Let's just collect this in a thread for posterity.

Sewer Junction has a unique quirk where a Shield Bug is spawned in the ending trigger. This ending trigger (and only this one) is fired by any entity, not just marines. I've been told that it only fires once per second. If you manage to suicide just before the trigger fires, you can get a Mission Success without being in the end trigger. The previous Brutal ILs use this strat to save a second. But what has never really been clear is what the limit of this strat is.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1370908677

Jhheight managed to get a suicide win from this far away, which is insane, it'd save several seconds to get it from this distance.

However, in my testing, I've found that the shield bug only appears at this distance: I don't know if it can still fire the trigger while it's culled but I'd assume it can't. I've done a lot of attempts getting the suicide win to work at this distance, but no successes. I'd always assumed the shield bug has to be aggroed to trigger the ending, but if that were true, jh's instance wouldn't be possible.

It'd be great if there were any way to properly debug how this mechanic works and what its limits are so we can properly strategize around it.

I think this is a new glitch. I'm not sure if it's useful for anything. It's pretty complicated to test things for it, so I thought I'd upload it already in case other people want to help out.

STR:

1. Have a save that can die very quickly
2. Have another save on a different map
3. Die on save 1
4. Reload save 1
5. Hit Esc to open the save menu again
6. Die again
7. While the screen fades out, load save 1
8. On the death screen, load save 2 You have now loaded save 1's actors onto save 2's map. Also, you can't move your character in any way or interact with stuff around you. You can cast spells, though I'm not sure if they do anything. Attempting to save the game either fails, or crashes the game.

I wish there was an easier way to check coordinates in this game than just using the 'cheat goto x x' cheat - so you can figure out where to put your saves for a useful effect.

I just learned about the existence of OpenNox, an open repack of Nox with a bunch of additional features - mainly higher resolutions and windowed mode but also some cheats and debug features etc.

https://www.patreon.com/opennox

It seems to be based on patch 1.2, judging by available glitches. So far I haven't noticed any differences but then I haven't played through all of it yet.

It's not an official release, it's all community made, so runs on this version would only be available if there's no major differences and if moderators agree to allow it.

What do you all think?

Since multiple recent submissions have submitted incorrect times for their runs, there appears to be a need for clarification.

Full-campaign runs do not track in-game time. Full-campaign runs track from hitting Start Mission on the first level, to the Campaign Complete text at the end, and all menu time in between. Then load times are removed (manually, as we don't have an autosplitter to use) to get the final time.

Time spent menuing between levels counts. You can and should prepare character loadouts in advance to reduce this time. The in-game timer is not used, as any slowdowns make it inaccurate.

We expanded the Divinity discord to also have channels for the modern CRPGs like PoE.

Invite: https://discord.gg/gzB4VBc

So, I guess this was never clarified on speedrun.com and the active runners just kind of knew about it, but obviously this has to be spelled out explicitly.

Transistor is framerate-based. It will run faster if your game runs at higher than 60 FPS. Therefore, for fair competition, your run must be done at 60 FPS.

The game's vsync system isn't as simple as a menu option, though. Usually, as long as you play in online mode, it should be on. However, to ensure your framerate is capped, open the game's Steam launch options and enter "/SwapInterval=1". This should apply vsync to any NEW save files you start.

(Apologies to Murihoro whose PB is invalidated by this.)

You may not have noticed anything changing, but all times are now sorted by In-game Time instead of Real Time (where appropriate). We will still be recording Real Time as well in the case of ties or discrepancies.

Manipulation of the in-game timer through the use of Watch, Timekeepers, or the low% glitch is restricted in these categories. It's not banned in runs, but using them will disqualify your IGT, and your RTA time will be counted only. This is at the discretion of the mods.

I reserve the right to reverse this decision when it benefits me.

While the latest version has Super Rolling fixed, it's actually rather easy to downgrade to an earlier version with it still available, and there's very little downside to doing so.

https://steamdb.info/depot/563561/manifests/

This page shows all the version updates with their manifesto IDs. These can be installed via Steam console commands.

Open the Steam console via steam://nav/console

Input "download_depot 563560 563561 7893380231726206941" (that's AppID / Depot ID / Manifesto ID)

This will download the August 20th update, the last before Super Rolling was fixed. For earlier versions, replace the last number by whatever manifesto ID the page offers.

Steam will start downloading the older version as a depot. When it's finished, the console will tell you where it output the download. From there, simply copy the files into the original directory of Alien Swarm Reactive Drop (make backups as you do).

You can play in online mode, you can host servers, your times will be posted on the leaderboards. I don't believe you can play with players on the latest version, but even this might be possible.

Reactive Drop has a ton of new content. A lot of it is gonna be great fun to route and run. But some of it isn't. Some campaigns are almost impossible to run solo. Most levels are almost impossible to run solo on Brutal. And some things... have changed. That's why I'm going to do the following:

1. Jacob's Rest will NOT be featured. The campaign has been significantly nerfed in Reactive Drop. Run it in the original Alien Swarm and submit times for that.

2. I will add campaign categories and IL tables when they are being worked on and/or run. I'm currently running Lana's Escape and Research 7, so I started by posting those. Note that by table I mean one entire campaign done as ILs, not a couple arbitrary levels.

3. Non-official campaigns, i.e. workshop submissions in the future, may be accepted for leaderboards if runs are done. It's practically a mod pack as is, I don't see why we wouldn't add more.

Because there's so much content in Reactive Drop, you'll have to forgive me for not posting every single campaign and IL table immediately. If you want to feature a run, please post here or contact me anywhere else (SourceRuns discord, Steam, etc).

Does it really take half a week to verify a 3 minute run? :|

https://docs.google.com/document/d/182rRKGZ2AjzzpEeyg1dq8svNNFFM2tev9CTTorJBSG4

There's a couple issues with a 100% definition:

1. Gearbits aren't tracked very well. The achievement for all gearbits triggers far too early, and in general it's really difficult to tell if you have ALL of them. There are more gearbits than you can spend on upgrades.
2. Some outfits are super tedious to get. The 800 dash challenge is insane, and the Arena challenge is a massive RNG fest.

True 100% is as simple as all outfits, all guns, all upgrades. This requires all other collectables, as well as a high amount of gearbits to afford all upgrades, so that's fine. It's also insane.

We could make a pseudo-100% category which is all keys, all monoliths, all upgrades. This also encompasses all pickups, except for the outfits. It's not true 100%, but it's close enough, imo.

Then there's the question whether we want to add any in-between category. This would be entirely arbitrary considering there's nothing that changes anything about the ending or anything like that. I guess all modules would be the most in-between option; both monoliths and keys require at least one area with 8 modules.

In every case, I'm not going to add new categories until someone completes a run. Maybe that'll encourage you guys to actually do it. :3

What is this? A project I'm going to work on, but would welcome any help with. I want to make an Alien Swarm TSA speedrun.

TSA stands for Time-Scale Assisted. It means using the console command "host_timescale" to slow down gameplay, allowing for near perfect inputs. The eventual speedrun will be played in real time. This allows us to do absolutely perfect runs. I want to perform flawless, TAS-like runs of all the levels and tie them together into a full game run.

Need help? While I could do this all by myself, it'd be cool to have it be a community effort as well. So I'm posting this in case anyone wants to join in the effort. I don't want to divide roles or limit people's abilities, I'd prefer to give everyone freedom to help whichever way they want.

How can I help? There's a few ways.

1. Routing TSA removes the need for stimpacks in every level. That means every level has the option to take something else to save time. I'm looking for the most minuscule time saves, as well as the most unthinkably difficult time saves. Anything to shave milliseconds off the run. Try to verify things being possible, though I'll take empty suggestions as well.

2. Running If you want to contribute with a level run of your own, just feel free to attempt. I'll note instructions on how to record below. The only limitation on doing the run is to not use Stimpacks. Stims aren't necessary and mess with demo replaying, just don't bother with them. Other than that, get at it, and post here with any results. Obviously it's all 1 player runs, it'd be a mess to do it multiplayer.

3. Technical I don't expect this, but I'll list it anyway. Currently, any runs with Time-scale Assist will show [CHEATS USED] at the score screen. I don't know of any way to prevent this. It looks ugly, it hides the in-game timer, I'd really like to get rid of it somehow, so if anyone knows a way to do so, much obliged.

How do run a TSA level? Step 1: Activate the console command [sv_cheats 1]. Then activate [host_timescale 0.2]. 0.2 can be changed to any value you want (1 is normal speed. 0.2 is 20% speed, etc). Note that at really low speeds, spamming the off-hand item key stops working. 0.2 seems to be the lowest functional speed, but much lower can be used for specific things (like hacking). Lower than 0.02, however, makes replays lag, so avoid that.

Step 2: Record the run as a demo. [record "title"] will start a recording, [stop] or switching maps will end the recording. Keep the title something recognizable, of course. You can use the same title while grinding attempts, it automatically overrides.

Step 2b: Recording guidelines! Try to wait a few seconds in the lobby to avoid the slow screen fade. Please start the recording without a marine selected. Please give a LOT of time at the end of the map, to allow people to see the end screens properly. Do NOT use the [map] command for resets. This cuts out the menu for traveling to the next level, and I want those in. If the level uses slowdowns (elevator, deima, sewer...), activate [asw_stim_time_scale 1]. This prevents the slowdown from ruining the demo. Yes, this kind of changes how the levels work out, but what can we do.

Step 3: Time your demo file using RTA timing (start when the cursor appears, stop when the cursor disappears). For this you can use the in-game demo menu (press Shift+F2). Upload the demo somewhere and post it along with your end timing.

Anything else? I'll be listing the fastest achieved times in this thread as we progress. Just because it's posted, don't assume it's the final time, if you can improve it further, by all means do so. I'll probably handle the final encoding, or I'll send it over to the SourceRuns guys to do that for us.

Good luck to everyone and myself. :)

Level list: Landing Bay - 0:54.66 Cargo Elevator - 0:53.85 Deima Surface Bridge - 1:59.666 Rydberg Reactor - 0:38.633 SynTek Residential - 1:30.116 Sewer Junction - 1:01.333 Timor Station - 2:17.533

(Click the time to download)

Everyone is using Discord these days so I made one for Ori runners. Should be a better place to centralize information than this forum or IRC.

https://discord.gg/0eG6jSyc9vgrSQee

or ask me, gyoo, grim, or whoever for an invite link, if this one expires.

I mentioned this in IRC but I'll just write it up here so all runners can get the benefit.

A much easier and faster method for the save drop at Thornfelt Swamp (returning from getting Stomp):

1. Make a save point at the edge (easier when done before getting the ability cell)
2. Walk over the edge
3. Start a Stomp
4. While the stomp is winding up, access the save and spend an ability point.
5. Reload the game.

When you reload, Ori will automatically start his stomp animation again and break the floor, no input required. Because this requires spending a point, you may not want to use it in Any% or any other Double Jump route. But for any other route, it's an easy time save. (Note that if you spend the point while Ori is in the middle of stomping, i.e. already moving downward, it'll fail. Just press Down and immediately spend the point.)

I've made the following changes to the leaderboard:

1. Vanilla% is off the main leaderboards.
2. Several Misc. Categories have been added. For now, these are Low%, All Artifacts, and All Characters.
3. Vanilla% is moved to Misc. categories as well.

The idea is to primarily denote the competitive categories on the frontpage, while adding extra room for all the gimmicky categories people (may) want to run. Now the frontpage looks light and neat, and the bloat of categories can be revealed through the Misc Runs toggle.

If there are any other (sensible) categories people are willing to run, feel free to request here. Preferably with an actual run.

Things I'm not ever going to add separate categories for: Older or newer patches, uncommon characters, IGT%.

ShadowDraft and me have put some good effort in the co-op ILs. Most of the maps are optimal to do with 2 players, since more bodies doesn't speed things up, just requires more suiciding, etc.

But there's at least one map that we really need 4 players to get a perfect run. That's SynTek Residential, of course. It's also the single most difficult map, so many parasites, so few ways to control them. Everyone needs to succeed at their job or the run's over.

We've been looking for 2 more players that are up to the challenge for quite a while. So if you're up for it, feel free to leave a note here!

Somehow this never happened to me or Shadowdraft in all the time we grinded out ILs, and then it happens two days in a row to me.

There's a minuscule chance that a terminal hack (the ones at the end of Bay and Timor) starts in a fully completed position. That sounds amazing, it saves so much time!

Problem is, you hit E twice when accessing the terminal to skip the intro screen. But when there is no hack necessary, it doesn't register the second E press as skipping the intro, but as exiting the terminal entirely. So you cancel the critical data download, then you have to activate the terminal a second time, and are forced to sit through the intro before you can click the critical data button again.

If it happens and you're not expecting it, it will kill your run. If you want to get the absolute perfect time, you'd have to reset until you get this, and then not break it. Good luck with that x_X

No one really competes for any other difficulties. Hardest is the most challenging, Easiest has some really quick levels, I don't think there's any case where one of the medium difficulties is the fastest.