Rebalanced Races Mod (WIP)

[James Gryphon]

I >promised that I would make a topic to cover the ideas I have for this new mod concept, so here it is.

 

I intend to make the races in LR a little more difficult. These are the methods that I've thought up to attempt to achieve this:

 

1) Limiting the number of white bricks in any race to 2. This will eliminate all fourth-level powerups, including the warp, and hopefully improve the degree of equality between AI racers and humans.

2) Creating new locations for all of the standard power bricks, so that each one will be accessible by an AI.

3) Making minor tweaks to AI racer speeds so as to create a consistent difficulty level within each circuit, with the races in the first three circuits being a bit easier than the second three, but about the same as each other (so Kahuka, powerup choices aside, should be almost as tough as Basil). I will need to look into this to see if this method is necessary and/or viable.

 

As part of number #2, I thought it would be a good idea to try to give each AI racer, not just the bosses, their own distinct powerup preferences. origamiguy has stated that he believes NPC (not boss) racers follow random paths, which would derail this concept. I intend to do testing to verify this one way or the other. More information on this will follow.

 

I'll keep y'all updated on how things are going. I may periodically post downloads so that you can see how things are coming together, and possibly provide input into the process. If so, all the links'll be here.

 

Thanks for your time.

[aidenpons]

Ooh, this looks interesting.

 

1) That takes the point out of them. Then no-one can use the pharaoh, rockets, or the red shield. What I'd do is have the white bricks a long way away from the green bricks. I know you don't want the warp to exist, but by removing it you remove other stuff as well.

 

2) YES YES YES! That's a brilliant idea!

 

3) *idea* All the racers should have a slightly higher max speed than you. That way you need the warp/other green bricks to catch up with them. It's just an idea, and probably is not going to work, but oh well.

 

And I have one idea (that probably isn't possible): If all the AI opponents started on a cliff, or up in the air, that was not accessible by any other way except starting there, you could have two whites for each player as they fell down. Of course, you would be at the bottom, so you get no whites.

 

This looks promising, so I'll be watching!

[RobExplorien]

Looks interesting. I'll just await and see how you're going to work it out.

 

And I have one idea (that probably isn't possible): If all the AI opponents started on a cliff, or up in the air, that was not accessible by any other way except starting there, you could have two whites for each player as they fell down. Of course, you would be at the bottom, so you get no whites.

The racers other than you wouldn't fall down, as they are kind off locked in their startposition. As soon as the race starts they'd skip right to the first node of their path. Then you mind as well put the white bricks 'in' the startposition of the other racers right away.

[aidenpons]

aidenpons, on 06 Dec 2013 - 5:18 PM, said: And I have one idea (that probably isn't possible): If all the AI opponents started on a cliff, or up in the air, that was not accessible by any other way except starting there, you could have two whites for each player as they fell down. Of course, you would be at the bottom, so you get no whites. The racers other than you wouldn't fall down, as they are kind off locked in their startposition. As soon as the race starts they'd skip right to the first node of their path. Then you mind as well put the white bricks 'in' the startposition of the other racers right away.

 

I knew it probably wouldn't work.

[James Gryphon]

Then no-one can use the pharaoh, rockets, or the red shield. What I'd do is have the white bricks a long way away from the green bricks. I know you don't want the warp to exist, but by removing it you remove other stuff as well.

Well, it's a tradeoff, and I think you gain more than you lose. The missiles are pretty useless for the player, and the mummy and red shield don't seem to be that much better than what they replace. I don't think it would be exaggerating to say that warp has more of an impact on the game than those three powerups combined, and my feeling is that if you can get rid of the warp, that justifies losing the other three items.

 

Besides, 2) and 3) have already been done in Robexplorien's >AcceleRacers mod. He tries to make it difficult with warps (which is no easy task). I can't make any improvements on what Rob's doing there, so I'm not going to try; if you want both 2) and 3) without 1), his mod's the only choice you have, and will likely remain so for some time.