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Item karts: Balancing
TrippyOwl
KartRider: Drift Rep: 300
Posts: 2
Member
I managed to play with all the item karts available via the pass, except for the SteamShark one that offers you the ability to hold 3 items. Each one has a variety of different effects,
Some a lot more useful than others and that's what I'm going to touch on in this thread. I do like the idea of individual karts being for item mode with upgrades, but the reality is some are more stronger than others. I will point out I did have a bias with one specific item kart, as I had it for the full length of the Beta nearly, but I do believe it's still the best one given the options. That Kart is being the Ace. I'll go ahead and cover the Karts I did get to use below. Maybe more playtime with the Starburst, and the Ice Breaker may prove otherwise since I had just reached level 32 in the game, which seemed to unlock my racing pass all the way to level 42 when in reality in my 23 hours playing kart rider since the beta started I only managed to get to #20 on the racing pass, it seemed to have unlocked all the way to 42. I assume was a decision by Devs to let us be able to use some racing pass karts in the limited time frame we had to play beta with. That in itself I did have an issue with, and I'll point that out right now, the Beta was only around for little around a week, and instead of unlocking everything at once they had us beta test the racing pass. So i'll list the complaint i have now with that, mainly being the fact that there is hardly anything at all you get in the free racing pass. The big two cosmetics being skins, which the free pass had 0 of, and the Kart which the free pass had one of, being the Starburst. The free pass should have some more stuff, I mean don't put the best cosmetics in it, but at least put some more than just a kart, a balloon, and a booster skin, singular. So with my feedback on the racing pass aside here's what the item Karts I have unlocked did, and how useful they were, (I won't touch on non item karts like the Peira since im not particularly good at speed mode to list my feedback)
1. Ace. Function: Has a chance to block Missiles
2. Starburst Function: Grants a shield when the UFO beam hits
3. Ice Breaker Function: Changes water Bombs into Ice Water Bombs
4. Bunny Buggy Function: Has a 100% chance to block Bananas
5. Turbo Tortoise Function: Upgrades item mode Booster to Tortoise Booster
6. Simian Scrapper Function: Upgrades Bananas to Big Bananas
7. Deuce Coupe Function: 100% chance to gain a Water Wisp when hit by Water Bomb.
Alright, so there are the 7 Karts in discussion. I'll start with the Ice Breaker, and the Deuce Coupe. While effecting the Water Bomb both effectively, it brings up the point that in most races you usually aren't being hit by a Water Bomb, or rolling one, and if you do the Water Bomb itself is an item that requires precision timing in when you deploy it, unlike every other item in the game, because you have to use it at just the right moment or you won't get any use out of it itself. When riding the Ice breaker, I honestly cannot tell the difference between an Ice Water Bomb, and a regular water bomb. If there is one, the slow effect, or duration is so little that it isn't noticeable when using it during races. Especially when for Water Bombs to be practical in most cases you need to drop back to use it in the first place. With that said, going into the Deuce Coupe, while the fac tto gain a Water Wisp is always useful, it goes back to the main point that Water Bombs are hard to land, they're not particularly useful compared to the rest of the item loadouts, and unless you're purposely dropping back to deploy one in team mode, it's really just up to RNG to land it, meaning that you won't find much of a use for the kart itself, if just for the fact that it's rare you'll even be hit by a Water Bomb in most of your games.
The next ones I'll cover in the post are the Bunny Buggy, and the Simian Scrapper, both dealing with the Banana function. While the Bunny Buggy's ability is useful in itself, letting you ignore Bananas in the road entirely, it isn't the best thing as most Bananas are fairly easy to avoid while playing the game itself. If you hit a Banana, it's because you weren't paying attention to the game itself, and looking at the road in front of you. It is a useful feature to have, but in reality it isn't getting much use in the game itself as it's a niche thing, and more likely than not you're already dodging those Bananas in the first place. The next one is the Simian Scrapper, the item kart in the Beta I think is the 2nd most useful. It's gigantic banana nearly covers up most of the roadway itself to begin with, making it just about impossible to avoid if positioned correctly. That said, a Banana has just 1 use, and after it makes someone spin out, it's gone. So while the gigantic banana is all but guaranteed to make someone, at some position spin out, it's single use means you have to be careful with where you deploy them, and on top of that, Bunny Buggy should block them (correct me if i'm wrong, I haven't actually tested that part out yet).
Turbo Tortoise, and Starburst are the next two I' m covering. Turbo Tortoise is what I'll start with here, and while the upgraded boost is nice, it is just that. An upgraded boost, and with the way items spawn in Kart Rider Drift, if you're ever leading the pack with a Turbo Tortoise, you're not making use of your Kart's special ability, just for the fact a person in 1st, and 2nd, will never roll a Nitro in the first place. It's a good concept, but with the current way item mode works, and the item distribution is set up it just isn't as useful as say the Simian Scrapper, who make use of Banana rolls in first place, or the Ace who gets an extra shield. The Star Burst while being nice, getting a shield upon being UFO'd, it doesn't actually prevent UFOs, and rolling a UFO blocker itself is hard to do in the right moment, and honestly an overall detriment to your position keeping it VS having a 2nd shield in place for reasons I'll mention when I cover the #1 item kart, the Ace. While playing with the Starburst, I honestly didn't get much advantage out of the shield that got provided from an UFO coming down, for the sole reason being that I usually had a shield in my hot bar anyways to use. Since when you're in first place you roll one of the following options from an item pickup: Shield, UFO Blocker, Banana, Fog. Those 4 items are your only options when rolling what to get in 1st place, and because of that you probably kept a shield in the first place and a UFO blocker would be more useful for the starburst to grant.
Finally I'll cover the Ace, the Kart I played the most on during the Beta due to the way the pass was set up, and me being primarily an item mode player. Despite it being a racing pass option early on at just Tier 7, it provides the most beneficial benefit of them all. While at first glance it's only a "Chance" to block Missiles, that ability is extremely powerful. Why you ask? Well, in all the modes, be it solo, duo, or team, there are 2 rocket items someone can roll, the regular rocket, and the one that just automatically targets 1st place, this means of 2 options out of all the ones people can roll, ends up being rocket. The Ace can block both of these targets, and on top of the Ace's ability to block both of these types of rockets, the one that is a normal one, and the one that targets first, as a player in 1st place, you roll one of 4 items when you pick up an item, and being in 1st, you'll never be contested when you pick up an item, and those 4 items are the Shield, UFO Blocker, Banana, and Fog. Most Kart Rider veterans usually just automatically dump the Banana, Fog, and UFO Blocker when rolled, and keep a full item inventory of 2 shields when needed. The fact the Ace itself has a 102 acceleration, allowing it to quickly get back to full speed of 99 when actually hit by a water wisp, rocket, thunderstorm ,or even accelerating to full speed after an alien attack, and can block, with RNG, oncoming missiles even when they might not have any shields left to put up, which would allow the person in 1st place to most probably roll another shield after the the Ace has rolled a successful missile block makes the Ace the most powerful item kart in the game. In general, it's a Kart that allows a person that's got a comfortable lead on the rest of the group to maintain it's comfortable lead without too much fear that they'll get knocked out of 1st. It's a great Kart, but it's much more powerful than the rest.
I love Kart Rider for it's easy ability to boot up, spend just a few minutes in a Mario Kart like aspect, competing against other riders. Item Karts have the ability to make the game mode unfair, and while I like seeing myself next to the 1st place winner, It is important to leave feedback. If you're going to have an item Kart with such an unfair advantage as the Ace be only a premium tier accessible kart, you're ruining the experience for others who might just only want a Mario Kart type game for the PC, and ignore the speed mode entirely. It's far too easy to keep a lead in 1st place using the Ace kart, vs any of the other item Karts, and if all the useful item Karts are locked under a premium racing pass, it might just discourage individuals from playing the game in it's entirety.
That's my opinion on it anyways, and I hope my feedback is valuable in any way. I do hope if you do another Beta before release though, you let the Beta Testers actually be able to use all the items you show us, because I have no idea if the Steamshark, the item mode Kart I'm unable to test out is broken or not. Although 3 items sounds nice, you're limited to a certain number of item rotations, and that could balance the steamshark in itself.
I don't know if anybody else has anything to add, but I figured I'd give an in-depth opinion on balancing of item karts being an importance to the game.
Some a lot more useful than others and that's what I'm going to touch on in this thread. I do like the idea of individual karts being for item mode with upgrades, but the reality is some are more stronger than others. I will point out I did have a bias with one specific item kart, as I had it for the full length of the Beta nearly, but I do believe it's still the best one given the options. That Kart is being the Ace. I'll go ahead and cover the Karts I did get to use below. Maybe more playtime with the Starburst, and the Ice Breaker may prove otherwise since I had just reached level 32 in the game, which seemed to unlock my racing pass all the way to level 42 when in reality in my 23 hours playing kart rider since the beta started I only managed to get to #20 on the racing pass, it seemed to have unlocked all the way to 42. I assume was a decision by Devs to let us be able to use some racing pass karts in the limited time frame we had to play beta with. That in itself I did have an issue with, and I'll point that out right now, the Beta was only around for little around a week, and instead of unlocking everything at once they had us beta test the racing pass. So i'll list the complaint i have now with that, mainly being the fact that there is hardly anything at all you get in the free racing pass. The big two cosmetics being skins, which the free pass had 0 of, and the Kart which the free pass had one of, being the Starburst. The free pass should have some more stuff, I mean don't put the best cosmetics in it, but at least put some more than just a kart, a balloon, and a booster skin, singular. So with my feedback on the racing pass aside here's what the item Karts I have unlocked did, and how useful they were, (I won't touch on non item karts like the Peira since im not particularly good at speed mode to list my feedback)
1. Ace. Function: Has a chance to block Missiles
2. Starburst Function: Grants a shield when the UFO beam hits
3. Ice Breaker Function: Changes water Bombs into Ice Water Bombs
4. Bunny Buggy Function: Has a 100% chance to block Bananas
5. Turbo Tortoise Function: Upgrades item mode Booster to Tortoise Booster
6. Simian Scrapper Function: Upgrades Bananas to Big Bananas
7. Deuce Coupe Function: 100% chance to gain a Water Wisp when hit by Water Bomb.
Alright, so there are the 7 Karts in discussion. I'll start with the Ice Breaker, and the Deuce Coupe. While effecting the Water Bomb both effectively, it brings up the point that in most races you usually aren't being hit by a Water Bomb, or rolling one, and if you do the Water Bomb itself is an item that requires precision timing in when you deploy it, unlike every other item in the game, because you have to use it at just the right moment or you won't get any use out of it itself. When riding the Ice breaker, I honestly cannot tell the difference between an Ice Water Bomb, and a regular water bomb. If there is one, the slow effect, or duration is so little that it isn't noticeable when using it during races. Especially when for Water Bombs to be practical in most cases you need to drop back to use it in the first place. With that said, going into the Deuce Coupe, while the fac tto gain a Water Wisp is always useful, it goes back to the main point that Water Bombs are hard to land, they're not particularly useful compared to the rest of the item loadouts, and unless you're purposely dropping back to deploy one in team mode, it's really just up to RNG to land it, meaning that you won't find much of a use for the kart itself, if just for the fact that it's rare you'll even be hit by a Water Bomb in most of your games.
The next ones I'll cover in the post are the Bunny Buggy, and the Simian Scrapper, both dealing with the Banana function. While the Bunny Buggy's ability is useful in itself, letting you ignore Bananas in the road entirely, it isn't the best thing as most Bananas are fairly easy to avoid while playing the game itself. If you hit a Banana, it's because you weren't paying attention to the game itself, and looking at the road in front of you. It is a useful feature to have, but in reality it isn't getting much use in the game itself as it's a niche thing, and more likely than not you're already dodging those Bananas in the first place. The next one is the Simian Scrapper, the item kart in the Beta I think is the 2nd most useful. It's gigantic banana nearly covers up most of the roadway itself to begin with, making it just about impossible to avoid if positioned correctly. That said, a Banana has just 1 use, and after it makes someone spin out, it's gone. So while the gigantic banana is all but guaranteed to make someone, at some position spin out, it's single use means you have to be careful with where you deploy them, and on top of that, Bunny Buggy should block them (correct me if i'm wrong, I haven't actually tested that part out yet).
Turbo Tortoise, and Starburst are the next two I' m covering. Turbo Tortoise is what I'll start with here, and while the upgraded boost is nice, it is just that. An upgraded boost, and with the way items spawn in Kart Rider Drift, if you're ever leading the pack with a Turbo Tortoise, you're not making use of your Kart's special ability, just for the fact a person in 1st, and 2nd, will never roll a Nitro in the first place. It's a good concept, but with the current way item mode works, and the item distribution is set up it just isn't as useful as say the Simian Scrapper, who make use of Banana rolls in first place, or the Ace who gets an extra shield. The Star Burst while being nice, getting a shield upon being UFO'd, it doesn't actually prevent UFOs, and rolling a UFO blocker itself is hard to do in the right moment, and honestly an overall detriment to your position keeping it VS having a 2nd shield in place for reasons I'll mention when I cover the #1 item kart, the Ace. While playing with the Starburst, I honestly didn't get much advantage out of the shield that got provided from an UFO coming down, for the sole reason being that I usually had a shield in my hot bar anyways to use. Since when you're in first place you roll one of the following options from an item pickup: Shield, UFO Blocker, Banana, Fog. Those 4 items are your only options when rolling what to get in 1st place, and because of that you probably kept a shield in the first place and a UFO blocker would be more useful for the starburst to grant.
Finally I'll cover the Ace, the Kart I played the most on during the Beta due to the way the pass was set up, and me being primarily an item mode player. Despite it being a racing pass option early on at just Tier 7, it provides the most beneficial benefit of them all. While at first glance it's only a "Chance" to block Missiles, that ability is extremely powerful. Why you ask? Well, in all the modes, be it solo, duo, or team, there are 2 rocket items someone can roll, the regular rocket, and the one that just automatically targets 1st place, this means of 2 options out of all the ones people can roll, ends up being rocket. The Ace can block both of these targets, and on top of the Ace's ability to block both of these types of rockets, the one that is a normal one, and the one that targets first, as a player in 1st place, you roll one of 4 items when you pick up an item, and being in 1st, you'll never be contested when you pick up an item, and those 4 items are the Shield, UFO Blocker, Banana, and Fog. Most Kart Rider veterans usually just automatically dump the Banana, Fog, and UFO Blocker when rolled, and keep a full item inventory of 2 shields when needed. The fact the Ace itself has a 102 acceleration, allowing it to quickly get back to full speed of 99 when actually hit by a water wisp, rocket, thunderstorm ,or even accelerating to full speed after an alien attack, and can block, with RNG, oncoming missiles even when they might not have any shields left to put up, which would allow the person in 1st place to most probably roll another shield after the the Ace has rolled a successful missile block makes the Ace the most powerful item kart in the game. In general, it's a Kart that allows a person that's got a comfortable lead on the rest of the group to maintain it's comfortable lead without too much fear that they'll get knocked out of 1st. It's a great Kart, but it's much more powerful than the rest.
I love Kart Rider for it's easy ability to boot up, spend just a few minutes in a Mario Kart like aspect, competing against other riders. Item Karts have the ability to make the game mode unfair, and while I like seeing myself next to the 1st place winner, It is important to leave feedback. If you're going to have an item Kart with such an unfair advantage as the Ace be only a premium tier accessible kart, you're ruining the experience for others who might just only want a Mario Kart type game for the PC, and ignore the speed mode entirely. It's far too easy to keep a lead in 1st place using the Ace kart, vs any of the other item Karts, and if all the useful item Karts are locked under a premium racing pass, it might just discourage individuals from playing the game in it's entirety.
That's my opinion on it anyways, and I hope my feedback is valuable in any way. I do hope if you do another Beta before release though, you let the Beta Testers actually be able to use all the items you show us, because I have no idea if the Steamshark, the item mode Kart I'm unable to test out is broken or not. Although 3 items sounds nice, you're limited to a certain number of item rotations, and that could balance the steamshark in itself.
I don't know if anybody else has anything to add, but I figured I'd give an in-depth opinion on balancing of item karts being an importance to the game.
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