I appreciate the changes to brakes activating fast fall, but I would also think an accessibility option to restrict fast fall to the spindash button would improve consistency to avoid misinputs.
I still find myself in situations where I end up activating fast fall on very small decents.
How about randomly in the grand prix, your most played character or the main character you select as your profile ID, showed up as in special golden attire as challenge race, these special ones are unique as they based on YOUR playstyle (basically think the Tekken 8 AI Ghost thing but racing) and beating these racers in 1st place or place above (by the way, losing against these has no penalty unless them just mocking you after winning against you is the penalty lol), either unlock an random character or challenge, a free live or guaranteed chaos/super emerald chance at the end of grand prix (I know, this won't get added AT ALL but I just thought it was neat idea)
Personally I'd really like a random color and follower option just for when I want to fully commit to the ironman playstyle as Heavy Magician, or just when I want to see more of the followers but not dive into all the options available to see what I might like. As is I'm mostly just keeping to the ones I already like and not really going out of my way much to see how they look/sound in-game.
I'd like to second and expand on the idea of selecting only specific racers for the CPU to pull from.
I can of course imagine the idea of just Selecting every CPU before a match race, and I don't think that idea would have no merit. (It would allow for specific themed races, and you could have certain arrangements in Test Run if you wanted to test cross-character interaction or just take a fun screenshot.) That said, it wouldn't really work in Grand Prix because of the No Contest system. Which is fine, you could always have this be an option exclusively for match race.
However, I personally envision it more like this suggestion:
It'd be fun if you could select what characters could appear in a Grand Prix in singleplayer.
For example, say you REALLY don't like Mighty for some reason. Just turn him off! Then you'll have every other character in the game, just not Mighty.
reasoning for asking this is kind of spoilery so ermmm
I love how many different characters are in this game, but I'm starting to unlock more and more non-Sonic characters and sometimes it'd just be nice to have classic characters only LOL
I imagine this would be tied to your profile. In profile settings, you can open up a list of characters and toggle them on and off for singleplayer CPU use. (Perhaps you could even change what color the CPU defaults to for each character? I'm unsure if that's feasible.) It would be particularly nice if you could save presets Within a profile - say, you could have a "dreamcast era" roster, an "all antagonists" roster, an "everyone except this one character whose voicelines I don't care for" roster. Even just having the one per profile would be fine, though, since you can always just make more profiles.
As for potential edge cases: if you have less than 13 characters (which I believe is the minimum you'll see in Grand Prix?) I imagine it would choose randomly, as normal. This would also allow you to have a "everyone is random just like normal except I'll always have my best friend Motobug even if they're not a rival" roster, which I would really like.
If you turn off all of a character's rivals; personally, I'd also like to see some kind of unlockable (and togglable!) "rival unlock" system that allows you to have anyone for a rival. Hypothetically, I'd also like to see a separate "random rival possibilities" option, but I understand that's a level of granularity so fine that it might be a reach. I imagine this might be solved in a few ways: If only some of the rivals are removed, just always default to the remaining ones. If all are removed, either have the rivals bypass this restriction (not ideal, but understandable) or select a rival randomly (prevents a bypass, but you lose the consistency of having only three characters you associate as Your Enemy, which I wouldn't want to cut.) You could also just have the player set three "backup rivals" when they use this feature, in the event they cut a given character's original ones.
I do realize there is a nonzero gameplay ramification here; "what if you set every CPU to class I on a cup that benefits class A?" This is fair, but I would argue it is already possible in basegame, because you could hypothetically install 200 (9,9) characters to a similar effect. This is of course incredibly niche, but the point is that it's Possible. (It's a similar argument to why I think exploded kart remains should be removable without lua; yes, it Very Hypothetically introduces gameplay changes, but you could also Very Hypothetically create near-invisble camouflaged karts or have a metronome as a voice clip that helps you with timing. The precedent of these extremely niche improvements is already set: it's therefore fine to allow one more when it allows for a very substantial new feature that makes the game more enjoyable.)
I'm giving a lot of detail here to explain how I personally think this would work, but most of this isn't Critical to my suggestion; that is, I imagine other ways of doing this would be equally if not more successful. First and foremost, my main wish is for the ability to only have the CPU use my preferred characters in single player.
As it currently stands DI has no real visual feedback related to it, which I've found can make certain hurt states feel random because players might not be aware that holding a direction affects which way you're tumbling or spinning in, I'm hoping that some sort of effect gets added when DI occurs
I'm also of the mindset that the Emeralds shouldn't have been rearranged until after all 14 have been collected, mostly because there are two cup unlocks related to beating a Special Stage on bonus cups (which give you the fake Emeralds if the first 7 were collected), which for me made me feel like I had wasted my time on two fronts, one for collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds as early as I did and again for having to beat Atlantis twice on both Egg Cup and Skate Cup (and having to do it the second time set me off in regards to further unlocks that weren't shrines or other easy grabs). A player who knows about these hidden cups could also delay running the special stages until needed to do those unlocks as well so they can unlock them with an easier special stage, which runs counterintuitive to, well, actually trying to do them when they appear.
In fact, I honestly think a lot of the more minor unlocks could be given secondary, more streamlined conditions. Stuff like adding the followers to the pool of random rewards from Prison Break, maybe at a different rate than the CDs (excluding the more major rewards ofc) and the characters having some additional unlock condition, maybe something like dueling against a single, much harder CPU on an unfamiliar track after a GP.
Spoiler relating to an unlock that is based off of completion
Test Run should have an alternate unlock condition by loading an addon to help with mod testing, if you are making a mod that uses LUA or is a custom character or follower being able to test it immediately would be a great even if you didnt unlock all the maps yet or did not enter the code that unlocks all maps
I can of course imagine the idea of just Selecting every CPU before a match race, and I don't think that idea would have no merit. (It would allow for specific themed races, and you could have certain arrangements in Test Run if you wanted to test cross-character interaction or just take a fun screenshot.) That said, it wouldn't really work in Grand Prix because of the No Contest system. Which is fine, you could always have this be an option exclusively for match race.
However, I personally envision it more like this suggestion:
I imagine this would be tied to your profile. In profile settings, you can open up a list of characters and toggle them on and off for singleplayer CPU use. (Perhaps you could even change what color the CPU defaults to for each character? I'm unsure if that's feasible.) It would be particularly nice if you could save presets Within a profile - say, you could have a "dreamcast era" roster, an "all antagonists" roster, an "everyone except this one character whose voicelines I don't care for" roster. Even just having the one per profile would be fine, though, since you can always just make more profiles.
I find the Top item pretty OP? I get that's partially the point and the disadvantage is that you can't turn properly, but after getting used to it, I find myself getting into the top placement way too easily with it and it never felt fair. I'm not sure if it's on a timer either since I can go through multiple, long laps with it, and only stops once I'm in first place or getting hit in a specific way. Maybe I'm secretly a Kirby Air Ride god or something, idunno lol.
That being said, an option to make certain items go on forever could be fun! Perhaps this is more of a mod idea, but I keep thinking how fun it would be to run a Top-Only room where everyone rides on Tops through the entire race. Open up some fun casual options
If there was something for me to suggest that wasn't "oH yOu ShOuLd AdD [x character]" or "PLEASE ADD [Y MAP] FROM SRB2KART", it would be to add a map and lap count to the level select screen on match race. I know that's a thing in time attack mode, but honestly it would also be a useful thing to have in match races too. That way a player could tell if the course is a standard 3 lap, a 5 lap, a marathon and so on.
Below is what I'm referring to. Obviously, you'd replace the time stats with lap counts, then maybe options for customising the race further like what CPUs will be playing, what music will be playing, etc etc. I feel like this would be a good QOL update imo.
It would be nice if the level preview images for the Time Attack and Prison Break menus also showed the medals you've earned on said levels. This would reduce the amount of searching needed to find levels with missing medals. I've created two mockups to demonstrate how this might look in-game (forgive my terrible artistry).
As someone else suggested, remove the Grand Prix restriction on a lot of the challenges, a whole bunch of them are needlessly specific and niche and could require several retries just to get the unlock, which for me and several of my friends makes me not want to attempt them. I get that's what Chao Keys are for, but the thing is I actually WANT to attempt some of these challenges, were it not for having to go through oftentimes half a grand prix just to reach the level which is frustrating and annoying.
It would be nice if the level preview images for the Time Attack and Prison Break menus also showed the medals you've earned on said levels. This would reduce the amount of searching needed to find levels with missing medals. I've created two mockups to demonstrate how this might look in-game (forgive my terrible artistry).
This is a bit involved but I think a randomized Grand Prix would actually be a neat addition and help squeeze out a bit of extra replay value from the single player mode. You could argue Match Race accomplishes the same thing but I'd disagree; a random selection of 5 courses (or 4 if it picks Death Egg Zone ) with GP mechanics could be a fun option for when you've already perfected all the GPs but still want more out of the mode. Could also include a toggle for Encore Mode with it as well so you can do Encore races in GP mode.
An alternative song to replace streamer unfriendly songs when the one option is toggled, even if it's super unfitting I think it'd be better than pure silence while racing.
An option from the Online menu to rejoin the last server you were in (assuming you weren't kicked or banned) so you don't have to do a reset of the entire game just because you left a modded server to look at your unlocks.
There's probably other things I'd like but I can't think of em right now, I'll add them to the thread if they come back to me.
As I kinda expected, this thread kinda took off. I see a lot of interesting points being mentioned, but I'm gonna second and comment on some ones I noted.
Alternative controller displays/glyphs should be incorporated into the main game. Even as someone who actually does use a SEGA Saturn controller, it's a very silly choice to have that be the only option (as well as the glyphs not updating when remapped). IIRC, SRB2Kart actually already did this in its manual, with a modified Saturn graphic using a modern layout - providing an option for the same here would've been a simple fix.
Seconding the ability to change viewpoint after a race has finished. This was a godsend for streaming, because it meant I could keep the race footage going even after I've passed the line - I don't understand its removal.
Death Egg Zone should be a single lap, at least in online. I can't think of a good reason for it to be so damn long in GP either (we all realise nobody actually liked Rainbow Road 64 being that long, right!?), but at the very least in online it's just a stage that I constantly skip because nobody in my lobby wants to actually sit through it for the 6+ minutes it can take to clear.
Flipcam. This is basic accessibility stuff, and it's baffling it's not here already when the game literally has an accessibility menu.
I'm glad to see the controller glyph point mentioned again, since I like using the input display not only for streaming the game, but also because I want to see if my inputs are being dropped. Mildly related, but I mentioned it on the official Discord- the Accel input tends to drop when reloading Special Stages seemingly at random. This may be related to me having the input on a trigger? But having the glyphs match up better is a small thing I feel would help a lot.
I make a bet some would imagine the viewpoint switching immediately (and more still might actually want that??) but I would pitch the idea for the viewpoint to remain locked as it shows your finishing stats, as I love the effect of seeing the kart fly off into the distance... But when it's done, it swaps to the replay camera while displaying the other players' stats! Think how the Gran Turismo series handles its race finishes. It would naturally swap faster if the player taps a button to skip the finishing stats animation, and use the Director cam by default so it can automatically focus on the different racers that have yet to finish (or your CPU!) That way we can have it all- a pause to watch yourself fly off, a moment to see the sign & your stats, and a cut to some action while you wait for everyone to finish.
I did like that RR64 was that long... sorry! But I do think at least one full lap can be taken off DEZ, with the Kyodai Eggman Robo set up in the final stretch early so players can actually encounter this awesome setpiece. Endurance races are my jam, but I get people aren't going to be playing online for that. Even taking off one loop would cut the final time down immensely!
As long as Flipcam is not defaulted on. I'm used to games flipping my character on screen without the rest of the camera following suit and that's how it is in most Sonic games. But considering the intensity of the game I think it would help newer players as well as more motion-sensitive ones a ton. And yeah, why was it cut?
This baffled me personally when I had the feature on. Again, it's a small cut that means a lot for gameplay, and is inconsistent with Auto Ring. The reasoning for Auto Ring being added is to help new players out with part of the mechanic and lets them use it manually as well, so why not allow players to stop the Auto Roulette early?
Both NerfPlayer and Noah Infinity mention something similar, being to add new information onto the cup and course previews. I agree on this, I understand just having names and art makes it look seriously clean and stylish, but sometimes the need for info must come first- much like the change to music credits. As well as wanting medal icons, I would want icons for the spray cans to be visible since I like collecting them and players are already encouraged to go searching! It would make the hunt a lot less tedious since there's so many courses in the game... and if one just wants the pretty art, I would pitch for having the drift button toggle the info much like info is toggled on the character select!
Lastly, let the character select play both voice clips set for attacking for variety's sake, and look into the character select sounds not playing after adding addons.
If a user tries to press the item button to unlock a large challenge, it should point towards the adjacent tiles (make them blink, make it try to unlock them simultaneously if the user keeps holding the button, etc.) instead of just failing.
A few more suggestions I've seen that deserve to be heard:
A cup for Grand Prix that picks five Race maps (four if Death Egg gets picked), two Prison Break maps, and one Special Stage at random.
Toggles for alternate music. My idea is to have it be per-song, and to press X or Y while hovering over the unlocked song's panel in Challenges to toggle.
A toggle for the music distortion while Encore Mode is active.
One thing that I would like to see in future versions of Ring Racers is some tweaks to the color selection process to make it work better with custom skincolors.
The ideas I had were increasing the speed in which you scroll through the color wheel (to make going through lots of colors faster) or adding on additional rows of colors to house custom colors (the default first row is base game colors, the second is the first 100 custom colors loaded in, the third is the next 100, etc).
Let me apologize for using the Ring Racers Gitlab for suggestions
My biggest ask for Ring Racers right now - which I had brought up on Gitlab - would be an accessibility option for the roulette in Time Attack. On a personal level, I don't really feel like having to stop the roulette at the right time really adds anything in Time Attack, it feels like a bit of needless complexity. I get that there are some edge case situations where you wouldn't want Jackpots, but it just feels like an added plate to spin for the sake of spinning plates, I really preferred SRB2 Kart's fixed Sneaker-only item boxes in Time Attack.
BUT putting aside my personal taste - I think the Roulette has a bit of an accessibility problem. The easiest way I found to learn the timing was to count the sound effect of the roulette "ding"s to five in order to stop it on the Jackpot. It's a busy game with a lot going on, trying to look at the visual was hard, I found it easiest to go off the sound. But I have a deaf friend who has been my primary Time Attack buddy for years in SRB2 Kart. We're not world record setters but trading ghosts has been a really fun little friendly competition we've always engaged in for a long time. So when we realized Time Attack in Ring Racers relies on a frequent audio cue, it was disheartening.
Truthfully - while it was a big problem when I initially wrote about this on Gitlab, the deaf friend I'm speaking on behalf of has managed to adapt to this and can get the jackpots consistently on just the visual and timing. This was not as big of a problem for us as we feared, but I think getting a grip on the roulette was more difficult for them than it needed to be.
While I think some things about Time Attack ought to be rethought on a broad level, my immediate, actionable request would be an accessibility option that color-codes the roulette very strongly in Time Attack only, like changing the Jackpot graphic to be hot pink or something so it really stands out as a visual and you can just go "okay, I see pink so I need to stop the roulette". The roulette graphics kind of blend together - I think something like this would go a long way.
This is a very minor thing, but I think it'd be helpful if the springs that initiate Tricks had some sort of visual and/or audio cue to help let you know that you just bounced off a Trick Spring before the Chaotix disc appear on screen. In the heat of the race, it's not always clear what may or may not put you into that state, such as not noticing the designated springs until you're too close, or having other objects that don't always trigger it being able to (Like the gold balloons in Balloon Park).
It doesn't need to be anything super in-your-face about it. Could be something like a glow or sparkle effect hovering over the springs and/or object that could put you into the trick state, or having a unique spring sound effect play different from the regular spring sound effect so you can hear that you just bounced on a Trick Spring, even if you didn't see that you did right away.
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) with GP mechanics could be a fun option for when you've already perfected all the GPs but still want more out of the mode. Could also include a toggle for Encore Mode with it as well so you can do Encore races in GP mode.
