rec.autos.simulators

Just thought I would start a thread here so that anyone from Papyrus
reading r.a.s. would have a nice, long list to easily copy and print :).

Please make the list sensible things that are (relatively) easy to do
given the game's architecture and alterations to the game are to make
things better rather than adding an aspect that isn't there (i.e. wet
weather racing).

My wish for an official patch:
- Longer delay, or altogether eliminate the forced retirement when the car
sits still too long.  There are times (Monaco with a full 19 AI cars, for
instance) when Shift-R won't work because the track is not clear.
Eventually, unless I can somehow keep the car moving slightly, I am given
a forced retirement.  I would like the ESC key to be the only method to
retire; or in the event of a keyboard freeze, and input for the controller
should prevent a forced retirement.

The immediate solution, of course, is not to need the use of Shift-R in
Novice or Intermediate mode by driving without error... however the
chicane at Monaco has a *** tendency to collect my Ferrari unless the
car is perfectly settled and the heading is just right!

Cheers all,
Gian.

1) Fine-tune performance for V2 cards.  My SLI rig gets low fps (20 or so
with 24Mb SLI on a 450) at race starts (of course, all detail is on).  I
don't understand this since *no* other game drains SLI like this.
2) I'd like the option to run GP, GP2, GP3 cars without this being tied in
to race length (without editing files).
3) The mouse cursor in menu screens shows annoying artifacts and/or trails,
and the game will freeze the system solid (hard boot required) frequently in
the menu screens.  Once on the track, no tech issues.  BTW, anyone
experience this issue, and fixed it?  Let me know how you did fix it.  My 2D
card was a Millennium (original), but now I have a Millenium G200.
4) Crashes are unrealistic, with weird rotation/flips, leading to #5
(below).
5) Damage to car isn't visually realistic - N2 wasn't near perfect in this
respect, but at least some body panels would crinkle. (I know, I shouldn't
crash).

I like the game, but the above fixes would just push it 'over the top'.

--
Philip M. D'Amato

"You can observe a lot just by watchin'"
--The Inimitable Yogi Berra

Ok.  How about the overhead camera view and getting rid of the
scratchy sound that seems prevalent in every Papy sim.  Also reduce
the amount of traction the AI drivers have in gravel traps and on
grass.

1) Ability to adjust linearity for gas, brake and clutch like you can for
steering.
2) Host-settable limit for the number of players that can join an online
race.
3) More drop down boxes in menus, for example: track selection; player and
camera selection in full screen replay.
4) Option to race online with less realism to allow more players to join.
(Maybe difficult to realise.)

5) Celeron 300A in the box ;-)

Bart Westra

- Standalone multiplayer host program, which could be automatized to run
  events (races) based on a cron-like script and console commands.
  Program should be platform indenpendent and possibly only manage the
  bitstreams for players, so no graphical output would be necessary.
  It would also collect the statistics of the races and send each player
  a mail after the race with the *extremely* detailed end results.

- An OBSERVER-only type connection to the host. The observers could
  see what's going on in the race and possibly communicate with each
  others (but not with the racers). The feed to this observer type
  connection would be something like broadcast, which would only
  eat up one more player's bandwidth.

- Ridiculous amount of statistics at the end of the race.. like passes
  by each car and on what lap, reasons for retirement or accumulated
  damage (would be nice to know if you had a flat tire or bent suspension
  but still were able to finish). This is a computer sim and these things
  should be easy to collect, right?

- Ability to start the race even if you have X minutes of practice left
  without losing the practice results.

- If you get booted from a multiplayer event, the ability to still save the
  replay and see the results so far.

- Limited pit stop ability, if you are running low on gas, possibility to stop
  at the pits and fuel up and a pits-only enabled shift-R command.

- More camera angles on the replays.. something like an automatic camera, that
  tries to keep two cars in the same picture if they are racing closely. A blimp-
  replay view.

- Statistics during the replay! Like drop down menu or chat-pad like infosheet,
  which shows everyone's last lap time and gap to next driver.

- In general *HEAVILY* concentrating on the multiplayer aspect. I, like many others,
  have hardly even tried the computer opponents :-) Starting to think about the
  game as a top-class sports event with possible spectators (see observer mode above)
  and figuring out what possibilities the internet (see host mode) gives and designing
  the patch or GPL2 from that point of view.

- The ability for a host to kick someone out of the game after it's started and even
  ban some ip-numbers etc.

- Somehow getting rid of these 4.3 second warped-lap times on multiplayer events.
  (Other than deleting the record.ini).

- The option to freely decide the length of the practice and laps in a race.
  (Other than .ini file editing).

- Making the game give some respect to the winner also and not the fast-lap guy
  only. The track records should show something like five last podium finishers
  and their average speed. Now the history only shows the warphead with a 4.6 sec
  lap time (can be removed, but still).

- Totally configurable controls.. like assigning analog input devices for
  the gear changes (working like digital inputs.. like in F1RS) or glance-views.

- The ability to have 'quick messages' in the function keys for example.. like
  F1 would be 'Sorry' etc.

GPL could easily be the greatest thing to hit multiplayer community ever with
these small changes :-) I think it already is, since it's really the only
multiplayer game I've tried.. except X-pilot :-)

 -Juha

--

The combined road course/oval at monza (as an option)

Better gauges...

Whether or not one thinks that a speedo should be in the game (I
believe there was none in the original cars).  We should have the
ability to have larger gauges below the letterbox.  I never have any
trouble reading my tach in my car, but reading the GPL tach is painful
(at least for me) and in-accurate.

Also since the graphics limit the ability to judge speed a digital
speedo would be a nice option to be able to turn on.

I really like GPL, but current PCs still present some vast barriers to
a truly life like sim.  Exact positon of your car, acceleration and
speed are very hard to judge with graphics presented, having options
to help out, I feel, is not a bad thing.

Later,
Geoff

How about doing away with the auto-save when you leave the car setup
screen. I figure I'm old enough to decide when I want to save it. <g>

Definitely a speedo in***pit view. They could just fit it above or below
the letterbox.

Roger

This is a must!
Plus Papy/Sierra/Cendant/whoever should provide hosts/servers.

That would be great, wathing a race of GPL online champions. Beats TV
or real F1.

Plus a replay to download from the webserver.

<many other very good suggestions snipped>

Yes, Papy should improve GPL, and not only concentrate on Nascar.

--
   _____
 /_______\              .\\ a t t h e a d
I  XT /~~~~                    
I  500\_____       1977' Yamaha XT.Rex 500 Enduro
 \____/\__I_I      http://matthead.home.pages.de/

% This is a must!
% Plus Papy/Sierra/Cendant/whoever should provide hosts/servers.

This may not be possible as I believe their contract with NASCAR (via
TEN) prohibits Sierra from providing "competing" race servers.  Though I
understand that WON (who is tied to Sierra) would like to provide
servers for GPL.

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I don't think they should, although it would be nice, but if they
would do so, the multiplayer program would probably just run in
windows.

What I want is really a multiplatform program with possibly
source code availabel :-) The world is full of extremely talented
coders out there with linux/*nix on their own computer and they
could make the host-program better. And a *nix based computer
probably handles data traffic much more easily and effectively
than a windows based one.

This ofcourse means no revenue for the company and so remains
a mere wet dream :-)

It's a shame that the best games are commercial, which means that
no new ideas can be imported or they will appear as a new commercial
product after a year or two.

 -Juha

--

Amen brother, aaaaaaaamen!!!

I know some places where I could have server software running 24 hours
a day on a T1 connection, but it's not possible the way GPL
multiplayer works at this time...  This would be so much fun...

When you're racing online, all the physics are calculated by the
client.  Now we'd just have to find some way to find out what info GPL
sends to the clients.  I think it wouldn't be a simple task, but if
all the ones who have a good knowledge of papy sims joined together,
maybe we could try it out...

Please don't tell me it won't happen, I kinda know but still I'm not
giving up on this issue...

I had a dream...

A. Renault