Winter 2015 SNES Final Fantasy Relay - March 7th, 2015 (VODs available)

2014-12-14 05:23:19 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

Finally signing up!
http://www.twitch.tv/essentiafour
FFVI, 4:57:23
As far as I know, I'll be available any of those dates except March 28.

catastrophic4

Edit history:

catastrophic4: 2014-12-14 10:55:01 pm

2014-12-14 10:54:16 pm

Catastrophic4 (www.twitch.tv/catastrophic4)
Game Offered: Final Fantasy IV - PB 3:22:34
Dates available: All dates

I can also do commentary for FF4, if it is needed.

puwexil

Edit history:

puwexil: 2014-12-17 01:13:26 pm

2014-12-17 11:39:10 am

Professional Second Banana

Ok, here's my 1st draft of the teams (subject to change depending on how PBs improve in the coming months, or if anyone has to drop out).

Team 1: catastrophic4, Deln, Fathlo23
Team 2: nocashnocash, DragonLX, LCC
Team 3: Khobahi, Jenja, Neerrm
Team 4: the_roth, HappySquid, Essentia

FF4 Commentary: crumps2, obdajr, FeralPigMan, Fyreball13
FF5 Commentary: Dragondarch, Deuceler, Incalex, puwexil
FF6 Commentary: bichphuongballz, eLmaGus, puwexil

March 7 looks like the best date for everyone (other than maybe Khobahi), so we'll go with that. That weekend currently doesn't have anything else listed on mike89's Speedrun Events Calendar (just submitted our relay to go onto it); and I just talked to one of my contacts in the Japanese speedrun community (there is a Zelda speedrun relay on Nico on the 7th, but it should be over before we start).

Now that we have a date, I'll go ahead and open it up for bonus game offers - I'm fine with having Secret of Mana, Lufia 2, and FF Mystic Quest again if enough runners are available; and since Chrono Trigger won last time I'd like to replace that with something else.

If you'd like to offer a bonus game (ideally a JRPG that has some community overlap with the SNES FF community, and enough active runners so that a 3-4 person race could be organized fairly easily), just post the following:
Game Name/Category
Available March 8th* (Y/N)
Other weekends available* (3/14-15, 3/21-22, 3/28-29)

*Time of day will depend on what works best for the runners.

Anyone have ideas for a banner design (1st relay was Rydia/Bartz/Terra, 2nd relay was Golbez/Gilgamesh/Kefka) or new bonus incentives?

Ok, here's my 1st draft of the teams (subject to change depending on how PBs improve in the coming months, or if anyone has to drop out).

Team 1: catastrophic4, Deln, Fathlo23
Team 2: nocashnocash, DragonLX, LCC
Team 3: Khobahi, Jenja, Neerrm
Team 4: the_roth, HappySquid, Essentia

FF4 Commentary: crumps2, obdajr, FeralPigMan, Fyreball13
FF5 Commentary: Dragondarch, Deuceler, Incalex, puwexil
FF6 Commentary: bichphuongballz, eLmaGus, puwexil

March 7 looks like the best date for everyone (other than maybe Khobahi), so we'll go with that.  That weekend currently doesn't have anything else listed on mike89's Speedrun Events Calendar (just submitted our relay to go onto it); and I just talked to one of my contacts in the Japanese speedrun community (there is a Zelda speedrun relay on Nico on the 7th, but it should be over before we start).

Now that we have a date, I'll go ahead and open it up for bonus game offers - I'm fine with having Secret of Mana, Lufia 2, and FF Mystic Quest again if enough runners are available; and since Chrono Trigger won last time I'd like to replace that with something else.

If you'd like to offer a bonus game (ideally a JRPG that has some community overlap with the SNES FF community, and enough active runners so that a 3-4 person race could be organized fairly easily), just post the following:
Game Name/Category
Available March 8th* (Y/N)
Other weekends available* (3/14-15, 3/21-22, 3/28-29)

*Time of day will depend on what works best for the runners.

Anyone have ideas for a banner design (1st relay was Rydia/Bartz/Terra, 2nd relay was Golbez/Gilgamesh/Kefka) or new bonus incentives?

Deln

2014-12-17 12:10:18 pm

Zeromus/Exdeath/???

i dont know what i would put for FF6 there

eLmaGus-

Edit history:

eLmaGus-: 2014-12-17 12:29:31 pm

eLmaGus-: 2014-12-17 12:18:50 pm

2014-12-17 12:16:51 pm

I must simply laugh.

First Draft:

Very deserved appearance of nocash and roth, looking forward to them performing in the Relay. About myself, Neerrm said he wanted to learn FF6 for the Relay, so he could technically have my spot and i will step back and become Team Manager of Y Burn. That would enable one of the other FF4 runners to participate which I see as a good thing, since I have been a part of both past Relays. That is an option i can give you as organizer, I am obviously fine with playing aswell if you choose to leave it at that.

The commentary lineup is, uh whats the word... incredible?

Bonus Games:
You could potentially add Secret of Evermore to the list, there will be 4 runners for that that will show interest im pretty sure. Other than that it is going to be hard to find 4 runners for a game, but if a game has 3 runners only i might be stupid enough to learn that RPG to give it a shot as a bonus game.

As for my bonus games:
Lufia II/any% + FFMQ/any%
Available March 8th
Also available

Banner design:
Tricky Tricky, but i vote Tellah/Galuf/Strago

First Draft:

Very deserved appearance of nocash and roth, looking forward to them performing in the Relay. About myself, Neerrm said he wanted to learn FF6 for the Relay, so he could technically have my spot and i will step back and become Team Manager of Y Burn. That would enable one of the other FF4 runners to participate which I see as a good thing, since I have been a part of both past Relays. That is an option i can give you as organizer, I am obviously fine with playing aswell if you choose to leave it at that.

The commentary lineup is, uh whats the word... incredible?

Bonus Games:
You could potentially add Secret of Evermore to the list, there will be 4 runners for that that will show interest im pretty sure. Other than that it is going to be hard to find 4 runners for a game, but if a game has 3 runners only i might be stupid enough to learn that RPG to give it a shot as a bonus game.

As for my bonus games:
Lufia II/any% + FFMQ/any%
Available March 8th
Also available

Banner design:
Tricky Tricky, but i vote Tellah/Galuf/Strago

puwexil

2014-12-17 01:12:55 pm

Professional Second Banana

Quote from eLmaGus-:

About myself, Neerrm said he wanted to learn FF6 for the Relay, so he could technically have my spot and i will step back and become Team Manager of Y Burn. That would enable one of the other FF4 runners to participate which I see as a good thing, since I have been a part of both past Relays. That is an option i can give you as organizer, I am obviously fine with playing aswell if you choose to leave it at that.

I just talked to Neerrm and he was on board with this. Since we have more newer runners now I'll likely need to rebalance the teams, but I'll hold off until early February or so.

FeralPigMan

2014-12-17 01:18:22 pm

Bonus game:
Lufia 2/glitchless any%
Available March 8th
Should be available the other weekends as well.

I'd probably be down to learn another game for bonus also, depending on which game it is.

Khobahi

2014-12-17 01:25:36 pm

Looks good, glad we got enough people to fill out games, and look forward to watching neerrm run ff6 (and allow me to hopefully catch him in ff4) Hype for other new runners!

Also for Banner

Tellah / Galuf / General Leo (or shadow) (the lost heroes.....)

As for my self on the 7th i think i should be available but will try and make sure over the xmas break about if we will have plans ahead of time (My fathers birthday is the 6th)

Neerrm

2014-12-17 01:39:27 pm

I'm not offering it, but Terranigma as a bonus game would be neat.

Quote from Khobahi:

look forward to watching neerrm run ff6 (and allow me to hopefully catch him in ff4)

nevah, though learning 6 will be a welcome break from the vile mistress. I have from Friday to the end of the year off, and while I'll be doing some stuff throughout those days (mostly packing ugh), that should give me ample time to get going.

How about a grandfather/daughter banner? Strago/Relm (or even Cid/Celes), Galuf/Kara, and Tellah/Anna (his daughter I realize...)

Or maybe Edward and Maria Celes being carried by Butz, who is Piano Flexing and actually holding a piano?

RCFstupca

2014-12-17 02:55:45 pm

Going off what Deln said about Zeromus/Exdeath/??? I'd put Atma there, everyone remembers him as a boss and it wouldn't be out of place for Zeromus is also a big sprite

bichphuongballz

2014-12-17 03:14:57 pm

bichGOAL

I like the banner ideas so far, but I'm leaning towards zeromus/exdeath/atma(or whatever) because it's the most different. We've only used human/humanoid characters so far, so I think Deln's/RCFstupca's idea is my favorite right now.

I don't know if runners would be interested since they just did it at scrubathon, but there's probably enough runners for soul blazer or IoG for the other bonus game.

Deuceler

Edit history:

Deuceler: 2014-12-17 03:43:34 pm

2014-12-17 03:43:19 pm

SPEEDruns not SAFEruns

Commentary looks like it has stepped its game up this time around! Looks like I've got a game to learn thumbsup

Jenja

2014-12-17 03:59:56 pm

Idea for bonus incentives:
How about doing it similar to the last relay, but instead of pure RNG incentives, which give a big amount of points, we can rather have more small incentives, that give 1-2 points each and DO NOT increase the length of the run or are too risky.

To put it in numbers and speaking for FFV: Instead of giving 4,3,2,1 points to the person with the most Dark Shock misses, give 1 point to each player who pulls off the step manipulation until Ramuh, 1 point for each direct land with the airship, 1 point for not stopping on the big bridge battle and so on...

So it would go more towards the first relay, but instead of reducing the final time they give small bonus votes for a certain bonus game. The viewer poll should also give 8,6,4,2 points respectively then.

Just a rough idea, I don't know if we would find enough incentives for every game (ideally 6-8 maybe?), but to change it up a bit, I thought this might work.

Also on a side note I think that 4 commentators for one game are too much, but as long as they don't interfere with each other, I will not complain.

Idea for bonus incentives:
How about doing it similar to the last relay, but instead of pure RNG incentives, which give a big amount of points, we can rather have more small incentives, that give 1-2 points each and DO NOT increase the length of the run or are too risky.

To put it in numbers and speaking for FFV: Instead of giving 4,3,2,1 points to the person with the most Dark Shock misses, give 1 point to each player who pulls off the step manipulation until Ramuh, 1 point for each direct land with the airship, 1 point for not stopping on the big bridge battle and so on...

So it would go more towards the first relay, but instead of reducing the final time they give small bonus votes for a certain bonus game. The viewer poll should also give 8,6,4,2 points respectively then.

Just a rough idea, I don't know if we would find enough incentives for every game (ideally 6-8 maybe?), but to change it up a bit, I thought this might work.

Also on a side note I think that 4 commentators for one game are too much, but as long as they don't interfere with each other, I will not complain.

the_roth

Edit history:

the_roth: 2015-01-06 08:03:28 pm

2014-12-24 02:27:59 am

DO THE MEATEO

These ideas could be interesting. I can see FFIV having similar incentives to an extent (e.g. multiple airship MLG hype, re mist dragon seed manip) but some could be RNG based but simpler ideas (beating Octomamm without healing Rydia, Whisperless Dark Elf, beating Calbrena without healing).

I agree with Jenja with the commentator scenario.

If we PB prior to the teams being set so we just edit our submission? I recently had a 3:15:33 in FFIV (damn, now a 3:13:24!)...

Secret of Mana would also be a good bonus game, so there's my vote Smiley

puwexil

Edit history:

puwexil: 2014-12-27 10:38:35 am

2014-12-27 10:35:46 am

Professional Second Banana

If the runners would rather have fewer commentators I can shuffle them around so there's only 3 per game.

Sure, feel free to post new PBs - will make my job easier when I work on rebalancing the teams.

I like the idea of making encounter manipulation an incentive (at least in 4/5 where it's pretty widely used among the community). Some other ideas I had for FF6 incentives were # of flame battles in the burning house, # of times Ifrit hits Kefka (maybe with Fire2/Fire3 counting more), and some kind of joke or funny story-telling contest during the Thamasa cutscenes (kind of similar in spirit to the Opera contest, but with more options for creativity and a much wider window to do it if the runners are close together in the race).

Also liking the idea of a music-themed banner (maybe Edward playing a lute shaped like a spoon, Bartz playing piano with 1 arm and flexing with the other, and Celes tossing a bouquet at a blushing Ultros).

Melodia

2014-12-27 01:20:26 pm

Here's an idea -- NO opera contest this time, but something else (like the joke thing above). It was fine last time but again would be redundant.
Definetly like the idea of stuff that wouldn't take time from the run (in FFIV do the twins ever use twincast? Perhaps points for if they use comet over flare?)

puwexil

2014-12-27 01:51:52 pm

Professional Second Banana

Quote from Melodia:

Here's an idea -- NO opera contest this time, but something else (like the joke thing above). It was fine last time but again would be redundant.
Definetly like the idea of stuff that wouldn't take time from the run (in FFIV do the twins ever use twincast? Perhaps points for if they use comet over flare?)

I'm not planning to have the Opera contest this time regardless - the last relay showed that it doesn't work with the new restreaming setup if the runners are close together (which I hope they will be). Plus I think it's time to try new incentives to keep things fresh and creative.

Deuceler

2014-12-27 02:07:19 pm

SPEEDruns not SAFEruns

I'm just going to throw out there that with the people commentating on Final Fantasy V feel free to cross me off the list, I'm far more under qualified then anyone else!

eLmaGus-

2014-12-27 10:34:33 pm

I must simply laugh.

Quote from Jenja:

Idea for bonus incentives:
Also on a side note I think that 4 commentators for one game are too much, but as long as they don't interfere with each other, I will not complain.

Quote from the_roth:

I agree with Jenja with the commentator scenario.

I do not see a big difference between 3 and 4 commentators. It is only an issue if they are uncoordinated. I don't really like the idea of scratching off people that wanted to do commentary but I would rather see that the people that want to commentate hit up a runner, get together in Skype/Teamspeak/whatever and have a fun evening together practicing commentating said runner do a practice run.

I do realize that this will be eating up time of everybody, but I feel like that way the commentators will "get a feel" for each other and will bounce off of each other better in the relay itself. The biggest upside to this would be that nobody would have to get scratched or shuffeled to commentate a game they might not want to.

[quote="Jenja"]Idea for bonus incentives:
Also on a side note I think that 4 commentators for one game are too much, but as long as they don't interfere with each other, I will not complain.[/quote]

[quote="the_roth"]
I agree with Jenja with the commentator scenario.[/quote]

I do not see a big difference between 3 and 4 commentators. It is only an issue if they are uncoordinated. I don't really like the idea of scratching off people that wanted to do commentary but I would rather see that the people that want to commentate hit up a runner, get together in Skype/Teamspeak/whatever and have a fun evening together practicing commentating said runner do a practice run.

I do realize that this will be eating up time of everybody, but I feel like that way the commentators will "get a feel" for each other and will bounce off of each other better in the relay itself. The biggest upside to this would be that nobody would have to get scratched or shuffeled to commentate a game they might not want to.

the_roth

2014-12-28 03:10:45 am

DO THE MEATEO

That's a good idea Elmagus, I'm happy to do that. Sounds like a great way to strengthen the marathon Smiley

Cereth

2015-01-03 06:34:43 pm

Already mentioned this to Puwexil, but I'm up for backup playing/commentating FF5 if anyone needs to drop out (I hope not though because I feel like you have the best 4 players for the game)

Completely missed the thread for proper signup because I was expecting this kind of thing to be in community marathons Sad

Deuceler

2015-01-05 12:48:48 am

SPEEDruns not SAFEruns

I talked with Puwexil earlier today, and volunteered to give my FF5 commentary spot to Cereth. It makes a lot more sense to have an active runner from the community doing it then me!

animenewscookie

Edit history:

animenewscookie: 2015-01-11 11:25:03 pm

2015-01-11 11:23:51 pm

にゃんだにょ！

Hey folks, it's Cookie (the guy who's done the past two Japanese restreams of the relay). I'm just checking in real quick here, but if puwexil and everyone's still OK with it, I'd be interested in doing a Japanese-language restream over on Nico Nico Douga again. Timewise, 10am EST would be Midnight Japan time, so the viewer numbers would probably be around the same as before (~2k visitors, or around 20-25ish concurrent viewers). Not 100% certain I can commit to the entire run yet, but will try my hardest.

At a bare minimum, my plans this time are to expand on 0xwas's FAQ and to add some story explanations and core gameplay concepts. I'm not terribly familiar with the English memes, but I'd like to take some notes on those as well.

If it's cool with everyone, please lemme know, 'cause I'd love to the restream again.

Neerrm

2015-01-13 01:31:52 pm

Personally I think what you're doing with the JP restream is absolutely amazing and don't see any reason why it shouldn't continue if you're willing to do so. Keep up the great work!

If you'd like, I can try and elaborate on some of the FF4 memes that have arisen (ie bich and bats)

puwexil

Edit history:

puwexil: 2015-01-14 12:31:51 am

2015-01-14 12:30:14 am

Professional Second Banana

Absolutely! I'd love to keep having the Nico restream as long as you're interested in doing it - I think it's a great touch that helps bring our community a little closer to the Japanese Final Fantasy community (which was my initial inspiration for the relay).

There shouldn't be many changes needed to 0xwas' FAQ for the next relay, aside from a new FF4 glitch that's probably going to be a bonus incentive - I'll defer to one of the runners to explain (something involving using Palom/Porom's Twin command to glitch out your item menu and let you cast endgame spells like Firaga/Holy by using seemingly random items like carrots or the trash can). Also, when I talked to 0xwas after the last relay he said that he'd misunderstood the vanish-doom glitch in FF6 to mean casting vanish on enemies will kill them (instead of just removing their instant death immunity).