I will explain this as best as i can. I've been thinking about a addition of a dynamic option called (Terrain Behaviour Input) that works with controller and WASD where you as a user is a secondary force to what the steering wheel is doing. If there is no input from you and the vehicle is stationary. It will stay where it is even if it's not centered untill you move. However if your front tire gets curbed slowly it will keep turning till it locks to the side like for example rock crawling. Till you start inputting your controls again to gain control of the vehicle, at speed the vehicle will self center and the controller can make inputs as if they're your hands Basically. real life your steering wheel can move on it's own if you roll into a curb on the passenger side and it turns the steering wheel to the right or driving sideways down a slope the steering will turn towards the slope unless you steer to counteract that. and center itself if you drive forward. However your hands can change how your steering wheel moves almost like 2 different forces from the car. Wheel reacting to the world around it and the input of your hands. (instead your controller or keyboard) Including if you got your front wheel in a ditch where it is blocked from turning either side or driving on a trail with wheel ruts on each side. You cannot turn it if it's blocked from doing so and how much tougher it would be to also steer if you don't have power steering ( Power steering can make steering easier/stronger instead of just effecting FFB alone, with this option ingame ) It feels very arcadey how it just forces it self to steer to the point the linkages bend or brake which no person has the strength to do that behind the wheel including how disconnected the steering wheel is to the front wheels where it keeps turning no matter what. this would also make misaligned vehicles easier to drive as it wouldn't be forced to keep the steering wheel straight if the wheels are bent with this feature for controllers and keyboard and it would deliver a huge amount of control and what the vehicle is doing and prevent the front steering from constantly being damaged in technical offroading or a rut and causing the vehicle to also misbehave. No steering is strong enough to lift the entire vehicle up or squeeze a tire against two rocks where it would be impossible to steer any further. This is very problematic for vehicles like the hopper aswell Steering is a huge aspect of the game and i feel like this would make the experience much better to feel the feedback of the vehicle for those who want to just hop on or can't afford a wheel. And be much better to drive vehicles such as example, the d-series with the solid front axle where it's always not driving straight during bumps or carrying heavy loads or even simulate slop steering for high mileage vehicles if that ever becomes a thing Steering currently feels very forced and arcade for those without wheels and this option would make it much more fun and realistic. also preventing steering damage when it's constantly forcing itself to follow the axis of the controller input. Hope this makes sense This video somewhat shows how the front wheels turn on their own when the driver lets go of the wheel due to the rocks and also not being able to steer enough due to the rocks preventing it from steering any further What happens currently in beamng is the wheels always force straight or on axis of the controller rather letting it settle holding it's current position until additional actions happen. Causing severe stress on the steering parts when it cannot relieve the tension by simply self-steering to relief itself depending on the situation and finding it's resting point unless there is a ton of traction where it'll hold it's position and largely depends on how the steering input will be implemented for the steering to hold it's place by how the user wants. (How the steering can be held from being effected by the vehicles self-steering can be a timed lockout where it'll try to put pressure on the steering wheel when there is input when there is great force against it. If there has been no input for however long it'll just go back to being limp or if your input agrees to what the self-steering wants) but also to move when the forces become too strong to hold during these technical crawling moments or casual driving / spirited driving and even crashes If i need to explain something please let me know. Hope this gets considered My worries of this addition: Being implemented wrong where it feels like a nuisance to use or NOT having the satisfying feeling of the ingame steering wheel feeling dynamic and reactive being in control. Not enough tuning options to make it feel right depending on what the user expects. Thanks
The current way steering is handled is definitely bodgy, with the so called "hand of zeus" applying some massive force to the steering wheel. The big problem is, how do you define "loosely" and "tightly" holding onto the steering wheel with the available controls? Say I'm cruising down the highway or accelerating down a drag strip, I just want the car to keep going straight. With the current system, I just let go of the buttons, or let the joystick center, and the car will go dead straight short of any major disturbances. But if you were to "loosen the grip" on the steering wheel every time no inputs are made, any minor disturbance could cause the steering to wander left or right, thus every moment driving straight would require constant adjustments back and forth, almost as if you've got sloppy steering linkages.
I guess something like hold-steering and resistive steering(steering stops when it meets a object that stops it from going any further to prevent damage) would be better suited but one work around would be to disable the setting when you are driving at speed or switch to the constantly-grip. kinda like normal steering but gets effected by the road more and self centers to new default position if you have bad alignment so you don't have to constantly be applying perfect amount of force on the stick or rapidly tapping the arrow keys rather than the rest of the factors for regular driving
