TWINE TAS notes

Mission times (m:ss:ff)

Level					IL WR		Wyster TAS		Mavalock TAS
Courier					0:09		0:09:26			0:09:23
King's Ransom			1:47		1:53:16			1:35:11
Thames Chase			1:16		0:56:04
Underground Uprising	1:41		1:28:13
Cold Reception			2:16		2:15:22
Night Watch				1:03		1:01:16
Midnight Departure		2:04		2:17:09
Masquerade				2:05		2:05:22
City of Walkways 1		2:14		2:08:27
City of Walkways 2		2:03		2:05:16
Turncoat				2:03		1:50:20
Fallen Angel			1:08		1:03:16
A Sinking Feeling		1:07		1:00:00(!)
Meltdown				1:20		1:17:17

TECHNIQUES USED

Strafing: Similar to Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and other similar FPS games, the fastest way to move is to run forward and sideways at the same time, causing Bond to move diagonally.  Bond's maximum forward speed is 0.2 (units per frame), and his maximum sidestep speed is 0.15, for a total maximum speed of 0.25.

Acceleration: It takes 14 frames to reach maximum forward speed and 71 frames to reach maximum sidestep speed.  Switching between left and right strafe causes Bond's sidestep speed to decelerate briefly before reaccelerating, so unnecessary strafe changes are avoided.  It is also optimal to either keep moving or run into a wall to preserve speed during waiting periods.

Corners: Bond turns somewhat slowly, so it is often better to turn corners slightly early.  Although this loses a small amount of speed, it is offset by giving Bond a better movement angle earlier, which saves time overall.

Jumping: Bond's forward speed decelerates while he is above the ground, so unnecessary jumping is avoided.  The amount of height Bond gains depends on how long you hold the jump input (up to 7 frames), so I use the smallest possible jumps to minimize speed loss.

Fall damage/midair jumps: Bond will die if he reaches the ground with a vertical speed exceeding -9.67333.  However, by running off higher ground without jumping, Bond can jump in midair, which will temporarily decrease his vertical momentum.  This used in King's Ransom, Midnight Departure, and A Sinking Feeling.

Mission objectives: Unlike Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, where all of a level's objectives are given to you at the start, you will sometimes receive additional objectives as you progress throughout certain missions.  When you exit a level, the game checks if all active objectives have been completed, and if so, the mission is completed.  This is exploited in the first two missions, where I prevent certain objectives from activating.

INDIVIDUAL LEVEL NOTES

Courier:

This mission uses a fairly well-known glitch that allows me to skip most of the level.  Before collecting the equipment, I stun a civilian, which triggers the mission failure script and prevents additional objectives from activating, but in this case, doesn't actually fail an objective.  Thus, when I exit the level, the game sees that I have completed all of the active objectives and thinks that I have completed the mission.

It is possible to use watch items through the doors in this level, so I knock out the security guard behind the door, which prevents him from shooting me in a way that would cause me to lose speed.  I also knock out the civilian, which eliminates her hitbox, allowing me to take a more direct path to/from the privacy booth.

King's Ransom:

When rescuing M, I wait until she talks before killing the guard, which skips a line of speech that she would normally say upon being saved, causing her to begin running sooner.  This is a half second faster than killing the guard as soon as possible.  Although I kill the guard at the earliest possible moment that ensures the speech skip, any successful speech skip will cause M to start running at the same time.

During the escort sequence, I shoot near M, which causes her to run approximately 30 percent faster for anywhere between 1 to 2 seconds, so I keep her in this state for the entire sequence. It is generally better to stay farther away from M, as she will take a more optimal path, but she will stop moving if I am too far away from her. Taking M through the side room is 3 frames faster than taking her through the hall provided that the door to exit the room is opened inward.  As I enter the lockdown room, I throw the pen grenade so that it boosts me as I pass by it on the way back.  Explosion boosts always give the same speed boost, so I take the boost from the edge of the explosion to minimize health loss.

I cannot jump directly to the bottom of the stairs, as Bond will die if he hits the ground with too high of a vertical speed.  However, if Bond falls from higher ground without jumping first, he can jump in midair, extending the height from which he can fall safely.  Thus, the fastest way to descend the stairs is to jump from the top, land on the banister, then fall the rest of the way, doing a midair jump just before hitting the ground.  Killing all of the guards here also reduces lag significantly during the following cutscene, which triggers when Bond hits the ground.  Although Bond will spawn at a fixed point after the cutscene, I can maneuver close enough to the door while falling to open it before the cutscene begins, allowing me to exit the room 7 frames faster.

The first two security guards on the ground floor would normally give me additional objectives, but this will not happen if they are already in an animation while Bond is in their talking radius.  In this case, I'm facing away from the guards, so I injure them by ricocheting bullets off the wall (which occurs randomly), thus preventing the guards from talking.  Injuring the second security guard also causes him to move backward a bit, giving me a slightly better path to the next corner.

One of these objectives is to activate the sprinklers, which puts out a fire that makes the vault inaccessible... or does it?  There are two kinds of fire: one kind does 10 damage, which is 10 percent of Bond's health (most of the front row), and the other kind does 200 damage (all of the back row and the two diagonal patches), which would normally instantly kill Bond (and, incidentally, a guard that spawns here later).  However, it is possible to jump over the instant-kill fire, though it requires taking damage from the other fire.  This saves 8-9 seconds over activating the sprinklers.

While waiting for the hand scanner door to open, I show off an oddity of the watch stunner: the stun beam acts like a slow moving bullet, which means that you can theoretically stun NPCs at any distance, though it may take a few seconds for the stun to take effect.  Since the scientist here is moving, I have to anticipate where he is going to be when the stun beam reaches him, which makes it look like I'm not aiming at him at all.  Non-enemy characters also generally die to any hit, including those that don't normally do damage, such as being stunned, so this is one of the few instances where I can stun a civilian and not fail the mission.

Ducking under the door here is approximately 10 frames faster than passing through it while standing.  The security guard in front of the vault door would normally trigger an additional objective, but for whatever reason, Bond can kill him without failing the mission.

Before I jump back over the fire, I shoot the guard down the hall in the foot, which causes him to move away from the wall, allowing me to pass between him and the wall while also leaving him alive so that he can boost me as I pass.  I also look down while jumping, which alters Bond's hitbox enough for me to do a smaller jump over the fire.  All that remains is to run to the end, getting a few guard boosts on the way.