by Icefall » Tue Aug 28, 2012 12:49 pm
I don't mind the swirling notification of the active gate to reach, but sometimes the gate itself sticks out a bit if trying to set up a course with a particular visual appeal. Also there have been times I've run into and got stuck on the gate itself which is sometimes frustrating, but not the initial reason I brought up the concept.
With an invisible gate, you can also then use other field items to design your own gate if you so wanted. For example if you had a race around a bunch of the ruins and broken arches, you could set up an invisible gate checkpoint under one of the arches or set up pillars on either side of the checkpoint so the race looks more natural to the environment.
I do think with invisible checkpoints on some courses I would use more of them than if they were visible.
At the moment I'm just thinking of a checkpoint like the current ones with the swirling indicator only visible where the current gate is, but your mention of a Mario Kart style gate would be useful in some instances too.
As for themes in designing new checkpoints in general, like I mentioned above in the make your own example, a set of pillars and the gate number could be on the top of one of the pillars, or a checkpoint that matches some of the natural stone facades as well as perhaps a stone brick arch to match the stone racing track.