I can't get the autoplitter to work. From LiveSplit window, I do the following:

Right-click --> Edit Layout --> + Sign --> Control --> Scriptable Auto Splitter --> browse for and select contra.asl

The splitter doesn't trigger at start of gameplay or at end of levels.

In hindsight, I squandered too much time in my prior submissions collecting more power-ups than necessary because I lacked confidence in my ability to survive, and dying during a speedrun is obviously disastrous.

Today I looked at what strategies all the players in the No Bosses Glitchless category used. I was surprised to find that not only the very fastest, but practically all of the 29 players picked Assassin and finished the game with Sellsword Twinblades.

So, am I practically disqualifying myself as a casual player by picking pyromancer? Several months ago I made the decision to focus in on pyromancy and have since then put a lot of effort into first achieving a no-death run then working on improving my speedruns as a pyromancer.

I don’t think I can adapt to competently playing as an Assassin before Elden Ring arrives on the 25th, but I do think I can fulfill the requirements for this category in about 3:50:00 by dipping into sorcery for Hidden Body to get past the troublesome mobs. After all, I managed a sloppy 4:01:00 today with this strategy, despite a death and a several administrative errors.

In other words, I sincerely believe 3:50:00 will be near the limit of my capabilities by February 25th, but fear that even this achievement will be dismissed as casual and a waste of the moderator’s time.

Perhaps my attitude to speedrunning is deviant. I’m more motivated by quantifiable self-improvement rather than the urge to out-compete other players. I find satisfaction in using creative problem solving to craft and refine a route, gradually pruning away regions and items as my play skill improves to the extent that I can survive the difficult bosses at a lower soul level. And, contrary to regarding my recent run as casual, I quite felt proud of my most recent playthrough since it was the fastest yet of an embarrassingly high number of playthroughs of the game.

Looking at the leaderboards, it’s obvious that, despite all the time I’ve put into practicing this game, my best time isn’t competitive with other players. Since this is the case, I added ReShade and my comedy sound mod to add some novelty to my video. I was hoping that these features, along with my gameplan that doesn’t follow the overwhelmingly popular plan of playing an Assassin wielding Sellsword Twinblades (since I simply LOVE playing Pyromancer), would make for a video that would be a refreshing novelty to whoever happened to click my video link. To read that people interpret me as malicious for doing this means that my intention has completely and utterly backfired.

But what really makes me feel bad and guilty is learning that verifiers have invested more than just a few minutes of their time to scrutinize this run. I erroneously presumed that (given that my run is so comparatively slow and “casual”) the process would only require looking at my mods (which I displayed clearly at the start) and scanning the submission for rules violations.

If I submit another run, it will be running the game stock, without mods. I will make only one more submission before Elden Ring, and only if I manage to prune away a significant chunk of my previous personal best.

Thanks for the replies. I performed a clean install and added the Crashfix version of Darksouls3.exe, which will hopefully prevent that crash in the future.

Also, please disregard my speedrun submission today since it will be rejected due to the crash.

Sorry about my previous wailing and blubbering, I will be more professional-like from now on with this forum.

Anyway, I submitted a run today. If it is rejected, I would appreciate being informed whether the rejection is due to:

1. Obanon's Incandescent ReShade
2. My DS3 Player Profanities sound mod (which requires Mod Engine)
3. MSI Afterburner on-screen display
4. Crash while traveling to Archdragon Peak

Regarding #4, either my reading comprehension is bad or the rule prohibiting IGT loading screen crashes is a recent addition to the base rules. My PC ALWAYS crashes at that point, and from experience I need to allow 30 seconds on the desktop before re-launching DS3 to prevent discoloration of my stream. I will download and try Crashfix for future runs.

Sorry it's taking so long to finally get a presentable run recorded. On to attempt #24 to beat my last personal best time. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever git gud at this game.

OK, that sounds fair. Neither of these mods affect the technical aspects of gameplay, so I predict they will be fine. Either way, I hope they will at least bring some amusement and laughs to at least a few folks.

Indandescent ReShade 2.0 simply makes DS3 look a bit more vibrantly colored and pretty with minimal or no penalty to framerate, depending on the potency of your video card.

https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls3/mods/12

I was also curious if I could submit a speedrun with my juvenile humor comedy mod titled DS3 Player Profanities, which makes the player character into a potty mouth.

Finding out the exploit with an evil NPC in the Tyranthraxus battle was an accidental discovery I made about 25 years ago. As for the Hold Persons, I think that targeting a single target with multiple charges forces multiple saving throws, and therefore increases the chance of the spell succeeding.

I just submitted a run in under 32 minutes along with my plan for completing this game as quickly as possible. I'm sure other people can further speed up the run, ideally with an actual NES cartridge (I used the Nestopia emulator on my PC).