Just to comment with a couple of concerns that many members of the community are having with regards to the recent changes/polls that have taken place.
1: While the differences between swim routes and non swim routes in the any% category are very great, it's been made clear that many people are not in favor of the way that the information is being represented. A possible reconciliation would be that swim is added as a 'checkbox' in the same way that emulator is introduced and sorted on the leaderboards. Methods of adding swim to the leaderboards can be voted on.
2: Mods: Many active members of the spyro speedrunning community have transitioned from the google docs based leaderboards and their reasoning was for a more simplified approach to change, and moderating of the leaderboards. It's become clear that many members are not happy with the current mod list and I believe it would be beneficial for the members, and current moderators, to have a vote on the mod list so as to not bring some of the issues with gdocs over to srcom leaderboards, and further facilitate a leaderboards environment that the community is happy with.
3: 40 orb vs classic 40 orb categories. This one was already voted on, so not very relevant to bring up. Some members may possibly want a re-vote on the naming of this category, suggesting that something like "classic 40 orb" is a more relevant naming scheme for the category. Yes, classic 40 orb isn't as 'self-explanatory' as any% nbs for new runners, but for many members of the community the change was too abrupt and left a bad taste in our mouth.
I hope that it was not out of place for me to mention my concerns in this post, and use this forum board as an avenue to express my own thoughts on the matter, but the "touchiness" of this topic in the spyro skype group has led me to want to get this topic settled for a definite future of friendly competition in speedrunning some of our favorite childhood games.
Thank you, evanjam
Quote from Evanjam: Just to comment with a couple of concerns that many members of the community are having with regards to the recent changes/polls that have taken place.
"1: While the differences between swim routes and non swim routes in the any% category are very great, it's been made clear that many people are not in favor of the way that the information is being represented. A possible reconciliation would be that swim is added as a 'checkbox' in the same way that emulator is introduced and sorted on the leaderboards. Methods of adding swim to the leaderboards can be voted on."
A: As far as I know, this is how the update for that will happen. It's not something we can implement yet though, as the update is still under development from Pac.
"2: Mods: Many active members of the spyro speedrunning community have transitioned from the google docs based leaderboards and their reasoning was for a more simplified approach to change, and moderating of the leaderboards. It's become clear that many members are not happy with the current mod list and I believe it would be beneficial for the members, and current moderators, to have a vote on the mod list so as to not bring some of the issues with gdocs over to srcom leaderboards, and further facilitate a leaderboards environment that the community is happy with."
A: This is not something I was familiar with, or haven't been told at all. Could you please send me a twitch PM with further information on this topic? I'd like to know.
"3: 40 orb vs classic 40 orb categories. This one was already voted on, so not very relevant to bring up. Some members may possibly want a re-vote on the naming of this category, suggesting that something like "classic 40 orb" is a more relevant naming scheme for the category. Yes, classic 40 orb isn't as 'self-explanatory' as any% nbs for new runners, but for many members of the community the change was too abrupt and left a bad taste in our mouth."
A: That is why it was polled as this change happened very abruptly. I do agree that a re-naming of one, if not both categories should be put in place.
"I hope that it was not out of place for me to mention my concerns in this post, and use this forum board as an avenue to express my own thoughts on the matter, but the "touchiness" of this topic in the spyro skype group has led me to want to get this topic settled for a definite future of friendly competition in speedrunning some of our favorite childhood games."
A: I'm glad someone gave us constructive feedback, thanks, Evanjam.
~KJ
Any% = beat the game, no restrictions However, you can apply additional restrictions on top of it. Any%, No Major Skips (many, many games) Any%, No Wrong Warp (DKR, Zelda games) Any%, IJ (Ape Escape) Any%, Warpless (Super Mario Bros. 3, Yoshi's Island) As long as it is PROPERLY DEFINED, it is completely acceptable to name categories this way. Any%, No Boss Skips would literally mean "Beat the game, without the use of boss skips" which describes the category perfectly. Anything is allowed except for skipping into Crush, Gulp, and Ripto. It is NOT called 40 orb No Boss Skips. 40 orb is redundant for the name. It is already implied because of the Ripto door. If you call it 40 orb NBS, you may as well call it 14 talisman NBS. Why choose to specify one of the two main requirements over the other? As for the 40 orb definition, it does NOT need to be changed. 40 orb literally means "Collect 40 orbs and open the Ripto door, no additional restrictions". That is exactly what the category is. I'm sorry you're stuck in the past, wanting to call it "classic 40 orb" or whatever your ideas are, but they are not logical. Please consider it logically and accept it. Thanks.
Jumpy, although i respect your opinion, I feel that the category name "Any% NBS is rather long winded and also by the fact that most people prefer to call it 40 orb. 40 orb, literally says what happens on the tin. You grab 40 orbs, go to ripto, defeat ripto, win. In my opinion "Any% NBS" is a way of telling new players the objective but then saying 'you find out how to unlock them by yourself' Whereas '40 orb' or 'classic 40 orb' defines that the player needs to get the 40 orbs needed to win and then win the game like that, regardless of glitches or anything.
When Gulp Skip was discovered, people insisted on not using it in what was previously called 40 orb. At that point, the name did not fit the category anymore, as there was a faster way to complete the run "collect 40 orbs and open the ripto door, no restrictions". Either 40 orb needed to have crush/gulp skip allowed, or the name needed to change. Fortunately, the category simply split. Why didn't you even mention talismans in your response? You can't say that "the player needs to get 40 orbs needed to win" when it's 40 orbs as well as the 14 talismans, which are equally important to progress through the game. 40 orbs + 14 talismans would be silly as any% no boss skips describes exactly that to the point. Also, http://strawpoll.me/3614389/r
