Introduction of X-D Maps/Checkpoints Records + Team Update

Dear community,

I'm thrilled to finally share a project we've been passionately working on for over a year. So without further ado, let’s dive right in:

 

I. Introduction of X-D maps and Recording Rules

 

 

X-D Maps are a new subcategory of records which have a specifically adapted ruleset in order to match the prestige of having a world record on kreedz.com. All maps that have a difficulty of Extreme and above (incl. Extreme-Death, and Death), are labelled as 'X-D' maps (although there are some exceptions, see down below for more information).

But before I dive into the nitty-gritty of the rules, I'd like to share a few words about X-D maps and how this will affect KZ going forward:

Since the times of akkord in the early 2010s, X-D maps have been gaining popularity in servers, but never that much to the point they were officially recognized on the official leaderboards of kreedz.com. And while some of our partner communities like kz-rush and RJ have tried to push X-D maps more, given the current meta of playing these maps, they were never quite 'integrated' into the world of KZ. In other words, we have never seen a ROTR for an X-D map, or an official Kreedz.com tournament using them. A world record using checkpoints on hb_mart wouldn't have been comparable as a world record on bkz_goldbhop. For that reason, we thought that it's finally time to unite all of these under the same roof, so any kind of map, no matter how difficult it may be, will be recordable on kreedz.com and the record would have the same weight as any other record.

We believe this simplifies recording and gives proper recognition to every quality map no matter its difficulty. The fragmentation of nocheck and gocheck records will no longer exist, as kreedz.com would actively regulate these type of maps too from this point onwards.

Now, back to the matter at hand:

Depending on the active record, X-D maps can be recorded with the following settings:

[+Gochecks] [+Mpbhops] (Default route)
[+Gochecks] [-Mpbhops] (Will replace previous route)
[-Gochecks] [-Mpbhops] (WIll replace both previous routes)

*[-Gochecks] [+Mpbhop] is not allowed as it would go against the spirit of other nocheck records.

As you can see, if a map is labelled as 'Extreme' or above, and doesn't have a record yet, a player will have the liberty of choosing one of the mentioned recordable routes. You can see this example with gbc_script_x.

Why + 'Borderline' X-D Maps

 

The most obvious reason is to allow the active record tracking of maps whose difficulty is so high that they are almost certaintly impossible to be finished without the usage of both gochecks and mpbhops plugins.

Nevertheless, if an X-D map already has a nocheck record, then further records are only allowed on the [-gocheck] and [-mpbhops] route. This is currently the case of a map like fu_insane. If this update had existed when the map was originally released, people would have had the option to record demos with [+gochecks] [+mbhops] and/or [+gochecks] [-mbhops], but since the map already has a nocheck record, that is no longer allowed. 

The main reason behind this idea is to take into consideration 'borderline' nocheck maps which we are unsure of whether they are possible without gochecks or not. Sometimes, difficulty by itself is not enough to indicate whether a map is possible with only gochecks, as is the case with mojito_xiaoheifenbhop. Despite the 'death' tier difficulty, the map is more than likely to be finished one day without the usage of gochecks and mpbhops. 

But we are not done yet. The bluriness surrounding 'borderline' maps is a bit more complicated than that, so here are additional rules that will ensure some consistency in regards to how we will be labelling X-D maps and how the rules would apply to exceptions:

*Maps whose difficulty is below extreme, and already have an active -gocheck -mpbhop record on kreedz.com won't be considered as X-D maps, even though maps with a higher difficulty (e.g. extreme+) are considered as such BECAUSE of the higher difficulty. 

 

*Maps which weren't previously part of the kreedz.com map pool (e.g. hb_shock) and whose difficulty is below Extreme, WILL be given the chance to be considered as X-D because they were never truly finished without checkpoints.

 

Basic explanation for both rules:

The first rule tackles the following question: Why is fu_insane considered an X-D map, while fu_extreme isn't when both have an active NOCP record?

The second rule tackles the following question: Why is hb_shock considered an X-D map, while fu_extreme isn't when both share the same difficulty?

X-D Maps Record Page

With that being said, take a look at a hypothetical map record history of gbc_script_x and how the rules would affect every submission:

• • • 04/07/2024 - gbc_script_x [mpbhops, +gc] -> Player A: 10:04.56 [60 cp, 409 gc]

• • • 05/07/2024 - gbc_script_x [mpbhops, +gc] -> Player B: 9:56.40 [55 cp, 330 gc]

• • • 12/09/2024 - gbc_script_x [-mpbhops, +gc] -> Player C: 34:06.66 [cp 150, 402 gc] – previous route gets removed
    • 24/10/2024 - gbc_script_x [-mpbhops, +gc] -> Player D: 28:06.99 [cp 128, 389 gc]
    • 10/11/2027 - gbc_script_x -> Player E: 59:44.99 – previous route gets removed

 

As you can see, the first record starts with the usage of both gochecks and mpbhops, the second one improves it purely on time alone, but the third one manages to finish the map without mpbhops. In that case, even though the time is way worse, the previous route gets discarded and all new world records from now one mustn't use +mpbhops plugin. The same happens with the last record, where the player manages to finish the map without gochecks and mpbhops, so it basically becomes a normal record under regular kreedz.com recording rules. 

This way we can allow the recording for maps which are likely not possible without gochecks, but at the same time, we could still highlight the brilliance of nochecks should they ever occur, as was the case with fu_extreme in the past. On top of that, kreedz.com still has a strong bias towards nocheck records, that's why we will not be accepting separate routes for each route/category, and we would still value the most nochecks, or runs using settings as close as possible to that ideal.

The recording rules would also match kz-rush's checkpoint recording rules, so that existing records from both communities can be easily uploaded by the players. E.g. a new kreedz.com WR using checkpoints won't have any problems being uploaded to kz-rush, and viceversa.

Read the entirety of the X-D rules on the appropiate page.

II. Leaderboards + Stats Page

If you have already read the full ruleset for X-D maps, you will know that all new X-D records will count towards the 'Overall' Kreedz.com Leaderboards. In other words, all records will be equal.

 Nevertheless, some people might be curious to see how the records would look like if we apply certain filters, e.g. checkpoint only records, and here's our solution:

 

• We created a brand new stats page which has the same filters from the regular records page. For now its main use is for people who won't be too happy to see the combined leaderboard of both CP + NOCP records, so this offers a simple alternative to see them separately. Nevertheless, I will insist that the main leaderboard page will remain untouched, and the same applies for the Top5 leaderboard on the front page.
• This means that not only you can filter the leaderboard including only checkpoint, X-D, and mpbhops, but also who has the most records on bhop maps, climb maps, long maps, and etc. Mind you, certain categories are subjective, as this was done by the kreedz.com administration together with the help of a few key community members.
• This is only the beginning for the stats page, since in the future we plan on adding much more curious and interesting statistics such as: The most amount of demo submissions by a single player, the highest percentage of records from the entire map pool in history, the oldest records, the most consecutive amount of records on a single map, the most beaten map, and much more!
  
  Current top13 leaderboard based on 'bhop' maps only. You can apply a filter for X-D maps as well.

III. Existing X-D Maps Suggestions

We have made a short list of about 60 new X-D maps (i.e. not previously part of the kreedz.com map pool) that are already available for recording (basically most X-D maps that do not have a record already, special thanks to sekai!). However, we plan on explanding the list, and therefore we believe that the community could take part in this. In general, given the prestige of some of these old x-d maps, we ignored a great deal of current kreedz.com mapping standards, but that does not mean that we'll add every single x-d map.

For that reason we created a discord channel, where you, the users, can share your suggestions for adding EXISTING x-d maps.

You can find the full feedback rules here, but in general it would consist of the following:

- Map name + link to download the map with all the necessary files
- State the difficulty, length, and type of the map based on the aforementioned rules.
- Explain why you think this map deserves to be on the kreedz.com map pool.

 

IV. New X-D Map Submission Rules and Procedure:

 

If you have a new map that you would like to present for potential listing with us, you have the opportunity to do so. The map must go through the testing phases:

V. Remaining features  + Team Update

Missing features:

- Currently thumbnails for X-D Maps are missing, these will be added as soon as possible.
- Currently some co-mappers for some X-D maps are missing, they will be added as soon as possible.
- Currently the only way to give feedback is via our discord channel or by reaching one of our admins in private. However, we want to have direct feedback option in the website one day as well.

Team Update:

Please welcome Ahful as our new demochecker. Thanks to him, we managed to knock off a big chunk of demos during April, something, which wouldn't have been possible otherwise! I remind everybody that we are still looking for more democheckers, so feel free to reach out if you are interested.

Also, please say hello to sekai once again! He used to be a part of the map team in the past, but now he will join as our first X-D mapchecker specialist!

And with this massive update we've been working on for the past year, we are finally happy to say that we are one big step closer to our vision for kreedz.com!

I hope all of you will have fun recording (or enjoy suffering, you asked for it!) X-D maps, or simply enjoy the new features of the website!

Yours,

Kreedz.com