Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers Version 2.4 Release Candidate

Kart Krew Dev — Thu 11 September 2025

Dr. Robotnik’s Ring Racers version 2.4 is just on the horizon!

This is a Release Candidate version; the design and features are mostly final, but since there are a lot of changes in this release, we’re making it available in a pending state to check for technical issues and critical bugs.

If you’d like to try out the newest features and fixes, and don’t mind running into potential bugs, please give this version a try; let us know if you run into trouble via GitLab or on Discord.

Download links

WARNING!

This is a Release Candidate build. You may encounter bugs, lose progress, or otherwise have weird stuff happen to you.

We recommend installing to a new location and backing up your save files (ringdata.dat, ringprofiles.prf, ringconfig.cfg). Installations upgraded to 2.4 cannot be reverted to 2.3; you MUST back up your data to do this.

BACK UP YOUR EXISTING INSTALLATION, OR YOU COULD IRREVERSIBLY LOSE EVERYTHING!

• Windows
• macOS
• GitHub Release Page
• The Flatpak release won’t be updated for prerelease versions. Technical Linux/Deck users can compile from source: check out tag v2.4-rc1 and use the assets linked in the GitHub release.

What’s New

• Race and battle with proximity voice chat online.
• Play as a team in Race or Battle, or duel one-on-one in a new tug-of-war race.
• No more nervous guesswork: see your opponents’ items, even in Race.
• Amps reward aggressive item hits with on-demand boost power.
• Ring Bail for a final push of do-or-die speed!
• Checkpoints and EXP boost comeback odds for early leaders.
• Sharper, more flexible handling, especially for heavyweights.
• No more self-damage! Snatch your items back for a second chance.
• Challenge all-new staff ghosts, with faster restarts, improved balance, and realtime splits.
• A fresh new offensive toolbox: rebalanced, redesigned, and all-new items.
• Get straight to online racing with skippable tutorials, or sharpen your skills with new tutorials and practice maps.
• Take a low-pressure drive in the redesigned Relaxed mode…or challenge brutal CPUs in the toughest Master mode yet!
• Rebalanced maps, from ring counts and capsule spots to brand new layouts.
• Countless fixes, refinements, and quality-of-life updates, including modern control prompts.
• Expanded addon capabilities and limits; load over 1000 addon characters at once!

Preliminary patch notes. May be incomplete.

Get Amped!

• In Race gametypes, dealing damage to other players grants Amps, a backup reserve of electric charge.
  • In a 4-player game, knocking a single person away can be a big deal: in a 16-player game, it hardly matters at all. Amps normalize the reward for good item play, and give defensive items a bump in power without making the race more chaotic.
• When you drop to 0 rings, you’ll spend your Amps to enter Overdrive, briefly shielding you from damage and granting a bonus to top speed, acceleration, and handling.
  • When going for item hits in chaotic situations, you’re often left defenseless afterwards—forced into a tougher situation than the racer you just hit! Overdrive lets you pull away from oncoming danger, and can protect you from combo hits even if your aggression doesn’t work out.
• Overdrive also massively speeds up your ringboost; restock quickly to blast away!
• When you’re far behind, hitting players close to the front pays out more Amps.
• First Blood (crossing the POSITION beam first) now pays out Amps in addition to the boost.
  • The First Blood boost already has a breakaway effect—it prevents other players from tethering off you—but in courses with early setpieces or tight opening corners, it was often difficult or impossible to apply. The Amp reward lets you get a second shot at dodging early offense, or start stockpiling your resources to hold the lead in the late-game—giving players a more compelling reason to play their POSITION proactively, and giving every race a public enemy #1!
• In Race, if your item hit sends a player out of bounds, you’ll be rewarded with bonus Amps.

Ring Bail

• Tap a single button to spend all of your rings, drop your item, and rapidly boost forward—but reduce yourself to -20 rings!
  • Insta-Whip and Overdrive are both powerful tools, but needing to spend down to 0 rings often prevented players from accessing them when they were most useful. Ring Bail is a push-button way to unlock high speed and strong offense, making it a great way to push for a checkpoint or quickly course-correct—but at -20 Rings, a single misstep can instantly kill you!
• After using Ring Bail, you’ll be unable to pick up rings for a long time, and any rings or items you had will be dropped behind you.
• While spinning out or tumbling, hold the Bail input for long enough and you’ll “Burst”, cancelling the damage into Ring Bail.
• Ring Bail is triggered with the “Y” button, previously mapped to Ring Shooter. Ring Shooter is now deployed with Bail + E-Brake.

Checkpoints

• Most race maps now contain Checkpoints, an extension of “Lap Bonus” that grades players midway through a lap.
• Strong items appear less often by default, but crossing a Checkpoint in high placements awards EXP, boosting your item odds for the rest of the race.
  • EXP also affects the payout values from Ring Box.
  • This makes it harder to intentionally play from behind, allows smaller gaps in skill to shine through more often, and limits the “crab bucket” effect where struggling players drag each other down. Explosive comebacks will be less common, and players who fall behind will need to work their way through the pack rather than relying on power items to immediately cover their mistakes.
  • Note: “Frantic Items” reduces the impact of EXP for struggling players. If you and your play group like roulette-style racing, toggle it on for item odds that are closer to 2.3. (Please only do this if you want a party game!)
• Item Boxes no longer spawn until you’ve crossed your first Checkpoint.
  • Everyone has one chance to earn EXP by pure driving, without items to worry about.
• Checkpoints pay out a small amount of Rings to keep struggling players moving.
• When crossing a Checkpoint, you’ll see how many seconds ahead or behind you are, as well as whether you’re gaining or losing time.
  • By default, this displays the leader in Race modes and the closest leading player in Time ATtack. This can be adjusted in HUD Options.

Duel Mode

• 2-player race matches are now a Checkpoint tug-of-war; take 4 more than your opponent to win!
  • 1v1 is most fun when you’re dogfighting with your opponent, pushing each other through every corner—and not very fun when your opponent disappears at POSITION and out-drives you for three minutes. This mode aims to reward active play, reduce last-minute scams, and end the match quickly if someone makes an unrecoverable error.
• In Duels, the First Blood boost is disabled, but crossing the line first still pays out Amps.
• Duels have no maximum lap count; you’ll keep racing until someone takes a decisive lead.
  • Race for long enough, and “Margin Boost” will kick in, speeding both players up until one of them falls behind.
• When playing online, Duel opponents strike maps to determine their next battlefield. Take turns banning maps; the last one standing is played.

Voice Chat

• Proximity voice chat is now available! This feature can be configured in the new Voice Options submenu.
• Voice chat is opt-in both as a client and for servers.
  • The server cvar to control voice chat is voice_servermute.
  • We don’t want players or server operators to be caught by surprise, and believe that server operators need to understand the moderation risks of having voice chat active on their servers before turning it on. Be kind to eachother.
• Proximity effects are turned on by default, and controlled as a server cvar. Server operators may choose to turn off proximity effects if desired.
  • The server cvar for this is voice_proximity.
  • Proximity effects only apply while in a level.
  • Spectators can only talk outside of levels.
  • A 12-player netgame with several players excited and loud can quickly become overwhelming. Conversely, being able to hear your victims scream in stereo as you drive past them is funny. We think the latter is better as a default.
• Servers with voice chat enabled will show up with a microphone icon in the server list.
• It is possible to vote-mute a player. The player will remain muted until unmuted by the server.

Team Play

• The teamplay cvar enables team scoring in both Race and Battle!
  • In Race, earn 2 points for each player you pass and 1 tiebreaker point for 1st place.
  • In Battle, reach the Score Limit as a team and score a final KO!
• Bumping your teammates inflicts reduced knockback. In Race, they also won’t be hurt by your items or attacks. See “Core Gameplay” for more!
• When using voice chat, you can hear your teammates from farther away.

Core Gameplay

• “Neutral Drift”: You now lose less speed while drifting while not steering.
• Every character’s “neutral” arc is different. Take a smart entry line, and you’ll be rewarded with a speedy exit, even without using Rings!
• The longer you drift, the sharper your inward drift becomes. This effect kicks in faster for characters that build drift sparks faster.
• This lets heavyweights take better advantage of neutral drift and reduces their reliance on brakedrifting, especially on Gear 2. Try it out on the Joypolis spiral!
• Global Item Spy: You can now see a player’s held item on their nametag, even outside of Battle mode.
  • Players threaten vastly different areas of the course depending on their item. The best option was often to avoid them altogether—not very fun for either party. Now, it’s easier to get up close and personal, using blind-spots and deadzones to keep the pressure on.
• “Snatching”: In Race modes, driving into your own missile or trap items now picks them up, placing them back in your item slot. When playing on a team, you can also pick up your teammates’ items.
  • Insta-Whipping a field item will also pick it up.
  • If your item slot is occupied, you’ll hold the item in “reserve” until it clears out. Picking up another allied item will drop your reserve slot as a paperitem.
  • This makes it less punishing to go for ambitious shots or trap your own line, and affects several intentional-hit momentum exploits.
• After starting a sliptide, you can continue sliptiding in a straight line as long as you stay above 100% speed. To end your sliptide early, steer in the opposite direction or start a drift.
  • This is an input-fairness change for d-pad and keyboard users, allowing them to take the same lines and use the same boost-storage strategies as players using analog sticks. Wavedash charge rate is based on turn strength, so a straight-line sliptide won’t grant any credit, but it preserves the special handling state without requiring gate-riding analog inputs or an additional drift.
• Reduced wavedash charge rate when sliptiding in both directions (“snaking”).
  • Technical: “Left” and “right” charge are now counted separately, and a penalty is applied to the lower value. This has the strongest effect on sliptides where your total turn magnitude is similar in both directions—in other words, when you’re sliptiding back and forth in a straight line—and has minimal effect on small angle-correction adjustments. We typically like to leave emergent handling techniques untouched (sliptiding itself is a “bug made feature”), but sliptide snaking was a high-input-intensity, latency-sensitive technique that short-circuited the opportunity cost of the wavedash, alllowing players to gain bonus speed without ever losing it. While you can still lock a full wavedash from Sneaker Panels, you’ll typically need to pre-steer to do it.
• Prepping a wavedash grants you a marginal speed and acceleration boost, as long as you can see the vortex behind you. A larger vortex grants a stronger boost.
  • Coming from other arcade racers, a surprising amount of people expected sliptiding to work this way, or assumed that it already did! This is a pretty marginal speed buff, but serves as a slight reward for something that was already just flat-out fun to do.
• When a Ring Box, Super Ring, or other track elements award Rings, you’ll now see your pending payout next to your Ring count.
• As long as you’re getting paid, you can spend Rings from your pending payout at increased speed, awarding a stronger but shorter boost.
  • We’d sometimes see people ask whether it was better to hold Item after picking up a Ring Box. The truth is, in prior versions of the game, it made almost no difference—Rings above your cap of 20 are automatically spent to boost. Now there’s a real tradeoff.
• The Item Roulette no longer uses fixed tables at fixed distance brackets. Your item odds will smoothly change as your position and distance changes, and most reels will have a more consistent level of power.
• Most item reels are now signficantly shorter, and a new cue has been added to when a reel “loops”, allowing you to catch target items on the second go-around.
  • This is still a deterministic system, but you can no longer memorize specific reels to blind-guarantee specific items; instead, players will need to read their reel as it spins. Also, that reel that contained a single Double Jawz in a sea of Invincibility and Triple Sneakers? Gone. What was that even about?
• When far away from other players, the Item Roulette will contain fewer attack-only items.
  • Attack items will still be present, but the reel will be weighted towards more impactful tools, like speed or trap items.
• In lobbies with more racers, item odds become weaker; you’ll need to fall further behind before seeing strong items.
  • This was actually already in the game, but wasn’t impactful enough. This should give players time to breathe in larger games, and help thrill-seekers show off their skills on offense—plus, it makes life easier for engine class C, who often had to stay near the pack to keep their pace up.
• Damage and respawning no longer reset Item Lockout.
  • Repeatedly overcharging a Spindash or tapping Ring Shooter could let players quickly combine power items or guzzle thousands of rings. Worse, the mechanic was an invisible knowledge check; when hit near an item set, a novice player would simply drive forward, rather than reversing into the set to try again. In this case, it’s better to make the obvious play the right one.
• If two players make contact with an Item Box at almost the same time, they’ll both receive an item.
  • In cases where players are nearly tied for an Item Box, it can be hard to guess the outcome. This window of leniency is pretty small, but should reduce situations where a player’s reasonable push leaves them out in the cold.
• Ice physics now make slopes stronger, and mud physics make slopes weaker.
  • Ice in this game makes your top speed higher, so tall slopes were very easy to climb under ice. This change was especially targeted towards ice slalom sections, such as those in Blue Mountain and Blizzard Peaks Classic, which now guide your kart into the right direction, instead of it being easy to bump the walls. Downhill ice is also even faster now, which is just plain fun!
• Reduced handling interference from stepping up/down (“stairjank”) when traveling at high speed.
• “Acid Drop”: After being launched from a wall transfer (like “quarter pipe” set-pieces), you’ll see a sparkle effect as you start to descend. If you fastfall while this spark is visible, you won’t bounce when you land, converting the speed of your descent into forward momentum.
  • Most wall-transfer areas were designed before the development of the Fastfall, and it was usually strictly better to take them with a fastfall-tridash combo, causing an awkward break in momentum.
• “Proration”: Crossing Tripwire without an item now requires more speed when you’re near 1st place. Crossing with boost items remains unchanged.
  • New VFX and SFX have been added as you approach the speed threshold, and the cotton-candy “aura” of Tripwire access has been made more visible.
  • Tripwire shortcuts can be crazy strong. Until now, there were tons of ways to take them from strong positons; this skewed up-front interactions that should be about driving skill and space control, and the tenuous balance meant we had to keep 1st place’s raw speed in careful check. This opens up some design space for things like the improved Super Ring, while keeping position play focused on fundamental racing.
• While moving at Tripwire speed, strong damage types (explosion, tumble) are downgraded, and weak damage types become a brief “stumble”.
• Sneaker Panels no longer grant automatic Tripwire access, but will extend Tripwire access from Sneaker items.
  • This lets mappers use them more freely without worrying about breaking their shortcuts, and makes races more visually readable near sections with lots of panels.
• “Stun”: After taking damage, you become briefly “Stunned” and unable to collect Rings, indicated by circling Flybots over your head.
  • Stun lasts longer for lightweights. Stun is much shorter if you’re far away from the pack or damaged by a map hazard.
  • Between emergency Spindash, checkpoint awards, and more prevalent Super Rings, it’s easier to stay out of Ring Debt than ever, and many damage events put the player back in control much quicker. That can be a bit of a problem for attack items; players with a high Ring count and a good opportunity to tether can go for “double attack” scenarios, immediately catching up to the player that just damaged them for another shot. Stun still lets you push for a counterattack, but puts you under pressure and weights the odds towards cautious play.
• Slightly increased the damage radius of Insta-Whip.
• If your Insta-Whip doesn’t make contact, ring pickup and Insta-Whip charge is disabled for a short period of time.
  • The “zero-ring berserker” playstyle was already strong in 2.3, but the standard of offense has raised a bit in 2.4. This aims to make Insta-Whip more forgiving, to match the bigger consequences for missing—and since Amps let you attack with it better, a whiff should let the rest of the lobby breathe, too!
• You can now punt “bumper” hazards away when you’re traveling at high speed or using Grow/Invincibility, like other map hazards.
• Slightly improved steering response in Gear 3.
• Redistributed stat-based ringboost properties. Base ringboost duration has improved, bonus ringboost duration has decreased, and ringboost speed now considers stats, adding a small bonus that favors class A.
• Reduced the power of extreme Ring counts, like from successive Ring Box awards:
• Super-strong ringboosts power down faster, even if you’re currently getting paid from a Ring Box or other award rings.
• You now lose ringboost when falling off the track or lightsnaking, the same as if you’d taken damage.
• Ring payouts now happen faster when you’re already under the effect of a strong ringboost. (This decreases the time you spend in “payout mode”, which lowers ringboost decay; this is a nerf.)
• Ring Box payouts increased by 25%. (This isn’t a straightforward buff, but partial compensation for the system-level nerfs.)
• Stacked Ring Boxes were a powerful (and really goofy-looking) win condition on maps with tight item spacing (and they warped TA into something very strange—stay tuned!). These changes aim to bring outlier stats a little closer to the center when it comes to ring awards, and keep the “guaranteed” speed of Ring Box in line with its risk and difficulty.
• You can now Drop Dash even if you’re tumbling or spinning when lightsnake activates.
• Gear 1’s base speed has increased, but boosts are slightly less effective, and stacked boosts are much less effective.
  • Gear 1 could be boring on simple layouts when playing well, but still really tough when playing from behind and using multiple boost items—the worst of both worlds! Ring Racers is at its toughest when your speed and handling properties suddenly change; less volatile boosts should make it easier for inexperienced players to stay in control.
• Maps in Gear 1 will have 75% of their normal lapcount, rounded up.
  • This only affects maps with lapcounts greater than 3.
• Speed Assist: Players who have been extremely behind for a while receive a small increase to base speed. This bonus speed reduces greatly when boosting, and disappears if they make forward progress.
  • This increase only starts if a player is substantially behind the bottom 25% of the race, or when they fall extremely behind in Duel. This is not intended to help with overtake progress directly, but helps players who are far away from everyone and struggling with items rejoin the race.

Items

• Added the Stone Shoe to Race mode! This leader-only trap looks like a dropped Sneaker, but chains the victim to a bouncing boulder, reducing their speed.
• Bashing enemies with the Shoe (or tripping them with the chain) inflicts a low tumble, paying out Amps to the chained player and the leader.
• Holding Down when activating the Stone Shoe chains it to yourself, instead of setting a trap.
• Added Toxomister to Race mode, a leader-only trap that covers passing enemies in clouds of smog. Touching one slows you down and drains your rings, while paying out Amps to the leader!
  • Toxic clouds can be blown away by reaching Tripwire speed, even if they’re already attached to you.
  • Toxomister can be destroyed with direct bumps or item shots. If it’s not destroyed, the leader can pick it up next lap and redeploy it!
• Ballhog has been completely redesigned, and is now a multi-function lobbed item.
  • Ballhog now starts with 7 shots instead of 5.
  • Instead of shooting missiles in a fan pattern, lobbed projectiles are tossed in a circle pattern.
    • Holding Up will throw the projectiles farther (similar to Proximity Mines), while holding Down will throw them closer to you.
  • While charging, a reticle will appear on the ground showing the expected flight path. These are visible to all players, not just you!
  • After holding Ballhog at a full charge for 2 seconds, you’ll consume your remaining shots to blow yourself up, launching forward in a low tumble.
  • Ballhog has been due for a rework for a while, and we’re finally making good on our promise from the 2.2 patch notes! This version is more flexible (and more potent at the right ranges), but no longer shuts down huge areas with little counterplay.
• At medium distances, stacks of Super Rings can appear in the Item Roulette. Using a stacked Super Ring pays out all the Rings at once, and pushes you in the direction you’re looking.
  • Amps made all the offensive “leader items” stronger, so Super Ring needed a tune-up—and inventive frontrunners will definitely get some mileage out of instant thrust! This also gives mid-pack players more options for pure speed, reducing item chaos in a distance bracket previously crammed with exclusively missiles.
• Missile items now cause a brief “stumble” while orbiting, dropped, or thrown backwards, similar to Insta-Whip. Instead of being knocked away, you’ll keep traveling in the direction you were already moving.
  • Going for razor-thin overtakes versus orbital items is cool, and deserves to be less punishing when it doesn’t work out. This also gives dedicated trap items a better niche.
• Sneakers now travel significantly faster, and grant brief invulnerability when used.
  • In situations where strong Tripwire shortcuts weren’t available, Sneakers often felt pretty weak. In 2.4, they sorely needed a tune-up next to offensive items and their Amp rewards.
• The elemental shields have been graphically overhauled, and Bubble Shield is now much more visible from a distance.
• When set as a trap, Bubble Shield is slightly larger.
• Bubble Shield no longer pops in 1st place, but applies extra “air drag” until you reach a speed cap. This cap starts at 400% and decreases as you approach the leader, visually affecting the shield.
  • Arbitrary item cutoffs lead to weird player incentives, where people try to hang around near 2nd and time their overtakes. Applying a speed curve, like other high-impact items, means that players will have to make their own choices about when to toss their shield—and normalizes Bubble Shield on courses with steep drops or exploitable slopes.
• Bubble Shield no longer drops as a trap if it’s used to boost. “Neutral set” (L + no direction) will drop it as a trap, and Down+L will immediately pop it and dash forward.
  • Bubble Shield’s neutral-set behavior was originally a bug, but we decided to keep it, since it provides a lot of linear speed that can sometimes ruin tight lines. This gives it its own niche, preserving Bubble Shield’s versatility but lowering its raw power.
• Dramatically improved handling while traveling at high speed under a Flame Shield boost.
• Flame Shield’s “overheat” boost now thrusts you farther.
• Lightning Shield now has a “charge” window when activated, exploding after a delay. While charging, you retain infinite tether range and gain tether speed twice as quickly; after exploding, you’ll zip forward.
• Lightning Shield no longer hits players who are extremely far above or below you.
• Players can no longer trigger their own Proximity Mines by stepping into the detection range. They’ll still be affected if another player triggers the mine.
• Proximity Mine has a new visual for its activation range.
  • Did you know Proximity Mine has a higher activation range right as it arms?
• Fixed an issue causing your own Shrink lasers to grant significantly more Grow time than intended.
  • Players can no longer stack a lap’s worth of Grow time from a single Item Box, and will almost always power down after making significant progress. Shrink is supposed to be strong, but was never meant to be this strong!
• Landmines can now be thrown forward, sliding along the ground and inflicting a softened Tumble.
  • Landmine has the weakest defensive profile vs. approaching attackers, so it deserved some bite versus confident overtakes.
• You can no longer spindash while riding a Garden Top.
• When throwing a Garden Top backwards, you’ll automatically fastfall.
  • Garden Top spindashing let players go from a standing start to an instant 400%+, which led to some goofy-looking skips when combined with sloped map geometry.
• A “shaking” Garden Top (near 1st place) will take longer to stabilize when 1st pulls away.
• When near 1st place, Grow and Invincibility decay at double speed.
  • This should make frontrunners safer from high-risk power overtakes—and prevent those overtakes from turning into an even worse frontrun.
• Invincibility grants a brief period of Tripwire access after it ends, to make shortcuts more lenient.
• Garden Top and Shrink now only appear for trailing players with high EXP.
  • Both items are intended to propel skilled players forward, but often disrupt the race for no reason if weak players fumble around with them. Players who are consistently struggling are better served by straightforward speed items.
• The Self-Propelled Bomb no longer hits players immediately after switching targets.
• Garden Top and Shrink no longer appear in Gear 1.
  • Shrink made several setpieces impossible to complete, and Garden Top is simply too volatile for a slower mode.

Battle

• The location of the next Combat UFO, and the time until it spawns, is now displayed on the minimap. (blondedradio)
  • This was never meant to be purely random, but conveyance slipped away during the launch frenzy. With advance warning on the next UFO location, players have big incentives to group up and get fighting!
• Players can no longer be hit during the visual “freeze” when grabbing a Power-Up.
• Picking up a Power-Up grants longer invincibility, but that invincibility now depletes in the air.
• In Battle, Bubble Shield has a 50% longer cooldown, and pops when it deals damage or triggers a clash.
  • Bubble Shield can still reflect an unlimited number of items…provided no one attacks you directly, or during the cooldown.
• Players with an inflated Bubble Shield can no longer suffer Barrier Break.
  • This fixes a nasty anti-synergy with Mega Barrier. A non-inflated Bubble offers no protection, though!
• You can now inflict Barrier Break on players using Grow, affected by S Monitor, or in other clash/invincibility states.
  • This previously caused a confusing state where players would appear to suffer Barrier Break, but take no damage.
• If your Insta-Whip doesn’t make contact, Guard and Insta-Whip charge are disabled for a short period of time.
  • This previously used the standard “defense lockout” window of 7/10 seconds, but Insta-Whip’s half-second duration covered the majority of it, making it difficult to punish reckless whips. Since Whip now steals items on contact, it needed a more targeted weakness.
• Last Chance now bounces you upward only once, but you regain control and bounce much further.
  • Fastfall quick and aim for a reversal, or hang out in the air and try to dodge the followup…?

Time Attack ver.B

• All Time Attack times from prior versions have been invalidated.
• Don’t worry, any medals you’ve earned will remain!
• Several changes made to ringboost mechanics and “award rings”, to reduce runaway uncapped speed. See “Core Gameplay”.
• Adjusted TA Ring Box payout values and stat scaling to favor heavyweights.
  • This affects only Time Attack, which already paid out variable amounts for different characters.
• TA Ring Boxes pay out more with each checkpoint you cross.
  • Class-A characters often got to enjoy some dramatic pacing, where their speed would ramp up over the course of a run as they stacked up more and more ringboost. This was fun, so we wanted to give everyone a little of that rising tension.
• Time Attack now starts timing the instant your character moves.
  • In Time Attack POSITION, added input leniency to Accel+Brake e-braking, preventing three-button Spindash from accidentally moving early.
• Time Attack POSITION time shortened slightly, but Spindash charges at 4x speed.
• Crossing the starting line in Time Attack now grants the First Blood boost, minus the Amps.
  • No more rainbow driftboost starts! On the overwhelming majority of courses, a Spindash standing-start is now the fastest way to get going, reducing time spent between resets. You can still adjust your angle before you release, though.
• The screen transition when restarting Time Attack is now faster.
• After beating your best time, you can no longer quick-restart before reaching the intermission screen.
  • This prevents players from setting new best times, but exiting before the ghost can save.
• Perhaps a more powerful being exists…?

Massive kudos to everyone who pushed Chao beyond the limits of speed, finesse, and human sanity; the summit of competition has been equal parts awe-inspiring and concerning. Sadly, that level of imbalance isn’t fair to those who want to play their favorites—but we’ve had a great time watching everyone pull together and break the game one tic at a time. Now let’s see what you’ve got!

Interface

• Added the “Button Display” option when mapping controls. This affects button prompts across the entire game, allowing you to select between modern responsive button prompts, profiles optimized for 6-button reproduction controllers, or 2.3’s “emulator” style control display. When using a keyboard, keyboard keys will be displayed by name where available.
• Sadly, not everyone grew up playing emulated Genesis games—not everyone has a decade’s worth of muscle memory on which shoulder button they mapped “Y” to. This wasn’t easy to implement, but hopefully it can ease some growing pains in the game’s opening moments, or for players who frequently switch controllers.
• During the Tutorial, the Pause screen now shows a control guide.
• The Cup and Level Select screens now show more information about unlocked awards and pickups.
• The Grand Prix podium screen now shows your difficulty level, and which maps you retried.
• During a Tutorial, or in a certain encounter in Grand Prix, the true map name is now shown on the top right of the screen.
• The Challenge Board now has subtle coloring to go with each tile’s category, to improve navigating through the mountain of rewards.
• In Match Race (and Online as a server admin), pressing “Action” on the Level Select screen now allows you to queue multiple maps for continuous play.
  • This was already a feature via the Developer Console, but that basically meant it only existed for technical users. A UI like this was always meant to help tournaments and local play run smoothly!
• The name of the chosen Follower color will always display when extra information is enabled, even when using Default, Opposite or Match - !106
• Added an on-screen control reminder for Spindash (and boost items) after taking hits with 0 rings, or moving slowly through offroad.
  • New players make Ring-management mistakes a lot, and when you’re panicking your way back onto the road, it’s easy to forget you’ve got options.

Singleplayer

• Instead of “tournament points”, Grand Prix is now scored by EXP. Play well throughout the race to take the gold!
• EXP also replaces Lap Bonus, so Grand Prix ranking criteria has changed; maximum scores and rank thresholds are lower.
• Adjusted Grand Prix CPU difficulty to rise slower for struggling players, but fall less when retrying.
• Struggling players would often “fail forward” on higher difficulties, ping-ponging between “too easy” and “way too hard” as they advanced. Rise to the challenge, or train on a lower difficulty—no boring wars of attrition!
• Relaxed difficulty Grand Prix no longer uses a lives system, and you can advance even when placing below 4th. You also won’t immediately explode if you’re guaranteed to place last.
• Relaxed plays at “Gear 1” speed, which also received some changes to be more friendly to inexperienced racers: see “Core Gameplay”.
• Master difficulty Grand Prix now disables players’ positive EXP modifiers, making human item odds worse.
  • Depending on who you asked, Vicious might have been harder than Master difficulty, since your Rival had an easier time catching up without other strong bots around. Master is a bragging-rights maniac mode for the most devoted players, and we’ve tuned it accordingly; with weaker catchup, you’ll need both finesse and consistency to win!
• In Grand Prix, finishing while “ring locked” from a trailing Self-Propelled Bomb now awards 20 bonus points of Ring Bonus.
• Improved CPU racer driving on technical layouts, and made them play more fairly on simple layouts.
  • CPUs now slow down more when bumping walls or taking damage from items.
  • CPUs inflict less knockback, and get bumped farther, when colliding at high speeds (bugfix).
  • CPUs slow down slightly on long straightaways.
  • CPUs tether to other CPUs at reduced speed.
  • Reduced CPU “slope resistance” (bugfix).
    • Sneaker Cup was infamous for a reason: CPUs love narrow maps with forgiving guardrails and simple turning. This should make their driving less disruptive.
  • Strong CPUs rubberband less effectively if they’re at low EXP.
    • CPUs get most of their speed from fast driving, not from item play. This change aims to make them feel more like human opponents, making it harder for them to disrupt you when they’re consistently struggling.
  • Removed CPU “turn confirmation” state, speeding up their turn response.
    • CPUs previously had an artificial delay added to their turning, to ensure they didn’t rapidly wiggle back and forth in a way that looked unnatural—but when approaching corners from a straightaway, the delayed steering would sometimes make it hard for them to take their preferred line, making them tough to tune.
  • “Map complexity” no longer affects CPU speed.
    • CPU driving is more competent and consistent than prior versions, so they don’t need a speed multiplier based on layout anymore. This could occasionally cause problems in addon courses with strange waypoints, and was part of the problem with Chemical Facility.
  • CPUs have increased grip when taking sharp corners.
  • Fixed issues with CPU bonus traction that could cause them to reach unusual speeds on certain maps, and adjusted their base speed to compensate.
  • These changes are meant to make CPU racers more consistent and engaging, not necessarily easier. Mid-cup difficulty spikes should be much less drastic, but high AI levels may perform significantly better than you remember.
• CPUs are now slightly less effective at using Bubble Shield and Lightning Shield, even at Lv.MAX.
  • Against skilled human players, quick speed changes can bait them into whiffing their shields; this gives strong CPUs a similar weakness.
• Improved overtake potential and pack breakaway for CPUs favored to win. Packs of CPU racers are more likely to spread out in all gamemodes.
• Fixed an issue that could rarely cause CPU racers to reach impossibly high difficulty on Relaxed mode.
• Significantly raised requirements to enter a certain encounter.
  • Players shouldn’t feel pushed into difficult encounters before they’re totally comfortable with what’s on offer. Enjoy racing and hone your skills, without the shadow of a certain adversary—but when you’re ready…!
• In a certain encounter, lowered the speed threshold required to deal damage or pass Tripwire.
  • This allows Super Ring to be used offensively, and opens up damage opportunities on a number of short inclines.
• Changed the appearance of a certain foe as damage is inflicted.
• When retrying a certain encounter, reduced “carryover damage” from repeated attempts. Carryover damage is disabled entirely on Master difficulty.
  • To some people, this might be a surprising nerf, but for everyone dumping Orbinauts on the first slope in A*******, you might have seen it coming.

Online

• Fixed an issue preventing players from accessing the Server Browser after disconnecting from a modded netgame.
  • You’ll still need to restart the game to join a new server, but rejoining the server you were just on should work fine.
• In sessions where there are not enough player slots for all the players connected, the NO CONTESTed player will become a spectator and be replaced by one of the spectators. This is controlled by the cvar shuffleloser and is enabled by default.
  • Try setting “Max Players” to 2, then “Max Connections” to something higher, for a rotating lobby in the new Duel mode.
• If you’ve been waiting for a while after finishing a round, the tally screen will transition to a spectator view if there are still players to watch.
• Improved compatibility with certain VPN software or strange home networks. When you connect with an unusual IP, you’ll connect as a GUEST instead of crashing.
  • The RRID system checks the server’s IP to prevent certain kinds of impersonation. These checks are disabled on a physical LAN, but there’s no way to tell how weird VPN software will remap private IP space; this is the next best thing.
• Removed the ability to join in-progress races during the first 20 seconds.
  • This caused replay desyncs we weren’t able to resolve, and is a nasty edge case for addon authors besides. Sorry!
• Significantly improved the speed of file checks and the HTTP downloader, making it easier to join Modded games. (Hanicef, alufolie91, Indev)
• Fixed “server verification failed” errors when waiting for a long time to join a full server.
• The new “Mobiums” rating system replaces PWR.LV. This system is more forgiving at low ratings and less volatile in general.
  • PWR.LV is a zero-sum system: if you gain points, someone else has to lose points in return. This meant that a room’s maximum rating had a hard maximum: the number of players who had “donated” their starting 1000 PWR to stronger players. It’s now much harder to drain away all of your rating, and modestly successful players should sustain higher ratings, but the top end of the scale still demands consistency vs. strong players. Try the Auto Gear and Auto Encore settings to spice things up for high-rated rooms!
• Players who disconnect or spectate mid-round will now forfeit some Mobiums (previously PWR.LV), unless they were in the lead.
  • Forfeit penalties have existed in the code since 2.0, but were never triggered thanks to a small oversight. Whoops.

Challenges

• A new challenge for a new unlockable character has been added! Sounds like trouble’s brewing…
• Additional challenges for new unlockable followers have also been added!
• An additional Battle Course has been added as a bonus for clearing the Tutorial Challenge.
• Once you’ve collected every Spray Can, all uncollected locations will become “KKD Medals” available for bragging rights.
  • A common refrain among those who really got into finding Spray Cans is “It’s over already??” We always wanted a way to continue the hunt for those who loved the puzzle just as much as the reward, but it required a little extra engineering to put in place. With the luxury of post-launch support, this expanded exploration is finally here!
• Adjusted some calculations for the at-a-glance info on the Challenge Board.
  • The brightness of each pixel in the scroll bar above the Board
  • The fill percentage of the Chao Medal in the top right
• Pulseman’s unlock condition no longer requires being in Grand Prix, but now also requires an A rank.
• In addition to its existing unlock condition, Test Run can now also be unlocked by loading an addon.
• Removed a stray comma in Tridentz’ description.
• Marble Foyer, Speed Highway, Cyber Arena, Chaos Chute, Daytona Speedway, Thunder Piston and Fae Falls have new unlockable Alternate Music tracks.

Accessibility + Quality of Life

• Added “CPU” indicators above CPU players.
• Raised the chase camera on “flat” maps, like MEGA Cup, to improve forward visibility.
• Looking backwards now adjusts the camera’s momentum and distance, making the effect instant and hopefully reducing motion sickness. - !45
• You can now skip through the SEGA logo (to the disclaimer) faster. - !26
• Votes are now logged to the server host’s chat, including the name of the calling player. This allows hosts to take action against players abusing the vote system.
• Added the “Strict Fastfall” profile option. When enabled, the E-Brake button combo will never cause you to fastfall, requiring you to press your Spindash input instead.
  • This is normally the sort of control option we avoid, but in corner cases involving unexpected airtime or lag spikes, the input-overlap between brakedrifting and fastfalling could be hard to bear.
• Added a 5-second rewind in Egg TV playback, for finer control than the “Restart” option.
  • The extremely granular Rewind option in SRB2Kart was devastatingly buggy and had to be disabled for Ring Racers’ launch, but it was pretty dull to get the exact clip you wanted with only a total restart for stepping back. Hopefully this coarse tool fills the need without any of the headache!
• When playing alone, you can immeditely update the Character, Follower, or Color on your current Profile from the Challenge Board.
• The game will now remember the last display it was on, and restores it on start-up.
• Three similarily named Developer Console commands are now a suite of closely related utilities, accepting almost the same argument format and differing primarily in output.
  • map is for immediately switching to a Course.
    • As the standard-bearer, its parameters are largely unchanged.
  • queuemap is for interacting with the Round Queue, the active collection of Courses.
    • Added -show/-s.
      • Reveals the next Round in the queue via server shout message
      • Can be used manually, or with automate commands for tournament rulesets that permit foreknowledge of the next Round without requiring the host needing to constantly work off memory or document
    • -clear now also supports the partial parameter -c
  • showmap is for printing information about a Course.
    • Added the ability to provide partial names (or full lumpnames/IDs) to identify Courses without going to them.
      • showmap robo will preview you the Course map robo or queuemap robo would have resolved to!
    • Added -gametype/-gt/-g.
      • Matches the other two’s accepted parameters
      • Can be used for checking compatibility
  • All three now support -random (or -r).
    • Can be combined with -gametype/-gt in all contexts, otherwise uses the current active gametype (or fails on menu)
    • randommap has been deprecated, and will now only print the replacement instruction map -random
  • The Developer Console isn’t really intended for end users, but it’s essential for server management. Minor increases in utilities utility can go a long way in the right hands!
• Level images are displayed again for Discord Rich Presence.
  • These were originally omitted because we ran out of image space on the Discord application, which was extremely unfortunate because it made the feature a lot less useful. But, we discovered that there’s an undocumented feature where you can self-host your own images instead to bypass said limits, so they’re back now!
• “Reduce Effects” now removes:
  • Palette flashes - !48
  • “Prize” flickering on the Cup select - !76
  • Spray Can/Super Flicky flare flickering - !76
  • Flashing on not-yet-unlocked Characters in replay playback - !138
  • Ring Sting VFX jittering - !137
  • Teleporter animations in Tutorial maps
• Texture animations can now be overridden for Reduce Effects using RVFXANIM lumps. These are considered non-modifying so they can be adjusted locally, like music - !135
  • Several base-game animated textures known to be problematic for photosensitive players have either reduced or completely stopped animation speed with Reduce Effects enabled.

Fixes

• Fixed a 1-tic delay in handling response when playing online or using the Minimum Input Delay option.
• Fixed minor input pacing problems when your network delay was below your Minimum Input Delay.
• Fixed mass desync during Battle overtime.
• Fixed sliptides failing to start in certain netgame conditions, or while turning with Lite Steer.
• Fixed unusual respawn behavior when dying after faulting, or while affected by certain map gimmicks.
• Fixed strange Eggmark pass behavior when passing to a player already rolling an Eggmark roulette.
• Fixed “invisible shield” behavior when obtaining an elemental shield while buffering Ring usage.
• In situations where you can grab a shield without pressing the Item button, like timing out a roulette or picking up a capsule, you’ll still be able to buffer rings—but the shield won’t appear, and won’t protect you, until you release the button. Shields protect the holder from Ring Sting, and the holder could always react to pressure and reactivate the shield, so this tactic was difficult to play against!
• Fixed turbines and ice cubes cutting certain boosts short.
• Fixed clouds resetting your drift on contact.
• Fixed unusual collision behavior when triggering a Ball Switch with an inflated Bubble Shield.
• Fixed Flame Shield boost bar length on maps using a non-standard object scale.
• Fixed Heavy Magician transforming into the same character as the previous lap.
• Fixed many unwanted wallbonks while wall-transfering (like curved “quarter-pipe” setpieces).
• Fixed strange high-velocity launches when making contact with the side of a Wall Spike.
• Fixed unusual race results when respawning or taking fatal damage after crossing the finish line.
• Fixed lingering sliptide and wavedash sounds when taking damage.
• Fixed unusual player rotation when attaching to pulleys.
• The mouse cursor is now hidden when the game window is in focus!
• Fixed unusual character select behavior with more than 255 colors loaded - !67
• Fixed hang in character select with more than 255 followers loaded - !68
• Fixed modded skincolors corrupting the Spray Can cache. - !50
• Fixed netgame desyncs when using -file with add-ons with custom console variables. - !29
• Fixed alignment of “status line” messages (“Last Chance!”, “Crack the Combat UFO!”) in non-green resolution splitscreen.
• Fixed some demo/replay crashes that could appear when restarting Time Attack quickly.
• An issue with UDMF map parsing that affected certain processor architectures and build configurations was fixed, particularly on ARM processors. This issue lead to broken vertex configurations during loading caused by undefined behavior. - STJr/SRB2!2476
• Fixed ACS CallFunc_SetThingProperty only removing one object of a given TID at a time
• Fixed various important visuals not displaying, or displaying improperly, when the player had their gravity flipped in certain levels. - !28
• Fixed Tricks failing instantly when performed under reverse gravity. - !28
• Fixed an error that prevented all TC_ v.colormap HUD effects from working in replays. - !37
• Fix reversed horizontal inputs in input display for Encore replays. - !30
• Music credits on Motobug Motorway, Mystic Cave, and Sky Sanctuary have been updated for oversights.
• Fixed a crash when players are typing in-level under OpenGL. - !49
• Fixed opening Profile options during a game changing your skin and color. - !51
• Fixed the minimap dot being green when playing as a character with a different startcolor. - !50
• Fixed an issue where the game name was incorrectly displayed for Marble Foyer’s song credit.
• Fixed a memory leak when joining netgames and resyncing.
• Fixed volume cvars not being applied during the first wipe after launch, causing all volumes to be at 100% for a brief moment.
  • This mainly affected development workflow stuff, like the -server or -warp options.
• Optimized memory allocation in level loading and level runtime.
  • Slower CPUs and CPUs with small caches are likely to see a more noticeable improvement here, especially in levels with precipitation.
• Added arm64 macOS Gitlab CI build - !87
• Fixed undefined behavior on non-Apple AArch64 platforms in NodeToSplitPlayer - !82
• Fixed a misallocation that could result in crashes during SPB pathfinding - !83
• Fixed Legacy GL polygon batching comparison for fade_end property - !74
• Fixed an off-by-one error indexing the player list in signpost thinker - !78
• Fixed Legacy GL transparent FoF alpha values wrapping around incorrectly - !57
• First person/chasecam off fixes - !71
  • The kart HUD overlay is hidden while dying badly (fixes #180)
  • Fixed camera roll/tilt (fixes #179)
  • Adjusted maximum camera tilt in first person, to make it easier to judge a safe landing
• Fixed some issues preventing Clang 18 from compiling on Windows - !59
• Fixed Legacy GL chat window text rendering - !96
• Fixed MF2_OBJECTFLIP being applied incorrectly in P_SpawnGhostMobj - !98
• Fixed polyobjects carrying players due to code error - !97
• Fixed bopping Prison Eggs after the timer runs out incorrectly awarding points for the final Grand Prix result
• Re-enabled Mumble positional audio link - !109
• Fixed infrequent crash related to third person camera - !105
• Fixed server ban storage (srvbans.json) rarely being corrupted and preventing server startup.
• Fixed Challenge Board tiles briefly showing the incorrect side while flipping in interpolerated frames
• Fixed an order-of-operations issue where your current Follower’s category wouldn’t be pre-selected when updating your Profile’s character
• Fixed a theoretical attack for snooping on Round Queue commands from promoted players
• Improved startup times by not hashing core files more than necessary
• Fixed physics issues with loops oriented in certain directions, allowing loops in all directions - !132
• Map IDs are now properly included in PNG screenshot metadata - !118
• Fixed a potential crash when loading models.dat - !114
• Fixed a netsave bug loading SRB2 “Thwomp” thinkers - !116
• Battle monitors now disappear when they fall in pits - !124
• Exiting SPB Attack while the profile character select is open no longer causes the regular character select to become the profile character select screen - !119
• Lua: Fixed displayplayers.iterate causing a hang when multiple viewports view the same player - !127
• Fixed inconsistent sector special detection on dynslopes - !133
• Fixed banana dragging wrapping around and disabling the effect again when held for too long - !117

Character Changes

• Fixed Fang’s lookback/drift sprites having the incorrect tire shine in certain frames.
• Fixed Flicky’s lookback/drift sprites having the incorrect tire shine in certain frames.
• Fixed Whisper’s lookback/drift sprites having the incorrect tire shine in certain frames.
• Fixed Orta’s lookback/drift sprites having the incorrect tire shine in certain frames.
• Cleaned up Pulseman’s signpost.
• Cleaned up Azusa’s sprites.
• Adjusted rival lists for Rouge and Headdy.

Course Changes

• Replaced the layouts of Chaos Chute, MEGA Aqua Lake, and Sky Babylon Zone.
• Several maps have received lapcount changes:
  • Avant Garden, Coastal Temple, Cyan Belltower, Operator’s Overspace, and Palmtree Panic raised to 3 laps.
  • Northern District, Lucid Pass, Darkvile Castle Act 2, Azure City, Skyscraper Leaps, Zoned City, Leaf Storm, Bigtime Breakdown, Cadillac Canyon Classic, Dragonspire Sewer Act 1+2, Daytona Speedway, Panic City, Roasted Ruins, Mysitc Cave and Gigapolis raised to 4 laps.
  • Robotnik Coaster, Joypolis, Hardhat Havoc, Trap Tower, Dimension Disaster and raised to 5 laps.
  • Scarlet Gardens, MEGA Bridge and MEGA Sandopolis raised to 6 laps.
  • MEGA Green Hill and Green Triangle raised to 7 laps.
  • Death Egg changed to 3 laps.
• All Phantom Cup levels have received two system-wide changes:
  • Blue Spheres now grant Rings, and the amount of them has been increased to accomodate the removal of normal Rings in these maps.
  • All spikeballs have been increased in size.
• Added additional rings to Sonic Speedway, Azure Lake, Balloon Park, Chrome Gadget, Desert Palace, Roasted Ruins, Endless Mine Act 1+2, Marble Garden, City Escape, Gigapolis, Sunsplashed Getaway, Opulence, Ice Paradise, Withering Chateau, Death Egg, Storm Rig, Darkvile Castle Act 1, Technology Tundra and Crispy Canyon.
• Adjusted out-of-bounds areas or waypoints (to prevent lost progress / trapped players) in Green Hills, Fae Falls, Las Vegas, Emerald Coast, City Escape, Sunsplashed Getaway, Virtual Highway, and Gigapolis.
• Adjusted out-of-bounds areas (to prevent exploits) in Diamond Dust, Abyss Garden, Cadillac Canyon Classic, Dimension Disaster, Emerald Hill, Spring Yard, Hanagumi Hall, Cyan Belltower, Scarlet Gardens, Darkvile Castle Act 2, Hot Shelter, Leaf Storm, Dimension Disaster, and Shuffle Square.
• Adjusted erroneous Instakill sectors to be Respawn sectors in Azure City, Cloudtop Dimension, Technology Tundra, Mirage Saloon and Sonic Speedway.
• Adjusted map geometry (to prevent exploits) in Azure Lake, Scarlet Gardens, Green Triangle, Turquoise Hill, Technology Tundra, Blizzard Peaks, Monkey Mall and Las Vegas.
• Adjusted waypoints and map geometry to improve CPU driving in Green Hills, Regal Ruin, Gigapolis, Balloon Park, Trap Tower, Haunted Ship, Metropolis, Withering Chateau, Death Egg and MEGA Ice Cap.
• Added shortcuts to Sonic Speedway, Azure Lake, Balloon Park, Kodachrome Void, Opulence, and Robotnik Winter.
• Enlarged Sonic Speedway, Scarlet Gardens, Kodachrome Void, and Chemical Facility.
• Added Time Attack starts / “Fault Points” to Espresso Lane, Hill Top, Desert Palace, Virtual Highway, Crimson Core, Dragonspire Sewer Act 1, Advent Angel, Abyss Gate, Nova Shore, Pestilence and MEGA Scrap Brain.
• Some maps have had their music appropriately marked as Content ID Unsafe: Abyss Garden (main music) and Thunder Piston (alternate music).

Sunbeam Paradise, Controls - Automatically open the gate by the lighthouse when taking the shortcut, repairing access to some bonus material.

Sunbeam Paradise, Rings - Added extra dialogue and obstacles for a few new mechanics. - Fixed an incorrectly-tagged door, repairing access to some bonus material that broke before launch. - Improved directioning in the Spray Can Hall.

Sunbeam Paradise, Brakes - Adjusted a setpiece to make it easier to traverse, and adjusted the dialogue accordingly.

Sunbeam Paradise, Drifting - Added an additional setpiece to showcase one more technique.

Sunbeam Paradise, Springs - Fixed an issue where the incorrect control method for Tricks was being displayed in dialogue.

Test Track - Fixed an issue where the loop gates were off of the intended line by an extremely small value, which would occasionally cause desyncs.

Northern District - The bridge jump has been made slightly shorter, and now lowers on the final lap. - The ending girder shortcut has been given Tripwire and taller fence.

Sonic Speedway - Added more Sneaker Panels. - Removed some springs in the course.

CD Special Stage 1 - Sky animation will be completely stopped with Reduce Effects on.

Green Hills - Added Sneaker Panels to the spike pit shortcut. - Added Tripwire to the wall transfer shortcut. - Adjusted the jump after the spiral turn to be more forgiving.

Emerald Coast - Widened the circular split in the middle of the lighthouse section.

Storm Rig - Added several more rings along the corner of the spirals and immediately before the starts of each upwards spiral to give more resources to help scale the slopes.

Lucid Pass - Made the Dash Rings in the Tripwire shortcut stronger.

Withering Chateau - Removed the first Sneaker Panel at the start, and added another Sneaker Panel to the Tripwire shortcut with a few 30 Ring capsules to help make it faster than the main road. - Added several more rings near the ending to help reduce player frustration/lack of resources. - Extended the ending walls further towards the sides and added trees to help guide/prevent players from taking the shortcut too early and triggering the deathpit failsafe by mistake.

Cadillac Cascade - The Bubble Shield capsule has been replaced. - Added an additional item to the second itemset. - The final shortcut has been slightly redesigned to make it more consistent, and the main path has been adjusted to accomodate system-wide changes to Super Ring. The shortcut is now disabled on the final lap.

Rumble Ridge - Adjusted midtextures that were intended to be solid, but were not. - Moved an item set’s location.

Opulence - Adjusted geometry to be easier to traverse in some areas. - Removed the last shortcut. - Increased the size of some Sneaker Panels. - Adjusted some visuals, including a finish line banner.

Roasted Ruins - Added an additonal item set and increased ring placement. - Fixed Thok Barrier hole.

Mystic Cave - Extended the finish-line completely.

Obsidian Oasis - Lowered the fence midtexture near the spiral and added blockplayers to the linedefs to prevent shrink players from slipping underneath.

Isoland Island - Adjusted waypoints in the 3-beam section to improve bot traversal. - Removed a large set of unintended Sneaker Panels in the c-turn. - The Shield capsules in the shortcut at the upper level have been removed, and the Item Boxes in said shortcut are now Ring Boxes.

Gigapolis - Weakened the final shortcut, adding a Tripwire and new signage. - The ending turn was changed to be much more approachable. - Minimap has been updated to better reflect the track layout. - Fencing was added for the final section to improve player readability. - Removed most Ring capsules from the ending turn and replaced with normal Rings.

Bronze Lake - Reduced the amount of dash rings when exiting the underwater section.

Collision Chaos - Adjusted waypoints, spring positions and an itemset to mitigate an unintended skip. - Adjusted the underground section: The main path is wider, the shortcut is slimmer, and the maces have been adjusted to prevent players from getting stuck. - Removed the small blue spring shortcut, and replaced it with a smaller incentive. - Adjusted the waypoints and removed the deathpit in the middle of the spring elevator.

Emerald Hill - Adjusted the placement of all item sets. - Redesigned the tunnel shortcut to have an easier exit and be longer. - Adjusted spiral geometry to make them smoother to drive.

Azure City - Adjusted geometry such that the sidewalks would be too high on a specific slope, causing players to bump into it like a wall.

Joypolis - Replaced the ending shortcut’s SPB Capsule with a 60 ring capsule. - Resized dash ring near the ending spiral to prevent clipping through it by accident when driving near the edge. - Removed dash ring wall transfer shortcut as it leaded to consistent major exploits. - Reworked the ramp-into-Trick-Balloon shortcut near the spiral to just be a set of Trick Panels that lead into a Dash Ring.

Marble Garden - Reduced the amount of spikes in the course. - Adjusted the placement of several item sets. - Adjusted the geometry in mud area to make it easier to drive through when taking the intended route. - The downward spiraling turns at the end of the course were completely reworked to be wider and smoother to take. - The exit at the end of the course before the course loops has been reworked to no longer drop the player (it is still a vertical-wrap under the hood).

Silvercloud Island - The Invincibility capsules on the second shortcut have been replaced with Ring Boxes.

Sub Zero Peak - Added Tripwire to the first shortcut. - Extended the second shortcut’s Tripwire.

Launch Base - Fixed an issue where the flamethrowers sometimes wouldn’t hit players.

Chrome Gadget - Fixed an issue where the button would not be unpressed, and added an incentive to take it. - Adjusted object placements. - Brightened the entire map’s light levels by 32 units. - Blue Spring trap now respawns players.

Desert Palace - Adjusted itemsets and capsules. - Adjusted texture usage to better improve clarity.

Endless Mine Act 1 - Moved slope after first spring jump down to avoid bumping it’s wall at higher speeds. - Adjusted texture alignment on all of the wooden beams.

Hard-Boiled Stadium - Increased the size of Asterons.

Press Garden - Adjusted Item Box and Ring placements. - Adjusted geometry near the end of the circuit.

Palmtree Panic - Adjusted the Fault Point to have players start at the intended location when faulting out via deathpit or death in Position.

Scarlet Gardens - Removed the water puddle in the U-turn and extended the Tripwire out to the edge of said turn.

Star Light - Added wind effects to the appropriate sectors.

Metropolis - Reworked the entrance to the first Tripwire shortcut so that it’s clear what portion of it is safe to sneaker through.

Aqueduct Crystal - Removed the springs at the start.

Sky Sanctuary - Added downwards facing dash rings to end of Wind section. - Added extra FOF to wind section with stronger upward wind to help reduce wall bumping.

Hydrocity - Added a failsafe to the ledge before the finish line to catch players going in with stacked speed. - Moved up the ledge before the final Tripwire shortcut to prevent players from going underneath with Voltage Drop. - Removed Yellow Spring right after the final Trick Panel section to prevent players from using Spring Grease to phase through the Tripwire with a voltage drop.

Trap Tower - Bots will now attempt to properly respond to and attempt to avoid the spike wall cycle hazards.

Diamond Dust - The Iceblower midtextures are only solid from the axis that matches the direction they shoot in. - Tweaked hitbox size of the bumpers.

Blue Mountain Act 2 - Fixed visual issues in the final section. - Removed dash rings in the final section as they leaded to consistent major exploits.

Speed Highway - Fixed an exploit where players could fastfall before the last section and skip the entire glass-breaking sequence. - Spread out the blockade objects in the final section to be closer to the edges of the road so players can’t just go all the way to the side and avoid the hazard. - Replaced the Sneaker capsule behind the helipad’s Tripwire shortcut with a Double Jawz capsule.

Carnival Night - Increased the pickup range in the turbine setpieces to allow for grow-state players to take them more consistently.

Virtual Highway - Moved a blockplayers linedef such that it wasn’t directly intersecting with the road.

Spring Yard - Removed a handful of hazards, namely after some turns.

Death Egg - The map has been given a new music track. - Added chainspikes to some parts of the level.

Skyscraper Leaps - Adjusted the track geometry on the last set of turns to allow for players to take it easier. - Modified the track geometry throughout the level to reduce the amount of invisible walls used for when players overshoot jumps. - Adjusted the colormap.

Sunset Hill - Minimap has been updated to better reflect the track layout.

Quartz Quadrant - Removed the Grey Springs on the sides of the spiral turn.

Umbrella Rushwinds - Removed a Sneaker Panel to prevent easy access to a shortcut.

Vantablack Violet - Added Tripwire to the castle shortcut.

Dimension Disaster - The Red Springs near the end have been surrounded by a set of floor spikes. - Moved the second item set to be slightly further in the course.

Turquoise Hill - Added tons of banked turns to the higher sections of the circuit. - Added rings to the ending’s FoF turns. - Changed the final Sneaker Panel into a dash pad. - Widened the first indoors turn section. - Added cheese protection near the end and replaced a tree. - Altered the dash ring placement of the final shortcut.

Ice Paradise - Widened the intro slalom section. - Added rings and capsules to a couple of empty corners. - Modified the first Trick Panel shortcut to be more consistent.

Sunsplashed Getaway - Removed an itemset, moving the second further into the map. - Added proper terrain visuals and removed the offroad particles. - Updated the fence & tree visuals. - Added a finish line banner.

Sundae Drive - Added Tripwire to Sundae Drive’s small center patch of offroad towards the end of the map. - Removed the dash pad and adjusted the landing zone for the spring jump in Fae Falls to accomodate system-wide changes to Super Ring.

Azure Axiom - Removed Sneaker Panels that were too close to a shortcut.

Hanagumi Hall - Increased the speed at which the starting gate goes down. - Tweaked the arrow texture to fix mild discoloration issues in encore mode. - Removed capsules inside of the easter egg rooms, as players were using landmines to consistently reach them.

Crispy Canyon - Removed an itemset to reduce chaos from too many sets, moving the second further into the map. - Fixed waypoint issues with several shortcuts. - Removed a few cacti on the first S-turn. - Completely redid the first shortcut. - Changed Yellow Gprings to Grey Springs after the Trick Panel section.

Technology Tundra - The last shortcut is now disabled on the final lap.

Operator’s Overspace - Adjusted the first shortcut to better benefit players who try to enter it in the intended fashion and penalize players entering it via fastfalling.

Leaf Storm - Adjusted waypoints to make Self-Propelled Bomb chases more reasonable. - Fixed an issue with some visuals that was causing them to not display.

Cyan Belltower - Moved the Spray Can location. - Adjusted both Trick Panel areas to accomodate system-wide changes to Super Ring.

Water Palace - Adjusted waypoints to prevent players from abusing lightsnake to skip too much of the course too quickly.

Final Fall - Adjusted the layout on the final section to fix erroneous stair-janking as well as a ramp into the spring section. - Adjusted exit for first spring section for Gear 3. - Adjusted the first shortcut to improve accessibility.

Haunted Ship - The slope transfers have been given fences at their entrances. - Modified the final shortcut to be easier to enter, and overall stronger in general. - Doubled the size of the fences.

Robotnik Winter - Lowered pillars at the spring jump to prevent bumping into them. - Added fencing near the third shortcut to prevent unintended entry.

Abyss Garden - Removed the Jawz capsule near the beginning of the level.

Monkey Mall - Superseeded deathpit FOFs where nessesary to use Respawn Linedefs instead.

Blizzard Peaks - Fixed the normal path ice bridge by shallowing out the slopes. - Moved the rings at the Trick Panel section so players can actually hit them. - Buffed the second shortcut’s speed, making it quicker and requiring a fastfall. - Modified the first Trick Panel shortcut to be more consistent.

Chemical Facility - Adjusted the scenery in one of the u-turns in the outdoor section to increase visibility. - Adjusted several waypoints to reduce unintended jumps in CPU difficulty. - Chemical Facility’s CPUs have been known to be a significant difficulty spike. While they are still harder than a lot of other maps, they should be noticeably more reasonable now.

Coastal Temple - The ceilings in the tunnels have been raised. - Added fences to the bridge section.

Ramp Park - Increased the size of the diagonal springs that were attached to wall-transfer setpieces to catch grow and shrink players more easily.

Hydro Plant - Raised the height of the translucent surface of the floor pipes to be level with the surrounding slopes.

Las Vegas - Removed the Flame Shield capsule.

Autumn Ring - Extended bridge edge to prevent dash ring skipping.

MEGA Sandopolis - Removed an item set.

Thunder Lab - Fixed an issue where several walls were assigned the wrong texture.

Thunder Piston - Adjusted the geometry of the Trick Panel setpiece to better prevent players from forward tricking without a boosting item.

Cadillac Canyon Classic - Fixed music name to correctly denote English and European track listings. - The Dash Rings have been further moved out to reflect general system changes.

Blizzard Peaks Classic - Removed unnecessary springs, including some that softlock players. - Completely changed the ending section. - Removed a spring set in the slalom section. - Moved springs near the first slalom section. - Added directional lighting.

Lavender Shrine - Replaced the old spike hazards with the spears from the new version of the map so that players can observe and react to the cycles more quickly. - Removed stairjank sectors near the position area.

“Spikes”, “Steeple” - Adjusted waypoints to improve the pathing of the catcher.

“Gallery” - Correctly tagged the finish line for consistent visual effects.

Test Run - Added developer commentary radius actions to the render mode linedefs to better explain how each mode works. - Added new tutorial prompts for the new mechanics.

Modding

Please see the merge requests for details on new Lua functionality exposed; some are just too much to detail here!

• Added the MODINFO lump. This is a standardized way for addon authors to add name, author info, external links, and required game version to their addon, as well as a (currently unused) icon.
• The same KKD Medals that permit the Spray Can hunt to continue in base-game Race Courses will appear in custom ones where Spray Cans previously failed to appear.
• K_AddMessage, K_ClearPersistentMessages, and their player-specific equivalents (as seen in Battle and Tutorial) are now exposed for Lua scripters’ use. - !9
• New function V_ParseText allows addon authors to display control prompts. This function is accessible from HUD hooks, and converts a string like “Press \<a> to trick” into a string containing the relevant player’s bound controls.
• Lua A, Lua B, and Lua C have been renamed to Lua 1, Lua 2, and Lua 3, to make them easier to distinguish from main gamepad buttons. They also have new graphics for players using the “Emulator” Button Display option. These can be accessed from V_ParseText with “\<lua1>“, “\<lua2>” and “\<lua3>“.
• Additional button flags (BT_) are now parsed by Lua. - !32
• player.startboost timer is now visible and mutable in Lua. - !32
• Added v.splitscreen to get rendering splitscreen in Lua HUD hooks. - !38
• Added v.setClipRect and v.clearClipRect to change the clipping rectangle in Lua HUD hooks. - !39
• Exposed several Music functions to Lua. - !41
• Exposed constants for tripwirepass_t, trickstate_t, items, kickstart, tripwires, tricks, and tumble to Lua - !66
• Exposed player_t::whip to Lua - !91
• Fixed an issue where the Terrain ID system could run into memory issues when adding new Terrain types mid-game, breaking all special texture behaviour for that play session. - !36
• Fixed a character or new-line being required after the last definition in TERRAIN and BRIGHT lumps, a common footgun as other lump types do not require this. - !35
• Fixed colormap functions not supporting more than 255 skincolors. - !50
• Fixed a copypaste error with player.lastpickupdistance, allowing it to be modified from Lua. - !44
• Fixed hud_disable_options missing the “names” element - !62
• Fixed aizdriftstrat named aizdriftstraft in the Lua player_t table getter - !65
• Previously, Lua’s v.drawOnMinimap was completely untouched from SRB2Kart. This function now matches the minimap in all cases - including alignment, custom minimap bounds, and not rendering when a certain encounter’s progression bar is active. - !40
• The hurtme cheat command now takes a damageflag argument instead of a damage value, for more easily testing damage types.
• Added spinout, wipeout, explode, stumble, whumble, tumble, sting, and kill cheats for testing a specific damage type.
• Fixed player-owned items losing their targets when the owner died or respawned.
• Fixed an issue preventing players from rejoining modded netgames in DEVELOP builds, even when using direct IP.
  • This only happened in development setups, and is unrelated to the issue with the Server Browser screen—but that’s fixed, too.
• Restored PlayerMsg Lua hook - !134
• Exposed structures related to loops as read-only userdata - !128
• Add ability to control the visibility of the Rings and Gametype hud elements from Lua - !126
• Exposed many visual and VFX functions to Lua from k_kart.c - !129
• Fixed K_SpawnSparkleTrail crashing when it is used on a non-player mobj - !129
• Added INLEVEL check to K_DoInstashield - !129
• Added a Lua hook to adjust Grand Prix rank point calculation - !122
• Exposed many Item Roulette-related functions from k_roulette.c (JugadorXEI). Documentation pending.
• Exposed many gameplay helpers from k_kart.c, too many to list here individually. See MR - !130
• Adding the following global tables to Lua: terrains, splashes, footsteps, overlays - !103
• Exposed terrain_t, t_splash_t, t_footstep_t, t_overlay_t types to Lua (get only).
• Exposed player_t members stairjank and outrun to Lua (get and set).
• Exposed mobj_t member terrain to Lua (get and set).
• Exposed t_overlay_action_t constants: TOV_UNDEFINED, TOV_STILL, TOV_MOVING, TOV__MAX
• Exposed terrain_flags_t constants: TRF_LIQUID, TRF_SNEAKERPANEL, TRF_STAIRJANK, TRF_TRIPWIRE, TRF_REMAP
• Exposed the following terrain-related functions to Lua: K_GetDefaultTerrain, K_GetTerrainForTextureName, K_GetTerrainForTextureNum, K_ProcessTerrainEffect, K_SetDefaultFriction, K_SpawnSplashForMobj, K_HandleFootstepParticles, K_UpdateTerrainOverlay, K_TerrainHasAffect.
• Exposed the botvars member from player_t, as well as various functions related to bots. - !75
• Exposed the botcontroller member from sector_t (as well as being used as part of K_GetBotController(mobj_t mobj))
• Created new hook: PlayerUsesBotMovement: function(player_t player). Return true to force bot movement, return false to force disable bot movement.
• Created new hook: BotJoin: function(player_t player). Triggers when a bot joins the game or gets replaced in Grand Prix.
• Fixed a bot’s style not being preserved between deaths, as well as not being saved before for netgames.
• Exposed several gameplay functions from k_kart.c to Lua - !131
• Exposed tripwirestate_t values: TRIPSTATE_NONE, TRIPSTATE_PASSED and TRIPSTATE_BLOCKED
• Fixed K_FindJawzTarget so that it properly returns a mobj_t, and allow angle to be set.
• Added respawns and waypoints library to Lua - !81
• Increased the skin limit to 1024 characters - !52
• Increased the sprite freeslot limit to 2048 - !70
• Added “baked” sprite offsets, allowing sprites to be displaced in world coordinates rather than relative to billboard facing angle - !63
• Added custom SPR2 gibs for characters - !89
• Fixed an issue with highresscale where custom skins would sometimes interact badly with Linkdraw, causing some items to display incorrectly.

Additional Contributors

These community contributors helped with extra assistance for this release. Thank you!

• Alu Folie
• blondedradio
• Cheariisan
• Craftyawesome
• Freaky Mutant Man
• haya_underscore
• Ibly
• Indev
• Jisk
• JugadorXEI
• Hanicef
• king the memer
• Kimberly
• Lactozilla
• Logan Arias
• luigi budd
• NepDisk
• PencilVoid
• SMS Alfredo
• Spring E. Thing
• Superstarxalien
• troy236
• wehrlia