Suggestions for future version

[dby]

I guess there's a whole bunch of things planned for the future, but I don't know what exactly - except cpu players. Here's a few ideas I thought I'd toss at ya:

1. A text editor inside the track editor - with a redraw button to see the changes. Also it'd be nice if a piece was highlighted when the cursor is on that row - for easy identification.

2. Bumpy terrain. How about adding small bumps on certain types of terrain? Sort of like the ramps but much smaller. It could also be cool if the car could be pushed sideways-like, or direction slightly changed. Imagine going down a narrow, but bumpy straight in high speed. It'd be way cooler (IMHO) than slow and slippery terrain for offroad and rally tracks.

3. I remember you mentioning that pit stops are planned. Gas refilling of course. Tires? Like in the old games Pit Stop I & II? Collision damage could also be really cool - where the cars start to smoke... and perhaps catch fire in worst case - if that isn't too violent?

[Ande]

1. A text editor inside the track editor - with a redraw button to see the changes. Also it'd be nice if a piece was highlighted when the cursor is on that row - for easy identification.

That would be a nice idea. Unfortunately, it would be quite time-consuming to make something like that but I can try to think of other ways to make it possible to do something like that. I understand the need...

2. Bumpy terrain. How about adding small bumps on certain types of terrain? Sort of like the ramps but much smaller. It could also be cool if the car could be pushed sideways-like, or direction slightly changed. Imagine going down a narrow, but bumpy straight in high speed. It'd be way cooler (IMHO) than slow and slippery terrain for offroad and rally tracks.

The track format supports bumps which make the car jump slightly. Maybe tiles which actually use that feature would need to be added...

3. I remember you mentioning that pit stops are planned. Gas refilling of course. Tires? Like in the old games Pit Stop I & II? Collision damage could also be really cool - where the cars start to smoke... and perhaps catch fire in worst case - if that isn't too violent?

Those features are "planned" but may not be implemented soon. The problem is that collisions already make you lose lots of time. If you would also have to go to pit, the punishment wouuld be quite a lot, especially as the collisions may have caused by other players. But I will keep those in the end of the todo list .

[Guest]

I understand the need...

Yeah, I use the notepad quite a lot, and it's kind of a hassle to reload the editor each time. I usually make terrain features like sand pits after I've made the track, on top of it, and move it up the list in notepad. Just a way to reload the map you're working without having to quit would help. Dunno about everybody else, but for me the track editor is almost as big attraction as the game it self.

The track format supports bumps which make the car jump slightly. Maybe tiles which actually use that feature would need to be added...

Cool I look forward to that.

Sort of on the subject... Have you thought about leaning surfaces? I dunno much about programming, but I understand the logic, and you seem to have colour-coded each type of object/surface etc. So how about adding colours for like 8 directions where the car is pulled "by gravity" in a direction. And maybe 16 more for different inclines. This combined with the bump feature could cause that sideways push I talked about. And you'd be able to make velodromes.

Sorry for trying to understand something that's probably quite obvious to you.

The problem is that collisions already make you lose lots of time. If you would also have to go to pit, the punishment wouuld be quite a lot, especially as the collisions may have caused by other players.

Yes, you're right - wouldn't work too well in normal games. Mostly something for the racing simulation freaks. And perhaps, if the car is divided into front, side etc, something for the destruction derby freaks.

Anyways, the game is excellent as is.

Maybe you should list some of the planned features in a poll? To see what players want most, if you don't already know. For me, AI drivers doesn't improve the game much - sorry.

[Ande]

I usually make terrain features like sand pits after I've made the track, on top of it, and move it up the list in notepad.

That is what I have been doing myself, too...

Sort of on the subject... Have you thought about leaning surfaces? I dunno much about programming, but I understand the logic, and you seem to have colour-coded each type of object/surface etc. So how about adding colours for like 8 directions where the car is pulled "by gravity" in a direction. And maybe 16 more for different inclines. This combined with the bump feature could cause that sideways push I talked about. And you'd be able to make velodromes.

Yes, the "correct" solution would be to have some kind of arbitrary height map which would affect physics in many ways. I am not sure how many changes it would cause but I must think about it one day .

Maybe you should list some of the planned features in a poll? To see what players want most, if you don't already know. For me, AI drivers doesn't improve the game much - sorry.

Yes, I know that it would not necessarily be very useful for expert players who already play a lot against other human players. The main idea would be to be allow novice players to practise. But there is lots of work to make it work...

[CrocK]

I am wondering if is possile to compile the game for a pocket pc, maust to be great fun to play the game on this platform (maybe cutting a little bit the performance). Pleaseeeeee.
Fantastic game. Congratulations.

[Ande]

I am wondering if is possile to compile the game for a pocket pc, maust to be great fun to play the game on this platform (maybe cutting a little bit the performance).

That would be a nice idea, yes. The game uses many third party libraries (SDL, SDL_gfx, OpenAL etc.) and *if* there was support for all of them in PPC, porting wouldn't be very hard. But unfortunately, that probably isn't the case. But this issue must be investigated more but I'm afraid nothing will happen any time soon .

[Creator]

You don't really need text editor inside the editor, just a reload-feature so you can make changes and refresh in the editor. Perhaps even automatic reload if the file changes. Makes no sense for Ande to reinvent the wheel and implement a text editor.

[dby]

Exactly, the hassle is mostly re-loading the editor after a change.

[dby]

I thought of another thing...

I'd like to see my personal best lap times when choosing car, not just lap records.

[Mike Nike]

What exactly you like to have then, dby, when you talk about personal best lap?

1)
You have chosen player "dby" and the best lap of player dby is shown.

or

2)
You have chosen player "dby" but the best lap of all local players (dby, dby2, dby3...) is shown as "19.123 (dby2)" for example.

@Ande
To see both (personal record and lap record) would be nice and if PR then an option would be maybe (if possible and wished...) switch between at least these 2 possibilites.

[JimMiE22o2]

I thought of another thing...

I'd like to see my personal best lap times when choosing car, not just lap records.

I would also like this too. It could be really handy!!

[JUHA]

I remember you mentioning that pit stops are planned. Gas refilling of course. Tires? Like in the old games Pit Stop I & II? Collision damage could also be really cool - where the cars start to smoke... and perhaps catch fire in worst case - if that isn't too violent?

yeah, pit stops, gas refilling!!! tires should be changed once or something..
everything like that.. more Formula 1 feeling!
that's what i want, JollyGood games!

[JimMiE22o2]

I remember you mentioning that pit stops are planned. Gas refilling of course. Tires? Like in the old games Pit Stop I & II? Collision damage could also be really cool - where the cars start to smoke... and perhaps catch fire in worst case - if that isn't too violent?

yeah, pit stops, gas refilling!!! tires should be changed once or something..
everything like that.. more Formula 1 feeling!
that's what i want, JollyGood games!

This could be cool, unless iti is a 6 lap race. It could be every 10 laps or so you can make a pit stop. So if it is a 10 lap race, good stragedy could win the race

[JUHA]

I remember you mentioning that pit stops are planned. Gas refilling of course. Tires? Like in the old games Pit Stop I & II? Collision damage could also be really cool - where the cars start to smoke... and perhaps catch fire in worst case - if that isn't too violent?

yeah, pit stops, gas refilling!!! tires should be changed once or something..
everything like that.. more Formula 1 feeling!
that's what i want, JollyGood games!

This could be cool, unless iti is a 6 lap race. It could be every 10 laps or so you can make a pit stop. So if it is a 10 lap race, good stragedy could win the race

yeah! i agree.

[dby]

Ok, some more brainstorming:

1. When the server has a different version of a track ie [WARNING: TRACK HASH] - shouldn't the server version of the track automatically download into a temp folder? Same thing with cars, but that hasn't happened to me yet so I don't know how that works.

2. In the Editor, when you have reached the last tile and choose next you get the first tile, but you can't go the other way. This can be slightly annoying sometimes.

3. I've made some small rocks and potholes. They work nice when driving over them in a straight line, causing a small jump and some "slowing". But when a car is sliding over them it would seem more realistic if they caused even more slowing. So I guess what I'm suggesting is that terrain could have alernative properties when sliding/accelerating etc.

4. Other terrain properties that could be nice for a modder would be one that rotates the direction of the car right, left or randomly - only when driving I guess, unless someone wants to do some crazy stuff.And one that pulls the car in a certain direction - could be used for magnets or to simulate slopes primitivly. Suggestion #3 could be useful for these two.

[Ande]

Good ideas. I'll consider them but one comment:

1. When the server has a different version of a track ie [WARNING: TRACK HASH] - shouldn't the server version of the track automatically download into a temp folder? Same thing with cars, but that hasn't happened to me yet so I don't know how that works.

Ideally, that should happen, yes. One problem is that sometimes invalid hash is caused by not having a pattern file and for some reason, different machines can end up calculating terrains in a slightly different way. I am not exactly sure what causes that - it could be that for some odd reason, some floating point operations sometimes get miscalculated on some processors. Anyway, this would cause the track to always be redownloaded.

[dby]

Good ideas. I'll consider them

Cool, I ask nothing more.

Oh, I forgot. A few thoughts about records.

When I run a server and someone downoads my records while registring, it takes a very long time so I'm forced to abort. I guess ALL my record files are loaded? It would be nice if I could set it so only records for tracks used in the cup are loaded.

Also, when a race is finished and I view the records, "ALL" is default. It would be nice with an option to show only the cars that were available in the race, and I'd prefer that to be the default.

[Mike Nike]

Good point, dby...

1)

It is really a huge problem, if the number of tracks / recordfiles is very high, it takes a long time to import or export. Due to that problem, combined with the too short registration time (/autotime /reg) on some servers, some people can never upload their records to certain servers.
The record server is so far the only autoserver, where the exchange is full garanteed, i guess.

So, an option to import "only" the records of the selected tracks at the server would be very nice.

2)

In the very most cases, i look at the recordlist of the car, i choosed in the race, after the race. In average many cases i do also look in the list(s) of the car(s), other players.

So, it would be nice, if the first shown list would be the carlist of the car, the local player(s) choosed.
Why player-s? -> since you can choose 2, 3 or 4 players local, the default should maybe ALL or the car, the most local players choosed (example EasySlider, when 3 choosed EasySlider).

*)

Apart from this i ask all about another problem...
When you see the records after a race and you drove with a rarely driven car...but you have already got up to 20 different car record lists for the last track -> sometimes, when you want to see your record in the list and you search it, you must "hurry up", before the next race starts.

So, this problem would be also a bit solved when the recordlist of the car you drove with, is automatically selected after a race.

[Kobradog]

I'd like to see my personal best lap times when choosing car, not just lap records.

I'd like that too. Would make improving personal bests so much easier. Or not easier per se, but more... fun?

(Another thing I think that would be nice is a chat command to change the zoom, without having to disconnect -> options -> blaablaa -> reconnect. Granted, that takes about 5 seconds, but first playing some Punaball games, then connecting to a racing server and a bit later going back to Punaball makes you kind of agitated with all the zoom changing.

E.g. "/zoom 1.0" would change the zoom to 1.0 & reload the track.)

The first idea is a MUST HAVE, the 2nd... well, it's just an idea.

Have fun.

[road_oktane]

The pit stop system, with fuel and tires consumption would be very cool.

The fuel will decrease with the time throtle button is pressed, so if a driver do turns just realeasing throtle he will save fuel more than a drive who accelerates all the time.

The tire level will reduce slowly as the race time increase, and will reduce more when a driver do some hard brake. Like braking for more than 0.x seconds, and decrease with the sliding time too. As the tire level reduces the Grip attribute of the car will decrease.

Of course there should be an option that turns on/off these options. And if on a multiplicity factor should be selected to adjust to the kind of race you want.

The pit , should be something like that: a rectangular zone that you define in editor where any car can stop and recover fuel and tires. As is difficult to really stop a car in TS, when the driver gets in the pitzone and reduce his speed to xx the car will be forced stop and its fuel and tire level will be recovered. Note that when the car is stopped the driver cant turn, if he press Accel button the car stops recovering and can return to race.

Like on our TSB F1 races, ( www.turboslidersbrasil.com/f12005 ) , everyone agree that this pit stop system would make the races more strategic, fun and realistic. All races have more than 50 laps (real lap number), if you get in the pit you can relax your fingers too to run the 2nd leg of a race :) .

I think these ideas can add TS more and more driving styles and increase fun!

[Ande]

Can't promise anything but all suggestions have been registered .