Thats why I suggested to use your seed ONLY when you find the jail waypoint, and after leveling - removing it. Indeed its different game, when we look on what -seed command offers, it breaks the D2's charm.

If we want to keep this category as close to D2 as possible, only the early leveling part should be " seeded ".

Quote from one of the Ryus discord user : @Kinkara " I just did some tests with the -seed active on the LK superchests and I got the same pattern (magic ring, greater healing potion and X gold) every time over and over again. Now, you have to do exactly.... EXACTLY the same thing every time and the route can't be too long because I just ended getting different results every time. Same route and -seed command active ensures same drops from SUPERCHESTS! disclaimer: I didn't rest on monsters nor other poppables. ok. it works with poppables as well. so I'm guessing that if you get the same monster every time and kill it the same way (same number of teleports, same number of casts or hits same everything), monsters should drop the same as well althougt I suppose if you kill a monster with 3 hits, the first one dealing 1, the econd one 2 and the third one 3, you'd have to do that exactly the same as well... idk how far do you need to go with it. "

Im not a speedrunner ( casual, long time bnet / SP player ), but i posted my thoughts on Ryu's discord :

#1 I think it would be cool to consider for seeded category ( if its possible ) running seeded map ONLY when you reach the jail ( you load your seed once you find the jail wp ). By that, you will minimalize the RNG manipulation and use all of ur skills as a speedrunner further in the run ( map reading, game sense, speed, knowledge in general ). When you will be done with lvling in jail, you go back to unknown maps, leaving the run with the lovely and surprising RNG along with your game skills. The only problem would be stopping the game to reset your seed, but you guys could agree to stop the timer while doing it.

#2 At the end of the day, I see it as FUN / SPECIAL category, nothing serious. The " true " or " official " d2 speedrun SHOULD RELY DIRECTLY on how d2 works - repeatability and randomness. You should use all your speedrun / diablo skills combined together to execute the run with the given RNG, not manipulating it in any way. Getting the run using seeded / known maps will cut plenty of time and reduce RNG by ALOT - maps are CRUCIAL and they determine ur lvling, they increase ur chances for potential good drops, they contain shrines. Maps > Your skill > finding good items > the rest. It all starts with good maps. They make everything easier.

Final words. To me as a viewer ( maybe a speedrunner in a future ? ), if we want to remove / manipulate some part of the RNG, we should do this as softly and gently as we can, so the run will stay very close to the true D2, without making it too predictible, boring, picky / fussy, fancy and too comfortable . Thats why I would prefer for this category to use specific seed ONLY for lvling early in game ( jail as example ), so the rest stays UNKNOWN and SURPRISING.