@QwertyChouskie Got your pm, still lurking around. Thanks for the heads-up anyway!
Hi there, tempAnon093
First off, I do not have the track from my recording anymore. I'll try to find a blend on my workstation in the next few days, but I think it is gone. Sorry about that.
This track was one of many experiments for testing possible and interesting track layouts or track features. Like you, I see much unused potential in the current set of tracks and dove deep down into track analysis and track design for kart racing games. I really want to make a long post someday in the future, sharing my findings and trying out some stuff by creating a track from scratch. But up til now, I didn't have the time or investment that would be necessary for such a project. I'll list some things I think are helpful and maybe I can give you some insights into my research. Some things are not exclusively track design related, rather general game design practices, but they're useful anyway.
First of all, I would like to distinguish between the terms 'track layout' and 'track feature'. As I see it, the track layout is the general course of a track. The thing that defines how hard a player needs to steer to get a curve, how long someone can build up speed before the next turn or how well shortcuts or alternative sections are integrated. It is all about balancing player handicap with challenge. The track layout is the thing the player can least reason about most of the time. For example, if a player often loses control in a specific curve, she/he might say something like "this turn is too tight, make it wider". And while this may be correct, most of the time the actual problem is not the curve itself, but maybe its banking, something blocking the players sight (noticing curve too late) or the layout of the outgoing section before the curve (unable to reach the ideal racing line before entering the curve).
A track feature on the other hand is something special that makes driving the track unique and interesting. Think of movable obstacles, ramps, holes... even cannons or magnetic sections. These things sometimes directly affect the track layout and change how a track is driven. In some cases a 'not-so-good' track layout can be improved by adding track features or maybe a track really just lives from a well-done feature. However track features are tricky. A poorly designed feature as well as too many features can become punishing very quickly. Take the golfball obstacle in the minigolf course for example: The obstacle is fast, rolling over the whole track with no visual announcement when it spawns, right after a right turn (camera catches the obstacle only when it is too late) and if hit, the player will be thrown into the air. Although a cool feature on paper, it feels punishing.
Most of the time an idea for a new track originates from an idea for a track feature.
Now, as a rule of thumb I would say, if your track layout itself feels unsatisfying to play, fixing it with features will likely not work out. I did an exercise I think every future track designer should do once in a while:
The basic task is to create a track that is just a basic circle. One main driveline, one checkline, export, play. Obviously this will be a pretty boring track. Now in a second step, make this circle interesting. Alter the angles of the curve, add some banking, experiment with the width/height and draw an ideal racing line. In the end you should have a basic and very primitive track layout, but one that drives well. Doing that helps one understand how to tweak a layout to the better, maybe you'll find some best practices for different sections.
Man, there would be so much to cover just talking about layout. Balancing, feedback, playfeel and so many more awesome things. However I want to refer back to what you actually are working on
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So then, magnetic sections...
Your 'invert' demo track is clearly a nice prototype, testing different possibilities of road bending and trying out various features. You may have noticed the drawbacks of magnetic sections in your tests, I will elaborate on what I have experienced and how I think they should be used in track designs.
So let's start by look at how a magnetic road in STK actually works. Basically it's pretty simple: the normal of the surface will be the (inverted) gravitation for the player and (and this is important) the up vector for the camera. This therefore means, that as long as you have no visual reference to the surrounding world, the player may never notice the effect of the magnetic section. This is good, but sometimes also bad. One of my tests with magnetic sections was a track, where I built a small road leading through a village. The catch was, that the whole track was modelled upside-down with magnetic roads. Ingame the player can not see what is actually going on. Then there was a ramp in the track pushing the player away from the road, leaving them to gravity's will. Suddenly the karts flew up to the air (meaning the ground) and revealing the actual nature of the track.
Now if you want to use magnetic roads for the effect (screw elements, loopings, etc.) you want to avoid this most of the time. Your goal is to get the player amazed about the crazy twist the road is going to make. So you need references that subconsciously guide the player on what they are currently doing. In the background, one should be able to tell, that they are currently driving stunts. Make it clear where up and down is. Work with the sight of the players camera, let them see in which direction the path will go, before they enter it. In your track, the screw element is not bad. When driving on it, the player constantly changes orientation and because the camera lags behind, this gives you the tilting effect, making it clear what is happening.
That's me driving your track (no skidding):
https://gfycat.com/physicalnaughtycrossbillNow you see, when I exit the screw section at [16s], the row bends downwards, making it impossible for me to see what's coming next. Left curve, right curve? I don't know, so I will reduce my speed (also, I barely can control my kart on full speed here). Yes, there is an arrow indicating a left turn, but is it really a turn? Look at the track layout (more about the layout later), you can see I just hit the left arrow on my keyboard twice for a small correction. If I'd have turned, I had fell.
Next there is ground control (to major Tom). You surely noticed that magnetic roads are a pain to balance in terms of speed and the centrifugal force affecting the cars. The thing is, a magnetic road has always physical slope of 0, leading to maximum possible kart speed no matter how the layout is laid out. When bending roads, the gravity will be changing direction for every face of the mesh and this can press the karts onto or away from the path. This makes the thing also harder to control. I would suggest to let the stunt elements take up more space (longer screws and bending roads) and reduce the karts speed by adding preparatory curves before these sections (track layout).
I think the hardest part about magnetic sections is to get the track layout right. Even though I consider those effect-loaded sections as features, they heavily change the players perception on how to interpret the road. If you look at your track, you'll see the underlying layout is basically just oval. You can see in my run how I barely needed to steer while driving the screw or the looping. This is because the layout is basically straight there. It feels like a turn but it isn't. And that's the tricky part... I never managed to get a magnetic road to be really interesting to drive, because it is so much harder to setup a layout that works in 3-axis space. Look at the 90 degree turn in Cocoa. 90 degree -> this is not a curve anymore, because of manipulated gravity this is a straight line after the initial bend. For your screw element the same -> it is a screw, but all I do is driving straight. But it feels like I would need to steer. The first runs on Cocoa I fell into the water many times when taking the 90 degree section. This is because I'm getting ready for a curve that turns out to be none. I think this is the key for successful magnetic sections. Getting the track layout to work well.
I attached a screenshot from my track recording and added some comments which hopefully can explain my deliberations. There is a reason the road is bending that way.
- Upwards, facing to the player, to let them see what is happening and how the karts in front will drive to the tunnel.
- Make a curve (left) to reduce speed before the overhead intro to the tunnel
- Switch direction (right curve before tunnel) while heading upwards to keep layout interesting
The tunnel then is quite funny. It is intended that the player loses all references for up and down. At this point you can basically layout the tunnel in any direction without the player ever noticing what's happening and where they are. I even textured the grid slightly screwed to make the players that follow the quads drive a full circle in the tunnel. What's not present in this track is the proper exit of the tunnel -> you need to redirect the players early in order to get them coming out all at the some position. But this is a topic for another day.
Hopefully I could give you some insights. Always open for discussions and questions.
Cheers
Julian