I decided to pick up this game as my first serious speedrun (because I loved it as a kid) and I've been working on Catalina's story. I have a good strat, but there are two points in the game where I'm not 100% sure how to trigger the story progression.

The first is triggering the first appearance of Bret Perot. About 75% of the time Perot is in the first port you stop in after meeting Joao, but about 25% of the time he just doesn't spawn. I know online guides say there's an XP threshold, but I never reach this point with less than 15,000 XP, so it's not the XP threshold. It's also doesn't seem solely based on the port, because I've had him both not show up and make his first appearance in the same port. It's also not a same day issue, as I let midnight pass on the ship before porting.

The second it triggering Ali Vezas, although here I think it may be an XP issue. Ali is supposed to trigger after you complete the defense of Massawa, and online guides say you need 30,000 XP to trigger him. Based on some limited testing I think this thresshold is 32,000 XP, but my testing can't eliminate the possibility of an RNG element. Anybody have any idea?

Anyway, fun speedrun. I've got practice rounds down to 1:52 and know where I need to save time to push that down, so I'll probably post a run in the next week or two. Mainly just a matter of finding uninterrupted time to play. Aiming to get something in the 1:40-1:50 range, but I'll submit anything under 2:00.

Some things I've noticed in the SNES version. These may not apply to all versions, and perhaps I am misunderstanding the triggers myself, so take with a grain of salt:

Bret Perot's appearance seems only to spawn if you meet the Piracy Fame threshold AND you've completed at least one battle since the previous story progression trigger. He may only spawn in Mediterranean ports (I've never attempted to trigger him elsewhere)

Ali seems to only appear in a European or Mediterranean port. I've had him appear at around 30K fame, so I'm pretty sure that's correct for his trigger.

I suspect that's correct on Bret needing to have one more fight before it will progress. I changed my opening to one that requires fights immediately after meeting Joao, so hopefully this isn't an issue anymore.

For Ali, I can add that you can also trigger him in West Africa, which can save some time by avoiding any detour on the path from Massawa to Lisbon (if you don't have any other stops to make). I haven't tried anywhere else outside of Europe and the Med.