Freedom Planet

2014-07-18 08:40:32 am

Anyone plan to run this game or interested in seeing it?

Since I run Sonic 3 & Knuckles this game seemed like a perfect fit for me, as it is a high-speed, momentum-based platformer. I was an alpha tester for more than a year so I had early access and even some influence on the final state of the game. I had already routed most of Lilac and some of Carol/Milla some time ago, and plan to continue once the game is released (July 19; tomorrow). I'll be streaming further routing, ILs, and single segment of the game very soon on my channel: twitch.tv/ihdl, starting with Lilac.

Thread title:

pbj_mixxa

Edit history:

pbj_mixxa: 2014-07-18 05:54:51 pm

2014-07-18 05:47:53 pm

I'ma be interested in doing some carol ILs for a bit. May eventually do SS, but carol will likely be the only character I do any runs of for some time as she's the only one that interests me.

[EDIT] btw, new to speedrunning so don't expect anything spectacular. Fair warning.

HDL

2014-07-20 01:40:15 pm

I can definitely help you route Carol, though I won't be focusing on her right away. Currently I have 3 unoptimized ILs with her from one of the alpha versions, but I'll have to review again once the game is out to confirm what's still relevant and what's different.

Speaking of which, they wound up not releasing it yesterday because Steam doesn't do weekend releases. Oops?

Saint Connor

2014-07-20 05:07:12 pm

I'm definitely interested in taking a look at this game. Messed around with the demo for a little bit, but would rather have my hands on the full game. Really like the old school Sonic feel to it.

Saint Connor

2014-07-21 08:24:52 pm

Been playing this for like the last 2 hours...unfortunately I have to go to work. Game is legit though. I like it a lot.

soothingplumtea

2014-07-22 03:21:21 am

One of my friend's and I planned on running this. After beating the game today, it's definitely a ton of fun. We were both planning on just running classic mode where you do all the stages as Lilac, and it cuts out all of the story/cutscene stuff.

Also as far as timing goes, after the credits you can get the in game time which just adds up all of the individual stage times which is pretty nice.

I've got a couple other games that are a bit higher priority right now, but this is definitely something I wouldn't mind putting a lot of time into.

HDL

Edit history:

HDL: 2014-07-22 04:54:11 pm

2014-07-22 04:42:48 pm

It seems as though the standalone releases were delayed. I didn't plan on getting the Steam version so I have to wait a bit more before streaming.

In the meantime I'm finishing up my routing for Battle Glacier and then getting started with the last few levels. Compared to the ILs I did months ago, I'd say 99% of my Lilac strats are still relevant so only a few adjustments must be made.

Carol, on the other hand, was significantly changed (I may have had something to do with that Wink

). She's a bit faster and has a lot more freedom with her bike boost than before. She also has a different bike double jump. Basically I'll have to redo some of her stuff. This is why I was adamant about routing more than a few levels with her and Milla before.

Milla actually got a buff I had suggested several months ago, and apparently that buff was nerfed in recent builds. I'm trying to find out whether it was intentional or not. Either way, she's currently slower than she was some time ago. Undecided

Saint Connor

2014-07-22 07:49:31 pm

I'm probably gonna stick with Lilac, mostly because I like her skill set. Just have to work on managing her dragon boost and learning the routes.

Some bosses are damn hard in this game though :/. Need to find optimal strats for them.

tandarkan

2014-07-22 10:27:44 pm

Yesss, people on SDA know about this game! Cheesy

I was a backer for this early on, but I only put in enough to get a copy of the game on release, so until now I've only had Dragon Valley and the first "act" of Relic Maze. This is the game that got me interested in speedruns, and free time permitting it's going to be the first that I actually try my hand at.

A question to a more seasoned runner: would you suggest trying to route the game on my own at first, or watch what other people are doing and try to perfect those runs? I probably won't do so hot with the former, but within the demo-only crowd I actually found a significant trick in version 1.6, and that felt amazing to do.

HDL

2014-07-23 07:00:13 am

I recommend doing both. In order to get good at routing you need to understand the process behind it, which you can learn both by watching and by experimenting yourself.

The benefit to experimenting yourself, even if you don't come up with optimal strats, is that you're more likely to gain a deeper understanding of a game's mechanics and inner workings than if you just copy/paste someone else's strats.

However because this game is a bit tricky to route and demanding execution-wise, I would say watch my streams anyway whenever I get started and pick up routes/strats, but also experiment yourself and see if you can't discover something new on your own. Also play the game casually a lot so you can learn more about it and also know where to go and what to do should a normal speed run go awry.

Saint Connor

2014-07-23 03:28:36 pm

So just for a start and getting used to a simple route and the game's mechanics, I've been going off this vid for Dragon Valley:

I realize most of this was done during beta and demo versions of the game, but unless I'm doing something wrong, meter for dragon dash doesn't regen as fast and the ricochet from it doesn't go as far. I realize picking up the blue crystals regens dash meter as you go along, but there are certain points in the video where he has full meter very quickly without them and it's just not possible in the full version.

The route itself is good, I just need to work on making adjustments based on meter.

tandarkan

2014-07-23 04:46:39 pm

Yeah, unfortunately the changes to the meter do add a chunk on to your overall time, but as far as I know (and this is the only level I really know so far) the route is still basically the same.

This was my best time in demo 1.6, I'm not sure if it's still possible to get sub 3.00 but I'd sure like to see somebody try.

Saint Connor

Edit history:

Saint Connor: 2014-07-23 05:00:33 pm

2014-07-23 05:00:11 pm

Yeah, not sure sub 3 is possible unless a very tight route is found. 2 big changes to meter I'm noticing is spin uses more meter and meter takes longer to fill. My lowest time for Dragon Valley atm is 3:48, but it's sloppy and my meter management is ass atm.

HDL

2014-07-23 05:17:59 pm

I have some optimizations for DV but even with them, I'm not sure about sub 3 either. Supposedly they removed the invincibility property of fast energy regeneration due to some bug (never saw it myself, though). It's unfortunate, but at least it's minor in the grand scheme of things.

Saint Connor

2014-07-23 07:39:45 pm

Well, improved my time to 3:28. Some things could be better and my boss fights are shit, but it's something I guess. At least you guys can tell the difference between meter management:

http://www.twitch.tv/saintconnor/c/4730677

Also, my vid skipped a few seconds for some reason? Not sure why...for some reason it seems like either Xsplit is struggling to stream this game or Twitch was just being shitty.

I wanted to get DV knocked out of the way because it is fairly straight forward, but I need to learn the other levels. That's gonna be the hard part for me. There are a ton of resources on DV, but nothing really after that level wise.

I also found a possible situation for a zip? It may be dependent on either the angle I hit or the fact that you can run on the "ceiling" of certain objects. I'm not sure, but might be worth looking into.

http://www.twitch.tv/saintconnor/c/4730575

Another very minor thing is when you are climbing a ladder, if you mash on jump, it will skip a few frames of the climb animation. Its extremely small, but maybe over the course of a full run worthwhile? Who knows...

Well, improved my time to 3:28. Some things could be better and my boss fights are shit, but it's something I guess. At least you guys can tell the difference between meter management:

http://www.twitch.tv/saintconnor/c/4730677

Also, my vid skipped a few seconds for some reason? Not sure why...for some reason it seems like either Xsplit is struggling to stream this game or Twitch was just being shitty.

I wanted to get DV knocked out of the way because it is fairly straight forward, but I need to learn the other levels. That's gonna be the hard part for me. There are a ton of resources on DV, but nothing really after that level wise.

I also found a possible situation for a zip? It may be dependent on either the angle I hit or the fact that you can run on the "ceiling" of certain objects. I'm not sure, but might be worth looking into.

http://www.twitch.tv/saintconnor/c/4730575

Another very minor thing is when you are climbing a ladder, if you mash on jump, it will skip a few frames of the climb animation. Its extremely small, but maybe over the course of a full run worthwhile? Who knows...

tandarkan

2014-07-23 07:58:41 pm

It is possible to zip from the yellow room in Relic Maze part 1 to the purple one if you push yourself against the moving stairs as they move downward. The same doesn't seem to be true with the moving stairs in part 2 though, those will just kill you.

HDL

2014-07-23 07:59:06 pm

I have the game fully routed with Lilac already. I just need to record some solid route demonstration videos that include some of the changes, given that the ones I have now are from an older version.

Zips like that have been around for a while. I reported several of them last year but they were never addressed. (Un)Fortunately I haven't found any useful ones except for one in Pangu Lagoon that I haven't been able to replicate. Even then it would only save 2-3 seconds at most.

Saint Connor

2014-07-23 08:24:32 pm

Cool. I never messed with the beta stuff so I didnt know. Id really like to see full routing soon so I can get on that and try to find/optimize stuff.

Saint Connor

Edit history:

Saint Connor: 2014-07-25 09:06:10 pm

2014-07-25 08:42:06 pm

Another, actual, zip I found in Relic Maze. This one doesn't seem useful, but may offer some promise in other parts of the game. It's basically a damage boost into one of the crushers and it puts me into the ceiling.

http://www.twitch.tv/saintconnor/c/4746175

Edit: YT vid for those that hate the Twitch player:

tandarkan

2014-07-25 09:19:41 pm

http://www.twitch.tv/tandarkan/c/4746336

This is the one I was talking about earlier. It allows you to skip most of the yellow puzzle room, most of the purple puzzle room, and to clear both without having to exit one and enter the other. Also, it makes the purple barrier in the miniboss(?) room lose its collision for some reason.

tandarkan

2014-07-25 09:20:36 pm

Should probably get an account so I can edit posts, but it can be done as Carol as well. No luck with Milla.

HDL

2014-07-26 08:05:59 am

Hmm, I pretty sure I tried that same setup in an older build and always got crushed. I'll play with it and see about incorporating it into my runs.

Speaking of which, they finally released the standalone version of the game and I did my first single segment run: http://www.twitch.tv/ihdl/c/4747450

As expected there are tons of mistakes, but this should give a decent idea of how a full run will look more or less. Will be working on consistency and improvements often from now on.

Saint Connor

Edit history:

Saint Connor: 2014-07-26 11:07:44 am

2014-07-26 11:06:43 am

Quote from HDL:

Hmm, I pretty sure I tried that same setup in an older build and always got crushed. I'll play with it and see about incorporating it into my runs.

Speaking of which, they finally released the standalone version of the game and I did my first single segment run: http://www.twitch.tv/ihdl/c/4747450

As expected there are tons of mistakes, but this should give a decent idea of how a full run will look more or less. Will be working on consistency and improvements often from now on.

Good shit. My play is ass compared to yours. Then again, you are more familiar with the game than I. As far as technique, it looks like you attack cancel dragon spins to keep from using (much) meter. I didn't even realize that worked like that. Also, it looks like you are floating when attacking in the air multiple times, are you just double jump attacking? Seems like you hang in the air forever.

Also, that glitch tandarkan linked for Relic Maze is really damn good and would save a bunch of time. I'm also curious why you don't play on the casual difficulty setting. Less time to spend getting health pick ups and you can do some dumb shit too like in the Dreadnaught 3 (I think?) stage when the big ass blue beam that comes from the ceiling, you can just eat the damage and the beam will actually boost you upwards, shaving off some time during the climb.

Another zip for you guys. Ignore my shit play in the beginning, but I only highlighted that part so you can have an idea of where I am in the stage. Don't know if this would be worth it, but interesting non-the-less as there are a lot of shady spots in the game with ceilings and walls you can run on. So this may be possible in other places.

http://www.twitch.tv/saintconnor/c/4750021

[quote="HDL"]Hmm, I pretty sure I tried that same setup in an older build and always got crushed.  I'll play with it and see about incorporating it into my runs.

Speaking of which, they finally released the standalone version of the game and I did my first single segment run: http://www.twitch.tv/ihdl/c/4747450

As expected there are tons of mistakes, but this should give a decent idea of how a full run will look more or less.  Will be working on consistency and improvements often from now on.[/quote]

Good shit. My play is ass compared to yours. Then again, you are more familiar with the game than I. As far as technique, it looks like you attack cancel dragon spins to keep from using (much) meter. I didn't even realize that worked like that. Also, it looks like you are floating when attacking in the air multiple times, are you just double jump attacking? Seems like you hang in the air forever.

Also, that glitch tandarkan linked for Relic Maze is really damn good and would save a bunch of time. I'm also curious why you don't play on the casual difficulty setting. Less time to spend getting health pick ups and you can do some dumb shit too like in the Dreadnaught 3 (I think?) stage when the big ass blue beam that comes from the ceiling, you can just eat the damage and the beam will actually boost you upwards, shaving off some time during the climb.

Another zip for you guys. Ignore my shit play in the beginning, but I only highlighted that part so you can have an idea of where I am in the stage. Don't know if this would be worth it, but interesting non-the-less as there are a lot of shady spots in the game with ceilings and walls you can run on. So this may be possible in other places.

http://www.twitch.tv/saintconnor/c/4750021

HDL

Edit history:

HDL: 2014-07-26 12:06:20 pm

2014-07-26 12:06:03 pm

Casual mode regenerates your life so it would completely remove the risk of dying in a speed run (except to pits). I personally find that lame but I don't mind if it's just classified as a separate category.

As far as hanging in the air forever, it's just selective usage of cyclone. If you do it in the air you just cancel it and your meter will replenish from that point. A grounded cyclone will lower your hit box (useful in Final Dreadnought 2) and it will slow your descent if you go off ledges. Hold up for a slower descent or down for a faster one.

Whoa that SB zip looks trippy. Also looks easy to setup since all you did was dragon boost off the ledge. I'll try it when I get home later because that actually does save a few seconds.

tandarkan

2014-07-26 05:22:50 pm

"Casual mode regenerates your life so it would completely remove the risk of dying in a speed run (except to pits). I personally find that lame but I don't mind if it's just classified as a separate category."

Seconded. I don't mind it at all, but there will be different strategies based on how much damage you can afford to absorb before you die.