A look at the balance of items and fire mechanics in CTR's not so Nitro-Fueled online mode. SHOW MORE for Developer contact info, Replies to criticism, Timestamps and Music.
If you'd like to *contact the developers* and publishers, here is a good place to start.
0:45 - Basic Items
2:55 - Catchup Items
6:12 - Fire
9:22 - Rubberbanding
10:59 - Summary
This video comes from a place of passion. I appreciate all the work Beenox have done with rebuilding CTR. I just hope that they're able to fix the major issues that can squander its potential.
== Common criticisms ==
CTR should be skill based, not like Mario Kart. Dont punish 1st for being good!
- Catchup item changes would not make the game easy to catch up. They would only be damaging enough to offset the advantage of safety players get by simply being ahead. Players ahead aren't punished for being good, they are punished because everyone else is item spammed so it is only fair. If they want to build a lead they can use skill to do so - The design of items should not build a lead for them.
- Making reserves and fire drain gradually rather than instantly drop would not take away from the skill of the game. Right now, players infront are easily able to build a huge lead while players behind are often unable to ever catch up because their items are killed by reserves. The game majorly favours skilled players who are in-front, rather than favouring skilled players in general.
- Races should not be decided by the outcome of the first 15 seconds, it is not engaging nor fun. Skilled players should not have to rely on both getting lucky with not being hit, and the players ahead consistently messing up, for them to even have a chance of catching up.
- Reserves would drain from item hits at a speed that feels fair. This would be balanced around whatever feels the most fair for racing.
Wall grazing draining reserves would make it too easy!
- The wall grazing would drain reserves very quickly, rather than instantly drop themExtra reserves are hard to build and you'd need a considerable amount to even be able to keep your fire from barely touching a wall. Also keep in mind how much you get stuck in walls just touching them. Even if you keep fire, you'd be at a disadvantage going forward because you slowed down from the wall touch, and your much lower reserves means you have to take a suboptimal path, you'll struggle to keep fire at difficult to powerslide places such as the figure 8 on Polar Pass, and you'd be incredibly vulnerable to slowdowns from items until you're able to rebuild them.
- The wall grazing is not nearly as important as the proposed change to make items only drain reserves. Even if the wall changes didn't made it through, I'd be content with just the item changes.
Clocks are stupid!
- I agree, I'm surprised they even made it into online. Naughty Dog realized that they only work well for catchup in a Single-player catchup context and disabled the item for bots.
- The ticking sound grace period for Clocks would make them less stupid
git gud!
- This is not a good excuse for poor item design that is bad for new and skilled players alike.
- New players should be able to get wins and enjoy the game so they actually stick around. It is needed for longevity of online.
== Unmentioned Issues ==
- Crosshair indicators, orbs, missiles and bowling bombs should have visual indicators when they are juiced. The game already does a great job distinguishing TNT, potions and shields, so this would follow through with this design philospohy. Even simple colour changes would work well (though colourblind options for the red-green items would be great).
- The turbo item squash-jumps are janky
- Projectiles disappear over the void for no reason
- Respawning players could have their hitbox disabled for a moment so they don't teleport in the way unexpectedly and ruin jumps (e.g. on Cortex Castle shortcut)
- When hit, the tumble is purely animation and does not change your height unlike the original game. Up to you whether this is a good thing or not.
== Corrections ==
Tighter skill based matchmaking would not split the playerbase as I said in the video. Skillbased matchmaking works by expanding the skill parameters the longer you search, so if there's not enough people online to sustain skillbased matchmaking then it would just match any players together regardless of skill. It would only be a good thing. As to whether or not the game has skill-based matchmaking, I am not sure. All I know is that bad players are pretty much always put against people who have mastered the game and this is an issue.
== Music ==
Tsunami (Wrath Of Cortex)
Arctic Antics (Wrath Of Cortex)
Farenheit Frenzy (Wrath Of Cortex)
Rumble In The Roks (Wrath Of Cortex)
Rockslide Rumble (Twinsanity)
N. Sanity Island (Twinsanity)
#CrashTeamRacing #NitroFueled #CrashBandicoot #CTR
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