Comments - marshmonkey

Here is an archive of our development blog from November 2007, waaaaaay before Mod Nations was ever announced. Nimblebit.com

There are no plans for a mac port until we get the PC version out the door first.

MBang, could you send me your Ogre.log file from Steam\steamapps\common\zero gear\Client to dave@nimblebit.com

that would be a lot of buttons!

ah, I understand. That would be a difficult to implement, but maybe not impossible. Right now the turning is either off or on in either direction but we have had some ideas about supporting analog steering for controllers, it might be possible to adjust it to work for the mouse as well.

Not planned to be implemented in the very near future - but possibly a post release update.

if you stop moving the mouse, it will line the camera up with the direction you are facing.

it won't reduce lag where the client and server already have a good connection - but it will help in the situation where people have limited bandwidth

you can rotate your kart in the air be re-pressing the movement keys while airborne.

go here to download the beta: Myzerogear.com

this can be fixed by replacing the 8 with a 7 in Server/serverSettings.txt

Ogre3d is not a game engine, it is just a rendering engine. There are many other parts to our engine besides Ogre, though Ogre provides us with a lot of pretty polygons!

thanks for the feedback! It is always difficult to find the right balance between making it challenging for people that have become good at the game, and making sure people who don't have great driving skill still feel like they can do ok.

As for the SDK, we don't specifically have any info for making tracks yet, but graphically they are made the same way as custom items which can be outlined here: Myzerogear.com

yea, we are already developing achievements and stats and rely heavily on steams networking system. We are going to use the steam cloud to save your settings and kart customization too.

probably not on windows at least, we rely on a lot of steam technology to make the game work.

We will be adding some music soon (it is being created as we speak!) We don't have a concrete release date, but we will be opening up the beta soon.

fraser: we would like to have both a free version (limited features) and a regular paid version as well.

there will be an SDK to create new content like maps and new game modes, but there won't be a editor per say, you will have to use a modeling program to create the levels.

yea, it is supposed to be a giant brain

a program called SnagIt

I think that is box modeling for a lot of parts of it, I am not sure what "proper" box modeling is. I usually just start out with whatever shape will be closest to what I am trying to make and then go from there.

differences from mario kart:

- it's on the PC
- emphasis on the use of real physics
- emphasis on character customization
- support for custom made models / levels / game modes
- many different game modes, not focused on just racing

to answer your question Mach, the tornado isn't a solid object, so you can't punch it - but it can affect other objects.

I got some good feedback that the lack of shadows was more jarring on this map because of the large scale - I spent yesterday rendering out some lightmaps for the floor and bar surface in order to give all the objects sitting around some added realism. Here is a before and after shot.

Nimblebit.com
Nimblebit.com

Thanks for all the interest guys! I will try to keep the information flowing!

we will be opening up more beta slots sometime in the next month we hope, stay tuned!