i'm going to begin this thread with a brief apology.
I mean absolutely no offense by some criticisms I'm going to end up
making. I know that some of my cars have bombed, too. Also, if the
developers see me making a mistake, please correct me. I'm doing math
based on e-mails we sent back and forth about two years ago. I'm sure
I'm misremembering something.
A bit of background:
If I remember right, the speeds of the car in units are however many
units it travels in a second. Also, if I remember right, each track
unit of length is about a half a centimeter. Therefore, a car that has
a top speed of 26000, which I think is the speed of the Cuatro, moves
26000 times .5 centimeters a second, which is 468 kilometers an hour,
which is about 291 miles per hour. I'm not entirely sure that my
info's right, but we'll see, I guess. The comments I'm going to make
won't really be affected if I'm wrong.
Now that that's all done, I'm not going to go through every car or
track and say what I do and don't like, because I haven't played all
of them, and because that would take too long anyway.
I will, however, make some general comments. The Cuatro is very, very
fast. There have been cars that go faster, but they're very rare. I've
seen many cars that have a top speed of above this level amongst the
user-created vehicles. The Toyota Corola has a top speed of about
28000. This in combination with the fact that it stears well and
accelerates fast means that no computer car could beat you under any
circumstances unless you crashed. That, in my opinion, is the mark of
a bad car, one in which the computer could not beat you. This doesn't,
obviously, apply to fun cars like the Road Ripper, F18 Fighter, Light
Speeder, Hover Demon etc. Other than it's high top speed, the Corola
is a good car. If the Top Speed was reduced to, say, between 19000 and
22000, it would make sense.
Top speed of a car isn't the only problem I see. People give their
cars rediculus acceleration and deceleration values as well. A car
should not be able to jump from 0 to top speed in like a second and a
half. That just doesn't happen. That's one awesome thing about the
light speeder. It is extremely fast, but you have to have patience to
get it there. Many cars just jump to ludicrous speed and forget
realism.
Then, people give the car this rediculusly high stearing number. I
don't know what standard is, but I'll use the Street racer for a
measuring stick. It's stearing is at 215. I've seen cars up to 300
something, down to 50 something. Too much stearing means that you tap
the arow or whatever and you go insanely off course. Too little means
nothing happens. THen, there's stearingFactor. That measurement is the
percentage that your car's stearing degrades at high speed. The Street
Racer's is at 93. That means that it's 93% as effective at high speed
as at low speed, if I remember correctly. I've never heard of a car
that goes fast and has perfect stearing at that high speed, therefore
I question those cars with StearingFactors of 100.
My basic point throughout this message is this: look at cars that have
been made by the developers, like the StreetRacer. Make your cars
based on realistic models, or say they're unrealistic to begin with.
Balance your car so that it is actually possible for a computer car to
be better than it is on either speed, acceleration, stearing ability,
or something. I'd love to help however I can. Trust me, there are lots
of people's cars that I would love to just give a tiny tweek and be
satisfied. Many people have great ideas and sound effects. That's why
I redid the Harley Davidson fatboy 2000 cc, whoever's that was. I
liked the idea, but I didn't like the execution. That's personal
preference. Feel free to ignore me, criticize me. I certainly have
criticized my share.
Thanks all for reading.
Happy modding.
Signed:
Dakotah Rickard
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