Early Experimental Preview of Career Concept

What if the player was able to choose what kind of difficulty they want as they create a profile? One mode that can be for the casual player, where you are given a car per mission, one where the challenges are slightly harder and you get extra points if you use your own car, and a mode that’s for people with wheels who can also tune their car well and can use it just fine for most missions.

Now, if you were forced to use your own car for most missions (that don’t involve ems or public transportation) then you’d probably run into money issues. Not being able to complete a mission due to your car not being capable enough, but you can’t do anything about it because you’re out of money. What if there was a system where simply cruising around gains you xp, or like little side jobs that anyone with any car could complete for cash?

As for public transportation stuff I think it would make sense if you had to rent a bus/police car to do those missions, but if you were a certain level in laborer/specialized then you could rent said vehicle for free

Also I’m not saying that only bus and police missions would be the only missions where you use a different vehicle than your own, I would love to see missions like “your buddy needs you to bring these boxes to X using his D-Series” or “you’re driving your friend’s Barstow when idk you start hearing rod knock. Bring it to the mechanics shop before the engine seizes!”

 

I always thought it would be fun to buy, fix up and sell cars in beam too. adds a bit more to do than the standard "mission types"

 

This is awesome, exactly how I would like BeamNG’s official career mode. It’s just so fun!
https://www.beamng.com/threads/beam...hardcore-career-mod.87394/page-4#post-1521971

 

For the 'buying and fixing cars' side of things, I know that parts can be fitted using a selector, so it would make sense if the buying process was more convoluted. something like Street Rod, where there's classifieds with ads for cars and parts etc. Or maybe it could build on this - Calling and the guy saying 'yeah nah sorry someone already took a deposit' or having to look through endless '$1,234' listings just like in real life. I know this is just spitballing, but I've always hated how easy-going this aspect of racing games are, when in real-life there's endless scalpers, hoardes, 'i know what I have' folks.

I've attatched here a picture of what I mean. Notice how it's not just the make and model in the ad and instead actual attributes of the car.

 

The biggest issue I have with the campaign so far is having to use the designated vehicle first, I think you should be able to use your own vehicle the first time.


Vehicle ownership and preservation should be a huge part of the campaign imo. Even if that means having a light campaign (which this should be) and a different more hardcore version with less hand holding and more consequences with persistent vehicle ownership being the main focus of it.


Look at the success of my summer car, it can work!




Another idea is making it like some of the older Forza games, where you have certain classes of cars and if you don't have a car that is in that class in your garage you are prompted to buy one that is in that class.


What's the point of owning cars if they aren't truly necessary.. If they aren't needed then why would you need to earn money? Why do anything?

 

Sorry for chaotic writing and poor grammar, English isn’t my native language, it’s late night for me currently and it’s a big wall of text, but there are many important things regarding carrier mode that I’d like to suggest.

I strongly agree with folks that say We should use our own vehicles for most carrier mode events from beginning. To solve issue with different kind of events (drag, off-road, street/circuit racing) We could get 2 different class starting cars one for street, second off-road capable. For laborer currently shown solution seems very logical. To get to other types We could quickly get rewards or sponsors with basic entry level car for each activity. Possibly after passing events that work as tutorial / introduction - first one where you rent a higher class (mid-tier?) vehicle matched to that event type, it could also showcase when and how to operate specific controls like differential locking, low-gears etc.

Game could possibly force us to have one car assigned to certain event type and you could only buy/select it if it is potentially capable of those activities. Not letting us sell it unless we got replacement - that would prevent cheating monetary system early game. Of course some events could rent us specific cars. Basically think of NFS Pro Street - there were also parts of carrier where you had to use rented vehicle. While buying cars you had to assign it to specific mode.

To enter an event your car would have to be certain class/rating so you wouldn’t enter with under/overpowered vehicle, or opponent could scale too. Or ranking type access like in not very known “Overspeed” game.

As for progression I’d also see it similar to NFS Pro Street (such a underrated game IMO) there are branches of certain activities - you would climb in classes until you reach PRO levels and race against master and you could obtain title like “King of Drag racing”, “Drift King”, “Circuit Master” - you’d basically go for what you want without forcing you to something specific. With a reward in one and only version of a car obtainable only by beating the master of class, or unlocking “legendary tier” upgrades like wide body kits in NFS Underground. Personally I’d prefer for it to not be available in free roam mode to keep it that much more special. (Guys with mods would get it anyway, but just for vanilla game) A graphical progress would be a nice motivational touch. Then for guys who want to be masters of all activities there would be “king of kings” kind of event, where you’d race against some “legend” to seal your awesomeness.

For tuning/fixing/tinkering it could be a matter of difficulty settings (it should be switchable during carrier), if you’re casual player - choose easy, if you’re automotive maniac (like me) choose hardcore. Or just leave it there for peoples who want to tune manually and always select optimal settings for those who don’t know or simply don’t want to do it. One can dream of Street Legal Racing Redline kind of garage gameplay with BeamNG.drive capabilities. As for broken pieces you should be able to have a “fix all” button or you could take off broken pieces to sell them cheaply or fix individually and put new one in place only if things like chassis, frame etc. are completely fixed. To avoid issues with Jbeam.

As for steering device global gameplay difficulty - there cannot be the same for keyboard and controller/wheel. Most events with “hard” difficulty on keyboard would be easy on steering wheel. Game could detect your controller type (as it does right now) then adjust opponents and times required to pass an event considering your device - leaving option in menu to switch it manually for some less known devices or if you have plugged both keyboard and wheel, but using only one of those.

Penalties - Juiced 2 kind of punishment would be golden, if you accepted to go for pink slips there’s no way to back off, if you turn off your computer to cheat-reset loosing race - you lost the car, it really gave genuine adrenaline shots. But that’s only for potential “hardcore+” mode hah.

Mods are huge in BeamNG but there should be an option in carrier mode “disable/enable mods” and achievements to be unlocked only in modless gameplay.

Game cannot be easy, even on easy mode. If something isn’t challenging it’s boring and winning easy game doesn’t feel rewarding at all.

This game have infinite potential, have already enormous amount of work put into it, but there’s only one take to make carrier mode - and it will possibly be the thing that decides if BeamNG.drive will become true legend among gamers - just like NFS U/U2/MW/PS, SLRR or other games of this kind did. So I think it’s worth investing all the extra time just to make it right. And I don’t envy dev team that’s responsible for carrier mode as there must be big pressure on them, especially that expectations are high. I’m happy it all works out great so far and wish you the best of luck. All of above is my view of ideal scenario, and I’m just scratching the surface I could go way deeper into details. But I’m completely aware that reality may prove that most of that isn’t possible. Still that’s just my feedback.

 

What about a system where integral parts like the body or the suspension are repaired, but parts like body panels or headlights aren't?
Parts over a certain damage/deformation percentage are removed, while parts under that threshold are repaired instead. This would have to vary from part to part, of course, and maybe it could even be configurable for different levels of difficulty. Let's say a trunk lid needs to be replaced if it's over 60% damaged, but your front suspension would have to be closer to 90% damaged.
To use your rollover example, the body would be repaired, but the windshield and door would be removed and require replacements.
On the topic of replacement parts, are mismatched body panels feasable? I know multicolored parts are possible for things like two-tone paint jobs and rollcages, but can that paint system be assigned to individual body panels?
I know rendering lots of different PBR layers can have performance issues. What about if after a certain number of different-colored body parts are put on the same car, any new panels will just be matte dark gray and unpainted?

 

One thing that maybe would be easier to implement and already add significant more feeling of it being "your" car would be:

Make

• fuel/charge level
  
• engine temperature
• brake temperature
• other temperatures

persistent.


Right now if you for example use the Wigeon to drive from the garage to a scenario, fuel will be consumed, engine and brakes will heat up. But after you finished the scenario, your Wigeon not only will be brand new but also will be cold and fully fuelled.

Maybe those stats could be saved aside while you are in the scenario and then when your - technical brand new - Wigeon spawns, the values could be written back.

 

i think it should be that even the damage persists, it just makes sense, and is less forgiving.
--- Post updated ---
also, totally different idea, but what if we had other constraints like insurance, bills etc. You can't just amass a very high amount of health/have dozens and dozens of cars if you cant afford the bills on the property needed to keep them there or the insurance on the cars themselves. This could give way to interesting fiscal scenarios, such as the player can get into debt, be refused loans for lack of capital, credit score issues, heck even neighbours complaining about your reckless driving or that awful racket.

 

BeamNG.Homeowner's Association

 

Where is the career mode folder for configurations located? I want to put cars from my generic garage into my career garage.

 

In 0.27 anything new was added to carrer mode ? (nothing is mentioned on changelog, but carrer mode was also not mentioned in changelog in 0.26)

 

@DogTheLog @youwerelucky @Aquila:) To people who agree with me, for now I found 2 new evade missions in carrer mode

 

Hi @krallopian !
I must say, evade missions in carrer mode are fantastic, I like the most "Partner in Crime". It's awesome to see how WCUSA is growing.

Also idk if anyone in team noticed but in changelog there is no word about missions in carrer mode but in freeroam.
Straight from changelog:

• Evade Mission type: Evade the police and arrive at your secret hideout. Available in WCUSA in freeroam

I searched firstly freeroam but there were no new missions on WCUSA but then I entered carrer mode and I found them

 

I know it's experimental so if there isn't a fix I'll wait but since the new update I can't use the garage or change cars. Even using the tow option just spawns me in the same place that I'm at. Was really enjoying playing so hopefully there's a solution

 

@krallopian Great to get a glimpse behind the scenes and get an idea how the teams interact and what is being worked on. I just love to see a game unfold like this, so much stuff finally gets to shine in the career mode. And despite working towards that huge goal, each update adds so much fun stuff nonetheless. Most wholesome devs, for sure.