Hey folks,

When looking through some of the videos on the board I realized some runs are not timed properly (that is, in accordance with the current rule: Timing Starts upon selecting "Basic series" (First option). Timing ends when the results screen appears). Some runs are timed based off of the screen fading to black, rather than when the results screen appears. For the sake of accuracy, I wouldn't mind retiming those runs that are not timed with this rule in mind, but I wouldn't want to do that without notifying the runners first.

Related to this, a lot of runs are timed to the millisecond. My opinion is that timing this way is unnecessary unless 1) there's a tie to the second, and we need to refer to milliseconds to determine order, or 2) we reach some barrier after which we decide more accuracy is needed (like Super Mario Bros. or Marble Madness, to name 2 examples).

So--does anyone mind if I retime the runs to be in accordance with the rules (which won't alter times too significantly), and would anyone mind if I delete the milliseconds from those runs? I know this isn't a thriving board, but all the same I didn't want to make changes without notifying you/asking first! I'll leave this message up for a bit (say, a couple of weeks), and will proceed to make changes if I don't hear anything to the contrary.

The last thing I want to mention is that there's HOT NEW TECH for this game! Thanks to Paintbrush_Samurai, we are now able to clip in every stage, navigating out of bounds and saving a huge amount of time. A quick look at his Basic Series (SNES) run will show you just how much time there is to save. It's an exciting time for the game, and maybe an exciting time to return to it...

Peace!
Regards from,

Jacobo

Hey folks, in particular @WallyzordeWallyzorde and @RallisRallis

Just so you know, per a recent Google update, some of your runs will become unviewable after next Friday, 7/23/21. Here's the language I received in a message:

Per Google's recent update, unlisted YouTube videos from before January 1st, 2017 will be made private on July 23rd, 2021 unless a user opts out through this form.

This essentially means that any speedrun submitted to Speedrun.com before 2017 as an unlisted video will become permanently unwatchable unless a user:

Opts out of the change,
Changes the share setting to public, or
Re-uploads the video as an unlisted video and updates the url link on Speedrun.com

The below runs have been flagged as YouTube videos uploaded to Speedrun.com before January 1st, 2017. Please note that this may include both listed and unlisted videos, and includes both whether you were the player or the submitter. For any run at risk, we recommend either opting out of the change, changing the share setting to public, or re-uploading the video (if it is your own) as an unlisted video and updating the link on Speedrun.com

@WallyzordeWallyzorde, looks like 6 of your previous PBs meet this criteria. As for @RallisRallis, just one run, the 9m 39s 200ms one.

This might not matter but I wanted to give a heads up nonetheless!

Take care~
Jacobo

I don't know the answer myself, but here's a thread with a link for the FF discord. FF5 has its own channel in the server (shared with 4 and 6). You might get a quicker answer there!

https://www.speedrun.com/ff/thread/20svw

I will be fine with either decision, though I am leaning toward allowing Kukie Skip. It doesn't skip a longer route in the sense of distance the marble travels, like Silly Skip, although I see how it complicates our understanding of the category given that it manipulates platform cycles. That said, if the spirit of Long Way is to showcase 1) parts of the levels not traveled in Any% and 2) more basic gameplay (no skips), then I'd be down for not allowing Kukie Skip, provided we revamp Long Way's parameters.

Regardless, I am strongly in favor of adding the ramp in Practice for Long Way

@somewessomewes I've had this question as well, but have assumed neither path is more optimal.

Alright. I've been made a mod for the game, and I changed the categories to reflect the difference between SNES and Arcade.

Do people think this makes sense?

@R0mainR0main Thank you! And I have fixed my discord format.

Hello! Requesting moderation for Syvalion, or at least some assistance getting a response from the current mod. I have 2 runs awaiting verification, one since July, the other August. I messaged the moderator a few weeks after my first submission, received no response, then messaged them again 3 weeks ago. As of now I've received no response.

Has anyone heard from Rallis in a while? I have 2 runs that have been waiting verification for 2 months now and I'm not sure what to do. I tried messaging them but haven't received any response.

These 2 versions of the game really don't allow for comparable runs. Recently Gyruss changed its leaderboard for a similar reason, as someone submitted a Colecovision run that is qualitatively different. It looks different, it plays different, just like the Arcade version of Syvalion.

Good point/question. I guess it's a relative definition--prior to DGS I suppose not entering The Ant Caves or jumping through Asylum Grounds, or loops would be the most "major" tricks/skips, given the amount of content (entire levels or nearly entire levels) they skip. But now with Dragon Gate Skip, there are 6 (7 if you include The Ant Caves) levels we won't see, which in my mind makes it a more "major" skip than previous ones. At the moment it's the most major skip, but it's also in its own category, so to speak, since no other currently known skips skip as much content as this one does.

That being said, in terms of its implementation, it's still just clipping through something and then clipping through it again, which is not mechanically so different from anything else we already do. As Noob pointed out, perhaps if it becomes very inconsistent, we use that as a determining factor.

My interpretation of "major skip" is a loose definition, as are a lot of definitions with speedrunning. What's a glitch? So I think it's up to us to decide. If we keep but want to rename Any%NMS, I'd be fine with Any%No Dragon Gate Skip, in whatever abbreviated or non-abbreviated form sounds best.

How does everyone feel about the new category, or the fact that there are now 5 categories?

The amount of categories does not bother me, and I see the reason behind separating Any% into 2 distinct categories as a result of Dragon Gate Skip being found. Plenty of other games separate their Any% categories into different categories (like "glitchless," for instance, though there's an older thread about this regarding MediEvil, and I only bring this up as an example) for the sake of creating different possibilities for new runners. Obviously the game we run does not have a community the size of Ocarina of Time or Super Mario 64 or something like that, but in the event that we do get new runners (as we have this year) I think it's a good idea to have different categories for them.

For now, keeping Any%NMS and Any% as distinct categories allows those of us who still play without DGS to experience other levels while demonstrating our abilities with the tricks/glitches/etc. that we've spent a lot of time on. If we collapse the categories into one, we lose that space for ourselves and for future runners. I'd like to be able to experience the game in different styles and to maintain the ability to have my runs in those styles validated by the community, and at the moment that is possible.

I'm all for speedrunning being about the fastest way to get through a game, but when it comes to navigating how the community wants to run that game I think it's better to include rather than exclude, and keeping Any%NMS will do that. It should also be something we discuss.

These are some of my thoughts. Everyone else?

Thanks, CzaR! I think it looks much better now.

I vote in favor of adding the delay, with the idea being that the run begins on gaining control rather than pressing start.

Also, I wish Darkwing submitted that run!

I like this idea!

I agree with these recommendations. I was a little surprised at the ColecoVision run getting its own Any% category, rather than renaming the "No 30 Lives Code" to Any%, and adding subcategories for platforms or consoles.

I second this!

Ohh that's interesting. This is new to me. Have you ever looped to the throne room before?

Yes, I tried again yesterday and had the same experience--closed door, but was able to jump in the room. Thanks for the followup!

Cool! No worries. If you haven't already, I know Crash has some videos (Ghost Ship and Time Device come to mind) that have detailed explanations which I found helpful as well, and I'd recommend those. Alowishus has tutorials up there, too. They are on Youtube.

I do agree that there are some unexplained components to level looping in this game, and our community would benefit from videos showing inputs/controllers. I'd be happy to make more little demos if there are loops that are tricky for you (or anyone else). The only one I cannot touch is the huge loop NoobKillerRoof does in Pools of the Ancient Dead, where he skips gathering the soul helmets and loops to the end trigger. I've done that exactly 2 times out of over 100 attempts, easy, and I do not understand what I am doing wrong. If anyone out there has advice for that one, I'm all ears.

Is this video helpful? Haha, be honest.

The "visual queue" is something I find helpful. For reference, it's about at 1:37 in the video when I exit the inventory, which I do by pressing Select rather than Triangle. That just so happens to be in my muscle memory, but please note that Triangle works just as well.