FranceI disliked being accused of cheating when I submitted my first runs, but it got me thinking.
A difficulty with serious proofing is that STK is an open source game. A video more often than not allows to spot inconsistencies (higher max speed, etc), but in theory it's possible to do something which passes through casual verification. It would need an intensive verification to check that acceleration, max speed, and other variables... are correct.
What would be useful is if STK displayed some additional information, but they won't want to clutter their UI just for this. They already think that indicators for skidding/drafting loading would be excessive.
GP skips are honestly not one of the thing giving me difficulty in my runs.The new GP points from 0.9.3 onwards makes it easier than before.
You will win 3 races and get 18 points. If someone else get 18 points, you win the tie. The maximum someone else can do is 24 points. To do 19 to 24, an AI will need to have a near perfect score. Often, you won't even have to try that hard to correct things. In other cases, you may need to be a bit more patient.
For the 2 races you skip, the strategy is as follows : 1)If it's the first race, skip immediately. 2)If it's a race in the middle : try to get the 2nd behind another AI kart or two (preferably not behind only the 3rd). If the 2nd is normal/heavy and there are light karts in the GP, they will overtake it at the very start, so you'll be able to skip after a few seconds. 3)If it's the last race : if the 2nd has 12 points or less, skip immediately. Otherwise, race until he has another AI in front (if it has 13 or 14 points) and skip. Try getting some cake or bowling ball and destroying the 2nd. If it has 15 points or more, you'd need two others AI in front and that can be hard, but that practically never happens, especially if you have been careful in the first skip.
It's useful if you can count well enough to quickly check in your head what's the minimum you need to be safe while the level loads.
And that's for the 5 races GP. For the 4 race GP, you do a simple skip and don't have to worry as you're sure to win.
That said : I did another run.
I improved significantly my previous score (which was actually 1:05:53 ; not 1:05:56) ; with 1:03:41.40. You can check out the splits here : https://splits.io/2g7g
I didn't beat a personal best split until Zen Garden, and got at +1m24s against my best segments after Abysses. Then, I got a few good scores, and despite a screwup in green valley, it was down to +1m13s. Then, I had an awful string of unluck. The two minigolf races were an ordeal, and I got out of the 3rd GP with +1m45s. Most of my remaining PB were bad, so I got it significantly down in the end.
I'm uploading the video ; but despite playing with low graphics quality in 720p ; and despite the fact that the game itself felt snappy enough during the run ; the recording with OBS has an awful framerate during races. I'd say 15FPS or so.
I think I won't do more full-game runs on this computer.
If you learn to use properly the double GP skip, given your any% time, I think you can absolutely do it. 1h06m is 12% slower that Kitoko's time, that's a lot. If you have mastered the exploits, you can get it by playing safe. Why have you not put up an expert% run, by the way ?
If I avoid major screw ups, I should be able to post a time around 1h01m-1h02m. I'd rather have you not do two reviews when only one is necessary.
It would be good if we had a way to deduce loading time from the total.
I think I'll try to get a patch in for an IGT timer for 0.9.4. STK's codebase is currently undergoing a change in how time is handled to better keep synch in networking, but once it's settled, it should be doable.
It would be more fun if we had a SuperTux Story Mode ; but from the look of it, it will remain shallow in the foreseeable future. The overworld is an unmanageable mess ; the structure of the Story Mode is basically the same since 5 years because changing it would mean a new overworld and this means new modelling, and they prioritize tracks.
I got an expert% run in 1h05m56s (I used @Kitoko 's splits). Won't post it, as there were many big mistakes (lose the FTL race once ? Yes ! Fail to trigger properly some big recuse shortcuts and lose dozens of seconds ? Yes ! Even though in time-trial I got it consistently. And a lot of smaller things).
Loading times are a real issue over the course of a full-run. I don't have a powerful PC, and over 40 races, the delay adds up. Especially as the overworld must also be loaded after each races. Even with 2 seconds of average load, that would amount to 2m40s total.
The pause menu trick to get the start count faster also is not consistent across tracks. The moment it is ready seems to depend on the track complexity. It's very quickly ready in math class, while in cocoa temple or cornfield crossing I have to wait for thunderbird to start going down. It's probably more stable with a powerful enough computer.
Thank you for the splits. I'll try to see what I can do.
I'd a first story mode test run in 50 minutes, but with 2 minutes replaying a level I'd done in silver instead of gold by mistake ; 5 minutes trying to use the gates exploit, and several big unused checkline exploits (like in green valley).
I think going sub-40 won't be hard, but 35 or 33 doesn't seem to leave much margin to error.
@UbuntuJackson suggested yesterday I do a full-game run.
I looked at it, and the easiest way to record the time and get useful information along the run seems to be with LiveSplit. Or is there a better way ?
Has someone ready splits to share for 0.9.3 ; for any% and expert% ?
The SuperTux runs are both faster and harder, making the IL runs in lesser difficulties less interesting. They are mostly empty (except for 0.9.2- expert) but clutter the view.
Would it be possible to put them in a kind of misc tab ? Maybe with some reorganizing with subcategories ?
Nessie's pond is the new name of the track Scotland. The level leaderboard has it twice under its two different names.
