EnglandYou know that nobody is actually buying the PC Disc version, right?
If it's an issue then you CAN manually add up the ingame time mid-run. That's effectively what the autosplitter in LiveSplit does for you. A couple of things to note if you're going to do this:
The ingame time is the sum of all of the level times, not the time displayed on your save file. That is a different time value, and does not correspond to IGT.
When adding up your level times, all deaths/restarts must be accounted for, and this is typically why people prefer to use LiveSplit as it automates the process. It's still easy enough to calculate this yourself with a page like http://www.unitarium.com/time-calculator as long as you're adding the correct values. Things you should be aware of including:
Restarts count toward your IGT. If you mess up 5 seconds into a stage and restart, then finish the stage in 1:30.00, then your IGT for that stage is 1:35.00.
Deaths also count towards IGT, and this is a little trickier to calculate. If you haven't hit a checkpoint, this is treated as a restart and you just do as above, add the time when you died to your finishing time. If you died and respawn at a checkpoint/after collecting an emerald shard, then you must ADD the time of death, and then SUBTRACT the time of respawn. This will add the difference in time between when you touched the checkpoint and when you died. From there, add final level times as normal.
I'd love to see the new verification page revamped a little bit. It's not great for games that use centiseconds, such as virtually every Sonic game and is currently a bit of a nuisance to work with.
Let's say I finish a stage in 1 minute, 20 seconds and 55 centiseconds. That's 1:20.55. Thing is, if you enter those values as-is into the submission boxes, the millisecond field reads it as just that, milliseconds. So every instance of that time value is automatically submitted as "1:20.055" which is incorrect. The old site layout didn't do this, so I don't know what changed, but having some option to set this behaviour by millisecond or centisecond timing would be very welcome.
He's saying the mods aren't going to immediately verify everything that appears in the queue, they'll do it at their own pace when they have the time. It's not unusual for verification to take some days.
Amoeba you're my boy but I also don't see what the issue is if at this point there's no actual identifying information on the leaderboard. I personally fall more on the side of keeping the leaderboard data intact where reasonably possible, but I get that in specific cases a runner might have a legitimate reason to not want their information on the board. Maybe they have a real reason for not wanting their name/video to be present. In this case, neither are present and I don't think you can ask any more of the staff.
Most of the more general points for both pros (Location, ice cream, venue, arcade) and cons (Lack of some resources, noise) have already been highlighted by others so I want to bring up a specific con:
The quiet practice room needs more regulation. On Wednesday night I was feeling the ESA flu something proper, and had a splitting headache. I had a run on Thursday which I needed to practice for, so I went to the private practice room to get away from the noise, only to find that it was being used by people just recording vlogs, playing fighting games and streaming to their Twitch channels?? I distinctly remember that the streamer didn't want to use the, you know, ACTUAL streaming machines because you had to use an ESA overlay or some shit. Apparently that makes it OK to inconvenience other people who need to use the room for its actual intended purpose. I'm not going to name names, but you know who you are, and that was very inconsiderate.
Basically this is completely unacceptable for the single room of the event that is labelled as being a private room. Eventually the staff started kicking people out and putting a notice on the door saying they were going zero-tolerance with noise, but I would say in future it would be a more effective solution to just do regular spot-checks on the room, and throw out anyone who isn't a runner practicing for their run, or people specifically there to help the runner with commentary. There were far too many people in there just openly having loud conversations and laughing, and it's completely unfair on the runners who need some peace and quiet.
I'm aware that the point of the resets as they're used is a specific application on Heishin 1 to farm MBD. If there are other, RTA-viable methods to aim for specific drops in Free Duel without the need for a console reset, at that point I would argue that it's just new tech, and that opting not to learn/use it is entirely on the runner.
I understand the point you're making but I can probably count on my hands the number of times I've seen such a thing happen to anyone, in any game that would cause disqualification. And I think it would still be easier to exercise moderator discretion to judge what constitutes an 'unintentional reset' as opposed to what is 'unintentional RNG manip'.
Really glad to see this has finally been done, now the Verifier role is actually worth something.
Defaulting to the position I always use when this topic comes up in various games: Split the categories, but do not define them as "RNG Manipulation" and "No RNG Manipulation"
Just call them Single Segment and Non-Single Segment, or some variant thereof. The point of RNG manipulation as it's used in the run is that you need to reset the console to gain a significant advantage, otherwise the most you're likely to get out of it is a good starting deck, and maybe a single MBD drop off Campaign Heishin if you're some sort of framecounting robot.
If you can't reset, you can't manip for drops. Simple as that.
Further info on why I think a category split is necessary to begin with: I am of the opinion that the usage of RNG manipulation as it's currently used in the run changes the character of the run significantly enough for it to be considered a different category. There are many other games that use RNG manip and have those runs counted on the same board as the non-manipped runs, but the application is entirely different. It's more about getting favourable outcomes that you could otherwise get through regular play without manip if you were lucky enough and just increasing consistency, more or less. Grinding for MBD on Heishin 1 is something that nobody would ever, ever do in a non-manipped run, and pretty much every duel thereafter is almost entirely based around throwing your hands to reach MBD as soon as possible. It's just not the same speedrun, IMO.
As far as I know the site doesn't offer this functionality yet, it's something I'd also like to see. The workaround you suggested is the best there is so far; remove the stat that's irrelevant for a specific category. You've then just got to hope that it's clear to runners which they're supposed to be tracking, so make sure it's explicitly stated in rules.
Very welcome changes so far, the biggest thing that I'd like to see changed at this point is that the WR History graphs in Statistics don't currently work. These are very useful for WR Progressions and the like, so I'd like to see these back ASAP!
I've changed the IL leaderboards to make No Death Abuse the default category. It's not really fair to have Death Abuse as the default when this gameplay style is no longer possible due to patches, and most of my times were without video in the first place.
Thank you for being so receptive to the feedback given so far, it bodes well to know that if we have a serious problem with stuff we won’t just be shouting into the void.
As far as I’m able to tell, most if not all of the issues highlighted can be reasonably addressed by giving users more options to choose from. Most of what I’m seeing is variations on “I’m stuck with this one thing and I don’t like it” in which case you should just strive to give users as many options as possible be it colour sliders for text/banners/themes etc. I appreciate that there’s logistical reasons for why certain limitations may need to exist, but I’d like to see as many options as possible
I quite like the new layout itself but the removal of custom backgrounds is no bueno. Seconding everyone else asking that you reconsider this element of the redesign in the future in some form, if you're that concerned about crappy backgrounds existing there's a better solution than "Nobody gets them".
Seconding, consistent framerate with indirect capture is much better than inconsistent framerate with direct capture. Just do your utmost to ensure that all the details such as the ingame timer are still clear and visible.
