Nothing comes to mind except for general-knowledge stuff like the respec command, skipping the Asha fight (may or may not be faster), etc. The creator ("Ultimortal" on YouTube) has some speedruns he's published that are probably worth watching, especially since they're annotated.
Those would sure be helpful, since I'm going in blind.
That will help de-blind me
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The respec command and a few other things I'd forgotten are on this page (the respec is the "nanofield reboot").
There are skillpoints you can find in each stage; each one amounts to an instant levelup. Naturally they require going out of your way. The only potential exception to this I can think of is in the last (or is it second-to-last? It's been years since I last played) stage, where you have the choice of either fighting a boss (Asha) or getting the skillpoint, by using a max-level weapon. Getting the levels required to unlock the weapon may be difficult in a speedrun, though.
If you go the entire game without killing anything directly (note this requires getting that aforementioned skillpoint, since Asha, unlike other bosses in a pacifism run, is not killed for you by NPCs; also note that using the projectile reflector to kill enemies doesn't count as a kill), then you'll get the Massacre weapon right before the final boss, which will speed up that fight significantly. On the other hand, this requires you to maintain a truce in sector 2, and the game penalizes your in-game time if you do this for the entire sector. The speedrun by Ultimortal intentionally breaks the truce right before the boss of sector 2 so that this doesn't happen to him.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Can't seem to even be able to optimise the title screen without the game crashing on win 7 64 bit
I'll try cracked XP instead
EDIT: I need to boot up a cracked XP VM tommorow, because it will not cooperate.
I'm only 186 frames in, and it's crashed at least 5 times
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Ultimortal any% ? Would that be the vaultible category, or would any% Extreme be the vault category?
Tough question. Either way, you should probably go for a Pacifist run, since (1) that's a major plot point of the game; (2) it's generally faster to jump over enemies than to try to take them down; and (3) it gives you a major time saver on the first and last boss fights.
I think Ultimortal is the vault category (it is the highest difficulty, after all) but Extreme would fit well in Moon tier because it shows off more of the gameplay, such as cracking and kicking doors (which is not feasible in UM because you can't raise the skills required).
An additional option would be to make an unoptimized playthrough on normal difficulty that collects all posters; completing the game with all posters unlocks the hidden second level, so you can include that in your Extreme run.
Ultimortal any% ? Would that be the vaultible category, or would any% Extreme be the vault category?
Tough question. Either way, you should probably go for a Pacifist run, since (1) that's a major plot point of the game; (2) it's generally faster to jump over enemies than to try to take them down; and (3) it gives you a major time saver on the first and last boss fights.
I think Ultimortal is the vault category (it is the highest difficulty, after all) but Extreme would fit well in Moon tier because it shows off more of the gameplay, such as cracking and kicking doors (which is not feasible in UM because you can't raise the skills required).
An additional option would be to make an unoptimized playthrough on normal difficulty that collects all posters; completing the game with all posters unlocks the hidden second level, so you can include that in your Extreme run.
Since I'd need to have a Extreme verification video, I'll go for Extreme Pacifist.
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Like Radiant, I'd like to suggest pacifist because it probably increases the challenge with more variables and randomness to plot in, and to go even further than that, how about 0 damage taken as well? I know I managed to do that for the first several levels so I'd be surprised if you couldn't combine both of them. Armor damage doesn't get counted of course.
That way your TAS would be maximally different from the existing speedrun.
Like Radiant, I'd like to suggest pacifist because it probably increases the challenge with more variables and randomness to plot in, and to go even further than that, how about 0 damage taken as well? I know I managed to do that for the first several levels so I'd be surprised if you couldn't combine both of them. Armor damage doesn't get counted of course.
That way your TAS would be maximally different from the existing speedrun.
As a TASing traditionalist, I don't like taking damage.
So I was already planning on that.
In other news, I felt really sick today, so I got nothing done.
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Taking no damage may not be feasible/entertaining, since many levels later on are packed to the gills with battles that in a Pacifist run you're pretty well stuck just walking through. Maybe theoretically you could hang on the edges and slowly reflector all the enemies to death, but that'd get old fast.
But in any event, good luck! I hope you feel better soon.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
As a TASing traditionalist, I don't like taking damage.
So I was already planning on that.
In other news, I felt really sick today, so I got nothing done.
So today you are sick_bot instead? I hope you get better.
Doing Extreme pacifist sounds like a good idea! I actually think pacifist could be faster than not doing pacifist. Even though you might be hindered by enemies it would be quicker to kill sometimes, you speed up the first and last boss significantly (in real time, not game time) and Iosa somewhat.
About taking damage: there are some damage boosts which save significant time. I would include them, but it's up to you of course. See the speedrun I linked for examples.
As a TASing traditionalist, I don't like taking damage.
So I was already planning on that.
In other news, I felt really sick today, so I got nothing done.
So today you are sick_bot instead? I hope you get better.
Doing Extreme pacifist sounds like a good idea! I actually think pacifist could be faster than not doing pacifist. Even though you might be hindered by enemies it would be quicker to kill sometimes, you speed up the first and last boss significantly (in real time, not game time) and Iosa somewhat.
About taking damage: there are some damage boosts which save significant time. I would include them, but it's up to you of course. See the speedrun I linked for examples.
Huh. A side goal might save time.
The official website seems to say that you can still kill up to 5 enemies while still counting as "pacifist" (?) Can you explain this better?
Also, I'm feeling somewhat better, but I won't start for real for quite a while, given that I need to set up a 32 bit XP VM in order for the game to run and reload save states consistently (sometimes I'll load a save state where I saved it when I landed, and when I load the save state, I'll be one frame off the ground?) without crashing.
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There's two kinds of "pacifist", as I understand it. One is unlocking the Massacre weapon to fight Tor with. That requires you to have 0 direct kills for the entire game. The other is maintaining a kill count of under 5 per level; that one gives you special options for some boss fights. In particular, if you maintain the truce in sector 2 then you don't have to fight its boss at all, and in the later fight against Iosa the Invincible, you get an AI helper (but most of your damage will come from using the shock pads anyway).
There's also variations in Iji's dialog and her combat shouts depending on how bloodthirsty she is, but that doesn't really make much difference in a TAS.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Another point about which category to choose: how different is it going to be from the real-time any%? Personally I might rather watch one that's more different from that instead of just a highly optimized version of it. If you take no damage that removes certain tricks like someone said, at least changing the route somewhat and forcing more independent research and experimentation from you.
However, you'll see how it plays out. Never leave out the possibility of [you] doing another category later for which purpose going for extreme approaches instead of middle-ground is smartest.
Another point about which category to choose: how different is it going to be from the real-time any%? Personally I might rather watch one that's more different from that instead of just a highly optimized version of it. If you take no damage that removes certain tricks like someone said, at least changing the route somewhat and forcing more independent research and experimentation from you.
However, you'll see how it plays out. Never leave out the possibility of [you] doing another category later for which purpose going for extreme approaches instead of middle-ground is smartest.
I feel like no damage pacifist (either kind) on extreme would be very TASish.
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The official website seems to say that you can still kill up to 5 enemies while still counting as "pacifist" (?) Can you explain this better?
You should probably go for the TAS definition of "zero kills" rather than the somewhat-arbitrary in-game definition :) Plus, you get the Massacre weapon at zero kills which makes the last boss both faster and cooler to watch.
The official website seems to say that you can still kill up to 5 enemies while still counting as "pacifist" (?) Can you explain this better?
You should probably go for the TAS definition of "zero kills" rather than the somewhat-arbitrary in-game definition :) Plus, you get the Massacre weapon at zero kills which makes the last boss both faster and cooler to watch.
So true pacifist, no damage extreme?
That would certainly be interesting.
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Ok, so I've got an XP VM running, and It started out with the same kind of problems that it did on windows 7.
Except after applying the recommended settings, it will simply refuse to run, and hourglass unpauses and goes in fast forward.
I changed them back, but it still did the thing it did the second time.
You sure this game works with hourglass?
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I can confirm it is possible to run the game with Hourglass whenever I use my Windows XP laptop, Hourglass set to default settings. I've never tried using a VM though so I have no idea whether it's possible to run the game through that.
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Conversely, and artist that can’t communicate a critique in a constructive way isn’t helping anybody."
When I start Iji and want to activate the Windowed mode, it stops working. However, if I press Enter to start the fullscreen mode, the game starts in Windowed mode.
I started the game and during the intro, the game froze. I start another test…
Now I skip the intro. Okay, I DON'T move the windows or else the display is wrecked up.
The game seems to work normally from there, just without sound. I just disabled multithreading.
OS: Windows XP
Virtual Machine: Virtualbox
Hourglass r81
When I start Iji and want to activate the Windowed mode, it stops working. However, if I press Enter to start the fullscreen mode, the game starts in Windowed mode.
I started the game and during the intro, the game froze. I start another test…
Now I skip the intro. Okay, I DON'T move the windows or else the display is wrecked up.
The game seems to work normally from there, just without sound. I just disabled multithreading.
OS: Windows XP
Virtual Machine: Virtualbox
Hourglass r81
Maybe it's my broken XP version?
Oh, and I should start it in "full screen"?
I think I'm going to re install everything tomorrow.
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Yeah, I don't understand why but I can only play the game if I select fullscreen.
I don't know for the XP version, I use an illegal UNA version (and potentially full of spyware and other crap).
A minor remark. I just found out an updated version of this game was released in Jan 2017. Among other things, it increases Iji's walk speed.
Perhaps now the previously actually impossible reallyjoel's dad difficulty is possible?
Build a man a fire, warm him for a day,
Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.
Perhaps now the previously actually impossible reallyjoel's dad difficulty is possible?
Not in this game: this one is intentionally blocked in several ways, including a ridiculously low time limit and a door that will literally never open. The author's guide explains this.
