Texas, USASeparating any% into 5-2 and 5-3 branches would be a bad idea for a few reasons: -Not sure what you mean by "compensate for RNG." You always have to fight the piranha after 5-1 unless you die, and if you're dying in 5-1, you should probably just play 5-2 and call it a day. -There is no difference in the powerup route between 5-2 and 5-3. Really, there are no substantial differences at all except for difficulty and time, both of which are extremely minor here and not worth splitting categories for. -Difficulty: 5-2 is easier to keep prop through than 5-3 because 5-3 has the annoying and poorly programmed Bramball enemies. However, with a bit of practice, either level is pretty reliably doable. -There is no hard skip or trick to merit creating a more beginner-friendly category. -Time: 5-3 saves only a few seconds over 5-2. In fact, the level would be longer but for an additional pipe loading screen in 5-2. It's not like 5-3 is some RNG-fest that saves massive time if you win the lottery or anything similar that would provide incentive to create a category specifically for one level or the other. -Both levels require exactly the same number of overworld movements to reach and then proceed to 5-F. -I see from your profile that you've done some work with SM64DS, so let's use that game as an example. Creating separate categories for any% 5-2 and any% 5-3 would be similar to creating separate categories for SM64DS for different combinations of stars within the same category - it would be unnecessary and tedious. You can beat NSMBW any% playing either 5-2 or 5-3, just like you can beat SM64DS 50 Star with probably any number of different combinations of 50 stars.
I figure that since any%, 100% and 101% all have natural ending points upon getting in the carriage after beating the final boss and activating the dance/credits scene, it would make sense to also stop time for 102% upon getting in the carriage and earning the ending sequence instead of upon landing the final hit on That Guy.
One reason for this is that the ending sequence displays the player's completion % after the rhythm game segment, which is pretty important for non-any% categories. At minimum, it's a lot more convenient than manually checking that every fight/chest in the game was successfully cleared.
Another reason is that it feels inconsistent to have a final split for just one of the four main categories that doesn't end by activating the credits. There doesn't seem to me to be anything inherently wrong with one full-game category ending on a different trigger than another within the same game - especially with a category such as 102% that requires viewing the credits at least once before finishing the actual speedrun - but in this instance it's very easily avoidable. Getting to the credits at the end of a 102% RTA requires 12 seconds of gameplay (basic movement, at that) after landing the finishing blow on That Guy.
Lastly, most speedgame communities that I'm familiar with choose end time points that result in activating the game's credits roll, and disallow endings that hit the arbitrary "time stop" checkpoint but fail to activate the ending. Examples of this are the Mega Man X Wolf Sigma double KO/softlock ending and the New Super Mario Bros. Wii cutscene death after losing control upon clearing the final stage, which halts the ending sequence and kicks you out of the level like a normal death. In both of these instances, the player has technically defeated the final stage/boss, but fails to progress to the ending. As a result, MMX/NSMBW speedruns that end in these ways are ruled as invalid.
This isn't exactly the same thing, but stopping time upon defeating That Guy instead of initiating the ending scene appears to me to leave the run a tad unfinished. Think Super Mario 64, but time ends upon Bowser impacting the third bomb instead of requiring the player to scroll through the post-fight dialogue and collect the large star, thus activating the ending cutscene and staff roll.
If anybody has thoughts/differing opinions on this, I'd love to hear them ^_^
RaikerZ did a variant of this strat iirc, nobody else bothered with it because of general laziness. If this is a reliable setup, though, I could see people doing it in the future. Good stuff.
I'm pretty alright at any% and Cannonless, and regularly interact with the community in a positive fashion both in and outside of the official Discord server. I also check srcom at least once a day, and have a past history of success in moderation in places such as the Crash Tag Team Racing boards (also on srcom) and the Mega Man RTA Leaderboards.
Question: Do I need an original, black-label version of NTSC-U Bash or the green-label Greatest Hits version to perform these glitches? Or does it not matter? (I don't have either currently, and would like to know before potentially investing in a copy)
I agree with this proposed change. Allowing Yoshi, a game mechanic which gives Mario an extra hit and additional capabilities like any traditional power-up, for a jump which can clearly be executed without him seems silly to me. I also agree that already existing times should stay on the board - clearing the board to accommodate one minor time loss seems to be an overreaction at best, and invalidating times on the basis of a then-nonexistent rule is even sketchier.
Hypnoshark and I ran through the levels looking for specific corners that can be cut, objects that can be jumped over, etc. The list of stuff we found can be seen here: http://pastebin.com/VT57Wh7h
This is by no means a complete list, but it should at least be somewhere to start. I can easily update this paste when more stuff is discovered.
In case anybody is curious, the timing of each individual load time for NTSC-U Xbox (done by me, taken from footage of my 27:26 any%, 1:33:12 Gift Shop Completion and my 3:20:18 100% runs) can be found here: http://pastebin.com/Lv56tUpe
