Hello everyone. So we have had a plethora of questions coming in asking if we can add challenge categories such as "All Troubles" or "Complete the Pit of 100 Trials" etc. The short answer is no. Reason being is because adding such categories is very unnecessary to a speedrun that is already long enough. Games that have challenge categories are usually games that have massive skips, or the game is just simply too short, for example: Zelda: A Link to the Past has several different categories, even one where you defeat bosses in reverse order. The key difference between ALTTP and a game such as TTYD is length. A Link to the Past can be completed in just under 2 minutes. Situations like these lead to the community having a lot of competition with similar times just on this single category and needs to expand into other categories in order to allow for more fair and more spread out competition. TTYD does not have this problem... at all, and probably won't ever. Just recently we have also split the English and Japanese runs for similar convenience reasons. A lot of people were asking if we could split the categories since people were very weary about learning the Japanese route and wanted more fair competition against English times.
Please refrain from asking to add new categories in this forum from this point forward. If you do so, your post might be deleted within a week of it being posted.
We hope this will clear up some questions that you all might have.
Thank you
My thoughts about this: No wonder why the TTYD community is as small as it is; you guys don't accept anything other than the big categories, which, in my opinion, why is 100% even a thing still when nobody runs it, even actively? I'm pretty sure All Badges was run more than 100%
Ok, so it is quite clear that you just simply do not understand that creating a little misc. category is basically giving away free WRs for people to easily take. Just throwing out these categories is just disrespectful to those who have actually worked hard for times in the main categories. 100% may not have many runs completed, but it at least tests your abilities of the entire game. Just slicing off a portion of that just as its own category is pointless and stupid. Ask any other major speedrun community and they will tell you the exact same thing, creating a category that only tasks a certain portion of the game is just pointless.
The fact of the matter is that we're probably not going to be adding any more categories to the leaderboard unless some new skips get found. Right now, we have Any% Japanese, Any% English/PAL, and 100% categories (All Stars will probably be a new addition if we find a way to skip more chapters, similar to Paper Mario 64's All Cards.) You need to remember that even if a category doesn't exist on the leaderboard, you're still welcome to run it. Just be at peace with the fact that it will not be added to the speedrun.com leaderboards. All Badges was removed earlier this week and I'll still be running that, even though it is no longer on the leaderboards. We can't tell you how to play video games, and we're not, but what we can do is determine what categories are leaderboard-worthy. Because of this, we're going to be sticking to the four categories mentioned above.
I'm not really saying just start creating random little miscellaneous categories just for the sake of easy world records. I'm just saying that if a group of people want to run something, why not? If they wanna run it actively, I think it'd be good for the community, because the more minds there are, the better. Why? Sooner or later, they'll start wanting to run their category faster and faster, which will make it more likely for them to try to find more glitches or skips, i.e. Palace Skip. Just my personal opinion. Idc if you or anyone wants to listen to me, but to me, other categories sound enticing too.
And speedrunner123, I do agree that a 100% casual is a lot of fun. I just think that a Leaderboard category should be more active. I mean, nothing wrong with the 100% category, but does anyone even run it actively? just saying.
And Sjorec, maybe it's just me, but to me, competition is more fun, especially in challenging categories. I would certainly want to try all badges, but seeing the competitive scores completely erased...meh, never mind. Does anyone see what I'm saying?
And I would dare say--and please don't get upset at me for it--but I think the reason not as many people would run the main categories is because the bar is sooooooooo high. If I saw that I might have even a chance of getting on the leaderboards, because the main leaderboards are such a big deal, and the miscellaneous not as much, I would run those categories, but would still like to run a more leasurely category too. If one sees that they don't have a chance, I would speculate that some would change their mind and may turn to a lesser category, which there is none in this forum.
But you guys are the mods. and we're obviously not, which means you guys will do whatever you guys wish anyways. I have nothing more for now, and will wait for a response, if any.
One thing I would say is that you don't need to add a category into the main leaderboard. You could just create another link that leads to different miscellaneous categories. For example, if you look at Super Mario Sunshine here on speedrun.com, they have separate but yet competitive miscellaneous categories that isn't on the main Leaderboard. I believe that if you do something similar, things will actually get better, more people will be happier, and more people will run Any%.
How intimidating would it be for a first time runner to try to run such a big category with low times rather than a lesser pressuring category first? Think about it. I myself wouldn't want to run them if I saw the top times and how good they are. Those main categories are only for the best of the best.
You'll get better at the main categories by playing the main categories, not miscellaneous ones. Every single time on this leaderboard is certainly beatable if someone puts in the hard work. It's like that for every game.
Everyone makes good points here and (I'm assuming) that Almo saw that I claimed to be the WR holder for BP only. And I recognize that this is a meme/challenge category and whether it is recognized on the speedrun.com leaderboards or not I can be happy and proud with what I did. And it is true, I was too intimidated to run any% or 100% to start because I don't know any of the glitches; so I thought of something to kind of ease in to it you know? It wasn't serious, I wasn't exactly trying to be necessarily competitive for it, regardless I had fun with it. I don't think there needs to be a misc. category for it on the leaderboards either, I can just discuss it with other runners or people that want to run it. I made a post earlier this week and I was told by Zephiles that this leaderboard is used for main categories. So honestly I think that just having the 3 main categories (for now at least) is totally okay and that we should just stop trying to invent new "main categories".
At least that's my 2 cents
So I get what you guys are saying, adding more categories would dilute the main games leaderboards, but I don't see a problem with people putting WR next to their time, they should be aloud to be proud of it. Not have to hide a run they did and are proud of. They can have their cake but not eat it?
Compared to most of you I'm slow as hell while running TTYD, but I'm really good at combat, so I want to run 100 rooms (Which I get that it to RNG based with the mover and what not to make it an actual run) but I cant run it and get to put WR next to it if I get it?
The last think I have is saying it would dilute sounds wrong. I mean you're right but the word choice is wrong, when you say dilute, it makes it sound like you're run is more important cause you say so and you want YOUR world record to be the only one noticed. Just a thought, should make better word choice.
Speaking strictly as a viewer, I'd like more variety. I've watched the current 1st and 2nd place Any% records, and the 100% WR. I don't care much for All stars. If misc categories aren't going have leaderboards here, does anyone have somewhere else where they are tracked? I'm specially interested in pre-hooktail pit, does anyone know any streamers that run it besides P4ntz? I just want to watch some more TTYD.
As far as I know, there are no other locations in which misc categories are kept track of.
Pre-Hooktail Pit, on the other hand, is a challenge category, which we already have a post about: https://www.speedrun.com/ttyd/thread/bilsh
