Some ideas for the future

[locutus]

what about a soccer ball shaped arena? This would give you several small planes to fight on as well as making the transition driving into another section smoother all around without dealing with the sphere and cube's extreme variances.

I am dying for a saved chat log option like in Kali, a kali-like interface would rock, we would have a lobby, we could launch into private matches, have private chatrooms as well as have tons more settings to endlessly play with.

[Tank Program]

I'd like to point out that to be able to launch into private matches, you would have to have to port open, unless your new idea for a master server could do it, but that's getting mondo complicado, and would take a long time. Also, I'm not sure anyone who actually plays this game has that short of bandwith lying around... But that's besides the point. This game is free and it works, and that's something.

[Majination]

what about a soccer ball shaped arena? This would give you several small planes to fight on as well as making the transition driving into another section smoother all around without dealing with the sphere and cube's extreme variances.

I don't think playing on a polyhedron would work, unless it was a cube. Anything else, and the sides are no longer at right angles. The problem with this would be that as you transition from one flat surface to the next, continuing in a straight line, parallel and perpendicular walls just aren't going to exist; any bike driving onto your flat area from a different one that you entered on will be driving at another angle. There wouldn't be a chance to grind or pick up speed, and you would have to make a lot of course corrections to avoid the angled walls around you.

Depending on its size, a sphere might work because all bikes would be able to run along the same longitudinal and latitudinal lines. Grinding to pick up speed would present a problem if the sphere wasn't large enough, though, because the distance between two lines of longitude gets greater the closer you get to the equator and closer at the poles.

Of course, you could just screw longitude/latitude and drive around in concentric circles... Thinking about it now this would be the way to go because all walls would be parallel or perpendicular, but I can imagine some programming challenges already, heh. If driving in a tight circle around a pole the entire grid would appear to be very small to one side, dropping off out of view to see space, sky, atmosphere or whatever is "out there". Hehe. I imagine game play in these areas would be quite deadly, quickly coming up on your opponents trails, and your own!

I am dying for a saved chat log option like in Kali, a kali-like interface would rock, we would have a lobby, we could launch into private matches, have private chatrooms as well as have tons more settings to endlessly play with.

Chat logs would be really nice. I have thought about that a couple times myself. A player lobby has been discussed on the sourceforge forums. I think if it ever happens the game will be an even larger success. But, I'll give it plenty of time and keep wishing until then. I'd be happy just to see invisitails cleared up, heh. That and to make it so the smart cam no longer goes past the outside wall when making a quick 90 at the rim wall!

[n54]

i think a cylidrical arena would solve most "grid" problems, of course it would have two arena walls (top and bottom) but thats two less than a grid without any major problems added. it should be fairly easy to program since all the bikes would be the same distance from a central axis running through the length of the cylinder. bike trails should be shorter than the circumference of the cylinder, as well as shorter than the lenght of the cylinder.

One or both of the walls could optionally be set as skies

another thing i'm thinking of is continuous spawning (=continuous gameplay). the game doesn't really have any safe spots so i guess spawned bikes should have a special color/effect (purple diamond over bike?) and be able to pass through walls for like 30 seconds or less. that value and how long a player has to wait for spawning should of course be set in the server config. welcome to 30 minute long (set time) matches

with such a invunerability period one could use it at game start as well and thus have totally randomized start positions (everybody gets a chance to position themselves/avoid instant death at start).

last thing, the chat (and invunerability) diamond(s) should be replaced with a pyramid of four triangles (fastest to render). the chat one could be on top pointing upwards and the other under and pointing downwards so both can be seen if the need arises.

gameplay issues concerning seeing the other players could be solved by having the camera angles for forward and glancing back be set at angles towards the center (when driving circumferencewise) and glance left/right as well when driving lenghtwise, no problem really.

none of the settings should be hardcoded of course

[n54]

btw about cubes:

- how would grinding along the joint of two plnes be rendered, and how would it affect players coming at the trail from 90 degrees (the other plane), would they need to touch the bottom of the trail (ie. the other plane) before they explode? either way it could be wildly confusing.
- how would grinding across the joint be rendered, or even worse, what about the corners?
- camera/overview becomes a problem as there would be very abrupt changes

probably the net effect of this would be 6 mini arenas where players only cross as a last resort or when they're left alone on "their" part of the arena. maybe not a bad idea, would make for different gameplay at least.

afaik trail rendering in a cylidrical arena would be easier as all circumferencal trail path segments would be equal, and all longitudal trail path segment would be equal, so you only need two sets of rules

[Tank Program]

How about half a sphere? Directtly cut in half, you'd still have an outer wall... that'd be interesting...

[n54]

may you live in interesting times

interesting yes, complicated yes

it would be cool, kinda like a skateboarding bowl *wants the bikes to do ollies and 720's*

and what about Armagetron Jet Li/Jackie Chan style? ppl have been thinking of a "jump" feature for a while, combine that with fluid trail-whipping (seperate controls) and you've got it

*goes off to work on Monster Truck Armagetron*

i'm not being sarcastic, all of this would be cool , wish i could program it in a jiffy (but i can't)

[locutus]

You guys are like rocket surgeons or something, hehe. Only other thing I was thinking was something more simple last night, how about just being able to filp to the mirror side of the floor and play in positive and negative worlds with a hotkey that would "flip" you from surface to surface, images on the "other" side would appear fainter when fighting on opposite side. weird...

[Tank Program]

wierd...

If be wierd you mean utterly confusing beyond all beleif, then yes.

[Majination]

It certainly has some potential to be confusing, but I don't think it would be all that bad with the slightly transparent floor. The main concern I have is that you could seemingly drive through a wall by quickly switching to the flip side just prior to crashing and then switch back again. It would be virtually impossible to box somebody in. People would live too long for it to be enjoyable.

Be back in a bit. The fumes from all this rocket propellant is making my eyes water. Hehe.

[locutus]

you're both right, just spitballing...