Is real time used over IGT for these runs only because of the practicality of moderating & manually adding up all the IL IGT times?

I wonder if developing/using an autosplitter in LiveSplit could help with that. If I make it to the point of attempting the full campaign runs, I'm gonna look deeper in this.

Full campaign runs aren't very active in an already inactive game, so maybe a moot point but figured I'd throw the thought out there anyway

Pretty much; it doesn't make sense to use pure IGT since you can't really account for the time in between scenarios. But if AoM's IGT could be replicated with an autosplitter then something like IGT plus RTA in between scenarios would probably be better

I'm definitely thinking about this more than I need to, but there are a few edge cases that should ideally be covered by an autosplitter here to keep things consistent.

The Lost Relic is one interesting case. For the IL run, you want to watch the cinematic. Whether or not you watch the cinematic, you start at the same IGT. The laborers dig during the cinematic, and therefore reduce your finishing IGT for free. But in a full campaign run, even if you did IGT + RTA in between, players should skip the cinematic since the laborers don't start digging at the very start of the cinematic (as far as I know?). Having different optimal strategies for full game vs IL runs isn't a bad thing by itself, but it feels a bit wrong when it stems from the timing method rather than any gameplay element.

Another case I'm thinking about is the fact that the IGT stops when you pause the game, open the age up dialog, or open the menu (e.g. to restart the scenario on a failed attempt). Right now IL's IGT doesn't account for this at all, but I don't think that's a problem as no one is abusing this (who needs a break in a <10 min run?). But for a full campaign run, (a) there is more motivation to abuse this, and (b) restarting a level should probably include the penalty of the time it takes for you to hit the restart button. I think the autosplitter could probably just count the RTA during these screens though.

My proposal would be:

• IGT + LRT
• The load remover would remove the time of the loading screen and the time of the cinematics
• Real time would be used in the mission select menu, and any time you open a menu in game that would pause the IGT (age ups, restarting the level, pausing the game, tech trees, unit descriptions, etc.)

Such an autosplitter is probably still a tall order for a community of this size, but I do have a proof of concept that currently can replicate IGT but needs some work on victory detection & mission # awareness. If I ever find enough down time to improve it, and we have a good idea of what we want, maybe it'll happen one day :)

Poking holes in my own proposal...There are also cinematics like in I Hope This Works & Good Advice that you should be rewarded for skipping. So removing cinematic time definitely seems wrong.

Looking at aoe3 rules, they require players to limit to 60 fps through the "Enable VSync" setting, which is another simpler idea, assuming that actually works the same on ee vs titans vs vanilla (I think I've heard before it's kinda bugged on EE but I forget the details so I'll do some testing)

With the cutscene queueing being viable for IGT runs, I feel that that should be unviable in RTA, so I would propose that cinematic time be counted RTA, then IGT starts counting once the level begins.

If it was purely IGT, then there would be no downside to using cutscene queueing, whereas RTA for cutscenes punishes that time spent watching a cutscene with marginal benefit afterwards. If there was a level where having more villagers built earlier makes up for having them idle, I think that should be a unique trait for that level.

TL;DR: if you watch a cutscene, it counts towards your time. Generally skipping cutscenes will be the fastest I think.