Recently there's been a bit of interest in SA2(B) Mission 4 ring attacks, so I thought I might bring this up again. Should Mission 4 rings or scores be added to TSC's charts?
With the exception of Routes 101 and 280, Mission 1 and Mission 4 of every stage have just two differences: only Mission 1 has checkpoints, and Mission 4 adds a time limit (or a stricter time limit for Green Forest, Security Hall, and White Jungle).
Implications on Mission 4 ring attacks:
- There's no checkpoint manipulation. In Sonic/Shadow and Tails/Eggman levels, M1 and M5 ring runs often involve creative and risky backtracking tricks to maximize checkpoint bonuses. M4 has no such thing - this may be good if you think backtracks are tedious and/or annoying, or bad if you think ring runs become bland without the backtracking tricks.
- Time limits may or may not present a good challenge. All but 2 of the M4 ring attacks are already known to be 'maxable', but some levels are much more difficult to max than others. Levels like Prison Lane, Mission Street, and Iron Gate don't add too much difficulty to the Mission 1 RA, but levels like Wild Canyon, Pyramid Cave, and Radical Highway may require a lot of practice and planning to max in M4.
- M4 ring attacks may feel like a direct extension of M1 ring attacks which don't involve checkpoint manipulation. In particular, all Knuckles/Rouge M1 ring attacks have no checkpoints, so those M4 ring attacks simply add a time limit. Is this a bad thing or not?
Implications on Mission 4 score attacks:
- No checkpoints to get points or shields from. This will slightly lower M4 scores compared to M1 scores, but this probably won't affect strategies much.
- Speed is already an important element in M1 scores, but time limits still may make a difference. In many Sonic/Shadow and Tails/Eggman levels, a few time consuming point sources may have to be skipped in favor of time. In other levels, though, the top M1 score runs may already meet the M4 time limits. In particular, Knuckles/Rouge score attacks will likely be exactly the same in M1 and M4.
Edit: I'm not considering Mission 4 stats for Routes 101 or 280 in this topic, as those are different from M4's of other stages and would thus be argued for or against differently.