Just so you know, "Because another game allows it" is never applicable to speedrunning, as games are rarely comparable, and communities have their own rules based on their own estimations. Also if no advantage is being conferred, then why should it be allowed? But there are many settings inside the function menus that could affect the run, which may be inconsistent across different systems, so it can indeed result in an unfair advantaged.

Regardless, under the Disallowed section of the rules it clearly states:

The above are long-standing rules that have been accepted by the community, and the moderators are in consensus about enforcing them. Allowing something that has been disallowed will not happen and any discussion around doing so is unproductive.

It is as stated, the rules clearly reference the Function keys as Disallowed. Any run making use of them should be rejected. In rare cases it may be missed or allowed with a warning if the run is not in top contention for high leaderboard placement, but the better the run, the stricter we will apply the rules.

In regards the original question, in the SR.C Help section, regarding 'submitting your first speedrun' it is explained under 'Having your run verified' section that

Moderators are generally given up to 21 days to verify any given run. Some larger leaderboards, such as Minecraft, have more runs coming in and may have a longer wait time. If it has been 21 days since your run has been pending and no one has looked at it, you can contact the moderators of the leaderboard and ask them about the status of your run.

The longer the run, the longer it is likely to take to be reviewed as it can be difficult to have time to watch longer videos. In this case, a 2 hour run will definitely take the longer end of a month, and expecting a verification within 3 days is not very reasonable.

I would also strongly suggest the use of Youtube or similar hosting services as opposed to raw video links as the higher bitrate of less compressed video makes it harder for some people to watch it back smoothly.

There would be significant advantages to playing a map co-operatively, so there would definitely be leader-board separation between solo runs and anything run multiplayer.

It could be considered but only if there was some up-front investment e.g. an initial run performed where both perspectives are recorded and linked in this thread.

As above the only exploration you would count in that case is that which is done on the islands. Anything on the mainland is timed but not measured. Much like a collectible objective run in another game would not care about what other game progress you have to make in order to get to the amount you need.

The issue with exploration of just the islands is tracking it. They do not have their own individual % so you would have to include a close zoom across each one at the end for verification (that would not be timed).

What would you be counting as the objectives? Just visiting each island city? Argostoli would have to be included, and therefore whatever time was taken to get there would also have to be counted, part of the strategy would be in how you get there.

Yes the islands are useful because they are self-contained, rather than having lots of road connections leading in/out.

Not saying that additional city based objectives could not be added, just that they would have to be something more special, much like new city-city routes, rather than just adding them because they're there.

Being an open world and open ended game, anything is possible, but not everything has to have a leaderboard XD

An issue with this suggestion, to me, is how similar it is to just the All Capitals categories that we already have (and are generally not very popular). The 'texture' of the speedrun is the same (just connect the dots, but closer together).

Also without some knowledge or explanation, to most people it just looks like "drive between these random cities within this country". All cities is more conclusive, but also somewhat less interesting, I believe?

The "Explorsica" category rose out of similar discussions in the past, because it escapes the same 'drive between cities' theme and required more planning to uncover all the road surfaces, so it is less exploitable.

I would be more open to seeing more discovery runs like that, if possible to find some that are not too simple, and not too arduous, and preferably have something special about them.

If it's anything like Capital Cities in ETS2 then yes the discovery can be janky, but for RTA at least, calling for services a second time usually unlocks it after going there the first time. Otherwise for IGT it would be a case of finding consistent locations along the best route. As far as keeping track is concerned, the name has to be gold on each of them at the end of the run.

To that end, would we want to add the other states with viewpoints?

Unsure, because there has not been much appetite in running the category as it is. Some states may be more interesting than others - Idaho has some variety in the roadways at least. I think it makes sense to be selective, but I'm open to which may be good to have added.

That looks hideous, I love it XD

Please consider exporting this to YouTube in case there is issues with Twitch and their treatment of Highlights

Please consider exporting this to YouTube in case there is issues with Twitch and their treatment of Highlights

Any item placed outside of a hatch skips the animation, we are aware of that. Flares are generally used because they are readily available and already used for skipping the locker animations and having the 'remote storage' effect.

Otherwise a creepvine seed is more available than tiger plant seeds

it was really fun cruising at high speed.

The problem with that is that many of the runs can basically be boiled down to "just drive fast for a long time" so highways are pretty boring, honestly.

The more interesting runs to watch, I think, are those that are more technical. So the Highway 93 route might be interesting, and something with the Rockies is something I've considered in the past, if you can think of an interesting route then I would look to add something. Preferably scenic, perhaps passing notable places of interest.

Also worth noting that I am hesitant about adding runs that would be too long, because generally the interest does not seem to be there for those, most activity on the boards is in the shorter categories.

Sorry, was away for a few weeks.

An interesting idea, so it would be a New Profile run where you discover all cities, much like the All Capital Cities in ETS2

I have considered this before, but with state capitals, but then it gets too large... individual states might be much better.

That was also the idea behind the Idaho Viewpoints run (back when the Viewpoints were first added in that DLC so it was a novelty).

My reason for using Viewpoints instead of Cities for that (other than the new game element) was because it was a fixed point that would not likely change as much with game versions, whereas cities may be added or reworked.

But also... I'm not sure about having every state - Texas would be a very long run XD

And some of them are also rather boring driving with many straight roads.

If you have a favourite that you would like to suggest putting forward, then if you record a run of it and post a link to it here or in the discord, I would be happy to add the category.

Might want to consider moving this to YouTube or similar to avoid possible deletion by Twitch

Might want to consider exporting this to YouTube or similar

We do have a couple of posts in the Guides section as well around versions but they are a bit out of date https://www.speedrun.com/ets2/guides I'm not sure what restrictions there are on people editing existing guides, but if need be I can try to update them with this information and future posts in this thread.

It is an introduced game mechanic so there is no rule against using them. We discussed this in discord at one point, but realistically I believe it was not thought to confer any real advantage since you get the ability to get such a high loan so early, you can afford to buy brand new very quickly anyway.

But feel free to prove us wrong!

^ To double down on the importance of this, we discussed this in discord regarding American Truck Simulator and someone went so far as to post a rough run there, and I added the category to those boards, but there has since been zero interest in it actively with no submissions made.

It would be simple to add this to ETS2 boards as an additional Challenge category, but we would like to see some active contribution first. Remember that nothing stops you doing a run for something you think would be an interesting category first, whether or not it is yet on the official leaderboard.