Spycraft: The Great Game - October 2, 2014

Edit history:

SDAVerification: 2014-10-02 09:44:17 pm

2014-09-17 08:28:53 am

Game Page: Doesn't exist yet

Spycraft: The Great Game (Any %) (Single Segment)

Decision: Reject

Reason: Good start, but needs more polish before we can accept this.

https://queue.speeddemosarchive.com/queue/verificationfiles/1244/

This run will be available for a month. After that these link(s) will no longer work.

Thread title:

SDAVerification

2014-09-17 08:29:07 am

Run Information

Spycraft: The Great Game (Any %) (Single Segment)

Verification Files

http://v.speeddemosarchive.com/spycraft/

Please refer to the Verification Guidelines before posting. Verifications are due by Oct. 1, 2014.

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 move this thread to the main verification board and post my verdict.

LotBlind

Edit history:

LotBlind: 2014-09-29 10:47:20 am

2014-09-28 10:56:19 am

The complete absence of run comments is a bit unfortunate here. There's a few spots where it's not clear what the runner is doing.

29:15
Writing two e-mails that then get cancelled and generally faffing around for whole minute. The same e-mail then gets rewritten later and actually sent that time... It's PROBABLY some kind of timer or other condition the runner has to wait for but comments for clarity would be nice.
33:22
Here the screen literally freezes for ages, the sounds stop playing and the cursor doesn't move. This lasts until 34:15. I think the runner was having some technical issues during the recording... I checked the walkthrough and there isn't supposed to be anything special happening in the game at this time.
36:08
Here the runner realizes they forgot to read some files or whatever and they can't sent the message yet, takes maybe 10 seconds to recover and start looking for the info in the right place.
40:45
Here the game gets SAVED. I suspect it's so the runner can attempt the shooting sequence again if things go south. It's never reloaded though. However, after the shooting, at
42:32
there is an autosave and at 42:40 I believe the game CRASHES. We briefly enter DOS as it gets launched again by the runner. Our adventure takes off again at 43:05
44:27
looks like the runner chooses the wrong decryption cypher twice before hitting on the right one but maybe it's random? It was never random with any of the other ones though. If this is a mistake, it costs 14 seconds.
45:47
We autosave the game again. Looks like the game window loses focus for a little while.

So basically I can't see a lot of mistakes in the gameplay which means if none of the other aforementioned quirks are going to cause reject, neither will this verification. I don't personally need to hear from the runner because most of the issues were technical in nature.

accept?

The complete absence of run comments is a bit unfortunate here. There's a few spots where it's not clear what the runner is doing.

29:15
Writing two e-mails that then get cancelled and generally faffing around for whole minute. The same e-mail then gets rewritten later and actually sent that time... It's PROBABLY some kind of timer or other condition the runner has to wait for but comments for clarity would be nice.
33:22
Here the screen literally freezes for ages, the sounds stop playing and the cursor doesn't move. This lasts until 34:15. I think the runner was having some technical issues during the recording... I checked the walkthrough and there isn't supposed to be anything special happening in the game at this time.
36:08
Here the runner realizes they forgot to read some files or whatever and they can't sent the message yet, takes maybe 10 seconds to recover and start looking for the info in the right place.
40:45
Here the game gets SAVED. I suspect it's so the runner can attempt the shooting sequence again if things go south. It's never reloaded though. However, after the shooting, at
42:32
there is an autosave and at 42:40 I believe the game CRASHES. We briefly enter DOS as it gets launched again by the runner. Our adventure takes off again at 43:05
44:27
looks like the runner chooses the wrong decryption cypher twice before hitting on the right one but maybe it's random? It was never random with any of the other ones though. If this is a mistake, it costs 14 seconds.
45:47
We autosave the game again. Looks like the game window loses focus for a little while.

So basically I can't see a lot of mistakes in the gameplay which means if none of the other aforementioned quirks are going to cause reject, neither will this verification. I don't personally need to hear from the runner because most of the issues were technical in nature.

accept?

AlecK47

2014-09-30 07:06:43 pm

So I watched this run, made some notes, referenced an FAQ, and logged in only to see that LotBlind already made note of everything I would have...

Anyway, there's a lot going on in this run, so I think a fair amount of the issues are forgivable, but it's a close one. Ultimately unless this is actually a segmented run (despite the run info) I'll give it a pass on gameplay. Also there was a fair amount of variability in the time spent for disc changes on the video I watched (yua_hq 4), and most were very short. There are several reasons for this, and quite a few are less than nefarious (preemptively switching in the next disc, for example, which might also explain some of the mistakes.

With the information I have now I'll give it a weak accept, but this really is a case where at least SOME run comments for context and understanding would have been a great help

UraniumAnchor

2014-09-30 07:15:32 pm

Not a walrus

I'll see if I can bring the runner in.

Amishman

Edit history:

Amishman: 2014-09-30 08:03:44 pm

2014-09-30 07:50:20 pm

Sorry about the lack of comments
29:15 It was simply a laps of my memory forgetting to remember the location and scrambling to remember the correct location.

33:22 You are correct I was having an issue with the game and managed to fix it not the best for a speed run I admit.

36:08 Yeah I forgot the correct location and double checked.

40:45 That is one of the many saves near the end of the game the game makes you save

42:32 Every time I play the game it crashes at the exact point.

44:27 Yes It was a mistake it wasn't my best run.

45:47 That is the second save the game makes you save.

LotBlind

2014-10-01 11:01:51 am

So let's be clear here: the actions you take between and 29:14 and 31:13 are all necessary? So you forgot what the location was but you needed to do all that other stuff anyway? So you're not actually just losing time? And actually the only time lost is around 28:54 to 29:14?

Amishman

Edit history:

Amishman: 2014-10-01 11:21:29 am

2014-10-01 11:06:25 am

No I did lose a lot of time during that part because not only did I forget the right answer I forgot what file it was under so I searched ever file I didn't read so yeah none of it was necessary and I lost all that time because of it.

AlecK47

Edit history:

AlecK47: 2014-10-01 03:50:27 pm

AlecK47: 2014-10-01 03:49:03 pm

2014-10-01 03:48:16 pm

For the sake of consistency, I'll use LotBlind's times as well.

29:15 – As much as two minutes lost. Even if something else needed to be checked in the file cabinet, had it been done before the whole debacle it would have only taken about 15 seconds at most. But did anything checked before the email was actually sent need to be done anyway?
32:22 – I’m willing to let this slide; same with the crash later.
36:08 – Going back to get the correct location to show up is something like 20-30 seconds lost (very rough estimate), so it’s not as bad. Mistakes like this are much more forgivable, obviously.
44:27 – A little over ten seconds lost here. Doesn’t look good, but again a much more forgivable mistake.

This decision is basically down to how much, if any, of the extra stuff between the two aborted emails and the sent one in the 29:15 timeframe was necessary. If one or two of the things there needed to be checked at some point anyway, I'd probably give it a pass. Thanks for the honesty though.

Regardless, this is pretty close. There's a lot going on in this game and it isn't the shortest, so even if everything is the same and can be memorized I'm willing to forgive some things, but a two minute time loss is just too much.

Weak reject, but with encouragement to improve and resubmit, because again, this is actually pretty close.

For the sake of consistency, I'll use LotBlind's times as well.

29:15 – As much as two minutes lost.  Even if something else needed to be checked in the file cabinet, had it been done before the whole debacle it would have only taken about 15 seconds at most.  But did anything checked before the email was actually sent need to be done anyway?
32:22 – I’m willing to let this slide; same with the crash later.
36:08 – Going back to get the correct location to show up is something like 20-30 seconds lost (very rough estimate), so it’s not as bad.  Mistakes like this are much more forgivable, obviously.
44:27 – A little over ten seconds lost here.  Doesn’t look good, but again a much more forgivable mistake.

This decision is basically down to how much, if any, of the extra stuff between the two aborted emails and the sent one in the 29:15 timeframe was necessary.  If one or two of the things there needed to be checked at some point anyway, I'd probably give it a pass.  Thanks for the honesty though.

Regardless, this is pretty close.  There's a lot going on in this game and it isn't the shortest, so even if everything is the same and can be memorized I'm willing to forgive some things, but a two minute time loss is just too much.

Weak reject, but with encouragement to improve and resubmit, because again, this is actually pretty close.

LotBlind

2014-10-02 10:54:56 am

Well having heard from the runner now (thanks for the honest info, that's definitely the honourable and sensible thing to do) there's no doubt this is a reject. Like Alec, I can't see why the runner couldn't easily produce a run without mistakes of that sort. Using a "co-driver" to keep track of what you're doing for quick reference to your notes if necessary is one way to go about eliminating memory-lapse based time losses. Or maybe you can just run a finger down a page if you don't need the keyboard for anything.

So yeah keep going with this!

reject

SDAVerification

2014-10-02 09:44:21 pm

Decision posted.