I keep trying to submit to have a new category for Project Zomboid;s A Really CD DA challenge mode. If you know the challenge mode then the goals of the speedrun are, cure the cold and heal the injury, then sleep in a bed. Which makes a fair amount of sense if you know the challenge.
I keep getting rejected because "We are not accepting speedruns from endless games with arbitrary goals".
But there are speedruns for other endless games with arbitrary goals.
Such as Dayz and 7dtd die having a "Kill a zombie" speedrun, or the sims having a "Max out a carrier speedrun". What makes these endless games with arbitrary goals allowable compared with mine?
I know Project Zomboid has an active player base, especially for the challenge mode, and has an average of 14k players online. Me and some friends who play the game are waiting until we can get the category to do speedruns, but its wierd that the rules are unevenly enforced across the board.
Is there any way I can actually talk to the people that reject the runs to seek clarification?
The rules have changed over time. You can’t look at existing boards to try to understand the current rules.
If you’ve submitted the game multiple times and received the same rejection reason, then it’s not going to be accepted.
On that note the absence of a board doesn't prevent people from doing speedruns, It'll make it less interesting in most cases I grant you but I know from experience that a google form or something is completely fine for games that won't be accepted onto the site. And believe me, the player base doesn't count for anything next to the accepted rules. Just as someone who knows a bit about Zomboid, even though it seems unfair, it shouldn't have a place on the site when so many other games with similarly arbitrarily defined goals have been rejected. There are probably other people out there who speedrun aspects of it already though, without a board, because as you say the game has a large player base.
But as Pear's said, don't submit it multiple times when the rejection reason has a problem with the game-state itself, it won't be accepted.
Yeah, I would understand if it was anywhere in the rules that they had changed the requirements. But I went through all the rules with a fine tooth comb and it in no way or point restricted runs from endless games, nor has it stated arbitrary goals don't qualify as a speedrun.
Its unfortunate but I guess Ill have to drum this up on the reddit and start a community for it there.
Thanks RaggedDan for the suggestion. Hopefully there is simething added to the game in future that can help it get its foot in the door for speedruns.
Super Mario 64 is allowed to have a category for grabbing all of the trees in the game, but Project Zomboid speedruns aren’t allowed at all because they are “arbitrary goals?”
A leaderboard that happens to have one arbitrary category is different than a leaderboard composed entirely of arbitrary categories. I understand the frustration here but that's hardly a meaningful comparison.
"Me and some friends who play the game are waiting until we can get the category to do speedruns"
I hate that this has become a predominant attitude to speedrunning with so many people.