Hey all,

Quick note that dev Mike (as opposed to publisher Mike) has finally gotten a speedrun discussion channel setup in the official Discord server!

Feel free to discuss stuff there if the forums seem quiet. I check the server in general way more frequently so it'll be easier to get hold of me there. Invite link is in the sidebar on the left, channel is called #speedrunning :)

Heya all, sorry, been out of it for a while. Glad to see the speedrunning is still going semi-strong and thank you to all the additional run mods that are verifying and approving runs. We're seeing a few other new faces take to running the game - welcome!

Speaking of new faces - save the date! Lizstar, one of the All Cases runners, will be speedrunning the All Cases category at SGDQ (online) on August 19th, 9pm PST*! :D https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick

Also, there will be a future content update coming "SoonTM". No idea how it'll impact things or if it'll change up anything drastic but worth giving you folks a heads-up. :)

*I hope I got the time conversion right. Time maths is hard.

There's a new update (tentatively v2.15) incoming to the game in the works that addresses the potential softlock from the Dylan FLST timeskip in the start of the game, but basically nerfs speedrunning. I quote Mike Lasch from the Discord:

"The way the skip works now takes you to Ch2, not Ch3, because we don't want players who work out FLST and Dylan's files early in Ch1 to miss Ch2 stuff. So it will add time, but it now makes sense story-wise and doesn't cause what appears to be a soft-lock for folks playing through the first time"

I know we already use the earliest available version (v1.04) for speedrunning, but are we keen on making new categories for various versions (and reclassify the old records under v1.04)? Personally, anything goes!

Hi all,

Sorry for the radio silence in a while. Things have gotten quite busy and I've not had the chance to review runs as often as I used to. I've just cleared out whichever remaining backlog there has been, and also added a few more regular mods to help out with things. (Don't feel pressured to keep checking in, but it's definitely a perk if you need one of your own runs verified faster ;) )

That said, I just want to post about something special - one of our runners zoton2 will be appearing on the ESA Marathon (ESA Summer 2019) to speedrun Hypnospace! Woo woo!

The speedrun will be happening this coming Friday, July 26, at 1am PST. The schedule can be found here: https://esamarathon.com/schedule If you don't prefer the embedded video player, the stream link is below. https://www.twitch.tv/esamarathon

Hey guys! Just a quick thread on various things:

1. So I've been informed that there is going to be a few changes to the whole speedrunning thing in the next patch, some segments are going to lose a bit of time (some temporarily, some I dunno). Here's a small snippet of some incoming changes: a. Restarting and logging off will now pop up a confirmation dialog before you can actually restart. Theoretically this would lose a bit of time during the part where you actually need to restart, although I suppose you can use the time to get the confirmation box up, wait until the update box, then restart, so this is most likely moot - but we'll see how it goes... b. HAP skip runs won't be completely phased out, but they'll be impossible for the time being, as the search skip does not seem to be in the next patch. There are however plans to add a new keyword that won't be as easily stumbled upon. Because the main mechanic that enables this speedrun is one of the most sequence-breaking things, this explains my train of thought as to why it is in a miscellaneous category as opposed to a normal category. EDIT: Though, it's come to my attention that if you have DRM-free backups of the initial version with the HAP skip, you're (for now) allowed to submit runs with that build.

2. I want to implement a few more run categories - anyone has any ideas? I'm thinking of runs where we aren't allowed sequence breaks, though I have no idea when we should allow runners to hit up the next case. Should we allow them to flag whenever, or just flag only when they get the dispatch mail? ETC

3. Definitely looking for more mods to help mod this game. Preferably looking for people that have made runs and will prioritise those over other people. Zante - noticed you stepped down as a mod, would you like to be reinstated?