New speed runner tips?

2011-02-02 02:17:38 pm

Waiting hurts my soul...

Quote from Fed981:

About streaming, I had one question : how much data do you upload while streaming? Because I'm limited to 4GB per day.

If you stream at a low bit-rate (400 kbps), you can basically stream all day (without doing anything else) and barely touch 4GB.

Sir VG

2011-02-02 02:29:28 pm

Fucking Weeaboo

Quote from Fed981:

About streaming, I had one question : how much data do you upload while streaming? Because I'm limited to 4GB per day.

If you use a program like Adobe Flash Media Encoder to stream with (which really helps, especially on video frame rate stuff), you can adjust settings and it'll tell you how much data it uses. My setup uses 380KBPS, which means roughly 10526315 seconds of streaming per day, which isn't anywhere near a 4GB/day limit.

ZenicReverie

Edit history:

ZenicReverie: 2011-02-02 02:55:02 pm

2011-02-02 02:52:52 pm

Waiting hurts my soul...

Where did you get that number from Sir VG?

If you were to stream 24/7 and had a 4GB/day limit, then you'd be capped with a 370kbps limit. So, you can basically start from there. If you only want to stream for 12 hours, then you have a 740 kbps limit. Adjust your bit rate as needed and pay attention to what else you're going to be doing online.

Be aware, that these aren't exact numbers since 4GB is not equal to 4,000,000,000 bytes, so your results may vary.

romscout

2011-02-02 02:54:20 pm

that Metroidvania guy

Regarding speed running: my biggest advice would be to fuck around with your game a lot. In all the games I've tried to seriously run so far, I've found a lot of little time savers just from casually playing without a particular goal, generally experimenting on the speed route instead of going through it hardcore, and just trying random tricks I know in the game at random areas. This is especially something I do a lot when I get frustrated with actual, recorded run attempts, which I must admit doesn't take long to happen for me. Finding glitches/tricks is definitely more fun than actually doing the runs, and is a great choice for downtime from the attempts.

Regarding streams: I have to agree that streaming at least makes the process of speed running more fun, if not more productive. In all of the games I have streamed, the audience has helped find at least a couple time savers, and they practically guided me through learning optimal strategies for Fallout 3. The chat is great especially during practice runs, and you'll find that you get used to responding to it even during recorded runs (although you may also find with certain games that it ends up being a distraction still and you might want to invoke "serious time" for yourself during recorded sessions). Unless you plan on streaming 15+ hours a day, I wouldn't worry about the 4GB/day limit.

Regarding speed running: my biggest advice would be to fuck around with your game a lot. In all the games I've tried to seriously run so far, I've found a lot of little time savers just from casually playing without a particular goal, generally experimenting on the speed route instead of going through it hardcore, and just trying random tricks I know in the game at random areas. This is especially something I do a lot when I get frustrated with actual, recorded run attempts, which I must admit doesn't take long to happen for me. Finding glitches/tricks is definitely more fun than actually doing the runs, and is a great choice for downtime from the attempts.

Regarding streams: I have to agree that streaming at least makes the process of speed running more fun, if not more productive. In all of the games I have streamed, the audience has helped find at least a couple time savers, and they practically guided me through learning optimal strategies for Fallout 3. The chat is great especially during practice runs, and you'll find that you get used to responding to it even during recorded runs (although you may also find with certain games that it ends up being a distraction still and you might want to invoke "serious time" for yourself during recorded sessions). Unless you plan on streaming 15+ hours a day, I wouldn't worry about the 4GB/day limit.

Sir VG

2011-02-02 03:17:14 pm

Fucking Weeaboo

Oops, too many zeros. 10526 seconds then. I was thinking bytes and then dividing by KB. Doesn't quite work that way. ^^;;

Heidrage

2011-02-02 09:56:41 pm

Willing to teach you the impossible

Quote from RaneofSOTN:

4. Stream! I donno how many other people will agree to this but streaming can be helpful! Maybe your not seeing that tight optimization some guy might point out? Maybe you aren't as good as fending off distractions, chat will help you get used to it! Maybe you aren't sure what your doing but it works! Taking the time to explain something can help. I know i helped stanski at the marathon cause I got him to explain the Oil Ocean 2 or whatever skip. And after he sat down and explained it to me his success rate shot up another 20%!

5. Berate your perfect performance. I dont mean to be a downer but we aren't all perfect (except maybe Heidman and that japanese SM runner who i can't recall his name right now). Drop the bomb, criticize EVERYTHING! tear your run apart, build it back up and then tear it down again. If you know it all, its all great.

I agree with streaming given you can. If you can't, get a friend or brother/sister, just some one that has some remote interest in it to watch you. If they ask questions, that is even better. Having that audience can bring another level of stress to your run. Get used to it. Then while you play solo its is that much less stressful.

I agree with crushing your performance. But I have to disagree with me being perfect. I try to be, but I fail at it every time. The more you bitch about the small stuffs like losing a frame for what ever reason, the more you will have it in your mind and naturally fix it. Bash the shit out of it. Just like Rane said. Even while you are running. Let it out. If you watch my stream you can get a good idea of how to do it and for the stuff I do it for (note: you will also see how much i really hate the game and all the stuffs I really do reset for. Don't be surprised is you don't see stage 3 or beyond if I am running Super C).

[quote="RaneofSOTN"]4. Stream! I donno how many other people will agree to this but streaming can be helpful! Maybe your not seeing that tight optimization some guy might point out? Maybe you aren't as good as fending off distractions, chat will help you get used to it! Maybe you aren't sure what your doing but it works! Taking the time to explain something can help. I know i helped stanski at the marathon cause I got him to explain the Oil Ocean 2 or whatever skip. And after he sat down and explained it to me his success rate shot up another 20%!

5. Berate your perfect performance. I dont mean to be a downer but we aren't all perfect (except maybe Heidman and that japanese SM runner who i can't recall his name right now). Drop the bomb, criticize EVERYTHING! tear your run apart, build it back up and then tear it down again. If you know it all, its all great.[/quote]
I agree with streaming given you can. If you can't, get a friend or brother/sister, just some one that has some remote interest in it to watch you. If they ask questions, that is even better. Having that audience can bring another level of stress to your run. Get used to it. Then while you play solo its is that much less stressful.

I agree with crushing your performance. But I have to disagree with me being perfect. I try to be, but I fail at it every time. The more you bitch about the small stuffs like losing a frame for what ever reason, the more you will have it in your mind and naturally fix it. Bash the shit out of it. Just like Rane said. Even while you are running. Let it out. If you watch my stream you can get a good idea of how to do it and for the stuff I do it for (note: you will also see how much i really hate the game and all the stuffs I really do reset for. Don't be surprised is you don't see stage 3 or beyond if I am running Super C).

UraniumAnchor

2011-02-03 03:03:49 pm

Not a walrus

When I was running Blaster Master a couple years back (jeez has it really been that long already) 95% of my resets were before I even beat the first boss. Another 3% never saw the third level. Be prepared for this.

Of course, I was also trying to beat an existing run so it might not be as bad if it's a "fresh" run.

stanski

Edit history:

stanski: 2011-02-03 03:48:39 pm

2011-02-03 03:45:56 pm

wise fwom yo gwave

Quote from UraniumAnchor:

When I was running Blaster Master a couple years back (jeez has it really been that long already) 95% of my resets were before I even beat the first boss. Another 3% never saw the third level. Be prepared for this.

Of course, I was also trying to beat an existing run so it might not be as bad if it's a "fresh" run.

This of course depends a lot on the game, but yea getting in this habit blows and you need to let some runs just go to completion. I would have never finished castlevania bloodlines if i would have kept restarting in the 1st and 2nd stage every time because of how hard some of the stuff in the other stages was, i eventually let 15 seconds of mistakes early mean a run actually getting completed.

With sonic 2 100% i basically never get out of emerald hill 1. Sonic 2 any% is better, there i just never get past ~halfway through the game (I rarely get to the oil ocean stages and almost even more rarely, metropolis). This means that i basically will never finish a sonic 2 100% run because if i do get out of emerald hill 1 (basically i restart if i lose more then 3 or 4 seconds), i have to deal with the rest of the game lol. I don't think this is the most efficient way to do it whatsoever and don't condone it, but you get to the point where you are so committed to doing a run that you don't want any mistakes in the final product early.

The biggest tip is find a game you know really well and don't mind learning even better. There were a lot of games i thought would be "easy speedruns" (thinking of streets of rage, vectorman, double dragon) because i had played them a ton, but when i actually got down to doing runs i got really annoyed with the games. For some reason I almost never get annoyed with sonic 2, probably because there is no randomness in the game at all, but i can play that thing for hours and hours and hours... finding a game like this is really hard and mostly you will get sick of what you are trying to run if you are trying to get your standards to the correct level. So yea, pick something fun.

[quote="UraniumAnchor"]When I was running Blaster Master a couple years back (jeez has it really been that long already) 95% of my resets were before I even beat the first boss. Another 3% never saw the third level. Be prepared for this.

Of course, I was also trying to beat an existing run so it might not be as bad if it's a "fresh" run.[/quote]

This of course depends a lot on the game, but yea getting in this habit blows and you need to let some runs just go to completion. I would have never finished castlevania bloodlines if i would have kept restarting in the 1st and 2nd stage every time because of how hard some of the stuff in the other stages was, i eventually let 15 seconds of mistakes early mean a run actually getting completed.

With sonic 2 100% i basically never get out of emerald hill 1. Sonic 2 any% is better, there i just never get past ~halfway through the game (I rarely get to the oil ocean stages and almost even more rarely, metropolis). This means that i basically will never finish a sonic 2 100% run because if i do get out of emerald hill 1 (basically i restart if i lose more then 3 or 4 seconds), i have to deal with the rest of the game lol. I don't think this is the most efficient way to do it whatsoever and don't condone it, but you get to the point where you are so committed to doing a run that you don't want any mistakes in the final product early.

The biggest tip is find a game you know really well and don't mind learning even better. There were a lot of games i thought would be "easy speedruns" (thinking of streets of rage, vectorman, double dragon) because i had played them a ton, but when i actually got down to doing runs i got really annoyed with the games. For some reason I almost never get annoyed with sonic 2, probably because there is no randomness in the game at all, but i can play that thing for hours and hours and hours... finding a game like this is really hard and mostly you will get sick of what you are trying to run if you are trying to get your standards to the correct level. So yea, pick something fun.

Manocheese

2011-02-03 04:46:55 pm

Yes, a cucco riding the ground.

I second the advice not to restart at the slightest mistake, at least not at first. It's better to keep going if you make a mistake unless you've screwed up so royally that continuing will only frustrate you. That way, you can gradually whittle away at your time instead of going for ages without even finishing a run. Once you are at the point where small mistakes will prevent you from beating your best time, you can start being stricter about restarting. If there's a certain part of the game where you repeatedly screw up, practice it in isolation. Don't just practice it once; do it often to keep your skills sharp.

Carcinogen

Edit history:

Carcinogen: 2011-02-09 07:07:45 am

2011-02-09 07:06:05 am

Heavy /agree with Manocheese.

If you're working on an SS, practice consistently beating the game without dying first. "To win a race, first you must finish." You can nitpick later, once you're 100% positive you can beat the game consistently.

In light of recent posts by very obviously new members (who I'm going to call marathon n00bs from this point on, sorry kids), I want to point out the increasingly large number of threads with "choose a game for me to speedrun" or "I'm going to beat this record, but I've never played this game but once before as evidenced by not having a copy of the game" threads... Guys, you're doing it COMPLETELY wrong, and setting yourself up for hardcore failure.

You're not going to yank a speedrun out of your ass as quickly as you pull/want us to pull a game out of your ass; you have to be passionate about the game to actually get anything significant done. That is to say, you've finished it at least 10 times without speedrunning it. THAT is the game you should be playing instead. Jumping from the "I've done everything in this game! Holy shit, I'm awesome!" mentality to "PRACTICE.RESET.EXTERMINATE" doesn't work, because nobody retains anything from their first playthrough.

My first "I wanna speedrun this!" game was Parasite Eve, merely because there was no run on the site, but I had more knowledge about Resident Evil than any other game I played (Protip: I finished REs 1, 2, and 3 at least 20 times each growing up), so I did those instead. Not to mention I'd only finished PE once and had no experience approaching speedrunning, so I couldn't even plan out a route, and it was boring as fuck as a result.

tl;dr, shove your enthusiasm up your ass and choose the game you're best at first (not an RPG, fighting game, shmup, or rhythm game). Even if you can't beat the SDA record, knowing the basics of speedrunning is more important than posting on the forum trying to make yourself internet famous before you've even started.

Heavy /agree with Manocheese.

If you're working on an SS, practice consistently beating the game without dying first. "To win a race, first you must finish." You can nitpick later, once you're 100% positive you can beat the game consistently.

In light of recent posts by very obviously new members (who I'm going to call marathon n00bs from this point on, sorry kids), I want to point out the increasingly large number of threads with "choose a game for me to speedrun" or "I'm going to beat this record, but I've never played this game but once before as evidenced by not having a copy of the game" threads... Guys, you're doing it COMPLETELY wrong, and setting yourself up for hardcore failure.

You're not going to yank a speedrun out of your ass as quickly as you pull/want us to pull a game out of your ass; you have to be passionate about the game to actually get anything significant done. That is to say, you've finished it at least 10 times without speedrunning it. THAT is the game you should be playing instead. Jumping from the "I've done everything in this game! Holy shit, I'm awesome!" mentality to "PRACTICE.RESET.EXTERMINATE" doesn't work, because nobody retains anything from their first playthrough.

My first "I wanna speedrun this!" game was Parasite Eve, merely because there was no run on the site, but I had more knowledge about Resident Evil than any other game I played (Protip: I finished REs 1, 2, and 3 at least 20 times each growing up), so I did those instead. Not to mention I'd only finished PE once and had no experience approaching speedrunning, so I couldn't even plan out a route, and it was boring as fuck as a result.

tl;dr, shove your enthusiasm up your ass and choose the game you're best at first (not an RPG, fighting game, shmup, or rhythm game). Even if you can't beat the SDA record, knowing the basics of speedrunning is more important than posting on the forum trying to make yourself internet famous before you've even started.

Zealie

2011-02-09 08:41:59 am

Well I'd like to chip in my own thoughts.

While I do agree with most of the things, I personally almost always restart after a 'stupid' mistake. (Unless maybe I'm really near the end and just wanna finish it). The reason I do this is quite stupid though. Because I sometimes think, when making such mistake, "ah well, let's just continue" but in the back of my head I know I screwed up and either am going to play so incredibly risky for some time or just suicide for some stupid reason to sabotage myself somehow. I don't know why I do this, maybe I'm a bit stupid in the head, who knows. Tongue

I think I'm just pissed of I made the mistake and react by it by other killing the damn character or going berserk rushing through the level, which I very rarely survive anyway.

Also, even though people say you have to take a game that you played a lot etc. The first game I played was DuckTales on the NES and I actually bought a (working) NES+this game for SDA. (this is a relative short game however) and I hadn't played it in over 10 years probably. I did really enjoy it as a kid, but didn't play it that much compared to other games. In my opinion it all just depends on your attitude. It of course is a pre that you like playing the game, so asking 'what game should I play' seems to be a wrong question. You should rather ask yourself, 'what game can I stand playing this much?'.

..and now my brain went empty again. Good luck with running. Although I have to say you see a lot of (new) people going 'yeh I'm going to speedrun this!' and are super excited (which imho is usually a bad sign) and then 2 months later you'll never hear from them again.
That being said I also abandoned 1 speed run attempt of a game (Lost Vikings). Man that game got on my nerves for speedrunning, stupid switching between characters all the time was too much for me, plus the fact my 'perfectionism' got in the way with the hatred of PAL runs being slower by default and not being able to record NTSC runs. Which is also the main reason I never really did a speed run any more until now, but that's mostly done purely because ktwo desires it. <3

And I'm rambling again ^^
*reads his post* Seems to be more like sharing my experience instead of giving advice. Do with it what you want.

Well I'd like to chip in my own thoughts.

While I do agree with most of the things, I personally almost always restart after a 'stupid' mistake. (Unless maybe I'm really near the end and just wanna finish it). The reason I do this is quite stupid though. Because I sometimes think, when making such mistake, "ah well, let's just continue" but in the back of my head I know I screwed up and either am going to play so incredibly risky for some time or just suicide for some stupid reason to sabotage myself somehow. I don't know why I do this, maybe I'm a bit stupid in the head, who knows. :P

I think I'm just pissed of I made the mistake and react by it by other killing the damn character or going berserk rushing through the level, which I very rarely survive anyway.

Also, even though people say you have to take a game that you played a lot etc. The first game I played was DuckTales on the NES and I actually bought a (working) NES+this game for SDA. (this is a relative short game however) and I hadn't played it in over 10 years probably. I did really enjoy it as a kid, but didn't play it that much compared to other games. In my opinion it all just depends on your attitude. It of course is a pre that you like playing the game, so asking 'what game should I play' seems to be a wrong question. You should rather ask yourself, 'what game can I stand playing this much?'.

..and now my brain went empty again. Good luck with running. Although I have to say you see a lot of (new) people going 'yeh I'm going to speedrun this!' and are super excited (which imho is usually a bad sign) and then 2 months later you'll never hear from them again.
That being said I also abandoned 1 speed run attempt of a game (Lost Vikings). Man that game got on my nerves for speedrunning, stupid switching between characters all the time was too much for me, plus the fact my 'perfectionism' got in the way with the hatred of PAL runs being slower by default and not being able to record NTSC runs. Which is also the main reason I never really did a speed run any more until now, but that's mostly done purely because ktwo desires it. <3

And I'm rambling again ^^
*reads his post* Seems to be more like sharing my experience instead of giving advice. Do with it what you want.

ExplodingCabbage

Edit history:

ExplodingCabbage: 2011-02-09 09:45:43 am

ExplodingCabbage: 2011-02-09 09:43:54 am

2011-02-09 09:40:51 am

I agree with Zealie that you don't necessarily need to know a game well before deciding to speedrun it. If you don't, it just means your research process is going to take longer.

Also, sometimes speedrunning is so different to playing the game normally anyway that not much useful knowledge or experience carries over from your normal playing experience to the speedrun, plus in a run where not much improvisation is required (which is most of them) you can get by on muscle memory and practice of the route without needing much general skill in the game.

So yeah, it's perfectly possible to pick up a game you're barely familiar with and speedrun it. It's just a personal thing whether you want to stick to games you already know intimately, or take on the extra research of running something you don't know.

Emptyeye

2011-02-09 03:53:35 pm

Talk to the Hand

As it happens, I did a convention panel on this subject a few months back.

The main thing I'd say to the "marathon n00bs" isn't so much "You'd better know your game choice inside and out before you even think about speedrunning it.", but more "You'd better understand the effort that goes into making a speedrun from concept to submission." Yeah, just looking at, for instance, Frezy_Man's Contra run, you think "Oh, pfft, 10 minutes, that's no time at all." but what you don't see are the thousands of attempts he started and didn't complete. He mentions in his comments that he took about 800 attempts to get from 10:40 to 10:17, about 150 of which beat the game. 150*10 minutes (Actually a little more than that, but we'll keep it there to make calculations easier) = 1500 minutes /60 = 25 hours spent on a ~10 minute run. Even if we presume that the other 650 attempts bombed out after 1 minute, that's another 650 minutes = almost 11 hours.

So Frezy spent a total of approximately 36 hours doing nothing but playing Contra to achieve a 10 minute, 17 second run.

Seriously. It's not just playing the game one time and then submitting. The ratio of playing-to-successful-attempts may not always be that high...but you're going to be playing your game of choice a lot before you get something submission-worthy.

As it happens, I [url=http://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/so_you_want_to_be_a_speedrunner_a_convention_panel.html]did a convention panel[/url] on this subject a few months back.

The main thing I'd say to the "marathon n00bs" isn't so much "You'd better know your game choice inside and out before you even think about speedrunning it.", but more "You'd better understand the effort that goes into making a speedrun from concept to submission." Yeah, just looking at, for instance, [url=http://speeddemosarchive.com/Contra.html]Frezy_Man's Contra run[/url], you think "Oh, pfft, 10 minutes, that's no time at all." but what you don't see are the thousands of attempts he started and didn't complete. He mentions in his comments that he took about 800 attempts to get from 10:40 to 10:17, about 150 of which beat the game. 150*10 minutes (Actually a little more than that, but we'll keep it there to make calculations easier) = 1500 minutes /60 = 25 hours spent on a ~10 minute run. Even if we presume that the other 650 attempts bombed out after 1 minute, that's another 650 minutes = almost 11 hours.

So Frezy spent a total of approximately [b]36 hours doing nothing but playing Contra[/b] to achieve a 10 minute, 17 second run.

Seriously. It's not just playing the game one time and then submitting. The ratio of playing-to-successful-attempts may not always be that high...but you're going to be playing your game of choice a lot before you get something submission-worthy.

Heidrage

2011-02-09 04:16:23 pm

Willing to teach you the impossible

^ This. I can say that this is SO true. I have been working on Super C for over a year now. And I am still not done with a game that takes less than 15 min to beat. On top of that, I almost NEVER see stage 3 of 8. And out of the runs that do get that far, there is a 60% chance that run will not see stage 5, and after that there is a 75% chance of me seeing stage 7. I will stop there because stage 7 has a 10% success rate. This is all due to how optimized this run already is, and that I don't like the run I have right now. It is not because I don't have the ability to do it, I am waiting for the damn random number generator to cooperate with me, but because of how many spots there are where it can crash a run in an instant, I will proly be working on this run for a very long time to come.

ZenicReverie

2011-02-09 04:25:35 pm

Waiting hurts my soul...

Don't think segmented runs will be easier to do. They're usually harder due to being held to higher standards of optimization and expectations of great luck and risky tricks.

tjp7154

Edit history:

tjp7154: 2011-02-09 04:57:45 pm

2011-02-09 04:57:07 pm

#Casual

Don't be afraid to lurk everyone. Check out the various runner's streams (http://www.w00ty.com/sda/stream/) and chat, ask the runner questions about the game and the effort they took/are taking. Be friendly, polite, and patient. Don't let the effort required for a submittable speedrun deter you from just hanging out in the community.

Also, you don't have to finish a game, or speedrun a game to be a part of the community!!!! This is good to know. There are other ways you contribute (or not, if you don't want to). One of those is helping a runner find glitches and tricks in a game, even if you/anyone else don't think it might help a speedrun. You can casually try to mimic someone else's speedruns and routes they use, not worrying too much about the time. Do the tricks you can do, but if you can't, don't worry about it.

I've seen people go from lurker to glitcher to trick-finder to casual speedrunner to speedrunner.

Another tip, maybe try to do video game races. If you go to http://www.speedrunslive.com and #speedrunslive on irc.speeddemosarchive.com, people will teach you how to participate. It is a lot of fun, I assure you. You can easily pick up tips while you're at it.

Be friendly to other similar speedrunning communities. People from Twin Galaxies (non-glitch speedrunning) and tasvideos.org (emulator and tool-assisted speedrunning), The Speed Gamers (charity marathon videogamers) , as well as other sites have plenty to contribute. Many times people from different communities collaborate to make a speedrun. Don't think it's SDA vs. the other video game sites. We are not that, I assure you.

For example, I've basically worked with Tompa (a tool-assisted speedrunner) for as long as I have been speedrunning. We're even online friends now.

Whether you've come here because of our latest marathon, or are a lurker, or just like watching speedruns, thank you for trying to be a part of the community!

Don't be afraid to lurk everyone.  Check out the various runner's streams (http://www.w00ty.com/sda/stream/) and chat, ask the runner questions about the game and the effort they took/are taking.  Be friendly, polite, and patient.  Don't let the effort required for a submittable speedrun deter you from just hanging out in the community.

Also, you don't have to finish a game, or speedrun a game to be a part of the community!!!!  This is good to know.  There are other ways you contribute (or not, if you don't want to).  One of those is helping a runner find glitches and tricks in a game, even if you/anyone else don't think it might help a speedrun.  You can casually try to mimic someone else's speedruns and routes they use, not worrying too much about the time.  Do the tricks you can do, but if you can't, don't worry about it.

I've seen people go from lurker to glitcher to trick-finder to casual speedrunner to speedrunner.

Another tip, maybe try to do video game races.  If you go to http://www.speedrunslive.com and #speedrunslive on irc.speeddemosarchive.com, people will teach you how to participate.  It is a lot of fun, I assure you.  You can easily pick up tips while you're at it.

Be friendly to other similar speedrunning communities.  People from Twin Galaxies (non-glitch speedrunning) and tasvideos.org (emulator and tool-assisted speedrunning), The Speed Gamers (charity marathon videogamers) , as well as other sites have plenty to contribute.  Many times people from different communities collaborate to make a speedrun.  Don't think it's SDA vs. the other video game sites.  We are not that, I assure you.

For example, I've basically worked with Tompa (a tool-assisted speedrunner) for as long as I have been speedrunning.  We're even online friends now.

Whether you've come here because of our latest marathon, or are a lurker, or just like watching speedruns, thank you for trying to be a part of the community!

Heidrage

2011-02-09 05:16:10 pm

Willing to teach you the impossible

Thank you TJP for this post

Zeupar

2011-02-09 05:28:27 pm

Sonical!

Quote from tjp7154:

Also, you don't have to finish a game, or speedrun a game to be a part of the community!!!! This is good to know. There are other ways you contribute (or not, if you don't want to). One of those is helping a runner find glitches and tricks in a game, even if you/anyone else don't think it might help a speedrun. You can casually try to mimic someone else's speedruns and routes they use, not worrying too much about the time. Do the tricks you can do, but if you can't, don't worry about it.

Don't forget about verifying speedruns!

PJ

2011-02-09 06:49:05 pm

Is PJ

Quote from Heidman:

Thank you TJP for this post

Rakuen

2011-02-09 09:16:22 pm

Weegee Time

Quote from PJ:

Quote from Heidman:

Thank you TJP for this post

Also.

Quote from ZenicReverie:

Don't think segmented runs will be easier to do. They're usually harder due to being held to higher standards of optimization and expectations of great luck and risky tricks.

On the other hand, in some ways it can be easier. For some people, I'm sure it's simpler to think in terms of absolute best optimization, rather than trying to think of "realistic" optimization.

Flip

2011-02-09 11:30:13 pm

1-Up!

Quote from Rakuen:

Quote from ZenicReverie:

Don't think segmented runs will be easier to do. They're usually harder due to being held to higher standards of optimization and expectations of great luck and risky tricks.

On the other hand, in some ways it can be easier. For some people, I'm sure it's simpler to think in terms of absolute best optimization, rather than trying to think of "realistic" optimization.

I agree that in some ways (especially time restraint) a segmented run can be easier on the runner. However, it is really important for new users to recognize that a segmented run is not a cop out to do less work than a single-segment run. In most cases (not all) each segment will probably be weighed as it's own speedrun by the verifiers, so keep that in mind.

Caleb Hart

2011-02-17 12:55:29 pm

SDA Represent!

Yeah, honestly the key to having a good run while you record/stream is to try and relax and treat it like you were running without having it recorded. In speed runs, you will die/fail in countless way that you never thought you would before. I know we sweat the small stuff, like losing a few frames in a particular spot, but that's what it is all about. Practice makes perfect.

After running MMX a thousand times, a couple weeks ago, I died on Storm Eagle somehow. Shit happens.