So, it is a dawn of a new category - or more so an evolution from one that was in the Category Extensions!

General rule of thumb of what's allowed and what isn't is based on what Oxide does in the speedrun and where Time Crates are (or in the case of Mystery Caves, aren't).

Here is a Lap Demonstration of what is allowed in the speedrun:

For clarification, here are skips used in the current Any% NMG that are banned: Papu's Pyramid wall cut Papu's Pyramid NMZ (Tiziano) Blizzard Bluff fence Polar Pass lake jump (Backup + Boomerang) Tiny Arena skip(s) Hot Air Skyway wall dropdown Hot Air Skyway fence jump Hot Air Skyway hairpin Oxide Station dropdown(s) Oxide Station fence

(Obviously any future skips will also be banned, but the list is here for the sake of clarification)

Thank you and happy running!

While this conversation has made me apathetic about the whole subject, I believe that the Classic% or TA Skip filter could be amended via a tiered approach to the skips.

What I'd suggest in this case would be All Skips / Classic Skips (or 7 Skips) / No Skips -categories, or something similar, which would take the Skips / No Skips distinction from Mario Kart -series, as the precedent exists there. The Classic / 7 Skips skips would essentially be the proposed "classic%" with an ironclad definition that you're only allowed to use skips that were used before 2020 / TA Skip, which would translate, in order: Papu Papu Bridge, Blizzard Bluff Fence, Polar Pass Lake Jump, Hot Air Skyway Spiral Skip + Fence, Oxide Station Dropdown + Fence.

Having a classic way to play the game has a precedent in other games, like in SM64 and Jak & Daxter, so it's not entirely unusual to see - however it's imperatitive that the definition of what constitutes as a skip should be ironclad and easy to understand, as we should make the game as easy and approachable for new players, despite this added layer of complexity.

I personally don't really care anymore how this goes down, but that's my idea regarding the subject.

Yeah, I'm playing on a 90k PS2 with FDS (fast disc speed) enabled - it's often one of the faster consoles for PS1 games, with couple of exceptions, like CTR.

Tiny Arena skip is a problematic skip for the game - when it was first found, quite a few people were excited for such a huge timesave. After some time and many failed attempts, people tried to figure out strategies to make it consistent - to little or no results.

That's why there was a push to ban the skip in the past, as it was deemed to be fairly harmful for the game and it's growth - given how it could skew runs all across the board. Not to forget that some players just felt inclined to go for it, due to the huge timesave it provides - even though they enjoyed the game less as a result.

It's a skip that anyone can do, you just simply put down a nitro and drive into it, but the physics make it inconsistent for everyone. Something like Boomerang (Polar Pass Mega) or Tiziano (Papu Papu Mega) are in a different ballpark, as practice and driving is a key to make those tricks consistent - and that way they are much more skill-based than Tiny Arena shortcut.

Banning a skip does go against the nature of speedrunning, unless that's the point of a category (although some games ban certain skips from a category because they're not enjoyable) - so that's why TA Skip exists in the main category of the game and All Time Trials -category was made to circumvent the skip and all possible RNG related to the regular run.

However, if a skip skews results and discourages runners from learning and playing the game better - it hurts everyone in the long run and I believe that creating a filter can alleviate that.

In addition to that, I would love to see Skipless from Category Extensions be a main boards of the game as a category like NMG. I believe it has the ability to encourage players to shift focus from doing skips to the main meat of what CTR has to offer - driving. It's incredible how much time can be saved just by improving ones' understanding of the game and doing stuff better.

tl;dr TA Skip filter👍 Skipless as a category 👍

There's no way I can object to the proposal as it is - so I'm fully backing it! :D

Having a more competitive emulator environment will encourage new players to try out their hand in the game and it's competition, not to forget that it's a good long-term solution. Especially as at some point hardware will start to die out - in which case I suppose the PS2 boards might get frozen and we'll all have to play with emulators :P

Either way, splitting the boards - good! Strict rules for allowed emulators - excellent! IGT time comparisons - awesome!