As far as I can understand Papyrus has a lot to prove. It might be as someone
wrote that Papyrus does not really fancy auto racing very much, at least not
the auto racing sims. If that is true I can't understand why they made any
sims in the first place. If Papyrus hasn't planned any bugfixes to ICR
I think they should say so and thus spare us for hoping in vain. I am really
pissed by the lack of updates from Papyrus when it comes to ICR. Apparently
they have not learned from Id software who has constantly provided
their customers with updates even though most of the lastest bug fixes to Doom
(ver 1.7 thru ver 1.9) were minor in comparision to what is needed to be done
to ICR.
Papyrus must see that publishing a product like ICR is a process and that
process continues after the intial release. Yes, ver 1.5 of ICR exists, so
they have updated ICR, but the big bugs are still there. But there is something
that is not there, AI! I don't know if the lack of AI is an omission or
just bad coding... To say that Papyrus has implemented AI is a joke.
It's all mechanical, by driving very close up to an AI car can make him
almost stop. If an AI car decides to pit when in T4 at Michigan he just slows
down and moves to the inner line even if he is surrounded by five opponent. To
call that AI is probably another blow to the AI community.
The computer can beat Kasparov in chess but can't peel a banana.
The problem with the lack of AI is that it is the main component of any auto
racing sim alongside a realistic driving model and accordingly is a lack of AI
the second best way to kill an auto racing sim. Why hasn't it killed ICR?
Well, I guess most us don't race very often instead we just tune our cars to
make them go faster and faster, ie we are very seldom confronting the AI.
I've tried to race a lot of times, most of the times with damage on, and I've
never completed a single road course race at 100% and just one oval race. Lately
I have turned damage off but that destroys a lot of the exitement.
What we have here is a game that has done tremendously well despite of AI that is
below par and a lot of annoying bugs. If only Papyrus could make a real effort
to get rid of the bugs and implement better AI, I guess ICR will be almost
unbeatable. I don't say that Payrus should invest time and money in ICR forever,
not at all, but a sound version of ICR would be greatly appreciated.
If F1GP 2(will be out in ca. 6 months) delivers everything that is lacking
in ICR I am afraid that ICR will die. That would be a very bad thing because
IndyCar is different from F1 in many respects. Most obvious is it that an IndyCar
drives on ovals which is very different from road courses and a lot of fun.
I almost never do anything but testing on the road courses in ICR because of the
stupid mechanical opponents.
If Payrus has sent ICR away to die why did they bother to make it. They have
spent a lot of time developing ICR and it would be stupid of them to abandon it.
It just needs one major revision. Papyrus could include more rules, options, etc if
they'd like to surprise their customers but that is not necessary.
Give ICR a chance, everyone deserves it.
In an ariticle on News someone I don't remember wrote something like: "To combine
the AI from F1GP and the driving model of ICR would make a happy marriage."
Indeed, Microprose will do it with F1GP 2, but will Papyrus?
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University of Oslo, Norway
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"I am your inferior superior."
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