Hi Blomp here,

Below are some points I have been thinking about regarding runs and some proposed rules to make runs fair for everyone and just make things a bit more clearer, not that there has been any reason to clear up any grey areas but I thought hey why not do so for any future players interested in speed running TA.

1. Timing should use In Game Time as the main timing method, it is the only timing method that stays the same for every player. Timing manually while playing has possibility for error. Timing a captured video file has possibility for error. Using in game time also negates using a separate timing program like 'Live Split' and the need to script auto splits.

Game Time should be displayed in all submitted runs. This is activated through the chat bar by pressing enter, typing "+clock" and hit enter again. Game Time will now be displayed in bottom left corner.

On a side note - running the game at its fastest speed of +10 seems to get the fastest in game time. While testing new routes I slow the game speed down to help with movement e.g. -5 speed. Even when I get the movement perfect at the slower speed, the final in game time is always slower when comparing the same run at +10 speed. It seems to not scale at 1:1 only in the negative speeds, all game speeds from 0 to +10 seem to scale evenly. This could all be coincidence but it is something I have noticed with minimal testing. This isn't a rule but just an FYI.

Considering we are speed running, game speed +10 should be the speed used for all runs.

2. The time you submit is whatever In Game Time is displayed coinciding with 'Victory!' appearing on screen. 'Victory!' appearing is a great visual cue to use for timing. 'Victory!' appears 5 in game seconds after you complete your objective and the drum sound is triggered. Whatever time this is triggered at does not matter as the 5 in game second timer starts from the next in game second, not from the exact time you trigger the objective. For example if you trigger the objective and corresponding drum sound at 30.2 seconds the 5 second counter will start from 31 seconds. 'Victory!' appearing is synced to the in game time and only appears in full in game second increments i.e. exactly when the timer hits 30 seconds not 29.8 etc.

Hoping for a better 'real time' is not actually possible without a corresponding better in game time due to triggers happening at full in game second increments. To be clear - at game speed +10, 1 in game second is 0.5s in real time. Getting an in game time of 10 seconds means you have a real time of 5 seconds. An in game time of 11 seconds mean you have a real time of 5.5 seconds. Real times using anything other than full seconds or .5s increments are not accurate. This further supports using in game time due to 'Victory!' syncing with full in game second increments. The real time entered should just be in game time divided by 2, this will require milliseconds to be activated so 0.5s increments can be entered.

3. Starting from a saved pause screen should be accepted. (This already is being used without issue). This is achieved while in game by selecting 'Exit' from the pause menu and selecting 'Restart Mission'. This loads the level in a paused state at the start of the mission . You can then select save game and use that save to load each time you attempt a run. This makes continuous attempts more efficient than loading after the end game stats have displayed.

4. Any activity you can do while at the start paused screen should be accepted. For example: selecting a unit and giving a movement command, queueing up build commands for the commander, moving the view around via the mini map etc. As of me writing this post there already are quite a few runs (including my own) giving movement commands before starting in game time. I believe whatever commands you can queue up before unpausing should all be ok as it is not a cheat or glitch but something that any player can do with an unmodified version of the game.

Overall here are the rules I propose:

TA Speedrun Rules :

1. Timing uses In Game Time, Real Time is In Game divided by 2 at +10 speed.

2. Game Time must be displayed in all submitted runs.

3. The time you submit is whatever In Game Time is displayed when "Victory!" appears on screen.

4. Starting from a saved pause screen is accepted.

5. Any activity you can do while at the start paused screen is accepted.

This is all just ideas I have been thinking about and would like anyone interested to chime in with anything they might want to say.

Cheers, Blomp.

I know I'm still a nobody everywhere on this site, but I feel that from a timing standpoint, since #3 relies on playing at +10, there may be some of us who aren't completely able to play properly at +10. Sometimes I have issues with fine control or short lapses in other functions that can make it much more difficult at +10. If we're using game time as a base anyway, I think it should just simply be "game time" as a run time, with only speeds <0 not allowed due to their non-linearity.

I've tried to make comparison runs, to see if it was realistic that I even try this, relative to the current IL WR's on the early ARM missions, which are just "run and gun" for the most part, and still end up ~10 seconds (game time) behind. Obviously this leaves the issue of times less than 1s when run times are close, but someone smarter than me may have the ability to write a mod for the in-game clock?

This is just me spouting a couple ideas, with no intended bias and probably a lot of naivete. It just seems imbalanced from the outside.

Thanks for reading, and I hope there's at least a productive discussion about it.