Hello, for a long time I’ve had my eye on the Automation + BeamNG combination and I finally bought it a few months ago. I have an interest in aerodynamics so naturally I’ve ended up spending a bit of time in that section of the car builder. I like the idea of adding parts to cars and getting an effect, but there are a few weird things going on with the editor.
Firstly, it’s hard to actually understand what the individual impact of a part is. It seems like parts from the same category generally have the same effect on downforce, but I can’t really be sure. If this is the case though, it’s a simplification. A large wing should have much more affect than a smaller one, and a wing should also be able to produce downforce with less drag than a spoiler. Are there any plans to better represent these differences as well as inform the designer?
Another thing I’ve noticed is that you can throw parts anywhere seemingly endlessly to increase downforce. I usually end up doing this for my most extreme cars because of the limited amount of downforce you get from each part and also to tweak downforce balance. Front end downforce parts are extremely weak for some reason. Compare to something like a Dodge Viper ACR, roughly 1200 lbs of downforce at 150 mph. A bit over half will come from the wing and rear diffuser (let’s say 800 so we’re not underestimating). That leaves 400 lbs from the front. I have automation open right now and a rear wing with max downforce settings come up to 500 lbs of downforce (a little weak, but believable) while the front only produces 90 lbs for downforce. This is horribly imbalanced. In my opinion the rear wing max downforce should be at least doubled to account for the absolute most cutting edge and dedicated aero package, while the front needs to multiplied around 10 times, or we need multiple slots for the front end (right now we only have splitters. What about diveplanes, front diffusers, possibly full body tunnels?).
I also notice that adding a rear diffuser lowers the front downforce. This shouldn’t be the case as the diffuser should reduce pressure under the entire underbody and actually improve front and rear downforce.
Lastly the base drag coefficient tied to different chassis seems arbitrary. I know it’s unreasonable to expect CFD accuracy on every shape, but why do some convertibles have lower CD than hatchback style coupes in the same body family? Why are there such huge gaps in CD between bodies of the same type - Two of the top coupes from 2009 have CD’s of .268 vs .325.
Hopefully this doesn’t sound like a rant. I’m grateful that a game like Automation exists and I’m enjoying it, but I hope some of my suggestions can be taken into account to make it even better. Thanks.