Penumbra Overture Speedrun

2014-09-26 06:19:23 am

Is this community still alive? Looking for a new game to run and wanted a community that was still alive because Amnesia is kind of dying.

Blood Thunder

Edit history:

Blood Thunder: 2014-09-26 11:22:56 am

2014-09-26 11:19:15 am

Quote from Wukkopi:

Nice work! I found out your twitch channel few days ago, and my penumbra running motivation started to tickle again after a long break. I compared your newest run against my PB (on version 1.1), and found out that we were on par until entering incinerator area. Now I got my hands on 1.0.0 too Wink

Yeah, the beginning half of my run is really sloppy (why I'm still pushing for a better time) so it's not surprising your run is about even until incinerator. I fully welcome the competition, as long as the french runners don't get involved Tongue

Quote from SgtSnuggleButt:

Is this community still alive? Looking for a new game to run and wanted a community that was still alive because Amnesia is kind of dying.

The penumbra series has never had a very active community other than when the french runners destroyed Black Plague. They are really fun games to run though so I highly recommend trying them out if you're interested.

Kotti

2014-09-27 12:45:16 pm

Old but never documented.

Blood Thunder

2014-09-27 10:19:43 pm

15:33 (didn't use any saves this time :p)

Wukkopi

2014-09-28 02:04:49 am

Niiiiice! And without reloading at all Cheesy

Now do it again with some new timesavers.

Fence skip ~15 seconds http://www.twitch.tv/wukkopi/c/5192831
Old workshop skip ~1 - 2 seconds (probably just kills the run) http://www.twitch.tv/wukkopi/c/5192807
Run with canister on incinerator ~10 seconds http://www.twitch.tv/wukkopi/c/5192868

Congratulations again, on already awesome new record!

Blood Thunder

Edit history:

Blood Thunder: 2014-09-28 02:11:48 pm

Blood Thunder: 2014-09-28 02:06:27 pm

2014-09-28 08:31:33 am

I was actually considering working on a segmented run for this game, instead of trying to push for a lower time (there are several other clips that oculd be used as well). I'll probably work on that for a while and see what we can make possible.

I'm looking into possible ideas for timesavers, and turns out we never need to pick up the hammer! Saves like 2-3 seconds but it does mean we would need the key to the chest (with the notes on making a fuse) unless we can skip the fuse making section.. I've also tried severly ways to light the fuse in the TNT without the lighter but haven't had any luck. I've tried smacking it with the pickaxe, throwing dynamite on it, dropping flares next to it, and repeatable pickingup/throwing an item into it. I'll keep looking!

Wukkopi

2014-09-28 11:15:45 pm

You can indeed skip the hammer; if I remember correctly, you can pick the big book of explosives between the chest and its lid (kind of same way as accessing ladders on surface). One other timesaver is to clip through the fence that is held by a plank of wood (This optimally saves like 1 second.)

Also I'm wondering on how one should record a segmented run for this? Can we use autosaves or should we only use save spots? As autosaves make that annoying light effect, how should we handle these? Can we just ignore them, and just "reload" the autosave immediately when the screen flashes?

Blood Thunder

2014-09-29 07:23:32 am

As I was streaming last night, myself and kotti discussed a few things about how to segment and I think the best way to do it would be to segment at least at every door transition and possibly any auto-saves (probably don't want to mess with actual save spots). We typically don't stay in one area long to really warrant segmenting multiple times.

While I was streaming last night, I went through the game and tried to find clips, even ones that might only save a fraction of a second if done right, and there are some interesting ideas I want to keep looking into. All of these are somewhere in my last stream's video but nothing is highlighted (might make some after work)
1) Clipping into red's room from early in the Incinerator (pre rock-destruction). There are numerous places where we can clip through with the canister, the only problem is figuring out the angle and then getting the perfect boost. I know I've gotten really close but couldn't manage to make it all the way. As an added bonus, you can clip from the room where the canister is initially, all the way over to the actual incinerator.
2) In the refinery, you can take a barrel back through the machine and clip through to the end of the steam puzzle (puts you right by the vent although getting the right angle is tedious.
3) In the refinery, right at the vents, you can take a barrel up the stairs and clip through the wall although I don't think we could get close enough to the exit vent for this to work.

The clip to skip using the saw on the wooden beam is actually really consistent and probably saves more like 3 seconds if done properly.

As I was streaming last night, myself and kotti discussed a few things about how to segment and I think the best way to do it would be to segment at least at every door transition and possibly any auto-saves (probably don't want to mess with actual save spots). We typically don't stay in one area long to really warrant segmenting multiple times.

While I was streaming last night, I went through the game and tried to find clips, even ones that might only save a fraction of a second if done right, and there are some interesting ideas I want to keep looking into. All of these are somewhere in my last stream's video but nothing is highlighted (might make some after work)
1) Clipping into red's room from early in the Incinerator (pre rock-destruction). There are numerous places where we can clip through with the canister, the only problem is figuring out the angle and then getting the perfect boost. I know I've gotten really close but couldn't manage to make it all the way. As an added bonus, you can clip from the room where the canister is initially, all the way over to the actual incinerator.
2) In the refinery, you can take a barrel back through the machine and clip through to the end of the steam puzzle (puts you right by the vent although getting the right angle is tedious.
3) In the refinery, right at the vents, you can take a barrel up the stairs and clip through the wall although I don't think we could get close enough to the exit vent for this to work.

The clip to skip using the saw on the wooden beam is actually really consistent and probably saves more like 3 seconds if done properly.

Kotti

Edit history:

Kotti: 2014-09-29 09:00:04 am

Kotti: 2014-09-29 08:55:32 am

2014-09-29 08:44:32 am

Regarding segmenting, you should ask yourself if you want an absolutely perfectly timed run or a run that is fast and looks clean and nice. For timing autosaves seem like a good choice and for a smooth looking run I'd just do whatever is between load screens and call it a segment. It might result in minor inconsistencies between segments (health) but it would probably be a lot more enjoyable to watch. Personally, I'd prefer that.

EDIT: I may be looking at a Red's dialogue skip from the room with the canister but I don't like the look of it. Attempting this I'm heavily leaning towards using quicksaves (F4 save, F5 load) for segmenting. You can enable them from the config file in My Documents and they don't cause the ugly orange flash.

ShadowDraft

2014-09-29 09:07:23 am

Get over here!

Did you check if the quick L/S options mess up damage calculation? It's a problem in both Amnesia games and since it's the same dev might be a problem.

Kotti

2014-09-29 09:13:03 am

No idea, damage is hardly a concern in this game.

But this, this is beautiful. Done in 3 segments.

Blood Thunder

2014-09-29 10:19:25 am

I think it comes down to each room/area. Using transitions would definitely be the preferred method but it might be a hassle to grind out segments if you have to load a save from the room before, and I thought enabling quicksaves made the game very prone to random crashes? If not, then that's definitely the better option than autosaves.

Also that red skip is nice, more or less what I was trying to get to happen. Ideally we would just get there using the boost off the clip but if that isn't possible, this type of setup works as well and we can probably make it smoother/faster (no offense :p)

Kotti

2014-09-29 10:39:29 am

Haven't had any crashes yet with quicksaves enabled.

I'm sure you can clip from the beginning to the end in every area if you just get a once in a lifetime type of clip, if you're interested in going for something like that. The question is, do you want to grind for something like that. The video obviously wasn't optimal, it's only a demonstration.

Blood Thunder

2014-09-29 10:48:59 am

I guess we'll use quicksaves then :3

That's the question I ask myself all the time. I think it's probably better to get the best time we can with methods we know we can realistically get, but it doesn't hurt to spend some time on the side attempting those kind of clips in the off chance that they happen.

Blood Thunder

Edit history:

Blood Thunder: 2014-09-29 10:26:53 pm

2014-09-29 10:26:18 pm

Did a little work on the beginning of the game (11 segments done so far)

I have all the spots where I segmented saved so I can easily go back and try them again (There are a few I already want to redo like the tunnel section after getting lighter fluid) But let me know if there is something I'm doing to waste time or if there are any other strats I should be trying to get :3!

Kotti

Edit history:

Kotti: 2014-09-30 04:32:35 am

Kotti: 2014-09-30 04:32:24 am

2014-09-30 03:02:39 am

Outside: You can do a superjump at the start before the text appears.
Tunnels (hub): Is there a reason you go to the office first? If you go to the storage first you can superjump more into the cutscene where the dog first appears and save a tiny bit of time. Overall when superjumping I think it's better to start jumps when walking off barrels/boxes, that seems to give more forwards momentum.

I'd also combine the lighter and the lighter fluid on the way to the TNT during a jump and it might be worth it to take out the pickaxe during the clip. Not necessary map it to a hotkey, but just equip it for that particular room. The hotkey can be set up later during a jump.

EDIT: Maybe with an inventory jump it'd be possible to clip directly into the room where you make the fuse and then break out?

Blood Thunder

Edit history:

Blood Thunder: 2014-09-30 07:19:35 am

2014-09-30 06:15:56 am

Outside: I'll look into it, the ending wasn't really that clean so I don't mind doing it again

Tunnels: Never really thought to do it the other way, as I'm used to going to the office 1st. From what I could tell, jumping onto boxes wasn't really worth it instead of just inventory jumping around them, I'll take another look at it though. (I would like a better clip here as well, one that doesn't throw me as far).

Combining the items while inventory jumps is definitely the way to go. Mapping the pickaxe to a hotkey is about the same time it takes to pull it out+put it away, I would imagine clipping all the way to the room is possible but I've yet to do it.

Blood Thunder

2014-10-01 09:29:07 pm

Got threw a few more segments tonight:

(Ignore the editing mistake after the TNT explosion :p, and I left in the 1st segment which was the last one from the other video).
I haven't gone back and improved a few of the older ones yet but since there isn't really any issue with continuity, I'll get around to it eventually :3

Blood Thunder

2014-10-02 09:33:03 pm

More segments! (The last segment ends in a crash so it's not really legit :c, will be looking into it some more!)

Wukkopi

Edit history:

Wukkopi: 2014-10-02 11:57:16 pm

2014-10-02 10:49:45 pm

Does that last clip always end up in crash? If so then I think it's not legit, but if it crashed only this one time then I think it is ok.

Nice finds btw; that sawroom clip, I messed around in that room long time ago, and completely forgot that there's even a possibility to clip to somewhere. And that worm room clip, just awesome. I never even thought that one should or could clip from that room. Keep up good work. With this pace you'll certainly raise the bar really high. Smiley

Blood Thunder

2014-10-03 06:33:04 am

I've only gotten it the 1 time, but I'll try to get it again just to see if it was a rare occurrence or a consistent thing. I really want it to work, even if it saves no time at all, I think it just looks really cool.

Blood Thunder

Edit history:

Blood Thunder: 2014-10-11 02:00:33 pm

2014-10-09 08:12:32 pm

I've completed all the segments, with a final total of 40. I've even gone back and redid the entire 'old shafts' section (tnt/fuse puzzle). I need to clean up just a couple more segments, and then edit it all together. Should have the run rendered and uploaded by monday! :3.

Edit: Turns out that I think I can do better on 18 of the segments, so I'll need to redo those before it's complete. The good news is the run is currently sitting at about 11:50-ish for the final time (with loads taken out of course).

Blood Thunder

2014-10-12 06:29:02 pm

Let me know what you think!

A few points I already have:
- Segment 2 probably needs to redone (again). the ending is just so hard to do fast
- Is the 2 clips in/out of UV room worthwhile? I did them but looking back they seem like they might actually cost 2-3 seconds
- Couldn't get the 2nd clip in refinery to ever work although I think with a perfect clip you could land at the top of the vent (a little spot where you can stand up next to the exit), but it doesn't seem worthwhile to grind for.
- Might be worthwhile to redo the 1st clip in refinery. Could get closer to the vent + not including that extra segment.

Judgy

2014-10-13 12:14:35 am

Borderlands 2 Glitch Hunter/ router.

looks good, shame about the 2nd refinery skip.

I actually think your first version of the second segment was quicker strangely, it might just be me thinking that because the throw and unlocking looked smoother .... but yeah segment 2 probably needs to be re-done.

All-in-all looks awesome (^_^)

Blood Thunder

2014-10-17 01:05:07 pm

Enjoy!