STK Speedruns!

[Dugglez]

Hi. I'm dugglez, I speedrun SuperTuxKart

do you want to moderate the community? Expand the community (of one person)? or do you just like playing video games? if so, check this link for more information

http://www.speedrun.com/stk
Register, and Submit your run now!

See you on the track!
(ok that was pretty cringe not gonna lie )

[MCMic]

This is a pretty long game to speedrun, this discourage me :-)
I intend to try and speerun SuperTux instead, but I’m waiting for the speedrun.com moderator to add a 0.4.0 category.

[Dugglez]

@MCMic, ok, I understand, it's just so lonely

However if you have any Questions feel free to post them here! http://www.speedrun.com/stk/thread/6sr9d/

[onpon4]

Speedruns of racing games really aren't that interesting, in my opinion. Mostly because getting the best time is the goal anyway, so it's just normal gameplay. Interesting speedruns are when the game is being played unusually in a way that's generally harder to make finishing it faster possible.

[Dugglez]

@onpon4 Yes, but to some people they may find it interesting or just a fun competition!

I entirely respect your opinion and thank you for voicing it.

[MCMic]

Just noticed you also added individual levels. That I might try to submit a few runs.
Do I need to upload videos or a screenshot of endrace screen would be enough?
I’m not sure my computer can handle running STK and screenrecording at the same time.

[EDIT] But why do you use normal races with no opponents? Time trial makes more sense.

[Dugglez]

@MCMic End race screen would be fine and for grand prix a screenshot of splits would be fine

[EDIT] Don't know really just did it i guess

[Dugglez]

Here's a photo of a run when you haven't played for 6 months

- really bad run, normally ends at about sub 1:50

[Dugglez]

@MCMic i have made you a mod on the STK speedrun page so you can approve your own runs ETC.

[MCMic]

http://www.speedrun.com/stk/Bovine_Barnyard#Expert
I added «Time trial, no AI karts» to rules.
You have to set laps:3laps to see my run. Maybe the number of laps should be fixed by levels to the default one as part of the rules?
This seems easier and as the speedrunning comunity is quite small it avoids people running different things.

[Dugglez]

@MCMic that's an excellent idea, if you wish go ahead with it. also just saw your run, and beat it!

http://imgur.com/w2aE4CR

[MCMic]

I managed to make 1:27:83, which is not better than you but I wanted to submit it anyway.
But there is no support for milliseconds.
Should I check «Times in milliseconds» in the game configuration? It’s not clear what it does and wether or not it will lose previous times

[bonifarz]

Hey Dugglez, that's a cool idea.
I agree with MCMic that story mode is not terribly interesting for speed runs, but using the platform for a time-trial leaderboard is awesome.

Maybe some of you remember my old topic for STK 0.8 times, as linked in my signature. There I decided to have two-lap-times on all tracks, no matter how short they are.... that kept things simple and convenient.

So, you mostly use screenshots to verify submitted times, right? It would be nice if there was a way to collect ghost data there as well. In my old time trial topic, there's some instructions how ghost data can be used, an experimental feature which has been available in STK for quite a while.

I see you also put a guide with tips for each map, where you mention good spots for using slides. In STK 0.8, when skilled players started to submit their videos and ghosts, I realized that they really slided non-stop, on any spot of any track

Another thing that will be interesting to see when we get lap times for 0.9.x: Which of the three different kart classes (light, medium and heavy) will be best for which map, or will one class be superior for time-trial on any track? Keep in mind that they do not only differ in terms of acceleration and top speed, but also in the number of boosts you get per nitro pickup.

I'm happy to see this progress, keep it up

[Dugglez]

@MCMic I have gone ahead and done that, as well as changed the IL records so there are a good amount of laps relative to the length of the map (olivers' math class doesn't need 6 laps).

@bonifarz I thought that it would be better for it to have different lap requirements for different maps, because the time differences between runs of, for example, subsea and oliver's math class would be very large, and I aim to make all the runs ~2 mins in length.

I lack the coding knowledge and sp00kyness to do ghost data, but I can make you a mod on speedrun.com and you can put it in the forums.

If you watched my full game runs then you will notice that I did that too

Intelligent players will find what karts run the best on which map, and publish their runs, and other people will say https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeimE8Wz6e4 and then use those certain karts to achieve runs better then the previous group.

Much appreciated! also do you have a speedrun.com account so i can mod you.

[bonifarz]

I have not seen a full game run video, and I don't have an account there either, but thanks for the offer

The reasoning behind the two-lap-times was that there is nothing new happening after round two, and additional rounds are just more chances to mess the run up.
I cannot tell if some kart classes will really be better for specific maps, but they seem fairly well balanced. We'll see.
I see you have different difficulty categories, which also makes sense without bots, as engine power and max speed differ quite a bit. Though, probably only the fastest setting will be really interesting.

[Dugglez]

full run video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU66Or2cYSI

It takes more skill not to mess up though doesn't it?

the heavy karts use more nitro. recently I did a run with Beastie and if I had a small nitro tank it used all up, whereas as tux you get 2 chances to use nitro.

Yes, I did notice that.

thanks, Doglezz

[XGhost]

I'm a bit confused...
Aren't the speedruns supposed to be for STK version 0.9.1?

[Dugglez]

@XGhost yes but this was an old one

[MCMic]

@MCMic I have gone ahead and done that, as well as changed the IL records so there are a good amount of laps relative to the length of the map (olivers' math class doesn't need 6 laps).

Arg, no!
The point was to use default lap count for each level, which are chosed by STK developers.
It’s 3 for most, 2 for long ones (green valley, subsea).
At first I thought the same as you for oliver’s math class «6 laps is too many», then I ran it and saw that it took me about 2 minutes to do those 6 laps, which is what it takes me to do the 3 laps on normal levels, so this seems about right.

I’d really prefer if we stick to the default number of laps. If for some level the default seems wrong we can take it to the STK dev and maybe they will fix it for next version.

[Dugglez]

@MCMic alright, you can change it back.

[MCMic]

@MCMic alright, you can change it back.

Thanks, done.
I managed to beat you on Bovine Backyard, no luck on the others so far.

[Dugglez]

@MCMic beat you again

[MCMic]

@Dugglez When you can, screenshot the level start screen, because it shows the number of laps and the highscores for this number of laps. (Not that I don’t trust you, but I find it more clear than the end race screen).

[bonifarz]

full run video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU66Or2cYSI
It takes more skill not to mess up though doesn't it?

Heheh, that's subjective, some things are difficult for one person, and frustrating or boring for another person. It's all your choice, I just wanted to point out the old data in case that stuff is useful for you. A pity, though, that you cannot really compare the old times with your current ones, as the mechanics have been tweaked since 0.8.x. And sorry if my comments added to the confusion about the game version for this topic here.

the heavy karts use more nitro. recently I did a run with Beastie and if I had a small nitro tank it used all up, whereas as tux you get 2 chances to use nitro.

Yeah, as I mentioned in my first post here. Actually, it's a bit less than one and a half boosts in your tux example
You can look up all the kart- and difficulty-specific rules in the file stk_config.xml:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

     <kart-type>
         <light>
             <startup time   = "0.3 0.5"
                 boost  = "8.5 4.5"  />

             <nitro engine-force="350" consumption="1" small-container="1" big-container="3"
                 max-speed-increase="4.5" duration="1.5" fade-out-time="2.5" max="20"/>

             <slipstream length="11" width="2" collect-time="1.5" use-time="2.5"
                 add-power="3.2" min-speed="9"
                 max-speed-increase="4" duration="1.2" fade-out-time="2.3"/>

             <turn turn-radius="0:3.0 10:10.0 25:20.0 45:40.0"
                 time-full-steer ="0:0.15 0.5:0.15 0.5:0.25 1.0:0.25"
                 time-reset-steer="0.1"/>

             <engine power="250 300 350 400"  max-speed="13 18 21 23.0" brake-factor="15.0"
                 max-speed-reverse-ratio="0.5"/>

             <gear switch-ratio="0.20 0.55 1" power-increase="5 4 3"/>

             <mass value="195"/>

             <explosion time="2.1" radius="5.5"
                 invulnerability-time="7" />
         </light>

         <medium>
             <startup time   = "0.3 0.5"
                 boost  = "4.2 2.6"  />

              <nitro engine-force="425" consumption="1.4" small-container="1" big-container="3"
                    max-speed-increase="5" duration="1.2" fade-out-time="2" max="20"/>

              <slipstream length="10" width="2" collect-time="2" use-time="3.3"
                  add-power="2.8" min-speed="10"
                  max-speed-increase="5" duration="0.9" fade-out-time="1.6"/>

              <turn turn-radius="0:4.5 10:16.0 25:30.0 45:60.0"
                    time-full-steer ="0:0.17 0.5:0.17 0.5:0.28 1.0:0.28"
                    time-reset-steer="0.1"/>

              <engine power="375 450 525 550"  max-speed="14 19 22.0 25" brake-factor="11.0"
                  max-speed-reverse-ratio="0.4"/>

              <gear switch-ratio="0.30 0.7 1.0" power-increase="2.2 2.2 2.5"/>

              <mass value="250"/>

             <explosion time="1.8" radius="5"
                  invulnerability-time="6" />
         </medium>

         <heavy>
             <startup time   = "0.3 0.5"
                   boost  = "3.8 2"  />

             <nitro engine-force="600" consumption="2" small-container="1" big-container="3"
                   max-speed-increase="8" duration="0.7" fade-out-time="1.3" max="20"/>

             <slipstream length="8.5" width="2" collect-time="2" use-time="4"
                   add-power="2.7" min-speed="10.5"
                   max-speed-increase="8" duration="0.7" fade-out-time="1"/>

             <swatter duration="10" distance="3" squash-duration="5"
                   squash-slowdown="0.5"/>

             <turn turn-radius="0:4.0 10:18.5 25:43.0 45:72.5"
                      time-full-steer ="0:0.23 0.5:0.23 0.5:0.41 1.0:0.41"
                   time-reset-steer="0.1"/>

             <engine power="575 675 775 875"  max-speed="15 20 23 25" brake-factor="10"
                   max-speed-reverse-ratio="0.65"/>

             <gear switch-ratio="0.45 0.70 1" power-increase="1.5 1.7 2.5"/>

             <mass value="350"/>

             <explosion time="1.5" radius="4"
                   invulnerability-time="6" />
         </heavy>
     </kart-type>


Of course, many of these numbers do not tell us much on their own, as they go into the details of game physics. But we can see that it is a nicely tuned array of various properties. Whenever you see a list of four numbers, that's for the different difficulties.

[Dugglez]

@MCMic yep I will do that in future.

@bonifarz you have confused me further by blurting code in my face.