British Columbia, CanadaRandomizers generally don't have categories across the board. The only exception I can think of is Minecraft.
I didn't think the four-hour mark would fall, certainly not so quickly. This game's starting to look like a legit speedrun!
Seven months ago, @glitchedDoku asked what kind of time I'd expect/aim for on this category.
Turns out, the right answer is "just under 80 minutes."
"Glitchless" might not be the right name, as was pointed out by Jiseed. He pointed out it was hard to ban the Drake cheese without banning cheeky Arena AI exploits, which is hard.
My goal is to create a category that new players can learn and practice without having to execute frame-perfect glitches or stand in that miracle spot with Drake. Arena AI is both easier to learn and critical to any route where you're not breaking the economy. So rather than change the rules to match the name, I'm more interested in changing the name to match the rules.
The category I'm looking for would ban: -Any menu glitching, meaning both the weapon/armor duping and grenade duping -Beating Drake by positioning Steelflight near the door to draw his fire -Beating Drake by standing in the small area where you can attack him freely without his using fire
but would allow -Use of "turns red" strats for Arena fights -Queuing up multiple instances of "credstick" and "stake."
The things that are banned are the breaking of the game economy and the cheesing of the main boss of the game, so I like the definition "no major exploits." While the credstick and stake queuing looks weird and is likely not intended, it's not game-breaking and wouldn't likely be patched out. Meanwhile, the Arena AI was programmed in, so it could hardly be called unintentional. More, the allowed strats are accessible to new players, while the Drake strategies are difficult to execute and can end a run if failed, and the duping is very difficult.
Let me know what y'all think about this.
Hey, so I wanted to give a brief overview of why the rules are as they are. At the time of this writing, the community for speedrunning this game is very small and very new. I'm always open to inquiries and suggestions, and will always be willing to explain my decisions.
First, the Expansion Pak is required. This is to ensure a better experience for runners. Removal of the Expansion Pak will remove some encounters and could theoretically allow a faster time -- it also increases the likelihood of a game crash. Making the game more unstable and losing runs to crashes will make the game far less accessible, and I'm not in favor of that.
Second, I'm allowing emulation of this game. I've seen no evidence of an unfair advantage provided by emulation -- in fact, I've seen the opposite. The Aidyn Chronicles game was not widely distributed and carts can be harder and harder to get your hands on. I'm not looking to increase the barrier to entry for this community.
Project64 1.6 is the closest emulation to original hardware and is approved to run this game. Later versions of Project64 (for example, 2.3) are allowed but inadvisable -- there's evidence that they lose frames upon opening the menu. Other emulators may be allowable, but I ask that you give me a chance to investigate them first -- ideally before you get a PB you really want to submit.
Finally, while I'll not use one myself, I have elected to allow Turbo controllers. This is after looking at the precedent set by Final Fantasy IX, where the excessive repetitive mashing can be dangerous to the wrist. I don't want there to be any accessibility issues with this game. Final Fantasy IX has created a separate category for runs completed with Turbo -- this is and will remain an option, but for now I see no reason to create a bunch of new categories.
In that vein, for the Any% category, cheats are disallowed, but if someone's interested in putting together a route that uses cheats, they're more than welcome, as long as they understand a new category will have to be created for them.
If you have any questions, feel free to post here or contact me directly.
Requesting to mod Aidyn Chronicles (https://www.speedrun.com/aidyn), as the existing moderator is inactive.
To which game are you referring?
Still waiting on a response here... Gandair? Considering the small size of the community for this game, and the comparative rarity of the cartridge vs. other N64 properties, seems silly to exclude people who can't afford to acquire original hardware, unless there's an unfair advantage that emulation poses.
Have you found anything?
What @ckellyedits said about it not really mattering in the grand scheme of things is true -- you're not going to get a massive amount of views for being 65th. I'd add to that, that even if you did, with more views comes more attention, and with more attention comes an increased likelihood that you'd be found out.
Let's say someone pays for a SM64 120 star run that's above his skill level and posts it for bragging rights, hoping to drive views to his twitch channel. Let's say he succeeds, and now he's got 100+ viewers watching his channel for some solid SM64 content. "Hey man, why do you go for the owl in Whomp's Fortress? I saw in your PB you know how to get it without it." How long do you think it would take before someone noticed that the skill level in his PB was vastly different from the skill level in his streamed runs?
Generally speaking, the problem you're trying to address isn't a problem, because 1) The rewards are very small, as most of the time, your position on the leaderboard matters little, especially below the top 5 or so, 2) The risks are huge, when becoming branded as a cheater can destroy your credibility and haunt you for years, 3) It's a scheme that involves another person doing a run for you from the very beginning, which means at least 1 person in the community already knows you're a cheater, and 4) If you actually did achieve some popularity from it, the more you achieve, the more likely you are to be caught.
I'm running an obscure game with only one mod and some of the rules he's posted are... odd. I'm trying to figure this one out -- anyone heard of this rule or know why it would exist?
"Runs must be performed without powering the console off/on in the middle of the run. Saving and loading a save file of the current run is allowed as long as the console is not powered off."
I haven't been able to find the rule on other games yet, but maybe it's out there.
So I took a look for differences between Project 64 and original hardware. I found that the later version of Project64 (2.3) creates lag whenever the menu is opened or closed, or when changing menu screens left and right. In battle, there isn't much difference, except that the emulator has a little bit of lag when mashing quickly between turns. I wasn't able to find any difference on the world map.
Gandair, you mentioned timing them side by side. Was that ever done? I'm trying to find your reasoning on disallowing emulators.
Incidentally, other N64 games (Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time) allow Project64, but specifically an older version (1.6). This is because on some games, the later versions have less lag than original hardware, as you can see:
Weirdly, Aidyn Chronicles seems to be an exception to that -- the 2.3 version of Project64 creates lag that isn't found on original hardware, but the 1.6 version doesn't. From the limited testing I've done, it seems that running on 1.6 would match original hardware, while later versions pose a disadvantage.
Your video isn't available anymore, but the music is different when you don't have an expansion pak.
The Jon Oliver video on Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov covers why GWR are terrible, as well.
The thing I hated reading was that speedrun.com "teamed up" with them.
Besides Rust Stilettos, I can't really think of a place. You don't actually have access to the items you've underflowed (they don't appear in your inventory). So if you throw the extra grenades, it'll show no grenades in your inventory, but if you try to purchase one, it'll say "You can't carry any more grenades." You could do this with Slap Patches, too, but then become unable to purchase them.
LOVE your work. A few corrections and clarifications for the route:
-- In the alley, when you equip the Beretta Pistol, you use the Shades at the same time. Using the Shades or Lonestar Bade exits out of the menu screen. -- After picking up Cyberdeck you equip Leather Jacket and Lonestar Badge -- In morgue, ask about Grinder before opening door. You open the door while the mortician is slowly going to the file cabinets. -- In the arena's second fight (first heavy dude) you need to move north a bit before firing. The first Heavy Dude turns red at 1 damage, and moves to the bottom. -- When fighting Rust Stilettos, it's possible to duplicate the last grenade (to throw 7 in total) which adds safety but may take longer. Doing this "underflows" your total grenades and renders you unable to buy more, so it can't be done against the King. -- While descending the Bremerton, the presence or absence of enemies is random. Use of summon spirit is advisable if more than one enemy is visible. -- Jester Spirit will not be interactable until it addresses you with a red dialogue box after taking enough damage.
I'm investigating a "glitchless" route that doesn't dupe items or cheese Drake. Basically requires using Freeze on Drake and using more computers/Arena fights to make up for lost nuyen.
