West Coast USA... (Old thread)

Spoiler: Inevitably Controversial Statement

I find it interesting that this map gets so much hate, but any criticism of the game in other areas is often shunned

I don't dislike WCUSA, though it has its faults. Optimization certainly is poor, and it has some related issues. But that's been addressed enough...

It's layout does make it feel small, and I question the inclusion of the suburbs and forest because of this... However, considering the state of the game when the map came out, I don't think it's really fair to be too critical of it. Back then, the idea of an official city at all, even one as small as this, was a big deal.

I don't mind the dead ends, though I would prefer they loop on themselves with on/off ramps that deadend. IMO a mix of loops and dead ends is best for avoiding the hamster cage feeling, opposed to all deadends (WCUSA) or all loops (ECUSA).

As for things I want to see added that are actually reasonable, an underground system of subway and/or drainage tunnels like Utah's mine shafts would be amazing. Anything more than this would feel like a waste though, as I would rather see a ground up new map than a remaster of one that's in fair shape.

 

Like I said on the Update Speculation Thread back when my username was Gman White or GWMan, I said that I thought WCUSA needed an update between late 2020 and early 2021. That's still one of the few posts I agree with. I think the signs and the telephone pole models could use an update. To be honest, I think WCUSA is on it's way to being in mediocre shape.
--- Post updated ---

Uh, maybe expand the map and make the roads go further before you get to the dead end.

 

I always wonder how this "beyond the map" things works. You say you can't add content there but why? Tunnel on Utah and that bridge on WCUSA are placed outside of the map. Same with that closed highway. Roads work fine.

I had an idea long time ago when WCUSA has been released that might work.
Here is the sketch.


Black 90 degree line is end of the map. Red line is the top of the mountain. Green line is normal road "without the celling" when blue line are tunnels.

So, if we can put objects and roads outside of the map then it is possible to create interesting tunnels going outside of the actual playable area. For example, these few roads on the left side outside the map could look like this.


https://www.google.com/maps/@45.774...ItRE3fvUIQjqUJrEaa8E!2e10!3e12!7i10240!8i5120

It can just be a tunnel with windows so we can see gorgeous views etc.



Or even like this with nothing but rocks.


Then we have that "open road" inside the map area. This can be open like any other road with grassy hills etc.

So that way we can even create standard 2x2 km maps that feels much more bigger.

The question is - what can be done in that background area.

 

While I agree with OP's frustrations in general it is important to view the WCUSA complaints in the context of BeamNG as a whole. Without going on a half informed emotional rant ( as I am known to do from time to time ), I'll just say WCUSA is in a long line of visionary experiments the devs attempt to do. They are taking an old open source engine from the late 90's and doing some pretty wild stuff with it. When the first info on this map started to appear most folks were blown away by the scope and ambition behind it and what the devs were able to do with the engine. Future works will no doubt regale us to similar leaps of faith. It is a unique and strange experience from a game standpoint all these years for sure but that is it's charm.

 

I didn't know West Coast USA used an open source engine from the late 90s.

 

no, the game engine, which is based on Torque3D which was released in the late 2000's

 

Torque3D....no?

 

Uh, okay then. Anyways, I'll be happy when/if the devs do a complete remaster of West Coast USA.

 

I've always said that WCUSA was one of the worst maps due to it being to small for the amount of stuff that is in it and personally this hole "keep it for backwards compatibility" has already been broken due to the removal of DRI (still can be found in the repository but still). Italy does everything except the race track better and while I do know making something like Italy takes years WCUSA feels like a map that was not worth the time due to it's too much for too little feel if you get what I'm saying. I've always wanted for WCUSA to be scraped and remade from scratch with all assets already in the map due to them being good if not great (also performance is mostly due to shadows at least for me awhile ago).
Here is what I would do to make the map better if I had any skills.
Red: Suburban
Yellow City (heavy or light don'st matter)
Light Blue: Commercial zone
Dark Blue: The Race track if you wish the Island to be something else.
Brown: Industrial - Port
Black: New roads - Island bridge
Green Island is now either A National Park or Airport or move the port to the Island and make the old port just a industrial park with a old dock.



But these are just my thoughts and since the map is out and can't be made larger without a complete remake and that would be wayy too time consuming and not worth the price there's not much that can be done for WCUSA to make it to the quality of ECUSA or Italy and yes I say ECUSA has better level design than WCUSA oof. This is not to make all those who made WCUSA feel bad or anything this is just how I feel about WCUSA and it's inability to fit about 8+ things into a too small of a map.
What I suggest for the devs to do to make WCUSA better as it stands now is this. Add the underground parking lot to the BPD, make all the working parking garages drivable, Make the race track spectator parking lot much larger, add more security fencing around the race track, Make the 2 buildings under construction in the downtown area have a area for pickups and dropoffs since they are major projects with room, visable but non accessible areas such as the north park in Downtown smoother and not as bad looking, last thing I can think of put a building or something here (downtown looking north) to hide this.

 

I had read something in the Torque forums regarding something with MDK back in 97'. Anyway, onward.
I think the Utah tunnel formula would be splendid for WCUSA.

 

Just a suggestion, for me, one of the biggest problems for wcusa is that the highways are too short, and they just stop as the map ends, if highways are too short, then what's the point of them? I think wcusa should adopt some ideas from ecusa, instead of ending the highway, devs should make the highway wrap around the city map so players can drive around and view the city sceneries. (like how in ecusa you can drive around and around and around...) wcusa is a perfect map for this because unlike ecusa, it does not have many trees and road bends, so while driving on the highway, players can appreciate the magnificent city view, and also cruise at 100mph. I always feel that BeamNG lacks a map where you can just cruise at 100mph nonstop. (Small, Pure yes, but that's a bit empty.)

 

I feel like they tried to pack in way too much for WCUSA. It would've fit if they decided on a 4096x4096m space, but they decided to go for 2048x2048m, and instead of say, removing the race track, they decided to make everything very small, compromising the highways and the city. Nearly half of the space used is the race track, which could've been used to expand the highways or the city.

 

You can plausibly build roads, buildings, place trees, etc. outside of the map itself, but terrain-related features end at the terrain's edge. Decal roads get a lot more difficult to use, smooth terrain material blending stops being possible, 'terrain' geometry gets a lot more expensive, and groundclutter objects (which are used for grass and small weeds) won't effect your exo-terrain. It can look good, but it either won't look as good, or it'll be a lot more performance-intensive. The reason why it works for Utah and WCU is that almost none of the objects directly near the road are natural, just steel and concrete.

Also, all of the features you're suggesting look good, but don't correspond to real features in the target region of the southern/central California coast.

 

Cool post, Copunit12. I do like WCUSA, but I agree that the map needs to improve. I do like the telephone poles and electric towers which are not present in Italy. However, I think the telephone pole models could use an improvement.

I completely agree. The West Coast USA highways are too short and need to be expanded.

 

In my opinion, we should move the racetrack onto the little island and use that space to create more urban/suburban areas.
The current urban/suburban areas is tiny, so tiny that it's unrealistic. A bridge leading to an island with nothing on it seems awkward, so putting a racetrack on it, I think, would be good use of the island.

 

Or move it to the port map like it use to be

 

What port map?

 

American Road: 60 FPS
West Coast USA: 10 FPS
--- Post updated ---
American Road: 60 FPS
West Coast USA: 10 FPS

 

I run 6 fucking cars on Italy and I still get better FPS than 4-5 cars on WCU,so yeah, performance-wise WCU is shit.

 

?