They should not exist. At least not as a way to block progression to the goal. If you want to make sure people can’t use a specific tactic in a gamemode all about speedrunning, try other creative tactics than just an instant kill zone. It’s a bit of a shame that some areas punish people for trying to find a faster rout with an invisible killzone, it’d be better if the devs actually put something there to make it more challenging or risky instead.
I think they’re a necessary evil, unfortunately. I do see your point on ‘more creative tactics’, but I don’t think it’s a huge deal either. Most maps have a satisfying amount of skips and shortcuts imo.
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There are some satisfying skips, but I really feel that the other killzones only ruin the fun of speedrunners, and don’t really help anyone else. Unintentional shortcuts should be improved upon and made riskier, not just pushed behind a kill block that notifies nobody of its danger until they die to it.
If you don’t mind, what levels/skips specifically are you talking about? I can think of a very small handful that fit that description, but I haven’t played too much BR recently.
I’d personally love if BR had more potential to speedrun, but I don’t really expect the past maps to be changed too much.
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I don’t really see the kill zones in ball race as much of an issue, care to give a few levels that have the ones you described?
Majority of the time, the only kill barriers are the ones that keep you from going to another level, which is pretty reasonable. (except for GLXY, that map has some pretty cool skips that involve crossing to another level)
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I think the kill zones balance the game. It wouldn’t be very fair to new players if they only got 3rd in every level because a God rank player knew an unfair shortcut for everything. It less of “who can take the best shortcut” but rather “who can get to the end fastest,” as the game has always been.
The levels I am talking about are areas such as Khomidro, where there are areas such as the one where the teleporter is literally beneath you; Midori’s killwall just below the hole before the loop (fun fact: if the physics hate you enough the next ramp you go up could likely kick you off and push you straight into that killzone!); Prism’s tube level where the gap leads to the trampoline. The levels look fine, but you shouldn’t punish speedrunners by putting a killzone there, it’s punishing thinking outside of the box and all.
My proposal is to actually put visible traps there, or just rework the level so it’s harder or near impossible to get there, instead of just slapping and invisible kill zone there and calling it a day. It’s one thing for people to know a shortcut and use it to their advantage, it’s another to “fix” that shortcut by not actually changing it and rather just punishing those who use it. Fixing gameplay is fixing it so both parties can enjoy it, that and people who aren’t as fast as the “gods” likely can make as much if not more points by playing carefully and going melon munching instead.
Also sorry for the long wait between responses, went off to a family member’s apartment to go swimming and was preoccupied by that.
I agree. Invisible death barriers feel cheap and unfair. They should at least be somewhat visible, or represented by a trap or something.