On a minor note I have a timer offset of -0.600, since that's about how long it takes to get to the first cutscene (which you have to skip). It'd be good if that was standardize.
http://funkyfr3sh.cncnet.org/ http://cnc-comm.com/community/index.php?topic=1918.0 https://github.com/cnc-patch/ra303p/blob/master/docs/features.md
To what extent of this should be legal? It does include the ability to change the game resolution, including stretching. It lets you change new things in the INI file as well. Hotkeys seems to be modified too.
Then there's campaign modifications: ¤ 90. Included a fixed version of Soviet mission 13 variant A (there's two map choices for this mission). The original mission is bugged in that capturing the Chronosphere (which is supposed to be required to win the mission) causes you to lose the game. The B variant of the map works properly. ¤ 91. The Allies on Soviet Mission 8 variant B produce Flamethrower infantry, even though the Allies can't build them (this is because building perquisites for mission autocreate teams are ignored). This has been fixed and the Allies no longer produce Flamethrower infantry on this map. ¤ 95. Fixed Soviet mission 6 variants A and B so you no longer get APCs at the start of the mission. ¤ 102. Added a fix for an infantry range exploit that allows you to have infantry fire across the map. This fix is applied to skirmish and single player by default, but not online to stay compatible with 3.03.
These are core changes that could affect a run. I'm not sure if you can disable these changes. If the group who made the patch are still around I'd like to ask if they can make a version that keeps all glitches and exploits.
Watching Kotti's Nod runs I noticed the build anywhere glitch was used in the majority of the missions. To keep the spirit of the other games in the series, have a category which bans the use of said glitch. Mind you that Glitchless is not exploitless. Exploiting faulty map design would still be allowed.
I'm not saying it should be added to the leaderboards, just pitching the idea to those who might be interested. I may take a shot at it after I do the standard categories.
I intend to make a tutorial video sometime soon with my best segments.
I'm not sure what the rules for this game should be. I'm the only runner (right now) but I still want some thoughts on what's legal and what isn't. This also extends to Yuri's Revenge
¤ Version Every official version should be legal. I am using the "The First Decade Unofficial Patch v1.03 (Revision 4)" -- While I don't think it directly affects the game, for the series as a whole I believe widely accepted/used unofficial patches can be legal to use. I use the 64-bit version of gamemd.exe provided by the unofficial patch. I can't imagine it changes anything in the game.
¤ INI editing Skyrim and Dishonored are selective on what can be edited and Deus Ex has their own category for editing. There's only one option that needs mentioning: Width/Height - In-game there's only 3 options, 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768. With INI editing you can have any resolution, and the larger the resolution the more is visible on screen. The developers included in multiplayer the abilitiy to limit resolution, which adds support to not allowing this to be tampered with. I'm undecided on this.
¤ Game Time vs Real Time I checked my best segments against their Game Time and noticed odd discrepancies. Half of RT is actually shorter than GT, which shouldn't happen because of load times. Liberty is -17 and Mirage is -10. Fallout is +46 (though that can be explained by the cutscenes pausing the game). The difference is Real Time is +14 against Game Time. Then there's Save & Load. While this doesn't affect Real Time at all, it can dramatically lower the Game Time. Someone could endlessly save and load as if they were TASing to get a good time, which isn't in the spirit of speedrunning. The only argument against Real Time that I see is the loading times. However, computers these days have take almost no time to load a mission and the difference is likely neglectable. I was going to make an auto-splitter but it's not compatible with VMware. I support Real Time to be the main time the leaderboards use (at least for RA2 and YR). I do, however, support having a second column for Sum of Game Time, but it must remain empty if you use Save & Load (which optimal runs won't use anyway) or if you skipped too fast to see the time of a mission. Individual levels (if we bother with that) will always use Game Time, but don't allow Save & Load (unless it's loading the start of the mission).
Alternatively, they could be structured as following:
Unless stated otherwise these are all basically Any% with any difficulty. Difficulties don't exist in Tiberian Dawn...AFAIK
¤ Tiberian Dawn [Main] GDI Campaign [Main] Nod Campaign [Misc] All Campaigns ¤ Tiberian Dawn: Covert Operations [Main] GDI Missions [Main] Nod Missions [Main] Funpark Missions [Misc] Special Operations Missions {Missions that come with Unofficial Patch 1.06} [Misc] All Missons {Including or excluding Funpark/Special Ops?} ¤ Red Alert [Main] Allied Campaign [Main] Soviet Campaign [Misc] All Campaigns (Hard) ¤ Red Alert: Counterstrike [Main] Allied Missions [Main] Soviet Missions [Main] Ant Missions [Misc] All Missons (Hard) {Including or excluding Ants?} ¤ Red Alert: Aftermath [Main] Allied Missions [Main] Soviet Missions [Misc] All Missons (Hard) ¤ Tiberian Sun [Main] GDI Campaign [Main] Nod Campaign [Misc] All Campaigns (Hard) ¤ Tiberian Sun: Firestorm [Main] GDI Campaign [Main] Nod Campaign [Misc] All Campaigns (Hard) ¤ Red Alert 2 [Main] Allied Campaign [Main] Soviet Campaign [Misc] All Campaigns (Hard) ¤ Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge [Main] Allied Campaign [Main] Soviet Campaign [Misc] All Campaigns (Hard) ¤ Generals [Main] USA Campaign [Main] China Campaign [Main] GLA Campaign [Misc] All Campaigns (Hard) ¤ Generals: Zero Hour [Main] USA Campaign [Main] China Campaign [Main] GLA Campaign [Misc] All Campaigns (Hard)
Figured I'd lay something out. This won't matter until there's more runs though.
I think the max speed for Tiberian Dawn is an uncapped framerate, which gives benefit to computers with better CPUs. In my opinion the max speed should be 'Faster' like how Tiberian Sun is.
Of course, this won't matter until there are runners for this game.
I plan on running these at some point and they don't seem terrible as categories to have as miscellaneous.
¤ Tiberian Dawn: Covert Operations - GDI Missions ¤ Tiberian Dawn: Covert Operations - Nod Missions ¤ Tiberian Dawn: Covert Operations - Funpark Missions ¤ Red Alert: Counterstrike - Allied Missions ¤ Red Alert: Counterstrike - Soviet Missions ¤ Red Alert: Counterstrike - Ant Missions ¤ Red Alert: Aftermath - Allied Missions ¤ Red Alert: Aftermath - Soviet Missions ¤ Tiberian Sun: Firestorm - GDI Campaign (Maybe separate game or main category?) ¤ Tiberian Sun: Firestorm - Nod Campaign
As for the combined campaigns/mission sets, I don't think they should be categories until there's a bit more activity.