FYI for everyone, Any% ACE is already in misc.

I am in favour of keeping No SQWWOOB, Any%, and Hundo. Those are all solid. 3 categories of varying lengths, but each is accessible.

I also feel that AI could remain as a main category. I feel that having a longer, heavily glitched category would still carry a lot of appeal. That being said, I think a longer, mostly unglitched category (ie Legacy) would also be nice to have, to bring balance to the other categories. But with AI and Legacy, i feel it should be be one or the other. I am in favour of moving S+Q and Legacy/AI to Misc. Nothing wrong there.

Also, create RBO (ww and no ww) and make it misc.

Could we not just allow both? If you are a runner who likes collecting the shells from the overworld, do it. If you are a runner who would rather dup the shells, do it. Has anyone tested the time differences? How significant is it? Are completion times an underlying issue here?

Say two runners who do hundo are neck and neck on most everything else, but runner A has the edge over runner B because runner A duplicates his shells whilst runner B collects them traditionally. Thus, runner A would have a faster time and be higher on the leaderboard. Naturally, this could cause somewhat of a stir in say, a race but if we are talking about 2 runners using 2 different techniques then game on.

Zorlax and Cransoon have mentioned the different rule sets in their posts. This says to me that we do genuinely need a universal rule set that we can all follow. And like it or not, those rules may have to be varied or altered over time. Speedrunning is an ever evolving thing. Games are broken and new strats are discovered and we would be limiting ourselves if we did not adjust or update the rules from time to time. Run times shouldn't stand forever, y'all.

I mostly agree with all of the above statements, and I am just playing devil's advocate and presenting some alternative arguments here, but isn't the fundamental purpose of speedrunning to go fast? If we have discovered a new trick that is faster and (one could argue) that it doesn't violate the established ruleset because of some ambiguity regarding seashell collection, should it not be implemented? What is boring is all down to opinion. I have heard people say Legacy is boring but I loved it. Collection is another. Once an item is in the inventory is it not collected, regardless of how it ended up in front of you? (Not counting cheat codes and the like)

I suppose at the end of the day, more than anything, this is all for ourselves. Casual gamers or speedrunners of other series don't really care what goes on with LADX , you know? None of us like retroactive rule revisions, but I think its a good idea to officially add unspoken rules to our official ruleset. Just as a way to cover our own asses. Make sure we are all on the same page, and to help new runners joining our community understand right away what is allowed and what is not.

My personal feeling does jive with most every one else's opinion, and I do feel that going through the map and ¤finding and collecting¤ the shells feels a little more pure. But i have also been vocal about a separate, highly glitched 100% category, one that would include a trick such as this. Something akin to Any% ACE. It doesn't have to be official, per se, but if there is enough interest and enough runners are doing it, it wouldn't hurt to have it as an unofficial category along side any% ACE. =)

Thats all I have, really. \m/

I would prefer to keep the first act, really for one reason (OK, 2 reasons, 'cos the dialogue is effin hilarious), and that reason is you still assume control of the PimpInTraining during that time. For me, maybe being a bit of a traditionalist, timers should usually start when you take control of your character. And in the opening stage, you have to move him around or you get shot and killed.

Though I guess, that being said, I may feel different about it after i have run the game 50 times xD

To me, there really isn't anything wrong with running the game as 100% (all acts) and 75%/any % as separate categories. ☺

Yes to separate. Don't ban it, eh. It's special :D