Hey :3
i noticed there's no guidelines whatsoever as to when runners should start and stop their timers, which might lead to unfair discrepancies between various runs if people count their time differently.
I'd like to know how to do this correctly, since i want my playthroughs to be valid, but it seems to me that there isn't a single agreement on this issue regarding Stunt GP.
If that's true, i think we should brainstorm and formulate a basic set of rules governing this here, to help with consistency of all future attempts. My proposition would be to start the timer with the last player's input before the race begins (track selection in most if not all cases), and to stop it right after crossing the finish line of the last race in the run.
There are no rules but just from looking on other uploaded speedruns you can guess what current rules are. Stop timer right after crossing the finish line of the last race in the run seems to be current rule and runs usually begin either in main menu for 100%/arcade/championship or right after clicking championship or arcade mode. We can make clear rules but there are no mods active. I don't think we should start championship % at first track, buying is also important - choosing cars etc. and it's part of this category. I would vote to start timer when you click championship/arcade mode from main menu.
I've made a push request to Hoxi's autosplitter, so it starts counting after exiting "single player" menu, splits at the finish line and resets after coming back to single player menu
So for Arcade I'd suggest starting counting after selecting option in single player menu and finish counting after crossing finish line of the 4th race.
I still stand by my initial idea of starting the timer immediately after the game mode has been picked (that would be only relevant to Championship and Arcade) and stopping it at the finish line of the last race (adhering to the general canonical speedrunning rule of "last meaningful input")
As for the 100% category, we could probably start counting right after advancing past the title logo screen and stopping it in the moment of completion of all the requirements
I have no idea what we'd do with runs that break those rules though... probably officially invalidate them? IDK
I'm open to thoughts of anyone who's interested