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Author Topic: The Journey to 100%  (Read 98380 times)

Icy

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The Journey to 100%
« on: September 08, 2017, 16:12 »
Hello! I'm a long-time lurker who's played off and on for a few years now, and recently decided to pick the game up again! I'm already fairly competent with the game, but by no means a veteran. I've only ever played with graphics, though I also did play back when the game's name still had vowels.

I've been a competitive gamer for close to 15 years now and always love a good challenge! When I originally started to play and again from a fresh start a couple years later, I wanted to go hard to get as many of the badges as possible, but I never really got around to it between other games, work, school, IRL, and so forth. Lately, I've been in a bit of a rut and interested to start once again and really grind for it this time! I thought it would also be interesting to write about my progress here to share with others, perhaps also motivating more people to play. Kind of like a blog I suppose to also help myself be accountable for not giving up when things get tough. Hopefully it doesn't come off as obnoxious spam or anything. :P

In particular, I remember seeing when Vandam showed off that he had 16 on the Angelic Badges, and I thought it was so cool! In this day and age with the internet and all, it's very rare for a masterfully skilled player/athlete/person/etc to come from out of the blue and re-define what top-level play is like. Almost romantic in a sense. On top, if he was able to do it, then so can I! I'm a pretty smart cookie if I do say so myself, and I'm definitely a grinder when I want to achieve something.

So with all that said, I'll continually post little updates, fire up discussion here, and maybe share some cool post mortems! I'll be starting completely from scratch once again, and will probably need a little derusting, but I'm confident I'll be able to catch up quickly!

I happen to have two post mortems saved from years ago if you'd like to read those too:

My first Angel of 100 completion, back in mid 2013:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And my first Angel of 100 with Max Carnage completion, back in 2015:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Icy

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2017, 18:19 »
Day 1:

I had to get used to the controls again, but caught on pretty quickly. Funny enough, I subconsciously knew how to do a bunch of commands just by muscle memory. The brain is really amazing! :P

I played through my first game on wimp mode to get a feel and flow, and it worked out fairly well overall! I had some insane assembly pak luck, getting both a Sniper and a Nano, on top of a pile of others! A total of 12 assemblies! I made it all the way to JC and since I was going for 100% kills and couldn't remember how the final floor worked in terms of kill count, I fired my remaining BFG shot at a Baron, rather than securing the win. Unfortunately, ammo ran low, my armor was destroyed, and I got finished off. :( I'll get him next time!

I won't post every single mortem, only relevant ones. That said, here's the run:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Tormuse

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2017, 19:50 »
Hi there, and welcome to the forums!  :D

Quote from: Icy on September 08, 2017, 16:12
Lately, I've been in a bit of a rut and interested to start once again and really grind for it this time!

I hear ya, there.  I seem to do all my best gaming when things are going wrong in other parts of my life.  :)

Quote from: Icy on September 08, 2017, 16:12
...perhaps also motivating more people to play.

That certainly would be nice; the forums have been pretty dead lately.  :)

Quote from: Icy on September 08, 2017, 16:12
Kind of like a blog I suppose to also help myself be accountable for not giving up when things get tough. Hopefully it doesn't come off as obnoxious spam or anything. :P

Obnoxious?  Naw, I'm interested to see what you can do.  :)  Let me know if you'd like me to set goals for you or something.  :)

Quote from: Icy on September 08, 2017, 16:12
In particular, I remember seeing when Vandam showed off that he had 16 on the Angelic Badges, and I thought it was so cool! In this day and age with the internet and all, it's very rare for a masterfully skilled player/athlete/person/etc to come from out of the blue and re-define what top-level play is like. Almost romantic in a sense. On top, if he was able to do it, then so can I! I'm a pretty smart cookie if I do say so myself, and I'm definitely a grinder when I want to achieve something.

Erm...  hmm...  How should I put this?  I don't want to sour the atmosphere here, but I have to admit that I'm skeptical of Vandam's claims of Angelic achievements.  I'm sure Vandam is a very skilled player, but I'd be able to take them a bit more seriously if they'd posted any mortems.  Have you ever seen any mortems from Vandam?

Quote from: Icy on September 08, 2017, 18:19
I had to get used to the controls again, but caught on pretty quickly. Funny enough, I subconsciously knew how to do a bunch of commands just by muscle memory. The brain is really amazing! :P

Just like riding a bike, eh?  :)

Quote from: Icy on September 08, 2017, 18:19
I made it all the way to JC and since I was going for 100% kills and couldn't remember how the final floor worked in terms of kill count

Then I think it's worth pointing out that in this version, unlike some previous versions, when you kill JC, all his summons die at the same time.  I find it's best to focus on him and kill him as quickly as possible.
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Sereg

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2017, 21:40 »
Welcome( back?)!

I would be very interested in seeing someone attempt to replicate VANDAM's (supposed) achievements - as Tormuse said, there have never been any mortems(or videos, which Tormuse and I have both posted for some of our more impressive runs[though his are significantly more impressive then mine]), but I'm less skeptical then he is; I think there's a fairly good chance that VANDAM actually did what he claimed to, and even if not, my personal opinion is that he's most likely still one of the top players in the history if DRL.

Regardless of that, though, seeing some fresh mortems would be a nice change around here. Everything seems to have gone fairly quiet as we all wait for Jupiter Hell, other then the brief flurry of activity from the Xtreme Arena thread(which I also encourage you to check out).

I wish you the best of luck in your quest, and I'll be lurking around watching for your mortems - hell, if I have time, I might even try to post some of my own, but I feel like I've almost reached the limit of my own skill level, which is why I've sort of dropped off playing for the last few months. Still, seeing new achievements is always inspiring, and might be exactly what I need to get back into it myself.
« Last Edit: September 08, 2017, 21:42 by Sereg »
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LuckyDee

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2017, 00:22 »
Welcome indeed! Feel free to log your progress for posterity, and indeed, like Tormuse said, the forum could do with a little more life. Seeing as you previously took the time to complete a dual AOMC/A100 on UV, I'd say you ought to be skilled enough to impress some people around here. Show us what you got!

Also:

Quote from: Tormuse on September 08, 2017, 19:50
I hear ya, there.  I seem to do all my best gaming when things are going wrong in other parts of my life.  :)

Based on your track record, should we be worrying about you, 'muse? ;)
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Tormuse

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2017, 01:26 »
Quote from: LuckyDee on September 09, 2017, 00:22
Based on your track record, should we be worrying about you, 'muse? ;)

Well...  I'm not gonna off myself, if that's what you're asking.  I do have issues with chronic depression, but I have ways of coping, so I'll be okay.  Thank you for your concern.  :)
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Icy

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2017, 13:43 »
Thanks for the welcome!

Yeah, I suppose it's reasonable to be skeptical about Vandam, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. In any case, I'm still going to pursue what he's done. Also I meant I'm more in a gaming rut, rather than a general run, haha. Things are good! :)

Day 2:

After losing to JC last night, I opted to collect some more badges, and did far more than I had expected on an Angel of Berserk run! I gained a huge pile of them, as well as beating the Mortuary for the first time! I got quite a few more assemblies and badges; I reached Sergeant Major after just my 2nd completion! Vampyre with the Angelic set is quite powerful, and I actually forgot that the Angelic Armor can break, ha. I'm used to always using indestructible gear.

Mortem here:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Following that, I decided to play another Angel of 100 + Angel of Max Carnage on UV for 100%! I used basically the same build as before, with focus on Cateye and rapid-fire weapons. It's honestly a superb build for the challenge and very fun to play! The entire game is quite easy to execute, but any mistake can be fatal. You dance with death the entire game. Unfortunately, the biggest weakness of the build is overconfidence and I got killed due to some bad luck, but by no means exceptionally bad luck. Entirely my fault for not respecting the danger. If you play intelligently, you basically can't die, just have to respect the danger. Seriously. Respect the danger.

Generally I shoot for getting Cateye as soon as possible, and then work towards Cerberus Boots, Nanomachic Plasma Rifle, and Cybernano Energy-Shielded Vest. I had no luck with getting Nano Packs though and also unfortunately died before reaching the level 51 mark. I also passed on a Dragonslayer spawn to avoid ruining my run; cool to finally know how to pick it up now! ;) I'll revisit this challenge some more later and put focus onto unlocking Angel of Overconfidence and start cheesing to collect a bunch more badges.

Here's the mortem:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Sereg

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #7 on: September 09, 2017, 13:58 »
Impressive runs... that AoB mortuary clear already surpasses anything I've done. If this is the pace you intend to keep,  it won't be long until you reach your goal of surpassing VANDAM.

Keep it up... I'll be looking forward to your next mortem.
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Tormuse

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #8 on: September 09, 2017, 17:56 »
Quote from: Icy on September 09, 2017, 13:43
Yeah, I suppose it's reasonable to be skeptical about Vandam, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. In any case, I'm still going to pursue what he's done.

It's entirely possible that I'm being overly sensitive after the whole 2Dev thing and perhaps I should give Vandam the benefit of the doubt too.  I still would like to see those mortems, though.  :)

Quote from: Icy on September 09, 2017, 13:43
Vampyre with the Angelic set is quite powerful, and I actually forgot that the Angelic Armor can break, ha. I'm used to always using indestructible gear.

Wha?...  It can break?  :o  Ah, I see what you mean.  It doesn't actually "break" as in be destroyed, but yeah, it can certainly go down to 0% and lose functionality.  An armour shard or Megasphere will bring it back, though.  :)

And Vampyre is generally quite powerful, if used properly.  It's my favourite trait and is responsible for a lot of my best runs!  :D
« Last Edit: September 09, 2017, 18:07 by Tormuse »
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MaiZure

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #9 on: September 09, 2017, 19:25 »
Interesting blog series going on here. I'll be following!

Quote from: Tormuse on September 09, 2017, 17:56
It's entirely possible that I'm being overly sensitive after the whole 2Dev thing and perhaps I should give Vandam the benefit of the doubt too.  I still would like to see those mortems, though.  :)

For what it's worth, I can rule out VANDAM using time manipulations or VM save-stating in XA. When you start a new game in XA, it tells my server and both your game and my server start independent timers for that session (no comms during game play). When your game ends and it reports your final score, it won't save it if both timers aren't within 99% of each other. Well...VANDAMs games were always in sync! I can also confirm that he didn't start-scum (server sees new games and can count games that never finished). Fun trivia: out of the ~750 games played in this version, there were 1850 games that never ended (rage quit :P) There are many other options to cheat, but he passes on those low-hanging fruit

EDIT: He started out a very good player and did improve with more games, but he was setting high scores at the outset. There wasn't an indication that he was average or below average but then suddenly exploded with skill. He also had a fair number of bad luck runs too...not perfect. These obviously aren't scientific tests, but anecdotally, I'd say he seems like a competition-level gamer. EDIT2: People that operate with that mindset also tend to cheat on the side, moreso to better understand the games, their systems, and force themselves in to outlier situations and build experience that way. It gives them an edge in legit gameplay, and if extra glory comes their way on the side, then great :P. If VANDAM cheats, I don't think he's detracting from the larger community in the process...2Dev on the other hand... 

Sorry for derailing this blog post with this rant! Let's get back to D**mRL!
« Last Edit: September 09, 2017, 21:16 by MaiZure »
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Tormuse

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #10 on: September 09, 2017, 22:30 »
There's no doubt in my mind that Vandam is an excellent player and I don't mean to accuse them of cheating at all.  (I say "them" because someone drew my attention to the fact that we don't know Vandam's gender)  :)  I just can't fathom the mindset of someone would do all the work to get those ridiculous achievements and then not share it.  I just don't get that at all.  :S

But yeah, perhaps I'm derailing this topic too much; this is Icy's thread, after all.  :)
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Icy

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #11 on: September 10, 2017, 10:33 »
Thanks Sereg, but AoB Mortuary wasn't that amazing really. With Vampyre and being Berserk the whole time, I just needed to rush the Archviles. I did still almost die twice, and it was on Hey, Not Too Rough. And yeah, misuse of "break" regarding Angelic Armor, haha.

Day 3:

I spent some time grinding out more of the easy medals and badges, as well as assemblies. My ranking is a bit clogged with needing to Pistol kill Hell Knights, but I've already got a ton of overall kills and melee kills. Reaching the Arch-Vile rank shouldn't be too bad, but needing 100 Cyberdemons, and 50 JCs will take some time to get. I'll slowly grind for them on days when I don't have as much free time.

I've been using Angel of Overconfidence a bunch to cheese out some easy badges and medals. My favorite one in particular was combining it with Angel of Pacifism; fun fact: you don't get a nuke! By dumb luck, I managed to find one anyway:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, I felt like revisiting my Max Carnage/Angel of 100/UV/100% Kills, and got it very easily. My Cateye build is so overpowered once it gets going. Here's the post-mortem to start off with:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So basically, I get an infinite ammo Plasma (ideally nanomachic instead of nuclear), and with Cateye, 2x Intuition, 2x Triggerhappy, and 5x Son of a Bitch, I become immortal. You can see so far away, and with Max Carnage, accuracy variance doesn't matter, and damage variance doesn't matter. I point and click at purple Xs, and everything dies. I was even killing Shamblers and Elementals in 2 clicks, with Cyberdemons in 5!

Starting off can be rough, and requires quite a bit of ammo. You're very dependent on finding a Nano Pack, and you still can't be making mistakes. The thing is though, if you aren't getting hit, Max Carnage is all benefits, not disadvantages. On top, the Plasma can pierce through walls for even easier targeting. I still of course used a heavy-duty armor and was loaded on Med Packs, but they weren't really necessary at all. My kill streak was frequently in the multiple hundreds.

The only things that can stop you are potentially Cyberdemons, extremely unlucky starts, and your own overconfidence and impatience. It's easy to fall into the idea of being aggressive when picking up Invulnerability and getting into other advantageous situations, but they should be treated as insurance for mistakes. Nuke levels and hard wall levels are also a bit of a pain, but manageable. Even Shamblers and Elementals couldn't fight meaningfully since they're slow after teleporting. If anything ever did go wrong, I also had Phase Devices. It's seriously very, very easy to complete once you get going!

Here's the worst start that I had, but I still didn't get touched:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here's my ending main screen. I was very disappointed for not hitting Level 25. I think I'll have to play through 666 to get it, but since I can't combine it with Max Carnage, I might opt for a Shotgun build and PPN+P Super Shotgun instead.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And here's my in-game stats screen just before I left Level 100:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So all in all, it was a lot of fun! It was great that I could repeat my best feat already and with such ease, as well as collecting several medals and badges (Platinum, woo)! My next couple of goals will be killing 50 Hell Knights with a Pistol, and collecting the rest of the Bronze Badges. I also just need one more basic assembly (Tower Shield), but Onyx Packs are hard to come by.

I'm having a blast and playing well!
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LuckyDee

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2017, 11:28 »
Quote from: Icy on September 10, 2017, 10:33
I've been using Angel of Overconfidence a bunch to cheese out some easy badges and medals.

The technical term is "to Sereg" ;)

Other than that, good work. Do you have any experience playing a Sharpshooter?
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Tormuse

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #13 on: September 10, 2017, 17:26 »
Man, I don't know how you have the patience to do 100 levels of AoMC; I barely have the patience to do 25!  :P  (I think impatience has become my number one killer in this game)  :)

Quote from: Icy on September 10, 2017, 10:33
Here's the worst start that I had, but I still didn't get touched:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Aw, that doesn't look so bad; you've got some easy cover northeast of you there.  I'd expect worse from UV;  are you sure the RNG wasn't going easy on you?  :)

Also, I hope you don't mind a minor tip...

Quote from: Icy on September 10, 2017, 10:33
...
 There is a cerberus protective boots [0/0] (100%) (A) lying here.
 You picked up a cerberus protective boots [0/0] (100%) (A).
 You wear/wield : a cerberus protective boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
...

I don't know if you're aware, but in this version of DRL, you can push the U key to use wearable/wieldable/usable items directly from the ground, rather than doing it in two steps like you did here.  It's a minor thing, but sometimes, that extra second you save can mean the difference between life and death, wearing armour from the ground, or using a med pack from the ground, etc.
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scotherns

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Re: The Journey to 100%
« Reply #14 on: September 11, 2017, 01:21 »
Quote from: MaiZure on September 09, 2017, 19:25
When you start a new game in XA, it tells my server and both your game and my server start independent timers for that session (no comms during game play). When your game ends and it reports your final score, it won't save it if both timers aren't within 99% of each other.

Hmm, I often get interrupted and have to temporarily leave active games (usually closing/sleeping my laptop - it resumes them just fine when waking up). Does this mean those games wont be counting?

Back ON Topic: Very interested to see this blog, looking forward to seeing how it develops!
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