A lot of communities have a standard set of splits that everyone can use, allowing them to compare times to others, to know specifically where they can improve compared to people with better times. We all tend to have little ways of doing specific areas, so these splits can be used to determine the best ways to do things.

It's also a good way to have a little competition outside of WR.

Seeing that the time is getting super low and a TAS is a ways out, these could make split segment runs for theoretical best possible time a bit easier to put together.

Obviously if you don't want to use them you don't have to. We can make some and throw them up there regardless if anyone decides to use them or not. It would be a great tool for new runners and could even persuade runners to pick up the game since splits would already be done for them.

As for where to make each split, I'm up for suggestions, even though It's probably super clear where to make them (like each time you take a teleporter).

[quote]like each time you take a teleporter[/quote]

That's a first step, but that's not enough. At the beginning, we pretty much all have our first split in different places. Also, the timing for splitting is different for some people as well. Let's take a quick example : at the teleporters, I use to split as soon as I hit "Up" to start the teleport cutscene, whereas Kurtz waits for the white flash or something like that, which makes him split later than me for the same thing.

That's also things like that, that we need to standardize if we want common splits for everyone.

Yeah, I agree this isn't a bad idea. Like Gyoo says it might require some compromises but I'm fine with that.

So here's what it would look like if we went strictly by teleporters as break points.

2D Village -> 3D village -> leaving village -> Waterfall -> Sync zone -> TELEPORT (~8:30)

Nature Hub -> Bell Tower -> Broken Square wall -> Square hole in square wall -> Two square walls -> Nature Hub (not teleport since we take the door) -> Broken arch -> Broken climb -> TELEPORT (3:00 bell tower + 1:45 broken stuff)

Nature Hub -> Forest -> QR Map Chest room (?) -> big throne -> in between zone -> Old Zu Village -> Observatory climb -> Observatory -> Octopus thing -> TELEPORT (5:50)

Old Zu Village -> TELEPORT (what:ever)

Nature Hub -> Lighthouse -> Lighthouse interior -> Water tower ext. -> Water tower int. -> Memory Core -> New Zu Village -> Warp Gate -> Gravity Zone -> End cutscene -> Distorted Villageville (7:30)

Here are some proposed splits:

1. After leaving villageville and entering door to Nature Hub from the Memory Core (5:30)
2. Touch the long-fall door after Bell Tower and broken walls (3:30)
3. Touch teleporter in Sync Room (3:00)
4. Touch teleporter after broken arch and broken tower (2:00)
5. Touch door exiting forest (1:00)
6. Touch door after QR Map Room, Throne, and in-between area (2:00)
7. Teleporter top of the octopus (3:00)
8. Touch door in Memory Core to Old Zu Village, after Lighthouse (3:15)
9. End (4:30)

1, 2, 3, and 4 are pretty well segmented in my mind. If we wanted a very small number of splits we could combine 2-4 as all "Nature Hub" things, but that would probably defeat the purpose. 5 and 6 could be consolidated since 5 (the Forest) is one of the shortest sections. There seems to be a good bit of variation here, so it might be nice to have it as it's own thing though, in addition to also have a clear beginning and end. The end point for 6 is kind of weird, since you just walk through the wooden door, and then you're still in a similar-looking area (all purple). It would be the odd one out for length if we consolidated 6 and 7 though -- and not just for length since there's lots of tough stuff there. 8 is pretty clear. The end is annoying, because it's basically just the gravity room, but whatever. I think it still makes sense to keep it all together even though it's 60% cutscenes.

In terms of timing when to actually hit the split key. I prefer the way I do things (on the flash for teleporters, after the creak for wooden doors), but it's way more reliable to just say, "split as soon as you lose control of Gomez." So, the instant you press UP at either a door or a teleporter.

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One thing we'd have to keep in mind for segmented runs is having the correct number of cube bits and collected cubes before starting that section. Dot dialogue boxes and cube completions take time, period. We'd also have to start timing from before a loading zone, so that's a little weird. (In other words, say you were running the first part of the Nature Hub. You load up the Memory Core and start the timer when you open the door to the Nature Hub, watch the cutscene, and then start moving like 30 seconds later.) That's pretty annoying from my perspective, but I don't really see a better way to do it, and I don't know how any other games do it.

When it comes to split segment runs, it can be edited frame by frame to match things perfectly. Typically, split segment videos don't have timers in them. They are measured by frames and verified by SDA. So each segment would need to stop right as you regain control of gomez after a load screen or right as the animation ends from exiting a door. This way the very next segment will start with gomez already in a neutral position and controllable.

The global splits wont match perfectly if done this way, but that is ok. For consistency, hitting the split right as you enter the portal or a door seems more consistent. I personally used to have the up dpad (i use the joystick) set to my split so I could take the portal and slit at the exact same time.

Ah, I see. I'd be on board with that then, for sure.

Not really sure how to move forward from here though. I guess if anyone has input for when to split?

I don't have anything to add I think. Next step would be to make a Livesplit file with the standardized splits. Then I can at least re-time my PB run with these splits to have some data in, as I don't plan on running FEZ again soon (November is full Ori, then I may switch to a new game, I need something fresh)

I'm doing a lot of fez related stuff right now, so I'll make up a plan for the splits when I get around to it. Might be a week or so though.

Sweet, I won't be playing until the weekend anyway (if then).