Edit history:
UnimaginativeHandle: 2015-08-19 04:04:46 pm
UnimaginativeHandle: 2015-08-19 04:02:11 pm
UnimaginativeHandle: 2015-08-19 02:38:34 am
UnimaginativeHandle: 2015-08-19 02:38:22 am
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Z
Greetings, Runners.
I started working on this run as a good routing exercise as there didn't seem to be any movement tech or any glitches or anything; then I found a video on YouTube of VCVipeOut using an out of bounds launch by the Puzzle Gates & it changed the game & got me wondering where else this could be applied.
After a bunch of testing on various Telegraph Poles & other objects in the game that seemed to trigger the out of bounds launch (which I'm still not sure I fully understand, possibly the player model is getting wedged inside the geometry & being rejected), it seemed like the fastest route would need to include lowering the bridge, completing Fisherman's Beach and the Puzzle Gates and then you could get a giant launch from Mulligan's Slope which lands on top of the mountain & you can walk over & land in Brennan's Folly & get the keys to go do the Semaphore (dials) puzzle which allows you to finish the game; this would be still be a good run but slow because of the item distribution & the generally slow player movement, what with him being an ill Irishman bereft with grief & constantly being rained on & all.
However, that was all only because it seemed like any time you could get into the water that there was an invisible wall along every exposed part of the shoreline, every place I tried, I thought they'd covered all the bases; I'm pretty sure I've scoured every inch of coastline on that godforsaken Mount & found the only place where you can get back inbounds. Thankfully, this is the most consistent thing in the whole run & is the discovery which led to the whole thing being so short; not-so-thankfully doing the run with this route means you have to get the OoB Launch from the cliff stairway which is the most inconsistent because otherwise you can't get the keys to access the Semaphore puzzle & you can't get back into the water or go anywhere else; that fence post killed so many runs.
There are still some things I don't like about this run & by my calculations there is probably 31 seconds to save if everything comes off perfectly. The biggest one being a better approach on the final staircase as there has been a weird issue where it doesn't let you walk up it for quite a while even though it is just an open stairs, I remember that being an issue when the game came out & I guess it never got fixed & I think it wastes about 13 seconds in the run. There is also a bug in the first gate cutscene where it looks out to sea for no reason & wastes about 4-5 seconds, this only happens when you start a new game not if you load the first checkpoint when you pick up the walking stick, which is weird.
All in all I'm pretty happy with this, I really didn't expect to find as many ways to save time as I did.
I don't think any of the other cutscenes can be skipped, you don't seem to be able to click the letter through the safe which might skip the long 'photos' cutscene at the end & the only other major skip I can think of would be if you can launch from the cliff stairs & somehow land in the top of the tower & it seems like you can't trigger the safe without doing the semaphore puzzle as there is an invisible wall above the tower gate until you do the Semaphore puzzle, open the gate latch & push the gate, so who knows if the safe would even be active if you managed by sheer luck to land up there. Considering my bad luck with landing slightly off target & just getting wedged in rocks, I'd probably just plummet through the tower.
I'm also not sure if you can speed up the movement any. I tap right while walking forward in the water as it least seemed to me that it gave a slight boost, I really hope it can't be sped up by strafe walking like the Dear Esther speedrun, even watching that run made my fingers ache.
{{#ev:youtube|XvxAKmW_Hjk}}
Done in 2 segments because I didn't want to sit through the unskippable intro every time.
I started working on this run as a good routing exercise as there didn't seem to be any movement tech or any glitches or anything; then I found a video on YouTube of VCVipeOut using an out of bounds launch by the Puzzle Gates & it changed the game & got me wondering where else this could be applied.
After a bunch of testing on various Telegraph Poles & other objects in the game that seemed to trigger the out of bounds launch (which I'm still not sure I fully understand, possibly the player model is getting wedged inside the geometry & being rejected), it seemed like the fastest route would need to include lowering the bridge, completing Fisherman's Beach and the Puzzle Gates and then you could get a giant launch from Mulligan's Slope which lands on top of the mountain & you can walk over & land in Brennan's Folly & get the keys to go do the Semaphore (dials) puzzle which allows you to finish the game; this would be still be a good run but slow because of the item distribution & the generally slow player movement, what with him being an ill Irishman bereft with grief & constantly being rained on & all.
However, that was all only because it seemed like any time you could get into the water that there was an invisible wall along every exposed part of the shoreline, every place I tried, I thought they'd covered all the bases; I'm pretty sure I've scoured every inch of coastline on that godforsaken Mount & found the only place where you can get back inbounds. Thankfully, this is the most consistent thing in the whole run & is the discovery which led to the whole thing being so short; not-so-thankfully doing the run with this route means you have to get the OoB Launch from the cliff stairway which is the most inconsistent because otherwise you can't get the keys to access the Semaphore puzzle & you can't get back into the water or go anywhere else; that fence post killed so many runs.
There are still some things I don't like about this run & by my calculations there is probably 31 seconds to save if everything comes off perfectly. The biggest one being a better approach on the final staircase as there has been a weird issue where it doesn't let you walk up it for quite a while even though it is just an open stairs, I remember that being an issue when the game came out & I guess it never got fixed & I think it wastes about 13 seconds in the run. There is also a bug in the first gate cutscene where it looks out to sea for no reason & wastes about 4-5 seconds, this only happens when you start a new game not if you load the first checkpoint when you pick up the walking stick, which is weird.
All in all I'm pretty happy with this, I really didn't expect to find as many ways to save time as I did.
I don't think any of the other cutscenes can be skipped, you don't seem to be able to click the letter through the safe which might skip the long 'photos' cutscene at the end & the only other major skip I can think of would be if you can launch from the cliff stairs & somehow land in the top of the tower & it seems like you can't trigger the safe without doing the semaphore puzzle as there is an invisible wall above the tower gate until you do the Semaphore puzzle, open the gate latch & push the gate, so who knows if the safe would even be active if you managed by sheer luck to land up there. Considering my bad luck with landing slightly off target & just getting wedged in rocks, I'd probably just plummet through the tower.
I'm also not sure if you can speed up the movement any. I tap right while walking forward in the water as it least seemed to me that it gave a slight boost, I really hope it can't be sped up by strafe walking like the Dear Esther speedrun, even watching that run made my fingers ache.
{{#ev:youtube|XvxAKmW_Hjk}}
Done in 2 segments because I didn't want to sit through the unskippable intro every time.
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