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Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/Quake3Arena.html

Quake III Arena () (pc) [Any %] [Individual Level] [Nightmare]

Decision: Accept

Congratulations to 'fearZZz'!
Thread title:  
Run Information

Quake III Arena () (pc) [Any %] [Individual Level] [Nightmare]

Verification Files

http://v.speeddemosarchive.com/quake3arena

Please refer to the Verification Guidelines before posting.

Please post your opinions about the run and be certain to conclude your post with a verdict (Accept/Reject). If you wish to remain anonymous, you can also send a pm with your reply to 'sdaverification' (please state clearly in that case which run you have verified). This is not a contest where the majority wins - Each verification will be judged on its content.
Edit history:
LotBlind: 2023-02-14 05:26:32 am
A/V: Clean as before.

Cheating: None detected.

I don't know what use this will be but I'll list the times by which these Nightmare runs are slower than the previous I Can Win difficulty times.

00 - 0:18 (+2)
01 - 0:41 (+11)
02 - 0:47 (+8)
03 - 0:55 (+17)
04 - 0:40 (+9)
05 - 0:58 (+18)
06 - 0:47 (+15)
07 - 0:52 (+20)
08 - 0:49 (+13)
09 - 0:59 (+20)
10 - 1:12 (+23)
11 - 1:09 (+25)
12 - 0:40 (+17)
13 - 1:18 (+32)
14 - 1:17 (+31)
15 - 1:17 (+30)
16 - 0:36 (+9)
17 - 1:08 (+24)
18 - 1:18 (+31)
19 - 1:00 (+18)
20 - 0:39 (+6)
21 - 0:46 (+18)
22 - 0:58 (+26)
23 - 1:03 (+29)
24 - 1:13 (+31)
25 - 0:31 (+10)

A few notes in case someone else is trying to wrap their head around this submission...

So it's understood the main reason why everything is slower is because the bots have some armor to start with (EDIT: they start with 125 hp and sometimes also have 25 armor) so they don't die to a single rocket, shotgun or railgun shot. Hence the more frequent usage of combos like some machine gun + shotgun blast.

The other reason is it's so much easier to get killed yourself when the bots are so much more accurate (Nightmare is the most difficult setting), so there's a lot of RNG so they don't target you too much of the time, that the health pick-ups are there when you need them and things like that in addition to the RNG of them spawning nearby (but one-by-one!). If you get killed, you might spawn somewhere in the far corner of the map and lose all weapons and far too much time. So every shot counts in many situations!

Then some IL comments:

01 - I can't believe you don't get the rockets here. Why did you prefer this way?
04 - This level is a good example of how you're always struggling to stay alive.
05 - No, wait, THIS LEVEL is a good example of that Tongue My god!
07 - I love these levels where it's a guaranteed quad run each time Tongue
09 - It felt like this one had a little more potential without the shotgun misses in the room around 0:45. Good recovery after that tho with the clutch rail etc.
13 - So here you choose to use the LG instead of the plasma initially even when you had both. Does that work more consistently on the higher difficulty? Then you get killed but it sends you close to quad. Makes me wonder if there's another map where you can use that to avoid having to run over to quad from the busy part of the map by just dying and hoping to spawn near it? It's interesting how on the lower setting you can't reliably do anything with the quad anyway but here it seems essential. With quad + LG or plasma (or even just MG) you kill them so fast you can afford to just chill in the healing field and wait for them to come to you I guess.
14 - The nade spamming bot is always hilarious XD. And then you do the same haha! I love to watch this murderfest after you get quad AND haste.
16 - About as clean as it can be.
18 - So no BFG but yes personal teleporter? Isn't the BFG there on this difficulty?
19 - This looks very clean despite the one death.
20 - A few nice air rox here, probably the same as last time really.
21 - So glad they renamed this map for Quake Live lol
23 - This looks SO LUCKY AND CLEAN until you realize it's 29 SECONDS slower than the I Can Win... So I guess it's just the nature of this map that you always end up having targets near.
24 - This map is always fun cause there's so much variety.
25 - I can't believe how impressive this map looks! Did we talk about getting the BFG last time? And so you implemented it for this run? Cause last time I think you were going for just rails? Of course it's different when he doesn't die to a single rail so... need that extra damage from somewhere.

So yeah, overall I can't decide whether this run is good shit, great shit or THE shit. I can decide on a verdict, however...

ACCEPT and how many babies would you like?
A/V: Looks great. If I understand it correctly, the restarts at the beginning of most maps is to better set up the levels and are not failed attempts. So they should probably not be trimmed off.

Gameplay: Without comparing to anything else, these levels look very impressive. With enemies roaming more or less freely in a game of this type, it's entertaining to see how a skillful player deals with "everything the developers throw at them on the hardest difficulty".

That being said, it looks like interest for ILs on Nightmare difficulty have just recently surged and records seem to be broken every other day. Some of the submitted ILs now have records that are 10+ seconds faster. And it even looks like the runner has improved some of the submitted times.

Before closing this topic, I think it would be good to clarify which levels the runner plans to improve on in the near future. I also think the runner's fastest runs should be in this submission. You can just upload improvements the same way you uploaded the videos originally. In that case, please name the files so it's clear which one is the latest one.
Thanks! As per bots on Nightmare - they usually spawn with 125hp (same as you) and on some levels developers added initial armor to the starting stack too.

01 - I find rockets alone or machine gun + rockets combo is slower than machine gun + shotgun blast to frag a nightmare. Dropped rockets from bot is used as a bait, so it will not be drawn towards red armor in other part of the map, so those 2 things combined make up for this level strategy. (but as mentioned, some of those times are not the fastest, and Raisy, who recently started to run the game too, created better route/strategy involving plasma gun pick up.
09 - Yea those 2 missed SG shots are kinda bad, but i dont know if it would have improved time as meeting with quaded enemy earlier could have resulted in accidental death Smiley
13 - Dying and spawning near quad was obviously pure luck, (as well as having quad and not other power-up to spawn). As for lg / plasma - plasma probably has higher dps, but with lg conviently placed on top of the level, with ammo boxes nearby, bots being drawn to that part of the map and lg itself, feels like making for better strategy, while going towards plasma in tight corridor is somewhat dangerous, especially if some of nightmare bots had time to pick up same plasma. As for some other map that can use 'accidental' death in order to get to PU faster - probably DM11 deva station (there are few spawns inside quad/haste powerups room...)
18 - Yea not taking BFG is kinda questionable, (retrospectively, when Raisy beat this time by >10 seconds huh) - so definately gonna try to improve that time.
19 - Thanks! , but yea, can be still improved I believe
21 - True Smiley But those 2 missed rails in the end kinda ruin it for me in retrospect. probably can be improved even more.
23 - I actually improved on time for this map by ~3 seconds, only downside (as with all my improved times compared to the ones i submitted) they are part of SS attempts - and contain LiveSplit in the recording :/
25 - yea, exactly because enemy is too far for mg + rail combo And BFG is so much faster if used accurately. I also 'borrowed' the strategy for the level from another person (berry) who shared his run on youtube long time ago.

So unless I can submit videos with LiveSplit captured (which i think i cant, cause it violates submission rules) - I should probably improve the times that are drastically later than current WR on speedrun.com. Although for most part - I'm relatively satisfied with end result so far. Lemme know what you think
Oh so now Raisy is speedrunning Quake III?? Well that's gonna be some stiff competition then depending how seriously he takes it.

I think it might well be a good idea to take another critical look at these runs as you have and consider which ones have relatively easy improvements available with the strats shown by Raisy and others. We could leave this verification on hold for now and you just upload the improved times the same way as before. Of course someone's gonna beat more of the times later but... at least you won't be left feeling any regrets immediately.

Can you show what it looks like with LiveSplit as part of it? Can't you arrange the windows in OBS so it doesn't obscure the game video? I.e. it's okay if it's off on the side, we can just crop such videos for SDA.
Edit history:
fearZZz: 2023-02-14 06:28:45 pm
They basically look like this
I'll try to take a look at each level to see where it can be improved, share my list of levels and if all is good, then upload the new runs when its done
Edit history:
LotBlind: 2023-02-14 05:27:59 am
Yeah, so it shouldn't be a problem to make the LiveSplit stuff be shown on the side if you increase the canvas size in OBS or whatever you're using. That way you can stream or record with splits for those who find those useful or interesting but for SDA we can just crop it down to just the gameplay for those that prefer it that way. I'd like to imagine that wouldn't increase the CPU load of the recording by much.

If you have any questions about how to set that up, try posting in the tech support section.

I think you may just have to use your own judgment on what levels should be improved on BTW. You don't particularly have to share that here.
Edit history:
fearZZz: 2023-03-11 09:48:51 pm
fearZZz: 2023-03-11 04:14:20 am
Improved 15 levels, I think it's as good as it gets Smiley none of them WR tho(, but most of them are close within 2/3 seconds; raisy is too good)
Would be keen to try in future to improve upon those and submit here, but for now I'm taking a break.

Uploading now
edit: finished
It might be understandable if you don't have the WRs when going against someone who takes second place at like every LAN! I'm actually surprised how prolific he's been to take so many WRs for himself. I guess it's just all 2ez for him :|

I'm also impressed that you went back to improve on so many of them!

New times compared with the first submitted ones (to 1-second precision; also I'm using the time when the game goes to the match results view, not time of last frag like I probably should have used):

00: 0:18 same
01: 0:38 down 3
04: 0:38 down 2
05: 0:53 down 5
08: 0:48 down 1
11: 1:05 down 4
12: 0:36 down 4
14: 1:06 down 11
15: 0:59 down 18
17: 0:59 down 9
18: 1:07 down 11
19: 0:54 down 6
21: 0:43 down 3
23: 0:53 down 10
24: 1:05 down 8

Some comments:

08: I like the back and forth through the teleporter in this. Hunter becomes the hunted.
11: Here I liked getting to see another room of the map. It makes you realize that this is definitely not the kind of game (at least until it's gotten ultra-competitive) where the runs will converge into looking identical, which is cool.
12: So did Raisy show this plasma approach? Is it really faster than mg -> rail or just more consistent? I guess at least those long-distance spawn frags will be faster cause you can switch to rail while the plasma is traveling through the air.
14: Wow, such a huge improvement here! That teleporter exit is like an IV drop for famishing speedrunners. It's kind of funny near the end when the announcer says "three frags left" and then they just drop in one by one. Actually, if there wasn't a chance of getting harassed by other bots from other angles, wouldn't it be fastest to gauntlet them as they come out?
15: Yeah, I wasn't wrong when I said something about the BFG Cheesy Is there a special reason why you show that one menu screen before starting the attempt? Is that the only spawn that's sufficiently close to the BFG teleporter?
17: Did Raisy show the strat for the first frag? Tongue
18: What's with the self-damage in the room where you spawned? Does it somehow affect the personal teleporter? Good idea to boost down the shaft towards the BFG room. Very DeFrag.
19: The bot Goomba-stomped you! You should have been killed by that. That should be a thing. Before using the PT, did you wait half a second to check if there's more bots in the bottom area or does moving to onto the bridge somehow manipulate where you end up?
21: Man, this map is like the ultimate party map XD The action never stops! Hahaha. And the double gauntlet kill at the start... it's a classic.
23: This one's a party map too, looks like Tongue
24: What happens at the end here with the map reloading?

I thought I saw even more of those spawn prediction frags this time. Those are very satisfying to see (and probably to get too)!

Didn't see any A/V issues and so the new batch obviously gets an even more clear

ACCEPT
Edit history:
fearZZz: 2023-03-13 10:10:22 am
fearZZz: 2023-03-13 09:18:15 am
fearZZz: 2023-03-13 09:07:34 am
fearZZz: 2023-03-13 09:06:44 am
fearZZz: 2023-03-13 09:06:33 am
Thx!

12: No, this route is on me, but raisy performed better with it. I think that's exactly it : you switch to rail while plasma travels to the spawn and if lucky you can get quick succession of frags.
14: Standing with gauntlet is tricky for few reasons i think (1 is that you can get harassed yep, 2 is that you need to have perfect position or otherwise nightmare bot with shotgun will probably have a good chance of instantly shooting you and killing once its out)
15: I think its not the closest spawn to BFG tele, but since run depends on so many other things I'd do tries with any of that room initial spawns (especially if bot or two spawn near me too). Oh and for menu - no reason, I simply misclicked the single player menu there.
17: haha no, that first frag was improvided. Perhaps better first spawn would be on lg with bot nearby as i waste good couple of seconds going to lg to pick it up.
18: haha defrag player wannabe indeed. i think it may be little dose of frustration/tilt but mostly i was trying to rocketjump myself to get to BFG faster yea
19: Did not notice goomba-stomp before Cheesy i think that's actually a thing (as in you can get killed by another player jumping on top of you), but its very precise and should be on very close to the ground height. With teleporter - i think i've tested my luck and wanted to jump on Quad spawn in the middle of the bridge there, but slipped into the void and pressed the 'use item' bind ASAP. not sure if there is manipulative part of teleport usage, as i guess it chooses some spawn location that is not near your currenty position.
24: Oh for the end i guess its better to cut short as I was going to windowed mode to see my time in livesplit and obs captured that.
Sounds like it could be marginally useful if someone could take a look at the PT code to see how it chooses the teleport destination.

19: I vaguely recall the goomba thing happening once in a pub match in Quake Live. The YA jump pad in Campgrounds. Maybe it was someone's compilation video.
24: I'll ask for the part where you alt-tabbed out to be cut so people don't see your desktop.

Talking about gauntlet frags, I once managed to take second place in an instagib match in QL using only the gauntlet. Why so serious? XD
Decision posted.
Looking at the runs again with the run comments: even better knowing everything you brought up! Like why Arena Gate etc. look like that, they keep homing in on the same dropped weapon? That's ridiculous. And I see it's used extensively in other maps too. Very brainy stuff.
Edit history:
fearZZz: 2023-03-29 07:51:34 am
fearZZz: 2023-03-29 07:32:40 am
fearZZz: 2023-03-29 07:32:33 am
fearZZz: 2023-03-29 07:32:21 am
yea, shame that for Arena Gate i was doing SS attempts the other day and I managed to beat it in ~30 seconds :/ unfortunately plugin that i installed on OBS to allow me record only one specific source (game window/ display capture) without splits - did not work properly and i only have recording with splits enabled. T_T and looking at posibility of stretching the canvas size to put splits on a side, i probably need to look more into it, because i couldnt extend canvas beyond 1920x1080, and if i shrink display capture - it will look kinda small and meh (not even sure if during editing on zooming in / stretching it back to full size; perhaps i should ask on tech forum).

but yea, did not expected it, and i managed to improve on few of the times again during SS attemps. so i really should figure it out before i continue to try my sub30 attemps Cheesy

ref:
Hmm... Yeah, your raws are currently really crisp. Mega-quality... but do you actually keep those files anywhere? So if you were to resize the game itself to anything less than 1920x1080, that would leave some kind of space somewhere on the canvas where you can put the splits if you stretch that window out in some direction.

I'm no expert and so if that's not helpful, you really should ask in the Tech Support thread where you posted your quality test earlier.