Choosing between IGT and RTA
7 years ago
Russia

I want opinion of people on this forum about some game - i will not name the game - so to not generate any drama - i just want an opinion.

Single-segment runs of that game for now were done for the best IGT. But IGT does not count some gameplay parts of the game at all and if you fail during the mission and reset to last checkpoint - IGT resets as well. So recently there was a push to measure single-segment runs in RTA.

So it seems there are 3 solutions to this dilemma:

  1. One part of runners wants to keep only IGT - and there are already a lot of runs been done for this category
  2. Second part of runners wants to keep only RTA - because it considers whole game and you can not cheat the time by failing checkpoint
  3. Third part of runners wants both categories to be available - because IGT and RTA will have slightly different routes

So what do you think is the right choice?

England

In this situation I would say RTA is the better option. If the IGT reverts back when you fail a checkpoint the run can essentially become a multi-segment run because, as you said, a runner can continuously purposefully fail a section till they get a near perfect run.

  1. Surely it won't end up being too difficult to retime a few runs to get the RTA of the run? Doing this allows the previous runs valid and hopefully satisfies most who want to keep the IGT runs valid.

  2. I believe this would be the way to go because of the reasoning mentioned.

  3. This is also a reasonable alternative, but you want to try and keep the board looking clean, so make sure you take board clutter into consideration. There is also the possible problem that eventually, if the game is run enough, the RTA and IGT routes would become the same because of the need to constantly use faster and riskier strats in the RTA category in order to obtain a WR.

England

"But IGT does not count some gameplay parts of the game at all and if you fail during the mission and reset to last checkpoint - IGT resets as well. "

What parts of game does it not count? If it's just dumb autoscrollery stuff then who gives a toss, but if it's actual gameplay then you might have a problem.

If you're dead set on keeping IGT a more practical solution is just to make it so runs that fail during missions and reset are invalid for submission. There's precedent for this in other games that use IGT but that IGT backs up if you game over and restart or something, if the IGT is otherwise solid, this is a sensible move.

Russia

It's actual gameplay that does not get counted by IGT - not an autoscroller.

Bavaria, Germany

in the Metroid Prime community we use IGT and treat runs that reload from saves as segmented runs aka not single segment runs which are the runs listed here. If it is not too hard to get a run without any deaths, which force a reload from a checkpoint, then IGT is viable with only allowing runs that don't reload checkpoints. However if the grand majority of runners can't get a single segment run in that kind of matter then you should definitely switch to RTA. You could still make a segmented IGT category though if that's a thing.

United States

Whenever a game provides an In-Game timer, they should always recorded along with Real Time. However, choosing either Game Time or Real Time as the primary measure is case-to-case. For the occasional game that requires you waste Real Time to see what the Game Time was, then it can be skipped if Real Time is chosen. Regardless of which one is primary, the other time can be secondary, there to help break a tie.

Time without Loading is nice too, but usually only necessary for more recent PC games. Keeping track of it is almost pointless if Game Time is chosen over Real Time.

Edited by the author 7 years ago