Hi there. I wanted to just share my thoughts on the vehicle handling, I realise there is long thread about this already (http://www.beamng.com/threads/2295-Better-driving-physics-and-saving-settings) but it seems to have degraded into a quagmire of dubious 'facts' and angry internet people. I will express the point in very broad terms: vehicles, particularly the fast cars, are very difficult to control. You can attribute this to whatever you like: some aspect of the physics, the control mappings, the user, it isn't important - what is important is that it needs to be improved, otherwise I think some people are going to struggle to enjoy the game. So what can be done? I think it would help to have a constructive discussion about that. Personally my suggestions would be: Tailor the controls - I suspect that part of the problem at the moment is the control mappings and how input is translated to steering wheel / accelerator action. I wonder if there could be different control mappings for keyboard vs controller vs wheel - for example throttling keyboard input such that full acceleration does not occur (which obviously results in massive wheelspin for the torquier cars) Expose vehicle constants - If there was access to some physical constants such as the coefficient of friction on tyres, vehicle mass, suspension dampening etc... which the user could tweak, then it would a) be loads of fun b) provide a way for less hardcore people to ease up the driving model to accommodate their gameplay style. I think this also could feed back into development if people found configurations of constants which are particularly enjoyable, even if they aren't completely physically accurate. Finally I would just like to express my opinion that total simulation is quite distinct from a 'game' and anyone who is making a 'simulation game' is drawing a balance somewhere between realism and fun for the sake of it. Those things are not mutually exclusive but it is a positive thing to embrace both the 'game' and 'simulation' parts of the software. Thanks for reading, hopefully that was diplomatic enough to avoid another big internet argument (fat chance right? )
I totally agree with you. It feels like driving on ice all the time. I go with 30 kph into a curve - The car has no grip and slips. I hope there will be (or is?) a way to increase the grip by modding, cuz it feels a little bit strange to hear the sound of tires when braking from 15 to 0 kph. My opinion Btw. this is the only thing that i dont like at the moment. The Physics is good so far, even if some materials are totally unrealistic, but i think it will be improved.
I completely disagree with you. I'm not arguing for the sake of arguments here. I have no problems controlling the cars in this game. In fact, the more I unlearn about the other fake games the better off I am. If you're having issues with input via keyboard I highly recommend a controller. If you want the developers to make traction control systems/ABS, I suppose that would be acceptable. But I'm sure changing the physics is right out. You can mod the game all you want, you'll just be ruining it for yourself. How is it impossible to screech tires from 15kph to 0? If you're having issues with turning and braking, brake first, then let the front wheels spin up again, then initiate your turn. Same thing in real life. Take your car out out an empty road, go up to 35MPH, Slam on the brakes, and turn the wheel ALL the way left with the tires skidding. The car will go on a straight path because the front wheels cannot deliver their inertia to the road, ergo, you slide straight while trying to turn with no change in direction. If you want a demonstration of driving without crashing, I have several videos where I do 3 laps around the island as fast as I can without issue. Below is one of them.
Yes, its absolutely impossible for me to screech tires from 15 kph to 0, except i have bad ground, but thats the ABS i think. But in reality you dont have to kick down the brake at maximum. The Ibishu Covet has the best Handling of all cars so far, the Bolide has the worst. I think the main problem of the game is the Keyboard. You can Throttle full, brake full or turn full left or right, there is nothing between (1 or 0). I disabled the dynamic steering because its too smooth for me, i dont want to turn anymore but my car does. It just doesnt feel like driving my car, i dont hear screeching tires all the time when accelerating or braking even at very low speeds. ?DIT:: I would need a controller with dynamic acceleration and brake to test the vehicle control under better circumstances.
Coovargo: Perhaps you are perfectly happy with the handling of cars in the game and that is fine, I don't want to diminish your experience. However a lot of people DO have difficulty with the handling of cars and that is what we are trying to address here. I would hope that you don't think the game should only be accessible to people who have the twitch driving skills to drift cars around at high speed - the game should be enjoyable by everyone and if that means accommodating, for example, keyboard players (which I am not incidentally) then I think the developers should appreciate that. As an aside I actually did quite a lot of playing after making the original post and I discovered that some of the cars are actually quite a lot more easy to control than others. Most striking was the fact that front wheel drive cars are vastly easier to control than rear wheel drive cars. I have a pretty good idea of why this is the case from the intuitive mechanical perspective but I won't pretend to understand the engine and will just suggest that perhaps it is an area which needs more dev focus.
I found it weird, that all cars get totally uncontrollable at speeds over 100 kph if you tap the arrow keys left or right, even with dynamic controls enabled. My own car is totally comfort at 180 kph. And most wierd thing: disabled dynamic control makes the car handling BETTER.
