New Overworld for story mode

Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby KiyanTheBluePenguin » 31 Dec 2020, 21:37

I Believe The Overworld's Structure Shouldn't Change Too Much,
Just A Little. I Think That's Going To Make Everyone Happy.

The Way I'd Like It Is That Certain Areas Are Locked Off By
Giant Locked Doors (Kinda Similar To The One Before Nolok's Castle).
The Amount Of Points Unlocks Stuff Like Characters, And
Tracks, And If We Wanted Too, We Could Include A Couple Bosses
For Fun.

Complety Unrelated By The Way:
How About Having Custom Gamemodes For Online Multiplayer?

Maybe I'm Asking Too Much, Maybe Too Little,
But The Point Is:
I'd Like To See This.
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby kimden » 31 Dec 2020, 21:44

KiyanTheBluePenguin {l Wrote}:Complety Unrelated By The Way:
How About Having Custom Gamemodes For Online Multiplayer?


Which Custom Gamemodes,
If It Is Not A Secret?
I make servers, addons, online events, and many others things.
my page, my STK fork, my youtube channel
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby KiyanTheBluePenguin » 31 Dec 2020, 23:49

kimden {l Wrote}:
KiyanTheBluePenguin {l Wrote}:Complety Unrelated By The Way:
How About Having Custom Gamemodes For Online Multiplayer?


Which Custom Gamemodes,
If It Is Not A Secret?


Something Like Hide And Seek, Murderer Mistery, etc.
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby eltomito » 01 Jan 2021, 21:46

KiyanTheBluePenguin {l Wrote}:Something Like Hide And Seek, Murderer Mistery, etc.


Hide and seek sounds like fun!
First, a randomly selected player or the winner of the last round becomes it (the seeker). Others get 10 seconds to hide during which the seeker sees nothing. Then the seeker goes around looking for the others. Whoever touches the home base before the seeker manages to shoot them with almost unlimited bowling balls (or cakes?) scores some points. It could be played in any battle arena. All you need to do is put the home base somewhere.
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby KiyanTheBluePenguin » 02 Jan 2021, 13:28

eltomito {l Wrote}:Hide and seek sounds like fun!


Just Saying That I Agree With You.
I Would Love To Play Hide And Seek In STK.
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby bzerkr » 24 Jan 2021, 17:28

Hi. New here but my two cents.

Stk shares some core designs with Diddy kongs racing. So much so I thought the OG devs were trying to clone it. The overworld of diddy served multiple specific tasks. The first being that it was an open harmless pretty world to explore for new users without the pressures of the race. Especially as you could use the genie host to transform your vehicle. Second, It was a frekking racetrack!!!! not only that, but it was a car track, a water and dirt track for the hovercraft, and a seperate flying course for the plane.

The overworld needs an overhaul. YES. Remove it? im not too sure. But a redesign that invites new players to explore, try some advanced driving tricks, shows off the engine, and a thoughtful way to allow extension of future gameplay without having to remodel the whole thing. (portals, or wormholes or blank glowing doorways)

Diddy cleverly managed such a large overworld by funneling players through tunnels as they traversed the large play area, allowing assets to be loaded and unloaded in the background. This isnt something we have to manage too much nowadays. And we don't have planes or hovercraft style driving (but there is a hovercraft car model).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol_pyGhxo1E

I say mimic the feeling of that overworld with an update that won't alienate older players, and remind them that we are still hard at work keeping this game fresh.

Keep the relative positions, but add some defined zones with the artwork. Hot, cold, wet, underground, scifi, scary boss. Design a racetrack or two into the world for fun, and maybe a future challenge or two. Add some more verticality to the world with a mountain trail instead of just mounds. Unify the scale of the objects to make it feel more grounded. Unify the textures of the trees so they don't clash with the rest of the environment. Tighen up those dead areas with things to discover or do. Hide the faceprint of each logo into some textures for a fun treasure hunt. redo the portal/transport/level entrances. add a few tunnel extensions for mine kart tracks and... the overworld becomes a fun playground miniworld. You could even dynamically show the progression of storymode by revealing entrances or map areas so the player has a sence of visual feedback other than a number near a gate. Show that nolok has locks or barricades that get removed as you advance. Flags or banners of his that get removed or switched with each victory.

Im a 3d artist with time on my hands. Im happy to take a swing at it. Lets come up with a design and a plan that works for the future versions. what do you guys think?
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby Alayan » 24 Jan 2021, 17:55

If you have the time, skill and motivation to do the required 3D modelling, a design can be figured out.

But that's not going to be easy. As a first project, that might be too much and getting discouraged mid way would be a shame.
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby tempAnon093 » 25 Jan 2021, 01:14

bzerkr {l Wrote}:Im a 3d artist with time on my hands. Im happy to take a swing at it. Lets come up with a design and a plan that works for the future versions. what do you guys think?

I think it sounds great! Do try to keep the process open so that we can all provide suggestions, feedback or help, definitely plan and share before you start spending a lot of time modelling.
If you haven't contributed to STK before then maybe try making a basic track or modifying the existing overworld in Blender to become familiar with the objects, export tools and features.
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby bzerkr » 25 Jan 2021, 03:17

Alayan {l Wrote}:If you have the time, skill and motivation to do the required 3D modelling, a design can be figured out.

But that's not going to be easy. As a first project, that might be too much and getting discouraged mid way would be a shame.


Thanks for the heads up. I'm a 3d artist with 20+ years experience on film tv and games. I got sick a few years ago and now im mostly at home with time on my hands. I was the lead effects artist for a game called rise of the argonauts, and my last job was producer on the game Warhammer Regicide. I have lots different experience, mostly film and tv, admittedly not with blender or Antarctica. Im usually in maya, max, unreal, unity or godot. But every new job began with learning something new, which i love. I also wrote the 3d education standards for Australia in 2001 and I wrote and taught a course in 3d. I am actually trying to write up some new tutorials for STK modding as the old ones are unclear to me.

I've been modding mario kart for fun and I thought id take a shot at helping STK where I can. I just hope I can be of use to the existing team. When I looked through the texture files via SVN there are a bunch of texture optimisitions I could makt that would reduce the overall download size. There are repeated and oversized maps here and there along with items that could be reused (road maps etc)

Heres my old film reel, but I never updated it as I was always working. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xkJQNMBFAU

I was working on a track of my own, and 2021 update to the hacienda track, but the overworld needs a massive amount of work. It really needs to shine. Its more of a STK 2.0 update, or even something more grand. lets see how useful I can be first.
At the moment i'm trying to piece together the basic information of art development for Antarctica. Its capabilities and limitations. Its pipeline for blender to STK has some broken python scripts, and i need to get the exporters working correctly out of Blender 2.9.1.

I also have web design experience, so I wanted to help update the side for new learners, tools etc. There are dead links and missing pages that could use some love.

Who is the best person to communicate with for the visual side of STK?
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby bzerkr » 25 Jan 2021, 03:27

tempAnon093 {l Wrote}:
bzerkr {l Wrote}:Im a 3d artist with time on my hands. Im happy to take a swing at it. Lets come up with a design and a plan that works for the future versions. what do you guys think?

I think it sounds great! Do try to keep the process open so that we can all provide suggestions, feedback or help, definitely plan and share before you start spending a lot of time modelling.
If you haven't contributed to STK before then maybe try making a basic track or modifying the existing overworld in Blender to become familiar with the objects, export tools and features.


Great tips. Something small is the idea. I want to put a new track into the addons and get users feedback to see what they like and don't like. I'm trying my hand at a level refresh, for the tutorial/hacienda track. it was the first one I saw when I played STK, and I feel it should have a lot more love. (Especially since the level crashed a few times on me. For anyone that has played a professional kart game before, it would be nice to make these levels shine)

As for the overworld, Ill begin planning some designs and post them up for some feedback. I've read through the comments here and I'll keep them in mind.

Also, it seems there have been some players here for a long time, and some brand new players. It will be impossible to please everyone, especially those that cling to nostalgia. So it may be a subtle facelift (1.3) or a complete redesign of the concept (2.0)
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby QwertyChouskie » 25 Jan 2021, 03:34

bzerkr {l Wrote}:
Alayan {l Wrote}:If you have the time, skill and motivation to do the required 3D modelling, a design can be figured out.

But that's not going to be easy. As a first project, that might be too much and getting discouraged mid way would be a shame.


Thanks for the heads up. I'm a 3d artist with 20+ years experience on film tv and games. I got sick a few years ago and now im mostly at home with time on my hands. I was the lead effects artist for a game called rise of the argonauts, and my last job was producer on the game Warhammer Regicide. I have lots different experience, mostly film and tv, admittedly not with blender or Antarctica. Im usually in maya, max, unreal, unity or godot. But every new job began with learning something new, which i love. I also wrote the 3d education standards for Australia in 2001 and I wrote and taught a course in 3d. I am actually trying to write up some new tutorials for STK modding as the old ones are unclear to me.

I've been modding mario kart for fun and I thought id take a shot at helping STK where I can. I just hope I can be of use to the existing team. When I looked through the texture files via SVN there are a bunch of texture optimisitions I could makt that would reduce the overall download size. There are repeated and oversized maps here and there along with items that could be reused (road maps etc)

Heres my old film reel, but I never updated it as I was always working. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xkJQNMBFAU

I was working on a track of my own, and 2021 update to the hacienda track, but the overworld needs a massive amount of work. It really needs to shine. Its more of a STK 2.0 update, or even something more grand. lets see how useful I can be first.
At the moment i'm trying to piece together the basic information of art development for Antarctica. Its capabilities and limitations. Its pipeline for blender to STK has some broken python scripts, and i need to get the exporters working correctly out of Blender 2.9.1.

I also have web design experience, so I wanted to help update the side for new learners, tools etc. There are dead links and missing pages that could use some love.

Who is the best person to communicate with for the visual side of STK?


Sounds awesome! If you're looking for export scripts that work with Blender 2.8+, see here: https://github.com/RQWorldblender/stk-blender

As for who to consult on style and such, Samuncle created most of the current-gen tracks, any of his tracks created since 2015 or so are good reference points. Unfortunately, he's not really active anymore, but SvenAndreasBelting is also quite skilled in track design and is pretty active on these forums.
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby tempAnon093 » 25 Jan 2021, 05:01

(Disclaimer: I'm not staff and have made minimal contribution to the core game)
bzerkr {l Wrote}:I am actually trying to write up some new tutorials for STK modding as the old ones are unclear to me.

I know what you mean. I learned a few years ago from a German tutorial alongside the useful official document pages, since I couldn't find any working English-language video tutorials.

bzerkr {l Wrote}:When I looked through the texture files via SVN there are a bunch of texture optimisations I could make that would reduce the overall download size. There are repeated and oversized maps here and there along with items that could be reused (road maps etc)

One thing I'd note before you begin any individual texture optimizations, one thread here was discussing using neural-networks to upscale some of the existing textures. I never got to see the full test pack but the preliminary results seemed very good (and having previously worked with pre-trained ERSGAN models, I know the potential it has).
I think they have forgotten about their forum post due to delayed interest, so here are their contact details on Github, if you or Alayan want to reboot that discussion: https://github.com/Calinou

bzerkr {l Wrote}:Heres my old film reel, but I never updated it as I was always working. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xkJQNMBFAU

Animal Logic! 'nuff said, I'm in awe.
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby bzerkr » 25 Jan 2021, 08:30

Ill try and condense the forum design points so far:
01 Looks: Overworld (I believe its officially "Mascot Kingdom') is old and needs to be brought up to date.
02 Necessity: Lots of people like the overworld but its not for everyone. A menu only option would be nice.
03 Fun: Just driving around on it should be an enjoyable sandbox environment to explore
04 Learning: It should contain elements to learn driving. eg environmental hazards, speed boosters, large jumps, shortcuts etc
05 Future proof: Ability to extend game without relying on overworld change.
06 Dynamic: The overworld evolves or unlocks as the player progresses, possibly islands, elevated high-walks, or small walled sections connected with with bridges/gates/doors. Evidence of Nolok also changes with progression.
07 Challenges: Easter egg challenge, hide and seek, etc
08 Interaction: Add some players/karts animated in the world
09 Integration: Add entrances to ther modes like Battle and soccer mode

My additions
10 Appeal: Make it pretty to look at and explore.
11 Scale: make sure all elements look like they exist in the same world
12 Restrictions; No invisible walls or holes to fall through. Model clever limits without making the driver feel it.
13 World building: Overworld is supposed to be "Mascot Kingdom". Their homes or personalities should be apparent.
14 Challenges: Add a giant ball that can just be booted about for fun. Allow secret targets to be hit for achievements.
15 Challenges: Add achievements for 'Air Time', 'Drift Time'
16 Challenges: Add a target practice range for each powerup testing. You drive to a glowing spot that has a constantly refreshing powerup. (eg A bowling alley that resets. or a giant target for the cupcakes)
17 World building: add Achievements scoreboard to tux's garage. This hints at things to do in the world but does not detail how its done.
18 Interaction: A game of tag can be initiated by two or more players holding still for 10 seconds on the "TAG" mat. The mat is only big enough to support 8 players (or whatever our multiplayer servers can support) The game ends when everyone has left. Your percentage of "not it" appears on your chievements scoreboard, along with the name of the global highest scoring "not it" player.
19 User retention: Create a list of daily or weekly challenges on the map using Landmarks so new tracks are not needed to be created for each one.
20 Portability: Try and keep this playable on mobile and lower spec machines (is there a lower limit for this?)
21 World building: Add multiple racetrack paths to the layout. Treat mascot Kingdom like a level in some respects. challenges could be added in future.
22 World building: Add clear landmarks and compass point elements to the map. challenges could be added in future (Like burnout paradise) Eg. "Race from Tux's garage to Nolok's Gate, then to the eastern point, and finish at the top of the mountain". This allows multiple configurable races and challenges using the same map.
23 Future proofing: Leave clear models and development notes for people to tinker with and access. Encourage the open source nature by making it easy to understand and reuse and reskin.
24 User retention: Add some billboards to allow in game promotion of addons or challenges or stk notifications. Yes there is the ticker on the main menu

Make it pretty, make it fun... and you can’t please everyone. :)
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby Alayan » 25 Jan 2021, 21:06

2. If we can get a good-looking overworld that also is interesting for gameplay/exploration, there is no question, we will have one. Simply, it's better to have a menu-based mode than stick with the very old and outdated, unmaintanable overworld we have currently.
5. Important, being able to add/remove challenges without having to touch Blender would make things smoother.
6. This requires additional programming/modelling work, but could be fun if done well.
9. Story mode isn't meant to be an entry window for all normal single-player setup options so I wouldn't get too hung on this.
11. Yes, that would be welcome.
12. Yes
13. The overworld isn't supposed to be a realistic representation of the whole world at scale, it's not going to be continent-sized, so this limits the scope of this idea.
14-15. Not related to the core goals, it's best to focus on getting the core right than feature creep.
16. That's a cool idea on paper, but outside of a race environment with other karts, etc. many powerups can't really be tested.
18. Story mode is single player.
19. The game is meant to be fun, but we aren't trying to milk money from young players, so psychological tricks to try and make it addictive are not so great. Besides, this online element also meshes poorly with Story Mode being a single-player stable mode.
20. As long as the overworld isn't more CPU/GPU demanding than the Black Forest track, I don't think this would be an issue. Engine optimizations could go a long way, but we don't really have anyone focusing on those.
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby XGhost » 25 Jan 2021, 22:54

Welcome bzerkr

Nice having a new potential contributor helping out on the artistic side of things. You list some good points which support the look and feel of what the game is trying to achieve. Alayan already gave you some guidance on those and my advice would be mostly the same.
Having an open mind and cool ideas is great for brainstorming sessions and conceptualizing design ideas. I can only give you the advice to clearly focus on the most important core mechanics of the proposed story mode when it comes to the actual implementation in the end. Challenges, World Building, User Retention are all valid game and motivation design tactics that all can be very beneficial to the player's experience, however they are not essential. Most of the points you listed involve their own new (while small) game mechanics or systems and just like that you'll find yourself way out of scope in no-time. I suggest you to keep an eye on the most relevant parts and what is essentially needed for a simple compelling new overworld. Then start prototyping and iterating on that and use the community here as feedback loop. As tempAnon093 already pointed out, the development in the open has really some benefits.

I'd also like to mention that advancing the overworld is sadly not as simple as just creating new tracks. That shouldn't discourage you of course, I can only make you aware of some potential obstacles: You likely have to dive a little into STKs code base, at least the parts of it that control the mechanics of the story mode and overworld. The overworld is basically a challenge selection screen, therefore it has to call into the underlying game engine. You'll find many parameters or conditions that make the overworld (and also cutscenes) work, to be hardcoded and messy. Even you now already got the link to a Blender 2.8+ compatible kart/track exporter, it is not a tool that easily gives you clear guidance on how and what needs to be exported and linked for those more "internal" and specific parts of the game. Mostly nothing of that is documented and I personally reverse engineered myself through the engine for an understanding of how things operate. I'm not even sure if the ported Blender tools actually still support all these little quirks in that regard, it hasn't been tested, that's for sure. You absolutely will have to make code changes at some point for creating a new overworld, but there are also people here that can help.
Last September I forked the STK Blender scripts and currently revamping them to address the most obstacles artists are facing. I am in the process of making them more convenient, more Blender-like, more performant and also follow the Blender Python standards. It is a quite experimental project, but as I believe, a game changer in how we create assets for STK. I'm still weeks away from a working version and I have very limited time currently, so I plan to hopefully have something ready at the end of February, but for now you'll have to work with what's here.

You can always hit me up too if you have Blender-to-STK related questions, or help understanding parts of the code base.
Cheers
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby QwertyChouskie » 26 Jan 2021, 00:33

XGhost {l Wrote}:Last September I forked the STK Blender scripts and currently revamping them to address the most obstacles artists are facing. I am in the process of making them more convenient, more Blender-like, more performant and also follow the Blender Python standards. It is a quite experimental project, but as I believe, a game changer in how we create assets for STK. I'm still weeks away from a working version and I have very limited time currently, so I plan to hopefully have something ready at the end of February, but for now you'll have to work with what's here.

You can always hit me up too if you have Blender-to-STK related questions, or help understanding parts of the code base.
Cheers


Cool to hear about the work to improve the scripts! Is the work based on the 2.8+-compatible scripts by Worldblender or is it currently still based on the old 2.79-based scripts?
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby GeekPenguinBR » 26 Jan 2021, 01:18

Deleted by myself.
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby bzerkr » 26 Jan 2021, 05:12

Ill address the posts since my last posthere:
Hey Alayan,
2.agreed
5.Sure. can you give me some more details on the issues that have come up and ill think of some way to fix that in the design?
6,14,15,16,18: I think the general message here is "ideas are fine, but new features require new coding". There are lots of underlying elements that hold this level together and its best to keep the initial update an "art only" change. Smart. But ill plan for the future "best possible" version, while only implementing my skillset (art).
9: ok.
13:Sorry I should have been clearer. I meant "make mascot kingdom look like the mascots lived there". For example. Tux's garage has no feeling of a penguin, ice, karts, etc. Simply remodeling the building to reflect him, maybe a few karting tires and other kart models that hes working on, I sign over the door that has TUX over it, and some snowdrift at the back. Just give it some personality and build the world.
19: User retention is more about keeping player counts up so multiplayer is more active, not monetisation. But I hear you. Keep it light. The game speaks for itself without tricks. Respect the player. Agreed.
20: I've spent some time optimising for pc and mobile similtaneously, so Ill keep it in mind with LODS and mobile options.

I will get my head into the current model and see if I can get the blender export functioning properly. Then I can begin some re-design.

XGhost
Challenges, World Building, User Retention are all valid game and motivation design tactics that all can be very beneficial to the player's experience, however they are not essential.

Sure. I was brainstorming ways to make the Mascot Kingdom "more playable" but I think I have a more informed perspective now.

a simple compelling new overworld. Then start prototyping and iterating on that and use the community here as feedback loop.

I agree thats the best path forward. I will be cautious of "design by committee" however as I won't be able to please everyone.

call into the underlying game engine

Im finding information on the Antarctica scarce, and coding elements won't be my strong suit. I'd love to try however, and I believe theres a good community to lean on. Where can I find engine info? Who is a good contact for this?

Mostly nothing of that is documented

If i can figure it out, I plan to document and write tutorials for others to contribute. I've written courses and learning paths previously, so I'm confident I can be of real use for the comminity there.

You can always hit me up too if you have Blender-to-STK related questions, or help understanding parts of the code base.

That would be amazing thank you.

Im sorry if this has come up before, but what about Godot? If antarctica is undocumented and difficult to find info, Godot is now fully featured, open source, and actively developed with a large community. Im aware that its a FREKKING GIANT TASK to jump to a new engine. But the benefits in 2021 are enormous for coding and art alike. Im sure there is a very controvertial forum thread where this topic is, and I would love to go there if someone can direct me.

and with that, i'm off to try and get this overworld in and out of blender. Wish me luck!
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby XGhost » 26 Jan 2021, 16:19

QwertyChouskie {l Wrote}:Cool to hear about the work to improve the scripts! Is the work based on the 2.8+-compatible scripts by Worldblender or is it currently still based on the old 2.79-based scripts?

Yes, it is actually a fork of Richard's work so far. However, in the end there will likely not exist any of the old code anymore. The tested Blender version is 2.83 LTE and 2.91.
Take a look at:
- https://github.com/JulianSchoenbaechler ... provements
- https://github.com/JulianSchoenbaechler ... projects/1
As mentioned, the current state is heavy WIP currently not intended to actually run as add-on. I'm building a new architecture over the existing one, replacing more and more until fully replacing it. Actual export operators do not run, in this state it is unusable. I locally test specific functionality directly in Blender through heavy use of in-file scripting.
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby QwertyChouskie » 28 Jan 2021, 07:10

bzerkr {l Wrote}:Im sorry if this has come up before, but what about Godot? If antarctica is undocumented and difficult to find info, Godot is now fully featured, open source, and actively developed with a large community. Im aware that its a FREKKING GIANT TASK to jump to a new engine. But the benefits in 2021 are enormous for coding and art alike. Im sure there is a very controvertial forum thread where this topic is, and I would love to go there if someone can direct me.

and with that, i'm off to try and get this overworld in and out of blender. Wish me luck!


Mainly, it does indeed just come down to manpower. STK would have to be completely re-written from the ground up, only being able to pull a few existing parts in (e.g. physics is probably somewhat drop-in), while everything else (Rendering, GUI, mesh formats, tooling for Blender, audio, power implementations, scripting, input handling, etc.) would be completely new. Although I certainly wouldn't mind some parts of STK's code seeing some TLC (e.g. the GUI code is awful is places, as I've experienced first hand), STK as a whole is mostly feature-complete. Gradual in-place improvements and re-writes (e.g. the coming Vulkan renderer) is definitely going to be more sustainable in the long run. A good example here is the Cartoon GUI skin that was added in STK 1.2, with both code improvements and new art that came together to make the interface feel more fresh and alive, without completely throwing the whole GUIEngine out the window (as much as I wanted to at times :p ). (If you haven't tried the Catoon skin, you can enable it in Options->User Interface. I thinks it's pretty sweet, but I might be a bit biased ;) )

In fact, quite frankly, the overworld is probably the biggest sore thumb currently in the game, that and the story and GP lose cutscenes, so it's really cool to see someone diving head-first into them!

One last note, the track Cocoa Temple is a really good reference when creating an in-game world with lots of different paths, hidden areas, etc.
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Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby TheYellowArchitect » 02 Sep 2021, 20:17

New player here, but professional gamedev, wanted to give feedback on story mode, since this thread is hype, and I just finished the game.

Drifting was weird on tutorial, I messed around with it on the overworld when I started, so I could get used to it. For example, the difference of holding the joystick at -1, 0, 0.5, +1, while drifting. I did drifting around Tux's garage, like 20 spins around it, with the joystick distances, so I get used to it. The tux's garage looks awful, and it's weird to see a real world garage for Tux, especially a rectangle edgy one. I would suggest having some sort of landmark (e.g. think of a fountain, or anything that can be seen from afar), and having a number counter on top of it, so each time you spin around it, it adds +1 counter on it. Maybe add an achievement on it (10 spins), but anyway, the point here is to instantly give the player something to do, which is also optional. I unironically had a lot of fun doing this, and trying to clutch the edges.

Use Ancient Colosseum map, and have player start at center or edges, and have his objective to go at edges or center, with 1~3 lives, and a timer. Lives and timer become harder based on difficulty. (Expert+ is 1 life)

The treasure chest needs to be like a lootbox, with some hype VFX (think of disgusting gacha flashiness)
Opening the current treasure chest is less hype than even opening a treasure chest in NES games. And when you know its going to give you the trophy you clicked (90% of the times), it feels like a chore and you want to skip.

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What you guys said above is 10/10, what I suggested above are minor things that I didn't see mentioned. Don't forget the importance of Story Mode - it is the first impressions of this game!
TheYellowArchitect
 
Posts: 11
Joined: 31 Aug 2021, 22:29

Re: New Overworld for story mode

Postby TheYellowArchitect » 03 Sep 2021, 17:22

Actually, let me add something more. It is challenging, but the rewards are too much, and would make story mode surpass all other racing games, and generally it is perfect for the players of today.

Story mode being able to be played with more players. They should just be able to drive around, not activate/trigger any tracks, and ofc, they participate in the tracks triggered by the host (this is the easiest part, since the code for this already exists by multiplayer)
The hardest parts of netcoding are literally done already and can be ported.

As for "multiplayer" story-mode, there are many scenarios of players, e.g. could be 2 players playing together (e.g father and son), or a group of friends (since people are over-socialized and at the same time lonely, and love to play with their friends)
I have noticed that singleplayer campaigns which can be played singleplayer, are always preferred with friends. E.g. RTS campaigns with a friend playing some other faction/enemy, or Smash Bros Ultimate Story co-op would be perfect for teaching the basics to newbies instead of destroying them for many matches in a row until they learn the basics

All in all, it would be something this game has, which other games simply don't, and can be used to attract more players, and ofc make the game better (peak first impressions)
Worthy of 2.0 imo.
TheYellowArchitect
 
Posts: 11
Joined: 31 Aug 2021, 22:29

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