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Gunman Clive (Any %) (Individual Level)

Verifier Responses

Quote:
The best part of these clips is that the runner takes a fairly barebones platformer and somehow makes that platforming the highlight. The jumps are well done and consistently so throughout the run, leaving me with just some minor nitpicks on them here and there. Almost everything I saw as a mistake was exceedingly minor and usually factored into a tenth of a second at most.

As a note, judging by the previous times on the level select, the runner was beating a few of the previous takes with just a few hundredths of a second. Two were beaten by .05 seconds, and another two were beaten by .02 seconds. For some of these takes, it's about as fast as you can get them.


- 4: The gears here could potentially be a little more optimized, but it would be extremely difficult to pull off and I don't think it reflects badly on the take.
- 5: Got the best pattern out of the boss possible. Sure is a shame it's not possible to avoid damage while getting some shots in, though.
- 6: Turning around in mid-air and shooting the rider without losing momentum looks really slick. The jump right at the end trying to get the rider to knock you down the hole looks like it would be a nightmare to pull off, so I wonder if turning around and shooting him beforehand would let you have more control over that, and let you get a slightly better time.
- 7: Jumped into the cart as soon as possible. Taking the hit from the other minecart at 26s made me wonder if it was possible to improve this, but the increased speed on the downward slope makes it faster than jumping over it. There are some very close jumps here that look good even though they probably only saving a few fractions of a second.
- 8: The hit at the end seems to be the best way to approach this section, unfortunately!
- 9: A shorter jump off the barrel at the end is the major change I'd suggest for this route, but it may be possible to optimize that part of the level a bit. The timing would be hard, but it seems like you could avoid turning around to shoot the gunman on the upper left until you were jumping toward the barrel. You would shoot and destroy the turret before turning around. But altogether, I think that would only save around .3 seconds -- if it worked.
- 14: Taking a hit at 30s wasn't really necessary because the runner killed one of the gunman while falling, but otherwise it's good.
- 15: Again, the runner gets the best boss pattern possible. The only thing slow about this is the cutscene -- which doesn't factor into the game's timing -- where the runner doesn't move as far right as possible to make the transition faster. It only matters in a full speedrun, but it's something I noticed. (The runner does this on level 16 where it matters! And later on 20.)
- 17: Just wanna say that this level is a royal pain and the runner navigates it really well.
- 19: Being a little bit slow getting off the ladder is the only major complaint here.


These individual takes are efficient and fast, so overall there's very little to complain about. The times are solid across the board.

Decision: Accept


Quote:
Audio is fine. Video quality is fine.

There is a timer on the bottom screen. The timer itself is accurate. However the timer pauses during screen transitions and boss intros. So the individual level times are not accurate to real time, with the time difference varying based on the number of screen transitions and boss intros in the level.

Stage 2: Gets a drop on the spread shot which makes running a lot easier as the runner does not have to stop to shoot. The runner also gets lucky and is not trolled by a weapon drop and picks up a duplicate spread instead of one of the far worse weapons.

Stage 3: The runner manipulated a spread shot drop in a previous stage in order to start this stage with the spread shot for one specific enemy placement in the wall at the end of the first suspended platform. Spread shot ensures that the runner can continue moving right without stopping for the entire level.

Stage 4: The runner gets a spread drop he which makes two enemy kills easier before he tackles the gears, which I have really no complaints on how they were tackled. The damage boost method worked.

Stage 5: Boss pattern was perfect with extremely fast button mashing to shoot him.

Stage 6: I agree that the faster method would be to manipulate the rider to knock you down the hole in order to get a faster time, however it would be very difficult to pull off. As it is, the rider knocking the player back only costs a small amount of time and is really the only blemish so far.

Stage 9: Spread shot is picked up extremely early and absolutely annihilates this level. There was one spread shot that just missed the top turret but it doesn't actually cost any time as the runner has to jump to the barrel below the turret anyway, which allows the runner to shoot it with the final shot as he jumps to the barrel.

Stage 12: Runner executed the mushroom jumps extremely well. The extremely well placed shot on the jumping rabbit at the very end of the level to keep from getting hit and knocked back is nice to see.

Stage 14: Only blemish in the level was being hit by the gunman after falling down the ladder hole 26 seconds into the level which costs a little time. For levels this short it kind of stands out. It costs a little under half a second, but the rest of the level is executed extremely well. While improvable, the level itself is acceptable.

Stage 15: The runner manipulated a laser drop in a previous level in order to start this boss battle with it. Boss pattern was perfect and this level is a treat to watch for those who fought this guy straight up buster only.

Stage 16: This stage is an autoscroller, which might make it seem difficult to optimize this level, however if you move the rocket to the far right at the end of the level, the end of level transition happens faster which stops the timer sooner. This is how the runner gets the low time he does and moves the way he does. Getting hit in the level doesn't matter since again, this level is an autoscroller.

Stage 17: For the rest of the game, the game's physics have changed. You jump like you are on the moon, because well, you are! This makes jumps slower and if you mistime something, the punishment worse. The precise hits on the gattling spinners as the runner jumps are well executed and the intentional hit on the spinning spike gears is well done to get to the far right wall as quickly as possible. No complaints here on this one. The runner makes it look far easier than it has any right to be.

Stage 19: The runner stops to kill an enemy to get a drop for the most powerful weapon in the game, what I'm calling Dark Shot. This weapon's sheer power makes short work of every enemy along the way which gains the runner time as the level progresses. Only real complaint is dismounting from the scrolling ladder was somewhat slow.

Stage 20: Dark Shot absolutely obliterates both forms of the final boss and the runner is able to hit the phase two boss outside of what the developers originally intended, which is jumping and shooting on the hands, by using the Dark Shot's arcing pattern to obliterate it simply by jumping and shooting. The runner moves as far to the right a possible because of the same reason as in Stage 16, the timer does not stop until the character moves into the next screen via a screen transition, which enables the runner to get the posted time.

All in all, Stage 14 is easily the worst level in this submission batch, which says something considering the play skill demonstrated in that level, and every other level is extremely high. The level paths and weapon pickups have been well thought out and the everything is extremely optimized. I had to nitpick really hard to find mistakes, and the amount of practice the runner put in is evident and the proof of this, is the high quality levels the runner submitted.

Decision: Accept


Quote:
A/V is good (direct capture for DS is amazing).
No cheating.

I'm not going to repeat what the other verifiers have said already, but this is a very polished run.
Looking at the previous best times at the start of levels show that a lot of them have been pushed really close to their limits with these routes, with some getting improvements of only 0.02 seconds.

There are very few clear mistakes in this run, and most of them are really small.

Decision: Accept


Quote:
Audio/video quality looks great.

Most of the verifiers nailed the things I'd like to say (although things like getting directly into the hole in stage 6 I think is definitely reasonable for a sub-1 minute IL and should have been done). The big thing the runner missed is a shortcut in stage 3, when riding the cart at the end of the first screen. They ride it all the way to the bottom, while instead you can just jump off over the 2 bullets they shoot and fall into the hole. Saves probably a whole second and I'd like to see that level redone with that strat. Personally the little bobbles other runners mentioned are stuff I also think should be redone because these levels are so short and straightforward, but the only one I think really needs to be redone is stage 3.
Accept the rest.


Decision: Accept

Congratulations to Jordan 'Greenalink' Greener!
Thread title:  
DS Dictator
First 3DS run confirmed.

Minor mistakes - improvable by a few miliseconds

Quote:
- 4: The gears here could potentially be a little more optimized, but it would be extremely difficult to pull off and I don't think it reflects badly on the take.


I'll do this one again some time, thank goodness these stages are short.

Quote:
- 5: Got the best pattern out of the boss possible. Sure is a shame it's not possible to avoid damage while getting some shots in, though.


I agree that I could jump to avoid taking damage but I can't really mash too well after jumping. Any Heidrage/Tiki mashers here in the UK?

Quote:
- 6: Turning around in mid-air and shooting the rider without losing momentum looks really slick. The jump right at the end trying to get the rider to knock you down the hole looks like it would be a nightmare to pull off, so I wonder if turning around and shooting him beforehand would let you have more control over that, and let you get a slightly better time.


The ladder skip near the end is very hard because of the camera angle, while the ladder skip as seen in stage 14 is actually not too hard.

Quote:
- 7: Jumped into the cart as soon as possible. Taking the hit from the other minecart at 26s made me wonder if it was possible to improve this, but the increased speed on the downward slope makes it faster than jumping over it. There are some very close jumps here that look good even though they probably only saving a few fractions of a second.


Funny thing is that the attempt that doesn't involve taking damage at that one point is 0.1 seconds slower than going down the slope and taking damage. Then again 3DS TAS tools weren't available at this time. In other words a frame war stage.


Quote:
- 8: The hit at the end seems to be the best way to approach this section, unfortunately!



Quote:
- 9: A shorter jump off the barrel at the end is the major change I'd suggest for this route, but it may be possible to optimize that part of the level a bit. The timing would be hard, but it seems like you could avoid turning around to shoot the gunman on the upper left until you were jumping toward the barrel. You would shoot and destroy the turret before turning around. But altogether, I think that would only save around .3 seconds -- if it worked.


Good job noticing that because that is so overlooked when I was watching these attempts. Loads of things happen in that room without wasting too much time.

Quote:
- 14: Taking a hit at 30s wasn't really necessary because the runner killed one of the gunman while falling, but otherwise it's good.


I was abusing the invincibility after taking the hit. If you play it back slowly, in my opinion I don't think there is a execution window that enable me to jump and avoid those bullets other than jumping towards the barrel, crouch (to avoid 1 bullet?) and then jump over again. I did have one idea and that is to use the spread shot but the far right gunman shoots way before he dies from the (downward spread) bullet.

Quote:
- 15: Again, the runner gets the best boss pattern possible. The only thing slow about this is the cutscene -- which doesn't factor into the game's timing -- where the runner doesn't move as far right as possible to make the transition faster. It only matters in a full speedrun, but it's something I noticed. (The runner does this on level 16 where it matters! And later on 20.)


Yeah here is a fun fact, only the 3DS version supports:
* in-game time,
* 3 characters & 
* 3 difficulties

The other platforms only supports 1 character & 1 difficulty which is Normal on the 3DS version.
So full game runs should use Real time & on Normal when playing it on the 3DS to compare the other platform's real time runs (if load times is absolute equal).

Quote:
- 17: Just wanna say that this level is a royal pain and the runner navigates it really well.


This stage on Wsplit is called "Werster's RNG hell" and when making the IL of this stage I was saying "F^$k this game" after a good amount of retries.

Quote:
- 19: Being a little bit slow getting off the ladder is the only major complaint here.


Yeah I admit I did forget where exactly the ladder stops but I kept this one because I got the important weapon early on this stage and those tall enemies near the end didn't troll me.

Quote:
Stage 2: Gets a drop on the spread shot which makes running a lot easier as the runner does not have to stop to shoot. The runner also gets lucky and is not trolled by a weapon drop and picks up a duplicate spread instead of one of the far worse weapons.


All of the weapon drops in stage 2 are spread shots. The slow homing shot first appears as a power up in stage 3 and then is added to the random drop RNG on stage 4 -> onwards.

Quote:
Stage 15: The runner manipulated a laser drop in a previous level in order to start this boss battle with it. Boss pattern was perfect and this level is a treat to watch for those who fought this guy straight up buster only.


Fun fact: Where I crouched during the fight avoids all 4 of his moves.

Quote:
The big thing the runner missed is a shortcut in stage 3, when riding the cart at the end of the first screen. They ride it all the way to the bottom, while instead you can just jump off over the 2 bullets they shoot and fall into the hole.


Interesting, I'll have a look at that one.
DS Dictator
Second post because it's worth mentioning that I've improved 5 stages.

3, 4, 6, 9 and 19.
Ranging from nearly 1.8-0.3 seconds.
Unfortunately I am away from home all day on Friday 1st March so expect the verification copies of the improved runs sent to Nate during this weekend at the earliest.
1-Up!
Mecha Richter, is that you?
Is PJ
No, he said he improved by 1.8 seconds.  Mecha only submits 1 second improvements.
1-Up!
Could just be a clever trick to throw us off the trail.
DS Dictator
I haven't had a response from the verifiers on my second batch of runs. So I'll try and start encoding the SDA published videos this week.

1-Up!
Glad you posted. I hadn't been notified that the new levels had come in. Your post prompted two of your verifiers to check them out today.

Quote:
The runner sent in new runs for level 3, 4, 6, 9, 19 and 20. Audio and Video quality is fine.

Level 3: The jump over the bullets into the hole was used which saved over a second. This level execution wise is really good.

Level 4: The runner only got hit once getting into the gears instead of twice in the previously submitted attempt.

Level 6: The runner manages to fall down the hole at the end of the level quicker and not get stuck on the edge trying to get down the hole.

Level 9: The runner appears to use a shorter barrel jump at the end, which allows for the final time to be improved slightly.

Level 19: The runner appeared to get a slightly faster rock rolling segment, and the ladder dismount was faster. In addition, the ladder climb at the end was faster due to a weapon route change. The runner gets the big bullet weapon which allows for one hit deaths on the enemies on the ladder climb with even smaller pauses in climbing.

Level 20: The runner actually manages to kill the first stage of the boss before he even hits the ground, which is actually really cool to see.

Improvements on an already previously accepted run make this decision easy.

Decision: Accept


Quote:
Verifier #1 here, sorry for not seeing the new files, I didn't realize they had been updated!

- 3: I'd briefly wondered if jumping from the final platform in the first screen was possible -- I should've tested it to see. While it doesn't save a huge amount of time, it's good to see it in this take, especially since you had to be careful to fall behind the bullets. Great level, just about the only improvement (I.E. minor nitpick) I could see is jumping onto the third platform on the last screen a little earlier to make it move sooner.

- 4: Really tight take. The hit looks very much intentional, and with the difficulty in getting such a perfect run otherwise, no one would think this reflected poorly on the runner. It's an obstacle designed to make you wait, after all.

- 6: Excellent, I'm really glad that you managed to get a take falling into the hole while avoiding damage. There is literally nothing that could make level appreciably faster, and at this point the runner would be fighting for split-seconds.

- 9: The final room looks much cleaner now. I really like the scattershot bullet taking out the guy on the upper right while you simultaneously destroy the turret. It's one of those speedrun tricks that totally catches the viewer off-guard, especially with how trigger happy you have to be with some levels of this game. Having that very precise shot cap off the level was worth the effort.

- 19: Never stop moving! The speed and accuracy of this take is something you don't see throughout the rest of the game by its nature, and the runner really manages the rapid fire well. Not missing a beat on the enemies bouncing between the walls at the final ladder looks stylish. Definitely a good take, and good luck with the weapon drops.

- 20: A good way to finish up the game, by utterly demolishing the last bosses. Any possible optimizations on this would be horribly insignificant to total time and would likely approach TAS-levels of perfection. Only complaint is there's a brief stutter at about ten seconds in that I'm sure irritates the runner to no end, but you can tell it's just a problem with the recording software.


Again, these are solid runs that obviously took some practice to get. There's no reason not to have these on SDA.

Decision: Accept


So, I'll ACCEPT the improvements. Go ahead and encode them as well.
DS Dictator
Quote:
Only complaint is there's a brief stutter at about ten seconds in that I'm sure irritates the runner to no end, but you can tell it's just a problem with the recording software.


Yeah anti-shoutouts to Fraps stealthy frame drops. Fortunately it happened when I wasn't in control so I kept it.