[SUGGESTION] Extra Variables and Pokémon Speedruns
8 years ago
French Southern Territories

Hello,

I recently discussed with MKDasher & werster about games languages. The fact is that the same game is released in multiple languages all around the world. These versions have really small differences, but, for the PokémonSpeedruns elite, it's a lot. They don't want to have the same category with different languages (as kanjis would be faster and small engine differences). Like it would have top 10 with JAP version and then top 30 with English. PokémonSpeedruns.com only allows english version, but fortunately, this is speedrun.com With current features of the website, we had 3 solutions :

  • Making a "Extra Variable"
  • Making a "New Category"
  • Making a "New Game"
  • Doing nothing and still ban non-english versions

I am gonna start with the more obvious, "Making a "New Game"". It's obviously stupid to make a new game request for the same game but just small differences.

Then, we thought of making a new category. This would be more accurate, technically, but we would have dozens of categories. Small example : Pokémon Diamond/Pearl has Any% Glitchless & Any% and 7 versions : US, JAP, FR, GER, SPA, KOR, IT. So, it's obvious you can't have every category of every version.

Finally, we discussed about "Extra Variable". The idea would be to have a language Extra Variable and then select which one you take. You might tell me it's the easier thing to do. But werster underlined two problems :

  • First, the fact that when you add an extra variable, the leaderboard shows the whole leaderboard by default and he doesn't want it. Like if it would be sub-categories, the solution could be to be able for game mods to disable the "show all runs by default" and force the leaderboard viewever to choose a category and by default take the english one. That's ONE solution, not the easiest to do for admins, but just asking.
  • Also, if the feature I suggest is made, the profile page & the run page would be weird, because it would displays the ranking of the whole category, not the english one. Thus, making it inexact.

Another solution would be to do nothing and allow only english versions like nowodays.

Thanks for reading.

PackSciences

Trollbear666 likes this
Bavaria, Germany

If you make it a variable and set english as the default value, the leaderboard will only show english runs by default, not all.

You're right in saying that the rank on profile/run pages would display the ranking of the whole category though.

Trollbear666 likes this
Gelderland, Netherlands

Maybe finally Pokemon green will be accepted into the pokemon series <3 (hint hint that you guys maybe should discuss that also)

United States

[quote=PackSciences]First, the fact that when you add an extra variable, the leaderboard shows the whole leaderboard by default and he doesn't want it. Like if it would be sub-categories, the solution could be to be able for game mods to disable the "show all runs by default" and force the leaderboard viewever to choose a category and by default take the english one. That's ONE solution, not the easiest to do for admins, but just asking. "[/quote]

I tend to favor solutions that allow moderators to highlight things that are featured vs things that are tracked. Having a visual way to discern when runs are not directly comparable due to certain variables being different would be helpful.

I don't really favor a solution that entirely prevents users from putting all the data in one table. The solution should imply "It doesn't make great sense to look at the data this way, but if you really want to go ahead and click this button" vs "You're not allowed to look at the data this way." The latter is a bad restriction to place on the user in my opinion.

Also it would be helpful if the filters and defaults supported multiple value selection. (Example: US and JP but not PAL)

The whole of this is a relatively important issue for many games.

[quote=Lighnat0r]"If you make it a variable and set english as the default value, the leaderboard will only show english runs by default, not all. "[/quote]

This doesn't exist currently except hard-coded for a game or two, right?

[quote=PackSciences]Also, if the feature I suggest is made, the profile page & the run page would be weird, because it would displays the ranking of the whole category, not the english one. Thus, making it inexact.[/quote]

This is probably true as Lighnat0r says. Ideally it would probably reflect all of the default settings, but it gets increasingly complicated.