Is there any interest in a levels based leaderboard (like DK1/Deeper Dungeons has) on the in game timer like other popular speed running games have (e.g GoldenEye)?
I would be interested in submitting runs to such a leaderboard and would happily run some tests on the integrity of the in game timer (fall back being standard recording rules if its not accurate in all situations). This would be on the GOG version to keep it accessible and remove the need to hunt for specific patches for anyone that wants to compete.
Thanks
Here are some quick tests on the in game timer for the game, each test was conducted using a 20 second stopwatch before using the "Do Not Fear The Reaper" cheat to complete the first level. I started the 20 seconds from the moment the Dungeon Heart was visible so the extra second appears to come from skipping the cinematic and some ~1 second mismatches due to user error/timing.
Watch Opening Level Cinematic (400%) 1:57 Watch Horny Collect Gem (400%) 1:28 No cinematics 400% Speed 1:28 No cinematics 300% Speed 1:07 No cinematics 200% Speed 0:43 No cinematics 100% Speed 0:22 No cinematics 50% Speed 0:11
From the above it's clear that the opening level cinematic/introduction does count towards the game timer. The timer appears to end the moment you win the level with Horny collecting the gem not impacting game time.
Biggest thing of note is that game speed has a direct impact on game time, at 100% it is effectively "real time".
Thus if there is interest in a level based leaderboard the decision will have to be made to follow the real time based timing (as the full game leaderboard does currently which means running at anything lower than 400% is not optimal) or to run off the in game timer instead which would allow for better optimisation of levels as they can be played at low speeds (e.g. 25-100%).
I think the in game timer for level based leaderboard would be interesting to see what perfectly optimised level limits are while keeping the full game leaderboard at real time (and thus 400% speed basically required) because it feels more like a speedrun for the full game!
For those interested I've started uploading level completions to my YouTube channel running at the traditional 400% speed to align with the full game runs.
I did play around with some perfectly optimised runs at 25% but it just didn't feel like a speedrun despite often saving several seconds!
I love the initiative!
I have very little experience when it comes to DK2, if anyone of you would want to, I'd gladly mod you in order to make this happen?
/BNDR
I mean there's also the discussion to be had what is regarded TAS and not. If you, in the video editing phase, respeed the run, it'll be a very nice TAS version. Which is also more fun to watch for a potential viewer.
/BNDR
Glad to see there is some interest! I'd be happy to mod or have Whizzy mod as he seems to have some more general speedrunning experience from his profile.
I've uploaded some more of my speedruns now on my YouTube channel and the running at 400% seems to be the way to go with timing based on real time similar to the full runs and I've been working off these assumptions for the runs.
I think TAS with speedup is an interesting sub idea that we could explore if there is more interest beyond the standard speedruns.
"General Speedrunning Experience"
I'm last on almost every board i'm on. :(
Submit any full RTA runs you have, let's get this game some support!
Haha it's the submission that counts!
I will get working on a full run as I've been focused only on the single levels uploaded to YouTube (in my profile).
Any one of you guys wanna mod DK2 then? As I mentioned, I have very little experience of DK2 and am not a good match to mod that game.
/BNDR
Having two mods gives good guarantee that runs can be verified with greater haste. Sign me up! :)
Hey you've added me! I'll take a peak at the menu options over the coming weeks and make some updates and upgrades, individual levels etc.
I can also update the rules so we have some. I want perhaps a vote on whether /console should be permitted or not.
Any new runners wishing to get into this game will be very welcome.
