SRB2Kart 1.6

[DylanDude]

pretty much the game died :)

The active Discord server of thousands of people would beg to disagree.

 

[HenryStickminFan2]

would like it if you could jump by pressing drift like in actual mario kart.

 

[AAC Plus]

Help, I didn't see the warning on the installer telling me not to install SRB2 Kart in my downloads, and now all the data in my SRB2 files vanished, my mods, my save data, my game, everything is gone. Am I Fucked?

 

[ChaseSP]

The active Discord server of thousands of people would beg to disagree.

The discord points a different picture from what you see in game yeah. There's a bunch of active people on the Kart Krew discord while game servers can be underpopulated due to people either being burnout/playing other stuff, or just waiting for Ring Racers to release at this point.

 

[NewUltramanTime]

3 Questions for SRB2 Kart:

1. Like Sonic Rivals series, Are there any plans to have a Signature Moves for All Normal Characters, Bonus Characters and Character WADs?
Here's my Concept:

2. Will there be Offline Mode?

3. Like Sonic & All-star Racing Transformed and Team Sonic Racing, Are there any plans to have a Character? Types like Standard Type, Balanced Type, Speed Type, Acceleration Type, Handling Type, Boost Type, Super Type, etc

 

[Jammin']

3 Questions for SRB2 Kart:

1. Like Sonic Rivals series, Are there any plans to have a Signature Moves for All Normal Characters, Bonus Characters and Character WADs?
Here's my Concept:
View attachment 117447

2. Will there be Offline Mode?

3. Like Sonic & All-star Racing Transformed and Team Sonic Racing, Are there any plans to have a Character? Types like Standard Type, Balanced Type, Speed Type, Acceleration Type, Handling Type, Boost Type, Super Type, etc

1. That is not a planned feature, no. (Could be possible to mod it in, though.)

2. In Ring Racers, (the sequel and not an update) there will be an offline Grand Prix mode.
But as it stands, it seems all Kart will ever have within vanilla is the Time Attack mode.

3. Also not planned.

 

[ReddySoop_]

R I N G
R A C E R S
IT IS OUT

 

[NJCool25]

R I N G
R A C E R S
IT IS OUT

And right before my birthday, too!

 

[Rolly Polly Pal]

Since I don't see a thread specifically for ring racers, I guess I'll ask here. Are you not able to bind multiple keys to a single function anymore? You could do it in V1 and it let me play the game with both my controller and my keyboard. When I set the controls in DRRR to default it shows multiple keys bound to all the functions, but when I try to change the binds for my controller it erases the keyboard binds as well, and adding a keyboard bind replaces what I bound to the controller.

 

[NewUltramanTime]

Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers is finally out

 

[Rolly Polly Pal]

Ok so I finished the tutorial and one grand prix match and... I have a lot to say.
It's clear that you guys at Kart Krew put a lot of effort into this and it certainly shows. The presentation is very nice and the visuals are pleasing to look at. However this game leaves a very bad first impression on me and evidently many other people as well. To list some of my gripes:

• The forced tutorial (already a red flag) feels like it drags on for way too long. What I enjoy most about Kart games like the Mario Karts and V1 is that they're relatively easy to pick up and figure out. It's a game my family (who almost never plays video games) can figure out quickly and have a fun time with. Not the case here, as there are way, way, WAY too many mechanics being introduced to the player that will overwhelm them easily. One of my hopes with V2 was that it would become more accessible for newcomers as trying to introduce more friends to Kart was always a challenge for me but I honestly think RR is even worse in this regard.
• Despite its extreme length, the tutorial actually fails at providing vital information the player might want to know. Things like position, slipstreaming (something from V1 that's STILL not properly explained), rivals, hitstun, and the items are not elaborated upon. This led to a lot of frustrating moments in my first Grand Prix where it felt like I got hit for unexplainable reasons, or one egregious example in one stage where I held first for the entire race until the final lap where I got one of those bumper items from Casino Night, used it not knowing what it does, and it bounced me backward with so much force that I got sent to last and had to do the race over.
• Also despite its extreme length, many of the gimmicks that were taught in the tutorial ended up being completely useless in my first grand prix because they did not come up whatsoever. I'm sure this is less of a problem in later courses but it still feels like the game is trying to do way too much yet way too little at the same time. Take this one with a grain of salt though.
• The hitstun/tumble is really, really bad. Basically as bad as I and many others worried it would be when footage of it was first shown off. It's the worst when you're in the middle of the pack after recovering from the back and then get uber-tumbled sending you all the way back to the bottom ranks again.
• The fact you need to unlock online multiplayer and modding. I can sort of understand why this is the case, and I do think it's kind of neat that unlocks exist at all, but it kind of ruins SRB2Kart's "pop it open and play with your friends" nature that you need to unlock so many things before you can use them with friends. The Grand Prix can also take a while even if you're experienced at Kart so that's a bunch of time you'll need to waste just to access netgames. IDK if you can unlock things from playing online but even if you do I'd assume there's many things you can't. And gating modding behind an unlock I feel is going to be an unnecessary barrier for any newbies looking to mod the game.

I'm separating these from the rest because I feel they are more nitpicks than anything:

• As I mentioned in my previous post the fact you can't assign multiple binds to a button unless you reset to default (which is annoying because this was something Kart was able to do)
• Might be a skill issue on my part but all the spray cans looked the same when I reached that section of the tutorial and I had no idea you could only choose one (that's another gripe I have actually, why are the colors unlockable) I wish I had known I'd only get to pick one and be stuck with that until I unlock more.
• Tails' engine makes this weird clicking sound that drives me absolutely nuts, it's incredibly grating

Overall I can tell there's a lot of good here and the presentation is solid, but it's marred by a really unfun experience that fails to live up to my expectations for an SRB2Kart sequel. I hope the devs continue to work on and improve the game going forward, and maybe my opinion will change with a bit more experience, but so far I find it hard to recommend.

 

[MechaDeka]

Ah good, I finally get to say it to you abusive, childish assholes:

I told you so.

 

[Lilly]

I personally found the tutorial mission to be a pleasurable time. I think the mechanics it introduces are compelling and fun, the music is great, and the dialog between Eggman and Tails is such a rare delight. I would love a kart-racing adventure that works somewhat the way this tutorial does.

The idea of Eggman and Tails working together peacefully is perhaps a bit of fan indulgence, but I can't be mad; the way it's presented is a good time. (And to whoever drew the Tails portraits, they are so cute!)

At the same time, I have to agree with Rolly Polly: I struggle to see how many players will have the aptitude to learn (especially up-front) where the skill floor is for this game. And nothing I learned in the tutorial helped me at all with my first proper race! It was all tricks and no fundamentals. I'm getting 1st place regardless, but only by the skin of my teeth, complete with awkwardly drifting into walls!

I'm still having fun, of course, and I know I can learn how to project when to start drifting around curves with practice. But personally, I think this game would benefit from the tutorial being truly optional.

 

[Chungy]

I wasn't into Ring Racers at first, but I warmed up to it a little after playing a few cups in Grand Prix. I think the tutorial does need a rework so it's not so daunting to newcomers from the get go. Spread bits and pieces of it when certain mechanics become relevant in Grand Prix. They could even be treated as story cutscenes. Right before a race, the player is introduced to a new gameplay mechanic by a character and they could practice it as much as they like before hitting the road, like Mario Party minigames.

While I have many mixed thoughts and opinions that I think were greatly touched upon in Rolly Polly's post, I'm looking forward to what's in store for RR in the near-future! I'll give the game another shot one day and maybe love it as much as I do with SRB2Kart.

 

[Miko64]

will ring racers release on the message board?

 

[leah]

I pray for the days when someone posts a save file here so I can just play online LOL

 

[ReddySoop_]

I pray for the days when someone posts a save file here so I can just play online LOL

I unlocked online by playing the game for a few minutes, IIRC you unlock it by finishing the first cup

 

[Latius]

Or, there is an unlock code for it.

Spoiler

You'd need to be a Wi-Fi Warrior to figure it out though.

 

[MellowJacket]

I've been detached from the community for a long time now, and I had not been keeping up with Kart Krew development at all. So seeing Ring Racers be shadow dropped yesterday was a huge surprise! Hopefully, because I've been removed from the wider community, my impressions without any pre-concieved biases and expectations can be of some help. (Seeing how some people are worked up in this thread and the Kart Krew EXE mod thread, maybe it could have been called Ring Ragers. Dohohoho)

I have a lot of thoughts on this release, and I want to present them in a more constructive way because I think this game is REALLY good, I'm having a blast playing this, but I'd love to see it be even better still. And seeing that there's no official Ring Racer thread on the MB, I suppose here will have to do. (I understand most conversation happens on the Discord servers these days, but this forum is still a better place for the average user to post some thoughts without it being immediately drowned out by a dozen one-sentence messages imo)

Some day 2 impressions, after playing the game, sleeping on my thoughts and playing it some more.

• Overall, this game is fantastic and I'm having a blast. I need to emphasize that whatever else I say, I think this release rules.
  
  
• The tutorial is really cute and I love how it's presented. But it's egregiously long while still leaving gaps in my knowledge. I've done a few cups and I have no idea why I keep seeing sparkle-tethers connect racers as an example. Maybe the tutorial would be better served by spreading it out between cups? I certainly didn't need to know about trick pads before being allowed to play the game at all for example, but I would have appreciated that info later.
  
  I also think the player should just be asked if they want to do the tutorial, then be given a simple YES/NO option. Some players will skip the tutorial and be frustrated by mechanics or controls they don't understand, but I think that's a worthy trade off to getting players into the game faster if they really want to. The tutorial as it stands is a genuinely quite tall barrier to entry, I have friends I would love to play this online with and I know they would show up ready to play in my discord voice call at the right time- and only then start the tutorial and hold everything up for 30 minutes at minimum. Which is a huge downer on a game night with friends. I'm aware that you can skip the tutorial by completing an optional race, but even that is a skill check which I think many players would prefer to meet by just playing games and talking to their friends as they do so. I completely understand why the tutorial is mandatory, but I really do think you should be willing to potentially let the player make mistakes by skipping the tutorial.
  
  
• This also applies to loading addons! Players should be allowed to just load them without an unlock requirement as well. If things break, then you will just have to trust a player to know that this is because of an addon. Completing 4 cups is a very tall requirement to letting people play as their favourite character they downloaded from the MB if they just installed fresh and that's the reason they even got the game, for example!
  
  
• I get the idea behind unlocking customization by making the player collect spray cans and unlock characters. But at minimum, I do think all the basic colors (the ones available in the tutorial, where you can only pick one) should have been available by default. Leaving extra characters as unlocks is fine though. I love being surprised by some of these picks when I see the CPU use them in races. However, I would love to have a clearer idea of how to unlock specific characters! I think a menu where I can see a list of the unlockable characters with their unlock requirements would be very welcome. For example, I assume Charmy Bee is in this game and I would love to unlock him- but I would like to know how so I have a goal I can target.
  
  
• On the topic of unlocks, I was hugely surprised the first time I found a special stage and got my first chaos emerald. I was not expecting anything like that, and I genuinely want to see what I unlock for getting all the Chaos Emeralds. Is it a new cup? A playable super sonic? (Well, given how Eggman and Tails this game is focused, a hyper tails might be more appropriate), but I don't know and it's an exciting mystery to uncover.
  
  
• Speaking of the CPU, these CPU racers are exceptionally well made. Whoever programmed them at KartKrew has done a fantastic job. I wouldn't say I'm great at Kart so I don't know how they hold up against the best players, but they're definitely racing neck and neck with me the entire time. They're a good challenge without feeling unfair and that's no small feat.
  
  
• More than anything else, I'm excited to just play more of this on my own and online with whoever happens to have a lobby open, but it's very hard for me to recommend to friends to play with them for a one-off game night because of the requirements to unlock online play. And that's genuinely a bummer.

I imagine things might be quite heated in the KartKrew discord server after this release, but please don't be disheartened. I think this release is great, just with a few rough edges that can be sanded down in the opening moments of the game. Then you can all take a very, very, well-deserved break.

​

Edit: I've since been told there are passwords to skip the tutorial and online play unlock requirements. But these aren't really appropriate either, as they require access to friends who know them to even learn about them. Which presumably also means assumed access to the SRB2 discord servers. Please remember that most players just won't be looking there, especially not when they've picked up the game for the first time.

 

[MechaDeka]

Actually they've been banning people from the Discord server for posting the passwords there. Because how dare anyone play the game the way they want to, right?