rec.autos.simulators

(for those that don't know, this is a new massively multiplayer game,
focusing on racing.  looks awesome.  check it out at http://www.racesimcentral.net/)

--
semper fudge

On Mon, 19 Nov 2001 23:54:45 GMT, "j a m e s"

I played MCO for several months during the "semi-closed" and "open" beta
phases. While I enjoyed some aspects of it, ultimately I didn't feel it was
worth the on-going monthly fee.

Since it's a online-only driving game, the multiplayer racing and sense of
community should be it's strong points. Unfortunately that's not the case.
About half the time there's lots of lag and warping while racing - cars
popping in and out, collisions that one player sees (and is affected by) but
the other one doesn't, indicators listing you as leading the race for
several laps, then suddenly updating when the race ends to show that you
finished third. If you get the right group of people together (non-wreckers)
and everyone has a good connection, the racing can be fun, but often it was
frustrating.

Creating a sense of community requires interaction between players, but this
is limited to chat windows. Many people were expecting some sort of
"cruising on Saturday night" feature - checking out other people's rides at
a drive-in, impromptu drag races on city streets, etc, but MCO isn't set up
that way. Players can band together to form clubs, but it doesn't go far
enough.

Trying out combinations of cool parts on your car was kind of fun, tailoring
the car to do want you wanted, eg. street racing v.s. a drag machine.
Unfortunately the cool parts were only available at auctions. Supply was
quite limited, so prices were high, and the only way to compete was to use
the fastest available method of raising cash, which was racing against the
clock at one track over and over again. Besides being boring, you start to
wonder: Hey, wasn't this supposed to be a 'multi-player' game? Same thing
was true when you eventually wanted to move up to a better car - they're
only available at auctions. In addition, EA seems to be trying to extend the
longevity of the game by deliberately withholding the better parts, then
slowly introducing them into the auction system as the months go by. So if
you work hard to build a great car, well, too bad, next month it will be
outclassed. You're back to solo racing trying to earn enough cash to bid on
the new parts. I don't mind being beaten by somebody who's a better driver
than me, but it's annoying when they won because they were the only one who
could afford to buy the best (scarce) parts because they could spend untold
hours building up cash.

There were some problems with cheats and hacks, but EA seemed to take care
of most of them during the beta, although sometimes it felt like they took a
long time to respond to the problems. I haven't heard how it's doing now
that it's gone live.

Geez, this post is getting wordy <grin>. Graphics: NFS4 level, not as good
as Porsche Unleashed. Physics: on par with PU. Search this NG over the past
couple of months, there have been other threads discussing MCO.

 ...Klinn

Todd Walker

twalker at jam dot rr dot com
http://twalker.d2g.com/gpl

  How did it suck?  I never played it, but have looked forward to it, although
I'm not sure I'd pay a monthly fee for online play right away.  Was it basic
game play/structure type problems that turned you off or beta-bugs?

Todd Wasson
---
Performance Simulations
Drag Racing and Top Speed Prediction
Software
http://PerformanceSimulations.Com

I guess part of it was the slowness of the server, which could likely
be attributed to being in beta (I understand the performance got much
better.) But even the gameplay was pretty dull. You spent a lot more
time trying to find a race, buy parts for your car, etc. than you did
driving. I don't play role playing games for just that reason -- they
are boring to me. This seemed too much like an RPG which is probably
why I trashed it. If you are into RPGs, you very well might like it.

Todd Walker

twalker at jam dot rr dot com
http://twalker.d2g.com/gpl

Also the user interface seemed to be horribly badly coded.  smooth as silk
when i got the 1400 athlon, but on the k6II500 it took a minute to move the
mouse and click on anything.  I thought it was bad server lag, then I found
out it was just the poor interface code.

ouch

John

--
Spadge Fromley
''collect your rubbsih
and in my belly it will go ...''

Its all in what you are looking for really. First, its not a sim, its NFS5
or 6 and is online only. If like buying a junker and having to run trials
and races to earn money to fix it up, then that part is cool. Most races I
have ever seen with other humans in it where limited to 4 drivers.

I am going to ditch it at the end of my free month because there is a HUGE
lockup problem with any video cards newer than a Speedstar24X and EA seems
to basically be ignoring the problem. My GF3 generally can run a race or 2
then it is a hard reboot. The interface and gameplay are also basically
unusable if you run any kind of FSAA and switching back and forth is not
really a good way to have to run things. There are suggestions to back track
to the 12+ series of nVidia drivers, but everything else I have runs fine
with the 21.83's and the new GeForce Ti cards can't use anything but the 21+
drivers. Even with the old drivers, guys are saying that it extends their
time between lockups, but it still freezes every session.

My take is the idea is great, I'd even stay with a subscription if EVERY
single session didn't end with a lockup, but they apparently wrote the code
back when GeForce256s where the rage and using anything newer than that
(from what I have seen) is going to be a problem.

  I picture it working like a souped up version of Street Rod 2, which was
really fun for me.  Sounds like I still might like it.  

Todd Wasson
---
Performance Simulations
Drag Racing and Top Speed Prediction
Software
http://PerformanceSimulations.Com

Other issues:
Races limited to 4 cars.
Game econmics way off. Newest cars are like 1973, but a 71 Duster will set
you back over $24,000. '66 Shelby Cobra about $250,000 or $500,000 if memory
serves.
Not a lot of community in the game either. Did not feel at all like an RPG.

First, the 'Client Software' is too expensive.  Should have been $20 or
less.

Secondly, the first NINTEY days of server connect time (from the date of
launch, not per person) should have been free.  This would have allowed the
community to build BEFORE the $10 fee kicked in.

Give away the razor, start charging for the blades.  Works every time.

-Larry