"Modifications to the game are not allowed. This includes modifications to the in-game font through either custom font packs as well as the JP <-> EN font swap."
I feel like this rule shouldn't include text modification, as all it does is modify the text. The original text is very painful to read for some runners, and viewers. Is there any chance to discuss this to change?
But you are running the game not reading the text :P
Now the real anwser: This font is not that painfull! Its not pretty but it is fine.
Dubldrop summed it up nicely on the Discord server, here it is:
"Just to go into more detail. Currently the easy method is to just rename the JP font as the eng one. That in itself is pretty harmless and isnt something we are all that concerned about. However it has been brought to our attention that there are other ways of modifying the font, and allowing the use of pretty much any font. This has the potential to be impactful to the run, and until said method is explored we will not be budging on the current ban.
I will clarify as well, that even if we deem the other method to be not impactful, that may not necessarily change our stance on it. This was not a decision reached just by the FF1 mods, but in collaboration with the FF2/3 mods as well as intention to bring the 4/5/6 mods into the discussion as well. As the pixel remasters of all 6 games are sharing similar systems, and a similar audience, we feel like while the boards are being managed by their respective mod teams, this is a topic we can handle on a "series" level. The intention in the end will be that while game specific things may be handled by us, things like the font issue which are series wide, will be discussed as a series.
If there is overwhelming objection to this decision, please feel free to DM any of us, and raise your concerns there. Be constructive however, give us legit reasons why you disagree, and what you would like to see, and I would be more than happy to revisit this issue with the entire teams at a later date.
For now, the ban will be in place. The embargo on runs is still in effect, there are no times on the board, and so by putting this is place now, we feel like there will be no actual runs impacted. IF you have already recorded a run you plan to submit, the game has been out less than 2 weeks, im sure the run is far from optimized and you can get another run with default text."
Obviously the embargo is now lifted, so ignore the part about the embargo being in effect, but the remainder of the post is relevant.
I won't get into the discussion here, I'll just DM Dubldrop like they recommended, but I'd like to make a comment to this.
"Now the real anwser: This font is not that painfull! Its not pretty but it is fine."
To you, it's fine. But you aren't the only member of the community. You're excluding people with vision impairments. I have members in my community that love the game, but cannot bare to look at the font in its current state, as it hurts their eyes. Hence why I initially looked into font modification in the first place.
Easiest way to sort this out (I would think) would be to take the runs that are done without modification to chat now, and compare them to several runs with chat modifications. If the chat modifications show obvious signs of time save, then uphold the ban. If they don't, then at least the community knows and text mods can be used.
In my experience with various speed games over the years, these things often come down to taking the initiative and testing to see. If someone is using a text mod, and it provides no advantage, then the community as a whole now has access to that information. Same if things turn out to have a noticable advantage.
TL;DR - Mod your text, do a few runs and see. Analyze some text heavy portions of the run and compare timing.
I can tell you right now that larger fonts do create more windows of text. Will smaller fonts do the opposite? I say it's possible.
