Custom campaign category
7 years ago
North Carolina, USA

Tried Yama and Energy Crisis earlier myself,

Yama is great. It is simply a joy to look at and walk through, and stands as by far the most intricately detailed campaign I've ever played as well as being a very unique setting. Solo-wise there are a few skips, level 1 has a minor one (probably won't do), level 3 has a major skip near the end that is easy with a bile, level 4 has a ridiculous OOB near the beginning that I can't believe the guy didn't know about (requires no boosting at all!), and I really like the finale as well. It is the most skillful scavenge finale that I've tried that requires excellent, practiced can management to do well as well as melee throwing. I did a full finale run and it's very possible to do quickly (with bots) as long as you're good at it, and a bonus seems that the cans are static so no RNG (at least, in several changelevel resets they never moved). There are areas with strong bunnyhop ability, particularly the beginning levels, and potential for minor movement tech I haven't found as paths are varied in most maps and there are a lot of objects to get over/around. For co-op there is potential to throwable boost at a couple of points, and I could see a grenade launch being amazing to get the finale started quickly. Loving it.

Energy Crisis is quite the contrast. I just couldn't help but feel unenthusiastic as I was going through it, it feels a bit lifeless to me. There are at least two major co-op skips, one of which bypasses the finale in its entirety making it probably a minute-long map, although for solo there may not be any skips at all by the looks of it. Not sure there is much minor movement tech to make either since it's very straight-forward. I'd only take it if there were no other options.

Time to update my lists!

Campaigns remaining for me to check,

Diescraper Redux Blackout Basement Night Terror Death Row Day Break Plan B Dead Before Dawn The Bloody Moors Dark Blood 2 Open Road Fatal Freight

Potential campaigns in rough order of most to least liked,

Yama Detour Ahead Suicide Blitz 2 (needs trick checking) Warcelona (needs some trick checking) Urban Flight Death Aboard 2 Ravenholm or City 17 Energy Crisis

I'm thinking, once we've looked over all of the campaigns we intend to, maybe we should all post a completed, roughly-ordered list of our picks like I did above? That way we can aggregate the rankings and see which campaigns are averaging the highest to get a better idea of what we all agree we want in.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
North Carolina, USA

Made quite a bit of progress tonight...

Diescraper Redux I cannot recommend. It's a lot of repetitive staircases and offices with not really any opportunity for a skip as far as I could see. There was some movement tech at the very beginning with good bunnyhops after that, but once you enter the building it's all pretty bleh for speedrunning, including waiting around for some events to complete that definitely can't be skipped.

Night Terror was all over the place. It had some kind of cool moments, but again has almost no opportunity for skips at all and a lot of corridors for poor bunnyhopping. Really bad and random clipping on one of the maps as well. Not recommended.

Dead Before Dawn, otherwise known as button holding simulator... I remember why I wasn't into it back in the day now. At the top I can say I wouldn't want to speedrun it just so I don't have to hear all of the thousands of constant voice acting lines over and over again. Beyond that, tricks are few if any (at least for solo), there are multiple cases where you have to stop and stare at a thing while holding E to activate it which stops the run cold, and most importantly there is a crescendo (map 4?) where you need to keep commons from entering the mall or else you fail. This crescendo seems impossible solo, or at least is very unreasonably difficult. The bots are entirely useless in killing the commons quickly enough and you can't cover it all yourself, not even a molotov was helping much. This will kill solo runs, and I can't even imagine getting that deep into map 4 just to lose it because the bots decide to not shoot things. I didn't even get to the finale because of this, I was done after that point. Not recommending really hard.

Open Road was very bland. Big, open, linear paths with very similar scenery. Likely little skips to be had, with a holdout finale that is as meh as the rest of it. Energy Crisis was enough to get on the list with some decent skips at least, so I'd definitely give this one a not recommended.

I Hate Mountains 2... has potential! The night wasn't entirely fruitless. Great scenery, designed well, and I can spot a few nice potential skips as well as some decent bunnyhopping opportunities. Where it places in my list is going to depend on how many of these skips are actually possible so I will be taking a look at it soon to make my final determination, but assuming they work this one will go pretty high up I think.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
North Carolina, USA

So, at the end of my stream tonight I loaded up Yama to show MrFailzz some stuff and, while messing around in map 3, found this...

I finally brought him around on the campaign tonight, it just keeps getting better and better with this stuff... that may now be my second favorite solo skip behind coaster and this video doesn't even show beforehand when you get out of the ski lift and ride on top of it across the chasm like a badass.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
United States

Only campaigns from the list I've yet to try are Urban Flight, Death Aboard 2, Ravenholm, and City 17. I'm now on board with Yama being added since I've seen the skips for the map, and a better way of doing the finale. I'm gonna try and play through some of them again before I make a list in order of most to least liked. However I'm gonna try and make some sort of list (primarily focusing on which ones have good skips).

(Yes) Yama Detour Ahead Warcelona

(Maybe/Want to check again) Blackout Basement-- Skip checking Fatal Freight-- Skip checking but I think this one will make it on my list Diescraper Redux-- Solo skip checking Dark Blood 2-- Want to make sure the finale works properly and I want to check again for solo skips Open Road-- Skip checking Energy Crisis-- Solo skip checking Suicide Blitz 2-- Skip checking

(No) The Bloody Moors-- This map is WAY too open, and it has some really lengthy boring areas Plan B-- Unless someone finds out that skipping the elevator doesn't break the map Night Terror-- Cool concept but it didn't really seem to offer anything in terms of skips Day Break-- It had a nice skip right off the start but I didn't like the map design at all

Been testing out some other maps not included in this thread, here's what I have so far, I still have a lot more I want to test.

Carried Off: http://www.gamemaps.com/details/2230 +potential for coop skips +bunch of smaller tricks +open maps, good for bhopping +really long event on map 3 is skippable very easily in both coop and solo -maps seem kinda long -finale is very difficult ~4 maps ~running finale Definitely worth checking out.

Death Sentence: http://www.gamemaps.com/details/2624 +good potential for coop skips +decent map length +starting the event on finale can be easily skipped in solo and coop -lacking in solo skips -map 3 has crash potential -scavenge finale is very big/open ~scavenge finale Could be good to run.

Drop Dead Gorges: http://www.gamemaps.com/details/2135 An interesting map, it only has 3 maps but they are all quite long. The maps are unique as they focus on giving many options for diverging/alternate paths, giving plenty of potential for skips and good route optimisation. Has some potential for skips from what I saw, especially in coop May not be the best campaign to use, but is definitely worth checking out.

Highway To Hell: http://www.gamemaps.com/details/2714 +some potential for coop skips +good bhopping +resonable map length ~holdout finale This one is a maybe.

Blood Proof: http://www.gamemaps.com/details/3994 +well made map +event skip map 1 (easy in coop, harder but possible in solo) +finale event should be skippable with grenade launcher ~3 maps, each somewhat long -possibly lacking in skips ~gauntlet finale This one is a maybe.

Other maps I tried but were bad, mostly just too long maps/lack skips/just not fun: Day Break 2 - These maps are far, far too long Dead Vacation Dam it 2! The Director's Cut - Not suitable for speedrunning Deadbeat Escape Fall In Death One 4 Nine - A few skips but maps are too long Blackout Basement

Centro: http://www.gamemaps.com/details/2368 3 maps Almost thought map 1 was unbeatable but it is just badly designed. Probably not that good to run, but has some potential for skips.

Cold Case: The Forsaken: http://www.gamemaps.com/details/7118 Map is poorly made (doesn't even have lighting), doesnt feel like l4d2 map. Seems to have some skips but didn't bother testing past map 1.

Special mentions have to go to Black City Extended This map pretty much does not use clipbrushes in the first few maps, so you can do what you want (I counted 5) 7 maps, 2 (or 3) of the maps are literally stolen from another custom campaign. Have no idea how to start the finale (cant press the radio), but it appears to be a scavenge finale in sewers with water slowdown.

GrandestDad likes this
Paraná, Brazil

I tried Suicide Blitz 2 and Urban Flight.

Urban Flight had quite the potential. Good bhopping areas, many skips and a good environment. The finale is a bit hard on solo but has a good coop strategy. This one is pretty high up in the list.

Suicide Blitz 2 had an awesome environment, but on solo it lacked quite a bit on skips it seemed. There are some coop skips that i saw. I kinda rushed through the map because i knew it somewhat already, so I might have missed some oportunities. Regardless of that, still a good map, but there could be better ones I think.

GrandestDad likes this
North Carolina, USA

Tried Plan B and The Bloody Moors,

Plan B was three short, very bland, very trickless maps. Nothing much to say here, one of the worst of the bunch so far.

The Bloody Moors, I think we finally found an author that is familiar with throwable boosting because it was clipped very thoroughly. Very big and open maps so it wasn't the best for speedrunning but I did like the aesthetic for casual play. Then map 4 happened. If it's possible for a single level to retroactively ruin everything before it, this is the map, it's like an entirely different author stepped in and shoved it in the middle, I am baffled as to what happened. It really would have been a decent casual experience otherwise. Definitely not speedrun-worthy at all. :(

I hate you, Derpduck! Never going to finish this list, maaaaaan........ I'm passing on any campaigns not showing up in the workshop, I think for future runners that may come in to play these it will be important that they are easily accessible in the official workshop for the game. Gamemaps even froze my browser when I had it up during stream and I didn't realize, missing 10+ minutes of chat, so that wasn't cool of it. It's alright since a lot of good campaigns are turning up anyway. I added a few from your new list to check out that were on the workshop, in particular I look forward to trying Drop Dead Gorges, the screenshots seem nice.

Campaigns remaining for me to check,

Blackout Basement Death Row Day Break Dark Blood 2 Fatal Freight Haunted Forest Carried Off Drop Dead Gorges Highway to Hell Blood Proof

Potential campaigns in rough order of most to least liked,

Yama (pushing hard as a must-have) Detour Ahead Suicide Blitz 2 (needs trick checking) Warcelona (needs some trick checking) Urban Flight I Hate Mountains 2 (needs trick checking, might be higher if it goes well) Death Aboard 2 Ravenholm or City 17 Energy Crisis

GrandestDad likes this
North Carolina, USA

Three more tonight,

Fatal Freight was disappointingly trickless. The aesthetic was fine, the map design was fine and actually had a good ratio of corridors/open areas, but it was kind of straight-forward to speedrun. Everything is clipped well and there is only really a co-op skip on level 4 that can be done, I'm not sure any solo skips exist at all. The finale is a two-part scavenge and then holdout, the scavenge has some potentially nasty can RNG and the holdout is pretty long with potentially no jesus spot. I'd only use it as a last resort to fill in space since it wasn't corridory and the aesthetics were decent.

Highway to Hell is a tough one. Very confusing as a casual playthrough with some pretty open floorplans with many paths (which could be a boon for speedruns), level 1 was office building mania which I wasn't a fan of but it gets better as it progresses. Setting-wise it has a generic buildings in a city feel for the most part with a standard holdout finale although I liked the area it was in and I would be surprised if a jesus spot isn't found. There may be some major co-op skips and solo I would need to glance around for some things so this might be OK depending on how that goes. On the fence about it currently.

Dam it! 2, the community one not the new Turtle Rock one (that's why I thought of this), unquestionably a pass. It started out alright but very quickly went into tight corridors with no skips and a lot of blind corners for almost the entire campaign, plus a very long and painful wait for an elevator in the middle that was basically a holdout finale in itself. A weird finale that would force the requirement of bots and a ton of variance in time because of these downed lines you need to keep reconnecting. Bleh.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
United States

Tried Dead Drop Gorges, Carried Off, Blood Proof, Suicide Blitz 2, Ravenholm, Urban Flight, and Dead Before Dawn since my last post. Note that I'm mainly judging these off of potential skips, especially solo skips.

(Yes) Dead Drop Gorges-- Short campaign. Lots of skips/optimizations that can be done, the way the map is designed really helps with this because there’s a lot of alternate paths. Can’t think of a single horde event that could not be skipped in some way. Holdout finale, didn’t find a godspot.

Yama-- Has some flat areas for bhopping, really nice big skips.

Carried Off-- First two maps are mainly just smaller skips/optimizations that don’t save too much time, all horde events should be skippable. Rushing type of finale that is skippable with a bile common jump, but it’s pretty hard to do.

Blood Proof-- Short campaign. A lot of (mostly) small common jump skips, granted they were a bit of a pain. 2nd level has a horde event that you can use to your advantage to spawn commons infinitely so you don’t have to use throwables. Finale is a rush type, skippable with a bile.

Warcelona-- Skippable finale in coop, I can’t think of any solo skips currently.

(Maybe) Suicide Blitz 2-- This had some good grenade boosts that skipped large portions of the map, not sure about solo skips. Urban Flight-- Don’t care for the finale, can’t really remember how good this was for skips Ravenholm Dark Blood 2-- Want to make sure the finale works properly and I want to check again for solo skips Diescraper Redux-- Solo skip checking Open Road-- Skip checking Energy Crisis-- Solo skip checking Blackout Basement-- Lack of solo skips

(No)  The Bloody Moors-- This map is WAY too open, and it has some really lengthy boring areas Plan B-- Unless someone finds out that skipping the elevator doesn't break the map Night Terror-- Cool concept but it didn't really seem to offer anything in terms of skips Day Break-- It had a nice skip right off the start but I didn't like the map design at all Fatal Freight-- No skips for solo, 2 pt finale that takes too long Dead Before Dawn-- Lack of solo skips, annoying horde events

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
North Carolina, USA

I've taken a much more thorough look for tricks in Warcelona and this campaign is ridiculously strong in giant OOB co-op skips, possibly the strongest we'll find with a major jump on every single map.

Map 1, if you find an early throwable (not sure about spawns currently), you can get on the roof of the building right after you get out of the church and do some fancy clip walking to make your way down to the street with the saferoom not too far away. It actually shouldn't be too hard if a throwable can be found quickly.

Map 2 you can do an easy throwable boost on top of a building before entering the subway, walk through the low-res cars for a while, and get back in-bounds through a hole in a roof, skipping the entire destroyed subway section.

Map 3 you can boost any number of places to skip the underwater section and plane, and with an idle warp with another boost skip the howitzer as well. Basically travel down the left side of the map, I think. Bonus! There is a major solo skip here too! With a bile you can do an easy common jump over a fence early on and do some pretty nice technical jumps to get on the destroyed plane and drop in just past its door.

The finale has three grenade launches that can save a lot, one up the hole in the beginning to skip the elevator ride, another up the high wall where one of the fountains are about halfway through the run skipping having to go up side stairs (only saves if a stuck spot is nearby), and a final one into the second floor window skipping activating the gate.

This is definitely a co-op campaign if there ever was one, and it has very strong bunnyhopping as well. Solo-wise there was the nice skip on level 3, but I couldn't figure out anything with the others. I did come really close on map 2, though, and I feel like a common jump somewhere with a little tweak could still work that I just haven't thought of yet. The huge, numerous co-op skips are incredibly enticing, though... remind me next time I'm on, MrFailzz, and I'll show you my findings.

I'd say after that journey I am likely to give Warcelona a final thumbs-up overall.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
United States

Played through Blood Proof and Carried Off again. With the finale skips they will both become pretty dull and boring to play and/or watch. After the first skip there isn't anything really interesting that will happen, no more skips, no tanks, not many commons (if any at all), and it's just a matter of running from point A to point B. Granted this can be said about finales with godspots... so my opinion could change. Also played through Haunted Forest.

(Yes) Yama-- Has some flat areas for bhopping, pretty large skips on 2nd and 3rd level (If I’m remembering correctly). Scavenge finale that isn’t too bad with good pathing and the static gas can placements.

Dead Drop Gorges-- Short campaign. Lots of skips/optimizations that can be done, the way the map is designed really helps with this because there’s a lot of alternate paths. Can’t think of a single horde event that could not be skipped in some way. Holdout finale, didn’t find a godspot.

¤Warcelona-- First map has a skip, not sure if it will save time in solo. 2nd map has a good coop skip that Master found and while it can be done solo it's too inconsistent to try in a run. 3rd map you can skip the event pretty easily. Finale can be essentially skipped in coop (horde still triggers) and solo you can do a common jump towards the end of the finale.

(Maybe) ¤Carried Off-- First map is pretty bad. 2nd map is mainly just smaller skips/optimizations that don’t save too much time, all horde events should be skippable. Rushing type of finale that is skippable with a bile common jump, but it’s pretty hard to do. ¤Blood Proof-- Short campaign. A lot of (mostly) small common jump skips, granted they were a bit of a pain. 2nd level has a horde event that you can use to your advantage to spawn commons infinitely so you don’t have to use throwables. Finale is a rush type, skippable with a bile. Suicide Blitz 2-- This had some good grenade boosts that skipped large portions of the 2nd or 3rd map, not sure about solo skips. Rush finale, can’t be skipped I think. Urban Flight-- Don’t care for the finale, can’t really remember how good this was for skips ¤Haunted Forest-- Could get out of bounds on first map for a good portion, not sure how much time it really saved. Has 2 events that cannot be skipped as far as I could tell. Rush finale that can be skipped with a hard jump. Ravenholm Diescraper Redux-- Solo skip checking Open Road-- Skip checking

(No) The Bloody Moors-- This map is WAY too open, and it has some really lengthy boring areas Plan B-- Unless someone finds out that skipping the elevator doesn't break the map Night Terror-- Cool concept but it didn't really seem to offer anything in terms of skips Day Break-- It had a nice skip right off the start but I didn't like the map design at all Fatal Freight-- No skips for solo, 2 pt finale that takes too long Dead Before Dawn-- Lack of solo skips, annoying horde events Dark Blood 2-- This has potential for some nice coop skips, but as far as I found it really doesn’t have much of anything for solo. Scavenge finale with a vertical map which makes juggling gas cans a pain. Energy Crisis-- Has good coop skips but it pales in comparison to some of the better maps Blackout Basement-- Same problems Energy Crisis has, but less skips from what I found.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
North Carolina, USA

Four more, Roadkill, Drop Dead Gorges, Dark Blood 2, and Blackout Basement.

Roadkill was hilariously broken. The first level can be done in maybe 30 seconds, so, yeah.... pathing and clipping is awful pretty much everywhere, and you can stand on any high car and nothing can get to you. Standing on a truck in the finale is a jesus spot. Really lazily done and clearly not bothered to be tested at all. If this were ever used it would only be as a "meme" campaign because of how stupid the skips and clipping are.

Dark Blood 2 was interesting. I enjoyed it for a casual playthrough and it tries some unique things, as well as some co-op skip potential at least. The finale is a very difficult scavenge with a lot of gas can juggling that MrFailzz just LOVES! This would need some thorough checking, but it's worth being on the list even if it's lower in case we need more campaigns in the future.

Blackout Basement is a contender for one of the worst, ughhhhhhhhhhhhh...... I didn't even go beyond map 2, I just didn't want to spend my time on that any further. The first map drags on, and on, and on, and on, with endless dark concrete corridors that all look exactly the same with zero skip potential. Pretty terrible.

Drop Dead Gorges looks FANTASTIC! No, really, it does, that wasn't sarcasm. Talk about a change from the last entry. It is designed well in all aspects from unique aesthetic to how it feels to run around, with a lot of natural verticality to it and very open but controlled spaces, and on top of that looks like it might be one of the strongest for solo skips (after some checking). I really enjoyed running through it, why couldn't Valve include campaigns like this officially!? This one is probably going to be in the must-have category once I trick check it. Good recommendation, Derpduck.

Campaigns remaining for me to check,

Death Row Day Break Haunted Forest Carried Off Blood Proof

Potential campaigns in rough order of most to least liked,

Yama (must-have) Drop Dead Gorges (probably must-have) Warcelona (found some nice skips, ridiculously strong in co-op) Detour Ahead Suicide Blitz 2 (needs trick checking) Urban Flight I Hate Mountains 2 (needs trick checking, might be higher if it goes well) Dark Blood 2 Highway to Hell Death Aboard 2 Ravenholm or City 17 Energy Crisis

GrandestDad likes this

My plan is to find so many good maps that you have to make an All Campaigns version of this OSsloth

Death Row: http://www.gamemaps.com/details/2227 / http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121971655 +promising coop and solo skips +can skip most of map 1 easily -some missing textures, especially in later maps (for me at least) -seems to be lacking in some items (adrenaline, bile, grenade launcher) Worth trying

Blood Tracks: http://www.gamemaps.com/details/2750 / http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=377195503 +easy finale jesus spot +some pretty big and easy skips on maps 1 and 2 +open maps, good for bhopping -static tank map 3 May not be great, but has potential for runs

Bad: Carnage 2 Death Strip Death Stop Road To Nowhere 2 The Last Volt - Weird map, has potential for skips though Heaven Can Wait 2/Hard Version 25 To Life - Too boring/not enough skips Dead Getaway - Promising skip potential on map 1, but the rest of the maps are unspeedrunnable Deadly Dispatch Dead On Time 2 Dead High School

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
North Carolina, USA

[quote=Derpduck]My plan is to find so many good maps that you have to make an All Campaigns version of this[/quote]

Hah, well, for the first category I figure 1:30ish might be a good mark, once that's run for a while and if there are enough campaigns left maybe another category with more, and then a final, big category with it all? No idea, but at least we'll have a list of campaigns we've investigated to go on if we come to that in the future.

Death Row, Day Break, and Blood Proof,

Death Row wasn't too bad overall. The first two maps have a decent amount of open areas with map 1 having a potential for a large skip off of the roof right away, and map 2 would need some checking. Map 3 gets a bit disappointing, though, as it largely turns into a corridor-fest. Standard holdout finale in a small area so if a jesus spot didn't exist it might not be too hard to find a place that gets the commons spawning close by. I would put it low on the list.

Day Break? More like CLIP BREAK! This has the most thorough clipping I've ever seen, he even lays a clip over the entire ceiling everywhere! This guy is familiar with grenade launcher boosting for sure. Aesthetically nicely done with unique environments, but that is unfortunately the only thing really going for it. Maps 2 and 3 really drag on, no perceived skip potential at all, a lot of points where you have to wait out a crescendo event, and a campaign-ruining finale with super repetitive scavenging that would be quite a nightmare to solo (and this comes from a fan of scavenge finales). A pass all around I'm afraid.

Blood Proof isn't bad, but it isn't great, either. I just feel very unenthusiastic going through it. Three maps, all of which are very short, so it goes by quickly. The first two maps are all streets and buildings, decorated well but very samey. The first map has a couple of decent solo optimization jumps, not sure if map 2 has anything, and map 3 has a gauntlet finale that you can skip activating in the dumbest way possible just by crouching which then makes it a boring, short, straight run to the end although you can do some bunnyhopping. Very unremarkable overall so I'd probably just pass.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
North Carolina, USA

Haunted Forest, Carried Off, and Blood Tracks,

Haunted Forest was pretty bad. Cheesy and ineffective (luckily) jumpscares, no tricks, very reliant on hallways and some really annoying gauntlet areas with infinite horde and thin corridors that doesn't allow you to get past them.

Carried Off, the first three maps were fine and may even have some skips with some looking around.... and then we reach the finale.... yikes!!! The entire finale takes place in an office building and is one LONG gauntlet run with infinite horde through constant tiny hallways, offices, and tight stairwells, with the horde always in your face completely impeding progress. That was the most painful level I've played in the game possibly ever and I would absolutely dread "speedrunning" it. It's a shame because the rest was fine, but I have to not recommend it on the finale alone.

Blood Tracks was quite good! Four maps, nice open areas, good atmosphere, a number of nice solo optimizations with a guaranteed Tank on map 3 that isn't a required kill and can be avoided with skill which makes it a plus. Standard holdout finale which needs checking for jesus spots. Not sure on what co-op skips may exist but it's pretty strong for solo which is rare. This one is going high up, I think.

That's the last of what is currently on my list!

Campaigns ordered from most to least liked, the more asterisks next to them the more unsure I am about their ranking, likely because it needs trick checking.

Yama (must-have) Drop Dead Gorges (probably must-have) Warcelona (found some nice skips, ridiculously strong in co-op) Blood Tracks¤ (want to check more, but it looks strong for solo) Detour Ahead¤¤¤ (need to refresh on it + tricks) Suicide Blitz 2¤¤¤ (need to refresh + tricks) Urban Flight¤¤ (trick check, etc.) I Hate Mountains 2¤¤¤¤ (trick checking might make or break this) Dark Blood 2¤¤ Highway to Hell¤ Death Aboard 2¤¤¤ Ravenholm¤¤¤¤¤ (really need to look at tricks) City 17 Energy Crisis (this looks worse as time goes on)

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
North Carolina, USA

Trick checking,

Blood Tracks has minor optimizations with a good common jump and a silly method for bypassing the Tank I've been working on. Not heavy on the skips overall, but they are still nice maps and it's a good bite-sized campaign, pretty short as well. The finale has a jesus spot that can be common boosted to, an easier jesus spot could still be attempted to be researched.

Detour Ahead may have the most difficult solo skips out of any campaign so far, at least without having practiced them much yet. One skip which is technical movement I gave up on tonight because I didn't want to spend too much time on actually executing it, and the same deal with another common jump that should get easier with practice. There are a couple of other movement skips and a nice throwable boost on one map. The gauntlet finale should have an interesting co-op strategy as well concerning warps assuming a stuck spot exists near the fuel truck. Pretty healthy mix of solo and co-op skips as well as being difficult.

Ravenholm has some strong stuff, credit to bill_play3 for finding a bunch of common jumps. Very interesting solo skips in the first two maps, one of which requires a crouch hop to finish, and in co-op you can save a lot of time with a very horizontal grenade launch. The third map has no tricks until the crescendo where I couldn't find a skip for solo, but a grenade launch in co-op will definitely take care of business. The finale has a jesus spot that can be common boosted to in solo that isn't too bad, co-op is much easier.

Updated list,

Yama (must-have) Drop Dead Gorges (probably must-have) Warcelona (found some nice skips, ridiculously strong in co-op) Ravenholm (nice common jumps) Blood Tracks (light movement tech mostly in solo) Detour Ahead (potentially most difficult solo movement tech) Suicide Blitz 2¤¤¤ (need to refresh + tricks) Urban Flight¤¤ (trick check, etc.) I Hate Mountains 2¤¤¤¤ (trick checking might make or break this) Dark Blood 2¤¤ Highway to Hell¤ Death Aboard 2¤¤¤ City 17 Energy Crisis (this looks worse as time goes on)

GrandestDad likes this
North Carolina, USA

Suicide Blitz 2 in comparison to everything else has really fallen off I must say. There are crazy amounts of clips everywhere, solo skips are practically non-existent besides a tiny one in map 2. Also in map 2 you can do that skip better, and some grenade launchering maybe in map 3, but that's it for the whole campaign because it's very thoroughly clipped otherwise. There was also much more underground corridor-y areas than I realized as well as multiple points where you have to wait for things to happen without being able to skip them. Not the best for speedrunning, really. So disappointing!

Urban Flight is pretty much exactly on the other end of the spectrum. There are a lot of optimizations big and small everywhere, including some nice solo movement tech. Very nice grenade launcher spots assuming one can be found, but there are throwable boosts too in case there isn't. Main drawback is some potential for RNG in a hedge maze on map 3, but the skips definitely make up for it.

Updated list,

Yama (must-have) Drop Dead Gorges (probably must-have) Warcelona (found some nice skips, ridiculously strong in co-op) Ravenholm (nice common jumps) Blood Tracks (light movement tech mostly in solo) Urban Flight (nice big and small optimizations spread throughout) Detour Ahead (potentially most difficult solo movement tech) Suicide Blitz 2 (Pretty skipless and many corridors, this may keep falling down in placing) I Hate Mountains 2¤¤¤¤ (trick checking might make or break this) Dark Blood 2¤¤ Highway to Hell¤ Death Aboard 2¤¤¤ City 17 Energy Crisis (this looks worse as time goes on)

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
North Carolina, USA

I Hate Mountains 2 is skipless clip city. The skips I thought may have existed are blocked with player blockers instead, and try as I might I just couldn't find anything for solo or co-op at all. The only small optimization is jumping a small chasm in the train car area of map.... 3? But it isn't really worth any time, and there is nothing elsewhere. Such a shame, it's designed well, apparently a bit too well.

Dark Blood 2 has some nice bits, quite a bit of solo optimization with jumps and curls. Level 1 has a mostly easy common jump at the very start which, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, skips a ton of the map to where I'd say it can definitely be completed in 30 seconds, but at least the jump isn't hard as long as you get common spawns right away. Level 2 doesn't have much until the end where there is a decent dangerous-looking (not really) jump around the edge of the ship and then a nice optimization jump into the saferoom. Level 3 has a common jump that may be too hard and then some curls around fences to skip a lot. The finale is the most difficult scavenge finale so far that pretty much tests your can juggling skills to the limit, so there is going to be huge variances in time between players based on their can management skills which is a good thing. This is going up the list a bit.

Yama (beautiful, solo optimizations, skillful scavenge finale Drop Dead Gorges (nice solo optimizations with some difficult jumps) Warcelona (ridiculously strong in co-op skips, nice solo skip in map 3) Ravenholm (nice common jumps in many places, good grenade launcher potential) Blood Tracks (light movement tech mostly in solo) Urban Flight (nice big and small optimizations spread throughout) Dark Blood 2 (many solo optimizations, scavenge finale heavy on can throws) Detour Ahead (potentially most difficult solo movement tech) Highway to Hell¤ Death Aboard 2¤¤¤ Suicide Blitz 2 (Pretty skipless and many corridors, this may keep falling down in placing) I Hate Mountains 2 (Designed well but entirely trickless) City 17 Energy Crisis (this looks worse as time goes on)

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
Paraná, Brazil

Warcelona was a good campaign. It's been a while since I played it but it had some good skips. Also, gotta remember the grenade launching at the finale.

Drop Dead Gorges was quite interesting. Map 1 had a good skip and a potential grenade launcher spawn that wasn't so rare. Solo also has some technical movement to save some time and a possible propane tank drop. Map 2 has a free common jump right at the beggining that saves quite a bit of time and another boost later that skips a little bit too. The finale has some coop jesus spots and maybe one for solo, but if it was a jesus spot, it was quite finnicky. There's a safe spot though, where zombies don't really get to you and walk off, so I guess you could call it a cheese spot. Good campaign, would vote it in.

Blood Tracks was.. interesting, but I have some mixed feelings about it. While the campaign was very well made, with custom music and even custom melee weapons, it felt a bit straight forward. There weren't any coop only skips, but a lot of solo technical movement. Map 1 is a short map if you jump around some stuff. Map 2 has a dialog/crescendo skip via any sort of boosting. In map 3 I guess that you could throwable boost to avoid the tank, but not sure how worth is that. It does skip a horde though. Also there's a jump over a fence that saves some seconds. In the finale, there's a jesus spot that can be common boosted to with ease, so there's that. Getting from the jesus spot to the actual rescue point can be a bit rough, so playing the finale on Easy is advised. There was some good stuff on this campaign but i don't know exactly how i feel about it. Could be in the category if there's space for it.

Dark Blood 2 isn't a campaign that I played myself, but I watched Master trick checking it on his stream and it looked quite nice. Some good skips and quite hard scavenge finale, so I approve that one.

GrandestDad likes this
Paraná, Brazil

So I was messing around on Ravenholm 2 to see if there was any bot warp setup or something that could be done to not play that map on Expert. I ended up founding some tank boost possibilites, but ultimately I found this: I got a bit excited about it, so I decided to share it here.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
GrandestDad likes this
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Minor rule changes/clarifications

Hey everyone, some minor changes to the rules - solely to clarify things/change wording, no rules actually "changed" (at least not in any way that will be relevant to 99.9% of people):

  • The linked guide for demo recording is now in a new location on the internet ( 👀 ) and was reworked to hope
1 month ago
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