Nach on artificial difficulty

<feozzz> Nach: we have a vault rule for codes, where we can only use them to unlock things and make the game harder. but what if the password used doesn't unlock a hard mode, but directly (and artificially) reduces player HP, and does nothing else?
<feozzz> dunno
<feozzz> it would make the game harder, but if we allow such artificial passwords, it might get really crazy
<Nach> Kirby's Dream Land has two title screen codes
<Nach> one enables "hard mode"
<Nach> the other brings you to a debug like menu where you can lower your live count and vitality
<Nach> and you can use both to make the game harder
<feozzz> Nach: sounds like it doesn't have to be an actual in-game hard mode?
<Nach> they're not the same in KDL
<feozzz> for vault
<Nach> KDL hard mode makes the enemies way more difficult
<Nach> feozzz: so our KDL TAS uses the hard mode, but it does not use the options to lower the player lives and vitality
<Nach> and lowering the vitality makes the game signifigantly harder, but it means you can no longer take damage to save time
<Nach> when I first saw our KDL TAS submitted all those years ago, I was actually a bit perturbed to see if used hard mode, but didn't also lower vitality
<Nach> but as I stewed over it for a a while (possibly years), I realized tweaking such a thing isn't really what we're going for
<Nach> it's not your usual TAS, and you want to allow stuff like traiding damage for time
<Nach> so while I think we can accept a KDL low vitality run if people find it entertaining, I don't think it's what the vault is aiming for
<feozzz> my take is that for vault we don't want artificial concepts because they have potential of getting Masterjuned
<Nach> you also get into an argument as to whether the correct way for the simple and fastest TAS is supposed to be the one which is artifically the most difficult or the one which allows for the most time savers
<feozzz> so while unlocking things with codes for vault, we want them to be actual in-game entities
<Nach> so I think it's better not to get into such nonsense
<feozzz> yeah, like "but life manager became tighter! it's hardest difficulty now!"
<Nach> unlocking for vault something which is only cosmetic is okay. unlocking hardest mode is something we typically demand. Unlocking other games or level sets to TAS those is fine. Anything else is iffy
<Nach> life manager may become tighter, but at the same time it's less oppertunity to trade life for time savers, we don't want to say that artificial change is what we demand for fastest
<Nach> and therefore disallow a faster not artificially difficult TAS to vault because it's not as hard, even though it's faster
<feozzz> the thing is, the rule simply says "making the game harder is allowed for vault". we seem to need to spell out "harder mode"
<Nach> okay, a reword can be in order there
<Nach> it's allowed to enable a built-in hard mode
<Nach> feozzz: so, would you like a sheep?
<feozzz> I dunno
<feozzz> (still)
<feozzz> http://tasvideos.org/MovieRules.html#WeAllowPlayingUnlockableContentUsingInGamePasswords
<feozzz> http://tasvideos.org/MovieRules.html#Vault_2
<feozzz> here are these 2 places
<feozzz> Nach: should we say "hard mode", "harder mode", or "hardest mode"?
<Nach> feozzz: I'm on it
<TASVideoAgent> Page MovieRules edited by Nach (Fix a potential loop hole and ambiguity regarding "harder" game): http://tasvideos.org/MovieRules.html
<feozzz> Nach: yeah but in general, not using the hardest mode, just some harder one, with these codes, is vaultable?
<Nach> feozzz: if it's the hardest one you can unlock, I don't see why not
<feozzz> Nach: but what if it's lower than hardest, and higher than normal?
<feozzz> we judge by whether it's justified in this aprticular case?
<feozzz> and it might be?
<Nach> feozzz: I believe so
<feozzz> alright
<feozzz> so just the same difficulty guidelines as always
<feozzz> thanks!
<Nach> sure thing sir
<Nach> enjoy your vodka