Final Fantasy XIII Speedrun

2010-09-04 08:22:47 pm

Now a hit show on the CW

Amazing final time Sportlov. Just two months ago, my goal for this game was to achieve under 9 hours, but you've raised the bar significantly. Your contributions to the discussions on this game have been invaluable, and I hope you'll continue to give advice and support as I begin my recorded run. Do you really think shaving over 46 minutes from your time would be possible though? I think I'm going to be a bit more conservative and hope for a time around 6:30.

I may start recording as early as tonight, as my test run is essentially completed. I'll see if I can get the first post in this thread switched over to my control so that I can make progress updates in the title. I'm probably not going to post all of my segments online, as a lot of them will be relatively straightforward (and I'd like to leave some surprises for the actual publication), but I'm definitely going to post my boss attempts to get feedback on any possible improvements (and just to make sure I'm not overlooking anything obvious).

Chapters 1 and 2 should be relatively quick to get through, but once I reach Chapter 3, I'll have to start planning out any extra fights I may need along the way to farm enough shrouds to last until Chapter 13. Plus, as sportlov mentioned, deciding which treasures to pick up (aside from the essential ones like weapons and doctor's codes) will be an important factor in my route planning. During my test run, I pretty much picked up every treasure I could, as long as it didn't require an extra fight or a ridiculous detour, but many of these can probably be skipped, if the potential profit isn't worth the time loss. Still, the biggest hurdle of the run is assuredly going to be my own patience in retrying segments until the battles go perfectly and I get lucky with the drops.

Amazing final time Sportlov. Just two months ago, my goal for this game was to achieve under 9 hours, but you've raised the bar significantly. Your contributions to the discussions on this game have been invaluable, and I hope you'll continue to give advice and support as I begin my recorded run. Do you really think shaving over 46 minutes from your time would be possible though? I think I'm going to be a bit more conservative and hope for a time around 6:30.

I may start recording as early as tonight, as my test run is essentially completed. I'll see if I can get the first post in this thread switched over to my control so that I can make progress updates in the title. I'm probably not going to post all of my segments online, as a lot of them will be relatively straightforward (and I'd like to leave some surprises for the actual publication), but I'm definitely going to post my boss attempts to get feedback on any possible improvements (and just to make sure I'm not overlooking anything obvious).

Chapters 1 and 2 should be relatively quick to get through, but once I reach Chapter 3, I'll have to start planning out any extra fights I may need along the way to farm enough shrouds to last until Chapter 13. Plus, as sportlov mentioned, deciding which treasures to pick up (aside from the essential ones like weapons and doctor's codes) will be an important factor in my route planning. During my test run, I pretty much picked up every treasure I could, as long as it didn't require an extra fight or a ridiculous detour, but many of these can probably be skipped, if the potential profit isn't worth the time loss. Still, the biggest hurdle of the run is assuredly going to be my own patience in retrying segments until the battles go perfectly and I get lucky with the drops.

sportlov

2010-09-05 02:55:30 am

I might be a bit on the optimistic side, I'm not sure actually. But there are alot of small things that would add up to a couple of minutes each that I didn't do or that I missed in my playthrough. I could try making a rough estimation of the things I remember, but just things like improving battles and deciding on treasures should probably add up to five to ten minutes each compared to what I did.

As you mentioned about shrouds, I would save alot in the beginning and make sure every battle in Chapter 2 yielded a shroud, and then finish up in Chapter 3. I wouldn't count on getting any extras after that. Unless you can get them from Dreadnaught or so, which could possibly make it worth retrying that boss until you get one. In either case I would probably not want to go more than two or three battles in a row without saving when you'd need to have shroud drops from every single one.

JohnnyKevlar

Edit history:

JohnnyKevlar: 2010-09-10 07:45:00 pm

JohnnyKevlar: 2010-09-10 07:43:14 pm

JohnnyKevlar: 2010-09-10 07:43:13 pm

2010-09-10 07:41:43 pm

There is a 7 hour speedrun on nico, I will get the link. Real time, counted when ps3 is turned on so possibly faster than sportlov's run. http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12066642

Arrow

Edit history:

Arrow: 2010-09-10 08:37:11 pm

2010-09-10 08:29:39 pm

Now a hit show on the CW

That's very impressive, I'll have to give that a watch to see if there's any notably different strats the runner uses. My greatest fear to running this game SS would be shroud drops. The more difficult battles can be defeated relatively easily with safer strategies and more CP farming, but there's no possible way to guarantee luck on shroud drops, which makes me think that some dedicated farming time would be necessary in Chapters 2 and 4.

~~Can someone remind me how to play videos on nico?~~

EDIT: Nevermind, I realized that I'd already registered an account there. Watching it now.

Arrow

Edit history:

Arrow: 2010-09-12 02:52:06 am

2010-09-11 04:05:45 pm

Now a hit show on the CW

Quote:

Real time, counted when ps3 is turned on so possibly faster than sportlov's run.

I doubt it's faster. The game counts time during loading, so aside from the small amount of time when he starts the game up, and time during pauses, the ingame time shouldn't be too far off from the RTA total. I would estimate that Sportlov's time is at least 30 minutes faster.

I've watched all of the parts he's posted up to this point (just finished Aster Protoflorian at around 2:14). The gameplay has been very solid so far, although there have been a few hiccups that I would expect from a SS attempt, such as running into enemy packs that were meant to be skipped and having to retry, and a couple game overs (two so far - one on Odin, and the other on Aster). As I expected, he spent a lot of time farming for shrouds in Chapter 2 (at least 20 minutes...got around 8 Fortisols and 13 Deceptisols), but surprisingly did not farm any Aegisols. Aside from that, there haven't been too many deviations from what I would have expected. He didn't do any CP spending until Chapter 4, which was a bit surprising, and has only sparingly used the Crystarium since. He hasn't picked up Launch for Lightning yet, but it wasn't really necessary for Chapter 5, as he chose to use Odin on Aster. He also picked up a lot of component treasures that I was planning to skip, leading me to believe that he's planning a lot of upgrades in the future.

It's worth pointing out that there are differences between the Japanese and English versions of the game which may have an impact on his later strategies in the run. For instance, the Japanese version allows you to select and use shrouds while running, whereas the US version causes you to stop when you open the shroud menu. Some treasure locations have been switched around as well - I know for a fact that the Pleiades Hi-powers are not in the same location in the Japanese version - and I've also heard varying reports of the Japanese version having less and/or easier enemies, but I haven't been able to confirm this.

The runner spends a good deal of time talking about shroud drop rates during Chapter 2 - it looks like he's just explaining to the viewers that they have the highest drop chance during that chapter and how getting lower battle rankings increases the chance, but I'd be interested to know if he mentions anything during that chapter that isn't already well known.

EDIT: Watched his two most recent parts (up to Nautilus now). A couple of interesting points in Chapter 8. He managed to dodge a certain group of jetpack soldiers without using a Deceptisol, which I didn't think was possible. Also, a very different Havoc Skytank strategy involving Fang as Sentinel for almost the whole fight. Saved at least a minute over my best time. This guy abuses potions like crazy - I think he used around 20 on the Ushumgal Subjugator alone. Went out of his way to upskirt Lightning, and even commented on it. Classy.

[quote]Real time, counted when ps3 is turned on so possibly faster than sportlov's run.[/quote]
I doubt it's faster. The game counts time during loading, so aside from the small amount of time when he starts the game up, and time during pauses, the ingame time shouldn't be too far off from the RTA total. I would estimate that Sportlov's time is at least 30 minutes faster.

I've watched all of the parts he's posted up to this point (just finished Aster Protoflorian at around 2:14). The gameplay has been very solid so far, although there have been a few hiccups that I would expect from a SS attempt, such as running into enemy packs that were meant to be skipped and having to retry, and a couple game overs (two so far - one on Odin, and the other on Aster). As I expected, he spent a lot of time farming for shrouds in Chapter 2 (at least 20 minutes...got around 8 Fortisols and 13 Deceptisols), but surprisingly did not farm any Aegisols. Aside from that, there haven't been too many deviations from what I would have expected. He didn't do any CP spending until Chapter 4, which was a bit surprising, and has only sparingly used the Crystarium since. He hasn't picked up Launch for Lightning yet, but it wasn't really necessary for Chapter 5, as he chose to use Odin on Aster. He also picked up a lot of component treasures that I was planning to skip, leading me to believe that he's planning a lot of upgrades in the future.

It's worth pointing out that there [i]are[/i] differences between the Japanese and English versions of the game which may have an impact on his later strategies in the run. For instance, the Japanese version allows you to select and use shrouds while running, whereas the US version causes you to stop when you open the shroud menu. Some treasure locations have been switched around as well - I know for a fact that the Pleiades Hi-powers are not in the same location in the Japanese version - and I've also heard varying reports of the Japanese version having less and/or easier enemies, but I haven't been able to confirm this.

The runner spends a good deal of time talking about shroud drop rates during Chapter 2 - it looks like he's just explaining to the viewers that they have the highest drop chance during that chapter and how getting lower battle rankings increases the chance, but I'd be interested to know if he mentions anything during that chapter that isn't already well known.

EDIT: Watched his two most recent parts (up to Nautilus now). A couple of interesting points in Chapter 8. He managed to dodge a certain group of jetpack soldiers without using a Deceptisol, which I didn't think was possible. Also, a [i]very[/i] different Havoc Skytank strategy involving Fang as Sentinel for almost the whole fight. Saved at least a minute over my best time. This guy abuses potions like crazy - I think he used around 20 on the Ushumgal Subjugator alone. Went out of his way to upskirt Lightning, and even commented on it. Classy.

Flip

Edit history:

Flip: 2010-09-14 07:17:06 am

2010-09-14 07:12:51 am

1-Up!

Can anybody offer some insight? Normally this link should work for anybody http://dic.nicovideo.jp/v/sm12066642

but for me it doesn't. Do I need to click on something extra?

Edit: that was written poorly. What I mean to say is that if I follow that link, I can't just click play on a video screen a la Youtube, there is no video screen.

sportlov

2010-09-14 09:35:31 am

I haven't watched this video, the time looks very impressive, I couldn't see myself ever having the time or will to sit seven and a half hours in one sitting playing video games. Kudos to the player.

I probably saved close to 100 times in my playthrough, and seeing as it takes 20-30 seconds every time you load up a save, this would amount to around 30 minutes of waiting for the game to start up. The reason I'm mentioning this is that because of this I'd say the difference in playtime between our playthroughs would be close to an hour. Now the strategies I used for doing my playthrough would most likely be unusable without saving every now and then, so I'm very interested in what kind of farming, armors and characters this person have used.

Now I've only played through this game three times, so I'd imagine that someone who has played the game since release would know the game much better than I do, and so I can understand that you'd have the resources available right there in your head to make a video like this.

Incredibly impressive time nontheless, I hope there's at least some things you can use in your speed run Arrow.

I haven't watched this video, the time looks very impressive, I couldn't see myself ever having the time or will to sit seven and a half hours in one sitting playing video games. Kudos to the player.

I probably saved close to 100 times in my playthrough, and seeing as it takes 20-30 seconds every time you load up a save, this would amount to around 30 minutes of waiting for the game to start up. The reason I'm mentioning this is that because of this I'd say the difference in playtime between our playthroughs would be close to an hour. Now the strategies I used for doing my playthrough would most likely be unusable without saving every now and then, so I'm very interested in what kind of farming, armors and characters this person have used.

Now I've only played through this game three times, so I'd imagine that someone who has played the game since release would know the game much better than I do, and so I can understand that you'd have the resources available right there in your head to make a video like this.

Incredibly impressive time nontheless, I hope there's at least some things you can use in your speed run Arrow.

Arrow

2010-09-15 06:04:03 pm

Now a hit show on the CW

I certainly have the will to do a 7+ hour SS run, I just don't know if I'd have the patience with a game as random as this. Regardless of the final time, I don't think I'd feel comfortable submitting a run with any game overs - and it doesn't help that one of the least predictable fights in that regard is literally at the end of the run.

Sport - yeah, you definitely lose over a half hour if you've saved that often, but on the other hand, he's already lost at least 20 minutes to shroud farming and another 15 or so to battle restarts. I'm going to be trying to minimize my saving as much as possible, but it's difficult to find a balance between less saves and having too many random variables in a segment that could be otherwise manipulated to be quicker if the segment were shorter. I can say that Chapters 1, 6, 8, and maybe 10 will only be two segments each in my run. Most of the other chapters will be somewhere between 3-5 segments depending on the number of battles and whether I need to manipulate drops. Chapter 11 will obviously be the most - I'd say 10 segments at minimum. So, if I had to make a guess, I'd estimate that my run will be somewhere in the range of 45-50 segments total.

I'm caught up to his most recent posted video (beginning of Taejin's Tower) - there still haven't been any major surprises. He relies on Fang as a Sentinel far more often that I was planning to (which is definitely something I'll experiment with), and he uses an insane number of potions, but this is more of a safety precaution for it being a SS run than a speed-oriented strategy. He only farmed two of the Behemoth King groups, which leads me to believe that he's forgoing Death in this run. He had an interesting respawn trick for that battle that I was unaware of - if it works in the US version, I might be able to condense all of my farming into one segment. Beyond that, I've just been surprised at how quick some of his fights were. It kind of seems like the bosses are easier in this version, because I can't see any drastically different Crystarium usage or equipment setups that would be making such a noticeable difference.

Quote:

Can anybody offer some insight? Normally this link should work for anybody http://dic.nicovideo.jp/v/sm12066642

but for me it doesn't. Do I need to click on something extra?

I'm not sure. I had to log in on the site to be able to watch the videos.

I certainly have the [i]will[/i] to do a 7+ hour SS run, I just don't know if I'd have the patience with a game as random as this. Regardless of the final time, I don't think I'd feel comfortable submitting a run with any game overs - and it doesn't help that one of the least predictable fights in that regard is literally at the end of the run.

Sport - yeah, you definitely lose over a half hour if you've saved that often, but on the other hand, he's already lost at least 20 minutes to shroud farming and another 15 or so to battle restarts. I'm going to be trying to minimize my saving as much as possible, but it's difficult to find a balance between less saves and having too many random variables in a segment that could be otherwise manipulated to be quicker if the segment were shorter. I can say that Chapters 1, 6, 8, and maybe 10 will only be two segments each in my run. Most of the other chapters will be somewhere between 3-5 segments depending on the number of battles and whether I need to manipulate drops. Chapter 11 will obviously be the most - I'd say 10 segments at minimum. So, if I had to make a guess, I'd estimate that my run will be somewhere in the range of 45-50 segments total.

I'm caught up to his most recent posted video (beginning of Taejin's Tower) - there still haven't been any major surprises. He relies on Fang as a Sentinel far more often that I was planning to (which is definitely something I'll experiment with), and he uses an insane number of potions, but this is more of a safety precaution for it being a SS run than a speed-oriented strategy. He only farmed two of the Behemoth King groups, which leads me to believe that he's forgoing Death in this run. He had an interesting respawn trick for that battle that I was unaware of - if it works in the US version, I might be able to condense all of my farming into one segment. Beyond that, I've just been surprised at how quick some of his fights were. It kind of seems like the bosses are easier in this version, because I can't see any drastically different Crystarium usage or equipment setups that would be making such a noticeable difference.

[quote]Can anybody offer some insight?  Normally this link should work for anybody  http://dic.nicovideo.jp/v/sm12066642

but for me it doesn't.  Do I need to click on something extra?[/quote]
I'm not sure. I had to log in on the site to be able to watch the videos.

Arrow

2010-09-18 05:20:17 pm

Now a hit show on the CW

The rest of the SS run is up now. His final ingame time was 7:10. He had a few more game overs in Taejin's Tower, as well as against the Adamanchelid in Eden, plus many, many more restarts. As predicted, he did not bother with Death (nor did he do any Adamantoise farming). He did a lot of party juggling throughout Chapters 12 and 13, using Hope in the party frequently, sometimes using Sazh as the leader for Blitz abuse, but opting to use Fang at other times for Highwind and Vanille for Hecatoncheir. Most of the alterations make sense, as he didn't have the Hyades Magnums' ridiculous DPS to abuse. Despite that, he still had some very fast boss fights, making me question whether farming more than one Adamantoise is really worth the small difference the extra CP and upgrades will make. It's something I'll have to consider when I get to that point. The only thing he did that surprised me was restarting Orphan 1 to switch the ATB speed to slow. I'm not sure if there's some strategic value in doing this, or if it was just to give himself more reaction time, or what.

In case anyone's wondering, I have started recording my run, I've just had very poor luck in getting a usable second segment. Skipping Snow's third encounter is almost impossible, and having everything else in the segment go perfectly in the rare instances that I do dodge it successfully is starting to look like a one in a million chance. I'm thinking of settling for fighting that group, provided everything else goes fine (all other battles avoided, no potions on the Myrmidon).

The rest of the SS run is up now. His final ingame time was 7:10. He had a few more game overs in Taejin's Tower, as well as against the Adamanchelid in Eden, plus many, many more restarts. As predicted, he did not bother with Death (nor did he do any Adamantoise farming). He did a lot of party juggling throughout Chapters 12 and 13, using Hope in the party frequently, sometimes using Sazh as the leader for Blitz abuse, but opting to use Fang at other times for Highwind and Vanille for Hecatoncheir. Most of the alterations make sense, as he didn't have the Hyades Magnums' ridiculous DPS to abuse. Despite that, he still had some very fast boss fights, making me question whether farming more than one Adamantoise is really worth the small difference the extra CP and upgrades will make. It's something I'll have to consider when I get to that point. The only thing he did that surprised me was restarting Orphan 1 to switch the ATB speed to slow. I'm not sure if there's some strategic value in doing this, or if it was just to give himself more reaction time, or what.

In case anyone's wondering, I [i]have[/i] started recording my run, I've just had very poor luck in getting a usable second segment. Skipping Snow's third encounter is almost impossible, and having everything else in the segment go perfectly in the rare instances that I do dodge it successfully is starting to look like a one in a million chance. I'm thinking of settling for fighting that group, provided everything else goes fine (all other battles avoided, no potions on the Myrmidon).

Saestrol

2010-09-29 06:32:56 pm

Speed Running Joy-bringer

I don't know if anybody has mentioned this yet, but do people know about the instant targeting execution trick? It works by going into settings and putting the "Target Selection" field to "Via Cursor". Then in battle, you use either auto-commands, "Repeat", or some other commands very quickly by pressing X,Triangle very fast. In reality, Triangle is the cancel action that lets you execute whatever commands are already queed when the ATB bar isn't full. But you can use it, even if it is full. The point of this is to get your action(s) executed much faster instead of waiting that extra 0.5 seconds for the target window to select a target.

You don't have to wait for the target list window to fully appear if the cursor is already pointing at your target on-screen. So this is most useful when you Paradigm Shift and your ATB gauge is full. Examples of commands you use this with: Repeat >, Auto-Battle, Auto-Chain, Auto-Heal, Libra, Phoenix Down, Dispel-- basically, any singular targeting ability or item. So things like Potion or Summon won't work with this trick.

This may not seem like a huge deal to a lot of people. But since you can begin charging your ATB that much sooner, this will equate to many extra commands per battle in the long run. It's kinda hard to explain and a demonstration may be needed.

I don't know if anybody has mentioned this yet, but do people know about the instant targeting execution trick? It works by going into settings and putting the "Target Selection" field to "Via Cursor". Then in battle, you use either auto-commands, "Repeat", or some other commands very quickly by pressing X,Triangle very fast. In reality, Triangle is the cancel action that lets you execute whatever commands are already queed when the ATB bar isn't full. But you can use it, even if it is full. The point of this is to get your action(s) executed much faster instead of waiting that extra 0.5 seconds for the target window to select a target.

You don't have to wait for the target list window to fully appear if the cursor is already pointing at your target on-screen. So this is most useful when you Paradigm Shift and your ATB gauge is full. Examples of commands you use this with: Repeat >, Auto-Battle, Auto-Chain, Auto-Heal, Libra, Phoenix Down, Dispel-- basically, any singular targeting ability or item. So things like Potion or Summon won't work with this trick.

This may not seem like a huge deal to a lot of people. But since you can begin charging your ATB that much sooner, this will equate to many extra commands per battle in the long run. It's kinda hard to explain and a demonstration may be needed.

Arrow

Edit history:

Arrow: 2010-09-29 10:31:40 pm

2010-09-29 10:30:55 pm

Now a hit show on the CW

Thanks for the tip! I think you're overstating how much time it would potentially save, but I'll definitely test it out.

Progress update: I'm currently about halfway through Chapter 2. Haven't had as much time to work on this as I would have liked, and the first few segments have been surprisingly frustrating to execute. In planning out how many of my shrouds I want to manipulate in Ch. 2 and how many I'll save until Ch. 3, I came to realize that there aren't nearly as many Deceptisols available from required fights as there are Fortisols. Even if I fight some extra battles in Ch. 3 (which I'll actually get CP from) for the drops, I'm still going to be a bit short of the 9 Deceptisols I would like to have. Therefore, I've decided to fight a couple extra battles in Ch. 2, as long as they're fast and don't require any detours.

I'd like some feedback on my most recently completed segment (apologies for the low quality, I'll use the HQ encode in the future):

I'm debating whether I should keep this one. My goal for the segment is to accumulate 2 Deceptisols and 1 Fortisol (2 if you include the one in the chest) before I reach the save point. There are three required/semi-required fights in the segment (the Snow battle is required, the enemy groups guarding the Fortisol and Gladius could be skipped, but won't be). I added one extra fight in this chapter, the first group Van/Hope encounter, for an additional Deceptisol drop. In order, the four battles have a chance of dropping a Fortisol, Deceptisol, Deceptisol, and Fortisol. Hence, for an attempt to be a keeper, both Deceptisols MUST drop, while one of the other two battles must yield a Fortisol. It would be ideal if both Forts dropped, but at 12% chance each, the odds of this occurring are abysmally low.

In this attempt, almost everything goes perfectly. I lose maybe one second each on the first and fourth battles, but everything else goes smoothly, and both Deceptisols drop. Unfortunately, neither of the Fortisols dropped. However, instead of scrapping the attempt after the fourth battle, I decided on a whim to go ahead and fight the final enemy group before the save. This was not originally intended to be a part of the segment, but I knew from earlier testing that this group had a chance to drop Fortisols...and lo and behold, one drops. So what we have here is a segment that is near-perfect from an execution stand point (probably not more than 4 seconds of mistakes), but with an extra 30 seconds wasted on a battle that could be avoided completely if I hold out for better luck. I'm definitely going to give this segment some more attempts before moving on, but I wanted to see what everyone else thinks about this situation.

Thanks for the tip! I think you're overstating how much time it would potentially save, but I'll definitely test it out.

Progress update: I'm currently about halfway through Chapter 2. Haven't had as much time to work on this as I would have liked, and the first few segments have been surprisingly frustrating to execute. In planning out how many of my shrouds I want to manipulate in Ch. 2 and how many I'll save until Ch. 3, I came to realize that there aren't nearly as many Deceptisols available from required fights as there are Fortisols. Even if I fight some extra battles in Ch. 3 (which I'll actually get CP from) for the drops, I'm still going to be a bit short of the 9 Deceptisols I would like to have. Therefore, I've decided to fight a couple extra battles in Ch. 2, as long as they're fast and don't require any detours.

I'd like some feedback on my most recently completed segment (apologies for the low quality, I'll use the HQ encode in the future):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1q_j3xjUdE

I'm debating whether I should keep this one. My goal for the segment is to accumulate 2 Deceptisols and 1 Fortisol (2 if you include the one in the chest) before I reach the save point. There are three required/semi-required fights in the segment (the Snow battle is required, the enemy groups guarding the Fortisol and Gladius could be skipped, but won't be). I added one extra fight in this chapter, the first group Van/Hope encounter, for an additional Deceptisol drop. In order, the four battles have a chance of dropping a Fortisol, Deceptisol, Deceptisol, and Fortisol. Hence, for an attempt to be a keeper, both Deceptisols MUST drop, while one of the other two battles must yield a Fortisol. It would be ideal if both Forts dropped, but at 12% chance each, the odds of this occurring are abysmally low.

In this attempt, almost everything goes perfectly. I lose maybe one second each on the first and fourth battles, but everything else goes smoothly, and both Deceptisols drop. Unfortunately, neither of the Fortisols dropped. However, instead of scrapping the attempt after the fourth battle, I decided on a whim to go ahead and fight the final enemy group before the save. This was not originally intended to be a part of the segment, but I knew from earlier testing that this group had a chance to drop Fortisols...and lo and behold, one drops. So what we have here is a segment that is near-perfect from an execution stand point (probably not more than 4 seconds of mistakes), but with an extra 30 seconds wasted on a battle that could be avoided completely if I hold out for better luck. I'm definitely going to give this segment some more attempts before moving on, but I wanted to see what everyone else thinks about this situation.

Saestrol

2010-10-02 05:32:38 pm

Speed Running Joy-bringer

Hmm... a 12% drop is tough to deal with. But I think you should pursue the ideal Segment 5. If it doesn't yield for too long, however, then perhaps you might just want to keep this.

Also, this "Command Trick" does have a better use the longer your ATB is, specifically if you use Haste a lot and the ATB cancel trick, but that can wait for later.

FlamingMage

2010-10-02 07:23:08 pm

A run I'm currently working on involves 1000+ manipulated drops, so I know your pain. I guess (for me) it would come down to if fighting that battle benefits you in some other way. If it saves seconds down the line, then that 30 seconds could be shaved down noticeably and be much more palatable.

It is ultimately your decision, but keep in mind that you'll have the aftermath of this segment follow you for the next billion hours until this is finished.

Arrow

2010-10-04 06:14:34 pm

Now a hit show on the CW

Unfortunately, the battle really doesn't benefit me at all, other than for the shroud, as these fights don't give any other useful drops or CP (which is why I'm going to try to do most of the shroud "farming" in Ch. 3). I was out of town over the weekend, but I spent a number of hours trying to get the ideal segment both before I left and since I got back with no luck so far. I've gotten really clean segments with one fortisol, but only one deceptisol drop, and I'm tempted to keep one of those, provided I can guarantee more deceptisol drops later. I'm probably going to spend one or two more days working on this before I decide if I want to use one of the attempts I've recorded.

najzere

2010-10-04 08:33:43 pm

It's a tough call; I'm sure you want a perfect segment here even more than we do, but you don't want to burn out this early into a run either. I hope luck is with you and you get the segment you're after so you can move on feeling good about it and still keeping your sanity. Good luck!

Saestrol

2010-10-14 03:04:08 pm

Speed Running Joy-bringer

Hmm... if only Shrouds didn't need to be farmed. I wonder if people have tried to go straight through, just using the lucky few they got and managing to get any advantage over having the Extra Forti/Deceptisols.

Luck manipulation is just monotonous as hell.

Arrow

2010-10-20 01:59:49 am

Now a hit show on the CW

Every shroud used will save more time than the battle to get it (and a lot of them aren't requiring extra fights anyway), so there's really no question about whether I should do it or not. It's faster, period. It will just require a lot of patience.

Speaking of which, I just wanted to let everyone following my progress know that I'm putting this run on hold for a while so I can practice the games I'll be playing at the upcoming SDA marathon. As soon as I feel confident at them, I'll resume this - hopefully before the marathon itself, but January will be the absolute latest. I have no intention of abandoning this run, but I've accepted that it's going to be a much more time consuming project than I anticipated. I'm in no rush - my top priority is to ensure that the completed run is something that truly makes me proud, so I'll take as much time as necessary to achieve that goal.

lincelp

2011-01-05 07:40:57 am

I Control My Fate!

i cant wait to see it!!!
good luck ! ^_^

Kiyura

2011-01-05 07:05:23 pm

Wiiaboo

As long as it's bumped I want to pitch in that I would really, really enjoy a speedrun of this. I considered it myself after spending a pretty sizable portion of last summer break on this game. It was exciting to see what happens from skipping just about every battle, but it didn't take long for me to realize it wouldn't be that simple. This game has a lot of potential for speedrunning though, definitely more than other RPGs, and it would be a great watch. I may bring some competition in at some point in the future, but right now I have other runs. Keep up the good work!

Zealie

2011-01-06 02:12:32 am

I've never (fully) watched a FF speed run (yes, I have played the games). However for some reason I do feel like I want to see a speedrun of this. So once again good luck with all the luck manipulation and sorts.
I think I've already said everything I know about this game so I guess that only leaves me to be mental support.

Go team! Tongue

Arrow at marathon

2011-01-07 01:41:02 am

Thanks for the support, and just to reassure everyone, I'm still planning to resume my run once I get back home (and take a much needed break from all things speed run related).

Saestrol

Edit history:

Saestrol: 2011-02-05 09:32:28 pm

Saestrol: 2011-02-05 09:16:54 pm

2011-02-05 09:13:15 pm

Speed Running Joy-bringer

Earlier on, I mentioned a trick of sorts in regards to the ATB in battle. I've prepared a demonstration to try and help explain what I vaguely mentioned before.

If you use Auto commands a lot (which would probably be common after Chapter 3), then this could be of some use. It's one of those minor things that can help somewhat in the long run.I explained most of it in the video's description, but I'll briefly go over it.

In options, you must set the target selection to "Via Cursor" so that you can use triangle to confirm targets on-screen faster than waiting for that target window in battle to finish flipping out. You need this set so that "Cancel Action" is more effective. During a Preemptive strike, you pick an auto command and then press triangle right after you hit X on the auto command.

Normally, you'd have to wait a small moment to hit X again to start attacking, but triangle will confirm the target before the target selection windows even finish flying out. This mainly applies when you know the ATB is going to be full upon finishing a Paradigm Shift (and you planned on using Auto-commands right after that). But you can use it with other abilities like Libra near the end of the video, or Cure.

Earlier on, I mentioned a trick of sorts in regards to the ATB in battle. I've prepared a demonstration to try and help explain what I vaguely mentioned before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGgJ6FI3ehM

If you use Auto commands a lot (which would probably be common after Chapter 3), then this could be of some use. It's one of those minor things that can help somewhat in the long run.I explained most of it in the video's description, but I'll briefly go over it.

In options, you must set the target selection to "Via Cursor" so that you can use triangle to confirm targets on-screen faster than waiting for that target window in battle to finish flipping out. You need this set so that "Cancel Action" is more effective. During a Preemptive strike, you pick an auto command and then press triangle right after you hit X on the auto command.

Normally, you'd have to wait a small moment to hit X again to start attacking, but triangle will confirm the target before the target selection windows even finish flying out. This mainly applies when you know the ATB is going to be full upon finishing a Paradigm Shift (and you planned on using Auto-commands right after that). But you can use it with other abilities like Libra near the end of the video, or Cure.

Arrow

2011-02-06 02:02:46 am

Now a hit show on the CW

Wow, seeing it in action like that, it's actually a noticeable difference. This could potentially save a lot more time than I originally anticipated. I'll have to play around with it when I start recording again - if it seems like it saves significant amounts of time even on the earlier chapters, then I may opt to restart my run. Fortunately, I'm not that far into it yet, so it wouldn't be a major setback.

However, speaking of setbacks...I've got some bad news. My X-Box is currently having trouble reading discs, so I'm going to have to put this run on hold for a while longer until I get it repaired. Hopefully it won't take too long - I'm eager to continue working on this.

QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ

2011-02-06 04:25:31 am

how long is this expected to be??

Sir VG

2011-02-06 04:43:47 am

Fucking Weeaboo

Quote from QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ:

how long is this expected to be??

Longer then your overly long name.