I''m working on a kart game, much like the Mario Kart series by Nintendo. There is already a thread about game modes and items for those that are interested. Right now I''m thinking about the way the players can use items. What I came up with is a two-level plan: First, players can customize their own kart, or take one of the pre-constructed ones. Each kart relies on a basic kart-type that can do nothing but drive. Players can add certain devices - each has its own weight and influences the kart''s drivability this way. If you add many devices the kart might accelerate slower and be more difficult in tight turns. Each of these devices is used for a certain item type. For example: A player can choose a rocket launcher, a mine dropper or a granade launcher as his primary weapon. When the player picks up an "explosive item" he can now either launch a rocket, drop a mine or throw a granade, depending on what type of device he installed. There are different kinds of explosives like homing, normal, remote controlled etc. Similar devices exist for all item types. (Shield, boosts, ropes...) What do you think of a system like that? Will it be fun to have to decide what items can be used and how, even before the match begins? Or would you most likely curse about the limitations in the game, because you chose (or didn''t) certain devices? Thanks for your input! ------------------------------ There are only 10 kinds of people: those that understand binary and those that don''t. Bad Entertainment

I know it goes against Kart conventions, but seriously consider simply giving each Kart a set of weapons that they always have available and temporary invulnerability when freshly reinserted into the race. I''ve played many games with features like that and I find them to be so much more pleasantly violent for it. The trick is to keep the long-ranged weapons weak so that all you can do is pepper your opponents. See a very old game called Hi Octane for PS1, and a good mod for old Half-Life called Turbo for good examples.

Making the long range weapons weaker than the melee weapons is certainly a good idea. Close ground battles are always more intense and I generally prefer it.

Do you suggest to make one standard kart with, say, three weapons and let the players fight it out? Don''t you think such a game would lack long-term motivation?

On the other hand, you got me thinking: The game could focus on world interaction and some cool things you could do with the environment and the other karts. Maybe you could push things around and damage the opponents - maybe you could even push them around... New gameplay elements would be inserted in the level, so a player can try them out in different ways without being forced to. This would keep the game simple to start with, but there is the possibility to add content later on.

Thoughts?


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There are only 10 kinds of people: those that understand binary and those that don''t.

Bad Entertainment

Hmm - if you wanted to do hardcore physics stuff, you could just give the cart an inventory of shockwaves, grappling hooks, etc. and make the level based on tons of moveable objects (some of which would be usable as conventional weapons). For example, a player could grab a block and leave it in their path, or pick up a ball with spikes on it and keep it on their grapple chain to use to beat on their fellow players.

See Rocket Jockey (its an abandonware title - free on Underdogs) for a good example of grappling-physics based action.

And no, I meant to make each player have a unique set of weapons (possibly custom-selected, possibly just a "character" to choose from), and just kick them into the game with that.

I just don''t think you should limit yourself to copying Mario Kart for the weaponsystem. Yes, its a good system - but it has its faults. Mostly it turns the game into a roulette wheel. It also keeps the inter-player combat minimal if pickups are in short supply. Diddy Kong had the determanistic approach of non-random pickups (like in an FPS game - this gun spawns here, adn you can see what it is), which was better for hardcore players, but it also made the game so much more skill intensive and difficult - and also somewhat less exciting, as the pickups were much less original.

Have any of youtried the game called CHOCOBO RACING for the PS1?
It has many intreseting weapons for close up range attacks and long range attack weapons.Everytime you pick up a fire ball weapon and add two more fire ball attack weapons the fire ball turns into three seperate fire balls that swirl and when you fire the weapon the attack fireball actually goes around the whole track about two or three times before it hits another opponant or disappears.My wife and I always tried beating each other on that.Check it out ! Its an old game but its addictive as well.

BullDogRacing27

also check out the pc game called Super Kart 1 for pc?It has no weapons because its a realistic video game of go-kart racing which has many features of changing chassis, wheels and drivers etc.

BullDogRacing27

What about instead of having the player choose, mine dropper, rocket laucher , or grenede launcher, they instead choose a delivery system. Then depending on what kind of ammo they pick up changes the what the weapon fires. So if the player picks up explosive ammo, then depending on the delivery system they choose, the cart will either fire rockets, throw a grenede or drop a mine.

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"Fate and Destiny only give you the opportunity the rest you have to do on your own."
Current Design project: Ambitions Slave

quote:Original post by TechnoGoth
What about instead of having the player choose, mine dropper, rocket laucher , or grenede launcher, they instead choose a delivery system. Then depending on what kind of ammo they pick up changes the what the weapon fires. So if the player picks up explosive ammo, then depending on the delivery system they choose, the cart will either fire rockets, throw a grenede or drop a mine.

Maybe I wasn''t very clear, but isn''t that what I suggested in my first post? You choose the device and whenever you pick up an explosive, it becomes either a rocket, mine or grenede. Or do you mean something else?

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There are only 10 kinds of people: those that understand binary and those that don''t.

Bad Entertainment

What I mean is something like this, you have three delivery systems to choose from for your primary weapon, a firing tube, a catapult and a dropper.

Then you have diffrent ammo types.

Firing tube + explosive = rocket
Catapult + explosive = grenede
Dropper + explosive = mine

Firing tube + spring = richocette bullet
Catapult + spring = bouncing bomb
Dropper + spring = spring board trap



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"Fate and Destiny only give you the opportunity the rest you have to do on your own."
Current Design project: Ambitions Slave

Hmm - that would be very difficult to do, as you'd have to consider every combination of deliver mechanism and source. Still, it could be useful for other ideas - how about weapon modifiers? You pick up ammo boxes, and by default you have a simple cannon. There are pickups around the map that alter its behaviour. These modifications are permanent, discarded when you pick up a different modification of the same class.

The powers are ordered in terms of "usefulness" - lesser usefulness is compensated for with more powerful projectiles in terms of damage and blast radius - so a rapidfire weapon is more "useful" and thus weaker and smaller than a heavy weapon.

Assembly:
cannon - fast projectile
roller - midspeed projectile but it rolls over hills
dropped - immobile, launched out a short range before they sit.
mortar - lobs it in an arc

Drum:
Rapidfire - very low ammo consumption
Medium
Heavy - high ammo consumption per launch, low rate of fire.

Barrel:
Spray - inaccurate 5 shot spray (like a shotgun) per launch
Burst - 4 in the same direction per launch
Single fire - One shot at a time

Computer:
Homing (homing weapon with proximity trigger, dropped weapons move slowly too)
Proximity (detonates once in blast radius)
Impact (detonates only on impact)
Timed (detonates after a fixed time, bounces on impact)

Warhead:
Power - tiny, dense explosion
Poison - does no impact or damage, but instead makes the player have difficulty seeing/steering
Incendiary - leaves a long-lasting flame on the detonate position
Shockwave - creates a very large, diffuse explosion

So, you start out with a rapidfire shockwave impact cannon, and then pick up modifiers to alter it (say, picking up a homing computer and making it a rapidfire shockwave homing cannon, which is a much more useful and thus very weak weapon).

[edited by - Pxtl on June 7, 2004 1:48:03 PM]