GermanyI've been thinking about editing the sheet online and the easiest way would probably be if only one person edited it at a time (kind of a master sheet for the others). Otherwise it would be pretty easy for people to overwrite eachothers changes.
Synchronization between several users would require some serverside code. For now I designed it to be usable locally, but I'm sure it could be developed to be useable on a server as well. I was already thinking about that. Could even be used for viewers to view the sheet directly, while only some have edit access (with a password or something).
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by your other suggestion.
I found the Bingo Sheets on stream often a bit hard to follow, especially connecting the colors with the runners if the colors are rather similiar. Also it may be a bit cumbersome to edit an image to mark stuff manually.
I've started making a Bingo Sheet in HTML/CSS/JS which can be locally opened (so it's not a web service, although it could also be a basis for one I guess). The bingo cards and players are defined in a JS file. The sheet has dedicated rectangles for each player on each card to put a marker, which can be just a color (doing that goal), a cross (can't do goal) and a checkmark (goal done). The states can be changed with the mouse. The states are saved in HTML5 local storage, so they shouldn't be lost when the page is reloaded (although not all browsers seem to store it permanently when using the file:// protocol, since there is no actual domain).
This is a rather quick hack and by far not perfect, but I was just wondering if anyone thinks this could be useful.
This is what it looks like (using the GTA3 bingo as an example):
Text that comes up on the screen like "Job done" can be skipped by going to the pause menu, so quickly pausing/unpausing (ESC twice) basicially makes it go away. You get stuck in the pause menu when the game is saving though, until it finished saving, so you can loose time due to that if there's a timer based on game time.
Actions like spawning the next missions or fading out into a cutscene seems to be based on two different things (if you have to wait for it at least):
- In some places it seems to be bound to the text disappearing, so in this case skipping the text can save a few seconds
- In other places it seems to be a simple timer, so skipping the text just means that you're sitting there waiting without the text (and in that case pausing while the game saves actually looses time, because sitting in the pause menu doesn't seem to count towards the timer)
It seems that the first way (where you can actually save time) only seems to happen where there's only one text (not several in a row) and where the action happens immediately after the text disappears (even without skipping the text).
List of texts (where you actually have to wait) I tested so far:
Formatting used for the list:
- Skipping text doesn't save time "Text that comes up" that can be skipped -> What skipping does
Wheelman
Gunman
Pay Ray
Hot Wheels
Last Chance
- After mission: "Job done" -> Skipping not faster
After first group of missions (Repoman, Bread Run, Last Chance)
- "Safehouse Available" etc. -> Missions always seem to spawn roughly 11s after spawning in the safehouse
Paddy Wagon
- "Job done" -> Saving at first (so stuck in the menu), but it still skips a bit of text after, next missions spawn faster
Turning the Screw
Jail Break
Circuit Breaker
- After mission: "Job done", "Car available" -> Not faster, pausing while saving costs time
Tailgate
- After mission: "Weapon available" -> Not faster, seems to take roughly 11s until the mission spawns (after spawning after the cutscene)
Guardian Angel
- After mission: "Job done" etc. -> Not faster, seems to take roughly 11s from "Job done" coming up until the missions spawn
Ok, so I found that you get the "AK" (AUST PUP) on the job done of Gauntlet (30/30 ammo). So that's probably where you then got the 900 (30¤30) AK ammo from, since you did Riding Shotgun directly after it (and me as well before changing the mission order). You also seemed to have picked up some machine gun ammo from the last enemies during Gauntlet, so that's probably where you got the other ammo from despite having depleted all of it before.
So I'm not sure if the AK is any better than the other machine guns, but the other ones seem to work well enough. And you use the Minigun for the last missions anyway, except for shooting down the helicopter in the last mission. In any case, having the ammo from Riding Shotgun earlier is probably faster anyway, even if the AK was better for shooting down the heli and stuff.
I tried just blowing up all the cars during Rush Hour (instead of just the last one) and while the rental-car guy complains about it, the mission seems to be the same otherwise (you have to get to all the cars anyway). The only downside seems to be that the police can bother you more when you blow stuff up.
Now doing Riding Shotgun before this mission gives you a lot of machine gun ammo, which allows you to get the cars to stop quickly (or just ram into them if you're car health allows it). You can then either use a machine gun to blow them up, or use the RPG once the rental car is stationary (which allows you to hit it easily as opposed to a moving target where you can sometimes waste a lot of rockets on it).
Comparing to the mission in zoton2's 2:03:04 WR (which seemed pretty solid), I was already ahead 20 seconds after the second car with using the RPG to blow the rental cars up after they stopped. I caught up with the third car at the beginning of the bridge and then turned around and went after the fourth car instead of driving to the other island and towards it. I caught up with the fourth car roughly when it turned onto the bridge where you would otherwise usually meet it on, which was about 18 seconds before zoton met up with the fourth car. Maybe another car order would be faster or maybe doing the usual route instead of trying to catch up with the fourth car, but I'm not sure. With better driving (I had some crashes) it would probably be even a bit faster.
It took zoton over 20 seconds to blow up the last car (understandable having only a pistol), so having loads of machine gun ammo at this point also helps to destroy this car (which is also trying to get away, so it might be safer to use a machine gun instead of the RPG for this one). It took about 10 seconds for me to destroy it with a machine gun.
If you are going to use 3 RPGs during this mission you still have 8 to use elsewhere, one each for Candy and Shell Shock and one (let's say 3 for safety) for Slink. So even conservatively you still have 3 left from the 11 you get during Riding Shotgun to use elsewhere (Ram Raider maybe). The mission Bishop (where you get more RPG ammo) seems to spawn only after this group of missions is done, but I'm not entirely sure. Either way, if you're careful with the RPGs (as in firing only on easy or important targets) they should be pretty useful.
Using a bike in Gate Crasher seems to work fine if you avoid high-speed crashes which take a lot of health. Due to better acceleration and top-speed compared to cars you usually find around there it's probably faster.
I tried to compare just the driving routes (without any luring cops) and it seemed using the usual car (with a top speed of about 95) compared to the bike you get during Candy (with a top speed of about 110) may be around 20 seconds difference. My driving probably wasn't the best though, so it's hard to tell.
The question is where to get the bike from though. If you do Gate Crasher after Candy, you have to wait for the drug to wear off before the mission starts, which takes about 25 seconds. Now otherwise during that time you would also have to find a faster car then you would already have (either when you reset and didn't get a good car at the safehouse or when you did Slink or something before that), which of course depends on how fast you find one, but it should usually be faster than 25 seconds.
So let's say waiting for the drug to wear off is 15 seconds slower than finding a good car, then it's possible to save some time using the bike. Of course it increases the chance of loosing time due to falling off, but using a car seemed to have a higher chance of having to switch to another one due to shotgun damage.
Another possibility would be to find a random bike spawn and using that for the mission, or using a car if you can't find one, but of course that is even less clear as to how much time it actually would save.
Overall, I'm not sure at this time whether it's a better strat or not, but it's worth a try.
So because I often was short of ammo during Ram Raider and Rush Hour and I noticed that Riding Shotgun can give you a lot of ammo, I looked into what missions can actually give you what ammo.
You start with no ammo in 2006, but you get some during the first missions:
- You can pick up a F70 in the first mission (The Mexican) and about 300 ammo for it, some of which you'll probably use to kill people
- The next mission (Tailgate) will probably use up a lot of it shooting the car, however after finishing the mission (after the cutscene) you get 50 ammo for the F70 (this also applies if you have used up all your ammo) and 8/8 ammo for the Gangster Pistol
- After finishing Guardian Angels you get 40/40 ammo for the SF10 (on job done)
After that you can either do the first Ram Raider mission or go directly to Riding Shotgun. The idea is to do Riding Shotgun before Ram Raider, Rush Hour and Gauntlet because I noticed it seems to give you a lot of ammo, which you can then use for those missions.
When I tested Riding Shotgun I was at first unsure why sometimes I seemed to get different amounts of ammo and sometimes even basicially none. After playing through the lovely autoscroller many times, I noticed that it seems to depend on the ammo you currently have for each weapon, more specificially the ammo you have in reserve, not in the current clip. It seems to give you <Ammo in reserve> ¤ <Magazine Size> for each weapon (and also fills up the current clip). It caps out at the maximum ammo each weapon can have, although if you do get that it should certainly be enough for the rest of the route.
I've also seen runs/done runs where you have a lot of ammo later, but I'm not exactly sure where that was coming from. It didn't seem to be there after Riding Shotgun, but I've seen it at Candy. I've done a run with the Guardian Angels -> Riding Shotgun -> etc. route and I didn't seem to get any additional ammo anywhere else (except the RPG and Minigun), but maybe it depends on what you already have or the mission order somehow.
If you do Riding Shotgun first you can get a lot of F70 or SF 10 ammo, both of which seem to be able to kill the helicopter in the last mission roughly as well as the Aust PUP (which you otherwise would have a lot of ammo of and possibly don't with the new route).
Here is the data from the tests I performed (loading from a safe after Guardian Angels and then shooting away different amounts of ammo before Riding Shotgun):
32/18 -> 50/900 50/0 -> 50/0 50/1 -> 50/50 34/18 -> 50/900 15/2 -> 50/100 50/3 -> 50/150 50/68 -> 50/2000 0/0 -> 50/0 13/0 -> 50/0 24/0 -> 50/0 3/22 -> 50/1100
39/40 -> 40/1200 1/40 -> 40/1200 40/39 -> 40/1200 0/0 -> 40/0 40/11 -> 40/440
8/8 -> 8/64 8/0 -> 8/0
Thanks. :)
Can I get an invite?
Is it ok to request a game where I may be the only one right now to submit times for?
And on a related note, if that game is part of a series, but I'm not sure if any times will be submitted for the other game of the series, should I only request the game I have times for and maybe turn it into a series later (if that is even possible) or request a series right now.
I like that you can search for abbreviations like "gta" and such. Very useful. Seems to work well otherwise too. :)
When I click on "Other series" in the Games popup, I would expect another list of game series, but they seem to be individual games. Maybe "Other games" would be a better label, since they are not actually series (at least not on this site).
For the front page, maybe there could also be a short explanation of what this website actually is, since probably more and more people will find this who are new to speedrunning as the site gets bigger. Maybe also a seperate "FAQ" or "About" page that explains a few basics. Maybe with links to other relevant websites.
Something that doesn't seem very important right now, but what could be useful, is a forum search feature.
Nothing I really hate, but when I'm on the GTA:SA forum for example, there doesn't seem to be a way to get to the other GTA forums/section directly from there. But maybe I'm missing it.
There was a long standing 25fps rule? The segmented run was at 25fps, but that's not exactly a rule, he just noticed that some things didn't work on 30fps. Other than that, when Josh started doing RTA runs he wasn't even limiting his fps but toggling the ingame framelimiter during runs (so switching between probably 60 or more fps and 25fps). It was then decided on the SDA Forum that both 25 and 30 fps should be allowed. That was over a year ago (around May 2013). So I don't think there ever was a 25fps rule, but correct me if I'm wrong.
Starting a run from a save is always a bit problematic in regards of comparing times. There are many variables that can be an issue: What stats does CJ have, what weapons, health, armor, what is the weather/traffic light pattern, what other missions are completed/safehouses bought..
It's fine if you do just a practice segment and maybe roughly compare it, but if it should go on a leaderboard, then these things should be reasonably defined, even if it's not that serious of a category. Maybe create an "official" save (which of course would have to work for all versions).
It's clear that there are differences between 25 and 30 fps in pretty much all areas including driving, swimming and even shooting speed. How they actually affect a run is still somewhat unclear though and probably always will be, since it's hard to test, so it would make sense that everyone plays on the same in-game defined fps.
The fact that an external program is necessary to play on 30 fps makes it even less attractive for speedrunning.
Agreed.
Great layouts (I think zoton made them?) and the RTMP thing seems pretty neat (despite the occasional problems), especially because of the smaller delay for commentating and stuff. And I liked the clever use of OBS with the changing layouts.
I didn't watch all of the runs, but the ones I watched were certainly entertaining. (And thanks to Jolzi for racing me.)
Getting the coke in The Snow Storm. There may be faster ways to do this, but this is what I found, it seems pretty efficient.
You basicially just shoot the first two guys outside, then sprint to the coke where you have to kill the two enemies. On the way back I kill the SWAT guys so they don't take off all my armor. I also collect some health for what I lost on the way in.
Of course it won't always work as well as in the video, but you should get out with a lot of armor and health.
