Hi everybody,

First off let me say that we're thrilled about the amount of activity and interest this game has already gathered in the early access days. Very exciting!

Now on to business: Now that the game is fully released, the leaderboards are officially open and we will start accepting submitted runs.

BIG GIANT DISCLAIMER While we'd like to promote competition by not keeping submissions closed any further, there are some ongoing things that are very important to keep in mind as they could change the rules and retro-actively invalidate your run:

1. • A patch is on the way, which could change how the game operates. Example: if you get a PB with rail flinging and it ends up getting patched, it could invalidate your run depending on rule changes
2. • There is still a lot of investigation and discussion being done regarding different framerates and the mechanical changes they bring. If these are still present after the patch, they are likely to impact the rules and your run could be invalidated

IMPORTANT: IF YOU RUN ON PC, FUTURE PROOF YOUR RUN! If the framerate differences are still there post patch (which is likely) then one of the options we're discussing is a framerate cap variable on submissions. Since PC is the only platform with multiple framerate caps, we would enforce this by having a framerate counter displayed on your video/stream. Please consider setting this up now to significantly reduce the chance of your submissions being invalid after future rule changes.

Apologies that this is the way it is, but as you all know, the current state of the game is a mess and we're trying to make the best of it in a way where we don't have to keep submissions closed until a patch hits.

Thanks to all involved in documenting glitches, framerate nonsense and version differences, you're the real troopers!

Hi everybody!

Been a while since the last update and we wanted to let you know about some recent and coming changes to the leaderboards.

1. We recently updated the “No extended pausing” rule for Egg Shuttle to be a little more detailed. While the timing method technically allows for breaks between stages, we wanted to emphasize that it should still be considered a single segment run. It now reads: “No extensive or frequent pausing. This will be judged on a case by case basis, mods may either make a note or reject entirely if you pause too much. This is a single segment category, do treat it as such despite the timing method.”

2. Every category and stage in the game will require you to fill out the fps max that you're playing on from here on out. There will be 3 settings for this: 30, 60 and 144 (max). Ever since launch we have found more and more things directly tied to the framerate, so adding a variable should make it easier to filter the leaderboards to your playstyle of choice to see how you compare. Runs already submitted will be edited to show the proper value over the coming time, but it will take some time to get everything done.

3. Adding onto the fps variable, the PC version will get some additional rules as it's the only version that can be capped to any desired setting. While it is technically possible for the PC version to be capped at any amount of fps in between these 3 settings as well, it is far more managable to limit it to these 3 to cover Switch at 30fps, the other consoles at 60fps and the game's intended max at 144fps. You are required to play at your chosen setting for the entire run and we ask that you pick a setting that your PC can handle mostly consistently during the gameplay sections. Fps drops during loading screens are normal, so don't worry about that and with the game's performance issues on the current patch, we will be lenient with the occassional lag as well. To properly enforce these rules we will start requiring a visible fps counter for all runs done on the PC version. This will also be nice to have for researching any weird happenings that people might encounter as we can instantly spot any fps drops that might relate to what happens. Any fps counter is allowed as long as they are visible in your stream/video. We will have a small grace period where we'll still accept runs without a counter, just in case people still have unsubmitted video they recorded before the rule change, just mention it in your submission. If you need help setting up your desired cap or an fps counter, you can consult this guide: https://www.speedrun.com/sonic_colors_ultimate/guide/5s6h6

4. We will soon start experimenting with the timing method for Any%. It would only feel right to do so with this game's vast loading time differences between consoles and even between different PC's. The first step to doing so will be to list the calculated sum of the stage times as a seperate In-Game Time column next to the Real Time (with the leaderboards still prioritizing Real Time). This method unfortunately doesn't cover any of the overworld movement, but it would be significantly more managable than manually calculating Time without Loads and Jujstme's autosplitter already does all the calculating for any PC runs of Any% (though we'll still have to calculate manually to verify). To make the manual calculations more managable on the mods we will also install a treshold and only calculate In-Game Time for runs that are faster than 1 hour and 40 minutes Real Time. As time goes on, depending on how the mods experience the workload, we might do stuff like adjust the treshold, switch over to In-Game Time entirely, go back to Real Time entirely or try something else. For help in manually calculating the In-Game Time, you can make use of this website: http://www.unitarium.com/time-calculator

That is all for now. Thanks for bearing with us while we're trying to figure out this messy game as we go and thanks for all your contributions so far!

Hey everybody, We've got some important updates to share with you regarding Sonic Colours: Ultimate.

Following several findings and discussions about lag-strats in the last few months, we´ve decided to change and replace certain rules and thus create a all new category called "Variable fps".

But before we get to that, let´s look at what has changed. The old game rules of Colours: Ultimate state the following:

• The original game and all its contents must be preserved and unmodified.
• As a result of the game's many framerate-related mechanics and tricks, please list your framerate cap of either 30, 60 or 144 fps in your submission.
• As of Oct 9th 2021, all runs done on PC are required to cap their framerate to one of the three options and make sure their video has a visible fps counter to verify the cap. Due to the game's performance issues, occasional lag is fine, but do make sure you pick a framerate cap that your PC can handle mostly consistently.

The new game rules will look like this:

• The original game and all its contents must be preserved and unmodified.
• As a result of the game's many framerate-related mechanics and tricks, all runs done on PC are required to have a visible fps counter.

The removed sentences will be rewritten and added to all categories except "Variable fps" :

• Category rule #1.
• Category rule #2.
• [...]
• Please list your framerate cap of either 30, 60 or 144 fps in your submission. Due to the game's performance issues, occasional lag is fine, but do make sure you pick a framerate cap that your PC can handle mostly consistently.

IL´s will have this short sentence added to their respective category ruleset as well:

• Please list your framerate cap of either 30, 60 or 144 fps in your submission.

Now that this is sorted out, here is the ruleset for our new category "Variable fps":

• Complete all 45 stages in the Egg Shuttle challenge mode in 1 sitting.
• Use the In-Game Time provided by the game after you finish Egg Shuttle.
• Only fill out the In-Game Time column on your submission. Please leave the Time column empty.
• No extensive or frequent pausing. This will be judged on a case by case basis, mods may either make a note or reject entirely if you pause too much. This is a single segment category, do treat it as such despite the timing method.
• Players may change their framerate during the run. Please select "Variable fps" as your framerate on your submission.

It basically is build upon "Egg Shuttle´s" category rules but with one important addition. PC players can now play stages at 30, 60 and 144 fps all in one run. They can do so by changing the monitor refresh rate or using our recommended program for showing the fps counter: RivaTuner. It also enables every player on all platforms to manually lag the game, since you are in a way changing the framerate by lowering it, meaning that submissions getting skips like the TV Boss Phase Skip accidentally will no longer be rejected. They will rather be moved to the new category board. It can also be seen as a sort of playground for limit testing to find out how fast an "Egg Shuttle" run can be cleared, without the fps & lag restrictions for both PC and console players.

For now we will list "Variable fps" as the first Misc category and depending on how popular it gets, we might move it out of there again. How to lag the game on all the platforms has been heavily discussed in the respective Sonic Colours: Ultimate-text-channels in the Sonic Colours Speedrunning-Discord (https://discord.gg/QjWTShBhh8) and while we do accept it for IL´s and "Variable fps", we do not recommend it, as we can never ensure if it is completely save for your console or pc to do so. Nevermind the likelihood of crashing the game, which is fairly high.

For all other categories ("Egg Shuttle", "Any%", "100%" and "Game Land") our stance on this topic still stands. Manually lagging is still strictly prohibited and when submitted will not be defined as "occasional lag", but rather be labeled as "your pc not being able to handle x fps consistently". Currently we do not intend to add a "Variable fps" option for the other categories, since they´re not even close to being as popular as "Egg Shuttle". This is obviously subject to change in the future.

That should be all for now. We wish you lots of fun with the new category and thank you for reading! !