โ˜†๐™…๐™ค๐™ ๐™š๐™ง๐™‚๐™‹โ˜† ๐™ˆ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™ž๐™–โ˜…๐™Ž๐™ฉ๐™–๐™ง ๐™‹๐™–๐™˜๐™ 

[Level Pack] โ˜†๐™…๐™ค๐™ ๐™š๐™ง๐™‚๐™‹โ˜† ๐™ˆ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™ž๐™–โ˜…๐™Ž๐™ฉ๐™–๐™ง ๐™‹๐™–๐™˜๐™  4.0b

โ˜†๐™…๐™ค๐™ ๐™š๐™งโ˜…

๐™Ž๐™๐™–๐™™๐™šโ˜†๐™Ž๐™ฉ๐™–๐™ง
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๐™„ ๐™ฌ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™ฉ ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™ช๐™ฅ๐™™๐™–๐™ฉ๐™š ๐™ข๐™ฎ ๐™ฅ๐™–๐™˜๐™  ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ ๐™– ๐™ฃ๐™š๐™ฌ ๐™›๐™–๐™˜๐™š๐™ฉ. ๐™๐™๐™š ๐™…๐™ค๐™ ๐™š๐™ง ๐™‚๐™‹ ๐™ˆ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™ž๐™– ๐™Ž๐™ฉ๐™–๐™ง ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™ฃ๐™ค๐™ฌ ๐™–๐™ซ๐™–๐™ž๐™ก๐™–๐™—๐™ก๐™š


After a long time, I decided to rework my maps and I offer you only 5 different maps. This will give you an idea of the remaining 10 maps.



Kart_Krew_Raceway.png

Kart Krew Horizon

Twilight Mansion.png

Twilight Mansion

Dragon Valley.png

SIK Dragon Valley

Polar Paradise.png

Polar Paradise Zone

Scorch Desert Zone.png

Scorch Desert Zone



Joker Cup:
  • Kart Krew Horizon [MAPW6]
  • ??? [MAPW7]
  • ??? [MAPW8]
  • ??? [MAPW9]
  • Twilight Mansion [MAPWA]
Clover Cup:
  • SIK Dragon Valley [MAPWB]
  • Polar Paradise Zone [MAPWC]
  • Scorch Desert Zone [MAPWD]
  • ??? [MAPWE]
  • ??? [MAPWF]
Coming Soon:
  • ??? [MAPWG]
  • ??? [MAPWH]
  • ??? [MAPWI]
  • ??? [MAPWJ]
  • ??? [MAPWK]


Credits/Co-Authors
  • Fayt
  • Ivo
  • Callmore
  • BladeDash

if you have any problems, please contact me on discord
 
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Really think the theme and map layout of whispering mansion is great and I can definitely see it being one a great one, though I think some of the "traps" could use some changes. The roving enemies and spike ball chain corner seem unavoidable at times. The underwater spikes seem a little oddly placed personally.

other than that I think it's a really great layout that I'd like to try out when I can get more people to play it with me.
 
Whispering Mansion is a solid track, except the number of hazards is extreme. The spike pits are especially egregious and could just be offroad if you really want them around, and having a spike wall in the crumbling wall corner cut is needlessly limiting; it's such a small cut, barely a second if that, and reminds me of the almost-never-used spike cut in Kart Airlines.


Sweet Mountain has some great visuals. I feel like you should either stick with the rainbow boost pads or the normal green ones; consistency is the goal, here. Also, the spring jump at the end seems like it might be a little strong, given how close it is to the goal. I would consider turning the last set of springs into a ramp up, so the player doesn't get to keep their boost speed the entire way. Of course, the normal route has boost panels of its own, which might balance things out more than I realize. That said, so many boost panels all over the track means getting sneakers or Invinc is significantly less impactful than they otherwise should be.


Sunset is pretty nice. I feel like the pits after the lake could use a warning sign, although admittedly I didn't fall into any of them. Still, they're almost invisible on approach and Normal speed players might fall into them while Hard clears the gaps without issue. The lower path around the shrine only having a small ramp needs tweaking, it's already a longer path and if you missed the ramp or were hit by an item past it you'd need to take several more seconds to back up and approach it again. The ramp should extend the entire length of that porch section, and perhaps be less steep.


Joker City has a lot of visual appeal, but that dirt section is primed for nothing but frustration. Not only are there a ton of bomb barrels, but there's also nigh-invisible spin-out ice patches in a dark shadow and very difficult to see mole enemies. The fountain section with the spike ball guarding the cut is also mediocre; it's such a time saver that people will lawnmower it with a blue or red MT all day long and risk the spike rather than go around the fountain.


Arctic Lagoon is solid conceptually. It could use a little more flair, though. The bottom-left elbow turn with the ice could use some signage or just be extended so people don't fall into the difficult-to-see pit that's biting into the corner.
 
Hello Joker! Hope this finds you well. I have some critique for your latest patch:

*The blind turn on Sweet Mountain still exists, and caused yet another mass death today as of this post. I would recommend expanding the walkway so that people have time to react and drift, while still rewarding good track knowledge by cutting what would be a large corner.

*The entrance to Mystic Manor's waterway section is a blind turn into a hazard, causing cheap wipeouts. I would recommend to either extend the area you travel after you fall to give more cause of warning or remove the hazard in this example gif entirely.

*The dark hallway is also a questionable decision, being a bottleneck that severely obstructs vision and doesn't indicate that it is a bottleneck at first glance. I would recommend brightening the sector at least, if not expanding the walkway slightly to allow for more traffic.

*The Mayas that patrol could also use sector decorations to illustrate their paths like on Midnight Channel 2 in Latpack.
*While my computer does not showcase it here, the fog particles can cause heavy performance loss in packed netgames or on weaker PCs. I would advise lessening the particles to just a few select areas instead of blanketing the ground.

*Lastly, the cut in particular feels like a cheap shot since you make no indication that the cut is invin-only. Since the cut does not save much time at all, I would recommend removing the hazards within the cut to make it more accessible.

I hope these recommendations are of use to you, and thank you for creating such unique maps!
 

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Kinda beat ya on the dragon valley map by a bit there but I did try it out. Its pretty good for a replica of the super indie kart track. Keep up the good work.
 


I did a course critique stream with some friends recently, and I went over your pack (along with some others) in sort of a rambly wayโ€”it was on my mind after we'd played it in a private netgame.

My summary starts here, but you can find my initial runs of each course here. Sorry for the technical trouble, especially on Sweet Mountain, where a script I had loaded deleted the item sets and it took me a while to figure out what had happened.

I try to go into things in some detail in the video, but in case you don't have the time or don't feel inclined to watch a video critique:
- Joker City has two shortcuts where it's not clear where the main road actually is; the first one has a red arrow sign that points you towards the shortcut as if it were the main road, and you only discover that it's offroad when you've rolled onto it, while the second one hides the main road behind a blind right-angle turnโ€”the right arrow sign is not enough for this. The detailing here is easily your best, though.
- Sweet Mountain has an exploit where holding Brake on the boost ramp lets you fall to the path below, saving considerable time while still allowing you to finish. That boost ramp also doesn't give you nearly enough time to anticipate the death pit on the outside edge of your landing place.
- Sunset Riverside's gigantic empty underwater section doesn't really have much going on, and the item set placed at its exit has major culling issues. This section probably needs to be removed or reworked significantly to get around the engine limitation there. Tricky right-angle turns again, too.
- Whispering Mansion's narrow black hallway is the worst chokepoint I've ever seen in a Kart map; not only are trap items virtually unavoidable, with mines being completely impossible to dodge, but the Shadow placed in front of it is a punishing hazard that's entirely cycle-based. This whole area needs to be opened up, or an alternative section added. The initial turns lean on boost pads a whole lot, making sneakers almost completely useless, but it is a fun jump sequence; I think it would work equally well with fewer pads.
- AFAIK, Dragon Valley is a port, but the intersecting jumps caused some unfriendly collisions in our games; consider moving one set up or down so that you can't bash someone in midair. The final turn is also pretty confusing, since the starting grid is still visible and looks like a valid path while you're moving quickly.
- Arctic Lagoon is the course I see the most potential in here. I wish there was something more interesting to do with the changing friction; it seems like most of this map is spent sliptiding to the next boost pad, and the offroad sections of the outdoor portion are difficult to seeโ€”a small change in water color isn't enough to communicate danger at a distance. I also don't really know why the Egg Guards are there.
- Right-angle turns are dangerous for visibility, especially if you lead into them with an upward slope. Chimera Tower in particular has a really disastrous upward-sloped 180 right-angle turn, with blind flamethrowers on the inside and a deathpit on the outside, that doesn't really feel fair or fun. Other cycle-based hazards in the course feel similarly punishing, with the swinging mace + dual flamethrowers being the worst offender; if this is on the wrong cycle, all you can do is brake. I dig the gloomy, foreboding aesthetic, but you don't have to design the hazards like an evil mastermind, LOL

Overall, I think this pack suffers from overuse of spinning spikeballs, boost pads, and blind right-angle turns; it's very difficult to sightread, but most layouts don't feel like they have a whole lot going on once you have things figured out. I think the visuals in Joker City and Sunset Riverside are a promising starting point, but other courses feel like you were scrolling through Zone Builder and placed whatever you thought was interesting, without really thinking about a cohesive theme or plan for each course.

I'm excited to see how you treat these courses in the future. It's obvious that you put a great deal of work into what's here, and a lot of the most damaging issues are also the easiest to fix.
 
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