Edit history:
Thinkshooter: 2014-06-14 02:36:37 am
Thinkshooter: 2011-02-26 06:15:06 am
Thinkshooter: 2011-02-26 06:02:47 am
Thinkshooter: 2011-02-26 06:02:01 am
Thinkshooter: 2011-02-26 06:00:43 am
Thinkshooter: 2010-08-12 07:08:13 pm
Runs: FCP, FC3, XWA, HD1-2, KotOR1-2
New KotOR speedrun in 2 hours 6 minutes is now out!
This video is a new speedrun video of the PC / Xbox / Mac game titled "Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic" on normal / default difficulty. You can watch it on my Youtube channel at the KotOR in 2 Hours page. You can also read about my run on the SDA KotOR speedrun game page and the KotOR download / watch page here. You can read about the game itself on the Wikipedia KotOR page.
If you need help to decide which video quality to download, check out the image attachment at the bottom of this post. As you can see, if you want to be able to read every detail -- scores, dialogs, level-up screens -- and can afford the bandwidth, at least High quality is recommended.
A 10-minute blooper reel is now also available. Here are the direct download links to archive.org and speeddemosarchive.com. The condensed version of the same blooper reel is on Youtube.
I recommend that you watch the run first, and only then read the rest of this post / topic. If you haven't played Knights of the Old Republic you should do that first, and then watch the run.
If you're looking for my new KotOR II Done Quick speedrun, here it is.
General info
KotOR is a great game with an enjoyable story line. For this speedrun however, I treated it as a complex math problem, measuring the effect of several decisions on run length thus making it as short as I could. The final time is 2 hours 6 minutes, or 65% of the previous record.
I've used a high strength based Soldier / Guardian character. High strength makes fights faster because it helps with to-hit chances *and* the damage you incur is greater. (High dexterity will help with defense as well as your to-hit, but won't increase the damage.) My main defense is the ability to quickly dispatch enemies so I don't have to defend myself for long.
Being a Guardian is useful because of force jump. Although the time saved is just a couple of seconds per jump, they do add up, and other classes don't have a similar advantage.
Starting as a Scout, rather than a Soldier, is another way I tested a lot. I really wanted it to work, because Scouts have more diverse abilities which save some time on Korriban. But the time saved is not much, and a Soldier fights noticeably more effectively, thus quickly, in the first half of the game. Furthermore, only a Soldier / Guardian can squeeze in *all* the relevant offensive feats if your final level is 13.
Stats
My stats as the game progresses are:
**when confronting Malak: Knight valor, STR gloves, CNS belt, Hyper Adrenal STR stim all applied.
In KotOR, you can fight against enemies using weapons or force powers. I have experimented with force powers a lot. I started with 16 Wisdom and 14 Charisma, I got all wisdom-increasing equipment (+10 Wis) and the offensive force powers still didn't do half the damage my lightsaber did. Also, force powers are not very effective against bosses, and I do skip most other fights. So high strength was the way to go. But of course I constantly use buffing powers like speed and valor.
Alignment
Light side. Although some of my choices are rewarded with dark side points, the run is certainly over 90% light, and I went for the light side ending.
On the one hand, I wouldn't have enjoyed the game if I did all sorts of mean things to the in-game people. I hate it when someone tries to treat me in a dark side manner in real life, so I simply don't play that way either. On the other hand, this attitude lets me use the lightside-only Solari crystal, the most powerful lightsaber upgrade in the game that makes all fights after Korriban more effective.
Lightsaber
I use Bastila's yellow double blade. The reasons are obvious:
It's slightly less powerful than a standard and a short lightsaber, but those would need double the amount of crystals, and there's no time in a speedrun to make detours and hunt for upgrades that are away from your fast route.
Fighting style
In KotOR, you have the choice of three fighting styles (beyond default attack). According to the KotOR Calculator, Flurry is more effective most of the time than Critical strike or Power attack. Even when it isn't, it doesn't lower defense as much as the other two. Furthermore, it's well suited to a double blade. For Critical strike to be as effective, I would need a short lightsaber (in addition to the default long single-blade) and special crystals -- these are too out of the way of a speedrunner's route, or they come too late in the game.
Equipment
The two most valuable items I use are the CNS strength belt and the Stabilizer mask. CNS belt gives +2 Strength and increases saves. The mask is really ugly (didn't mean to scare you there, sorry :)), but it also increases saves and more importantly, it protects from mind-affecting powers and thus the sanity of the speedrunner. Very useful. These items cost a lot, that's why I invest into a few short detours on Taris which the previous speedrunners skipped.
Other than the above, I use various stims, the most important of which are the Hyper Adrenaline Strength and the Echani Battle Stimulant. I apply them before major fights and long series of battles. (Kids, don't try this at home; the in-game stims apparently make the characters stronger without side effects, while the real life things will just gradually make you stupid and sick :).)
As for shields, I occasionally use Yusani's dueling shield, which according to the description should absorb 100 points' worth of electrical and energy damage. (I have doubts about the electrical: you can see in the run that that doesn't work -- probably a bug or inaccurate item description.)
Planet order
Once you've been to Taris and Dantooine, you can visit Korriban, Manaan, Kashyyyk and Tatooine in any order you wish. After the third planet of your choice, you are taken to the Leviathan spaceship. My choice of order was affected by the high cost of necessary equipment. I had to go to Korriban first as that planet yields the most credits. Being at a low level helps start quests there as well. Manaan is where that important item was bought, so that's second. Kashyyyk doesn't yield any useful items, so that's last. Tatooine is third, giving me the Krayt Dragon pearl, a powerful lightsaber upgrade before the Leviathan. This way my lightsaber is finalized early, before I face Saul Karath & his gang, and Malak for the first time.
Further questions, comments, requests
If you have a question about my run and you tried but couldn't figure it out yourself, ask away. I'll reply as my time allows as long as your question is respectful and not too obvious or redundant. Others may answer you as well. If you want to reference a scene in the run to ask about it, use the "Part (1-4) minutes:seconds" format. When you do, use the videos WITHOUT the game save / load screens (ie. don't use the Low quality MP4).
In this video, I have shared a bunch of new ideas, routes and shortcuts. I'm just as interested in learning from you: if you think I missed a chance to speed up the run significantly (and I'm not talking about correcting the obvious couple-second mistakes) please feel free to share your thoughts and shortcut suggestions in this topic. This would be my request.
In appreciation for watching my run, I put a little surprise in the final fight, a *punch* line if you will :). So that others may have the same experience as you, I ask that you don't reveal it. Thanks.
If you liked this run, you may want to check out my other effort in the Hidden and Dangerous 2 forum topic. That run is now out and available for download.
There's a third project that you might be interested in: see the X-Wing Alliance thread.
My KotOR II Done Quick speedrun has now been published. You can check out the run here.
Cheers,
Thinkshooter
This video is a new speedrun video of the PC / Xbox / Mac game titled "Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic" on normal / default difficulty. You can watch it on my Youtube channel at the KotOR in 2 Hours page. You can also read about my run on the SDA KotOR speedrun game page and the KotOR download / watch page here. You can read about the game itself on the Wikipedia KotOR page.
If you need help to decide which video quality to download, check out the image attachment at the bottom of this post. As you can see, if you want to be able to read every detail -- scores, dialogs, level-up screens -- and can afford the bandwidth, at least High quality is recommended.
A 10-minute blooper reel is now also available. Here are the direct download links to archive.org and speeddemosarchive.com. The condensed version of the same blooper reel is on Youtube.
I recommend that you watch the run first, and only then read the rest of this post / topic. If you haven't played Knights of the Old Republic you should do that first, and then watch the run.
If you're looking for my new KotOR II Done Quick speedrun, here it is.
General info
KotOR is a great game with an enjoyable story line. For this speedrun however, I treated it as a complex math problem, measuring the effect of several decisions on run length thus making it as short as I could. The final time is 2 hours 6 minutes, or 65% of the previous record.
I've used a high strength based Soldier / Guardian character. High strength makes fights faster because it helps with to-hit chances *and* the damage you incur is greater. (High dexterity will help with defense as well as your to-hit, but won't increase the damage.) My main defense is the ability to quickly dispatch enemies so I don't have to defend myself for long.
Being a Guardian is useful because of force jump. Although the time saved is just a couple of seconds per jump, they do add up, and other classes don't have a similar advantage.
Starting as a Scout, rather than a Soldier, is another way I tested a lot. I really wanted it to work, because Scouts have more diverse abilities which save some time on Korriban. But the time saved is not much, and a Soldier fights noticeably more effectively, thus quickly, in the first half of the game. Furthermore, only a Soldier / Guardian can squeeze in *all* the relevant offensive feats if your final level is 13.
Stats
My stats as the game progresses are:
stats | at level 13 | upgrades** | |
| Strength | |||
| Dexterity | |||
| Constitution | |||
| Intelligence | |||
| Wisdom | |||
| Charisma |
**when confronting Malak: Knight valor, STR gloves, CNS belt, Hyper Adrenal STR stim all applied.
In KotOR, you can fight against enemies using weapons or force powers. I have experimented with force powers a lot. I started with 16 Wisdom and 14 Charisma, I got all wisdom-increasing equipment (+10 Wis) and the offensive force powers still didn't do half the damage my lightsaber did. Also, force powers are not very effective against bosses, and I do skip most other fights. So high strength was the way to go. But of course I constantly use buffing powers like speed and valor.
Alignment
Light side. Although some of my choices are rewarded with dark side points, the run is certainly over 90% light, and I went for the light side ending.
On the one hand, I wouldn't have enjoyed the game if I did all sorts of mean things to the in-game people. I hate it when someone tries to treat me in a dark side manner in real life, so I simply don't play that way either. On the other hand, this attitude lets me use the lightside-only Solari crystal, the most powerful lightsaber upgrade in the game that makes all fights after Korriban more effective.
Lightsaber
I use Bastila's yellow double blade. The reasons are obvious:
- it's available the moment I'm allowed to start using one
- it makes the best use of upgrades (crystals count double in such a weapon compared to two separate sabers)
- it does more damage than the default single blade
- it's treated as a balanced weapon with low off-hand penalty
It's slightly less powerful than a standard and a short lightsaber, but those would need double the amount of crystals, and there's no time in a speedrun to make detours and hunt for upgrades that are away from your fast route.
Fighting style
In KotOR, you have the choice of three fighting styles (beyond default attack). According to the KotOR Calculator, Flurry is more effective most of the time than Critical strike or Power attack. Even when it isn't, it doesn't lower defense as much as the other two. Furthermore, it's well suited to a double blade. For Critical strike to be as effective, I would need a short lightsaber (in addition to the default long single-blade) and special crystals -- these are too out of the way of a speedrunner's route, or they come too late in the game.
Equipment
The two most valuable items I use are the CNS strength belt and the Stabilizer mask. CNS belt gives +2 Strength and increases saves. The mask is really ugly (didn't mean to scare you there, sorry :)), but it also increases saves and more importantly, it protects from mind-affecting powers and thus the sanity of the speedrunner. Very useful. These items cost a lot, that's why I invest into a few short detours on Taris which the previous speedrunners skipped.
Other than the above, I use various stims, the most important of which are the Hyper Adrenaline Strength and the Echani Battle Stimulant. I apply them before major fights and long series of battles. (Kids, don't try this at home; the in-game stims apparently make the characters stronger without side effects, while the real life things will just gradually make you stupid and sick :).)
As for shields, I occasionally use Yusani's dueling shield, which according to the description should absorb 100 points' worth of electrical and energy damage. (I have doubts about the electrical: you can see in the run that that doesn't work -- probably a bug or inaccurate item description.)
Planet order
Once you've been to Taris and Dantooine, you can visit Korriban, Manaan, Kashyyyk and Tatooine in any order you wish. After the third planet of your choice, you are taken to the Leviathan spaceship. My choice of order was affected by the high cost of necessary equipment. I had to go to Korriban first as that planet yields the most credits. Being at a low level helps start quests there as well. Manaan is where that important item was bought, so that's second. Kashyyyk doesn't yield any useful items, so that's last. Tatooine is third, giving me the Krayt Dragon pearl, a powerful lightsaber upgrade before the Leviathan. This way my lightsaber is finalized early, before I face Saul Karath & his gang, and Malak for the first time.
Further questions, comments, requests
If you have a question about my run and you tried but couldn't figure it out yourself, ask away. I'll reply as my time allows as long as your question is respectful and not too obvious or redundant. Others may answer you as well. If you want to reference a scene in the run to ask about it, use the "Part (1-4) minutes:seconds" format. When you do, use the videos WITHOUT the game save / load screens (ie. don't use the Low quality MP4).
In this video, I have shared a bunch of new ideas, routes and shortcuts. I'm just as interested in learning from you: if you think I missed a chance to speed up the run significantly (and I'm not talking about correcting the obvious couple-second mistakes) please feel free to share your thoughts and shortcut suggestions in this topic. This would be my request.
In appreciation for watching my run, I put a little surprise in the final fight, a *punch* line if you will :). So that others may have the same experience as you, I ask that you don't reveal it. Thanks.
If you liked this run, you may want to check out my other effort in the Hidden and Dangerous 2 forum topic. That run is now out and available for download.
There's a third project that you might be interested in: see the X-Wing Alliance thread.
My KotOR II Done Quick speedrun has now been published. You can check out the run here.
Cheers,
Thinkshooter
Thread title:
Attachment:
