Robot racing and related issues

[thelusiv]

Something strange causes the game keep the screen black and show "Loading...Done" sometimes when I try racing against one or more AI robot. I can even hear the other car take off and leave, but my screen is still dark. This is pretty frustrating since it makes it almost impossible to catch up with the other car with that big of a head start.

Furthermore I'm wondering if maybe we should go back to just racing against the same car as the one we're driving for now, instead of a random one. The reason is that every time I get a car that is horribly unmatched to mine, usually the F1, which leaves me in the dust in even our fastest cars. That combined with the problem I mentioned above makes for not much fun racing against robots.

[reece146]

I'm wondering if maybe we should go back to just racing against the same car as the one we're driving for now, instead of a random one. The reason is that every time I get a car that is horribly unmatched to mine, usually the F1, which leaves me in the dust in even our fastest cars. That combined with the problem I mentioned above makes for not much fun racing against robots.

We have a game for our Mac called Redline (Ambrosia Software). It lets you set the number of opponents and the car types/colours when you setup a race.

Just throwing that out there as a future enhancement while I think of it. Your post teaked it.

Maybe in the interim there should be a "performance factor" assinged to a car? You can only get opponents randomly picked from certain cars that have similar performance factors? That or the same car is picked - maybe a menu option to toggle?

Again, just throwing that out there. We could end up with a crazy tree of menu screens.

[rookie1]

I'd like to second reece146's "performance factor" idea. I remember in Need For Speed the cars are divided into different classes. You can chose to race against a certain class. Your opponent will be chosen from that class only.

[cotharyus]

Yes - classes of cars. Basiclly, unless you're in the F1, you should never race the F1. Think Le Mans - LPM1, LMP2, GT 1, GT 2, etc.

[reece146]

I was thinking of a classing system even a little more obtuse (of course).

Anyone remember reading Road and Track back in the 1980s?

The Engineering Editor at that type was a gent by the name of Dennis Simmantis[sic]. He came up with a funky formula called the "fun factor". It basically was a multi-variable formula that balanced price, weight, 0-60, hp, skidpad and a bunch of other stuff I am forgetting. Surprisingly, the cars that were equally "fun" tended to be in the same performance envelope (give or take). Or at least, I remember that the affordable "real" sports cars of the time (X1/9, Fiero, Miata, MR2, CRX) seemed to get lumped together.

I'll try to scare the formula up... It may be more interesting than a pure lb/hp type of thing.

[thelusiv]

Well I agree that classing is a good idea in the long run but do we really want to try to squeeze that into the next release? I meant why not go back to racing against the same car temporarily, so in the upcoming* release players will not be frustrated by racing against the F1. Or maybe, why not just make it random, but leave the F1 out, unless the F1 is selected?

If someone has time to code up a simple classing system, though, by all means go for it.

[rookie1]

Does this mean the next release is just around the corner? :wink: I can disable the random opponent if we don't have time to implement car class.

[thelusiv]

The release has been just around the corner for a while...all that has to be fixed is the inability to change deadzone, sensitivity, etc. on joystick axes; Joe added support for changing this on a per-control basis but the menus do not support this yet. I have been working on it slowly but it's taking me a while because I've been busy, and because it's not as simple of a problem to fix as I'd hoped. I'll keep working on it, but I can't guarantee it will be done by any certain time.