Invincible when you're seeing the stars?

[Arthur]

It would be cool if the karts were invincible for the period where the stars are swirling around their heads - preferably only for 'Beginner' and 'Intermediate' ('Expert' should mean just that, IMHO). This would avoid the "player gets pwned by AI" situation, where the player gets hit, tries to accelerate and get another hit by another AI - repeat once or twice more, and you're pretty much "out of the game", at least if it's a short track/few rounds. And this certainly should go in 3 Strikes Battle - for obvious reasons (hit opposite, turn around, hit again etc, easy when having three cakes).

[Gallaecio]

+1 (they pwoned me already doing that... :´( )

[Auria]

I like the idea, so +1 from me

[KroArtem]

I've said about practically the same idea to Joerg some months ago, but he said it'll be only after 0.7 (well, seems like it's time to remind about that).
This is also useful when you're riding fast and a rescued kart appears right in front of you.

[Auria]

I think this is a good idea, anyone wants to create a ticket so we don't forget?

[KroArtem]

Done, I've created a ticket.

[hiker]

Hi,

I don't think that karts should 'go into each other', so becoming a ghost after rescuing is (imho) not a good idea. We might want to improve the positioning of karts after rescue, i.e. rescue it further back if there are too many karts close to the current rescue position.

Same thing with items not hitting you - I don't think that a bowling ball traveling through karts is a good idea. We could disable the explosion, and perhaps reduce the 'plunger in face' time during 'star time'.

Cheers,
Joerg

[Arthur]

Starting on top of items is going to look ugly/be unfair no matter what, if not items are disabled and not shown if karts start on top. And what about the unfairness in 3 Strikes Battle? As it is now, winning/losing is just a matter of who gets the first shot (and have three items at once), at least if you don't agree with whom you're playing with not to exploit this.

[asciimonster]

We need to tweak battle mode. This way you can also make more visible who-hit-who.

After a hit is registered both/all fire buttons are locked. On screen the text is shown:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

%1 has hit %2!\n %2 has %3 lives left

Since there may be projectiles flying when a round can be tied.

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

Tied round!\n %1 has %3 lives \n %2 has %4 left

You would still need to prevent multiple hits, though.
Now a clock starts counting, giving you 5 sec or so to recover from seeing starts:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

5...4..3...2...1...Fight!

And the fire buttons are reactivated.

From a strategy standpoint that might acually work much better: In that time you could duck and cover, grab another item or nitro, zoom behind your opponent and p4wning him, or wave your tiny little white flag (wouldn't that be nice as a end-battle-kart-animation?)

[Crendgrim]

@the problem with the stars:
It's also really, really annoying (I discovered that a few times on Fort Magma since the karts are driving there often in the lava) that a crashed kart is re-set in your way: You used all your nitro to overtake the opponents - and bam! suddenly you are stopped by a big kart that was placed just in front of you.


Crend

[asciimonster]

You used all your nitro to overtake the opponents - and bam! suddenly you are stopped by a big kart that was placed just in front of you.

This is not a seeing stars problem, but a recovery problem. When an opponent is pied (= hit with pie) you can see him tumbling in the air, and avoid a collision. Something similar could be done with recovery; gently lowering the kart onto the track.

[Auria]

@the problem with the stars:
It's also really, really annoying (I discovered that a few times on Fort Magma since the karts are driving there often in the lava) that a crashed kart is re-set in your way: You used all your nitro to overtake the opponents - and bam! suddenly you are stopped by a big kart that was placed just in front of you.


Crend

I agree this can be annoying, maybe you could create a ticket for this at sourceforge?

[Auria]

Hi,

I don't think that karts should 'go into each other', so becoming a ghost after rescuing is (imho) not a good idea. We might want to improve the positioning of karts after rescue, i.e. rescue it further back if there are too many karts close to the current rescue position.

Same thing with items not hitting you - I don't think that a bowling ball traveling through karts is a good idea. We could disable the explosion, and perhaps reduce the 'plunger in face' time during 'star time'.

Cheers,
Joerg

I think a bowling ball would not go "through" karts, simply it could bounce off, or perhaps explode without the kart being affected? (especially in 3 strikes mode this is important)
As for cakes, they could very simply ignore karts with stars when it's time to aim

[Tuxfan]

A part of this problem could be canceled out by changing the ai-controler: A bot should take the target's speed into account, when aiming backwards. - I've been hit quite a lot of times after a respawn by bots that already have overtaken me. That decreases the positive feelings while playing more than when being hit from behind - in my opinion.
(On the other hand it should be more attractive to shoot up slow karts that are in the way. So this part of problem still exists and shouldn't effect the ai.)

[hiker]

I think a bowling ball would not go "through" karts, simply it could bounce off, or perhaps explode without the kart being affected? (especially in 3 strikes mode this is important)
As for cakes, they could very simply ignore karts with stars when it's time to aim

I've added this in r7478 and r7479. I am actually not totally convinced of this (it feels more like a game design problem which gets fixed by some duct tape ... quick hack I mean ). Perhaps there are too many karts resulting in too many hits, or the items are not balanced enough. I just see the risk that people will consider it a bug if a bowling ball doesn't explode, and/or cakes aim at wrong karts. We should probably add at least some information in the help screen?

Cheers,
Joerg

[Auria]

Agreed, we could add this to the help.

Maybe also the bowling ball, when bouncing off, could emit some star particles

[Arthur]

I second that - with all this coming in to play, we need strong visual clues as to what's happening.