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Edit history:
Flip: 2012-12-22 08:57:00 pm
Flip: 2012-12-21 09:52:27 am
Flip: 2012-12-09 06:21:38 pm
Flip: 2012-12-09 06:13:40 pm
1-Up!
Any% segmented run
http://v.speeddemosarchive.com/PenumbraBlackPlague_HQ.mp4
First off, thanks to the people on SDA who worked on this game before me, especially TheVoid whose early run I used as a reference.

Segment 1:
- First room: The first clip saves me the trouble of re-entering the area again and is probably the smaller timesaver of the two. The second clip which throws me directly to a load zone allows me to skip opening the vent and picking up the glowstick.
- Vents: Holding a brick against the steam leak allows me to pass throgh without taking damage.
- Sewers: Flying over the pit skips the entire dream sequence.

Segment 2:
- No tricks here, just picking up the hand and getting ready to pick up the head. It's possible to get inside the infirmary without unlocking the door from the computer room but sadly there's no way out if you do so.

Segment 3:
- Infirmary: Clipping here saves about 30 seconds over the regular route.
- Cave and outside: Simple item flying.

Segment 4:
- Chemical Laboratory: This is where the time is saved. The first clip skips ever opening the first door, thus skipping kennels and research facility completely. It also gets me past the trigger that locks the next door so I don't have to pull the switch in that room. The second clip is a lot more difficult but saves a lot less time, it only skips the last switch room, having to open one door and having to barricade the door to the lab.
- The corridor: Sadly, I managed to get lost here. My plan was to turn left as soon as I could but as I got disoriented by the flash, somehow I ended up going right instead. This cost me about 5 seconds, but since the clips in the lab were very fast, I gave up on trying to improve the segment and let the mistake slide.

Segment 5:
- Hivemind challenges: In the first challenge I skip a bit of dialogue by giving the steel bar quickly enough. The second and third challenges are almost completely skipped thanks to a conveniently placed switch and a block.
- Final area: It's possible to clip through the wall straight to the computer, but unfortunately it's impossible to touch one of the doors in that case.


Please refer to the Verification Guidelines before posting. Verifications are due by Sunday, December 23rd, 2012

This is a trial run for public verification.

Please post your opinions about the run and be certain to conclude your post with a verdict (Accept/Reject). This is not a contest where the majority wins - I will judge each verification on its content. Please keep your verification brief unless you have a good reason otherwise.

After 2 weeks I will read all of the verifications and edit in my verdict.

Decision: Accept

Reason: It seems that most everybody is impressed with the run and feels that it is SDA-material

Congratulations to Kotti!
Thread title:  
Willing to teach you the impossible
First off, I have not played this game (breaking one of the rules I know...), but I figured I could at least give an idea of how someone who knows speed running but not the game would see this run (kinda like how most of the games are I think).

Because I dont know the game, at first glance I thought the video had some issues (0:50 - 0:56, the back skipping thing...). But with watch the entire video, I dont believe anything is wrong with the video and it is just the game messing with the player mentally. This can easily be confirmed by someone who has played the game.

But things I do know and can tell just by watching are clips, sequence breaks (dont know how much is skipped but I see them), physics abuse, oob/going where the game did not intend. And seeing all of that in this was awesome. I was well entertained and the movements seemed very well practiced except for some of the computer/menu work. Some of it seems a bit slow. But in the long run only a few seconds were lost to this. But... this is a segmented run which makes that much more harsh. Regardless, I still feel this is acceptable.

I dont feel like converting the .mp4 to a .avi so I can time this properly... sorry... Would like to know how to get vdub to open them properly so I dont have to use an avs to convert them then be able to time it...
1-Up!
Yeah that's the point here. This game represents the many that do not find verifiers. I want to see what the community can do with them. That means having to watch runs of games you haven't played.
Edit history:
Lee: 2012-12-10 10:14:00 am
Lee: 2012-12-10 10:13:57 am
Lee: 2012-12-10 10:13:47 am
While waiting for AdamAK to weigh in on this one (as he said he would), I'll say that this looks really polished. Agree with Heidman on some of the menu work, although moving from no mouse cursor to a mouse cursor does take a split second to get used to, so I'd accept that without much hesitation. The biggest time loss I could see would be around the 8:00 mark, with moving the circuit boards into position, especially the last one. Given this particular engine though, that's also not a huge loss (although if the segment was easy to redo, I'd love to see that section done again). Overall a really slick looking run that I'd accept on gameplay merit, although I'm still waiting to hear on the technical tricks involved. If no one comes forward, runner's comments would be appreciated.

EDIT: just a quick note to say that I have indeed played the game, but I'm not nearly as experienced with speedrunning games based on this engine as others (looking at you, amnesia runners!)
Edit history:
Youkai: 2012-12-10 10:24:20 am
Don't know what to speedrun :(
Having not played the game this was an interesting watch. For the most part the run seemed polished. I think the quality is definitely there for an accept. Unless there were more sequence breaks discovered I suspect the time is improvable by less than 30 seconds. Notes below:

The positives:
  • Numerous usages of items placed near walls to clip through them.
  • Jumps frequently. I'm assuming this is faster movement than walking.
  • Nice holdable box stool to get the hatch above.
  • A few nice abuse of standing on a held item to climb/bypass areas.
  • Got the claw game in 1. New world record!
  • Walks on top of walls in the end sequence. Likely not intended by developers.

Not positives/Questions:
  • I'm curious why the runner throws the brick in the air duct. Is it slower to crawl while holding it?
  • As noted by others. Minor issues with the computer. Didn't cost much time.
  • Had a little trouble finding one of the circuit boards after tossing them into the other room.
Edit history:
Carl Sagan: 2012-12-10 03:28:50 pm
Quote from Heidrage:
Would like to know how to get vdub to open them properly so I dont have to use an avs to convert them then be able to time it...


I would also like to know this Tongue

Haha I was very entertained watching this. Never played or heard of the game, but clearly a lot of thought and planning has gone into this run. Some of the physics abuses were hilarious, like jumping off of a box you're carrying.

The only parts that looked a little iffy to me, as said by everyone else, were a few computer sections, though it seems like the mouse sensitivity is maybe naturally really low. In particular, struggling to find one of the disks on the ground for a few seconds looked a little sloppy, so I second Lee's suggestion of possibly redoing this segment if possible. I think in general, if someone is running a relatively unknown game, having extensive comments to go along with it would really help other people trying to judge the run.

Otherwise, definitely enjoyable and would give it an "accept" either way, though hearing from someone more familiar with similar speedruns in lieu of another actual runner of the game would definitely be great.
Edit history:
AdamAK: 2012-12-10 05:32:39 pm
Totally rad
I'm still writing my comments for the game (will finish tomorrow, probably). Just letting you guys know that we use the in-game timer for this game. It shows up at the very end of the video. Saves us the trouble of doing it manually.
Visit my profile to see my runs!
Hey Flip... could you make these public verification threads have a different symbol than the red exclamation point?  My eyes kind of glaze over with that symbol, because the thread is being lumped together with a bunch of other static threads I never read.  I know it sounds nitpicky, but I think more people would notice them if they were distinguished in some way from regular static threads.
Exoray
This forum software only supports stickies and announcements. As this is not an announcement you will have to scan this board more carefully Smiley
If this becomes a regular thing, maybe it'd be worth having a separate board for public verifications (possibly as a sub-board of this one) and then move threads onto this board when verification is complete. That would solve that issue nicely.
Willing to teach you the impossible
That sounds like a good idea. Then the final verdict can be posted in the usual place, perhaps with a link to this thread for others who want to see what was said directly. That would also keep the runs discussions and the congrats portions separate making things much less congested in the long run. And perhaps also lock the public verification thread once it has served its purpose. Just extending the idea.
Edit history:
S.: 2012-12-12 12:02:23 am
-Jumping definitely seems faster
-I tried getting the demo of this game to work to see if it contained one of those computers and check on the sensitivity, but did not succeed. Perhaps if someone cared enough about it they could look it up, but I don't think it's issue enough to reject.
-Had questions about routes, but I'm just gonna say it's me not having played this game.
-Because the segments are so big, I can forgive the minor mistakes like losing the hardware thing.
-What is going on around 19:00?
-Having not played this game, I am unable to properly accept this. It looks like one though.

Right, who can say how useful I am here.

The Dork Knight himself.
After watching this run, and checking out a Let's Play to see how the game is supposed to be played, it's definitely clear that the runner spent a lot of time working on the route and tricks involved. Being the nature of a physics based game, some of the smaller errors (the largest being losing the computer card on the floor) are forgivable. What counts is that the route is solid, the tricks cut out a huge portion of the game, and the segments show that the runner put in the practice time to make each segment as clean as possible.

As for some of the questions other people had, here's what I can see from my own research:
"What's going on around 19:00? (S.)" - This appears to be an unskippable cutscene, so the runner just goofs off trying to climb one of the pillars to pass the time.
"Why throw the brick in the vent? (Youkai)" - Jumping seems to be the fastest form of movement, which heavily speeds up the vent crawling. Since he's throwing the brick, I'd think that just walking with the brick in hand slows down the jump speeds. I'm basing this on the box-hopping at 2:30. If you notice, he doesn't get the forward acceleration while jumping since he's holding an object in his hands.

My only question to the runner: How easy would it be to redo the segment with the computer cards? (7:20 - 8:00) I'm assuming a LOT of attempts went in to get the game to play nicely, but losing the one card on the floor does look slightly painful. I'll wait for a runner reply before I render a verdict.
Clever one on watching a lets play!
The Dork Knight himself.
Rofl well why spend $30 to buy the game when I can watch someone play it for free? Smiley
Intruding N313 and F014
This run looks good.  It appears to be run efficiently, other than a few small mistakes, which is normal, and I hope that in the future can be improved.
This run gets an ACCEPT.
This game uses a proprietary engine made by the dev team right?
Edit history:
AdamAK: 2012-12-12 05:56:49 am
Totally rad
I was planning to verify this game before the end of this year anyway, so I guess I'll simply be doing it a bit sooner than planned. Overall, the run is certainly entertaining to watch. Having lots of experience with speed running Amnesia, it was quite delightful to recognise some of the speed running tricks/mechanics that allow us to abuse the HPL engine so badly.

Though it took me a couple of tries for some tricks, everything the runner does can be reproduced and as such the run makes use of legit, reproducible speed running strategies. Audio and video were perfect as well. Maxing the gamma settings in the options menu is much appreciated, as it makes it a lot easier to see what's going on. I am fairly sure that the game is mean to be timed using game time (as shown at the end of the video), so fortunately for us verifiers, we don't have to bother with subtracting loading times manually.

In any case, for those who are interested, here's some segment-by-segment commentary for the run.

Quote:
Please keep your verification brief unless you have a good reason otherwise.

You're gonna hate me.

Segment 1 [0:23 until 3:00]
Room 1
  • Within the first two seconds, the runner zips his way through a wall. This saves a substantial amount of time, as the intended way of going through the area is to flatten a coin to create a makeshift screwdriver, open up a vent shaft, grab a glowstick and make your way through the tunnels, only to backtrack to this very same area a minute or two later.
  • A fun fact is that there is supposed to be a monster in one of the neighbouring rooms, killing some poor old sod and dragging his corpse through the corridor. Though you can hear the monster walk around and use the door, nothing actually happens.
  • The door at 0:31 could have been opened a bit quicker by simply flinging it open (right mouse button) rather than running into it, but that's a negligible amount of time wasted.
  • At [0:47] the runner forces him into a small space in between the wall and the shelves, making the physics engine freak out. This launches him through the wall, allowing him to hit a loading trigger for the next area.

Room 2
  • Hopping around is generally quicker than just running/crawling, hence why the runner jumps around like a madman. What is interesting about the hopping is that you lose a lot of momentum whenever you land, but gain all of that speed back when you jump right afterwards again. In a sense, endless jumping would be the fastest way to move around (though it's highly impractical in a lot of situations).
  • At [0:56] it's not a video glitch, but the game teleports you a tiny bit back and plays some spooky sounds.
  • I'm not sure picking up the small brick before going into the second shaft is quicker than just grabbing a big boulder at the top. That would be a bit less finicky and would probably save a second or two.

Room 3
  • One of my favourite rooms, due to being so trivialised. By standing on top of the corpse, you can jump high enough to get past the lasers without disabling them. If you miss the jump, you die and have to restart the segment, but it's at the start of the game anyway. Nice jump!
  • Normally, one would have to clear the rubble on the right, go back to the previous area and collect the stuff in room 1. The runner did all of that already and skips a lot of backtracking.

Room 4
  • Not much to say about this room. The computer part could've gone a tiny bit quicker, but I know from Amnesia how disorienting it can be to switch from a centered cursor to a free moving one all of a sudden.
  • Note that unlike in Amnesia, taking damage doesn't seem to affect one's movement speed. Due to the fact that the runner necessarily plays the game on Easy (as will become more obvious later), the fall damage is negligible anyway.

Room 5
  • Fun fact: Familiar sound at the start (it's the same sound as when an area/tunnel collapses in Amnesia, or when you blow up some rocks in the Storage).
  • The runner misses picking up the box on the first try. This wastes about a second or so.
  • This room has the first appearance of (imo) the best trick in the Penumbra series. By holding an object underneath you and spamming the jump button, one can item-hop indefinitely. You don't even have to let go of the object to do the jumping.
  • By skipping the gap and quickly touching the exit object, one can skip the dream sequence. Note that if one isn't quick enough with exiting the area, a dream sequence will be triggered nonetheless [and I vividly recall getting stuck there permanently once].

Room 6
  • Nasty door there. Didn't open up properly, wasting about a second or two.
  • The segment ends as soon as the runner clicks on that funky looking pot (which saves the game).

Segment 2 [3:10 - 8:46]
Room 7
  • A very tedious area. You have to wait for the babbling to end before being able to enter the room. Good time for a peeing break.
  • The area at [4:39] is the reason why the runner is playing on Easy. The damage caused by the gas is dependent on the game's difficulty settings. On Hard, one would be forced to collect the gas mask to get through here.

Room 8
  • Good door breaking. The computer part could, again, have been done a bit faster. I'm sure the runner has done it countless times, but it always seems like he hesitates about what screen will come next.
  • The 'bossfight' goes well, and the runner electrocutes our friend nice and quickly.

Room 9 (or 7, really)
  • Lots of jumping around here. Other than that, the room is quite uneventful. Note that the door near the end had already been opened up when the runner visited the area the previous time (when he had to sit through whatshisname's babbling).

Room 10
  • Everything goes well until the monster luring part. There, the runner only manages to get the monster to jump at him properly twice, while the monster also gets stuck on a corner three times. Every time he gets stuck on a corner wastes quite a bit of time, as he could be lunging towards the player instead.
  • The computer part is again somewhat slow, with quite a few misclicks.
  • The mistake that everyone else has also spotted is that the runner can't find the red disc for a moment.
  • Given that it's a segmented run, these kinds of mistakes should be avoided, really. If there's the possibility of improving this segment, I'd recommend doing so.

Room 11
  • Good jumping around. The one door you had to open could've been dealt with more quickly if you'd fling it open, but that's just a negligible waste of time.

Segment 3 [8:58 - 12:49]
Room 12
  • Previous segment ends as soon as he clicks on the funky pot.
  • Two wonderful clips here. The setup is very precise, but considering it's at the start of the segment, the first clip could probably have been a bit faster (i.e., less adjusting).
  • The second clip is excellent, as the runner manages to get a massive boost towards the door - a nice time saver.

Room 13
  • Nice work in making the door respawn. It's funny how this may look like a mistake, but it's all intentional.

Room 14
  • Perfect room. Good precision in solving the puzzle and clicking on the button. Nicely done!

Room 15
  • I tested whether solving the puzzles and using the ladder boosting trick would be quicker to get up than item hopping, but it's not.
  • Perfect room, overall.

Room 16 (well, it's outside, really)
  • Awkward walking at the start of the area. Should've turned right sooner.
  • Good item hopping. Those boxes are awkward to grab, since you can't look straight down, but you managed to do it pretty quickly.
  • Good position at the barrel explosion section. The damage is negligible anyway, so one can safely ignore it and then run straight to the door.

Room 17
  • Would jumping down the stairs not be quicker, since one would be able to make more use of the momentum boost from jumping?
  • Again, running into the door is slower than flinging it open. Use that right mouse button!

Segment 4 [13:07 - 15:13]
Room 18
  • The previous segment ends as soon as the runner clicks on the pot.
  • I believe this is the room why the runner decided to go for a segmented run rather than a single segment one. The barrel boost the runner does here is very unreliable, and generally kills the player if he doesn't get pushed through precisely correctly. It saves a great deal of time, as the runner is able to skip multiple areas thanks to the clip.
  • The second zip is difficult to pull off and saves less time compared to the previous one, but it's still a sizable amount. The runner manages to perform both zips with dazzling speed. Great room!
  • The Claw puzzle was performed quickly. Well done.
  • Great escape sequence. Given the fact that the game is played on Easy, the steam can very safely be ignored.

Room 19
  • Real shame that the runner took the wrong route. If it wasn't for those few seconds lost here, the segment would have been absolutely perfect. I'm not surprised the runner wasn't able to improve upon this segment despite the mistake at the end, since the zips in the preceding room were really damned quick.

Segment 5 [15:38 - 24:24]
Room 20
  • Previous segment ends when the runner uses that spiffy looking pot.
  • Fantastic chemical pick-ups!
  • Mixing the chemicals is done very quickly as well.
  • Great jump right before the cutscene is triggered. That saves you another second or two of walking.
  • Perfect room, overall.

Room 21
  • Pain the man, cut the lines!There cannot be one. There can only be us all.

Room 22: The Trials
  • This section is riddled with interactive cutscenes. Nothing one can do to speed things up.
  • The runner didn't clip through one of the pillars Sad
  • Perfect first trial. It's so darned short.
  • Lovely second trial. Gotta love how easy it is to get on top of the wall. I forgot to test this, but can the door not be used from the other side?
  • Third trial is the best. I love the massive boost you get every time you zip in this game, and this is no exception. Well done.

The Final Room
  • You're a wizard! Making books disappear like that.


Though there were several instances where a couple of seconds could be shaved off (most notably the computer sections and the monster luring part), I will happily state that I'd ACCEPT this run, as it is up to SDA standards. Do we still apply 0.5 second penalties per segment? In that case, the run would be timed as 21:36 (rounded down)
I think in general, if someone is running a relatively unknown game, having extensive comments to go along with it would really help other people trying to judge the run.
I agree and am willing to do so.

The computer room and the circuit boards
Holy crap, how did I let that slide? Would definitely redo the segment if it didn't mean redoing the whole run since I don't have the save files anymore and the run is timed using in game timer.

I'm curious why the runner throws the brick in the air duct. Is it slower to crawl while holding it?
Yes, it also makes turning really slow.

What is going on around 19:00?
Not much, messing around because of unskippable dialogue.

This game uses a proprietary engine made by the dev team right?
Correct, older version of the same engine used in Amnesia.

Room 4
I'd like to point out that there are clips in this room that would completely skip the computer and the flashlight, saving about 30 seconds. I ended up not going for it because to save any time two clips would have to be performed perfectly of which the second one is incredibly difficult. I practiced the clip for about two or three hours and got it almost decently once. Never got both clips quickly in one go. For reference:

Would jumping down the stairs not be quicker, since one would be able to make more use of the momentum boost from jumping?
Not sure, those stairs are high enough to make you take damage and flinch a little when landing. Damage might (well, it's on easy so probably not) also be a factor since damage is taken from the previous explosion and the gas in the next room.

I believe this is the room why the runner decided to go for a segmented run rather than a single segment one. The barrel boost the runner does here is very unreliable, and generally kills the player if he doesn't get pushed through precisely correctly. It saves a great deal of time, as the runner is able to skip multiple areas thanks to the clip.
Yes. Though looking back at this run, I'm not ruling out the possibility of an SS run in the unforeseen future. There's nothing too difficult before that clip and the route changes should be too big, probably just removing the clips at infirmary (30s) and changing the second clip at chemical laboratory to an easier one (maybe 10s). I think I might tolerate resetting the run over the first clip but the second one happens once every blue moon.

Perfect first trial. It's so darned short.
It actually isn't, later I found out that it is possible to hover over the wall with the brick. Seems to be a bit more precise than you'd expect, but there's a possible improvement.

Gotta love how easy it is to get on top of the wall. I forgot to test this, but can the door not be used from the other side?
Getting on the switch and on the wall isn't as easy as it looks, getting those jumps quickly is what made me reset the segment the most. The goal of the trial is to make the infected to break the door for you so you can get to the other side, you can't use it in any case.
Quote from AdamAK:
Though there were several instances where a couple of seconds could be shaved off (most notably the computer sections and the monster luring part), I will happily state that I'd ACCEPT this run, as it is up to SDA standards. Do we still apply 0.5 second penalties per segment? In that case, the run would be timed as 21:36 (rounded down)


The half second penalty is only for  games where you can save anywhere. Assuming game time is reliable, just use that.
Watched the run, never played the game though.

Thought it was good, just didn't like that it was segmented, nor did I think that the card thing was great.

I still think that it should be accepted, hopefully the runner tries to improve the run, single-segmented at that would be amazing.
The Dork Knight himself.
Quote from Kotti:
The computer room and the circuit boards
Holy crap, how did I let that slide? Would definitely redo the segment if it didn't mean redoing the whole run since I don't have the save files anymore and the run is timed using in game timer.


Ah, well since you'd have to redo the whole run, I can let that mistake slide. Just don't do it again Wink

I give this run an Accept.
Gets the cake.
A/V good, no signs of cheating.

Seg1- I'll be honest, I never knew about the glitch he uses to clip through walls. When I ran the game, I did a couple of similar glitches, but never with moveable objects. Anyways, the first skip goes well. Great menu efficiency. Uses the brick to prevent dying in the vents. Just so people know, when he barrel flies over the pit he skips like 5 mins of gameplay in a flashback sort of sequence.

Seg2- God, Clarence is annoying. Gets saw and kills worm quickly. I actually talked with the runner about the computer room, and it's really unfortunate that you can't skip it. Such a long sequence, even if you do it perfectly. It's very close to possible, you can skip through the wall you would need to one way, but not coming back. Shame. Anyways, the biggest mistake so far is where he loses the red card for a bit, but it's not too ugly, especially being at the end of the segment.

Seg3- Great wall skips in the infirmary. Flying goes quite well in the cave. Flying the gap outside goes nicely as well. More hallways.

Seg4- Every time I watch this wall clip it makes me happy. Sample collection goes well. Jesus Christ is Clarence annoying. Short segment =P

Seg5- Quick potion-making. Time for my favorite part of the run: the trials. Unfortunately, there's literally nothing you can do to speed up any of these cutscenes. For the first trial, I did discuss with the runner that it is faster to fly over the door after passing him the pipe, but it's only a couple of seconds in a long segment, so no harm done really. Second goes smoothly, runner is appropriately cautious on top of the walls. Third trial looks amazing. As the runner noted before, you can skip through one of the walls in the last area here, but you can't click on one of the doors, preventing you from completing the game.

In-game timer shows 21:34, and as far as I know there's no reason not to trust it. Overall I'd accept this run, it's very smooth and showcases several cool skips and glitches.
1-Up!
I am going out of town on Sunday, so I'm changing the deadline to tomorrow. I know most everybody has said their piece but now at least there is a day warning.
1-Up!
Decision posted.