I'm going to be perfectly frank: I don't see the point of Low%. There's so little difference in the run to any%. You pretty much already do the minimum. Just a few things here and there, but other than letting Marian die, the game play is almost the same.
What would be the thoughts on having different categories based on the ending achieved? Survive Trial, Get Best Ending, that kind of thing.
The other idea popping around in my mind would be a silly one: Die Every Day. Robin must die (Reach the restart/restore screen) on every day. And to increase variety, all 13 deaths must be different (Must reach a different campfire ending). Thoughts?
Longbow is unique in that you can make a lot of really really bad decisions and still progress to the end. Low% shows this off, and the goal of getting the least amount of points is an interesting puzzle.
For the record, the differences between Low% and Any% are:
- Not taking the horn on Day 1, so Little John gives it to you at the overlook
- Prolong Fulk's torture at the Fen's Monastery
- Give the emerald away to the Fen's Monk
- At the fair, fail the first set of coat-of-arms
- After solving the coat-of-arms correctly, wait for the scholar to dismiss you before trying again
- Threaten the jeweler on day 9
- On day 10, go back and forth between the pub and camp twice before calling your men
- Let Marian die
- Get the password from the Willow Grove
I've seen some categories in other games that have less differentiation than that.
That being said, if you have an idea for a category and want to run it, then all I would ask is that you complete a run first and we can make it. I don't like having empty categories. We can also put less serious or less-likely-to-be-run categories into a Misc. tab if we so decide.
I'd be curious on how different "Survive Trial" would be from Any%. Die Every Day sounds interesting, like a less-intensive All Deaths category.
For Die Every Day, do you think we would have to require the runner to finish the game? That will only make a difference on the last day, but would be an important distinction.
If you don't have to finish the game, I would just do a quick death, like shooting the sacred oak tree. If you have to finish the game, then you'd want to do something along the normal route, like getting hit with a boulder, then restoring and putting the arcade difficulty down to zero.
My instinct is to have time stop on the last campfire. Speaking of that, if I remember right, there are some deaths that don't result in a campfire. Would it have to be a campfire death to count?
Wow, a lot of things to respond to.
I agree about having a run first. No worries about that. Just was thinking about possiblities.
Looks like there are more differences than I thought.
I don't know how much you have to do to survive the trial. I'll have to test.
I think you should have to beat the game, and of course die at the end!
Shooting the tree is not possible after gaining his favor, so you'd probably do that day 1 if allowed.
But should it be allowed? I'm not sure. Here's my tentative route:
(1) Shoot Tree (2) Get hit by Monk (3). Give comb to guard (4). Horn at Fens (5). Fail Gems (6). Call innkeeper from cellar (7). Fail tree (8). Shoot yeoman (9). Get caught in forest (10). Get burned (11). Go to pub (12). Get sworded by false knight (13). Talk to monks on tower.
Of these, I think the tree is the only one that doesn't go to campfire.
For (6). Definitely should be give ring to guard.
(9). Seems pretty slow, but I can't think of a better one. Maybe 9 should be fens, and (4) can be the poacher death.
I do not believe it is possible to have 13 unique deaths that all go to the campfire. At the very least, on days 1 and 4, I can only find 4 deaths: Tree, Horn at Fens, Go to Pub, and Peasant/Poacher.
Of those, only the Pub has a campfire scene. So we're going to have to relax that restriction.
Considering the different endings categories, I did several test this week (Dethwing can confirm) and made a route I quite like for any% best ending ( ) and would be interested to make it an official time.
Also Dethwing, I tried the money and ring route for Any% and it works really well.
Nice work. What do you think about the following rules for Best Ending:
You must: -Save the peasant and the poacher -Gain favor with the beggar, jeweler, and yeoman -Be pardoned by King Richard -Wed Marian
Ending must be shown in the video proof.
Am I missing anything? The wording's a little important here. For instance, if the rule were "Have peasant, poacher, etc. testify on your behalf," then each of those textboxes would need to be visible in the video. If you accidentally skip past one of them, then the run would be invalid, and I don't want to have to force people to slowly click through every textbox of the ending. The knighting and wedding are easy enough to see because of the animations.
I'm fine with "Marry Marian." If the rule were "reach best ending," we'd have to define what that means.
Which then leads me to a follow-up question: what exactly is necessary to marry Marian? Do you have to gain everyone's favor, or could you mess up one of the witnesses and still be okay?
Marrying Marian is the best ending.
And we believe that the minimum to get this ending is being nice to the peasent, poacher, begger, merchant, and yeoman. Along with raising 65300 Ransom.
This seems to be correct, but every possible variation has not been exhausted.
That's why I would prefer the category to be defined by the ending, not by the route, just in case things change.
To further clarify, there are four different endings that are possible:
Die Pardon Get a job as a Forester (But not Marry Marian). Get knighted and Marry Marian.
I believe if you do everything but let her die, you still will get only a pardon.
The idea that I had for best ending was simply to get the earldom ending. Since there is only 4 endings (death, pardon, forester and earl), the rules I had in mind was the sames as any%, but you must reach the earl ending and show the cinematic.
Here's my first go at Die Every Day:
I don't know if it's worthy of it's own category, but it sure is fun.
I just got around to reading through all of the forum posts. I think this 13 days, 13 different deaths idea is both interesting and hilarious! If a category is added for it, I'd post a run.
