The Final Fantasy Marathon Thread [locked]

2012-10-24 12:43:07 pm

Moo! Flap! Hug!

This is going to be a long post. To all the participants: please read it all, and give opinions as you feel relevant.

Regarding the dates of the marathon: unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for you, puwexil. I had given mid-December as a deadline for people to add games to the schedule, and I had planned to crystallize the marathon dates at that time. As it stands right now, we'd probably start early on the Friday, end late on Monday, and do some western-Canada sightseeing for Tuesday and Wednesday (what's more Canadian than curling one day, and checking out the beautiful Jasper National Park on the other?). However, I'm still hoping that someone will be able to step up to fill in a few glaring gaps in the games list: FFV and FFXIII; and, to a lesser extent, FFX-2 and FFXIII-2 (which, while not as popular, are great watches for people who like FF speedrunning).

One school of thought says to fix a start date (e.g., Friday afternoon), so that we can ensure a strong start. Another school of thought says that we could fix an end date for the marathon, so that everyone interested could plan to be around for a strong finish, plus some really fun post-marathon activities (I even promise that I won't drag people to one of the most beautiful indoor flower and plant gardens in the world...). Then, we could expand the marathon dates in the relevant direction until finalizing the dates in December. Thoughts?

Regarding progress on games: I want everyone who is signed up to play a game to write an update on Saturday, 3 November 2012. I don't want bravado; I want honesty. This rule applies to everyone, including me. Some people, like FFgamer, are going to get to post things like, "Yeah, I'm smashing world records, and this game is my bitch." Some people, like Essentia, are going to get to post things like, "I met the FF6 developers in-person, and I punched them in the face, just because I could. I don't need to practice." Other people, like me, are going to post things like, "I haven't been practicing enough, and I've forgotten my (incomplete) route." This isn't meant to be pretty; it's meant to be a reality check for everyone who has signed up. I want written updates from everyone on that date.

A few minor details:
- I will be contacting the charity of choice at the end of October (I even own a tailored suit, should the need for a lunch meeting arise);
- deathfire: please look at DRsynj's FFXIII-2 runs, and see if you can get the time down to 4 hrs. If you can make a more definite sign-up, I'd love to include you; and,
- CrystalBeauty: I'm sorry, but unless you're fairly sure that you can participate, I won't be able to add you to the schedule -- let me know via PM if you change your mind.

I also want to apologize to all the people who have been offering prizes for this marathon. I haven't been ignoring you; I'm incredibly grateful for the generous offers. I've just been dealing with some personal shit these past few weeks, and I'm really sorry that I've fallen behind on keeping the first post up to date. I'll try to get things updated within a week or two. I just wanted you to know that I haven't dismissed or ignored what's happening regarding this marathon; I've just had other priorities this past while.

This is going to be a long post.  To all the participants: please read it all, and give opinions as you feel relevant.

Regarding the dates of the marathon: unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for you, puwexil.  I had given mid-December as a deadline for people to add games to the schedule, and I had planned to crystallize the marathon dates at that time.  As it stands right now, we'd probably start early on the Friday, end late on Monday, and do some western-Canada sightseeing for Tuesday and Wednesday (what's more Canadian than curling one day, and checking out the beautiful Jasper National Park on the other?).  However, I'm still hoping that someone will be able to step up to fill in a few glaring gaps in the games list: FFV and FFXIII; and, to a lesser extent, FFX-2 and FFXIII-2 (which, while not as popular, are great watches for people who like FF speedrunning).

One school of thought says to fix a start date (e.g., Friday afternoon), so that we can ensure a strong start.  Another school of thought says that we could fix an end date for the marathon, so that everyone interested could plan to be around for a strong finish, plus some really fun post-marathon activities (I even promise that I won't drag people to one of the most beautiful indoor flower and plant gardens in the world...).  Then, we could expand the marathon dates in the relevant direction until finalizing the dates in December.  Thoughts?

Regarding progress on games: I want everyone who is signed up to play a game to write an update on Saturday, 3 November 2012.  I don't want bravado; I want [i]honesty[/i].  This rule applies to everyone, including me.  Some people, like FFgamer, are going to get to post things like, "Yeah, I'm smashing world records, and this game is my bitch."  Some people, like Essentia, are going to get to post things like, "I met the FF6 developers in-person, and I punched them in the face, just because I could.  I don't need to practice."  Other people, like me, are going to post things like, "I haven't been practicing enough, and I've forgotten my (incomplete) route."  This isn't meant to be pretty; it's meant to be a reality check for everyone who has signed up.  I want written updates from everyone on that date.

A few minor details:
- I will be contacting the charity of choice at the end of October (I even own a tailored suit, should the need for a lunch meeting arise);
- deathfire: please look at DRsynj's FFXIII-2 runs, and see if you can get the time down to 4 hrs.  If you can make a more definite sign-up, I'd love to include you; and,
- CrystalBeauty: I'm sorry, but unless you're fairly sure that you can participate, I won't be able to add you to the schedule -- let me know via PM if you change your mind.

I also want to apologize to all the people who have been offering prizes for this marathon.  I haven't been ignoring you; I'm incredibly grateful for the generous offers.  I've just been dealing with some personal shit these past few weeks, and I'm really sorry that I've fallen behind on keeping the first post up to date.  I'll try to get things updated within a week or two.  I just wanted you to know that I haven't dismissed or ignored what's happening regarding this marathon; I've just had other priorities this past while.

Caracarn

2012-10-24 05:11:58 pm

I'm still thinking of going, but plane tickets are pretty expensive, and I also want to be able to donate at AGDQ, so I don't know. If I do go, 10 and 10-2 will be covered. I can also do at least part of 9 if needed. Slots is not marathon safe, so definitely no 7 for me :p

PJ

2012-10-24 05:38:11 pm

Is PJ

The thought of Essentia punching anything in the face made me giggle. Thanks for that, Poxnor.

Augora

2012-10-24 06:05:38 pm

dat jerk

Quote from PJ:

The thought of Essentia punching anything in the face made me giggle. Thanks for that, Poxnor.

Same here. Kind of hard to imagine her doing that though.

Poxnor

2012-10-24 06:09:01 pm

Moo! Flap! Hug!

None of you understand why Denton does all the cooking... Wink

puwexil

2012-10-24 06:23:41 pm

Professional Second Banana

Quote from Augora:

Quote from PJ:

The thought of Essentia punching anything in the face made me giggle. Thanks for that, Poxnor.

Same here. Kind of hard to imagine her doing that though.

I dunno - enough 'Float' jokes in a short timespan may unleash the beast...

Essentia

2012-10-24 10:37:16 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

Quote from puwexil:

Quote from Augora:

Quote from PJ:

The thought of Essentia punching anything in the face made me giggle. Thanks for that, Poxnor.

Same here. Kind of hard to imagine her doing that though.

I dunno - enough 'Float' jokes in a short timespan may unleash the beast...

Don't mess with a pregnant woman! Tongue

Poxnor

2012-10-24 10:52:49 pm

Moo! Flap! Hug!

Yeah, you have to cast Float on them twice!

*ducks and flees*

FFgamer86

Edit history:

FFgamer86: 2012-10-25 01:19:03 am

2012-10-25 01:18:47 am

SDA Speedruns: 1

I practice these games not only because I want to beat my PBs and WRs. I want to make the run as good as possible. And if you understand how much Mystic Quest can troll. Then constant playing needs to be done to try and improvise when something goes and probably will go wrong.

Poxnor can you give an example of what you mean by a write up or whatever that you want for progress.

Like I'll use mine as example.

Mystic Quest Any% - Route done. (Working on memorizing auto/manual fights), plus simple shortcut tricks that save few seconds. -Estimate 3:00
Mystic Quest 100% - Route might be done. Still finding quicker spots here and there that have altered the route a bit. Estimate - 3:15
Final Fantasy 8 - Donationless Route done. Want to play through it again to make sure I didn't miss anything in notes that would be crucial for the marathon. Just started working on notes for donation incentive items. Will have to combine them still with the route notes and work on adding more abilities possiblity from the donation stuff. Still trying to come up with complete list of possible donation stuff that can be done and done quickly. Estimate - 10:15(Donationless) 11:30(Max Donations).

Is this what you had in mind?

I practice these games not only because I want to beat my PBs and WRs. I want to make the run as good as possible. And if you understand how much Mystic Quest can troll. Then constant playing needs to be done to try and improvise when something goes and probably will go wrong.

Poxnor can you give an example of what you mean by a write up or whatever that you want for progress.

Like I'll use mine as example.

Mystic Quest Any% - Route done. (Working on memorizing auto/manual fights), plus simple shortcut tricks that save few seconds. -Estimate 3:00
Mystic Quest 100% - Route might be done. Still finding quicker spots here and there that have altered the route a bit.  Estimate - 3:15
Final Fantasy 8 -   Donationless Route done. Want to play through it again to make sure I didn't miss anything in notes that would be crucial for the marathon.  Just started working on notes for donation incentive items. Will have to combine them still with the route notes and work on adding more abilities possiblity from the donation stuff.  Still trying to come up with complete list of possible donation stuff that can be done and done quickly.   Estimate - 10:15(Donationless)  11:30(Max Donations).

Is this what you had in mind?

JackintheBox333

2012-10-25 09:10:39 am

Professional Shaq Fu Speedrunner

Poxnor, don't worry about the prizes thing, you have nothing to apologize for. Besides, its still fairly early in planning and getting the logistics and deciding on the charity kinda stands out as a wee bit more important than organizing the offered prizes in the thread.

Poxnor

2012-10-25 03:01:28 pm

Moo! Flap! Hug!

What FFgamer wrote is plenty. Like I said, I just intend this to be a reality check for everyone who's playing (including me), since it's only 4.5 months away.

FFgamer86

2012-10-25 03:02:40 pm

SDA Speedruns: 1

Ok thanks Poxnor. Will be doing some more MQ Any% tonight.

AlecK47

2012-10-25 03:52:53 pm

Quote from Poxnor:

Yeah, you have to cast Float on them twice!

*ducks and flees*

Apparently you're lucky. Getting away without any smoke bombs... I wouldn't have tried that myself. Wink

Poxnor

2012-10-25 05:36:16 pm

Moo! Flap! Hug!

Logistical question: do we want a dedicated web page for the marathon (it's easy enough for me to get a nice domain name registered and put together a little page with the Twitch stuff embedded); or, given that you can put a banner, ChipIn widget, etc., on a Twitch page, do we just want to do that? I can't remember: what did ESA 2012 do, and what was the opinion on it?

Alko

2012-10-25 05:39:30 pm

Caution: This user contains Kana ^_^

ESA did a Twitch page; actually they used Ludendi's Twitch. Since this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing (probably), I don't know if a page of its own wouldn't be an overkill, but on the other hand it might be awkward using your account … actually forget that, it probably wouldn't be at all.

Poxnor

2012-10-25 05:51:40 pm

Moo! Flap! Hug!

Well, we certainly wouldn't use my Twitch page. We'd at least make a marathon Twitch channel (CrystalsForLife, or whatever we decide on as the name, once we've picked the charity this weekend). I was just wondering if having a domain name and dedicated little page (crystalsforlife.com, or whatever) would help with outreach and advertising, if I am indeed able to get us some media exposure (and I sure as heck intend to try).

Alko

Edit history:

Alko: 2012-10-25 06:49:28 pm

2012-10-25 06:49:07 pm

Caution: This user contains Kana ^_^

Considering that there will be a newly created Twitch page anyway, it might actually be worth it registering a domain and creating a page, since we would have full control over the design.
ESA didn't have that, as I said Wink

Maybe ESA will get that 2013, but I don't know ^^

Terribleno

2012-10-25 07:38:05 pm

Quote:

I want everyone who is signed up to play a game to write an update on Saturday, 3 November 2012.

Today is the 25th of October, but whatever. Update ahoy!

FF1 is pretty much set in stone. There's a few scary spots that could get me in a stunlock, (sea with Oddeyes, Melmond with undead, earth cave with undead, etc) but the chances are relatively low. I lost a practice run at Melmond the other day because I had almost no HP left (was going to use the Cottage I picked up to heal at the earth cave, but died 33 steps before it). If I had chose to use the Judgment staff, I would've avoided that death. I will be using safety saves at a few key points (ice cave, chaos, earth cave, etc) to ensure that if something terrible happens, I don't lose any significant amount of time.

That said, the RNG will determine a lot, at least in terms of random battles. This game likes to invoke the NES's encounter rate at times (Origins did too!), so I'm going to expect MarathonBanonRaneRomLuck and be paranoid at almost all times.

As for donation incentives, I've settled on what I'm thinking:
Party setup: Two characters are set (1 Fighter and 1 White Mage), the other two are largely irrelevant. Black Mages won't be casting any spells except for Flare spamming when necessary. Red Mages have added healing, which I do pick up (determines when I burn the Cottage I pick up in the Marsh Cave). I wish I could sell this better, but I can't.
Character names: The game lets you pick from names randomly, but obviously it's better if others choose!
Doing the Citadel of Trials and getting the class change: It's about 6 minutes round-trip via boat, and the dungeon itself takes about 7 minutes, worse-case scenario. Talking to Bahamut would add about 1 minute. Overall, I'd put time added to the run at about 20 minutes total, worse-case scenario.
Watching cutscenes: The intro, bridge scene (not the building of it, the other one), canal destruction, acquiring airship, seeing Sunken Shrine, and epilogue are all skippable. Intro takes 90 seconds, bridge scene takes 2 minutes 16 seconds, canal destruction is 7 seconds (wouldn't put this in as a watch, honestly), acquiring airship is roughly 1 minute, seeing Sunken Shrine is about 30-ish seconds, and the epilogue takes 7 minutes 20 seconds.
Warmech: IF I run into him, donation chooses whether or not I kill him. It would take a lot of money for me to sit there for any amount of time to wait for him (not counting on this, btw).

If you want any of these incentives in (at least the time-consuming ones), then the estimate will have to get bumped up.

[quote]I want everyone who is signed up to play a game to write an update on Saturday, 3 November 2012.[/quote]
Today is the 25th of October, but whatever. Update ahoy!

FF1 is pretty much set in stone. There's a few scary spots that could get me in a stunlock, (sea with Oddeyes, Melmond with undead, earth cave with undead, etc) but the chances are relatively low. I lost a practice run at Melmond the other day because I had almost no HP left (was going to use the Cottage I picked up to heal at the earth cave, but died 33 steps before it). If I had chose to use the Judgment staff, I would've avoided that death. I will be using safety saves at a few key points (ice cave, chaos, earth cave, etc) to ensure that if something terrible happens, I don't lose any significant amount of time.

That said, the RNG will determine a lot, at least in terms of random battles. This game likes to invoke the NES's encounter rate at times (Origins did too!), so I'm going to expect MarathonBanonRaneRomLuck and be paranoid at almost all times.

As for donation incentives, I've settled on what I'm thinking:
Party setup: Two characters are set (1 Fighter and 1 White Mage), the other two are largely irrelevant. Black Mages won't be casting any spells except for Flare spamming when necessary. Red Mages have added healing, which I do pick up (determines when I burn the Cottage I pick up in the Marsh Cave). I wish I could sell this better, but I can't.
Character names: The game lets you pick from names randomly, but obviously it's better if others choose!
Doing the Citadel of Trials and getting the class change: It's about 6 minutes round-trip via boat, and the dungeon itself takes about 7 minutes, worse-case scenario. Talking to Bahamut would add about 1 minute. Overall, I'd put time added to the run at about 20 minutes total, worse-case scenario.
Watching cutscenes: The intro, bridge scene (not the building of it, the other one), canal destruction, acquiring airship, seeing Sunken Shrine, and epilogue are all skippable. Intro takes 90 seconds, bridge scene takes 2 minutes 16 seconds, canal destruction is 7 seconds (wouldn't put this in as a watch, honestly), acquiring airship is roughly 1 minute, seeing Sunken Shrine is about 30-ish seconds, and the epilogue takes 7 minutes 20 seconds.
Warmech: IF I run into him, donation chooses whether or not I kill him. It would take a lot of money for me to sit there for any amount of time to wait for him (not counting on this, btw).

If you want any of these incentives in (at least the time-consuming ones), then the estimate will have to get bumped up.

FFgamer86

Edit history:

FFgamer86: 2012-10-26 01:56:36 am

2012-10-26 01:55:10 am

SDA Speedruns: 1

I like the Party/Names/Cutscenes incentives. Not really the Warmech since it takes so long.

Quote from Poxnor:

Well, we certainly wouldn't use my Twitch page. We'd at least make a marathon Twitch channel (CrystalsForLife, or whatever we decide on as the name, once we've picked the charity this weekend). I was just wondering if having a domain name and dedicated little page (crystalsforlife.com, or whatever) would help with outreach and advertising, if I am indeed able to get us some media exposure (and I sure as heck intend to try).

Pretty much second this. If you got CrystalsForLife.com and made a twitch account called CrystalsForLife. Could just embed it into the webpage. Get a snazzy background and stuff, Make it look very appeasing.

deathfire

2012-10-26 11:15:11 am

Unfortunately Poxnor, I won't be able to solidify my signup until the end of November, I get that that is very inconvenient, and I can understand if you want to cut me from the schedule completely, but that's just how it has to be for me, I'm sorry in advance

Poxnor

2012-10-26 11:24:23 am

Moo! Flap! Hug!

Moo? I said that people had until mid-December to add games to the list with their signups (c.f., first post). If you need until the end of November, then take your time. I'd rather have people who are certain signing up later, than people impulsively signing up earlier without really being certain of their situation.

Tohmane

Edit history:

Tohmane: 2012-10-26 06:40:01 pm

2012-10-26 06:39:06 pm

Execute.

I can't attend unfortunately as previously stated, but I've decided to pick up FF5 SS as my first speedrunning project, so if anyone actually attending decides to as well I can hopefully be of assistance. If nothing else, maybe next year Wink

Well nextnext year... you get my meaning.

Alko

2012-10-27 05:03:41 pm

Caution: This user contains Kana ^_^

Quote from Tohmane:

If nothing else, maybe next year Wink

Don't think, this'll get repeated, though .__. (Which is why I'm urgently looking for the treasure at the foot of the rainbow … only you don't get rainbows in the snow >__>)

Poxnor

2012-10-27 05:27:53 pm

Moo! Flap! Hug!

Okay, the poll for the charity is complete (though I now see how I could have added a poll to this thread, d'oh!). I'm going to contact JDRF regarding our marathon. Since the second-place charity was a tie, if JDRF is not interested, I'll just pick which charity to contact next Tongue

Hopefully it doesn't come to that, though.

I've decided that Crystals For Life is a great name for the marathon -- it's catchy and PR-friendly.

Hopefully I'll have something good to tell everyone within a week or so regarding JDRF's participation.

Poxnor

2012-10-28 03:16:42 pm

Moo! Flap! Hug!

First post updated:

- I updated the upcoming deadlines (since the marathon length isn't crystallizing nicely, I have to enforce a hard deadline of 15 December 2012 for adding games);

- I updated the charity information;

- I updated the participants list (before, we were going to have two rinimts attending. As awesome as she is, I decided that we're only going to allow one of her at this marathon);

- I updated the notes for foreigners to include a note about bringing a jacket (lol);

- I updated some run time allotments (I'll do more of this after everyone updates me next weekend);

- I updated the prize list (please let me know if I missed anything); and,

- I started working on the in-game donation incentives, but I have to get ready for curling and didn't have time to make sure I got everything (though I think I managed to get everything that's been decided on already?).

A few comments to individuals:

Lenophis: I like the party, names, and Citadel incentives for FF1 (earlier you were thinking that the Citadel would be really long; that's not the case anymore?). A Warmech encounter is too unlikely for me to have anything to do with Warmech as an incentive. And, I'm not sold on the cutscenes for FF1 being a good donation incentive, since they're so short and pointless; but, if you disagree about that one, then sell me on why they're a good incentive. What would you like as your current time estimate, taking into account the Citadel as a donation incentive?

Tohmane: That's a shame that you won't be able to make it Sad

Caracarn: It would be great if you do decide to come, but I understand if costs are prohibitive. Let us know once you decide. I think you'd have FFX-2 all to yourself (lol); I'd have to give some thought regarding what to do with FFX (I don't want too many people on one game, unless I could be absolutely certain that they'd function as a great group).

Driscollad: I signed you up to commentate MQ. On the attendee list, I noted that you live in Edmonton; so, I'm assuming you won't be sleeping at our place.

rinimt: Have you been able to find out if these S-video cables would work with your PSP, or are you still unsure? http://www.amazon.com/PSP-S-Video-AV-Cable-Sony/dp/B0015SKP5Q/

Also, as an aside, I've decided that registering a domain will be a smart thing. The web page doesn't have to be anything fancy, but I think the few bucks it costs to register a domain will be worth it for the ease of advertising our marathon. We can have a little banner contest once the dates are finalized Smiley

First post updated:

- I updated the upcoming deadlines (since the marathon length isn't crystallizing nicely, I have to enforce a hard deadline of 15 December 2012 for adding games);

- I updated the charity information;

- I updated the participants list (before, we were going to have two rinimts attending.  As awesome as she is, I decided that we're only going to allow one of her at this marathon);

- I updated the notes for foreigners to include a note about bringing a jacket (lol);

- I updated some run time allotments (I'll do more of this after everyone updates me next weekend);

- I updated the prize list (please let me know if I missed anything); and,

- I started working on the in-game donation incentives, but I have to get ready for curling and didn't have time to make sure I got everything (though I think I managed to get everything that's been decided on already?).

A few comments to individuals:

Lenophis: I like the party, names, and Citadel incentives for FF1 (earlier you were thinking that the Citadel would be really long; that's not the case anymore?).  A Warmech encounter is too unlikely for me to have anything to do with Warmech as an incentive.  And, I'm not sold on the cutscenes for FF1 being a good donation incentive, since they're so short and pointless; but, if you disagree about that one, then sell me on why they're a good incentive.  What would you like as your current time estimate, taking into account the Citadel as a donation incentive?

Tohmane: That's a shame that you won't be able to make it :(

Caracarn: It would be great if you do decide to come, but I understand if costs are prohibitive.  Let us know once you decide.  I think you'd have FFX-2 all to yourself (lol); I'd have to give some thought regarding what to do with FFX (I don't want [i]too[/i] many people on one game, unless I could be absolutely certain that they'd function as a great group).

Driscollad: I signed you up to commentate MQ.  On the attendee list, I noted that you live in Edmonton; so, I'm assuming you won't be sleeping at our place.

rinimt: Have you been able to find out if these S-video cables would work with your PSP, or are you still unsure?  http://www.amazon.com/PSP-S-Video-AV-Cable-Sony/dp/B0015SKP5Q/

Also, as an aside, I've decided that registering a domain will be a smart thing.  The web page doesn't have to be anything fancy, but I think the few bucks it costs to register a domain will be worth it for the ease of advertising our marathon.  We can have a little banner contest once the dates are finalized :)