And I'm editing out the links. IDK if even STK would accept it, and this is SR. We do not have any humans, we have vehicles and plants that's it.
I, too, think that those “racing girls” don't really fit into the game. But no reason to manipulate other people's posts. It's not that dimproject posted links to child porn or someting. xD
Also I'd like to read more opinions on pacenotes.
Keep them activated. I too think the auto-generation works pretty well. Mostly.
I too would oppose if
every freaking pacenote would have to be added by hand. This would be a huge technical step backwards, unless the autogeneration is completely broken, which is absolutely not the case.
So I've spent time on writing intelligent code that makes them on all 172 tracks and will do on any new or modified ones. I'm a programmer, that's what I do. Even if I do manual, boring stuff, this is not the case for it.
This position is completely reasonable IMO.
After some hours of playtesting, here are the results:
First, my general comments on pacenotes:
- Curves: Great! This is what makes Stunt Rally feel like a rally game. These kind of pacenotes help especially on tricky, more “rally”-like tracks suck as Sav8-SlowFrenzy. On this tracks these guys are especially useful because of the many ups and down and it is hard to see the road. However, these symbols make Des12-Sandstorm and Wnt14-MtFog in Horrible Weather too easy (the whole point of these tracks is that you don't have orientation). I guess pacenotes can't be force-disabled in challenges, right?
- Jumps. The fact that the minimum speed is shown is a real life saver. On the other hand, one may be tempted to go much faster than the displayed speed, because the color does not change much above that. Going too fast on a ramp on Mrs1-Mars is deadly. Overall, the speed recommendation helps a lot for Mrs1-Mars if you don't overspeed, but the jumps are still very difficult on Mrs4-Platforms, even with the pacenotes. But probably that's just the track difficulty.
- Bumps: The bump symbol is another useful life-saver for when it is actually a bump. But it is a real killer it it was a terrain jump, actually. This ambuiguity is not good, because for a bump, you may be tempted to slow down, and for a jump, you may be tempted to speed up. :-( Luckily, there are not too many terrain jumps in this game.
- On-pipe segments: Also a life-saver especially on Mrs4-Platforms is the “start mark”. Maybe there should a different symbol for the “end mark” (maybe just the same symbol, but “slashed out” or something)?
- Loopings: It's very cool that you took the time to implement different pacenotes for the various looping types. But I don't think some of the symbols are exactly obvious, would you please explain them (The changelog isn't so helpful either)?
- Overall rating: Pacenotes are an useful addition to Stunt Rally. There are some quicks in special situations, but they are overshadowed by the overall benefits. I find them useful and would therefore strongly encourage you to keep them enabled by default. I have earlier suggested to include more road signs as placable objects. Now with the pacenotes, I decide to drop that suggestion. Some sign objects might be nice as decoration in a few tracks, but I think now it is best to keep them as as just that.
Now for the quirks in pacenotes:
- The “bump” symbol can either mean an actual terrain bump or a terrain jump. I am not sure if it would work, but maybe terrain jumps can be detected if the road behind is is hidden. That would (I hope so?) at least fix Vlc12-LavaPools
- Very odd:: At about 43% forwards in Uni4-Pipeline, the (orange) curve pacenote shows into the left direction, but the curve goes to the right. O_o
- It is possible that a “curve” sign is very close (nearly overlapping or overlapped) to a on-pipe sign. You may see this on Tox1-Radioactive multiple times before the on-pipe segments. If you drive in reverse mode, you can see it right from the start.
- The first big lava pool in Vlc12-LavaPools has a “bump” symbol (at about 30% in forwards direction). I have no idea why. There is also a “wrong” bump symbol on the frozen lake in Wnt17-FrozenGarden
- I am pretty sure Grc7-Spider should have a “sharp turn” pacenote for the giant curve shortly after 61% forwards (but I can't see one). Or is it not shown because it is so obvious?
- Mrs3-Hot has a ramp symbol at the on-pipe segment. I have no idea why. Also, the on-pipe segment is exceptionally crowded with symbols.
- On Mrs4-Platforms I noticed that the speed number can be displayed above everything else (even the car), while the symbol itself can't. Is this inconsistency intentional?
I think the quirks can be fixed sooner or later, certainly no reason to abandon the automatic pacenote generation.
I would have like it if there would be pacenotes for these (not
really important and I don't have any illusions about seeing this in the next release, but hey, you asked for my opinion on pacenotes so you get it :P):
- Warning about an obstacle—The big question is: How? Manually (which means extra work, lol)?
- Significant changes in “steepness” (esp. for sudden steep slopes as in Oth1-FogCity). Or does this count as a “bump”?
- The opposite of a “bump”: A sudden hole. Vlc8-Uncertain has one, shortly before 80% in forwards direction. Or does this count as a normal “bump” as well?
- Different flag symbols depending on what state the race is in (analog to the different checkpoint colors at the finish checkpoint):
- Checkered: If you pass this, the race is over
- Yellow: If you pass this, the final lap begins
- Blue/Cyan: End of lap (neither final lap nor finish)
- Warning about a pool (especially if big). But I am not sure if it's worth it, because they are normally easy to see
- The pacenotes menu should say “Opacity” instead of “Transparency”
- I would set the default “transparency” (actually: opacity) to 0.90
Finally, as a beta tester I have to bring the obligatory bug reports:
- If you use rewind for a long time, the pacenotes seem to be “lost” for that segment. You must continue to the point from which you started to see the next pacenotes again
- Sometimes, you can see the “checkered flag” symbol at the start (very slightly; high transparency). I suggest to hide it before the player has reached the very first checkpoint in this race
- If you hit F5 to reload the track, after it loaded, there is a brief period of time where the track ghost (?) may be visible (and then disappears, maybe because of its distance to the actual car?). It does not happen always, but it seems to happen more likely if you use more demanding graphics settings such as a higher resolution
- Track list: Clicking on the “name” column sorts by ID, clicking on the “id” column sorts by name.
- If you start the game and go to the track list, the arrow on the minimap will be wrong initially, until you change the track or toggle reverse mode
- Also, the reverse arrow on said minimap seems to be slighly displaced
Strange, I thought the last 2 bugs were fixed a long time ago. Do we maybe have a regression here?