Newbie searching for Advice
6 years ago
Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Hey Guys! I'm completly new to speedrunning but I had a lot of fun lately playing LCU. I just finished it with 100% and all achievements but I want to play it a bit more and I thought speedrunning it might be a good reason to do so. Also, I would like to do a 100% speedrun. I'm not targeting the best posible time but I would like to set a good base time since no one hase done a 100% run so far as far as I know.

I have already read the FAQ on the overall forums but there are still some questions:

-I think it will take around 20h or more, so my question is do I have to do the complete run in one turn or can I take breaks whenever I want?

-If I have to complete it in one turn doing it on PC might be not the best idea because there is the risk of crashing, right? But if the game crashes during a run have I lost or can I just restart the game and keep going in some way?

-Do I have to measure time myself or can I just take the ingame time?

-How do I prepare at best or would you even recommend me to try speedrunning some other games first which already have been speedrunned?

-Do you take some notes on what to do at which point in game or do you just try to remember everything?

Just tell me everything you might want me to know. There will be some more qeustions for sure but I can't imagine anything else right now. Hopefully you can answer those as well. My first plan was to complete the game a second time and note the locations of all major red bricks and every collectible and how to get there. Then I would like to find the best possible route through all of this.

Thanks for every advice haifishtime

xGlitchyx, WiiSuper, and Quadruplex like this
Lower Saxony, Germany

Alright,

  1. You can do breaks (sleeping etc.) but your time/timer will keep running during this time
  2. In case your PC/Game crashes just continue at your last save and collect everything you did before the crash and the run will obviously not be lost. Just make sure to have everything at the end :)
  3. Currently, LCU is being timed in RTA, meaning real time gets used & not ingame-time. For keeping track of your time, use LiveSplit to time it. Make sure to learn how to use it well!
  4. You don't need to speedrun any other games, this one is actually quite interesting!
  5. Preparation: Completely route everything and have a exact plan on what you will do, take a lot of notes and write everything you can down (It will help when you get tired later in the run). Try to find the most optimal way to do 100%, think about Superbuild/brick management, what you will do first, story, special assignments, abilities! This is probably the most fun part in speedrunning :)

Hope this helped, hit me up if you still have questions! Niklas

Edited by the author 6 years ago
WiiSuper and Quadruplex like this
Sweden

I haven't speedran LCU yet and I'm not a mod but I'm pretty sure that if you take a break or something, it'd count in your running time. If it crashed I'd think you'd be able to keep going. The in-game time is not very reliable, I'd recommend you look at the timer page on speedrun.com and find the one that you like the most. Speedrun any% LCU first. Personally I'm taking notes to build up to my speedrun attempt and also just remembering some stuff. For advice just look around the forum. As this game was made only a few years ago and 3D graphics (don't know what to call it lol) have been used for a decade there really aren't that many skips compared to a game like Super Mario 64. However there are a lot compared to some other LEGO games. Good luck on 100%... Hope this helped :) ~Quad

WiiSuper likes this
Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Ok thanks for your fast response. So basically the time that counts for your run is the real time from pressing start until I complete the last objective and it says 100% in the pause menu for example. No matter what happens in between. But it makes sense to only do some short breaks to eat/drink or something like this.

WiiSuper likes this
Sweden

Timing starts after hitting "OK" on the autosave screen. Timing ends when you collect/purchase the last object for 100%. Cutscenes may be skipped.

Go in the category and click View Rules to see the rules. It lists stuff like that :)

Edited by the author 6 years ago
WiiSuper likes this
Lower Saxony, Germany

Yes exactly as you said :) Make sure to view the timing rules for the category for start/end :)

WiiSuper likes this
Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Yeah I read the rules but I wanted to make sure that it is right that also your breaks countto your running time and not just the rare play time. I think I got it now.

Also doing a Any% run at first might be a good idea because during this run I can get used to the timing program and speedrunning itself and don't waste a lot of hours if I do a major mistake in the 100% run. Also an Any% run should be quite similar to the beginning of a 100% run because it makes sense to first unlock all characters and then collect all collectibles.

But thanks for your advices so far. You will hear from me at last when I did my first run;)

Sweden

Doing 100% I'd do normal any% and then 100% because: -Many of the things in the special assignments either can't be obtained the first time doing the assignment or can be obtained faster later in the game. -You'd want a good any% time to start your 100% run.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
WiiSuper likes this
Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Yeah that's what I thought about as well. I just wanted to see if it'd make sense to take some red bricks like the one for the super color gun to skip some major parts in the later story missions. I will have to see this when I'm preparing for my runs. I'm already having fun:D

WiiSuper and Quadruplex like this
Sweden

Hmm... It'll be hard to see if the red bricks are worth it or not... That's something I though about for any% too. You could do tests to see how long it takes to acquire the red brick from the regular route and the time it would save you later in the run. Also add on the time it takes to equip it, maybe that could be done in the time it takes to enter character codes which would save a very low amount of time... But, it's still time...

WiiSuper likes this
Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

By Character Codes you mean the Cheatcodes you can type in to instantly unlock disguises so that you don't have to actually collect them? This might save some time on the 100% run but are those allowed or are just the red bricks as "cheats" allowed?

WiiSuper likes this
Sweden

If I were a mod I'd allow them as they're legitimately in the game, it'd be dumb not to allow them :P In the rules it doesn't say that they aren't allowed so they probably are allowed :)

WiiSuper likes this
Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

This is a PC/remastered Version specific question: I just did a little test run where I tried to complete the first chapter as fast as possible and what I saw was that it took me ~35min (WR on WII U ~18min). Sure I wasn't prepared at all and did some major mistakes which cost me maybe 3 or 4 minutes but I have a lot faster loading times than the WII U. The thing which was killing me were the Cutscenes. Does anyone know that it is correct that you can't skip cutscenes at least in the first playthrough of every save?

And what I also saw was that some super bricks like the one you collected first on WII U above the pool isn't there on PC or at least not available when you first drive to the police station.

This would mean a lot more work for me because I will have to explore most of the routes myself. I mean everybody has to work for his stuff... And there would be a lot of downtime because of all the cutscenes. I don't really think that the 5 hour mark for Any% isn't possible. I will have to see...

WiiSuper and Quadruplex like this
Sweden

That sucks, atleast there's another category for PC. What do you mean by "Does anyone know that it is correct that you can't skip cutscenes at least in the first playthrough of every save?"

WiiSuper likes this
England

Okay let's go through this one by one.

  1. As pointed out you have to complete the run in one go, the timer does not stop if you leave the game (food etc) however what I suggest you do, and is done for longer runs such as GTA:SA 100% is take breaks during longer cutscenes, and eat something easy such as sandwiches (something you can hold in 1 hand) - For routing purposes I would say complete part of the game, and use a cutscene early for a break, and then save some of the later levels for near the end of the run and use a cutscene from there as another break, and do some overworld stuff in between.

  2. Crashing has been majorly reduced on the PC version, and crashes or softlocks are a problem in all versions of the game. If crashes/softlocks end up being a major problem for runs, then we can figure a way to take them out of the overall timing of the run,

  3. A timer is not needed, however it can be useful to have your own timer handy, just to see where you're up to. Having well named and well placed splits can also be handy as notes for your runs and serve as reminders for what's coming up.

  4. Maybe run the game any% just a couple of times to make sure you have a feel for the game and have the controls down well, and it may help you figuring the routing out for 100%, but other than that you shouldn't need to do any speedrunning. Just make sure you're prepared and able to put aside however long you need to for the run.

  5. Notes may be handy, especially for practicing the runs. It'll also probably be a good idea to find your saves folder and make a sub-folder for it with saves at various points in the game. You can safely rename the save files to give you a description, as long as you change the name back when placing it in the main folder.

  1. Any% and 100% will likely only compare in the first few levels, as there may be things you can get in later levels for 100% that you'd skip out on for any%, especially red bricks which you'll want to get early, especially the stud multipliers

  2. Cheat codes are not allowed during any% or 100% runs as they are exactly that, cheats, to circumvent the usual methods of getting things. Cheat codes are in a lot of games, doesn't meant they should be used or allowed. What do you think a game would be like if you were allowed to use invincibility the entire way through the game? (Side note for Quadruplex - It's always a good idea to check if there are no specifics on certain things, rather than just assuming it's allowed.)

  3. Yes, they changed it so you have to watch the cutscenes if it's the first time on a save, even if you have a completed save file. Something to test out, something we do for certain cutscenes in LotR, is quitting and reloading to see if it skips the cutscenes. Might be useful for the longer ones. For LotR it works for the cutscenes after levels end, but may work for the cutscenes with loading screens before them.

  4. I think they may have removed some super bricks, and reduced the cost for some super builds (First example I can see of this is the temple bridge, WiiU version costing 50,000 and the other versions costing 30,000) So you may have less hunting to do for a 100% route,

WiiSuper and Quadruplex like this
Sweden

On Dark Souls I think there's an invincibility glitch or something (I may be getting it confused with another game) that has been used in speedruns. But you're the mod, sorry for being difficult :)

Edited by the author 6 years ago
WiiSuper likes this
England

Glitches are fine, they're part of speedrunning, finding unintended ways to do things, usually clever uses of game mechanics. It's what skips in runs are in the end.

WiiSuper and Quadruplex like this
Sweden

I understand.

WiiSuper likes this
Netherlands

I've been trying to think out the routing for 100% in this game myself for some months. It indeed seems to be impossible to skip cutscenes, even if you have 100% on all files. What I did notice is that on the remastered version, you can immediately equip Red Bricks without buying them at the police station (you don't even need to pay studs for them). This means that it would make sense to get certain red bricks as soon as you've got the proper outfit for it. Also, they added some character/vehicle tokens to the remastered version. I'll probably soon put up videos on my channel for the location of these tokens.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
WiiSuper and Quadruplex like this
Sweden

I know this is a dumb question, but if you haven't completed 100% on the Wii U version, would it be impossible for you to skip cut scenes (I'm gonna buy the download version).

WiiSuper likes this