23-09-2025, 08:55 PM
I was thinking about the kart/combat racing genre in general, and one of the major flaws it has is that, when you're winning, there isn't much to do. The genre is built on the combination of racing and combat, but when you're in first place there's no one in front of you to attack. Some games try to remedy this through rubber-banding or by giving people in the back of the pack better items so that the leader doesn't stay in front for long, but imho that's just trading one flaw for another.
So I was thinking that a way to fix this problem is by adding a new mechanic for the race-leaders to participate in by adding boss battles to the race. Essentially, there would be a CPU-controlled enemy that would always be just ahead of the #1 racer and the goal would be to defeat this enemy using the game's weapon items. Instead of the race being determined by whoever crossed the finish line first on the last lap, it would be determined by whoever did the most damage to this enemy.
Players would still be incentivized to race well, since only the top few karts would be in attack range of the boss, but it would mean that the race leaders would still have an interesting gameplay experience. Plus, as the racers are attacking the boss, the boss could be shooting back, and if a player gets hit it would behave as if they were hit by a player's weapon, potentially causing them to fall back in the pack and allowing another player a chance to attack the boss. This would create a more dynamic racing field while still incentivizing skilled play throughout the entire race since the longer you spend in the lead the more chances you'll have to attack the boss.
Just putting this out there as STK is gearing up for a major update with Evolution and this would be an opportunity to give it a feature that other combat racers lack.
So I was thinking that a way to fix this problem is by adding a new mechanic for the race-leaders to participate in by adding boss battles to the race. Essentially, there would be a CPU-controlled enemy that would always be just ahead of the #1 racer and the goal would be to defeat this enemy using the game's weapon items. Instead of the race being determined by whoever crossed the finish line first on the last lap, it would be determined by whoever did the most damage to this enemy.
Players would still be incentivized to race well, since only the top few karts would be in attack range of the boss, but it would mean that the race leaders would still have an interesting gameplay experience. Plus, as the racers are attacking the boss, the boss could be shooting back, and if a player gets hit it would behave as if they were hit by a player's weapon, potentially causing them to fall back in the pack and allowing another player a chance to attack the boss. This would create a more dynamic racing field while still incentivizing skilled play throughout the entire race since the longer you spend in the lead the more chances you'll have to attack the boss.
Just putting this out there as STK is gearing up for a major update with Evolution and this would be an opportunity to give it a feature that other combat racers lack.
Founder and lead developer, Overclocked Abacus Games