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Endless Order online was the premiere VRMMO. Tens of thousands of players flock to its servers daily, with more joining by the month. It supports all playstyles, from hardcore PvP (Player vs. Player) to PvE (Player vs. Environment), Roleplayers, Hardcore Min-Maxers, Puzzle enthusiasts, and so on. Attracting such a wide variety of players leads to a wide variety of stories from within its servers. For instance, the tale of a certain player trying to be the fastest…
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Party Chat Log:
[Party] [Marmaday]: I’ve been at this for two hours, and I just can’t shave off any more seconds.
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: Actually, it’s been more like four hours. You’re still in the Blackwater Mines?
[Party] [Marmaday]: Yeah. I got the run down to four minutes, but I can’t get it any lower. I swear I’ve cleared the dungeon like a hundred times, and no matter what I do, I can’t go any faster.
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: It’s just for farming [Shade Stones]. Four minutes is pretty good.
[Party] [Marmaday]: But you know how you can reset a dungeon 20 times per hour? If I got down to three minutes, I’d literally be running it as fast as possible.
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: Right… Give me a sec…
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: According to ITube, the fastest run is 3 and a half minutes. I watched the video, and the guy said 3:20 would be the theoretical limit.
[Party] [Marmaday]: What? Link me the vid!
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: [link]
[Party] [Marmaday]: Oh, cool, I didn’t know you could survive the jump off that platform. This guy did half the work for me, I can totally make 3:20. I’ll be right back!
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: Oh boy…
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Marmaday was supposed to be farming Shade Stones for their guild. It was a basic material in mid to high-level crafting recipes. The Blackwater Mines was the best dungeon to farm them in. It was a mid-level location, meaning a max-level player like Marmaday could farm it solo. Alas, only an hour or so into their farming, Marmaday got bored and tried to complete the dungeon as fast as possible. The excuse was to reach the hourly dungeon reset cap, but really they just liked to see how far they could push down their time.
Four minutes was their barrier for the longest time. Even with the video provided by their friend ChainJane, they only managed to push their time down to 3 minutes and 43 seconds. Of course, with a little more practice, that time would reach 3 and a half minutes within a few days to a week, but Marmaday wouldn’t be satisfied with that.
The problem with the Blackwater Mines was that it was a very straightforward dungeon, almost infamously so. Despite being a mid-level dungeon, it was fairly linear, with no alternative paths or gimmicks. Most players theorized it was meant to be an early-game dungeon but was bumped up in level at the last minute to fill out the somewhat barren mid-game.
This was the crux of Marmaday’s issue. Since there were no crisscrossing paths or mazes to chart an efficient course through, the only way to save time in the dungeon was execution and skill. Marmaday tried their hardest to make every little optimization possible. But it all amounted to crashing into the four-minute barrier. It seemed that clearing the dungeon in three minutes would forever be out of reach.
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Party Dungeon Chat Log:
[Party] [Marmaday]: 3:43, that’s as far as I got in ten tries. I could probably do better though. My finger slipped a couple times in the last third of the dungeon. I could have gotten 3:41.
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: Sure, why not? But you’ve been at this way too long. Let’s just run it casual this time, okay? You’ve run this thing like a million times now, and you’ve got to know all the fun secrets.
[Party] [Marmaday]: I think the mob in the second room has a bugged aggro radius. They never seem to pull consistently.
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: Right…Let’s just do this…
[Party] [Marmaday]: Alright, watch out for the first room. The way the path curves into it makes it hard to see where the mobs are standing. If you’re not careful, you’ll run headfirst into a cluster of them, and they like to stun you.
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: Cool, what about that thing?
[Party] [Marmaday]: What thing?
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: This thing behind you!
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As a VRMMO, Endless Order had a high degree of visual and physical feedback. If, for instance, another player jabbed you in the neck with their finger in the game, you’d feel it. It wouldn’t entirely be like the real sensation, but it’d be just enough to trick your brain.
Most people would jump at a sudden surprise like that. But if you were, say, still in a gameplay mindset from running a dungeon a hundred-plus times, you might have a different instinct. Instead, you might trigger an evade skill that flings you forward into a nearby wall.
On an unrelated note, Marmaday triggered their [Superdash] evade skill after ChainJane poked them in the neck. However, instead of face-planting, they hit the curved wall just right and slid along it like a pinball. They were saved from the embarrassment of crashing headfirst into the wall, at least. But not from flying straight into the next room and being swarmed by all the enemy mobs.
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[Party] [Marmaday]: That was a disaster.
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: But it was kind of funny. Besides, it’s not like you died.
[Party] [Marmaday]: Guess so…
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: So, how’d you slide along the wall like that?
[Party] [Marmaday]: Dunno, I’ve never dashed into a wall like that before. I think the game’s physics engine must have bugged out.
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: Went pretty fast, though, if you could stick the landing, it’d look pretty cool.
[Party] [Marmaday]: Fast?
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: Uh oh…
[Party] [Marmaday]: I’ll be right back!
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Marmaday was correct. They had found an exploit in the game’s physics engine. They had to hit the wall at the right spot, but it was an easy enough glitch to replicate. Needless to say, Marmaday spent the next hour tackling the dungeon again, but this time with their new discovery. Turned out there were several more curved paths in the dungeon to use that same trick on.
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Party Chat Log, 1 Week Later
[Party] [Marmaday]: I did it. I got a 3:19!
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: Have you just been running that dungeon over and over?
[Party] [Marmaday]: Yeah, but now I know I can get a 3:10 at the very least. I’ll be sub 3 minutes by the end of the month.
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: Well, as long as you’re having fun I guess…What have you been doing with the drops?
[Party] [Marmaday]: Drops?
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: The [Shade Stones], you’ve run the dungeon like a thousand times. You should have a lot of them by now, right?
[Party] [Marmaday]: I’ll be right back…
[Party Leader] [ChainJane]: Marmaday!
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To reach peak efficiency is a game in and of itself and can be very helpful, as long as you don't forget the reason why you needed to be efficient in the first place.
Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy.
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