Anecdotal Explanation of the Origin of Idea: Forza Horizon 4 was a fun game for me, but there's a reason I didn't spend much time on it or populate my shelves with Forza Horizon 5. It had a fatal flaw that carried over to Horizon 5. Cars were never special. As a player, my first Lamborghini was kind of cool. But it was just a reward for progression, and it was, overall, a really mediocre car compared to what was available and valued. Not that anything in the game was actually valued, because even a quick reset would bring a Bugatti back to life, and most players had one. That took, for me, much of the fun away. I wanted my Lamborghini to feel special - a ride worth being proud of as I drove it down the street knowing that it took some effort to get it. But it wasn't the case. Goals of My Idea: It's simple, really. I want to make cars special without destroying the ability to get them. It should be a rare sight to see a special, limited-run Vivace driving down the road. It should be really special to see a Civetta Bolide in your garage. Yes, I know that multiplayer and Career mode won't mix, but showing off cars in the hypothetical career garage should be cool. A Bolide should be rare in Career mode - so rare that most casual players will never own one. Of course, every car should and must still be easily accessible from Freeroam mode - meaning that it's not rare to drive a Bolide around - it's just rare to see one in the Career mode garage. Methods By Which It May Be Accomplished: 1:1 Vehicle Tracking: What I mean here is simple. Cars should each be unique, with a unique history and odometer reading - and limited runs per vehicle. If you, to start the game off, owned a 1996 Pessima, you should be able to find where that car is now, and potentially buy it back years later. It should be the same one - as much as some pixels on a screen can be. This is based on the body or chassis - which cannot be recycled on different cars. All other parts are optional. Crashing & Vehicle State: This is kind of a gameplay mechanic - but crashing should not be punishment free. In fact, a car can and should be able to be bought and sold in a crashed state, as well as with wear and tear - I will explain how this can be done later. Additionally, parts should be permitted to be harvested from crashed cars. This parts mechanic I will bring up later, as well, complete with a hypothetical (admittedly code free) way of doing this. In any case, any car should be able to be fixed, as long as one nonbroken part is left and the chassis/body is in reasonable state. Should this not be the case, the car goes up to a fictional 'Vehicle Heaven', where it remains for a waiting period (at this time, it is unavailable to any player, but trackable - meaning someone cannot simply crash all of X car out of existence over time - and rarity is dictated by developers.), until it will reintegrate into the Dealership Network; while in a fresh state, the odometer reading remains the same, and engine wear is consistent - unless the engine was damaged). Dealer Network and Player Sales: This is the big part. This is where most of the value of each cars come in. The dealer network is basically where cars can be brought from their 'origin' - either with random (though reasonable) Odometer readings and wear, or new, if from brand-name dealers (if these are implemented). These cars are sold at their 'Market Value' - what the BeamNG specified value is. This is the value that any car can be bought from, including from Vehicle Heaven - wear has some measure on this value. And, wear is up next, so calm your butts down. Now, players can also buy and sell cars privately, regulating value - to each other or to dealers (trade-in). This helps establish the value of rarer cars, however, most cars, especially ones consistently available at Dealers, should not stray too far from this price. Wear: Applying wear over time (think 0.3X) is easy enough (but I'm not a programmer, so what the hell do I know) - RK's mod for engines set the stage - at least as I see it. As engine simulation improves, simulating individual parts with 'Worn' options (which has been done in the past) can be easily implemented. Blown shocks and struts are also available. However, I don't foresee wear taking place during a session, instead, while a car is parked (between playing sessions/during game loading), the odometer, average temperature of drive, and other specifications are looked at to randomize a part wearing down - including potentially suspension parts - a player can take a car for a tune up at any in game shop to fix these parts. Parts Harvesting: Applying a value to each part on a car, while tedious, may open doors to part harvesting. A crashed car can be sold to a junkyard, who may take salvageable parts off the car - everything but the unibody. Owners of applicable cars can buy these parts and put them on their own car for a discount dictated by the junkyard owner. In theory, a player could make money without ever interacting with the proper methods of playing. The parts salvageable can be removed from a car, until all that is left is a unibody and broken parts, at which point the car gets crushed - automatically sent to 'Car Heaven'. This is, of course, very incomplete, but a potential way of running this program. Let me know your thoughts! Spoiler: Edits 2021.12.19 Bolded Central Heading Finished Last Word (oops!)
I think it would be much more fun if the player had to take the part off of the car themselves instead of cars being automatically stripped.
maybe you can own a race car or build a race car for tracks and race against bots, earning money from competitions
The big question would be, with regards to car accidents, would you have to sell your car automatically as scrap metal or would you be able to tow it and try to fix it? people with supercars probably couldn't keep a car intact even for a day
One thing that I notice about Beamng traffic is that cars like the Burnside and Bolide spawn too often. I think it would be better and more realistic if more mundane vehicles like the Covet, Pessima, Roamer, and D-Series spawned a lot more often than more exotic vehicles like the Bolide.
there is a system in the game that chooses what kind of car will be generated on each specific map, like the side of the track too, so on Italian maps, there will be more Italian cars
Gameplay mechanic beyond the scope of my point, as fun as that sounds. The point is, you can't put a smashed hood on a working car and make it work again. And once the car is shot, off to car heaven it goes - no sitting around hogging it forever - permitting the cycle to continue. Skips that step then Custom cars are more than welcome to be customized then bought and sold in my concept. Which is, of course, not reality and may never come to fruition. Not the point here, but a good idea I wish they would implement anyway.
I agree with this a lot. Giving persistence to the vehicles in the game gives a really nice immersive effect that not many games have. Thinking of the Dirt games (Dirt 4, Dirt Rally) which tracked vehicle mileage and parts quality and also parts wear and repair quality throughout the race.
I think this is a bloody awesome idea! Quick thing though, i really hope we dont see career mode for a long time due to the lack of cars for a fleshed out career. I hope you get what I mean but theres many many different cars missing from the game atm, i.e prewar cars, loads and loads and loads of european cars like 80s hot hatches, pretty much any 70s cars that arent american boats, quirky french cars, euro trucks and vans and 2000s econoboxes. Along with British cars Along with the lack of international maps too. When these have been addressed (which im sure they will), career mode will be awesome, and I hope they implement your idea. Many thanks - ByteGuy
this is a cool idea! --- Post updated --- anyways, we could start off in a old pessima in very bad condition, we could go to a autoshop to upgrade and fix our cars, and buy cars in different dealerships and used car dealership to buy cars! to earn money we will have to do some races, car chases, and delivery missons!
Another thing that could make these cars feel special is insurance. If say, you have a record of crashing cars left and right, you best believe that you are uninsured or self-insured. So if you have a bolide GTR, and you crash it, you're bankrupt. Back to square one.
