Community Stardust Race

[MetroidMst]

The last race went amazingly well for an old timey hack. This time, we bring forth the next challenge! Stardust!

RACE DATE: January 10th, 2015
TIME: 1400 EST (2PM EST)
WHERE? Here, hosted on the MetConst Mumble. (Which thedopefish is still wonderfully keeping up for now!)

[Quietus]

[noembed]SHAMELESS PLUG HERE![/noembed]

:^_^:

[Jordan5]

Late January would probably good - i'd have exams out of the way and may get some practice in :razz:

And a good start time would be anytime between about 4-6pm EST (9-11pm BST) :^_^:

[TheAnonymousUser]

and perhaps a little earlier in the day so Brits and Europes don't have to stay up past their bedtimes to join in. (I'm looking at you Quietus)

It's not just quietus you should be looking at...

Other than that, HOORAY! Another hack for me to throw my controller at (haven't played stardust in a forever. Hopefully I don't need to underwater gate glitch this time)

[MetroidMst]

I mentioned Quietus because I knew he had that 100% speedrun. BUT THE REST OF YOU CAN JOIN IN AS WELL I GUESS

[Vismund Cygnus]

I was a no-show for the first and a DNF for the second, could this be a hack that I can run blind and still finish?
(Probably not)

[MetroidMst]

Stardust is small. If you can't finish it. . . I don't know about you. Or, you could practice, seeing how there is plenty of advance notice.

[Jiffy]

The last race went amazingly well for an old timey hack. This time, we bring forth the next challenge! Stardust!

This is still in preliminary stages, so no date for right now, though potentially sometime in early January? We want to give people enough time to have reasonably practiced a bit, though practice is not a requirement for joining in. Just a suggestion. Also, thinking of a date sometime on Saturday, and perhaps a little earlier in the day so Brits and Europes don't have to stay up past their bedtimes to join in. (I'm looking at you Quietus)

So, for now, might want to dust off the hack and warm up your fingers.

Suprising you're not looking at me for that one.
Since it's a short hack, 8:30-9pm BST (3:30-4pm EST) would be a good starting point. And possibly before Jan 6th since I have no school then. Saturdays after that I'm cool with.

[Quietus]

I was a no-show for the first and a DNF for the second, could this be a hack that I can run blind and still finish?

The hack is very small, has a low level of difficulty, and has items everywhere, so you should be more than OK. :^_^:

[Zehq]

Ooo, I've been hoping to join into one of these! Never played this hack before so I better start. ^_^

[Eppy37]

In early January? You're just trying to eliminate any possible excuses not to participate, aren't you...

[Technomagus]

I will throw my hat into this race as long as it's on a weekend.

[Megakidicarus]

stardust race! I'm totally on board for participating.

testrun I 0:50
testrun II 0:39

[SpoOkyMagician]

I might join just for the fun of it. I will have to play/practice it first though. :grin: :nod: AFAIK, i will not be busy next year. (unless something comes up.) :<_<:

edit: I will go ahead and play it now. I need a break from scripting right now. :<_<:

edit2: Uhh... Only 1 save station I see... Okay... I did a test play though and died to gold Torizo and I did not save for so long... :<_<: Need to keep in mind to save a lot at ship...

~ SpoOkyMagician

[SlyPork]

I'm totally game for this  :^_^: I should probably beat it at some point though  :lol:

[Jordan5]

SpoOkyMagician: You don't actually need to fight GT (I can't even remember where he is) and once you pick up a few items you shouldn't really need to save too much (although T-A-U might say I do :lol:) Here's a video of the route i'm currently doing and I pick up way more items than you need, so if you're finding it tough you could try this.
(There's probably a way to optimise this a lot more, but I haven't looked at a map yet)

[Megakidicarus]

I might join just for the fun of it. I will have to play/practice it first though. :grin: :nod: AFAIK, i will not be busy next year. (unless something comes up.) :<_<:

edit: I will go ahead and play it now. I need a break from scripting right now. :<_<:

edit2: Uhh... Only 1 save station I see... Okay... I did a test play though and died to gold Torizo and I did not save for so long... :<_<: Need to keep in mind to save a lot at ship...

~ SpoOkyMagician

There is an energy tank in GT's room.

[SpoOkyMagician]

...Damn, I should of looked around that room... FYI, this is my first time playing it so, I do not want maps/suggestions just yet. Besides, I plan on making my own route. Thanks though.

edit: I see... Seems I skipped Draygon completely and went straight to Ridley when I shouldn't have... It took me a while but I finally found and killed him. I got all the way to MB and... I ran out of time on the escape... 2 minutes is pretty damn short. :neutral: Of course there was no saves so... Yeah... Please tell me we can use savestats in this race? (only rooms marked with 'S') I really do not want to race this without saves... Otherwise, pretty cool hack though. :grin:

~ SpoOkyMagician

[Jordan5]

Savestates will not be allowed, this isn't a TAS :heheh: but there's about 3 or 4 saves in the hack i believe.

[Quietus]

Savestates will not be allowed, this isn't a TAS :heheh: but there's about 3 or 4 saves in the hack i believe.

I can't see why save states wouldn't be allowed.  This is supposed to be a race, so if somebody keeps reloading states, they're only going to fall farther and farther behind. :neutral:

[TheAnonymousUser]

To be honest with you spooky, the first time playing will always be the hardest part. It gets easier from here on in.
Bosses haven't actually been changed that much (except bomb torizo, ask jordan on that one). The hack gives you an ample amount of items before tackling each boss, anyway. If anything, it's about planning the most optimal route (that goes without saying, this is a race, afterall).

As for bosses, you can skip crocomire and gold torizo. If I have time (and if obs works) I'll probably upload my current route.

And just to clarify what jordan said, savestates are generally frowned upon in a race. Mst and many others will say the same thing.

you shouldn't really need to save too much (although T-A-U might say I do :lol:)

I said that?

[Quietus]

And just to clarify what jordan said, savestates are generally frowned upon in a race. Mst and many others will say the same thing.

I honestly didn't realise this.  Since the finishing order is all that matters in a race, then saving (normal or states) just wastes time, and results in you finishing lower down the table.  I can understand it being frowned upon if you're just looking at game time, but then it's not necessary to all run at the same time if we're going by game times.  Either way, it matters not. :^_^:

[MetroidMst]

Savestates are most definitely frowned upon, and like any race, a run using them would be considered illegitimate because they do not exist on console. And generally otherwise provide an unfair advantage, even if only used in save rooms. (For instance, there is one save room in Stardust that doesn't even save.)

In a real run as well, I would have to disagree with you Quietus. Using savestates would not make it slower real time, they would speed up the run.

[SlyPork]

I agree with MST, savestates would make it faster because you can literally save anywhere and anytime. Loading up a save state that's right outside a boss fight or right next to a GGG spot would be easier than dying and going back to a save or having to grind for a bunch of missles.

[personitis]

I'm going to go with a rather drastic, but very real scenario on save states here: Say we have two people doing a RBO (Reverse Boss Rush) run. In this type of run, you'll be traversing Maridia without Gravity Suit and Space Jump, which makes Maridia very, very slow. This also happens to mean that if you were to fall into and quicksand, you absolutely have to reload from your most recent save. The only rooms this will pose any problem in is either the hall after Botwoon or the giant Mocktroid room before Draygon. If you have stated and fell in the sand you're lucky and just hit a button to retry from the start of that very room (or the last jump, provided you've saved the state in the first place). Where as if the other player were to do the same thing at the same time, they now have to reload the game and climb back up to Botwoon.

So aside from the argument "save states don't fall under console conditions," they can also make really difficult and/or precise things much easier with constant attempts (and possibly some luck).

Anyhow, I did a little bit of thinking on a route yesterday and would like to say that if anyone has thoughts about going to Phantoon right after Power Bombs and if it's faster than running straight for Varia Suit, I think the two are about the same time wise. Obviously, going to Phantoon first is much more difficult due to no suit protection and low ammo counts, so unless I can be disproved, I'd just recommend everyone to bother with Varia first.