If there were a better way to get the nails, then this would already be a category probably. I've tried to find a better way to either get steel bars, or iron and coal, but there isn't a good answer as far as I can tell.

I shouldn't be worried about it to be honest, except that I'm running linux on a chromebook and resources for linux are rough as it is, setting aside the fact that I'm using a chromebook. It's an issue I'm addressing, I'm just having to figure out the issues on my own(help for these topics are either years old or answered with "Don't run linux")

The bandwidth isn't a problem for me, that's more a consideration of people in the U.S. that aren't necessarily in major cities or anywhere near a provider's decent range, and for people in Austrailia who, even after Jagex's servers are fixed, still typically have garbage quality internet.

It's not the first time it's been brought up, actually. Metruption brought it up in the first discussion about this last year, TheDarkestUno quoted him on the first page, and I seconded the point then. I run just fine on one account, adding recording software(and a split timer, but that's a separate issue that you windows PC users don't suffer from) slows things down quite a bit, but it's still doable, and barring anything ridiculous like walking into the GE at peak time should allow for a competitive run so long as you know the route as well as you should to be running competitively. So the difference between one client and two IS fairly significant if your hardware is struggling.

I can understand reasonable expectancy there, but with bandwidth the issue is much more prevalent and not something that those people can help, adjust, or fix.

How would you record your mobile client? I'm excited for mobile and can't wait for it to release, but running separately on that would be......unverifiable? As far as I'm aware. Not that it would be a problem in the way you're mentioning, but it could easily be a problem in the future with new strats and glitches/features that may arise.

At this point, I'm interested in keeping running this game as feasible as possible for new runners. I feel like multi-logging strats are more likely to drive low-spec users away, and setting them up as different categories, or at least with a different tag(I believe this is the current setup?) so there is at least non-multi-log competition still.

The merits of "a few minutes faster at most" is much more significant than it's being given credit for. If a strategy is consistently faster by even a minute, that's the strategy that gets used by speedrunners because it makes a consistent difference in time and time is measured less than 2 minutes when discussing world record competition. If the idea is competing, which is the whole point of putting it on this site, then those minutes really matter.

The reason this matters so much to me, and a concern TheDarkestUno expressed, is hardware. Multi-logging changes the hardware requirements to successfully run the game. I haven't submitted a run because I'm trying to find a solution that allows me to record my gameplay on the hardware I've got, but it is possible. If multi-logging is the winning strategy, then I'm not in the competition at all because two clients actively running and trying to record is fairly impossible, at least with any kind of speed to speak of. This kind of hardware restriction consistently discourages people from running games or recording their runs, especially on PC games.

We also have a consideration in that this IS an MMO. It's online. Some parts of the world(looking at parts of Australia and the midwest U.S.) barely have internet that is fast enough to run this game. Multi-logging would kill many of these connections, or slow them down to a point where the game becomes un-runnable. Not un-runnable in the case of disconnects ruining a run, but consistently impossible to achieve for what is available to them.

I'm more worried that people potentially interested in running won't bother, because they'll never be able to compete. Either due to their computer's hardware, or due to the internet connections where they live.

If we are tossing out the "spirit of the run" in favor of going fast, we should just run as normal accounts, rather than iron accounts. That is by far the faster account type, and in the interest of going as fast as possible would be the logical choice. In my opinion that is the same argument as the multilogging argument. If we are just deciding based on the fastest possible method, we shouldn't be running as iron accounts, we should be multi-logging and setting up beforehand and we should be picking up other player's items as convenient.

That being said, we do run as iron accounts, and the ENTIRE idea behind iron accounts is to do things without help from others.

Besides that, this isn't an any % run, and plenty of games have different categories for glitchless runs, glitched runs, and runs allowing glitches but banning specific ones, either because it isn't fun, or because it's against the spirit of the run, or because a significant portion of the community simply said no. This feels more like one of those cases, where if it were allowed it should be a different category even though it isn't a glitch, it is the same argument of "the fastest possible way".

That's because I have a split opinion on it. It's a small enough thing, and can be grabbed randomly from another player's fire who isn't you and that you don't know. Just like you can/can't get enough wines because someone has already been through the wine stall. On the other hand, it is somewhat against the spirit of ironman, because you didn't make a fire and collect the ashes yourself, even being a small thing like ashes.

I feel like it's more something that's more like doors being conveniently open, and didn't occur to me as a multi-logging issue.

Don't know if I have any say to be considered since I haven't actually submitted a run yet, but, here's my thoughts:

Multi-logging isn't within the spirit of these runs, and in this case, not particularly in the spirit of Runescape in general. I know that Jagex has said that multi-logging is within the rules, but in the actual rules, they include this line: "Similarly, multi-logged accounts must not interact with each other to exploit gameplay mechanics, such as attempting to rig the result of a minigame." To me, given that this is a competitive setting, this applies, even though we make the rules and the competition ourselves, it's still using multiple accounts to abuse gameplay mechanics within a competitive setting. Not to mention it being an ironman run and the spirit of ironman being a solo, self-reliant account.

I'm also going to second the point about hardware specs because I know that if I was running two accounts simultaneously and trying to record the run, my computer would eat the dust.

I'd consider multi-logging in the case of an all f2p quests speedrun if that was a thing, only because shield of arrav would require another account. Even in that case though, I'd rather see it as a co-op run where both players have to beat all quests and can help each other through them than multi-logging.

My vote is a no. We don't currently multi-log, and it feels against the spirit of the run.

Update: Ran into technical issues. Most of the split timers really don't like Ubuntu. However, I've changed/streamlined my route for this, and found a split timer that should work well enough. Unfortunately, I'm not going to get a run done tonight, so it'll happen at some point soon, just not tonight.

Alright, that theoretically won't kill me. I'll see if I can figure out how to get a split timer set up on linux and get running. Hopefully have something up by the end of the weekend(even if it isn't fantastic, just to get a run posted and get the category started).

Yea! I can't wait to submit one! I'm actually working on a new strat which may or may not just get me killed. I do have a couple questions though, in regards to posting runs:

I know video is necessary, but does it need to be live-streamed? Asking because I'm not running fantastic hardware here, and I'm running Ubuntu on said hardware(still learning how to use it), and while I can record easily enough, streaming is a challenge.

What would you suggest for splits? I don't use the same quests and I do them in a different order than the champion's guild runs, but in general what would be some decent split guidelines I guess?

Thanks in advance!

So yes, I ran it F2P. In answer: I didn't need to buy a lot of things. Mithril Scimitar for training, adamant shortsword for the fight itself. Between Black Knight's Fortress and the Stronghold of Security I had enough to buy the ship and the map piece. The big thing was selling what I made while grinding mining/smithing(30/32 iirc).

I looked through your notes and noticed several things:

1. I don't do demon slayer. On an Ultimate Ironwoman you don't have the inventory space to justify it until almost the end, and I found it unnecessary. I do Doric's quest, Knight's sword, and sheep shearer(right off tutorial island) instead. Sheep Shearer+Misthlain mystery+Goblin Diplomacy= Level 8 crafting for the unfired bowl. Demon slayer is just quest points.
2. I don't buy the chronicle, or teleport cards. I lose some time but it's a money issue, it's too expensive for me to reliably account for and I would use it a grand total of 3 times I think for my route.
3. My last set of notes(not updated) are here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K0t7EfdKDLXcG0ou-KZwElAHaSpjoh1F6TUZqGMH7jo/edit?usp=sharing
4. My best time was 10 hours and 45 minutes. Would have been faster, but someone interrupted my dragon fight and I had to home-tele out and come back and set it back up.

So, a couple months ago, I ran an Ultimate Ironwoman through from character creation to Dragon Slayer completion in 12 hours and 27 minutes. A lot of improvements to be made, a lot of RNG involved, etc, etc.

I'm having trouble with motivation now and was wondering, if I can get a decent run put together for submission, can we add an Ironman category to the Dragon Slayer speed run?