Brainstorming : bonuses and weapons

[hiker]

Oil slick
Caltrops

These could be some cool variants to bubblegums !

Or something like marbles. I was thinking of something that remains on the screen and can get bumped around.

So a kart would get hit would get a push in one direction, but also bounce off the ball even more? Sounds feasible.

Caltrops are more Ninja-like than marbles though.

I think that would be quite close to bubble gum - something you just drop and forget.

,,,

I was trying to think of some other things that would impact everyone.. like maybe a camera flash, where the screen flashes bright white then fades back in. Might be realllllllly annoying though.

Yes, that is the problem - esp. if you drive with many karts. We had to tune the probability for certain items (namely the switch) down, since the more karts you used, the more often items got switched, which just was too annoying. We might have to add the number of karts in the race to our formula to make 'global' items work nicely with various number of karts.

Cheers,
Joerg

[Arthur]

I am not entirely convinced of camera flash - it might give you a headache if you play with many karts and are driving in a crowd.

Ditto. And we kind of have this already in Lighthouse.

[3dwarehouse]

Hi everyone,

You need to add spikes as a weapon. Kind of like bubblegum but your kart would make a tire deflation noise and come to a complete stop then you would accelerate. Or another way to do it is that spikes would come out of your car from the sides like James bond.

On the boxing glove, I should cause the car you fire at to slow down like if your punched.

[Kinsu]

What about instead of pushing the opponent back, it smashes them, i.e the kart is flattened (easy graphical effect ). As a result, the smashed kart will drive slower, and any collision with another kart would trigger a rescue.

Good idea ! It's the same effect than when one gets crushed by a thwomp in mario kart.

I am not entirely convinced of camera flash - it might give you a headache if you play with many karts and are driving in a crowd.

Of course. But I always play with 11 opponents, and I don't remember getting plunged twice consecutively very often, in fact it may have never happened to me (OK, the plunger has 2 ways to be used, but as we sometimes get 3 I think it compensates in terms of probability). And if it really gets too annoying, the effect could be limited to once in 30sec for instance.
Well, I like this idea because it makes me think of speed cameras... but it's true flashes can be annoying, moreover this is redundant with the plunger...

Caltrops are more Ninja-like than marbles though.

I think that would be quite close to bubble gum - something you just drop and forget.

I agree !

Maybe eating bananas could have a little zipper-like effect (in less powerful), and scale up the kart for a short time ? Eating 5 bananas consecutively could scale up 5 times the kart so it ends up a lot bigger (maybe then, it could have physics adapted to its size and punch out other karts) ?

Sounds good - only problem is that there probably aren't enough bananas to make this worth your while. What about enabling you to collect bananas, and then being able to drop them (i.e. bananas become a kind of collectable).

Yes, I was thinking of the current alternative way in Amazonia, but bananas are too rare for that otherwise... maybe every item could turn into bananas while someone is in monkey mode (though that would make a lot of item change with the "switch item" effect...) ? Maybe this item-change could only be active for the kart(s) in monkey mode ?
Collecting bananas is cool, but it would not be very useful (I mean not more than bubblegums), and there is the same problem of bananas rarity.

[hiker]

What about instead of pushing the opponent back, it smashes them, i.e the kart is flattened (easy graphical effect ). As a result, the smashed kart will drive slower, and any collision with another kart would trigger a rescue.

Good idea ! It's the same effect than when one gets crushed by a thwomp in mario kart.

That only leaves the question: how should the glove be used? Similar to the plunger - i.e. you shoot it and it will fly a long way? Or perhaps more like an arm - it will hit any kart that's close enough (for a certain amount of time or so, or perhaps only when you fire it and a kart is close enough)? So you would basically arm the glove and it would then hit the next kart coming close enough.

The latter would have an optional additional use: if you have the glove armed, it could also smash cakes and plungers out of the air - and protect against the anchor (not sure about the logic, perhaps the anchor should be replaced with something else - a targeted rocket or so, would be visually much better anyway compared with an anchor that just turns up). When the glove is used defensively it would of course be discarded.

Or perhaps make that two different colored gloves: once for attacking, and a different one for defending?

Cheers,
Joerg

[hiker]

I've just added the boxing glove to trac. Not entirely sure if it will be done for 0.7.2, but let's see how we go.

Keep the ideas coming. We are still thinking about the monkey mode, it sounds fun - we just have to make it work properly

Cheers,
Joerg

[Kinsu]

Arming the glove and wait until another kart comes up is a good idea I think.
But if the glove can also be defensive, how would the player choose ? If he wants to attack another kart without being close to any and got attacked, the armed glove would be wasted ... or maybe he simply has to wait to be close to an opponent if he wants to be aggressive, and just activates the glove alone when he wants to be defensive. But then again, how could he do to arm a defensive glove when he has karts around... I think if we want to add a defensive glove, it should be a different item than the offensive one.

Maybe a defensive item could simply be invincibility (or some kind of shield), instead of a glove (which looks rather offensive to me) ?

We are still thinking about the monkey mode, it sounds fun - we just have to make it work properly

Yes, the monkey mode has to be OK about bananas ^^

[Funto]

We are still thinking about the monkey mode, it sounds fun - we just have to make it work properly

O_o
I never meant this to be taken seriously, it was really just a joke!! It would be very fun if it ended in the final game

[Kinsu]

It would be very fun if it ended in the final game

Isn't it the first purpose of a joke ?

[asciimonster]

How a bout a variation on the timebomb: NASA rocket launch? It would be an item that could both work for you or against you...

When activated you need to pass the rocket to your opponent. You opponent get's a 10 sec countdown and then gets fired! Like a rocket sled your opponent gets a massive speed boost, but here's the catch: the steering is reduced (no skidding + only 25% of steering angle). So it's up to your opponent to keep it on the road. If he can, he's waaay in front of you, if he can't he'll need to reset.

Why not activate the rocket yourself? I believe it would be too great an advantage...

[Kinsu]

Interesting idea ! Its use needs to be simple... and people have to understand that if they give the item to an opponent, it's to get him crash. What about an explosion if something touches the rocketted kart hit something (the decor or another kart, in which case the two are affected by the explosion ^^) ?

And maybe a countdown could activated when the item is looted, and if the player does not use it before the 0, the rocket is launched on him ? (was it what you meant ?)

[lelkoun]

Few years ago, I was playing Re-Volt (video on YT form the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0MKUb33 ... re=related) all the time. It is still a great game, but I do not use Windows anymore, so I must play STK instead. I would appreciate if there would be added new weapons, such these:



1) acceleration (already included)
2) fake gift box that explodes after someone grabs it
3) magic star - stops all cars
4) shock wave - cleans the road from other cars
5) homing missiles (already included - cake)
6) bomb (already included)
7) bags of water for shooting ahead
8) car freezer - stops near cars
9) oil spot
10) ball (already included)

[bovineuniversity]

Oil slick
Caltrops

These could be some cool variants to bubblegums !

Or something like marbles. I was thinking of something that remains on the screen and can get bumped around.

So a kart would get hit would get a push in one direction, but also bounce off the ball even more? Sounds feasible.

I was thinking that they would disrupt your traction/steering, but they wouldn't go away - just bounce around the map.

Caltrops are more Ninja-like than marbles though.

I think that would be quite close to bubble gum - something you just drop and forget.

I was thinking you could drop several.... and they wouldn't slow you as much as gum. But I agree, somewhat redundant.

Cheers,
Joerg

Another I thought of... What always hits your windshield when driving? Bugs. Bugs splattered on your view. Not as completely blinding as the plunger. A windshield wiper could wipe them off after a couple of seconds. Or, they could remain throughout the race. As long as they weren't too big, it might just be slightly annoying.

If more things are added, it might be nice to choose your bonuses/weapons for a race. So if you REALLY don't like plungers, you wouldn't have to have them. Or you could have a cupcake-fest.

[Kinsu]

I like the bugs idea ! Could be a little like those raindrops on the screen (go to 1:40).
Though, in some maps as the snowy ones, bugs can't be added, because they simply can't be here. Maybe if maps were tagged with some "splat-effect" property, and possible values as "bugs", "snow", "raindrops", it could be fun ? (just brainstorming ^^). Those "splat objects" could appear ingame on the screens corners when a limit speed is reached...

[Auria]

Sorry, I personnally don't line this idea, I think it would be more annoying than anything else ^^

[Kinsu]

Well, I didn't find them annoying at all in GTA VC, and I think it adds a lot to the game atmosphere. But there are other effects (meteo, particles, ... ) that can create similar impressions without affecting the screen...

[KroArtem]

Imho, there are a lot of things that should be implemented before these drops

[Kinsu]

Of course
This is only a brainstorming where we can discuss possible features, without even considering a lot technical aspects or priorities.

[LinuxUser]

...If more things are added, it might be nice to choose your bonuses/weapons for a race. So if you REALLY don't like plungers, you wouldn't have to have them. Or you could have a cupcake-fest.

I like that idea. Or at least have a variety of options to choose from (each option having specific bonuses and weapons).

[bovineuniversity]

Just keeping the brainstorming going....
What about a "thief" weapon - when you use it everyone else loses the prize they have?

To expand on my previous idea of spy goggles, maybe if you get those, you get to see what everyone is holding...and it appears above their head.

Maybe there could be some toggles in the game instead of one-time use weapons. Like the above spy goggles, where if someone hits it, its "on" for everyone to see, and stays on until someone turns it "off"... or a day/night switch, or weather switch (rain, fog, snow). Those might be hard to implement, but I like the concept. Things that affect all players.

[hiker]

Just keeping the brainstorming going....
What about a "thief" weapon - when you use it everyone else loses the prize they have?

It would be difficult to give a nice visual clue what happened.

To expand on my previous idea of spy goggles, maybe if you get those, you get to see what everyone is holding...and it appears above their head.

While this sounds nice - would it give you any advantage? If the kart ahead of you has a cake, you might get hit anyway (and you usually won't see what the karts behind you have). I am not sure how much my driving behaviour would change if I knew what items people had (exception the bomb, but that's already visible).

Maybe there could be some toggles in the game instead of one-time use weapons. Like the above spy goggles, where if someone hits it, its "on" for everyone to see, and stays on until someone turns it "off"... or a day/night switch, or weather switch (rain, fog, snow). Those might be hard to implement, but I like the concept. Things that affect all players.

Global items have the problem that their frequency increases with more AI karts. So switching on/off weather might get annoying (and we would first need an update to the physics so that it makes a difference).

Cheers,
Joerg

[bovineuniversity]

Thanks for the replies.. I do see your points. On the global toggles.. In my brain I was thinking they could be off to the side, or at a particular part of the course to avoid constant switching. And my thinking on this and the other items is that they would be more like "features" and wouldn't really be a great advantage/disadvantage one way or the other.

[hiker]

Thanks for the replies.. I do see your points. On the global toggles.. In my brain I was thinking they could be off to the side, or at a particular part of the course to avoid constant switching. And my thinking on this and the other items is that they would be more like "features" and wouldn't really be a great advantage/disadvantage one way or the other.

Yes, that's a good point. This way the frequency problem is solved, and as features that would be nice (perhaps the kart could even get a bonus). It would certainly make the tracks more interesting, and would go well with the proposed 'career mode' and/or achievements that could be collected.

Cheers,
Joerg

[bovineuniversity]

Yes, that's a good point. This way the frequency problem is solved, and as features that would be nice (perhaps the kart could even get a bonus). It would certainly make the tracks more interesting, and would go well with the proposed 'career mode' and/or achievements that could be collected.

Cheers,
Joerg

I can also see this being used for some of the 'fun' things proposed, like giving drivers big-heads. It could be called the "conjure" framework.

[1210phil1210]

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