Heya. I just wanted to ask why some arbitrary timing is used for quick runs, even though there is an in-game timer. Wouldn't using that make more sense since it's probably more consistant?

Juat asking, maybe I'm missing something or it only got added recently and I was unaware?

There's two main reasons. One reason is to keep timing consistent between categories, since Endless doesn't have an in-game timer.

The other reason is that the in-game timer is based on when the front end of your train reaches the station, not when you finish meaningful inputs(putting rails down). This also makes it so the in-game timer is based partially on how you set up your rails, since the train will take more time on curves even if the distance is the same or even less, so it's preferable that we have the current timing system to prevent that. One other possible thing is if two times have the same second value we can check which one is actually faster more easily.

Of course, this is all arbitrary regardless so if enough people preferred in-game timer we could change it to that, but for now this seems good.

The train taking longer in curves seems like a good reason, I agree.

I'm fine with that decision for the moment, was just curious about the reasoning behind it. Thank you for the detailed answer