Hi! I am interested in running this game, and I was thinking that it might be better to measure runs through ingame time rather than realtime. There will be a difference of several hours between the two due to the game not counting time during loading screens, certain menus, and several other small cases. Observe:

This run took me about 4 hours and 30 minutes, give or take. I think this would be a much better way to measure a run for several reasons: First, it costs no time to check it because pausing and quitting out to the main menu stops the timer. Second, it is machine-handled and therefore is independent of load times and so on. And third, it demonstrates only the amount of time the player spent actually playing the game.

Just something to consider, because there are a lot of outside variables that affect realtime but very few that affect ingame time.

Also, the quicksave/quickload category may want to be removed since that functionality was unintentional and was removed in the latest patch.

Regarding in-game time: I think, personally, we should stick to RTA, as if the timer stops in menues, that's a huge problem. I'd consider switching if someone made a load remover for livesplit.

As for categories, we can downpatch, so that won't be an issue, I'll be adding a patch variable for when submitting runs so that we can sort by patch #. I'll also be linking to a guide on how to downpatch on steam when I get home.

If the majority want to switch to the game's in-game timer, I suppose we can switch.

Additionally, I just noticed that timer doesn't count seconds, so ties would be way more common even if one personal is 58 seconds ahead, at maximum. (1:04:01 vs 1:04:59 for example, both times would appear as 1:04)

I'll do some testing to see where the game pauses time and get back to you on it. I'm curious to see where the discrepancy actually happens.

Okay, I've done some testing. I started up the same save file each time in an Ops center, went into the relevant interface for three or four minutes, then left and returned to the Ops center to save the game. Here are my findings:

Loading screens: Timer DOES pause Pause menu (start button): Timer DOES pause Pause menu (inventory): Timer DOES NOT pause Med-Bay interface: Timer DOES NOT pause Crafting interface: Timer DOES NOT pause

So, the game doesn't pause IGT during menus after all. I think that makes my case a lot stronger, personally.

What I think causes the discrepancy is that the game only counts up time when you are alive and in control of Warren, so certain situations like when you flop over after a death, the ensuing loading screen, et cetera stop the timer until you're alive again. I'll see if I can do some more tests or use cheat engine to figure that part out but I don't think it really matters that much since imo that falls under the umbrella as loading screens.