Should I speedrun this game
3 years ago
United States

Hey idk much about the speedrun but I see that not many actually run it? Anybody here that could give some pointers or answer any questions I have?Not sure if this place is active

Minnesota, USA

Obviously you should speedrun it. I can answer any questions you have, and I have a couple level-up guides posted for a few categories.

United States

Hey Dan, thanks for the reply, a couple questions I have.

If I were to speedrun, how would I go about capturing the footage? I know capture cards exist but if you have any recommendations that would be good.

It seems like this game doesn't get a lot of submissions? How optimized would you say the top time is? I'm sure you're well versed in the game, but is the time beatable or do you consider it hard to compete with?

Are there any well known glitches used in the run? I know in the first DA apparently there are load warps, but I'm curious if there is anything used in this run.

How much RNG does this run consist of?

Those are all of the questions I can think of right now, but thanks for the help!

Minnesota, USA

I'm not the best person to ask about capturing footage. All I use is a Diamond VC500 through a powered splitter to get the video to my laptop and then broadcast on OBS (Open Broadcaster Software). There are plenty more options out there and I'm honestly clueless about the pro/cons of any of them. My setup seems to work ok though.

The game doesn't get many submissions because it's kind of obscure. The game has less than 1000 followers on twitch, so not supremely popular. I improved my runs several times over before ever adding it to speedrun, so technically the game would have more submissions than it does had I done that right away, lol, but they'd still all be from me. As for optimization, I'd say my Artemis run is quite good, probably 2-3 minutes could still come off with a good run and no saves. I save quite a bit because I just hate getting an hour in and then getting purpled by the Nightwalker for an instakill, but it costs quite a bit of time. The Vhaidra run is also pretty solid, but had a few deaths and again several saves, so that definitely can be improved. There's one more runner that I've chatted with on discord who hasn't submitted a time but also got a run under the 2-hour mark.

No major glitches that I'm aware of. I tried to do some clips through walls or onto cliffs, but I don't TAS and I don't hack into code or anything. I've never toyed around with character switching and warps like the ones on DA1, so not sure they're possible. They'd be useful in Bloodmire Manor, the Red Fang mission and Keep of Pale Knight 2. The only glitch I'm aware of is one I did accidentally at the Earth Foundation when Luvia clipped into the wall as she resurrected and died instantly. That glitch actually happened for the first time in my Vhaidra wr run, and I've been able to replicate it a couple times since.

The RNG isn't too bad, mostly boss fight behavior. Bosses that fly around (Chimera, Aizagora) too much cost small amounts of time. Nightwalker is the worst because his purple cloud attack can stun and instakill you, but it seems that can be manipulated. Otherwise the game is just "sprint and don't die."

Bregermann likes this
England

Nice reply dude! I watched your run and enjoyed it and was hoping there might be a few more runs added

United States

Very insightful reply! Thanks for the advice, I'll admit I haven't had time to watch the runs listed, but I'm wondering how strong the character is throughout the game? Has any investment went in trying to find exploits for power leveling? Seems like the run ends at around level 16-20, but if the character could quickly get to say level 30, I imagine it would help a lot

Oh and is emulator accepted? I figured it might be better for capturing footage

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Minnesota, USA

As long as the emulator doesn't run fast for whatever reason, I'm fine with it. Just no save states, and obviously no TAS.

Artemis/Drizzt are extremely OP through the entire run in that category, so no leveling beyond getting level-5 Sprint is needed for them, honestly.

For Vhaidra, I run with her because she's not drop dependent, so there's less RNG. She's pretty decent throughout the game, even being at a relatively low level. You only really start running into trouble in Act 3 when you fight the foundation bosses, but that's what buying 60+ health potions is for.

Dorn could potentially be a stronger character (which is why I chose him for the extreme mode category), but you need to get to level 8 at least for Hero's Arm, and then leveling Great Weapon Focus plus Two Weapon Fighting plus Sunder plus Improved Critical plus Combat Reflexes just makes it impossible for him to reach his potential without some sort of exploit. If you find such an exploit, go for it. However, I'm never going to allow the cheat that bumps you up to level 15, nor will I allow importing a character for leveling purposes. Thinking about it, that basically kills off that line of thought because to pull off a exp exploit you would likely have to change out or import characters in some way. DA1 does this with its glitches, but that's for warping purposes, not leveling. Personally, I'm more of a semi-purist when it comes to speedruns. I like the minor glitches that allow faster movement or whatever, but massive skips or exp manipulation are meh. Zelda:LttP, for example, is best watched in the no-major-glitches category instead of the category that finishes the game in under 2 minutes, but that's just my opinion.

As for increased leveling the game-intended way, you'd need plenty of pearls and then craft some rings/amulet/boots and kill more enemies. All of that wastes a lot of time and by the time you're at level 20-25 in Act 4, you're at the 4-5 hour mark.

MrMetagross likes this
United States

Thank you for the help! I understand what you mean. Maybe a ng+ category wpuld be possible then? I think that might be fun to see how fast a character could beat the game at full strength

Minnesota, USA

I did that with a level-40 Dorn once, imported with boots that gave him +5 sprint. So he becomes a 10-sprint Barbarian with maxed Heart of the Wolf and he is wicked fast. IIRC, my in-game time was 39 minutes, so with load times that translates to about 55-60 minutes real time.

We don't need new categories. The paltry number of people that run the game really doesn't warrant it. And the Extreme Mode category sort of accomplishes the NG+ type of thing anyway.

United States

That's neat, sounds like fun honestly. I mean it's all arbitrary really since there are only two runners even recorded on here lol. Even tho imo this game is better than DA1, but that has more runs, offical that is

Ottawa, ON, Canada

yeah agreed in a way. da2 is the better game, but da1 got a lot more attention for some reason, I know a lot of people who played da1 but never da2

United States

Well i think DA1 sold better which is why more people know about it, and then skipped DA2 because they went on to Champions of Norrath

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