Re: [tuxracer-devel] Course precisions

[Steve B. <sjb...@ai...>]

Jasmin Patry wrote:

> > That may mean that you don't need a penalty for paddling.  This
> > seems more natural to me.
> 
> No penalty at all, not even energy?  That would elminate the need for
> energy altogether... which would simplify things, I guess.  We could
> think up of other uses for energy -- perhaps paddling has a greater
> effect when Tux's energy is above a certain level, etc.  I dunno.
> Comments?

I don't think I have strong opinions either way.

Since paddling at high speed doesn't enable you to "cheat", you
already need to be careful how and when you use it.  Adding an
additional limitation seems rather harsh.  You are hurtling towards
a tree - and you find yourself too tired to paddle and slow down?
You are stuck in a hollow and you have to wait around until you
recharge enough energy to get out?  Nah - that's no fun.

I guess I come down marginally on the "don't bother with energy"
side of the fence...but if there was ever a good reason to use
energy for something else, I think I might come down on the other
side.

<...lives...>

> One racing game I know of works like this (f-zero x for the N64): races
> are divided into groups ("cups") of ~5.  Initially, only one group is
> unlocked; to unlock the next one you have to "beat" the previous group
> (by finishing first overall in a circuit of all the races in the group).

Yes - I think a few do that - MarioKart certainly does it.

> You are given a certain set of lives to do this in (when you die during
> a race you must restart that race).  If you run out of lives during a
> circuit you have to start it over again from the beginning (but you
> *don't* have to start the whole game from the beginning).  Once you
> unlock everything you get to do it again at the next level of difficulty
> (tougher opponents).

Yep - exactly.   Wave Racer (another N64 game - with JetSki's this time)
also opens up secret short-cuts when you play against the more serious
opponents...that's nice.
 
> This actually works pretty well, and makes the game fun to play (even
> though the graphics are *terrible*).  Extending this to Tux Racer
> (even without computer opponents) wouldn't be too hard -- instead of
> finishing first overall, you have to get a total score of X (or beat a
> total time of Y, etc.)  However, having computer opponents makes it a
> lot more fun, since you know who you're trying to beat in the standings.

Yep.  Computer opponents are going to be "interesting" to program!

> Someday Tux Racer will have Gown and Beasdie and others to race
> against...

Yep - although the Daemon is going to need some kind of a snow-board
or something.  He doesn't look like a snow-loving kind of a guy.

We have some other characters to play with too - Susie, the SuSE
Camelion and Wilbur the GIMP come to mind also.  Unfortunately,
nobody has ever painted a body for Wilbur - so some imagination
is called for. 

> Another option is to do what many car racing games do when your car
> blows up -- you reanimate somewhere close to where you died, but that
> process takes a few valuable seconds.  This would be much easier to
> implement (though the game would have to know where the 'safe'
> reanimation spots are on the course -- reanimating where you died
> wouldn't work well if you died in a deep pit that was impossible to
> paddle out of).

Well, I firmly believe that there shouldn't EVER be pits that you can't
paddle out of eventually.  That's really contrary to good game design
criteria...but the issue of where to reset to is an interesting one.

One option is to remember the position of Tux every second or so
into a big array somewhere.  When you crash, you get backed up
(say) 5 seconds the first time, 10 seconds the next and so on.
Ultimately, you'll be backed far enough up the course to let
you go a different direction and escape.

Personally, I think 'death' should restart the race from the top.
It's not as though the player will lose an hour of gaming - races
can only last a couple of minutes at most.
 
> > The thing I *don't* like about that is that the graphic chevron implies
> > a direction.  In games like DiddyKong Racing (also N64), hitting a
> > chevron from one side not only boosts your speed - but also sends
> > you off in the direction that the chevron is pointing...Newtonian
> > Mechanics not withstanding.
> >
> > I don't like that behaviour - and probably won't reproduce it in
> > TuxKart.
> 
> Yeah, I would implement it as a force field pointing in the direction of
> the chevron, so that it will tend to push you in the direction of
> the chevron, but not in a way that violates physical laws.

Right.  The one in DiddyKong racing *definitely* violates physical laws!

I guess another way would be to have the effect of the speedup diminish
greatly if you don't hit it straight on.  That would work pretty nicely
I think.

Hmmm - I think that's what TuxKart will do.  If you enter the chevron
within about +/- 30 degrees of the centerline, you'll get 100% of the
speedup - but as you get further off-center, the effect will reduce
more and more until if you cross it at 90 degrees to the centerline,
it'll have no effect at all.

TuxKart is *running* now BTW.  You can drive the kart round and round
a wiggly track that looks a lot like the 'urban' track in MarioKart.
The brakes work - steering is good, etc *AND* it works over the network!

One thing I've been playing with is camera control.  I didn't like the
way that the camera followed Tux such that he stayed more or less glued
to the center of the screen - with us only seeing a strictly rear view.
I found that if I record the last 1/2 second or so of motion into a
circular buffer and always have the camera use a 1/2 second out-of-date
position for the place to look at, you get a much more exciting view
of things because as Tux turns, you get a brief side-view until the
camera 'catches up'.  It also makes jumps and falls much more 'dynamic'.

I think Tux-Racer would benefit from that also.

> > I'd use a floating number (so you can see how many points it's worth
> > and you can decide whether it's worth blowing 10 seconds of time to
> > collect a measly 10 point bonus)...an alternative would be to use
> > coins of various colours - bonus points are kindof analogous to money
> > I suppose.
> 
> Numbers are a good idea.  Coins would be very mario-kartish.

You are thinking of Mario64 not MarioKart I suspect.

MarioKart doesn't have "points" - and no coins either.  It uses spinning
cubes for 'bonus' items like speedups, koopah shells that you can
shoot and bananas for your opponents to slip on.

I was playing a few if the racing games my son has for N64 and PlayStation,
(erm - "research" - honest!) One thing I saw that I REALLY liked was in the
StarWars Episode 1 pod racing game.  There is a button you can push as you
come close to an opponent that makes your character swear and hurl insults
at the other player...it doesn't *DO* anything from a game perspective
- but it's a LOT of fun  :-)

All of the characters swear in their own languages - so the only one
you can understand is Aniken and what he shouts is pretty tame.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
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