To me the point of this version of a run is to have one that is just execution - you know the map, you know the monsters, and you work to execute your run including manipulating RNG to work in your favor (open the right chests and kill the right things and go to the right places, etc). It's why this deserves to be an entirely different category. If that is the goal for this category, I'd think going active is the way to go (in addition to it being easier - you don't need to close d2 or premake all of your characters that you run for the day including unexpected hc deaths, which I think you would want to avoid regardless?)

Would you be able to change the seed partway through a run? Say optimal leveling then you change seed to really fast maps or find a close spider forest waypoint, then change the seed so it’s actually right next to flayer jungle exit.

Like others, I don't fully understand the difference between creating a character with -seed active and when -seed is removed after being created with it.

Can this be further explained? Without knowing the differences, I would think keeping the -seed in would be easier so you don't need to preload a bunch of characters or close/open the game every time you rip.

For both 1 & 2, I think they can exist and if enough people run them; a category could be created. I don't think either of these should replace the existing any% category, but I don't think you're pushing for that anyways.

1 - Seeded Runs: I wouldn't find it as interesting after the initial runs/races, but I think it would be a good category to have as a more 'traditional' speedrun; less RNG and more game execution. The seed would need to be included in run submission (for verification and to allow others to run against it).

2 - Battlenet/PlugY force resets: Would this allow just running on battlenet (including the extra hurdles of realm down and lag)? I think PlugY would open up a ton of questions (shared stash, ladder runewords, etc) so it would have to be very much defined, while if we just created a battlenet category (or tcp/ip category) it would make this easier to do without as much overhead. I could also see PlugY being its own game in here with its own categories, as it adds so many options.

3 - Challenge runs I don't think need to be tracked unless certain categories have a ton of people going for it. I don't think the participation is high enough to warrant any of these (at least as it stands right now)

Overall, as long as any% still exists, any of these other runs can as well. pX and p8 have been added and I think have a lot of room to grow, and that's ok.

But you don't need to go for every single category, and if any% p1 sorceress is too reset heavy for you to want to do it, that's ok. If you don't want to push for p8 necromancer WR, that's ok too. If everyone in the community switches to doing seeded primarily, that can be the first displayed, and you can still have any% for others who push in that category.

I don't see a problem with the separation - if less people run SC then that's ok, it can still be a category because plenty of people do run only that. If you merge the two, with HC being the main category that carries over, you're eventually just merging both categories into one.

I think we can agree that a SC run should never be counted as a HC run. I think we can also agree that the SC category should exist - but in my mind this would kill that category. It can be less competitive (assuming top runners choose not to run it) and that's ok. It can have room for growth, and potentially we can see better WR times in SC than HC in the future, and all of that is ok. Merging them for the sake of having runners simplify what they want their records to show to me is not worth losing the SC category in the long run. The argument that you don't want to have to run it again for all the WRs seems a bit unnecessary - if people decide to grind it they can, and if they don't want to they don't have to. You don't see many doing pX runs or Pacifist runs or anything like that, it's just not every runners cup of tea. And softcore can be the same - if you really want to grind the record you can, but you don't have to. If your goal is to get all WRs regardless, that's ok too.

What are your thoughts on just reordering the page, so Hardcore is the main tab (and selected on page load) and Softcore is to the right and requires selecting?

For the most part it looks like all buffs except before 1.13 the paladin hammer would ignore some resistances (so that might be a reason to try a run on earlier versions).

• Blessed Hammer - No longer ignores resistances of undead and demons.

There was also some point where the countess drop table changed at least the percent of different drops, which might have been 1.13. Before whatever patch that is finding a tal at countess was hard. I remember people were considering trying a barb run on an earlier version to get more El drops for runewords, but then finding a stealth was hard

I had always assumed creating in classic then converting was an option that just wasn't utilized (as part of being an any% category allowing game options). I'm all for allowing it, but if I'm being fair I don't actively run hell categories.