Design Meeting notes (22nd March 2012)

[HighTower]

I had read some ideas on merging multi-player with single player. Could that mean that while in career mode you could choose to race AI or online with people with like rank and same progress in the career. Or it would be nice to have an option to have the whole career online.

[Tiago Fortuna]

I see great ideias there. Just one thing: remember that not everyone fancies Apple. Android FTW

I hope I can attend this meeting:

22/03/2012 17:30 - Andy Tudor : k, let's go over Seasonal content, leagues, community/weekly events, ongoing leagues/tournaments etc.. another day

PS: I hate being a deaf-mute. Its frustrating to say the least

[corstick]

I don't know if it would really work or be that fun but I did have a fevered dream once where, in the co-op driver swap mode, the current driver would have their entire HUD disabled by default and the other player would be the race engineer with access to all relevant telemetry/timing/weather radar etc. With no HUD, the race engineer would be crucial to the drivers success, or otherwise. It could add a whole different dynamic to the race and keep things interesting for the non-driver. Whether it would actually work in practice, I have no idea.

[Mark vd Meulen]

Andy,

- I think some form of "coop mode" is a great idea, as already more and more games are including something like that and in 2013 gamers might expect something like it to be included.

- Concerning the matchmaking, I posted my ideas a few months back in the GPLRank thread --> "handicap" system, as again I agree that in a world were MP is getting more popular, no "big" racing game has managed to deliver a "press button and be matched with people with a similar skill level". And in my eye that's the main reason MP racing on consoles has not really taken of yet.

- One question from something discussed in the previous meeting. You, me to, all like the TOCA career mode. Do you guys mean the technical side of it (seasons) and/or more the story/animation part of it?

[PaulC2K]

Teams & Management
I'd definitely like to see the co-op mode, especially if it had the openness of a SP career mode. Being able to start off as a small team and work our way forward together based on our combined performance (team pts) would be great.

A Management DLC, where there was more involvement would be nice, but i'd kind of disagree with some of the comments suggesting it'd be a chore, i guess that depends on how deep and detailed it was taken, but adding the basic aspects such as custom team name & livery, teammate (if AI), wouldnt be dull. I'd love to see something more involving, but personally i dont see that happening, because unless you were able to purchase better items for the team, like engines, brakes, facilities etc etc and it have an impact, it'd be cosmetic changes only, and i dont think performance changes is likely, even if this was offline and self-contained (ie no leaderboard times).


24h Races
Anyone who loves racing sims, and hasnt been involved in a 24hr event is really missing something. They're fantastic, even if your not racing, and just have a personal investment in the result, they're great to follow. I used to run an LFS team, and there was a great endurance league in that which ran for about 5yrs, 4x 6h races, a 12h opener, and a 24h marathon towards the end. Get yourself into a good team and these sort of experiences are the stuff you'll remember for years, spending hours practicing with teammates, working towards a setup that everyone is happy with, then organising yourselves so your all available to race at certain times, have a backup driver on standby, a couple of drivers in a teamspeak (or similar) channel as your 'crew chief' letting your driver know whats going on, and the satisfaction of bringing the car home at the end. Its got to be the most fun you can have in sim-racing. All spread around the world, and connecting into the server just before the pit-stop and then do a 'digital handshake' to swap drivers over and off they go. I've done this with guys in the US, UK, various locations around Europe, and Australia, against teams also spread around the world (some just 1-2 nations), and they really separate the men from the boys. If theres a competitive racing element to pCARS, it'll want to do 24h races, even if 90% of people just want to win 20min long races on their own and win.
I'd agree that a co-op (vs AI) game where you drive 20min then wait 20min while someone else drives might be boring as a game mode, but thats because theres little to really connect you to the race, your not involved or invested the same. The same race in multiplayer though can be very exciting.


Driver Ratings

22/03/2012 17:19 - Thomas Taschler : it could show some sort of strenght-pentagon, if you know what i mean

Thats pretty much what i'd hope to see. Perhaps something a little more complicated, but something that takes multiple things into consideration and gives you a rating based on what your attempting to do/drive.

eg.
Class based: Single seaters - 5/10, Touring cars - 8/10, Stock cars - 4/10
Condition based: Dry racing - 9/10, Wet racing - 7/10, Mixed conditions - 4/10
Speed based: Hi-Speed cars - 6/10, Mid-speed cars - 5/10, Slow cars - 8/10
Track based: based on experience at the location or something similar to the Shift 'perfect corner' method??
etc coupled with stats like consistency, clean driving, aggression level, retirement rate etc

If circumstance based stats were generated for each driver, you'd be able to create a dynamic score based on the circumstances for that race, so for example:
Derby GP in a slow touring car, dry weather forecast = 85/100
Monaco in Formula A, mixed weather forecast = 50/100
If you wanted to improve your rating, you'd just view your 'driver assessment' data and try to improve yourself in that area.
I dont see why being very good in a lesser class of racing should mean you're a worse 'all-round' driver than someone who happens to be equally good in a faster class, which is often what happens.
Having stats like this available would be very handy for deciding whether or not some people should be eligible to enter some MP races, and you'd hopefully create races which contain drivers of a similar ability to the others taking part, rather than letting their ability in something irrelevant be considered a valid factor in deciding how good they are. You wouldnt put Valentino Rossi in an F1 car, even with his Ferrari testing, because his skill-set isnt right for it, you'd put him in an inferior race with people more evenly matched until they're at a level to go with better, evenly matched racers.

[David Fry]

I think endurance races would be a great idea. I've always wanted to get into these. I think a detailed animation for a driver's swap would be a good idea. It would at least be a nice touch. During the Rolex 24 at Daytona someone filmed the entire race through a helmet cam and showed what all has to be done during a driver's swap.



Since Ben has experience with endurance races (Le Mans, Sebring, and Daytona I believe), his insight would be invaluable for this.

[FLX81]

Driver Ratings

Thats pretty much what i'd hope to see. Perhaps something a little more complicated, but something that takes multiple things into consideration and gives you a rating based on what your attempting to do/drive.

eg.
Class based: Single seaters - 5/10, Touring cars - 8/10, Stock cars - 4/10
Condition based: Dry racing - 9/10, Wet racing - 7/10, Mixed conditions - 4/10
Speed based: Hi-Speed cars - 6/10, Mid-speed cars - 5/10, Slow cars - 8/10
Track based: based on experience at the location or something similar to the Shift 'perfect corner' method??
etc coupled with stats like consistency, clean driving, aggression level, retirement rate etc

If circumstance based stats were generated for each driver, you'd be able to create a dynamic score based on the circumstances for that race, so for example:
Derby GP in a slow touring car, dry weather forecast = 85/100
Monaco in Formula A, mixed weather forecast = 50/100
If you wanted to improve your rating, you'd just view your 'driver assessment' data and try to improve yourself in that area.
I dont see why being very good in a lesser class of racing should mean you're a worse 'all-round' driver than someone who happens to be equally good in a faster class, which is often what happens.
Having stats like this available would be very handy for deciding whether or not some people should be eligible to enter some MP races, and you'd hopefully create races which contain drivers of a similar ability to the others taking part, rather than letting their ability in something irrelevant be considered a valid factor in deciding how good they are. You wouldnt put Valentino Rossi in an F1 car, even with his Ferrari testing, because his skill-set isnt right for it, you'd put him in an inferior race with people more evenly matched until they're at a level to go with better, evenly matched racers.

Thats exactly the way pCARS should do it, imho! Its a lot of data aquisition work and the UI for checking this will have to be well designed to not be confusing and/or overwhelming with wall of numbers but the benefit would be well worth it, I think.

[shamblemonkee]

Team Racing - i hadn't considered hot-seat as being part of teams but i guess it fits the ALMS, LMS series. As for Andy G's comment - for sure your team-mate is there to be beaten, they are your neares tpoint of reference for performance - to me it could be a core feature.. especially for keeping off line interesting.

Beat your team mate a few times in a row? maybe their perofrmance hten suffers or they get their shit together and driver faster but become more prone to mistakes... or you have a seaosn contract that says if you beat your team-mate you get X cash, if you beat them by x points you get x bonus cash...

cash could just as easily be a fame figure or desirability stat for scouts looking to get you in a better car in that league or a different series.

Additionally you could have a series rival that works similarly - like in f1 2011 where if you beat them you have a high chance of acquiring their seat at season end?
I liked GRIDs sponsor and co-driver aspects and would like that sort of thing in pCARs.
For me these things are important for making Offline play compulsive over and above the core racing experience.

I also like the idea of Player or Player Manager options.

One aside: is pCARS going ot be the relesae name? I sawin the previous meeting your were asking for the X features for elevator pitch and taglines for blurb. Sees to me those can only come after you've

a. confirmed the direction of development
b. confirmed release name (pCARs not an exiting name to me)

I am glad to see al these things being discussed i just wish i had the money ot input so that i could just say "Do what Andy T said!"

[Curbfeeler]

MP Endurance is an area where this game could really set itself apart from the rest of the crowd and offer up things never done before.

Due to an amazing graphics engine you can speed up day-night transitions and suddenly have the ability to run 24 Hours at Le Mans in 4x, 6x, 8x, 12x 24x etc. and give the drivers the feeling like they are _really_ racing as part of an endurance team, even if all you have is an hour to do the racing part. The sun rise/set are just that convincing, let's face it.

We know that not everyone can race for more than 1-2 hours per day due to real life commitments. But if we could make an MP Endurance where an hour was enough, we'd hit a homerun.

You'd need a web-driven system where while a player was at work they could choose when they want to race (time and duration). They could then see upcoming races where they could contribute as part of a partially-filled team. If I could race 1-2 hours from 7:30 until maybe 9:30p I could enter that. I would then see a list of races that were appropriate for me. Maybe there is a full 24 hour race that allows unlimited driver changes and there is already a partial team needing a driver in my slot. I could apply to drive during the hour I had available (they could vote yes/no based on my skills).

Likewise, I get the feeling a lot of us might have a buddy or two and could field a small team with no problems. They could enter what they had for drivers and times, and maybe there is a sped-up x12 race (2 hours total) where they could race in one sitting. They might know of two buddies who they'd want to challenge, making another team.

Smart phones are really the best way to do all this. If I could do it all in my phone except the racing I'd be more apt to race every evening.

Just thoughts...

[Curbfeeler]

One question I had when it comes to allowing MP in your SP career.... Sometimes in single player mode if I get taken out at the first corner I just restart the race, try again. And again. Crap. Again. Okay, try that again. Crap. Again please. I may restart several times before finally getting into the flow of the race. Obviously if your friends are involved in your career this is not possible. Something to consider. Those who allow MP as part of the SP career will be making things harder since they lose the ability to take a mulligan or two. Or ten.