MechCommander Gold run

2009-10-09 09:12:00 pm

Hello, I'm new to this site. I hope this is the right place to ask.
I am planning on doing a MechCommander Gold speedrun. I have played MechCommander Gold for over 8 years, and have been a prominent member in its multiplayer community. I have a few questions before I start: how does verification work: does a verifier have to have personally played the game before? Will I have any problems getting my run for this old game ('98) verified?

Here is my plan:
I will first do a run for the Original Campaign. I might do the Desperate Measures Campaign later. I will be doing this on the hardest difficulty setting. There are some known glitches that I will not be using, since it wouldn't be fair. The most prominent of these glitches is Jump Cheating, which allows any mech (it doesn't even have to be a jump variant) to jump to any location. I will not use that glitch (and I shouldn't, right?). I'm also not going to abuse pausing (which would give me time to set orders and plot waypoints). The runs won't really have many glitches at all, since there aren't too many abusable minor ones, so the runs will focus on technical skill.

Is there anything I should know before I start recording? There is no demo playback system, so I'll be recording in real-time. I was planning on using Debut, unless there is a better program you would recommend. There are around 30 levels, and I'll record each one separately.

Thread title:

Hello, I'm new to this site.  I hope this is the right place to ask.
I am planning on doing a MechCommander Gold speedrun.  I have played MechCommander Gold for over 8 years, and have been a prominent member in its multiplayer community.  I have a few questions before I start: how does verification work: does a verifier have to have personally played the game before?  Will I have any problems getting my run for this old game ('98) verified?

Here is my plan:
I will first do a run for the Original Campaign.  I might do the Desperate Measures Campaign later.  I will be doing this on the hardest difficulty setting.  There are some known glitches that I will not be using, since it wouldn't be fair.  The most prominent of these glitches is Jump Cheating, which allows any mech (it doesn't even have to be a jump variant) to jump to any location.  I will not use that glitch (and I shouldn't, right?).  I'm also not going to abuse pausing (which would give me time to set orders and plot waypoints).  The runs won't really have many glitches at all, since there aren't too many abusable minor ones, so the runs will focus on technical skill.

Is there anything I should know before I start recording?  There is no demo playback system, so I'll be recording in real-time.  I was planning on using [url=http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/]Debut[/url], unless there is a better program you would recommend.  There are around 30 levels, and I'll record each one separately.

ExplodingCabbage

Edit history:

ExplodingCabbage: 2009-10-10 07:33:26 am

2009-10-10 07:21:52 am

Quote from ncswarmer:

I have a few questions before I start: how does verification work: does a verifier have to have personally played the game before?

Yes, verifiers have to have played the game before (and finished it). Most games get about 3 verifiers, and they write a report to Mike where they confirm that the video quality is okay and the runner hasn't cheated, and then review how good the run is and say whether they think it's good enough for SDA. The detail these reviews go into is very varied but the standards SDA demands of runs are reasonably constant since Mike has the final say.

Quote:

Will I have any problems getting my run for this old game ('98) verified?

A game's age isn't usually a problem, but popularity may be. As I recall MechCommander was a reasonably obscure game. Though to be honest, it's incredibly unpredictable what gets verifiers and what doesn't because it's ultimately down to what games SDA members happen to have played and whether they feel like verifying.

However, I'll verify this if you finish it, so you'll have at least one verifier. Wink

Quote:

Here is my plan:
I will first do a run for the Original Campaign. I might do the Desperate Measures Campaign later. I will be doing this on the hardest difficulty setting.

Sounds fine. Runs on different difficulties are always different categories on SDA (you don't need to play on the hardest if you don't want to), so I suggest running on whatever difficulty you think will make for the most interesting and impressive run (which isn't always the hardest one), although the choice is yours.

Quote:

There are some known glitches that I will not be using, since it wouldn't be fair. The most prominent of these glitches is Jump Cheating, which allows any mech (it doesn't even have to be a jump variant) to jump to any location. I will not use that glitch (and I shouldn't, right?).

Complicated question.

Firstly, cheats (cheat codes or similar things that are intentionally put in by the developers either for testing purposes or for players to fuck around with for a laugh) are never allowed on SDA. You say, though, that what the community call the 'Jump Cheat' is not really an intentional cheat in this sense, just an unintentional glitch.

Glitches are always allowed on SDA. However, when a single glitch is so powerful that it completely trivialises the game or skips most of the game, runs that don't use the glitch may be accepted as a different category, in the same way that low%, any% and 100% runs are different categories. Mike makes the final decision on whether a glitch qualifies for a different category or not, but does so on the advice of the community.

To help us judge whether the 'Jump Cheat' should be a seperate category, we're going to need some more detail. There are two important things here, I think:
* How do you perform the jump cheat? Can it be done anywhere, at any time, or are there certain conditions needed (like having a jump-variant mech under your control)? Can vehicles be made to jump with the jump cheat (may be relevant for a few levels where you have to escort APCs). Can you make mechs/vehicles not under your control (like enemy mechs or neutrals you have to escort) jump with the jump cheat or only your own ones?
* Could you clarify what you mean when you say the glitch lets you jump mechs to 'any location'? Presumably you mean that the jump has unlimited range? But can you use it to jump into unrevealed territory, or do you have to reveal it first? Can you jump onto normally inaccessible terrain, like cliffs and water, and what happens if you do?

A short youtube video of the Jump Cheat would probably be helpful.

Finally, what other glitches are there that would help save time? If there are several glitches of similar usefulness, that makes it less likely that Mike will create a category just for not using the jump glitch.

Quote:

I'm also not going to abuse pausing (which would give me time to set orders and plot waypoints).

There's never been any official ruling on what runners should do in RTS and RPG games that allow you to modify game speed or pause to issue commands, but I'd suggest trying to be as consistent as possible with runs of other games where this is a possibility. Unfortunately the time since I last played is becoming an issue here, and I can't remember something important: does MechCommander have an in-game timer? If it does, and if this timer pauses when you pause the game, then I agree that you shouldn't use pausing. If there is no in-game timer (meaning the game will be timed manually), or if the in-game timer keeps going when the game is paused, then you should consider pausing allowed but obviously using it will cost you time and should only be done if it's absolutely necessary to co-ordinate something (which will probably never happen).

Whether or not there's an in-game timer is important for another reason: if there's an in-game timer while in-mission, but not between missions in the mech bay, then since SDA always uses the in-game timer where possible that means the mech bay won't be timed and you can buy and customise as much as you like. If there's no in-game timer, then the run will be timed manually, which means time in the purchasing and mech bay menus will be included. Obviously, this will have a significant, if not huge, effect on your overall strategy.

Quote:

The runs won't really have many glitches at all, since there aren't too many abusable minor ones, so the runs will focus on technical skill.

Purely out of curiosity, what are the minor glitches?

Quote:

Is there anything I should know before I start recording? ... There are around 30 levels, and I'll record each one separately.

Remember to record everything you do in the purchase menu and mech bay as well (whether or not it's being timed, we'll want to see it).

Quote:

There is no demo playback system, so I'll be recording in real-time. I was planning on using Debut, unless there is a better program you would recommend.

I've never used or even heard of Debut before. That doesn't mean it's not a good recording program - it's not a topic I know much about. But I do know that the majority of runners on SDA record with FRAPS. If you want FRAPS, if you PM me your email address I think the installer is small enough that I can send it to you as an attachment (if I can find where I saved it), or if you don't want to give your email to a creepy internet stranger you can just torrent it. Or, like, buy it, if you have morals or something.

[quote="ncswarmer"]I have a few questions before I start: how does verification work: does a verifier have to have personally played the game before?[/quote]

Yes, verifiers have to have played the game before (and finished it). Most games get about 3 verifiers, and they write a report to Mike where they confirm that the video quality is okay and the runner hasn't cheated, and then review how good the run is and say whether they think it's good enough for SDA. The detail these reviews go into is very varied but the standards SDA demands of runs are reasonably constant since Mike has the final say.

[quote]Will I have any problems getting my run for this old game ('98) verified?[/quote]

A game's age isn't usually a problem, but popularity may be. As I recall MechCommander was a reasonably obscure game. Though to be honest, it's incredibly unpredictable what gets verifiers and what doesn't because it's ultimately down to what games SDA members happen to have played and whether they feel like verifying.

However, I'll verify this if you finish it, so you'll have at least one verifier. ;)

[quote]Here is my plan:
I will first do a run for the Original Campaign.  I might do the Desperate Measures Campaign later.  I will be doing this on the hardest difficulty setting.[/quote]

Sounds fine. Runs on different difficulties are always different categories on SDA (you don't need to play on the hardest if you don't want to), so I suggest running on whatever difficulty you think will make for the most interesting and impressive run (which isn't always the hardest one), although the choice is yours.

[quote]There are some known glitches that I will not be using, since it wouldn't be fair.  The most prominent of these glitches is Jump Cheating, which allows any mech (it doesn't even have to be a jump variant) to jump to any location.  I will not use that glitch (and I shouldn't, right?).[/quote]

Complicated question.

Firstly, cheats (cheat codes or similar things that are intentionally put in by the developers either for testing purposes or for players to fuck around with for a laugh) are never allowed on SDA. You say, though, that what the community call the 'Jump Cheat' is not really an intentional cheat in this sense, just an unintentional glitch.

Glitches are always allowed on SDA. However, when a single glitch is so powerful that it completely trivialises the game or skips most of the game, runs that don't use the glitch may be accepted as a different category, in the same way that low%, any% and 100% runs are different categories. Mike makes the final decision on whether a glitch qualifies for a different category or not, but does so on the advice of the community.

To help us judge whether the 'Jump Cheat' should be a seperate category, we're going to need some more detail. There are two important things here, I think:
* How do you perform the jump cheat? Can it be done anywhere, at any time, or are there certain conditions needed (like having a jump-variant mech under your control)? Can vehicles be made to jump with the jump cheat (may be relevant for a few levels where you have to escort APCs). Can you make mechs/vehicles not under your control (like enemy mechs or neutrals you have to escort) jump with the jump cheat or only your own ones?
* Could you clarify what you mean when you say the glitch lets you jump mechs to 'any location'? Presumably you mean that the jump has unlimited range? But can you use it to jump into unrevealed territory, or do you have to reveal it first? Can you jump onto normally inaccessible terrain, like cliffs and water, and what happens if you do?

A short youtube video of the Jump Cheat would probably be helpful.

Finally, what other glitches are there that would help save time? If there are several glitches of similar usefulness, that makes it less likely that Mike will create a category just for not using the jump glitch.

[quote]I'm also not going to abuse pausing (which would give me time to set orders and plot waypoints).[/quote]

There's never been any official ruling on what runners should do in RTS and RPG games that allow you to modify game speed or pause to issue commands, but I'd suggest trying to be as consistent as possible with runs of other games where this is a possibility. Unfortunately the time since I last played is becoming an issue here, and I can't remember something important: does MechCommander have an in-game timer? If it does, and if this timer pauses when you pause the game, then I agree that you shouldn't use pausing. If there is no in-game timer (meaning the game will be timed manually), or if the in-game timer keeps going when the game is paused, then you should consider pausing allowed but obviously using it will cost you time and should only be done if it's absolutely necessary to co-ordinate something (which will probably never happen).

Whether or not there's an in-game timer is important for another reason: if there's an in-game timer while in-mission, but not between missions in the mech bay, then since SDA always uses the in-game timer where possible that means the mech bay won't be timed and you can buy and customise as much as you like. If there's no in-game timer, then the run will be timed manually, which means time in the purchasing and mech bay menus will be included. Obviously, this will have a significant, if not huge, effect on your overall strategy.

[quote]The runs won't really have many glitches at all, since there aren't too many abusable minor ones, so the runs will focus on technical skill.[/quote]

Purely out of curiosity, what are the minor glitches?

[quote]Is there anything I should know before I start recording? ... There are around 30 levels, and I'll record each one separately.[/quote]

Remember to record everything you do in the purchase menu and mech bay as well (whether or not it's being timed, we'll want to see it).

[quote]There is no demo playback system, so I'll be recording in real-time.  I was planning on using [url=http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/]Debut[/url], unless there is a better program you would recommend. [/quote]

I've never used or even heard of Debut before. That doesn't mean it's not a good recording program - it's not a topic I know much about. But I do know that the majority of runners on SDA record with FRAPS. If you want FRAPS, if you PM me your email address I think the installer is small enough that I can send it to you as an attachment (if I can find where I saved it), or if you don't want to give your email to a creepy internet stranger you can just torrent it. Or, like, buy it, if you have morals or something.

ncswarmer

2009-10-10 01:51:59 pm

Thanks for the reply!

Thanks for being a verifier. I hope I can get more. The game was reasonably popular back in it's day, but it faded very fast.

Jump Cheating

Okay, here is the jump cheat (JC) explanation:

1- Power down any mech (or group of mechs).
2- Look anywhere on the map, including anywhere in the fog of war.
3- With those powered down mechs selected, place a run waypoint where you want to go to.
4- Immediately after placing a run waypoint, left click once to issue a walk command, to cancel the run waypoint.
5- Immediately after canceling the run waypoint, place a jump waypoint. This waypoint will be placed, even if the mech is not a jump variant, and even if the range is not legal.
6- The mechs will now jump to that location, at a constant speed (the travel time, regardless of distance, will be about a half second).

It is kind of finicky, in that it takes a few tries to get it to work for a non-J mech, but on J mechs it can be done extremely consistently (it can also be done by J-variants without powering down, albeit less consistently). This allows you to reveal any portion of the map, capture any unguarded building, capture obscure supply crates, and basically trivialize the mission. There are also a few variations on the JC, done in slightly different ways, but it is essentially the same.

Some quick facts:

Vehicles cannot jump cheat.
You can only jump cheat your own mechs.
You cannot jump into inaccessible terrain.
You can jump an unlimited range.
You can jump into unrevealed terrain.

Even if it is allowed, I choose to enter into a non-JC category.

Other Glitches

As far as other glitches go, I don't think there really are any, just design bugs, like the flawed way weapons are placed in a mech (all big weapons go in the left arm). And of course that's allowed. I really want to say there are more glitches, but from my long experience playing multiplayer, I can testify that no glitches, save the JC, ever arose in an online match. I can't find any single player ones either. I always thought glitched runs were the most exciting (like HL2DQ), but this game is surprisingly glitch free.

(Actually there is one, but it is an online glitch only: once in a blue moon, when network connections synchronize badly, a mech will appear dead to one person but alive to another. This allows the "ghost mech" commander to sneak around and attack invisibly. But this is purely by chance and also online only.)

Timing
There is only an in-game timer on missions with a time constraint. There is a clock in the setup room, but that's it. That means pausing will still be timed. Also, spending time in the setup room will not be timed, right (since there is no in-game timer)?

About the setup room: are you sure you want me to record everything in there? I did the first 2 missions already, and what I did was start the video in the mech bay, slowly scroll through each mech's loadout, and then start. I figured that buying, selling, and rearranging things are not worth seeing, since I spend a lot of time just staring and thinking and experimenting. I still show the final loadout, including weapons, before it starts, so that should be sufficient, right?

This brings up an item for clarification: It's not expected of me to do all the missions in one go, is it? I was planning on recording each attempt separately, and putting in the best times. However, the missions are not stand-alone; this speedrun is still considered one unit. This is because each mission affects the next. So to complete mission N, I will be using the save file from the best attempt of mission N-1, so that the damage, items, and salvage that I have at the beginning of mission N is consistent with the state at the end of my best attempt at mission N-1. This also means that if I decide to retry an attempt at an earlier mission, it negates all attempts subsequent missions.

Recording

Nevermind about Debut. It attaches a cursor icon, which is really annoying. I tried Fraps, as it was the only one that could record my full-screen game, but it caused my game to be really jumpy and hard to play. I have a good computer, and I tried turning it down to 10FPS, but it didn't help. I think it has something to do with the way the old game's graphics work?
So I decided on Camtasia. It couldn't record full-screen though (it was just black and white artifacts). Playing windowed gives me a disadvantage in that scrolling the map (by pushing the cursor against the side of the screen) has a less consistent speed when minimized (since the cursor can go past the window). I can also accidentally click off the window and lose focus (this will cause a jump in the video's sound when I regain focus). Also, the window is tiny. I fixed the tiny window problem by putting my monitor at 800x600 resolution, and kind of fixed the click-off-screen problem by putting the window against the screen edge (blocking 2 edges from mis-clicks). The scrolling speed issue seems to go away eventually. It's not optimal, but it's the only way I can record it.

Anyways, thanks for your interest. Upon your replies, I will begin!

(By the way, I can't seem to register these forums. It won't send me a confirmation email. I've retried it many times.)

Thanks for the reply!

Thanks for being a verifier.  I hope I can get more.  The game was reasonably popular back in it's day, but it faded very fast.

[size=12pt][b]Jump Cheating[/b][/size]

Okay, here is the jump cheat (JC) explanation:
[list]
[li]1- Power down any mech (or group of mechs).[/li]
[li]2- Look anywhere on the map, including anywhere in the fog of war.[/li]
[li]3- With those powered down mechs selected, place a run waypoint where you want to go to.[/li]
[li]4- [b]Immediately[/b] after placing a run waypoint, left click once to issue a walk command, to cancel the run waypoint.[/li]
[li]5- [b]Immediately[/b] after canceling the run waypoint, place a jump waypoint.  This waypoint will be placed, even if the mech is not a jump variant, and even if the range is not legal.[/li]
[li]6- The mechs will now jump to that location, at a constant speed (the travel time, regardless of distance, will be about a half second).[/li][/list]

It is kind of finicky, in that it takes a few tries to get it to work for a non-J mech, but on J mechs it can be done extremely consistently (it can also be done by J-variants without powering down, albeit less consistently).  This allows you to reveal any portion of the map, capture any unguarded building, capture obscure supply crates, and basically trivialize the mission.  There are also a few variations on the JC, done in slightly different ways, but it is essentially the same.

Some quick facts:
[list]
[li]Vehicles cannot jump cheat.[/li]
[li]You can only jump cheat your own mechs.[/li]
[li]You cannot jump into inaccessible terrain.[/li]
[li]You can jump an unlimited range.[/li]
[li]You can jump into unrevealed terrain.[/li]
[/list]

Even if it is allowed, I choose to enter into a non-JC category.

[size=12pt][b]Other Glitches[/b][/size]

As far as other glitches go, I don't think there really are any, just design bugs, like the flawed way weapons are placed in a mech (all big weapons go in the left arm).  And of course that's allowed.  I really want to say there are more glitches, but from my long experience playing multiplayer, I can testify that no glitches, save the JC, ever arose in an online match.  I can't find any single player ones either.  I always thought glitched runs were the most exciting (like HL2DQ), but this game is surprisingly glitch free.

(Actually there is one, but it is an online glitch only: once in a blue moon, when network connections synchronize badly, a mech will appear dead to one person but alive to another.  This allows the "ghost mech" commander to sneak around and attack invisibly.  But this is purely by chance and also online only.)

[size=12pt][b]Timing[/b][/size]
There is only an in-game timer on missions with a time constraint.  There is a clock in the setup room, but that's it.  That means pausing will still be timed.  Also, spending time in the setup room will not be timed, right (since there is no in-game timer)?

About the setup room:  are you sure you want me to record everything in there?  I did the first 2 missions already, and what I did was start the video in the mech bay, slowly scroll through each mech's loadout, and then start.  I figured that buying, selling, and rearranging things are not worth seeing, since I spend a lot of time just staring and thinking and experimenting.  I still show the final loadout, including weapons, before it starts, so that should be sufficient, right?

This brings up an item for clarification:  It's not expected of me to do all the missions in one go, is it?  I was planning on recording each attempt separately, and putting in the best times.  However, the missions are not stand-alone; this speedrun is still considered one unit.  This is because each mission affects the next.  So to complete mission N, I will be using the save file from the best attempt of mission N-1, so that the damage, items, and salvage that I have at the beginning of mission N is consistent with the state at the end of my best attempt at mission N-1.  This also means that if I decide to retry an attempt at an earlier mission, it negates all attempts subsequent missions.

[size=12pt][b]Recording[/b][/size]

Nevermind about Debut.  It attaches a cursor icon, which is really annoying.  I tried Fraps, as it was the only one that could record my full-screen game, but it caused my game to be really jumpy and hard to play.  I have a good computer, and I tried turning it down to 10FPS, but it didn't help.  I think it has something to do with the way the old game's graphics work?
So I decided on Camtasia.  It couldn't record full-screen though (it was just black and white artifacts).  Playing windowed gives me a disadvantage in that scrolling the map (by pushing the cursor against the side of the screen) has a less consistent speed when minimized (since the cursor can go past the window).  I can also accidentally click off the window and lose focus (this will cause a jump in the video's sound when I regain focus).  Also, the window is tiny.  I fixed the tiny window problem by putting my monitor at 800x600 resolution, and kind of fixed the click-off-screen problem by putting the window against the screen edge (blocking 2 edges from mis-clicks).  The scrolling speed issue seems to go away eventually.  It's not optimal, but it's the only way I can record it.

Anyways, thanks for your interest.  Upon your replies, I will begin!

(By the way, I can't seem to register these forums.  It won't send me a confirmation email.  I've retried it many times.)

Ewil

2009-10-11 01:02:00 am

I'd probably record setup room completely, just to make it easier for verification. It's done like that in Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries speedrun or Age of Empires III (cards).

Btw, are you playing with anti-aliasing on ? That might be the cause of low fps with Fraps. It's also possible this game is not fully supported, I don't have it anymore, so I can't test.

Anyway, another good recording program is Hypercam, which I always found a bit better than Camtasia or Gamecam if you manage to get it working.

ncswarmer

2009-10-11 02:02:30 am

Well, the thing is that I retry each level many times, so if I record the setup room, it will only show me outfitting my mechs during the first attempt. After an attempt, it keeps the current setup, so there isn't much to see. Currently, I have it showing the complete setup of each mech. I also scroll through all of my resources (mechs, items, pilots, vehicles).

There are no graphics options, except for brightness, so I can't change anti-aliasing or anything.

ExplodingCabbage

2009-10-11 05:08:54 am

Quote from ncswarmer:

Thanks for the reply!

Thanks for being a verifier. I hope I can get more. The game was reasonably popular back in it's day, but it faded very fast.

Jump Cheating

Okay, here is the jump cheat (JC) explanation:

1- Power down any mech (or group of mechs).
2- Look anywhere on the map, including anywhere in the fog of war.
3- With those powered down mechs selected, place a run waypoint where you want to go to.
4- Immediately after placing a run waypoint, left click once to issue a walk command, to cancel the run waypoint.
5- Immediately after canceling the run waypoint, place a jump waypoint. This waypoint will be placed, even if the mech is not a jump variant, and even if the range is not legal.
6- The mechs will now jump to that location, at a constant speed (the travel time, regardless of distance, will be about a half second).

It is kind of finicky, in that it takes a few tries to get it to work for a non-J mech, but on J mechs it can be done extremely consistently (it can also be done by J-variants without powering down, albeit less consistently). This allows you to reveal any portion of the map, capture any unguarded building, capture obscure supply crates, and basically trivialize the mission. There are also a few variations on the JC, done in slightly different ways, but it is essentially the same.

Some quick facts:

Vehicles cannot jump cheat.
You can only jump cheat your own mechs.
You cannot jump into inaccessible terrain.
You can jump an unlimited range.
You can jump into unrevealed terrain.

Even if it is allowed, I choose to enter into a non-JC category.

Alright, well technically Mike needs to approve the existence of a non-JC category before you can submit runs to it, but from the sounds of it, there definitely should be one; it would basically skip the entirety of many missions by letting you jump to the target, do whatever you have to do there, and jump back again.

Quote:

Timing
There is only an in-game timer on missions with a time constraint. There is a clock in the setup room, but that's it. That means pausing will still be timed. Also, spending time in the setup room will not be timed, right (since there is no in-game timer)?

If there's no in-game timer, manual timing is used which means everything in the run is timed except loading screens and, if the run is segmented, save/load menus. So yeah the setup room will be timed.

Quote:

About the setup room: are you sure you want me to record everything in there? I did the first 2 missions already, and what I did was start the video in the mech bay, slowly scroll through each mech's loadout, and then start. I figured that buying, selling, and rearranging things are not worth seeing, since I spend a lot of time just staring and thinking and experimenting. I still show the final loadout, including weapons, before it starts, so that should be sufficient, right?

No, even if it wasn't being timed I at least would still expect to see the entire setup room recorded. It shouldn't be that much of a pain to do; the game autosaves after finishing and before starting missions, right? So you can just record a mission, stop recording once you get to the briefing screen of the next mission, figure out what you want to do in purchasing / the mech bay, go to the load menu, start recording, load the end-of-mission autosave (timing will start the moment you're back on the briefing screen), quickly do whatever set-up you need to do for the next mission, then click 'START MISSION', taking you to the mission loading screen and stopping timing. From that point on you can just start recording mission attempts from the mission loading screen and not have to do anything in the mech bay at all, although if you decide you want to tweak your mech loadouts you'll need to load the save from the end of the last mission and record the set-up again. However, given that you're going to be doing lots of attempts on each mission, using the same loadouts, this is probably a less annoying method for you than having to scroll through the mech bay showing everything you've got, and it means that viewers won't be wondering where all your stuff came from - did he get those ERPPCs from salvage? Did he buy them? We'll want to know these things.

So in summary, rather than having 30 segments, each containing setup and a mission, you'll have 60 segments, half of which will just be setup screens and half of which will be mission gameplay.

Quote:

This brings up an item for clarification: It's not expected of me to do all the missions in one go, is it?

No. SDA takes segmented runs (as a seperate category to single-segment ones).

Quote:

Recording

Nevermind about Debut. It attaches a cursor icon, which is really annoying. I tried Fraps, as it was the only one that could record my full-screen game, but it caused my game to be really jumpy and hard to play. I have a good computer, and I tried turning it down to 10FPS, but it didn't help. I think it has something to do with the way the old game's graphics work?
So I decided on Camtasia. It couldn't record full-screen though (it was just black and white artifacts). Playing windowed gives me a disadvantage in that scrolling the map (by pushing the cursor against the side of the screen) has a less consistent speed when minimized (since the cursor can go past the window). I can also accidentally click off the window and lose focus (this will cause a jump in the video's sound when I regain focus). Also, the window is tiny. I fixed the tiny window problem by putting my monitor at 800x600 resolution, and kind of fixed the click-off-screen problem by putting the window against the screen edge (blocking 2 edges from mis-clicks). The scrolling speed issue seems to go away eventually. It's not optimal, but it's the only way I can record it.

Hmm. I can imagine that that is fairly irritating. Do you have a DVD recorder you could hook up to the computer instead of using software recording? Bundles of DVD-RWs are cheap nowadays.

Quote:

(By the way, I can't seem to register these forums. It won't send me a confirmation email. I've retried it many times.)

I presume you've check your spam folder?

One final thing - I suggest you upload videos of each level to youtube as you run them, and post links to them here. The forum is a good source of feedback and advice.

[quote="ncswarmer"]
Thanks for the reply!

Thanks for being a verifier.  I hope I can get more.  The game was reasonably popular back in it's day, but it faded very fast.

[size=12pt][b]Jump Cheating[/b][/size]

Okay, here is the jump cheat (JC) explanation:
[list]
[li]1- Power down any mech (or group of mechs).[/li]
[li]2- Look anywhere on the map, including anywhere in the fog of war.[/li]
[li]3- With those powered down mechs selected, place a run waypoint where you want to go to.[/li]
[li]4- [b]Immediately[/b] after placing a run waypoint, left click once to issue a walk command, to cancel the run waypoint.[/li]
[li]5- [b]Immediately[/b] after canceling the run waypoint, place a jump waypoint.  This waypoint will be placed, even if the mech is not a jump variant, and even if the range is not legal.[/li]
[li]6- The mechs will now jump to that location, at a constant speed (the travel time, regardless of distance, will be about a half second).[/li][/list]

It is kind of finicky, in that it takes a few tries to get it to work for a non-J mech, but on J mechs it can be done extremely consistently (it can also be done by J-variants without powering down, albeit less consistently).  This allows you to reveal any portion of the map, capture any unguarded building, capture obscure supply crates, and basically trivialize the mission.  There are also a few variations on the JC, done in slightly different ways, but it is essentially the same.

Some quick facts:
[list]
[li]Vehicles cannot jump cheat.[/li]
[li]You can only jump cheat your own mechs.[/li]
[li]You cannot jump into inaccessible terrain.[/li]
[li]You can jump an unlimited range.[/li]
[li]You can jump into unrevealed terrain.[/li]
[/list]

Even if it is allowed, I choose to enter into a non-JC category.[/quote]

Alright, well technically Mike needs to approve the existence of a non-JC category before you can submit runs to it, but from the sounds of it, there definitely should be one; it would basically skip the entirety of many missions by letting you jump to the target, do whatever you have to do there, and jump back again.

[quote][size=12pt][b]Timing[/b][/size]
There is only an in-game timer on missions with a time constraint.  There is a clock in the setup room, but that's it.  That means pausing will still be timed.  Also, spending time in the setup room will not be timed, right (since there is no in-game timer)?[/quote]

If there's no in-game timer, manual timing is used which means [i]everything[/i] in the run is timed except loading screens and, if the run is segmented, save/load menus. So yeah the setup room will be timed.

[quote]About the setup room:  are you sure you want me to record everything in there?  I did the first 2 missions already, and what I did was start the video in the mech bay, slowly scroll through each mech's loadout, and then start.  I figured that buying, selling, and rearranging things are not worth seeing, since I spend a lot of time just staring and thinking and experimenting.  I still show the final loadout, including weapons, before it starts, so that should be sufficient, right?[/quote]

No, even if it wasn't being timed I at least would still expect to see the entire setup room recorded. It shouldn't be that much of a pain to do; the game autosaves after finishing and before starting missions, right? So you can just record a mission, stop recording once you get to the briefing screen of the next mission, figure out what you want to do in purchasing / the mech bay, go to the load menu, start recording, load the end-of-mission autosave (timing will start the moment you're back on the briefing screen), quickly do whatever set-up you need to do for the next mission, then click 'START MISSION', taking you to the mission loading screen and stopping timing. From that point on you can just start recording mission attempts from the mission loading screen and not have to do anything in the mech bay at all, although if you decide you want to tweak your mech loadouts you'll need to load the save from the end of the last mission and record the set-up again. However, given that you're going to be doing lots of attempts on each mission, using the same loadouts, this is probably a [i]less[/i] annoying method for you than having to scroll through the mech bay showing everything you've got, and it means that viewers won't be wondering where all your stuff came from - did he get those ERPPCs from salvage? Did he buy them? We'll want to know these things.

So in summary, rather than having 30 segments, each containing setup and a mission, you'll have 60 segments, half of which will just be setup screens and half of which will be mission gameplay.

[quote]This brings up an item for clarification:  It's not expected of me to do all the missions in one go, is it?[/quote]

No. SDA takes segmented runs (as a seperate category to single-segment ones).

[quote][size=12pt][b]Recording[/b][/size]

Nevermind about Debut.  It attaches a cursor icon, which is really annoying.  I tried Fraps, as it was the only one that could record my full-screen game, but it caused my game to be really jumpy and hard to play.  I have a good computer, and I tried turning it down to 10FPS, but it didn't help.  I think it has something to do with the way the old game's graphics work?
So I decided on Camtasia.  It couldn't record full-screen though (it was just black and white artifacts).  Playing windowed gives me a disadvantage in that scrolling the map (by pushing the cursor against the side of the screen) has a less consistent speed when minimized (since the cursor can go past the window).  I can also accidentally click off the window and lose focus (this will cause a jump in the video's sound when I regain focus).  Also, the window is tiny.  I fixed the tiny window problem by putting my monitor at 800x600 resolution, and kind of fixed the click-off-screen problem by putting the window against the screen edge (blocking 2 edges from mis-clicks).  The scrolling speed issue seems to go away eventually.  It's not optimal, but it's the only way I can record it.[/quote]

Hmm. I can imagine that that is fairly irritating. Do you have a DVD recorder you could hook up to the computer instead of using software recording? Bundles of DVD-RWs are cheap nowadays.

[quote](By the way, I can't seem to register these forums.  It won't send me a confirmation email.  I've retried it many times.)[/quote]

I presume you've check your spam folder?

One final thing - I suggest you upload videos of each level to youtube as you run them, and post links to them here. The forum is a good source of feedback and advice.

mikwuyma

2009-10-11 11:49:18 am

My feelings on The Demon Rush

The jump glitch: It's a separate category because it just lets you walk all over the map with few restrictions.

ncswarmer's registration: nate is wondering if you checked your spam, ncswarmer.

ncswarmer

2009-10-11 01:53:04 pm

Okay, I'll record the setup room as a separate segment. Do You still want me to do an overview of my loadout? I would be kind of hard to see if I'm clicking as fast as I can. I can just put it in a separate section at the beginning of each video. It wouldn't take much editing to add that in.

I don't have a DVD recorder. The setup I am using now (800x600 res, single monitor) seems to work okay. I just need to be careful about not clicking out of the box.

And yeah, my spam folder doesn't show anything either. I registered as "swarmer".

Quote:

One final thing - I suggest you upload videos of each level to youtube as you run them, and post links to them here. The forum is a good source of feedback and advice.

Yeah, I think I'll post some videos soon to get some feedback.

ExplodingCabbage

2009-10-11 02:31:12 pm

Quote from ncswarmer:

Okay, I'll record the setup room as a separate segment. Do You still want me to do an overview of my loadout? I would be kind of hard to see if I'm clicking as fast as I can. I can just put it in a separate section at the beginning of each video. It wouldn't take much editing to add that in.

Nah speaking for myself I'd rather you didn't show the loadout, for two reasons: it'll be an odd break in the continuity of the run, which might confuse people who don't know what you're doing (in particular, the fact that the time you spend purchasing and outfitting mechs would be timed but that the seperate time spent on the same screens showing what you've got wouldn't be timed would be a potential cause of confusion for viewers who don't read your comments in detail), and people who want to see the loadout in detail can always just advance through the video slowly anyway. If you really want to show the loadout seperately, I'd suggest a better way would be to list in your comments for each mission exactly what mechs you take, who pilots them and what their loadouts are, rather than sticking it in the video which would look out-of-place.

It's your run, though - if you disagree, stick it in.

[quote="ncswarmer"]
Okay, I'll record the setup room as a separate segment.  Do You still want me to do an overview of my loadout?  I would be kind of hard to see if I'm clicking as fast as I can.  I can just put it in a separate section at the beginning of each video.  It wouldn't take much editing to add that in.[/quote]

Nah speaking for myself I'd rather you didn't show the loadout, for two reasons: it'll be an odd break in the continuity of the run, which might confuse people who don't know what you're doing (in particular, the fact that the time you spend purchasing and outfitting mechs would be timed but that the seperate time spent on the same screens showing what you've got wouldn't be timed would be a potential cause of confusion for viewers who don't read your comments in detail), and people who want to see the loadout in detail can always just advance through the video slowly anyway. If you really want to show the loadout seperately, I'd suggest a better way would be to list in your comments for each mission exactly what mechs you take, who pilots them and what their loadouts are, rather than sticking it in the video which would look out-of-place.

It's your run, though - if you disagree, stick it in.

ExplodingCabbage

2009-10-14 05:59:57 pm

Got the first level done yet?