Michigan, USAHello everyone, the Mania moderation team has decided to implement some well-warranted changes to the IL leaderboard side of the game (for the most part). These following three changes are:
Replays: The utility of this feature has never been mentioned before in the rules on SRC, but the consensus we have agreed to is that replays will now be only allowed to a certain placement on the IL leaderboard. They will be banned for the Top 5, however the runs which use the replay system that are currently in this placement will be grandfathered and remain on the leaderboard. This will be mentioned in the appropriate rules tab in the IL leaderboard under the phrasing: 'As of the current date, the replay system is banned for all runs that place in the top 5 as of the date May 14, 2024'. We will also require everyone to have the full results screen itself and the animation completely visible and shown at the end of their runs, so we have an easier time distinguishing a live run from a replay one.
Pausing: This has been debated among the mod team every now and then for a long time admittedly, however, we are now only allowing pausing to a certain extent. The sort of pausing that is now banned is the type where it is done egregiously. A few examples are: optimizing spindashes to a TAS-like level or any sort of pausing that appears to be unreasonable or excessive can lead to an IL submission that fits this description to lead to runs being rejected. This also includes input device switching, which is explained in the third change. ALL runs deemed to fit under this criteria will be rejected from the leaderboard.
Input device switching: This refers to switching from one input device to another (e.g. playing on a controller then changing it to a different input method such as a keyboard) at any point during a run. This will now be stated to be allowed for full game runs, since you will already lose some time from doing this each time in the run since Mania utilizes RTA, which has made it easy to come to a conclusion in this scope. For ILs however, this will not exactly be disallowed under a specific rule for input method switching but rather, this will be categorized under the 2nd change we are implementing: pausing.
Ultimately, we do want to encourage fun and competition and allow players to grind their way up the ranks that is reflective of their skill level. However, there has been some loose ends that have been worry points among us for a long time that have not been addressed, and we apologize to a major degree for not having done these actions implemented sooner. Thank you very much for reading and have a nice day.
Hello everyone, the Mania moderation team has decided to implement some well-warranted changes to the IL leaderboard side of the game (for the most part). These following three changes are:
Replays: The utility of this feature has never been mentioned before in the rules on SRC, but the consensus we have agreed to is that replays will now be only allowed to a certain placement on the IL leaderboard. They will be banned for the Top 5, however the runs which use the replay system that are currently in this placement will be grandfathered and remain on the leaderboard. This will be mentioned in the appropriate rules tab in the IL leaderboard under the phrasing: 'As of the current date, the replay system is banned for all runs that place in the top 5 as of the date May 14, 2024'. We will also require everyone to have the full results screen itself and the animation completely visible and shown at the end of their runs, so we have an easier time distinguishing a live run from a replay one.
Pausing: This has been debated among the mod team every now and then for a long time admittedly, however, we are now only allowing pausing to a certain extent. The sort of pausing that is now banned is the type where it is done egregiously. A few examples are: optimizing spindashes to a TAS-like level or any sort of pausing that appears to be unreasonable or excessive can lead to an IL submission that fits this description to lead to runs being rejected. This also includes input device switching, which is explained in the third change. ALL runs deemed to fit under this criteria will be rejected from the leaderboard.
Input device switching: This refers to switching from one input device to another (e.g. playing on a controller then changing it to a different input method such as a keyboard) at any point during a run. This will now be stated to be allowed for full game runs, since you will already lose some time from doing this each time in the run since Mania utilizes RTA, which has made it easy to come to a conclusion in this scope. For ILs however, this will not exactly be disallowed under a specific rule for input method switching but rather, this will be categorized under the 2nd change we are implementing: pausing.
Ultimately, we do want to encourage fun and competition and allow players to grind their way up the ranks that is reflective of their skill level. However, there has been some loose ends that have been worry points among us for a long time that have not been addressed, and we apologize to a major degree for not having done these actions implemented sooner. All of these changes will be reflected in the category extension board as well. Thank you very much for reading and have a nice day.
As of June 26, 2022, the full-game leaderboards now have Glitchless and PAL categories that you can submit to. Be sure to read the rules for Glitchless in its entirety so that your runs are verifiable and can be posted on the board.
Thanks for reading and have a nice day.
Hello Sonic CD runners and community members.
I have created a Google doc guide that details how to implement custom music for Sonic CD. The link to it can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NjxYE4YIUDer_IMxFW2j-8wf4mzlmh0poblwsR1AYB4/edit?usp=sharing (it will also be posted under the 'Guides' tab for this game). If you have any questions or concerns regarding this tutorial then please let me know so I can address them. Please note that audio modding as of the current moment is only supported for any version of the game that supports the method described in the document.
The addition to include the rule stating that custom music is allowed for the game will be placed under the "Game" rules tab.
Lastly, checks towards modifications that change the gameplay or provide unfair advantages compared to the base version of the game will be tracked by the mod team, as the option for implementing custom music is now allowed. Necessary measures will be taken if any red flags are noticed in runs that are submitted.
I will update this guide every now and then when I feel the need to do so. Thank you for reading and have fun audio modding!
From an announcement made in the CSSC Discord server:
Hello Sonic Mania runners and community members.
I'm happy to announce that music/SFX mods are now supported for speedrunning! It is a somewhat long process but I tried my best to explain and simplify the steps as much as possible so that anyone can do it. Here is the Google doc tutorial (w/ pictures) for it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VLVlHX1EH0tSrJACvkUPkxcQv-cyPcuiF9EokXnyzrE/edit?usp=sharing. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this tutorial then please let me know so I can address them. Before addressing the next thing in this announcement, please note that audio modding is only supported for any version of the game that supports the method described in the document.
Additionally, alongside this tutorial requiring the Mania Mod Manager program to be installed: the 'Disable Background Pausing' function is now officially allowed to be toggled! This can be found under the "Codes" tab at the very bottom of the list. Lastly, I should clarify that all runs on SRC that have used this function in the past will not be affected in any way, due to it having no history of causing any issues for the Mania Mod team regarding verification.
These two additions to the game will be placed under the "Game" rules for both the main and catex pages on SRC.
Be aware that we will be much more vigilant with the usage of mods from this point forward and necessary measures will be taken if we notice any red flags in runs that are submitted. Thank you for reading and have fun audio modding!
Hello everyone, I am happy to announce that the category extension board for Mania is done and running (as of September 17, 2021).
At the moment, these 3 following points are what have been implemented onto the board:
- Amy, Blaze & Tails, and solo Blaze full-game categories.
- New Game+ has been shifted from a misc category into a third subcategory for the ending variable for these three categories.
- Amy and Blaze IL boards. The links for these mods can either be found in the category rules for each category under the 'View rules' tab on SRC, or the resources tab on the catex board.
If popularity arises for any other mod or idea that would fit moreso onto the catex board than the main one, and the Mania mod team sees fit for them to be discussed then agreed upon to be added, the requested category/idea will be implemented onto the board. This process can be done on the catex forum board or in a new place in the future (hopefully coming soon, will update once this is up). Thanks for reading and have fun submitting!
As of November 4, 2020, the work has been done regarding the merge of the Sonic Mania Plus leaderboard back into this old one after deliberation done with the other Sonic mods regarding the future of this game. We saw it fit to now merge the games back into one board due to factors relating to the devs having been moved on their own paths beyond working on this game any further. We took into consideration the possibility of the game having more patches/updates that would have further changed the game on a gameplay level that would have warranted further separation, this is why the split of boards happened in the first place back in 2018 when Plus launched. This is no longer the case where this is a concern so this idea became obsolete which lead to this merge taking place.
To quickly address the reasoning regarding why the old board was chosen over the new one, the old leaderboard was ultimately the larger board of the two with more runs recorded despite it only being used for barely under a year unlike the new board's 2+ years at this point. This reason alone along with historical purposes is why the old leaderboard narrowly won over the new leaderboard.
From an (edited) announcement I made in the Mania channel on the Sonic Speedrunning Discord server:
"[...] Three key changes have been done to the leaderboard to accommodate for this are as follows:
- Added all categories (and new/transferred rules) from the Plus leaderboard for full game runs and ILs. This includes guides and resources too.
- Due to runner request, the Emeralds variable for non-Sonic characters has now been converted into two separate subcategory tabs: 'No Emeralds' and 'All Emeralds'. All No Emerald runners can now have fun optimizing the game without having to deal with Emerald shenanigans.
- All Unpatched/Patched ILs have been separated through their two separate version tabs respectively across all levels instead of specific ones (where certain exploits/skips were only doable in Unpatched, therefore making them impossible to beat on Patched). This makes the layout of the IL board more clean and consistent to navigate.
- Everything else minor from the Plus leaderboard etc.
I also have another special announcement to make, we are now offering appointed verifier positions for new fresh people to help out on the board for any runs that need to be verified! You can find the application for this through the link here to fill out: https://forms.gle/GMcHYGqKcDrzkTz98
There will be a 3 week waiting period (starting from November 2, 2020) to ensure the process of picking out the best candidates is done carefully (2 will be chosen, possibly 3 if the number of applications submitted is high) giving plenty of time for people interested to see and submit."
If any runs were missed or messed up during this merging process then please let me or another Mania mod know through a DM so it can be corrected (or just resubmit, that works too). It's also worth noting all Plus runs that no longer have a functional VOD as of the time when the merge started were noted as 'Mod note: Deleted VOD' or something similar along those lines, just in case if that might sound misleading otherwise to anyone. Lastly, all forums posts from the Plus leaderboard have been cataloged so all the history and data from that board are still intact in the hands of the Mania mods. Thank you for reading.
