Chapter 7 (End of the Line) IGT Inconsistency?
3 years ago
Germany

When I was trying to figure out how exactly IGT is calculated in the last USS mission 'End of the Line', I came across some inconsistency I don't know where they come from how IGT is determined in PC versions. For Console versions, I got consistent results so far.

This is how the IGT matched with the calculations in most runs. (Being a few seconds off was totally fine for me because a) I subtracted video times and added them together, so slight inaccuracy is expected, especially when doing that about 3 or 4 times , b ) I cannot tell at what precise milliseconds the IGT stops and continues.). I examined both Solo and Coop runs.

  • Before climbing the ladder to Leon and triggering the cutscene Prior to the final Encounter, everything plays out as normal (Timer stops during skippable cutscenes (CGI's and the in-game cutscenes where the screen fades out to black), Timer does not stop for unskippable in-game-cutscenes (the ones where the screen does not fade out to black), Deaths do not stop the timer). Death and respawn prior to reaching this point does not appear to have any effect on the final encounter.
  • The cutscene with Leon prior to the final encounter is unskippable because of the decision you have to make near the end, but the timer stops during that part.
  • However, when you see that cutscene for the first time, the timer continues during the 'Defend, Execute' decision phase and adds this Duration of 12 seconds to the timer.
  • Timer runs as normal for the final encounter. In case you wonder, the 18 second introduction sequence where the game tells your objective depending on your choice does count as well.
  • If you die and respawn for the first time during the final encounter, the timer does NOT continue and add 12 seconds during the decision sequence a second time. (- Unknown if any changes occur when dying more than once. There is only one run where that happens and this particular run has one of the inconsistency I am going to mention further below.)
  • The final cutscene stops the timer. However, if you decide to watch the final cutscene, bear in mind that the timer indeed continues during the credits (at least for the defend Leon route this is the case).

Now here are two kinds of inconsistency (both happened only on PC runs) I have run into and that got me confused while trying to figure out how IGT is calculated on chapter 7. I don't know if I am allowed to mention the exact runs directly, so I am not going to for this post, just to be safe:

  • In some PC runs, the 12 seconds were not added during the decision sequence despite seeing the cutscene for the first time. For other PC runs, they were. This saved 12 seconds for those runs.
  • In two PC runs (one Solo and one Coop), the IGT appeared to have simply stopped during the final encounter. And in both cases, it stopped at the same moment. After the 18 second introduction sequence of the final encounter, the time calculated up to this point approximately matches the final IGT. For the Coop run, it happened right away, in the Solo run after dying once during that encounter. These two runs had bigger timesaves like 30+ seconds because of this.

I have no idea so far how and why this happens, but I think I should mention the potential presence of these occurences.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Chad
Super moderatorrozukkinho_gaucho
He/Him, She/Her, They/Them, It/Its
3 years ago

The timer just doesn't make any sense in chapter 7. I have been applying one of your strats (jumping down a container) on it, and even doing the whole chapter faster made me lose time over my gold. It saves around 40 seconds over it RTA though. Also, from what you said, I think I might have "cheated" on my pb run. I usually alt-tab a lot on the last cutscene because I find it funny how Leon says "Why are you doing this?" on repeat if you do that on that line, something I didn't apply on practice so... I'm just guessing, but it could be why I only lost a minute over gold.

Edited by the author 3 years ago