A request to track designers: Keep both directions in mind

A request to track designers: Keep both directions in mind

Postby Wuzzy » 28 Mar 2017, 06:24

This is a friendly request to all track designers:
Please, when you next design a track, please at least try to keep reversability in mind. That is, the option that a track is drivable in both directions. Also: test.
Do not throw away the reverse direction of a track lightly. Having the option for the reverse direction should be considered the default, not an exception in track design.

Reason: Driving a track in reverse is almost like driving a 2nd track because you have to steer, accellerate and brake very differently. So I suppose this is a “cheap” way to get 2 tracks for the price of one. ;) Thus this gives the player more to play.
The tendency of recent tracks to ignore the reverse direction is a bit worrying.

Thanks for reading.
And thanks for your time you already invested for creating all those awesome tracks we already have! :)
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Re: A request to track designers: Keep both directions in mi

Postby CryHam » 02 Apr 2017, 07:19

I agree too. (I couldn't agree more).
Was also an issue in Stunt Rally :) . I usually fixed tracks myself to support reverse too (for that Reason above).
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Re: A request to track designers: Keep both directions in mi

Postby XGhost » 02 Apr 2017, 13:41

Hey
Haven't been quite active the last ... years? But have been lurking around, so... ;)
I can fully agree to the statement from Wuzzy. Keeping both directions in mind will increase the variability of the tracks in general. But why stop there? :) I believe there are so many ways to improve track designs. Sometimes designers act overly as players and just build according to the style they know from the games they play (which isn't essentially a bad thing).
Unfortunately my spare time building tracks for STK is within limits, particularly because I started my studies two years ago and have currently the privilege to work in the games industry. But I'm willing to gather some tips and tricks relating to level design and motivation design which I've learned in the last years and write them down in an article. Maybe this contribution will inspire some track creators in the future :) .
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Re: A request to track designers: Keep both directions in mi

Postby hiker » 05 Apr 2017, 03:26

I've just added a suggestion to the corresponding ticket (https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/issues/2827): we could support a <forward> <backward> (or reverse??) tag in the scene.xml files. Anything enclosed in those tags would only be used when the track is driven in the corresponding direction. That would us enable to make Cocoa Temple reversible: in the reverse direction we could just add a cannon that shoots the kart up.

Would be a bit of work (each stk object in the .blend file would need to have a direction option, not sure how to best implement this. But should be possible.

Cheers,
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