Hello to anyone lost in the jungle of Isla Nublar!
I have been running this game sporadically for a very long time. After being burnt to a crisp at the final levels a thousand times (refusing to play safe because gotta go fast), I decided to make a TAS of my route and some tricks. First version of the TAS has a time of ~33m22s from player select to fade out at the end on Normal (not sure when start/stop is for the real run times). Most routing for the run was done during regular play and is not too difficult for a human to perform. Only a few parts I would consider TAS-only and those can be avoided with small time losses.
I could make a video and/or guide if anyone is interested? I just don't have the skill or patience to grind for the WR anymore
Is it time to re-open the park?
Wow, what a coincidence. I thought this game was dead and buried when I started running a few weeks ago, but it turns out someone else is here (still waiting for my cough cough 42:38 hard difficulty run to be accepted). I'd love to see a video of the tas and see what strats I'm missing.
Wow indeed! After forgetting about the TAS work in progress for a year or so I finished it and did a test upload on YT January 31st, which seems to be the same day you uploaded your first run on there? Re-upload of the TAS here: I'm looking into adding captions or other commentary on some parts. I can upload a tricky safe strat that might be useful on hard mode too
Just finished watching. And yep, crazy coincidence that the tas upload happened on the same day as my first run.
So it looks like the tas only strats are the helicopter hover, ladder climbs, and a few movement optimizations? You just have to find a way to not slow down at all. During my runs, on High Ptera, I accidentally stumbled upon a quick-ish way to get past the monkey bar climb guarded by the grenadier. If it is faster, it's only marginal, but somehow if you latch onto the bar as soon as the grenade hits you, it boosts you forward to the other side. You can essentially get pat that part without slowing down (aside from standing back up). I'll like an example to it here, timestamp is at 19:45.
I haven't been able to replicate it consistently. Also, I need to know how to do that hover glitch just for the sake of knowing, haha. If we could figure out a way to jump out of it and do a double jump, I'd bet there be some more strats waiting to be discovered.
I instantly know which grenadier you mean. I have a memory of testing grenade boosts like that on other levels (with vines) but don't think I did at that spot. Nicely done finding it live! I can try to replicate it and look for a consistent set up!
UPDATE: I managed to get the boost with a slower approach from the previous ladder and frame perfect bullet stun AND jump which was a few frames slower than the waiting strat. I'm trying to get it without the slowed approach but it seems very precise and high risk for low reward sadly.
UPDATE 2: Without slowing down I have found a 2 frame window to land a bullet stun on the grenadier, followed by a 7 frame window to jump (max height) that saves 5 frames in total! It might be viable for real runs but at the very least it belongs in the TAS! Would you like to name the trick? :D With good reactions it should be possible to tell if the stun was correct and have time to adapt if it wasn't.
I've started adding captions to the TAS video as a guide for some parts, and also uploaded the Aux power safe strat here:
Hovering is "simply" alternating left and right one frame each. So should be TAS only at this frame rate. It doesn't allow horizontal movement or gaining height so there is not much use for it either. I used it a bit to stay closer to bosses to fire faster which requires you to press fire while facing away because it actually triggers one frame delayed.
About that safe strat, I don't fully understand when you get knocked down, fall a certain distance, and THEN you might take the fall damage. I know sometimes you will take fall damage, and other times you won't. Any speculations as to why that is? I think I've tried that safe strat and I took fall damage, but I think I was just standing on the platform and not hanging from the bar.
Man, imagine if we could figure out a way to do a double jump. You could theoretically just jump all the way to the top of high ptera, haha. Only just a dream though.
Updated progress on the grenade boost above! I will eventually include it in an updated TAS but might upload a shorter clip of it in the meantime.
I don't know exactly and don't know why but it seems to depend on the enemy. Humans pushing you backwards deals no fall damage, grenades and birds seem to deal normal damage and raptors might even deal amplified damage if they push you off a platform.
Double jumps is a wild dream. I've found nothing that could allow extra height gain but will keep dreaming
Yay I contributed to the route! How about we name it, "The Fallen Special." I make it a tradition with every game I speedrun, I find a "special" strat that saves very little time. It's a very complicated formula I go by...the less time it saves + the riskier it is = most special strat. Too bad it isn't insanely risky, I don't think, not like it will kill the run or anything. It's only necessary that I have a special strat for this game now, haha. Would you be able to post a clip of the setup?
Awesome! I had a feeling it had to do with one of your bullets hitting him at the right time because whenever I had the trick work, everytime I had fired my shotgun hoping to kill him before he could even throw it. So what is the plan if you want to abort? Would you be able to turn back around fast enough to avoid the grenade smacking you in the back?
There is plenty of time to see the angle of the grenade and best backup is probably just to turn back, drop down from the monkey bar and either kill the grenadier or wait for next throw to go under it. High risk and low reward. It's a special strat after all (:
But to be fair 5 frames saved is compared to frame perfect execution of other strats and would realistically often be more frames saved. If you can learn the 2 frame shot it should be more consistent than any other fast strategy, and worst case is not too bad if you abort. I bet there are more shots you do that has 1 or 2 frames to hit!
Any other part you think I should look into more?
I wonder how many strats will need to be different between normal/hard. Probably more and more at the final levels.
I really think most, if not all of the strats that are done on normal could be done on hard. Flame thrower guys still take 2 shotgun bursts (5 little bullets from the bursts) to kill, so I think all of the flamethrower encounters in the tas could be done on hard.
I've been hoping to find a useful clip/out of bounds somewhere. I think the obvious one would be on Blockade near the end, when you enter the room before the big fans that's separated from the final area by a wall. I was trying to find something, like being able to clip from above and fall into the final room, but unfortunately this game doesn't give us too much to work with. There is a small little bug at the top of the right side ladder where you can get your foot stuck on the edge while the fan is trying to pull you forwards, but I don't think there's anything to that.
Another spot on Blockade is right underneath the first bazooka guarding the long ladder. I was thinking there might be a way to jump up from underneath, going straight to the ladder. I noticed if you are jumping on the far right wall, it looks like you bump your head on an invisible floor, and you don't quite get the maximum jump height. There's some weird glitchy, bumpy movement that happens in that spot, so I'm hopeful there's a way to clip upwards or something like that.
You mentioned there were a few out of bounds that you found, but nothing came from them? Care to share those spots? I know there are a few holes in the floor on Protect the Gallimimus, but I doubt there's anything to that. I have a clip of me falling through the floor like that on Biosyn HQ, but it seems like anytime you get out of bounds, you just fall into the void.
On normal flamers need 4 shotgun bullets so one less than on hard. That would affect many of my current strats but can be worked around. One shotgun salvo + quick switch to SMG(the black SMG, does it have a name?) is an interesting combo since you should be able to immediately fire two more bullets and since they travel faster they all hit nearly at the same time.
That first place on Blockade seems just like a solid wall with nothing to interact with but I haven't tested it very much. Mostly just manually.
You are right about the second place being weird. The way you get pushed out is similar to the rocks on Ptera/Scout which can be clipped through if you get far enough into and above them and turn back. Game tries to push you back based on your direction so it pushes you through instead. Highly likely we just void out if we get through though but worth trying anyway.
I thought I knew where I got OOB but can't find it. I got into one of the walls/black boxes on one of the interior levels but could only get it in a backtracking direction. I could walk a short bit in there but most of the "floor" was without collision so I fell back in bounds in an earlier part the level. I'll try to get it again if I recognize the place, but it shows there are some walls with weak collision, although so far the devs seem to have been more thorough in the "forward" direction of the levels.
There are several spots where it's possible to jump up through the ceiling but unless we discover that double jump we just fall back down. I'll start documenting the spots when I come across them anyway.
I'm playing around with the double fans and ladders above the final room on blockade and managed to clip a few pixels into the floor. Then suddenly I'm moving horizontally faster than anything I've seen in the game. Like skipping 4 frames movement per frame but in backwards direction. I'm trying to blow up the fan to go under it or something. This is something new
Does that fan clip only work when there are 2 fans? This looks like a potential huge skip if we could get all the way through. Man I wish I wasn't at work so I could mess around with it haha.
And according to the fandom page, the silver gun is listed as "rifle" and the black gun is listed as the SMG.
Although now that I'm thinking about the blockade clip, I'm worried that if are able to get enough distance, I wonder if we'd be able to phase back through the wall to get in bounds, or if it's just a solid wall from the outside.
Exactly one fan seems to be needed to get pulled or possibly pushed through collision. The other has to be destroyed. Also, after clipping into the floor, the fan still needs to be intact to get us forward until we are in the base of the fan.
Generally getting back in bounds have been easier. If (!) we can get far enough right to fall to the final room, we will most likely fall back in bounds where we can grab one of the long ladders.
There are invisible objects preventing us from moving to the right just when drop out of bounds. No idea how to get through them
