Details:- While you're adventuring, the amount of time you've spent in the current run (defined as the time between entering an area, such as HotW, and defeating that area's final boss) will be displayed.
- The timer will not be visible by default, but users can turn it on in their account settings.
- It doesn't need to update in real time; updating on reload or upon entering a new encounter would be perfectly fine.
Pros:- As an optional toggle that is by default off, it has zero impact on users who decide to not turn it on - there would be no unwanted pressure to complete runs faster.
- Speedruns - some users find speedrunning fun, and being able to compare run times across different users without the inaccuracies of manually timing a run would be useful.
- Testing team compositions - finding good adventuring builds through trial and error is one important aspect of gameplay, and one way of gauging a build's success is how fast it can get through an area on average.
- Other forms of adventuring experiments - including but not limited to estimating the effects of luncheon meals and weather modifiers on a team's adventuring success.
Cons + mitigation:- Adventuring is heavily RNG-based, and a timer being provided might mistakenly imply to users that a build that results in a shorter run is necessarily better than a build that results in a longer run. <--> I think it is up to individual users to realize that a run's time can be heavily affected by uncontrollable variables.
- One counterpoint to this suggestion might be that a user could easily time their own runs. <--> This doesn't affect the usefulness of a site-provided timer. (Also, I might be wrong, but I believe that the necessary data (i.e. the starting and ending times of a run) is already collected by the site.)
