There is no perfect run, even if you are assuming TAS = perfect run, in reality TAS runs are not absolute. Some TAS runs are faster than others. Ultimately, there's a person behind TAS runs, and that person is susceptible to flaws. TAS can also go to the opposite side of the spectrum and do skips that are not humanly possible where you can possibly skip massive section of the map. This is a mess and should not be in any kind of ranking calculation for human.
Ofc. TAS runs are not absolute. I commented on that myself as well could be a problem! I didn't say TAS has to be used, but I said it could equip us with information. Yeah, some TAS runs are faster than others. But just like if you increase the sample size, you can get better information, TAS can work like that.
Map length is not always known. Disregarding the "perfect" part, every "perfect run adjusted for map length" is one skip away from being completely false. This becomes a bigger trouble when people eventually argue about whether or not to remove the skip. In hard maps where people fail thousands of times, who can say what is the actual map length?
True. I didn't want to make my post too lengthy. But the perfect run has to assume the WR route. If new sc's emerged, the perfect adjusted for length should be adjusted to a new route. True. But that's not a fundamental problem. No sc's will be argued about, when a map is officially released, it will never be changed.
You believe that relative difference of time (in the top 10) indicates competitiveness which is not always true. I present to you "the most competitive course ever", according to the % difference in time.
Exactly 😃 I edited my last post just before your post to comment on that issue myself. There are flats and peaks. All stage startzones on surf maps are kinda flat. Max vel surf is flat (you can also ctrl+f max vel and check my rant about "the actual rank system" but you have to scroll up). Rampstrafe is peaked. Some obstacles are requiring more raw skills than other. The demand of raw skills is not constant through a map. That's a big problem which I juuuuust realized before you wrote that post 🙂 It could be adjusted for I believe, but it's gonna be too hard.
But this also ties into a big problem which KSF actually has. According to me max vel surf maps are likely to give more points than other maps because of flats give closer times in the top10.
So to measure competitiveness with distribution of times can be problematic due to peaks/flats (discriminate rampstrafe maps; favor max vel maps as surf_utopia especially)
To measure competitiveness through distribution of run times are problematic as seen. To measure competitiveness through # completions is bloody nonsense. To measure competitiveness through # completions adjusting for tier, require us to keep the mix of skills in the population (and reworking the tiers accordingly) in check which is also very complex.
SO daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn.
Flat point system ftw until we have more brain in 100 years.
edit2: Well, regardless of my dream about the WR king of WR kings, we still have to look at a system like KSF's to measure competitiveness IF we want that at all. We don't know exactly how to adjust for peaks/flats, but at least we know the extreme cases of flats (startzone drops [without spin, and especially fixed drops]), max vel surfing, a fall map like you posted. Max vel surfing could be removed universally or just tried to be adjusted for like the startzone drops, etc.
edit3: Yeah, I agree the king of the kings idea is too risky for now. Maybe in the future. Another idea could be to choose the king of the kings MAP, just like we have campaign maps. But there are still many issues ofc. I wish I was a statistician, daaaamn, that's cool (along time ago I talked about I had a friend who was, but I was wrong, his education was only very slightly related to that, sadly)
edit4 only surf related theory, tl;dr
To anyone who is confused about why I said unit surfing tends to be more contested when it is "flat-ish"? That's because all your speed is carried forward on unit surfing, so the peaks will have their impact through the whole map! So unit surfing is not that flat ish. Peaks can also give more rng'ness. Peaks can work like in both ways simultaneously which confuses me a lot, but rampstrafes especially are good peaks for competition. Oldschool surfing has a lot of peaks (which often creates a lot of rng'ness), but actually, oldschool surfing also has a lot of flats! Because you can't carry your speed forward efficiently from section to section, so you may lose speed in one section without that having an impact in another. In oldschool surfing you have something that goes beyond max vel flats, you could call them "stops" rather than flats, but the problem is the same. You anyway have to lose your speed at these points; this helps the noobs to catch up the pro's. But how good the map carries your speed forward is not either/or. Drops are bad for carry forwardness. You can also have sections where you lose speed but all your speed is consumed, so it has very high carry forwardness! So there is actually a difference between losing speed and consuming your speed. Hmm, that's beautiful man.
