While looking over some recent WRs, I was surprised to see someone had beaten my Yavin IV: Arena time. I thought it was a new route, but it was the exact same one I used, and I was surprised by the amount of time that was shaved off.

Upon further inspection of the video, I found the reason why - the Dark Trooper's Jump Pack behaves differently on the PC version Spinda is playing on.

I compared the PS2 and XBox (using OG's videos) Jump Pack, and noticed that you can get 2 jumps out a full bar, then you need to wait around 15-17 seconds for the bar to fill up halfway so you can do a 3rd jump. In the PC version, you can see that Spinda can get 3 full jumps on a single bar. I don't know what causes this exactly, but it looks like on PC, each jump takes 1/3 of the bar instead of 1/2. This one extra jump is a huge time save on certain levels where you're doing consecutive jumps. So much so that it cuts out around 15s of walking/waiting on Yavin IV: Arena alone.

I voiced my opinion before about wanting to see subcategories based on platform because of the loads between versions. I completely understand the reasoning of not wanting to do that because of loading alone. However, this is now a gameplay difference. This creates strats that are impossible to do on a version of the game that is not PC. One of the draws of ILs was that because the timing was only gameplay in the level, it didn't matter what version you played on - it was an even playing field that depended only on your ability to play the game. This removes that even playing field because anybody who tries to match Spinda on Yavin IV: Arena in an IL won't even be able to come close without either a new strat or the PC version of the game.

Given this, I'd like to re-open the discussion on creating sub categories for the different platforms - PS2/XBox, and PC - to once again even the playing field. If it was just loading times, I'm fine with leaving it as it is, but the difference in gameplay now bothers me (there may be other differences too). Even if we only add the sub-categories for ILs and leave the full game LBs intact, I think that's better than mixing platforms now. Obviously I want to hear from others (especially since this game is now rather active compared to years ago) about whether or not this difference is worth adding sub-categories to the ILs.

Since this game has a ton of text and it's very JRPG like, is a turbo controller allowed?

I'm officially requesting that we re-organize all of our LB mods on here. Over the past 8 months I've noticed a growing amount of issues with the LB moderation and I feel like we are in need of a change. Ive taken the time to write out why I feel this way and I've put it on Pastebin https://pastebin.com/cFrsPbQY

I've chosen Pastebin because it's easier than posting it here in the forums where a massive wall of text is hard to read and process.

Please read the entire Pastebin as it's all very important stuff regarding our LBs. I look forward to discussion on this topic and how we can best re-organize the LB mods (I provided 2 options I think are the best in the Pastebin).

Thanks.

EDIT: if this wasn’t clear let me say it explicitly - I don’t have any ill will against the current mods nor do I hate any of them. I love the current mods and all they have done, but there’s is a pattern showing that change is needed. I’m not doing this out of spite or some plot to take over, I’m doing it because I think a change would be good. I don’t want to burn any bridges over this, I just want to make the LBs a better and smoother place as this community continues to grow.

1. The rules for NG+ simply state to "Complete all GPs". Does "Complete" mean to get a Gold/medal in every GP or just to finish them regardless of your medal/final position?

2. The rules for Any% say to "Complete Grand Prix 10". I was comparing the year old route posted in the forums (the Livesplit file posted by derek) to my own route I created and noticed that the route derek posted specifically completed the first 6 GPs, then seems to skip around doing random events until GP 10 with no mention of doing GP 7-9. Does this mean that Any% ONLY has to complete GP 10 and can skip every other GP or do you need a medal in every GP?

3. Can we get sub categories for PS2/XBox360? The load times alone are quite faster on XBox360 (about half the length of loading on PS2 from what Ive compared from a couple 360 runs) which makes it nearly impossible for PS2 to compete with it at a high level of play. Also, the 360 version has some differences that potentially make it faster. This includes faster Crash events since it doesn't have the boost meter at the start. Also, I've seen a few YouTube videos that show some Crash events on 360 requiring less money for Gold than PS2 (an example was the Tram-a-tised Crash Event. Ive seen multiple videos showing 360 has Gold at $8mil while PS2 has it at $8.5mil. I don't own a 360 to confirm this, but it was in multiple videos so idk).

Thanks in advance for answers.

Since I see no rules defined for the game and since turbo is pretty standard in JRPGs, I gotta ask - are turbo controllers allowed?

While messing around with GCW attempts yesterday, I discovered a way to manipulate a perfect spawn (right next to a speeder bike) in Dune Sea. The downside is that this only works from a "clean slate" in the memory. In other words, it only works from a console reset.

A TL:DR can be found in the video I'll post in the message following this one.

This manip is rather simple to do and can be fun to do every now and then. First, it's important to understand how it seems the game stores your spawn locations. A note: this was ONLY tested on Dune Sea in GCW, but it should in principle hold for other planets in GCW (maybe in IA too?).

There are two components to a "spawn" - the first is where your cursor is on the map. For Dune Sea, there are two default locations: the Dune Sea command post and the Sandcrawler command post. The second component of the spawn is your location on the map when you spawn in at a command post. The game appears to store a giant list of these spawns (cursor location and position) in memory at some point during load up. I generated a table of the first 30 spawns in this list and will publish it once I verify I didn't make any mistakes.

So how does this list work? Basically, the game keeps a counter that starts at 1 (technically it probably starts at 0 because computers index things starting at 0, but for clarity's sake lets say it indexes starting at 1). The first spawn in the list is:

cursor: Sandcrawler position: to the right of the right speeder bike

You will ALWAYS get this spawn when picking Dune Sea GCW from a console reset. If you're curious, the next two spawns are:

cursor: Sandcrawler position: back left

cursor: Dune Sea position: back right

Now the next part is to talk about how the game increases this index that chooses your spawn. Currently, there are 3 things I know of that change this index:

• Choosing "Quit" and going back to planet select. This increases the index by 1.
• Your teammates movement on the map.
• Your ammo/the number of bullets you've shot. Not sure which value effects it and Idk if grenades impact it yet.

Capturing command posts and killing enemies are unknown to affect this because it's impossible to do either of these before your teammates spawn in and so it's not clear if either have a direct effect on it since your teammates's movement and their effect on it is so large/random. I'd assume capturing command posts messes with it since it has to update the master list with the new command post you control, same thing with losing a command post. The easiest way to influence this index is to do certain actions prior to your teammates spawning in. With the right actions, you can give yourself a perfect spawn next to a speeder bike.

From a console reset, select Dune Sea in GCW. Note, your cursor movements on any of the main menu screens have no effect on this, nor does the amount of time you spend on the main menu. Once you load into Dune Sea, spawn as a Stormtrooper. You'll notice you'll be at the first spawn I listed above. From here, shoot 8 bullets into the ground (your ammo left in your clip will now be 47). Now, quit out. When you select Dune sea again, you'll have your cursor on the Dune sea command post and when you select Sandcrawler you will spawn in next to a speeder bike for a perfect spawn.

For the record, it is NOT a 1:1 match for the number of bullets you shoot to your spawn in the master list. In other words, shooting 8 bullets and quitting out doesn't give you the 10th spawn (index incremented by 9). It gives you a spawn that is somewhere outside of the first 30. It's impossible to know for sure the spawn number it gives without compililng the entire master list to know the pattern in full (assuming when the game reaches the end of this master list it rolls back to the start of it). But that list could be 100s of spawns long.

Given that this only works from a console reset, this is absolutely not viable for grinding attempts as you'll go crazy after only a couple hours. Instead, it's mostly an interesting thing that shows that this game takes some shortcuts to determine some things and it isn't as random as may appear. It also shows what may be possible if more concrete methods of RNG manip are discovered. Watch the video in the next message to see it in action with an explanation similar to what I typed here.

Is this what you wanted?

Since some people haven't noticed/probably won't notice, Im making this to let everyone know that a week ago I uploaded Emulator Packs for CoM, CoM J, Days, Days J and ReCoded under the Resources tab for each game.

These packs contain approved emulators as well as ROMs for each of the games (ReCoded also has a GOSU file included). This was meant to make it very easy for new runners of the game to pick it up as they would have all of the stuff right at their fingertips to download and start playing.

The only thing is CoM packs don't contain an R/R save, so a player will have to create that on their own for right now. I'll eventually get to making one myself and including it though.

Just wanted to let people/prospective new runners know that these exist.