Sandbox mode

Hello,

This needs a little background. My dad's mental faculties started deteriorating last year and he eventually gave up driving, aged 77. He missed it, of course, so I built a sim rig for him as a Christmas present (PC, steering wheel, pedals, gearbox).

I looked for a driving game that wouldn't require fast reflexes or put too much stress on him - just a relaxing drive in scenic surroundings. I eventually chose Euro Truck Simulator 2. Dad enjoys playing it but he gets stuck sooner or later; backing up with a trailer is not trivial and he just can't do it.

Searching for an alternative, I found BeamNG. The Freeroam mode fits the bill very well and the easy reset by pressing R is genius. Two things would make it perfect for our purposes:

1. A truly indestructible car, or as indestructible as possible.

2. A track designed to keep the vehicle on the road, or at least lacking places that make you truly stuck (ravines and the like).

I will be grateful for any tips along those lines. I'm aware that my requirements don't quite fit the spirit of the game so any tips for alternatives to BeamNG would be appreciated as well (especially those I can install over Steam).

Thanks a lot,
j.

 

Yeah, BeamNG doesn't sound like it will work for you. The cars are made to be broken, and the maps are made to be explored. Its very easy to get stuck. Have you looked at The Crew? Its an open world driving game set across the entire US (scaled down of course). Plenty of fun to cruise and see the sights, cars are indestructible and you really cant get stuck anywhere. Its got a first person mode as well. You may have to help your dad get started, there are a few tutorial missions at the beginning before the game opens up and you might want to help him unlock some cars. I'd recommend The Crew 1 instead of The Crew 2 as well. The Crew 2 has a lot more mechanics and is more gamey than The Crew 1

 

Automation mods have very little deformation, and if you own Automation (it's only like $20 on steam and a fun game in itself) then you can design it however you wish. As for default vehicles, there use to be an indestructible engine block mod. If he likes driving with a manual but tends to have issues with it, that might help (if the mod still works, I'm not sure if it does)

As for maps, there are a lot of mod maps to look into if you don't like any of the official ones. Usually if I am letting someone not so good at driving play BeamNG then I put them on Utah. Yes it has rocks and canyons and rivers but it has plenty of asphalt and the roads usually have a big runoff area. Same goes for Italy.

I hear a game called city car driving sim is good for teens learning how to drive. I've only heard the name/seen it on steam, not looked into it myself so I'm not sure how well it fits, but it might be worth looking into.

 

A big map I can think of that doesn't feature many spots like that would be Tennessee (by bob.blunderton). Yes, he may fly off the road here & there occassionally, but it shouldn't happen for like 95% of his driving sessions

 

Thanks for the quick replies, all of those sound like viable options.

 

Hi @journey and welcome to the BeamNG forums

Not an easy topic for a straight forward explanation or solution isn't it ?
Anyhow I will try to share some thoughts and opinions on the subject :

I haven"t been playing the game for several weeks due lack of time and in fact I'm still on
version 0.15 but I do attend the forums to keep track of what's going on and please don't get
me wrong as BeamNG HAS become a permanent rig in my life from the moment I discovered
it's qualities . I am about middle aged and I have been playing a TON of car games and sims
since the late Eighties. I also own the usual rigs such as wheel and pedals + shifter for years.
I am not a user of Steam though. I am just purely after the most realistic simulation that is
available to me and this is how I ended up 'playing' BeamNG.

There are many possibilities on which path to go when using this game, and I will use the word
'game' as it is easy to use and most people do, but in fact this is a simulator in the most true sense
of the word. And it is highly adjustable to personal preference and this is where I'm getting to the
point : There are different ways of using this game and as you probably noticed it's soft body
physics are very popular to exploit . So watching shared videos on social media etc will very
much be about crashing cars, trucks, bus's and other objects of all kinds. Very cool indeed.

But there is more. Some people also exploit the game for the love of how the software runs
or doing simulation experiments or programming extended functions into it and so on..
Again, there are many many possibilities on using and playing this game.

Now, to get a little closer to your questions, baring the fact that the game is highly realistic :

- Are there indestructible cars in the game ?
No, as far as I know not. Afaik the cars can only be as indestructible as they can be in real life (at least sort of).
This why many people have trouble driving the cars like many other preceding race sims thought them.
For instance, speeding thru a corner and knocking a sidewalk will very often result in misalignment on the
steering, causing the car to pull constantly to the left or to the right. You might also deflate a tire during this
same event. There simply is no way (afaik) to disable the soft body physics on the user car, only a milder
setting is available and this is called simplified colliding physics or something. It's mean't to be less harsh
on low end computers. Of course there are many mods you can find to install, cars as well as tracks. This
means that for instance you could set up a monster truck on a race track or something. I also believe that
there are car mods with some sort of reinforced structure so they get less easily wrecked and there are
maps of different kinds as well, even literally sandboxes, but then a sandbox isn't going to deliver 'a relaxing
drive in scenic surroundings' right?

- Are there tracks designed to keep the car on the road ?
Sure, there are a ton of them. They consist of miles of mildly winding roads capable of high speed transition.
But.. you have to be someone who is up for the game. By this I mean you have to be aware of the fact that
you are simulating a driving experience, you are still not really driving. Being aware of this fact keeps your
eyes on the road and where that road is going. Just as in real life, as you want more scenery there is going
to more potential danger too.

- Are there alternatives for BeamNG ?
No, there are none. Honestly. Not as far as I know and as I said before, I'm on the lookout for these things
since the eighties. There is always a flaw, guard rails alongside the road, racing points popping up all the
time, other cars driving by recklessly, honking horns, people shouting, people shooting, whatever..
You know, about a decade ago I was quite into Microsoft Flight Simulator and I was (and still am) SO fund
of that peace of software while thinking : Why is there no Microsoft Car Simulator ? It just never happened.
Not on the side of MS and not anywhere else. Until now, BeamNG !

- Are there other car games to play without the demand of reflex and being stressed ?
Uhm.. I don't really think so. Perhaps there is one but honestly, I let it go myself mainly because of the
horrible engine sound, and that would be City Car Driving by Forward Development. Also the scenery
Is far from BeamNG imo but on the other hand no, the scenery is actually not that bad at all.. There are
many many real life car mods available and the cars are virtually indestructible, especially if settings are
right. You might want to check it out.

- If I were to setup a rig for a family member or a friend in the same situation ?
I don't know, it's a difficult matter and every person is different, but I would definitely go for BeamNG.

Maybe someone else on the forum might come up with some thoughts and ideas too. Hope this helped
a bit.

Greetings
NC

edit : Oh I see there have been different posts in the meantime hah