Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force 1 and 2 request

Psonar

Edit history:

Psonar: 2007-06-26 12:23:53 pm

2007-06-26 10:13:04 am

Long live SF64!

Sorry for not getting the new video up sooner, but here it is:

Segment 5 - The Scavengers (see previous post for timing info)

Yeah - If I'm able to make it through the first 1/2 of the level, I tend to be a bit more lenient on the second half. Tons of my attempts end during the first 30 seconds, so I'm usually glad to make it past the Klingon section and then still do well in the Malon/Hirogen section - the later parts are just the Federation parts, which I thought I did a pretty good job on and are pretty straight forward. Now the Boss fight has I think 15 seconds of possible improvement because I was being an absent-minded idiot. I've put in another 3 or 4 hours on this segment tonight, and I think my brain was glazing over a bit during that fight, because several times I made dumb moves that cost me 2-3 seconds. Once I realized the whole run was faster and that the biggest mistakes were at the very end, I figured it was a keeper. I'm about sick of that segment, and I did it justice for the most part. Speedruns are allowed to have mistakes, and it makes for better comments anyway :P.

You could also say that making it all 1 segment is to blame, because most of the later mistakes would be unacceptable in smaller segments, and several times I had near perfect runs of your 5.1 but then missed a jump just after that, etc. It all seems so simple that I figured 1 segment wouldn't be so bad, but trying to not get hung-up in this game for 10 minutes kinda sucks. This segment really brought out the "stickiness" of the game as you call it. I swear I got stuck on every bulkhead and door jam in the whole level. Who designs a level with angled walkways and then puts beams coming out of the wall to get stuck on? That and you can't make it up a ladder unless you're exactly in the center of it.

I want to hope that other segments won't be as bad, but I know I'm wrong! Of course the Klingon part is a bit more jumbled and disorganized than most of the game. After the scavenger ship, level designs became a lot more simplified and also, your team has to follow, meaning giving up ladders for elevators. Oh joy!

Well - I guess that means Segment 6 is on it's way. Shouldn't take long to record it. If I don't get Tuvok's hail right away then I'll restart until I get it.

Let me know what you think of shooting down the platform and the doctor trick and whatever else looks different. I feel like while our runs were very similar, I had lots of different approaches as well.

[hr]
Edit:
It didn't take long to successfully nail Segment 6. I was really suprised at how much time I saved on such a short segment. I expected a minute or so, but not 2:12! See the time comparison here.

Here's the small time chart:

And Finally the video:

Segment 6 - Waiting for Tuvok

Sorry for not getting the new video up sooner, but here it is:

[url=http://files.filefront.com/STVEF1+Segment5+wmmwmv/;7886263;;/fileinfo.html]Segment 5[/url] - The Scavengers (see previous post for timing info)

Yeah - If I'm able to make it through the first 1/2 of the level, I tend to be a bit more lenient on the second half. Tons of my attempts end during the first 30 seconds, so I'm usually glad to make it past the Klingon section and then still do well in the Malon/Hirogen section - the later parts are just the Federation parts, which I thought I did a pretty good job on and are pretty straight forward. Now the Boss fight has I think 15 seconds of possible improvement because I was being an absent-minded idiot.  I've put in another 3 or 4 hours on this segment tonight, and I think my brain was glazing over a bit during that fight, because several times I made dumb moves that cost me 2-3 seconds.  Once I realized the whole run was faster and that the biggest mistakes were at the very end, I figured it was a keeper. I'm about sick of that segment, and I did it justice for the most part.  Speedruns are allowed to have mistakes, and it makes for better comments anyway :P.

You could also say that making it all 1 segment is to blame, because most of the later mistakes would be unacceptable in smaller segments, and several times I had near perfect runs of your 5.1 but then missed a jump just after that, etc. It all seems so simple that I figured 1 segment wouldn't be so bad, but trying to not get hung-up in this game for 10 minutes kinda sucks. This segment [i]really[/i] brought out the "stickiness" of the game as you call it.  I swear I got stuck on every bulkhead and door jam in the whole level. Who designs a level with angled walkways and then puts beams coming out of the wall to get stuck on? That and you can't make it up a ladder unless you're exactly in the center of it.

I want to hope that other segments won't be as bad, but I know I'm wrong! Of course the Klingon part is a bit more jumbled and disorganized than most of the game. After the scavenger ship, level designs became a lot more simplified and also, your team has to follow, meaning giving up ladders for elevators. Oh joy!

Well - I guess that means Segment 6 is on it's way. Shouldn't take long to record it.  If I don't get Tuvok's hail right away then I'll restart until I get it.

Let me know what you think of shooting down the platform and the doctor trick and whatever else looks different.  I feel like while our runs were very similar, I had lots of different approaches as well.

[hr]
[b]Edit:[/b]
It didn't take long to successfully nail Segment 6.  I was really suprised at how much time I saved on such a short segment. I expected a minute or so, but not 2:12! See the time comparison [url=http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p2n6eP48idorMjV9NvzRTIA]here[/url].

Here's the small time chart:

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/flutefreak7/STVoyEF1_Voy3Times.png[/img]

And Finally the video:

[url=http://files.filefront.com/STVEF1+Segment6+wmmwmv/;7887169;;/fileinfo.html]Segment 6[/url] - Waiting for Tuvok

JediTry

2007-06-26 12:53:11 pm

Semi-retired FPS expert

Watching your segment 5 right now. First thing that comes to mind is

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why does that door at 5:28 in your video open? Mine was sealed. Up until there everything was nice. A couple of times you got stuck, but that's inevitable in this game.

And I got my revenge at 5:47, when you get terribly stuck and not even with the phaser. Shocked

Nice jump at 6:17. I saved helth there, no idea what for.

The doctor bit is sweet.

At 6:58 you could've run up to the chair-console directly.

What the hell did you that do for, at 7:23? Does it go faster?

The Hunter... well... that was quite funny. Were you really faster than me? It looks like you said, the concentration was miles away. 20 seconds improvement are quite realistic in that bit.

As a segment though it's quite good, considering how annoying the game can be. Just keep it, keep moving and finish the later levels as well. You can always come back to it next year and imrpove everything. Or beat the new Half-Life segmentation record (around 180).

There's a lot to look forward to... team baby-sitting, crappy elevators, etc. Grin

Good segment 6, obviously. Cheesy

Watching your segment 5 right now. First thing that comes to mind is

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why does that door at 5:28 in your video open? Mine was sealed. Up until there everything was nice. A couple of times you got stuck, but that's inevitable in this game.

And I got my revenge at 5:47, when you get terribly stuck and not even with the phaser. :o

Nice jump at 6:17. I saved helth there, no idea what for.

The doctor bit is sweet.

At 6:58 you could've run up to the chair-console directly.

What the hell did you that do for, at 7:23? Does it go faster?

The Hunter... well... that was quite funny. Were you really faster than me? It looks like you said, the concentration was miles away. 20 seconds improvement are quite realistic in that bit.

As a segment though it's quite good, considering how annoying the game can be. Just keep it, keep moving and finish the later levels as well. You can always come back to it next year and imrpove everything. Or beat the new Half-Life segmentation record (around 180).
 
There's a lot to look forward to... team baby-sitting, crappy elevators, etc.  ;D

Good segment 6, obviously.  :D

Psonar

2007-06-26 01:52:23 pm

Long live SF64!

Quote:

Watching your segment 5 right now. First thing that comes to mind is

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why does that door at 5:28 in your video open? Mine was sealed. Up until there everything was nice. A couple of times you got stuck, but that's inevitable in this game.

I have no clue... I always had both options... the upper sneaky way and the direct ground level door.

Quote:

And I got my revenge at 5:47, when you get terribly stuck and not even with the phaser. Shocked

What sucks is that's the only time in hundreds of tries that that happened...I usually use phaser on the first set of critters, then I end up using scavenger rifle there out of habit because I'm too pumped from running through the part before to remember that phaser is a better choice... I could've saved 2 seconds on that I suppose, but it feels like an eternity watching it!

Quote:

Nice jump at 6:17. I saved health there, no idea what for.

Well...it's a 40+ health jump I think, so saving health is wise if you're low...I think I remember cringing as I watched you climb down that ladder though...

Quote:

The doctor bit is sweet.

Told you so! Veritrax 12 all the way...

Quote:

At 6:58 you could've run up to the chair-console directly.

In my game at least, the chair console gives a negative buzz sound if you try to hit it before killing the first 4 guards. It's quite possible it only requires 11 guard to be killed and that one is always the last kill for me or something, but I know I've tried hitting it early and it never worked. I keep wondering if there were multiple releases of the game... do you have the 1.1 patch?

Quote:

What the hell did you that do for, at 7:23? Does it go faster?

I kept wondering if it would work, so on that segment I tried it out of some sort of boredom. It's actually a gamble with no purpose, because if I hit the lift after jumping I'll lose a bunch of health, but not lose any time, however if I hit the load point after the lift has already passed it, then I've saved health, but lost a tiny bit of time. The health doesn't matter except that I got very unlucky and almost died from an explosive barrel.

Quote:

The Hunter... well... that was quite funny. Were you really faster than me? It looks like you said, the concentration was miles away. 20 seconds improvement are quite realistic in that bit.

Yeah, that sucks. It'll give viewers something to laugh at I guess, because I'm not really willing to go through that segment again.

Quote:

As a segment though it's quite good, considering how annoying the game can be. Just keep it, keep moving and finish the later levels as well. You can always come back to it next year and imrpove everything. Or beat the new Half-Life segmentation record (around 180).

Yeah, I noticed that... dang. An uber-segmented version of this run might be interesting - just make every load point a segment and keep retrying that load point until it's perfect. It'd be difficult to keep trck of though without hard saves. What would be best is if a way could be found to alter the game's autosave files so that they can be kept after the next autosave. It might be as simple as copying the file and changing the filename, so that the game doesn't delete the copy, then changing it back to utilize the savepoint.

Another interesting run would be a single segment of course...quite a marathon that would be. If it could be done fast with zero deaths or retries that'd be quite an accomplishment.

If I have time in the 'next-year' future though I'll likely look into running Elite Force 2 since it was actually a better game as a whole. I also just so happen to own "The Fallen" which was the other title requested in the first post of this topic. It's a bit crappier than Elite Force and it's probably where Elite Force got much of it's inspiration as a Star Trek FPS. It actually has 3 separate games as Kira, Worf, or Sisco.

Quote:

There's a lot to look forward to... team baby-sitting, crappy elevators, etc. Grin

Oh joy... Borg, Dreadnought, and Harvesters... I would say I'm halfway done, but now comes the longer and harder levels.

Looks like I've saved 5 minutes from your full run so far. Who knows, maybe this run will make it sub 1:00, though I highly doubt it. Sub 1:10 or 1:05 would be cool though.

[quote]Watching your segment 5 right now. First thing that comes to mind is

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why does that door at 5:28 in your video open? Mine was sealed. Up until there everything was nice. A couple of times you got stuck, but that's inevitable in this game.[/quote]
I have no clue... I always had both options... the upper sneaky way and the direct ground level door.

[quote]And I got my revenge at 5:47, when you get terribly stuck and not even with the phaser. :o[/quote]What sucks is that's the only time in hundreds of tries that that happened...I usually use phaser on the first set of critters, then I end up using scavenger rifle there out of habit because I'm too pumped from running through the part before to remember that phaser is a better choice... I could've saved 2 seconds on that I suppose, but it feels like an eternity watching it!

[quote]Nice jump at 6:17. I saved health there, no idea what for.[/quote]
Well...it's a 40+ health jump I think, so saving health is wise if you're low...I think I remember cringing as I watched you climb down that ladder though...

[quote]The doctor bit is sweet.[/quote]Told you so! Veritrax 12 all the way...

[quote]At 6:58 you could've run up to the chair-console directly.[/quote] In my game at least, the chair console gives a negative buzz sound if you try to hit it before killing the first 4 guards. It's quite possible it only requires 11 guard to be killed and that one is always the last kill for me or something, but I know I've tried hitting it early and it never worked.  I keep wondering if there were multiple releases of the game... do you have the 1.1 patch?

[quote]What the hell did you that do for, at 7:23? Does it go faster?[/quote]I kept wondering if it would work, so on that segment I tried it out of some sort of boredom. It's actually a gamble with no purpose, because if I hit the lift after jumping I'll lose a bunch of health, but not lose any time, however if I hit the load point after the lift has already passed it, then I've saved health, but lost a tiny bit of time. The health doesn't matter except that I got very unlucky and almost died from an explosive barrel.

[quote]The Hunter... well... that was quite funny. Were you really faster than me? It looks like you said, the concentration was miles away. 20 seconds improvement are quite realistic in that bit.[/quote]
Yeah, that sucks. It'll give viewers something to laugh at I guess, because I'm not really willing to go through that segment again.

[quote]As a segment though it's quite good, considering how annoying the game can be. Just keep it, keep moving and finish the later levels as well. You can always come back to it next year and imrpove everything. Or beat the new Half-Life segmentation record (around 180).[/quote]
Yeah, I noticed that... dang. An uber-segmented version of this run might be interesting - just make every load point a segment and keep retrying that load point until it's perfect.  It'd be difficult to keep trck of though without hard saves.  What would be best is if a way could be found to alter the game's autosave files so that they can be kept after the next autosave.  It might be as simple as copying the file and changing the filename, so that the game doesn't delete the copy, then changing it back to utilize the savepoint.

Another interesting run would be a single segment of course...quite a marathon that would be. If it could be done fast with zero deaths or retries that'd be quite an accomplishment.

If I have time in the 'next-year' future though I'll likely look into running Elite Force 2 since it was actually a better game as a whole.  I also just so happen to own "The Fallen" which was the other title requested in the first post of this topic. It's a bit crappier than Elite Force and it's probably where Elite Force got much of it's inspiration as a Star Trek FPS. It actually has 3 separate games as Kira, Worf, or Sisco.

[quote]There's a lot to look forward to... team baby-sitting, crappy elevators, etc.  ;D[/quote]
Oh joy... Borg, Dreadnought, and Harvesters... I would say I'm halfway done, but now comes the longer and harder levels.

Looks like I've saved 5 minutes from your full run so far.  Who knows, maybe this run will make it sub 1:00, though I highly doubt it. Sub 1:10 or 1:05 would be cool though.

Psonar

Edit history:

Psonar: 2007-07-06 06:35:59 pm

2007-06-29 10:00:33 am

Long live SF64!

Ok, I've been working away on the Borg level and I've managed a pretty good segment. It's just over a minute and a half improvement of your 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 - so it's definitely good stuff, but there are also at least 15-30 seconds of potential improvement.

So, I'm going to continue to make some attempts, but unless I get lucky, this will probably be the time I keep. I'll wait until I'm sure before I post the chart and video, but since I use my Excel file to figure out the timing, the Google Spreadsheet will show you the time comparison.

I've also added a Running Improvement total, and a Seg. Time column to the top which has a "TOTAL" line at the bottom so you can see what my total time is so far for the run. Of course my timing is likely off from what SDA will do, but it gives a good idea anyway.

Looks like I'm up to 40 minutes so far.

[hr]
Edit:

I think that's the best I can muster for Segment 7 for now. I've developed several different ways of handling things (some aesthetic, some 1-3 second timesavers) and a cleaner run could be made, but I can't seem to put it all together from start to finish. This is a good time, so I'm not too worried about it.

Here's the [v1] chart:

Segment 7 video coming soon.....

EDIT:
The improved Segment 7 v2 is on the next page! Much better time!

Ok, I've been working away on the Borg level and I've managed a pretty good segment.  It's just over a minute and a half improvement of your 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 - so it's definitely good stuff, but there are also at least 15-30 seconds of potential improvement.

So, I'm going to continue to make some attempts, but unless I get lucky, this will probably be the time I keep. I'll wait until I'm sure before I post the chart and video, but since I use my Excel file to figure out the timing, the [url=http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p2n6eP48idorMjV9NvzRTIA]Google Spreadsheet[/url] will show you the time comparison.

I've also added a Running Improvement total, and a Seg. Time column to the top which has a "[i]TOTAL[/i]" line at the bottom so you can see what my total time is so far for the run.  Of course my timing is likely off from what SDA will do, but it gives a good idea anyway.

Looks like I'm up to 40 minutes so far.

[hr]
Edit:

I think that's the best I can muster for Segment 7 for now. I've developed several different ways of handling things (some aesthetic, some 1-3 second timesavers) and a cleaner run could be made, but I can't seem to put it all together from start to finish. This is a good time, so I'm not too worried about it.

Here's the [v1] chart:

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/flutefreak7/STVoyEF1_Borg2Times.png[/img]

Segment 7 video coming soon.....

[b]EDIT:[/b]
The improved Segment 7 v2 is on the next page! Much better time!

Psonar

Edit history:

Psonar: 2007-07-06 06:38:24 pm

2007-06-29 06:55:35 pm

Long live SF64!

Shameless double post to announce the...

[i][b]Segment 7 [v1] Video[/b] - ready for viewing via streaming flash or .wmv file download[/i] [Edit: v2 Now Available!]

For timing info, see my previous post. This is the longest segment yet, and similar to Segment 5 it covers in 1 segment what Jeditry split into 3. I'm not sure why I like the longer segments - I guess I'm a Single Segment person at heart, so I'll probably continue my pattern of 1 segment per level. This segment may not have the variety of the Scavenger ship, but between owning the Borg and plowing through hoards of Species 8472, it's a pretty solid run ...including gratuitous use of the mines launched by the Compound Grenade Launcher! Grin

Sorry for the self-promotion - I know it's honestly not the greatest thing in the world - thanks to the 3 to 5 folks who downloaded the others, and I hope you enjoy Segment 7!

Edit:
Ah crap... I left that silly VCR timer on again... sorry about that - it's easy to ignore after you start watching... if anyone admits that they find it rather annoying, then I'll make another version

EDIT:
The improved Segment 7 v2 is on the next page! Much better time!

Shameless double post to announce the...

[url=http://files.filefront.com/STVEF1+Segment7+wmmwmv/;7917943;;/fileinfo.html][size=13][i][b]Segment 7 [v1] Video[/size][/b][/url] - ready for viewing via streaming flash or .wmv file download[/i] [b][Edit: v2 Now Available!][/b]

For timing info, see my previous post.  This is the longest segment yet, and similar to Segment 5 it covers in 1 segment what Jeditry split into 3.  I'm not sure why I like the longer segments - I guess I'm a Single Segment person at heart, so I'll probably continue my pattern of 1 segment per level.  This segment may not have the variety of the Scavenger ship, but between owning the Borg and plowing through hoards of Species 8472, it's a pretty solid run ...including gratuitous use of the mines launched by the Compound Grenade Launcher! ;D

Sorry for the self-promotion - I know it's honestly not the greatest thing in the world - thanks to the 3 to 5 folks who downloaded the others, and I hope you enjoy Segment 7!

Edit:
Ah crap... I left that silly VCR timer on again... sorry about that - it's easy to ignore after you start watching... if anyone admits that they find it rather annoying, then I'll make another version

[b]EDIT:[/b]
The improved Segment 7 v2 is on the next page! Much better time!

Psonar

Edit history:

Psonar: 2007-07-07 04:46:31 am

2007-07-06 06:32:32 pm

Long live SF64!

Well, I've made great progress.... but, it's not on Segment 8...

Segment 7 v2 - updated video

Improved 30+ seconds on previous version
Total improvement of 2:10 on Jeditry's 7.1, 7.2 & 7.3
Running Total Improvement is now at 7:32
Total Run Time is at 39:07

Here's the chart with the timing breakdown and comparison:

And of course the link for the complete updated Spreadsheet hasn't changed.

[hr]
Edit: And now for comments!

It turns out most of the improvement comes from the first portion of the run (Jeditry's 7.1). Most of the room for improvement in this portion comes from the last 2 minutes where Seven is opening the door. I knew I could save time by knowing the spawning locations of the Borg as they advanced... then I realized I could spam grenade mines like crazy to kill 20+ Borg in their spawning location. After saving time with this I found that Seven deactivating the door was triggered by killing each of the Borg that systematically beam in after Chang says "Take Cover" and sets off an explosive. These Borg beam in at certain locations in a certain order... so that part was handled as long as I could get a quick shot off as they beamed in.

My problem was with getting the "Take Cover" event to activate. Sometimes I was able to get a 4:15 on the first part, and other times I was hard pressed to get 4:45 or even 5:00. I couldn't figure out why he sometimes did it much sooner than other times. Then it finally registered... Chang and Jurot fall back as they are approached by more Borg. My grenade mine spamming technique allows for a few Borg to slip by in order to best take advantage of 3 of their 4 initial spawning locations. I wanted to maximize killing the Borg ASAP because I thought the "Take Cover" was triggered by the quantity of kills. This assumption was based on the fact that you can actually "seal" the spawning locations if you get a mine to explode precisely when the spawn occurs. I've sealed off all Borg from spawning and the result is that Chang and Jurot fall back very slowly shouting "there's too many!" and whatnot, even though there are no enemies.... because this takes even longer than any other method, I figured killing more Borg was making it go faster.... well... I was wrong.

The fastest method is to not kill any Borg until Chang says "Take Cover." The initial 4 Borg push Chang and Jurot back down the hallway in a few seconds allowing quick access to the fixed spawn point sequence bringing that opening portion of the run down to about 4 minutes!

Other than that I found many more uses for the grenade mines. That's what I've decided to call them anyway - sounds better than "mines" or "Compound Grenade Launcher Alternate Fire." You can shoot one at a Borg and kill all surounding Borg, even if they've adapted to the mine itself. That and placing it on the floor or wall near where Borg spawn makes for a good kill that it actually much faster than using the I-Mod - and uses less ammo and requires less accuracy. The downsides of the mines are that they hurt you as well in close quaters, and they are lofted in an arc making them somewhat inaccurate for some Species 8472 applications towards the end.

I found certain portions can go faster depending on teammate movements which can be controlled... for example - when approaching Foster, it's best not to go all the way to his cell until Seven of Nine can be seen coming down the ramp... otherwise its easy for Jurot to get there way ahead of time, causing Seven to enter the slow zombie-walk rather than running to catch up... this caused at least 100 restarts for me - Seven would still be 10+ seconds away, which just sucks. Also, just before Species 8472, if you go all the way to the blue forcefield, Seven enters Zombie walk, but if you stop near the health and wait for Seven to run to you, you can initiate the forcefield sooner.

Also, I managed to keep the team out of my hair for the most part in the tiered portion by jumping down to the lower level rather than riding the lift. Knowing spawn locations and using grenade mines sped that bit up as well. And as in the previous video I used the Tetryon gun's bouncing secondary fire to get the hidden dis-node rather than the granade launcher.... too bad I was absent mineded and shot at the wrong place at first... no real time lost though.

I think this segment easily has 10-20 seconds of possible improvement, but I wouldn't recommend it without segmenting further as Jeditry did. It took me long enough to get this one, so I'm very happy with it!

Segment 8 should come no problem tonight - I already have it planned out and it's just the voyager Mess Hall sequence. Segment 9 will be a really tough nut for sure. I might begin recording Saturday, but it might take longer just to practice and then I can start recording next week. I'll be starting a fresh tape I suppose since a "SS Segment" would be pretty long.

An interesting note - The Dreadnought ship starts you with whatever health and armor you have when you beam onto Voyager after the Borg portion, which is 100 health and a seemingly random armor value above 50. This means that I couldn't technically redo segment 7 without also redoing segments 8 and 9 at least. But I'm going chronologically anyway, so that won't really matter.

[hr]
Edit 2:

I've got a Segment 8 with a 30 second improvement on Jeditry... I guess I'm keeping it since there's not more than 5 more seconds to be had and it's a minor segment.

Work on Dreadnought has begun... I have no major route adjustments to make, just different ways to handle situations and very different weapon usage. I think a single segment is very doable, and I plan to take out the turrets much faster at the end of that long segment with a mixture of the grenade mines and the Tetryon secondary fire.

I'm not sure how much improvement to anticipate, because there's not much in your segments that really makes me shudder at the 30 second time loss or anything. I plan definite improvements on the mini-Boss robot, the chaotic rooms just after you get the Arc Welder, and the final turret/charge-loading sequence. Hopefully given the length of the segment I can manage atleast 2 minutes of improvement.

Up to Segment 8 I have 8 minutes of improvement with 44 total minutes of gameplay. Looks like overall I might net maybe 12-14 minutes total improvement. I've yet to time past Part 8 so I don't know your total time to get an estimate of my total time. My wild guess right now is 1:10 to 1:15 for my total time.

Well, I've made great progress.... but, it's not on Segment 8...

[url=http://files.filefront.com/STVEF1+Segment7+2+wmmwmv/;7978632;;/fileinfo.html][size=16]Segment 7 v2[/size][/url] - updated video[list]
[*]Improved 30+ seconds on previous version
[*]Total improvement of 2:10 on Jeditry's 7.1, 7.2 & 7.3
[*]Running Total Improvement is now at 7:32
[*]Total Run Time is at 39:07
[/list]
Here's the chart with the timing breakdown and comparison:

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/flutefreak7/STVoyEF1_Borg2Times_2.png[/img]

And of course the link for the complete updated [url=http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p2n6eP48idorMjV9NvzRTIA]Spreadsheet[/url] hasn't changed.

[hr]
Edit: And now for comments!

It turns out most of the improvement comes from the first portion of the run (Jeditry's 7.1).  Most of the room for improvement in this portion comes from the last 2 minutes where Seven is opening the door.  I knew I could save time by knowing the spawning locations of the Borg as they advanced... then I realized I could spam grenade mines like crazy to kill 20+ Borg in their spawning location. After saving time with this I found that Seven deactivating the door was triggered by killing each of the Borg that systematically beam in [i]after[/i] Chang says "Take Cover" and sets off an explosive.  These Borg beam in at certain locations in a certain order... so that part was handled as long as I could get a quick shot off as they beamed in.

My problem was with getting the "Take Cover" event to activate.  Sometimes I was able to get a 4:15 on the first part, and other times I was hard pressed to get 4:45 or even 5:00.  I couldn't figure out why he sometimes did it much sooner than other times.  Then it finally registered... Chang and Jurot fall back as they are approached by more Borg. My grenade mine spamming technique allows for a few Borg to slip by in order to best take advantage of 3 of their 4 initial spawning locations.  I wanted to maximize killing the Borg ASAP because I thought the "Take Cover" was triggered by the quantity of kills.  This assumption was based on the fact that you can actually "seal" the spawning locations if you get a mine to explode precisely when the spawn occurs.  I've sealed off all Borg from spawning and the result is that Chang and Jurot fall back very slowly shouting "there's too many!" and whatnot, even though there are no enemies.... because this takes even longer than any other method, I figured killing more Borg was making it go faster.... well... I was wrong.

The fastest method is to not kill [i]any[/i] Borg until Chang says "Take Cover." The initial 4 Borg push Chang and Jurot back down the hallway in a few seconds allowing quick access to the fixed spawn point sequence bringing that opening portion of the run down to about 4 minutes!

Other than that I found many more uses for the grenade mines. That's what I've decided to call them anyway - sounds better than "mines" or "Compound Grenade Launcher Alternate Fire." You can shoot one at a Borg and kill all surounding Borg, even if they've adapted to the mine itself.  That and placing it on the floor or wall near where Borg spawn makes for a good kill that it actually much faster than using the I-Mod - and uses less ammo and requires less accuracy.  The downsides of the mines are that they hurt you as well in close quaters, and they are lofted in an arc making them somewhat inaccurate for some Species 8472 applications towards the end.

I found certain portions can go faster depending on teammate movements which can be controlled... for example - when approaching Foster, it's best not to go all the way to his cell until Seven of Nine can be seen coming down the ramp... otherwise its easy for Jurot to get there way ahead of time, causing Seven to enter the slow zombie-walk rather than running to catch up... this caused at least 100 restarts for me - Seven would still be 10+ seconds away, which just sucks.  Also, just before Species 8472, if you go all the way to the blue forcefield, Seven enters Zombie walk, but if you stop near the health and wait for Seven to run to you, you can initiate the forcefield sooner.

Also, I managed to keep the team out of my hair for the most part in the tiered portion by jumping down to the lower level rather than riding the lift.  Knowing spawn locations and using grenade mines sped that bit up as well. And as in the previous video I used the Tetryon gun's bouncing secondary fire to get the hidden dis-node rather than the granade launcher.... too bad I was absent mineded and shot at the wrong place at first... no real time lost though.

I think this segment easily has 10-20 seconds of possible improvement, but I wouldn't recommend it without segmenting further as Jeditry did.  It took me long enough to get this one, so I'm very happy with it!

Segment 8 should come no problem tonight - I already have it planned out and it's just the voyager Mess Hall sequence.  Segment 9 will be a really tough nut for sure.  I might begin recording Saturday, but it might take longer just to practice and then I can start recording next week.  I'll be starting a fresh tape I suppose since a "SS Segment" would be pretty long.

An interesting note - The Dreadnought ship starts you with whatever health and armor you have when you beam onto Voyager after the Borg portion, which is 100 health and a seemingly random armor value above 50.  This means that I couldn't technically redo segment 7 without also redoing segments 8 and 9 at least. But I'm going chronologically anyway, so that won't really matter.

[hr]
[b]Edit 2:[/b]

I've got a Segment 8 with a 30 second improvement on Jeditry... I guess I'm keeping it since there's not more than 5 more seconds to be had and it's a minor segment.

Work on Dreadnought has begun... I have no major route adjustments to make, just different ways to handle situations and very different weapon usage.  I think a single segment is very doable, and I plan to take out the turrets much faster at the end of that long segment with a mixture of the grenade mines and the Tetryon secondary fire.

I'm not sure how much improvement to anticipate, because there's not much in your segments that really makes me shudder at the 30 second time loss or anything. I plan definite improvements on the mini-Boss robot, the chaotic rooms just after you get the Arc Welder, and the final turret/charge-loading sequence.  Hopefully given the length of the segment I can manage atleast 2 minutes of improvement.

Up to Segment 8 I have 8 minutes of improvement with 44 total minutes of gameplay.  Looks like overall I might net maybe 12-14 minutes total improvement.  I've yet to time past Part 8 so I don't know your total time to get an estimate of my total time. My wild guess right now is 1:10 to 1:15 for my total time.

Psonar

2007-07-09 06:19:57 pm

Long live SF64!

Okay, time for another big update...

First, some minor news - I'm keeping my Segment 8 attempt. That's the Voyager Segment in between the Borg mission and the Dreadnought mission where you go to the Mess Hall. I discussed it a bit in an earlier post. Here are the times and video for Segment 8:

Segment 8 Video

I've finally got a solid Segment 9 recorded! I basically did a ton of attempts all day and night on Saturday and I kept getting roughly the same time, and from combining times on different portions I knew I could save about 20-30 seconds. I wanted to atleast cut off another 20 seconds or so, and finally I got everything to fall together. Here's the timing breakdown:

This is by far the longest segment in the game. The video is a little over 17 minutes, and it was quite a stretch to try and perfect it all in the same attempt. I could certainly comment on plenty of things, but I just want to get all the info posted for now.

Sorry if the first 5 minutes are boring... they certainly got old for me, but this run has some great frantic moments in it and probably some of the best true action of any segment yet.

Segment 9 Video

The complete spreadsheet shows that Segment 9 was a 2:30 improvement over Jeditry's 9.1 and 9.2 portions. I didn't manipulate anything to get such on-the-dot improvements like 0:30 and 2:30. Just a weird coincidence! This brings the run's time up to just seconds under an hour, and the total improvement to about 10 minutes. Looks like the run is winding down with only 2 segments left! I'm looking forward to running The Forge.

Not that I mind using the thread like a personal blog, but ... uh ... Anyone out there?

Okay, time for another big update...

First, some minor news - I'm keeping my Segment 8 attempt. That's the Voyager Segment in between the Borg mission and the Dreadnought mission where you go to the Mess Hall. I discussed it a bit in an earlier post. Here are the times and video for Segment 8:

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/flutefreak7/STVEF1_Segment8_TimingXL.png[/img]

[url=http://files.filefront.com/STVEF1+Segment8+wmmwmv/;8000180;;/fileinfo.html]Segment 8 Video[/url]

I've finally got a solid Segment 9 recorded! I basically did a ton of attempts all day and night on Saturday and I kept getting roughly the same time, and from combining times on different portions I knew I could save about 20-30 seconds. I wanted to atleast cut off another 20 seconds or so, and finally I got everything to fall together.  Here's the timing breakdown:

[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l35/flutefreak7/STVEF1_Segment9_TimingXL.png[/img]

This is by far the longest segment in the game.  The video is a little over 17 minutes, and it was quite a stretch to try and perfect it all in the same attempt.  I could certainly comment on plenty of things, but I just want to get all the info posted for now.

Sorry if the first 5 minutes are boring... they certainly got old for me, but this run has some great frantic moments in it and probably some of the best true action of any segment yet.

[url=http://files.filefront.com/STVEF1+Segment9+wmmwmv/;8004179;;/fileinfo.html][b]Segment 9 Video[/b][/url]

The [url=http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p2n6eP48idorMjV9NvzRTIA]complete spreadsheet[/url] shows that Segment 9 was a 2:30 improvement over Jeditry's 9.1 and 9.2 portions.  I didn't manipulate anything to get such on-the-dot improvements like 0:30 and 2:30.  Just a weird coincidence! This brings the run's time up to just seconds under an hour, and the total improvement to about 10 minutes. Looks like the run is winding down with only 2 segments left! I'm looking forward to running The Forge.

Not that I mind using the thread like a personal blog, but ... uh ... Anyone out there?

The_Pianoman

2007-07-10 07:18:44 pm

> Not that I mind using the thread like a personal blog, but ... >uh ... Anyone out there?

Well, I don't wanna complain, because I was really looking
forward to a speedrun of the game. Really, I was eager to
watch it. But what I saw didn't look like Elite Force,
it looked like something on a C64 filmed with a mobile phone
camera.

The image quality of the video is really $%#* bad.

If it's possible, use Fraps or Camtasia or another tool.

Psonar

2007-07-11 06:07:04 am

Long live SF64!

If you'll lend me a better computer I'd be glad to - I'm recording to VHS with a 3 year old laptop. The final SDA video will of course look loads better after nate has encoded it. Many of the best runs on the site were done on VHS and the quality is just fine - much better than if I turned down the graphics settings to choppy crap to allow Fraps.

The video camera videos are to demonstrate what I've done for those interested and especially those willing to contribute to the discussion. It takes me a lot of extra time to make them and they are my only option without buying a DVD recorder.

Remember that I uploaded all of Jeditry's run to archive.org which he encoded in high quality divx. Just search archive.org for Jeditry and it'll come up, or look back in the topic for my post.

I've found that posting something is better than nothing and right now they aren't really meant to be quality entertainment. That's why I want to get the run done so that nate can encode it and it can be posted on SDA alongside all the other great videos here.

Sorry about the lousy quality - I hope you'll enjoy the run when it's completed!

If you'll lend me a better computer I'd be glad to - I'm recording to VHS with a 3 year old laptop. The final SDA video will of course look loads better after nate has encoded it.  Many of the best runs on the site were done on VHS and the quality is just fine - much better than if I turned down the graphics settings to choppy crap to allow Fraps.

The video camera videos are to demonstrate what I've done for those interested and especially those willing to contribute to the discussion.  It takes me a lot of extra time to make them and they are my only option without buying a DVD recorder.

Remember that I uploaded all of Jeditry's run to archive.org which he encoded in high quality divx. Just search archive.org for Jeditry and it'll come up, or look back in the topic for my post.

I've found that posting something is better than nothing and right now they aren't really meant to be quality entertainment.  That's why I want to get the run done so that nate can encode it and it can be posted on SDA alongside all the other great videos here.

Sorry about the lousy quality - I hope you'll enjoy the run when it's completed!

The_Pianoman

2007-07-11 04:33:10 pm

I'd lend you a better computer if I could Wink

And I'm looking forward to the run, when it's done.

BTW, what computer do you have?

Psonar

Edit history:

Psonar: 2007-07-11 08:08:35 pm

2007-07-11 08:08:04 pm

Long live SF64!

Glad that you're looking forward to the run!

My computer is Compaq Presario R3000 Laptop. I think it's got a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 processor, a 64MB Nvideo Go Graphics card or something, 60 GB Hard Drive, and 512 MB RAM.

In 2004 it was a pretty awesome machine, but now it shows its age. In general folks are impressed with some stuff I've gotten to run on it, but that's only by killing all background processes, etc.

I won't be getting a new computer likely until I finish college which will almost never happen Tongue

Psonar

2007-07-18 06:56:23 am

Long live SF64!

Just an update since it's been almost 2 weeks since any real progress... progress which had normally occurred at least every other day.

I got a bit tired of the Elite Force thing and playing a bit of the last level got me really frustrated, so I just didn't play it for a while. I've since played and beaten Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban and decided that I would never want to run that game. Not that it's hard - quite the contrary. I just don't think I could stand playing it multiple times - not that it's that bad... just something about it that wears on you. Anyway, I also started playing Elite Force online, which has been loads of fun. In the meantime I've also re-played about 2/3 of Ratchet and Clank which has mostly been a bit frustrating since I keep getting to a planet and going "ahh, not that one...." and realizing that the cool levels that I liked the most must be in the other 2 games.

Anyways - I need to finish this run at some point so that it'll stop looming over me and it can get in the list for verification.

I'm refreshing my memory on Segment 10, the Voyager bit where the Scavenger's invade. I've found that the whole first part can be ran through with little regard for killing enemies, which I think will save some time over Jeditry's run. This segment can't be much more than 1 minute, so it's not a big deal.

The last segment however will be a big deal. I may very well segment it just for my own sanity, because it is by far the most chaotic, insane, and risky level of the game. It's like the Species 8472 part except twice as bad and for over 10 minutes straight. I want to run it like a suicidal moron, but of course I always die, and there's no good way to run like crazy through many parts... so I'm looking for the right trade-off between staying alive and speed (and number of attempts necessary).

Anyways, just wanted to give some kind of update ad state that I plan to continue progress. If anyone wants to be encouraging and let me know that they are looking forward to the run so that I'll buckle down and get it done, then now is the time!

Just an update since it's been almost 2 weeks since any real progress... progress which had normally occurred at least every other day.

I got a bit tired of the Elite Force thing and playing a bit of the last level got me really frustrated, so I just didn't play it for a while. I've since played and beaten Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban and decided that I would never want to run that game.  Not that it's hard - quite the contrary.  I just don't think I could stand playing it multiple times - not that it's that bad... just something about it that wears on you.  Anyway, I also started playing Elite Force online, which has been loads of fun.  In the meantime I've also re-played about 2/3 of Ratchet and Clank which has mostly been a bit frustrating since I keep getting to a planet and going "ahh, not that one...." and realizing that the cool levels that I liked the most must be in the other 2 games.

Anyways - I need to finish this run at some point so that it'll stop looming over me and it can get in the list for verification.

I'm refreshing my memory on Segment 10, the Voyager bit where the Scavenger's invade.  I've found that the whole first part can be ran through with little regard for killing enemies, which I think will save some time over Jeditry's run.  This segment can't be much more than 1 minute, so it's not a big deal.

The last segment however will be a big deal.  I may very well segment it just for my own sanity, because it is by far the most chaotic, insane, and risky level of the game.  It's like the Species 8472 part except twice as bad and for over 10 minutes straight. I want to run it like a suicidal moron, but of course I always die, and there's no good way to run like crazy through many parts... so I'm looking for the right trade-off between staying alive and speed (and number of attempts necessary).

Anyways, just wanted to give some kind of update ad state that I plan to continue progress.  If anyone wants to be encouraging and let me know that they are looking forward to the run so that I'll buckle down and get it done, then now is the time!

JediTry - countdown: 11

2007-07-19 05:15:21 am

Hi man, no I'm not dead, but getting internet over here has been a lot harder than expected. It should be done on the 30th, if everything proceeds as planned. Then I will download your vids and comment.

In the meantime, have fun with the last level, and I can understadn your frustration. I think once you can get past theinitial space hopping there's quite a stretch you can do in 1 segment, but once you reach the random shooting room you better save and go on from there.

JediTry

2007-08-02 01:10:44 pm

Semi-retired FPS expert

And back I am. Going to download and comment soon. Are you still running?

Psonar

2007-08-06 05:12:42 am

Long live SF64!

hmmm... uh...

I kinda lost interest for a while and I've been having trouble coming back to it. One day when I tried to start playing again, my save file wouldn't work. When I go to load the save it acts like it's loading, then suddenly goes back to the main menu.

That's frustrated me and I haven't been motivated enough to try and track down the problem thus far. If the save file is truly lost, then I'll most likely have to redo some number of segments, which is not an attractive prospect. I always shake my head at the number of times runs are stalled due to problems like "My PS2 stopped working" or "My save file got corrupted" and yet here I am. I haven't full given up on it - I can still try and copy the saves folder and reinstall and that kind of thing, I've just been lazy about it. Since it is a VHS run, then my progress may be lost if the run isn't done soon.

I've tried to make sure my filefront stuff doesn't get deleted, but like half of it has, so I'll likely upload to youtube so that the videos are out there. I'll just have to brace myself for youtuber comments on how bad the quality is.

I'm glad that you're back around Jeditry, and I'm sorry that I don't have more progress for you!

hmmm... uh...

I kinda lost interest for a while and I've been having trouble coming back to it. One day when I tried to start playing again, my save file wouldn't work. When I go to load the save it acts like it's loading, then suddenly goes back to the main menu.

That's frustrated me and I haven't been motivated enough to try and track down the problem thus far. If the save file is truly lost, then I'll most likely have to redo some number of segments, which is not an attractive prospect. I always shake my head at the number of times runs are stalled due to problems like "My PS2 stopped working" or "My save file got corrupted" and yet here I am.  I haven't full given up on it - I can still try and copy the saves folder and reinstall and that kind of thing, I've just been lazy about it.  Since it is a VHS run, then my progress may be lost if the run isn't done soon.

I've tried to make sure my filefront stuff doesn't get deleted, but like half of it has, so I'll likely upload to youtube so that the videos are out there.  I'll just have to brace myself for youtuber comments on how bad the quality is.

I'm glad that you're back around Jeditry, and I'm sorry that I don't have more progress for you!

JediTry

2007-08-06 10:54:14 am

Semi-retired FPS expert

There's actually no need to re-upload them, as I got everything already. I just haven't had the time to comment on them while watching, but as far as I remember there was nothing obvious I saw could be improved. Very nice Array portion. You should just move on and finish it up. Maybe you could get any save file, depending on whether your health gets refilled after the last mission. I actually had exactly the same breakdown, just before the final 2 segments... maybe it's meant to happen... Shocked

Psonar

2007-08-06 09:48:05 pm

Long live SF64!

The problem is that the health doesn't refill until you see the doctor on that last Voyager segment. I could recreate the save point except for the health and armor needing to be exact. Basically I would need to end the Dreadnought level with the same health, armor, and ammo values as I had on the last segment that I did.

To do this I know I could get the ammo values the same by simply using console commands to refill my ammo and then use up ammo until I'm down to the appropriate value. Then the problem would be getting the health and armor values to be the same (33 and 42 I believe). I can refill health and armor with console commands, but then I'd need a predictable way to bring my health down to the right values. I have a feeling health won't be as hard as getting both health and armor since they are strangely related.

Maybe falls only affect health while armor & health are affected by weapons attacks? Who knows. I'll see what I can figure out, but that's where I'm at for now. If I were to go all the way back to a point where health and ammo don't carry over it'd be the Voyager segment before the dreadnought level (I think...). Health is refilled and armor is given a random value if I remember correctly. I'd really like to not have to redo dreadnought though - that thing was like 20 minutes long - boring at places and full of randomness.

The problem is that the health doesn't refill until you see the doctor on that last Voyager segment. I could recreate the save point except for the health and armor needing to be exact. Basically I would need to end the Dreadnought level with the same health, armor, and ammo values as I had on the last segment that I did.

To do this I know I could get the ammo values the same by simply using console commands to refill my ammo and then use up ammo until I'm down to the appropriate value. Then the problem would be getting the health and armor values to be the same (33 and 42 I believe). I can refill health and armor with console commands, but then I'd need a predictable way to bring my health down to the right values.  I have a feeling health won't be as hard as getting both health and armor since they are strangely related.

Maybe falls only affect health while armor & health are affected by weapons attacks? Who knows. I'll see what I can figure out, but that's where I'm at for now.  If I were to go all the way back to a point where health and ammo don't carry over it'd be the Voyager segment before the dreadnought level (I think...). Health is refilled and armor is given a random value if I remember correctly. I'd really like to not have to redo dreadnought though - that thing was like 20 minutes long - boring at places and full of randomness.

JediTry

2007-08-06 10:37:18 pm

Semi-retired FPS expert

I think there's another way, and that is to just have lower health and armor. AfaIk that's accepted.

ShadowWraith

2007-08-07 02:48:38 am

.

Correct. You can continue with different stats that you saved with so long as they are lower than what the originals were and that there is no advantage gained by having lower values.

Psonar

2007-08-08 03:58:16 am

Long live SF64!

Sweet - well that's easily accomplished ... I'm glad to hear that the rules make sense in that way.

I'll just get up to that point and design the save to have lower health and armor and everything. The health is entirely refilled anyway and the ammo is refilled except for some of the Dilithium crystal ammo. While I usually use all my ammo, the harvesters invading voyager part isn't too bad even with a little less.

Thanks for that tip - having not messed with PC runs much, I'm not used to all the rules about saves and segments and whatnot. Good to know!

Psonar

2007-08-16 11:30:23 am

Long live SF64!

Well when I went to try and create a new save file I found that several other saves towards the end of the game also didn't work, so I used the last one that did - the voyager portion before the dreadnought ship. When I arrived at the dreadnought ship the game failed to load the level properly, so then I realized that something must be wrong with that portion of the game to cause it to be selectively failing to load the last 1/3 of the game. I figured it's probably due to something I've downloaded.

Though I probably should've been more careful, I started getting into EF1's booming online multiplayer community and downloading characters and maps like crazy in the process. I also downloaded a few mods including instagib and pinball and installed the official 1.2 patch which upgrades the holomatch stuff and replaces Seven's voice with the voice of Jeri Ryan (when they got Jeri Ryan to record for the Expansion Pak she also recorded all lines to the original game which was included in the 1.2 expansion - there are no known effects on gameplay - the game doesn't use sound to cue events because sounds continue while pausing)...

...anyway needless to say my Elite Force and BaseEF folders were fairly littered with extra junk that I was afrad might be confusing Elite Force. Especially since it scans everything in those folders when running the console at the start of the game. So I removed everything that didn't look original and tried playing the game again and everything worked properly! So I'll be able to use my good old save file after all!

Now some other good news... I now have a DVD recorder! The question is, can I switch from VHS to DVD and have the final run be on both VHS and DVD? I made a topic in the Tech Support forum to get immediate nate/mike/grenola attention, but I figured it'd be good to mention here as well. In the mean time I'll be recorded with both by running the signal through the DVD and then through the VCR and watching it on the TV. I've been playing my PS2 with that same setup and while it sounds jury-rigged, it appears to work like a charm.

Further good news is that I researched "ground loops" which is an electrical thing that often happens with Audio Video setups causing speaker hum and TV distortion. I have known for a while I had a ground loop and to eliminate it I was un-plugging my laptop in order to record and the plugging it back in to charge in between. Needless to say this was extremely annoying because for every 30 minutes of recording I had about 20 minutes of charging. Well it turns out ground loops aren't just created by having multiple units hooked to the same power source. More specifically it's when those units are grounded to different grounds which have a voltage difference between them. This is possible because of TV/Antenna cables. Apparently, they are grounded too, and generally differ from the AC ground in the building, creating a 60 hz voltage which disrupts AV equipment.

Long story short: I disconnect my Cable TV wire while recording and I can record without unplugging the laptop! Of course the real solution is to buy a Coaxial cable ground loop isolator... which isn't free. Removing the cable however... is free, so I think I'll just do that one instead.

So yeah, I'm working on the run. Trying to cram it into the last days of summer. It may not be pretty folks, but it's my last ditch effort to get it off my chest before I become too busy. Basically if it looks quick and I don't die or do anything monumentally idiotic, I'll probably keep it. Sorry to lower my standards at the end, but I'm ready to be done with this before Fall semester and thus before the VHS cutoff so that I don't have to worry about anything but sending tapes to nate when the time comes.

That's all for now. More coming soon, hopefully.

Well when I went to try and create a new save file I found that several other saves towards the end of the game also didn't work, so I used the last one that did - the voyager portion before the dreadnought ship. When I arrived at the dreadnought ship the game failed to load the level properly, so then I realized that something must be wrong with that portion of the game to cause it to be selectively failing to load the last 1/3 of the game. I figured it's probably due to something I've downloaded.

Though I probably should've been more careful, I started getting into EF1's booming online multiplayer community and downloading characters and maps like crazy in the process. I also downloaded a few mods including instagib and pinball and installed the official 1.2 patch which upgrades the holomatch stuff and replaces Seven's voice with the voice of Jeri Ryan (when they got Jeri Ryan to record for the Expansion Pak she also recorded all lines to the original game which was included in the 1.2 expansion - there are no known effects on gameplay - the game doesn't use sound to cue events because sounds continue while pausing)...

...anyway needless to say my Elite Force and BaseEF folders were fairly littered with extra junk that I was afrad might be confusing Elite Force. Especially since it scans everything in those folders when running the console at the start of the game. So I removed everything that didn't look original and tried playing the game again and everything worked properly! So I'll be able to use my good old save file after all!

Now some other good news... I now have a DVD recorder! The question is, can I switch from VHS to DVD and have the final run be on both VHS and DVD? I made a topic in the Tech Support forum to get immediate nate/mike/grenola attention, but I figured it'd be good to mention here as well. In the mean time I'll be recorded with both by running the signal through the DVD and then through the VCR and watching it on the TV. I've been playing my PS2 with that same setup and while it sounds jury-rigged, it appears to work like a charm.

Further good news is that I researched "ground loops" which is an electrical thing that often happens with Audio Video setups causing speaker hum and TV distortion. I have known for a while I had a ground loop and to eliminate it I was un-plugging my laptop in order to record and the plugging it back in to charge in between. Needless to say this was extremely annoying because for every 30 minutes of recording I had about 20 minutes of charging.  Well it turns out ground loops aren't just created by having multiple units hooked to the same power source. More specifically it's when those units are grounded to different grounds which have a voltage difference between them. This is possible because of TV/Antenna cables. Apparently, they are grounded too, and generally differ from the AC ground in the building, creating a 60 hz voltage which disrupts AV equipment.

Long story short: I disconnect my Cable TV wire while recording and I can record without unplugging the laptop! Of course the real solution is to buy a Coaxial cable ground loop isolator... which isn't free. Removing the cable however... is free, so I think I'll just do that one instead.

So yeah, I'm working on the run. Trying to cram it into the last days of summer. It may not be pretty folks, but it's my last ditch effort to get it off my chest before I become too busy. Basically if it looks quick and I don't die or do anything monumentally idiotic, I'll probably keep it. Sorry to lower my standards at the end, but I'm ready to be done with this before Fall semester and thus before the VHS cutoff so that I don't have to worry about anything but sending tapes to nate when the time comes.

That's all for now. More coming soon, hopefully.

Psonar

Edit history:

Psonar: 2007-08-18 02:08:54 am

2007-08-17 06:06:22 pm

Long live SF64!

Hmm, here we go...

Segment 10 Youtube

Segment 10 [HQ] Filefront (IQ now available)

Youtube version is normal quality divx where the filefront is the high quality mp4. The streaming player doesn't work on filefront, you'll have to download and use VLC or whatever. This is thanks to my DVD Recorder, so I hope you all enjoy this!

Edit: Added the link for Insane Quality above.

JediTry

2007-08-17 11:13:16 pm

Semi-retired FPS expert

Excellent quality, and a good run. I think you can keep it. I wonder why I never considerd using the "big" weapons. Probably ammo saving. Anyway, glad you're going for it, and good luck with the last level. Wink

Psonar

Edit history:

Psonar: 2007-08-18 02:07:18 am

2007-08-18 01:58:46 am

Long live SF64!

Ya know I'm not sure why I thought to use the photon launcher there, but I'm fairly certain that wasn't my approach before I started playing some online. With online multiplayer, especially with Elite Force's frantic gameplay, you have to use whatever will get the job done the fastest and so the photon launcher, sniper, and arc welder become staple weapons. For some reason I also like that segment because I almost killed myself with that risky shot when I got stuck at the end. I had a slower run where I didn't get stuck anywhere, but somehow it was 3 seconds slower overall, so I think I'll stick with this one, which is very speedy through the 3 crowded rooms at the beginning and doesn't include any ammo shortages or other blunders.

Hopefully the last level will be even better quality. I was using an S-video to composite ("yellow plug") adapter because the S-video input on my DVD recorder was being stubborn, but now it is miraculously working like a charm, so now I should be recording true S-video signal. According to some brief research the difference is that S-video splits the signal into 2 parts which keeps colors from bleeding and blurring which sharpens the image especially with small text and vertical lines I think. Anyways, I'm definitely excited to be able to provide high quality video now, and I hope I can get this last part obliterated soon!

Also, I recently finished with an Insane Quality encoding of the same video. If you haven't gotten the HQ yet, then step up for this 60 fps beauty! The HQ was 30 fps (should've been 60, but I'm still learning how to use anri-chan). This one at full screen should look like you're actually playing the game!

Segment 10 - Insane Quality

Ya know I'm not sure why I thought to use the photon launcher there, but I'm fairly certain that wasn't my approach [i]before[/i] I started playing some online. With online multiplayer, especially with Elite Force's frantic gameplay, you have to use whatever will get the job done the fastest and so the photon launcher, sniper, and arc welder become staple weapons. For some reason I also like that segment because I almost killed myself with that risky shot when I got stuck at the end. I had a slower run where I didn't get stuck anywhere, but somehow it was 3 seconds slower overall, so I think I'll stick with this one, which is very speedy through the 3 crowded rooms at the beginning and doesn't include any ammo shortages or other blunders.

Hopefully the last level will be even better quality. I was using an S-video to composite ("yellow plug") adapter because the S-video input on my DVD recorder was being stubborn, but now it is miraculously working like a charm, so now I should be recording true S-video signal.  According to some brief research the difference is that S-video splits the signal into 2 parts which keeps colors from bleeding and blurring which sharpens the image especially with small text and vertical lines I think. Anyways, I'm definitely excited to be able to provide high quality video now, and I hope I can get this last part obliterated soon!

Also, I recently finished with an Insane Quality encoding of the same video. If you haven't gotten the HQ yet, then step up for this 60 fps beauty! The HQ was 30 fps (should've been 60, but I'm still learning how to use anri-chan). This one at full screen should look like you're actually playing the game!

[url=http://files.filefront.com/STVEF1+Seg10+5+IQmp4/;8339962;;/fileinfo.html]Segment 10 - Insane Quality[/url]

Psonar

2007-08-28 06:56:58 pm

Long live SF64!

If anyone's wondering if I'm as busy as I said I would be, yes, indeed I am. I haven't played any games since my classes started back.

On the bright side, because I have a DVD recorder, the pressure to submit before the VHS deadline is lifted. I can record the remaining segments on DVD and then record the VHS over to DVD as well. That being said I'd project this run being finished in January, unless I find enough time during a Fall Break or Thanksgiving.

I really don't have much left at all, but it will take several hours to get a good recording. I actually got a passable first segment of the Forge level, and I was working on the 2nd half of the level. After that, the boss is extremely easy. He's probably worth his own segment just because the part before is so tough. If I have any further news I'll keep everyone informed!

Just to keep the conversation alive, is anyone interested in Elite Force 2, or has anyone else even played "The Fallen?" Elite Force 2 especially needs a run eventually. It's actually a much more polished game than EF1.

If anyone's wondering if I'm as busy as I said I would be, yes, indeed I am.  I haven't played any games since my classes started back.

On the bright side, because I have a DVD recorder, the pressure to submit before the VHS deadline is lifted. I can record the remaining segments on DVD and then record the VHS over to DVD as well.  That being said I'd project this run being finished in January, unless I find enough time during a Fall Break or Thanksgiving.

I really don't have much left at all, but it will take several hours to get a good recording. I actually got a passable first segment of the Forge level, and I was working on the 2nd half of the level. After that, the boss is extremely easy. He's probably worth his own segment just because the part before is so tough. If I have any further news I'll keep everyone informed!

Just to keep the conversation alive, is anyone interested in Elite Force 2, or has anyone else even played "The Fallen?"  Elite Force 2 especially needs a run eventually. It's actually a much more polished game than EF1.