Minor increment for upgrade release number, a giant leap for the game


Update to version 0.9.9.98beta-->  Minor increment for upgrade release number, a giant leap for the game
- Greatly improved graphics for the racing interface
     - Replaced monochrome bright green background for actual pixelated grass tiled background not only gives the game both a more natural feel and videogame feel to the whole ensemble, and is also less aggressive to the eye
     - Greatly improved the fan stands sprite so that it blends better with the rest of the elements surrounding it, as there was some residual sky blue on the contour that made it stick out like a thumb in the eye
     - The wheels of the cars are now animated, turning left or right in reaction to the driver steering the wheel.  It is barely noticeable during some phases, some cars even more than others, but still it's there and it adds a nice live touch to the game when you do get to notice it.

- Finally managed to implement a car configuration IA algorithm for the CPU teams which will make the game more competitive and more realistic in terms of levels of competitiveness between the teams.  As a result, it is now harder to manage to land pole positions on a regular basis with merely a few strategic upgrade choices and configuration magic.  This was the last remaining piece missing from calling the game "fully complete" as a working prototype concept.
     - Also fixed a small bug in the Foresight and Driving Style configurations of CPU pilots as the actual config happened only when a pilot training occurred.  The configuration now happens every time the pilots hits the tracks.
     - Also fixed another small bug in the way Foresight was determined, which was just random, and which was fundamentally a broken model.  Foresight now uses the track type attribute implemented for the configuration IA to set itself properly according to the type of track.  This should reduce a high number of accidents in the more technical tracks.

- Turns out that two specific tracks had a specific curve that was particularly tricky for pilots to handle, causing a high rate of accidents in these particular spots despite it being influenced by either a badly set Foresight or a less-than-optimal Concentration and despite the car being properly configured to handle these particular tracks.  I fixed these two curves by updating some waypoint coordinates so that the condition causing these accidents wouldn't be happening just out of the blue as it were.  This change will only take effect in newly created games.

- A special character that I use was missing from the newly implemented SpriteFonts.  This has been fixed as well.

- BONUS : I also took the decision to boost the pilots' starting stats to 5 Confidence, 5 Aggressiveness and 5 (105%) Concentration instead of 0, 0 and 0 (100%) as it was before.  First, it gives a small kick at the game in the beginning stages; second it is more realistic to have these fresh pilots displaying at least some level of self-confidence, motivation and dedication; and third I did this to allow the drivers to "buy some time" if they are involved in car crashes before their Concentration dips below 0 (100%), because once it's past that point, probability of another car crash increases.  Having had a testing session begin with car crashes within the first lap of the first three races of the career made it that much more difficult to bring back Concentration to near-100% in a season setting made of the hardest tracks, and played a major role in nosediving the team into bankruptcy during this particular session.  The 5% boost to Concentration is meant to hamper this effect if it were to happen, the other two attributes are meant more as a bonus than a "fix".  All the pilots and all the cars are still identical in performances at the beginning of the game.

- What's missing for the 1.0 Final Release?
  - Will redo the whole lettering with SpriteFonts for the New Game and Car Configuration screens so that the whole thing looks better.  This will take some time as there are several elements to change and there is code to change as well.
  - Will revise all positioning of objects within track maps in order to increase the decor value of these objects, now that the purely practical aspects of obstacles has been fully dealt with during the prototype phase.  This will take some time as well.
  - Will eventually slap together a few instructions/tutorial sheets.

Files

F-8 Racing Manager Demo 09998beta.zip 76 MB
Feb 16, 2019

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