SWAT 4 Elite 100% (Revisions in progress)

Edit history:

ad3n: 2009-07-30 08:52:05 pm

2007-06-15 07:04:22 am

rawr

UPDATE TO THREAD: Please go to http://www.youtube.com/user/jabbajew for the most up-to-date videos (since there were many revisions of levels)

--------------------

Alright, I've been watching speedruns for quite some time now and I've finally gotten the urge to actually try something for myself. I just hope there's an interest in this by some people; if not, I'll still do it for me. As you can see by the title, I want to tackle SWAT 4, playing on the Elite difficulty, and getting 100% in each level. Now I don't know if there's a difference in enemies (strength, accuracy, numbers, etc) with the varied difficulty settings, but it sounds better at least. The obvious difference needed for Elite is at least a 95/100 requirement to pass the level; obviously 95 is not what I want.

For a scoresheet of how percentages are broken down (from a Gamespot guide):
- Simply completing all mission objectives nets 40 points--no matter what actions you took during the mission.
- If all civilians during the mission emerge unharmed, 5 points is added to your score.
- If all squad members survive the mission, 10 points is added to your score.
- If all suspects are restrained at the end of the mission, 5 points is added to your score.
- Complete the mission without injury to your own character to receive 5 points.
- Report status to TOC when necessary to receive a full 5 bonus points (you'll receive a portion of the points depending on how many opportunities you squander). Status situations include reporting restrained suspects or civilians, incapacitated civilians, dead suspects, dead squad members, etc.
- Recover weapons to receive a possible 5 bonus points (you'll receive a portion depending on how many you miss). Every time an armed suspect surrenders, he or she drops a weapon (or even two). Recover those weapons to secure the evidence.
- You receive a percentage of a possible 25 points depending on the number of suspects arrested or incapacitated. The best case scenario is to arrest all suspect.

Seems like a simple enough breakdown, but here's the tough part: I can't use any lethal force at all, which makes this a lot harder. I'm basically stuck with a pepperball gun (with not-the-best accuracy), a beanbag shotgun (which is only good if you don't need range), pepper spray (again only in short distance), and a taser gun (which only has one-shot before requiring a reload). I can use flashbangs, gas grenades, and sting grenades to get them too, but they are hit-or-miss sometimes. Things really start getting tricky when the enemies start packing vests and gasmasks.

Now the reaaaaally tough part about doing a speedrun for this game is that it's very random. Everytime you go into the level, varying amounts of enemies, suspects, weapons, and victims appear in varying locations. Sometimes this can be exploited, making levels quicker, but virtually all of the time it means that I never know what's coming up and requires very quick thinking.

Because of this randomness, I think it makes this a very challengingly fun game to run. Those that may not have played it may think that it's not as perfect as they'd hope, but having to improvise virtually ever attempt means that everything won't be smooth (I warn you now). Making sure to pick up all of the guns and reporting to TOC is often my downfall as rushing makes you forget things sometimes for a quick second. Fraps makes things less smooth, so aiming can also prove a difficult task, as well as ensuring the perfect spot to perform an action (ie blowing through doors with the shotgun).

Now I've decided to do this at a very awkward time in my life. I just graduated from university (today, actually) and I'm in the process of orientating for a full-time position at a hospital. That basically means that this speedrun attempt is not guaranteed; but I'm verrrry interested in achieving it. It might be a slow process, but I really hope to do it.

Thus far I've recorded 4 level's videos (though I'll be redoing the 4th). The first two missions at a rough time of 1:08 each, going in solo without anyone, since they're generally very easy to beat. I use them sparingly after those levels because I don't want a stray bullet to hit them. Remember, even a single injury to ANYONE screws my run. Sometimes it's better to Rambo it. In the later levels, I'll probably reconsider that.

Any suggestions from those that have played that might be able to help me along the way? Also, what can I encode the Fraps videos with to allow me to post my current runs at decent filesizes?

Thread title:

UPDATE TO THREAD: Please go to http://www.youtube.com/user/jabbajew for the most up-to-date videos (since there were many revisions of levels)

--------------------

Alright, I've been watching speedruns for quite some time now and I've finally gotten the urge to actually try something for myself.  I just hope there's an interest in this by some people; if not, I'll still do it for me.  As you can see by the title, I want to tackle SWAT 4, playing on the Elite difficulty, and getting 100% in each level.  Now I don't know if there's a difference in enemies (strength, accuracy, numbers, etc) with the varied difficulty settings, but it sounds better at least.  The obvious difference needed for Elite is at least a 95/100 requirement to pass the level; obviously 95 is not what I want.

For a scoresheet of how percentages are broken down (from a Gamespot guide):
- Simply completing all mission objectives nets 40 points--no matter what actions you took during the mission.
- If all civilians during the mission emerge unharmed, 5 points is added to your score.
- If all squad members survive the mission, 10 points is added to your score.
- If all suspects are restrained at the end of the mission, 5 points is added to your score.
- Complete the mission without injury to your own character to receive 5 points.
- Report status to TOC when necessary to receive a full 5 bonus points (you'll receive a portion of the points depending on how many opportunities you squander). Status situations include reporting restrained suspects or civilians, incapacitated civilians, dead suspects, dead squad members, etc.
- Recover weapons to receive a possible 5 bonus points (you'll receive a portion depending on how many you miss). Every time an armed suspect surrenders, he or she drops a weapon (or even two). Recover those weapons to secure the evidence.
- You receive a percentage of a possible 25 points depending on the number of suspects arrested or incapacitated. The best case scenario is to arrest all suspect.

Seems like a simple enough breakdown, but here's the tough part: I can't use any lethal force at all, which makes this a lot harder.  I'm basically stuck with a pepperball gun (with not-the-best accuracy), a beanbag shotgun (which is only good if you don't need range), pepper spray (again only in short distance), and a taser gun (which only has one-shot before requiring a reload).  I can use flashbangs, gas grenades, and sting grenades to get them too, but they are hit-or-miss sometimes.  Things really start getting tricky when the enemies start packing vests and gasmasks.

Now the reaaaaally tough part about doing a speedrun for this game is that it's very random.  Everytime you go into the level, varying amounts of enemies, suspects, weapons, and victims appear in varying locations.  Sometimes this can be exploited, making levels quicker, but virtually all of the time it means that I never know what's coming up and requires very quick thinking.

Because of this randomness, I think it makes this a very challengingly fun game to run.  Those that may not have played it may think that it's not as perfect as they'd hope, but having to improvise virtually ever attempt means that everything won't be smooth (I warn you now).  Making sure to pick up all of the guns and reporting to TOC is often my downfall as rushing makes you forget things sometimes for a quick second.  Fraps makes things less smooth, so aiming can also prove a difficult task, as well as ensuring the perfect spot to perform an action (ie blowing through doors with the shotgun).

Now I've decided to do this at a very awkward time in my life.  I just graduated from university (today, actually) and I'm in the process of orientating for a full-time position at a hospital.  That basically means that this speedrun attempt is not guaranteed; but I'm verrrry interested in achieving it.  It might be a slow process, but I really hope to do it.

Thus far I've recorded 4 level's videos (though I'll be redoing the 4th).  The first two missions at a rough time of 1:08 each, going in solo without anyone, since they're generally very easy to beat.  I use them sparingly after those levels because I don't want a stray bullet to hit them.  Remember, even a single injury to ANYONE screws my run.  Sometimes it's better to Rambo it.  In the later levels, I'll probably reconsider that.

Any suggestions from those that have played that might be able to help me along the way?  Also, what can I encode the Fraps videos with to allow me to post my current runs at decent filesizes?

krael

2007-06-15 09:25:59 am

Verified verifier and hangaround :)

Thumbs up. Swat was a reat game and it's definately speedrun material for sure.

ZeRo

Edit history:

ZeRo: 2007-06-17 03:39:16 pm

2007-06-17 03:34:46 pm

Speed is everything!

I'd be interested. Swat 4 Elite was an amazing game!
So I'm looking forward to this run Wink

Quote:

Also, what can I encode the Fraps videos with to allow me to post my current runs at decent filesizes?

Virtual Dub is a good programm to encode videos.
And here you can read all about compressing and hosting videos. Wink

OLOW

2007-06-18 12:14:43 am

contact= Baseballkvb1@co mcast.net

I would defianlty be interested in seeing this run. Good Luck.

Vourdex

2007-06-18 03:54:39 am

pwnij

Good luck.

ad3n

2007-06-18 06:45:03 am

rawr

Alright, I've uploaded the first four levels to my FileFront account, which can be found here:

http://hosted.filefront.com/ad3nn/

Whenever I get new ones up, I'll mention it in this topic, but it'll all be on that account.

Some notes:

Level 1:
- In this one, there can be a lot more people, so I was decently lucky with the numbers and especially their placements.
- Since those three guys all walked out, it saved me from having to bother ever entering that back room there, which was a nice bonus
- Had a quick slip on blowing the door, but it wasn't that bad

Level 2:
- Using the garage entrance is a waste because you'd waste time backtracking either going up then back down the stairs, or going through that long basement tunnel only having to come back.
- On this one, there's sometimes a second suspect that randomly appears, so for the fastest run, you have to keep doing it until he's not there.
- The suspect's mother rarely seemed to give up right away, so I tazered her before even bothering to shout.
- I had to gas the last room because running in there is virtual suicide, considering the small size of the room, and the fact that accuracy is increased on the Elite setting. Sadly, I could've shaved off a second or two had I shouted just a squeak beyond that door because I guess they didn't hear me as I entered.

Level 3:
- This one kind of lucky because I never checked the bathrooms; I simply hoped that no one was ever in there, because it's a crazy time-waster. Everytime I finished the main building, I'd hope that it wouldn't screw me in the end.
- I only use the team once here, in that one room because that doorway has a good blocking entrance, preventing the team from being shot (though it may sometimes happen). Since it's a small room, a gas grenade would easily affect anyone in there, which would help me in the long run.
- The chick with the shotgun scared the crap outta me. Got lucky with that, but then I screwed up the first tazer shot because I was trying to move too fast
- In the levels with more and more rooms, I'll basically have to check through most of them, which can eat some time, but it's usually on the main areas that I've seen them spawn, so I try to minimize it.
- I was pretty shocked at the people in the store-area that were already on their knees; nice bonus.
- At the end, I forgot the two guns which wasted a couple seconds, but the rest of the run was good, so whatever.

Level 4:
- This one was a lot of restarts. Those damn uzi's were accurate as hell with my Rambo-style of play. Because of that, and the fact that the peppergun isn't very accurate, I crept a little bit more around corners and crouched to shoot more.
- I wasn't planning on doing the main stage area that early in the run, but after those guys in the bar area, the bouncing doors made me think that I was bound to get shot in the back, so I went for it.
- I turned back because I heard that woman--could've probably just kept going though
- You really get to see the inaccuracy of the pepper gun in the upper room (3rd guy) and the guy outside. Wow, I was lucky with that outside strafe. If I stopped moving, he;d have had me for sure--in fact, I'm shocked he didn't hit me at all to be frank.
- Another run of this level that I had had it beaten about 40 seconds less because of one less suspect (and possibly civilians as well, but I didn't count). The problem with it was that I forgot some guns and ended up wasting like 2 minutes looking for it, obviously killing the run. Because of that, I may end up re-running this one later on.

I can't wait to get started on the harder levels. Going solo is easily a hell of a lot faster, and the team can easily be hit most times, so I'm going to try to keep Rambo'ing it as much as I can. Any comments are welcome.

Alright, I've uploaded the first four levels to my FileFront account, which can be found here:

http://hosted.filefront.com/ad3nn/

Whenever I get new ones up, I'll mention it in this topic, but it'll all be on that account.

Some notes:

Level 1:
- In this one, there can be a lot more people, so I was decently lucky with the numbers and especially their placements.
- Since those three guys all walked out, it saved me from having to bother ever entering that back room there, which was a nice bonus
- Had a quick slip on blowing the door, but it wasn't that bad

Level 2: 
- Using the garage entrance is a waste because you'd waste time backtracking either going up then back down the stairs, or going through that long basement tunnel only having to come back.
- On this one, there's sometimes a second suspect that randomly appears, so for the fastest run, you have to keep doing it until he's not there.  
- The suspect's mother rarely seemed to give up right away, so I tazered her before even bothering to shout. 
- I had to gas the last room because running in there is virtual suicide, considering the small size of the room, and the fact that accuracy is increased on the Elite setting.  Sadly, I could've shaved off a second or two had I shouted just a squeak beyond that door because I guess they didn't hear me as I entered.

Level 3:
- This one kind of lucky because I never checked the bathrooms; I simply hoped that no one was ever in there, because it's a crazy time-waster.  Everytime I finished the main building, I'd hope that it wouldn't screw me in the end.
- I only use the team once here, in that one room because that doorway has a good blocking entrance, preventing the team from being shot (though it may sometimes happen).  Since it's a small room, a gas grenade would easily affect anyone in there, which would help me in the long run.
- The chick with the shotgun scared the crap outta me.  Got lucky with that, but then I screwed up the first tazer shot because I was trying to move too fast
- In the levels with more and more rooms, I'll basically have to check through most of them, which can eat some time, but it's usually on the main areas that I've seen them spawn, so I try to minimize it.
- I was pretty shocked at the people in the store-area that were already on their knees; nice bonus.
- At the end, I forgot the two guns which wasted a couple seconds, but the rest of the run was good, so whatever.

Level 4:
- This one was a lot of restarts.  Those damn uzi's were accurate as hell with my Rambo-style of play.  Because of that, and the fact that the peppergun isn't very accurate, I crept a little bit more around corners and crouched to shoot more.
- I wasn't planning on doing the main stage area that early in the run, but after those guys in the bar area, the bouncing doors made me think that I was bound to get shot in the back, so I went for it.
- I turned back because I heard that woman--could've probably just kept going though
- You really get to see the inaccuracy of the pepper gun in the upper room (3rd guy) and the guy outside. Wow, I was lucky with that outside strafe.  If I stopped moving, he;d have had me for sure--in fact, I'm shocked he didn't hit me at all to be frank.
- Another run of this level that I had had it beaten about 40 seconds less because of one less suspect (and possibly civilians as well, but I didn't count).  The problem with it was that I forgot some guns and ended up wasting like 2 minutes looking for it, obviously killing the run.  Because of that, I may end up re-running this one later on.

I can't wait to get started on the harder levels.  Going solo is easily a hell of a lot faster, and the team can easily be hit most times, so I'm going to try to keep Rambo'ing it as much as I can.  Any comments are welcome.

Zanthra

2007-06-18 07:35:54 am

Wow, this is a really tough game for 100%. With some games everything is always the same, and you can reherse exactly what to do to finish it, but this is exciting because of the randomness. Hoping for more.

I borrowed this game from a friend a couple weeks ago, and only really got a chance to play the first couple levels (my attempt at level 3 didn't go so well), but I wonder if it might be a good idea to have your squad follow way behind you and restrain the suspects and civillians. It might shave a few seconds off. Although I would not be surprised if you have a good reason why you don't.

ad3n

2007-06-18 09:36:07 pm

rawr

Running through the levels a couple times as practice gives me some indication of whether or not they're any bit of use to me. For the most part, they're not so good because they always seemed to get hit by stray bullets. And me having to flash the objectives screen constantly to check on the status of my guys (since I'd likely check other rooms while they do their thing) would probably be annoying to the viewer. Plus, selecting them to Restrain takes more time than it's worth (unless there's a lot of people to do). And I've found that even in casual play, sometimes the team doesn't even follow the command, and I'm forced to redo it. Frankly, it's too much of a hassle, hence my reasoning for solo'ing.

ad3n

Edit history:

ad3n: 2007-09-16 08:38:53 am

2007-09-16 08:26:40 am

rawr

Well, it's been quite some time since I last posted about this game, but nevertheless, I still am pursuing this. Fitting a speedrun in with a new full-time job is a task, but I'm progressing.

Currently, I've recorded levels one through ten (up to and including St. Michael's Hospital). I re-did the first five levels that I originally put in this topic for a couple reasons: the fps was only at 25, and the more I watched them, the more I realized how many mistakes I made. So I re-ran them and lowered them all... at 50fps to boot. I may redo the Red Library, but it's not a for sure yet.

I haven't had a chance yet to upload anything to my FileFront account for your viewing pleasure yet, but I will shortly.

Here's my current times:

1) Food Wall Restaurant: 1m13s (Old = 1m23s)
2) Fairfax Residence: 59s (Old = 1m13s)
3) Qwik Fuel Convenience Store: 2m09s (Old = 3m23s)
4) A-Bomb Nightclub: 4m14s (Old = 6m44s)
5) Victory Imports Auto Center: 4m08s (Old = 4m46s)
6) Red Library Offices: 8m21s
7) Northside Vending and Amusements: 4m20s
8 ) Duplessis Wholesale Diamond Center: 8m05s
9) Children of Taronne Tenement: 4m49s
10) St. Michael's Medical Center: 5m25s

These runs aren't flawless; as I said before, every time I play it's random, so I always have to think on my toes. Sometimes my fingers just hit the wrong key, or I'm too caught up in guys to remember to reload at better moments. Regardless, like I did with my older runs, if I'm not satisfied by them, I redo it; but if the mistakes are minimal or the level goes my way in other aspects, I'll probably keep it.

I'll probably put up some videos for tomorrow for you guys. And comments are greatly appreciated. If you think something sucks, let me know and I'll do what I can. Or if you've got a better route, let me know and I'll test the waters. I've played these levels so many times it's freaking ridiculous, so I know the more common areas where people are more likely to spawn (sometimes this bites me in the ass though Undecided

).

PS Wolcott Projects is pissing me off royally right now. Guys shooting through doors, tons of junk in rooms to hide behind, a worthless team that dies waaay too easily, and numerous ways for baddies to sneak behind you are making me psycho. I've got a good route down for it, it's just a matter of the guys being in the right places as I plow through.

Well, it's been quite some time since I last posted about this game, but nevertheless, I still am pursuing this. Fitting a speedrun in with a new full-time job is a task, but I'm progressing.

Currently, I've recorded levels one through ten (up to and including St. Michael's Hospital).  I re-did the first five levels that I originally put in this topic for a couple reasons: the fps was only at 25, and the more I watched them, the more I realized how many mistakes I made.  So I re-ran them and lowered them all... at 50fps to boot.  I may redo the Red Library, but it's not a for sure yet.

I haven't had a chance yet to upload anything to my FileFront account for your viewing pleasure yet, but I will shortly.

Here's my current times:

1) Food Wall Restaurant: 1m13s  (Old = 1m23s)
2) Fairfax Residence: 59s   (Old = 1m13s)
3) Qwik Fuel Convenience Store: 2m09s  (Old = 3m23s)
4) A-Bomb Nightclub: 4m14s  (Old = 6m44s)
5) Victory Imports Auto Center: 4m08s  (Old = 4m46s)
6) Red Library Offices: 8m21s
7) Northside Vending and Amusements: 4m20s
8 ) Duplessis Wholesale Diamond Center: 8m05s
9) Children of Taronne Tenement: 4m49s
10) St. Michael's Medical Center: 5m25s

These runs aren't flawless; as I said before, every time I play it's random, so I always have to think on my toes.  Sometimes my fingers just hit the wrong key, or I'm too caught up in guys to remember to reload at better moments.  Regardless, like I did with my older runs, if I'm not satisfied by them, I redo it; but if the mistakes are minimal or the level goes my way in other aspects, I'll probably keep it.

I'll probably put up some videos for tomorrow for you guys.  And comments are greatly appreciated.  If you think something sucks, let me know and I'll do what I can. Or if you've got a better route, let me know and I'll test the waters.  I've played these levels so many times it's freaking ridiculous, so I know the more common areas where people are more likely to spawn (sometimes this bites me in the ass though :-\ ).

PS Wolcott Projects is pissing me off royally right now.  Guys shooting through doors, tons of junk in rooms to hide behind, a worthless team that dies waaay too easily, and numerous ways for baddies to sneak behind you are making me psycho.  I've got a good route down for it, it's just a matter of the guys being in the right places as I plow through.

ZeRo

2007-09-16 09:21:49 pm

Speed is everything!

Nice times and nice improvements! Can't wait to see the videos! Grin

ad3n

Edit history:

ad3n: 2007-09-17 04:57:44 am

2007-09-17 04:52:40 am

rawr

http://hosted.filefront.com/ad3nn/ The files for the first 10 are up with med-high quality. Enjoy.

Some Notes:

Food Wall:
The people were perfectly lined on my path, so I saved an assload of time not having to go through back rooms. This one will be a tough one for challengers to beat if they try.

Fairfax Residence:
This is another that I'm very proud of. I didn't have to stray one bit off my path for this one to arrest people. The bald guy being in the room he's in meant that I could just rush into the last room without worry, which even saved more time. Very happy being timed sub-minute.

Qwik Fuel:
I hate it when my team doesn't listen and I have to repeat commands. I took a different path in this run than my old one. I took care of the main store and the offices first because I knew there'd be guys there. The back rooms are hit-or-miss with people so leaving it to last let me know if I had to even keep going or not. I got lucky with this one and didn't have to even enter the storage areas.

A-Bomb:
- I've found that it's easier to take the main stage area from the bar entrance side; there's more to hide behind in a pinch.
- Upstairs, going through that open door is suicide, so I had to throw the Bang; if it's closed it's do-able.
- I had the middle of the reticle on the guy for the taser, but missed; didn't waste that much time since pulling out the good ol' pepper spray doesn't take long.
- I had to tell my team to restrain that one guy in the hall 3 freaking times before it was done; that's sad.

Victory Imports:
- Pepper spray made this start a hell of a lot easier
- My team didn't feel like gassing that one room in the basement for some reason. Clingy bastards.
- I don't normally bang that one room before going in, but since the civilian mentioned the gunman, I figured it was a safe play; though it didn't seem to have phased them as I went in.
- I was going to shoot the last guy with a pepper spray after the Completed came up, but I hit '7' instead, giving me the breach shotgun. Wasn't sure if killing him would've ruined the run, so I shot the metal thing instead.

Red Library:
- This was the first time having to bust out the bean-bag shotgun; there's at least 2 guys with gas masks on, and pepper balls wouldn't phase them. The tricky part is not running out of ammo.
- Fun fact: when I stop in my tracks upstairs and pause for about 3 seconds or so, it was because my girlfriend was calling me and I answered the phone as quickly as I could.
- There's numerous times in this run where you can tell I totally wasn't expecting anyone; dealt with it decently enough, and had to dodge some bullets a few times. I love the taser shot over the guy's shoulder at the end. By far my most favourite thing that I've done in this game/project.
- I was hoping that the very last guy wasn't in that room, but it wasn't a far trek back. On my normal route I go through it before the cubicles, but with that guy running from the main desk to the cubicles, I didn't want to get shot in the back.

Northside Vending and Amusements:
- The first guy is either in the bathroom to the right after you enter the building, in the room in my run, or walking down the stairs in the adjacent larger area. I kept restarting and only tried doing runs with him in the room where he is in this run. Too much hassle with the other spawns.
- I don't know why I tried shooting the guy with the breaching shotgun from the top of the stairs. Blond moment.
- I start having my team do more zip-ups in this one, saving me some time. It's really only useful in rooms with lots of people in clusters.
- Something you see a lot in this run is a glitch in the game where guns disappear and fall out of the playable area. It's not something that you can purposely exploit, and it happens randomly. Makes it tricky for runs like this, because you don't want to forget things.
- Yet again my team doesn't listen to my gas and clear command. Go teamwork! They make up for it at the top of the stairs near the end though when they cover my ass and bean-bag the guy before he got a shot off.

The Diamond Store:
- Revered as the hardest level of the game, this one took me a lot of restarts just to make it through the upper rooms still intact.
- As I make my down on to main floor with the lonely female civilian, I get spooked by the suspect's voice. I was expecting him to come through one of the doors, not the vault stairs. Made my life easier though.
- I tossed the flashbang into that one main-ish floor office room because there's generally always a guy to the left. But this time he was in the middle of the room.
- I get some video stutters for some reason; I'm running on an 8800GTS 640mb, so it puzzles me why it happened.
- And in the vaults, I got very lucky on slow-draw baddies and really used the team-zip-ups to save some time.

Children of Tarrone:
- I'm damn lucky I decided to toss a gas grenade into that projector room, affecting 3 suspects and 2 civi's. Getting out of the room is my first mistake. For some reason it didn't bust the door and then switched to my Wave tool. Rather than wasting more time switching back, I just stuck with it.
- The two people in the small room made team-zip-ups tough. I couldn't get past my guy until he was done his job. A tad frustrating.
- I thought I was out of breach-shells, and I really needed my team for the large 2-floored room, so I had to suffer a couple seconds of waiting for them to line up.
- There's normally a lot more people downstairs, that's why I was so careful to check all of the rooms.
- I was glad where it ended because it meant that I didn't have to get lucky in the basement and waste more time, since I've had to go in there every other time I've played this level. This aspect makes up for the Wave tool in my mind.

St Michael's Hospital:
- I can't even begin to count how many times I got picked off the second I open that first door.
- Not much to say about this one, really. Though I'm glad I could knowingly burst through the locker rooms to TOC that last victim who's always there. I was planning to use a grenade or two until I saw that Completed message come up.
- There were only 11 suspects in this run, but the level varies anywhere from 10 to freaking 17 suspects. I got lucky on that as well, saving tons of time. There's really no way to tell how many you'll be facing until you leave the level, so it's a lot of hoping that you don't have to face many.

So that's it for now. I'll post the rest as I do them.

http://hosted.filefront.com/ad3nn/  The files for the first 10 are up with med-high quality.  Enjoy.

Some Notes:

Food Wall: 
The people were perfectly lined on my path, so I saved an assload of time not having to go through back rooms.  This one will be a tough one for challengers to beat if they try.

Fairfax Residence:
This is another that I'm very proud of. I didn't have to stray one bit off my path for this one to arrest people.  The bald guy being in the room he's in meant that I could just rush into the last room without worry, which even saved more time.  Very happy being timed sub-minute.

Qwik Fuel:
I hate it when my team doesn't listen and I have to repeat commands.  I took a different path in this run than my old one.  I took care of the main store and the offices first because I knew there'd be guys there.  The back rooms are hit-or-miss with people so leaving it to last let me know if I had to even keep going or not.  I got lucky with this one and didn't have to even enter the storage areas.

A-Bomb:
- I've found that it's easier to take the main stage area from the bar entrance side; there's more to hide behind in a pinch. 
- Upstairs, going through that open door is suicide, so I had to throw the Bang; if it's closed it's do-able.  
- I had the middle of the reticle on the guy for the taser, but missed; didn't waste that much time since pulling out the good ol' pepper spray doesn't take long.  
- I had to tell my team to restrain that one guy in the hall 3 freaking times before it was done; that's sad.

Victory Imports:
- Pepper spray made this start a hell of a lot easier
- My team didn't feel like gassing that one room in the basement for some reason.  Clingy bastards.
- I don't normally bang that one room before going in, but since the civilian mentioned the gunman, I figured it was a safe play; though it didn't seem to have phased them as I went in.
- I was going to shoot the last guy with a pepper spray after the Completed came up, but I hit '7' instead, giving me the breach shotgun.  Wasn't sure if killing him would've ruined the run, so I shot the metal thing instead.

Red Library:
- This was the first time having to bust out the bean-bag shotgun; there's at least 2 guys with gas masks on, and pepper balls wouldn't phase them.  The tricky part is not running out of ammo.
- Fun fact: when I stop in my tracks upstairs and pause for about 3 seconds or so, it was because my girlfriend was calling me and I answered the phone as quickly as I could.
- There's numerous times in this run where you can tell I totally wasn't expecting anyone; dealt with it decently enough, and had to dodge some bullets a few times.  I love the taser shot over the guy's shoulder at the end.  By far my most favourite thing that I've done in this game/project.
- I was hoping that the very last guy wasn't in that room, but it wasn't a far trek back.  On my normal route I go through it before the cubicles, but with that guy running from the main desk to the cubicles, I didn't want to get shot in the back.

Northside Vending and Amusements:
- The first guy is either in the bathroom to the right after you enter the building, in the room in my run, or walking down the stairs in the adjacent larger area.  I kept restarting and only tried doing runs with him in the room where he is in this run.  Too much hassle with the other spawns.
- I don't know why I tried shooting the guy with the breaching shotgun from the top of the stairs.  Blond moment.
- I start having my team do more zip-ups in this one, saving me some time.  It's really only useful in rooms with lots of people in clusters.
- Something you see a lot in this run is a glitch in the game where guns disappear and fall out of the playable area.  It's not something that you can purposely exploit, and it happens randomly.  Makes it tricky for runs like this, because you don't want to forget things.
- Yet again my team doesn't listen to my gas and clear command.  Go teamwork!  They make up for it at the top of the stairs near the end though when they cover my ass and bean-bag the guy before he got a shot off.

The Diamond Store:
- Revered as the hardest level of the game, this one took me a lot of restarts just to make it through the upper rooms still intact.
- As I make my down on to main floor with the lonely female civilian, I get spooked by the suspect's voice.  I was expecting him to come through one of the doors, not the vault stairs.  Made my life easier though.
- I tossed the flashbang into that one main-ish floor office room because there's generally always a guy to the left.  But this time he was in the middle of the room.
- I get some video stutters for some reason; I'm running on an 8800GTS 640mb, so it puzzles me why it happened.
- And in the vaults, I got very lucky on slow-draw baddies and really used the team-zip-ups to save some time.

Children of Tarrone:
- I'm damn lucky I decided to toss a gas grenade into that projector room, affecting 3 suspects and 2 civi's.  Getting out of the room is my first mistake.  For some reason it didn't bust the door and then switched to my Wave tool.  Rather than wasting more time switching back, I just stuck with it.
- The two people in the small room made team-zip-ups tough.  I couldn't get past my guy until he was done his job.  A tad frustrating.
- I thought I was out of breach-shells, and I really needed my team for the large 2-floored room, so I had to suffer a couple seconds of waiting for them to line up.
- There's normally a lot more people downstairs, that's why I was so careful to check all of the rooms.
- I was glad where it ended because it meant that I didn't have to get lucky in the basement and waste more time, since I've had to go in there every other time I've played this level.  This aspect makes up for the Wave tool in my mind.

St Michael's Hospital:
- I can't even begin to count how many times I got picked off the second I open that first door.
- Not much to say about this one, really.  Though I'm glad I could knowingly burst through the locker rooms to TOC that last victim who's always there.  I was planning to use a grenade or two until I saw that Completed message come up.
- There were only 11 suspects in this run, but the level varies anywhere from 10 to freaking 17 suspects.  I got lucky on that as well, saving tons of time. There's really no way to tell how many you'll be facing until you leave the level, so it's a lot of hoping that you don't have to face many.

So that's it for now.  I'll post the rest as I do them.

DigiMe

2007-09-17 09:53:23 am

your runs look pretty pro to me, so far so good. this is a cool game, and any fps usually makes for a good speedrunning game. i hope you'll finish it before long.

also, in your first post you said you're not sure what playing on elite does. Well it raises the accuracy of your enemies, obviously. Bit it also raises the morale ( sp? im dutch ) of your enemies. that means they wont surrender as easily. you did 10 levels so im sure you'll manage, just wanted to answer your question.

keep it up, im keeping tabs on this topic. happy hunting.

ad3n

2007-09-17 10:04:02 pm

rawr

Now that you mention that I can totally see it. These guys basically become sharpshooters on Elite. I can't even think how many times a guy picked me off with a pistol from across a huge room. And virtually none of the people seem to give up unless hit with pepper balls/bean bags. And even then I have to taser a hell of a lot.

I'm glad you liked them. I'm sure I'll end up doing Stechkov Syndicate before long.

ad3n

Edit history:

ad3n: 2007-09-19 09:47:09 am

2007-09-19 09:46:31 am

rawr

I'm so very happy to report that Wolcott Projects is finished and uploaded onto my FileFront account. The time is a mere 4-minutes and 40-seconds.

Good Lord.... that's all I can say. It took me days to get this level the way I wanted it. I had so many good runs going and then BAM a guy comes out of nowhere and caps one of my dimwitted colleagues, or they decide not to listen to repeated commands to perform things, or guys shoot through the door killing off my team and/or hitting me, or a loooooad of other crappy things. This one was amazing hard to speedrun. Even trying to use grenades effectively was a task; using them on the run was even tougher.

Some notes:
- In the second room, where I pepperball my first guy, there's usually 2 guys in there, one on either side of the room.
- My team getting that blue-perp to kneel so quick astounded me. He's one of the objectives and he usually never ever goes without a tasering or loads of beanbags. His bathroom often has a guy in it, but not this time.
- Going through the meaty-hall was hell. I tried so many different routes of which rooms to tackle--there often being guys randomly hiding at the end of the hall or pacing it made matters tricky.
- This is the first run to use wedges. I've had way too many baddies coming down premature and blowing the hell out of one of my guys. It was also to prevent runners for when I went upstairs. Took a couple seconds, but it's worth it.
- I used the first gas grenade because the time just previous to this run, that's where a guy surprised me behind the dumpster and another in the lower doorway. I wasn't taking chances this time.
- In the flooded basement, it's damn hard to see guns in the water, so I'm glad there was only one guy's gun to search for.
- Going upstairs I got lucky.
- Upstairs I bust out the pepper spray and it works flawlessly here. Used the team zip-ups to shave some seconds.
- And finally, I was nanoseconds away from getting blasted by the last armed-perp on the outside ledge. Man, that would've sucked.

I'm so happy with this run. This'll be a tough one to beat due to the level design, the amount of guys, the fact that I didn't make many mistakes at all, and because I had the least amount of suspects that you can get on that level (14; the range is 14-16. If you play the level enough to learn the range the hard way).

I'm so very happy to report that Wolcott Projects is finished and uploaded onto my FileFront account.  The time is a mere 4-minutes and 40-seconds.

Good Lord.... that's all I can say.  It took me days to get this level the way I wanted it.  I had so many good runs going and then BAM a guy comes out of nowhere and caps one of my dimwitted colleagues, or they decide not to listen to repeated commands to perform things, or guys shoot through the door killing off my team and/or hitting me, or a loooooad of other crappy things.  This one was amazing hard to speedrun.  Even trying to use grenades effectively was a task; using them on the run was even tougher.

Some notes:
- In the second room, where I pepperball my first guy, there's usually 2 guys in there, one on either side of the room.
- My team getting that blue-perp to kneel so quick astounded me.  He's one of the objectives and he usually never ever goes without a tasering or loads of beanbags.  His bathroom often has a guy in it, but not this time.
- Going through the meaty-hall was hell.  I tried so many different routes of which rooms to tackle--there often being guys randomly hiding at the end of the hall or pacing it made matters tricky.
- This is the first run to use wedges.  I've had way too many baddies coming down premature and blowing the hell out of one of my guys.  It was also to prevent runners for when I went upstairs.  Took a couple seconds, but it's worth it.
- I used the first gas grenade because the time just previous to this run, that's where a guy surprised me behind the dumpster and another in the lower doorway.  I wasn't taking chances this time.
- In the flooded basement, it's damn hard to see guns in the water, so I'm glad there was only one guy's gun to search for.
- Going upstairs I got lucky.
- Upstairs I bust out the pepper spray and it works flawlessly here.  Used the team zip-ups to shave some seconds.
- And finally, I was nanoseconds away from getting blasted by the last armed-perp on the outside ledge.  Man, that would've sucked.

I'm so happy with this run.  This'll be a tough one to beat due to the level design, the amount of guys, the fact that I didn't make many mistakes at all, and because I had the least amount of suspects that you can get on that level (14; the range is 14-16.  If you play the level enough to learn the range the hard way).

ZeRo

2007-09-21 11:34:44 am

Speed is everything!

I haven't watched every level but those I've seen are very nice! Wink

Pweisger

2007-09-22 07:57:14 am

PwNzRd!

Never played this game but just by watching your vids I would like to. Great job!

Moose

2007-09-23 01:01:59 pm

Wow. Finishing SWAT 4 with 100% is hard enough, doing it in a speedrun is amazing. Super impressive work.

ad3n

Edit history:

ad3n: 2007-09-27 09:18:41 am

2007-09-27 09:17:18 am

rawr

Thanks, all.

I'm on the Granite Hotel now, and at first I thought it was going to be cake. It's more scripted than I've seen from previous levels, meaning it's very common to see guys in certain places. The hard part comes when they aren't in that spot or when they're slightly off. Bam, either I'm dead or someone else is (my guys love dying on this level). I've found a couple triggers as well that I'm trying to utilize to get more control of the randomness; works when the people are in the right places (I'll explain them whenever a video is upped)

Thus far, I've done it twice around the 6:30 mark, but they're both filled with flaws that I can't be proud of. I'm still trying my damndest to get sub 6-min. I did it once, but amazingly the game decided to put a lonely hostage into a room where 99% of the time, no one is EVER in there. What luck. Quite a solid one too. I'm sure I'll be done this one soon though, as I keep refining routes and tactics even more.

ad3n

2007-10-11 10:25:17 pm

rawr

Update:

I'm pretty pissed right now. I've attempted this Hotel level oodles and oodles of times, with no 'proud' run yet. Maybe I'm just being too picky, who knows. Anyways, I had one run that was going, had a great time, got all the way through it, it had only 14 suspects (I found out after), the least you can get in this level, aaaand I apparently forgot to TOC one thing.

My heart sank. I was THAT FREAKING CLOSE. Dammit.

ad3n

Edit history:

ad3n: 2007-10-27 05:23:38 am

2007-10-27 04:28:16 am

rawr

Update:

I knew those millions of retries and nit-picky perfectionism would pay off for me. It took me forever, and I not only got the Old Granite Hotel just under 6mins, but I got it down to 5:12 8). I'm converting it now, I'll have it uploaded to my FileFront tonight (most of my other files got taken off the account before I could save them, so those'll be up again eventually).

I'm gonna get started on the final level, the Research place, soon enough. In the meantime, I'm re-running the Red Library; the more I watch it, the more I don't like it. After those two, I'll be done this project.

ad3n

2007-10-31 05:40:30 am

rawr

Update:

Just brought Red Library down from 8m24s to 6m17s. I utilized my team in a better way, wasn't distracted by my girlfriend calling, was lucky to get the least amounts of suspectes (14), and I found a nice little new trick. I tried shooting people on the first floor from up on the balcony, which was 50/50. I tried a flashbang, and low-and-behold, all the baddies in the cubicle area (with a good throw) all began running upstairs. By wedging a door at the beginning, I force them to go up only one way, where my team waits for them. Makes the base-floor cake since there's no suspects in the huge room anymore. It's basically civi-cleanup. I even had a decent amount of ammo left over 8). Check my filefront for it soon enough.

Amitwin

2007-11-06 02:36:11 am

Give me a Guld.

Loving your progress on this, I used to play it round my mates house on a LAN...makes a change seeing you running things so fast when i'd sit there with my mate contemplating how to best tackle each room, haha.

Looking forward to seeing more Smiley

ad3n

2007-11-06 05:14:04 am

rawr

The hard part is that what works sometimes might not work with other suspect spawn locations. That's what I love about the game; I also despise it many, many times.

PS I redid Children of Taronne. I didn't like the hiccups of the other one so I reran and got 4:53ish. My old time was 4:49ish... or so I thought. When I looked at the combined file (Fraps had it in two), I realized that the actual time I marked down was typoed as 4:49 and not the true time of 5:49. So what I originally thought was 4 seconds slower turned out to be 56 seconds faster 8)

ad3n

Edit history:

ad3n: 2007-11-13 06:35:29 am

2007-11-13 06:32:35 am

rawr

Just shaved Northside Amusements down by 49 seconds. Here's the current timings:

1) Food Wall Restaurant: 1m13s (Old = 1m23s)
2) Fairfax Residence: 59s (Old = 1m13s)
3) Qwik Fuel Convenience Store: 2m09s (Old = 3m23s)
4) A-Bomb Nightclub: 4m14s (Old = 6m44s)
5) Victory Imports Auto Center: 4m08s (Old = 4m46s)
6) Red Library Offices: 6m17s (Old = 8m21s)
7) Northside Vending and Amusements: 3m31s (Old = 4m20s)
8 ) Duplessis Wholesale Diamond Center: 8m05s
9) Children of Taronne Tenement: 4m53s (Old = 5:49)
10) St. Michael's Medical Center: 5m25s
11) Wolcott Project: 4m40s
12) Old Granite Hotel: 5m15s

Current Total (of Levels 1-12) = 50m45s -ish

I still have the research place to do, and I can't say I'm looking forward to it. The level design is messed, the guys carry some freaking big guns, there's a lot of guys, but not usually together meaning my team-zip-ups get mooted as they won't be time savers anymore. As I progressed in this project I was hopeful to get sub 1 hour, and I think I'll easily make that mark.

I'm contemplating whether I want to redo the Diamond store or not. It was done before I realized that I could TOC someone from across the room, so I waste some time walking up to them. However, that level is such a bitch to pull off (especially the vault) that I don't know if it's worth the effort. That and knowing that I'd have to do it with the bean-bag shotgun makes it even less appealing. Thoughts?

Just shaved Northside Amusements down by 49 seconds.  Here's the current timings:

1) Food Wall Restaurant: 1m13s  (Old = 1m23s)
2) Fairfax Residence: 59s   (Old = 1m13s)
3) Qwik Fuel Convenience Store: 2m09s  (Old = 3m23s)
4) A-Bomb Nightclub: 4m14s  (Old = 6m44s)
5) Victory Imports Auto Center: 4m08s  (Old = 4m46s)
6) Red Library Offices: 6m17s  (Old = 8m21s)      
7) Northside Vending and Amusements: 3m31s (Old = 4m20s)
8 ) Duplessis Wholesale Diamond Center: 8m05s      
9) Children of Taronne Tenement: 4m53s (Old = 5:49) 
10) St. Michael's Medical Center: 5m25s                   
11) Wolcott Project: 4m40s                  
12) Old Granite Hotel: 5m15s

Current Total (of Levels 1-12) = 50m45s -ish

I still have the research place to do, and I can't say I'm looking forward to it.  The level design is messed, the guys carry some freaking big guns, there's a lot of guys, but not usually together meaning my team-zip-ups get mooted as they won't be time savers anymore.  As I progressed in this project I was hopeful to get sub 1 hour, and I think I'll easily make that mark.

I'm contemplating whether I want to redo the Diamond store or not.  It was done before I realized that I could TOC someone from across the room, so I waste some time walking up to them.  However, that level is such a bitch to pull off (especially the vault) that I don't know if it's worth the effort.  That and knowing that I'd have to do it with the bean-bag shotgun makes it even less appealing.  Thoughts?

spanch.bmx

2007-11-13 08:35:53 am

cool speed run, thnx Wink