Hello all, over at speeddemosarchive I am currently working on a single-segment speedrun of world of goo. I have been keeping track of all the individual level records on here and they are all very impressive. However, about 10 of them I can't seem to find videos for and therefore can't seem to get that close to the record times. Now while I will be doing the whole run in 1 go (as its single-segment) I can't hope to match the records for many if any of the levels and have to do slightly different "safer" strategies.
It would be very helpful if you fellow gooers could tell me how the following records are achieved so I can possibly implement the strategies into my run:

Hang low in 11 seconds
Impale sticky in 16 seconds
Regurgitating pump station in 26 seconds (?!??)
Blustery day in 25 seconds (??)
Beauty and the electric tentacle in 13 seconds (faster than the balloon boost I would say)
The red carpet in 14 seconds (come on!)
Genetic sorting machine in 34 seconds (probably just fast boosting but would like to see it)
upper shaft in 16 seconds
Incineration destination in 42 seconds
Grape vine virus in 39 seconds (fast!)

I will be sure to let you all know when the run is done! Given the impressive individual level runs already done here I would recommend submitting the records to www.speeddemosarchive.com where everyone can view them, of course its up to you if you want to do that. Thanks in advance for your help!

By coincidence....
I just this minute... well about 20 minutes ago... posted vid of Blustery Day 0:25

That's my one done!  :D

:D  Some scores are mine

All scores require A LOT of luck

ok here we go...

Hang low in 11 seconds
    Take one good kick at the sleeping goos (should wake 5-6 of them) then build insanely-fast* to the pipe.

Impale sticky in 16 seconds
    I got 18 sec on that one. Hmmmm.... Don't know what to say... You have to be skillful and fast to do this. It is normal start.

Regurgitating pump station in 26 seconds
    I got 40 sec on this one. Cycl4mate has the record. He start is to build a goo line insanely-fast* and the kick it a fast a you can to the top. It is very hard!!

Blustery day in 25 seconds
    There is a video :D        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHTpNE4FNhY

Beauty and the electric tentacle in 13 seconds
    I'm trying to make a video of this one but having some problems, can't repeat the score :(  I gt lots of 14 and 15. It involves A LOT of luck. The idea is this. Put three balloons fast on the line, instantainiously grab a goo and kick the beauty to the right. A LOT of luck is needed to get the beauty to drop exactly on the gears.

The red carpet in 14 seconds
    It is easy if you are skillful and a bit lucky. As the levels starts grab a goo and throw it to the left as fast as you can. It should go through the carpet, bounce of the wall, kick the carpet. As the carpet starts to fall kick the beauty to the opening to the left and build insanely-fast*

Genetic sorting machine in 34 seconds
    It is a long level and I would probably use all memory of this form to explain to you how to get 34 sec. Just kick the beauty goo as the level starts (forget about uglys), then kick it and kick and kick it to end of the level.

upper shaft in 16 seconds
    I think there is a video of this... it starts something like this   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3727qLolQ8&feature=channel_page

Incineration destination in 42 seconds
    I will make a video soon, it isn't hard.

Grape vine virus in 39 seconds
    Greatest score I have ever set!! (and tower of goo 100 goos). It require skill and precision. You have to do it in 20 moves. The start is something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izKmwOoLLn4&feature=channel_page only insanely-fast*. I repeated this level about 200 times to get this score. :)



insanely-fast* - i mean something like this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX3t18uMxNU


Just to save you time... You can't get 99% of all these scores from you first try. ;)

Thanks! A lot of those ideas look too hard to pull off in a single-segment but I may incorporate some of them. Don't worry I know all about lots of retrys from when I did a single segment run of max payne on DoA, took months of retrys. I am by no means expecting to do this first try, any retry of a level will be unacceptable and require a restart of the whole run. It will take a few months, anyway I will post it when done, I can finally start attempting now all the levels are planned!

Do not put so high standards for yourself. These scores are really really hard. If you could do all levels in (score + minimum 10-15 sec) time it would be great. :). I'm not underestimating you, just saying. ;)

Oh don't worry, I am not aiming for these times, 4 seconds for level 1 is as close as I will get to any of those records definitely!

This game is much more suited to an individual levels run (like you guys have already done), but I only do single-segment runs so I am kind of shooting myself in the foot choosing a game like this really :D , like you said just need to not expect to get record times for the levels.

One last thing for incineration destination, is it basically this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9BN8TBKdb0

But faster and without throwing anything through the walls?

For a single segment, I suggest you the normal strat for Hang Low and Impale Sticky. For Regurgitation Pumping Station, I think the safer and quicker way to do it is building a triangle of ivy goos and throw it until the balloon. You need to be lucky for Blustery Day but after some training you could easily get ~35 seconds. Beauty and The Tentacle : I think it is safer to use the bug times trick than trying to throw goo on the beauty and fail. The Red Carpet : launch goo above the carpet and throw the beauty inside the hole (it's not easy to get this each time...). Nothing special for Genetic Sorting Machine. Use the video Pavke posted for Upper Shaft (easy). Finally I think you should train in GrapeVineVirus using the normal way : it's impossible to get a line falling into the pipe consistently (not even 30% of time).

If you want a single-segment run without restarting, the main problem will be Deliverance. It's one of the last level (the four in the epilogue shouldn't be very hard) and you need to be very lucky just to finish it.

And I think, you will skip all the cutscene of the game, right ?


Good luck anyway. (I think I will redo my chapters speedrun)


EDIT : I just see your last post. Yes it's basically this strat but you have to throw goo through walls (but instead of using the bomb you just have to put another goo.

Hey Kopa, yeah I saw your chapters 1 and 2 speedrun a while ago. About beauty and the electric tentacle, I have tried several times to consistently get the bug time trick to work but sometimes it launches straight horizontal or in weird directions or not at all! Therefore, unless you can suggest a consistent way of doing it I was going to go with just quick building.

EDIT: pressing tab sends the post arghhh!

For regurgitating pump station wouldnt it be as quick to just build really quickly across and up? I have seen some of your videos where it looks a nasty struggle to throw a triangle all the way up.

Deliverance I am not worried about, I think I can get this pretty consistent as you can zoom not on fire goos onto on fire goos and get a good spread on the way down to ensure it all blows in 1 go. I'm probably more worried about the penultimate level as waking up the balloons can be a pain. I have had to leave out strats like for chain or ivy towers or horizontal transportation but none of the levels are going to be easy really.

Also how do you skip cutscenes? One of the function buttons?

[quote author=ridd3r link=topic=1928.msg13106#msg13106 date=1245361176]Also how do you skip cutscenes? One of the function buttons?
AFAIK you can only "skip" them by playing that level once before in that "session".
This can be done in another profile, if you're trying to keep the elasped time right.
But once you've watched a scene once, you can just click out of it every other time.
But you have to watch them again if you restart the program.

FYI
Video of Upper Shaft in 0:16
and
Video of Chain in 0:15  (without kicking a line!)

Hanglow you can do "normally" in 0:13.. just be quick and careful with the building.

Omg that chain strat is genius, I'll definitely use that! The upper shaft strat is exactly what I do but I'm a few seconds slower, usually takes a couple of goes to get the goo through the wall.

Also yeah I didn't think you could skip cutscenes also as I will be starting a new game file for the run I will be leaving them all in.

[quote author=ridd3r link=topic=1928.msg13106#msg13106 date=1245361176]Also how do you skip cutscenes? One of the function buttons?

basically.... make a TEST profile, go trough the hole game and watch all cutscenes. Then make your FAST RUSH profile and you don't have to watch the cutscenes again. btw, don't quit WoG in between. :)

good luck!

[quote author=Pavke link=topic=1928.msg13109#msg13109 date=1245372903]
[quote author=ridd3r link=topic=1928.msg13106#msg13106 date=1245361176]Also how do you skip cutscenes? One of the function buttons?

basically.... make a TEST profile, go trough the hole game and watch all cutscenes. Then make your FAST RUSH profile and you don't have to watch the cutscenes again. btw, don't quit WoG in between. :)

good luck!
That doesn't work. I always have to watch cutscenes, weather i've seen them or not.

I'm not going to bother skipping cutscenes, the run will take several hundred attempts to manage probably and theres no way I would do the whole game for every attempt I made at this run just to skip some (relatively short) cutscenes.

You must skip cutscene! Just learn where the cutscenes are and do the level in another profile before doing your real run. In chapter 1, there are small divide & regurgitating. In chapter 2, there are beauty school, leap hole and genetic. In chapter 3, there are second hand smoke and product launcher. No cutscene skippable in epilogue. I'm not sure for chapter 4 and I may forget some others.

You could save a lot of time by atleast skipping the last cutscene of each chapter.

[quote author=Kopa link=topic=1928.msg13123#msg13123 date=1245429354]
You must skip cutscene! Just learn where the cutscenes are and do the level in another profile before doing your real run. In chapter 1, there are small divide & regurgitating. In chapter 2, there are beauty school, leap hole and genetic. In chapter 3, there are second hand smoke and product launcher. No cutscene skippable in epilogue. I'm not sure for chapter 4 and I may forget some others.

You could save a lot of time by atleast skipping the last cutscene of each chapter.


I have talked with the guy who times runs on speeddemosarchive and he just said since the cutscenes would be such a hassle to skip we could just factor them out when timing the run. That would save me like 5-10 mins every time I did a reattempt.

Also, I have added up all the level times of my practise run and the total is 21:14 at the moment. A couple of levels could be done faster even in a single-segment (like grape vine virus I did not redo) so I reckon about 20:45, something like that. Also bear in mind that you can't use the whistle until mid chapter 2 which costs a fair bit of time, also for levels like MOM theres like 50-60 secs extra due to having to have the whole chat so that time is not directly comparable to the IL table.

So now I will start attempting, here we go!

@kopa: the cutscene is in hang low, not small divide. (when people make mistakes, it drives me crazy. i HAD to post this.)

OK well I had an attempt and had to retry a level in chapter 2 but decided to play on to the end for practise and at the start of chapter 4 it froze on the first level intro screen (hello world). Upon minimizing there was a fatal error message, this keeps appearing everytime I try and play that level (on that profile), others are OK but it seems bugged. Obviously I will try again but if this keeps occuring then I won't be able to do the run, its not like I even have a work around (like start playing another level), any ideas? I have had this error message before but its rare.

Error problem has not occurred again so I am hoping it was just a one off.

I need help on upper shaft though!!! It is the only level I get stuck on in the run at the moment, its all fine up until I try and throw the goo through the wall. I don't know why but over the last few days the goo just does NOT go through! I have not had any real trouble with it in the past but at the moment it just does not happen. It used to take about 2 throws, now it takes loads so I really need tips on how to pull off this trick consistently.

The way I used to do it was throw the goo hard at the wall and just before impact let go of the mouse button then pick it up on the other side before it gets killed by the spikes. I have been practising it but would really appreciate tips on how to do this trick all the time, thanks.

Don't throw them too hard!
Usually when I fail it's because I throw them too fast! And when you start failing a lot it's "natural" to throw harder and harder....

I reckon it's more a "lazy flick" than a "WANG!!"

Your release point matters too...

What you're actually aiming to do is get the Goo travelling just faster than the width of the wall, then get it so that 1 "frame" it's on the left (but not touching) and then in the next it's on the right, but not touching.

If you release at the wrong place, it'll touch the wall (or appear in the middle) and the collision detection picks it up...
It's only when it flies through without touching, that it works.

For some good practice... don't play the level...
Just scroll down to the walls, and pick up the grey goos off the box and throw them through the wall(s).. sometimes they go through both.

HTH  ;)

[quote author=DaftasBrush link=topic=1928.msg13282#msg13282 date=1246124455]
"WANG!!"

This is called a mach chuck. It goes through anything.

Upper shaft is still driving me nuts! Can't get it to go through consistently, I have no problem with throwing it fast or slow. When exactly are you aiming to release the goo? One moment it seems to work if I aim to release half way through the wall, then I go back to it and after 100 throws it just doesn't work! Do you release just before it hits the wall or what :@.

I through it very fast and release it as far from the wall as possible. Try that.

You've got to release (or try to release) before the wall...

My normal throwing is about 70-80% go through...
I've tried many throws, but keeping the mouse button down... no Goo's go through.. ever
Though you do sometimes see it showing you holding the goo on the right side of the wall, the goo then snaps back to the left side and is dropped.

Looks like it might be doing some Dynamic collision detection, but only on the one Goo that is currently being held.

If you release VERY early, the Goo doesn't get any speed and won't get through...

I think I'm trying to release about 2/3 the way across the shaft.
With the speed to pointer's travelling it might actually happen later... but that's where I'm aiming.

OK! Thanks a lot for the advice guys, finally cracked it now. It was a combination of not releasing soon enough and I think the direction in which you flick makes quite a difference. I was aiming down a bit instead of straight horizontal or slightly up through the wall. I can get fairly decent consistency now, best time of 0:18. Back to the full run attempts now, no more problems with tricks, just need a good run.

EDIT* Best time so far is 54:20, still aiming for 50:xx. Just counting the level times I am aiming for about 21 mins total which would be about 50mins real time. That would assume no big mistakes, main losses of time would just be randomness. I reckon it will be done by August. I lost 1:10 due to clicking a time bug which just so happened to be on the exact goo I needed but I didn't see it. Oh I raged...

50:52 0 retries

Yeah! Looks like this could be the run! I will encode and have a look at it but it felt very fast, nasty levels didn't cause many problems and 1 level I was like 15-20 secs quicker than normal cause I got a lucky layout of goos at the start :D. Most likely the run I will submit. Stand by for edit which will include the total of the level times.

Great job.

So have you skipped the cutscene ? Will you upload the video on YouTube ?

No I left the cutscenes in as I did loads of attempts so it would have been a massive hassle to cut them out. They won't be included in SDA timing though so it will be more like 45mins or less. Yes I will upload to youtube once I have had a look at it (tonight) and decided if it is the best I can do. Also I realised that for some reason open office calc was doing something stupid when summing my level times so its actually more like 25:xx for all the levels. Still I had to abandon a bunch of really risky strats so I am confident I can't do much better.

OK well I have just watched it and I am satisfied that it is pretty much my best. Some levels went much better than normal, some obviously went a little worse but I felt they were more than compensated for. The consistency of the gameplay throughout the run is the best part of it and I will put it up on youtube by tomorrow, hopefully you guys don't spot any glaringly obvious improvements I could have done. I have seen pretty much all the records so if record strats aren't in there its because they are too hard to perform in a single-segment run. Its actually exactly an average of 15 seconds per level slower than the sum of all the individual level records you guys have done so I am happy with that.

Playlist for the whole run on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi6JLVwPXmQ&feature=PlayList&p=8F41AD1236A46281&index=0&playnext=1

Feedback please  :)

Nice job ridd3r!

When it comes to counting time, why not just count the time spent completing levels only? For a single-segment run, you could just create a new profile, play through the game, and then upload the profile at Goofans.com, which shows both the play time (time spent in the game) and the sum of the level times (which is the most interesting metric in a case like this, because it excludes cutscenes). This only works if you never retry any levels, of course, so you could still post a video as proof.

[quote author=Soultaker link=topic=1928.msg13539#msg13539 date=1247337646]
Nice job ridd3r!

When it comes to counting time, why not just count the time spent completing levels only? For a single-segment run, you could just create a new profile, play through the game, and then upload the profile at Goofans.com, which shows both the play time (time spent in the game) and the sum of the level times (which is the most interesting metric in a case like this, because it excludes cutscenes). This only works if you never retry any levels, of course, so you could still post a video as proof.


Thanks, I had considered just counting the level time and using that but as I am submitting it to speeddemosarchive I think they time the whole thing (in this case minus the skippable cutscenes which would have been too much of a hassle to skip). I will however work out the level times and put it up here.
I'll upload to goofans as well, I just want some more feedback first though, do people think this is good enough or is there anything that warrants another go at it?

EDIT: How does uploading to goofans work and how do I do it? Will it give a list of my level times for the run?

http://goofans.com/leaderboard/profile/f694e15977e95b898ea34efedc5f7b56

There is my profile, 25.48mins total. My total time for my practise run which was me doing my best for each level at a time was 23:24. So I am 2:24 off a roughly perfect run using my strats which I am pretty sure are optimal for a SS run. Bear in mind that I beat some of my IL times in that run as some levels went very well (but I updated my IL time to account for this). Also take for example Beauty and the electric tentacle, I got the absolute best layout possible for my strat, that saved an easy 15 seconds on its own. Overall it was very solid and of course 0 retrys which is not easy.

It would be impossible to even get 24mins I would say, theres a lot of luck involved in a lot more levels than you might think. Certainly at the time it felt like it could not have gone much better, the main downside was the small errors on easier levels. So a few peoples opinions would be good so I can decide one way or the other :)

I think it could be done in less than 50 minutes. Getting a triangle to the top of Regurgitation is quite easy to do and save seconds. With a lot of training, GrapeVine and Beauty & the Tentacle could be faster. I also think you can save atleast 30 seconds on HTIC. Maybe you could do the fast strat on Road Blocks but it's not very sure and it's on chapter 4. I don't understand your Second Hand Smoke strat, it looks risky and not very quicker than the classic way.


There are certainly a lot of others improvable but this total time is impressive. Getting Deliverance, GPU, Graceful Failure, AB3 that fast in a single run is really crazy. In fact the whole chapter 4 is a pain.

I also wonder if there aren't some level that could be faster with a retry. I think of Ivy Towers but there could be other levels I don't remind right now.

I think you can submit it to SDA. ;)

I'm going to have to watch the run again, you make some very good points. HTIC can be 20 secs faster and should be with my strat which works 99% of the time. How would you do Beauty and the electric tentacle? I tried with the time bugs but its so random, nothing like consistent enough. Grapevine I have practised loads and can be maybe 10 seconds quicker but its such a bitch of a level, you can practise it loads then when it comes to doing it in the run it all goes wrong.

Also boosting a triangle may be easy for you but you are the best person I have seen at boosting, either it comes naturally to you or you have practised it loads but I can't do it anything like that well. Fast strat on road blocks is suicide and even then its only a few seconds quicker or the same time if you do it carefully.

Pretty much its all such a bitch to put into one run, I could improve all the things you said but do a bit worse on some other levels and end up with the same time. Some stuff obviously didn't go aswell as I would have liked but loads did go well, I'll have another look at the run like I said and decide.

OK, I have decided that my actual standard of play throughout the run is definitely acceptable to me and is pretty much my best. The only thing which would make me consider doing the run again is a change in level strats which would lead to a significant difference in time.

HTIC: I did see the record strat and I didn't use it as it is too risky, also if you do do it, you have to build very carefully and by the time you have done that it is like 50 odd seconds (I just tried it again to check). So my strat is what I deemed best, I got unlucky but that I even managed to salvage what was a dodgy wobbling structure was quite good I think. I conclude I was very unlucky on that level as I did my strat pretty much exactly, obviously the physics engine decided to screw me over.

BATET: I have tried the time bug method a lot of times to try and get it consistent but it was less than 1 in 3. Boosting the beauty is VERY hard, at least I find it very hard and so my method is all that was available to me and it went perfectly in this run.

RPS: Boosting a triangle to the top I find very hard and just imagine if you mess up the boosting even just a little bit, by the time you get it to the top it would have taken longer. Its so easy to think you can do it but in a single segment run it all changes. I just tried HTIC and it took me a few attempts to get using either strat.

So I think I will stick with that run as there was so much good stuff in it and so much luck. My previous best attempt was using 3 retries! Just for an interesting story of how much luck there is, I was on the third wheel, I got the structure on the 3rd wheel perfectly then I was taking the green goos off the structure to save some time and there just so happened to be a time bug there which I clicked on, incredibly unlucky. That accidental click on a bug I couldn't really even see cost me over a minute! I think trying to improve this run would be too hard, there would be too much pressure. Upper shaft went amazing, the final level on chapter 3 went amazing (1st goo caught fire and landed in best possible place on the structure) and I could go on. So thanks for all your help guys, I hope you enjoy this run and good luck with all the IL improvements. Feel free to submit them to SDA, would be good :)