I've been doing some testing using the Botched Requisition modifier. Since it adds additional weapons to ALL fighters (allies included), allies can, and will, destroy many targets this way without the player's help. It's hard to say how big a timesave this generally is, but I'm able to consistently beat my PB on Coldwar using Botched Requisition by at least 10s. The caveats are:

• Increased risk of getting shot down
• Benefits are limited to levels with allied fighters, the more the better
• An element of luck exists concerning which weapons your allies get and how well they use them
• The abundance of additional railguns reduces FPS and may increase the risk of a crash

Considering that only negative modifiers are allowed on IL runs, would this be appropriate to use? I feel like this offers a benefit.

This feels like something that should be added into the IL runs.

My initial thoughts are sure let's add Botched Requisition. However the recent streamlining of the leaderboards clashes with this idea. It's going to add a lot of subcategories since it should be able to be combined with other modifiers. This might be something more of the community should weigh in on since it would add a lot of (briefly) empty slots which was one of the previous concerns with having too many subcategories.

I gotta say that one of the biggest concerns I'd have is performance. Especially on things like Missions 4, 11, and 13, where there's a lot of Fighters around and my own framerate gets dangerously close to creeping below 60 on Mercenary difficulty as it is, thanks to the changes made to the Lighting and Cloud systems in v2.0. I can see how it would be an interesting addition and all, I'd just be concerned that there'd possibly be a hardware-based barrier to entry.

For ILs, sure, sounds like it could be fun - if you had said full campaigns then I would have been hesitant due to not really being able to mitigate the RNG over the longer run, and also the crash risk as mentioned. For ILs if you realize you got bad RNG and want to reset, or crash and have to reset, you're only losing max 15 minutes.

I’m of two minds on this

I do believe it’s unreasonable to ban the use of any modifier, and considering the effects of Botched Requsition it should be separated from runs without.

Considering the performance penalty - especially in missions where it’s most useful - I do believe that if it is allowed it should have it’s own subcategories so that those with less powerful systems that can’t reasonably use Botched Requsition aren’t forced to compete against those that can use it to their advantage.

As for managing category bloat thats an entirely different story as adding a BR variant to all the current IL categories would add another 8 categories when 6 of the existing combos are almost entirely unpopulated already. And as HIlimii laid out, the number of missions where BR even offers an advantage is very limited and even then RNG based.

It kinda feels like this (and to some degree Gun Runner and other 'challenge runs') belong on a category extensions board but the main board isn't popular enough to warrant that in my opinion.

As for the remaining modifiers that aren’t represented I believe they don’t need subcategories as they don’t provide any advantage to the player.

Having read through everyone's responses and thinking on it, I have mixed feelings also. The time-save from BR is nice, but not without its issues.

My main gripes with BR, which have already been voiced, are:

1. Performance issues aren't ideal and will naturally separate players, I currently struggle to maintain 60fps on most air-heavy missions and Coldwar is admittedly hell with it on. However, the potential crash risk would naturally discourage runners from using BR during campaign runs if it's a problem.
2. Luck is a pretty toxic inclusion in any lengthy speedrun. BR would elevate this during campaign runs if used extensively, which I would be inclined to do if I can kill less targets per run. IL is pretty clear cut though, BR deserves to be separated here due to the potential time save. Luck is tolerable in a <10 min run.

However, this also then prompts a wider discussion on category bloat. I think it would be worth condensing down the current IL categories given that many of the challenge run categories are unpopulated, as FalconLuma suggested.

Glass Cannon, Budget Cuts, and Botched Requisition all benefit a speedrun, others are a non-factor. Glass Cannon is universally good, Budget Cuts can be situationally helpful on missions 11, 16, & 21 (off the top of my head) to help chunk through boss health bars faster, and Botched Requisition saves a variable amount of time on any mission with allied fighters. I currently don't use Budget Cuts for my runs because the leaderboards are unpopulated for it. I'd rather run pure Glass Cannon because that's where everyone else is.

My suggestion for IL categories would go something like this:

• No Modifiers Category - Self-Explanatory
• Restricted Modifiers Category - All modifiers except Botched Requisition allowed. This allows for Glass Cannon + Budget Cuts combos on specific missions, or just Glass Cannon otherwise.
• Freestyle Modifiers Category - Anything goes, incl Botched Requisition.

The challenge run categories I leave to other people because I don't have any experience there.

I did do a practice run of F59 NG+ Merc campaign last night and I didn't crash once whilst using BR+GC throughout. The framerate was tolerable. I'm really not sure what to do about BR + Campaign runs, there are clear benefits and it can be a useful tool on some missions, but I really don't like the luck aspect.