Hey everyone! I'm not very active on here when it comes to writing posts but I do read a lot. This was originally intended for the Early Career Concept thread but it got a bit bigger. The first implementation of career mode impressed me much more than I thought it would. Since it was pointed out as much as possible how early and pre-pre-pre done it is. It's a very good base in my opinion and I'm already having fun with it! Either way, it got me thinking on how to improve it so here are some thoughts. (Everything with a colored underline has an image behind it. Click to view!) First, a small list of what I like and what could be improved / did not like: What I like: The UI is clean and to the point The seamless integration of the service station Addition of Money and XP systems Popups when you find new areas Earning XP depending on your preferences / activities The devs and community What can be improved / did not like: Starting at the mission marker after mission (mentioned before) Needs more missions to do with own car (mentioned before) Clunky parts selector needs to go (also already mentioned) It might need persistency of damage for multiple vehicles (however hard to do) Walking mode is not used so far Having to drive to mission markers, have a loading screen, be in a mission (more on that below) The general idea is to make career mode more dynamic. To achieve that, you would have to drive to different facilities and buildings in order to take on missions and do various other things. You would drive there with your own vehicle and do the missions that are possible for you to do. This would tie in with buying vehicles and modifying them for the tasks at hand. Here is an example: You want to do a drag race. To do so you could drive there with your modified drag car or you buy a trailer to transport your drag car to the strip, unload it and drive directly to the starting line for the race. Afterwards you would load it back up and transport it back to your personal garage. (or to the service station for repairs if you broke stuff) To expand on that, here are some places that either already exist (unused) or could be added: General Locations: Dealerships (already existent) - Instead of starting career mode in the service station with a preselected car, have the player start at a dealership (a general one that sells the 1st variant (after beater variants) of multiple cars in the game so the player could choose to their preference. Junk Yard - Adding to Dealerships, the junk yard could be a place to buy beater variants or even vehicles that need fixing up before they are able to drive. - You could also buy cheap parts there if available - Could tie in with tow jobs (more on that later) Personal Garage(s) (there are plenty of garages on the map) - A place to store your vehicles - Maybe the possibility to buy different garages on the map - Act as spawn / save areas - Pay rent(?) Fuel Stations (already existent) - Refuel your car and pay with the money you earn on missions - Maybe even make us get out of the car, open the fuel cap and use the hose (but that's future talk ) Shops (already existent) - Drive there for all your needs - Buy tuning parts, LOL bottles (nos), new tires (after you used up your old ones or destroyed them by accitent), wiper blades (if these ever become a thing), a map (?), oil (?), cooling fluid (?), cleaning equipment for your cars(?),... Car Wash (who would have thunk?) - Drive through and have your car cleaned (for a fee) - (On the side) possibility to clean your car by hand or pressure washer Dyno - bRinG thE dYnO bACk!!1!11 - Get some numbers on your vehicle's power (for a fee?) - Be happy Paint Shop - Make your vehicles look less boring (for a fee) Bank - Might be pointless, still trying to figure out a use for it - Either store your 3 coins there or be a get-away driver to get your 3 coins taken away by police Job Locations: Bus Depot(s) - Start your bus routes there - (On the side) possibility to take buses in walking mode - School building(s) along with school buses and routes Police Station (already existent) - Get your 3 coins back doing honest work - Impound vehicles and/or get your vehicles impounded Towing Company - Tow people that got stuck to the service station - Tow people that crashed to the junk yard - Pickup, Small truck, Trailer towing Different Truck Job Locations (already existent) - Rental truck place (because you will not be able to buy one early on) - Trash Dump (be a garbage truck driver) - Docks - Big Malls - Restaurants Small Logistics Company - Do smaller delivery missions with pickups or vans - (On the side) possibility for manual loading/unloading Hospital (already existent) - Rush to rescue people and bring them to the hospital - (On the side) would be perfect for a mini-game with a lateral g-meter - ↪ Challenges to drive as fast but also as stable as possible Fire Department - Image credit: Forum user Thane - Extinguish house and car fires (maybe even forest?) - Possible variant of the T-series Post Office - Image credit: Forum user KingKarlTheSixth - Deliver Mail and packages - Could be fused with the small logistics company mentioned earlier General Suggestions for Career Mode: For the Odometer (imo one of the best additions in 0.26!) - Possibility to switch between trip and total - Total should show all the driven distance (career & freeroam combined) separated by vehicle (Covet, D-Series, H-Series,...no matter the configuration) so you can see what your most driven vehicles are. - Trip could show the distance for a single play session in freeroam Option for having to open the door of a vehicle before being able to get out - Obviously only possible for vehicles with openable doors - Should definitely be an option, not set in stone Economy - The player shouldn't earn too much money so vehicles feel like they are worth something and that you are proud to own them. - Not too grindy, we all know how it is, hard to balance Take Bus (or taxis) through the city when in walk mode (as mentioned earlier) - Buy a ticket, get on, get off - You could even start the career by taking the bus (or taxi) to the dealership where you buy your first car. A 'fog-of-war' like system for the map - Map could be buyable in a shop (as mentioned earlier) - Only see visited areas on the map to encourage exploration Optional missions available for short time periods - Player is unprepared, therefore higher reward - Could be initiated by a vehicle stopping next to the player with a UI message Car meets - See what's possible by modifying different vehicles, so basically some inspiration for the player - The player could earn a little XP based on the vehicle he brings to the meet - There are plenty of parking lots around, no need to create new locations Random street races - Get challenged to a race at a light without warning or marker - Earn XP for the motorsports category Call the tow truck after a crash - Specifically for career mode as your vehicle might be the only thing you can rely on and if it's not drivable anymore, you will need someone to transport it for repairs - Get into the passenger seat of the tow truck to join the ride back to the service station Take care of your car - In addition to having an eye on your fuel, make us also take care of oil, cooling fluid and other needs Internet Radio - 'Easy' way to bring radio into the game without having to licence anything - Save multiple stations in the options with key-binds for switching Improvements to walking mode and the player model - Physically affected walking is great but it feels too sluggish at the moment - There will have to be an actual player model at some point Use the trunk to transport items - This will need an actual 'item-system' to begin with - Items such as fuel canisters, wheels/tires, cleaning equiptment, (general shop items mentioned earlier),... Car Keys (?) - Lock and unlock your vehicles, you know what car keys do - Might need some sort of threat that makes you want to lock your vehicles Ability to sit on any seat - Once we can open any door, we should also be able to sit anywhere for immersion's sake - This will have to be a thing if we want to travel by taxi or bus Vehicle Alarms - You run into a parked vehicle by accident, the alarm goes off, police check it out,... - Just another small thing to make the world feel more alive Camera specifc: 3rd-Person view for walking mode - Now hear me out, please. I know some people will be against this and I don't need it personally either. The last thing I want is to turn Beam into GTA. However, logically it does not make sense to have a 3rd-person view for driving but not for walking. It's inconsistent. Maybe have it for arcade only along with the 3rd person driving view. But that might also not be ideal. Tricky. Let us turn the camera to look behind for driving backwards Zoom-hold button for the camera - Helps looking at signs and see out of the car better overall in certain situations TrackIR and (later down the line) VR (as many people have surely already wished for) Wishful Thinking Map tiling - Bigger maps, more BeamNG.drive - Example: American- and Euro Truck Simulator Different vehicle classes - Suggestion for the far future - Certainly possible as shown by mods, such as: ↪ Diesel-Electric Locomotive ↪ B25 Mitchell ↪ Super gnat I have no doubts that some of the ideas mentioned might already be planned. Thank you for taking the time to have a look at my suggestions. Have a nice day, guys!
In general I feel like the career mode should mimic other game that I like: Motortown: Behind The Wheel In that game, which is also early access, we have to purchase licenses to do certain jobs and drive certain cars, do deliveries and all that, but it's all more seamless than here and utilises your own (or borrowed) car. I feel like BeamNG could beat Motortown at it's own game and become much better based on damage modelling and physics alone. You can get out of the vehicle too in BeamNG. Devs NEED to utilise this in the career!
I really like the idea of it feeling very special when you take your street race car out of the garage in preparation for a mission and driving it carefully to the marker so as not to damage it and run up a huge bill. Once in the mission however you should be able to wreck it cost free and restart etc. Bringing a dedicated track car in a trailer to a drag or circuit race I really like this idea too. I definitely like some of the more tedious sim elements you mentioned though and it's worth remembering this might be just perceived as an annoying chore by a lot of the userbase. I suppose it could be optional and gain you extra XP. The tow truck recovery missions would be excellent too. Wish they could get a working winch into the game. But that sounds like a programming nightmare ha. Maybe it could behave more like GTA San Andreas tow truck ha.
I love the ideas here. When I spoke with Gabe in ~2013 their initial goal was a modern SLRR in terms of persistent damage, mods, and racing. The car collecting/molding was a blast in that game and I'm hoping they keep pushing that direction. I've been following the development through the end of high school, my bachelor's degree, and now into my career . I don't game much anymore, but I will surely binge if the launch of career is anything close to being somewhat grindy with a sense of achievement and severe risk to every trip out of the garage. The introduction of challenges/using the bus to get to complete certain challenges allows a constant "bankrupt" revival to your profile. Wrap your car around a tree and have nothing else? Hit up a dozen or two police apprehension missions to get another beater Covet. Insurance coverage? Choose full coverage as soon as you can afford it so you don't find yourself in that situation again (sinilar to NFS Pro Street). It's just so exciting to see it have a career mode.
@Cyan37 Thanks so much for providing your insight; Listing your likes and dislikes through such a well thought-out post had me smiling ear to ear! I'm beyond really excited to move forward with production on everything you have mentioned here, and even more! As you mentioned — and as we have pondered/debated inhouse over the years — the biggest challenge to overcome has been related to balancing. From tow-trucks, economy, street-races, truck/vehicle rental buildings, junk yards, wreckers, fuel stations, and dealerships, our plans and hopes are beyond plentiful! I wish I could outline it all here, but until we really get into the nitty-gritty of feature-specific development, I don't want to overpromise or ruin any surprises! I am so pleased to read posts and comments like yours and the many others that have surfaced since the release of 0.26; it really brings confidence to our grand plan and breeds inspiration for our staff to further develop the necessary gameplay systems/framework. For now, I hope you have your hard hat on while you keep testing and playing. - James P.S. I am really excited for what is coming down the line, and reading your original post had me thinking that you caught a glimpse of my initial design docs from the start of this year!
Hello, I've been testing the new career mode; congratulations!! Amazing work! I would like to share some ideas with the Beamng team regarding some aspects that no other game has achieved with this mode. Having a final objective. For example, achieving the highest amount of money within a certain time frame. After a certain number of virtual years, the player retires from their chosen profession (racer, stuntman, bus driver,...) and their achievements are published and saved in an online ranking. This ranking can be sorted by the amount of money obtained by combining cash + cars owned, the number of virtual deaths, medals, badges. Then, the game continues so that the user can enjoy their acquired cars. Money balance. In most games, after completing a certain number of missions/unlocked cars, the player can buy almost any car, as there is no need to pay for anything except new cars. Following the line proposed by the developers the game could force the player to pay for: a garage rent, bets and tickets to events, tire costs, tuning tools, mechanics. This way, the more cars you have, the more expenses you incur. Always leaving the option for the casual player to choose the difficulty level. Variety of events. In most games, you see 3-4 types of events, and the only things that change are the scenery and the car. Players quickly find the event that allows them to earn the most money in the shortest time, and repeat it indefinitely. In my opinion, it would give more variety to the player if the events varied randomly. Once completed, there should be a lower chance of it repeating again. Some other "crazy" ideas for hardcore players, like myself: Being able to choose the starting year for the career mode. Cars and technology from that year and earlier are enabled. As time passes, new cars, types of tires, turbos, spoilers appear. Allowing a player to die virtually, and the game ends there (hardcore mode for those willing). An online ranking as proposed in point 1 but only for gamers who have chosen this mode. Online ranking for each chosen profession (accumulated money, XP, badges, medals, thief captures (in police mode) Open-world career mode. Where events are carried out among real players. Requires some indicator that evaluates and balances the players within the same server. Time trial events with limits on tire usage and crashes to prevent indefinite repetition and balance with those players who don't have as much time to complete an event. I appreciate the dedication of the development team. The changelog for v0.30.0 is immense! Congratulations to everyone. Cheers!
It would be amazing if we could have a working economy in the career mode—something akin to that in NFS Porsche Unleashed. We would be able to set our own prices when selling cars and have a more diverse used market, including damaged cars for sale. This way, we could fix and flip them for a profit.
I would also suggest looking at NFS: Porsche Unleashed (NFS Porsche 2000) as it had a good designed career mode. You starts in 1950 with only brand new 50' 365's available and then by doing milestone races you were able to move few years in to the future. With new cars available to buy and the old ones only available as a used cars. You always raced in your car, you could restart race at anytime but if you decided to abandon race or finish it, then all damages becomes persistent and you had to live with them. Totaled car usually nullified the winnings. The problem of using over powered car was solved by each race requiring a specified car type/class. (eg. some required any 911, brand new one or 20y old one, others exactly 911 RS 2.7) In BeamNG I thing we should be able to rent a required car (not be forced to use it as it is right now). Even for delivery missions you could use your own car and your own trailer. If cargo is too big or too heavy, tough luck, get a bigger one or rent it.
I was highly enjoying the career mode... Until I realized that if I use my own cars in the events I earn no cash from then. Anyone else extremely annoyed by that? For me it's almost a deal breaker entirely. What's the point of progression if nothing I ever do with the cars I actually purchased really matters? Now, if it was up to me, i'd outright make the default for all jobs be your car, and add it as an option to use the "recommended" one. That'd make progression so much more satisfying, and it'd mean you'd actually NEED to make yourself a better car to have a chance to win at certain events. Are you a transporter? Better buy and upgrade a truck. Are you a rally driver? Maybe you need to start with a shitbox, earn some cash, then upgrade it into a competitive beast, street racing? same, etc etc. It'd feel SO SATISFYING when you can actually finally paritcipate in a track race or rally with the car you've been slowly upgrading by doing minor jobs and easier races I get that's a bit hardcore though, but AT LEAST let us earn money with our own cars?! Legit no reason for me to play it anymore since I realize nothing I actually earn or work towards can be used to progress EDIT: It seems its a problem not with just using my own cars, but that challenges give a one-time reward only. This just makes me wonder, is the amount of money you can earn in career mode limited in total? Are there any renewable sources of it? Especially ones where I don't need to use a car that isn't mine...
