I forgot to mention how that applies to E.I.N. calculation. Calculations are done 40x per second, but other than that have no relation to the "days". The "6.8 second refractory period" is from the game checking the empty ride ID's from 6 to 255 or so. 250/40 = 6.25 (seconds). (Modified by my game's speed in 1024x768 + no way to know when this period ended & Ride 1's calculation began).

And, obviously, it's influenced by how much stuff you have going on in your park.

Actually... this is not obvious at all, and likely false. Here is an update.

"12.8 seconds," as stated by Marcel, is key. Here's how the game is coded:

• 40 calculation "ticks" per second
• 512 ticks per "day" = 12.8 seconds
• 32 "days" per month = 6 minutes, 49.6 seconds

If your game goes slower than that, it's a deviation from how it's supposed to be.

• Every 16 "days" you are charged for ride operating costs
• Every 8 "days" you are charged for wages, research, & interest (and get notifications about not building exit paths, etc.)
• Every "day" Park Value & Park Rating are updated, and scenario completion is checked (if applicable).

Returning to the subject of time, here are the culprits:

Most significant: Computer (+100%) Solution: Get/use a better computer.

Chris Sawyer designed this game to run on machines from 1995, yet it somehow challenges modern computers. I'd say you need a decent gaming desktop to run it at full speed. Especially on weaker computers, other processes can slow RCT down. On a basic consumer laptop running Fall Guys, browsers, etc., I was able to make RCT run twice as slow (1 month taking over 14 minutes).

2nd most significant: Resolution or Window Size (+10%) Solution: Use tiny window.

A comfortable view can cost you up to 1.25 seconds per "day", 39.625 seconds per month. (Times may vary based on your computer.) Can you blame Marcel for quitting over this?

Less significant: Random/mystery (+0.24%)

(All else equal, the speed varied this much.) I don't know. Probably still computer issues. Or differences in random game events? Zoom level? Sprites? Player input?

No clear significance: Compatibility mode (0%). Tests varied by a frame at times.

When I told Marcel about resolution affecting speed, he told his Twitch stream, and there was some brainstorming between he and zgeez about changing how we do things here, i.e. Normalizing speed. E.g. The guys who completed Diamond Heights in 40 seconds would be equal to those who completed it in 38 seconds, because they all used the start of Day 4 PV update.

Issue: It's not a one-size-fits-all solution. Having more seconds to work with is often an advantage. 38 seconds or 40 seconds to place those shuttle loops is pretty much the same thing, but 25.6 seconds is noticeably harder than 27 seconds for DH runs. Now consider Dusty Desert, where I slid in right before Day 9 in max res. A faster running game would clock in slower AND at a later day (Day 10).

Actually... I wasn't able to speed up the game by getting rid of guests this time. But, I don't feel like doing more experiments of letting my game run for 20 minutes to update my theory.

Okay. The logic you've presented is that ride construction is a test of speed. Best point I've seen you make. Speed of execution is what it's all about. On the other hand...

For Park Value scenarios, building coasters piece by piece is out of the question, and perhaps always has been. SparkiL did Diamond Heights in 5 seconds, and you're talking about building a new custom design in the run. Or, if not suggesting one does it in the run, bringing up ride construction irrelevantly.

Here's my experience: Diamond Heights - "It's got those dueling Steel coasters... I bet everyone just does Shuttle Loops." "Yep." Katie's World - looking at rides available "Does everyone just do Swinging Ships?" "Yep." Dinky Park - "Swinging Ships again?" "Yep." lost interest

My dream was that there could be more creativity/strategy involved. Beating with strategy is what I'm into, so of course I would advocate for that. At this point I'm not demanding change; just speaking my mind. I've already settled for luck as a substitute for strategy. Besides, the actual placement of Swinging Ships, etc. is more involved than it might seem to the casual observer.

#1. By now a lot of people (Jennyfluff 2 years ago, and Marcel <2 months ago) have noticed that in OpenRCT 2 Fast-Forward% runs, the maximum speed at which the game will run depends on technical factors, like your hardware and other processes being run simultaneously (e.g. recording software).

-The same is true of normal speed.- If anyone gave you a specific time for ANYTHING, preface it in your mind with "around," "about," or "approximately."

Examples: Marcel stated in RCT 1 Park Value is recalculated every 12.8 seconds. Your time may vary. There's plenty of evidence against a fixed 12.8s already on this site. In a video, Marcel gives the length of a day in RCT as 13.21 or 13.65 seconds, depending on the number of days in the month. I timed how long it takes to get to 28 May (the day you unlock the 10th coaster) in an empty Razor Rocks (twice), and it was a full minute faster than in my 22-minute speedrun. So, more like 13+ seconds per day. And, obviously, it's influenced by how much stuff you have going on in your park. (Tying those 2 together, here's a little nugget for you: RCT1 doesn't show the day, only the month, but I caught Park Value updating on the same frame as the change in month. Coincidence? Could update 32 times a month, idk.)

Thus, the variable speed of the game is a factor at play in every scenario in every speedrun category.

The Windows compatibility mode you choose might affect it. Not that anyone would, but if you experiment, be sure to have save files ready to quickly re-unlock all the scenarios.

#2. Scenario Completion checks are performed about every 14 seconds, starting the moment you first open the scenario.

Yeah, pretty darn simple once you've ruled out what it's not based on.

#3. EIN (Excitement, Intensity, Nausea) calculation has the following properties:

By "Ride ID" (good luck finding that anywhere on the internet) Marcel was referring to the order of rides based primarily on what was built first. In Finish-5 scenarios, this is simple: Roller Coaster 1, Roller Coaster 2, etc. They receive EIN calculations in that order. Elsewhere, if you delete "Roller Coaster 1" and build a new "Roller Coaster 1", the new one usurps its place as first in line. Renaming does nothing.

The calculations "take" anywhere from 0.2 seconds for just a couple of station tiles to 2 seconds for an average-sized coaster, and beyond. A 1.5 second interval is average for a Finish-5 coaster. If you finish developing your coaster design and measure the EIN interval, you can expect it to be the same in any playthrough, +/- 1 frame. (However, on Dusty Desert I painstakingly duplicated the terrain around Rollercoaster 1 & 2 to build copies on the other side of the map--and got drastically different EIN intervals.)

The last coaster's EIN update is followed by an approximately 6.8 second refractory period where no EIN calculation is being done at all. Then, the cycle begins again with the first ride/coaster. Even if no changes are made to the rides or park, it keeps calculating them in this way, taking the same amount of time. 6.8 seconds off, 9 seconds to calculate 5 EINs, 6.8s off, etc.

Calculations are performed for rides which are in testing mode or open. Closed rides are not included in the calculation cycle. They are thrown into the mix as soon you hit test; it doesn't wait for them to complete a circuit.

Normally a ride should complete its first circuit before its calculation interval starts to receive the EIN. Sometimes a ride can arrive in the middle of its interval and get its EIN in half the time.

As for when the cycle starts, good luck finding correlation with anything. You're better off trying blindly over and over hoping the EIN lines up perfectly than running the numbers back to try to work out when you should start testing each ride.

#4. Pausing the game pauses everything: Park Value calculation cycles, Scenario Completion checks, EIN rendering.

Okay guys, I've grown to enjoy only being able to improve times in ~14 second increments. Slightly faster Tiny Towers: psh, who cares. 1m38.5s Tiny Towers: hell yeah!

Don't get too pedantic about "RNG". While it's unlikely that the game would intentionally generate a random number for when to start EIN calculations, I haven't been able to rule it out. As the world's leading expert in the field, I can say it's still random as heck. In any case, the effect is the same, unless you can play like a robot--and maybe even if you do play like a robot.

Marcel, your "proof" is like saying, "I saved state in this boss battle in Final Fantasy and it drops the same thing every time, so drops aren't random," where if you saved state before engaging the boss you'd see different drops at random.

"If the track is built during the game, then all submitted runs have an equal amount of competition, but using a pre-built track design other than the ones that come with the game gives that runner an unfair leg-up on everyone else."

So... if someone pre-builds a track, they become the only person on Earth ever able to do this?????????????????????????????? That is the ONLY way it could be an unfair advantage.

Aggressive? There is no hostility in THAT statement. That's just me trying to relate to you guys and understand why you'd advocate for including RNG. Perhaps emotional reasons? Because there is no logic anywhere in your responses.

Assuming videos wouldn't include proof of beating the scenario?? Why submit a video at all? "I beat it, trust me."

Your ENTIRE argument for park window is "the game works the way it works." Yet, you are cognizant of the fact that we don't go by how the game works for the MAJORITY of scenarios. It's not conducive to speedrunning so we completely disregard it. The rules are 100% an arbitrary decision by this community. As it is for 'guest goal', so is it for 'finish 5'. Chris Sawyer isn't forcing us to do it the way you think it should be done. It is a choice.

Hindsight is 20/20. If the scenario completion popped up, we can extrapolate with great certainty that the requirements were met at the player's last action. If all coasters show 7+ Excitement on Dusty Desert, the scenario completion is inevitable.

If you WANT to include the random intervals, that is a CHOICE. In no way is "how the game works" enforcing this upon you. The game didn't stop the community from making rules for speedrunning guest goals. No matter what the rules are for 'finish 5', they will be determined by thoughts, feelings, and judgment about the game, not by the game itself. The game does certain things. Humans decide how to work with that.

I'd like to point out Marcel is making guarantees while providing nothing to back them up. Maybe someday a speedrunner will figure out the RNG manip to get instant EIN and completion. If that becomes a thing, it's because you wanted it to be. There's no gun to your head making you go that route. Likewise, if manip isn't possible, "just dealing with it" is a choice. You could just as easily choose not to waste your time messing with that for no reason.

Thanks for commenting.

Re: 1. "The last action does not guarantee that the rides are going to meet E.I.N. ratings." That's a strange thing to say. What would you call such a category of speedrunning, where you don't even beat the scenario??? Re: 2. The goal isn't to balance or nerf. That's just a side-effect I wanted to bring up. How "the game works" is how this community has defined it. Hell, you don't wait for the scenario completion screen on normal scenarios. Re: 3. Yeah, it makes sense to show them. It's nice, but the completion window also indicates you met requirements. Maybe the player forgets, maybe the handful of past runs don't show them--it was just something to consider with this option.

If it wasn't clear, I expected videos will show both the selecting of the scenario, and the completion window popping up--even if that's not where the clock stops.

Speaking of clarity, that's the real issue: The rules say "The timer begins when you enter the scenario, and it ends when the goal is met." Is the goal met when you meet it, when the ride windows say you meet it, or when the park window says you meet it? I might be advocating for how the rules already are!

Marcel: Admittedly I don't give a dang about park value Scenarios. Super Mario Bros... imagine doing individual Mario levels where there are 200 places you can lose time in the run. If Mario randomly wandered around for 2 to 30 seconds after grabbing the flagpole/crossing the line into the black/jumping through the goalpost before going offscreen--and the speedrun.com clock stopped when he left the screen not when you finished--that would be a similar situation.

Are you saying that a speedrunner who learns the secret of the calculations would earn themselves that advantage? That would be fine, but I suspect the only thing you can do differently that will affect it is finish faster. Hey, I already thought of doing that.

Maybe RNG in waiting for guests to enter the park to match the soft guest cap has been a pain for you. I'm trying to quarantine the "finish 5" scenarios.

For the complete 5 coaster scenarios, stop the clock at last player action (e.g. hitting yellow or green light on 5th coaster or last scenery placement).

Reason: the time the game takes to register scenario completion can vary by more than 20 seconds. Who wants to be at the mercy of RNG to that extent?

Here's an (actual) example in which we wait on a 5th coaster (Steel Wild Mouse) with a ride time of 45 seconds. (Other 4 coasters already tested.) Playthrough 1: All coasters in test mode by 2m30s. Ratings display after 48 seconds. Scenario completes 2 seconds later. Final time: 3m20s Playthrough 2: All coasters in test mode by 2m20s. Ratings display after 54 seconds. Scenario completes 7 seconds later. Final time: 3m21s

I don't know how or how often the game does the calculations. It's chaos.

This suggestion may seem to cater specifically to my personal playstyle by punishing scenery placement after putting all coasters into operation. i.e. normal player reaches target Excitement for the coaster with a 20 second build time and 5 seconds of scenery placement, and I with a 25 second build time and 0 seconds of scenery placement. Currently, that gives them a 5 second advantage. Under the proposed change, we're equal. More importantly, scenery spammers are also at the mercy of the RNG, and may feel compelled to keep redoing the whole scenario until they do it well AND the game registers the completion quickly. Me not using scenery was an unnecessary flex, but it's not like it's terribly unreasonable to measure the amount of time it took the player to perform all the actions necessary to complete the scenario. "Last Player Action" would be similar to an Open RCT2 FF run (without going through the rigmarole of fast-forwarding), though there are significant differences in how coasters function between the two games.

Another, slightly more complicated alternative, which keeps the scenery spammer advantage: Stop the clock when last coaster's train arrives back at the station and restraints come up--when the bottom stats show up, and E.I.N. are still pending. That's basically scenario completion minus the random interval, so it wouldn't influence a change in playstyle. Cons: Requires the windows to be open to the stat tab or the station to be visible (or stations, in the case of Dusty Desert, which are too far apart for this).