Hi gang, I have been away from the list for a while working on the Rail Racer multi player code, but I am back now with some good news for all you adrenaline junkies out there. A whole lot of features have been added to the game since my last update here, and I am going to give a full listing of features in about a week after the active beta testers and I polish off some of the code. Additionally, I will be offering a pre purchase with a discount for those that are interested. The full release will be 38 dollars U.S., and the pre purchase will be 33, more details to come next week. In the meantime, here are some of the major features: Force fields and loops and hurdles, oh my: This isn't your typical racing game, as your racer is equipped with jump jets so you can jump over hurdles in the track. This has to be timed just right so you don't waste time in the air by jumping too high, but you have to make sure your altitude is high enough to get you over the jump. Loops will test your ability to make quick and accurate shifts, as you will first have to climb the first half of the loop and then quickly shift up as you come out of the loop. Force fields can be placed on a track, forcing you to slow down before the field. Try and take the field too fast, and you are gonna come to a screeching halt, but again, you don't want to slow down too much, or you waste valuable time and speed. Delicate driving baby, delicate driving.
Mouse control: Besides the standard keyboard and joystick support, you can drive your racer with the good old mouse, pushing up to accelerate, pulling down to slow, and leaning left and right. Mouse buttons will shift you through the gears. The mouse is a great way to control accessible games, and along with Liam's new shooter, I hope to see more and more games take advantage of it. Damage management: Your racer will take damage in the higher skill levels if you take a curve badly or crash into a hurdle or force field. If this happens, do you burn the time fixing it in the pits, or try to finish the race with your damanged and therefore slower racer? It is all up to you little buddy. Along with fuel management, deciding when or if to pit can be the difference between entering the winners circle or crying in your beer. Web posting: All Tracks have their own web page on the Blind Adrenaline web site, so you can post your times and see how you stack up to the competition. Career play: You will earn money as you win races, as well as accumulate points for bragging rights. The money can be used to upgrade your racer as you become more successful. These upgrades include a superCharger to boost acceleration, nitros and extra nitro ports for a sudden burst of speed, and a gravity puller to get your racer back on the track quickly after a successful jump. Also, as you accumulate more points, you will open up more and more tracks that get progressively harder and more complex to race. Track editor: I know, you are thinking, wow, those loops and force fields sound pretty cool, wish I could make my own tracks with that stuff. Well you are in luck my racing friend, because Rail Racer comes with a track creator that will allow you to create and race your very own tracks, setting section lengths, curve placement and peppering your tracks with force fields, loops, hurdles and cheering crowds to your hearts content. If you build a true masterpiece, send it to me and if it is worthy, I will include it online so others can race it both in single player mode and online against other players. Tweak your ride: Like fiddling with your racer to get the best speeds possible? Once again you have come to the right place. In the garage, you have the ability to adjust your gear ratios and wing angle to achieve the perfect balance of control, speed and acceleration. Some tracks will require quick acceleration for tight turns and lots of loops and jumps. Others will go hand in hand with a high gear ratio and low wing angle to get to your highest speed. Fiddle around a bit and see what settings work the best for your favorite tracks. Multi player code running on a dedicated server: What this means is you can jump right into a online race with your friends and enemies right from the game, no swapping of IP addresses to find a server. The dedicated server is blazingly fast as well, so no lag issues to worry about. You will be able to place bets before an online race on yourself against any of the other racers in the game. If you beat them, you will receive that amount of money, and they will lose that amount, that is of course if they agree to the bet. This money can be used to upgrade your racer as mentioned before. Currently I am projecting that up to 20 players will be able to race each track at one time, but so far we have only tested with a max of seven. I'll let ya know later on how it works with more players. This isn't to say only 20 can race at once, merely 20 per track, the server should be able to handle a couple hundred over several tracks with no worries overall. Aditionally, audio tutorials will be included that go over every aspect of the game, so for those of you that hate reading manuals, rest your tired fingers. I will be updating the blind adrenaline website with more details about the game as well as a brand new audio trailer of game play next week, and I will let the list know when the trailer is ready to download. Once I near completion of the game, hopefully in Q1 next year, I will release a playable demo of the game, so you can take it for a little test drive to see how you like it. In the meantime, feel free to ask any questions you may have, and though we are pretty close to the final release, I am still willing to listen to suggestions that would make the game better and more fun. My objective with this game is to set a new standard of both the accessible racing genre, as well as a new and very convenient way of playing against your friends online. I think we're getting pretty close to those goals, but in the end the players will have the final word. I look forward to hearing from all you adrenaline junkies out there. Take care. Che Martin email and msn: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Blind Adrenaline Simulations Games by one of us, for all of us. http://www.blindAdrenaline.com _______________________________________________ Gamers mailing list .. Gamers@audyssey.org To unsubscribe send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can visit http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org to make any subscription changes via the web.
