CanadaThat's your prerogative.
As for VODs instead of highlights, on top of the amount start time issue, they expire. Twitch VODs are awful as proof, especially when creating a highlight on Twitch is trivial. If someone did that in a game I moderate, I'd more than likely contact them and ask for a highlight instead.
(I'm struck by the notion that mods and verifiers should not have to watch the whole video.
Then again, some boards don't require video or verification at all, so it's not like you would be way off the norm. I'm just surprised.
If you do anticipate a surge in popularity, I'm sure you'll be discussing that process over the next little while.)
That being said, is an on-screen timer better at helping you verify than a video's tracking time?
And if you're encouraging players to edit a timer onto the video after the recording, that's gotta add some degree of uncertainty to the accuracy or credibility of the video-edited timer :/
I'll admit I did not go and check whether he was still mod when I brought it up again, I was not expecting a change in the staff. Regardless, in trying to prompt his response, my comments were more snide than they needed to be. Sorry.
To get back on topic, I agree that it can make it easier for the mods, and as you noted, my opinion on whether mods should rely on the timer is probably not the same as yours. But yeah, they're unpaid volunteers, and if a timer can help, then it's appropriate to state that the timer is strongly preferred, which you have done.
As for your second point, it's not exceedingly difficult for more savvy runners, but it's still extra hoops to jump through. After streaming and highlighting a run from the ps4 to Twitch, there are a few ways to edit a timer onto the video. Here's the easiest I know of: Watch your own VOD in full HD, capture that in OBS, add a timer to the scene, stream it again in HD, then re-highlight. That requires a PC and connection that can stream in HD while watching an HD video. That's a tall order IMO. Alternatively, you could download the vod, use OBS to record it locally with a timer, then reupload it somewhere. Or you could download the vod, edit it with video software, render and upload that. (My point is, any way you cut it, the extra steps aren't trivial and constitute a barrier imo).
As for your third point on the merits of showing a timer, I don't think this applies since the rules days nothing about splits, let alone standardized splits.
Other than that, I think we're on the same page.
"6oliath can you please not be petty and refrain from baiting on our boards, please?
Also, are you even planning on running the game or being apart of our community, or are you just here to monitor and police our rules?"
You wanna talk about that here? In this topic? Well ok.
I run Titan Souls. It's often compared to Dark Souls, just because of the title, but once you play it you realize it's actually a lot more like 2D SotC. You should check it out! Our community is really welcoming. The game is a series of puzzle/action boss fights where you have to find each boss's weakness. The world is bleak and open, the protagonist is on this quest for ambiguous motivations, the music is great. It's considered to be a hard game to play casually, since you die in one hit, but once you know what to do it's a very accessible speedgame.
Unfortunately for me, the game pre-loads maps on ps4, but not on the PC version. So it's one of those rare cases where the game is faster on console than on PC. I am saving up for a ps4, but right now I occasionally use my friend's. He's been playing Destiny every night so I'm leaning toward getting my own. As a PC gamer there aren't a lot of ps4-exclusive games that have been on my radar, but SotC is an obvious choice for me, given that I play a 2D game inspired by it. (I'm also looking at Bloodborne.)
As it so happens, the console is very expensive where I live. Capture cards, especially HD ones, are also very expensive. I'm not going to be getting both anytime soon. I'm not just casually and vaguely looking for a new hobby; on the contrary, I'm a relatively established runner and even I would have to jump through the prohibitive hoops for my runs to comply with the old rules. What does that do for new runners?
Now. I take issue with your reasoning and questioning.
If you're going to accuse me of baiting, then immediately interrogate me as to my intentions, I get that, but I'm not sure what kind of answer you're expecting. Are you trying to get me to say I'm not planning on running the game, so you can dismiss my criticism of how it's being managed? Are you hoping I'll say something stupid? I dunno what to tell you other than my sincere answer above. It seems like you're trying to escalate the situation.
Even so, if I had no intention of running the game and if I was just shopping around for my next speedrun project, this is an open forum and it is the most appropriate and visible place to discuss the rules and call for changes. It's odd that I have to remind you that this topic specifically called for people to weigh in, in light of this being a new board. My points on showing a timer were valid and no one else was raising them. That's nowhere near your ridiculous portrayal of me trying to police you.
I take issue with your use of the exclusive "our". This game and board is brand new. That itself calls for fresh perspectives from new and prospective runners. I wasn't aware I needed an invitation to "your" community. Yes, I am an outsider with regard to the original SotC running community. I follow one SotC runner at the moment. The former TLG WR holder is also the former Titan Souls WR holder. I have been lurking in the Discord for a while now. So I do actually have some ties to the community. If there's anything else I need to do to join the community, let me know. The elitism is a little off-putting, but you're an old group. At least, that's how I see you guys, and how I explain your resistance to changing the long-standing rules even on a new board.
Don't take it personally. I don't know you. But maybe you see where I'm coming from a bit better now.
Well apparently I did need to!
Thanks for fixing the rules :)
@ROMaster2 says: "If a runner's encoding is competent, you can time a run from the video alone. An on-screen timer is not necessary in that case, just preferred."
He's a site mod. He opened up the topic you closed to post this, over on the SotC forums.
@kirkq says: ""Comment on timers:
For most games a run doesn't need a timer for accurate time tracking. The time on the timer splits is also commonly a second or two off the actual time of the run due to user error. The time of the run is actually the time of the gameplay, not necessarily the time on the timer.
A common exception to not needing a timer could be if a livesplit auto-splitter is used for time without loads. That would be a good reason to require a timer on the screen. If there's not a good reason to require a timer, it shouldn't be required. This seems to me to be what the majority of boards are doing."
In case you weren't aware, Kirkq is a site admin, he's the person who has been checking the mod removal topic, and he posted this there a few weeks ago. I don't know what kirkq's other areas are in terms of staff structure, but I know he does enforce standards like this one and the last time I brought up the issue and cited the quote you just closed the topic.
Please change the rules so that they're consistent with the rest of the site. There is no reason to force videos to include an on-screen third-party timer, since the mods should be timing the video.
Current rules: "external timer ... must be visible in the submitted video"
Why is this?
I'd like to say that even if you require RTA timing, there should be no obligation to show a timer on-screen.
First, the on-screen timer may not be accurate and is subject to user error. The video should be timed by the person verifying the run. They should NOT be relying on the user's submitted timer.
Second, this rule unfairly excludes those who would run the game who don't have a capture card.
The site admins have ruled on this issue before. It's not the player's job to show a third-party timer unless an autosplitter is required by the run, which is not the case here. They should use one if it's an RTA timing convention, but again, you should remove the rule stating that it has to be shown.
:) Good luck setting up the new boards, I know it's a lot of work.
"the runner must display a third party timer..."
This is not normal. As site admin @kirkq says:
"Comment on timers:
For most games a run doesn't need a timer for accurate time tracking. The time on the timer splits is also commonly a second or two off the actual time of the run due to user error. The time of the run is actually the time of the gameplay, not necessarily the time on the timer.
A common exception to not needing a timer could be if a livesplit auto-splitter is used for time without loads. That would be a good reason to require a timer on the screen. [big]If there's not a good reason to require a timer, it shouldn't be required[/big]. This seems to me to be what the majority of boards are doing."
I assume this is only to take some workload off the verifiers, since ps4 runs will be handled elsewhere in the future? Since emulators are banned, this rule effectively makes HD capture hardware a requirement for the run, right? Is there a really strong reason for requiring a third party timer? If not, could you consider dropping that rule?
I'll start then shall I?
[big]Blindfolded any%[/big] Using any% rules Time: 28:44 Comment: This took a while to get, and I know it's since been beaten by DumDumDugan, but I am still proud to be the first to have completed it. My first run was closer to 3 hours, second run closer to one hour, so I am very happy this one was sub-30.
[big]Segmented any%[/big] Using any% rules Time: 10:30.3 (RTA) Comment: I put this together in an afternoon so it's not perfect, but it's pretty close to about the best a human could do in this game with all of our current strategies. I modified the title screen so that it's immediately clear that it's not a regular run.
[big]Any% with force closing the game[/big] Using any% rules, barring the prohibition on force-closing. Time: 11:12 (RTA) Comment: I did this run the day before the category was removed. It beat the only other previous time from that category so I consider it a non-competitive WR. I mapped Titan.exe to Alt+F1, so every forceclose was Alt+F4+F1, went very quick on SSD. It's comparable to perfect risky skipping. Bonus: The in-game timer for that run was 10:00.
[big]All Bosses IGT WR of 15:38[/big] I don't know if I recorded it. It was a while ago. I quit after most bosses to roll back the in-game timer. In lieu of video, my proof is a save file. You'll see that it works if you add it to your own saves. https://pastebin.com/BuqYqBWv The frame count is 56314, or 938 seconds. That is 15:38 seconds :)
If you guys aren't sure what to post here, you can come up with challenges yourself like some of you have. I'm hoping to see times and videos for Pull-to-Kill runs, Never-Pull runs, Never-Shoot-Up, CloudSave-PS4-Corruption, 4th-save-overwrite-PC, 100-sludgehearts, etc.
We don't have leaderboards for every challenge run, so instead, use this topic to log your achievements and challenge others to do the same.
If you have the parameters of your challenge, post it along with a video link and your time!
Restoring you as a mod while you still have horns locked with other mods will do more harm than good. If you can't see that, you don't have the game's community's best interests at heart.
See my previous post for what I think is more constructive. You need to de-escalate the problem.
And... Wrong topic.
If you are here to request to be promoted back to mod after being demoted, that can only cause more problems, frankly, for you and the community.
If you're here for any other reason, this is the wrong thread.
Again, please don't co-opt this thread for undermining active mods or for drawing the attention of the admins away from the legitimate requests here. I think you know better.
It's not my place to pass judgment on the merits of your problem. But since I'm already replying, I'll mention that I think you need to try to repair your relationship with SHiFT very GRADUALLY, or move on. This isn't a problem that can be resolved overnight, unfortunately. My2¢.
@ryaca74 I sympathize with you.
From the rules of Blazblue: "This is speedrunning people. I shouldn't Have to put this in here but a timer MUST be on your screen." It sounds like you are faced with a problem mod, setting unusually strict standards fit for proof. Worse, instead of explaining why, the mod is of the belief that it goes without saying. Worse still, they seem to be the only mod for the series.
I'm not sure if this is the right recourse for you, though. If you are added as mod, you will still have to contend with the issues created by the original mod. However, site administrators or full mods will very rarely step in. I hope you are doing what you can to convince the current mod to change style, because you don't want to lock horns with them and have two mods with two standards running a game.
So I don't think you're wrong to post in this last-resort topic, but do continue trying other avenues.
IMO.
I assume if someone can't bother to read the first post and provide the information requested therein, they don't get modded. I wonder how many pages this topic would have if it only contained valid complete requests.
@RareBanjo Your odds are (probably) better if you explain how you tried to contact the active mod, because right now your post might be perceived as not fitting the criteria set out in the first post on this topic.
Hello,
I have a couple of requests.
First: I am the only active super mod for Titan Souls ( https://www.speedrun.com/titan_souls ).
I would like to request to have @Reyneur ( https://www.speedrun.com/user/Reyneur/info ) removed as super mod from Titan Souls. I believe he submitted one run of the demo of the game, and has not been seen or heard from since. He was last online 9 months ago, and he is unreachable via his social media (I tried Twitter over the summer, and more recently, his account is set to private. I tried Twitch, and his Twitch account no longer exists or was removed. I tried Youtube, and got no response; his last Youtube account activity was 3 years ago.
The other super mods are inactive, but I have had some (very minimal) contact with them over the past few years and I believe I can reach them. @Melestara was last online 7 months ago: https://www.speedrun.com/user/Melestara/info @papertwo was last online 2 months ago: https://www.speedrun.com/user/papertwo/info
I am not specifically requesting they be removed as super mods, but I do believe it would be appropriate for them to be removed as they are no longer interested in the game and they are not active in the speedrunning community, so if you're examining the Titan Souls mods, and you see that they are inactive, I would support their removal. So that I am not the only super mod, I would promote @Zic3 to be a super mod along with me. He rarely runs Titan Souls now since his AGDQ 2017 run, but he is active on Twitch with a few streams per week, he is active on his social media, and he is extremely knowledgeable about the game. He is a consistent and competitive runner, and he plays on PS4 whereas most other people play on PC, so I think it would be good to have him as a PS4 expert for the game.
I sent an email to the support email for speedrun.com a few months ago but I hadn't heard back. I'm hoping to have more luck with this topic (:
Second: There is only one single run for the game iO ( https://www.speedrun.com/io )
The run was a first run ever by @Obroe, he is the sole default Super mod, and he is inactive ( https://www.speedrun.com/user/Obroe/info ). I watched it before I began running the game, and it is not a competitive time, I am of the opinion that after this run he lost interest in iO. Notwithstanding the time on his first run, I have been waiting for my runs to be verified. I tried to reach him on two occasions on Twitter, and on two occasions on Twitch. He does not seem to be active on either. It has not been 3 weeks yet, but as you can see on Obroe's profile, he was last online 3 months ago, and so in the circumstances I am hoping you will make an exception, since the first post mentions 3 months as being considered inactive. I am requesting to replace Obroe as super mod for iO. I also wish very much to make improvements to the game settings and the layout settings for the leaderboard page.
Thank you.
This might not have been discovered before, I did a quick online search and didn't see anything. So maybe it's brand new! I discovered it by accident.
What it does: It lets you walk away from the Stash (or Shared Stash) and go to other maps, while keeping the Stash popup window open!
As far as I know, this might not be that useful in a run since I don't think inventory space is ever an issue. But I figured I'd post it here and someone else can figure out if there's anything more to it.
First, open the stash, and go to spells/tomes tab. On your pet spells/tomes, click the X as if you were going to remove one. When it brings up the confirmation window, hit Esc.
It should close the confirmation window and back out and let you move around, but it will keep the stash window open!
The downside is that if you close it, you can't reopen it until you go to the stash again. So you can't, for instance, put Character attributes in after leveling.
Yeah it's allowed. Also, you can just hold A during the menu to get through the cutscenes, no need to mash.
