AntarcticaReally awesome work to research the different versions/platforms like this. Regardless of whether or not a split happens, having all this info is really great.
You’ll need to ask the moderators of the game. I don’t see Android listed as a platform option unless it’s considered an NES emulator, but the mods will be able to confirm one way or the other for you.
I’m in favor of a two way category split - one for PS2/XBox and one for PC. Since PS2 and XBox are identical aside from loading, I don’t see a need to further split it out because the games play the same.
And it’s true the filters can give pseudo-sub categories already, that’s always been an option (I usually advocate for more filter use by some LBs), but I still think PC is so different that putting it side by side with the consoles isn’t good. I’d rather use the filters to differentiate PS2/XBox where it’s just loading (kinda how some Switch games can be filtered by Physical/Digital because of different load times).
Edit: The 1.0 and 1.1/1.2 split is an interesting idea the more I think about it since it doesn't handicap 1.0 PC players. This might not be a bad way to split it either, as long as it’s clear via rules or something that PS2/XBox should only go to 1.0 and PC needs to be put in the correct one based on your version.
The site works pretty well in a mobile browser, I can’t imagine a mobile app would be high priority or something that’s really necessary.
Also, this isn’t the thread for this, your comment might better be suited in the Feedback thread.
Okay, I see what you meant now. Thanks for clarifying, and I can see your point. I guess thats always the trade-off when categories have so few runs - it can make the LBs look empty when there’s so few runs on each of the platforms.
Money was never my concern, I’ve just always had opinions about when to do platform splits for games, so I just wanted to open the discussion again to voice it with more examples of why I feel that way.
But if the rest of the community doesn’t want it, then so be it, I can gladly do my own thing without the LBs or submitting to them. I just wanted to hear other runners’s viewpoints about it and whether or not it matters to them.
I also want to toss in that the Genesis can output Component natively similarly to a SNES (I think? Forgive me if I’m mistaken), which means that if you want to use an OSSC, you shouldn’t need to do any console modification since the OSSC can take a Component input.
Granted that doesn’t alleviate the other OSSC issues you listed, but it should alleviate one.
All of those reasons above seem like just more reasons to separate them out if the PC version behaves differently (especially in the context of different enemy AI). It seems like it would be fairer to both console players and PC players if they were treated differently since PC’s differences are a mix of good and bad changes. I think the argument of “just get the fastest version” is fine when the only differences are developer patched glitches or loading or something like that since the games are functionally the same. But when you start getting into actual differences in the core gameplay, you could argue that it’s not even the same game anymore.
[quote]so anyone new won't want to even try to run that category[/quote] I may be misunderstanding your point here, but wouldn't you want to encourage people to run a category? If people are seeing a category and avoiding it because of an unbeatable run exploiting a gameplay difference between versions, that seems kinda counterproductive to growing a community and competition. If the consoles were separated out, then people might be more apt to give it a shot. Maybe I misunderstood what you meant, so if I’m wrong let me know, but that’s how I see it anyway.
I used that for years before moving to a Component setup. It’s flawless.
While looking over some recent WRs, I was surprised to see someone had beaten my Yavin IV: Arena time. I thought it was a new route, but it was the exact same one I used, and I was surprised by the amount of time that was shaved off.
Upon further inspection of the video, I found the reason why - the Dark Trooper's Jump Pack behaves differently on the PC version Spinda is playing on.
I compared the PS2 and XBox (using OG's videos) Jump Pack, and noticed that you can get 2 jumps out a full bar, then you need to wait around 15-17 seconds for the bar to fill up halfway so you can do a 3rd jump. In the PC version, you can see that Spinda can get 3 full jumps on a single bar. I don't know what causes this exactly, but it looks like on PC, each jump takes 1/3 of the bar instead of 1/2. This one extra jump is a huge time save on certain levels where you're doing consecutive jumps. So much so that it cuts out around 15s of walking/waiting on Yavin IV: Arena alone.
I voiced my opinion before about wanting to see subcategories based on platform because of the loads between versions. I completely understand the reasoning of not wanting to do that because of loading alone. However, this is now a gameplay difference. This creates strats that are impossible to do on a version of the game that is not PC. One of the draws of ILs was that because the timing was only gameplay in the level, it didn't matter what version you played on - it was an even playing field that depended only on your ability to play the game. This removes that even playing field because anybody who tries to match Spinda on Yavin IV: Arena in an IL won't even be able to come close without either a new strat or the PC version of the game.
Given this, I'd like to re-open the discussion on creating sub categories for the different platforms - PS2/XBox, and PC - to once again even the playing field. If it was just loading times, I'm fine with leaving it as it is, but the difference in gameplay now bothers me (there may be other differences too). Even if we only add the sub-categories for ILs and leave the full game LBs intact, I think that's better than mixing platforms now. Obviously I want to hear from others (especially since this game is now rather active compared to years ago) about whether or not this difference is worth adding sub-categories to the ILs.
Correct, you need to know how to look at intricacies within the video to find anything that doesn’t seem correct. A very good spliced run will be very difficult to spot, but it doesn’t happen often because it’s hard to do that well.
The crux of the point is that a timer in screen does nothing to prove a run isn’t spliced.
[quote]Visible timer during the speedrun is the proof the video wasn't cut in inappropriate way to reduce the result.[/quote] This is absolutely not true in the slightest. A visible timer doesn’t indicate a video wasn’t spliced at all, it’s unrelated to that in every way. Someone can splice together a run and just play it back alongside a timer, that’s what most splicers do. Nobody splices the video with the timer in the original videos, so having a timer on screen proves zero.
I’m on the fence if this is a bot since the post reads spammy, so a second opinion by staff is in order https://www.speedrun.com/user/annashetty
I’m in favor of not allowing emulators. PS2 emulation is hot garbage. The community for the emulator work harder on making the games look pretty and run better than they do actually trying to accurately emulate the games. The emulator loads faster than a console ever would by default, but it also loads inconsistently, even on the same machine. Ive had loads vary by up to multiple seconds on my computer depending on how it feels that day. So while games may function correctly, the emulator itself doesn’t behave like a console should. It’s why many PS2 games either ban emulator or give it its own category. It’s also got input lag out the wazoo fwiw.
I can’t speak for XBox emulation, so what I said is just for PS2.
You need to ask the community for the game. Try contacting the mods for help or join their discord and ask for help there. You could also post in the game’s forums.
I agree with Liv. It seems like this is more of a flawed use of IGT rather than a use case for enhancing the LBs.
If the IGT precise enough to handle it, it sounds like you should switch to RTA timing to compensate for the speed at which the category can be completed.
I believe North Korea is one of the countries where you have to physically be there to set your location to it. There’s a few other Asian countries that do the same thing - if your IP address isn’t in that country then you can’t set yourself to it.
It used to be that way, it was something Pac put in place. I’m not sure if it changed with the site update or not.
I mean it depends on the mods really. You can view their profile info to see when they last logged on to maybe gauge when they'll be on again. But it's really anybody's guess as to when they'll log on again.
