I have thought about seed variables (for RNG) but at this point I haven't looked into what these may be. Policing seed variables could be extremely difficult depending what they actually are and we may just straight up allow them in Any%.

And it's about time you do a sub-2 run, Sandovali. It's practically free at this point.

Ah, I forgot about the second wave. Perhaps, though, backwards would still be less likely to crash as Nav 2 has no asteroids (less for the game to handle). Seems like something worth testing, even if a little slower. At this point we can still pick safer strats over fastest and lower the time.

I added the "only saves made during the run can be loaded" rule. That should be sufficient for now, baring a major exploit being discovered.

Recently we have validated runs where the player uses the Self-Destruct function to mitigate Drone spawns, so it is worth going over validity of this. There are two major reasons why this is allowed:

1. We allow saves and loads
2. Self-Destruct is a feature of the game There are other ways that the player could purposefully die, such as dropping shields and afterburning into an asteroid or enemy ship, so banning the Self-Destruct feature doesn't solve any problem unless we ban purposeful deaths and then we would have to judge player intent any time they die. A no saves category could be a valid alternative if people want to compete in a "harder" category.

There are a few points to be aware of, though. Loads must be of mid-run saves. Ideally this means having no saves in the game folder when starting a run (will be evidenced when saving for the first time). Loading a prepared save could give advantages, like better faction relations, so is obviously not allowed. Of course, the timer must remain running while navigating to load a save. Choosing to die to load means taking on the time loss for potential time save. Possible game state manipulation is currently a grey area. We have found that not all game state variables are cleaned up when a New Game starts, and possibly on Loads, which leads to a possibility of triggering a flag, dying and then loading to skip a segment. Currently no examples of this are known, but if one is found the best solution will probably be to make a new category for runs that are essentially 100% (currently we technically complete all the missions) and runs that can utilize any skips.

Any further input is welcome, but I think this sufficiently outlines the legality of Self-Destruct usage in runs.

The Kilrathi capital ship can't keep up with us, so perhaps hitting Nav 4 first would be less likely to crash because there would be one less ship following us when we get to Nav 2?

Last two days I lost two good runs to crashes in Cross 3, specifically at Nav 4. What can we do to mitigate this crash point? It's really unfortunate having fairly common crash point late in the game. Can we hit Nav 4 first without losing too much time? Does that reduce the likelihood of the crash? We have speculated it is something to do with the number of sounds playing at once, could use different audio settings that would prevent it, even if it is undesirable for sound quality?

I was going to say I would ignore this for now, but then I checked the times on our recent runs and from launching from the Derelict to landing at Perry, your run took 11m27s and mine took 14m23s. 3 minutes due to drone luck was more than I was expecting. I'm gonna need to try some of these ideas, even if it takes two attempts (double jump twice, or self destruct/land and load twice) you can still save time over afterburning across a quadrant so there's definitely a benefit. Kinda like to avoid that invisible nav point in Gamma(?), too. Even if it's just Kilrathi there you lose some time placating them and then afterburning again, but if the drone is there you WILL have to afterburn the rest of the way. An avoidance angle would be ideal.

A minute and a half is massive. Makes me wonder how far away from the jump point the Confed are on Lynch 3. They could be right next to it but if they're not...

Just noticed that the Kilrathi after you pick up Monkhouse spawn far enough away you can autopilot if they're not sending dialog. So launch, enter turret, enter nav comp, wait out the message (if it's running), return to turret and you SHOULD be able to Autopilot immediately to Nav 1 (or Nav 3 if you want). No need to jump to Tingerhoff and back, straight auto to Basra.

Trying this out more, you can enter the nav computer and jump while in the turret, so there seem to be decent time saves available by entering the turret whenever you're about to jump into a system that you expect to be able to Autopilot immediately from (no scripted encounters, no asteroid field)

I think Basra is further away from the target nav point than Rygannon, so it probably won't be quicker on average.

That's still some considerable time saves. Palan may be closer to Nav 1 than Rygannon is to Nav 1, so going straight back to Palan may save time even if you encounter the Drone when taking off. Changing up the splits will be a little annoying though. I suppose Murphy 3 can just end when we land, and Taryn 4 when we land, wherever that is.

Do you have to land on Basra? Or can you just run to Rygannon? It seems likely you have to, but if it's somewhat like the last Masterson mission, perhaps you don't even have to.

And it is so slow! Probably because your computer is doing the translation but whatever. I think Menesch, the Pirate messenger and the Admiral in the Goodin 5 mission in RF would be the time saves from this. Jones just talks as he retreats to his holding point, so skipping his dialog probably won't save any time. Same with that Kilrathi dude, you're not actually waiting on his dialog.

Don't think so. Pretty sure I always to port side.

When I was playing through last night I got a weird bug where the Steltek gun got installed overlapping one of my Tachyon cannons. I usually sell one of the Inner cannons before the ES missions (generally Inner Port because it's easiest to grab) so that the Steltek gun is installed in the empty slot (Inner slots are a bit better angled for firing), but for some reason the Steltek gun was installed on the Inner Starboard side, overlapping the Tachyon cannon. This causes the game to crash if you enter the Upgrade and Repair room. It probably can only be fixed through editing the save file, but it otherwise functions correctly so as long as you don't have to buy any missiles or repair after picking up the gun you can still finish the game. Something to look out for.

I think that you end up sorta reordering the jumps rather than actually cutting them, but I didn't consider the return after Lynn 3 so maybe.

Anyway, there are still time saves available, even if just in doing combat better. I used missiles on the way to Troy for the Armageddon run, which cost time. Maybe keeping 6-10 missiles on that mission you can skip landing on the way to Gaea, which would save some good time.

Handling Menesch is a little interesting, though. You don't have to kill the guys with him in Freyja, but you want to get back to Troy ASAP. At Regallis Nav 1 a second wave of enemies will come in, so if you kill them near the nav point you'll have to fight more. Do you just afterburn to the base in Regallis to despawn everything, or lure the ships far enough away that the second wave won't stop autopilot when you kill the first wave? Or is there another, better option? Go through Freyja to the next system linked to Troy to get back?

I'm going to share with you today my RF route, for those who wish to compete but not study every second of my run videos to see where I go (aside from the mistakes I make kek). zyxophoj suggested doing Tayla and Goodins when you reach Edom and Perry during Masterson's missions, but I counted out the jumps and it ends up the same, so there's probably no time difference.

grind 1.5mil credits xxn-1927 -> oxford oxford -> xxn-1927 -> new constantinople (edom) new constantinople -> xxn-1927 -> oxford patrol oxford oxford -> xxn-1927 -> 119ce -> junction (burton) junction -> 119ce -> xxn-1927 -> oxford excort ship (5mins of wasted time) oxford -> saxtogne -> new detroit -> perry (base) perry -> nitir (defend nitir) -> perry (base) perry -> surtur -> charlie -> hyades (defend charon) -> charlie -> surtur -> perry perry -> tingerhoff -> nexus -> capella -> crab-12 -> new caledonia (patrol kilrathi) new caledonia -> crab-12 -> capella -> nexus -> tingerhoff -> perry (base) perry -> tingerhoff -> nexus -> capella -> sherwood -> regallis (patrol kilrathi) -> troy troy -> pender's star -> junction -> new constantinople (edom) new constantinople -> 44-p-1m (patrol) -> new constantinople new constantinople -> newcastle (liverpool) newcastle -> new constantinople (edom) new constantinople -> new detroit (new detroit) new detroit -> new constaninople (edom) new constantinople -> newcastle -> metsor (patrol and destroy) -> xxn-1927 -> oxford oxford -> xxn-1927 -> 119ce -> junction -> nexus (macabee) nexus -> tingerhoff -> perry -> new detroit new detroit -> perry -> tingerhoff -> nexus -> capella (drake) capella -> nexus -> tingerhoff -> perry -> new detroit new detroit -> perry -> tingerhoff -> nexus (nav 4 kill retros) -> tingerhoff -> perry -> new detroit new detroit -> new constantinople -> junction -> pender's star -> troy (achillies) troy -> regallis (nav 1) -> freyja -> regallis -> troy (achillies) troy -> pender's star -> junction -> new constantinople -> new detroit -> perry (base) perry -> ragnarok -> alpha (patrol points, kill at nav 4 and defend at nav 5) -> ragnarok -> perry (base) perry -> tingerhoff -> nexus -> junction -> pender's star -> troy (refuel) troy -> war -> pestilence -> death -> famine -> capella (drake) capella -> nexus -> tingerhoff -> perry -> new detroit (land restock) -> rikel -> eden (gaea) eden -> fly to moon -> kill Jones -> win game

When doing some practice the other day something occurred that I'd like to head off as a potential point of contention. As we aren't killing the guards before Jones now (speed strats), there are other Retros around when you kill Jones. If one of them happens to be sending you a comm message when Jones dies (say you eat some asteroids and they decide to taunt you), the avenger comm message will be delayed a few seconds before playing. Seeing seconds could be the difference between a record and not, in this event the ending split will be timed to the destruction of Jones' ship provided there is video evidence of the Centurion destruction, avenger ship arriving or avenger comm message playing immediately after the blocking comm message.

New game Tarsus, yes. I feel like using a continue ship should be only if you are doing a combined run or if we decide on a particular save to load from. And seeing you can dupe for money, a continue ship on any% really isn't necessary.