In-Game Time Counter
4 years ago
Georgia, USA

Does it slow down along with zed time, or does in always count in real time?

Does it count during the trader?

Is there anything else that I should know about it?

Edited by the author 4 years ago
Minnesota, USA

The in game timer counts in real time, and pauses during Zed Time, and yes, the in game timer continues to tick during Trader time, so you'll have to take that into account, just like the rest of us.

While we're on the topic of the in-game timer though, there is one oddity about it I want to address that I'm surprised hasn't arisen already. I don't know if this is the case on PC, but on the PS4, I've noticed that when playing co-op with a friend, the timer actually starts counting up in the lobby menu, before the match even starts. We took a 40-50 minute lunch break in the lobby menu after a match, and after we came back and readied up, the timer had already ticked 40+ minutes.

Ontario, Canada

The in-game timer is not suppose to be ticking up until the match starts so I'm not sure what was going on. I've not had or seen this occurrence happen yet. Do you have any actual video showing that that in-game timer was already incremented after waiting in the lobby for extended time when the match went to finally start?

The timer still ticks during Zed Time. the timer never actually pauses until the result screen appears. ( exception is single-player offline mode when you pause the game. )

Edited by the author 4 years ago
Minnesota, USA

Here you go, proof of this bug in action, showing the full process. About 2:38 in the video is the portion of interest, but I documented the process of finishing a match and waiting in the lobby for documentation sake.

MASH likes this
Ontario, Canada

This is actually a very interesting find, this seems to definitely be over site for how the timer should actually be working for coop lobbies, Appreciate you bringing this up.

So from what were seeing once players have started the lobby count down it activates the in-game timer prematurely which could add up to 1 minute and 30 seconds of time towards the final completion time of the match.

Something that definitely warrants some investigation to see if this is also consistent with PC but in any case, This pushes more or less for us to move to RTA timing and not rely on IGT going forward.

The switch from IGT to RTA wont be that much of an issue.

Minnesota, USA

You might want to rethink that, because I loaded up an invite-only lobby just to record more footage of this glitch in action, did absolutely nothing for 23ish minutes while I ate breakfast, and the IGT was running in the background. Recommend switching to RTA for co-op runs if the IGT on PC operates consistently with console.

Edited by the author 4 years ago
Ontario, Canada

First of all why is that we should rethink switching timing from IGT to RTA? I think RTA timing would be far better considering how the IGT seems to currently be broken and only adds more time if you have idled or waited any amount of time in an online lobby.

The switch in timing will make things far more precise and regardless if PC version has the same issue or not It will be far better in the long run.

My early thoughts were just purely speculation and only relevant to what the clip was able to show, the fact the the timer is just constantly ticking once the lobby is loaded up in online is just proof that its broken and means that coop run times are inflated and not accurate.

Edited by the author 4 years ago
Georgia, USA

So if the IGT still ticks during zed time, does it tick slower or does it still match real time?

And if we were to switch to RTA, it seems like zed time would be disadvantageous to speedrunners in many situations. Thoughts?

Edited by the author 4 years ago
DessFPS likes this
Ontario, Canada

Activating zed time always has been in most cases to begin with that is why many ppl prefer to use classes that trigger it less like Beserker or Pyro as examples.

Tho zed time can bring certain advantages of its own at the cost of time especially with classes that take full use of the mechanic.

Michigan, USA

can we just show igt at the begining of run and subtract this from end time igt? it is a consistent glitch and i really want to continue using igt

Texas, USA

Are you running coop, or does your platform not have offline solo, @windshieldsnatch?

Michigan, USA

im running solo and coop. solo works fine obvi

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Orlando, FL, USA

I too would like to know what to do in these instances. I think that switching to RTA would ruin the game for a lot of runners, especially since it would limit the usable, excuse me, feasible perks and weapons.

DessFPS likes this
Ontario, Canada

The real thing is seeing how IGT is constant tick in online lobbies unless ur ready almost instantly you are going to lose time already before the match starts.

The only real way to keep an even field due to how inaccurate IGT is actually, is for us to move to RTA timing:

  • Time starts when deploy countdown hits 0 after readying up.
  • Time stops when boss is killed and "VICTORY" appears on screen Above is the purposed change for timing future runs, This has been on my to do list for awhile now, seeing as the devs have yet to respond to me or fix the issue with IGT not counting correctly before the deploy. This is not only reasons for this change mainly that you always get time added after the boss is dead or before the score screen appears because there is a mandatory wait time that every gets, changing the timing to the above mentioned general rule of thumb will work out better for everyone.

RTA timing runs is not difficult to do for this game since generally runs will be short. I have no problem running timers along side runs to verify things because I already do it. You won't be required to have an onscreen timer, but you will need to accurately time your run before submitting it.

I will leave this open to discuss more before making any changes or adjustments. I will go back and retime all current personal best runs for all runners as needed and note the adjustments.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Texas, USA

I mean, there is the very real zed time concern. I admit, I don't have any team run times, but as a firebug main, I do feel a bit like anything RTA strongly incentivizes what's already a strong perk based around what's generally considered a gameplay weakness.

I think it's the part where it gets underfoot of a mechanic, even though the timer inconsistency is an issue.

Zed time already comes with weirdness for speedplay, and I don't love adding another drawback, so "Open IGT as soon as you're in match, subtract the first time visible on screen rounded up from final IGT" might be the most elegant workaround to preserve the spirit of the game mechanics reflected in speedrunning.

Ontario, Canada

Finding convoluted ways to still try and make IGT work with broken mechanics or otherwise clearly counter intuitive to evening playing fields is a bad take on this. Zed time issue is all together a fairly large reason why RTA should be how to time things, essentially fighting to keep IGT is favoring and allowing for a huge uneven advantage to an already problematic feature of the game. The fact that IGT is not actually tracking consistent measures of time due to a large amount of variables within the game is clearly why its important to fix this.

Much like any speedrun plagued by issues with IGT and other features potentially needing to be avoided to actually save time, its now apparent this also needs to be done with KF2.

IGT incentivizes: INACURATELY measuring time per inputs VS more ACCURATE time measure measurements per inputs.

I'm not gonna ask anyone to like the change but it's something that unfortunately is an issue and should be mitigated to promote equal and as fair competitive field as possible. If the In Game Timer did not have all these apparent issues and tracked some measure of time correctly per input such as counting via frame then that would likely still be acceptable but sadly this is not the case at all. IGT is clearly being manipulated before the match is even started, during and even after it should be over or have stopped tracked.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Ontario, Canada

I would like to have RTA become the new timing standard within the next few weeks as we approach into the new Month, any runs currently submitted or on the boards already will be re-timed due to the games timer being so grossly inaccurate when it comes to measuring consistently from start to finish.

What this means is that many runs will likely have a faster overall time, where as others that played to the gross inconsistency of IGT will end up with overall slower times. Basically any runs that heavily abused Zed Time will see the biggest difference. New strategies will have to be adopted to improve times in runs and will ultimately require allot more effort to do well within an RTA setting where abusing mechanics can be disadvantageous.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Michigan, USA

if you switch to RTA you completely ruin this game. id MUCH rather have lobby time count in the run than do fuckin rta

Ontario, Canada

How does RTA ruin the game when like the vast majority of any games in speedrunning use RTA when IGT is either not present or grossly inaccurate.

I have dealt with similair issues with IGT being later determined to be problematic and ultimate end up switching to RTA to promote accurate measuring for competitive hobby.

Edited by the author 3 years ago
Michigan, USA

bc theres an rng slow motion mechanic. making that a punishment would be hell