System Shock 1 Speedrun (Rules and Discussion)

[6745c02cb251eAcantophis3rD]

Due to the new World Record of 32:58 minutes ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr0F5kL9I1U ), all the rules in this topic are obsolete. Making Rules everyone has to follow was a bad idea in the first place. Because it limits the people in their approach & freedom to do things their way.

System Shock is A GAME ABOUT FREEDOM OF CHOICE.
It should stay that way!

-Joey

I am sorry if this is the wrong board for this topic. Please move the topic if needed. Id love to have this topic pinned, reasons see below. There is already a topic for sshock1/2 speedruns, but its main focus seems about sshock2 only and sshock2 mods and never about sshock1 (https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=4844.0) so I thought it might be a good idea to separate this two whole different games.

I wish to use this topic as discussion platform regarding speedrunning SSP. It should serve as inspiration and motivation to make more people interested in speedrunning SSP as well as discuss rules, adding rule-exceptions and serving tips for how to speedrun SSP. Please leave your comments, opinions, tips, suggestions as reply. System Shock is a wonderful game! Let's show SHODAN who's master!
You can contact me under: acantophis3rd@gmail.com, twitter: @acantophis3rd

I work on a second (legit!) speedrun, adressing all my failures and complains from this topic here:
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=2036.0.
My goal for the second run is to have at least a max time of 1hour 20minutes or faster. Since I already finished level1 4 minutes faster than in my old run, I even think a max time of 1hour or less is possible! Here are the rules for speedrunning SSP (if someone wants to challenge the current record holder). I will use the current SSP version v1.2.3 (today 27.7.2014)!

RULES FOR SPEEDRUNNING SSP:
- SCORING CHANGES (04.08.2014):
From now on, the ingame timer at the end will be counted!
- Video Resolution must be 320x200!
- Combat Difficulty must be 1 or higher.
- Mission Difficulty must be 3.
- Puzzle Difficulty is up to the challenger. (I use Puzzle 0. If you want to be faster but solving puzzles, then go ahead!)
- Cyberspace Difficulty is up to the challenger. (I use Cyberspace 3. (faster automatic forward movement)
- Saving the game is only allowed in the elevator! (whenever you load a savegame, then the cyborg-drone sound is heard. This way challengers that dont play along the rule can be debunked)
- Only the ingame time will be counted!
- Using the mouselook mod is considered cheating and against the rules!

EXCEPTIONS:
SSP got a behaviour to crash at the following points. So it is allowed to save the game mid-play before:
1. challenger hits the cyborg-con-switch on r&d, 2. challenger hits the shield-switch on reactor

- UPLOADING SPEEDRUN VIDEOS TO YOUTUBE:
- The Speedrun must consists of 5 segments:
Seg1: Laser Mission
Seg2: Virus Mission
Seg3: Antenna Mission
Seg4: Reactor Mission
Seg5: Bridge Mission
- Challengers can either upload the segments to youtube as a whole, or split into multiple parts.
- Naming policy for SSP-speedrun youtube videos:
1. Full Segment: nickname - SSP segment X
2. Split Segment: nickname - SSP segment X part X

CAPTURING VIDEO OF SSP:
1. Setup the game with the launcher SSP.exe and make sure the mouselook mod is disabled
2. in the ssp-main folder go to: \RES\dosbox and start the dosbox.exe
3. After the game started hit CTRL+F1 and set any easy to reach key to VIDEO and Cap MIDI if wanted. I use "+"
4. Hit ESC to leave the keybinder and quit SSP
5. change fullscreen=true to fullscreen=false in \RES\dosbox\dosbox.conf to have the "dosbox status window" available
6. start the game using the dosbox.exe again and hit the hotkey to start recording
a message will appear in the "dosbox status window" = Capturing video to .\GEN\cdshock_001.avi which confirms the recording started
hit the hotkey again to stop the recording
7. recorded videos can be found in \RES\dosbox\GEN
8. to watch the videos install the dosbox video codec. just right click \RES\GEN\zmbv_codec\zmbv.inf and select install (make sure to be administrator)

CURRENT RECORD:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF166F13B0E49B790
Real Time: 84 : 53 - (1 hour, 24 minutes, 53 seconds)
Game Time: 1 hour, 28 minutes, 1 seconds
Image: http://photos.1highscore.com/score12655_20140801134225.png

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Here is the first problem with solution when speedrunning SSP.
- Numlock gives problems with SSP v1.2.3.
Whenever I wish to input doorcodes with the numlock, then the character moves. It doesnt matter if numlock is on or off. To prevent unwanted movement just start the game with numlock off and activate it before you use the numblock to input doorcodes. This was not the case with the SSP version I used for my first run. I guess it was the one before mouselook got added.

This brings up the question if there is an archive where it is possible to download older versions of SSP?

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RULES FOR SPEEDRUNNING SSP:
- SCORING CHANGES (04.08.2014):
From now on, the ingame timer at the end will be counted!

Please vote my #HighScore on System Shock [Version 1/Any Settings/Speed Run]
http://highscore.com/s/12655

[6745c02cb2a2fAcantophis3rD]

All Restrictions have been declared obsolete. Play the game your way. This is the philosophy of it's design.