Tux, Gnu and Gimp are competing in a race.
Tux is leading the race by a short margin, with Gimp closely behind.
Waaay back, Gnu is trying to recover. Gnu made some early mistakes and is hopelessly behind. Plus, it is Gnu's least favorite track.
Gnu happens to have saved a cake for bad times. In case somebody gets hungry.
Tux has been executing a flawless race so far, and is now closing in on Gnu at a rapid pace. In fact, Tux is about to overlap Gnu.
But hold on a second. Gnu notices Tux. Growingly frustrated Gnu serves some cake. Hey, if I can't win this, why should you?
As a result Gimp is winning the race, while Tux is dropping back to fourth position. Gnu has a terrible day and finishes last anyway.
It could have happened the other way round as well:
Tux closes in on Gnu, fully aware of the potential threat.
Luckily though Tux recently acquired Cake as well. To avoid complications Tux decides to clear the path and fires.
Gnu is now even further behind scratching the head and thinking "What the heck, I was last anyway, was it really necessary?".
What are your thoughts on this?
- Is it just the nature of the game mode?
- Is it something that could be tweaked?
- If yes, how could it be tweaked?
Regarding the last bullet, 2 ideas:
The item distribution could be changed. For example: when more than half a lap behind, blowups are no longer available at all. Instead the player receives items which help to catch up (zippers, plungers).
I realize though that the item distribution is already quite complex and I am aware of the "rework of powerup probabilities" for release 1.0. It certainly would add further complexity.
The second idea would be to have the cake misfire on opponents that are a lap apart (might be tricky to implement though).
A bowling ball could simply bounce off. Both would work like the "circling stars" protecting after being hit.