rec.autos.simulators

After taking back my copy of International Rally Championship for a
refund, I took to playing its predecessor, Rally Championship -
Network Q RAC. For those who haven't played it, it's a great
combination of sim and arcade and a good recreation of the feel of
rallying in Britain.

IRC was not what it claimed to be - an improvement. I have already
e-mailed Europress at great length on this, but I thought I'ld poll
the NG for further suggestions for improvements. My thoughts are as
follows:

- I'ld like better co-driver speach. Nick Grist's style is good. I'm
not talking about a massive increase in complexity, but adding a few
phrases like "long", "short", "don't cut", "into" and "big".
i.e.: "easy left long, don't cut, into medium right, short ... big
jump."

- Choice of co-driver. My daughter at least would prefer a female
co-driver as would many others.

- Ability to go further off course at the corners. O.K. we all aim to
stay on the track, but when we go off at a corner I really want to run
off and not bounce off the wallpaper. It would be nice to have to
drive back onto the track!

- Fix the "broken wallpaper" effect that occurs when sliding the rear
out on corners. Sometimes its possible to slide the rear of the car
through the scenery wallpaper rather than bouncing off it. I guess
this is caused by the software assuming that the fornt end of the car
will hit the scenery, not the back. Has anyone gone completely
through?

- Cliffs. Not many on the RAC as modelled, but the ditches were great.
A subtle reminder to stay on the track.

- Dust clouds. These are a serious problem on real rallies. The dust
left from the previous cars.

- A REAL track editor. IRC is simply a random track generator with
limited control of a few variables. This may not be better for the
"general playing public", but it would allow enthusiasts to recreate
real courses.

- Crowds. Did anyone see San Remo this year, or Portugal. Several
stages were cancelled due to the crowds!

- Realistic times. There are several stages with 5+ minute times when
the actual stages take 15-20 minutes to drive! this makes it virtually
impossible to better the computer records.

Having watched the Australian Rally on Speedvision this weekend, I'ld
love to buy a sim of it. Just think, Langley Park at night with the
fireworks going off; full speed over the "Bunny Hops" and the great
Bunnings(?) jumps and water splash sections.

David Lawson (Grey Knight)

Yeh I don't think it's an improvement on the first apart from the D3D
graphics making it a bit smoother. But what peeved me was the box had a
"SUPPORTS 3DFX" sticker on it, which would make me think native 3DFX such
as NFS2se not crappy old D3D as I discovered. You say you took your's
back, where are you from? Around here basically once you open the box the
only thing you can do is get a replacement disk if the CD is faulty.
Brett H.

some stuff...

Electronics Boutique has the 1 week policy... you don't like it, you can
take it back....   If it sucks, you can take it back.

I live in Canada and I both bought and took back the game to
CompuCenter. I must add that I also took with me the hardcopy of the
FAQ from the Europress site which lists current problems. It doesn't
take much more than that to make it obvious that the game was rushed
to market for the Christmas sales season. A great pity considering the
potential of the RAC sim.

It only took me one night to realise the problem, followed by a visit
to Europress's website which confirmed my suspicions.

The old policies on returning software changed when CDs became the
medium of choice, though that may be changing again with the advent of
cheap CD "burners." I recall reading some stats last year that
something like 30% of all software related CDs are returned. At the
time I think it was primarily compatibility reasons, though it is
indicative of the fact that the industry will take back software that
either doesn't work or is no good.

Other than that, any ideas for Rally sims?

David Lawson (Grey Knight)

I agree with all your points about IRC. Network Q was the better product.

IRC is not more than a straighforward arcade racer. IMO, Network Q
has more atmosphere and comes much closer to the real thing than IRC.

There are a few problems with Network Q, though. Here is what I observed:

1. If you lower the car and stiffen the suspension sufficiently, it is
possible to
achieve speeds in excess of 350 km/h. With Rally cars limited to around
300 horsepowers, this speed is not realistic.

2. After long bends, the engine power drops off. It takes about 4 to 5
seconds
to get the engine power back. This occurs on all cars and in all gears.
Even if
you take a fast corner in second or third gear, your engine power will be
gone by the time
you come out of the corner.

These problems are bad news for anybody who is looking for a rally
simulation.

Has anybody observed the same problems? Is there a way to fix this?

To answer your question "what does RAS want", I personally want
Network Q without the bugs.