[Open Assets] Dragon Pack RC4

[Hiryuu]

Hello.

I've been waiting for some time now to get this pack released proper and I think now is as good a time as any.

This has been a work-in-progress for the last eight months with people from both the Kart Krew Discord as well as friends of mine.

Annnd, I feel that it's time to let this one out in the wild and we have a lot of distance to cover. So without further text...

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DRAGON PACK

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Features:

5 Race Courses (+2 Hell Courses)
4 Battle Courses (+1 Hell Course)
Battle Plus Compliant
Classy Vanilla Texturing (For the most part)
Encore Music, Palettes and some surprises in a few of the courses

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Race Courses

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Spoiler

Proof of Concept Zone (1st Race)
ID: MAPQV | Laps: 7

The Hello World map that could, originally intended to be nothing more than proof that a functional map was made.

It ended up becoming a mainstay due to its course design so I opted to include it in this pack regardless of its basic design.

Crystal Caverns Zone (2nd Race)
ID: MAPQW | Laps: 3

A winding ice zone. Be careful not to slide off. Thankfully, most of the road itself is fairly solid, in fact.

If you find 'it' be sure to say 'hi' back.

Checkered Boardwalk Zone (3rd Race)
ID: MAPQX | Laps: 5

Black and Red like a checkerboard. Unless, you're on encore (which is more like a chessboard).

Some more turning and split paths on this course with some more launch pads. Careful not to fly off-course.

Caldera Crossfire (4th Race)
ID: MAPQY | Laps: 5

Quite the change of temperature from Crystal Caverns. The course loop intersects in the middle on a cross-jump.

Don't crash in mid-air and sink!

Central Processing Zone (Final Race)
ID: MAPQZ | Laps: 2

For the last race, we have a long and sprawling map with floors over and under you.

There's a lot in this map. In fact, there might be something hidden in it.

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Battle Courses

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Spoiler

Aquatic Nexus (Battle Course 1)
ID: MAPPU

A rather large, two story map. Definitely was created with a large group of people in mind. Don't get lost!

Skyhook Plaza (Battle Course 2)
ID: MAPPV

Created a little more snug than the above map. This map really excels at modes like Mine Blast. Try it out!

The South Bowl (Battle Course 3)
ID: MAPPW

Created in the image of a certain place that wasn't quite lost to the sands of time.

This is a fairly open map aside from the center, which will be highly contested in places like Ring Runners.

Deep Forest Dojo (Battle Course 4)
ID: MAPPX

The last battle course goes all out.

The dojo is the perfect place for a showdown or you can take the fight outside. Be nice to the tree.

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Map Hell (Banished For Kart Crimes)

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Spoiler

Windswept Ruin (Race Course Hell 1)
ID: MAPPQ | Laps: 2

A Death Wind inspired course but the idea never came to full fruition.

Open areas have disastrous current that will push your kart to the side. About two steps from a Desert Bus crash course.

Banned to Hell for obvious reasons and some noted view distance problems. Good luck.

Hyper Highway Zone (Race Course Hell 2)
ID: MAPPR | Laps: 5

The accelerator goes to the floor on this course. Quite literally.

Everywhere that pulses is a boost panel, which is most of the road. There are panels that boost even faster.

And there are pits. Many pits.

Banished to Hell due mostly to difficulty. Keep your eyes on the road.

Cyber Square (Battle Course Hell)
ID: MAPPB

So we have a huge map, yes. And then we decide we want to put another version of said map over it.

With panels that reverse the gravity so you can go between both floors. Yes.

Banned to Hell due to its complexity and the fact that gravity didn't exactly go for what I was looking for. Still a neat concept so I'm leaving it in.

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Music List

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Spoiler

There quite a bit here so let's go over it:

Proof of Concept Zone
Normal: Virtua Fighter 5 - Training Room (JEAN VF5FS Ver.)
Encore: Virtua Fighter 5 - Training Room (JEAN VF5R Ver.)

Crystal Caverns Zone
Normal: Kenichi Tsuchiya (Persona 3 FES) - The Snow Queen
Encore: Wiest - Black Ice

Checkered Boardwalk Zone
Normal: F-Zero: Maximum Velocity - Crater Land
Encore: F-Zero: Maximum Velocity - Synobazz

Caldera Crossfire
Normal: Misoka (Kamiko) - The Scorching Labyrinth
Encore: Juhani Junkala (Mega Man: RnR) - Drake Man

Central Processing Zone
Normal: Josh Mancell/Ashif Hakik [CTR:NF] - N. Gin Labs
Encore: Josh Mancell/Ashif Hakik [CTR:NF] - Electron Avenue
?????: Josh Mancell/Ashif Hakik [CTR:NF] - Boss Race - Ripper Roo

Aquatic Nexus
Battle Theme: Final Fantasy X-2 - I'll Give You Something Hot

Skyhook Plaza
Battle Theme: Prince uf Darkness - Casiopizza vs. TMNT-Square

The South Bowl
Battle Theme: Josh Mancell/Ashif Hakik [CTR:NF] - The North Bowl

Deep Forest Dojo
Battle Theme: KOF '02 UM - ART OF FIGHT ~Dragon, Tiger and Swallow~

Windswept Ruins
Hell: RushJet1 (Cave Story SW) - Wind Fortress
Hell Encore: Raito (UNIEL) - Sound of Night Wind

Hyper Highway
Hell: ABXY (Splatoon 2) - Chip Damage
Hell Encore: Ferdk - Turbo Tunnel

Cyber Square
Hell Battle Theme: Hirokazu Ando [Kirby: Planet Robobot] - Combat Evalution Program

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I think that about covers everything. Even though I've done a lot of work on this over the past eight months, I'm still treating this as a release candidate for the moment, since this is the first time this is hitting the public outside of Discord and those who have helped me test this extensively. I expect there to be a lot of things that are still problematic that I haven't found yet as bugs but, for the most part, this should be a solid experience in general.

If there's something I missed, feel free to point it out. I'd appreciate the feedback and will do what I can to accommodate. For those of you that would like, I do have videos of these courses as well as others I've played in a YouTube playlist on my channel which you can check out here.

EDIT: I've also got a runthrough of the five standard race courses here:



I'd like to thank the Kart Krew Discord and the members there who have helped me over time get used to the development process. Fayt, Star, Tyty and quite a few others in course feedback, testing and otherwise support in general. Without them, this level pack would have never surfaced here nor would have I created any of this, so thank you very much for your help in the past several months.

With all that out of the way, please enjoy!

Supporters / Co-Authors:

• Fayt_XIII
• Teyla

To do: Redo images that were lost to conversion. There's a vid of the race courses, in the meantime.

 

[D00D64]

Welcome to releases!

 

[Hiryuu]

Just a bit of an update: RC2 will most certainly happen given some of the reviews and feedback (Naka Teleeli and Jartcast streams) that I've gotten but this is what I have so far in terms of things I'll want to tackle for it.

All maps in general:
> Need to pull some textures out that focus on Crimson Core. Mostly the in-air arrows. I'll have to do that one a few maps and figure out something going forward that I could use on these.

Proof of Concept Zone:
> Seems clean for now. In general, though, I'd like to come back to this and make it look nicer. Seems to be the one that works best for now. Ironic, given it's my first map.

Crystal Caverns Zone:

> Likely needs a rework entirely - OGL hates it, especially in the cave areas and near the wall edges but I'm not entirely clear on why. Such a thing won't be done on RC2 though for sure. It would be much further down the road.
> After the first S-turn there needs to be proper signage before going off towards the right once exiting the cave. This turn is mean.
> Some of the road-to-pit splits could be done better or could be removed entirely or at least better portrayed. Not sure what I'll do here yet in that regard.

Checkered Boardwalk Zone:

> General cleanup, mostly on conveyance of textures, flats and removal of CC arrows for something else. Readability due to colors used and colormap is a noted problem.
> Barrier needs to be extended in the center of the map.
> Checkpoints need to be adjusted or 'the way back home' needs to be quashed. Maybe both.

Caldera Crossfire:
> Hasn't been fully reviewed yet (should happen tonight of this post date) but I guarantee there are issues to be addressed.

Central Processing Zone:
> Need to put in some invisible barriers on some of the floor-over-floor areas that I missed putting in, simply thinking they would never be a problem.
> Zoom tunnels in general need to be redone, probably with scrolling platforms instead of boosts themselves due to issues with those in the hunt in the pack and wide variance, though I honestly think this is a minor bit and sort of works against the point of this course I'll take it into consideration
> The super-cut that requires really boost-type items probably needs looking into due to the above.
> On the one spring cut, need better signage but then this falls in line with the CC arrow issues in general.

There's probably more than this but no other feedback has been given at this time but I am paying attention to anything that has been given a mention so feel free to let me know if you come across anything else. In general, it looks like most everyone's looking at the first five race maps instead of anything else, though.

 

[Hiryuu]

Hiryuu updated Dragon Pack RC1 with a new update entry:

RC3

RC3 is up for grabs. Had to be split in order to meet the board's new criteria but a few things to make mention of:

Crystal Caverns Zone:

Texture realignment, some additions for clarity, especially on curves and splits. There's been some spots opened up for better turning and certain areas not marked OOB have now been fixed.

Skyhook Plaza:

Corner sections have been opened up. No physics fix on slopes that needed it. Additional item boxes put in where needed.

RC2 did not get a change...

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Hiryuu]

Hiryuu updated Dragon Pack RC1 with a new update entry:

RC4

Caldera Crossfire:
Fixed issue in relation to changes in physics/bugfix in SRB2K v1.6.
Removed quicksand effect from - death is now instant on death pits.
Fixed physics issue with slopes near shortcut area on SW side.
Changed location of vertical flame jets and added a few.
Now has a CHANGES file in the PK3 root to keep track from here on out.

>>>

There's still much to be done but the biggest thing is that the pack now conforms with the new version of the MB.

Read the rest of this update entry...