So, despite my having weighed in about a weekish ago and stating that I support using IGT over RTA, I think I am switching my stance on this, for what its worth.

While I still think that using RTA over IGT has its fair share of issues and problems, using IGT has just as many it seems. So regardless, we are gonna have some issues to sort out and learn to deal with, which, in my opinion, means the main thing to focus on should be what is going to present the least barrier of entry for people who want to pick up the run later down the line.

With IGT, the runs have to be deathless and without restarts/retries. This coupled with the rule we would likely have to have about being as quick as possible in menus are such or risk disqualification seems like it would seem like a much bigger barrier of entry. True, you can run categories that dont actually exist on the leaderboards, but if the base, main category has a high enough barrier to entry, people wont bother getting involved with the community or even attempt to submit runs. So people would likely still run the game, but they would probably be significantly less likely to actually join the community and then we risk the boards eventually becoming a sort of waste land (bit hyperbolic I'll admit, but I think it establishes my point here).

After spending a lot more time with the game and speaking with a few people I know... I think RTA might actually be the better route to go. If this causes the boards to be split further than by console generation, obviously that sucks, but I think it might be the better option. Having the video start early enough to show the difficulty selection screen and the end results screen while having the RTA start when we gain control of Ethan at the very start of the game and ending when Miranda enters her death animation, imo, might be the better way to go.

EDIT/UPDATE: My personal thoughts have shifted on this. I posted a new response that reflects these changes in my thought process. Rather than delete this response, I figured I'd leave it up as I still think some of the points I make are still valid and should be considered, but basically, I am now very much favoring RTA over IGT.

If we go the IGT route, I think I personally would be fine with pause buffering more or less being required to be super competitive. While that kinda sucks, I also think you'd need your runs to be very optimized otherwise to really have to stress out about them too much. Yeah, the elevators are gonna end up adding a couple minutes on average if you dont pause buffer them, but unless thats basically the last couple minutes you need to start saving, you're probably gonna have time save elsewhere, so it would probably, in my opinion, end up being more of an issue for the people higher up the board.

With IGT the main issues I think would arise are definately the issues with pausing/meuing/talking to the duke and, obviously, the IGT resetting upon death or retries or whatever. So, obviously we can just say "hey, since pausing, being in your inventory, talking to the duke, etc, all stops the IGT and this run is timed by the IGT, you can't just hang out on these menus". Like, just make it so you have to be, not necessarily lightning fast but at least obviously doing something other than buying/wasting time. Again, this isnt perfect, but I think its a rule I personally would be fine with and I dont see it having much pushback, though I suppose I could be wrong about that. The next issue though would be the fact that we would have to make the runs deathless. No retries is whatever, but if you mess up in one spot and die and that kills the run, that's a big ouch. I think most of us would be able to deal with this as I think most of us would have deathless runs anyways, but this seems like it would be more problematic for the VoS runs, whether you are talking NG or even NG+. Is it possible to no death VoS NG? Probably. Will most people be able to do that just to be able to start running the category? Probably not. But that aside, making the rule of runs having to be deathless would be a barrier or entry and THAT I think is the worst part of the IGT idea. I think we can learn to deal with the other issues, but having to make it deathless to be valid is gonna end up putting a lot of people off who otherwise would eventually pick up the run and join the community.

RTA... my main issue with RTA is that it makes it kinda pay to win. As has been pointed out, consoles of the same generation are gonna have an instant advantage and even then, people who have upgraded their console's storage device would have even more of an advantage. I could be wrong about all of that, but if even any of it is true, it turns using RTA into a pay to win situation. And as ZGL pointed out, at that point the console boards would have to be broken up even more than just generation and thats gonna fragment the console community, potentially.

Ultimately, after spending a little over a week with the game and even using my RTA timer a couple times, even with the idea of making the runs deathless not really ideal in my mind... I think IGT with the no death/retry policy and a rule about not using menu's to buy time is probably gonna be the better option.

I love this idea. I'm a PS4 runner so NGH has never been an option for me and, let's be honest, sometimes Guest House is infuriating lol. So honestly these changes would make the category accessible to us PS4/PS5 runners and allow us a chance to take a break from the other categories.

I believe shadow puzzle has to be solved prior to going OOB as well, otherwise the scorpion key won't work and you won't be able to back track as the hidden passage won't be open.

I believe shadow puzzle has to be solved prior to going OOB as well, otherwise the scorpion key won't work and you won't be able to back track as the hidden passage won't be open.

Hey there. So I'm still pretty new to this community and only recently started trying for legit speedruns though I've always tried to sort of compete with myself for beating my PBs in certain games.

ANYWAYS. Right now, I am working on Resident Evil 7 on the PS4. Going for NG+ Easy Any% with my end goal of 1:30. PB atm is 1:43 and some odd seconds but I need to resubmit the run as I apparently forgot to include the difficulty selection menu at the very start, so I am just going to wait til I beat 1:43 before trying to submit another run. So yeah, thats about all I can think of for now. Excited to get involved in the community and start setting and breaking my PBs.

Also, because everyone asks: Balveda = B-Alv-Ed-Ah (the alv is pronounced like in the word valve and the ed is like the name Ed, everyone struggles with that apparently lol)