System Shock Portable Speedrun

[6745f9ac24663Acantophis3rd]

Well, what else can I say? Its just what the title mentioned.

I want to thank everyone that worked on SSP and tribute your work with this little, thiny, unique, worlds first and only speedrun of System Shock:

Here is the link (hosted on youtube and wordpress):
http://acantophis3rd.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/system-shock-speedrun/

Cheers!

[6745f9ac24a0cEnchantermon]

Don't have the time to watch it right now, but congrats, and thanks for recording it for us!

[6745f9ac24b2cAcantophis3rd]

Thanks and have fun with it.

What I ask myself... I did it under 1:30 hours.. why not making a mod that reduces the time limit from 7hours down to 1:30 hours?

[6745f9ac24c9eKolya]

Apparently you didn't use the mouselook mod? Did you consider this cheating?
I imagine mlook could speed things up quite a bit.

[6745f9ac24ddbNameless Voice]

Combat 1 and Puzzle 0?

[6745f9ac25207Acantophis3rd]

Apparently you didn't use the mouselook mod? Did you consider this cheating?
I imagine mlook could speed things up quite a bit.

As I captured this run, the mouselook mod was still unknown by the community and I just knew about it through twitter. I have no experience with this mod yet and cant tell you if it adds more swiftness. But I would consider it as cheating, because it is not vanilla enough, you know?

Combat 1 and Puzzle 0?

I was thinking about the right setup for the run before, and it was clear for me to leave the damage shield behind until I get version 4 on deck9. So I stumbled through the game with just shield v1. A higher combat setting would have get me killed very much. Thats what I wanted to avoid.

Puzzle 0 is self explanatory. Solving puzzles on the way through, would slow me down and this is still a speed run.

I was lazy and did not wrote commentary for the run. I think I should spend some hours these days and write one to clear the most common questions.

[6745f9ac2531ePain Elemental]

Speedrun is lame speedrun if you don't play it on maxium difficulty. Also I don't see the what is the point of stop moving to select a log in a speedrun. Also, how long time this run took to complete?   

[6745f9ac2542dKolya]

Oh come on, it's not "lame" just because he chose to exploit all options the game provides.
The time can found on the page he linked. Total Time: 84:53 (1 hour, 24 minutes, 53 seconds)

[6745f9ac2553bPain Elemental]

Well, I did go a little too far calling this run lame, this is ok, I couldn't do better. But still I would like to see a speedrun with maxium difficulty settings...

Also by the time I didn't mean how long the run was, I meant how long he worked on this run.

[6745f9ac2571eAcantophis3rd]

I heard that there are people speed running for fun? You should have been amused by the fact someone did it after more than 14 years. The game offers me to define the difficulty how I want. Why should I follow unwritten rules to satisfy strangers? It was the hell on combat 3 for me! If it would be possible to setup the keys in modern standard, then it would be played much smoother and maybe easier, but this would be no vanilla experience anymore.

If you had seen the entire run, then you would have noticed that I made a preselection of audiologs, which I layed over the game sound. But it looks like you just checked the first part. It would be a pity not to include a story to follow, dont you think?. But I do not judge you, because its your legit opinion.

To answer your question. I played through the game multiple times in the last 10 years and recently finished a 9 hour long video guideline with narration. Took me One year to finish. The speedrun itself took me 3 days to complete after I made my plans for each deck. I only saved between each floor.

At least, anyone who wants to start an own attempt, now has a reference about how fast it can be and what mistakes should not be done. I am still in love with the Antenna Mission. My way around all the locked doors, which I did not had a card for is genius. On the other hand.. try taking another route, picking up the FlyBoots and reach the Button to release the force bridge on security Everything is possible!

PS: First commentary notes come soon.

[6745f9ac259f4Marvin]

Wasn't the player allowed to skip the escape pod sequence altogether? I haven't tried it out yet but I read about it some time ago.

[6745f9ac25b5aEnchantermon]

You can "skip" the Edward Diego fight by setting up a generous helping of bombs for him on your first trip through Flight. Set a live land mine on top and when he appears, he'll step on it and kill himself. You still have to go to the pods and try to escape, though.

[6745f9ac25dd7Acantophis3rd]

Wasn't the player allowed to skip the escape pod sequence altogether? I haven't tried it out yet but I read about it some time ago.

The Door near the Elevator on the Security Level stays locked until you activate the Escape Pods. No chance to skip that. You can in fact skip the fight against E. Diego with mines, unless you dont have any. The Rapier does a good job, two strikes on Combat 1 and he is down.

[6745f9ac25f34Tarvis]

Actually the first door in Security unlocks and opens when you walk into it, you don't need to go to the escape pods at all. Strange but definitely a timesaver. It still says DOOR LOCKED until you bump into it though.

I did hack into the panel next to the door for Flight Decks 3&4 though before activating the reactor destruct, so I'm not sure if that's what does it or not.

I don't know if this is intended or a bug or what; though I bet if you do this, kill Diego on Level 8, then go back to the Flight Deck you fight him again even though he's dead already (???)
EDIT: Guess not. The door in Diego's room right before the bridge locks when he appears

[6745f9ac260d7Acantophis3rD]

Interesting find. Can you make sure that solving the puzzles to Decks 3&4 is responsible for it? Maybe the door already unlocks after the reactor is set to destruct? I don't have an actual savegame and can't check that out myself. I am looking forward to the results.

While we're talking, someone told me it's possible to skip the entire Deck 8 - Security by using jumpboots and skates. I always told my audience - once they asked - that it's definitely not possible to avoid the power-stealing knots surrounding the force bridge. I was wrong, but it needs indeed the two tools and to pick these up needs to recalculate the route through each deck until this point.

Anyway, it's possible as this video proofs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs9cfaghLf4

[video embedded on request ~kolya]

[6745f9ac261e7Enchantermon]

You don't even need the skates really; just the JumpJet soft and several batteries.

[6745f9ac262f1Tarvis]

I figured skates would be easier to find than the jumpjets, but either should work if you're careful.

Anyway, I don't have a save on the Flight Deck pre-reactor destruction anymore. Maybe on my next runthrough I'll try it without hacking the door panel.

[6745f9ac263f7Fironkkuify]

System Shock always looked so complex.  I never had the opprotunity to play it cause the portable version never worked for me =Z

I'll be watching this run at some point -w-