The Long Run thoughts

[-rcv-]

I'm sorry I missed out on the Toontown Marathon. Sometimes Real Life can be such a bother!

I had some ideas on strategies for doing The Long Run, and thought it would be a good idea to bounce them around before the next race.

The first & biggest "tip" that I can see is a bit unusual. Before doing the run, get a task to change your character to Small Toon!

Toons run at the same speed, big or small. BUT, a Small Toon has a smaller collision sphere, which means that he will not be as likely to bump into things. I just tried this with a couple of the otherwise identical characters I have on the Test server, and Small Toon knocked about a whole minute off the time. Much easier to thread your way around obstacles, Cogs, etc. Also Small Toon actually turns corner a bit tighter.

Next tip that works for me is to "Lock" your Up Arrow key. I do this when running in a window by holding the key down, and clicking another program on the Task Bar. When you click back to the Toontown window your Toon will be running forward without holding down the Up Arrow key, and all you need to do is steer. You can still back up if you need to by pressing the Down Arrow, or you can Unlock the Up Arrow by pressing it again. I find this to be a lot less fatiguing, and a lot easier on the batteries in my keyboard. :)

You can save several seconds by taking the Back Alley on Silly Street. When you pass the Headquarters on that street, the Back Alley is in the corner just on the right of Paper Airplanes.

Anyone have any comments or other tips?

-rcv-
Kid Bugs

[Mac]

oh no dont tell that one... I passed alot by using it.
now if I could just go through tunnels faster. that would be a tip.

[Princess Beany]

Kamakaze reminded me of the back alley during our trial runs. We both used it. Maybe that was part of why we won.

[Felix_M_Cattus]

I got Flat Profile (not Flat Portrait) as a task reward the other day, and *man*, was I able to slip between things! I was able to slip between the trees and walls, run to the side of the blocks of ice and postal thingies, even scoot between pillars and buildings without being sucked into doors! It was cool. The profile is the one where you're very thin head-on. I figured when they announced the marathon that it would be a good strategy, but unfortunately I'd already used up my Flat Profile reward for my current task set. Also, I'm a big flake and forgot totally when the marathon was anyway.

But! Next time...

[MissBooBoo]

Small toon didn't help SPIFFY BWA HAHAHAHA!

[TTFKASS]

LOL You got a head start Miss Boo Boo!

In that pic when he said run, I was turned around talking, LOL All I saw MISS Boo Boo always ahead of me. I couldnt even find Deputy Beppo till the last minute hehee

My small legs just dont work like they did.

I was Right behind 3rd place, Dunkey, well not really, my Secret friend Spunky was just ahead of me. I was just following them big blue ears until, The 2 ducks and I were fighting corners, and then I seen Snukkums come and beat me up with a stick, LOL I think Lovely was taking pictures, I couldn't see to much, they blind folded me and tied me up.

That shortcut kept me in the race...I think there is another in DD, so I'm told.

[KamaKaze]

Another tip, that I tried myself but got confuzzed with...

Ahead of time, learn which way you will need to turn then you get to each playground, to get to the next street. The easiest one in this race was the Docks -- it was straight across. Where I messed up (and this is how so much space got between me and Princess Beany) was, when entering the Brrrgh, I turned left, instead of right. If I didn't have such a good lead on the Toon Pack, it would have been a quite fatal mistake :P

[Zontars]

Keyboards have batteries???
I didn't know that.
Zon

[Prof_Peppy]

Originally posted by Zontars
Keyboards have batteries???
I didn't know that.
Zon

I do not know if you are serious or not, but wireless ones do.

[Spunky]

Yeah, Spiff, this is true but it don't count I couldn't get to the start bcos I had crash after crash trying to get into the district. I tried teleporting to you, to Paint, to just about everyone on my list with nothing to show except the login screen. In the end I had to teleport to Beppo who was already waiting on the first street. Not a wise move in a race - teleport to the ref. Anyway I let people (including you) pass me before I started running and I caught a few up so I'm not worried. It was a good run, and there's a great shot of me airborne at the finish line.

Who was the toon I saw hovering in mid air above the street out of Minnies ??

SF

[Gnurk]

Originally posted by Spunky
Not a wise move in a race - teleport to the ref.

Bwahahahaha ! You said it

And about the back alley in DD, yes there is one

Edit after Dandy's post: Before you go crazy over this, that was not really fair. It's not an alley as in Silly Street (well there's not one that I know of). It is a cheat in Barnacle (so irrelevant for the marathon anyway) and it still works. The only places where I can now get my toons through a wall are where there are obstacles placed so closely to it that when you wriggle your way behind them, you can see into the grey zone. Pressing F9 there still gets you 'out'. Minnies PG is still a good place for it. They'll never get that completely tight.


PS: I really miss entering buldings through the back door and dancing in the air on 2nd floors and up in buildings. I propose a petition to Disney to reintroduce and institutionalise it. Let's do a survey lol.

[CBD]

Originally posted by Gnurk
Bwahahahaha ! You said it

And about the back alley in DD, yes there is one

There is???

Gonna have to explore later...

[CBD]

[quote]Originally posted by Gnurk
[b] It's not an alley as in Silly Street (well there's not one that I know of). It is a cheat in Barnacle (so irrelevant for the marathon anyway) and it still works.

Hehe okies..

Petiton sounds good....

Why not?

[Gnurk]

Originally posted by Sage
At Dreamland you must circle the bed using the far sidewalk, AND do the playground loop in reverse. Winner is the first one back to TTC.

I thought about the double loop thing too but feared it would be too hard to check (for cheaters) which is why I kept it a single run. My biggest fear was igniting a 1000-replies debate here on the site about who had cheated and who had not so therefore I wanted to keep things as straightforward as possible. Also because I expected that the first group out of the 'lag shadow' of the main pack would run a lot faster and steadier (reducing the chances of running into a cog) thus only building out their lead. That meant a 30 minute race was off the cards for me as it would limit the fun too soon for too many people.

For a while I considered doing play offs. Registration and then 10 toons a go - every ten minutes or so - with the best however many proceeding to a final. The good thing about that would be that the final would be a real audience thing with all toons hopping from PG to PG and yelling. It would be a guaranteed blast. I dropped it because I didn't have a clue how things would go. What if only 5 toons would turn up. (I must admit I was a bit shocked when I first landed in the chaos of the TTC PG on Loopy Valley that night lol)

Now that we have done it once we could try a thing with play offs and a final once but I really think that the more there is to be 'arranged remotely' (i.e. on the site here - such as who starts when etc.) the bigger the chance of failure.

If anyone else wants to get into the organisation of a next run they should be advised to employ as many judges and F9 handlers as they can possibly keep track of. For all I know, without Iggie and Sage, the winner of this race would have been Donald Duck sleepwalking. I really lost it, particularly when a Head Hunter caught up with me in Walrus Way and I, in sheer panic, forgot all about the RUN button and started pieing him.

One final remark: I really like the proposal made elsewhere on the boards (I'm so sorry I couldn't find it back now to credit the writer) to have a gallery in the Toontown Hall with winners of such events. Just a simple thingy like the takeover portraits saying Princess Beanie, Winner 2003 Toontown Marathon and so on. That would really bring the place to life and can't be too much trouble to create and update for the odd event.

[CBD]

Originally posted by Gnurk
One final remark: I really like the proposal made elsewhere on the boards (I'm so sorry I couldn't find it back now to credit the writer) to have a gallery in the Toontown Hall with winners of such events. Just a simple thingy like the takeover portraits saying Princess Beanie, Winner 2003 Toontown Marathon and so on. That would really bring the place to life and can't be too much trouble to create and update for the odd event.

Seeing as they went through the trouble to make a game-wide announcement of the marathon, they probably will eventually...