Centrifugal Force, Characters

[puluche]

Hi everyone,

I'm not saying i invented the wheel (or the nitro) but here is the thing...

I've been trying to program some kart simulations. By browsing the web, I've noticed one thing in every code example I tested :
When you brake, the car is not sliding at all !

I love this STK project, the overall design, even if it looks homemade.
And as I love it, I was horrified to see the same thing happening here... I'm begging you to include the "natural sliding" of the car.

I think it's one of the most important things that a karting game MUST include...


By the way, here is another thing that I have to say, but you won't like it, so I put it in a spoiler block.
Ok, open source stuff, linux etc... are a good thing, and i'm really happy they exist.

But firefox, pidgin, mozilla, even tux... can't be video games characters...

There are no "Nintendo", "Mii Channel", "XBOXLive", "NES", "Memory card" characters in video games.

I find this is repulsive, because it's almost something political.

Some players hate the other consoles, or PC, but they don't hate the characters from the games (crash bandicoot, mario...).
People that hate linux for example cannot be a good audience, and it's a pity.
I don't think you only want developpers and linux fanboys to play STK.

Anyways the game's name is Super Tux Kart so I guess no one will do anything about that, except with a fork.

This was just my opinion, you are free to forget that part.

Good luck for your projects

[E-Dragon]

I guess you mean that you can not get out of control, when you are driving too fast in sharp turns, right?
If so , in my opinion it is already hard enough to control your kart when you reac hvery high speeds (nitro glitch + slipstreaming or triple boost).
Also not every racing game includes sliding by being too fast in turns (best example MK series).
Another point is about how to deal with sliding if you are using a keyboard as gamepad, bacause hitting an arrow will cause maximum input in this direction.
And the game is supposed to be played by children, so you don´t need to make it a hardcore racing game like F-zero GX.
However it is always better to improve a game than just leave suggestions like this behind.

About the second thing:
I don´t actually mind those characters, though it is something different as the usual, but generally I don´t play a racing game only because there is a certain character.
well that´s just my opinion about this.
Any other opinions ?

[Arthur]

In my personal opinion I don't see why karts should slide much on asphalt at all - but there are material settings so I guess some of the more sandy/gravelly roads could have some slide added to it. But yeah, this game does not have realism as a goal, but rather what's fun (and most people don't percieve advanced realistic driving physics as fun).

And about the second thing, no need to put it in spoilers; as you say we are free to ignore you.
Again, speaking for myself, if people think open source mascots in a game is a political statement then I think they are reading way too much into it. It's not much of a statement, but rather a common theme.

[puluche]

Well, first, I'm sorry if my post looked like an attack, it wasn't meant to be one.
However, I think that suggestions are one of the biggest parts of the conception of a project.
And my goal is actually to improve the game !

I agree about the keyboard, but maybe it should be played by spamming the keys, or set a sensitivity option.

I'm not talking about hardcore sliding, but just a little, so the car doesn't look like it's on rails.

I just tried SMK64, and if you're driving fast, I think I saw the car going into the outside of the turn. And even more on Crash Team Racing : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O8FK5d67cM
And it's not visible when driving slow of course.

I'm not a Gran Turismo fan, but it feels just weird to be able to turn safely when you're driving at 1000mph...

[Totoplus62]

The current gameplay seems perfect to me. StK is an absolute arcade game and i like it like this.

One more thing: I don't brake in STK this is useless. I sincerely don't know the brake key at all
The only thing i do is to stop pressing forward key sometimes. The secret is the skidding system for sharp turns

And you are wrong about characters because you already find the explanation : "There are no "Nintendo", "Mii Channel", "XBOXLive", "NES", "Memory card" characters in video games" with these examples there are no mascots at all except a possible "Mii-Like" character.
Hopefully our current characters are cartoon mascots and this is what people want.

Well, first, I'm sorry if my post looked like an attack, it wasn't meant to be one.
However, I think that suggestions are one of the biggest parts of the conception of a project.
And my goal is actually to improve the game !

Don't worry you are right. We always need people to improve the game

[Totoplus62]

nitro glitch

What are you talking about ?

[puluche]

Well if everyone's okay with this gameplay, I can change my topic title... ^^

About the characters, well I agree that those cartoon animals are cool, a penguin, a pigeon, a dinosaur...
And i like the fact that open source software projects do have mascots, it's like their "flag".

But imagine if these examples had mascots :

- Microsoft as a colored turtle
- Apple as a big smiling apple
- XBOX as a giraffe

Would you enjoy to play as them ?

Of course, it's not very important... ^^
This will not change the world, but it's just an idea that keeps crawling through my head.

[Totoplus62]

If the 3D models look good I won't have problem with that
(An apple is not a "character" )

[E-Dragon]

nitro glitch

What are you talking about ?

The trick everybody knows, that you just need to press the nitro key very short every second to reach the same speed you would get if you hold the nitro key.
With this trick you can drive for a very long time with high speed and lose less nitro.
I always exploit this glitch to get very good time records.

[Totoplus62]

Ho yes of course
I didn't think about it

[Auria]

About the nitro abuse issue, we have agreed to do something but haven't found the time to do it yet


EDIT: I have just committed a change to SVN that makes it no longer possible to use nitro in too short bursts, so it's now fixed