Recently we have validated runs where the player uses the Self-Destruct function to mitigate Drone spawns, so it is worth going over validity of this. There are two major reasons why this is allowed:

1. We allow saves and loads
2. Self-Destruct is a feature of the game There are other ways that the player could purposefully die, such as dropping shields and afterburning into an asteroid or enemy ship, so banning the Self-Destruct feature doesn't solve any problem unless we ban purposeful deaths and then we would have to judge player intent any time they die. A no saves category could be a valid alternative if people want to compete in a "harder" category.

There are a few points to be aware of, though. Loads must be of mid-run saves. Ideally this means having no saves in the game folder when starting a run (will be evidenced when saving for the first time). Loading a prepared save could give advantages, like better faction relations, so is obviously not allowed. Of course, the timer must remain running while navigating to load a save. Choosing to die to load means taking on the time loss for potential time save. Possible game state manipulation is currently a grey area. We have found that not all game state variables are cleaned up when a New Game starts, and possibly on Loads, which leads to a possibility of triggering a flag, dying and then loading to skip a segment. Currently no examples of this are known, but if one is found the best solution will probably be to make a new category for runs that are essentially 100% (currently we technically complete all the missions) and runs that can utilize any skips.

Any further input is welcome, but I think this sufficiently outlines the legality of Self-Destruct usage in runs.

Last two days I lost two good runs to crashes in Cross 3, specifically at Nav 4. What can we do to mitigate this crash point? It's really unfortunate having fairly common crash point late in the game. Can we hit Nav 4 first without losing too much time? Does that reduce the likelihood of the crash? We have speculated it is something to do with the number of sounds playing at once, could use different audio settings that would prevent it, even if it is undesirable for sound quality?

When I was playing through last night I got a weird bug where the Steltek gun got installed overlapping one of my Tachyon cannons. I usually sell one of the Inner cannons before the ES missions (generally Inner Port because it's easiest to grab) so that the Steltek gun is installed in the empty slot (Inner slots are a bit better angled for firing), but for some reason the Steltek gun was installed on the Inner Starboard side, overlapping the Tachyon cannon. This causes the game to crash if you enter the Upgrade and Repair room. It probably can only be fixed through editing the save file, but it otherwise functions correctly so as long as you don't have to buy any missiles or repair after picking up the gun you can still finish the game. Something to look out for.

I'm going to share with you today my RF route, for those who wish to compete but not study every second of my run videos to see where I go (aside from the mistakes I make kek). zyxophoj suggested doing Tayla and Goodins when you reach Edom and Perry during Masterson's missions, but I counted out the jumps and it ends up the same, so there's probably no time difference.

grind 1.5mil credits xxn-1927 -> oxford oxford -> xxn-1927 -> new constantinople (edom) new constantinople -> xxn-1927 -> oxford patrol oxford oxford -> xxn-1927 -> 119ce -> junction (burton) junction -> 119ce -> xxn-1927 -> oxford excort ship (5mins of wasted time) oxford -> saxtogne -> new detroit -> perry (base) perry -> nitir (defend nitir) -> perry (base) perry -> surtur -> charlie -> hyades (defend charon) -> charlie -> surtur -> perry perry -> tingerhoff -> nexus -> capella -> crab-12 -> new caledonia (patrol kilrathi) new caledonia -> crab-12 -> capella -> nexus -> tingerhoff -> perry (base) perry -> tingerhoff -> nexus -> capella -> sherwood -> regallis (patrol kilrathi) -> troy troy -> pender's star -> junction -> new constantinople (edom) new constantinople -> 44-p-1m (patrol) -> new constantinople new constantinople -> newcastle (liverpool) newcastle -> new constantinople (edom) new constantinople -> new detroit (new detroit) new detroit -> new constaninople (edom) new constantinople -> newcastle -> metsor (patrol and destroy) -> xxn-1927 -> oxford oxford -> xxn-1927 -> 119ce -> junction -> nexus (macabee) nexus -> tingerhoff -> perry -> new detroit new detroit -> perry -> tingerhoff -> nexus -> capella (drake) capella -> nexus -> tingerhoff -> perry -> new detroit new detroit -> perry -> tingerhoff -> nexus (nav 4 kill retros) -> tingerhoff -> perry -> new detroit new detroit -> new constantinople -> junction -> pender's star -> troy (achillies) troy -> regallis (nav 1) -> freyja -> regallis -> troy (achillies) troy -> pender's star -> junction -> new constantinople -> new detroit -> perry (base) perry -> ragnarok -> alpha (patrol points, kill at nav 4 and defend at nav 5) -> ragnarok -> perry (base) perry -> tingerhoff -> nexus -> junction -> pender's star -> troy (refuel) troy -> war -> pestilence -> death -> famine -> capella (drake) capella -> nexus -> tingerhoff -> perry -> new detroit (land restock) -> rikel -> eden (gaea) eden -> fly to moon -> kill Jones -> win game

When doing some practice the other day something occurred that I'd like to head off as a potential point of contention. As we aren't killing the guards before Jones now (speed strats), there are other Retros around when you kill Jones. If one of them happens to be sending you a comm message when Jones dies (say you eat some asteroids and they decide to taunt you), the avenger comm message will be delayed a few seconds before playing. Seeing seconds could be the difference between a record and not, in this event the ending split will be timed to the destruction of Jones' ship provided there is video evidence of the Centurion destruction, avenger ship arriving or avenger comm message playing immediately after the blocking comm message.

Okay, we are going to have to talk Drone combat strats here, because fighting the Drone can be a big make or break of a run.

The first obvious talking point is that the Drone tries to evade missiles. This can be used to reduce its chances to fire on you and some of the AI evasive patterns are to just afterburn in a straight line and out run the missile. In my 2hr16min run this is the kind of pattern it seemed the Drone was using.

Something that I'm considering right now is how the Confed ships factor into the Drone behavior during the fight. Again, in my 2hr16min run you don't see the Confed attacking at all (you do hear some gunfire, and maybe they did fire a missile or two). The Drone's evasive AI could be negatively affected by proximity to the Confed as they attack it, so a calmer Drone could be a Drone that's engaged and lured away from the Confed ships.

Just some thoughts, clearly we need to practice the Drone a lot and try find some patterns.

Did a speedrun today (time will be a surprise) and something I noticed which seemed strange was that if I had no save files then enemies didn't seem to spawn at Achillies. I messed up my first attempt, and restarted leaving the save file there, but when I started a new game each time I launched there was about a 50% chance of enemies being present (I died every time). But without any save files in the directory it seems to never spawn enemies at Achillies. What are your observations?