Hey gamers, LCS moderation team is here with another update. We got various stuff to discuss, so let's start.

Rules

We've updated a few rules and even introduced a new one for PPSSPP users:

Emulator runs require showing emulation/cheats settings after finishing a run (Settings -> System -> Emulation and Cheats sections) ... Enable Plugins option must be turned off (applicable only to PPSSPP versions 1.18+)

If you're playing on a modern emulator version, make sure you go to Settings and disable the new "Enable Plugins" option, as it is turned on by default! You really don't want to get your run invalidated simply because you just updated your emulator.

Submission video must show the entire duration of the run from start to finish, including starting story missions from the marker, starting time trials from getting on the designated vehicle, starting multiplayer races by showing the lobby menuing and chosen event options before starting the race, starting side missions either via pressing the corresponding side mission trigger button or getting on/in the designated side mission vehicle and ending the recording with the mission pass. Singleplayer races can be seen as the exception, where you can start recording in the moments leading up to the racing portion trigger, i.e the runup. Starting the recording from dark screen/mid loading etc. isn't allowed and same principle applies for the recording ending prematurely.

This wall of text basically says "The recoding must include the whole run. Better submit a longer video than cut out something important". The exception is singleplayer races, because it is allowed to make a save state before the actual race marker on emulators, so you can get a perfect race start. If this rule is broken, the run will be rejected.

All story mission ILs recordings require the runner to show the mission intro cutscene fully faded in before skipping it. Showing only a few faded in frames of the initial cutscene or no cutscene at all is strictly prohibited

This part is extremely important. With some missions, it's possible to skip all cutscenes in a way that you're left with nothing but a black screen with "Loading..." in the top right corner. This makes timing these runs quite difficult and time-consuming. We need to see a clear starting point, so now it's required to let the initial cutscene fully fade in. If this rule is broken, the run isn't going to be rejected, but it will be timed from activating the mission marker itself, which adds an extra ~5 seconds to your final time. Don't do that.

Runs use the Real Time Attack (RTA) timing convention

Previously, some ILs used in-game time, but we decided to unify the timing method. This also comes with a benefit to players: setups that break the in-game timer are now allowed. All existing runs that used IGT were retimed.

Speaking of ILs

We've added 70 new ILs. And we tried to divide all levels into multiple categories with specific timing rules. Here's what we came up with:

Timing for story missions starts upon skipping the initial cutscene (cutscene footage begins fading to black once that happens) and ends when the mission has been passed (indicated by icons disappearing from the radar/hud and/or money counter ticking up upon runner completing the final objective of the mission, as well as first visible frame of the main character appearing after skipping final mission cutscene)

Timing for time trials/races starts upon triggering the race section (in-game timer pops up) and ends when the race has been finished (in-game timer disappears)

Timing for side missions/railshooters starts upon game establishing/triggering the side mission specific objective and ends when the side mission has been passed. Important note - all of the ILs in this group have specific indicators as to when they start and end, please refer to the "Level Specific Rules" section at the bottom for more details

Timing for multiplayer races starts upon triggering the race section ("GO" text disappears) and ends when the race has been finished ("Winner" text appears)

Don't worry, if you get the final time wrong, we will retime it for you. Just make sure you've included everything we need to see. However, some levels still require some further clarification on timing and/or rules. You can find it at the very bottom of the rules in the "Level Specific Rules" section. If this section doesn't exist for some level, then this level follows the common guidelines.

You also probably noticed that among these new levels we have multiplayer races. We imagine your first reaction is "Damn, I really want to speedrun these, but I don't have 2 PSPs!". Luckily, you don't need any (if you're willing to play on emulator). All you need is a PC with PPSSPP installed. Use "localhost" as ad-hoc server IP address and you're good to go. If you need a more detailed tutorial, let us know in the comments and we will provide one.

We've also introduced 4 high score levels - one for every railshooter and one for RC Triad Take-down. This change is more of an experiment, but we thought it could fun. It works like that:

Runner is required to include the entire gameplay that took place between the start and the end of the IL in their submission video, meaning ending the recording before the "Mission Passed!" text is forbidden. No timing rules apply here - submit your final score in the time field (1-999 in the milliseconds field, 1000+ in the seconds and milliseconds fields)

You can play on any platform you want - we created a separate category for these. Have fun scoring high!

And last, but not least...

Mobile

Mobile is now a separate category. All Android and iOS runs belong there now. The reason for this decision is pretty clear: I needed all my IL records back. Wait, what? I mean, the mobile version is a little different after all. For example, Paramedic, Vigilante and Firefighter were shortened from 12 to 9 levels, which gives an unfair advantage in ILs and 100%. If you're wondering "is Mobile going to get a completely different leaderboard like it happened with the mobile releases of III, Vice City and San Andreas?", then the answer is no. We believe such drastic separation isn't needed here. The most popular category, Any% (No AJS), is not much different between Mobile and original releases, so it'd be more convenient to keep everything in one place.

All old runs were moved and all new runs that are still in the queue will be moved by the moderation team.

And that is it for now, folks. Congratulations to @Noz for becoming a WR holder in Any% (No AJS)!

Have a Hollywood Christmas and an Undead New Year!

This site is so good that it now has a smaller character limit for topics. This forced me to split the post in two messages, but then I found out that you can bypass this limit by editing the existing post. It also doesn't display headers, so have boring bold text instead.