rec.autos.simulators

What would be the reception out there to a racing simulator that had some
feature of staring in junior formula and having to progress up the ladder
either by getting a better drive in the same formula or moving up.  For
instance your first season is in a medium to back of the grid FFord.  If you
do well enough you can move up to FOpel/FRenault/F3/F3000 or get a better
drive in the same series, like a works team or something.

something like this was tried with Mario Andretti's name on it but the
actual driving simulation was pretty poor.  Maybe you'd have to limit the
number of steps to a few.  But I would like my performance to affect what I
could drive.

Here's hoping someone out there has similar thoughts.

Rob

On Tue, 13 Jan 1998 13:43:26 +0900, "Robert York"

The problem with this is that you are actaully asking a company to
produce 3 or 4 Sims at on time for one purchase price. This is both
impractical from a programming sense (unless you just want the same
game engine with different graphics/AI) as we have seen lately it
takes a LOT of talent to produce 1 good sim, nevermind 4 at once as
well as being poor business sense (maybe as "addon" packs!).

You could try you first season with GP after altering you BHP and AI
figures (F3000), then if you are good enough do an "oval" season plus
a few street circuits in ICR (Indy Lights) the progress to a full
season of ICR2 (CART) and if you win the championship or are European
you will all of a sudden be ready for GP2/F1RS.

Note:- FLAME SUIT ON
1. If you fail at any of these formula go straight to NASCAR2.
2. If you progress from ICR2 to GP2 BUT are Micheal Andretti you HAVE
to race a McLaren (with Schumi as your team mate and he has an extra
100bhp) with NO testing before any race and any accident within 200
miles of the track will automatically be your fault.

Good luck, let us know how you go in 4 years!!!

Anthony Bulloch
Brisbane, AUS

Sega did this in a limited way with their Senna Racing.  You could
challenge a better team higher on the ladder to win his ride.

Kind of neat.  I still have that game =)

Scott

and having to progress up the ladder
either by getting a better drive in the same formula or moving up.  For
instance your first season is in a medium to back of the grid FFord.  If you
do well enough you can move up to FOpel/FRenault/F3/F3000 or get a better
drive in the same series, like a works team or something. <<

I like the idea of having different types of cars. Especially the car
classes that comprise the logically progression up to F1. I think it'd be
fun.

But I wouldn't want the program to dictate to me which class I could race at
any time. I have a well developed sense of what I feel is fun and what
isn't. I don't want the programmers dictating to me that I can't drive a
certain car at a certain time. Especially if I've paid money for the
privilege. It seems peculiarly hypercritical in a way. I buy a sim so that I
can experience in sim form what I can't experience in real life. But then
the sim itself tells me I'm not allowed ? I don't need a sim to tell me that
I can't drive in a certain car. I already have real life experience for
that. I buy a sim so that I CAN drive the cars I want to but can't in real
life. I've never liked sims where the programmers force you to go through
processes to play the thing the way you'd like to play it. I'm a much better
source about how I like to play a sim than any far removed from me
programmers are. Let them do the programming and simulate the car, the
tracks, the weather etc etc. But stop at forcing me to play the darn game
the way they think I should play it according to their rules of what's
enjoyable. ( Can you tell that this is a pet hate of mine ? :-)

actual driving simulation was pretty poor.  <<

For some strange reason it seems that any sim with any Andretti on it is
pretty poor.

Phillip McNelley

The Grandprix 2 Unofficial Manual
http://www.powerup.com.au/~philmak/GP2MAN/

and having to progress up the ladder
either by getting a better drive in the same formula or moving up.  For
instance your first season is in a medium to back of the grid FFord.  If you
do well enough you can move up to FOpel/FRenault/F3/F3000 or get a better
drive in the same series, like a works team or something. <<

I like the idea of having different types of cars. Especially the car
classes that comprise the logically progression up to F1. I think it'd be
fun.

But I wouldn't want the program to dictate to me which class I could race at
any time. I have a well developed sense of what I feel is fun and what
isn't. I don't want the programmers dictating to me that I can't drive a
certain car at a certain time. Especially if I've paid money for the
privilege. It seems peculiarly hypercritical in a way. I buy a sim so that I
can experience in sim form what I can't experience in real life. But then
the sim itself tells me I'm not allowed ? I don't need a sim to tell me that
I can't drive in a certain car. I already have real life experience for
that. I buy a sim so that I CAN drive the cars I want to but can't in real
life. I've never liked sims where the programmers force you to go through
processes to play the thing the way you'd like to play it. I'm a much better
source about how I like to play a sim than any far removed from me
programmers are. Let them do the programming and simulate the car, the
tracks, the weather etc etc. But stop at forcing me to play the darn game
the way they think I should play it according to their rules of what's
enjoyable. ( Can you tell that this is a pet hate of mine ? :-)

actual driving simulation was pretty poor.  <<

For some strange reason it seems that any sim with any Andretti on it is
pretty poor.

Phillip McNelley

The Grandprix 2 Unofficial Manual
http://www.powerup.com.au/~philmak/GP2MAN/

I think that it's a wonderful idea. But obviously, a lot of people will be
irritated
if they HAD to win the British F3 championship to move up into F3000, and
HAD to win F3000 to move up into F1.

What should be done is have two options:
Career mode... Where you started in Formula Renault or something similar,
and then had to score good results to move up inte the higher formulae.

Single championship/race mode... Where you could choose any of the
available
categories to and race a season in that championship. Then you could decide
to
move up or down or whatever.

If they did a career mode, they should probably have the user choosing home
country and how good you are at getting sponsors, etc. Just to make it even
more realistic, you know.  :-)

However, the size of a game of this kind....
It would eat up a lot of space. You'd have to have something like fifty or
so tracks.
If you want it to be realistic, that is.

The basic physics etc of the driving model doesn`t change between formula
just the grip levels/ downforce/power/braking etc.
I feel this could be done.