Mass Effect

Edit history:

your_name_here: 2009-08-18 05:05:52 pm

2009-08-18 04:34:54 pm

It seems that I've found a pretty useful skip. In the therum mines, I managed to clip through a rail, allowing me to drop down to a lower level, skipping an elevator sequence. The hard part will be trying to replicate it consistently (or at all). The only time I can pass through rails otherwise is when the framerate dips due to saving and you clip through(like on the normandy), or when you get knocked down by a biotic attack, and the physics rolls you under (like in the benezia fight). This time, I clipped through the rail due to framerate dips during combat, which I've never seen done before.

Edit: Okay, I think I've figured it out. There's a slight visual "skip" when you take out or put away your rifle. Done at just the right time, you can clip through railing on the left side of the last stairs before the first elevator. I've already done it a couple more times, now. I can use it to skip both elevators, and land right next to the mining laser. Unfortunately, you still need to go back up and talk to liara to trigger the enemies before you can use the laser. Although, I've notice that before the game loads the second level, the rock that you need to blast through isn't there, but the tunnel is. So, if I could find a way to jump down from the top level to right above that hole, I might be able to skip the mining laser entirely.

It seems that I've found a pretty useful skip. In the therum mines, I managed to clip through a rail, allowing me to drop down to a lower level, skipping an elevator sequence. The hard part will be trying to replicate it consistently (or at all). The only time I can pass through rails otherwise is when the framerate dips due to saving and you clip through(like on the normandy), or when you get knocked down by a biotic attack, and the physics rolls you under (like in the benezia fight). This time, I clipped through the rail due to framerate dips during combat, which I've never seen done before.

Edit: Okay, I think I've figured it out. There's a slight visual "skip" when you take out or put away your rifle. Done at just the right time, you can clip through railing on the left side of the last stairs before the first elevator. I've already done it a couple more times, now. I can use it to skip both elevators, and land right next to the mining laser. Unfortunately, you still need to go back up and talk to liara to trigger the enemies before you can use the laser. Although, I've notice that before the game loads the second level, the rock that you need to blast through isn't there, but the tunnel is. So, if I could find a way to jump down from the top level to right above that hole, I might be able to skip the mining laser entirely.

RealityO

2009-08-19 01:08:09 am

Would you be able to record it and post it on youtube someway? I'm really not sure I understand what you're saying. And are you doing it on the PC? We need to check if it can be done on Xbox360

your_name_here

2009-08-19 06:25:42 am

I can't seem to reproduce it while recording for some reason.

Anyways, you clip through this rail:
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/8096/masseffect2009081909145.jpg

And end up right here:
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/3561/masseffect2009081909152.jpg

So that you can do this:

your_name_here

2009-09-01 06:16:51 am

I've finished the first five segments, and I can conclude that in-game timing is messed up.

New Game+ time:
2h51m

Segment 1 time:
2h56m

Segment 2 time:
2h53m

Segment 3 time:
2h52m

Segment 4 time:
2h52m

Segment 5 time:
2h55m

Beenman500

2009-09-05 03:57:23 pm

Joke of all trades

i recon a shock trooper would be better than a comando cause with 2 medicall exoskelliton X you can have on constant imunity and you heal some 15 health a second, remeber to use light armour not heavy though, as i beleive it make you go faster, also if there are no enimies any you want to run then you can grenade the floor at your feet and it puts you into "combat mode" cause you take (small)damage and you can sprint again, could be helpful. also what weapon are you using

your_name_here

2009-09-06 08:44:09 am

Health boosts might be faster than damage boosts on a higher difficulty (I'm doing casual), but in my test runs, health hasn't been an issue, and with commando, I could still keep immunity on permanently if I really wanted to. I'm using light armor. I don't think you go faster, but since damage isn't an issue, I'm doing it for the biotic resistance to make the thorian fight easier. I have already been using grenades in my strategy. My main weapons are:

HMWA X
Scram Rail X
Scram Rail X
Tungsten VII

HMWSG X
Scram Rail X
Scram Rail X
Shredder VII

Enotus

2009-09-06 01:27:42 pm

When you post sample videos?

Beenman500

Edit history:

Beenman500: 2009-10-07 08:19:47 am

2009-10-07 08:04:26 am

Joke of all trades

i might do a new game speed run of this, ie. without the whole newgame plaus so a fresh character. I have abunch of acheivements which boost me but i guess so does everyone else, im gonna do it single segment and in my practice with a soldier and extra power barrier (best immidiete boost to defences early game) which alloes me to be overly agresive. ill play on casula

my time was 2h40 + time it takes to kill saren (4 mins) i made a bunch of mistakes but still, doesn't seem to hard

i have the black lava problem, but i can't be bothered to fix it and i don't plan on hec editing my files, as thats as good as cheating as far as im concered. also if im getting the permament overheat bug, is it "legag" for me to save and load to get rid of it in a single segment, obviously i try to not everheat my weopon but its probably gonna happeren several times during a run...

your_name_here

2009-10-10 05:25:16 am

If you're doing NG, you can't have any of the achievements. Since you're doing a single segment, all you have to do is delete your Documents/BioWare/Mass Effect/Save for each attempt (Back it up first!).
For the black lava problem, I didn't realize that you could fix it through hex editing, but all you need to do is delete your "Documents/BioWare/Mass Effect/Published" folder. The game will regenerate the contained file upon startup.
Apparently, having certain achievements causes the overheat bug. Which means that clearing your save file before the run should mean that you won't get it during your SS run.

Also, I may as well update my run. It's been put on hiatus for the semester. I'll start it back up again when I have the free time, but right now it's dead.

Serial_gamer

2009-11-09 12:22:28 pm

Welcome to the Future !

If someone is interested in making this run, here is a glitch i discovered : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9eu3d_mass-effect-benezia-glitch_videogames
I apologize if the explanation is in french, let's translate to english :
-Take the shotgun
-Kill the first asari with a single shot
-Damage the second asari and run to the right tank
-let him explode himself
-glitch !

In the video, it is not really useful, but i think it can be done in another situation where it will.

TimEh

2010-01-17 09:34:17 pm

So ive read through a couple threads on here about doing a speed run for this game. Since theyve been up for a while and no ones really done anything yet, i figured id do one. I beat it in 1:10 with a regular new game on casual. Not sure how the timer works with the actual length, but i assume the vid will be much longer. Just putting the movie together now. Will be submiting sometime soon

IcedCube

2010-01-18 05:42:21 am

Quote from TimEh:

So ive read through a couple threads on here about doing a speed run for this game. Since theyve been up for a while and no ones really done anything yet, i figured id do one. I beat it in 1:10 with a regular new game on casual. Not sure how the timer works with the actual length, but i assume the vid will be much longer. Just putting the movie together now. Will be submiting sometime soon

It is never a good idea to just submit before SDA members have judged your videos. Say that there is a minor flaw in your run that's enough for SDA not to accept - we could point that out. Go ahead if you're confident enough, though. Wink

Beenman500

Edit history:

Beenman500: 2010-01-18 11:10:05 am

2010-01-18 10:50:26 am

Joke of all trades

not too mention it will be new game + if you have any game changing acheiment unlocked (that were unlocked before playing the run) this is fine, its just there are better ways of doing a new game + so it will likely be rejected unless you play in such a way that it makes absolutely no difference(more than possibible but new game + either way).

also im with icedcube, put some videos up and let us judge, though 1:10 sounds good. Shocked

your_name_here

2010-01-18 10:01:17 pm

1:10 sounds very good. Although, I've determined that the game timer is unreliable, especially with high segmentation. I've had it go backwards between segments.

TimEh

2010-01-19 01:00:06 am

Quote:

It is never a good idea to just submit before SDA members have judged your videos

ive never really done this before. i figured submiting and being judged were part of the same process. I thought once i submitted a vid then it would be watched and judged. Guess ill have to read through the info on the site more thoroughly

Quote:

not too mention it will be new game + if you have any game changing acheiment unlocked

damn. just looked through and i do have a few benifitial achievments that were being used. mabey thats why i was able to go through the game with the pistol ashley gives you. Mabey ill run this again with no achievements if i see another vid with a more optimized route beat this one.

Quote:

put some videos up and let us judge

just started watching the whole thing from front to back now. just seeing if i got all the segs there and in order. Making notes of segs i might redo. I know there is one long seg that im going to split up and do faster. Ill post the 1 min vid quality check sometime time tomorow when i start fiddling with the compression. Larger chunks after i get the ok with the quality

Quote:

I've determined that the game timer is unreliable

very. not sure where it gets its numbers from. infact, the whole game is unreliable. From the game freezing, getting stuck on stuff, grenades through floors, ect. Plus since im gonna redo some segs, it would be pointless for it to be used as it would not be updated

[quote]It is never a good idea to just submit before SDA members have judged your videos[/quote]
ive never really done this before. i figured submiting and being judged were part of the same process. I thought once i submitted a vid then it would be watched and judged. Guess ill have to read through the info on the site more thoroughly

[quote]not too mention it will be new game + if you have any game changing acheiment unlocked[/quote]

damn. just looked through and i do have a few benifitial achievments that were being used. mabey thats why i was able to go through the game with the pistol ashley gives you. Mabey ill run this again with no achievements if i see another vid with a more optimized route beat this one.

[quote]put some videos up and let us judge[/quote]

just started watching the whole thing from front to back now.  just seeing if i got all the segs there and in order. Making notes of segs i might redo. I know there is one long seg that im going to split up and do faster. Ill post the 1 min vid quality check sometime time tomorow when i start fiddling with the compression. Larger chunks after i get the ok with the quality

[quote]I've determined that the game timer is unreliable[/quote]

very. not sure where it gets its numbers from. infact, the whole game is unreliable. From the game freezing, getting stuck on stuff, grenades through floors, ect. Plus since im gonna redo some segs, it would be pointless for it to be used as it would not be updated

Beenman500

2010-01-19 02:01:31 am

Joke of all trades

benificial acheivements may be useful to unlock during the run, as the pistol one(killing 150 enimies with a pistol) allows a pistol recharge time bonus, but i always though one should use assult rifles, i mean they have crazy DPS compared to the other weopons and as you can just run up to everything and not get killed, aiming isnt that important.

if you have good reson for the pistol over the assult rifle, excluding recharge bonus 150 kills in, then please let me know?

ExplodingCabbage

2010-01-19 03:01:30 am

Quote from TimEh:

Quote:

It is never a good idea to just submit before SDA members have judged your videos

ive never really done this before. i figured submiting and being judged were part of the same process. I thought once i submitted a vid then it would be watched and judged. Guess ill have to read through the info on the site more thoroughly

Yeah, the verification process does indeed consist of people from SDA watching and judging the videos, but most runners will post their runs to YouTube or something before submitting to SDA and put a link to the run in the forum and this is what IcedCube was advising you to do. (Also, runners doing segmented runs tend to upload their progress every few segments for criticism.) This lets SDA members look at the run (informally) to try and find any systematic mistakes or improvements that can be made to your route. This has two benefits: firstly, if the run is likely to be rejected they'll advise you against submitting to SDA which spares you the hassle of doing so and the embarassment of having a run rejected. Secondly, it means you'll quickly get feedback on how to improve the run. (I guess if you submit and wait to see the verifiers' responses you get this feedback anyway, but that's a pretty slow method to get feedback and if your run does have lots of mistakes it's quite possible verifiers will be hostile rather than supportive.)

[quote="TimEh"]
[quote]It is never a good idea to just submit before SDA members have judged your videos[/quote]
ive never really done this before. i figured submiting and being judged were part of the same process. I thought once i submitted a vid then it would be watched and judged. Guess ill have to read through the info on the site more thoroughly[/quote]

Yeah, the verification process does indeed consist of people from SDA watching and judging the videos, but most runners will post their runs to YouTube or something before submitting to SDA and put a link to the run in the forum and this is what IcedCube was advising you to do. (Also, runners doing segmented runs tend to upload their progress every few segments for criticism.) This lets SDA members look at the run (informally) to try and find any systematic mistakes or improvements that can be made to your route. This has two benefits: firstly, if the run is likely to be rejected they'll advise you against submitting to SDA which spares you the hassle of doing so and the embarassment of having a run rejected. Secondly, it means you'll quickly get feedback on how to improve the run. (I guess if you submit and wait to see the verifiers' responses you get this feedback anyway, but that's a pretty slow method to get feedback and if your run does have lots of mistakes it's quite possible verifiers will be hostile rather than supportive.)

TimEh

2010-01-19 06:05:33 am

Quote:

if you have good reson for the pistol over the assult rifle, excluding recharge bonus 150 kills in, then please let me know?

accuracy was important for someparts. Especialy if you really needed to hit something like a exploding barrel, or clearing baddies from far away as you approach. For the most part since the enimies seem to scale with what lvl your at. so i avoid killing baddies unless its unavoidable, or doesnt sacrifice time. I ran it as adept, so throwing or lifting baddies out of the way was priority over shooting.

Quote:

the verification process does indeed consist of people from SDA watching and judging the videos...

Do the verifiers have to have played the game to judge? Some things obviously stand out as being able to be done faster. But i could see how somethings in the game might seem slow to someone who hasnt played. Like how a little extra time at one place can shave more time off at another based on certain choices. Either way im not too worried about it. lol embarasment. i like how you put that. i didnt know my nerd gamming cred was on the line here lol. looks like the sample vid is almost done. ill get that up there soon

[quote]if you have good reson for the pistol over the assult rifle, excluding recharge bonus 150 kills in, then please let me know?[/quote]

accuracy was important for someparts. Especialy if you really needed to hit something like a exploding barrel, or clearing baddies from far away as you approach. For the most part since the enimies seem to scale with what lvl your at. so i avoid killing baddies unless its unavoidable, or doesnt sacrifice time. I ran it as adept, so throwing or lifting baddies out of the way was priority over shooting.

[quote] the verification process does indeed consist of people from SDA watching and judging the videos...[/quote]

Do the verifiers have to have played the game to judge? Some things obviously stand out as being able to be done faster. But i could see how somethings in the game might seem slow to someone who hasnt played. Like how a little extra time at one place can shave more time off at another based on certain choices. Either way im not too worried about it. lol embarasment. i like how you put that. i didnt know my nerd gamming cred was on the line here lol. looks like the sample vid is almost done. ill get that up there soon

IcedCube

2010-01-19 07:09:31 am

Yes, they have to have at least played the game before (and I believe finished, even). We understand all speed in games is relative to the game mechanics, so don't worry about that. The pre-emptive uploading is more so a method of keeping your video from being rejected, rather than actually verifying whether it is good enough. Verifiers tend to put you down on things you mayn't have initially seen as errors.

However (and I did not say this), most verifiers will be people who've criticized your videos before (or have actually helped you in your thread), so you will also better understand their expectations. That said, I look forward to your run. Wink

Beenman500

2010-01-19 09:53:27 am

Joke of all trades

i think a soldier would be more effective to run this game than the adept, mainly because of the 5.5 hp regeneration that they can get by level 2-3, it basically means they can run through the entire game and not worry about dieng to much(on casual at least). also there's no speed advantage in killing when you are the adept, just crowd control. and you said so yourself you can run through enimies mos of the time, the soldier allows you to do this all the time, not too mention immunity, well make you pretty immunie to damage once you factor in the health regen.

also are you getting points in persuade/ intimidate because if you can somehow get full in one of them then you can skip that anoying batle with saren at the end

TimEh

2010-01-19 03:18:48 pm

hmmm. now im kinda intrested to see a run with soldier. I can think of a few places where adept would be better but come to think of it some places might be faster as a soldier. Barrier also provides the run through anything without dieing. I do go paragon and i do skip the first saren battle, a fight that takes me longer than the last one. You dont need full para/int to skip it. just need 9 charm(or 9 intimidate i assume). And i think you need to use that with the first saren incounter, not possitive though. I do it anyways.

ok i see how this verification works. Looked around through the verification forum. Zelda II: The Adventure of Big Gay Al (second quote) was a humorus read.

Beenman500

2010-01-19 03:33:11 pm

Joke of all trades

what in your opinion makes the adept faster, soldier has better shooting, better health, and better survivability for running through enimies. adpets have better 1 on 1 abilities, but then you can just use the party if you desperatly need good 1 on 1 abilities like lift(from kaiden) or sheild destroyer (also from kaiden).

TimEh

2010-01-19 04:00:32 pm

an oob throw is always faster than shooting. Also when throwing/lift, if you aim at the feet of a group you can take out multiple people at once. Or if your surrounded by baddies just aim at the floor and lift. So taking out multiple enimies with one move is alot faster than shooting them one by one. Doing a multiple lift followed by leaving your group to finish them off alows you to keep running. Sprint managment is the key to doing this game fast. I did speed run through the game fully with adept and soldier. i did also try some others but ended the run quickly as i figured it wouldnt work out. I do see benifits with both classes. But it just made sence in my mind to go as adept.

Beenman500

2010-01-19 04:11:11 pm

Joke of all trades

makes sense, what kind of skill progression are you taking, and if your allies are really far away from you, do they teeport next to you? because then leaving them behind is a very good idea. finnaly what is your generall stratergy for sprint mamegment, or does it vary greatly from segment to segment. and also toughly how many segments are you useing?

TimEh

2010-01-19 04:48:21 pm

i think i only really skilled up a few times. once for barrier, once for lift, once for the improved shooting thing for pistol/assault, once for 9 charm, and once to beef up lift at the last battle for saren. I only go into the inventory screen twice i think. once at the beggining and the other to get those knockout grenades. I tried to avoid any menu as well as the bot command screen. I only go to the inv pickup screen once to reduce a pile of items to omni gel, which is enough to get me through the pyramid block puzzle, benezia back door, and the 3rd turret on the sideways citadel battle.

Ya the bots teleport back to you. and they automaticaly respawn with every cinimatic. But relying on them to kill something while you run forward is real frustrating. Their ai is retarded. Well i see how that promotes the whole squad command thing. Also leaving your teammates in a battle sometimes gives you a little extra in-battle sprint.

The strategy is whenever you can sprint. Do so. Its also a matter of knowing at a part when you are able to start sprinting and when youll be out of battle. Sometimes its better sprinting only half, then killing some guys that are nessesary while your bar recharges, then apon killing the last guy your bar is full so you can execute a full bar sprint before you go out of battle. I dont know if i explained that properly. Also never go fatigued. unless your really trying to squeeze out the rest of the bar before a part where you know it will recharge fully. Sometimes you wont enter battle-mode untill some delay. You can put a round into something to trigger it. Ya the situations for sprinting vary from part to part, but its pretty much done with the same goals in mind.

i think i only really skilled up a few times. once for barrier, once for lift, once for the improved shooting thing for pistol/assault, once for 9 charm, and once to beef up lift at the last battle for saren. I only go into the inventory screen twice i think. once at the beggining and the other to get those knockout grenades. I tried to avoid any menu as well as the bot command screen. I only go to the inv pickup screen once to reduce a pile of items to omni gel, which is enough to get me through the pyramid block puzzle, benezia back door, and the 3rd turret on the sideways citadel battle.

Ya the bots teleport back to you. and they automaticaly respawn with every cinimatic. But relying on them to kill something while you run forward is real frustrating. Their ai is retarded. Well i see how that promotes the whole squad command thing. Also leaving your teammates in a battle sometimes gives you a little extra in-battle sprint.

The strategy is whenever you can sprint. Do so. Its also a matter of knowing at a part when you are able to start sprinting and when youll be out of battle. Sometimes its better sprinting only half, then killing some guys that are nessesary while your bar recharges, then apon killing the last guy your bar is full so you can execute a full bar sprint before you go out of battle. I dont know if i explained that properly. Also never go fatigued. unless your really trying to squeeze out the rest of the bar before a part where you know it will recharge fully. Sometimes you wont enter battle-mode untill some delay. You can put a round into something to trigger it. Ya the situations for sprinting vary from part to part, but its pretty much done with the same goals in mind.