Hey, I have in back of my mind that there is a way to unlock all missions without finishing them 1 by 1 by changing some numbers in some backend data. does anybody can help me out? thanks ~Max

hey there,

as the current version of dota cuts off the best strat for the IL categories (using hod on siege creeps) I am planing to get somehow downpatch dota to play older versions. before I do so I want to ask if that would be okay from a rule standpoint. please let me know.

~Max

Hey,

I was thinking about IL categories for this game for a long time but couldn't decide on the rules and stuff. Here is my idea so far:

Individual levels are the individual strongholds. The leaderboard would have a list of all 7 strongholds and all 7 factions so there be a total of 7 x 7 - 7 = 42 "levels" to choose from. The problem with the missions is that it is hard to define rules in a way that all have the same starting conditions. There are two ideas I have:

1. The player is not allowed to have any wargear, honour guard or special map bonus. This sounds good on paper but when you start think about it more you have 2 problems: the AI-honour guards vary dependign on how many areas the AI controls and the stronghold reinforcements vary on how many turns it takes you to get to the stronghold before the run. While the last part could be solved in that you can define a rule that the "defense number" must be 15 (whcih is the highest possible) the first one can only be solved by conquering all the areas from that AI oponent before starting the run.

2. The player is allowed to have as many wargear, honour guards and map bonuses as he wants. Aditionally I would say that the defense of the strongholds must be 15. The downside of this would be that you need a long preparation phase where you conquer the whole map and get 5000 kills for all the wargear before even attempting a run. The good thing is that one (me ;-) ) could prapare savegames for everyone to use where all the wargear is present and the whole map apart from the stronghold you want to run is conquered.

I personally like the second idea more as it would also lead to faster times and more interesting strats. With all the honour guards and the forward base you can tech really fast while also start to go at the same time.

If you have any ideas on how to improve option 1 or 2 or have an entirely new idea in mind, please let me know!

ps: One thing I haven't foudn a solution yet is how to control the AI's wargear progression. Does the AI even get wargear as the player does?

Hey, has anyone got the history edition of settlers 3? if so, are there any things useful for speedrunning. I know that it shows "Version 2.0" at the starting screen. so there could be some differences.

hey there,

the last run of wilderjoe got me thinking a lot. it shows that the fastest way to do a all stronghold run is by using tactics from any%. I don't want to lessen his achievement but this strats turn "All stronholds" in "any% + a few extra missions" what is not what was the intend of this category.

the intention was to show the most exciting parts this game has to offer, which are the special stronghold missions. to beat them fast ment a fast time in the category. the problem is one single rule that I even added to the category later:

"If an AI-player takes over another stronghold it must still be conquered"

on paper this doesn't sound so bad but as wilderjoes latest run shows the fastest way to go is then: get pavonis and 1 or 2 more regions, let the AI kill each other, quickly conquer all the already defeated AI-stronghold and then the last stronghold.

I was thinking a lot the last few days on how to improve the rules so that all stronghold would become a more unique category again and the only way I can come up with is the following: delete the rule above and make it clear that the player has to do all the special stronghold missions himself. As you may expect this has some serious implications.

Pros:

• the category would be more interesting to play and watch
• the category would be more unique instead of being any%+X
• all runs done by other players than me or wilderjoe would still be valid and comparable
• less frustration / resets as the category isn't as reliant on the AI behaviour anymore

Cons:

• a lot of runs would be invalid or count as "any%" runs instead
• more frustration / resets when the AI conquers another stronghold
• run times are longer

as for my opinion: I would rather do all the runs that become invalid again to have better and diverse categories in the long run. any% is a frustrating category and when all stronghold becomes the same I don't see many people being interested in running this game.

please tell me what your opinions are as this change would affect a lot. I am very interested your opinion wilderjoe as this mostly affecty you and me.

I plan this top post to be updated regularly with regions, strats and number of kills for that region to get a generel idea how and where to get to the 5k kill mark.

As this mission takes long anyway you can stick to the normal strats. Just lead a small force to the ork and chaos bases each. Don't kill the bases until you are almost finished with eldar to get some more kills from their periodic attacks.

With space marines: ~300 kills in ~20 minutes -> 14 kills/minute

Defend and tech as usual. Build some defenses and get a first group together. With that you go to the middle part of the map leaving the first base and two banners intact. From there you clear everything in the south part of the map. While doing so get a second group together which deals with the northern part. When the first group is done in the south attack Gorgutz. The second group and fresh recruits can take the first base and two banners you left at the start in the mean time.

With space marines: ~600 kills in ~16 minutes -> 38 kills/minute

Defend and tech as usual. As soon as you are finished defending the first attack go with everything you have either left or right. Get a second group after/while teching and lead them to the other side. Try to clear everything fast and then finally attack the main base from two sides. Get detector units for both groups as the Tau have quite a lot of stealth suits arround.

With space marines: ~650 kills in ~23 minutes -> 28 kills/minute

Defend and tech as usual. If you have enough honour guards devide you force in two groups after defending and attack the left and right paths simultaneously. Do not get in the blood pools when the timer gets low! If enough of your units die Chaos attacks you with a big demon which either kills your base or costs you a lot of time. Gather your troups arround the main base and attack from all angles at once.

With space marines: ~500 kills in ~16 minutes -> 32 kills/minute

This tactic in specifically for space marines: Defend and attack the bottom and left part of the map with everything but your hero, any asm and terminator guards you have. Tech to t2 while building a few extra asm. Get over the river and deep drop the terminators. The termis kill the base in front of the big cannon while your hero and the asm "sneak" by and jump into the enemy base and kill the head quarter.

With space marines: ~250 kills in ~10 minutes -> 25 kills/minute

Now this mission is the kicker for all races but necrons themselves. There is the "beacon of unlife" right in front of your starting area. Put units in front of it immeadiatly but DO NOT kill the beacon! It will revivie necron untis arround every view seconds which you can kill over and over again giving you an endles source of kills. Keep enough units arround that you don't get overwhelmed from the reviving necrons. All the while you can get a second and third group and kill as many necrons on the maps as you need/can.

With space marines: ~2000 kills in ~24 minutes -> 83 kills per minute

When defended by Orks you can get a lot of kills with little resistance. An idea I had for necrons: Get Hyperion Peaks right after pavonis and don't reinforce it and when attacked autodefend it. WIth any luck you loose that defense and can get another round of quick kills.

With space marines: ~300 kills in ~8 minutes -> 37 kills per minute

The strats expained above are feasable for all faction but necrons because they miss out the awesome beacon of unlife. More testing for them would help a lot.

Hey there,

I was thinking about the 100% category and its rules. Currently the only requirement for that category is to own all regions at the end of the campaign. This auto-includes to have all special bonuses (like to have more req at the start of a mission etc.) and to have all honour guard sqauds. The only thing not included so far is the wargear. For true 100% you would need to also have all 10 wargear slots filled. Just for the record I put all requirements for those below:

◾ 3-to-1 kill ratio (a minimum of 200 kills required) ◾ 1 conquest (taking a province) ◾ 5 conquests ◾ 15 conquests ◾ 2,000 kills (accumulated) ◾ 5,000 kills (accumulated) ◾ 3 defeated enemies (stronghold missions) ◾ 1 defense (manual) ◾ 3 defenses (manual) ◾ 5 defenses (manual)

I think that you reach most of the requirements as you conquer all regions anyway. Critical would be the "3 to 1 ratio", the kills and the defenses. The first one you normally get at Tyrea anyway. The defenses could also be done quickly by skipping turns and letting the AI attack. The only thing I'm not sure about are the 5000 kills as you normally try to kill no enemies and just go for the mainbase.

What are your thoughts? Personally I think 100% should include all wargear.

Greetings, Max

hey there,

as I am a sucker for numbers and stuff I set up a google table with all the recorded victory times in seconds and tried to find a formula to calculate the times the game checks for victory. roman mission 1 times suggests that it must be an time between 3 to 4 seconds in between those checks.

after a little testing I can say that with the times we have now it is most likely like this: t = rounddown(3,2x;0) with x being a natural number ...or in other words any multiple of 3,2 rounded down.

only 2 of 58 sample times don't fit in which is fine by me. when we get more times on the leaderboard I can second guess my theory and maybe adjust it.

here is the link to the google table: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-GNWwjxE11dreeBclUWMz0GbpYhMMFpZH-iw8mHBnnA/edit?usp=sharing

hey there, I thought the full game categories mean to complete/win the full campaign not just the starting quests. I mean the campaign is the full game, right? ^^

hey there,

I actually was planning in adding this game here but you came first ^^. just an idea for arrangement of the cathegories. I had in mind to put every quest battle in a seperate category and arrange it so that you had 3 variables:

• faction
• leader
• quest battle

For vlad for example it would be:

• Vampire Counts
• Vlad von Carstein
• Blood Drinker

(For example on how it would look like: https://www.speedrun.com/ssbb#Subspace_Emissary)

You then could make the difficulty as an additional variable and could add there every difficulty.

what do you think?

hey there,

Dawn of War - Dark Crusade will be represented at ESA this year! I will be running the category "All Strongholds (Necron)" live at 7:10 on July 22nd. Tune in if you are interested :-).

hey there,

I rearrenged the page into 3 main categories with the different factions as subcategories. As I wasn't careful enough I lost some runs in the process. I got all the world records back on the page but if you want to claim your second or third place again please resubmit the run and it will be confirmed shortly afterwars.

Sorry for the hassle!

hi there,

well, any% turned into a rng-fest where you hope that only the closest enemy survives and then attack (see my latest necron run). therefore I would like to see a new cathegory: "all fortresses" where you need to take out all fortresses by yourself. basicly all runs so far (apart from my sm-run) should move there. this cathegory would have well less luck involved and would be more divers in tactics and skill.

let me know what you think

Hey,

my time for the demon hunter in the console cathegory was verified wrong. it is not 2h 30m 10s but 2h 21m 14s. The video shows one failed attempt at the start. The actual attempt starts at 10:05 (as put in the video description) Can a mod please change the time to the real time? Or do I have to resubmit it?

Hey,

I made some Icons for the 1st to 3rd place. These are the helmets of the 3 nations playable. If someone has slightly besser icons let me know :-).