I am trying my best to include any verbiage around removal of mods and DFhack/etc. and ideas we can incorporate to ensure theres no cheating happening.
I did a quick overhaul on the rules to try and make it as clear as possible. Please let me know what you think.
i did consider adding something in there about showing you unpacking the game into a clean folder every startup but that seemed silly at that point.
Hope this is an okay place to clarify this instead of making a new thread. What might the rule be for embark profiles? It's not specifically mentioned, but I can see it falling under not being "Stock".
I am really hoping to get some clarification on this. Certain things that may not be "stock" would be very helpful for cutting time. For example, in the latest Premium Fun% 0:41.1 run, I noticed the default embark size was 2x2 instead of 4x4. Things like that, embark profiles, maybe even announcements or autosaves could be modified to save time. But are not necessarily "stock". Given that run was approved, I assume at least minor custom settings like embark size is okay?
From the way it was written, I assumed 'stock' meant no mods and no file editing. So in-game settings are fine.
Thank you for that input HexTree. I sure think that sounds reasonable as well. Settings at least for sure. Embark profiles are the only one I'm extra unsure of. But I may give a Hell% run a try with a premade embark profile instead of just using "Play now".
Of course, that was just my interpretation, and would need the moderators to confirm. I would hope that embark profiles are fine too, because out of principle I think that any regular in-game settings should be allowed in speedrunning.
I guess I dont get notifications for forum posts even though I made this one ??? Speedrun.com is a very weird website sometimes. sorry for the lack of feedback.
It's a grey area for sure but I think embark profile might be OK because it is included in the game and profiles could be shared. It is something out-side the run that can be tweaked to give the run benefit which is where the grey area comes into play. we similarly have specified that the FPS cap is 100 because that can just speed up your run by a % of time due to having faster hardware.
Yeah it really does feel like a grey area :/ which is why I had to ask. Because it really is a huge resource to plan out runs more efficiently. Which I find interesting, as long as it's using all vanilla options as you mentioned. And it trims at least a little bit of the RNG that makes runs more inconsistent. But I can definitely see the burden of proof being more difficult when verifying runs, as we blast right through that embark screen.
For sure the FPS cap rule makes great sense to me.
I had that issue too, you have to look around in profile settings to manually switch on forum notifications.
Out of interest, what precisely is the grey area, here? Is it that using such profiles obscures the choice of settings from viewers and run-verifiers? If so, I guess I agree with that. Perhaps it could be required to show the creation of the profiles and world settings etc at some point in the full video? E.g. at the start of the video you show all the setting creation, and then you can proceed to attempt Fun% say 20 times in a row, each attempt using the world and profiles you made earlier? This would exclude all the tedious setup from the actual run, which makes sense to me.
This would be similar to how it's done in Factorio speedrunning (https://www.speedrun.com/factorio?h=Any&x=ndxjper2); there you can use pre-made profiles for maps and settings etc, but you have to paste the full 'map exchange string' in your submission (a long string that stores all the info). So the run videos just start from the moment the map is loaded and the game actually starts.
Hextree, that is a good example of something we can take inspiration from. Perhaps we could add a rule that embark profiles need to be shown/tabbed through (which can be verified in a video by pausing)
I've always opened the settings menu before a run just because SpeedPikl's previous run did it, and figured I should too, but there a settings in a number of places, so it would greatly extend the time between runs to have to tab through them. You also can't show your embark profile without first making a world.
That last point is the only issue I see with embark profiles. They aren't actually in settings, but in world gen. The question comes down to if we consider creating the profile a part of world gen. I like having access to it, but I also enjoy a bit more RNG, so I could go either way. However, I don't see any convenient way to show your embark profile other than putting it in the description.
I think of the embark size differently because it is in the settings you can access without generating a world. I do wish you could make an embark profile from the main menu. One potential problem I see in the settings is macros, but I don't know how helpful they'd actually be.
I like the idea of showing those settings, and letting them apply for x runs, but that is extremely impractical to me, as you would have to record for longer periods. I simply dont have the hard drive space for that. I use GeForce experience to capture only the last minute after PB's.
Looking at the rules again, I'd almost consider embark profiles to be editing files, but again. I kinda like it, and it wouldn't feel nice to take 1st back like that.
On a slightly related note, I'm surprised to learn that timing rules start before world gen. I hadn't realised this before. Is there a reason for this? Since the buttons to choose 'Start Fortress Mode' or 'Start Adventure Mode' appear after world has been generated, so technically you haven't even initiated a 'game' as such until you have elected to start Fortress Mode.
The main issue of course being that World Gen is very hardware-dependent. For instance in Factorio and Rimworld speedrunning timing starts after map generation, the moment your colonists are actually on the map.
There are two concepts working at odds here - the concept of putting things into the run and the concept of setting things up before the run, that we are trying to strike a balance here.
Putting lots of prep time, editing profiles, setting up the world in advance, etc... all take time out of the run by prepping the run. It limits the run to only being performed on prepared versions of the game.
Worldgen is included because it does change aspects of the run. Similarly , perhaps we should exclude embark profiels because it is something you change outside of the run that impacts your run. The game should be as vanilla as possible.
DF is a very complex game simulation wise, these worldgen parameters can significantly impact your run from economy, legendary figures, etc.
To clarify my earlier comment, I am very much in favour of the settings being shown explicitly at the start of the video, worldgen included. My question only pertains to the timer; I'm asking why the timer itself would start before worldgen, and not when you actually launch Fortress Mode.
It just surprised me because normally in speedrunning, timer starts when you start the relevant campaign etc, not when configuring settings before starting a game.
can i use macro? and set the "Milliseconds between macro instructions" from 15 to 1 and make save and load macro?([ctrl+s] and [ctrl+l]) also load old macro save to cut times? if it's my rules i'll only allow the record and play([ctrl+r] and [ctrl+p]), the speed shouldn't be changed.
and "Stock" is out from expectation and must be removed by now. (I just see Rimworld rules doesn't mention "Stock" and that's what i wish for now)
Macros and scripts are another can of worms as well. I know in games like Half Life they have had to ban scripting (which macros is basically doing). Macros adds another layer of difficulty onto checking the runs if we have to verify they are in use, or just outright ban them.
did you just say macro is entirely banned? it's a feature was meant to help the player from repetitive task tough. (again, just asking to allow record and play)
