Hey guys,
I saw you were possibly working on a like race track for testing cars and stuff. I think this idea is great for like sports cars or super cars but for your general small car or svu it doesn’t really seem… right so here is a idea I hope you will consider or take some ideas on board.
It would be cool if you guys could implement, maybe on a small scale in addition to the “race track” if you could include a vehicle development facility. With each section of the track has its own role to play. These can be broken down into eight (7) broad areas.
1.Performance Circuits – allow sustained high-speed, autobahn simulation and rapid mileage accumulation
2.Dry Handling Areas – consistent high friction levels provide excellent traction and high lateral adhesion necessary for vehicle dynamics and driver development
3.Wet Handling Circuits – extensive low friction circuits for tyre, braking/ABS, stability control and driver development
4.Ride and Handling Surfaces – crucial for refinement and interior comfort development
5.Special Features – test for overall robustness, customer abuse and niche market scenarios
6.Noise Test – supports exterior noise certification and vehicle homologation
7.Cross-country and Off-Road circuits – provide loose surfaces and high mobility challenges specifically for 4x4 vehicles
I know this maybe something hard to implement or get right but maybe something on a smaller scale?
This would be a great addition. If I had the choise if a race track of this… I would chose this as it covers the critical elements for testing a car and I think this is something that should be included in Automation
Feedback?
I think the test track was implemented to give a reason why the car it take that amount of time to complete a lap (something that you can see, not some mystical math formulas) and to have some kind of reference between the cars in the game and the cars in real like.
All the test you are referring to are values that are already in the game. (most of them, the wet handling isn’t there)
You already have the top speed value, the acustic confort, the bump test, offroad capability… it’s not eye appealing right now, but they are working on the game core at the moment. Aesthetic will come later on.
My 2 cents.
I can confirm what Norman says, these things already are in the game and being calculated, also wet handling, indirectly that’s in the tameness value.
Some time in the future we’ll hopefully add some animation stuff. Anything which goes beyond that strays too far off the course to making the core experience of the game as appealing as possible.
First: The track simulation is just an additional “gift” feature with little to no benefit for the car rating and the tycoon part. All you get is the lap time, the speed profile over the lap and maybe an animation. No further car ratings are done (especially not regarding comfort). Everything too much in-depth is really not worth the effort. Please keep that in mind when suggesting things related to the track simulation.
(1 - 3) There will be an open track slot where you can build your own track layout (in a txt-file or something similar) with curves, straights, slopes and bankings. I’m not sure about friction coefficients, that is not considered yet (so all is dry), but that would be at least a possible addition. So you can build your own test tracks for different purposes.
(4) As I said: No comfort ratings in the test track simulation. I cannot think of a proper way to do that if you don’t want to do a full-vehicle simulation, which is way too complex for me in my spare time or the devs (and even then it would only be based on suspension, interior is something completely different and can hardly be rated in a simulation). For a suspension comfort rating on a track we would need the level of a proper racing simulation (which is not going to happen). The current bump test is a simplification which is more than enough for the level of detail a tycoon game needs.
(5) Not possible. You can build very steep and bumpy tracks, but that’s all. How would you rate robustness or customer abuse?
(6) Not possible and not fun at all. You have engine loudness in the engine manager and can put more sound insulation into the car, which will be rated. But not on a track, that would not be beneficial in any way.
(7) This can be made in the open track slot: Just build a narrow, slow, steep track. Loose surfaces maybe can be made by adjusting the friction coefficient (see 1-3).
Sure, the number of basic tracks which are included in Automation can be increased with not too much effort. But that’s the dev’s decision. With the open track slot you have endless possibilities and the first real open door for the modding community. I’m already planning a forum tarmac rallye competition with several stages.
Well that’s kind of like what I meant in reference to “something that you can see, not some mystical math formulas” so why can’t it be the same in reference to the features I suggested?
Isn’t that the same as what Norman said? Isn’t the test track being implemented “to give a reason why the car it take that amount of time to complete a lap”? Well my suggestion something that you can see, not some mystical math formulas…
Animation will be added at some point, it is not important for getting started with the tycoon part, so it has pretty low priority right now.
I’m not sure if you guys ever came across the old dos game “car builder” but in the very basic review process that game had it covered a bunch of parameters like high speed handling, torque to weight ratio for low speed corners and hills. heres a quick shortplay of it youtube.com/watch?v=0yk9UAoLWtI Is there going to be that kind of feedback from the in game testing or is that not part of this games scope?
The test track simulation is a proper enough simulation to give you all that. Build a track with high speed corners and cars with good handling and downforce at high speed will be fast. Build a track with steep hills and cars with not enough power will loose speed.
Cool, thanks for the info. 
the custom track option is awesome! also a great idea with the rallye stages, bayer! 
can’t wait to see how the text files are set up. i hope there is no rigorous size restriction so we can code the nordschleife.
in fact it should come with the game, just call it the nürbschlaufe.
There is no track size limit, but currently the maximum simulation time is set to 900 seconds. Basically it would be no big problem to make that value even bigger, but calculation times become quite a bit longer on longer tracks.
900 seconds is already decent ernough for road cars on the nordschleife i think.
i guess i have to drive the old vw beetle around it tonight on gt6 to check its time. 
[quote=“SirStonelouse”]900 seconds is already decent ernough for road cars on the nordschleife i think.
i guess i have to drive the old vw beetle around it tonight on gt6 to check its time. [/quote]
This sound will fit perfectly: youtube.com/watch?v=guIaCocnNaw , its even long enough! 
But back to topic, custom track would be awesome if made properly, i already have some awesome ideas.
i totally forgot to take note of the time it took…but it was around 13 minutes with the 34 hp '66 model.
so 900 seconds is definately ernough for the ring.
