:46 pm

torch slug since 2006

Dude, my brother plays this game like hell. He played over 25hours and his still on Disc 1:P

Farringa

Edit history:

Farringa: 2007-05-25 01:22:14 pm

2007-05-22 03:28:32 pm

Word.

Finished another segment last night:

North Corel Train Tracks, before Train Battles: 5h 43m

Train battles will be difficult. My desk finally came in today, so I can get my PC off the floor, and be a little more comfortable while I'm speed running. Maybe that will increase production? I hope so... Smiley

Expect the next big update to be Sunday. I have Friday and Saturday off, and other than doing a little shopping with my wife on Friday (we still need furniture for the apartment), those two days will be dedicated to the run. I will probably update everyone on my progress at work on Sunday.

Carcinogen

2007-05-23 02:15:46 am

Meh, Trine and Aqualung should make quick work of most of them.

Farringa

2007-05-27 03:25:32 pm

Word.

Update:

Underwater Reactor, before Carry Armor: 6h 22m

Thats right, I got a full 40 minutes of the run done in just 2 days. The desk proved to be beneficial. Tongue

The next segment is going to be pretty difficult, but I hope to finish it tonight when I get out of work, and back from the gym (I'll probably start on it around 7:30 or so...). I have Monday off for the holiday, so Monday will be dedicated to the run as well. The end is near... only 9 more segments to go (including Sephiroth)! Or, about an hour game time until the final save... Should be able to finish by my goal of the end of June completion... maybe a little sooner.

So, now that I'm almost finished, I need to start looking at how I am going to submit the run. I've looked at the FAQ, etc. but I'm not completely sure about how I should go about sending it in... I have all the files on my HD (I record using Camtasia, but the files end up being about 500MB to 1Gig per segment (depending on length... but there are75 segments so far), so I have been using Windows Movie Maker to make the files smaller, so they fit on my HD's). I read about having to make multiple qualities of the run... how do I go about doing that, or do I have to? And when the run is finished, I will go through and watch the whole thing, take notes on each segment, and start writing my comments on the run... Any help on that whole process would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Update:

Underwater Reactor, before Carry Armor:  6h 22m

Thats right, I got a full 40 minutes of the run done in just 2 days. The desk proved to be beneficial.  :P

The next segment is going to be pretty difficult, but I hope to finish it tonight when I get out of work, and back from the gym (I'll probably start on it around 7:30 or so...). I have Monday off for the holiday, so Monday will be dedicated to the run as well. The end is near... only 9 more segments to go (including Sephiroth)! Or, about an hour game time until the final save... Should be able to finish by my goal of the end of June completion... maybe a little sooner.

So, now that I'm almost finished, I need to start looking at how I am going to submit the run. I've looked at the FAQ, etc.  but I'm not completely sure about how I should go about sending it in... I have all the files on my HD (I record using Camtasia, but the files end up being about 500MB to 1Gig per segment (depending on length... but there are75 segments so far), so I have been using Windows Movie Maker to make the files smaller, so they fit on my HD's). I read about having to make multiple qualities of the run... how do I go about doing that, or do I have to? And when the run is finished, I will go through and watch the whole thing, take notes on each segment, and start writing my comments on the run... Any help on that whole process would be appreciated.

Thanks,

DJS

2007-05-27 05:10:54 pm

torch slug since 2006

I uses VirtualDub allways to encode. but SDA uses more advanced stuff. so why not post in Tech Support?

Carcinogen

2007-05-27 05:15:14 pm

hmmmmm

What I'm thinking is perhaps put them all on DVD(s) and send 'em to Nate. From my experience, encoding is a bitch. But if you want to do it yourself (and save nate a bit of trouble, i bet the guy has a lot on his plate) have a look here:

http://speeddemosarchive.com/kb/index.php/Main_Page

Personally, I HATE using programs like FRAPS and Camtasia to do any recording, because they make any computer I'm on lag like hell, opting to source my computer out to DVD recorder via component instead... Makes a lot more sense to do that imho

Good luck with the last couple of segments.

I'd like to see someone with the patience to luck manipulate Cait Sith's Joker Death on every boss. XD

Farringa

Edit history:

Farringa: 2007-05-27 09:23:39 pm

2007-05-27 08:59:05 pm

Word.

Quote:

hmmmmm

What I'm thinking is perhaps put them all on DVD(s) and send 'em to Nate. From my experience, encoding is a bitch.

Hmmm, maybe thats what I'll do... only problem with that is I'd have to find a DVD burner, and my wife and I are broke. Think CD's would work? The files are quite a bit smaller once I convert them... I think all 75 segments take up around 2 gigs right now...