I'm confused by the leaderboards...what gives?
6 years ago
United States

See title. I'm not sure who is good at what anymore. It was so clear just hours ago too....

yeah dude, since I can't figure out how to use "simple standard menu features," I'll never know. :\

it's actually very simple. just navigate to the one filter and select one of the five or six options, then from that one filter select one of the other multiple options. didn't find what you want, go back to the one filter and select one of the five or six options, then from that filter selection on of the other other multiple options. didnt find what you want........

4iSteven likes this
New York, USA

Or just run level 19 start?

Uruguay
Twintail_Nami
She/Her, They/Them
6 years ago

Stop complaining when you don't even run the game.

Italy

You can run any level you feel comfortable with, your name will be displayed on the leaderboard anyway.

Texas, USA

As someone who does play this on a pretty regular basis, I honestly say I dont understand it. Theres been no offering of a solid reason as to why they should be combined into one leaderboard. As has been stated, there are different starts and strats for every level, and 0-100 is different enough and has more than enough runs to warrant it's own category distinction from just 100 lines. The biggest reason why Im upset over this change is that we as a community weren't consulted or asked for input in regards to this change. I hate it and it makes me feel like my 0-100 time is just bad when compared to 19 starts, even though they're two entirely different beasts.

justinman114, 4iSteven and 3 others like this
United States

Probably a bad idea to have runs obsoleting each other on that variable, due to the level 0 hype.

Or separating Level 0 back out makes a lot of sense, if you're worried about bloat.

justinman114, 4iSteven and 4 others like this
Massachusetts, USA

Put back 0-start and leave the filters on 100 line is my idea.

Talking to the community before changes like this is also important.

Like, very important.

Thanks.

AriesFireTiger, 4iSteven and 9 others like this
California, USA

It looks like a reasonable discussion is starting up. I'll chime in.

Maybe there's meta I'm not aware of, but I don't think there's actually different strats per level. Either the game is slow enough that you can play up high and go for doubles/triples, or you stay low/neat and go for tetrises. It that sense, it's pretty binary, and that was reflected in the previous categories.

I personally don't use filters to gauge leaderboards, and I suspect most other people don't either. It took a lot of effort and experimentation to grind down to the time I had. If I knew I was chasing 12th on a future merged leaderboard, and not WR, I could have spent that time learning Level 19 or a different game. And it's not just my time, but everyone's time and effort on that board is being marginalized by this merge.

I think a lot of the insults stem from this decision appearing to be unilateral as there was no previous discussion on this board. When this reached the Zelda Discord, a lot of us were like, "what the heck? why is the moderator redoing the leaderboards that we didn't have a problem with?"

My two cents.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
AriesFireTiger, Eunos and 13 others like this
United States

Are you talking to me virus dude? I do run the game, just haven't submitted times yet.

Thanks for kicking the legs of the chair out from under a newer runner though. that's appreciated

4iSteven, MarthSR and 4 others like this
New York, USA

As a person who has run the Level 0 category, I also disagree with the removal of the Level 0 start category. Especially 5 days after a tournament was played under this category rule that may of brought new runners to the game.

And what makes this worse is that this was done without any attempt to reach out to the people who run this category, it seems.

Think of Level 0 as a beginner friendly category. One that anybody can pick up, but mastering it to the level that rcdrone has is difficult. Then consider Any Start as a intermediate category, something that you graduate from the Level 0 category into. One where execution matters and strategy alters because you're starting in a level that has a faster drop rate.

Was this to make the game seem more popular? Or was this an attempt to make the accomplishments of the Any Level Start appear even stronger? I don't think you succeeded in either of these by doing this. This game only has three categories, there's no need to condense categories to clean up the leaderboard.

So, in short, consider me one who would love it if we reinstated the Level 0 Start category, separate from the Any Level start. The two categories are different animals. If you're able to Level 18 your way to a sub-4, congratulations, but it shouldn't come at the price of my Level 0 accomplishments.

AriesFireTiger, justinman114 and 7 others like this
Kansas, USA

I don't personally have an issue with the boards being changed like this, but I definitely agree that people are being reasonable in being upset that such a decision was made without any kind of community input.

Uruguay
Twintail_Nami
She/Her, They/Them
6 years ago

I also agree that looking for community opinions about it could have made this better, but I like the changes. You can select every level you want, and you will still see the "1st", "2nd", "3rd" (well and the rest of the leaderboard) and the runners:

https://puu.sh/yMaYf/f4fa40ecbd.png

United States

Wow; this really exploded. I have to agree with Rick where 0 start was my first category/speedrun to submit times for. From there everything blossomed; brman and rick were two runners I watched grinding this category before rcdrone was starting to attack it and improving the WR in it. If the category didn't at exist at that point, of course this discussion wouldn't matter. But after a year of having so many new runners, along with having over 5000 attempts in it for grinding times myself, and the last tournament being specific to this category and such a huge success - I'm surprised it just merged into 100 lines at this point. So while the 100 lines category is definitely good and challenges you to improve at any level, the 0 start was fun/exciting/good competition and really allowing players, like rcdrone put, work out different strategies.

justinman114, AdirondackRick and 4 others like this
Nevada, USA

Just my 2 cents (and I know my time is over a year old, I was thinking about getting back into it after GDQ though).

I'm fine with changing leaderboards, but doing so without the consultation of the community first is a bad idea, as you can see. And the community is a collection of all of the runners of the game, as well as the mods. Making a major change like this does seem to minimalize the 0-start category, which is the most popular category. Newer runners are going to see this leaderboard in the future and they're going to run a different category than the one most of us ran when we started.

Just my two cents. Not attacking anyone. Just saying that a mod of a game needs to keep the game and community in mind when they change things that could affect a group's accomplishments. The backlash I'm reading here and on discord might be a sign that you guys should reach out to all of the runners and find out what we all think the best course of action would be.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
justinman114, AdirondackRick and 7 others like this
Ohio, USA

As you can see, the community has spoken on the petition. Community has the say so, not just a few people of the community. New runners would felt discouraged having to pick this up and see what to even compete with a top time, they need to be on par with Jonas? Different strats are there there for different speeds. Just change it back and save some grace out of this mess.

CloudyShoe, 4iSteven and 6 others like this
Canada

Avoiding drama like this is the main reason you consult with your community when intending to do changes of such magnitude.

When you don't, you have no right to complain about the community backlash, let alone bring out of context insults ("LUL U CANT COUNT DATS Y UR Z1 TIMES SUK LULULUL"). The whole thing definitely wasn't handled properly at all, from the implementation of said changes to the handling of the predictable backlash.

I know I'll get a lot of flak for those last lines, but it wouldn't be the first time.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
CloudyShoe, justinman114 and 4 others like this
Antarctica

Most points have already been made here but it’s worth mentioning again that the job of moderators is to implement community decisions and wants. Obviously that doesn’t mean implementing every mundane community request, but something like a complete LB reorganization needs to be discussed with runners and the community.

You are a mod, not an elected official who has complete control over the boards and speaks for the community. Ignoring the community and doing your own thing like this is a huge failure as a moderator.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
AriesFireTiger, justinman114 and 8 others like this
Uruguay
Twintail_Nami
She/Her, They/Them
6 years ago

I will say that I admit you're right on what you're saying that people that don't have times are equally important. I was just talking about the people who were complaining here in a rude way. As I said before, I agree with the fact that community had to be consulted before.

Also, please don't try to use ad hominem arguments with me, `because in that case I could say that your 'gang' started with the childish and rude behavior in this forum.

It's also curious how the only people who seem to have this kind of 'gang' behavior are Zelda runners, what's the deal with that?