Don't feel the need to rush back, real life always comes first. Though if you'd rather have more hands to lighten workloads over run verifications, I've done these categories enough times to know what's up. <3

A collection of notes I'm making on what differences occur in the stage challenge levels, as a study into maybe thinking about deprecating the v1.4.2 run in favour of a new v1.5.0 category or version going forward. The details below detail how the stages are in v1.5.0 and how they're different from v1.4.2:

STAGE DIFFERENCES NOTICED

• Green Hill Run - in 1.5.0, the opening turntables after the initial launch pad rotate slower than in 1.4.2.
• Starlight Carnival Run - After the series of springs and aerial boost rings to the area with light bridges and exploding balloons, the light bridges appear to move along slower in 1.5.0 than they did in 1.4.2, meaning that cycles achievable before may not be viable now.
• Silent Forest Hunt - The robot owls' spotlights have a reduced detection area in 1.5.0 than in 1.4.2. Unlikely to affect completion of the level since this mostly still relies on RNG and clean targeting.
• Frozen Factory Run (1) - After the breakable rocks, the position of the ice blocks is different in 1.5.0 than in 1.4.2, with the largest blocks now situated right at the back next to the ledge. Requires a new jump & skill use to cross the gap, but differences in run times are negligible.
• Silent Forest Run - The area with the bushes to hide from the spider bots has an increased countdown time of 7 seconds in 1.5.0 from 6 seconds in 1.4.2, giving more time to cross the area in one cycle depending on when the countdown is on entry.
• Green Hill Team - Score requirement is reduced, it is now 1800 in 1.5.0 compared to 2200 in 1.4.2.
• Seaside Hill Survival - Giant Chomper seems to move slower up the vertical section in 1.5.0 compared to 1.4.2. inconsequential to the level run.
• Pinball Carnival Run - In the area with the Eggman bumpers and boost rings, there are significantly less Eggman bumpers in 1.5.0 than in 1.4.2, creating the opportunity to navigate this section quicker.
• Frozen Factory Run 2 - Altered timings to the ice beam cannons in 1.5.0, seemingly larger windows of time between blasts than in 1.4.2. With altered skill use and pathing, quicker cycles through the level may be achievable.
• Lava Mountain Ring Battle 2 - Seesaws are shorter in length in 1.5.0 than in 1.4.2.
• Chemical Plant Run 2 - In the opening section, new positions of green button platforms in 1.5.0 than in 1.4.2. Arrangement of Buzzbombers in the middle of the tube section is different too. Also, the middle route has been changed with less elevation changes overall.

GENERAL GAMEFEEL

• It is my opinion that the overall base running speed of the character is reduced in 1.5.0 than in 1.4.2. This was evident to see when a 1.5.0 run is compared to my 1.4.2 run for instance. Examples include comparing Starlight Carnival Hunt and Seaside Hill Run 2: I could noticeably see the character running slower in the 1.5.0 run than in the 1.4.2 run.
• Additionally, the menuing between stages has been artificially made longer as a result of the additional screen to back out through after completing a stage. Plus I noticed a few instances of longer loading time due to the additional screen being loaded, but this could be a hardware thing over general game performance.

These two changes have fundamentally new implications for the old 1.4.2 run going forward, as a slower general base movement and longer menuing times will affect the performances we are able to do in certain stages, and the run overall.

It will be considered for sure. We are only about 6-7 weeks into the game's full global release and not everyone is going to have the resources to access the stuff needed for a hard mode or unrestricted run. That's why we're kinda keeping the scope small with the avatar skill restricted normal mode runs at first. It's also to drum up hype and support so more runners try it out.