How much interest would there be in creating a NG any% HC run. I've been thinking that a big thing that is missing from Diablo 3 Speedruns is a speedrun where the monsters and bosses actually pose a significant threat. So the idea is that it would be the same NG Any% run except your character must be HC and the run must be done on a higher difficulty. Which difficulty it would have to be run on we would figure out by doing test runs before actually creating the category to make sure the difficulty we pick is tough enough for all classes but not too difficult that the run is impossible to finish. I think the difficulty would most likely end up being either expert or master leaning towards master. I personally think if we created such a run it should be an accomplishment just being able to complete the run where even the experienced Diablo 3 players would have to try very hard just to finish it.

So let me know if you guys are interested I'd be happy to do some test runs.

First I will explain the rule, why the rule should be added, and then address concerns I think people may have with the rule. This is long but I would really appreciate it if our active community members please at least read from here all the way to the end of my explanation to 'Why add this rule?' and let me know what you think. Thank You!

EDIT I PUT IN A SECOND IDEA AT THE BOTTOM!!!

I suggest adding a new rule that applies to future "VERY fast" submissions. I suggest that runs under certain times should require the runners hands and monitor to be shown in the video of the speedrun or the runner separately provides a 2nd video with their submission of their monitor and hands during the run.

Here are my suggested times break points where this rule would apply. (Feel free to debate or suggest different times)

NG Demon Hunter and Monk: under 1:50:00 NG Crusader: under 1:55:00 NG Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Wizard and Necromancer: under 2:00:00

NG+ Monk: under 40:00 NG+ Demon Hunter and Witch Doctor: under 50:00 NG+ Barbarian, Crusader, Wizard and Necromancer: under 52:00

Here are examples that show the hands and monitor with the speedrun

I suggest that the minimap and the center of the screen should be visible in the hand/monitor camera. An example of what part of the monitor should be visible https://imgur.com/RJsE4Ze This wouldn't have to be exact by any means but you should be able to see most of the minimap and a decent portion of the center as well for when the map is opened full screen.

Why add this rule? This camera angle would make it nearly impossible to use map hacks, and it would make it more difficult to splice runs. Certain Any% categories are now becoming very fast and getting new World Records or top 3 is starting to take multiple layers of excellent RNG, very good map navigation/knowledge, luck on picking the optimal paths in random maps, need multiple fleeting/empower shrines in NG, and NG+ requires good mechanical skill. In short getting these times is very difficult and those of us who run legitimately would be very discouraged if some random player decides to start submitting times while using map hacks and perhaps he gets the perfect RNG on map layouts and shrines to get a near perfect run that time would be nearly incontestable by a runner without map hacks because someone with map hacks will never hit a dead end and someone without even with the exact same perfect RNG is very likely to hit a few dead ends. This rule not only stops cheaters but also protects legitimate runners, because to get those kinds of times runners need to hit very few dead ends which will always look suspicious as if they are map hacking so providing this camera angle would help protect them from false cheating accusations. A reason this is such a big worry for me though is because I know for a fact that using map hacks/3rd party UI is very common among players pushing end game greater rifts. I am not exaggerating that certain players/clans expect you to be using it if you are playing end game and blizzard does not ban for it as long as you don't show the overlay on stream. There is most likely in the thousands of players that use it regularly. I am afraid that as seasons start to slow down and become more stale more people may look towards speedrunning the game and the types of players that would be motivated to speedrun are going to be mostly the same ones pushing end game. With it being accepted among a large majority of those players that 3rd party UI is okay I'm concerned that certain players would continue to use them even for speedruns.

Why both the monitor and hands? The rule is designed in a way where it is very difficult to attempt to video edit to make it look like you are following this rule when you are not which is why it is important both the monitor and the players hands are seen in the same camera shot. The monitor shows if map hacks are being displayed and the hands sync with the gameplay making it harder to cheat this rule with video editing.

Why suggest these time thresholds specifically? First off all currently verified runs are slower than these thresholds so all the current records would still be legitimate with this rule. These times are my estimate of when each class would be < ~5 minutes away from a "perfect" run for NG and < ~2 minutes for NG+. I am most confidant in the times of NG Demon Hunter and Monk having run NG a lot to get those times requires favorable RNG on all but 2 or 3 maps, you need to be guessing the correct paths on most maps, you need to get ~5+ fleeting/empower shrines and you can only really afford like a 30 second mistake on something non RNG related. So there is still room to improve beyond those times but it is very slim and very difficult and will take an experienced and dedicated runner to get them. However I would leave the exact time thresholds up for debate among the community these are just my suggestions.

Why only apply this rule for runs under a certain time? The threshold would be decided by the community to be times that are very hard to get and require multiple layers of RNG and near perfect execution. So any times slower than that it would be accepted by the community that such a time can be achieved without suspicion because many runners and/or trusted runners have achieved similar times before. Only applying this rule to times faster than the threshold keeps the barrier to entry for speedrunning this game lower. Newer runners to the game can start learning and submitting their runs without having to worry about this rule.

What if the runner doesn't have a webcam or camera? You can buy one off of amazon or retail for like 15-20 USD. If someone is getting close to those times I think that is a pretty small investment compared to the time that needs to be spent to become that fast and most people that spend enough time to get that good have most likely have already spent much more on their setup to play the game and the game itself costs 30 USD when not on sale.

What if the runner doesn't want the camera to also pick up audio? There should be a way to disable the microphone on most webcam/cameras in your PC devices settings or in the runners recording software settings.

2ND IDEA My other idea keep the time break points if your run is below those times you need to live stream your runs to twitch. You must broadcast your gameplay with the OBS (or software that has same options) monitor capture option NOT window or game capture. You prove before starting each run that you are using monitor capture (by tabbing into a different window and back into Diablo.That might be good enough but maybe also want to have them briefly show in OBS that they are on a monitor capture). Then with your gameplay submission you must also include a link to the twitch highlight of that entire stream session. Videos on twitch will show what type of video they are if they are a highlight or upload, and VODs have no description on them.

People could still just attempt to live stream edited recordings BUT that behavior would probably be noticeable after a while if they actually stream all of their attempts. So with the twitch highlights you know that what you see in the highlight was 100% what was live streamed and not edited afterwards. But the contents could have been edited before being streamed.

I would still prefer my first idea but this is an option for those who did not like the webcam idea. I would be happy enough though with the 2nd rule too possibly having both as an option for the runner when they submit they either have to submit according to rule 1 or 2 or both.