Watch Dogs

2014-05-28 01:24:48 am

Wake up and be awesome

I have way to many projects going on right now. Why not add more? Grin

But this will probably be the project I focus the most on, since this is the game that I'd been waiting for ever since 2012 (and it hasn't disappointed me yet)

Anyway, I'm only up to the third mission, the one where you take out that ctOS station or whatever. Here's just a few things I noticed
1) Hacking is going to be big in this run. There are always three ways of tackling certain mission: Run and Gun, Stealth, or Hacking. Hacking is by far the easiest and fastest, as all you have to do is know which cameras are required. I ended up doing the ctOS mission incredibly fast using just hacking, and this was before routing. Using hacking might eliminate the need to go out of your way to buy extra ammo and such.
2) I don't think there's a taxi option like in GTA, but there is fast travel between safehouses. While the loading screens do take kind of a while, I believe fast traveling is the best method of transportation.
3) In the second mission where you go to your nephews birthday party, when chasing then guy, I managed to kill him before the conversation ended with your sister. I wonder if it's possible to kill him before your sister calls. If this is true, then you could possibly skip that entire call and possibly save some time. Just a thought

Anyway, will get more into this game tomorrow. Hoping to get a run in by the 30th if possible

Thread title:

I have way to many projects going on right now. Why not add more? ;D

But this will probably be the project I focus the most on, since this is the game that I'd been waiting for ever since 2012 (and it hasn't disappointed me yet)

Anyway, I'm only up to the third mission, the one where you take out that ctOS station or whatever. Here's just a few things I noticed
1) Hacking is going to be big in this run. There are always three ways of tackling certain mission: Run and Gun, Stealth, or Hacking. Hacking is by far the easiest and fastest, as all you have to do is know which cameras are required. I ended up doing the ctOS mission incredibly fast using just hacking, and this was before routing. Using hacking might eliminate the need to go out of your way to buy extra ammo and such.
2) I don't think there's a taxi option like in GTA, but there is fast travel between safehouses. While the loading screens do take kind of a while, I believe fast traveling is the best method of transportation. 
3) In the second mission where you go to your nephews birthday party, when chasing then guy, I managed to kill him before the conversation ended with your sister. I wonder if it's possible to kill him before your sister calls. If this is true, then you could possibly skip that entire call and possibly save some time. Just a thought

Anyway, will get more into this game tomorrow. Hoping to get a run in by the 30th if possible

HoboWithaShotgun

Edit history:

HoboWithaShotgun: 2014-05-28 02:22:21 am

2014-05-28 02:18:17 am

Wake up and be awesome

Just found this on YouTube. This is what a very generic speedrun of missions 1 and 2 would look like. Both videos had big cuts since you can't skip cutscenes (great...) and I saw a lot of parts that could be improved. Expect to see individual mission runs by tomorrow and full game runs the next day, like I said

Edit: Just saw on Game FAQ's that someone supposedly beat the game in 3 hours 37 minutes. I'm calling BS on that one right now, but who knows? Maybe this game is short

lillbrorsan

2014-05-28 10:55:58 am

Truljin @ Twitch

I would welcome a sub 4 hour run of this game if there is any truth in that statement at all, perhaps it could go even lower with some nice strats and execution.

HoboWithaShotgun

Edit history:

HoboWithaShotgun: 2014-05-28 01:09:08 pm

HoboWithaShotgun: 2014-05-28 12:34:19 pm

HoboWithaShotgun: 2014-05-28 12:08:55 pm

2014-05-28 11:43:31 am

Wake up and be awesome

Considering the scope of this game and the fact that certain cutscenes cannot be skipped, I don't think sub 4 is possible, at least not this early. I'll do some runs right now and get back to you once I finish them

Edit: Just got 10:35 for the first mission Bottom of the Eighth. Most of the mission is just cutscenes and there were a handful of mistakes, so I'm not worried. Just a few things I noticed.
1) For the car chase back to you safehouse, I just put a waypoint on the safehouse and followed the blue line. The cops easily saw me, but I was able to get away before they showed up
2) At the end, right before you go to sleep, BadBoy calls you about the ctOS network. If you can somehow go to sleep before he calls, you could possibly skip the entire conversation and end the mission

Just in case anyone was wondering, my timing started as soon as Aiden pulled out his gun and ended once I went to sleep. Will do mission 2 now

Edit: Just did mission 2 and got 12:21. Turns out you can skip cutscenes! Wonder why I couldn't do it for mission 1. Anyway a few interesting things happened
1)Once you leave your apartment and track the crime, immediately get yourself discovered, this ends the vigilante quest instantly and you can start mission 2 faster.
2) Nicky's phone call with the prank call guy had different dialogue than my first playthrough, which was interesting. Maybe there's RNG there?
3) With the car chase, I managed to get infront of the guy somehow, but this made the chase SO much longer. Just stay behind the guy and after the tunnel, neutralize the lights to take him out, that's the fastest way of doing it in my opinion.

Also, you can pick up meds in Nicky's bathroom while she's on the phone, so there's that, not sure what they're for. Also sub 12 is easily possible, my chase was absolutely god awful

Edit: Just did a run of mission one and two and got 17:37. Turns out certain cutscenes can be skipped in mission 1. Here were just a few things that happened, sub 17 is possible
1) The car chase at the end of mission 1 is actually RNG based. I took the same route, and I had to drive a little farther than the owl motel to escape the cops.
2) You can pick up random stuff in your house while BadBoy calls. Again, not sure what they're used for.
3) Once mission 1 ends, you have to do some hacking with civilians. The way it works is you have to hack some random person first, and then you hack the criminal, who appeared in the same place both runs.
4) Nicky's call is definitely RNG, just got God tier luck with her call, was able to hack almost immendialty.
5) The car chase is also RNG (GREEEEAAAT), as it took me two street lights before I could neutralize the target, while in my casual playthrough, I got it on my first attempt

Also the 17:37 includes the nightmare sequence, while my two individual mission runs did not
In case anyone was wondering, the 2 cutscenes you can't skip at this point are the first cutscenes in the game, and Aiden's nightmare where Lena dies

Considering the scope of this game and the fact that certain cutscenes cannot be skipped, I don't think sub 4 is possible, at least not this early. I'll do some runs right now and get back to you once I finish them

Edit: Just got 10:35 for the first mission Bottom of the Eighth. Most of the mission is just cutscenes and there were a handful of mistakes, so I'm not worried. Just a few things I noticed. 
1) For the car chase back to you safehouse, I just put a waypoint on the safehouse and followed the blue line. The cops easily saw me, but I was able to get away before they showed up
2) At the end, right before you go to sleep, BadBoy calls you about the ctOS network. If you can somehow go to sleep before he calls, you could possibly skip the entire conversation and end the mission

Just in case anyone was wondering, my timing started as soon as Aiden pulled out his gun and ended once I went to sleep. Will do mission 2 now

Edit: Just did mission 2 and got 12:21. Turns out you can skip cutscenes! Wonder why I couldn't do it for mission 1. Anyway a few interesting things happened
1)Once you leave your apartment and track the crime, immediately get yourself discovered, this ends the vigilante quest instantly and you can start mission 2 faster.
2) Nicky's phone call with the prank call guy had different dialogue than my first playthrough, which was interesting. Maybe there's RNG there?
3) With the car chase, I managed to get infront of the guy somehow, but this made the chase SO much longer. Just stay behind the guy and after the tunnel, neutralize the lights to take him out, that's the fastest way of doing it in my opinion.

Also, you can pick up meds in Nicky's bathroom while she's on the phone, so there's that, not sure what they're for. Also sub 12 is easily possible, my chase was absolutely god awful

Edit: Just did a run of mission one and two and got 17:37. Turns out certain cutscenes can be skipped in mission 1.  Here were just a few things that happened, sub 17 is possible
1) The car chase at the end of mission 1 is actually RNG based. I took the same route, and I had to drive a little farther than the owl motel to escape the cops.
2) You can pick up random stuff in your house while BadBoy calls. Again, not sure what they're used for.
3) Once mission 1 ends, you have to do some hacking with civilians. The way it works is you have to hack some random person first, and then you hack the criminal, who appeared in the same place both runs.
4) Nicky's call is definitely RNG, just got God tier luck with her call, was able to hack almost immendialty. 
5) The car chase is also RNG (GREEEEAAAT), as it took me two street lights before I could neutralize the target, while in my casual playthrough, I got it on my first attempt

Also the 17:37 includes the nightmare sequence, while my two individual mission runs did not
In case anyone was wondering, the 2 cutscenes you can't skip at this point are the first cutscenes in the game, and Aiden's nightmare where Lena dies

HoboWithaShotgun

2014-05-28 01:24:02 pm

Wake up and be awesome

Alright, on to mission 3, and I already found an incredibly reliable and fast strategy for taking down the ctOS thing. After a few attempts, my method always worked, and was able to hack into the place in 40 seconds by just going from camera to camera. It's so easy. Also, something I noticed is that once I restarted the mission from the mission menu and hacked into the place, it skipped BadBoy's whole cutscene. I'll have to look into that

HoboWithaShotgun

2014-05-28 02:21:05 pm

Wake up and be awesome

Messed around with mission 4, and some interesting things happen in that mission. For starters, you get attacked by an "online" person, who's really just computer AI. Anyway, he spawns in the same place each time. I wonder if taking him down is better than straight up shooting him. Shooting him is faster, but this causes civilians to call the cops, and give you notoriety, which you must get rid of before starting the mission. Also when the game tells you to do the online hacking app, open it and close it to end that part of the mission. As for the real mission, it's pretty straight forward, just drive and avoid the cops. I discovered a risky strat where you can just drive around a police blockade. They'll come close to spotting you, but they won't

That reminds me. Anyone interested in doing Watch Dogs speedruns MUST play offline, in order to avoid potential online hackers

HoboWithaShotgun

2014-05-28 08:28:33 pm

Wake up and be awesome

My friend came over earlier and played a bit of Watch Dogs, and managed to get to Act 2 in under 6 hours. Obviously that time is not optimal at all, he just wanted to play the game. But he did discover a few interesting things though
1) Turns out the Nicky conversation with the suspicious guy is not RNG, just move closer to her in order to hack her phone. Can't believe I never thought of that
2) The car chase at the end of mission 2 was interesting. My friend got the option to neutralize the car AT THE VERY FIRST LIGHT. If I can replicate this, then the mission will end SO much quicker, and it would skip the entire Nicky call I'm assuming
3) My friend also discovered a great driving strat for mission 8, one that I'll have to use from now on. It really does save so much time

HoboWithaShotgun

Edit history:

HoboWithaShotgun: 2014-05-28 10:42:49 pm

2014-05-28 10:29:16 pm

Wake up and be awesome

Alright, did my first Act 1 any % run and got 1:42:38. It was a terrible run, I died way too many times. Anyway, sub 1:35 should easily be possible, since over 4 minutes of the run I did was spent on the exact same area failing over and over again, like an idiot. As always, new things always pop up when doing these types of runs, and here's what I saw

1) The criminal at the beginning of Mission 2 is indeed RNG. The criminal was somewhere else, need to be careful of that
2) Tackling the guy to the ground at the beginning of Mission 4 is much better than shooting him, as civilians won't alert the cops
3) After doing the mission where you go to Lena's grave, there's a fast motorcycle right outside the graveyard. Take this and you'll be soooo much faster

Anyway, that's all I remember. Certain sequences when I was running away from the cops could have definitely been better, but since this was my first Act 1 speedrun, I think I did alright. Besides, I got under my estimate of 1:50, so there's that Smiley

Edit: For anyone who was wondering, I had only routed up to mission 4 by that point, everything else was more or less blind

Alright, did my first Act 1 any % run and got 1:42:38. It was a terrible run, I died way too many times. Anyway, sub 1:35 should easily be possible, since over 4 minutes of the run I did was spent on the exact same area failing over and over again, like an idiot. As always, new things always pop up when doing these types of runs, and here's what I saw

1) The criminal at the beginning of Mission 2 is indeed RNG. The criminal was somewhere else, need to be careful of that
2) Tackling the guy to the ground at the beginning of Mission 4 is much better than shooting him, as civilians won't alert the cops
3) After doing the mission where you go to Lena's grave, there's a fast motorcycle right outside the graveyard. Take this and you'll be soooo much faster

Anyway, that's all I remember. Certain sequences when I was running away from the cops could have definitely been better, but since this was my first Act 1 speedrun, I think I did alright. Besides, I got under my estimate of 1:50, so there's that :)

Edit: For anyone who was wondering, I had only routed up to mission 4 by that point, everything else was more or less blind

HoboWithaShotgun

Edit history:

HoboWithaShotgun: 2014-05-29 12:08:03 am

HoboWithaShotgun: 2014-05-29 12:07:39 am

2014-05-29 12:07:15 am

Wake up and be awesome

Alright, ignore everything I just said. Just got 1:15:04 Grin

This run was SOOO much smoother, and fewer deaths (only 4 deaths in this run) than the previous run. Funny thing is, this run ended up having the worst start imaginable, got terrible cop luck in the chase at the end of mission 1, and had to pause for about 15 seconds to answer a call. I wanted to reset, but that opening cutscene is so long and annoying. Anyway, as always, here's some stuff that happened.
1) Was able to take out the car at the end of Mission 2 in record time, because I was able to neutralize it at the very first light. This does skip the call with Nicky, but it doesn't save any time
2) Turns out that at the beginning of mission 4, when tracking the hacker, you don't have to chase him. You can just drive away. I discovered this when I tried to tackle the guy, but he got in a car, and I more or less, just gave up
3) Don't get in a car AT ALL at the beginning of mission 8. I failed the mission for the second run in a row because I simply got in my car. GRRR
4) The cops in the prison are completely RNG, as if this game didn't already have enough of that

Alright, ignore everything I just said. Just got 1:15:04 ;D ;D ;D

This run was SOOO much smoother, and fewer deaths (only 4 deaths in this run) than the previous run. Funny thing is, this run ended up having the worst start imaginable, got terrible cop luck in the chase at the end of mission 1, and had to pause for about 15 seconds to answer a call. I wanted to reset, but that opening cutscene is so long and annoying. Anyway, as always, here's some stuff that happened. 
1) Was able to take out the car at the end of Mission 2 in record time, because I was able to neutralize it at the very first light. This does skip the call with Nicky, but it doesn't save any time
2) Turns out that at the beginning of mission 4, when tracking the hacker, you don't have to chase him. You can just drive away. I discovered this when I tried to tackle the guy, but he got in a car, and I more or less, just gave up
3) Don't get in a car AT ALL at the beginning of mission 8. I failed the mission for the second run in a row because I simply got in my car. GRRR
4) The cops in the prison are completely RNG, as if this game didn't already have enough of that

Jonese1234

2014-05-29 11:18:24 am

I would love to speedrun this game, i was wondering if you might want to help route it with me and if we could fine some more people it would be so much faster...

You can add me on steam : Jonese1234 or skype : rhysjones9

i completed the main mission in about 15h with obviously a lot of mistakes, and i had to actualy think how to do it Cheesy

HoboWithaShotgun

Edit history:

HoboWithaShotgun: 2014-05-29 11:33:41 am

2014-05-29 11:26:20 am

Wake up and be awesome

I don't have skype unfortunately, but I could probably get it right now. I've only routed up to mission 9 Act 1, and certain missions still need further investigation. I'll get back to you soon I promise

Jonese1234

2014-05-29 11:27:12 am

Ok good i would love for this to be a really good speed game.. currently i only run Portal 1 and 2 Cheesy

Jonese1234

2014-05-29 11:39:06 am

Just though i let you know i just got a 6:39 for the first mission starting the second you had control of Aiden. I'm assuming this is good Cheesy

jonese1234

2014-05-29 11:43:09 am

BTW one question your running on pc or Console?

HoboWithaShotgun

2014-05-29 11:47:34 am

Wake up and be awesome

I run on 360, which actually has the worst loading screen times. PC could easily gain a few minutes off my run just in loading screen times

jonese1234

2014-05-29 11:55:33 am

Ok i see that would make quite a large difference.

HoboWithaShotgun

2014-05-29 12:08:56 pm

Wake up and be awesome

Also forgot to answer your mission question. Yeah that's pretty good, my PB for mission 1 is 6:30, from the minute you have control of Aiden (pulls out his gun) to when he goes to sleep

jonese1234

2014-05-29 12:16:36 pm

O mission one ends when when you add the skill point to opining gates by hacking, after the call with clara (badboy17)

HoboWithaShotgun

Edit history:

HoboWithaShotgun: 2014-05-29 12:20:37 pm

2014-05-29 12:19:48 pm

Wake up and be awesome

Yeah I know, that's just my timing. Anyway you bring up a good point with skill points. Never mind about the gate opening question. But the skill points are up for grabs

jonese1234

2014-05-29 12:20:41 pm

the mission where you go see your sister you have to open the gate with it

HoboWithaShotgun

2014-05-29 12:22:05 pm

Wake up and be awesome

Yeah, you just answered my stupid question before I could edit my response . Anyway, skill points are going to be interesting

jonese1234

2014-05-29 12:23:12 pm

i know you need to unlock some to prossed with the game and others you do not

jonese1234

Edit history:

jonese1234: 2014-05-29 12:25:45 pm

2014-05-29 12:24:56 pm

BTW to get away from a police chase just jump on a train.. its the best way so unlocking that one is a must as the police just lose track of you its quite funny Cheesy

you also need focus its really help ful

HoboWithaShotgun

2014-05-29 12:36:57 pm

Wake up and be awesome

That seems kind of slow and I can't think of any areas where that would work. But my police chase sequences were all bad so anything helps

jonese1234

2014-05-29 12:38:46 pm

im just saying for the 2 5* chases you are put in in the game it is the best way to get out of them, after you escape the mission tends to end therefor you can use the quick travel to move around after it may not be the best for small missions but it is good for the 2 big ones!