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[The-Imp]

Are you going to make it more playable for people with bad ping? Most people seem to just be from US.

What about people with horrible horrible graphics cards.

Not ALL of everyone is shader capable.

[marshmonkey]

sorry, I don't think the game will ever support lower than 2.0 shader model graphics chips (which is still really low end for most 3d games!)

[Core Xii]

Ok, here's some problems I ran into:

• Need keybind for rear camera
  • I prefer playing with keyboard only, and as such couldn't look around
• Separate directional controls from acceleration/braking
  • I need to be able to press back to drop an item without braking as a result. Gas and brake should be separate controls from left/right/up/down
• Starting checkpoint glitch
  • Right at the start of a race, there was some colliding going on, and I got flipped backwards over and behind the starting line; And got stuck there. Every time I'd try to drive over the starting line, it would reset my character back behind it (this was on the snow race track, if relevant)
• Input stuck in chat
  • I started typing something into chat, but before I could hit Enter, the game changed level or the second round begun. The chat box wasn't on screen anymore, but my controls were still in typing mode. Pressing Enter sent the message and released the keys as expected
• Reversing should not affect camera
  • I find it annoying that when I reverse, the camera slowly rotates around; This causes me to be blind to both directions for a considerable time. If you feel that the camera must point backwards when reversing, at least make it instantaneous

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Also, is it possible to drop an item (like a mine or a tornado) behind you? The rear view key and the separated down key requested above should trigger that.

[hyperduck]

The right click allows you to aim those things behind you I believe!

[marshmonkey]

Ok, here's some problems I ran into:

• Need keybind for rear camera
  • I prefer playing with keyboard only, and as such couldn't look around
• Separate directional controls from acceleration/braking
  • I need to be able to press back to drop an item without braking as a result. Gas and brake should be separate controls from left/right/up/down
• Starting checkpoint glitch
  • Right at the start of a race, there was some colliding going on, and I got flipped backwards over and behind the starting line; And got stuck there. Every time I'd try to drive over the starting line, it would reset my character back behind it (this was on the snow race track, if relevant)
• Input stuck in chat
  • I started typing something into chat, but before I could hit Enter, the game changed level or the second round begun. The chat box wasn't on screen anymore, but my controls were still in typing mode. Pressing Enter sent the message and released the keys as expected
• Reversing should not affect camera
  • I find it annoying that when I reverse, the camera slowly rotates around; This causes me to be blind to both directions for a considerable time. If you feel that the camera must point backwards when reversing, at least make it instantaneous

-
Also, is it possible to drop an item (like a mine or a tornado) behind you? The rear view key and the separated down key requested above should trigger that.

Thanks for the feedback! The Q key will drop items behind you. You can see all the key bindings as well are re-bind them to other keys in the settings menu.

[alspal]

Is there a way to distinguish players from bots?

[Core Xii]

Thanks for the feedback! The Q key will drop items behind you. You can see all the key bindings as well are re-bind them to other keys in the settings menu.

Doh, stupid me. I thought to "drop an item" meant to, you know, discard it. You probably should give a little more feedback on dropping items, make it slightly more obvious that the item indeed came out of your rear end. Maybe pull the camera back ever so slightly to give a better view.

On the toy track, where you race on tables and stuff, I get inexplicably reset a lot. Like I'm just driving as usual, and suddenly pop my car resets and I lose all my boost, for no apparent reason. Especially around corners and those jumps on the playing cards. - Odd thing about that... when I mentioned this to my co-racers, suddenly everyone got reset a lot. Could this have been the server admin resetting everyone? Or maybe someone cheating?

Small suggestion, I like how the cars are heavier now, but I think they still take off ground too easily. It's dangerous to drive over any inclines because you're likely to lose control in the air. (especially apparent on the dirt track, in that one section with the raised hills alternating on both sides, you have to go though the middle). So I think the cars should stick to the ground just a bit to discourage losing control.

One more thing, is there an actual gameplay difference between the different car parts? I've noticed that other players' cars seem to behave slightly differently from mine. Like they can turn faster, etc. or is this just me? (maybe they were braking)

[hyperduck]

Just to add, in the tag, you should make it obvious that you lose -25 points if you reset!

[Core Xii]

If you get encased in an ice cube, then reset, you regain steering even though the ice cube is still on you for a moment. Thus, it's beneficial to immediately reset yourself if you get frozen. I'd consider this a bug.

Also, the mouse sensitivity is terribly low, including in the menu.

[Carrie Nation]

The "Indieness" slider made me laugh so hard. Also it's fun to see what the maximum pixel size I can get to and still have the game be playable.

[marshmonkey]

Is there a way to distinguish players from bots?

Not currently, we have heard this desire from other people too though - it shouldn't be too hard to indicate them as bots somehow.

Doh, stupid me. I thought to "drop an item" meant to, you know, discard it. You probably should give a little more feedback on dropping items, make it slightly more obvious that the item indeed came out of your rear end. Maybe pull the camera back ever so slightly to give a better view.

On the toy track, where you race on tables and stuff, I get inexplicably reset a lot. Like I'm just driving as usual, and suddenly pop my car resets and I lose all my boost, for no apparent reason. Especially around corners and those jumps on the playing cards. - Odd thing about that... when I mentioned this to my co-racers, suddenly everyone got reset a lot. Could this have been the server admin resetting everyone? Or maybe someone cheating?

Small suggestion, I like how the cars are heavier now, but I think they still take off ground too easily. It's dangerous to drive over any inclines because you're likely to lose control in the air. (especially apparent on the dirt track, in that one section with the raised hills alternating on both sides, you have to go though the middle). So I think the cars should stick to the ground just a bit to discourage losing control.

One more thing, is there an actual gameplay difference between the different car parts? I've noticed that other players' cars seem to behave slightly differently from mine. Like they can turn faster, etc. or is this just me? (maybe they were braking)

Ah, I see what you mean. No, there is no way to discard an item without using it right now. I will keep an ear out for other requests for this feature.

There is a rather stubborn bug with the physics system that causes players to get reset when going through a checkpoint, it is really high on our priority list to fix.

What do you mean more specifically about losing control in the air? Do you mean that you feel like something goes wrong while you are airborne, or that when landing you lose control?

There is no difference between the different karts and items, they are purely cosmetic.

Just to add, in the tag, you should make it obvious that you lose -25 points if you reset!

There should be a "-25" particle that pops over your head just like the ones that pop over your head when earning points... although now that I think about it, it would only show up if you are IT, but you still get docked for resetting even if you aren't it. I will look into putting something up on the screen on reset.

If you get encased in an ice cube, then reset, you regain steering even though the ice cube is still on you for a moment. Thus, it's beneficial to immediately reset yourself if you get frozen. I'd consider this a bug.

Also, the mouse sensitivity is terribly low, including in the menu.

Yup, that is a bug - and the mouse sensitivity has been a common complaint from others as well, adding a sensitivity slider is on our list of todos.

Thanks a ton for all the feedback, the more feedback we get the easier it is to prioritize what to focus on with our limited resources!

[alspal]

Is there a way to distinguish players from bots?

Not currently, we have heard this desire from other people too though - it shouldn't be too hard to indicate them as bots somehow.

Perhaps, something along the lines of saying "(bot)" in the name?

[marshmonkey]

yea, either that or using a different color or something else simple.

[hyperduck]

Make the bots grey/metallic! Gyarrr! Why I went pirate on that I'm not sure.


EDIT: On second thought if somebody wants to be grey they'll blend pretty hard with the bots. Slap a ZG logo on the back of the bots?

[FranticPandaKev]

I like radios :D

[hyperduck]

Yes Pencil, we know :D

[marshmonkey]

added another gameplay video I had capped last week:

[Core Xii]

What do you mean more specifically about losing control in the air? Do you mean that you feel like something goes wrong while you are airborne, or that when landing you lose control?

I mean that the slightest hill can easily make you go airborne, effectively losing control with often disastrous consequences. I guess what I'm saying is... the cars could be even heavier. It still feels a little floaty and sensitive to the slightest bumps in the track.

Another thing that's annoyed me: The rank column in the server browser. Couldn't you just show the ping instead? The "rank" is too obscure to know what it actually means... I've had better ping on lower ranked servers compared to higher ones.

While at it, the country codes are confusing. I don't know what they all are! Would it take too much space to just list the country name in full? Or Maybe a flag? (but then, I probably wouldn't recognize the flags lol)

For the bots, I suggest their ping in the score panel reads "BOT" in gray rather than an actual ping, since they don't have any latency anyway.

[marshmonkey]

I like your idea for bot labeling. We would really like to list a ping but unfortunately we don't have that information. We are using the same lobby system as L4D, which is great because it can work without forwarding ports and all that stuff using a system that does a bunch of connection magic called nat punchthrough. That is all great, but that means we can't actually get a ping time from the server until it does all that magic and tries to connect. The best we can do is that it sends us the server list in an order that is supposed to be closest to farthest by actual geography. We added the country codes just to give some further information, since we can't display pings.

Eventually we are hoping to support dedicated servers that will have forwarded ports and stuff and will display a ping, but we are not sure how to list both lobbies like we have now with just a rank# and servers with pings in the same list.

[marshmonkey]

New build is up on Steam:

1.0.1.1 Change Log

* 65 MS of lag removed
* Increased the network sync time to 30 times a second from 20
* Quick play button added to the main menu which will join the best server or start a local server if there aren't any good servers to join
* Reverse speed increased slightly
* Soccer ball tweaked so it is easier to hit around
* Player karts colored based on their team in Goal mode
* Tag rules modified
* Spring and punch strength increased slightly
* Punchbowl tag map reduced in size and other tweaks
* Some trees removed from downhill part of Chill Mountain
* Min players now defaults to 4 instead of 0
* The score now sorts correctly in Target mode
* Significantly improved the performance of the collision detection code when there are many objects in the world
* Bandwidth usage improved now as time shift wasn't enabled in the last build (oops)
* Going in reverse at the start of Chill Mountain will no longer cause the player to get stuck at the starting line
* The number of bots can be adjusted during play by changing the minimum number of players in the server manager GUI
* The maximum number of player will not be exceeded on a server anymore
* The player list in the server manager GUI now updates correctly when people leaving/join the server
* Pressing connect at the server browser when no server is selected no longer tries to join a local server
* Mouse sensitivity slider added to settings
* New "auto" mouse look mode added as default, the old mode can be enabled in the settings if desired
* Bots ping times in the roster GUI are now listed as "BOT" instead of the real ping time
* Players in result GUI no longer display above other GUIs in Goal and Tag mode
* Kicked players now go back to the main menu after being kicked
* Players with names longer than 32 character no longer cause the server to throw an error
* Exit removed from the key binding list in settings
* XPadder profile added to the Assets directory for the PC XBox 360 controller

Also, you can help show your support for Zero Gear by joining our Steam Group we are slowly climbing the official game groups listing!