User login

AC1 Speedrun

179 replies [Last post]
161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

Updated 11-07-2014.

Empty city maps can be found here (for convenience and routing purposes). There's white dots for missions and yellow dots for gates and the bureau.

Playlist of all route videos.

First part of the game is very straightforward, am not going to make any comments about that here. Targets are the main thing:

Tamir
- Investigations
- Assassination.

Talal
- Investigations. There is a double jump and bump for the pickpocket. It's a pain in the butthole.
- Assassination. Not the complete route. I'm thinking about what to do with the escape since escape without hiding is quite a long way and it might be faster just to sit down on a bench.

Garnier
- Investigations.
- Assassination. With luck clipping into the scene like this is faster than going out and becoming anonymous.

Abu'l Nuqoud
- Investigations. Collecting the flags is a bitch.
- Assassination. I thought clipping back out is hard, but you just need to not press forward to make sure you do a jumping assassination.

William
- Investigations
- Assassination. I actually checked the way back, and it's fairly optimal as far as street routes go. The other option is to go left

Majd
- Investigations. The video is old, I save warp to the Bureau first and then go from there. Both pickpockets also have DJ&B's, as seen here
- Assassination. There's potential to clip into the bureau rather than having to go into hiding...however, after testing it out on Jubair, it's just not worth it. There's tons of guards crowding around and the trick is very inconsistent.

Jubair
- Investigations. Found a DJ&B. This one was a bitch to get on video.
- Assassination. Climbing is klutzy in the vid. The trick is to hold for a moment and to push down on the left stick.

Sibrand
- Investigations. Both pickpockets have DJ&B's but I couldn't be arsed to rerecord until I got them both. First one, second one.
- Assassination. This is the fastest I know of currently.

Maria
- Investigations. This is tentative. Hoping I can pull off the pickpocket quicker than in the video. Unsure if the route I took to the eavesdrop in the vid is the fastest, will have to test. Unfortunately, it looks like a DJ&B is impossible. I managed to bump both of the characters, but the scene didn't end because they don't start talking for a couple seconds.
- Assassination
- Route to Arsuf

Robert
Strats. Hope the invisible kill saves time.

Al-Mualim
Straightforward as well. Doin' this. Segmented only strat.

Miscellaneous
- Dismount over guard post is important. And hard in Acre.
- Shock and Awe is the tits.
- Route to Kingdom.
- If you're visiting a city for the second time, you can quit and reload upon entering the area outside the city to end up in the bureau.

Oh, also, I just noticed that the pre-assassination scene is a lot shorter when you've done the pre-investigations scene. There might be some strats there.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

sync's picture
sync
Offline
Citizen
france
Joined: 06/13/2011
161803398874989 wrote:
I still don't know the fastest way to ride to Arsuf. >.<

When you exit Jerusalem and the list of destinations appear, choose Acre. Once in Acre, go back on your steps and this time go to the Kingdom. Arsuf is then just a few dozens meters away from you, instead of hundreds from Jerusalem.

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009

I actually have an unpublished video on the shortest route from Malik to Arsuf! It's a more thorough treatment of what sync said. Give me a chance to edit and upload it...

You won't even feel the blade.

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

Thanks!

As I said, the most important thing is currently finding good routes for all the investigations, as well as my combat and the Robert blitz. I'll start with Tamir, although I suspect I will be done very quickly with that. Tongue

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

Fed981's picture
Fed981
Offline
Citizen
male
France
Joined: 04/12/2011

I wish you good luck and really hope you will submit the run to Speed Demos Archive. I think the game deserves it.

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoGViiF36bw

Here's the general route I recommend from the Jerusalem Bureau to Arsuf. It's the only time in the game where you must exit a main city (fast travel back to Masyaf/Abstergo is not an option). So it may not have occurred to everyone that there are other exits from Jerusalem besides the main entrance. One is positioned fairly close to the Bureau. An added benefit is that you don't have to ride through the outskirts of Jerusalem when using a secondary exit.

The "loading" screens are edited out of this video. Of course you will want to install AC on a hard drive (or perhaps a RAM drive?) to minimize load times. I pause at Arsuf's western trailhead only because it's a FAQ that hasn't been properly answered on video. You will want to gallop straight past the view point.

You won't even feel the blade.

AKheon's picture
AKheon
Offline
Citizen
male
Finland
Joined: 07/17/2010

Hey. Nice to hear a speedrun is planned on this game.

>>Since this is timed, there isn't much to do here. I discovered you can use the houris in the very beginning to make Al Mualim fall over.

You can actually get right to Al Mualim by clipping the "cage" around him by climbing there (I think it was by using the "ledge" on the back wall on the right side, Altair passes through the wall... it's a glitch of sort). You can beat him up for the duration of this scene but nothing happens.

As far as messing around goes, this might be the funniest thing to do while waiting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWhQ3qeH4z8

"Skip Assassin trainer", maybe not worth it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgYwS-iJnh8

This was on PS3, and I don't know if the wall clips are possible on the PC version. I hope they are, but there's a chance that a different frame rate or a patch might mess glitches like this up.

>>Arsuf

I never had time to test it, but there's a chance you could be able to skip Arsuf fights using wall clip glitches. You can do wall clips at many places, not just staircases. You only need a smooth surface to jump against in an angle (to build up glitched momentum) that gives way before Altair's jump is over (to release the glitched momentum). There's a noticeable zipping effect when this happens, and Altair gets through any walls in his way while at it (wish I'd made vids of this variation). Another way is to form an acute angle using your horse, then jump through it.

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

Fed, I'll most likely will submit the run to SDA, so don't you worry about that. I'll most likely need someone who knows the rules so that I won't submit an illegal run.
Stabguy, many thanks for that video! It seems it's possible to get to Arsuf in less than 1:30. I've already installed the game to my HDD, since I play it so much.
AKHeon, wow, I didn't know you still checked the forums. I considered skipping the assassin trainer, but I don't think it's worth it. By the time you clipped through the wall in the video, I'd have already be exiting the ring, which has the added bonus of teleportation. Also, in an SDA thread, you mentioned save-warping by exiting and re-entering the memory. I forgot about that, so thank you for reminding me.
As for Arsuf, that is a good idea! I suppose mountain climbing would work, although there are memory walls preventing Altaïr from moving on sometimes.

So I finished the game. it took me another 2 hours, but that can be like, halved with planning and practice, since I don't know the later parts of the game so well. Shock and awe needs some work, but that's quite alright.
In Masyaf, I discovered that there's a ledge you can throw the guys fighting you off. Also, they're immune to throwing knives. I've to check Stab/Ian's video (I don't remember whose it is) on eliminating a few before starting the fight.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

Fed981's picture
Fed981
Offline
Citizen
male
France
Joined: 04/12/2011

Hey Golden Ratio, just check this link http://speeddemosarchive.com/lang/rules_en.html

I'm happy SDA will (normally) host an AC run, and I wish you again a good luck.

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

I already read the rules, Fed. Tongue Also, you can call me Phi.

What I was wondering about, there are a few audio files when I play that won't play. Is that allowed or will I have to get a new copy?

Also, I was wondering just now if it was possible to skip the conversation with Al-Mualim by exiting and then re-entering the Animus. Probably not, but it's worth a shot.

EDIT: Small update. I practiced the route for Tamir, Garnier and Talal today. For Tamir, it was easy, as expected. I haven't really picked the final route yet. I screwed up on Tamir's assassination and I still have no idea how I'm going to escape from there (suggestions would be welcome).
Garnier was easy as well. f I can get the horse jump over the guard post right, I will have no troubles. The route is very straightforward, almost a straight line from one investigation to the next and a really quick trip to the bureau (I think it's even faster than exiting and re-entering the memory). The assassination itself went well as well (lot of w's in there Tongue), but the escape wasn't good at all, but that was because I made a stupid move. Other than that, trip back to the bureau needs work, because all the guards are on alert.
Talal, meh. I don't know what the hell happened, but after I'd failed the horse jump, anytime I'd come within 30 metres of the city entrance, I'd get exposed. I wasted like 10 minutes trying to fix that. I could've had Talal dead within that timeframe! Tongue For the assassination, I've to work on doing that jump from the ladder to the candelabra seen in one of the blitz videos. I attempted it 4 times before I got it. Outside went well, I missed a jump, but I still got Talal on time.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
161803398874989 wrote:
I think it'd be very doable to speedrun any% segmented in around 4 hours.

Four hours for the whole game?! I think you have to include the durations of cutscenes and loading screens. AC1 doesn't have an in-game timer.

I think it may be possible to get in the huddle of that scene in a speedrun to get the letter early.

In general, I suspect getting in the huddle is more trouble than it's worth. The setup time can easily outweigh the benefit of a faster pickpocket. For a speed run I would suggest sprinting toward the investigation while mashing Xbox left trigger. If you happen trigger the cutscene while crossing the invisible perimeter, you're in the huddle.

In Damascus, you have to do a save citizen. I plan on using shock and awe

There are only 3 guards so shock and awe is overkill. Three grab-throw-assassinates is just as good. Behind the market stand is a gorge. Try running to the edge and grab-throwing them over the cliff. I can't recall if this works.

After that, high profile dismount into the city, although I'm really rubbish at that.

Everyone is. Wink In the case of Damascus I would recommend a dead body distraction rather than remounting the horse only to dismount immediately. For Acre and Jerusalem, practice the reverse dismount where the horse bowls over some guards. That's more reliable than dismounting over their heads. For Memory Block 4 and later you can just enter the city Exposed. By the time you run across town to the first investigation, you'll either be Anonymous already or Unseen, in which case you can jump on a bench or haystack.

The trip to Acre is pretty bland and it's unavoidable that Altaïr gets exposed.

I believe it's possible to reach Acre and even Jerusalem anonymously and without pre-assassinating Templars. For a speed run, Gallop is king. Just go for it and avoid guard posts that will cut down your horse.

Exit via the window into a nearby roof garden works perfectly; it's almost a straight line from there to the bureau, with no guards along the way.

You know how in The Kingdom you can go from Unseen to Anonymous without Hiding by simply getting far away from your pursuers? The same thing is possible in the cities. There's a Garnier assassination video where Altaïr never hides. He just free-runs the roof tops from the Hospitalier to the Bureau and becomes Anonymous just in time. I will try to find the video (it's not on THB). Not hiding saves several seconds.

What I recommend for all escapes is this.
Plan A: Free-run and/or Sprint toward the Bureau. Prefer routes that avoid guards/archers. Hope to become Anonymous without Hiding.
Plan B: Hide in a Roof Garden near the Bureau. Now you don't have to worry about the City Alert because the Bureau is right there. You just saved some time by Sprinting home during a City Alert.

I did a freeform assassination on Abu'l which was way slow.

Try Aurel's Exposed blitz (i.e. climb the fountain and go left).

I'm not sure whether it's possible to jump down, miss the haystack and survive, because that would work.

You can always drop and Catch Ledge near the bottom.

Targets here is Maria. For investigations, I'd say take the pickpocket, the eavesdrop and the other pickpocket, since the beat-up and the informer take longer.

No, it's a trap!!! The northern pickpocket is the hardest one in the game. Do the 2 target Informer blitz as shown in Case of the Missing Scholars.

You won't even feel the blade.

Fed981's picture
Fed981
Offline
Citizen
male
France
Joined: 04/12/2011
161803398874989 wrote:
What I was wondering about, there are a few audio files when I play that won't play. Is that allowed or will I have to get a new copy?

If I understand correctly your question : the game has to be an original one. You can't modify anything, because that means you may actually cheat.

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
161803398874989 wrote:
Tamir's assassination and I still have no idea how I'm going to escape from there (suggestions would be welcome).

Well, you could use the escape from my Stylish Assassination. It starts by climbing the wall behind Tamir's initial (blitz) location and ends in a haystack on the way back to the Bureau. I still think you should Sprint back to the Bureau while Exposed and hide somewhere in that vicinity.

Here's the Garnier escape with no Hiding:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfsGK0TVwXw

For the assassination, I've to work on doing that jump from the ladder to the candelabra seen in one of the blitz videos.

That jump is too hard to hit for a speed run. The one in Eleven Man Blitz is more robust and only about half a second slower.

You won't even feel the blade.

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010
stabguy wrote:
Four hours for the whole game?! I think you have to include the durations of cutscenes and loading screens. AC1 doesn't have an in-game timer.

You read that right. Remember that AC2 was much longer and that was ran in 4.5 hours, so I think 4 hours is a reasonable estimate.

In general, I suspect getting in the huddle is more trouble than it's worth. The setup time can easily outweigh the benefit of a faster pickpocket. For a speed run I would suggest sprinting toward the investigation while mashing Xbox left trigger. If you happen trigger the cutscene while crossing the invisible perimeter, you're in the huddle.

Yeah, I figured as much. I'm also learning the fastest way to pickpocket, just before they start to look around, which is as fast as getting in the huddle. I also sprint everywhere and mash Xbox left trigger regardlessly of the investigation.

There are only 3 guards so shock and awe is overkill. Three grab-throw-assassinates is just as good. Behind the market stand is a gorge. Try running to the edge and grab-throwing them over the cliff. I can't recall if this works.

Or I could throw them into a market stand. Wink

Everyone is. Wink In the case of Damascus I would recommend a dead body distraction rather than remounting the horse only to dismount immediately. For Acre and Jerusalem, practice the reverse dismount where the horse bowls over some guards. That's more reliable than dismounting over their heads. For Memory Block 4 and later you can just enter the city Exposed. By the time you run across town to the first investigation, you'll either be Anonymous already or Unseen, in which case you can jump on a bench or haystack.

It's much faster to use the horse. I've already tried. Also, this is a speedrun and a horse-jump entry is very much possible. I just need more practice.
Also, hiding takes time.

I believe it's possible to reach Acre and even Jerusalem anonymously and without pre-assassinating Templars. For a speed run, Gallop is king. Just go for it and avoid guard posts that will cut down your horse.

I know. That's what I meant when I said it's unavoidable that Altaïr gets exposed.

You know how in The Kingdom you can go from Unseen to Anonymous without Hiding by simply getting far away from your pursuers? The same thing is possible in the cities. There's a Garnier assassination video where Altaïr never hides. He just free-runs the roof tops from the Hospitalier to the Bureau and becomes Anonymous just in time. I will try to find the video (it's not on THB). Not hiding saves several seconds.

The exact distance is 50 metres. You know this because I sent you a PM on the subject. Wink I don't think I have the video lying around anymore, though.

What I recommend for all escapes is this.
Plan A: Free-run and/or Sprint toward the Bureau. Prefer routes that avoid guards/archers. Hope to become Anonymous without Hiding.
Plan B: Hide in a Roof Garden near the Bureau. Now you don't have to worry about the City Alert because the Bureau is right there. You just saved some time by Sprinting home during a City Alert.

Exactly what I was thinking!

I did a freeform assassination on Abu'l which was way slow.Try Aurel's Exposed blitz (i.e. climb the fountain and go left).

Yeah, I checked the fastest assassinations menu for all targets and plan on using that one.

You can always drop and Catch Ledge near the bottom.

Good thinking.

No, it's a trap!!! The northern pickpocket is the hardest one in the game. Do the 2 target Informer blitz as shown in Case of the Missing Scholars.

It doesn't take 42 seconds. Wink

Well, you could use the escape from my Stylish Assassination. It starts by climbing the wall behind Tamir's initial (blitz) location and ends in a haystack on the way back to the Bureau. I still think you should Sprint back to the Bureau while Exposed and hide somewhere in that vicinity.

If I were to use that haystack, it's much faster to climb up the scaffolding, like I do in my Alternative Escape Route of the stage. It also roughly demonstrates the route I'm planning to take from the bureau to the assassination site.

That jump is too hard to hit for a speed run. The one in Eleven Man Blitz is more robust and only about half a second slower.

It's just aiming the stick right. Besides, it a segmented run, so if it really is as hard as your say it is, I can make that the beginning of a segment. Wink

Thanks for the feedback, it's appreciated.
However, I feel the need to express that I'm not merely playing through the game quickly. My aim is to get the run submitted at SDA and for it to remain there. That means it has to be world class. Arsuf has to be completed without losing a single bar of health (I'll probably have an entire segment just for Arsuf Tongue). The assassinations have to be nearly as fast as the world record blitzes. The investigations have to be quick as can be. The trip from Al Mualim's desk to the Kingdom has to be flawless every time. That is the standard I'm aiming for. So, yes, I will dismount over the guard posts if it saves me as much as 2 seconds (saves 18 seconds in the final run). Hiding might take 5 seconds. Say I do that 10 times. 50 seconds. If I'd do all that, the run would be 1 minute and 8 seconds longer than it needs to be, and 1 minute is all it takes for the run to be obsoleted.
The only way this run should be able to be obsoleted would be if Aurel went rampant and found some glitch that let's you teleport all over the place, start the assassinations without doing any investigations or something else that makes huge skips possible.

I also should mention that I'm a strong believer in that everyone can get good at anything. It just takes practice. I intend to become good at that tricky jump, the road to the kingdom, crowd navigation while sprinting, combat, all of it. I've got a lot of experience playing this game and I suspect it'll take less time to attain this standard than anyone else but you and Ian (there are some people at THB that I think will take the same amount of time).

Also, Fed, it's an original copy. It's just that some sound files won't play. Would the admins at SDA be more likely to consider my run invalid?

AKHeon, I checked Arsuf, but I'm rubbish at finding good spots, so I haven't been able to skip anything. It's possible to mountain climb on Xbox, that much I know, so any mountain climbing on PS3 ought to work on Xbox as well.
Also, Stab, I tried the acute angle glitch to get to the closed road to Arsuf, but couldn't get it to work. Tongue

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

Fed981's picture
Fed981
Offline
Citizen
male
France
Joined: 04/12/2011
161803398874989 wrote:
Also, Fed, it's an original copy. It's just that some sound files won't play. Would the admins at SDA be more likely to consider my run invalid?

If the muted sounds aren't very important, and if the game is an original one, then I believe it's ok. But you should ask Flip (the contacts are somewhere on the site).

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

Alright, thank you for your help, Fed.

Now, last night I did some running with the planned route. After 1 hour and 7 minutes, I was back in the Animus after Tamir had fallen. I screwed up on entering the city and there were some hiccups here and there (I accidentally knocked the people on a bench I was going to sit on over), but it went alright for a preliminary run. I think it's possible to complete this part of the game in less than 1 hour and 5 minutes.
Not much to say for Tamir's assassination, only that the world record is definitely very breakable.
For Tamir, it's very much possible to escape without hiding. Didn't take any effort at all.
Today I also ran for around 1 hour 20 minutes. Altaïr was talking to Al-Mualim after the first target of memory block 3 (William) had fallen. I screwed up a lot on that mission. Garnier and Talal went alright, though I screwed up on entering the city on both occassions, which cost me a few minutes. After Garnier's death, I accidentally entered a roof garden. Oops. Tongue For Talal, I also got discovered after I'd done the beat-up mission. I'm wondering whether it'd be quicker to just plan an escape route so I don't have to bother with blend. Talal's assassination went well, the escape was alright. Needs a little more route planning for the actual assassination.
Now, William. >.< Everything went wrong. Investigating alone took me like 20 minutes because I went the wrong way. The first two investigations went well and were over quickly, but I don't have a route to the third planned, so that went wrong big time. I also forgot to exit and re-enter the memory in order to get to the bureau quickly.
Then for the assassination, I screwed up on the route, taking a long way around. Then I messed up walking over the beams for the superfast blitz and then I screwed up the alternative (exposed) blitz as well. Then I got exposed during the trip back to the bureau like five times, which took me five minutes to fix. >.<

So, yeah, routes on William to and from the assassination site, as well as a route from the second pickpocket to the last investigation (which is also a pickpocket). A robust route to and from the assassination site of Talal is also needed.

Small edit: Here are my planned routes for memory block 2. Pink is the investigation route, blue is the route to the assassination site and green is the escape route. For the other memory blocks I'll have to get maps of the full cities, not just one district.
http://i41.tinypic.com/kuaz9.png

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
161803398874989 wrote:
Remember that AC2 was much longer and that was ran in 4.5 hours, so I think 4 hours is a reasonable estimate.

The in-game timer in AC2 doesn't count cutscenes and loading screens. If you add up the actual running time of Fed's videos it comes to 6:47:45, or 1:05:29 of cutscenes (please double check my math, Fed). I suspect that the long cutscenes of AC1 add up to about 1:30. So 4 hours of gameplay could easily become 5:30 on your stopwatch.

Or I could throw them into a market stand. Wink

As I recall, it's not a collapsible structure. My second playthrough of AC1 was hidden blade only (this was before I started making videos). This Save Citizen had me scratching my head for a while before I remembered grab-throw-assassinate.

That means it has to be world class. Arsuf has to be completed without losing a single bar of health (I'll probably have an entire segment just for Arsuf Tongue). The assassinations have to be nearly as fast as the world record blitzes. The investigations have to be quick as can be. The trip from Al Mualim's desk to the Kingdom has to be flawless every time. That is the standard I'm aiming for.

I think you need to re-examine your expectations. Perfection is not a realistic standard for 4 hours of gameplay. Take a look at the flag videos that Ian and I did for AC1. All of them have at least two errors and they're only 10 minutes long. Fed believes in "taking high percentage shots". Whenever one of us would point out a faster way of doing something he'd usually say, "I knew about that method but chose a reliable alternative that was nearly as fast." He's speaking from experience with speed runs. When you aim for perfection you soon become frustrated and give up.

You won't even feel the blade.

Fed981's picture
Fed981
Offline
Citizen
male
France
Joined: 04/12/2011
stabguy wrote:
161803398874989 wrote:
Remember that AC2 was much longer and that was ran in 4.5 hours, so I think 4 hours is a reasonable estimate.

The in-game timer in AC2 doesn't count cutscenes and loading screens. If you add up the actual running time of Fed's videos it comes to 6:47:45, or 1:05:29 of cutscenes (please double check my math, Fed).

My run of AC2 was actually 5:42:16 according to the in-game timer, and the total length of videos is 6:47:07 (including StatID, menus, loadings, outside of animus, etc).
In fact, the in-game timer does count cutscenes, but doesn't count time spent outside the animus (also for the Acre part).

Finally, if you consider a cutscene = a moment where you can't control the character (regardless inside or outside of the animus), there are ~3.0 hours of cutscenes in all videos.

Don't hesitate to ask if you need some more info.

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010
stabguy wrote:
161803398874989 wrote:
Remember that AC2 was much longer and that was ran in 4.5 hours, so I think 4 hours is a reasonable estimate.

The in-game timer in AC2 doesn't count cutscenes and loading screens. If you add up the actual running time of Fed's videos it comes to 6:47:45, or 1:05:29 of cutscenes (please double check my math, Fed). I suspect that the long cutscenes of AC1 add up to about 1:30. So 4 hours of gameplay could easily become 5:30 on your stopwatch.

I suppose that's reasonable. You're probably right, as always. Tongue We'll just see how quick it'll go.

Or I could throw them into a market stand. Wink

As I recall, it's not a collapsible structure. My second playthrough of AC1 was hidden blade only (this was before I started making videos). This Save Citizen had me scratching my head for a while before I remembered grab-throw-assassinate.

Market Stands are collapsable, that much I know for sure. I'm not sure whether there are any nearby. It's also possible to lock on and quickly get rid of one of the guards before the fight starts if you're quick enough. Maybe even two, but I haven't tried that.

I think you need to re-examine your expectations. Perfection is not a realistic standard for 4 hours of gameplay. Take a look at the flag videos that Ian and I did for AC1. All of them have at least two errors and they're only 10 minutes long. Fed believes in "taking high percentage shots". Whenever one of us would point out a faster way of doing something he'd usually say, "I knew about that method but chose a reliable alternative that was nearly as fast." He's speaking from experience with speed runs. When you aim for perfection you soon become frustrated and give up.

The idea is to set a goal higher than I can achieve and then to do my very best to get to that goal, in order to achieve as good a run as possible.
Thing is, the methods and routes I've chose to use are relatively easy, most of it is running along the ground and that's just a matter of crowd navigation. As for battles, those are far and few between. There's the save citizen in Memory Block 2, Arsuf and the final memory block. The save citizen is easy, so I'm not worried about that. Arsuf is a different story, but there are two battles that I have to use shock and awe in, the rest is throwing people of a ledge.

I'll get my DVD's back soon, so I can record the plans. I'll update this post in a moment with routes for Memory Block 3.

EDIT: Here they are:
http://i43.tinypic.com/icif7b.png

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

aurllcooljay's picture
aurllcooljay
Offline
Citizen
male
At Thehiddenblade.com. Where else?
Joined: 06/13/2010

DANG Shock

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

I assume you're referring to the route for the SFB? That is the very likely fastest possible route for the William superfast blitz (obviously the execution isn't that fast yet), and if you count setup time with the blitz timing, this done quickly would obliterate the current world record (your setup time is slower than Ian's exposed blitz, I think), which is 19.53 seconds. Not bad. Tongue

A few notes to go with it.
- 0:00 Route to the first investigation went pretty well. Turns out that being exposed when entering the city doesn't matter. It helped that I was familiar with the route (we had a race from the gate to William's fortress once).
- 0:42 Locking the first pickpocket investigation is kind of difficult. I just need some luck to get the path clear.
- 2:25 Bumping into the guy I just stole from was a mistake and cost some time.
- 2:42 That jump is possible to make without Altaïr hanging off the building.
- 6:35 It may be faster to go straight ahead and use the in-air platform. That will probably get me exposed, though, so any gained time would be wasted on killing the archer.

I'm still considering a route via the ground, but then I'd have to spend time to get on the roofs to make that jump. Climbing the ladder next to the canopy I jump off will surely piss off the archer.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

Jack-Reacher's picture
Jack-Reacher
Offline
Citizen
male
NZ
Joined: 02/07/2010

Yeah you can use the market stands to kill guards with outside damascus, I have finally planned my save citizen video for that poor district and it worked for me.

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
161803398874989 wrote:
stabguy wrote:
No, it's a trap!!! The northern pickpocket is the hardest one in the game. Do the 2 target Informer blitz as shown in Case of the Missing Scholars.

It doesn't take 42 seconds. Wink

The Pickpocket cutscene alone takes 45 seconds and I don't know any way to skip it. On the Informer you can skip both the before and after cutscenes using the jump and bump exploit.

You won't even feel the blade.

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010
stabguy wrote:
161803398874989 wrote:
stabguy wrote:
No, it's a trap!!! The northern pickpocket is the hardest one in the game. Do the 2 target Informer blitz as shown in Case of the Missing Scholars.

It doesn't take 42 seconds. Wink

The Pickpocket cutscene alone takes 45 seconds and I don't know any way to skip it. On the Informer you can skip both the before and after cutscenes using the jump and bump exploit.

Wait, it does?! I'd never expected that.

Informer blitz it is. I'll see when I have time again to get the routes for the other targets up.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
161803398874989 wrote:
Turns out that being exposed when entering the city doesn't matter.

Yes, that's exactly how I hoped it would work in MB4 and onward.

What happened at 2:33? It sounded like a Templar spotted you but I don't know of any Templars in that area.

You won't even feel the blade.

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

It was probably that I bumped into that guy, which caused the same response as failing a pickpocket would. I think the French comes from the save citizen right behind the guard tower.

I'll get to uploading the route for Abu'l.

EDIT: Done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd7bbGSCrhc

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

ROB_88's picture
ROB_88
Offline
Citizen
male
up north
Joined: 11/11/2009
stabguy wrote:
On the Informer you can skip both the before and after cutscenes using the jump and bump exploit.

completely unrelated to the speedrun, but i tried that jump and bump thing once, just for fun. it did not end well.
somehow i got lodged inside a wall, and a little bit under the ground.

Things will not calm down, Daniel Jackson. They will in fact calm up

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

Alright, route update for William with Aurel's instant kill. It's faster than the other route, because in this version, William is dead within four minutes, whereas the scene starts in the first version after three minutes, and then I still have to escape all the way over the top of the fortress, not to mention the way back is much harder because all guards are suspicious.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bG5zQ5bak8

I'll get to uploading the routes for Jubair and Majd soon. For Jubair, as of now I'm not going for the instant kill. I find it pretty difficult to get guards on the other side of the door and then countering isn't easy as well. Maybe Aurel has some tips? (You're probably reading this.)
I'll also update the original post with route planning and such.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

aurllcooljay's picture
aurllcooljay
Offline
Citizen
male
At Thehiddenblade.com. Where else?
Joined: 06/13/2010

Nice. I recently played this mission and found a faster way to do this. I was fooling around with killing the prestaged guards and noticed that they disappeared if you go at certain places. So I moved William to the back of the guard group and high profile assassinated to get an "invisible assassination". Well, the memory corridor scene started. If you think that's crazy you've got to hear this. Another time I high profile killed one of the guards for an "invisible assassination" and the memory corridor scene started! That's right, a memory corridor scene without killing the actual target (I demand Ubi explains this!). So to save time just kill that one guard (he's near the back of the group. Don't forget it has to be high profile and an "invisible assassination") And since the scene hasn't started there's no invisible barrier.

161803398874989 wrote:
I find it pretty difficult to get guards on the other side of the door and then countering isn't easy as well. Maybe Aurel has some tips? (You're probably reading this.)
I'll also update the original post with route planning and such.

Try to get at least a few guards on the other side. The countering is based upon guessing, so if it's not working well don't try it. It might be worth it to try a superfast blitz, because even if it fails it could still save you time. Let me explain:
A fast way to get to that one ledge on the roof is to jump to it after climbing to the railing on the roof. Now if you don't manage to fall into the building during the scene you're at least on the roof, which saves you the trouble of climbing to the roof after the scene. And if you manage to fall into the building but fail the superfast blitz you're at least on ground level, which might save you time, but you would have to adapt a ground level route to the target.

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

If the invisible assassination thing is reliable (ie. I can get a good shot quickly), I might just do that. Means the route has to be updated again as well.
Yeah, I was considering the superfast blitz, but it's difficult to get an isolated guard, since if you aggravate the archer
nearest to the building and them cross to the building, there are two guards on the ground that will come up. >.< Maybe a different route will work. It's a segmented run, if I can't get one option to work, I'll just have to restart the segment. I'll most likely segment it right before the assassination.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

Livebythecreed9's picture
Livebythecreed9
Offline
Citizen
male
Joined: 01/11/2011

I must say memory block 7 was very cleverly thought through, this may have been solved already but why can Arsuf never be reached by heading West? I suppose it maybe a restriction in the map boundaries. I am not a fan of speed runs to be honest, but this shows that when they work they really push the game towards new dimensions.

يمثل الحشاشون أشياء عدة ولكن فوق كل ذلك هو العدالة
(The Hashashin stand for many things, but above all it's justice)

AKheon's picture
AKheon
Offline
Citizen
male
Finland
Joined: 07/17/2010

I did some testing at Arsuf (not during block 6, mind you) and I'm convinced that at least some of the fights can be skipped there. The walls are quite good for doing the angled wall jump glitch for going OOB, so that's not a too big problem. But there are some issues. First, the OOB areas are in themselves divided by invisible walls... you can't just run through the entire level in OOB. You have to get back in bounds eventually, and from there preferably back OOB if you want to continue skipping fights. In my tests I couldn't get back in bounds when I needed to, but with enemies around I think you could just use counter attacks to let you slip back in bounds, so it might still work. It will be easier to see how it works in practice when I finally get my new save to memory block 6 and can try out Arsuf with enemies around.

Another thing is that we don't know yet if the game expects you to fight all the fights lest something important won't load, or how wide/deadly the memory barriers that you must go around will be. Remains to be seen.

(uploading a few vids of breaching walls and exploring at Arsuf right now)

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

Brillian, AKheon! Many, many thanks for doing this! Did I mention you were a genius?
I'd say create a topic for the early activation of Arsuf/skipping fights and you have yourself a frontpage. Wink

I'll have to rewatch the video a couple of times to get the exact places and stuff. However, as for your idea of counterattacking, that may be pretty difficult. The AI might decide not to try and attack Altaïr through the walls.

In any case, I really should upload the route for Jubair (I've got it already), but I can't when there are other people around. >.<

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

AKheon's picture
AKheon
Offline
Citizen
male
Finland
Joined: 07/17/2010

A separate topic for this new Arsuf stuff? If you insist...

The mid-parts of Arsuf seem pretty bad for OOB traversing. There are long stretches with no obvious OOB-spots. Also, the OOB-sectors are more confined than the ones I had first checked out, with also a risk of spontaneously falling down into nothingness at some places. I'd say that it's starting to be more trouble than what it is worth, except in a hardcore pacifist run maybe. But still, things might look a bit different with the actual memory barriers and enemies around.

(uploading another vid)

Fed981's picture
Fed981
Offline
Citizen
male
France
Joined: 04/12/2011

Hey, check this out, a nice wait to enter the place you always go (remember I don't know much about AC1)

http://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/assassins_creed75_16.html#assass...

AKheon's picture
AKheon
Offline
Citizen
male
Finland
Joined: 07/17/2010

Yeah, it undoubtedly would save time and allow entering the bureau during an alert (just tested that, it works!), if it could be reliably done. But in my experience it's not very reliable. Most of the time the jump doesn't go through the ground.

Basically, this new tehnique is that you, during a normal jump, grab ledge towards Altair's backside. This way he does not fumble against anything like normally and you can accrue glitch momentum against a much wider variety of surfaces. I've killed myself by falling OOB at least 50 times now during testing - it really turns the collisions of this game into swiss cheese. However, the bureau one is the first useful place I've found yet. It's a new trick, give it time... If I had to guess, you can get in the other bureaus through the roof as well, and maybe get inside Talal's warehouse early, etc.

EDIT: http://youtube.com/watch?v=YQoOSURp3BU

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

Talal's warehouse would be legendary. Shock

In any case, I'm still working on this. I've just been very busy with studying, getting a blog team together on Lucidipedia, organizing events etc. etc. When I do get free time, I can't get on the Xbox because someone will be watching tv. >.<

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

stabguy's picture
stabguy
Offline
Administrator
male
Honolulu, HI USA
Joined: 09/15/2009
AKheon wrote:
maybe get inside Talal's warehouse early

Won't it be a problem that you don't have the Catch Ledge ability in Memory Block 3?

You won't even feel the blade.

AKheon's picture
AKheon
Offline
Citizen
male
Finland
Joined: 07/17/2010

>>Won't it be a problem that you don't have the Catch Ledge ability in Memory Block 3?

When you put it that way... yes, it would be a big problem. I've tried to get into the warehouse using the normal variation of the momentum jump in the past, with no success. Didn't remember that (why is such an useful skill kept from you for so long? Al Mualim is a jerk.)

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

I haven't forgotten about this. It's just that I've got no time to put on the Xbox and play and when I have the time, the TV's usually taken. And then when I play, I've been messing around with the William assassination. Maybe I'll have a vid up.
In any case, I just decided to run for a bit and see how my skills were. Pretty good still, IMO, although shock and awe needs work. I ran from the William assassination to the pre-Robert conversation in a timespan of about 1 hour and 15 minutes. There were quite a few things, though:
Majd. I botched this, but was lucky that Majd was unresponsive. First time I've actually got the jump to work without immediately getting exposed. Jumped into the guard standing by the platform, though. I also screwed up the escape so I had to kill every soldier coming after me. Shock and awe around a roof garden is hard.
Jubair. It's really hard to go stealthily from the eavesdrop to the pickpocket since there's a patrol and a MILLION jar carriers. The run to the kill was executed pretty well (one minor hiccup) and instead of jumping onto the sun dial, Altaïr just jumped straight in front of Jubair, making for an amazing knock-knock-who's-there-blade-blade-who-blade-in-your-face-assassination. I'm thinking about changing up the escape route a bit. I don't really need any height since I get back to ground level anyway. Hid on a bench close to the bureau. Not sure if it's faster than hiding in the roof garden near the bureau.
Sibrand. This is actually surprisingly easy. Much easier than the Jubair investigation.
I died 5 times trying to execute the correct assassination route. One time I got to the boat, but he was on the other side, so I went on the boat, got exposed and knocked down and Sibrand was gone. I'll have to do this a couple of time. I got lost during the escape as well, though it was an anonymous kill.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

Here's Majd's proposed route:

There's a lot wrong with the run, like the escape after entering. Normally I lose them just after passing the golden dome.
Other than that the investigations are alright. Not great, but alright. The assassination is horribly botched. I was planning on something like the pre-exposed blitz, only not pre-exposed. I'll have to take a few seconds in order to let Majd detect me.
Maybe I should pre-assassinate the guard in the end.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

Fed981's picture
Fed981
Offline
Citizen
male
France
Joined: 04/12/2011

Does "proposed route" mean that's the best and fastest route or only you've found something quite interesting? Haha don't worry. I believe you run will be awesome.

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

"Proposed" means the same as "proposé". It's the fastest route I could find.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

Fed981's picture
Fed981
Offline
Citizen
male
France
Joined: 04/12/2011

That was not a language problem. I just wanted to know if you found a random route and proposed it, or if it's actually the fastest one. Anyway, I wish you good luck again.

sync's picture
sync
Offline
Citizen
france
Joined: 06/13/2011

Maybe you already thought of this, but when the trainer waits to drag you to the training ring, if you jump towards him to be nearer before he begins his usual speech, he won't have to take the few steps necessary to approach you. So he'll start talking immediately. It's not much but I figured it would be useful for a speedrun.

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

Recommended by Stabguy in his speed play thread, so I already was doing that.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

Recommended by Stabguy in his speed play thread, so I already was doing that.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

Fed981's picture
Fed981
Offline
Citizen
male
France
Joined: 04/12/2011

I just want to add a comment. I believe your routes are good, but you seem to use the "shortest" path (I mean bird path).

A piece of advice : unless you can't do otherwise (if you have to avoid an alert for instance), don't use the roofs. Plenty of time is wasted while climbing. You should rather use the streets, in order to run constantly.

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

I'm fairly certain that some routes are faster when using the roofs. William's especially.

Plus, roofs are low risk.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."

Fed981's picture
Fed981
Offline
Citizen
male
France
Joined: 04/12/2011

All right then.

161803398874989's picture
161803398874989
Offline
male
Joined: 12/13/2010

I've been rethinking some of this stuff and ran through the game up to William this morning. I wonder whether doing the informer mission with Garnier isn't faster than doing the pickpocket, since it's only one target and the route from the eavesdrop is easier. It seems the pickpocket and informer are the same distance away from the eavesdrop on the maps.
William also has an informer mission that is only two targets, which I could swap out for the last pickpocket. Would save time because I don't have to enter the fortress and wait before I can pickpocket.
For the others I think the current routes are good. I'll have to do more experimenting with those.

_________________

"Betraying the Assassins is never good for one's health."
"Well, neither is drinking liquor, but I'm drawn to its dangers all the same."