Bouvet IslandHi,
This was originally posted on the official Alien: Isolation forum, but that has been down for a few weeks now, so I'm putting up a mirror here.
I made maps for all the Survivor Mode levels, since the game doesn't provide one for you. The maps are just pencil and paper for now. If I ever get the time, I'd like to redo them with proper graphics.
Nice write-up with the new notation for terminal log positions. The new skips are interesting as well. Looking forward to seeing your first completed run :)
-d
Yes, the elevator from KG-348 to Lorenz Lobby magically opens later on even if you don't hack it in M10. Even if the elevator went to the hospital, it wouldn't end mission 14 - the trigger for that is getting into the transit to the SciMed tower.
-d
I'm finally done with my slow Nightmare playthrough, I uploaded the save games here (you can find them in Resources). They have a lot of items, especially in the late missions, and could be useful if you want to try playing single missions for the Level Leaderboard.
Have fun!
-d
I think it works fine the way it is. The thing is you can't change the name "Level Leaderboard", it's uniform to speedrun.com.
I'll soon upload some save games from a slow Nightmare playthrough (lots of items), I plan to do some single mission runs with those in the future, and if anyone else wants to use them, they can.
Having the Salvage Mode DLC here is fairly new, but they do show up when you do a Google search - so hopefully if people are still interested in running them they will find it.
I mostly added them since the Lost Contact leaderboard for Best Time is broken on PC. The other DLC have functioning leaderboards.
-d
If you throw a flare at the door downstairs when you going down on the lift in S10, it can bring the Alien into the lift room if the Alien is close, hopefully that includes the orange (bad) positions on my map.
I also noticed that you can run all the way to the lift down to UPS Core, I did it 10 times without incident.
-d
Yeah, I've died there as well... Here's a portion of my map highlighting where the invisible walls are (in red), the green dots are where you want the Alien to be, and orange dots are where you don't want it to be - but the Alien position is left to RNG, unfortunately. Maybe it can be brought in with a flare, if you throw it towards the door while you're on the lift ride down - needs testing.
You can test where the walls are for yourself without using fuel by simply bringing your flamethrower out - when the character pulls the flamethrower towards his or her chest, you know there's an invisible wall there (S8 is a good time to try this, since the Alien won't appear until you use the terminal).
-d
I tried a new route: L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, L6, S7, L8, L9 and L10.
I dismissed L2 earlier, but it turns out you can get it done quickly with a little bit of spawn luck. This means you don't have to get the keycard in L3, and you can (hopefully) avoid the androids.
If you use a flare in L5, the looters will be distracted in L6 and you will have a clear path to the terminals they are guarding. Sometimes one of them will still be in your way on the way to the exit, but it usually works out well.
In L8, I took the safe path by killing the Facehugger in the lab; I also lit a flare to distract the industrial synthetic in L9. The weapon soft-lock can be a problem here if you put flares on a hotkey.
(Qckdth did something interesting in L8, but it's a very risky strategy: he didn't go through the lab and instead let the hugger follow him to the lever. Then he killed the first hugger, took care of the Alien and went the exact same route back to the safe room. Not going through the lab first, and then the vent on the way back saves around 25 seconds). Ideally, you want to leave a flare for the industrial synthetic as well, but it's difficult with so much going on - I had to give up on it when I tested it.
If you go to L10 first, you end up running a little less, which can save a few seconds. There's probably a chance you'll have to deal with two Aliens in S10 though - therefore going to S10 first is still safer.
If you don't loot the Reward Trolley, and instead head straight for the terminal you can save a bit of time - but you'll need a lot of luck. The random fuel you can get from it really helps in the early part.
-d
L3 - I only had the bolt gun and flamethrower, if you can stunpast with the bolt gun then it's an option. The best is not to alert the middle android at all (first one I killed), sometimes he stays inside the room. You don't have the pipe bomb blueprint at this point, and crafting wastes time unless you can do it in the elevator and lift in S6 Emergency Power Plant. (I only visit that briefly in S2, then in S7 and S10).
It might be better to "simply" get the keycard in L4, but you have the Alien around then - on the other hand you wouldn't have to kill any androids.
L6 - The humans aren't clustered, so you would only get max two of three with a molotov. It worked out fairly well in my run, but you would save time if you don't have to go to the top of the offices to throw a flare / noisemaker.
L9 - If you can stunpast with the flamer, bolt gun or stun baton - sure. I was really low on health, so I played it safe. He was in a bad position, sometimes he stands to the left of the gurney which allows you to crawl under it without getting noticed.
I've completed a couple of single segment runs now, and haven't run into any problems running it - two runs completed means a lot of failed runs, I died in Stage 10 twice for example, not because of bugs, but because I took chances. To run it, you need to be aware of the invisible wall in the sub-level of S6. If I find any more quirks, I will post it here, though I've played Lost Contact a lot.
It was broken for about a week after release on PC, but after we made them aware of it they quickly released a patch that fixed most of the problems:
I guess I'm biased, I really like Lost Contact, even though it has some problems. I hope others decide to start running it as well.
-d
That's too bad, Ruuj. The invisible wall is a nuisance, but it can be worked around.
I finished my first run, and did some testing afterwards to see if I picked the best route:
Here's what I came up with: L1, S2, L3, L4, L5, L6, S7, L8, L9, S10
http://i.imgur.com/HMUcTeB.png?1
Breakdown:
Timed from IGT starts until returning to the terminal:
L1 - I hacked the second door, and opened the first door from the inside. (1:08) S1 - I ran around and entered the offices from the top (1:20)
Timed from after mission select until return to terminal:
L2 - It's quite a hard mission and can deplete your resources (3:34) S2 - It's very easy, consider opening the door to the offices from inside on the way back to save time later. (1:31)
L3 - A very easy mission with working joes, pick up the keycard now to make L4 faster. (01:21) S3 - It's harder since the looters will shoot at you. (2:04)
L4 - Very fast when you already have the keycard (0:47) S4 - Hacked the door to the offices, time would be lower if already opened in S2. (2:04)
L5 - A fast and easy mission, use stun baton on the guard (1:07) S5 - Shut off gas and opened vent to second gas shutoff room that could serve as shortcut in S7. (2:39)
L6 - Mandatory mission, done fairly optimally. (2:02) S7 - Hacked the door to the offices, shut off gas, ran past looters. (3:46)
L8 - Went through the Waiting Room, opened vent to the Waiting Room from the inside on the way back. (1:36) S8 - Ran around the offices, killed two Facehuggers. (4:06)
L9 - Generator room, Industrial Synthetic, sneaked under gurney and took vent back to Waiting Room. (1:53) S9 - I got grabbed twice, sub-optimal time (3:07)
I may have missed something, but as far as I can tell, this is the optimal route.
Maps:
-d
Yeah, i wasn't really dead... only in terms of game audio - it should have gone to the load menu, but it didn't.
I've seen the same glitch in M7. But I lost audio making it impossible to play, I guess in theory the game treated me like I was already dead. Next second, the looters shot me without me hearing them.
There has been some questions raised whether time-saving glitches should be permitted for salvage mode.
The rule is if you can exploit a glitch to save time, it's permitted. It's not different from using the elevator in certain survivor maps before it arrives or clipping through the door in Mission 10. If it's the programmers fault, you can use it.
Tool-assisted glitches (Cheat engine) or other third-party programs are still not allowed.
http://kotaku.com/why-speedruners-use-glitches-1582919382
-d
Cool. You probably just need to watch some of the newer runs for strategies. We should use this forum more.
Good luck!
I use ScummVM, it lets you play all the versions - even the C64 version with mouse.
Could I play the FM-Towns version and still submit?
-dcruze
