What I am wondering is how good are the racers these days.
When I did Snowbound I had two objectives.
#1
I wanted it to be a work of art. I wanted the track to look as good as possible considering my artist and realistic limitations. I also wanted to stretch the boundaries of what was possible within the game. I changed the color of the stock water to blue (not a big deal these days). Made mist at the bottom of a water fall, and figured out how to make a tunnel without using square ground blocks. I wanted people to enjoy the scenery as much as racing the track.
#2 i wanted the track to be fun to race. To do this i bet tested the layout and asked questions about every bump and turn inthe track. My beta process resulted in a track that at the time, was fun to run, competitive and had good replay ability. after a few laps a racer, or casual player could pick up the visual cues I had left and stray on the track.
What I did not want is; frustrated racers, one mistake to take you out of the race, or to see comments like "that ones too long", "I hate that track I always fall off the (insert, bridge, jump, obstacle here), or the speed of your computer to give an advantage.
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Back then half the people that raced were on dial up, so size was a consideration(some tracks took up to 45 minutes to download), the other half had p-166's with the voodoo 2 cards so lag was big a consideration too.
So what I am asking;
- *Is lag still an issue? If so, what's the worst cause.
*are racers still able to navigate something like YM's Anaheim, or an YM MX track without getting frustrated?
*Is size of the POD a really big issue these days.
*Does anyone listen to track music, or care if I include "new stock music" for the game.
* Did I miss anything that may cause a problem, that's new today and wasn't an issue in the past?
*If I wanted a short list of testers who can A.) run a track well B.) be willing to test often, and C.) keep it to themselves until release time, who would you suggest, and how do I get a hold of them
--Sky
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