Alpha:Virgil:Brain

[TLMike]

How in the world is it possible to have a time of 0:00 on that map? Especially since Frame Steps and Pausing don't seem to work. :/

[Someone]

resume it and then play it,its a puzzle

[TLMike]

I know it's a puzzle, and I beat it. For the sake of clarity, let me rephrase:

How is it possible to have beaten the map in zero seconds? (Note the high scores. Some people beat it in 0:00.)

You can't activate totems while the game is paused. You can't click and step time forward one frame, and have activated a totem. So, if you can't activate totems without time passing, how can you beat the map without time passing?

[asmussen]

Maybe after they beat it, they recorded the sequence of moves and fed it into a keyboard macro so that all they had to do is unpause and then hit one key to send the entire sequence, or something like that? Or, I suppose the P to unpause could start out the macro, even. Don't know if that's how they actually did it or not, but that's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head.

[TLMike]

A sensible answer.

[teknotiss]

"n" allows frame by frame play, perhaps it takes less than one second like that!

[TLMike]

"n" allows frame by frame play, perhaps it takes less than one second like that!

I did try that. I think the Crpl script in that mission disables it because of the way the mission timer works. 'P' as a hotkey for pausing and unpausing the action is also disabled.

[teknotiss]

dunno then dude, sorry

[Harkler]

You could probably hack the game so that all totems are always active. I don't see any other way it could be done. (I used extreme button mashing)

[teknotiss]

i believe there are some concerns about score hacking on the first mission, so perhaps we have cheater/s already?
oh well so it goes, some people are so sad  ::)

[knucracker]

I've not been able to get under 20 seconds on the map... when I was a teenager I could do this puzzle (using the number pad keys) in just under 15 seconds.  It requires a perfect run to get that fast.  I fear I will never get under 20 seconds again, though, as my fingers can't move that fast anymore.  When I was a kid I wrote an assembly version of this puzzle and practiced daily for several months to get that <15 second time :)

[teknotiss]

I've not been able to get under 20 seconds on the map... when I was a teenager I could do this puzzle (using the number pad keys) in just under 15 seconds.  It requires a perfect run to get that fast.  I fear I will never get under 20 seconds again, though, as my fingers can't move that fast anymore.  When I was a kid I wrote an assembly version of this puzzle and practiced daily for several months to get that <15 second time :)

::)
...and that's why you made CW1,2,3 and i didn't, coding hurts my head :D

[iycgtptyarvg]

I don't quite understand this map. So, it's a puzzle instead of a level? Can someone give me an idea/hint what I have to do? It's the only map I haven't finished in the star system.

[TLMike]

I don't quite understand this map. So, it's a puzzle instead of a level? Can someone give me an idea/hint what I have to do? It's the only map I haven't finished in the star system.

It is, in fact, a puzzle. Victory conditions are met when you activate all 8 Totems. I recommend using the number keys to activate the totems instead of clicking, as that takes forever.

The solution is:

Spoiler

not here. But, I can tell you that you can only activate a totem if the number just before it is active and the other preceding numbers are not. Example: If you wish to activate Totem 3, you must have Totem 2 active, and Totem 1 offline. To do this, you must type: 1, 2, 1, 3, 1. This will activate Totem 1, which allows you to activate Totem 2. But, you cannot activate Totem 3 until Totem 1 is offline. If you follow this pattern all the way to Totem 8, the solution easily reveals itself.

[close]

Also, Good luck!

[asmussen]

i believe there are some concerns about score hacking on the first mission, so perhaps we have cheater/s already?
oh well so it goes, some people are so sad  ::)

Although it's possible that this was score hacking, for this particular mission, since it's solvable using a predetermined key sequence, I still think that the 0 times may have been done using some sort of keyboard macro or other method to automatically send a sequence of keys to the program faster than anybody could possibly type them.