Off-Topic Boards > Live Event Scheduling

Sonic Race

(1/5) > >>

Flopsy:
I initially suggested this in Arty's Ocarina of Time topic but I don't want to hijack that topic anymore on this subject so I've started a separate topic on this.

This is more of a topic to see if there is any interest in doing this at some point in the future.

This is more or less the same thing where we voice chat to one another while doing the race and record our own attempts then I can make the attempts into a split screen video using my video editing software.

Anyone is welcome to join this provided they are able to record their race footage and even if you've never played the game before that's fine, to be honest blind attempts are more interesting to see than attempts from those who have played the game 50 times.

I also initially suggested racing Sonic 3 and Knuckles but I suppose any Sonic game is on the table potentially however I am only able to race a Sonic game which can be downloaded on Steam and I think that would be easier for everyone involved if we kept it limited to Steam downloadable Sonic games.

That means potential candidates are:
Sonic 1
Sonic 2
Sonic 3 and Knuckles
Sonic Adventure (Story run - all characters except Big perhaps?)
Sonic Adventure 2 (Story run - Hero, Dark and Final story?)
Sonic 1, Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles - all in one go
(open to other suggestions)

Other Rules

I suppose as it's a race, Emeralds are optional. In cases where Super Sonic can be achieved, it is down to the player to decide whether the Emeralds are worth the time due to the time Super Sonic could save later on in the run.

If multiple characters could be chosen, I suppose the obvious exclusion is Knuckles in S3&K unless we all choose to play this character.

Whether Tails alone is allowed is to be debated because I think Tails can be quicker than Sonic in some areas, however Sonic has shield abilities.

I would like this to be an authentic race where you actually play the game as intended and run through the levels so speed running techniques like level wrapping and terrain manipulation will not be allowed.
Similarly, in Sonic Adventure, death barrier manipulation techniques will not be allowed (most commonly used in the Final Rush stages).

If there are anything else which you think is important then mention it :)

Anyway, is there any interest? :)

Nessy:
Sign me up. I'm in! :thumbsup:

I really think these races you and Arty are setting up will ton of fun. I've never done them before and I believe they will even help me come out of shell a little bit more :)

I'm pretty much down for any of the games mentioned and we can even add in Sonic Mania since it is also a Steam downloadable game. I have never played the Adventure games so if we do them it will be the exact scenario described here: "to be honest blind attempts are more interesting to see than attempts from those who have played the game 50 times". The only one I can't do is the multiple Sonic games at once. I am not really sure if I will have the stamina and/or energy to do that in one sitting, but I honestly think I'll be up for it in the end if others decide to do it :)

I had some additional thoughts that popped into my head while reading the post and here they are:

- I think it's a good idea to have the emeralds as optional items instead of banning them all-together. There is a lot of risk-vs-reward involved with that as a player needs to, as you mentioned, decide if it is worth it to go out of their way to collect them for the advantage of Super Sonic later on. It isn't a guaranteed win as a player can always fail a special stage and have to hunt for another emerald. You also never know when the player can run out of rings for Super Sonic and be left vulnerable, get crushed which is instant death even with Super Sonic, or die at a longer boss fight and be forced to replay it all over again (for example: Launch Base Act 2).

- If a player decides to use Super Sonic sometimes an extra boss stage is unlocked at the very end. Should they have to be completed as well in order to balance out the Super Sonic advantage or should a run be considered officially completed after the normal final bosses regardless if a player collected all of the emeralds or not?

- I think with this it would be better if everyone agreed to one character. This is mostly just in case one unintentionally has a bigger advantage than the others. Then again a good point was brought up that Sonic and Tails will have different pros and cons that might ultimately balance out.

- There is one slight concern I have that isn't a big deal but when a player reaches the goal they get more points if they got there faster. That means that a player can get to the goal at a faster time than the other players but since they have to wait for a larger score to count down the other players have the potential to catch up. Perhaps this is just a simple fix as we don't allow intentionally slowing down to do this. I think we have good trust here so no one will do it intentionally anyway. The only thing I can think of is that some people might go out of their way to collect rings or lives for the run (I'll definitely be one of those people) but I don't consider this intentionally trying to get a lower score to catch up to other players.

- I think that if the game has bonus stages they should also be allowed. It's another risk-vs-reward situation. You can risk them and get something useful out of it... or not and it was a time waster.

- I agree that we ban all glitches or unintended techniques. It'll keep the race simple and more accessible.

Proxima:
Definitely up for this. I've taken part in similar races with the community from The Sonic Center before, and those were great fun, but they had a couple of problems: glitches were allowed, so those who knew how to perform them had a massive head start; always coming last wasn't much fun ;) The Sonic community in general isn't much interested in glitchless runs, because most of the top players do know the glitches, and it's difficult to define what is a glitch and what isn't; the Lemmings community has a much stronger experience both with the fact that weeding out glitches can be done, and that it makes the game stronger and more interesting.

I would take part (if it's at a good time) in any of S1, S2, S3K, Mania, or Sonic 1 Game Gear. (Not S2GG or SCD as I still hope to return to my Let's Plays at some point, so I want to be able to do those blind.)

For the TSC races, we always voted before the race on which character and emeralds or no, so that everyone was racing the same goal. For this community, I'd say just go without emeralds (or make it optional, but I think practically everyone would choose not to go for them in that case). Most players here are less familiar with the games and might not be confident in being able to get all emeralds in a single run.

As Nessy points out, in the Genesis games if you reach the level goal between 24 and 29 seconds, it's better to wait until 30 seconds to avoid the 50,000 time bonus. It's not a big difference, and I would say if players know about this trick, just let them use it. It's part of the gameplay as-is and not really a glitch.

In TSC races, if you get a game over, you are allowed to use level select to get back to the stage you were on and keep playing. I say we also allow this, as you still get penalised for the GO by having to restart the level, and it's less severe than having to drop out altogether.

geoo:
I'd be interested in such a race, might be difficult to schedule across timezones though with me being away on weekends quite often. I only know S1, S2, S3K and Sonic CD (played through Sonic Mania once, but don't have any recording set up on Windows).

Fixing a character in advance seems to make sense to me (in S3K then there's also the question if it's Sonic, should it be Sonic+Tails and if so, can you have input on the second controller to e.g. lift up Sonic through the level? Probably not). Glitches are heavily abused in the runs, but then (I presume?) we're amateurs and most of them are too tough to learn quickly and pull off reliably anyway, so trying them in a run would be more of a gamble than a sure advantage, which can be fun too. (I think in past S3K races even between pros skipping a bunch of glitches was often the better strategy in the end than being stuck trying to pull of a glitch). And I'm pretty sure any of us would lose clearly to the pros in a glitchless run as well, unless I'm underestimating you guys.

607:
This is something where I'd like to join in!
I haven't played any of these games, but I know how they work (I've also got Sonic Advance). Tails would seem like the best character to me, as it's the easiest to avoid dying with. :P But dying might not be such a big deal, if you can restart from the level you ended at if you game over.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page