Skyrim hard-mode speedclear contest!

[evermore]

I have been discussing Skyrim speed-runs with some friends for awhile, and we came out with a idea that will make things a bit more interesting. The idea is to have people attempt speed-runs of Skyrim with the following limitations:

 

-Difficulty on master

-Cannot use any food, potions, or scrolls

 

The idea is to make the run more difficult, so that faster times will be more about strategy and less about precise execution. Right now I can't think of any exploits that would diminish the quality of the contest significantly, but if you know of some that might feel free to let me know.

 

A big potential problem is that due to the length of the runs, it will be rather difficult to determine which runs are legit, especially due to the additional limitations.

 

Thoughts/Suggestions/Concerns much appreciated.

 

P.S. My memory fails me on this, what moment precisely defines the end of the main campaign? Is it the killing blow on the last boss?

 

-Suggestions so far

 

:Use in game date/time as opposed to real time

Edited November 30, 2011 by evermore

[Guss]

Limits the class pretty much down to just mage. going thief or warrior not able to use potions and spells with suck. mages will have the upper hand with the good heals and ability to attack without trying to heal somehow. I am sure somehow it can be done but will be extreme.

 

But yea that is going to be hard. :dry:

 

my thoughts on it.

[QDX2000]

Even if the entire video of a speed run would be watched to verify (and those videos would be rather long), people would have to open the settings at least after each reload to show they did not change the difficulty in between. And that would still not stop those who can cut videos, which should be... pretty much everyone. Seeing how probably no one will verify 20 hour long or longer videos, in my opinion we should use this thread to just compare (ingame as well as real) time needed for this informally and without declaring any winners. Those who have very good times should also explain the tricks they used. Just my two cents ;) If you want to stick with a formal competition, making a new save often and uploading all saves should make for the best proof, since it'll be possible for the verifying person to just pick out a saves and see if the skill gains and stat changes between each picked save and the next 1-5 ones can be reproduced on master. Similar methods are used in actual science, it's much faster than videos and very reliable if you pick enough saves.

 

As for no scrolls/potions making it hard for warriors, they can still use, for example, restoration and conjuration in addition to hitting with sticks, you know. My first and so far only playtrough, I was a Sword&Board type character on master difficulty with all these restrictions, except using cure disease potions (and another potion you need to drink to complete a certain daedric quest). I died a lot, but I finished every major questline except companions (and thieves guild jobs, which I don't really see as a questline) as well as all dadric quests before 120 in-game days. Unfortunately the save got corrupted from all the quickloading and after that I played around with the console a bit to try out some new perks. So since I overwrote saves all the time, I don't even have any left from before I started using the console :rolleyes: .

 

However, my second playthrough is currently in progress and I'm a werewolf this time before I caught any diseases, so there aren't gonna be any potions at all. Also after going through the hell of playing through the game on master the first time, I barely die now. And I'm saving into a new save very often to avoid corruption this time. If anyone's interested, I could upload those saves as proof once I'm done. Was planning to use the Oghma Exploit asap this time since I've already proven to myself that I'm good at this game and as I mentioned want to try out some perks from skill trees I never use, but I guess I could wait till after the main quest with that.