Dev Blog - Changes and Efforts After Season 1
A month has passed since we launched Season 1 of KartRider: Drift. During that time, countless racers from all over the world have joined us in-game! We appreciate all of you talking about what you’ve enjoyed, and what you found lacking.
Our dev team has been reviewing your gameplay and feedback over the past month, and we've learned many things from your stories. Now it’s time to put in the effort and apply some of your feedback in the game. Saying "we made an effort" isn’t enough, so today we want to talk about the results of that effort.
Our preparations for Season 2 began right after Season 1 started, and we're still hard at work on all of the content. We'll have more information to share with you about Season 2 as Season 1 reaches its end, but today we'd like to talk instead about the April 5 (PT) Mid-Season 1 Update.
The most talked about topic after Season 1 began was the new "Kart Upgrade" system. This system allows you to adjust the driving performance of your kart and tune it to get the kart’s optimum performance. We've been listening to your feedback, and saw a lot of discussion about two key parts of the upgrade system: the cost to reset your upgrades, and the differences between karts after upgrades. We've worked to improve these systems as part of the April 5 (PT) Mid-Season 1 Update.
Kart Upgrade Cost
Lucci, earned in-game from races and events, is spent to reset a kart's upgrades; however the price of doing so is currently too high, preventing Racers from casually tuning their karts. This made Lucci more valuable and important, but became a bottleneck, preventing you from enjoying this new feature as much as we had hoped. Thus, we have decided to lock the price of Upgrade Resets to 5,000 Lucci, an amount determined by analyzing the Lucci gain rates from a variety of Racers. We want to keep Lucci as a valuable commodity for players, but without overly hindering this new feature. We also want to keep an eye on the future and how the system can evolve. Lucci will have additional uses as we continue to develop KartRider: Drift, and you'll want to keep an eye on your balance for the features to come.
Kart Upgrade Distinction
There are a large number of karts in KartRider: Drift, and the performance of these karts can be adjusted through Upgrades to enjoy the race. However, many players felt there wasn't much difference between upgrading the karts, resulting in little strategy or uniqueness in the system. We want to make the karts feel distinct and unique, but without affecting the feeling of fairness or making the game less fun to play. Thus, the 5 karts that can be earned through License missions and the most recent Racing Pass have been made distinct by giving them differing attributes. This is intended to maintain the fairness of the existing karts while creating a bit of variety in the performance of the karts you can earn.
For example, the Cotton kart will remain balanced in its upgrade potential. However, the 5 following karts will each be set to have a different number of Gears applied to Speed, Acceleration, Boost Acceleration, and Boost Duration: Burst, Solid, Marathon, Saber, and Porsche Macan GTS. The total number of Gears that can be spent to upgrade the karts will not change, but these karts will have a greater or lesser potential in certain stats (such as stronger Boost Acceleration in exchange for weaker Boost Duration). Also, you don't need to worry if you already upgraded these karts! The five karts will keep their tier, but will have their Gears reset so they can be customized anew.
New Content
One of our main goals in development was to create a worthy successor to the original KartRider, and we have been preparing new updates with that in mind. However, much of the feedback has indicated that we've been lacking some of that original fun. As it's our job to make sure you have the best time possible in KartRider: Drift, April's update has a new game mode that's a blast to play!
With the April 5 (PT) Mid-Season 1 Update, we've released a new game mode called Factory Run, pitting your team of 4 Racers up against an army of 36 androids looking to overtake you. You'll race as normal in Item Mode, collecting power-ups and trying to stay in the lead by careful use of those items. However, if you get overtaken by enough androids, you'll be turned into an android yourself, with a new goal of knocking your former teammates out of the race. While the race is based on Item Mode, Factory Run will use a different item list, including some brand-new items exclusive to the new mode. Keep ahead of the competition, dodge the opposition on the track, and survive through the final round to win!
This past month has been particularly hectic, with our team preparing these updates and testing out each platform. But we learned many things through the community, with your feedback, your videos, and the livestreams of Racers from around the world, and we've gotten the strength to improve and advance KartRider: Drift. The April 5 (PT) Mid-Season 1 Update is important, but what's more important is the changes that will come in Season 2, and we can't wait to tell you more when we get closer.
Thank you, and see you on the tracks.
-JL & the KartRider: Drift Team-
Solo Match focuses on individual racing skills via Solo Speed mode races (8 players).
