Hey I am long time enjoyer of LOD as a whole and I arrived here looking to partake in speedrunning and hopefully bring more attention to an absolutely criminally underrated game. I recognize that I may not be the voice of the majority but I figure its worth my attempt in injecting my input and my newcomer experience thus far.
I have drifted in and out of a couple speedrunning scenes and noticed that this one doesn't seem to have a posted discord or anywhere to have ongoing conversation besides this forum which is a bit unfortunate. I understand a discord can be a bit extra to manage especially for a really small community but it really impacts the accessibility and I think it would be a good thing to get started or if one is already available please post it somewhere it can be readily accessed in order to make entering the scene a bit easier.
As for run accessibility I think this extensive testing of a specific emulator to best mimic hardware is a bit far. I understand wanting to preserve the dedication and achievements that the current runners have put into the game but restricting access so much makes it a burden to even attempt to join in any fun and serves only as a way of gatekeeping IMO. That being said credit where it is due allowing emu access at all is leagues ahead of a lot of games and I appreciate it providing an option besides original hardware since that is a big restriction but there are so few people running this game to begin with I feel like it should be as accessible as possible at least in it's own category if needed.
I won't pretend I know what is absolutely best for this scene as a whole be it competition or longevity in awareness so take these opinions with your own lense of understanding as needed but I personally (someone who loves this game and really has interest in running it) don't really want to enter under heavy restrictions, I don't want to have to sweat my emulation settings to such a degree I have to download a specific version of a specific emulator to even begin considering my practice or runs legitimate.
Hoping to see a discord where more active conversation can take place. Best to you all and thank you for reading.
We do indeed have an LOD Discord server, although the Speedrunning channel isn't very active. The link can be found near the top of the page here (by the LOD logo), but I also pasted it below for your convenience. I'm always happy to help new runners, so you can always message me either on Twitch or Discord (preferably Twitch) if you have any questions about the run or game mechanics.
As far as the emulator, we want to ensure as much of a level playing field as possible for runs that are eligible for the leaderboard. You're more than welcome to practice or do practice runs on any emulator of your choosing, but in order to submit your run to the leaderboard you must use the specified emulator with the correct settings. The emulator is pretty easy to set up and I believe all of the required settings are already set by default. The only thing in the settings that you should need to update would be your controller mapping. All of the information for setting up the emulator can be found in the forum post linked below.
https://www.speedrun.com/the_legend_of_dragoon/forums/eayhl
Additionally, the most up to date notes for Any% Glitchless can be found at the link below. There is some useful information about game mechanics at the top of the notes.
My bad on the discord button straight missed it and I just couldn't find it mentioned anywhere else. I have joined and will check out everything there and continue any conversations in there. Thank you!
