Speedrun of X2-The Threat (Progress: Running)

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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How long this speedrun should and might be?

Poll ended at Mon, 10. Nov 08, 20:46

20 minutes or less
0
No votes
20-40 minutes
2
29%
40 min. - 70 min.
0
No votes
2 hours long as a maximum.
5
71%
 
Total votes: 7

Pendrokar
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Speedrun of X2-The Threat (Progress: Running)

Post by Pendrokar »

For those that don't know what a speedrun is - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedrun

X:BTF would be too long to do because of only possible way to earn money is by trading from factory to factory.
X-Tension has no storyline to go though.
X2:TT - Is a game I could be able to record, and might be shorter than X3 Reunion and I just reinstalled X2.
X3:Reunion - I haven't finished it! But it has the secret unoccupied ships laying in sectors.
X3:TC - I haven't played.
(This is a X2 Speedrun Topic. If somebody is willing to try to run X:BTF or X3 then please make another topic so we wouldn't have conflicts on which X we are talking about)

But I wanted to talk about speedrunning X2 - The Threat.
So here is a short overview of the main goals:
1) Start with Easy Difficulty(It just would have a longer start if it was played on X-TREME)
2) Go-To Home Of Light headquarters.. take mission
3) Go-To Crystal Fab in Ore Belt and sell components.
4) Go-Back to HQ Take second mission and fly the Express to Atreus' Clouds Trading Station. Talk to Saya Kho.
5) Go-Back to HQ ignoring the pirates(in SETA the pirates shoot more rarely and hit rarely).. talk to Elena Kho
6) Go-To Ban Danna in Argon Prime.
7) Go-To Goner Temple. Take mission with Bret. (I haven't tried going without him)
8) Go-To Brennan Triumph Blow up mines("How, with a discoverer?" Widely about after these goals)
9) Go-To Antigone Memorial Sector in the Middle
10) Go-To HQ.
11) Go-To Priest Rings. Kill some pirates and then go into trading station. Talk to Manckossak pay 33'333 credits
12) Go-With Saya on the unsafe route to Nyana's Hideout. Do the mission sequences there.
13) Go-To Black Hole Sun and wait for Ban Danna's message.
14) Go-To Ban Danna at Argon Prime
15) Go-To Ore Belt. Do the mission sequences
16) Go-To Ban Danna at Argon Prime
17) Go-To Rolk's Drift and pay 150'000 credits and Jump to Khaak Sector
18) Take The Box at Unknown Sector and Jump back to Rolk''s Drift.
19) Go-To Omicron Lyrae. Do mission sequence there.
20) Go-To Ban Danna at Argon Prime for the last time... DONE!



Now how should this go through in a speedrun?
1. before step 2) fly the discoverer to Atreus Clouds and then go to the HQ. This is for Jumping the express reasons.

2. at step 4) buy a jump drive which can be afforded if one 25MW shield is sold, buy a total of 100 energy cells and full engine tuning from the HQ(- 101'000 - 1600 - 10'00 ). Jump to Atreus Clouds, Auto-dock at the trading station and talk to Saya. Then with Step 5) jump back to Home Of Light and Auto-Dock at HQ, but with all the pirates around auto-pilot cannot dock at it so when very close to the HQ the express needs to be docked manually. The Pirates don't do a lot of damage while in SETA(might be a game bug) cause of rare fire rate and hit rate of the pirates. Before finishing step 5) sell the other 25MW shield and the weapon.

3. Between steps 6) and 7) buy 20 or less mosquito or wasp missiles for the squash mines mines at 8) step

4. The steps 6), 7), 8) 9) can be done with the discoverer. but the further steps need a better ship most likely a Argon Nova which, well, costs 1.9 mil fully equipped. On step 6 we have 300'000 credits + 100'000 credit worth Discoverer and a Mercury with 5% hull which can be sold for don't know how many credits. So I'm thinking if it is really useful as in time saving buying the Jumpdrive for the Express.

5. For now let's say I have a Buster after step 9). Though it might not be the best ship to fight against Pirates in Step 11. It might work if it is placed before the docking bridge when exiting the Pirate Base, and start shooting the base till the guards come out and then shoot them in the back until you have enough reputation to dock for Step 11.

6. For now I don't remember how it was with the "Follow Saya To Nyana's Hideout" mission and how many hostiles there might be. But im worried that a Buster won't be enough to take out the Khaak in Nyana's Hideout so we need to get back on step 4) to earn the 1.9 mil for the Nova. With a fully equipped nova that has a jump drive all the further missions are possible.

Hints and suggestions are welcome!
Last edited by Pendrokar on Fri, 31. Oct 08, 19:39, edited 1 time in total.
Pendrokar
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Post by Pendrokar »

BTW I wasn't kidding about this. :lol:
Three segments done (youtube playlist)- http://nl.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FC0CE5EED5CD45C7
SDA(Speed Demos Archive) forum topic - http://speeddemosarchive.com/forum/inde ... #msg251344
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Spaceweed Adict
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Post by Spaceweed Adict »

:o speedrun X-Universe games. This is a joke right.
How the hell do you speedrun an open concept game were the universe evolses around your actions.
Yes you can speedrun the plot but most of us here don't even bother with the plot anyway well with exeption of TC maybe.

To try to speedrun a game like this is pointless and takes the whole object of what the x-universe is all about as no two actions are the same in anybody elses game with the likes of invasions sector scermishes and such.

Think you best stick to the mindless shootum ups that are the same on any system you install them on its not for this genra of games.
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KoshZdryh
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Post by KoshZdryh »

@Pendrokar I understand your skills in ... whatever you are trying to do -- could you please try that speedrun in a Khaak Sector battle ?

1)Jump to sector
2)Kill everything
3)Jump back

And a great story too.
Eye killed suzy -- and enjoyed it ... oh,wait she's still there ... :D
Why taint the Vanilla ?
(No taint from chocolate !)
Pendrokar
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Post by Pendrokar »

Ok. This might not have been one of the games to speedrun. But because I have started this I will finish it. I already have one person that would like a speedrun of X²!
KoshZdryh wrote:@Pendrokar I understand your skills in ... whatever you are trying to do -- could you please try that speedrun in a Khaak Sector battle ?

1)Jump to sector
2)Kill everything
3)Jump back

And a great story too.
What do you really mean? As in get money as fast as possible. Buy minimum amount of ships as fast as possible and clean out every Khaak Sector? Or do that with just one ship?
That would mean I just manipulate with luck on capturing and get around 20 ships sell them and buy bunch of Ospreys.
But my PC wouldn't handle large battles that is they would most likely be at 10 FPS! Or I could use ingame recording with an external audio recorder.
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Spaceweed Adict
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Post by Spaceweed Adict »

What do you really mean? As in get money as fast as possible. Buy minimum amount of ships as fast as possible and clean out every Khaak Sector? Or do that with just one ship?
That would mean I just manipulate with luck on capturing and get around 20 ships sell them and buy bunch of Ospreys.
So you think you can clean out all the Khaak sectors with a bunch of Ospreys :rofl:
I take it Pendrokar you never visited the khaak home worlds in X2 then and come up against there capital ships.

Well he might as well as asked you to goto Argon Prime distroy Argon One,capture Ban Dana and sell to the pirates as a slave. :rofl:
Pendrokar
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Post by Pendrokar »

What I really mean is there is no skill fighting against Khaak. They shoot hitscan weapons. It doesn't matter how I fly or shoot they will hit me anyhow.
And I know enough that Argon One cannot be destroyed because it stays at 1% hull. + Ban Danna isnt the captain of it even if it was capturable :D
What I can tell you though is that I have beaten a Boron Hydra with an M4 Mako.
DeadlyDarkness
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Post by DeadlyDarkness »

Tip:

Paranid Ody with a full PSG loadout is not only one of the cheapest cap ships (GPSGs are cheaper than PPCs), but also possibly the best. I can clear a Xenon sector in a few minutes, as one pass will just devastate EVERYTHING.

Haven't tried a khaak sector, but the Ody has decent speed, so you should be able to close in pretty quickly. Just remember PSGs only have a range of around 3km, which is less than the KYONs. But, the advantage is, shields mean nothing to them and the area of effect just wastes any fighters that dare get within weapons range.

And remember, they eat weapon energy too, so you can probably take on maybe 1 or 2 ships before you wait for it to recharge, but it only takes a few seconds.
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KoshZdryh
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Post by KoshZdryh »

Pendrokar wrote:What I can tell you though is that I have beaten a Boron Hydra with an M4 Mako.
:o
Amazin'.
Now try killing a XM2 just with mass drivers in a ... what was it ... Scorpion ...
I heard that was a real sadistic pleasure ! [could never bother myself to try it though]
I'd really like to see that . :wink:
Eye killed suzy -- and enjoyed it ... oh,wait she's still there ... :D
Why taint the Vanilla ?
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Spaceweed Adict
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Post by Spaceweed Adict »

No The point I was trying to make is you cannot completely wipeout the Khaak as no matter how many of there ships you distroy in khaak sectors they will just keep respawning more.

But I did mine out a khaak sector of Navidium but is was costly.
First I attack the sectors deffences with my M2's then once all the main threat was eliminated I call in my TL's with there mining fleets aboard and fighter escorts to control the khaak fighters while I keep the capital ships at bay.
Thing is thou it takes time to amass a fleet in khaak space and you got to do it right if you want your ships to servive more than a couple of seconds but it can be done.
Point is its not mission so speedrun is pointless in these games thats what we are trying to point out.
Pendrokar
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Post by Pendrokar »

Spaceweed Adict wrote: Point is its not mission so speedrun is pointless in these games thats what we are trying to point out.
Well too late! I'm already 20% done!
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KoshZdryh
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Post by KoshZdryh »

1 minus 20% of infinite equals minus infinite -- keep going.
Not a spam -- just a fact.
Argh wait - you mean 20% of the plot.
Can you finish it in less than 2 Earthly days ?
Eye killed suzy -- and enjoyed it ... oh,wait she's still there ... :D
Why taint the Vanilla ?
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softweir
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Post by softweir »

Why not speedrun in X2? It's been done in Morrowind which is every bit as open-ended as the X series, if you ignore the plot. The Morrowind speedrun I saw was even better than the Half-Life 2 speedrun I saw, as it was all filmed in one go rather than a series of "shorts" stitched together. Took about 5 minutes, iirc.

I can't give any advice or hints, but keep us up-to-date on how it goes!
My new fave game (while waiting for Rebirth) - Kerbal Space Program
Pendrokar
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Post by Pendrokar »

KoshZdryh wrote: 1)Jump to sector
2)Kill everything
3)Jump back
Do you still wanna see this? I could do this with just one Paranid Odysseus. Trust me! :wink:
korcan
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Post by korcan »

How you measure the time you need to accomplish X2 storyline? Do you use a stopwatch or consider the time stated in the save file?
Pendrokar
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Post by Pendrokar »

korcan wrote:How you measure the time you need to accomplish X2 storyline? Do you use a stopwatch or consider the time stated in the save file?
Through total video files time! With the game time it would measure up to 4 or 5 hours.

Sadly I tested out the last mission and it lags like hell even without recording. There are two reasons for this 1) many ships(come from M1) 2) Ship surface hit effect+Might be shields effect. It even lags when two M2 are shooting over and hitting each other from 3 km range. I will read troubleshooting on this.

So this speedrun is going to be on hold. Unless speedrung to the last mission would be enough.
AkrionXxarr
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Post by AkrionXxarr »

I'm a big fan of SDA and fully support your attempt at this run Pendrokar! :D

And to the people who are saying a speed run is pointless - Why? You arn't making any sense. If a game has a main storyline then it can have a speed run. There are already speedruns of Morrowind and Oblivion and they keep going after the main storyline is complete.

Good luck on this Pendokar, I hope to see you on the SDA listings in the future!
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Post by korcan »

Pendrokar wrote:
korcan wrote:How you measure the time you need to accomplish X2 storyline? Do you use a stopwatch or consider the time stated in the save file?
Through total video files time! With the game time it would measure up to 4 or 5 hours.

Sadly I tested out the last mission and it lags like hell even without recording. There are two reasons for this 1) many ships(come from M1) 2) Ship surface hit effect+Might be shields effect. It even lags when two M2 are shooting over and hitting each other from 3 km range. I will read troubleshooting on this.

So this speedrun is going to be on hold. Unless speedrung to the last mission would be enough.


I asked this question because I have no idea about speedrun how the criteria is established.

First I thought autodock takes too much time and should be avoided for speedrun. But with your recording method it is ok, but I would get a docking computer asap, you would need Paranid docking rights anyway. I would also try to capture some of the pirates you need to kill in Paranid sectors to have an M3/4 and a jumpdrive asap.

Capturing Khaak at early ranks is a bug and makes all your work a bit questionable. It simply brings in a huge factor of luck, I mean when you get 3 bkyon that yields about 5 million credits very early in the game, it changes everything.
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Post by AkrionXxarr »

As far as SDA is concerned bugs are allowed. Many bugs such as 'out of world' bugs are used in their runs, you see alot of them in the zelda runs.

As a basic rule of thumb, unless the SDA community agrees to exclude something, anything you can do in the game so long as it's just the game and nothing but the game is allowed. So no 3rd party tools, etc. But in-game bugs that can be achieved from the stock game is generally allowed.
Pendrokar
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Post by Pendrokar »

I have speedrunned till Nyana's Hideout. But that mission doesn't worry me.
The one that worries is the Ore Belt one. Most likely no one hasn't tried to research how the specific asteroid is chosen and when(people probably were happy when they did the mission and moved right along). Strangely I might have encountered a bug because I scanned all asteroids and nothing(saved two times while playing!).

Any way I can find out how the mission works?(scripting wise)

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