Just to quickly state, if you have questions or comments, it's generally best to ask in our Discord group to have faster responses. Mods will check the forums here from time to time, but if you want a more reliable response then I suggest you to join the Discord to ask there.

1. With version 1.6 being soon approaching (on the 19th), there will be a temporary embargo (suspension) for runs running on the new patch (old patches are still okay). This will give time for people to get a feel for it, for any potential bugs or rulings that need to happen.
2. Also, if you do happen to have any ideas on additional categories with the new changes, please create a thread in the forums or in the Discord #suggestions. (Discord is more visible than here.)

1. With version 1.6 being soon approaching (on the 19th), there will be a temporary embargo (suspension) for runs running on the new patch (old patches are still okay). This will give time for people to get a feel for it, for any potential bugs or rulings that need to happen.
2. Also, if you do happen to have any ideas on additional categories with the new changes, please create a thread in the forums or in the Discord #suggestions. (Discord is more visible than here.)

I checked some runs on people's profiles and it shows them having a top 3 time despite being anything but. People with a top time have accurate "trophy images" on their profile pages for their runs but other people have random trophies.

Bug?

Just a quick little update on rules/requirements for runs.

Smapi isn't allowed when playing - it removes most of the load time between saves. Since the current leaderboard goes on RTA, having a recording of just IGT won't be approved. The load remover in Livesplit (generally) works to do the job of Smapi by pausing the timer on sleep loads.

Any video submitted needs at least 30 fps.

Just a quick little update on rules/requirements for runs.

Smapi isn't allowed when playing - it removes most of the load time between saves. Since the current leaderboard goes on RTA, having a recording of just IGT won't be approved. The load remover in Livesplit (generally) works to do the job of Smapi by pausing the timer on sleep loads.

Any video submitted needs at least 30 fps.

Perfection change - The allotted time with breaks has been changed from 4 irl days to 2 weeks. Also, any run over 40 hours doesn't need to have video. That means if you think your run may be under 40 hours, you should record from the beginning like any regular run.

The allotted 2 weeks still allows for you to continue past that, just keep in mind that you aren't allowed the pause the timer after that.

First and foremost, thank you all for your votes and ideas! Second, please welcome our new verifiers - Terpretor, Ethan, Mathias (Minoret), and Squirrel 🙂 They have been knocking out many of the recent submissions 🙂

Now, some new categories have been selected, but we still need one more round of votes to finalize others. Please read the description of the survey before you start 🙂 Please vote on what your favorites to run/watch. You do have limited votes this time.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSewdLzVm6gs9jP-aR69nOSvN7PmOhJZ04D6rFlHVytvXeghsg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Something new was found that means showing only the title won't work anymore. You MUST show the "seed" section for all runs, with the exception of runs prior 1.5.

After consideration of people's reasonings, opinions, and votes regarding tools in speedruns from late last year, here are the rulings.

(Vanilla/Glitchless) Allowable tools - simple images and spreadsheets are okay. Making edits mid-run to them are okay. Not allowed - moveable layer images, tools that pull seed info, or tools that automate searching for data.

NDE (no dialogue extension - pasteless rename) and Glitches Allowable tools - any tool that doesn't pull the game seed. Not allowed - a tool that pulls game seed or automates the searching for data.

Hopefully these will help future proof the rules for any tools not yet developed/considered 🙂

Seeded - any regular (not TAS) tool is allowed. No seed predictors in-game - planning can be done beforehand with them (including images). Regular category rules still apply (glitch, NDR, etc)

I was wondering, would it possibly be better to limit categories to specific tribes?

Any% being any tribe, Free (only starting 3), Rubies (only Ruby bought), and last being the purchased tribes (I don't know a name that sounds nice).

Because Arabis is available in all runs and possibly is the best for speed, meaning all categories could be dominated by only Arabis. Having categories limited by what groups can be used would make the categories more diverse for tribe use.

Right now an Arabis run could be submitted to all 4 categories. Just my thoughts.

When do you start the timer and end exactly? After you select the tribe and the first frame of the victory screen?

It looks like you start the timer after the map has loaded.

I know this isn't a popular game (and considering it's age it probably will stay like that), but I just wanted to mention that the emulator is extremely faster than the actual cartridge for text (unless there is a setting somewhere on the cartridge version).

Just wanted to mention that, since many other games I've seen either don't allow faster emulators or simply have different categories.

edit - I also post this, because I own a physical cartridge and was checking out categories and decided to see what the original version runs at.

I'm still fairly new to speedrunning, and was wondering how long it can take for a run to be verified. I submitted a few runs 7 days ago and the two moderators have not logged in 9 days for one and +1 month for the other.

Guessing I just have to be patient and wait it out until one eventually logs on?