Didn't see a thread specifically for this game, so apologies if one exists already. Anyway, I've been messing around off and on with King's Quest V (English voice pack version, the one on Steam - 1.000.052) for some time now, and decided to record an any% run of the game. It does have several misclicks, but it's overall a good run, I think:
I know there's a 100% run done by a Youtube user called shadyparadox, but I believe his run was done on DosBox (I'm not sure of this, it's just a guess), whereas mine was done on ScummVM version 1.7.0. I just couldn't get used to playing in DosBox, not only because of the pauses when accessing the menu bar/inventory, but also because rapid clicking on at least one screen (the one with the snake) caused Graham to stop moving, which made trying to traverse that screen fast really annoying. Also, I did notice that Graham's walking speed in DosBox appears to be slightly faster, but it's kind of counter-balanced by the menu bar/inventory pauses. On ScummVM's end, the only noticeable thing is the current version doesn't play a couple audios (the sled jingle, and the ominous tone when you first see the wolves - shouldn't detract from the time, though). While the audio issues weren't present in earlier versions, I had issues with the mouse cursor being improperly placed after clearing a dialogue portrait, which made it very frustrating trying to do certain actions fast. Anyway, the point of all this being, I beat shadyparadox's run by a fair margin, but it's not fair to compare runs that likely were recorded with different emulators/setups (not to mention, mine is any%, and his is 100%, but I can't see any% being more than 30 seconds faster, ideally speaking). Nevertheless, here is a link to his run:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC0EA1A6ACF2916DC
I don't intend to continue seriously running the game at this point (I doubt ScummVM would be accepted here, and there's too much RNG late in the game for my liking), but I'll still go over the more important points about the route (much of which was learned from shadyparadox's run). Both any% and 100% are largely the same, with the only differences being at Mordack's island (at least with the current Serenia route iteration).
Serenia, you want to get through the witch's forest as quick as possible. To do that, you need to go through the desert, but I stop in town first to grab the fish, so I can get the honey right away, which allows me to enter the forest right after the desert. Not sure if there's a better way to do things, but right now it looks like at least two trips to town are needed: one before entering the forest, and one after you have the items to trade to all 3 shops. When entering the town the first time, grab only the fish. Don't get the silver coin yet (a screen refresh of the town screen is needed), as it's more convenient to do it when you return after the forest.
The desert doesn't have anything really important to note, except you should last without water as long as you can. The route I take should be the fastest one. The only possible exception to this is where you enter the desert. Shadyparadox saves the anthill first, and enters to the left of that screen, whereas I enter to the left of the bees, and decide to save the anthill just after collecting the tambourine. My timings indicate that both routes are dead even, though a TAS or something would be needed to really settle the matter. So, it's just a matter of preference at this point.
In the forest, you want to head right first, back left, and then up (shadyparadox does left, right, up, which is a tad slower due to a longer walking distance). Ideally, you want the witch to appear right in front of her house (she's right in the way, and it's the shortest distance for her spell to hit you), but I don't know if it's possible to manipulate when she appears. If she appears immediately on the second screen, it's best to do as I did in my run; instead of giving her the genie bottle right away, you should give it to her on the screen just south of her house, otherwise you have to walk off the desired path.
For the final Serenia stretch, you first want to grab the needle, collecting the harp, tambourine, and marionette along the way. Next you need to do the inn sequence, but I don't think there's a way of doing so without the hammer, so returning to town at this point seems like the best decision, collecting all the items from the shops, as well as the silver coin. You'll be passing the bakery on your way back to the inn screen, making it ideal to grab the coin during your second town visit.
Not much to note in the mountains. The primary not-obvious thing here is to munch on the leg of lamb as soon as possible, otherwise there's additional dialogue from the narrator that you have to clear. I have had a couple of *very* rare instances where the ice queen's dialogue is cut off prematurely, but I've no clue what causes this to happen. Hopefully, it's not merely an emulation error.
The harpy island, I think it's very slightly faster to grab the hook first, and then play the harp (less clicks, if you have the foresight to pre-load the hand cursor when entering the island). As with the ice queen, I've had the harpies' dialogue cut short prematurely on rare occasions, but again, I've no clue why it happens (if it's related to button mashing, then it seems *very* precise).
Mordack's island is where the routes differ, but only slightly. In any%, you can avoid grabbing the fish, as well as the dried peas. This is extremely risky, since if the cat (Manannan) appears on a screen, you're screwed, even if he doesn't speak to you (even if he appears in Mordack's bedroom, I've found I could safely make it to the library and read the spellbook, but Mordack never falls asleep, it seems like). In 100%, you do need to deal with the cat, but only after you've knocked out the blue beast with the dried peas. Any% can avoid doing this, but you still need to be captured so you can get the moldy cheese. As with the cat's appearance, it is random when and where the blue beast will appear. Ideally, you want it to appear on the screen with the organ (as it did in my run, which is quite rare, in my experience), but if not there, then the screen with the dining table works quite well most of the time. Also, that glitch in my video when opening the catacombs grate is pretty easy to do with quick enough clicking (incidentally, I don't think the game gave me points for that glitchy action); hopefully it's not an emulation error, but it does also work in DosBox.
Other than that, it's just a matter of doing all the little things. Tab brings up the inventory screen without needing to access the menu bar (but for some reason, Tab doesn't seem to work just before the duel with Mordack, so using the menu bar was necessary). Moving as soon as you can, and then getting the cursor in place for your next action (though cases where your destination is a short distance away, I find it to generally not be worth it to move right away - examples being the old boot and the harp). What I tried to do in many cases was look for a pixel or object that would stand out enough so I'd remember it, and position the mouse accordingly. I do know that clicking the middle mouse button will toggle between certain actions with just one click (example - hand cursor straight to walk cursor), but I think this is thrown out of sync after an item disappears. Not to mention, my middle mouse button is kinda difficult to click quickly in general, so I didn't take advantage of that function. Pressing the Escape key cuts short some of the longer multi-portrait conversations, but not all of them. However, the Escape key also pulls up the menu bar, so unless the wait icon appears right afterwards (and it often does), I tend to simply click through them.
Well, any thoughts? Flaws with the route? Ways to improve it, or perhaps insights as to how the dialogue skips work?
I know there's a 100% run done by a Youtube user called shadyparadox, but I believe his run was done on DosBox (I'm not sure of this, it's just a guess), whereas mine was done on ScummVM version 1.7.0. I just couldn't get used to playing in DosBox, not only because of the pauses when accessing the menu bar/inventory, but also because rapid clicking on at least one screen (the one with the snake) caused Graham to stop moving, which made trying to traverse that screen fast really annoying. Also, I did notice that Graham's walking speed in DosBox appears to be slightly faster, but it's kind of counter-balanced by the menu bar/inventory pauses. On ScummVM's end, the only noticeable thing is the current version doesn't play a couple audios (the sled jingle, and the ominous tone when you first see the wolves - shouldn't detract from the time, though). While the audio issues weren't present in earlier versions, I had issues with the mouse cursor being improperly placed after clearing a dialogue portrait, which made it very frustrating trying to do certain actions fast. Anyway, the point of all this being, I beat shadyparadox's run by a fair margin, but it's not fair to compare runs that likely were recorded with different emulators/setups (not to mention, mine is any%, and his is 100%, but I can't see any% being more than 30 seconds faster, ideally speaking). Nevertheless, here is a link to his run:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC0EA1A6ACF2916DC
I don't intend to continue seriously running the game at this point (I doubt ScummVM would be accepted here, and there's too much RNG late in the game for my liking), but I'll still go over the more important points about the route (much of which was learned from shadyparadox's run). Both any% and 100% are largely the same, with the only differences being at Mordack's island (at least with the current Serenia route iteration).
Serenia, you want to get through the witch's forest as quick as possible. To do that, you need to go through the desert, but I stop in town first to grab the fish, so I can get the honey right away, which allows me to enter the forest right after the desert. Not sure if there's a better way to do things, but right now it looks like at least two trips to town are needed: one before entering the forest, and one after you have the items to trade to all 3 shops. When entering the town the first time, grab only the fish. Don't get the silver coin yet (a screen refresh of the town screen is needed), as it's more convenient to do it when you return after the forest.
The desert doesn't have anything really important to note, except you should last without water as long as you can. The route I take should be the fastest one. The only possible exception to this is where you enter the desert. Shadyparadox saves the anthill first, and enters to the left of that screen, whereas I enter to the left of the bees, and decide to save the anthill just after collecting the tambourine. My timings indicate that both routes are dead even, though a TAS or something would be needed to really settle the matter. So, it's just a matter of preference at this point.
In the forest, you want to head right first, back left, and then up (shadyparadox does left, right, up, which is a tad slower due to a longer walking distance). Ideally, you want the witch to appear right in front of her house (she's right in the way, and it's the shortest distance for her spell to hit you), but I don't know if it's possible to manipulate when she appears. If she appears immediately on the second screen, it's best to do as I did in my run; instead of giving her the genie bottle right away, you should give it to her on the screen just south of her house, otherwise you have to walk off the desired path.
For the final Serenia stretch, you first want to grab the needle, collecting the harp, tambourine, and marionette along the way. Next you need to do the inn sequence, but I don't think there's a way of doing so without the hammer, so returning to town at this point seems like the best decision, collecting all the items from the shops, as well as the silver coin. You'll be passing the bakery on your way back to the inn screen, making it ideal to grab the coin during your second town visit.
Not much to note in the mountains. The primary not-obvious thing here is to munch on the leg of lamb as soon as possible, otherwise there's additional dialogue from the narrator that you have to clear. I have had a couple of *very* rare instances where the ice queen's dialogue is cut off prematurely, but I've no clue what causes this to happen. Hopefully, it's not merely an emulation error.
The harpy island, I think it's very slightly faster to grab the hook first, and then play the harp (less clicks, if you have the foresight to pre-load the hand cursor when entering the island). As with the ice queen, I've had the harpies' dialogue cut short prematurely on rare occasions, but again, I've no clue why it happens (if it's related to button mashing, then it seems *very* precise).
Mordack's island is where the routes differ, but only slightly. In any%, you can avoid grabbing the fish, as well as the dried peas. This is extremely risky, since if the cat (Manannan) appears on a screen, you're screwed, even if he doesn't speak to you (even if he appears in Mordack's bedroom, I've found I could safely make it to the library and read the spellbook, but Mordack never falls asleep, it seems like). In 100%, you do need to deal with the cat, but only after you've knocked out the blue beast with the dried peas. Any% can avoid doing this, but you still need to be captured so you can get the moldy cheese. As with the cat's appearance, it is random when and where the blue beast will appear. Ideally, you want it to appear on the screen with the organ (as it did in my run, which is quite rare, in my experience), but if not there, then the screen with the dining table works quite well most of the time. Also, that glitch in my video when opening the catacombs grate is pretty easy to do with quick enough clicking (incidentally, I don't think the game gave me points for that glitchy action); hopefully it's not an emulation error, but it does also work in DosBox.
Other than that, it's just a matter of doing all the little things. Tab brings up the inventory screen without needing to access the menu bar (but for some reason, Tab doesn't seem to work just before the duel with Mordack, so using the menu bar was necessary). Moving as soon as you can, and then getting the cursor in place for your next action (though cases where your destination is a short distance away, I find it to generally not be worth it to move right away - examples being the old boot and the harp). What I tried to do in many cases was look for a pixel or object that would stand out enough so I'd remember it, and position the mouse accordingly. I do know that clicking the middle mouse button will toggle between certain actions with just one click (example - hand cursor straight to walk cursor), but I think this is thrown out of sync after an item disappears. Not to mention, my middle mouse button is kinda difficult to click quickly in general, so I didn't take advantage of that function. Pressing the Escape key cuts short some of the longer multi-portrait conversations, but not all of them. However, the Escape key also pulls up the menu bar, so unless the wait icon appears right afterwards (and it often does), I tend to simply click through them.
Well, any thoughts? Flaws with the route? Ways to improve it, or perhaps insights as to how the dialogue skips work?
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