United StatesHello,
In light of some recent discussion on these forums, I am opening this thread for community members and runners alike to put forward their thoughts and feedback on some topics I will cover below.
#Important stuff
[big]New timing start[/big] As it stands now, the way we start timing is bad and inconsistent. The official start timing is currently "when control is gained over CJ" -- the reason this is bad is because you can sometimes gain control on a black screen, thus making it inconsistent.
My proposal is: start timing on cutscene skip. This is easily implemented as pretty much everyone uses tduva's autosplitter and this is how it starts timing. If anyone has an argument for changing timing to something else, I'd love to hear it.
[big]Subjective rule enforcement for WRs[/big] Currently, runs that will be considered for World Record are subject to extra scrutiny. For a run to be considered WR, it must begin from a fresh "new game" which includes the loading screen.
It has been brought to my attention that if we're going to subjectively force things like "fresh new game" for WRs only, it would stand to reason that we would relax on the rules for other "deficiencies" that impact the run on a similarly minor scale, such as accidental cheats.
My question is: do we enforce "WR rules" for all runs? And if we don't, do we "relax" the rules for non-WR runs and forgive things such as accidental cheats?
[big]All Missions[/big] With the addition of No Major Glitches to the leaderboard, All Missions is now in a bit of a weird spot. Its original purpose was to both function as an "NMG" category itself, while also being fleshed out and incorporating some optional mission chains. The question now is: do we change All Missions, or leave it in its current form?
A couple ideas for this have been explored already:
Powdinet's post, proposing All Story Missions: https://www.speedrun.com/post/x85zl MHMD's thread, further exploring this idea: https://www.speedrun.com/gtasa/thread/apick My own post in the above thread, proposing All Assets: https://www.speedrun.com/gtasa/thread/apick/2#9pmcy
#Other stuff
[big]Runs with no video[/big] Over the years, lots of run videos have been lost. Some of these were able to be restored (thanks to Twitch changing the way video URLs work), but some have been lost forever.
I personally believe that when you click on a run on these leaderboards, you should be able to watch it. Therefore, we've been updating run video links accordingly, and rejecting runs that no longer have proof.
If you stumble upon a run -- main category, misc category or IL -- that has no video, please let us know so we can update or reject it.
[big]ILs[/big] Over the last two week we've been hammering away at restoring the ILs board. We now have, as of writing, 482 IL runs on the board, or alternatively, 32 new IL runs per day.
If we are still missing any IL runs, please notify us in the appropriate thread. Do not discuss IL runs in this thread.
[big]FLYING[/big] All of FLYING's runs have been removed. This decision may or may not be permanent, pending new information. You can find more information here: https://www.speedrun.com/gtasa/thread/f3hsl
Many community members have been vocal about FLYING, his runs, and his tenure on our leaderboard. However, I am hoping we can focus on the future of our leaderboard and not waste more breath on the happenings with FLYING. As such, please avoid FLYING discussion in this thread. Thanks.
Whew. I think that covers everything. Feel free to leave your thought(s) on whatever you like. Thanks.
Hello,
Last month, the Level Leaderboard for this game was deleted. All runs were lost. Since then, the pages for these ILs has been restored, but none of the runs remained.
Immediately after this incident, new mods were appointed. Anti_ and myself were made supermod, replacing the old supermod(s), and we also took on hoxi as a verifier. Then, of course, the Anti_ thing happened and he removed himself from all LB mod positions.
Since I have inherited this mess, I have reached out to speedrun.com admins and staff through both Discord and Twitter.
On 14 August, I was told that backups should be able to be restored, and I relayed this information to everyone else. Nothing happened.
On 29 August, I reached out again to follow up. The reply I got back was effectively "we'll nudge someone about it" -- nothing happened.
It is now the 17th of September, and since nothing has happened, I think it's time we take charge of the situation.
IF YOU HAVE DONE IL RUNS, PLEASE RESUBMIT THEM. When uploading, make sure you include the appropriate date, if possible.
IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO HAS DONE IL RUNS, please reach out to them and get them to submit. OR, feel free to post their run(s) in this thread for us to add them.
I apologize that this has taken so long and that effectively nothing good came about it. I did my best to reach out to the appropriate folks, and I gave them ample time to help us out with this ordeal. It is not my intention to pin this problem on them (it's not their fault this happened, and it's a stupid problem for us to have to begin with) -- and since it is also not my intention to beat them over the head with my correspondence, I think this is the best we can do for now.
Thanks
Hello,
Losing runs to WASD cheats is bullshit. At least I think it is; I don't particularly enjoy the "skill" involved in avoiding those cheats - to me it feels like being punished for trying to navigate the game world efficiently. Nonetheless, there is a speedrun-legit, free and easy way to entirely avoid losing runs to accidental cheats. It's called the magic of AutoHotkey.
If you don't have AHK, head over to this handy dandy link: https://autohotkey.com/download/ and install it, or download the .zip, whatever your fancy is.
Download and set it up. Now, open up your copy of San Andreas and rebind your movement keys to ones that are not part of any cheats. Personally, I use F5 for W, F6 for D, F7 for A and F8 for D. You must apply these bindings to both FOOT and VEHICLE controls, lest you become quickly confused when you hop on the bike and CJ takes a siesta.
With that done, right click on your desktop (or anywhere in Explorer) and select New -> AutoHotkey script.
If the option is not there, just make a new text document and change the file extension to .ahk. Right click on it, and select the "edit script" option. Notepad should open up with a blank file. You will want to setup your script like this:
SingleInstance Force to ensure that multiple and/or old instances do not run. UseHook to prevent the "too many hotkeys" popup. IfWinActive GTA: San Andreas so that your hotkeys are only enabled when you're in the SA window. SeemsGood
Running an .ahk script is easy. Just double-click on it (after you've saved it), and you're good to go. To exit the script, find it in your taskbar and right click -> exit script. The icon will be the little green "H" (or green "S" if you've got the script suspended).
You've got it all set up! GG. Go out there and do some runs without fear of being a dirty little accidental cheater.
Haven't noticed these posted anywhere. Use them to your leisure - should be everything you need for Classic% but if any are missing/needed, let me know
