Hey all, Game Brain here on behalf of the mod team. There are a few changes that will be added to the leaderboard so I wanted to make a forum post covering everything.
- Splitting Current Patch Runs From Pre-1.22 Runs
Many time attack runs took place while the game was being regularly updated. After reading over and experiencing changes from patches after August 2019, it is clear that time attack runs are indeed affected. The last patches of DOA 6 focused on universal character changes, changes to game aspects like danger zones, and of course game balance and additional character releases (which further dilutes rng pool).
With all of these changes in mind, as discussed in the community discord, the proper approach is to retroactively create what is effectively a “current patch” category. When thinking about how to properly do this split, it is important to consider the size of our community, meaning it would not make sense to split the old leaderboard into 10 different patches. The solution we will be going with is to change the existing category, to “Time-Attack (Legacy)” in order to maintain the showcasing of old runs. A new category simply called “Time-Attack” will be made to serve as the current patch variant, hosting any run that took place after Patch 1.22 (the last update the game received).
With this approach, we manage to not significantly split the leaderboard, while also allowing the proper emphasis on old runs and current runs. Additionally, any run that has taken place since 1.22 will be manually moved to the new category so the runners don't have to worry themselves about it.
- Video Submission Requirement
To give some historical context as to why full video submission was not required for doa5/6, when the doa5 lb was first becoming popular, the go to version for running was Steam. However, the game requirements were quite demanding and could lead to serious lag when recording the game on weaker computers (not to mention capture card requirements to record consoles). With only an incredibly small group of people running the game’s time attack mode, the mod team back then agreed that image submission was fine, as doa5 also gave you a detailed timecard. Additionally, some runs took place in local tournaments, with runners such as myself encouraging others to try a run, resulting in screenshot proof for a 10th place time making a lot of sense.
It has been recently brought to my attention that it is now possible to use software to manipulate the in game timer. In the past, people were able to hack scores in the in-game leaderboards but there had never been mention of being able to mess with the timer in real time. This creates a need for video proof for runs to become the standard for top times.
When deciding how to change our rules, it was important to keep the original reasoning for not having such a requirement in mind. Thus we will require video proof for world records. This will allow us to keep high accessibility for the game, while also not losing credibility for top times.
- New Categories! Combo Challenges
On the positive end, we have our first new category being added in a few years, Combo Challenges! The category is based around completing a character’s combo challenges as fast as possible, and thus will be split by character. Character specific categories are something that a few people had requested in the past, and this is a way to fulfill that idea while also providing a new and unique speedrun category. We will monitor interest in this category carefully, and potentially also add a command training category in the future.
