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Always move forward, never sleep.
Been practicing the jump on Trail of Blood, and after about half an hour, I was able to get it down pretty consistently.  Hoping tomorrow I'll have time to run the entire level with Fraps on.  In the meantime, have fun with this boring video of my practicing!  Only 3 successes; one at about 5:10, and two in a row near the end.

Always move forward, never sleep.
Went back and took another stab at Framed.  By took a stab, I mean I jammed my dagger right in it's heart. Cheesy



Details
This level kept nagging at me whenever I review the video, since there were some places I could improve upon, but I never thought it would be this great of an improvement.  When the alarm went off while leaving the vault, I got a little scared, since the last time an alarm went off at a different time, the exit was clogged with the guard and mechanist.  Luckily, this time they weren't in my way, and were kind enough to keep the door open for me.  I would say the movements of them are random, and that I got lucky. 

What kept nagging me was opening the main gate, as I had trouble previously being consistent on hitting the lever, which caused a second or two.  I think I got it now, having to be more to the left side of the gate to highlight it around the corner.  Opening the gate this time seemed perfect, and set my mind for the rest of it.
Trail of Blood:
What happens if you actually *jump* off the slope? Does it spring you too high? Does it register the command at all? Looks like slow-fall jumps take you pretty high or is that just an illusion? You're saying you made it pretty consistent though?

Framed:
Ha! I found your YouTube channel... Which is a weird thing to say seeing as you've been posting these videos here for the longest time.

Guard in the hallway --> Huh?

You can't just jump through the little "window" to the right when coming down the stairs from the evidence vault can you? Nice discreet exit...
Always move forward, never sleep.
Trail of Blood:
During my first tries, I was jumping, and sometimes I would try to mantle on the slope itself, or it wouldn't register at all.  So I figured the most consistent way is to just run up the slope, keeping close to the wall on the right, but not right on it, and hit the slowfall potion right before the tip.  I was able to later do that about 10 times in a row, and kept trying and missing only once every 5 or so tries.  It's definitely something I should practice more of, since there is only 1 chance without restarting or reloading a quick save.

Framed:
I never tried jumping through that hole, but the thought had crossed my mind.  Maybe I'll try it later and let you know how it works.
Always move forward, never sleep.
I just got 3:27 on Trail of Blood, and will upload it later.  I got snagged in a few places (the eyeball plants have huge collision areas, and also on an icicle and a torch), otherwise, I think it was pretty good for only having one speed potion carried over.  I ran through right after work, just to see how recording onto my new hard drive would do, and the gap jump I had was the best ever - landed right on the platform without having to catch the edge!  Too bad the game crashed and I deleted the footage, but I hope I'll get another like that because it was pretty sweet!
Always move forward, never sleep.
Trail of Blood



Description
Not a terrible run, but can certainly be improved upon.  I get snagged around the torch before the building with the face, and also in Winters on an icicle.  The jumping I do is to try and gain some speed on the slopes, which gives a bit of a boost.  I can make the gap jump (more like a launch) pretty consistently now, and glad I got only a little bit of the edge to mantle onto.  The rest of it was just running through the tree houses to find the informant.  Pretty straight forward. 

I'm pretty happy with this time for now, especially considering that I only had a single speed potion.  I'm thinking I might be able to drink it a little sooner to try and get a second or two more use out of it, but then again, I don't want to run out at the top of that hill.
Trail of Blood:

Any chance of robbing the mechanist with the coinpurse? Is loot insignificant or hard to find enough of? Can you climb on the stone face to get to the other side faster?
Re-routed Masks and it's now a minute faster. Did a practice run which clocked in at 5:38, much better than the one on my channel which is 6:36. I'm slightly happier with this route now. I feel it could go a tiny bit faster with better routing though.

I'll upload a video and a more detailed description soon.

Edit: Knocked it down to ~5:13, about 30 more seconds.
Always move forward, never sleep.
Nice, Dark, looking forward to it!

I think looting in Trail of Blood is somewhat insignificant.  The only thing that I would buy on the next mission would be a fire arrow, but I can find one in the same place I would use it.  I haven't tried jumping onto the face, but I'll have to go and do that.

Thanks to Dark's suggestion, I've dropped my Trail of Blood time down to 3:18 by picking up a speed potion near the second gem.

Dark, can't wait to see your new Masks route!

Socrates, you do look at loot guides before you start routing right? Cheesy BTW it came to mind that is it useful to have jump bound to mwheelup in this game? Whenever jumping down slopes. I like the extemporaneous flash bomb pick-up and drop.
Masks



I tested mantling through the windows in the room with the cultivator and it turned out to be fairly easy. As long as you're not right up against the wall, you should be able to do it.  This meant I had to change my gold route.
The route is a lot more like the IL run now. Except I don't drop into the Ballroom. It's possible, but it's very risky. You could probably do it if you were going for a faster time but you'd sacrifice consistency. Also I have to go into all the Masks rooms and loot them because I don't drop into the ballroom.



Also LotBlind, the loot map for Trail of Blood doesn't seem to be 100% accurate. It's missing things and some things are in different places.
Edit history:
SocratesJohnson: 2013-09-03 03:55:05 pm
SocratesJohnson: 2013-09-02 12:30:45 pm
Always move forward, never sleep.
I looked at a look map for Shipping ... and Receiving, and also for Eavesdropping, but haven't looked at any since. There is a purse or something it looks like I could pick up while I'm making my way to Winters on Trail of Blood that might only cost a second, compared to several seconds grabbing the fire arrow in Life of the Party -edit: It was healing fruit :(.  I like the idea of binding mwheel up to jump, but at the same time, it could screw up item scrolling if I have to go down through all of my items when I'm used to, let's say, "I need this key, which is 4 clicks up."  Then again, it could just become having to retrain.

Also, jumping on the face in Trail of Blood seems like it could be faster.  After putting the first ruby in, you can mantle up and put the next in right away, mantle onto the nose, and drop in the mouth.  I'll have to try that along with grabbing the purse.  So far my best time on Life of the Party is 7:15, so I have some improvement to do.  Precious Cargo I'm still learning, so that will be a while off.
Always move forward, never sleep.
I had a decent run of Life of the Party recorded, but it looked like it was skipping frames or something, and just very choppy.  I was messing around with the framerates, and I usually record at 30, but the game gets a bit choppy at times as well.  So I tried 60, and it was a little better, and 100, which was even better than 60, but the 100 framerate capture was choppy.  I'll stick with 60, I suppose.  I had 6:58 on it, so I can still improve a bit; I just need to find some time this weekend.
Always move forward, never sleep.
I got through Life of the Party with a good time.  I pretty much took Poesta's route, and edited some things here and there.  6:41 is a time I can smile about. Smiley I took the time to put in some annotations about some parts of the run as well.



Description:
Even though there were many mistakes in this run, I got the time that I did.  Pretty much head straight for Angelwatch, grab loot on the way, and try to go fast.  This mission frustrated me so many times when I've either missed a jump, fallen like an idiot, get caught by guards/robots blocking my way, frogbeasts not doing what they are supposed to not do (breaking my fall), that little fucking mechanical dude blocking the kitchen... Getting a perfect run of this level will be difficult, but not impossible.  Once I got that into my head that I didn't feel I needed a perfect run; so this one happened.

I was hating this mission so much while trying to get a decent time, so I'm glad that I got one I'm satisfied with, even though I didn't expect it during the run.  It gave me hope that it can be improved in many ways, but I will move on for now until I absolutely hate this mission.  Next stop, Precious Cargo.
Why have I not received notifications for this thread? Sad Hmm... Maybe the loot map is for a different difficulty setting? If it's missing items that would be explained by the fact that they don't show in any tally screens.

Masks:
- was there another order to proceed in in the mask rooms? i.e. firing the arrow when you're on the rafters, then jumping down to the first mask (closest to where you're coming from), getting the middle mask and the last mask while climbing the vine... or something like that? I'm guessing the masks are too far apart to snatch two of the vine consistently.
- having those handy flashbombs at the ready for circumventing more guards?
- did either of you succeed in doing the trick the Polish guy was showing off? potion climb? would that change anything?
- Garrett: *Climbs up a vine* - Guard: "Damn you!"

Life of the Party:
-sometimes it's more consistent to mantle if you stand at a short distance from the wall or jump to it, maybe you know this.
-overall this looks really sick

Do you like to do a couple of attempts a day or more on one go? I prefer doing just a few each time to not get frustrated and to allow it to sink in.
Always move forward, never sleep.
It depends on how much free time I have, but I really just wanted to grind and get a video out of Life of the Party before moving on to Precious Cargo.  When I'm learning a route, it's not bad at all, and discovering little skips is always fun.  Life of the Party was just pissing me off not mostly because of the game or mission, but just stress from work taking up a lot of my time lately. 

But the more I practiced, the more consistent I've gotten with some of the tricks.  I would miss the frogbeast landings a lot, die, and have to restart, but I think I have them down pretty good now.  I did alter the route slightly - the jump to the ledge from the balcony of the bank (before I enter the house with the two ladies) I now jump to the wooden beam that is jutting out instead of the ledge, and then just jump onto the stone wall instead of mantling up, as that one is iffy to mantle on sometimes, so that's more consistent.  I also don't drop down and pass by that archer while I'm heading back to the tower (after jumping on the bank and using the speed potion) - I was just really lucky in that video to not take damage, and it's not consistent I've found, so I stay above and go around, which is essentially what I'm doing, but just on the inside.  I'm still not sure if it's faster to jump down the elevator shaft back to level 2 to get out, or drop down the chutes from the kitchen to get there.  The chutes are definitely safer, so if it's the same speed, then I'll go with that so I don't miss a frogbeast.  We shall see, I suppose. Smiley

I went back and refreshed myself on the previous levels this weekend so I don't get rusty (totally forgot the first code I put in on Shipping), and got some new PBs on a few, so I had a pretty good weekend of it. Smiley

Otherwise, when I read your post, I went and tried some stuff with the potions.  Though I'm not yet up to Masks, I was trying on Eavesdropping, and was able to jump onto the potions.  Have you tried it at all on Masks, Dark?  If you can get to the second floor like Xmodule does, that could change up the route, and perhaps time.  Not too sure, since the last time I actually played the mission was over 10 years ago. Tongue

Here's a video of me screwing around.
Always move forward, never sleep.
Got home from the bar, and decided to see what I could do with Life of the Party.  Turns out, I did pretty well, gaining a new personal best!



Description:
Saved 5 seconds from my previous run, but I can definitely save some more.  The time savers this time around were jumping to the wooden beam outside of the bank and jumping onto the stone wall on the way to Angelwatch, and also going around and dropping down in a safer area after getting on top of the bank on the way back.

I lost time on the ladder between floor 1 and 2 of Angelwatch, as that can sometimes be iffy to mantle on, as seen in the video, and the fire arrow did not destroy both boards on my way back, causing several seconds to get my sword out to take it down.

At the end, I thought the time wouldn't be very good, but it turns out it was my personal best so far on this mission, not to mention I was kinda drunk when playing!  I can definitely hit below 6:30, but for now, I'll keep it and move on.
Edit history:
LotBlind: 2013-09-10 08:03:50 am
Potions:
You're dropping it and jumping, picking it up, dropping it again and jumping again to get that little hover going?

Party:
-the ladder between floors in Angelwatch: is it more consistent if you try to jump a little further away from the ladder?
-why not knock out the guard if he happens to get in your way like that? is there a general alarm?
-it's not possible to quaff the speed potion a little sooner and make it onto the bank roof without mantling? maybe not cause it doesn't really give you height does it?
-is there a way of getting rid of the crates blocking the way on the way back even faster by throwing them at the wall obliquely instead?
Always move forward, never sleep.
For the potions, you can jump onto a potion for a bit of height, and can also stack them.  The hover thing I don't think would be very useful, and just happens sometimes if you just drop it at your feet and try to jump onto it instead of jumping as you drop it.

The ladder is like the ladder before entering Angelwatch, as you can definitely hear that you're making the effort to mantle on it (the sharp inhale Garrett makes) but it either picks you up a little bit and drops you, or actually lets you up.  That might be a good idea to jump at it from more of a distance on the ladder, or maybe even more to the left.

The guard you're referring to I'm assuming the one between floor 2 and 3?  In this run I chose not to, since he was in the doorway and would take a few seconds to drop to the floor to let me pass, so I thought it would be better to let him keep walking and I could pass by.  I usually knock him out, though, if I can.

I don't believe I have the height to land on top of the bank, with or without the speed potion.

I suppose I could just toss the crates at the wall slightly to one side and have them bounce off in that direction.  It would probably help align the next crate pick up better than whipping to the left and back.

Thanks for the input as always, Lot!
Always move forward, never sleep.
Started working on Precious Cargo.  I think I'll have to work on that as well as Kidnap at the same time, just to figure out what I need to bring over to Kidnap.  Right now I'm just copying the route from Poesta, except that I'm grabbing the two fire arrows at the beginning instead of purchasing them, and I don't use the speed potion that I bought on Precious Cargo.  One thing I will have to see is if I can use a speed potion before I pick up a body (Cavador) and still have the effects.  I can try on another level, though.  I also want to see if using the invisibility potion is necessary for grabbing the key to get the rust sample; so far it seems so.  I have tried buying a fire arrow instead of a health potion, and using it on the wooden door, but that didn't pop it open.  I did come across some mines, however, earlier in the level, so I'll have to see if it's worth it to grab one and break the door open to save the invisibility potion for Kidnap, so I'll have to play that and see if it's needed.  Otherwise my execution of Poesta's route is below 5 minutes, so I'll have to practice more and see what I can get away with.
Always move forward, never sleep.
Precious Cargo and Kidnap update coming tomorrow.  Casing the Joint already sucks without any start-up cash.
Always move forward, never sleep.
Got decent times with Precious Cargo and Kidnap.  I can see some room for improvement on both, but I'm so close to the end, I want to get the last 3 missions down before a lot of optimizing.

Precious Cargo


Description:
I'm happy with a sub 5 on this mission since I didn't use the speed potion, but there is definitely room for improvement.  Points of interest include hitting the elevator button while I'm jumping to it, avoiding the robot better after the cold storage, jumping back onto the platform after grabbing the cargo key, and not getting caught on the ladder in the submarine.

The placement of the guards seems random for right now, as I don't know what triggers them (the guards at the top of the elevator, and the two in near the area where I grab the rust sample), and the one in the sub.  So I might do some tests and see what I can come up with, but otherwise, I'm just going to focus on improving my execution and see how much of an improvement I can get.


Kidnap


Description:
Nothing too fancy on this mission.  I have the fire arrow from the previous mission, as well as the speed potion that I use pretty early on.  I found that I can pick up an invisibility potion by the scripture, as well as some mines and another health potion that is very needed if I don't dodge enough arrows while picking the lock.

The switch I pull opens up the gate to the KD site where Cavador is roaming around, but fast enough, he's hanging out in his room.  Just to make things easier, I take the invisibility potion and rush out to beat the double doors closing.  After that, it's just run to the exit.
Precious Cargo:
1) Is it more consistent if you approach the elevator controls first without trying to get on the elevator, then hopping on after you've managed to hit a button?
2) Any way to get more entertainment value from the scouting orb? Like throw it up on the ledge during the second elevator ride. I know you're getting rid of excess junk...
3) I had this crazy idea of buying the frogbeast egg and jumping down into something somewhere with the trick it enables... you could stay atop a little longer when the elevator descends into the pirate cove for whatever that's worth.
4) I read that there's a pressure door round the bottom of the sub but I take it that's slower overall?
5) There's a speed potion in cargo hold 2 but is the key too far out of the way for it to save any time?
6) Tiny improvement?: hit the observation deck switch first, then bj the guy and jump out.
7) Flash bomb the guard onboard? I know you don't have one Smiley Apparently there are some but out of the way.

(you're getting too good, I'm running out of anything good to say :| )

Mechanist: "I shall cuddle thee!"

Kidnap:
1) I think this is going to be a fan-favourite.
Always move forward, never sleep.
Thanks, Lot!  Sometimes I think, "what would Lot suggest to save some time here?"  Your comments and suggestions are always helpful, and I appreciate it! Smiley

Cargo:
1) It might take the same amount of time, but your suggestion might make it more consistent than trying to hit the button while falling.  I might even be able to get a down-slope boost as well.
2) That's a possibility, since it's just me waiting around to get to the top, which can be a bit boring.  I know that if I drop the orb onto the elevator, it doesn't activate until I get to the top, so I'll have to toss it somewhere and have a look around with it.
3) While I was experimenting with things, I did buy a frogbeast egg a few time, but never found a use for them.  I tried to toss one at the cold storage door and hit it with a fire arrow to blow it open, but that didn't seem to work.  If I have the money, perhaps I could carry it over and toss it down to shake up some guards in Kidnap.
4) There is a hatch on the bottom of the sub, but since I have to read the captain's log on the top floor, it's just easier to go through the sub than to climb out and swim underneath.
5) I was just looking at the loot map for the level today (I slack on loot maps, I know. :P) and saw the speed potion, as well as some mines in another one.  The keys are on the way from Post 2 to the rust sample, and I was thinking after looking at the map to try grabbing the keys and looting the holds.  I could use the speed potion I purchase to save the time lost getting the keys, I bet, so I am definitely going to be trying some things.  It would be great to start with 2 mines on Kidnap, so I can blow open the first door, grab those mines, and shoot those with a broadhead to open the door to Cavador.  The map does show a fire arrow pickup near the keys as well, so maybe I can try to grab one of those as well.
6) I try to do both at the same time, since I can activate the switch through him.  I was also thinking of taking the other route down just to see since swimming just seems slow.
7) There are flashbombs and flares at Post 2, and it might take only 2 or 3 seconds to grab.  I'll try that and see if it's worth it to flash the guy on the sub.

Kidnap:

"Our strength combined, aim for the head!"

If grabbing the keys is worth it in Precious Cargo, I'm planning on blowing open the first door with the mines, as well as the door to Cavador.  If I grab the gas mine, I'm thinking of dropping it down right before the ramp to Cavador's door to try and knock a couple guards out along the way.  Otherwise, I don't think anything will change that route, as it's pretty straight forward.  I got 4:00 on it last night, and think I could knock it down by another second, MAYBE 2, but 1 is more likely with 1 speed potion.  If I can get the mines, then that will be significant, and I won't take as much damage early on.

As always, thanks for the feedback, Lot!
Always move forward, never sleep.
So I did some test runs on Precious Cargo - grabbing the keys and looting (a little sloppy) the cargo bays, and got 4:56 segmented (I didn't want to redo the beginning to test the speed of this).  It's like a freaking dance with those doors!  So using the speed potion definitely makes up for the time it takes to grab the keys, fire arrow, and loot in the cargo area.  I was then able to go on and get 3:51 on Kidnap, so that saved about a total of 7 seconds. 

I wasn't recording all of Precious Cargo, but here's the end to show the new part of the route.  I also went the water route after grabbing the cargo bay 5 key and popped up by the stairs I was heading to anyway.  That route seems to be safer in case the guard by both Posts spots you on your way into 1 and decides to follow and potentially jam up the hallway.

Precious Cargo New Route
[url]
Description:
To try and speed things up for Kidnap, I took some suggestions from LotBlind and tried out a route where I grab another fire arrow, and loot cargo bays 1 and 2 on the submarine.  Turns out it worked great!

The dance of the doors:  Ready the key for bay 2 and clear it.  Open the hatch to the cargo bays.  Mousewheel down or up once to get the key active, and unlock bay 2.  Close the hatch to the cargo area (you might get stuck).  Grab the speed potion and maneuver past the open door of bay 2.  Mousewheel down one for the key to bay 1, and open the door.  Grab at least one mine (second mine and gas mine optional).  Mouse wheel down 3 to queue up the key for bay 5.  Clear your inventory.  Open the hatch to the next cargo area.  Bring the key for bay 5 up, unlock it, and enter.  Took some practice, but I think I got it down.


Kidnap

Description:
Items that were brought over from the previous mission:

2x Fire Arrows
2x Mines (only 1 required)
1x Gas Mine (not required, but fun)
1x Speed Potion
1x Health Potion (not required)

Using the speed potion in the previous mission, Precious Cargo, I was able to grab an extra fire arrow, the mines, and potions to bring to this mission.  Pretty much the only difference is that I blow the door open to read the scripture instead of picking it.  While I do have a health potion to start, I could have grabbed the one next to the invisibility potion, or not use one at all.  Dropping the gas mine and the exploding mine on my path did take out two guards, but it wasn't neccessary either, but always fun.  So I needed to purchase the fire arrow and speed potion on the previous mission, grab an extra fire arrow, as well as the speed potion and a mine from the cargo bays.

Also, if you're under the effects of a speed potion, and there is an archer ahead of you and fires, you're either dead, or damn near it.  I guess the speed of the projectile affects the damage it does, so if you're going to get hit by an arrow, try to make it your back while running away.