JollyGoodGames Support Requests

[Mike Nike]

1st question:

should we make this topic sticky?
In my opinion yes, since there were, are and will be requests to the official TS page & organisation & publisher


Now the request:

[The following text is a part of a private message replay to fasteddie...and it will interest JollyGoodGames & all other tournament pages and hosters & tournament participants...at least a bit ]

question by fasteddie:

are you going to join the new TS Hockey League? The league already has 6 teams of two, so you GOTTA join!!!! hehe

Actually i would like to take part at nearly all TS related tournaments.
But so far i haven't registered yet, since there is too less organisation AND i actually wait for more automation by TS code and by official or unofficial pages.

- the TS code will be there at the next TS version.

- official support (not only forumposts etc.) for TS tournaments will be
perhaps only there in maaaany months or in 1 year or later ...

- unofficial support is already there, but i would wish more automation for the organisation. It seems so far, that each tournament (cup) or league means a lot of organisation. That should not be the case. It is too much work for the organisers...and even for the participants - to read all rules, the updated rules, visiting forum or the tournament page, registering by posting or emailing etc.

I thought earlier today about more automation of that.
For example:
like a feedback formular at my site, there can be an easy register/signup formular with fields:
- email adress (textfield) (eventually with forum/page member account usage -> auto email adress detection = email is automatically placed there as default, but of course still changeable)
- Name in Race (textfield) (default: member name, view line above..)
- Register to Cup (textfield or...with integrated page system: combobox, where a list of created coming tournaments is listed)
- Additional Text (textfield) for cup related things like team name, team/car color, more driver datas registered at 1 email adress (for example 2 brothers) or suggestions etc.

With integration of a tournament list at the page, the signups would automatically send as email to the tournament hoster.
To avoid fake-signups, an automatically email with all tournament datas (also fetchable from the tournament page) will be send to the person who want to register, which he has to confirm. After the confirmation, his name will appear on the list of players who take part at the tournament xy.

Problems:
- in the case there is no integration of tournament datas, the automation is gone for that case and the tournamenthoster will have to organise the registration stuff by his own (listing registered players at a page etc. - though he will do that anyway when planing groups etc.)

- in the case there are x (x>1) drivers / registration (multiregistration) then the registration must contain maybe a ";" to know there are more names in the name-textfield (hopefully there are no driver names with ";"...).
Or he has to make the registration x (x>1) times.

[diesel 999]

Hey Michael and others who are reading my reply.

I think its time to create something like "TurboSliders Federation".
It must be done without rush.
Ande,Creator,MikeNike,fasteddie399,[orange]Chukie ,some of other active-brighthead players could be in TS Senate.
We can make the Poll of Election to TS Senate here and at www.tscups.com
It would be clear to all to make their decision untill September 2005 or maybe the next TS version (1.0.6) ?
TurboSliders Federation(Senate) must told to us-all rest TS players- what is OFFICIAL TS Tournaments,Regulations,Servers,Records,Rankings,Teams,Awards etc.
Why not?
Or maybe its a crazy Idea from crazy TS fan?
But I think that is the way to love this game stronger.
Thank you and excuse me for my unique english language ...

[Mike Nike]

A TS Federation with a Senate in that form i would dislike, actually.
Antti Mannisto (Ande) is the main developer and all his decisions are and will form the official way in combination with the decisions of the TS publisher Jani P. (Creator) from JollyGoodGames. These 2, mainly though Ande, should keep the only ones, where official tournaments, rankings etc. are coming from. So, if Jani P. has good ideas, Ande can still disagree etc.

The rest of the TS players are in my opinion:

- TS Supporters (mainly old TS 0.86 players who helped more or less Ande with giving ideas, reporting bugs etc.)
- TS Players with a license key ("Players with Full Version")
- TS Players with no license key ("Demo Players")
- TS 0.86 Players (nowadays only very less old TS 0.86 players, most of them brasilian ones)

Additionaly TS fans/players have unofficial stuff:
- own website(s)
-> own car(s)
-> own track(s)
- own server(s)
...

and these players can be:
guest, member, moderator or administrator of offical or unofficial forums

So far, i am the only TS Supporter, who is moderator in the (this) official forum, but this does not give me actually many right or influence of course and i wouldn't want to have too much influence anyway, like i do not want that another TS fan/players has so much influence to fell decisions about any parts of the game.

I think, it is still the maybe very best, that we can give feature requests or report bugs to Ande. Ideas, constructive critic - all very wished, since it helps us all (except useless critic or ideas, which were mentioned already many times, though to know that many people like a certain idea is also surely good to know then)...

I think, the best what we need from Jani P. for easier support from both sides (official guys and the community), is the very early requested subgroups of the forum - but since this is not possible with this forumsystem (TS = subforum of JGG), no more subforums can be created i studied (maybe i am wrong).

Since i think, we need to keep the posts, we can only hardly move the whole forumsystem to another instead of phpBB.
But maybe the TS forum can be a main forum (a 2nd forum next to the normal JGG Forum). In the JGG forum' subforum TS there can be a link to the moved TS subforum then, perhaps.

And another suggestion, which would cause a bit more work though at the side of Jani and or Antti:
The official Turbo Sliders page is so far only a group of subpages of the JGG page in the style of pages of the other JGG published games too.

What do you think - should there maybe a new standalone official website of TS?
Just a suggestion...due to publisher reasons, it might keep at the JGG page.
But think about you would be a new player, would you find the JGG/TS Forum at the JGG page' TS subpage?

I wonder, if for example the record server stats cannot be linked better (if they aren't yet) and the other servers can in soon time maybe have a list of server-records, too (if exporting is disabled) or statistics can be shown (in the future, generated by a logfileinterpreter or by TS code). Latest videos (1-2 days) can be listed maybe (traffic and memory size question...). By the way, what happened to the records at the official servers? They are not visible anymore? TopListSize = 0 or something?
Exporting records, which causes traffic, is anyway with >>100 tracks not anymore possible in ~30 seconds or 60 or whatever...
I wonder if it is even a question of bandwidth or would the export go faster, when only the servertracks are in the players tracks direction?

Oh, one alternative exist of course for the subgroups in this forum: sticky topics - they would replace them a bit, though the grouping is still not optimized and the topic would be filled a lot.

[Hengari]

What do you think - should there maybe a new standalone official website of TS?
Just a suggestion...due to publisher reasons, it might keep at the JGG page.
But think about you would be a new player, would you find the JGG/TS Forum at the JGG page' TS subpage?

A standalone official website with forums, records and such would be very nice because it would be easy to find all things in same place for new players. Also there could be graphical help-documents.

A TS Federation with a Senate in that form i would dislike, actually.

Yep, I'm with same lines here. A separate senate is not how to do it but more "community" -styled thing would be needed to get new additional features to TS like collective track-archive and such things. The tscups.com is nice start and there has been nice cups lately though.

Damn, so much things to consider...

[Finster]

I think something that might help would be the ability to chat on the master server. Directly in TS would be nice. Or chat through a central webclient, but I would want a key to switch between window/fullscreen (in linux of course!).

That way people could meet up and decide what server to race on, or especially when there are tourneys, you could just hang out and wait for your turn to race and it shouldn't cause lag on the race server.

Just a thought.

[Mike Nike]

Server List / Master Server Chat:
advantages you mentioned.
disadvantage is like always traffic and the time to implement it for Ande...

Solutions would be so far:
- IRC Network QuakeNet, channel #turbosliders or another channel, where you like to meet your friends
- creating an own meeting server for your purposes, if there is no one made by the tournament server
- connect the official record server - it can be used by everyone (you just have to tell your friends, they should meet (you) there)

[Creator]

Thanks for all the ideas... We don't have resources to build and maintain stand alone websites for our games, but since Turbo Sliders has such an active community (the nature of the game is very community oriented so that's to be expected) we actively support building fansites. There are some sites currently under construction that we host for free and even paid for the domain registration. The problem with such player-driven activity is that often a promising start there is very little activity. I think people have good ideas but it's hard to imagine how much work maintaining an active website actually is, until you try it.

However - if anyone wants to run a Turbo Sliders fansite, we will provide free full-featured hosting. And this doesn't mean we'll pick one site... we will support everyone who wants to run a Turbo Sliders website. There is a lot of reasons why the Turbo Sliders section at Jollygood Games website will remain as part of the Jollygood website, but we will happily link to fansites from there. Actually, I must admit I haven't done such a good job promoting the level collections and current fansites and I can promise to try and do better job in the future. If you have a TS related website please contact me! We will link to it.

We may also create a Turbo Sliders webring... this would be a convenient way to link all TS sites together and provide and easy access from one site to the next - therefore increasing the traffic on each of the sites.

As far as decision making goes, there is no need to form any kind of formal structure. As MikeNike said, Ande is, has been and will be, responsible for all political decisions. Because we have partnered to do business together, all business related decisions are made between Ande and Jollygood Games, to be sure we're always on the same page.[/b]

[diesel 999]

Creator- that's what I'm talking about!
I think, MikeNike can do that - the TurboSliders fans Website.
There can be all things what I wrote before.
Thank you.

[JimMiE22o2]

I don't know if anyone has every raced on the game NAscar racing 2003. This was made by Papyrus and Sierra in 2002. This was a very well built game, then again, it is not a downloadable game, too big. It had good fetures on replays. Replay editor... When online, there were different "channels"
( Social: Social 1, Social 2...; Expert: expert 1, expert 2; east lounge.. west lounger...) of chat. This was very nice, but it is not a request, just a thought.

Senate: I dislike this also. This is a free game (for the most part). It was made by someone (Ande) and published by another (JGG). It is up to those two to decide what to do, unless its to close TS, the we protest.

Free website: I wonder who will volenteer? I would, but I don't make my site very good. It is a free, not full feture, andI find it hard. Like Creator said, running a site is hard. Making a game is hard. I really have no idea what I am saying. I just keep going on and on... I don't like the idea of throwing this on Mike Nike either. He is a person with a life also (well, I think he has a life other than TS. Then again, he always plays this and he is 20, so maybe?) but if he has time, I think he is perfect. Good racer, strong knowledge of TS...

Not sure what else to say. Did I miss something

[fasteddie399]

Good points JimMiE - and, perhaps that post is of record length for you? Not the usual one-liners I'm used to... hehe

Now I have something very serious in nature to say:

Already there are many fan sites - most of which are very nicely done and an absolute pleasure to visit - and in some cases, you could consider some of them Shrines to the Turbo Sliders phenomenon.

But I think what many of us, whether we know it or not, really need to hear from the producer and game designer(s) (Jani and Ande) is a kind of "vision statement". In other words, we want to hear directly from the "men in charge" exactly what their plans are for Turbo Sliders' future. I know that version 1.0.5 is currently being worked on, and it's release might be within a few weeks, but I'm talking about long-term plans.

When I read the message recently posted on the TSRankings web site (http://www.geocities.com/tsrankings) , I got a lump in my stomach. One point of the article is that assistance, support, and a "working relationship" with producer and/or designer has been difficult to obtain. It is sad to see the end to such a devoted effort by a member of the players community to make an impact on the evolution of the game, but at the same time, I do not blame the producer and/or designer for what has happened.

Turbo Sliders is a fantastic, unique, best-of-its-kind racing game. Perhaps you could also say that it has accumulated a "cult following". It has been around for two years now, and the fact that many of the original players are still active speaks a LOT towards the worth and life of this game. The game has evolved SO much since its inception, and the potential for it to further evolve is huge. So many ideas and new features have been discussed - there seems to be no end to the possibilities.

But what I think we all need to understand is that Turbo Sliders was not and is not being developed by a corporate team of top-notch programmers/artists/engineers/actors/etc., like you would expect with high-end game companies like EA Sports or Acclaim or Rockstar Games. Turbo Sliders is instead being developed by Antti Mannisto, an extremely talented programmer. He IS the corporate team. And considering how far Turbo Sliders has come in two years, when I first downloaded and played it (in March '05), I thought it was the product of a "medium-sized" corporation, and would probably cost $30 US to register. When I learned that it would ONLY cost $13 US, I was absolutely blown-away! I immediately whipped-out my credit card and within an hour I was playing on the registered tracks.

Considering that the total number of people involved in the design, programming, producing, and distribution of this wonderful game is in the single digits, I think we all need to take a step back and realize what we players have in front of us: An unbelievable accomplishment called Turbo Sliders.

My point is not to go crazy with "I LOVE TURBO SLIDERS" babble. My point is this: We all need to respect and cherish the fact that we have the opportunity to communicate directly with the brains behind this game. We, as active players, have an opportunity that so few game players have - to have a direct impact on the evolution of the game. How many other games can you think of where you can chat with the developer(s) and say "it would be cool if you could add _____ feature", and have a response minutes later with "yes, I will add that feature", and then days or weeks later download the next version of the game with your ideas included? That is something that I think too many of us take for granted and don't respect enough.

I don't (and can't) expect Ande and Jani to have their ears open to us all 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but to have their ears open to us even a little bit, to me, is worth twice what I paid for the game.

There are many reasons why Turbo Sliders only costs $13 to register, and not $30 or more like many other games. But perhaps the most important reason is because Ande and/or Jani are not greedy corporate jerks. I believe they sincerely cherish and admire the community they have brought together and wouldn't trade it for two or three-times the money.

I also believe that Ande truly enjoys the design process and evolution of Turbo Sliders, and that he would love to implement each and every suggestion and idea in future versions. And I also believe that Jani is extremely proud to be the sole distributor of the game, as well as proud to be working so closely with Ande. But they are just two people, two people who have lives like all of us. They can't spend every waking minute of their time serving us and all of our requests.

Which brings me back to my original intention of this post: a "vision statement". For instance, does JollyGood Games intend to continue to produce and distribute this game for years to come? Does Ande intend to further develop this game beyond our current imaginations, with features not even thought of yet? Are there plans to bring more programmers/developers into the equation? Are there plans to introduce the product to a larger audience (through more advertising)? Basically, what do Ande, Jani, and JollyGood Games see a year from now? Two years from now? I think we all would like to know, and hear it from the "men in charge" themselves.


Most importantly, I think I speak for most of the Turbo Sliders community when I say Thank You Ande, Thank You Jani, and Thank You JollyGood Games for bringing us all together through one of the most fun games we've ever played on the PC.


fasteddie399

[Mike Nike]

Nice one eddie
Especially the introduction "My point is not to go crazy with "I LOVE TURBO SLIDERS" babble. My point is this:" i liked

Well, concerning the webpage.
Maybe, already most people only know from www.mikenike.com.
Some people know from some of my tools, even from my unpublished toosl.
Some still know about my old page with more ressources, which was full related to TS 0.86.
And some less know about the real TS related stuff i have local at my PC, on my paper blocks, in my head (thinkings/plans, experience, remembrances..).
The last time i counted the main parts of my TS related files collection were in total something over 1 GigaByte of statistics, logs, documents, screenshots, tools etc.

The problems i have in webpage building:
- the less freetime my reallife gives me next to other freetime investments, i mostly spend for playing TS and talking in forums or on other communication platforms.
- i am using only poor html and this without any tool but a normal texteditor of Windows

So, an experienced webdesigner would be able to make a real page with an integrated community, while my page is only based on uploading ressources and grouping it a bit to have at least a bit overview in the chaos of information. So, my page(s) are actually all constant = changing only when i do uploads etc.
From the best TS page, i would hope it would be the official one, otherwise there will be no garanteed support for the future. And the page would have in the best case something like the TS Community page by bazwell (a german webdesigner) had in TS 0.86 times, somthing like TSCups.com and surely something like from MRO (miniracingonline.com), for example.
Since i know, with no/less time and no/bad webdesign tools and skills this is hard and takes much time, so i do neither expect much from me, JGG, Ande or someone else.

[Guest]

When I read the message recently posted on the TSRankings web site (http://www.geocities.com/tsrankings) , I got a lump in my stomach. One point of the article is that assistance, support, and a "working relationship" with producer and/or designer has been difficult to obtain. It is sad to see the end to such a devoted effort by a member of the players community to make an impact on the evolution of the game, but at the same time, I do not blame the producer and/or designer for what has happened.

This is interesting. I haven't seen such an article. What do you mean by assistance, support and working relationship with producer has been difficult to obtain? In reference to Turbo Sliders? To my knowledge we've always been willing to help and have actually never denied a request for help. We've sponsored cups, provided free hosting, etc... I admit that I am sometimes slow in replying emails, especially if it's a long email with a lot of detailed requests... it simply takes time to reply and I tend to be very very busy. If you email me and don't get a timely reply the best thing you can do is email again, keep kicking me until I wake up. This is not a full service house unfortunately, I don't have time to browse through all the forums and websites tracking what people are saying, as much as I would like to. When you have something to say to me, just send me an email, or two.

I don't (and can't) expect Ande and Jani to have their ears open to us all 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but to have their ears open to us even a little bit, to me, is worth twice what I paid for the game.

Well, you can and should expect that we listen to feedback. And we do. But we have limited resources available... we have no dedicated full time customer service staff. Jollygood Games is a publisher for more than 30 games, and frankly they all require my attention, more or less. Turbo Sliders takes obviousy the biggest chunk of my attention due to its community nature, but still there's only so much I can do for it.

And I also believe that Jani is extremely proud to be the sole distributor of the game, as well as proud to be working so closely with Ande. But they are just two people, two people who have lives like all of us. They can't spend every waking minute of their time serving us and all of our requests.

No, I'm actually not extremely proud of the fact that Jollygood is the sole distributor actually. We have tried to get it to real.com, gamehouse, MSN and bunch of other huge places. So far it has been turned down, partly due to the lower than average price and partly due to the lack of proper single player mode. We're working on it and I'm confident it will get there, but there are certain things that need to happen to the game until this is possible.

Which brings me back to my original intention of this post: a "vision statement". For instance, does JollyGood Games intend to continue to produce and distribute this game for years to come? Does Ande intend to further develop this game beyond our current imaginations, with features not even thought of yet? Are there plans to bring more programmers/developers into the equation? Are there plans to introduce the product to a larger audience (through more advertising)? Basically, what do Ande, Jani, and JollyGood Games see a year from now? Two years from now? I think we all would like to know, and hear it from the "men in charge" themselves.

From my personal perspective, I can say Jollygood Games will support TS for as long as it's around. I can't say anything about the future development plans, other than that it will continue to be developed. Advertising, perhaps... I can see that happening in the fall ramping up to the xmas time, but won't promise anything.

[Ande]

The previous post was from Jani aka Creator but perhaps I should say something, too.

First of all, I must apologize that I don't always have time to answer to everything. I try to read everything and absorb the relevant parts but as fasteddie said in his nice (and in many parts flattering ) post, I do have some life, too, and my time is limited.

But here is some kind of vision for the future development of TS. After 1.0.5 has been released, the next emphasis will probably be to make some kind of single player mode for the game. In its simplest form, there could be some single player "campaigns" to be completed, racing against AI players and trying to win a cup. The biggest issue is to make a decent AI and as you can guess, it is not a very easy task, especially because of all the sliding. It may be that single player mode will be something that veteran players dislike and consider waste of time, but the idea would be to make it easier and more fun for new players to start and train.

Another big issue would be a better community related system, something what Z from TSRanking and some other guys are asking for. It is yet open what this would be and it might require lots of planning, server space, database programming etc. The game already produces quite detailed logs from each race so this is actually something that players themselves could already do. But as Z has pointed out, it is hard without someone managing it and such a task can be a daunting one for any outsider.

Then there are wilder ideas like making a tank war modification or something else completely different... Who knows .

But as has been mentioned earlier, my time is limited and I really can't and won't promise anything. I do have a "real" job, too, and it can be quite unhealthy to make free time look too much like real working.

[JUHA]

Ande, have you been thinking about making pit stops to 1.05 version.. i mean, make some new tracks which have pit lanes and perhaps garages, and for example if the race is 12 laps long, you should take a pitstop at least once, something like this, full tank of fuel, you can drive 6 laps.. (can be changed by server admins or something) more fuel you have, slower your car gets etc.. and in the beginning of the race you can decide how much fuel you want to take.. for example you can take about 3 litres, then your car is faster.. but you must take more pitstops than a guy who is using different tactic! would be very interesting!!

[Ande]

Pit stop is a much requested feature, yes. It won't be in 1.0.5 but *perhaps* in the future. One problem is that it would not work very well with existing tracks. Maybe in 1.1.x whenever something like that comes .

[Mike Nike]

After 1.0.5 has been released, the next emphasis will probably be to make some kind of single player mode for the game

my little predictions:

1.0.5 06/07/08 2005: PunaBall/Ballgame Support + small extra features
1.0.6 10/11/12 2005: Single Player Campaigns with AI + small extra features/bugfixes like always...

Since in the world of developing games/applications, nothing is really good predictable, especially not if we are talking about hobby developments, 1.0.6 can be 1 or 2 months earlier out or 2 or 3 months later or even later.

Pit stops, fuel and even maybe damage modes are somewhere in the feature request list of Ande, but on the one hand these features are relative far behind, i think and on the other hand, Ande does not like to change too much on Turbo Sliders maybe, since it would change the game perhaps too much.

So, i don't think/expect that this feature will be implemented very soon.

Surely though i think, it would give TS espeacially in the formula 1 equal cars section an additional realistic touch which would allow also more chances for nonghostracers, which start behind and waste too many laps behind a slower driver -> with pitstops they might have chances of few fast laps and after the stop they will be 1 position or more better, like we see it in the real formula 1, too.

Edit: hmm, either i haven't seen Ande's post or i was again writing this post, then made a pause and then submitted at some time later :/

[fasteddie399]

Jani and Ande:

Sincerely, thank you for the answers.

It means a great deal to hear what you had to say in response to the issues I brought up. Thank you for your honesty and your devotion to us in the community.

After reading and re-reading my post, I can see when you might have found it a bit offensive, and if that was the case I do apologize - My intent was not to be offensive. Perhaps I read a bit too much into Z's post over at the TSRanking site, and took it a bit too harshly.

By the way, the single player "campaign" sounds like a lot of fun, and as a fellow programmer (of sorts - mainly database programming), I more than realize how difficult it is to program AI... I'm looking forward to it, as well as the upcoming PunaBall support of course!!

Bottom line: Jani and Ande, keep up the good work, we all appreciate it!!!

[JUHA]

Pit stop is a much requested feature, yes. It won't be in 1.0.5 but *perhaps* in the future. One problem is that it would not work very well with existing tracks. Maybe in 1.1.x whenever something like that comes .

i mean you should make a new game mode, which has pit stops
in the race --> new tracks. don't touch the old ones.

[road_oktane]

[quote="JUHA"][quote="Ande"]Pit stop is a much requested feature, yes. It won't be in 1.0.5 but *perhaps* in the future. One problem is that it would not work very well with existing tracks. Maybe in 1.1.x whenever something like that comes :).[/quote] i mean you should make a new game mode, which has pit stops
in the race --> new tracks. don't touch the old ones. :)[/quote]


That's the ideal use of this feature.

I'll show you my thoughts about the pits:

An option where you can turn on/of fuel comsumption, one where you can turn on/of tire comsumption.

On the racing screen should be an indicator of both % levels, that will decrease as the racing goes.

Factors that reduce the tire level: tire will deacreasing as the racing goes by tax xx %/s , each time the driver do a hardbraking or a hardsliding (braking or slide for more than xx ms, the game can interprete this as a hard action) the % of tire will decrease by yy % .

For fuel, the amount will be determined by the time while acelerator buton is being pressed. If the player is acelerating the % will reduce with a tax of zz %/s.

The pit stop zone will be one or more rectangular area in the trackmap (like a kind of special checkpoint). The trackmaker defines this like placing a normal checkpoint.

In the race: when a player slows down the car to xx pixels/s and pass over a pitzone, the pitzone holds the car and then the fuel and tire levels are recovered by a speed of yy %/s. The driver cant turn de car, and he just take the control of his car when he press the acel button. By doing this the fuel/tire recovering is stopped.

[road_oktane]

Another good suggestion is a mode:

/qualify on/off

Where the finalresults of the race will be determined by the order of fastest lap of each player.
this could be kind usefull when doing an endurance or f1 race. With a qualify stage.

What we do is create the track ghost , run 5 laps, write down in a paper the best lap of each player, restart the server then create a track with 1 lap and tell the people to drive the lap in the order of their best lap.

[Mike Nike]

qualification:
In Keppanas TS 0.86 Cup 2005 we choosed a qualification of just driving 5 laps ghost, points were 0 20 19 18 17 16 ... and the start order was Cup Positions.
So, no laptime counted as qualification, instead the totaltime of 5 laps, where fast constant drivers were the fastest -> and normally the fast constant driver(s) win also the race, so it might be also a good solution - though not like F1...

fuel consumption:
i wonder if there is not maybe a default fuel consumption each timeunit (when the engine is running).
And what if the fuel is out? -> is the players then out or can he still be pushed by a teammate into the pitstops? The code would allow the last option, i think.

[fasteddie399]

Perhaps instead of a special checkpoint(s) to designate the "pit area", it could be a new pattern color (i.e. tarmac has a different pattern color than grass, etc.). To me it would seem much easier to create a new set of "pit area tiles" and code the game to recognize that, rather than deal with special checkpoints.

Just a thought...

[Ande]

Race code would not be changed much with a pit system. As pointed out, there could simply be an area where a car gets more fuel if it is stopped. Fuel consumption could be related to whether acceleration is pushed or not. When car would be out of fuel, one solution might be that its acceleration would be a fraction of normal.

More work would be required to make changes in editor, menu, settings, master server, translations, server commands, network code, manual etc. And one question is whether people would really want to use this feature or would it be something to try a couple of times and then go back to the old way. Many online races have only a few laps and fuel probably wouldn't work in them.

But anyway, fuel is still in the long maybe-todo list, but we'll see if it ever gets done .

[fasteddie399]

And one question is whether people would really want to use this feature or would it be something to try a couple of times and then go back to the old way.

I have an answer to that question!!!

I would really want to use that feature!!! hehe

Seriously though, it's a good point... Most casual players probably wouldn't use it much. But there is SO much potential (new leagues, seasons, cup rules, racing "styles", etc.) with that kind of a feature... I know for a fact that many registered players who are interested in either running or participating in leagues/tournaments/seasons would LOVE to utilize a feature like pit stops. It would add so many more elements to the game - how to get the most efficiency from a set of tires, how to stretch your fuel load, pit timing, etc. - taking the "drive as fast as you can" aspect away and making "race car management" more of a factor.



I can understand the amount of work involved to implement such a feature though... LOTS of customization. But, I think I speak for most of us devoted players when i say "keep it on the to-do list!"

[Mouse]

reading all this stuff makes me so excited. i know that it may not come for a long time, but the thaught of having to pit, get some gas and tires is so awsome. endurance races would be so much better. and ball game mode. whoo. racing AI would be great practice, could it work on all tracks tho? if i made a track will it work?

one question Ande, and i know i will sound like a total noob, but its killing me, when will 1.0.5 come out? a week, month, 3 months, a year? just a guess would make me happy