It's been a while! You guys seemed to like Kart v1, so we're gonna keep going. For those not in the know, we had an very long text interview over at Sonic Retro, and in the final part we revealed a bunch of v2 spoilers with no context for people to theorize about. Get caught up with parts ONE, TWO, and THREE. We've let you guys think about it long enough, so we'll confirm some theories by going into more detail now!
BOOST STACKING
This might not be super noticeable from what we've shown off, but it provides the base for the rest of the changes we've made: doing multiple kinds of boosts at once no longer gets overwritten with the best one, instead they add up together! This means using Sneakers on Boost Pads is no longer a waste. The more boosts you have at once the less powerful stacking becomes, but the effect is still very notable. The number of colored afterimages behind your player serves as a tell for how many boosts you're stacking at once.
RINGS
This is the big one that we wanted to get in v1 but didn't have enough time: rings!
Holding down the Item button without an item in your box will instead make you slurp down your collected rings as long as you hold the button, giving you a weak boost! Using more rings gives you a longer boost; the boost length per ring depends on your character's stats, favoring the light-acceleration corner of the graph. Ring boosting is indicated by your character doing a subtle flash, and the ring on your HUD will spin faster the longer your ring boost timer is. Rings cap out at 20, and to grab more you have to use them.
Every time you're damaged, you will drop 5 rings in addition to spinning out. Getting hit while holding a Shield item will still make you spin-out like normal, but you won't drop any rings -- you just lose the Shield. When bumping, both players will drop 1 ring each.
Getting hit or being bumped without rings will give you a Ring Sting, and you'll wipe-out for a very short time. Ring Sting's length depends on weight differences; a heavy character will get a short moment of control loss when stung by a light character, a light character stung by a heavy will get a long wipe-out. Always make sure you're holding onto at least 1 ring, as players who can be stung will have a "!" icon above their head -- if you're too greedy and waste all of your rings trying to pass players, you can be punished for it! If you have no rings and get hit, then you'll be in Ring Debt. All damage at that point will only make you lose 2 rings per hit, and you'll go in the negatives.
Being in Ring Debt will make the Super Ring item appear when you mash, giving you a healthy 10 rings -- this item can also appear for front-runners rarely. If this item gives you above 20 rings, then the extra rings are converted into boost. In Record Attack, mashing during the item roulette will always give you a Super Ring, while waiting it out will always give you a Sneaker.
SPB will also spawn a trail of rings while it's traveling, adding another way for all players to catch up to 1st while it's active. The person being chased by SPB cannot pickup any extra on-field rings (although Super Ring still works!), indicated by the SPB attacking your ring counter. Rings work as a fantastic back-up reserve for avoiding SPB in tough situations, but you can't totally rely on them since you can't get more during it!
Overall, rings have a wide range of different uses & provide tons of utility. You can use them aggressively to pass players or increase your lead, or keep them stock-piled for a boost for dodging items or recovering from damage, or use them sparringly and focus more on good item usage -- all of these are completely valid strategies.
TETHERING
If you're behind someone in their racing line, then you'll start to tether onto them, giving you a speed boost! It kicks in immediately, indicated by the sparkling Combi-Band, but it gets stronger the longer you maintain your position behind them. The Combi-Band is red at it's distance limit, and blue up close, telling the player being tethered how close you are. Once you reach maximum tether speed, your wheels will start to kick up dust! This serves as a catch-up mechanic when you don't have items, and makes throwable items deadlier. Tethering stacks great with ring boosts, too!
Character stats influence both maximum tether distance, and the power of the speed boost you get from it. Every corner of the graph gets their own unique set of tethering advantages & disadvantages -- try experimenting with them all!
SHIELDS
The Thunder Shield is now complete -- it's the same as before, but now it draws in rings if you have less than 20.
The Bubble Shield makes you bump players away on touch, and inflates when you hold down the item button (with a cooldown between each blow-up). While inflated, it will reflect items and spinout players, requiring constant input to reflect stuff away. If you over-inflate it, it will pop off of you, becoming a trap item. Players caught in the bubble will float away until they struggle out of it!
The Flame Shield lets you tether onto other players from any distance. Holding down the item button will also make you boost more, at the cost of your steering! It is one of the most powerful speed-boosting items in the game.
OTHER
- Slopes have improved physics. They're much easier to go up, and they give you a huge speed boost while going down them. You can see this in a couple of the gifs.
- There is a (more consistent) speed cap in the air, so large jumps are not affected by the higher overall speed of the game. It has easing applied to it too, so the speed loss is subtle & natural feeling.
- OpenGL's 3D models have been getting a new coat of paint -- hue-shifted player colors are represented more accurately, and the models are getting a bit more detail.
- We've teased this in lots of these gifs -- lives will be a feature for the Single Player mode, preventing you from proceeding with a cup if you didn't place in the top-half. You have to legitimately learn the course layouts if you want to continue! We may go into more detail about Grand Prix later, when it is more complete.
- There's other new items in the planning stages as well, stay tuned!
Lastly, here's a video showing off these new features in a real race:
Overall, all of these changes will make Kart much more competitive, faster, and even more aggressive than defensive. Rings give lightweights get a bit more of a technical edge, without removing the power heavyweights hold over controlling space at all. Rings & drafting gives every player more chances to stay in the fight, meaning that maintaining a lead won't be about getting a head-start & playing it safe anymore. Hard mode will be more of a niche and Normal will be the recommended game speed (as originally intended).
We hope that you will all enjoy the changes when the update rolls out. It'll likely take a long time, but hopefully this serves as a small taste for what's next.
BOOST STACKING
This might not be super noticeable from what we've shown off, but it provides the base for the rest of the changes we've made: doing multiple kinds of boosts at once no longer gets overwritten with the best one, instead they add up together! This means using Sneakers on Boost Pads is no longer a waste. The more boosts you have at once the less powerful stacking becomes, but the effect is still very notable. The number of colored afterimages behind your player serves as a tell for how many boosts you're stacking at once.
RINGS
This is the big one that we wanted to get in v1 but didn't have enough time: rings!
Holding down the Item button without an item in your box will instead make you slurp down your collected rings as long as you hold the button, giving you a weak boost! Using more rings gives you a longer boost; the boost length per ring depends on your character's stats, favoring the light-acceleration corner of the graph. Ring boosting is indicated by your character doing a subtle flash, and the ring on your HUD will spin faster the longer your ring boost timer is. Rings cap out at 20, and to grab more you have to use them.
Every time you're damaged, you will drop 5 rings in addition to spinning out. Getting hit while holding a Shield item will still make you spin-out like normal, but you won't drop any rings -- you just lose the Shield. When bumping, both players will drop 1 ring each.
Getting hit or being bumped without rings will give you a Ring Sting, and you'll wipe-out for a very short time. Ring Sting's length depends on weight differences; a heavy character will get a short moment of control loss when stung by a light character, a light character stung by a heavy will get a long wipe-out. Always make sure you're holding onto at least 1 ring, as players who can be stung will have a "!" icon above their head -- if you're too greedy and waste all of your rings trying to pass players, you can be punished for it! If you have no rings and get hit, then you'll be in Ring Debt. All damage at that point will only make you lose 2 rings per hit, and you'll go in the negatives.
Being in Ring Debt will make the Super Ring item appear when you mash, giving you a healthy 10 rings -- this item can also appear for front-runners rarely. If this item gives you above 20 rings, then the extra rings are converted into boost. In Record Attack, mashing during the item roulette will always give you a Super Ring, while waiting it out will always give you a Sneaker.
SPB will also spawn a trail of rings while it's traveling, adding another way for all players to catch up to 1st while it's active. The person being chased by SPB cannot pickup any extra on-field rings (although Super Ring still works!), indicated by the SPB attacking your ring counter. Rings work as a fantastic back-up reserve for avoiding SPB in tough situations, but you can't totally rely on them since you can't get more during it!
Overall, rings have a wide range of different uses & provide tons of utility. You can use them aggressively to pass players or increase your lead, or keep them stock-piled for a boost for dodging items or recovering from damage, or use them sparringly and focus more on good item usage -- all of these are completely valid strategies.
TETHERING
If you're behind someone in their racing line, then you'll start to tether onto them, giving you a speed boost! It kicks in immediately, indicated by the sparkling Combi-Band, but it gets stronger the longer you maintain your position behind them. The Combi-Band is red at it's distance limit, and blue up close, telling the player being tethered how close you are. Once you reach maximum tether speed, your wheels will start to kick up dust! This serves as a catch-up mechanic when you don't have items, and makes throwable items deadlier. Tethering stacks great with ring boosts, too!
Character stats influence both maximum tether distance, and the power of the speed boost you get from it. Every corner of the graph gets their own unique set of tethering advantages & disadvantages -- try experimenting with them all!
SHIELDS
The Thunder Shield is now complete -- it's the same as before, but now it draws in rings if you have less than 20.
The Bubble Shield makes you bump players away on touch, and inflates when you hold down the item button (with a cooldown between each blow-up). While inflated, it will reflect items and spinout players, requiring constant input to reflect stuff away. If you over-inflate it, it will pop off of you, becoming a trap item. Players caught in the bubble will float away until they struggle out of it!
The Flame Shield lets you tether onto other players from any distance. Holding down the item button will also make you boost more, at the cost of your steering! It is one of the most powerful speed-boosting items in the game.
OTHER
- Slopes have improved physics. They're much easier to go up, and they give you a huge speed boost while going down them. You can see this in a couple of the gifs.
- There is a (more consistent) speed cap in the air, so large jumps are not affected by the higher overall speed of the game. It has easing applied to it too, so the speed loss is subtle & natural feeling.
- OpenGL's 3D models have been getting a new coat of paint -- hue-shifted player colors are represented more accurately, and the models are getting a bit more detail.
- We've teased this in lots of these gifs -- lives will be a feature for the Single Player mode, preventing you from proceeding with a cup if you didn't place in the top-half. You have to legitimately learn the course layouts if you want to continue! We may go into more detail about Grand Prix later, when it is more complete.
- There's other new items in the planning stages as well, stay tuned!
Lastly, here's a video showing off these new features in a real race:
Overall, all of these changes will make Kart much more competitive, faster, and even more aggressive than defensive. Rings give lightweights get a bit more of a technical edge, without removing the power heavyweights hold over controlling space at all. Rings & drafting gives every player more chances to stay in the fight, meaning that maintaining a lead won't be about getting a head-start & playing it safe anymore. Hard mode will be more of a niche and Normal will be the recommended game speed (as originally intended).
We hope that you will all enjoy the changes when the update rolls out. It'll likely take a long time, but hopefully this serves as a small taste for what's next.
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