"The races are all done on Easy difficulty. What does difficulty change, exactly?"
The difficulty actually changes the RNG for some tracks. The Ai is more faster when racing on Hard and considering I had to backup in most stages, they'd knock me over from the start boost.
"From my understanding, the warp lap skip glitch (or whatever it's supposed to be named) requires voiding out while in mid-air after crossing the starting line at race start?"
Lap Respawn Glitch (or LRG) is a glitch where after I fall without triggering a checkpoint, it will decide to count a lap. Reason is because if I'm at a current spot on the starting line, and turn back around, that last checkpoint before turning is still used. After respawning, I turn around and cross the line by a little, if I go to far, I'll hit a different checkpoint canceling the glitch. It checks to see if I past the line, but if I touched a checkpoint that is a bit before the line, the game thinks I did a full lap.
"I noticed that you don't seem to get the speed booster item as often from item capsules. Is it possible to manipulate their rolls for more useful items without major slowdown?"
I'm not 100% sure about that one. From my understanding of it, the RNG of item capsules is by a certain time I touch the capsule.
"Speaking of the speed booster item, I also noticed the drift boosting speed trick going on. Would the speed booster item give better benefits, whether from making the drift boost faster if it's possible or just giving extra speed boosts when it's not possible to get a drift boost?"
So this trick was discovered on 11/21 where I was passing a curb and something in my brain told me to spam R. This is now known as "Wheelie Drifting" This is wheelieing while spamming drift. It is a bit like Mario Kart's golden mushroom but without the item. The RNG would stay the same of how I mentioned it above. It makes it faster to move but when there's some stages where it cancels my boost, the effect still works even when I try Wheelie Drifting.
"I noticed that some turns weren't done as close to the turn as possible in a few races. Would it be possible that slowing down a little to get closer to the turn to save a little bit of time?"
Before Turbine Loop, possibly. The Wheelie Drifting kind of automates the driving.
"Whale Lagoon: I noticed that you drive in reverse rather than going forward the wrong way but turning enough once in a while to not void out. Is going in reverse faster overall in this case?"
If you drive forward the wrong way, there's a timer for you to respawn. The only way to do that if I had x3 Shoes at the start.
"Shibuya Downtown: You get hit by an opponent right at the start of the second lap. That seems to be something that can be avoidable altogether without losing speed. I also happen to notice you're also next to road speed booster to your right when you get hit. If you had to get hit, wouldn't it make sense to take the hit and then be able to use that road speed booster to quickly get back to speed?"
Yes, I don't know why I didn't... but I didn't (╯︿╰)
"Treetops: You once again got hit midway through lap 1. Would a shield have worked to avoid that hit?"
Same message above applies.
"Jump Parade: You stopped near the start of the race before advancing. Was this to avoid the other racers or to setup the warp lap skip glitch?"
Neither, it was manipulation to get x3 Shoes to come back around and setup the LRG.
"You also got hit right near the end of the first lap, which again I'm pretty sure is avoidable."
If I wanted to keep the shoe, I couldn't pick up the shield. The only items that block the rockets are shields (obviously) or horns.
"Pinball Highway: You bump into Sonic's car when turning around to go backwards, making you lose a little bit of speed. Is there a way to avoid this collision?"
No cause it actually helped me turn in the scene. I'm pretty sure it's avoidable but it actually helped
"Sewer Scrapes: As with Whale Lagoon, you drive in reverse rather than face the wrong way for a bit but also you hit the turn a few times doing so."
Yeah, it saves a bit of time because of the respawn timer.
"Lost Palace: You bump into the tree before the second void out turning to the left. I also noticed the later void outs are done turning right where there's no tree in the way. Is it not possible to also do that for the second void out, avoiding the tree, or is that simply not possible to pull of the glitch as quickly?"
No, it's in a way, a setup to do the LRG. It doesn't work if I turn left on the first void out.
"Sun Fair: You bump into two racers when trying to go in reverse at the start of the race. Wouldn't it be possible to avoid them by slightly turning a bit during the moment you go forwards so the start of your reverse would be without interruptions and thus not lose speed?"
Yeah, Jackie and Chu-chus was a bit of a slow down. Don't know why I didn't avoid them but umm yeah, I didn't avoid it :(
"Deadly Route: I noticed you slowing down right before getting an item capsule with a speed booster. This implies to me that there's at least one way to manipulate the item RNG but I don't know if it's by waiting frames, waiting seconds, or it's influenced by player inputs. At the same time I noticed you drove into another item capsule. Was there any possiblility that could have a speed booster as well without waiting?"
I highly doubt I'd be able to do something else. I tried it before and got the same item, but when I slowed down though, the RNG changed so that's sadly the only way to manipulate the items. Also, the duration of the speed shoes takes a while to end so I waited to get to the stairs to boost up Out of Bounds and flash skip.
"Bingo Party: It seems like there was an extra void out performing the lap skip glitch. Was that one a failed attempt at getting the glitch to work that was left in?"
Yeah, the first void out didn't teleport me near the lap checkpoint for some odd reason so I had to do it a 2nd time.
"My current feeling on this submission is that it could use a lot more time to refine and optimize this further."
Yeah, someone told me that too. I'd actual make another TAS that's more optimized if I could find more addresses and help. It was a bit frustrating to make though only 2492 records but hopefully in the future, I can get more help.