Hey.
I've been meaning to reply to the topic for a while now, but never quite felt there was a reason to yet. With more up to date Kart content being pushed out though, I feel it's about time to address some things, about the past, present, and future for SRB2kart.
First, I should address the elephant in the room: I have acted like a petulant child on more than one occasion. I've been hesitant to post because I feel like addressing this fact would make it somehow more obtuse, as if I were bragging about it; but at the same time, not addressing it at all would leave many people uneasy or concerned that I'm up to some wily scheme and should be kept on a radar should I pull a poor stunt, like vandalize a wiki, or rag on about disliking a game series' spotlight for little reason other than not having the best introductory experience.
In the past I have been under stress and duress, but not entirely aware of itself and my actions. "Stress" had always been another day in my world, and the internet was my outlet for escapism. As more stress piled on, I began to react more violently to minor things, and the factor that pushed me over the tipping point where I threw a tantrum was a conflict of vision and wanting nothing more than to abolish the entire project and forget about it. Which leads to the next two points: its present and future.
Iceman had at one point attained a frontline position in Kartkrew's dev team and founded the name and logo for 'KartKrew' itself, as seen in SRB2Topdown and
our eventual exe icon. I'd be lying if I said I recall all the details in their entirety for how exactly it happened (I'm not being factitious when I say this, I really can't remember!), but for why it happened: our visions aren't entirely the same when it comes to SRB2Kart, and in several instances before and since our visions of the final game are almost two entirely different racing games.
SRB2Kart's resurrection has been a long time coming with a simple agreement: Both his and my own vision for the game will be consolidated in their own game modes.
For '
Retro Kart', all the existing items and the intended character stats as per my own vision would remain intact, albeit improved. Drifting, driving, and most actions would remain the same as they had been before. A proper acceleration code would be (and has been!) added, and handling would be (and has been!) improved.
For '
Neo Kart', Iceman's wishes for a more Sonic-themed and KirbyAirRiders-esque control would be realized in his own vision. Many items would still act the same, such as "
Mushrooms" vs "
Speed Shoes", but since many assets would be similar, a change in game mode would simple change which graphics are displayed for what item, and switch out certain checks for handling.
At present, as the previous gifs allude to,
I've ported much of the existing code from "Super Kart Z" into SRB2 2.1.17, and have added much better acceleration code, roulette code, handling, and a cleaner HUD.
Moving forward with SRB2Kart, I have several features I'd like to add to the game, as well as a greater sense of transparency in the project moving forward. While there are still a few internal squabbles in regards to how the core game should handle, Kart's current vision is as follows:
- Releases on a much less common schedule, but much more polished and a greater focus on finding bugs before I have to release 12 hotfixes in one day. Every day.
For some reason.
- The ability to customize your HUD locally in various ways. I haven't completely decided yet how this will be handled, but there will at least be a toggle for what 'style' of HUD you want, some structured similar to official Mario Kart HUDs, and a few custom ones as we go.
- Much more streamlined character stats: Set two numbers (speed and weight) and the game balances around them. In other words, it will no longer be possible to make a "broken" or "underpowered" character.
- Speed classes, ie. 50cc, 100cc, 150cc.
- A cleaner and more professional menu.
- More streamlined map editing: Set a particular sector type and you have a mushroom panel. No more obtuse power award sector linedef tags.
- Completely rebalanced and redesigned items: No more fireflower spam, no more end-of-lap shields, no more needing to balance your map around that dang feather shield.
- Improvements to map design to avoid impossible blind turns, a smaller emphasis on items in each map, and diligent attempts to use offroad between roads and death pits or walls. While some revealed maps might allude to high difficulty in the future, I want there to be plenty of kinder and cleaner maps that everyone can play, regardless of skill level.
I cannot guarantee my own diligence in keeping up to date with this topic or up to speed in development, but the past couple of weeks has seen the
largest leaps forward in our development process: rankings, items, and character handling.
And while the recent string of posts may make it seem like a lot has been done and we're zipping right along, there's still a lot to do. We'll keep you posted.