DescentBB

I wonder if missiles in D1 have also that programmed behavior of dropping to the ground after they run out of fuel.

It times out and explodes if it runs out of fuel, basically.

My rambo run of level 6 descent on insane

You may noticed I'm not active for quite a while here. Just wanted let you know I still have finishing this insane-max speedrun in my mind, but have literally zero time for gaming. Hopefully somewhen in the future..
There is a run of level 13 from cca half a year ago. I didn't post it here back to date, because I planned improve it (I found a better route to save maybe 20 seconds with really good run). I 'll probably try it again, if I find a time in future. For now can't really say when.. See you and have a nice day:).
Marvin

Improved . Not ideal, but also not bad, since this level is really hard to finish in decent time.

I have a route for level 16. Damn, it is harder than I expected. And I didn't expect it to be easy. The roaming is killing me so far. But I'm not done yet..

Finaly! There are roaming robots from start till the end in this level. Worst are nearlly all the hulks - browns, red and invisible, which means usually instant death. Other roaming robots mean usually loosing a lot of shields or wasted time. Also you need many cloak drops. This combination makes this level quite frustrating to speedrun.
I did some minor mistakes, like little disorientation near yellow key, but nothing huge, I lost just a few seconds in total during the run. Killing the last invisible hulk was really sloppy, my hands were a bit shaking to be honest. Fortunately I didn't die.

Marvin wrote: ↑Sat Aug 25, 2018 9:12 amFinaly!

Nice! Seems like it was raining cloaking devices, which probably helped a little. Great run.

vision wrote: ↑Sun Aug 26, 2018 1:10 am Nice! Seems like it was raining cloaking devices, which probably helped a little. Great run.

Thank you. Some of those cloaks are nearly must, some are help.

Level 17. This one is quite easy, except...GOPHERS! They are like on drugs on insane. Unfortunately lifters were placed differently than I expected in the maze and I did some poor decisions there, so I lost a few seconds, but gophers cooperated really nicely this time, so I decided to not go for another run and accepted this one.

Huh. There is an invulnerability power-up in the Blue area? I wonder if I knew that once and forgot, because it seems like new information to me. Then again, I'm a type of guy that doesn't like to use power-ups. I hardly switch to anything other than lasers/concussion missiles unless absolutely necessary.

Thanks for pointing out that invulnerability!

[/quote]

vision wrote: ↑Mon Aug 27, 2018 7:41 pm I'm a type of guy that doesn't like to use power-ups. I hardly switch to anything other than lasers/concussion missiles unless absolutely necessary.

Well, it is absolutely necessary. Since it is speedrun, you have to use fastest possible strategy you find.

vision wrote: ↑Mon Aug 27, 2018 7:41 pm Thanks for pointing out that invulnerability!

You are welcome:)

Marvin wrote: ↑Thu Aug 30, 2018 2:53 am

vision wrote: ↑Mon Aug 27, 2018 7:41 pmI'm a type of guy that doesn't like to use power-ups. I hardly switch to anything other than lasers/concussion missiles unless absolutely necessary.

Well, it is absolutely necessary. Since it is speedrun, you have to use fastest possible strategy you find.[/quote]
I really admire speedrunners. Even though I love to do insane cold-start/no death/full rescee/all kill runs, I lazily meander through the levels. Also, I never learned how to use the Fusion cannon effectively. I guess I don't really understand the mechanics. You're supposed to charge it or something? IDK, haha.

haha, well I was using just quads for long time also, it is actually really good weapon. But then I realised how good fusion is. About charging, it depends to certain robots. Many of them can be destroyed with uncharged shot.

Level 14
3 invulnerabilities here, which helps a lot. Cloak drops at 2:43 and 2:56 are both very important for going through the matcen area. The chance that you make it without them is so low, that I was instantly reseting when I didn't get both cloaks.

Excellent!

Thank you!
I decided to go for level 20. Dude, that one is a bit absurd to speedrun...

Maybe it doesn't look very fast, but I'm happy about this run. Crazy level..

Huh, there some more secrets I forgot about.

What's your setups like? KB/Mouse? Joystick?

Also, do you ever look at these levels in a level editor to plan your runs?

I use only keyboard. I have never tried mouse or joystick.

I have never used editor. I just use my imagination before starting a level, then I try that route (on levels I don't remember that well, I explore them on trainee once or a few times before). During trying that route I test some smaller or bigger changes and see what is faster and still possible to do on insane.

Some new runs:
Level 12: I realised I can skip recharge by using spreadfire instead of plasma. Also I took quads for the end this time.


Level 27: Easy level, but that boss fight is annoying. Not only because of bad teleporting, but also blocking by random mechs. Anyway, it is really short level, I have faster run only on level 1 and secret level 2.


Level 23: I spent quite a time on this and did it in 5:34. But then I found out I can do end with much faster technique, so I decided to go for it again and I suddenly did it just while warming up (I need a few minutes for warm up my fingers), so my movement is not the best and also I was unlucky with (not)taking the fusion and unlucky with no cloak from any of 3 cloacked lifters in secret area (so I had to go for cloak behind the door in that secret area). But place in yellow doors was great. This whole area is really random + those 2 matcens with spawning same mechs as mechs that are originaly in that area make it complicated. It worked really nice this time. Fortunately area in red doors went fine aswell.

improved level 6


New level - Level 18

Level 26: Really tricky one..

What the crap... Another secret I never noticed or forgot about in level 18. It's frustrating that after playing these levels for 20+ years a person can get into habits that blind them to interesting and helpful things. I wonder how much I do this in life while I drive to work on the same roads, or on menus of restaurants I eat at all the time. #deepthoughts

Which secret do you mean? Cloack?

Marvin wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 12:16 pm Which secret do you mean?

The small room above the hallway leading to the hostages. I went there yesterday and found two Drillers, a Vulcan Cannon, and some Ammo, and it didn't look familiar at all. I probably haven't been in there since the 90's if ever at all, haha.

Same thing just happened to me in level 9 yesterday. I discovered (or rediscovered?) place in blue doors with pack of concussions, 2 energy power ups and laser.. Not secret area, just a niche above. Just behind blue doors. I was really surprised about that. Anyway I improved my run in this level by a lot. Nearly a minute faster! Still improvable, lost a few secs becasue of one (nearly) lost drone and I also unexpectedly wasted homings in reactor room so I had to go for extra homings for red hulk, but I'm fine with that, rest was fine. I will upload it soon.

Marvin wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 9:28 amI discovered (or rediscovered?) place in blue doors with pack of concussions, 2 energy power ups and laser.. Not secret area, just a niche above. Just behind blue doors.

Ha, I know exactly where that is an I always forget about it. Glad to see it happens to the experts too.

there it is:)

Man, that was a good run on what I claim is the most random level in the game.

Thank you. It is random, but still a bit less painfull than level 8 in matter of speedrun for me. Fortunatelly I finaly made satisfying run on that one too. With changed route. Now I think I'm (more or less) quite fine with all of my runs, so I'm not going to improve. Now I have 27 levels done so this project is finaly close to be finished. Levels to still go are 11, 19 and Secret 3. But for now, I will take a break.

Those bombs at 1:28... I forgot that this level is pretty random too.

Good stuff. Can't wait to see your final three speedruns.

Those bombs are very useful:). The last secondary lifter was killed by them at 1:53.

Thanks, last three levels will be really hard I guess.

Hups, I rewatched all of my runs and changed my mind. I improved level 2, 4, 5 and 15, these were some of my oldest runs. Hilarious thing about my new run in level 2 is, that I finished the level with 0 shields, 0 energy, 0 vulcan ammo and 0 missiles. Something like that has never ever happened to me .

Uploaded.

Level 11 done!!

Marvin wrote: ↑Thu Nov 08, 2018 2:42 pm Level 11 done!!

Hell yeah. I'm going to take your tip of going for the red key before yellow, seems more sensible. Level 11 is one of my favorites. The first time I did an Insane cold-start it took be almost two days before I could do it with no deaths.

11 is indeed hard level. I didn't play it this way too, but during my attempts of speedruning I realised this route is actually better.

Today I did secret level 3, but so far I'm not satisfied enough, I would like to cut off cca 10 seconds. But it pretty much depends on how cooperate roaming bots. Anyway, I have to say, this level brings a possibility of the most stupid way to fail a run. Extra life from supervisor at the very end likes to bounce into exit! That means you can't take it! Already lost nice run because of that.

Those times for L11 are incredible, recently did an Insane 100% no death cold start of it, I was (at least for myself) quite fast and not using any luring tactics, and it took me 15 minutes... Although spent maybe 2 extra minutes for clearing matcens 3 times in the red key pit. Also took me like 2 hours to remember the tricks and score the successful run.