I recently read about Sonic Mania and how it's receiving an update which is breaking
a lot of it's glitches and skips, making the game just all around less interesting
to speedrun.
This got me thinking about the effect that an update has on a speedrun, and how they
can influence both the community, and the speedrun itself.
Anyone who plays modern video games knows the fear of patch notes.
While the vast majority of changes might be marginal, there's always something to dislike,
and it's easy to hone in on changes you might disagree with or dislike, and to focus
on the negative.
However those who Speedrun modern games almost certainly have even worse views on Patches,
Updates, and hotfixes.
Speedrunners almost always rely on glitches to skip segments, deal extra damage, or to
simply have more optimal movement, However a simple game update or balance change can
make previously used strategies impossible or far less effective.
In this video we're going to explore How updates can and do affect runners; discuss
downpatching and the confusion that it can cause; and finally talk about some possible
solutions to the issue of updates in general.
Updates and patches affect runners in a variety of fashions.
However the end outcome of these patches can often be surprising.
The most drastic changes are often those targeted at speedrun glitches specifically.
Odds are that if a glitch is discovered in a game, it's discovered by and for speedrunners.
This can often make it feel like speedrunners are specifically being targeted by patches,
especially when a fairly niche glitch is patched out.
While a developer is almost certainly not aiming to make a speedrun impossible, it can
often feel this way.
Although this is by far the most extreme case, and is only applicable in niche situations,
A more common example is balance patches.
Almost all modern games, whether multiplayer or single player often have balance updates
on a fairly regular basis.
While it's easy to assume that since these patches often do not have any drastic changes,
they can largely be ignored by speedrunners; but in most cases that's simply and ultimately
untrue.
If a weapon which is used in a run has it's damage nerfed only slightly, to the point
that it takes only a quarter of a second longer to kill enemies with it, that can quickly
build up over the course of a run.
This issue can become exacerbated when you consider that most boss fights work on cycles,
where if a certain amount of damage is done quickly enough it will skips sections of the
fight.
This means that even a slight nerf to damage can make it impossible to do enough damage
quickly enough, and drag out a fight significantly longer.
Since even a slight change can completely disrupt the pathing and strategy of a run,
perhaps it's unsurprising that the vast majority of the most popular speedrun games
are those which came out in an era before updates.
Games like Super mario 64, Ocarina of Time , and the Metroid series are all classic,
beloved, and popular series, and perhaps this is because they were allowed to keep all the
glitches, skips, and exploits that make them so enjoyable to run.
Something to keep in mind is that despite a developer's best efforts to remove a glitch
oftentimes the process of removing a skip, technique or glitch is just as likely to break
the game even further.
The process of fixing one issue causes another to emerge somewhere else.
While this can be quite interesting philosophically, it can often cause a lot of confusion within
the speedrunning community.
Through downpatching runners are able to play on older patches, but it's not always wise
to do so.
While most speedrunners often assume that an older patch is better for speedrunning,
as older patches usually contain more glitches, it's important to remember that the quality
of glitches is far more important than their quantity.
A single glitch which cuts off 10 minutes, is as valuable as 10 glitches which cut off
a single minute.
Things get confusing however when patches have similar outcomes, but different glitches.
For example what patch would you prefer to run; A patch which has a very difficult and
inconsistent glitch that cuts of around 10 minutes, or a patch which has a seperate glitch
or path that removes 8 minutes comparative, and which is easily executed.
While 2 minutes can either be a massive amount of time, or quite minimal depending on the
game, my point still stands.
When the margins get even more slim it become less and less obvious, especially when you
pepper in other factors such as weapon balance, AI differences, and regional patches.
In some cases using a previous patch is the obvious choice, but the proper course isn't
always clear, and in most cases it ultimately comes down to runner preferences.
As I mentioned earlier, down patching is a commonly used fix, if a older patch is objectively
better for speedrunning, and games with DLC can oftentimes simply not install that DLC
while running.
However not every game can be downpatched, and not evey balance patch is bundled with
DLC.
There's nothing more crushing than having a game you love to run getting "updated"
and having the speedrun completely broken.
Either way these are solutions to a bad patch, but as we've covered; not all patches are
necessarily bad.
To be honest, there is no simple solution to the issue of variable patches, game updates,
and hotfixes.
Ideally games would be able to be downpatched within the game UI, and while certain distribution
platforms such as GoG allow for downgrading easily from within the platform; More common
platforms such as steam, or any console stores don't allow for this option.
If downpatching is possible on these platforms it usually requires a great deal of effort,
much of which is not technically legal.
It may be somewhat anticlimactic, but in the end there is very little that us runners can
do, until downgrade integration becomes more common and widespread.
If possible make offline backup files of games that you enjoy and would prefer not to be
updated, as that can help preserve the speedrun, but again; it's not always possible.
In the meantime we'll simply have to continue to adapt and figure out what's optimal in
an overtly confusing situation.
Hey Everyone!
Thanks for checking out this video and my channel.
I'm coming down with a bit of a cold, so if my voice sounded irregular, I apologize.
If you like this style of content despite that, and want to see more in the future,
subscribe, as that's thats the best way to see when I post new content.
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Thank you for your continued support, and as always, I'll see you in the next one.
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