Metal Arms segmented, pure speed run

SPJglitches

Edit history:

SPJglitches: 2005-12-13 01:30:27 am

2005-12-11 11:14:24 pm

Glitch Colonel

I'm an SDA noob so if I'm doing something 'wrong' let me know...

Anyways, I'm planning on making a segmented, non-tool assisted Metal Arms: Glitch in the System speedrun for Xbox. By segmented I mean filming all 42 levels seperately and slapping them all together into one vid. Sorry if I'm insulting anyone's intelligence...

So basically, I just want to know what the interest in this is so I don't start wasting away my life filming a run that no one will care about. Also, any tips or tricks you guys know for the game would be greatly appreciated as this is going to take a while...

I'm pretty certain I can get the run under 2 hours but I'm not 100% sure right now.

Right now I've got my two favorite levels filmed, each cutting the standard run time in half using nifty "out of the level" tricks...

Here are two sample runs to see what I'm trying to accomplish:

http://www.cold-coding.com/uploads/SPJ_MetalArms_TheyLiveSpeedRun.wmv

http://www.cold-coding.com/uploads/SPJ_MetalArms_TrenchesSpeedRun.wmv

Thread title:

I'm an SDA noob so if I'm doing something 'wrong' let me know...

Anyways, I'm planning on making a segmented, non-tool assisted Metal Arms: Glitch in the System speedrun for Xbox. By segmented I mean filming all 42 levels seperately and slapping them all together into one vid. Sorry if I'm insulting anyone's intelligence...

So basically, I just want to know what the interest in this is so I don't start wasting away my life filming a run that no one will care about. Also, any tips or tricks you guys know for the game would be greatly appreciated as this is going to take a while...

I'm pretty certain I can get the run under 2 hours but I'm not 100% sure right now.

Right now I've got my two favorite levels filmed, each cutting the standard run time in half using nifty "out of the level" tricks...

Here are two sample runs to see what I'm trying to accomplish:

http://www.cold-coding.com/uploads/SPJ_MetalArms_TheyLiveSpeedRun.wmv

http://www.cold-coding.com/uploads/SPJ_MetalArms_TrenchesSpeedRun.wmv

slYnki

Edit history:

slYnki: 2005-12-12 12:07:34 am

2005-12-12 12:06:51 am

XXY

Quote:

Sorry if I'm insulting anyone's intelligence...

ROFL. Yeah, we know what segmented runs are (if you hadn't noticed the enormous game list ::))

Let me first start by welcoming you to the community. And if you want to do a run of this game, I wish you the best of luck on it. Also, this Metal Arms game, is it an FPS? Because I may want to check it out if it is Tongue

(I'm an FPS junkie ._.)

Now community, back this man up immediately <_<;

SPJglitches

2005-12-12 12:15:21 am

Glitch Colonel

Thanks for the official welcome. Smiley

Metal Arms is a 3rd person shooter but it mine as well be an FPS. It controls just like one and a lot of people (i.e. game reviewers) say it's a 'lighthearted Halo.' You can pick it up for around 10 bucks used these days...

And yeah, back me up already! Sheesh!

Psychochild

Edit history:

Psychochild: 2005-12-12 12:44:01 am

2005-12-12 12:34:29 am

Bah, leave me alone! I just got done with a run today!

(Grumbles, stands up and waves a hand dismissively.)

Anyways, although I don't have an XBox, seeing as how I don't enoy a controller that can be doubled as a barbel, I am a sucker for third person shooters, and as it was, when I saw reviews for it a while back, I admit I was very curious to how it played. Like everything else, I'll be all too pleased to have another run to look forward to, just out of my perverse curiosity.

Now, as for useful links 'n such, as it is my thing to say this.

http://speeddemosarchive.com/rules.html
http://speeddemosarchive.com/faq.html

Read these two pages as, despite what most F.A.Q.s I've read in my life, are actually full of useful information. You don't want to nullify your run for posting on the site because you broke a few rules here and there.

Also, once you've read up on those pages, feel free to check out http://speeddemosarchive.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=other;action=display;num=1122433146 which is pretty much a guide to all things recording and compressing as the title hints at. If you're planning to capture it yourself, DO at least breeze it over to make sure you got everything you'd need, make sure it's all peachy, all that great stuff. If you're recording on VHS, we have requirements there as well in order to ensure the highest visual quality possible when Nate or you yourself capture this run.

Also, could you care to elaborate on this "Out of Level" glitch? Because there has been a few runs that took some serious shortcuts that invalidated for SDA posting (The Perfect Dark run, which used a glitch in the first level to get out of the boundaries of the game world and head straight for the trigger to end the mission). Such rulings vary from game to game, but it's best to get this kind of stuff all cleared up before you really get involved in the run.

.... And yes, I'm allowed to flaunt my ignorance with the Xbox comment.

And now, back to being useless and playing games for leisure for the first time in... months. Excuse me.

Bah, leave me alone!  I just got done with a run today!

(Grumbles, stands up and waves a hand dismissively.)

Anyways, although I don't have an XBox, seeing as how I don't enoy a controller that can be doubled as a barbel, I am a sucker for third person shooters, and as it was, when I saw reviews for it a while back, I admit I was very curious to how it played.  Like everything else, I'll be all too pleased to have another run to look forward to, just out of my perverse curiosity.

Now, as for useful links 'n such, as it is my thing to say this.

http://speeddemosarchive.com/rules.html
http://speeddemosarchive.com/faq.html

Read these two pages as, despite what most F.A.Q.s I've read in my life, are actually full of useful information.  You don't want to nullify your run for posting on the site because you broke a few rules here and there.

Also, once you've read up on those pages, feel free to check out http://speeddemosarchive.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=other;action=display;num=1122433146 which is pretty much a guide to all things recording and compressing as the title hints at.  If you're planning to capture it yourself, DO at least breeze it over to make sure you got everything you'd need, make sure it's all peachy, all that great stuff.  If you're recording on VHS, we have requirements there as well in order to ensure the highest visual quality possible when Nate or you yourself capture this run.

Also, could you care to elaborate on this "Out of Level" glitch?  Because there has been a few runs that took some serious shortcuts that invalidated for SDA posting (The Perfect Dark run, which used a glitch in the first level to get out of the boundaries of the game world and head straight for the trigger to end the mission).  Such rulings vary from game to game, but it's best to get this kind of stuff all cleared up before you really get involved in the run.

.... And yes, I'm allowed to flaunt my ignorance with the Xbox comment.

And now, back to being useless and playing games for leisure for the first time in... months.  Excuse me.

twoton

2005-12-12 12:57:19 am

I am indifferent towards YABB

Quote:

By segmented I mean filming all 42 levels seperately and slapping them all together into one vid.

Putting them all together into one big vid probably isn't a good idea if you want it listed here.

AFAIK, none of the other games listed here do that. Whether it's just "frowned upon" or "actually breaks the rules", I don't know.

Psychochild

2005-12-12 12:59:11 am

Quote:

Putting them all together into one big vid probably isn't a good idea if you want it listed here.

AFAIK, none of the other games listed here do that. Whether it's just "frowned upon" or "actually breaks the rules", I don't know.

Doom 3 and Doom 3:Ressurection of Evil. Segmented runs that are done in one file off the top of my head, and that was because the player did the video work, if I recall.

Surely if it was an issue, it would've been raised against Doom 3 and not encouraged for the second one.

Lag.Com

2005-12-12 01:00:39 am

sda loyalist

I played this game a fair bit and I enjoyed it immensely; a lot of the later levels are quite tricky, and the sheer length of the game was value for money.
I'd be interested to see this speedrun at a high difficulty. Smiley

SPJglitches

Edit history:

SPJglitches: 2005-12-12 01:24:24 am

2005-12-12 01:20:02 am

Glitch Colonel

Quote:

Anyways, although I don't have an XBox, seeing as how I don't enoy a controller that can be doubled as a barbel, I am a sucker for third person shooters, and as it was, when I saw reviews for it a while back, I admit I was very curious to how it played. Like everything else, I'll be all too pleased to have another run to look forward to, just out of my perverse curiosity.

Now, as for useful links 'n such, as it is my thing to say this.

http://speeddemosarchive.com/rules.html
http://speeddemosarchive.com/faq.html

Read these two pages as, despite what most F.A.Q.s I've read in my life, are actually full of useful information. You don't want to nullify your run for posting on the site because you broke a few rules here and there.

Also, once you've read up on those pages, feel free to check out http://speeddemosarchive.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=other;action=display;num=1122433146 which is pretty much a guide to all things recording and compressing as the title hints at. If you're planning to capture it yourself, DO at least breeze it over to make sure you got everything you'd need, make sure it's all peachy, all that great stuff. If you're recording on VHS, we have requirements there as well in order to ensure the highest visual quality possible when Nate or you yourself capture this run.

Also, could you care to elaborate on this "Out of Level" glitch? Because there has been a few runs that took some serious shortcuts that invalidated for SDA posting (The Perfect Dark run, which used a glitch in the first level to get out of the boundaries of the game world and head straight for the trigger to end the mission). Such rulings vary from game to game, but it's best to get this kind of stuff all cleared up before you really get involved in the run.

.... And yes, I'm allowed to flaunt my ignorance with the Xbox comment.

Well, the game is out for Gamecube and PS2 as well but I'm doing it on the Xbox version. If you don't like your textures shiny and your load times fast I guess that's just your prerogative... Wink

Thank you much for the links, some things were very helpful and some things weren't but thanks nonetheless. Smiley

You guys have definitely been the friendliest welcomers of any forum I've been to and you guys should be applauded. /me gives applause.

I'll be capturing the run myself with my own capture card (as you'll soon see in my poorly compressed videos) but in the future I'll use the VirtualDub / a million other things combo to compress.

For examples of "out of the level" type glitches I've been using you can check out the video links below. Both are .wmv format...

http://www.cold-coding.com/uploads/SPJ_MetalArms_TheyLiveSpeedRun.wmv

http://www.cold-coding.com/uploads/SPJ_MetalArms_TrenchesSpeedRun.wmv

(Btw, I chopped out the parts of your post that I wasn't responding to to save space in my massive post)

Quote:

Putting them all together into one big vid probably isn't a good idea if you want it listed here.

Yeah you're probably right. I hadn't read the FAQ until a minute ago and hadn't read the part about multiple videos for segmented runs... :-[

Quote:

I played this game a fair bit and I enjoyed it immensely; a lot of the later levels are quite tricky, and the sheer length of the game was value for money.
I'd be interested to see this speedrun at a high difficulty. Smiley

Definitely value for my money seeing as how I got it for $10. Smiley

About doing it at the highest difficulty I don't know. I'd rather just do a straight up fastest time possible run but you may be able to convince me otherwise...

[quote]Anyways, although I don't have an XBox, seeing as how I don't enoy a controller that can be doubled as a barbel, I am a sucker for third person shooters, and as it was, when I saw reviews for it a while back, I admit I was very curious to how it played.  Like everything else, I'll be all too pleased to have another run to look forward to, just out of my perverse curiosity.

Now, as for useful links 'n such, as it is my thing to say this.

http://speeddemosarchive.com/rules.html
http://speeddemosarchive.com/faq.html

Read these two pages as, despite what most F.A.Q.s I've read in my life, are actually full of useful information.  You don't want to nullify your run for posting on the site because you broke a few rules here and there.

Also, once you've read up on those pages, feel free to check out http://speeddemosarchive.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=other;action=display;num=1122433146 which is pretty much a guide to all things recording and compressing as the title hints at.  If you're planning to capture it yourself, DO at least breeze it over to make sure you got everything you'd need, make sure it's all peachy, all that great stuff.  If you're recording on VHS, we have requirements there as well in order to ensure the highest visual quality possible when Nate or you yourself capture this run.

Also, could you care to elaborate on this "Out of Level" glitch?  Because there has been a few runs that took some serious shortcuts that invalidated for SDA posting (The Perfect Dark run, which used a glitch in the first level to get out of the boundaries of the game world and head straight for the trigger to end the mission).  Such rulings vary from game to game, but it's best to get this kind of stuff all cleared up before you really get involved in the run.

.... And yes, I'm allowed to flaunt my ignorance with the Xbox comment.  
[/quote]
Well, the game is out for Gamecube and PS2 as well but I'm doing it on the Xbox version. If you don't like your textures shiny and your load times fast I guess that's just your prerogative... ;)

Thank you much for the links, some things were very helpful and some things weren't but thanks nonetheless. :) You guys have definitely been the friendliest welcomers of any forum I've been to and you guys should be applauded. /me gives applause.

I'll be capturing the run myself with my own capture card (as you'll soon see in my poorly compressed videos) but in the future I'll use the VirtualDub / a million other things combo to compress.

For examples of "out of the level" type glitches I've been using you can check out the video links below. Both are .wmv format...

http://www.cold-coding.com/uploads/SPJ_MetalArms_TheyLiveSpeedRun.wmv

http://www.cold-coding.com/uploads/SPJ_MetalArms_TrenchesSpeedRun.wmv

(Btw, I chopped out the parts of your post that I wasn't responding to to save space in my massive post)
[quote]

Putting them all together into one big vid probably isn't a good idea if you want it listed here.[/quote]
Yeah you're probably right. I hadn't read the FAQ until a minute ago and hadn't read the part about multiple videos for segmented runs... :-[

[quote]I played this game a fair bit and I enjoyed it immensely; a lot of the later levels are quite tricky, and the sheer length of the game was value for money.
I'd be interested to see this speedrun at a high difficulty. :)[/quote]

Definitely value for my money seeing as how I got it for $10. :) About doing it at the highest difficulty I don't know. I'd rather just do a straight up fastest time possible run but you may be able to convince me otherwise...

Psychochild

2005-12-12 02:11:25 am

D'oh! I thought it was a Xbox exclusive!

Anyways, watching the "They Live!" level, I imagine that'd be just fine. You're just abusing the terrain and avoiding combat triggers. Nothing at all wrong with that.

SPJglitches

2005-12-12 02:26:57 am

Glitch Colonel

Quote:

D'oh! I thought it was a Xbox exclusive!

Anyways, watching the "They Live!" level, I imagine that'd be just fine. You're just abusing the terrain and avoiding combat triggers. Nothing at all wrong with that.

Yeah I figured nothing would be wrong with that. Thanks for the double check though. Grin

slYnki

Edit history:

slYnki: 2005-12-12 02:51:20 am

2005-12-12 02:46:34 am

XXY

Well, here's the thing about all the segments being strung together. I don't think anyone is opposed to it, because that's what Apathy did for his Doom 3 run, just appended all his .avi's to one file, but it'd be best if you avoided it.

Once this run is finished, I think all the levels will all get a spot on a table and that'll be that Grin

I too watched the They Live speedrun, and it looked ok to me. The quality and the sound were great too. So I don't think you'll have to send these to our good friend Nate to be captured.

Nikuvilin

Edit history:

Nikuvilin: 2005-12-12 08:09:47 pm

2005-12-12 01:01:26 pm

DMC3,ZOE2 and Xenosaga 2.  Am I crazy?

Metal Arms was one of my favourite shooters. It had a wacky sense of humor and coll weapons. I love your preview vids and I am looking forward to your run!!!

SPJglitches

2005-12-12 07:55:23 pm

Glitch Colonel

All right so I've been doing some thinking about this run and I've concluded one thing and am still trying to figure out another.

When I said that the game could be completed in less than two hours, I was wrong. Completely. My reasoning is that if every run took 3 minutes (which would be ridiculously fast) that would be 3 x 42 which would equal 126 minutes which would be just over 2 hours. So as you can probably tell, this isn't happening. I'm guessing around 3 hours now but I may be wrong again.

As for how to segment the run, I'm debating whether or not to do 42 segments (1 for each level) or 6 segments of 7 levels. Doing 1 level at a time would make it so I could really nail down each run but it would be less impressive than tackling 7 at a time (which is still very doable.) Your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated...

Btw, I won't be starting this until Wednesday at the earliest... School > speedrunning.

Nikuvilin

2005-12-12 08:09:31 pm

DMC3,ZOE2 and Xenosaga 2.  Am I crazy?

I would like to see 42 seghments but that is just me. You should ask Radix.

Acryte

2005-12-12 08:41:10 pm

Zelda Scientist®

Show'em how good you are. On SDA, 6 > 42.

StrangenessDSS

2005-12-12 08:47:23 pm

Sleeping Terror

Quote:

Show'em how good you are. On SDA, 6 > 42.

No. If you're going to do segmented, do as many as you need to avoid mistakes. If you want to show how much you can do at once, then do a single-segment.

How much stuff carries over between levels in this game?

SPJglitches

Edit history:

SPJglitches: 2005-12-13 01:28:58 am

2005-12-12 08:58:09 pm

Glitch Colonel

Weapons you purchase and any upgrade you may find will carry over but it's basically inconsequential in the kind of run I'm doing. You don't need to waste time buying new guns when you aren't gonna be shooting to kill half the time...

EDIT: Also, I should mention that weapons you get late in the game will not be able to be used early in the game. The weapons you are able to use depends on what level you are on.

EDIT AGAIN: I just sent an email to Radix about this and this is what I said:

This second one is more of a rules interpretation type of thing, but what are your guidelines for weapons and upgrades being carried over from previously beaten levels? For the speedrun I'm making I am planning on using the level select feature that you get after already beating the game so I can access any level I want to at my choosing.
One thing that could possibly be a problem is that you receive and purchase new weapons as you progress in the game. You aren't allowed to save up all of your money to get one super weapon early in the game though; the game restricts what you can buy on how far you are in the game chronologically. This also doesn't mean that I'll be able to use advanced weapons from later levels in earlier levels either. The game only lets you use weapons that were possible to have been bought and/or aquired in the specific level. So basically, I will only have access to weapons and upgrades that would have been available to me had I been playing in chronological order and thus I won't be making any new 'purchases' during the runs. If this presents a problem for some reason then I could remedy that by making an entirely new game save, filming me making it and showing that I'm using that save every time I film a segment. This would also restrict me to doing the levels in order from first to last which might be annoying but whatever..

Weapons you purchase and any upgrade you may find will carry over but it's basically inconsequential in the kind of run I'm doing. You don't need to waste time buying new guns when you aren't gonna be shooting to kill half the time...

EDIT: Also, I should mention that weapons you get late in the game will not be able to be used early in the game. The weapons you are able to use depends on what level you are on.

EDIT AGAIN: I just sent an email to Radix about this and this is what I said:

This second one is more of a rules interpretation type of thing, but what are your guidelines for weapons and upgrades being carried over from previously beaten levels? For the speedrun I'm making I am planning on using the level select feature that you get after already beating the game so I can access any level I want to at my choosing.
One thing that could possibly be a problem is that you receive and purchase new weapons as you progress in the game. You aren't allowed to save up all of your money to get one super weapon early in the game though; the game restricts what you can buy on how far you are in the game chronologically. This also doesn't mean that I'll be able to use advanced weapons from later levels in earlier levels either. The game only lets you use weapons that were possible to have been bought and/or aquired in the specific level. So basically, I will only have access to weapons and upgrades that would have been available to me had I been playing in chronological order and thus I won't be making any new 'purchases' during the runs. If this presents a problem for some reason then I could remedy that by making an entirely new game save, filming me making it and showing that I'm using that save every time I film a segment. This would also restrict me to doing the levels in order from first to last which might be annoying but whatever..

SPJglitches

2005-12-13 08:01:34 pm

Glitch Colonel

All right, so does anyone really care about seeing this done? I'm not going to waste my time doing this if no more than one person is genuinely interested...

StrangenessDSS

2005-12-13 08:15:27 pm

Sleeping Terror

It sounds like an individual level chart would work well for this game, in which case you could do each level using any save. Radix has the final word, of course.

I heard this game was good, but I haven't played it, so I can't say I'm personally interested...

SPJglitches

2005-12-14 01:18:31 am

Glitch Colonel

I just got an email back from Radix saying I should make an entirely new game save and start recording from the beginning as if I'd never played the game before. Also I would have to show that I am using the same game save before each segment. This is a pain because,
A. I've already recorded 6 levels perfectly with a different save and
B. I would be forced to do the levels in consecutive order and I would not be able to complete levels I know how to do well before ones I'd need to practice a long time on.
So, I'll have to wait a pretty long time to get around to level 10 (which I can do perfectly) because I need to spend a long time trying to get through level 4 really fast. It's a necessary evil I guess but it's still an evil...

Lag.Com

2005-12-14 10:50:33 am

sda loyalist

As the levels are 'somewhat linked', it makes sense to do it as a whole game run. This is the most common situation for speedrunning.
I'd try and provide some competition, but I've since lost my copy of Metal Arms :-/. This isn't a very famous game, so don't be surprised if not many people comment.

Nikuvilin

2005-12-14 05:42:23 pm

DMC3,ZOE2 and Xenosaga 2.  Am I crazy?

There are many guys or gals around here that won`t say anything but will still watch the run. Don`t let yoyur hopes down? btw I agree with Radix that you should use a fresh game.

SPJglitches

2005-12-15 07:58:38 pm

Glitch Colonel

Alright so I've decided to not go ahead and do the speedrun. It's not worth the time or the patience to undergo 42 levels of perfection for an obscure game. If you were looking forward to this, sorry, but feel free to steal any tricks that I did if anyone else wants to speedrun this.

For now, farewell SDA but I may be back sometime again to speedrun a different game...

Nikuvilin

Edit history:

Nikuvilin: 2005-12-16 03:21:37 pm

2005-12-16 03:21:27 pm

DMC3,ZOE2 and Xenosaga 2.  Am I crazy?

Quote:

Alright so I've decided to not go ahead and do the speedrun. It's not worth the time or the patience to undergo 42 levels of perfection for an obscure game. If you were looking forward to this, sorry, but feel free to steal any tricks that I did if anyone else wants to speedrun this.

For now, farewell SDA but I may be back sometime again to speedrun a different game...

And that is the reason why you should POST if you want to see the speedrun and not just hang there wihout saying anything.

chumpp

2006-01-25 10:10:39 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

me and a friend were beta testers at vivendi universal for that game
we always talk about how much fun it is and how fun it was to test with all the glitches we found
i would love to see a speed run on this game
all the testers on it would abuse several glitches with it to make the playthroughs much easier
"nuts of steel" was near impossible without these
i personally would like to see some of your best times and would probably contribute some of my own

perhaps have a category for normal and nuts of steel but both being segmented
normal would be faster, but nuts of steel is more about strategy and surviving with limited ammo and life
my friend was constantly put on nuts of steel playthroughs and could do it in about 14 hours straight, but that is not as interesting to watch as there are some levels that are not as optimizable as others like when the dog is driving for you (and that is challenging enough on nuts of steel)

i would love to see this game as a category and i think you would be pleasantly surprised at some of the glitches we know that are still in the game

its a shame its not such a big title because Vivendi wasted all their marketing on "the hobbit" ...such a horrible game

i will check back and hopefully you will start trying it out.
for starters...try to beat level 8 in 30 seconds
i know i can Wink

me and a friend were beta testers at vivendi universal for that game
we always talk about how much fun it is and how fun it was to test with all the glitches we found
i would love to see a speed run on this game
all the testers on it would abuse several glitches with it to make the playthroughs much easier
"nuts of steel" was near impossible without these
i personally would like to see some of your best times and would probably contribute some of my own

perhaps have a category for normal and nuts of steel but both being segmented
normal would be faster, but nuts of steel is more about strategy and surviving with limited ammo and life
my friend was constantly put on nuts of steel playthroughs and could do it in about 14 hours straight, but that is not as interesting to watch as there are some levels that are not as optimizable as others like when the dog is driving for you (and that is challenging enough on nuts of steel)

i would love to see this game as a category and i think you would be pleasantly surprised at some of the glitches we know that are still in the game

its a shame its not such a big title because Vivendi wasted all their marketing on "the hobbit" ...such a horrible game

i will check back and hopefully you will start trying it out.
for starters...try to beat level 8 in 30 seconds
i know i can  ;)