Suggestions for 2.0

[fracture]

Here's a list of suggestions for what should be added/fixed/changed in 2.0. I didn't list what tracks should be added/changed and how to fix the story mode since there are enough threads about that.

• Replace Follow the Leader with a new elimination mode in which after each lap (or after a certain period of time), the player in last place gets eliminated.
• 3 Strikes Battle: Add the ability to change the # of lives from 1 to 20. If this is done, the mode should probably be renamed to something else besides "3 Strikes Battle".
• Add more soccer arenas and improve the existing ones. Forest, Oasis, and either Cosmic or Cosmic II would make good additions.
• Have AI be able to detect and avoid obstacles like the moving spike balls from New Fort Magma and detect and drive over speed boosts.
• Rebalance the three kart classes so that heavy and medium karts don't have a huge advantage over light karts.
• Make the banana hazard a collectable powerup that you can place behind you.
• Replace some of the outdated or terrible audio tracks with new ones, specifically "Overworld", "Boom Boom Boom", "Penguin Party", "Hacienda", "Race Summary" (including 1st place and lose theme), "Win Theme", and what plays at the start and end of the race and the start of the final lap.
• Make the Cartoon skin the default skin but keep the old legacy skins.
• Move all soccer arenas into a separate repository
• Make all battle arenas available in singleplayer (or if this isn't possible, add a warning if a battle arena isn't available in singleplayer)

I want to say replace the bananas and bubblegum powerup with different powerups or hazards that function the same since I always thought having bubblegum as a powerup shield was ridiculous and in real life, touching a banana doesn't cause an anchor or parachute to appear behind you. But I don't care what they do.

[CannerZ45]

"Replace Follow the Leader with a new elimination mode..."
-Why replace? Why not just add Elimination mode as its own thing. I see no need to remove a game mode in order to add a new one.

"3 Strikes Battle: Add the option to change the # of lives from 1 to 20... -the mode should probably be renamed to something else..."
-Agree with this suggestion. And, it could be a funny sight, on 10+ hitpoints, karts are covered top-to-bottom in spare tires.

"Add more soccer arenas and improve the existing ones..."
-i'd agree with this. but then again, the option for custom content is there to satiate this. As I understand, most of of the content in this game are volunteer contributions. And that if a content is good enough, it goes through consensus of being added as official content. So no one must be beholden on mandatory addition of content. What I also understand, is that the whoever the core dev team are, are more focused on working with the game mechanics itself.

"Have AI be able to detect and avoid obstacles"
-Agree with this suggestion. It do feels a bit cheap that I can win easy on some custom maps because the AI don't know how to time their passes against moving walls and platforms.

"-rebalance stats so heavy and medium karts don't have a huge advantage over light karts."
-As someone who mains light karts. I don't see the issue. The biggest thing light karts have against the other two types, is that, you could REALLY abuse the drift-boost mechanic(especially when paired with smart nitro usage), and make the kind of tight turns the other types struggle with. Now, I'm totally not in 100% disagreement here, I just don't want this kind of balance and gameplay feel tampered with.

"Make the banana hazard a collectable powerup that you can place behind you."
-Doesn't the bubblegum fills this archetype already(placeable item racers avoid)? I already like the swapper powerup and the banana item's function; it makes everyone(even the one that uses it) switch up their item pickup strategy in a brief moment.

"Replace some of the outdated or terrible audio tracks..."
-You REALLY need to further elaborate on this. As this is a very subjective idea. I personally don't have any music that I particularly love. But they fulfill their purpose adequately at setting a background ambience on a given track, and establishing the game's overall tone. Last thing I want is a "bright idea" of going hard on dubstep, or a "Doom music kicks in" type deal...on SuperTuxKart. One could always opt-in on disabling the game's music entirely and just put your own choice of music up on youtube or something.

"Make the Cartoon skin the default skin but keep the old legacy skins."
-Default or not, I'm okay either way. As long as they don't remove it. I also mainly use the cartoon UI. I actually wish there are more color variants/options of the cartoon UI.

"Move all soccer arenas into a separate repository."
-Agree with this suggestion.

"Make all battle arenas available in singleplayer (or if this isn't possible, add a warning if a battle arena isn't available in singleplayer)"
-Agree with this suggestion.

[Polo10]

Hello fracture,
For the first point I think it is not necessarily good to remove the leader.
Because afterwards, a good player will be far ahead all the time, and that won't be so much fun. To counter this, the AIs should be improved. The fact that there is a leader moderates the players and adds a challenge in addition to not passing him. It also makes it more difficult to win because the other karts from behind come back quickly and you really have to be the one who sticks to the leader. And so there is also more risk of being hit by a cake or a ball.
For the second point I partly agree. What would be nice would be to remove the maximum number of lives without changing the times when lives come into the game and their number. I would also like to have as many bots as possible in the arenas but I haven't found the script that includes that. Maybe someone knows it and could point me to it?
For the third point I agree. Football stadiums corresponding to the official tracks would be a good idea for me as well as arenas but without taking away the ones that are already present.
For the fourth point we agree: the AI should be improved!
For the fifth point I don't really know what to think. I've already seen some very good players get a very good place with a light kart.
For the sixth point I don't agree. It would be copying and pasting from Mario Kart whereas I think STK could evolve now in its own way and differentiate itself little by little as a unique game.
For the seventh point, it's true that the music could be improved but I don't see any drawbacks for the moment.
For the eighth point I don't have an opinion on it.
For the ninth point I completely agree with you as well as for the tenth.
For bananas and bubblegum I don't find that a problem. Indeed, STK is not a realistic game but a wonderful world that serves to escape from everyday life. And it's good that it has its own peculiarities and this is in line with what I said in the sixth point.
Have a nice day !

[CannerZ45]

*Edit -- deleted double post. I thought my previous reply post didn't came through. So this post is redundant.

[fracture]

For the fifth point I don't really know what to think. I've already seen some very good players get a very good place with a light kart.

It might just be my playing style since I usually drive heavy karts.

For the sixth point I don't agree. It would be copying and pasting from Mario Kart whereas I think STK could evolve now in its own way and differentiate itself little by little as a unique game.

True, but bananas in this game don't function the same as they do in Mario Kart (where it just causes the player to spin out). If bananas were replaced with something else, this wouldn't be a problem. See my last point.

For the seventh point, it's true that the music could be improved but I don't see any drawbacks for the moment.

Some of the music is noticeably dated, especially the "Oliver's Math Class" theme and the results music. I think the soundtrack should be more consistent.

For bananas and bubblegum I don't find that a problem. Indeed, STK is not a realistic game but a wonderful world that serves to escape from everyday life. And it's good that it has its own peculiarities and this is in line with what I said in the sixth point.

True.