Hi Netters !
I had Jeff's permission to post this Email to the 'Net so here
it goes. I hope you'll find it interesting .
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--Hi Support / Gabe !
--
--First of all, I'd like to point out the fact that I do
--appreciate your presence on the 'Net; it's good (for
--us customers) to know that there is someone who reads
--our comments and (sometime) is able to reply directly in a
--promptly and competent manner (well, I have to say that you
--all lurked on the 'Net before the release date but now the
--game has been released and we are all happy now - well,
--almost all ;-) . I think the game is pretty GOOD
--(I'm playin' with my brother's copy since I haven't received
--my original copy from you yet - it comes directly from the
--States (I ordered it last November - don't laugh please) so
--I have to be patient a little bit more) but I'd like to
--suggest a couple of things I'd like to see implemented in
--the next version of the game (if there'll be one ;-) . See
--below for the complete list.-
--
--Secondly, I would appreciate if you could keep us informed
--about the GP2 development like you do in the flight-sim
--newsgroups for Falcon 4. I cannont track (from memory) the
--F4 articles directly to you but having just seen the FAQ
--message you've posted in r.a.s, please do the same
--for GP2 (at least, tell us if GP2 will be developed a step
--further from the above level).
--
--Thirdly, please bear with me for this barbarian English ;--
--
--Here are some points I'd like to suggest to the GP2 development team.
--
--1. Add weather changes (even if it does not change dynamically).
--I know that this feature could take some time to develop but
--please keep it in mind when writing the "What's going to be added
--to the game.." list.
-
-1.)This is the second most asked question we have received.
-Currently, there are no weather changes. I complained about this
-personally.
Being developed in the UK, this is a bit odd (knowing the English
weather). Does Sir Geoff live in a no-rain, always-sunny isle
by chance ;-- ?
--2. Improve the car damage modeling; it's hard to damage
--your machine even if you crash yourself at 250 Kph. In
--particular, I happened to graze the side of the
--car against the track walls only to find that this
--produced no effect at all on my machine. In a situation
--like this, you should have your rear and front tires
--ripped off (sp) along with the rear & front suspension.
--In addition, when you loose a wheel (or the suspension
--itself) and you succeeded in returning to the pit, the
--pit crew is able to repair EVERYTHING in less than
--10 seconds. This is OK perhaps at rookie / amateur
--level but it should turned off at higher level (or
--when you have the "No car damage" aid turned off). When
--you loose a wheel you should not be able to reach the
--pit/box - or better, you should not be able to
--race again once you reach the box in conditions like these.
--It would be nice to have this parameter customizable at user's needs.
-
-2.)The crashes are one of the features that originally held up
-production of the game in the first place. You are
-correct, If I hit the wall at 100Kmh, I shouldn't be on
-my way to the pits, but to the hospital...The same
-with fixing damage once I return to the pits. It
-SHOULD take quite some time to repair major damage.
-However, I take into consideration that I am racing
-for the Ferrari team, and they ARE pretty quick!!
-( is that a good enough excuse??)
Ehm ... after seeing what they're doing in the last
races I think this is not a good excuse (keep in mind
that I live less than 20 Km away from Maranello so
imagine the team I'm racing for ! However, it's happy
to see that this particular has not been "unnoticed" by
the team (let's hope for a patch).
--3. Black flag; how does it work ? I've got a black flag
--once and the only effect noticed was a temporary reduction
--in speed (let's say for 10 seconds or so) but I was able
--to finish my race and I did't loose my position.
--Could you shed some lights please ?
-
-3.) You will only receive a stop-and-go penalty in the championship
-races, not in non-champ, or quickrace. You will only
-be "delayed".average delay ranges from 5 - 15 seconds.
-The great part about all of this is that I am a lousy
-driver, but a good "rolling roadblock". In allot of cases,
-protecting position is as crucial as winning..
-
OK, thanks for the clarification. Since I did some quick/non
championship races only I was not able to notice it. Thanks again !!
--4. I know this is hard to implement but since most of us
--customers are using it here it goes anyway; do you plan
--to add support for VESA extensions 2.0 or for
--VESA device drivers making use of the Linear Frame
--Buffer (like UNIVBE 5.1 or SDD 5.2) ? I've tested that
--there is a good improvement in frame rate by using
--programs directly designed for it so why not taking
--advantage by such a driver ? Or better, do you plan
--to produce (in the future) a version of GP2 which makes
--use of HW 3D accelerator ?
-
-4.) I haven't heard of any patches/upgrades for 3D compatibility,
-however, you are not alone. I have received many e-mails about this.
Yup, this should be a great benefit for the game in terms of frame
rate and it SHOULD not be too diffcult to implement (notice the SHOULD
verb since I'm a poor programmer so details on this subject is pretty
obscure to me ;-). Please keep it in mind for the future !
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OK net guys, please do not flame me for the following point since
I only expressed my opinion and I know that this feature is
really needed by must of you.
=== cut here ===
--5. At the moment, for **me** this is not particularly
--important but do you plan to add
--network support to the game (IPX/SPX, TCP/IP, Winsock or so) ?
-
-
-5.)This is the most asked question I have received. yes, we truly
-suck on this one,because we TOLD everyone it would have it,
-but for some reason or another, it wasn't included..
-
As I stated in my previous Email, this is not **my** primary
concern; however, it would be nice to have a lot of
machine connected together for a fully networked game !
--6. It would be nice to add the parade lap to the game
--(a realism touch).
-
-6.)Parade laps,being able to drive into victory circle,standing on a
-podium, spraying the crowd with champagne, getting kisses from the
-girls(my favorite).All of these I have mentioned to the developers.
What about the "raised arm" (sp?) a driver shows to his direct
opponent when the latter is not driving correctly (please bear
with me but I didn't find better terms to descrive it - in Italy,
we use to say "show the umbrella" to the other driver by placing
your right hand over the 90 degrees folded left arm elbow ;-) .
--7. It would be nice to have the telemetry (sp?) date print
--out (HP or IBM printers, just to cover the most used devices)
-
-7.)All of the data can be printed from the hot lap graph screens.
Perhaps I've missed this one. I'll check for it tonite at home !
-
- I hope this answers your questions, If not send me another e-mail..
-
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OK, following you can find the last Email answer I received from
him, togheter with my last one.
=== cut here ===
-Jeff, again many - many - many thanks for your Email . It's nice too
-see that our suggestions are considered by the dev team (at least,
-it's nice to HOPE it). However, just the last question (and the most
-important one, I think); do you plan to release a new version / patch
-/ update /call_it_as_you_want for this sim including the suggestions
-we customers are providing you with (perhaps with the updated 1996
-cars & tracks) ?
Currently, I have not heard of a patch developed for any
of the things we have discussed. I have sent e-mail to
a couple of the guys in the UK,outlining alot
of the suggestions/complaints/thank yous/flames that
I have been receiving. Hopefully, I should hear something
soon. When i do, I will try to forward you a copy.
=== cut here ===
Best,
Roberto
--
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Strhold Sistemi EDP
Reggio Emilia ITALY
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Acca', nisciuno e' fess !
(TOM - the red cat, Silvester's friend)
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