We need to change the run ranking system to go off of In-Game Time instead of Real Time due to how the game operates. Supcom2 is made to constantly adjust itself to maintain performance. As a result the speed the game plays can be constantly changing throughout runs due to varying factors. This happens out of our control and doesn't matter how good your pc is as the game itself will likely become the limiting factor before our pcs. It wasn't until I started speedrunning here that I found out that each of our games run at slightly different speeds as well. This shown by us all having varying degrees of time separation between our Real Times and In-Game Times. Now this is not just the in-game timer you see in the game. Every gameplay related function slows down and speeds up together. So example: if the game clock ticks 5% slow, all the units are also moving 5% slower, shooting 5% slower, and all the event triggers take that much longer to trigger. So as for us having different speeds. This is all fine if we use Game Time for ranking runs and no one gets to achieve more that eachother in any amount of game time. However, if we use real time the people with fast games can get so much more done to the extent that players with slower games cannot even compete. For real world example let's look at mission 2-1. The entire mission in scripted to send waves of units at certain times from the start of the mission (not real time, the game doesn't understand the existence of real time. It only knows its own time). No matter what you do during the mission you cannot speed this up. The last unit that makes it in bounds at 15:38 will always come in at the same game time as it should be. (Unless it's pathing is messed up) However, if your game is running at +2% speed for that 15:38 compared to someone else, you will end up with a free 18 seconds real time. Making it impossible for anyone with a game slower than you to play, because that ship isn't even there for them at that real time. This goes for every single other mission as well. 2-1 is just the perfect example. Please change this so we all have equal opportunity to compete. Thanks (Any questions please ask.)

Makes sense, i inherited this game on speedrun.com from the inactive original mod @Yue, and it was already timed in real time by then. @HUECTRUM also mentioned the same problem 2 years ago now but i never realized that the actual in-game events are differently timed between runs.

I think you and @Racerstorm are correct on this. I'll work towards changing the timing rules and adding in-game time to runs that currently do not have that listed. I'd like to still require players to also provide a real time if that's okay with everyone.

One problem that i don't really see a solution for is that players whose game runs slower have relatively more time to do things like setup build ques etc

Yeah, technically the players with slower games would get get more time to execute commands however this effect is quite small. A player with 59 APM getting boosted to 60 APM isn't going to cause a major effect especially since no runs right now come down to APM. Not to mention there is a lot of waiting time in missions so command rate is rarely constant, I would say if you are doing anything to increase your games runs speed like the FPS change then stop doing it and just let the game run normal. There is also something to be said that if a player's game is running faster they would also equally get to do that many more runs. Again, this would be quite minor as well but a lot of missions do actually come down to AI RNG as well. I would say the little bit faster or slower offers minorly different but still relatively equal advantages or disadvantage for fair play.

I second that. I'd consider someone buying a slow PC specifically to get slightly easier runs for one specific (unpopular game) a much lower risk than just giving free time to anyone with a high end PC.

I've changed the timing method to use the IGT everywhere now. I've also updated the rules for all levels but not for the full-game run. Do we simply add all IGTs together there?

I have explicitly put in the rules that it's the time on the score screen next to "Elapsed time >" that counts, not the time above the "Operation completed" popup. This is due some very supcom2 behavior that somehow seems to add +/- 1 frame of time to your total after clicking the "OK" button on the popup. As an example you can see in my tutorial run that the popup time is 08:16 but the end screen says 08:17:

I also like that this screen shows the played difficulty and some other info that would be nice to have in the video of every run.

I would say rank the full playthroughs with IGT as well by combining each mission. However, if the people that do those runs feel like the sections were clicking fast through the end screen/stat screen to get to the next mission adds value to the competition. Then you would have to add the real time from first frame of "Operation Completed" to the first frame of the flags loading screen for each mission. I personally feel that would be an unnecessary addition with very minimum effect and that IGT should be enough.