rec.autos.simulators

To start, I think that the graphics are improved very nicely. The cars look
great and the frame rate in SVGA is definetly more efficient. The spotter
is cool but sometimes gets on my nerves with that red neckish voice. You
should be able to toggle his big mouth on and off while in a race. No big
deal though. However, the following is a big deal:  

        I love to race at Taledega but I was very dissapointed with the AI on that
track. Cars hardley ever run three wide and never pass on the outside.
LAME! If you get in the front, all you have to do is hold the inside line
and the AI cars can never pass you. The drafting is not very realistic
either. 2 or 3 cars should be able to easily pass one car on the side yet
it does not happen. When a car gets behind you it really does not give you
much of a push. If I want to run down the lead draft, I have to let a car
get in front of me so I can push us both to the front and even then it is
really difficult.

        I think the steering controls kind of suck also. When I played GP2 for the
first time, I was amazed at the accuracy of the steering. MicroProse made
it so the steering gradually icreases as you turn the wheel. As a result,
it is much more difficult to over react to something. Papyrus needs to
learn from that. One little turn on the wheel in N2 and the cars starts
jerking all around. One other little gripe, the smoke form a burning engine
or a spin sucks with N2 as compared with GP2. GP2 gives that illusion of a
transparent smoke that leaves a real cool trail. N2 looks like some lame
cartoon drawing that puffs in little balls. YOU CANNOT SAVE A GAME OR SAVE
A SET UP IN YOU OWN TITLE. THAT TOTTALLY BLOWS!

        Finally, I must say that the road courses are very much improved. Handling
there is way easier so that is good.Phoenix is much better and so is the
other 1 mile tracks. No more back end sliding out of control on every turn.
Well those are my observation. I would like to hear from anyone who agrees
or disagrees with me.

Eric

Reply to Eric's Previous post:

I think you have a lot of legit points.

I think it's quite safe to say that race cars actually handle better than street
cars and break better as well. Drive a Nascar 2 car around the track at 80 and see
what type of control you have, it's no to bad but I still feel I can
drive my olds around the track better than that. Which ain't so
realistic.

About the AI in Nascar 2, yeah I like when you slow down how sometimes
the you can alomost stop a race if your in the right position.

Again it's good but there's still room for improvement.

We must also understand there's a very devoted group of people around
here that have put a LOT of time in Nascar already. They have accepted
the way Nascar has been presented to them, I myself say it's good but
there still are some things that can be better and it seems that
papyrus doesn't even recoginize that. For ex. if the majority of people
around here say that Nascar handles great then Papy is gonna figure
what they have is pretty good. Again I say it's ok but it can be
better, don't sit at status quo. Also if your talking Nascar in this
group year round obviously you like it but at the same time it's really
not that many people. It's not like there's 400 people talking about
Nascar every day. If it were as good as it could be I belive there
would be substatialy more people in here talking about it. Nascar 1 was
satisfactory because the hardware wasn't their to handle the game
really right, but know things have changed.

Currently I'm around here waiting for Papyrus to answer if they're
gonna patch some of the obvious things they didn't include. Plus
getting some tips from others.

Q.B.M.

I thing is it's a little more realistic to not have the steering
speed-sensitive.

around.

What you need to do is set the steering lock to what suits your driving.
The default setups for Tally are too high.

One other little gripe, the smoke form a burning engine
SAVE A SET UP IN YOU OWN TITLE.

I have saved a bunch of setups. I think you can not save setups right now
if you only do a minimal install.

--

http://www.netins.net/showcase/mpete

Nascar..Weather..Photo Gallery...OnNetCameras..Oddities..and more..
Stop on by, what can it hurt?

You can get better AI by paying for it. Its called the NRO where you race
against real people.

I still  like the spotter's voice and I've had a lot more time to get
annoyed with it. <g>

Have you tried selecting the "Joystick" setting in the controls page. This
is equivalent to "non-linear" steer from N1 and is similar to the control
mechanism in GP2. Personally, I prefer the wheel mode, but it's not for
everyone.

One thing that I wish had made it from the ICR2 Rendition version. The
semi-transparent smoke was a very nice effect.

The setup problem is related to doing a minimal install and is obviously a
bug. The Save Game feature was left out intentionally.

Dave (davids) Sparks
Late Night League
http://www.sequoia-dev.com/Hawaii/latenite.html

--
Chuck Stuart - Mesquite TX USA  
RaceTime utility program for Nascar1/Indycar2.  
http://www.metronet.com/~cstuart/

--
Henrikki (Hena) Hakkanen               Tel. +358-(9)0-345 5538

------- The best way to accelerate a Mac is 9.81 m/s2 --------
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are mine and does not
            necessarily reflect those of my employer!

  You drive a real race car?  That's a scary thought.  You didn't happen to
hit the wall too hard did you?

Hey Silly Putty,

I also drive real race cars and I disagree with you completely. Other than
the g force and vibrations in the seat of your pants the sim does a very
good job of approximating the feel of a cup car. A lap around Atlanta is
very similar to the line and 'feel' of a real cup car. Some of the setup
parameters do not map 'correctly' but then again some of
our best setups do not make sense.

BTW,

I think the problem is you are used to the feel of you street stocker
and real race cars behave quite different.

Regards,
        ---Wayne.

You're right.  The AI still do not know how to draft with a human.  They
don't seem to benefit from having a human behind them and you can pretty
much leave them behind once you pass them.  

I believe they removed non-linear steering.  Suggestion: soften up your
shocks.  Soft shocks are more forgiving because they absorb better.
This makes the car less responsive, but may help an ocassional
overreaction by the driver.

David Martin

Dave (davids) Sparks
Late Night League
http://www.sequoia-dev.com/Hawaii/latenite.html