All Items mode vs. Frantic mode concerns
8 years ago
Victoria, Australia

So with a Frantic Mode run being accepted recently I was curious to see how his Item RNG was compared to mine and the other top runners who have been using All Items.

Now I haven't ran with Frantic mode myself, but I believed it to be easier (and not accepted to submit here) than All Items because Frantic allows anybody to get any item that is helpful in first place. And it turns out it might be.

So while I was watching his run, I noticed the items he got in first place was triple green shells, triple bananas, one banana, a red shell, a green shell, coins, one mushroom and super horn. Most of that seems normal with the exception of the triple items. But during the run, he's getting mushrooms more frequently in Frantic Mode than what you get with just All Items.

I rarely get mushrooms during the course of my runs by using the All Items setting when I'm in first place, in fact the only times I've gotten mushrooms was during a run where I avoided a blue shell with it, and when I hit an item block in second place and got triple mushrooms in another. I don't know about the other runners' experience using All Items mode, but I have watched the top times and saw they rarely got any mushrooms while in first place. While the guy running with Frantic mode items has received several mushrooms on average once a track, and during Twisted Mansion he got two during the duration of that track alone. I haven't watched further, but I think the frequency of him gaining more mushrooms than the average run does concern me.

I don't mind him running Frantic Mode, but I do think it puts him at more of an advantage than the other runners because of the rate he gets mushrooms in first place because he's using Frantic Mode, while every other runner is using All Items mode and not getting as many. I'm bringing this up because when you have access to mushrooms it gives the runner access to more shortcuts, and because during Frantic mode you get mushrooms more frequently than a runner using All Items.

So what I'm saying is that his run should not be bunched in with the other runs. There has to be separate category for Frantic mode runs, or Frantic mode would be faster for speedruns of pretty much any category that allows items. Or since it isn't the main mode, it could be considered as part of a misc category.

EDIT: Just uploading two runs now, and checked the VS Mode ruleset, which says Frantic Mode runs isn't allowed http://prntscr.com/51s3yi

Netherlands

I accidentally accepted that run by mistake. I hadnt looked at the video title and I didnt pay attention to the intro screen. I wont be taking the run down since it is not a top time and it wont affect the leaderboards too much. As of now Frantic Mode is indeed not allowed, but I can see how it can be more useful in a speedrun. The mods already discussed a bit about Frantic Mode and we wouldnt mind allowing this in speedruns IF there are more people willing to do so.