Glitch run 2012
I just wanted to make an own topic for this since there have been so many new recent discoveries, and there's still more to come, I'm sure.
For this year's AC glitching bout my original intention was to mainly check out the unfinished Arsuf things and try to find new physics glitches. Since I didn't have a save near M. block 6, I started off by going early in Arsuf and tested those wall breaches... but that was just the beginning (and elaborated in its own topic).
New tactic for doing the momentum/pass through walls glitch.
You must know by now that there's something strange going on with AC I's physics. Just jumping against surfaces causes glitch momentum to build that can make Altair zip through the walls or floors (with certain conditions). The new tactic is that by "grasping ledge" towards Altair's back you prevent him from fumbling against the surfaces he is flying directly against, making it far easier to build up glitch momentum and go through walls anywhere in the game.
This is the trick that allows glitched Bureau entrances and has helped in escaping Masyaf in M. Block 7. Speaking of which...
Escaping Masyaf in Memory Block 7
At the town gate, there are two memory barriers angled in a way that prevents you from leaving the same way you can leave Masyaf early in the first Memory Block. You instead have to go through three to four wall breaches on ground level to finally get out. The entire world is desaturated and ashen during Block 7, and bureaus are empty. Everything else seems to work normally... the real road to Arsuf is open, like it is in the last half of M. Block 6. Oh, and when you return to Masyaf, there's a cool camera/cutscene glitch.
It seems that Arsuf is built so that by skipping the first checkpoint none of the later fights activate. But story cutscenes don't begin either, and Robert and Richard are nowhere to be found. You can get into the last area and kill Robert's templar friends early by doing this, but eventually you have to backtrack and hit that first checkpoint to proceed. At least the very first fight (against archers) can be safely skipped, but is that even worth it? This is still something of a work in progress, but I'm guessing that it's not easy at all to skip the fights in the middle, and it's no guarantee that things load perfectly afterwards if you skip any of the checkpoints. Something else to try out is to approach Richard and Robert out of bounds, in case it's possible to do an early Robert assassination of sort here.
Another interesting Arsuf thing...
Now that I've gotten better at going OOB using the momentum glitch, I found a way to get to Arsuf's large out of bounds area (where you see all the soldiers move around). That must be the closed Arsuf road, only now seen from Arsuf's direction. That place is totally screwed up, with those soldier graphics popping in and out. And you can also have an extraordinary glitch happen there... riding a horse through the empty valley, it despawns. Then, by moving to and fro, you get it to re-appear and disappear again... meanwhile, you can activate a sort of glitched double speed mode for Altair that affects all his animations. Sounds very strange, but I'll upload some footage of it maybe tomorrow. Just to make sure, have you guys seen such phenomena elsewhere in the game, with a horse that disappears when you're riding it?
What's next:
- test the rest of Arsuf stuff.
- test out if going back in bureau during an assassination mission would let you complete it without even killing the target.
- try to get into Talal's warehouse through the roof/side using the new trick.
- everything's permitted.
Saw what you found on YouTube. You are a beast.
As I said before, I'm fairly sure it's possible to skip assassinations. The memory corridor scene acts as a checkpoint, not the scene itself. How do I know this? Simple. If you start the William assassination and infiltrate the fortress early (like Aurel did), there are certain points where you can stand that the soldiers will disappear. If you stand just outside one of those points and air-to-assassinate one of the soldiers so that you move through it (near the back is a great spot), you perform an "invisible kill" (don't look at me, that's what Aurel called it 
) and the memory corridor scene will start. Afterwards, you can just stroll out of the fortress without a city alert. You can then enter the bureau and the post-assassination conversation will start. I'll get a video up if you like, but I'll ask Aurel first, since he found it.
Also, wouldn't it be possible to get OOB at the second fight with the back-grasp glitch, after which you can skip the rest?
Tonight I'll have game time. I'll definitely be checking a lot of things out. Also, why didn't that early Arsuf topic get frontpaged?
I'll get a video up if you like, but I'll ask Aurel first, since he found it.
You have my permission. Something to include is if you do a low profile "invisible assassination" there is no memory corridor scene (just on guards, not the target himself). It would also be funny if the "invisible assassination" works on King Richard. I think this phenomena should be called the "Conrad Easter Egg" for obvious reasons (so Conrad does appear in the game, disguised as a guard).
Also, why didn't that early Arsuf topic get frontpaged?
The first Arsuf vids were about getting off the map and other observations, but the latest one was about preassassinating the other guards which results in remaining anonymous for a little while. You should post that vid here, AKheon.
Just to make sure, have you guys seen such phenomena elsewhere in the game, with a horse that disappears when you're riding it?
Not in AC1, but there was that one place in AC2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=M-5lJjb8Fzw#t=98s
>>I'll get a video up if you like
Sure, that might be interesting to see.
>>Also, wouldn't it be possible to get OOB at the second fight with the back-grasp glitch, after which you can skip the rest?
It's no simple task to get OOB with an unreliable jump when there's a whole bunch of enemies chasing after you. Also, the available OOB-area during the second fight is sectored roughly to where the memory barrier is set up. If there's any luck, it's possible to hit the next checkpoint from OOB and skip the fight this way.
The reason why you can't generally jump through the walls separating OOB-sections is that those walls are completely smooth. You need to have at least some indention or a curve in the wall to be able to release the glitched momentum at the end of the jump.
I'm expecting that the first checkpoint loads the second checkpoint, which on the other hand loads the third, etc. making activating all the checkpoints necessary. Of course I don't know this yet... I've only tested so far with skipping the first checkpoint (since I have no way yet to even skip the second checkpoint).
>>Not in AC1, but there was that one place in AC2.
A despawning horse might be the key in doing this double speed glitch elsewhere in the game. Although, the key might also be in the constant flux of graphical objects on the abandoned side of Arsuf, which would mean that the trick is completely locale-specific, which would be a shame.
Basically, in Arsuf, after the horse despawns, there are some camera glitches as well. When you start backtracking, the camera suddenly centers to a faraway horse instead of Altair. If you jump during the camera transition and smash some buttons, the location of the horse keeps changing. Trying to approach the horse often makes it disappear. The button smashing also occasionally activates the double speed mode for some reason... I'm guessing none of those things happened in AC II after the horse despawned?