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Exarion

2016 speedyear in review + 2017 plans

Exarion
Dec 27th, 2016
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  1. Saw that Werster had written one of these, and it seemed fun if nothing else. Also, I've been busy with FM runs and IRL stuff lately, so I haven't had as much time to reflect.
  2.  
  3. Considering how frustrating real life has been in 2016, it's been a pretty good speedyear. Personally, I improved nearly all of my Pokemon times while becoming competitive at Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories. On a community level, I made some major routing improvements that have compelled others to run previously unappealing games. Below is a list of my 2016 PBs in chronological order, with footnotes below.
  4.  
  5. -----
  6.  
  7. 2016 YEAR IN REVIEW
  8.  
  9. Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories (any%)
  10. 3:21:08 (January) (WR at the time; now 2nd place)
  11. This was one of my goals entering the year, and I met it quickly thanks to an improved route. I actually beat this time later this year with an offline run, but the run was terrible and used an old route, so no point in uploading it. Another runner, Wado_3000, has made most of the routing improvements since my 3:21 (and beaten my time), and I'm anxious to work with his route once I'm ready to take a break from FM. I expect one of us will get a time below 3:10 soon.
  12.  
  13. Pokemon FireRed (any%)
  14. 2:05:33 (February) (WR; WR)
  15. This run was really satisfying. I spent a few days rerouting any% to make runs more consistent, then beat a 2-year-old record on my first attempt. The record hasn't been beaten, but that's a product of luck more than anything else. Even with the new route, any% is a brutal category, as the few runnable Squirtles you'll get will likely die on the first split if you play properly. Shoutouts to MK_Dasher and JP_Xinnam for discovering RNG manipulation, which made my reroute possible.
  16.  
  17. Pokemon Colosseum (any%)
  18. 3:51:58 (March) (WR; WR)
  19. I got this PB while doing test runs with a new route. Nothing notable here; the route still needs a ton of work, and it's possible it'll get redone entirely if RNG manipulation becomes viable. Credit to Dabomstew and gifvex for discovering Espeon stat prediction, which made Hidden Power routing much more effective. Colosseum is an amazing speedgame and has a few more runners now, and I think we'll see it blossom in 2017.
  20.  
  21. Pokemon Crystal (any% glitchless)
  22. 3:18:45 (March) (WR; 2nd)
  23. This wasn't actually a PB, but my actual PB (which was only a few seconds faster) was unrecorded. I'm pretty salty that I wasn't able to get a better time personally, because I was dealing with some serious health issues that prevented me from giving my best effort. But I'm really happy that Gunner's WR run used some of the route improvements that we made in February-March. In any case, we'll have RNG manipulation for Gen 2 soon, which will make these runs obsolete.
  24.  
  25. Pokemon FireRed (Elite Four round 2)
  26. 3:36:14 (June) (WR; WR)
  27. Somehow I went 2 months without PBing in anything, then I got this run. The time is extremely beatable, as I died three times, but it's always really satisfying to complete a run in FRR2. I've done more rerouting since my PB and will aim for 3:33 or better.
  28.  
  29. Pokemon Yellow (any% glitchless)
  30. 1:57:17 (July) (WR; 2nd)
  31. Ah, the Blizzard reroute. It actually doesn't save much time on average, but it has much more potential for getting a god time. The fun here was in the routing; the runs were frustrating aside from the positive chat interaction that Yellow brings. Gen 1 got RNG manipulation a few weeks after I got this run, and Gunner has gotten a good run with the manip + the Blizzard route. Unfortunately, Yellow won't be dead until Moon manip is figured out. Moon manip = relying heavily on a tool + frame-perfect inputs = running on emulator because resets are faster. Yuck.
  32.  
  33. Pokemon Red (any% glitchless)
  34. 1:49:48 (September) (WR; WR)
  35. This PB, which used the newly found RNG manip, wasn't nearly as notable as the one that came a few weeks earlier. I got 1:48 IGT -- a goal that had eluded me for more than a year, and more than 2,000 resets -- right before the manip was discovered. I spent so much time practicing, routing and grinding Red that getting this run was a huge relief for me. It wasn't as clean as my 1:49 IGT run, but it probably had better execution when you consider the effect of new menuing techniques and mashing. Similar to Yellow, this category won't be dead until RNG manip is figured out, and who knows how long that will take.
  36.  
  37. Pokemon Gold (any% glitchless)
  38. 3:23:08 (August) (2nd; 3rd)
  39. I had never gotten a good run with the big 2015 reroute of this category, and when I tried it, I had a lot more fun than I expected. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a better time than this before RNG manip was discovered. No point in doing Gen 2 runs without manip now.
  40.  
  41. Pokemon Sapphire (any%)
  42. 2:00:53 (October) (WR; WR)
  43. The Pokemon community switched from IGT to RTA this year, and no category benefited more than Sapphire. Instead of relying on extended RNG manipulation that rarely works, we can save & quit to get a nearly perfect Mudkip 100% of the time (assuming we hit a frame-perfect input). This Mudkip works really well with Abraless strats, which I made for Emerald before realizing they worked a lot better in Sapphire. Credit to G_Heinz and epicdudeguy for creating the initial Abraless route for Sapphire. I PB'd four times with the S&Q Mudkip and the Abraless route, and I kept going for sub-2 until the grind got to me. I'll get it eventually (although Heinz will probably do it first).
  44.  
  45. Oh, and Mudkip 149 did 9/11.
  46.  
  47. Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories (any% no card duplication)
  48. 3:20:07 (December) (3rd; 3rd)
  49. I've fallen in love with this game and plan to run it for a long time. The RNG makes Pokemon look tame, but there's more than enough routing, strategy and execution to make up for it. Getting a good time is a very small part of the fun here, although it is one of my goals.
  50.  
  51. -----
  52.  
  53. 2017 PLANS
  54.  
  55. This year will be a bit of a wild card for me, as I have no idea what real life has in store. From a speedrunning perspective, I'm really excited about a lot of games, but I'm also a bit discouraged about the current state of RNG manipulation in Pokemon. I don't have a problem with RNG manipulation, but it's caused a lot of categories to rely heavily on tools that require dozens of hours of effort from the community's best programmers. That is a problem. If and when these tools become stable, runs might rely on frame-perfect inputs, and a lot of the routing and strategy that brought me to Pokemon will become relatively unimportant. There are more than enough categories to keep me engaged with routing, PB/WR attempts, helping new runners, etc., but it's likely the golden days of Pokemon speedrunning are over.
  56.  
  57. 1. Get good at Forbidden Memories
  58. Sub-3 would be nice too, but someone else might get that, and I can't worry about things outside of my control. Playing well in this game, whether it's in a WR attempt or a race, is extremely fun and satisfying, and the skill ceiling is so high that I can do this for a long time before achieving my goal.
  59.  
  60. 2. Sub-3:10 in Dark Duel Stories
  61. If Wado or someone else gets this first, I might not go for this. This game isn't nearly as fun to grind as FM, and there's still a ton of RNG at the end that can ruin a great run. I mainly want to revisit the route and improve my execution.
  62.  
  63. 3. 3:33 in FRR2
  64. Paperguy offered a bounty for this, and I've had a lot of fun rerouting it since then. This category is underrated and needs improvement.
  65.  
  66. 4. 3:4x in Colosseum
  67. There's so much variance in this game that I don't know how low I want it to go. If RNG manip happens, 3:3x could be possible. Not gonna run this until manip is researched further, however.
  68.  
  69. 5. Sub-2 in Sapphire
  70. I probably want this even if someone else gets it first. This is one of the more stable Pokemon routes now, and a clean run is relatively easy to achieve. Just gotta power through the early-game grind.
  71.  
  72. 6. Try to learn Super Mario Sunshine
  73. I wanted to learn an execution-based speedgame in 2016, and Shenanagans was kind enough to loan me his disc, so I should give this a better try than I did over the summer. Probably won't happen unless I get a donation for a Wii, though, because learning this game without practice codes is kinda pointless.
  74.  
  75. -----
  76.  
  77. Final note: I've really enjoyed being a part of the speedrunning community in 2016. A few hiccups aside (instant text, SGDQ being lousy), it's given me the best social experience of my life. I think a lot of IRL people think gaming is an escape for me, but it's honestly the most fun I've ever had. Streaming in particular has been really healthy since I've tried to do it more often. All the regulars are really supportive, trolls are either nonexistent or drowned out, and people seem to be having a good time. Speedrunning and entertainment sometimes clash with each other, but I think I've found a nice balance. Let's build on that in 2017. :)
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