Who doesn't like Mario Kart?

[Chillosophy]

I was thinking of unique minigames that no other server have. In the process I was thinking about Mario Kart. The cute, but addictive kartracing game that has been around for years and always is fun to play. We could do something like that. Based on Mario Kart, with some adjustments to make it suitable for SA-MP. My mind kind of exploded thinking of stuff, so it's a bit of a long read, sorry about that.



Super Venturas Kart, - please come with a better name -, will look like Mario Kart in a lot of ways. Every track is semi-linear; there's one main route to get to the end, but every map features some shortcuts. These shortcuts, again like in Mario Kart, are difficult routes with obstacles. They could save you time, but there's a distinct possibility you will die trying. In the screenshot there's a jump to the main route, try to ignore the rest of the unfinished map



The kart minigame will also feature powerups to make it a whole lot more interesting. I'll get to that later. Some powerups are easy to pickup, some require a detour. Powerups will always give you an advantage.

Also similar to Mario Kart, I was thinking of different styles of maps. I thought of four:

• Circuit, like an actual formula 1 map; normal roads with barriers on the side (like in the first screenshot), lot of commercial advertisements alongside the track, perhaps even a stage for audience
  
• Nature, races in forest surroundings. Think of the offroad track with the small lake near Chilliad. Lots of trees, bushes, some water and dirtroads
  
• Sea, cliffs, islands and lots an lots of water
  
• Desert, based on the objects in the Venturas desert. Wooden bridges, lots of sand. This category could be the hardest to map because of limited suitable objects. This one is certainly open for debate

Every map needs to pick one of these styles (there could also be a 'special' style for everything that doesn't fit in these categories, like Rainbow Road doesn't fit in any of the styles in Mario Kart). Objects could be re-used, and we could make some sort of a template map in MTA in which all the default objects for that style are displayed, so they can be easily copied and used.

For a start, it would be great to have 4 maps in every category, with increasing difficulty. The first map could be the one in the screenshot (which is deliberately vague, because I hardly have anything done yet). No difficult jumps or obstacles. Every next map will be a bit harder and the last will have a lot of exploding or drowning karts.

These same maps will be featured in different cups (so we also need 4 cups). Something like "Newbie cup", "Normal cup", "Pro cup" and "Special cup". Every cup has 4 tracks from all different styles. The newbie cup has all the easiest maps and so on. To attract a lot of players there could be an announcement every hour to subscribe to the cup.

Just racing with kart isn't fun. If you're still reading, this is where it gets interesting. Spread out over the map, there are nitro (nos) powerups. These will disappear after being picked up and respawned a while later. There are no repairs. You can only repair your vehicle at the pit stop:



The pitstop will take some time, depending on the damage of the vehicle. I think 2 seconds + (0.04 * damage could be fair. If a vehicle is a bit damaged, say 20%, it will take 2.8 seconds. If a vehicle is badly damaged, say 80%, it will take 5.2 seconds.

Powerups are also spread out over the map. These will make the game really addictive. Here are some possible powerups:

• Weapons
  • Mine, can be placed by pressing the 'action' key, will explode other racers
    
  • 3 mines, same, but more
    
  • Unguided nuke, will create a nuclear explosion on a random player (and everyone near them)
    
  • Homing missile, will find a path to the nearest driver and blow them up (and everyone near them). Would be nice if the sound of a Hydra with lock-on could be played to the victim
    
  • RC warfare, changes the players vehicle temporary (eg 10 seconds) to a RC tank
• Annoyances
  • Flip, flips another player upside down
    
  • Cage, puts 4 fences around another player for a few seconds, to prevent them from moving. Even funnier if they are midair.
    
  • Weather change, changes the weather for other players to a thunderstorm, sandstorm or something similarly annoying
• Improvements/other
  • Nitro
    
  • Repair, repairs the vehicle with the push of a button
    
  • Gravity, slightly decreases gravity for a short time

Based on the impact of the powerup, they should appear more or less often. A mine doesn't cause much problems (players can drive around them if they're careful), but changing weather will get annoying.

Some random thoughts:

• In the nature environment, an added difficulty could be the loss of sight from bushes
  
• If SetVehicleVelocity works the way I think it works, there could even be nitro-strips like in the actual Mario Kart.
  
• Highscores will be recorded like in race
  
• Every map will be 3 rounds + 1 final lap
  
• Sanchez and quad bike could be used as vehicles too, but they have the disadvantage that a player can fall off of them. If that can be prevented, there could be awesome maps made especially for those vehicles
  
• After finishing a round, there could be a screen displaying the roundtimes and highscores for the track. If the result is good, some catchy tune could be played ()
  
• If players want to practice, or just race without other players, a time trial mode could be introduced
  
• Aside from the hourly (big) tournaments, players can initialize a map, or a cup, and other people can subscribe
  
• After a player finishes a map in a cup, he can spectate the remaining players till the map is over. If it's just a single map, he can also choose to quit the gamemode
  
• If a player explodes (from a powerup or from a barrel), or gets into the water, he will be teleported to the last checkpoint
  
• Making maps for these gamemodes is not hard, but a lot of work. Multiplayer editing in MTA could really work out here

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I'll wait for developers input on the needed development time and if they like the idea before I proceed with mapping