I find the current IL timing rules to be a bit annoying for the purposes of efficiently practicing a segment. Since a level resets upon death, there's no point in quitting the level entirely after a death except to satisfy the arbitrary timing rule. I can appreciate the precision required to optimally hit Start with minimal wasted time when loading a level from level select, but I think actual gameplay differences are more significant for the purposes of time comparison.
I propose the timing for ILs be changed to the following: "Timing begins when the level's opening dialogue box appears, and ends when the level's closing dialogue box appears."
After speaking with RetroEdit through PMs, I agree that the rules should be changed. Selecting a level then pressing Start to skip the box shouldn't be timed as it's arbitrary. Also, if you wanted to start over after a death, going back to the level select is kind of pointless. The gameplay matters more when timing ILs. So, here are the new rules:
"Timing begins when you close the opening dialogue box and ends when the ending dialogue box appears. Beginning timing after a death is allowed."
For example, when you begin a level, timing starts when you press Start to close the dialogue box (every level has a starting and ending box). Timing will end when the dialogue box at the end of the level pops up (again, every level has this). If you are playing a level and you die, you can reset your timer and try again without backing out to the level select. When you die, the level resets, including the dialogue box.
Any IL runs on the leaderboards from 4/4/2020 and before will be retimed. Please note that full game run timings will remain the same. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.
