does it? I was not aware. I'll have to see how that affects the gameplay. I do use the sound a little for knowing how my movement is going and whether the attacks in battle hit or not--the latter is not really important, but I kind of rely on the movement sound for navigation. Points where the movement does not trigger sound slightly mess with my senses. But I can probably get used to if it speeds up the game enough.

I prefer not turning off sound because then the run isn't representative of how you normally experience it. This is why I played Ultima with sound on, etc. Your run should be fun to watch, not just the lowest number possible.

I realise this is a pretty SDA-y viewpoint, but I still have it.

shouId set new Category for it kind like Any% and Glithless Run (Good Idea) Hi! MSkain long time no see.

On many games I would agree with not turning off the sound; however, there are literally 3 sound files that play in this game: attacks hit, attacks miss, and the step from walking. As I said, since they were there, I used them; however, if I can turn them off and they save large amounts of time, I don't see that they are that important to the run. Oh, and maybe a spell sound or two. But they are pretty negligible, in any case.

I did a test run this morning and shaved many minutes off thanks to having no sound; the sound lag being gone combined with a new backup strat even beat my previously unbeatable lucky necklace PB, so it does make a huge difference; I'll keep running this game without sound. Curse of the Azure Bonds and later games, with more sounds and more significant sounds, I might keep them on; I'll review those later once I pick them up again but going soundless works for this game, at least.

And Witchakorn, hi, I see you've been busy following this thread :)

Yeah i cant Forgot my Old friend and Master XD O^O (U help me a lot in the past) The Fact i not that busy hehe because I never play this game before but it Interesting Classic game that cant be deny to see.

Interesting. Thanks for the research.

I've thought about skipping the slums; the main reason I still clear it is so I have an easily accessible free area to sleep in town. That's worth a huge timesave all on its own (even if you clear 15 encounters, you can't sleep outside a cleared encounter room in the slums safely without getting attacked). A quick walk into the slums to rest and memorize before heading out is huge. ANd you have to walk through the slums enough times, even if you minimize other areas that you visit in the main block, that getting them out of the way is generally a time save. They are trash for items, yes, except for valuable goblin arrows.

Of course, it may be that I overestimate the slums clearing. With my current route and some NPC hired help, I might be able to minimize my trips through the slums to 2 (once to Cordona Textile House for gauntlets/scroll, once to Tyranthraxus) and just visiting an inn a few times would be quicker. But I think I still need the Slums experience; all told, it's worth about 6k to each party member. Losing that much might push me down to be 4th or 3rd level on most of my characters, and a few lucky hits from Tyranthraxus and/or his minions could wipe me out (and with NPCs hired, you get even less exp, so I'd need to find even more sources of backup exp)

I haven't done much with hiring, none since I played the game casually as a kid, and didn't think you could hire characters higher level than you; if you can hire higher level NPCs at the start, that is definitely worth an investment. Clearing Sokal Keep first, at least, with a bit of NPC help would definitely speed up the slums, if nothing else. I'll have to look into this more, or see. But, yes, AI spellcasters have no concept of friendly fire and mages do more harm than good. I still have nightmares of Akabar Bel Akash in Curse of the Azure Bonds shredding my own party with his spells.

But it's definitely worth looking into this, so thanks again for the study and research

It's definitely worth testing. I'll start checking more of it out myself here soon once I've finished with my own busy distractions (new games, darn them). Doing Sokal first with a bit of help from a hero is at least a very intriguing option; having a couple extra magic weapons would expedite the slums grinding, especially since lvl 2 fighters could attack 2 goblins or kobolds a turn with skips they are small enemies. In addition, that could give my fighter-mages lvl 2 by the time the Troll fight comes.

In fact, I've done a bit of practice on 100% (All Clerk Quests), and with exp not being an issue I fielded an entire party of half-elf fighter-mages (1 C/F/M and 1 F/M/T). But since I wouldn't have the exp for lvl 2 before the Troll Fight, I went to Sokal Keep with them after doing the non-Rope-Guild sections of the Slums. In that run it would certainly be more efficient to start with that, especially if a hired hero can make any appreciable difference in the time that fight takes.

And seriously, thanks again for the posts and the work you're doing; being essentially just a trailblazer on games nobody else has ever really thought of testing, I've always done all the leg work alone, and it's nice to actually have someone else pitching in ideas :)