Hi everyone. Really just looking for some basic help as i enjoy this game but I am unable to get anywhere near the times I think i am capable of with my current set up.

1. What is your current computer / game / controller setup? I am on a basic laptop using the arrow keys. I watch particularly splaysh videos and your movement is so much smoother. Do you use a wheel or some sort of controller instead?

2. I am unable to submit runs on hard or normal because whether its a glitch, or something has gone wrong but regardless of whether i have damage turned on in the settings i cannot take any damage on normal and hard. Obviously this DQ's me from any submission.

3. Any tips on uploading to youtube. i have repeatedly tried to upload my easy time, but it will get between 80-95% processed and crash.

Also now that i am the moderator of this board is there any feedback or changes you would like to make. I appreciate no one is overly active on IL's at the moment but would you like to see reverse tracks listed?

Finally congrats splaysh on the new records!

Hellooo!

1. I'm using a PS4 controller. A controller is a must in my opinion, or anything that has analog input (wheel/joystick). In POD options you need to select the wheel to have analog steering, even if you're using a controller. As for the game, GOG version + podhacks + nGlide, basically this: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1321610461

2. That's really weird, never seen that before. What game version are you using? Not sure what could cause this, but we obviously need to fix that ;)

3. How are you recording your videos? Also do you get an error message on youtube? Sometimes the processing can take a few hours if you're uploading a 1h+ video. Mine got stuck on 99% for about an hour yesterday.

I've never actually played the reverse tracks (or most of the extra tracks), but setting them up would be nice. Mostly focusing on full-game runs at the moment but will go back to IL/3L eventually. Not sure what else we could add or change, I'll think about it. Otherwise all good, thanks for quickly verifying the runs!

@Splaysh interesting.. i dont have any modern consoles. I never knew they were PC compaitble. I'll have to look into my options. I'm using the same set up as you gog etc - which ive had about 7 years now. I know there are a lot of cheat options you can use and wondering if when i set it up i keyed one in. I hope i dont have to uninstall and redo.

I just use the basic recorder the laptop comes with by pressing windows+G - i dont get any error messages it just stops at say 92% and never moves.

I do have an idea for a potential rule change which i would like to hear other peoples opinions on. A number of racing game series (mariokart F Zero etc) have this in place and i think it might be something to consider here. As POD does not have a set storyline nor is there a required logical path for track selection then allowing the user to change the track order for a full game run. Typically the first races in games are easier with the hardest towards the end meaning a potential restart much later in the stream. If you were to run the hardest races first you could eliminate a lot of dead runs and practice the harder ones.

I would propose to choose one of the following:

A: We keep the rules the same. A full game run is the 16 tracks in order B: You may select the tracks in any order you wish C: You may select tracks in any order you wish but must start at Beltane and end with HQ D: As there is a save option at the end of every block of 4 (Bank Veitland Burrow HQ) you must play the tracks in their blocks of 4, but you may play these blocks in any order

I wouldnt make any rule changes without the response of all active players

Hi there,

@PDplum: I don't know if you solved your YouTube issue, but for future uploads I recommend using HandBrake which can re-encode your recordings to a more friendly format for YouTube.

Now regarding the track order, I'm divided between A and B: A because it's easier to compare splits between each other, and B for the reason you mentioned plus the fact that it would enable some nice strats when it comes to pit stopping and car damage management. Not convinced about C and D though.

By the way I'm fine with separating runs based on difficulty, but wouldn't it be better to make one main category named "Championship" and then separate easy, normal and hard runs into subcategories? I think it would make things clearer, especially if we were to create new categories in the future :)

Hi, is there any news about the potential rule change/subcategories?

Hi Ripper

My apologies i was severely ill with covid in January - i've only been on here to review runs which there havent been for a few weeks

I don't feel i've had enough feedback to make any rule changes. What would you like to see?

Oh... I'm sorry to hear that, hope you're doing better now.

Just wanted to bump this thread and get some news, however as you said we're clearly lacking feedback to make any change at the moment. I'll keep running the game with the current rules for now :)

Though I still think subcategories could add a bit more clarity to the main page and make things easier for future categories. What do you think?

Hi there,

Concerning the old discussion about Full game runs, here's my opinion. I'm also adding a few ideas :

• For regular runs, leave it as it is. It seems to me that players should adapt to track order when going for a default championship.
• Adding a "#crash" category to the Fullgame runs section to open a new leaderboard. More based on pure 16 tracks timeattack, without having to deal with other cars.
• Time calculation : Pod runs differently on every system. On some installations, higher FPS count with increase the speed of the game. Sometimes a lot, sometimes just a little. In these conditions, I feel like it's not safe to use "out of the game" timers to time the runs. For example if I force Pod to run@80fps through Nvidia control pannel, the game will run about 20% faster, speeding my Fullgame run from 20%... To me the solution would be to use the built in timer for each race, and simply addition the times at the end of the full run.

To illustrate what I'm saying, I invite you to watch this video :

It's a sewer lap recorder with the platinum version of Pod running at a slightly higher framerate than intended. Pod timer says 1:05.82s, wich is totally right considering the lap I did. But if I time it with a IRL timer, the lap last about 1:01.50s. This mean that with the current system, admin would have to manually check the integrity of each full game run with an IRL timer, to make sure the entry run timer is correct.

To me a good solution would be to keep using full game run videos as validation proof, but instead of checking the video timer, admin should addition each track/race total time. I know it sounds more complicated, but with Gog Pod and Pod platinum, we don't have any other solution. The other solution is to force users to manually patch (erase Pod .exe with a prepatched one) with a Pod executable that has the GS2 patch applied. This patch fixes the speed issues and lock the game timer at the correct speed. (I'm using this now) But how could we check that the game version is correct ?

Just some thoughts ;)

Concerning Time attack runs rules, here are some thoughts to discuss :

• Write in the rules that the CRASH code is allowed to disable collisions with movable objects. Time-attack is about driving fast, movable objects shouldn't be in the way.

• For old WR already recorded, allow validation through ghost (.seq) files check. Loading a trackname1.seq file into the game takes about 10sec, and you can quickly check the total 3laps time + the best lap time of the three into the game menu. This could allow old records to be posted, and fill the timeattack leaderboards with actual old WR's. I have a ghost library with the WR ghost files for each track. Players are either, Algor38, Bart, Vienna or me in most cases. Should we post files for inactive players ? Or is this wrong ? Maybe this is just a bad idea, that why I leave it to discuss here ;)

Nice to see you here Rob ;) I'm fine with adding a #crash category, might be a nice alternative as runs can be very frustrating with AI collisions. For time calculation we could show both (RTA and in-game) for each run. Not sure how I feel about changing the game speed, I guess as long as it's not too much it should be fine. It will be difficult to come to a consensus concerncing the game version, as POD is already quite tricky to run anyway.

And for old replay files, maybe we could have a post in Guides/Resources where people could download them?

Hi !

Yeah after all speedrun rules are usually defined by players habits and tastes.

The idea of a full championship in TimeAttack #crash mode certainly triggers some excitation here. Even if I already fear the potential waste of time it can be to achieve a good run...

About Time calculation, what I'm trying to say is that players could unvoluntary post some full game runs with a biased RTA timer because of a game running too fast unnoticed. I Guess it's quick to verify...

For the old ghosts, I Can definitely share them. But should we add them in the leaderboards, and somehow restore the old "World order" from the past ? ;)

hi i'm going to sound like a total noob. But can you explain what you mean by crash runs?

BTW splaysh and other runners. I took on moderator on this board almost by default. When i submitted runs 2-3 years ago the current moderator was AWOL. I took on moderator as no one else was active.

After discussions with Rob outside of this forum i have agreed to hand over primary moderation to Rob. He knows the game for years in and out so much more than me. For example i would not be able to spot a faked or overclocked run. I do watch every submitted run but i dont know what to look for to see if anything nefarious.

Hi there,

Thanks for the admin rights.

A crash run is a run realized with the "crash" cheat code. That code disable all collisions with movable objects and other cars. During the prime years of the game, it was common practice to use this code BOTH while online gaming on game service, AND for time attack 3 laps ghost recording.

On game service, Pod's network code was so crappy that huge lags were observed at all times. Collisions against lagged images of your opponents were ruining the fun of racing against each other, so everybody was using the "crash" code.

For time attack, it was simply to avoid collision with movable objects who would randomly affect your runs. Forcing you to clean the objects out of the way before starting the run, and thus losing a lot of time at each attempt. Typing "crash" was much faster. I even had a macro set up on one of my steering wheel button to type it... ;)

About the potentially sped-up run, all it takes is to check that the race timer is going at the same speed than any real timer. I guess it's fine, it takes only a minute to do it...

So I'm still wondering about the ghost file validations, and that idea of filling the leaderboard with proper verified times from the past. Those old ghosts files are proof of previous WR's. They represents hours of countless attempts for the players who did them. To me these belong to this game's legacy.

That's why I had the idea of recording these into the database. But there are two main question :

• Does that make sense to anybody beside me ? Or shall the past remain forgotten, and this database be only for fresh retro-players ?
• If yes, how should it be achieved technically speaking ? How do I validate a WR for an inactive player who doesn't even have an account here ? :D

Just thinking out loud ;)

Yeah it makes sense to have Rob as admin/mod ;)

I guess it would make sense to add old times, but I'm not sure if that's even possible without having accounts. Maybe creating a "Legacy" page/tab somewhere would make more sense. You'll have to see what kind of options you have as admin.

The game's not really crowded with runners anyway, so we can pretty much do whatever we want :p

Hi there,

Yes it's probably complicated from what I'm seeing in the admin user interface. I don't even see a way to send Ghost files as validation proofs. Well it's not built in SRC it seems...

And yes for the older players you're probably right. It's not to anyone else to post their Times/runs.

But let's Say I post a Ghost on Alderon, I'll get 1st place on the leaderboard, but I have Algor38's Ghost in my library wich IS faster...

Feels wrong :)

Even though validation through Ghost files sounds right/legit.

So for the ghost thing, here's what I did as a test :

• Created a third Individual Levels Leaderboard named "3 Laps Ghost"

Here are the rules :

• Must be recorded in GHOST Mode.
• Users must host a .zip archive containing the ghost files (trackname.ght and trackname1.seq) and post the link in the description of the run when doing the entry. Video is welcome for new runs.
• Old ghosts without full run videos are accepted since the ghost files are enough for verification and validation. A short video from the ghost times loaded in the Time Attack Menu is welcome.

!!!TOP1 ghost for each track will be shared in the ressources section!!!

So I guess this could be that Legacy leaderboard we were talking about, while leaving it open to new/modern entries. This will be independant from the other two leardeboards, after all Pod has three time-attack modes, so three leaderboards sounds good right ? ^^

I have posted one entry for each leaderboard on BANK.

"1 lap" and "3 laps" entries have full run videos each. For the "3 Laps ghost", I used an old ghost and the procedure I just wrote up there. Wich mean that ghost file is available, and a short video displaying the ghost times in the game menu also.

Example on Bank : https://www.speedrun.com/pod_planet_of_death/run/yj2kl9gm

As discussed before, one of the goal here is to allow old ghosts, and thus the best performances ever recorded on Pod, to be displayed somewhere. Mine will definitely be shared, and I know Algor38 might be tempted to post too. Maybe I can find other old players and convince them to come here and share... :p

Nice to see the old school pod game races.

Bandie here, maybe you remember my podcafe side were a lot of the podies put in their bio.

Its offline right now, but i hae it stored on my hd. ;) very nice to see all the tracks and races with shark car and so on.

Does someone has the game still running on modern pc with actual windows?

cheers Bandie