TL;DR is basically, add more localized sounds to pretty much all tracks, add some animations, replace bad textures
Before I get to the individual tracks, there’s something I noticed on several tracks, and my guess is it is a limitation of the engine: 3D Models never emit light themselves, instead there are always floating point lights. In some cases, the placement of these floating light sources doesn’t make sense and it just looks weird. It is especially noticeable in STK enterprise, and now I can’t unsee it, and it kinda bugs the crap out of me every time:
Another thing that isn’t related to the tracks, but to the karts is that I think each kart / mascot should have their own set of sounds when being selected on the character screen, hitting someone with an item or getting hit, finishing a race etc. This would go a long way in giving each character some more personality.
Now, the track-specific improvements:
Nessie’s Pond:
- Animate the sheep and seals, maybe have the sheep move across the road as obstacles
Make the port look like a port, e. g. by adding bridges
Add town noises to the town
Add sea gulls
Replace the horrible looking water with the great looking water that is used on other tracks, e. g. on Grand Paradiso
When playing the track in reverse mode, you see that the city wall is broken and unfinished
Oliver’s Math class:
Honestly, this is the worst track bundled with the game right now in my eyes. It is an ugly gray mess with tacky colored objects, and the AI doesn’t know about the extreme shortcut between the chairs so you’re almost guaranteed to win against them, This track could be much cooler if it wasn’t entirely on the ground, but instead you would also drive on the tables, chairs and / or shelves, and if it used better textures, models and lighting. The music could also need a remix, as it is currently very basic (but not bad!).
The Old Mine:
- Replace the weird dirt textures with actual rock of a similar color. I just tried doing so with some texture I found with an image search and even though I didn’t put much time into this I think it already looks a little better than it did before.
Add (more) stalagmites and stalactites
Add sounds to the minecarts and the giant excavator wheel thingy. Also, add sounds to the waterfall, and in general the typical echoing dripping water sounds that you tend to hear in caves.
Near the water, the rock should be slightly wet and thus slightly reflective?
The green crystals look like they should be glowing, but once again there only seem to be floating light sources in front of them. It would look cool if the crystals themselves would glow really bright, while only illuminating the surroundings with some dim green light.
The part where the minecart sometimes crosses the track is just annoying.
Maybe some flying bats (with sounds!) could be added
Volcano Island:
- Most textures (road, grass, rock, sand…) are low resolution and don’t look good (admittedly, I just played the track again and it doesn’t look nearly as bad as I remembered)
Use the good looking water from Grand Paradiso etc
Maybe use a darker basalt texture in the lava cave
Have the lava be quite a bit lower than the track
Have the leaves move in the wind?
Add ocean sounds?
Hacienda:
- Add more detail to the village, maybe have a market in the town (with sounds of a crowded market…)
Add flying raptors in the desert (preferably also with sounds)
Minigolf:
- I find the green ground texture kinda hideous, as well as the asphalt / gravel / whatever texture, but maybe that’s just me
The lighting in the tunnel is broken
Shifting sands:
- Add more detail the the pyramids (inside & outside)
In the thumbnail it looks much more yellow than in reality?
Add a shimmering hot air effect in the distance
Maybe add a sandstorm somewhere?
Add animations and sounds to the camel, maybe add more of them
Fort Magma:
- Better lighting in the fortress
Animate the magma so that it doesn’t look like static pillars
Make the magma glow
Add lava streams flowing down the outside of the volcano, have the volcano erupt periodically and blow up rocks that maybe destroy part of the track and make it more narrow (very original, I know)
Add sound effects of boiling magma as well as erupting volcano etc.
XR591
- Animate the robots and aliens and give them sounds
The green and yellow rings that you drive through could glow / blink / have some other graphical effected
The red pillars could have blinking lights on themselves
Add bzzzzt noises to the electric arcs
Cornfield Crossing:
- Animate the pigs in the mud puddle and give them sounds
Add sounds to the passing train and to the combine harvester
Add a rooster sitting on top of a barn that periodically crows
STK Enterprise:
- As I already mentioned, the floating light sources are very noticeable and look bad
Use some more PBR textures (e. g. shiny metal)
The 90 degree turn after the first big room is extremely hard in higher difficulties like SuperTux unless you slow down A LOT
Snow Peak:
(This one is going to be replaced soon anyways, isn’t it?)
- The rock texture that most of the mountain consists of is way too much 3D-in-2D and looks very unrealistic and bad, while the mountain itself is very low-poly
The blue ice texture is also kinda ugly, it should be slightly translucent and reflective
Because I mostly just pointed out all the bad, I also want to praise some of the really great tracks, like Cocoa temple, Ravenbridge Mansion, Grand Paradiso, Antediluvian Abyss or the Black forest, which do almost everything right in terms of gameplay, graphics, animations and sounds. Even most of the tracks that I “complained” about are really good already. But they have the potential to be even better.
Just a few more general ideas:
- find a new use for the old “Demon Hill” music, it was great
Time trials are frustrating because the leader can basically collect all the nitro cans, leaving none for the others and increasing the distance even further, so the others can’t catch up. Maybe remove Nitro cans from time trials as well?
IMO the fly flap slows you down for too long
Maybe some tracks could be played at different times of the day? (E. g. sometimes it would be either nighttime, evening or noon in Cocoa temple)
Add a splashing animation and sound when a kart falls into the water
Use more PBR textures
