I changed the default run timing from RTA to IGT upon request, as it meant that different hardware that influenced how quickly the game ran wouldn't be a problem, and to keep it consistent with Stunt Track Driver 1. However, after seeing the latest run that was submitted, I realized (or re-remembered, it's been years since I've played the game) that collecting coins increases the timer, and scoring stunts decreases the rate at which the timer falls (Stunt Track Driver 1 does not do this). This means that using IGT results in more of a score-based run than a true speedrun. I don't think that Stunt Track Driver 2 has the same issues regarding slowdown that the first game has either, so I'm tempted to go back to RTA as the default time measurement for Stunt Track Driver 2. Any thoughts?

I did not realize that this was the case. If that is so, then I think RTA has a very good case for being the default timing method.

I went ahead and made RTA the default timing for both Any% and 100%. That puts my run back at #1 for now, but the other runs were optimized for IGT instead of RTA, so my run should be quite easily beatable.

Just did a run of this with 4:00 IGT. I feel like I agree with the earlier sentiment of IGT not relying on hardware to be the better metric. I also think a game called Stunt Track Driver should depend on how many stunts you can do during the race as well. It's a test of skill afterall, and the highest skill requires being able to do as many stunts as possible, and collect gold coins, while not crashing. Just my 2 cents. If we're sticking to RTA I suppose I can try more runs geared towards that.

Coming back to this topic after a while, and I feel conflicted. I just started playing the game again, and it's a real shame that this game has mechanics that fuck with the IGT.

The way I see it, we can either favor IGT or RT and both will have their pros and cons.

For IGT being the method, the pros would be that it is more skill based & based on the timer given to you in game. It is also arguably much more fun. The con is that tininsteelian is correct, and that it's not really a speedrun - it makes it a high score run. One of my main games of choice, Cruis'n Exotica, has this same dilemma. In that game, RT won out, but a separate category was made for IGT. The issue doing that here, would be that I'm not sure there is a gameplay difference between the two categories.

For RT being the method, the pros would be that it's actually a speedrun of the game, but the cons are that it doesn't reward what the game wants you to do.

I'm not really sure what should be done, and both sides have their merits, but idk...

Maybe there should be a vote in the discord? Not sure if anyone will vote in it though haha.

The issue that I have with RT is that with the way this game is handled on modern machines, it has a few seconds of black on the menus between tracks, but you can still click through. You can see this in my recordings, and I have to intentionally slow down in between tracks to make sure my time is displayed before continuing to the next track, so that it's clear I'm not splicing runs. I wouldn't be able to wait that time between levels if I was going for RT, but if we go by IGT it doesn't affect my time. So if we stick with RT, suddenly I'm unable to compete at all, which is a major feels bad when there's only 4 of us running it, and I blasted the previous IGT record by 5 seconds, but am still 3rd overall.

I definitely think there are more arguments for IGT than RT... Honestly if one more person (Tini?) is cool with it, I say we switch it back. Coming back to the game after playing it again, it felt abundantly clear that IGT was the better indicator of how good a run is.

And for the record, your run is super sick and should be WR imo.