One of those years
2024/2025 has been quite the year for Pod's small community. The slack in this news feed isn't reflecting that at all unfortunately. There's much to tell about the last twelve months but let's stick to the speedrunning related stuff :
New tools :
Ghost and records management :
@Raykoopa has just released an awesome tool to extract all desired ghosts from SRC Pod's leaderboard and generate shiny record sheets for your Pod (Platinum or not) installation. It will also generate .SEQ files to fill your ghost top5 for every tracks with the actual top5 from SRC. It has to be run in command mode and required NET 8.0 installed.
If you don't like running things yourself, Ray did the job for you already and extracted ALL of actual SRC ghosts into some category named archives. These archives are going to be updated regularly to stay up to date with SRC.
All the details and download links are on this ressource page posted by Ray :
https://www.speedrun.com/pod_planet_of_death/resources/9mz7k
Podkit :
Every new Pod Platinum release now comes with the "Podkit" enhancement by @Raykoopa. It allows new fixes and options to be activated through a "Podkit.ini" file.
Amongst the fixes and options brought to the game, these are very interesting for speedrunning :
- Added Ctrl+Q hotkey to toggle showing milliseconds in race times (PodKit setting "AllowMilliseconds").
Allows more accurate timer display. It now became the standard for Pod speedrunning. Any runner should be using this from now on.
- Added Ctrl+S hotkey to toggle showing all track sectors at all times (PodKit setting "AllowInfSectors").
This one is forbidden for speedrunning since it can allow for easier flight navigation when attempting "skip" runs with flying vehicles. Wich is not fair toward the "legit" skip runs. To keep things simple, it's forbidden for ALL categories.
- Added Ctrl+X hotkey to store the current car position to reset to with Ctrl+Z in Time Attack.
This is quite a game changer for speedrunners allowing for quick respawn at a desired spot. Wich means runners will not have to go for the old start procedure all over again every time. They can set a respawn position further back from the start line, allowing for speeding up before starting the timer.
It can also be used to respawn at a specific spot on a track to focus training on the area.
- Ghosts now display their author's name instead of just "Fantome" when using the LABEL cheat in-game.
Wich means you can race versus any ghost and see the original name displayed above them. For some GS1 vibe, racing versus old names !
- Improved LABEL display can now be fine-tuned via PodKit's "FixLabelHide" and "FixLabelSmall" settings.
Makes the visibility better when using the LABEL cheat with several ghosts at a time.
- Exported .GHT files now allow uploading them with any file name to Pod's discord @Pod Bot (note that they still need to be named properly to be imported).
Page update :
New tracks added :
The following fan made tracks have been added to the individual levels list :
- Antipod/dopitnA
- Bender/redneB
- Enneade/edaennE
- Escape/epacsE
- Forest
- Nadir/ridaN
- Slimepit/tipemilS
- Natura/aturaN
More fan made tracks could arrive in the following months since @Raykoopa did a tremendous work on his Blender add-on for cars and tracks exporting. Track exporting is now functionnal with most of the original game features.
Upcoming updates :
Leaderboards updates with the tons of archived runs dug out by @DomiraeSSB should be happening soon.
More tracks should be added too, existing fan made or/and next fan made releases.
2024/2025 has been quite the year for Pod's small community. The slack in this news feed isn't reflecting that at all unfortunately. There's much to tell about the last twelve months but let's stick to the speedrunning related stuff :
