The fishing speed run taught me just how pivotal RNG is to most zomboid speed runs. In their Q&A Jobee dismissed seeds as not that important. In the fishing run you have about 1/2 reasonable spawn, 1/10 getting both vhs, 1/3 getting all three books in the first stop, 3/5 getting sufficient supplies in the bait shop. After all those seed related rng rolls, you have the minor RNG of zombie distribution and fish procs that I assume are mostly/completely out of the players control. Of course, you still have to execute well.

I'm not directly arguing that PZ speed runs should be allowed with seeds, just that it is an impactful decision on the way the game is ran. Should a successful speed run require 50+ resets to have a chance at the record once they get optimized? Or should a player be able take the start conditions of a peer and see if they can play it better. I'm grateful its not my decision to make but it certainly matters for the future of the category as a whole.

To be frank, I'm not even sure how to edit the seed. It was never important for casual runs and I enjoy the spice of uncertainty but I don't enjoy resetting for hours after 10m runs that miss VHS loot or what have you.