Category:Racing Rules

When playing Ocarina of Time Randomizer (OoTR), players often choose to impose rules upon themselves for more challenge, to learn something new, or implicitly should they not know some things are possible. The most common scenario to impose rules upon players, however, is when racing. It's important that every player in a race follow the same guidelines to create as even a playing field as possible.

As of 3-Nov-2019, OoTR has 3 main rulesets for racing: Standard, GGJ (Glitchless + Ground Jumps), and noIM/WW. Below are the motivations behind each ruleset, the links to the detailed pages for each, and the major differences between Standard and GGJ because both are glitchless-based rulesets.

Universal Rules

Universal Rules, which are applicable to all OoTR community races regardless of Ruleset used:

• OoTR can be played on many platforms; however, Project64 v2.x and Modloader64 are not permitted for racing. Project64 v3.0+ is race legal, though.
• Emulator users must make sure they meet the emulator requirements before racing.
• Any Emulator functions/speedups are prohibited. This includes, but is by no means limited to: savestates, turbo functions, texture packs, and altering framerates/frame load times.
• All tracking must be done manually; autotracking, Chat tracking, or help from anyone else tracking digitally or in person is not allowed. Autotrackers placed in Manual Mode are still prohibited for use in races. You must maintain your own notes.
  • The only exception is in Co-op races, in which part of the race format is the sharing of information between two racers working as a team. The team is still prohibited from assistance from anyone that is not part of the team.
• Any knowledge of the seed which is not gained through gameplay is grounds for disqualification. This includes, but is by no means limited to: being informed of item locations by Chat, watching other racers or a race restream to learn about the seed, viewing a seed's Spoiler Log prior to race completion, or reverse-engineering a Spoiler Log.
  • Spoiler Log Races, in which all racers are permitted to view the Log before the start of the race, are exempt from the "viewing a seed's Spoiler Log prior to race completion" portion of this rule.
• No modifications to the base OoT ROM or VC WAD are permitted other than those available in officially recognized versions of the randomizer, including but not limited to:
  • Release and Dev versions available on ootrandomizer.com
  • Offline versions of stable Releases
  • Offline versions of the main development branch or developers' personal forks
  • gzinject or gzinjectGUI for offline WAD injection

Standard

The goal of this ruleset is to be flexible to the will of the Randomizer Community as well as cater to balancing the randomizer experience with what's possible in the vanilla game. [Detailed Page]

GGJ

Glitchless + Ground Jumps seeks to emulate the rulesets of the base game, Ocarina of Time. Any technique which is possible without performing a glitch is allowed as well as the singular glitch of Ground Jumping, which is allowed in order to mitigate the Recoil Jump technique's high degree of difficulty. [Detailed Page]

Standard vs. GGJ

Below is a list of the major differences between the Standard and GGJ rulesets in no particular order:

• Ground jumps
  • This technique is allowed in both rulesets, however Standard bans groundjumping out of hoverboots, while GGJ allows it. This can be used to skip the hookshot entirely in Shadow Temple as well as reach the Spirit Compass without a hookshot, as examples.

• Damage Boosting
  • Banned in Standard, GGJ gives the player the full capability of damage boosting, allowing completion of Shadow Temple without the Hover Boots, among many other skips.

• Age Restrictions
  • Banned in Standard is the ability for child to be in 'adult areas' and vice versa. This is gone in GGJ, allowing for child to enter Gerudo Fortress, and for child to cross the inside of spirit, aka "Crazy Dance".

• Flame Storage
  • Flame Storage is banned entirely in GGJ as it is a glitch, Standard allows this.

• Inbounds Seamwalking
  • Banned in Standard, fully allowed in GGJ.

• Fire Arrow Entry to Shadow
  • Banned in Standard, allowed in GGJ.

• Hookshot Extension
  • This technique is allowed in all locations by GGJ, however crossing the Gerudo Bridge has conditional bans in Standard.

• Actor Culling
  • Manipulating the camera to cause actors to cull, or become inactive and/or otherwise disrupt their normal function, is banned in Standard for boulders, specifically in the case whereby you Hookshot through them. This is allowed in GGJ. Other instances of actor culling are generally allowed in both rulesets including: Schrodinger's Bridge (aka cat chain), keeping enemies off camera for more favorable movement.

• Market Shops at Night
  • Allowed in GGJ, banned in Standard.

Dungeon Door Requirement (DDR)

The Dungeon Door Requirement ruleset is a glitched ruleset designed specifically with randomizer in mind. While the ruleset utilizes glitches, it is meant to be played using glitchless logic; this means that racers of glitchless rulesets (e.g., Standard and GGJ) can immediately play and learn alongside DDR racers. [Detailed Page]

noIM/WW

The most glitch heavy of the main rulesets, all but the most broken or imbalanced glitches of Ocarina of Time are allowed. [Detailed Page]

Retired Rulesets

The following rulesets were previously used by the OoTR community, but have since been retired from use in races.

• Accessible
• No Major Glitches / NMG