My preferred solution (though one that questions the philosophy of what's important in running):

Combine levels 1-20 in each world.

I think moving the Single World category into ILs is my preferred solution. Base levels are just entirely too short on their own (typically under 30sec) and would require a lot of burnout-inducing grind for a few extra hundredths of a second. Combining them into sets creates more opportunities for variance, and will require runners to become more consistent at more variable terrain. Demonstrations of consistent skill (instead of a lucky one half of one second, the 1/100 frame-perfect input, etc) that's developed more through practice than grinding is the kind of thing I (personally) think ought to be celebrated in speedrunning, and that's what these boards are - a celebration and recognition of skill.

This would also reduce the number of "Single World" subcategories from 4 (with/without bosses, with/without bonuses) that are hard to compare due to imperfect overlap, down to 3 (1-20, boss, and bonus would be separate runs) that are easily comparable. Converting Marthmer's existing "All Levels (legacy)" run into 6 "1-20 IL" runs (instead of waiting for them to submit a new any% run) is a nice bonus that preserves a really good run.

This does have the drawback of making the with/without souls distinction difficult (if not impossible) to record, since there's 20 different sections that could be with/without soul - but personally, as I've said above, I don't think many runners or layfolk care much about the distinction when the goal is "go fast." If the demand truly exists, we could implement separate "W1 - Caves" "W1 - Caves (with 20 souls)" IL categories, or add a "with 20 souls" annotation, but I don't think that discussion's worth having until after we've actually undergone consolidation.

An easy solution (but not my preferred one):

Change "Without soul" and "With soul" to annotations instead of subcategories.

If combining levels 1-20 (my preferred solution) is a non-starter, changing souls from subcategories to annotations feels like an easy "yes" for me. It's non-destructive, It will require some manual labor, but there are few enough IL submissions right now that it's still doable. This change will get harder to make the longer we put it off. And as of writing this post, it will only obsolete two "with soul" runs.

This reminds me a bit of a discussion in the Spyro board where someone requested the Japanese version be made into a subcategory instead of a variable because the gameplay was so different in some significant ways. While I saw the merits in that, the market for people seeking/playing the Japanese version was so small that breaking up the board felt like an exercise in trophy-hunting rather than pushing the game forward.

Personally, I feel the vast majority of folks coming to this board are only going to be looking for "fast time," not "fast time with soul." A handful of technical players will care, and filterable annotation means they can still find those times.

Right now, the IL boards are vast and mostly empty. There are 252 ILs, and with the "With/Without soul" distinction, that's 504 categories! (Keep in mind that 132 of these categories will never be filled because Bosses/Races/Apocalypse have no souls to collect.)

The only way to fill 372 of these 504 ILs would require hundreds upon hundreds of submissions, (to say nothing of the amount of time needed for verification,) and pushing IL categories forward will require an unbelievable amount of repetitive grinding on ILs that may burn some runners out.

All of this is underpinned by the fact that 246 of the "Without soul" levels already have leaderboards with automatic submissions built-in to the game.

What I'd like to propose is consolidating and/or streamlining ILs a bit so that the board isn't so empty and isn't so intimidating for new runners and easier on mods should the game grow further, and I have a few suggestions/options I'd like to get feedback on (even if the end result is "leave it alone":

• Remove "Without soul" so "With soul" is the default/only option. This is the easiest change for mods to make, though it would also be the most confusing to view and submit to. (since boss/race/apocalypse levels don't have souls) and would leave 126 ILs that are not duplicative of what's already built-in to the game (non-apocalypse base levels with souls, and bosses).
• Change "Without soul" and "With soul" to annotations instead of subcategories. This would be the least disruptive change to the board, though it will require some manual labor. It would maintain all 252 levels without visually splitting the boards in half (souls that 132 levels don't have anyway) and retains "With soul" records for those who want to filter and see those only.
• Combine levels 1-20 in each world. This would make the largest difference in number of categories (from 504/372 to 30!) by effectively moving the "Single World" category (and all existing Single World runs) from the "Full Game Runs" section to the ILs section, but archiving existing IL runs (Boss/Bonus ILs would remain). This would also mean no longer having IL "With Soul" times, but we could discuss having "Single World (20 Souls)" options available.

I've done my best to keep my personal opinion out of this post, and sticking solely to "here are the potential benefits/drawbacks" for now. I'll share my personal opinion in subsequent posts. Please let us know your thoughts as well!

Rules have been updated :)

Next up, I wanted to get All Levels cleaned up, but there is one run on the board that doesn't fit into the new rules. Archiving the category would remove the run from Marthmer's profile, which feels mean when they have no other runs. What I've done for now is renamed the preexisting "All levels" category to "All levels (Legacy)" and made it a hidden category, so the run still exists on their profile though it is not part of the new category definition. I also added a blurb to the rules that the category is historical only and not accepting new submissions, while also suggesting which similar categories runners could submit to if interested.

Let me know if y'all have better ideas! For example, we could rename the category to "All levels (deprecated) or something similar instead, I just wanted to do something for now that was non-destructive.

Will add one more thing I hadn't considered until a few days ago: the category rules should probably include which "boss checkpoints" (deaths return to boss Phase 1/2/3 instead of back to beginning of boss) are allowed. My understanding is that, by default, the game has checkpoints on for Station Boss but none of the others. If that is correct, I'd suggest making that the rule for runs as well. :)

Would also like to apply, have strong experience in copywriting in order to help create exact definitions for category rules, etc

After a few weeks thinking it over, I think I'd lean towards my second proposal (any% staying as-is, the minimum requirements for credits but completed in speedrun mode, and All Levels being one board with rules clarifying Bosses/Races/Apocalypse on, truly all of the levels completed in speedrun mode). I've asked a few folks familiar with SRcom and speedrunning but unfamiliar with GY for input as well, and they've mostly agreed the main categories being fractured as they are now is super overwhelming for new folks who want to jump in.

Anyone have other thoughts?

Had a page/board customization idea, what if we used the medals from the game instead of the default trophy icons on the leaderboard?

I can't decide if it would be better to use Gold/Silver/Bronze medals for 1/2/3, or Red/Gold/Silver/Bronze for 1/2/3/4. The latter would be a neat nod to folks who know the game but the former might be more clear to outsiders looking in. Thoughts?

Only other solution I can think of is reducing the number of modes... using filters to split into 6 different boards (four of which only differ by one or two levels) seems like a lot, and could lead to a lot of fractionalizing and trophy-hunting.

My proposal in that world would be "any%" (category rules state normal worlds only, bosses on, bonus races off) and "All Levels" (Normal + Apocalypse worlds, bosses on, bonus races on). Two categories that represent the "fastest" and "maximalist" extremes.

On second thought, that feels like a cleaner solution that creates an environment that's not so overwhelming to newcomers deciding what to run. Normally I would be worried about obsoleting runs with category compression like that, but for some reason it appears there are zero runs in "All Levels" at the moment?

I would double-check those category rules - some of them appear to be attached to the wrong category variations.

With regards to any%: it doesn't technically trigger the credits in speedrun mode, which is explicitly required in the category rules. Like I said, it sounds fun, but even the venerated SM64 doesn't have an any% category - they have filters for # of stars and platform, and that's it. Forcing an "any%" in there would be bad for organization.

We can keep informally calling "All Levels Boss On Races Off Apocalypse Off" any% as a community (I know I I'll keep calling it that informally), but formally, having duplicate categories on the board is pretty bad for organization's sake.

I would def leave apocalypse off by default, as well as bosses on by default and bonuses off. This would make the thing we call "any%" the first thing people see when they come here, as a nod to it being the way most ppl will see the credits first.

Finally, if we really want a formal "%" category... we could invent something fun. Something short and memeworthy. Kind of like Super Mario Odyssey's nipple%, Spyro the Dragon's Cheat%, Crash Team Racing's SKR%, etc. But a new category discussion probably deserves its own separate thread

A few suggestions to clean up the boards a little bit:

• "any%" and "All Levels (Boss) (No Bonus)" are the same category. It should be possible to combine these and have "All Levels (Boss) (No Bonus)" display as the new default category. (I know "any%" is a fun name and many boards use it, but other games in similar situations with potentially duplicative boards have abandoned it for clarity's sake.)
• The "Bonus" filter could be renamed to "Bonus Race" - in the English version of the game, Speedrunning mode refers to these levels as "Races," so that would help clarify for newer runners.
• "All Levels" category rules could use the same language as what's on the checkboxes for clarity. For example:

Play the Speedrun mode with "Whole game" selected, "Include bosses" on, "Include races" off, and "Include apocalypse" off.

Finally (and I know this one might be a long shot and goes against the "streamlining" thing I was just talking about, but:

• Add an "Apocalypse" "No Apocalypse" option for the "All Levels" board (alternatively, filters could be named "Base Levels" and "Base + Apocalypse", which is the usual convention for categories with a base levels mode and added post-game content)

Thoughts?

To clarify, my understanding was not that emulated FDS was the reason Duck ran faster, but that the emulation itself was faster. I was going to ask if there's been any testing since 2021 (Duckstation has had some significant updates since then), and (from the looks of the comparison sheet at the top of this thread) it looks like there has been some just in the last week. I'd be fascinated to see what conclusions are drawn from this! (Though I have to say comparisons aren't easy to make with the X and Y axes flipped as they are and with Duckstation segregated to a separate sheet in the file altogether. Also tough since there's not really any PS1 comparisons, or PS2 with FDS off.)

Just occurred to me submission overload really won't be that big a deal? Since it's IGT, verifier won't need to retime, just verify there wasn't cheating used for the highest-level runs, and even that should be relatively quick with ILs.

As for laps: whether we go with (3-only), (7-only), or (3 and 7), 5 probably isn't worth including just because it's probably not going to see many submissions and only take away from the other two.

Additionally, the idea of Bosses and CTR Tokens (including Crystal Challenges) have been brought up in the CrashSR/CTRTT Discords. Easy solution, add a variable. Easy/Medium/Hard/Trophy/Token/Boss. More options means more interesting variants in runs, and if it turns out in the future that any of those modes are problematic for the meta, having those variables will make for easy board-splitting if necessary.

(FWIW, I'm also willing to volunteer as a verifier for this.)

Does what it says on the tin. Gives SRcom an Individual Level category that doesn't tread on ctr4ever's time trial turf, and a shorter category that CTR desperately needs (any% barely counts imo). A few suggestions (based on convos in the Crash Speedrunning server:

• Uses IGT, so no need for hard platform separation, just platform variables
• Include variables for Easy/Medium/Hard, since each would have different strategies
• Include variable (not category split, just a variable) for NMG/Skipless, filterable means a lower barrier to entry for those intimidated by skips like Tizi/TA, but still keeps everyone competitive on one big unified board

Question that deserves consideration: how many laps? 3, 5, 7, or all?

3 laps:

• Pro: Could mean IGT from ILs in Adventure mode could be incorporated (using "Adventure" for the difficulty variable), which could lead to a great kickstart for submissions. (This could work out a bit like Spyro Flight ILs done mid-run, or MK8Dx where you can do a 16/32/48-track run in the middle of a 96-track run - got a good level in an Adventure category? May as well submit it to ILs too.)
• Con: Low barrier to entry could cause submission overload.

5 laps:

• Middle child, imo.

7 laps:

• Pro: Good test of consistency
• Pro: Higher barrier to entry, so fewer concerns about submission overload
• Con: Higher barrier to entry, so boards could get quiet

Category split for 3/5/7 laps:

• Pro: Low barrier to entry
• Pro: All the pros of 3 and 7 and flexibility of 5 laps
• Con: Potential for submission overload
• Con: Even if submission overload is manageable, not having a unified board could mean things look quiet for a while

Credit to Galaxian for bringing this idea up in the CB-running Discord. I think this would be a great category with a little more refining. Thoughts?

Just realized the 10sec shave from 18 tracks would be 180sec, or 3min. 3min off%? 3min save%?

(I'm ambivalent on the category itself, the names just came to me)

Have considered running this but not sure if ePSXe 2.0.5 would be valid as 2.0 is (there is no 2.0 or earlier version for Mac).

Also agreeing with the idea of opening up to Mednafen, whose core is also used in OpenEmu for Mac.

Duckstation also looks viable, there's been plenty of conversation surrounding that in the Spyro/Crash boards if you need to see some inspiration.