Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (June 21st, 2019)

[Dr. Detective]

I mean, it's Activision. I usually avoid everything that has that companies name on it because of shit like this. 

I'm still mulling over getting the N'Sane Trilogy but I think I'm officially gonna pass on Nitro-Fueled. I can't, for the life of me, feel comfortable buying a game that does this shit. I haven't so far after all. 

I'm kind of lucky in that regard. A lot of the stuff I'm interested in hasn't felt the need to do this kind of stuff. SEGA's not really interested so it's not been a problem as far as Sonic goes. They don't even charge for DLC on his games anymore. The one time they tried to back in 2017 they made it free anyway. Nintendo, when it comes to Smash, has offered me a reasonable price for a bundle of characters and I took it. Easy as pie. A lot of the PS4 exclusives like my main man Spider-Man have been treating me really well. I almost feel spoiled by how well Spider-Man on PS4 has been treating me. 

Why would I settle for this instead? It's a shame because I'm sure the game is fun. I'm willing to bet the people who worked hard on it didn't intend for this but... you know. They're not the ones calling the shots.

[TheOcelot]

...and for good measure (with a little persistence) I've managed to beat Oxide's time-trial in Dragon Mines.

Doing two "perfect" turbo-slides (whilst drifting towards the right), then hitting the boost-bad and doing three perfect turbo-slides (whilst drifitng towards to the left) was enough to retain the super red-boost over the bumpy slow surface just before the finish-line.

 

Just need to beat Tiny Temple to plat the game. That's for another day.

[Harkofthewaa]

So I was racing online and just came across a new glitch. My kart died. No really, I was humming along in first and the game just stopped reading inputs (except for looking behind you). My controller is just fine, the game simply acted like I ran out of gas. I have no idea what happened, and like I said I was winning too. 

EDIT: Just did another race, and nothing of the sort happened. Playing this game online is like experiencing an episode of the Todd Howard Power Hour.

[Red Hot Jack]

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I mean, it's Activision. I usually avoid everything that has that companies name on it because of shit like this. 

I'm still mulling over getting the N'Sane Trilogy but I think I'm officially gonna pass on Nitro-Fueled. I can't, for the life of me, feel comfortable buying a game that does this shit. I haven't so far after all. 

I'm kind of lucky in that regard. A lot of the stuff I'm interested in hasn't felt the need to do this kind of stuff. SEGA's not really interested so it's not been a problem as far as Sonic goes. They don't even charge for DLC on his games anymore. The one time they tried to back in 2017 they made it free anyway. Nintendo, when it comes to Smash, has offered me a reasonable price for a bundle of characters and I took it. Easy as pie. A lot of the PS4 exclusives like my main man Spider-Man have been treating me really well. I almost feel spoiled by how well Spider-Man on PS4 has been treating me. 

Why would I settle for this instead? It's a shame because I'm sure the game is fun. I'm willing to bet the people who worked hard on it didn't intend for this but... you know. They're not the ones calling the shots.

Yeah it's a shame it gets judged and ruined because of Activision's shit decisions. Because the game is a lot of fun to me, and there's plenty of support after the release which Sonic lacked. I wanted something like this for Sonic (outside of the microtransactions).

Anyway, I'm playing online and having real fun, it sucks they decided to add these pay to win features, they do kind of ruin the game in a way, but… as long as I don't spend any more money, I think it shouldn't bother me too much.

[DabigRG]

4 hours ago, Tangled Jack said:

 

Anyway, I'm playing online and having real fun, it sucks they decided to add these pay to win features, they do kind of ruin the game in a way, but… as long as I don't spend any more money, I think it shouldn't bother me too much.

Wait, spend to win?

[Sonicka]

55 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Wait, spend to win?

Yup. And If you buy 1000 Wumpa Coins there will be a stipulation to pay start your character on lap 2 or 3 when a race begins, this means you will be ahead of your online cohorts to give you the advantage.

In all seriousness though... I believe The packs only get you Wumpa coins, and Wumpa coins are won through winning races. So it’s more a technical term. 

There probably will be a transaction for Nitro this GP as well, so essentially that is paying to advance to the goal without taking part in any challenges to reap the rewards.

[DabigRG]

2 minutes ago, Son-icka said:

Yeah. If you buy 1000 Wumpa Coins there will be a stipulation to pay to place your character to start on lap 2/3 instead ahead of your online cohorts.

In all seriousness though... The packs only get you Wumpa coins, and Wumpa coins are won through winning races. So it’s more a technical term. 

There probably will be a transaction for Nitro this GP as well, so essentially that is paying to advance to the goal without taking part in any challenges to reap the rewards.

Oh, so this stuff only concerns online?-

[Sonicka]

1 minute ago, DabigRG said:

Oh, so this stuff only concerns online?-

As far we know it just affects what you can purchase from the shop - as in you can spend real money for coins to buy items. And also for advancing the Nitro bar in the GP tours to get those rewards faster.

[Jango]

55 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Oh, so this stuff only concerns online?-

Here's an easy summary, friend

The Pit Stop in CTR: NF has a lot of cosmetic itens that don't give any kind of advantage in-game, but during the GP, some itens (the ones with a green canister icon on it) will give you a little percentage bonus on Nitro Points gain. That means, if you complete a GP challenge that would normally give you 500 points, while using one of the bonus itens -for example a wheel that gives you 10% bonus- you'll receive 550 points instead. These bonus itens can be stacked, allowing you to reach up to 50% bonus gain. To get this, you gotta use a legendary skin, a kart, a decal, a paintjob and a wheel. Right now, there isn't any sticker that gives you bonus, tho'. Don't know why.

If you don't feel like waiting to buy the bonus itens (or any other item for that matter), you'll now have the option to buy the Wumpa Coins with real money right way. My tip is: play the game during weekends (which gives double the coins) and during the Wumpa Hour (the first half hour of online play gives you 5x coins) to get as many Wumpa Coins as you can. Playing online on weekends during Wumpa Hour will give you a total of 10x bonus, which is great to farm a lot of coins. Playing offline and during weekdays is arguibly unbalanced tho'. 

Since all these cosmetic itens are a huge selling point of the game, it feels like pay-to-win. But the only item that can fit into the P2W category is the Champions' Kart, which is the award for staying within the top 5% on the leaderboards. Since you can buy itens that give you bonus Nitro Points, that gives a little advantage.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Son-icka said:

As far we know it just affects what you can purchase from the shop - as in you can spend real money for coins to buy items. And also for advancing the Nitro bar in the GP tours to get those rewards faster.

Okay, so a chunk of the complaints comes from Activision having a history of screwing around before?

52 minutes ago, Jango said:

Here's an easy summary, friend

The Pit Stop in CTR: NF has a lot of cosmetic itens that don't give any kind of advantage in-game, but during the GP, some itens (the ones with a green canister icon on it) will give you a little percentage bonus on Nitro Points gain. To get this, you gotta use a legendary skin, a kart, a decal, a paintjob and a wheel. Right now, there isn't any sticker that gives you bonus, tho'. Don't know why.

If you don't feel like waiting to buy the bonus itens (or any other item for that matter), you'll now have the option to buy the Wumpa Coins with real money right way. My tip is: play the game during weekends (which gives double the coins) and during the Wumpa Hour (the first half hour of online play gives you 5x coins) to get as many Wumpa Coins as you can. Playing offline and during weekdays is arguibly unbalanced tho'. 

Since all these cosmetic itens are a huge selling point of the game, it feels like pay-to-win. But the only item that can fit into the P2W category is the Champions' Kart, which is the award for staying within the top 5% on the leaderboards. Since you can buy itens that give you bonus Nitro Points, that gives a little advantage.

Oookay, I'll try to keep this in mind when I actually get started.

[TheOcelot]

Yay, I did it. I beat the final Oxide time-trail and platted Nitro Fuelled:

I was lucky to beat Oxide, he kinda just stops-loses his white boost right at the end.

 

Happy to have platted the game. I really wanted to beat all Oxide times. Might go and get all platinum time-relics, althought not that fussed.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

A quick update on the situation - Activision also lied out of their teeth pre-release. At E3, apparently the devs were going on that they were going to avoid Microtransactions entirely and stay true to the original. 

[Jango]

53 minutes ago, TheOcelot said:

Yay, I did it. I beat the final Oxide time-trail and platted Nitro Fuelled:

I was lucky to beat Oxide, he kinda just stops-loses his white boost right at the end.

 

Happy to have platted the game. I really wanted to beat all Oxide times. Might go and get all platinum time-relics, althought not that fussed.

Congrats Stephen Man, that platinum paintjob isn't all that worthy tho' xD At least you only need to do the CTR tracks to unlock it. Still, they're hard as hell. You're gonna be a demon on the racetrack after beating them all tho'. Those platinum relics demand you to bring your A game. Good luck!

[septimus01]

The new GP is out in Japan so we have some things confirmed from reddit:

 

[Jango]

An option to quick access the GP Menu from the online mode (likely from offline modes too) is very welcome

> Tiny Gladiator, yessssss.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

So, they finally brought back N. Trance back to the pit stop proper.  About time.

Now if they could just do the same with Princess Coco, things would be even better.

Looks like that data mine suggesting Baby Cortex and Baby N. Tropy, along with IGN, were all wrong.

[Sonicka]

5 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Okay, so a chunk of the complaints comes from Activision having a history of screwing around before?

Basically, Yes. It’s through no fault of the game but moreso the publisher. People take issue with how it is implemented due to the psychology of micro transactions on the individual player and the intended target.

Basically, it affects you or it doesn’t. I personally don’t really care so I can enjoy the game. But it’s already caused some heated debates due to its (not so sudden) inclusion. 

1 hour ago, Jovahexeon Ogilvie Maurice said:

So, they finally brought back N. Trance back to the pit stop proper.  About time.

Except again, he was never gone. The reports on that were incorrect. I came across N-Tranxe multiple times in the pit stop during the Nitro GP. The big problem is the way the locked characters got placed behind the newer content.  

The locked characters already only revolved around the pit-stop daily or behind the previous purchase. So when the Nitro Crew came in they just got pushed back further. 

If you imagine for example that N-trance was Wednesday’s character of choice - he would then be behind Thursday’s character (if I hadn’t purchased) the next day. You would see him again once that character for Thursdays option is bought. I’ve seen this happen multiple times when I have slowly purchased other characters too.

The issue was that when The Nitro Team came in they added an extra layer of rotation on top to become top billing due to being limited purchases and the other stuff got pushed behind them.

But yeah, it’s also great the summer pack is back. That did indeed disappear. 

1 hour ago, Jango said:

An option to quick access the GP Menu from the online mode (likely from offline modes too) is very welcome

> Tiny Gladiator, yessssss.

Sooo happy about this. Quick access from the online menu to the GP challenges and PIT STOP was something I was really hoping they patch in next time! 

[Jango]

Got a few time trials done a couple of days ago, pretty challenging stuff. Not as hard as the time relics, but a good challenge neverthless. Beat everything from World 1, except... Sewer Speedway... N. Tropy is a piece of cake, you don't even need to take the shortcut, but Oxide will demand you to do so, and in every lap. Which sucks because that jump is still wonky. Getting the platinum relic was cruel enough, now this. Sigh.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

10 minutes ago, Son-icka said:

Except again, he was never gone. The reports on that were incorrect. 

Mind you, as you yourself have suggested,  it sounds like some of these problems were things that affected most copies, but maybe not all. Especially considering how N. Trance was literally the only character ever reported to have disappeared, and by so many people. That presents an epidemic which can't be just hamdwaved as incorect.

Mind, do you have any physical evidence aside from personal memory to solidify your case? That's always something keen to have with positive claims.

10 minutes ago, Son-icka said:

The big problem is the way the locked characters got placed behind the newer content.  

The locked characters already only revolved around the pit-stop daily or behind the previous purchase. So when the Nitro Crew came in they just got pushed back further. 

If you imagine for example that N-trance was Wednesday’s character of choice - he would then be behind Thursday’s character (if I purchased). You would see him again once that character for Thursdays option is bought. I’ve seen this happen multiple times when I have slowly purchased other characters too.

The issue was that when The Nitro Team came in they added an extra layer of rotation on top to become top billing due to being limited purchases and the other stuff got pushed behind them.

Unfortunately,  that explanation doesn't hold water when you factor in the fact that for more than a month, people checking constantly, each day, never spotted N. Trance. For as much stuff as there us in the pit stop,  there weren't nearly enough characters to keep N. Trance out of revolution. Even folks who didn't purchase a single character yet,  would've eventually gotten to him on one of those days if your theory is the case.

That is, unless you're suggesting he somehow got skipped,  which would only prove the point that for whatever dumb reason, he's been missing, enough for it to be this highly reported and not an incorrect statement as you assume it to be.

[Sonicka]

Hmmm, I dunno then.

To be honest I didn’t think to take a screenshot because I never realised it was an issue players were having at the time.

Could well be there are some problems with the Pit Stop then? All I can tell you is I never saw the N-Trance summer pack after the GP started. But he appeared a number of times as a single character to purchase during the Nitro GP,  I can’t remember if it was before or after I’d purchased the Nitro Girls though (likely after).

Don't forget Beenox did provide an update to the Pit-Stop in a patch about 2 weeks in. Perhaps this is when he disappeared, or reappeared without anyone knowing.

All I can honestly tell you that he cropped up for me multiple times in the single character box during GP much like the rest. I wouldn’t forget a Humpty Dumpty face like that as I would have purchased him over the other CTK characters. I only haven’t yet because of the other shop items I prioritised. 

There are still some bugs in the games online parts, so that it may be happening for some and not others isn’t too surprising. 

I still get some deformacoots and I just raced around N-Gin labs... but the level didn’t completely load. Had the background, and some sections of the walls... but there was no floor beneath me. It was trippy as hell but bizarrely fun as it obviously happened to the other players. We all tried to muscle memory our way to the end and bounced everywhere! XD

[Jango]

I wonder if the next GP patch will come with more game fixes. And if they do, it'd be great if the patch notes actually detail what was fixed... Activision posted the bug fixes report on their blog the last couple of times, tho'.

[mayday2592]

On 08/02/19 at 9:49 AM, Jovahexeon Ogilvie Maurice said:

So, they finally brought back N. Trance back to the pit stop proper.  About time.

Now if they could just do the same with Princess Coco, things would be even better.

Looks like that data mine suggesting Baby Cortex and Baby N. Tropy, along with IGN, were all wrong.

Chances are, anything about Baby Cortrx/Tropy in the datamine is leftover data when they were planned on being in the game before they were cut. Similar to what happened in Brawl with Mewtwo. The datamine is still semi valid atleast, alot that was mentioned did come out like an additional Tiny skin and N.Trance skin. It does make me wonder what chracters are going to make the cut though.

[Jango]

Hopefully, gorilla monkey anus face won't end up making the cut I kid, wouldn't mind Rilla Roo, but he would be the last of my priorities.

Speaking of priorities, you better start saving those coins, because there's a pretty expensive bundle in this new GP:

Good thing I already have 4700 coins, I want that Back< to the Future bundle so much.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

1 hour ago, Jango said:

Speaking of priorities, you better start saving those coins, because there's a pretty expensive bundle in this new GP:

Good thing I already have 4700 coins, I want that Back< to the Future bundle so much.

Bundle that literally has at best, 8000 wumpa coins worth of content, is overcharged at 9900. 

And cue Activision's response to outcry as "buy the microtransactions! They're the solution!"

Give me a break Acti.

[Plasme]

I really hate this insidious tactic of waiting a month or so to add micro transactions. It's a really insidious way to avoid player backlash.