Hi,
This is the message I sent to Papyrus regarding INDY CAR RACING. Attached is
their reply.
Note that one of the things I mentioned is the difference in maximum speed on
different computers. So before you loose hope when you see messages about
people running 239 at Michigan, it probably has less to do with your driving
skill and setup than it does with the hardware you're running on. If anyone
any more data on this, I'd love to see it. I sure hope Papyrus addresses this
issue, especially when they get the modem stuff working.
Later...
Steve
From: CONSLT::OWEN "Steven Owen"
CC: OWEN
Subj: Questions and comments about Indy Car Racing
Hi,
First off, let me say that Indy Car Racing is one of the finest games I've
ever played. The detail and "feel of the car" is amazing. Well done!!!
But of course, I have a couple of questions and comments...
A question about lap speed: Can the speed of the computer I'm running on have
an effect on how fast the car can go? I'm running a 50 Mhz 486 DX2. On
Michigan, I can turn laps at only around 215 with the Ace setup. My friend,
who also has the game, is running on a 40 Mhz 386 DX. I can turn laps on his
machine at 230+. It's not the joystick or the controls because I can leave
the pits going about 20 MPH faster on the 386 than I can on my 486. We
checked the setups and everything is identical, right down to the weather.
And from the intro screen, we're both running v1.0. Does v1.02 do anything to
address this issue?
Game saving: It would be great to be able to save a race half way through.
I've read some messages from you folks on the internet regarding this being
difficult, but I think it would be well worth the effort. It would be nice to
be able to save multiple "full season" campaigns. Also, a 100% length
race can be several hours. While driver fatigue is a real issue (and so
is game player fatigue), playing for hours on end with no hope of saving is
impractical for a computer game. As the races get longer, pit, fuel, and tire
strategy become more important, and so I like to run races like this, but to
be forced into investing several hours in one chunk to do it makes it much
less fun.
Car damage: In real Indy car racing, if you scrape the wall and blow a tire,
the yellow comes out, but you get a tow back to the pits where you can change
the tire and make repairs. Maybe you'll go down a few laps, but at least
you'd still be in it. It would be great to see this sort of realism. Maybe
there's some suspension damage, so the tire gets fixed, but when back out on
the track the car wants to pull severely to one side... I realize that there
are practical limitations to how much "realism" can be built into the game
(computer speed, memory, programming, disk storage), but it's the little
things that make the game. Having other cars in a race get "fixed" after
crashing would also add to the realism.
Crashes: I want to see cars get airborne once in a while (like they do in real
life). More physical car damage (in addition to the occasional tire flying
off), and debris, would make for all the more realism. Also, how about other
cars crashing during the race? This does happen, and it should be a required
driver skill to see smoke ahead and have to figure out what to do to avoid it,
or sometimes, there's not a darn thing you can do to avoid it, and you get
crashed out of a race because of it. It's these sorts of unknowns that make
racing the exciting sport that it is.
System Memory: A more detailed outline of the necessary memory requirements
of the program would be great. XMS, EMS, Conventional, etc. It seems to me,
although I may be wrong, that the length of the "race tape" from which replays
are available, is limited by the amount of available memory. As a "for
example", the readme file which comes with X-Wing (from LucasArts) is very
specific as do what the program will be able to do with various amounts of
memory.
Rain: Where's the spray from the other cars tires? I think there are other
driving simulations that do this.
Chassis/Engine configurations: What the difference?
Copy protection: I realize that making me look up a word in the manual is
there to prevent pirating, but I always feel like I'm being punished for
someone elses crime when I have to do this. If some unscrupulous person wants
to illegally copy the game for someone, a couple of minutes in front of a
photocopier gets them around the copy protection. Maybe a "patch"
downloadable from your BBS for registered users to get around this? If copy
protection is unavoidable in your eyes, then at least I owe you folks a thank
you for making the lookup word always the first word on a line, and always
near the top. Nothing is more frustrating than being told "page 87, line 17,
word 9".
Anyway, great game!!! Please take the above comments as "suggestions for
improvement" rather than complaints. I'm very happy with the game and feel
that it's been worth every penny (although my wife, who hasn't seen me come
out of the computer room in a while, might beg to differ). Also, any plans to
get into other racing simulations? I'd love to see a good NASCAR Winston Cup
simulation.
Regards,
Steve Owen
To: conslt::owen
CC:
Subj: Re: Questions and comments about Indy Car Racing
Glad you are enjoying the game so much, and we appreciate you taking
the time to share your thoughts with us. User suggestions are important
to us, and will be considered seriously.
A few answers:
You should certainly be able to turn 230 laps on any machine. I'm not
sure what might be causing it. There have been a few strange things like
this that seem to do with the game card. Someone reported only getting
the faster speed with a joystick plugged into both ports of his gamecard.
We will be investigating this further. 1.02 will have no effect, this
patch only helps memory on 4Mb machines for the most part.
Your suggestions on game saving, car damage, and crashes are all good
suggestions and things that have been brought up before. There is some
chance that game saving could show up in an upgrade since the demand is
so high. Other feature ideas will be considered for future projects.
System memory: The game looks for as much XMS as possible. Best config.sys
has only himem.sys and dos=high. Conventional memory is only an issue
if you don't have more than 4MB RAM. Otherwise it just allocates to XMS.
You are correct that replays are all XMS. More free memory = longer replays.
Chassis/Engine info is available in a text file eng_chas.txt at world.std.com
in the ftp/vendors/papyrus directory, and also on our BBS.
Copy protection was a management decision, and is still a debated topic
around here. We did try to make it as painless as possible.
There are definitely more racing sims in the future. One will be out at
the end of 94, though what kind is not official yet. Rest assured we will
be looking to improve on many of the things you mentioned for the next sim.
Thanks again for all the time you spend putting these comments together.
Regards,
David Matson
Papyrus Tech Support
***************************************************************************
Steve Owen
***************************************************************************