New Star Grand Prix v1.04 *UPDATE*

[siread]

http://www.newstarsoccer.com/Images/NSGP/England_1s.jpghttp://www.newstarsoccer.com/Images/NSGP/Monaco_1s.jpghttp://www.newstarsoccer.com/Images/NSGP/Belgium_1s.jpg

PC Version 1.04
http://download.newstargames.com/Install_NSGP.exe

Mac Version 1.04
http://download.newstargames.com/NSGP.dmg

The full version is $9.99. You can purchase licenses here:

https://www.plimus.com/jsp/buynow.jsp?contractId=2300044

v1.04
Added back up security check
Updated team nationalities
Added end of season prize money message
Fixed end of season car stat update
Fixed Championships stat not updating
Reduced weather variabity in longer races
Increased easy and normal difficulty slightly
Improved com racing line on Australia track
Fixed com cars missing pit lane
Added fuel left message
Increased effect of pit crew relationship
Added Polish language
Added Dutch language
Added German language
Added Italian language
Added Finnish language
Added Brazilian language


v1.03
Fixed History panel not updating
Fixed License status not updating after registering
Tweaked difficulty
Tweaked handling
Fixed split times
Fixed joy pad issues

Version 1.02
Fixed sound in menus bug
Fixed pit crew relations for clean lap bug
Fixed friends racing bug

Version 1.01
Fixed friend races awarding points

[Cookie Monster]

Looking good Si :D Any more details on what's it gonna have? Or is it all a huge surprise? :P Will it be a paid game? If yes, how much will it cost?

[siread]

I'll post more details soon. I will be charging for the full version, probably $14.95.

[Cookie Monster]

The sooner you release it the best, my birthday is this Sunday so the sooner you release it, the sooner I can ask my parents or friends to buy it for me :D Maybe having pre-orders would be a good idea?

[AfterDeath]

Aha, thought so. :D Looking forward to it, Grand Prix's never really been my cup of tea but I did watch the thrilling Hamilton race last year and enjoy it immensely, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays and sells.

EDIT: Just watched the video - if it's successful, there's great potential for advertising in there.

[MarcoGazpacho]

Neat! Looks like the early Micro Machines on the gameplay front, but with more cars to race against (and it takes place on a proper track, not a bathtub or a snooker table, of course).

The best thing is how expandable this can be- the tracks don't look too complicated, so you could create more than one season's worth of tracks and rotate it around (in case Montreal or Imola ever returned, say), and then have scope for including junior series and get a true career path from karting to Formula Palmer Audi to Formula Two to GP2 to F1, or something like that.

The graphics for the wet look good too.

[Nando]

I've been waiting for this game since Formula 1 Career (back in thee old old days), glad to see it bein made.

Good luck with everything, Simon.

[singiel]

go go Kubica!!! :D

[happyloaf]

This looks freaking great!!!

[mjfoas89]

Cool! This reminds me of a game I had for my Commodore 64 called Slicks, anyone know it. Old school top down racing, awesome.

[Ruejas87]

it looks great, reminds me of a game i played on a website some time ago... I can't wait :clap:

[Dinosamp]

when the game is ready?

[JJU]

when the game is ready?
If you scroll to the top of this page (this, this one you should have already read?) you'll see Si is hoping to release in March.

[nadessico]

i bow to you great Si for you are truely the king of kings ;)

[tezmac]

This is one for me! I love the GP and cannot wait for the game to be released..

[Ruefiesty]

I loved top down racing games of old. Death Rally, Micro Machines, RC Pro-Am, Slix'n'Slide and my favorite Turbo Sliders. I am happy to see a new Grand Prix game being developed. I don't follow F1 but I am excited for this game. Its looking good.:dance: I am very curious what kind of New Star flair its going to have.

[vaguely]

Sign me up for a beta test of this!

[HexDa3m0n]

This sounds amazing!!!
Can't wait to get stuck in!

[Fry Crayola]

Will we be able to drink-drive? :P

[Cookie Monster]

Can we sabotage other cars as well? :)

[MarcoGazpacho]

Don't forget to put Brawn GP in the game now! ;)

[happyloaf]

Can we steal tech documents and get caught ;).

[siread]

Don't forget to put Brawn GP in the game now! ;)

They'll be there. :)

[Herchi]

It's like... MINI RACING ONLINE.:blimey:
http://imagenes.sftcdn.net/es/scrn/34000/34657/3_miniracing.jpg

you can download it:
http://www.miniracingonline.com/
It's free.:doh:

[Cookie Monster]

So the graphics are simillar but has that game got the same off-track depth as NSGP will have?

[Biff]

I can't tell you how excited I am for this!

Is there any pre-order happening?

[siread]

It is simlar to MiniRacingOnline in appearance (it's a top down F1 racer after all) but it plays very differently. NSGP is more arcardey in style and much more free flowing with full 360 rotation of cars. It's also career mode, offline only.

[tarek]

not sure if this has been mentioned, but will a mac version of the F1 game be released also?

Needless to say, if there is a mac version, I'll be purchasing it pretty much ASAP after release.

Thanks alot Simon. Your games are both brilliant in concept and execution.

[siread]

Yes, a Mac version will be available soon after the PC one.

[Maldini35]

Was disappointed when I found out the next game wasn't to be basketball but I have to admit I'm really looking forward to this! :)

[rahel]

Hi Simon Read all well? I wonder how that the progress of the game, and already has date for when going out?

The game has all the rules of F1? Type penalties, training equal to the current F1, and the issue of career, this very real feeling that we in the skin of even a pilot? something you start a career that will have to test on a small team? Thank you for your









alterar (http://translate.google.com.br/translate_t)
Traduzir

[Cookie Monster]

If you would have read the 1st post in this thread and another one somewhere in this very thread, you would know that Si will try to release the game in March 09.

[MarcoGazpacho]

Ehm...could you 'accidentally' 'forget' to include the new points system for the game? Because it's total nonsense.

Or at least give us a choice between the lovable system that was in place until 2008, and the hotchpotch crud issued for 2009?

[siread]

I'm still hoping to release it by March 29th. The points system is currently as it was in 2008, I will have to think about the new rules.

Career mode is a bit lightweight at the moment. Hoping to add some things to it by release.

There are no penalties and such in the races. It's more of an arcade racer than a simulation.

[Biff]

Someone was telling me today that the FIA have scrapped the proposed points changes until 2010. Hopefully they will have a rethink next year and scrap the changes altogether.

[Dudley]

I knew I'd registered here at some point.

Hi, I'm Dudley on rllmuk and Gaming Verdict too, loving this so far.

edit : hah, 3 years and 2 months from reg to first post. That's gotta be a record.

edit 2: Ah, several people have that date, forum bug?

[siread]

Hi Dudley. Just saw the gaming verdict article. Thanks!
http://www.gamingverdict.com/story-524-Super-dooper-Sprint.html

Not sure about that join date thing. May have occurred with a forum update.

[Dudley]

It's possible it's accurate but that's quite a coincidence if so if you look at the first post on the page.

[FattySock]

Why do I always read these things at work, and then have to wait until I get home before I can have a play... I did the same thing with that NSS Skills game Si released a few months back... only 4 hours to go.... come on.... tick tick tick...

[tarek]

So I just got the email with Saturday 28th March as the expected release date. And I wondered? Will mac users get a game to play on the 28th? Or will we have to continue drooling while our PC brethren enjoy the awesomeness of New Star Grand Prix?

Simon, I know you said the mac version would be released after the pc version, just wanted to know if you had a rough timeframe, week, couple of weeks......anything..... :)

[siread]

Within 1 week. :)

[stealingsilver]

Game looks good so far. Have you thought that the career mode could possibly include F2, Touring car and Le Mans series? It would be fairly easy to implement on a basic level.

[steventitchener]

Game looks good so far. Have you thought that the career mode could possibly include F2, Touring car and Le Mans series? It would be fairly easy to implement on a basic level.

Thats a really good idea, also like race driver pro they have a 24 hour le mans but it's played over 24 minutes. around 10 minutes it goes dark and into a night race then 18 minutes it starts getting lighter.

early signs of this game looks as if it's a real winner!

[weiteck]

Si, it's coming along really nicely and I'll most likely buy it. Will purchased registrations be valid for both PC and Mac versions? I'd like to play it on my laptop and desktop machine, but I don't think I'd buy it twice for that privilege.

[siread]

Yeah, this time the license keys are standard across PC and Mac (and possibly Linux if I ever set up a Linux machine). :)

[Peef]

*drewl* I can't wait the full game :)

[siread]

Ok, this is the first official full version. It may contain the odd minor bugs as I've added new stuff, tweaked the AI and haven't had much chance to test it thoroughly, but as promised it's out now. I will of course update it immediately if any problems are found, so let me know.

PC Version 1.03
http://download.newstargames.com/Install_NSGP.exe

Mac Version 1.03
http://download.newstargames.com/NSGP.dmg

The full version is $9.99. You can purchase licenses here:

https://www.plimus.com/jsp/buynow.jsp?contractId=2300044

v1.03
Fixed History panel not updating
Fixed License status not updating after registering
Tweaked difficulty
Tweaked handling
Fixed split times
Fixed joy pad issues

Version 1.02
Fixed sound in menus bug
Fixed pit crew relations for clean lap bug
Fixed friends racing bug

Version 1.01
Fixed friend races awarding points

[siread]

It's out. :)

http://www.newstarsoccer.com/newstarforum/showthread.php?t=9224

[condar]

Thank you, thank you, thank you Si! I don't think I've really ever so eagerly awaited the release of a game! Downloading ASAP ;)

-condar

[maivia87]

I have just buy it!!! :dance:

[Rory426]

Bought it :D

[thomasrabelo]

"Licensing information will be sent to you within 48 hours."
:(

[thomasrabelo]

What happened to easy level? I can't win...

[siread]

Oops, spotted a major bug. Racing against friends will give you championship points! Don't race friends until v1.02. Will check Easy level too. :)

[thomasrabelo]

Easy is easy again. Thanks Si!

[Biff]

Is there any reason why I can't change controls to my joypad? It's the same joypad I use for NSS4 and it is being detected on the first screen prior to loading.

I can click on each control but it just changes to "axis u" and it doesn't let me change it to anything on my joypad or even on the keyboard.

Oh well back to NSS4 for a bit until I can get it sorted.

ANy help appreciated.

[ravezz]

@ Si:

I used Sqlite Database Browser of the NSS4 Editor to edit the Driver and Team Names etc.; further, Force India is an Indian Team in my game now.

Am I allowed to offer the database here?

[tezmac]

I just download this game and installed, but it does not run :(

The screen loads, turns black, I can hear some music, it then fades white and back to black again, then drops me back to my Desktop!

My laptop is quite old - 5 years I think - and runs on XP 2002 Home Edition, uses a Celeron 2.6 GHz processor, and has 512mb ram.

The graphics cards is Intel Extreme Graphics card, built into the laptop of course.

I have tried to update the Graphics Card Driver, and am using the latest drivers, so does anyone know if I can actually run this game on the above spec?

Thanks,
Terry

[condar]

Some quick first (or I guess third?) impressions using the newest, 1.02 client:


When entering license key at New Game / Driver Options, it will say "Thank you for entering your key" (or something along those lines). I didn't know if registration was successful, so I tried creating another driver and it continued to note the "Unregistered" status. After restarting the client and loading my game, going to Options, it showed Registered. PLEASE NOTE: This was a problem when I first started with the 1.00 client - I am unable to test this now since it's already registered.
Not a problem with the game, but a note to anyone who has problems registering or accessing online help - turn off the Windows Firewall (or add NSGP as an exception).
In-game help is GREAT! Explains a lot of things in detail, including how the Friends relationship effects starting acceleration (along with NOT holding the accelerator while the lights are changing - wondered why I was so much slower than the AI cars off the line)!
Continuing on that note, it's clear Si took the feedback to heart on what people are looking for, clarifying a lot of points.
I like the new feature which shows how far back the next car is (or how far behind you are) - a couple gripes though: (1) when I'm behind, the time appears in the lower left corner; when I'm ahead, the time appears in the lower center, and (2) the times are not accurate - I think this has something to do with lapping the competition.
Where can we get the customized version that allows us to edit our settings / engine.ini file? The current engine.ini file states, "If you wish to alter the car settings, please download the custom version that is available from the forum.
http://www.newstarsoccer.com/newstarforum/forumdisplay.php?f=97"


Overall, I'm very happy with the game - however, I see you noted previously that you did some tweaks to the AI. I've noticed in this build (as opposed to 0.95) that the AI is, overall, quite awful - the AI cars are all over the place. I noticed this was more of a problem on the hard setting, and that I actually had more difficulty playing on normal. It's as if the AI has some very poor depth perception, careening around a turn and then drifting off into the sand / grass. Sometimes, they'll simply turn in place after going off-road and drive back to the point they drove off the track, instead of making an intelligent decision to get back as quickly as possible. Additionally, in one race (on Normal) in Australia, Felipe Mussa had some serious problems - constantly missing the turns and then being unable to get in to the pits. He drove past the pits (while on pit lane), made a right turn as he was exiting, and repeatedly ran into the wall. Then he turned around, got back on to the main tarmac, drove the opposite way around the track and attempted to enter the pits again. Eventually he made it in successfully, so no idea what happened there. My guess is something was changed to make the AI a little less 'perfect' around turns / curves (primarily due to the general consensus that the AI was too good on Malaysia), but this seems to have had a serious impact on their performance elsewhere - I mean, drivers that can't successfully drive around some gentle curves have no right driving such powerful cars :P

As an example of how the difficulty seems a bit flawed, here's my results while racing as "Timo Glack" for "Koyota". All races were 10 laps long on Australia.


Hard

Finished 1st @ 5:15:680
2nd place AI finished @ 5:26:261
Did not record last place finisher.

Normal

Finished 1st @ 5:04:015
2nd place AI finished @ 5:07:496
Last AI finished @ 8:17:514

Easy

Finished 1st @ 5:00:944
2nd place AI finished @ 5:55:208
Last AI finished @ 7:46:686



The Hard times being a little longer I think can be attributed to (1) starting the race in Wet tires while the weather was Dry (I think this may be a bug - I had just finished Australia in career mode, and it ended with wet weather / wet tires - I then switched to quick race to get these results); and (2) the greater damage suffered by collisions required an extra pit stop or two. The bigger concern is simply how poorly the AI now handles the curves / turns. This is worse for the less capable / rated AI, and less so for Lewis Hamilton (or his equivalent name) and second driver for McFaren.

If we can get the AI back to the 0.95 beta level, maybe a little easier if it's a concern (especially on Malaysia), I'd be happy - but playing as Koyota I was able to whoop the competition, which wasn't the case previously (much closer overall).

Thanks Si! Still a lot of fun :)
-condar

[MarcoGazpacho]

Right, I'm on my way to parting with my hard-earned cash for this game, but juuust need a couple of things tidied up...

* With gamepad control, I can't change tyre compounds when I go into the pits, unless I go into options, change to keyboard control, change the tyres, then go back to gamepad control. Slightly irritating, as I can adjust the fuel levels without any problem.

* Malaysia AI still seems too difficult on normal setting (particularly when the player car is on heavy fuel at the beginning), but at least it's much better on easy setting now. From the demo, Melbourne and Shanghai were no problem to me.

* An option to alter tyre and fuel wear so you don't have to pit every 5 laps would be great (as in F1 Challenge, where it was X1, X2, X3, X4 etc - but the opposite to apply here!). Obviously, if this was implemented, you'd have to use the default settings to submit a time to the leaderboard.

* When going for a quick race, perhaps have an option to qualify, and/or to have a random mixed up grid, especially as McLaren and Ferrari aren't ruling the roost at the moment!

[sam111]

Wowzer we have to wait 48hrs to get the license key after they take the payment. Any reason why? This could put many people off. Must admit im slightly annoyed already.

Ps game is awesome on demo

sam

[Dinosamp]

When I bought the license key, server don't asked me the name of the driver. Is right?

Sorry for my english.

[pepto]

Hi,

Is there any way to get real names of teams, drivers etc? Will I get it after registration?

Thanks!
P.

[sam111]

Ok to clear up 48 hrs license dispatch, i have found out further info what may help others aswell. If u track ur order first with plimus they will have ur license key there also. thus save u waiting for the email to be sent to u. Hope this save any heartache for future customers.

sam

[Rory426]

Wow this game is great but so so hard! My lap times don't seem too bad on the leaderboards, I guess, but I'm losing races badly, and my pit crew and fans absolutely hate me after 3 races!

Practice practice practice...

EDIT:

Downloaded 1.02, qualified on the front row, much better on Easy mode now!

[Cookie Monster]

whats a pole position? and why do i have to race twice in the same track?

[kustom_02]

whats a pole position? and why do i have to race twice in the same track?

Pole Position is awarded for qualifying first. It's not two races, the first one the Friday or Saturday is a Qualifying session, which is a certain amount of time, competing for who can get the quickest lap, and who ever gets that is on Pole Position. and then the race (sunday?) is well... a race for championship points

[Dinosamp]

Sorry but where is version 1.02?
I see only version 1.01.
Thanks

[condar]

Hrm, maybe it's just me seeing these AI issues? Couldn't be caused by the old versions in some way, could it? :confused:

The pole position is the first position in the starting grid. Not sure what you mean by having to race twice on the same track - every day up until Saturday, you can do practice runs (5 laps). On Saturday, you perform the qualifying run, which is a timed (~3 mins) run of the track - you're competing to get your best lap time during that time, although you can end early if you choose. You'll notice as you're doing the qualifying run that your position will randomly change (if you hit info / space) - this reflects where you will start in the 'real' race, and is based on your best lap time compared to the AI drivers.

Driver and team names can be modified to reflect the real ones - I believe Si had to change it for licensing reasons (i.e. can't use the real names without their consent). For personal use, it can be modified however you want - I think somebody proposed linking their modified database which used real names, but I'm not sure if that's considered legal either. Will leave that one up to Si :)

The tire wear, fuel consumption, and other settings can be modified. In the beta versions, they referenced the Engine.ini file which could be altered. The current Engine.ini file cannot be modified to change the in-game settings, as this would cause problems / cheating on the lap leaderboard. Si noted he would post a 'customizable' version at some time for those of us that want to modify settings, but will not allow us to upload our times - a great compromise in my opinion. I'll post my beta settings again when that version is available.

-condar

[condar]

Sorry but where is version 1.02?
I see only version 1.01.
Thanks

Re-download from the same link - that's 1.02, I think Si just forgot to edit that part of the post.

-condar

[kustom_02]

I have just changed all my team names and drivers names to proper names, anyone wishing for me to change that for them, contact me

[thomasrabelo]

Ooooo, I got my license key already!

[siread]

Sorry for the license key delays. There was a problem with the setup. Fixed now. Anyone that hasn't received it let me know.

Condor, you are correct about the AI issues. I made some changes so that drivers were'nt perfect for the whole race. This means sometimes they miss a corner. However it may occur too frequently, so I'd love to hear people's feedback on this issue. I'll be tweaking it over the next week or so.

I'll look into joypad problems.

Tezmac, did you try this procedure for updating your drivers. It's a bit annoying but may just work...
http://www.newstarsoccer.com/newstarforum/showthread.php?t=8783

[kustom_02]

If anyone would like proper team and drivers names contact me and i will do for you.

[Dinosamp]

I don't have receive a code. I'm waiting!!!!

[nneumann]

Very addicting game:D:clap: Just bought it!!

a few things:

1. Whenever I try to play in fullscreen mode, the game always sets my monitor to 60hz refresh rate no matter what I choose in the resolution list. I think I might be able to override it in my video card settings though.

2. Tire wear does not seem to have much effect. I have really good handling even when the tires are below 50%. (Maybe because I am racing with Mclaren??) Also, the second (and possibly third) tire sets always have a full bar when I go to the pits even if I have used them. So there is a neverending supply of fresh tires. This could be a factor in long races.

3. In addition to the quickrace option, it would be nice to have a quick practice option. So you could practice laps on any track at any time. Also it would be good if these laps could be submitted to the online leaderboard instead of only being able to do that from within career mode.

4. Does the pit crew relationship affect pit times? That would be cool! Does the friends relationship affect anything?

5. On the online leaderboards could you display the team people are driving with?

6. Could there be the ability to download user created season mods? Including modified team and driver information and possibly user designed tracks.

[Dinosamp]

kustom!!! I want real names!

[kustom_02]

kustom!!! I want real names!

Dino, i just made a thread, if u have anyone questions feel free to ask

[Terranova]

I must say, its a very cool game. But the difficulty settings are way off.

I win every race with ease on easy and i finish around spot 20 on normal. It would be nice if there could be another difficulty setting between those 2 :(

[thomasrabelo]

Yeah, sometimes I feel like I could really use some help, like the old autobreaking from the old F1 GP games series.

[DVG]

I made some changes so that drivers were'nt perfect for the whole race. This means sometimes they miss a corner. However it may occur too frequently, so I'd love to hear people's feedback on this issue. I'll be tweaking it over the next week or so.

The AI problems are pretty consistent in every race. Half the field would frequently miss chicanes, go off on specific corners, and make the same mistakes lap after lap. It just happens to apply to these same drivers in every race as well.

[siread]

People can alter the difficulty setting a bit with the settings in Program Files/New Star Grand Prix/Settings/Settings.ini.

comspeed_easy=2500
comspeed_normal=5000
comspeed_hard=10000

If you lower the number the com drivers should slow down a bit.

[DarrenG]

I have modified the db so that the real names/teams and team principles are correct now...

Si.. I don`t have my licence key yet.. paid yesterday afternoon ...

Lovin the game!!

[DarrenG]

ok followed plimus link and got my code !! thanks :)

Off to visit wife in hospital.. back later to continue :)

[Herchi]

1) I cant press up and down with the gamepad (I cant change the tires in the box).
2) When I press 'brake' in the box the game throw me to Windows. In the race I can brake.

Excuse me English.

[Sida79]

I must say, its a very cool game. But the difficulty settings are way off.

I win every race with ease on easy and i finish around spot 20 on normal. It would be nice if there could be another difficulty setting between those 2 :(


I'm having the same experience, with the difference that I win the first race in ANY car and then get devastated on others. I found that my problems is that I cannot seem to manouver through tight corners as with gas I'm instantly out and without it I'm overtaken by 5 cars/lap. It only gets worse in lower grip cars...

[Kega]

Hey.

First of all, don't now if this is the right place to but this. But for some reason this game is not playable. Its version 1.02 and its not installed to the default directory.
I might be the only one but still annoying :)

If I change the resolution to more than 1024x768, the game never starts. It just close down after hitting OK button.
If keep the resolution lower it start up. But then it crash to desktop when I have picked a team and try to continue to the next screen or if I try out the quick race function. So I'm not able to play at all.

Don't know if this will help.
Specs:
Windows XP SP3
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GT (Tried with driver 179.xx and newest 182.08)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
3GB of ram.
And some onboard audio card.

Thanks in advance.

- Kega

[hellboy1975]

I never got my license key via email, however I did get several receipt type emails though.

You can view the key easily enough though by opening up your email from Plimus, and following the second link that shows all the order information.

[Camye9999]

hey si, i'm finding that upon changing the controls its changing all settings to axis u... ??? ty

[Fry Crayola]

I'm having the same experience, with the difference that I win the first race in ANY car and then get devastated on others. I found that my problems is that I cannot seem to manouver through tight corners as with gas I'm instantly out and without it I'm overtaken by 5 cars/lap. It only gets worse in lower grip cars...

I'm finding the same problem. I finished sixth in Australia (with Force India) and then every other race I was dead last and lapped by most of the field. It seems that the AI cars can take corners much better than we can hope to.

[Cookie Monster]

No need to, real db uploaded and link is in your other NSGP thread kustom :)

[Dinosamp]

I tried creating a small circuit. The record lap is 12 seconds. Now this record is on the Australia circuit.

Sorry with new database the error is ended.

[condar]

The AI problems are pretty consistent in every race. Half the field would frequently miss chicanes, go off on specific corners, and make the same mistakes lap after lap. It just happens to apply to these same drivers in every race as well.

Agreed - it seems anyone past position 10 or so is absolutely pathetic, 5-9 is fairly average (occasional screwup), and 1-4 are impeccable - I've yet to see anything happen to them unless there's a major collision (usually caused by me in frustration :P). While I can win Australia with no problem on Hard, the other races are absolutely impossible - whereas in beta I was consistently finishing at the top of the pack (not always first), now I'm finishing 10th or 11th (thanks to the horrible drivers - otherwise I'd be last I'm sure).

As an example of what I'm seeing, I have a little 'picture tour' from laps 10-13 of a 15 lap race in China on Hard in career mode.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b352/condar/NSGP/1.jpg

Notice above, one of the first 'accidents' - this AI car just turned into a smoking hulk. I'm assuming when the AI drivers are at max damage, they can no longer move, unlike the player.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b352/condar/NSGP/2.jpg

If I remember correctly, this was on the last turn approaching the finish / pits. This AI car is simply running into the wall repeatedly, not trying to turn away - he eventually becomes a wreck.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b352/condar/NSGP/3.jpg

Notice drivers going the wrong way in the pit.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b352/condar/NSGP/5.jpg

A picture of the mini-map I noticed on one lap - the circled areas are either 'wrecks' or strange driving - pay particular attention to pit lane, as there are 3 cars either going the wrong way or running into walls.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b352/condar/NSGP/6.jpg

A 'close-up' when driving past the pits - notice the car that almost hit me head-on while going the wrong way.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b352/condar/NSGP/7.jpg

Yet another driver doing strange things.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b352/condar/NSGP/8.jpg

Notice 3 more smoking hulks on that first tricky turn in China.

Like I said, maybe it's just me seeing this, but it's a little crazy and is taking some of the fun away from the races as the AI isn't being very realistic, and is much less risk averse than before. :(

-condar

[MarcoGazpacho]

The AI seems a little too quick on hairpins, I feel, but mostly fine elsewhere. This explains why the AI is easier to beat in Melbourne (only one slow corner of note) and very difficult in Malaysia (oodles of them) and pretty difficult in China (especially that s-bend before the long straight).

[Biff]

I'll look into joypad problems.



Cheers Si, i'm not much of a fan of using the keyboard, i'm using a Saitek P2500 Rumble which is still working on NSS4 with no probs.

[markohladnik]

New to the forum, but a long-time follower. Great game, I like what I see a lot ... Good luck adjusting the AI, that will add the final touch of perfection :) as far as I see now, the opponents are slower and make more mistakes on easier levels, as expected. However, they seem to make really big mistakes or none ... consider grading that, i.e. driving off the ideal line, but not off the road, going too fast and then having to virtually stop to make a corner, perhaps properly spinning sometimes when the road is wet - not just losing control (haven't noticed that one, maybe it's there).
Anyway, cheers and kudos once more!
Marko

[Sida79]

I cannot seem to run the game in any 1280x1024 res (my monitor's native). Works fine in 1024x768 though...

[Mr Bismarck]

I'm finding the same problem. I finished sixth in Australia (with Force India) and then every other race I was dead last and lapped by most of the field. It seems that the AI cars can take corners much better than we can hope to.



Same here too. I put the Force India into the top ten in Australia, but everywhere else it's an exercise in how many times I'm going to be lapped.

[MarcoGazpacho]

Just had a wee go on the track editor, seems simple to use now it works, just have one question: Is it possible to add racing line points in between existing ones? Say I wanted to add a chicane somewhere along the straight at Shanghai (I did for the purposes of my track-editing experiment), is there any way of altering the checkpoints so I don't have to drag all the existing ones back along the track and redo the racing line to the finish?

Same for the wall checkpoints, can I edit by adding some new markers in between existing ones?

Other than that, nice track editor- I'll aim to add tracks such as Montreal, Magny-Cours and Hockenheim to the mix! ;)

[siread]

Hmm, sorry about this guys. I'll be addressing the difficulty issues as soon as possible. Keep the info coming so I can get an idea about how difficult the normal and hard levels should be. Cheers. :)

[Mr Bismarck]

Hmm, sorry about this guys. I'll be addressing the difficulty issues as soon as possible. Keep the info coming so I can get an idea about how difficult the normal and hard levels should be. Cheers. :)

The race in Australia on normal felt about right - Putting the FI on the edge of the top ten having qualified 11th gave me the impression that normal was going to be a fraction easy, but within range and the race was certainly exciting even though I ended up out of the points.

Then the next several races have been a real eye-opener. Three seconds a lap slower than the other FI at Monaco... ouch.

Admittedly though I'm using the keys and not a joypad, which would probably give me a fraction more speed.

[Dinosamp]

During the race and qualification not hear the roar of the car. Why?

[Fry Crayola]

Si, it's worth having a look at the online leaderboards for the tracks. I assume that our car doesn't handle any different on the other skill levels, and that the differences are the AI speed and quality.

You could use that leaderboard, together with the AI performance on a certain skill level, to tweak things. If most people are a few seconds slower than the AI on normal, for example, then it could well be too hard.

The biggest issue though does seem to be on cornering. I can't see how we can get as tight as they can.

[lemon999]

Hi. Can you now use a joypad in the game or is it still just keys. i hate using them.

[siread]

Updated to v1.03
Fixed History panel not updating
Fixed License status not updating after registering
Tweaked difficulty
Tweaked handling
Fixed split times
Fixed joy pad issues

http://download.newstargames.com/Install_NSGP.exe


The handling has been changed slightly to allow you to take hair pins better. Also when you let go of the accelerator you don't slow down as much as before. Helps to get the speed right going into corners.

Also made some changes to the AI. Give it a couple of races to see if you like it. :)

[ravezz]

Great, thanks!
Downloading now and shortly testing. B)

Fast support and always being receptive to the users problems - that's what Indie games stand for. :)

[markohladnik]

Hear hear!
Btw, is there a way to implement opponents retiring from the race (I guess due to excessive damage on their cars)? it happens only rarely in RL that everyone makes it to the finish line.

[siread]

The com cars do die if damage gets to 100%. I was wondering about implementing random engine failures but wasn't sure if it would work well. Ideas welcome.

[sam111]

Hey simon, thanks for the fast response to the ai issues already. It seems the difficulty lvls are getting nearer and nearer the perfect settings. On normal i can pretty much finish top 3 with any car in any race. So i thought id test out the hard settings. and in the Fi and Brawn cars i, as always drove well in austrailia getting top 6 as in also italy due to the uncomplex tracks as in rl. But on all the other tracks im being placed 10-15th witch is bang on perfect for were they should be.

Id like to add weight to the previous poster. All the cars should not finish the race. I understand they retire when they get to 100% damage but as the laps are super fast they can pit b4 that ever happens and not once has any car retired in any of my races thus far. Remember the lowly teams score points when some of the others retire, ie reward for consistant, reliable engines and drivers , as opposed to some of the front runners pushing hard and being suceptable to engine and perm crashes.

To put a suggestion i think u could incorp the pit crew rating in correlation to engine failures also. ie on a sliding scale were say max stars gives u a 5% chance and only 1 star 50% etc. Ill let u ponder that.

Lastly i noticed when the season ended and contract offers came in there team stats were diff, (ofc a great idea as teams progress and de-progress) but when i accptd an offer from torro rosso based on there new ratings once i checked all the teams out on the team screen they were with the same ratings as last year, could u clarify if the teams are meant to change as it would in RL every year with there ratings and if so is there a bug whats not updating the team screens also.

Great work si on the ai. The seeting seem bang on.

Sam

[happyloaf]

Maybe you can set random failures as an option in the options menu. This way if players want the crushing feeling of an engine blowing on the last lap they can have it :). But so far so good.

One question though. If I download the update can I still continue on in my career?

[markohladnik]

Not a bad idea, at least to me, at least at the moment :)
In the previous F1 season, there was a 20% retirement rate across all races and drivers, obviously lower for better drivers/more reliable cars. I guess this could be the number to work with if you decide to include the feature of engine failure, subtracting the probability of AI cars crashing to death (any idea where this estimate stands at?).
Perhaps you could include non-fatal random damage to the car and/or tyres, fixable in the pit-stop, as it sometimes occurs in real races. Then again, you're of course not aiming for total realism, and that's the right approach.

[conscience]

would be cool if there were some random engine failures.
also something really really cool for this game would be a hot seat function.
play a season with one of your friends...
during the week everybody would play his day...
and during the race you get to change...
the race would last twice as long and every 5 rounds the control changes.
during the time you can't control the car the computer will...
you can tell them when to change tires or fill the fuel...
like in microprose gp2 if you ever played that game?

this would be the holy grail of this game I think ;)

[ninalouise]

i agree engine failures are a good idea and helps lower ranked teams nick a point here or there as in RL.

May i suggest we link it to the pit crew star rating. if its high u get a very low % of a cut out or is its very low u have a high chance u may get an engine failure. I cant rem the last time i saw all the starters finish. Prob never happened in the history of f1. 20% is a good estimate as posted by a previous person.

keep up the amazing work si.

regards Nina

[welshdragon]

Ok here's the thing - I enjoyed some of the other games so much and knew I'd like this game, that I bought it straight away. Sadly, when I load it up it just shows a white page full of blocks, with some flashing grey blocks at the bottom.

I noticed someone raised a similar problem and the response was as follows:



Tezmac, did you try this procedure for updating your drivers. It's a bit annoying but may just work...
http://www.newstarsoccer.com/newstarforum/showthread.php?t=8783

All very well, except I did all that and it's exactly as it was. I have fully up to date drivers, but nothing more than blocks on the screen for the game... help? lol :wall:

[Conway1992]

This game is great!!!!!!!!!


Not as good as NSS4 though;)

[siread]

All very well, except I did all that and it's exactly as it was. I have fully up to date drivers, but nothing more than blocks on the screen for the game... help? lol :wall:

What's you gfx card?

[welshdragon]

Under Display Adapters its got Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family - which was listed on the help previously offered to the other guy which is why I thought that might work for me, but it didn't unfortunately.

[condar]

Updated to v1.03
Fixed History panel not updating
Fixed License status not updating after registering
Tweaked difficulty
Tweaked handling
Fixed split times
Fixed joy pad issues

http://download.newstargames.com/Install_NSGP.exe


The handling has been changed slightly to allow you to take hair pins better. Also when you let go of the accelerator you don't slow down as much as before. Helps to get the speed right going into corners.

Also made some changes to the AI. Give it a couple of races to see if you like it. :)

So I just started a new career on Hard, and WOW - big difference Si!


Fixed History panel not updating - Not sure what this references, but I'll take your word for it! :)
Fixed License status not updating after registering - Verified! Thanks!
Fixed split times - This appears to be working properly now - the times appear in the lower left corner all the time now too, rather than in the lower left or lower center.
Fixed joy pad issues - I play with the keyboard, so can't check this.


I also noticed the 'controls' window that appears in the top left of the window at the start of a race shows the right controls for info and pause. Thanks!

As for the handling changes, I haven't noticed a huge difference in handling - what I have noticed is the change to the accelerator, which indirectly affects handling. It now acts more as a throttle in my opinion, which took a little getting used to as I've become very reliant on not using the brake but instead letting off the gas before a corner. This caused me to hit a few walls at first, but I've adjusted and actually like this change a lot better since I don't have to keep tapping the accelerator to try and maintain speed in corners. Instead, I brake a bit, and then maintain speed fairly consistently on the tighter turns. So I must say I'm liking this change now :)

As for the AI, you've made GREAT improvements! I've seen occasional slip ups by drivers all over the field, which is nice - it doesn't make anybody look too perfect, and they also don't look like they just had a few pints before the race either. I've also noticed they're a bit slower on turns too. I have not seen any 'stupid' drivers either, in that they miss the pits, run repeatedly into a wall, or start driving backwards on the track. I also noticed for the AI cars with a higher top speed yet lower handling score, I am definitely catching up during the turns, and see them pull away a bit in the straightaways - which is what I would expect with my car / team (Koyota - high handling, average speed / acceleration). So whatever changes you've made, they're great! Since I'm playing on hard, I think they could stand a little improvement on this difficulty level as I'm consistently winning (or placing in the top 2) without too much of a challenge - the only course I know I should have done worse on was China, where I hit a wall (forgot to brake ;)), dropped to third, but was able to win due to the cars jumping into the pits when it started raining on the last lap (and I completed the race with the slicks - saving about 5 seconds of pit time and letting me take the lead). With a lower ranked team, I'd expect to be placing a bit lower or having a bit tougher time keeping up.

Here's a sampling of my times versus the AI from the first 3 tracks on Hard in a 10 lap race from career mode, racing with Koyota, along with my best lap and the top best lap from the online leaderboard:


Australia - Qualified 3rd (only did 1 lap)

1 - Me - 5:01:895
2 - 5:17:957
3 - 5:19:672
10 - 5:35:168
15 - 5:38:166
20 - 5:42:398
Best Lap - 28:186
Leaderboard Best - 25:361

Malaysia - Qualified 1st

1 - 7:36:402
2 - Me - 7:39:052
3 - 7:40:185
10 - 7:49:781
15 - 8:06:176
20 - 8:16:506
Best Lap - 43:300
Leaderboard Best - 40:971

China - Qualified 1st

1 - Me - 8:35:479
2 - 8:42:276
3 - 8:44:275
10 - 8:54:189
15 - 9:04:152
20 - 9:19:247
Best Lap - 46:750
Leaderboard Best - 45:094


Please note, I included the second best online time for Australia since I don't see how anybody could possibly get 21 seconds and not sure that's a valid time...

I included my best lap versus the online best lap, as I think the (Hard) AI could stand to be a bit better by about 0.25-0.5 seconds better for their average lap time to reflect the player times. Of course, it's impossible to target that since there are so many variables in a game like this :P Either way, the races are MUCH closer, MUCH more fun than before (with the wacky AI driving), and I can see myself becoming MUCH more addicted to this game. Well done on all the improvements Si! :clap:

As for the suggestion on engine failures, I'm not sure I like that idea. I'd be heartbroken if in the middle of a tough race, all of a sudden my car broke down for no real reason under my control (unlike running out of fuel). Similarly, it might feel slightly cheap knowing you only win a race because the car in front of you had a similar issue (kind of like when I win a race when it starts raining and I keep slicks on, as mentioned before). If it does get implemented (as a number of people seem to like the idea), I think having it as a toggleable option would be nice. Alternatively, instead of simply a "Sorry, your engine failed, you lose" scenario, maybe do something along the lines of a severe damage increase on the car - that way, the player can at least get to the pits and try and recoup the lost time a bit.

On a similar note (as it was recommended tying the failure change to the pit crew rating), I haven't really noticed a major difference in my pit crew from start (5 star rating) to now (9 star rating) - my pit times always last the same amount of time, really. I'm assuming there must be a slight difference (half a second or so), but it doesn't really provide much of an incentive to keep the rating up in my opinion. Tying the engine failure or similar future options to this might make it more meaningful and desirable to keep up.

All I can say now though is THANK YOU Si! The game is vastly improved from 1.00-1.02, and I'm again having as much fun as I did in beta! Great work and thanks for the fast response times and updates! :clap:

-condar

[Fry Crayola]

Engine failure sounds like a good idea, but I think that because the game is arcade-like in nature, it should be possible that a good driver can offset the possibility of failure. I don't think the game is really suited to a random number screwing you over.

People have mentioned the pit-crew relationship, and this is a fantastic idea. Perhaps this could be combined with your damage meter, increasing the likelihood of failure the higher it gets rather than failing out at 100%. If you have no damage, you'll never fail. Given that damage is almost a given in the game for both player and AI drivers, we should see some failures during the course of a race. Tight corners and packed fields usually result in some shunting.

However, when setting up this possibility of failure, don't forget to normalise it for the differing lap numbers, or those of us playing 20 laps or more might see races finishing with only a couple of cars. :D

[Rory426]

Something I've noticed in 1.02, not sure if it's fixed in 1.03 as I'm downloading now, but I keep finishing 12th. This isn't too bad as I'm at Brawn who aren't the best team, but I'm noticing that there's a huge gap ahead and behind me. I looked at the lap times and found that in one race the best times for the top 12 including me were all within about 3 seconds, but the 13th placed (12th AID) driver's best time was 10 seconds slower than the 11th AI time. Seems a bit odd to me.

[Strani]

Great job on the game Simon, very addictive. Also, with some of the ideas suggested by other members it could get even better. :)

If you're going to create engine failures, I'd like to see them occur in qualifying as well, causing for Hamilton or Massa to have to start from 20th place for example.

One issue: From version 3 i notice that i can't get the game to start in full screen anymore. It just crashes back to desktop after trying to run it. It does still work when windowed but personally i can't use that function since the game stutters a lot more in windowed mode.

[nobbystyles]

Loving it Si, excellent work!

One question, in the casino, is the money that you can win capped? I got hooked on the fruit machine a few times and noticed the money seems to stop going up after awhile but it continues to let you play.

EDIT: Just gone back for more Fruit machines and notice the money has stopped going up and down!

[McGregor]

Probable bug :(

I raced in Valencia and only two cars finished the race. Some AI cars were driving in wrong way.

[Biff]

Si, i've just installed the updated version and still unable to assign controls to my joypad.

Any help desperately appreciated.

[welshdragon]

Under Display Adapters its got Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family - which was listed on the help previously offered to the other guy which is why I thought that might work for me, but it didn't unfortunately.

^^ :doh:

[lemon999]

Hi Si. I also have just downloaded the update and the joypad option is still not working.

[Conway1992]

Can you transfer to other teams?

[ravezz]

Can you transfer to other teams?

Well, good question.. Would really be interesting, maybe somebody who already finished one season knows?

[Conway1992]

Just like NSS4 you might get bored of the same team.

[McGregor]

Probable bug :(

I raced in Valencia and only two cars finished the race. Some AI cars were driving in wrong way.

I forgot to mention that difficulty was set to hard.
I was the only one who has finished the race in Singapore. All other cars ran out of fuel.

Regards Gregor

[condar]

I forgot to mention that difficulty was set to hard.
I was the only one who has finished the race in Singapore. All other cars ran out of fuel.

Regards Gregor

I was seeing this problem a lot prior to v1.03 - which version are you running McGregor?

-condar

[McGregor]

I was seeing this problem a lot prior to v1.03 - which version are you running McGregor?

-condar

version 1.03

[siread]

How many laps are you doing?

[McGregor]

How many laps are you doing?

20 laps on all tracks.

[Shepherd]

:DVery nice game.. it reminds me of NSS1, and like how developed it could be each year.. Better graphics & more detail, Start as a young driver in the lower stages and build ure way upto F1 like they do irl.. start at GoKarting maybe? (same tracks or w/e but just edit the car models).. Would also be better if the teams signed you and you didnt get to choose what car you race in, like i went Mclaren and its obv alot easier than Force India (yes i know i could choose that car myself but i think like teams comming in for you is realistic)

Are sackings part of the game? like if you dont finish where they want u 2 at end of season, sacked and through the years the drivers change.. (if the game develops and you start in like F3 building your way up)
defo thinking of buying this game, just ABIT boring for me.. i like to be entertained 24/7 :P overall 7/10 :clap:

[siread]

Will check it out. No doubt an update coming tomorrow. :)

[MarcoGazpacho]

Oh, I don't know, the way the game is set up, making a new go-kart track would be fairly easy, I would've thought.

Put in a Formula Junior and Formula 2000 categoires (I think both of these are made-up, at least for single-seater open-wheel racing categories), and you've got a career path!

Then, at the end, you can retire to a second career in tintops in the Touring Car Challenge category ;)

[nneumann]

When updating from one version to the next do you need to uninstall the previous version first or can you just overwrite it?

I installed and registered the full version at work, then uninstalled it after playing for a few minutes. LAter I noticed I still had the 0.95 demo installed. I ran that executable and the game was still the full version with all tracks even though it said version 0.9 on the main screen.

Anyway, now I just want to go from 1.02 to 1.03, do I need to uninstall?

[Nando]

I'm enjoying this game a lot!

Great job, Si. :D

[Fry Crayola]

I've just had a race on 1.03, and I have to say the difficulty seems balanced a lot better. In a Force India car I finished second on Normal in Malaysia from 6th on the grid at the start, just under 3 seconds behind Hamilton, although I'd have won the race if I paid more attention to what I was doing when I paused it once. :D

A certain improvement over the last version which was practically impossible. I'm sure it could use a bit more tweaking as you get more feedback but it's certainly getting there.

[Richard99]

Ive got a problem, I managed one practice, quali and race, but after that everytime I press the practice button the game closes, if I skip a few days and press the quali button it also closes. Ive tried rebooting and reinstalling but its still the same.
I also tried WinXP and Win2k compatibility mode.

Im running Vista64
8gb ram
4870x2
Q6600

Also if i try to run the game in any res higher than 1400x900 it just starts in 1400x900.

[Mr Bismarck]

Loving the new version with the new difficulty.

A late weather change vaulted my Force India into second place with three laps to go as I stayed out on wet tyres on the dry track, but I got hunted down by several cars over the finals laps to finish seventh.

The middle part of the race was beautiful as I was virtually alone, loitering in tenth place unable to close the gap to the cars in front and just about maintaining the gap to the cars behind me.

I saw more small mistakes this time - Felipe Massa overcooking a corner right in front of me, rolling through the sand and then roaring back past me was nice - and I felt like I was faster through the slow corners without being too fast.

Good work Si.

[happyloaf]

Maybe a new difficulty between medium and hard would be good. I find on medium that I can crush the computer and be top 3 on most every track with Brawn but on hard they kill me and I finish back 15-20th. Maybe an intermediate difficulty between medium and hard would be a good idea for the next update.

[kustom_02]

Possible Bug??

Sometimes when ive gone off road and stopped i cannot move forward, have to reverse and then angle off another way while accelerating. Or is this a case of being stuck, like being in sand? though i've been on grass with this happening?

[welshdragon]

What's you gfx card?

Answer is:


Under Display Adapters its got Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family - which was listed on the help previously offered to the other guy which is why I thought that might work for me, but it didn't unfortunately.

[nobbystyles]

Loving it Si, excellent work!

One question, in the casino, is the money that you can win capped? I got hooked on the fruit machine a few times and noticed the money seems to stop going up after awhile but it continues to let you play.

EDIT: Just gone back for more Fruit machines and notice the money has stopped going up and down!

A bit more on this Si, it now seems to affect my ability to earn prize money from races. I can spend but just finished 1st and no prize money was received.

[Sida79]

Do the other drivers in the game change teams as well? It would be awesome if they did :D

[hellboy1975]

Here's a list of things I'd like to see in the game (I appreciate some of these may be tweakable in the ini files, but I'll make them anyway):
*Greater penalty for serious accidents - hitting walls should be pretty lethal, there should always be a chance of getting bogged in sandtraps.
*Different type compounds - Hard, Medium, Soft, etc
*AI that's sensitive to being lapped
*Engine failures and other random race events (mistakes by pit crew)
*Qualifying that resembles the current system
*Safety car

Is a great game so far - no real complaints, especially with 1.03 fixing the difficulty problems. Looking forward to seeing where this game can go!

[siread]

When updating from one version to the next do you need to uninstall the previous version first or can you just overwrite it?


Just install over the old version. The save game details and quick race tracks will still be in the My Docs/NSGP/Save folder though, so they won't change.


A bit more on this Si, it now seems to affect my ability to earn prize money from races. I can spend but just finished 1st and no prize money was received.

Shouldn't be any limits. I'll look into this one.

[siread]

You will get offers from other teams at the end of the season.

Other drivers can transfer teams (including the one you replaced at the start).

Team stats (handling, acceleration, top speed) will change slightly so over ten seasons it could all change.

[markohladnik]

Cosider merging this thread with the sticky "available now" one ... all the themes hugely double in both.

[siread]

Good point. Merged. :)

[DVG]

Just a question regarding database editing. If I were to add additional drivers to the database, they would appear in future seasons, correct?

[ravezz]

You will get offers from other teams at the end of the season.

Other drivers can transfer teams (including the one you replaced at the start).

Team stats (handling, acceleration, top speed) will change slightly so over ten seasons it could all change.

Damn, really nice to hear that! :)
Now I await even more eagerly the end of the season in my career.




Just a question regarding database editing. If I were to add additional drivers to the database, they would appear in future seasons, correct?

Interesting question, too. That feature would make the game much more appealing. Further, is it possible to add or delete teams simply by editing them with Sqlite Browser, Si?
Well, I will test it. :)

[siread]

Not sure about adding teams. Adding drivers might see them getting included in future seasons, I'll have to look at the code again to check. Just make sure you leave ID 21 alone, as that is always your drivers database ID.

[Alex Reeves]

Here's a list of things I'd like to see in the game (I appreciate some of these may be tweakable in the ini files, but I'll make them anyway):
*Greater penalty for serious accidents - hitting walls should be pretty lethal, there should always be a chance of getting bogged in sandtraps.
*Different type compounds - Hard, Medium, Soft, etc
*AI that's sensitive to being lapped
*Engine failures and other random race events (mistakes by pit crew)
*Qualifying that resembles the current system
*Safety car

Is a great game so far - no real complaints, especially with 1.03 fixing the difficulty problems. Looking forward to seeing where this game can go! Echoing this -

* Black flags for speeding in pit lane, jumping the start and serious crashes.
* Flags in general, yellow, green, blue flags for on-track incidents.
* Fuel and tyre strategies - the ability to alter your fuel load for the start of a race as well as tyres etc.
* 3 stage qualifying (although I worry about the lag this might cause on races)
* More configurable options around acceleration vs top speed vs handling.
* A system where refueling provides pointers to the time/laps that this amount of fuel will give you - it's really painful to have to try and guess this! Your pit crew rating could affect the accuracy of this!
* Section Times and pit-crew comments based on them.
* Pop-up race updates for times and places of other racers/rivals.
* KERS? Every good arcade racing game needs a turbo buton... :P
* Downloadable replays of best times. This serves a dual purpose of identifying cheaters, and providing a super-challenge for ghost lappers in pseudo-online contests.

A lot of this is based around me finding out about MiniRacingOnline at the same time as this. In general, I find the racing model used there to be much more realistic and involved (and a lot less forgiving of mistakes!) but being in the wrong part of the world, it's almost impossible to play it online. That racing engine with the online and championship model is NSGP would be a match made in heaven....

[markohladnik]

I can't agree (respectfully, though) with many of the above, as it may easily add unnecessary complications that could even kill the nature of the game ... what do others think?

[ravezz]

Echoing this -

* Black flags for speeding in pit lane, jumping the start and serious crashes.
* Flags in general, yellow, green, blue flags for on-track incidents.

I think there shouldn't be any flags in the game. That just wouldn't fit into an arcade game, in my opinion ;)

Again a question to Si (sorry in case that i disturb you :P):
Do the drivers have any different skills? I don't think so regarding to the database?

[Alex Reeves]

I can't agree (respectfully, though) with many of the above, as it may easily add unnecessary complications that could even kill the nature of the game ... what do others think?

I agree that some of the suggestions would make the game more technical than arcadey, but I worry about the longevity of the game if the racing is too simple. I like the idea of "easy to learn, hard to master" when it comes to a game like this, so the more variety that can be introduced into the game will increase the variety of race situations as well as challenges.

[siread]

No, com drivers do not have any individual skills. One for the future maybe. :)

[sam111]

Si i noticed at the end of the season with the contract offers the teams ratings differ, as also confirmed by yourself this would happen in a previous post. However once the new season starts if u check the team screen it will still show the teams with there previous years star ratings . As u said it would change and it showed with the contract screen. im guessing u need to alter the bug what shows the previous yrs ratings on the team sheet.

Hope this helps si

sam

[siread]

Thanks, I'll check on that.

[Mr Bismarck]

Would it be possible to add a weather variability slider in the options? I play longish races, (30 laps each), and every single race so far has at least one change of weather, sometimes two or even three.

I don't want to fix the weather to one position - I'd like to see some drift - but the current position where the weather line can drift from all the way left, to all the way right and then back is something I'd like to have a bit more control over.

By narrowing a weather drift window, I could still start a race in cloudy conditions, have a burst of rain and then go back to dry, but I'm very unlikely to start in blazing sunshine and finish in a thunderstorm, (although that would still be possible).

Making it an option slider means that people who like crazy weather can still go with that.

[siread]

That's a good point regarding weather. For now I will make it less likely to change so much during longer races.

[ravezz]

Apparently I discovered a bug in my last race, too.

It was the German GP, after about the half of the race (5th round maybe) one half of the field was just standing in the middle of the track in the upper corner of the map. The cars were all like semi-transparent or something and just didn't move anywhere. regrettably, I could still hit them :redface:;)

Hence I finished the race 2nd while I was about 8th before.

The same occured in the qualification, too, but then I didn't really think about it..

[Sida79]

to comment on Alex:



* A system where refueling provides pointers to the time/laps that this amount of fuel will give you - it's really painful to have to try and guess this! - I find it fun :)


* Fuel and tyre strategies - the ability to alter your fuel load for the start of a race as well as tyres etc.
- I would like this as well :)

Btw, computer driver changing teams is great but it does not have an effect if they have no skill levels, right? :(

[sam111]

those transparent cars are just cars what have reached damage limit and are retired or have run out of fuel. its a nice touch witch i like

[Richard99]

Ive got a problem, I managed one practice, quali and race, but after that everytime I press the practice button the game closes, if I skip a few days and press the quali button it also closes. Ive tried rebooting and reinstalling but its still the same.
I also tried WinXP and Win2k compatibility mode.

Im running Vista64
8gb ram
4870x2
Q6600

Also if i try to run the game in any res higher than 1400x900 it just starts in 1400x900.

I registered the game and now it works fine :D

But the res still wont go above 1400x900, my desktop is 1920x1200

[ravezz]

I was the only one who has finished the race in Singapore. All other cars ran out of fuel.

Well, that seems to be exactly the same problem as mine.
That explains why all AI cars stood in the same corner of the track, they just forgot to fuel. The same as in Germany now in Valencia.

@ sam111:

yes, but if you're the only car that reaches the finish, it's a bit.. to much :D


Edit: And the same in Singapore and Japan now. I observed it a bit and it seems like the AI doesn't find the pit lane (the cars are 'flying' in a circle around the entrance of the pit) and after that they drive on and run out of fuel. It occurs on almost every race now. :(

[sam111]

Yep just ran a few of those races again and watched carefully, because the pit lane is rather a tight turn in alot of the ai cars miss it.

[siread]

Yep just ran a few of those races again and watched carefully, because the pit lane is rather a tight turn in alot of the ai cars miss it.

Does this only happen when it starts raining and they pit or even if it is dry?

[ravezz]

Does this only happen when it starts raining and they pit or even if it is dry?

Have to watch it again, tomorrow I'll give you feedback if nobody else already does. ;)

[hellboy1975]

I can't agree (respectfully, though) with many of the above, as it may easily add unnecessary complications that could even kill the nature of the game ... what do others think?
I think that a little extra complexity wouldn't go astray. I'm quite happy with the arcade nature of the game, though at the moment all races seem to follow the formula of:

race
all cars pit same lap when fuel runs out
race some more
all cars pit again on the same lap
race
repeat until race ends

I think there needs to be something to break this up a bit, as races are a little to predictable at the moment for my liking.

[Nugget699]

I think that a little extra complexity wouldn't go astray. I'm quite happy with the arcade nature of the game, though at the moment all races seem to follow the formula of:

race
all cars pit same lap when fuel runs out
race some more
all cars pit again on the same lap
race
repeat until race ends

I think there needs to be something to break this up a bit, as races are a little to predictable at the moment for my liking.

Agree with this entirely.

I think being able to choose your starting fuel would be good. That way some teams may decide to go with a 1, 2 or 3 stop strategy. This could perhaps even be chosen at the beginning.

Furthermore, I think the fuel needs to be used per the number of laps you are doing. If you are doing 60 laps, you ended up pitting about 12 times which is a tad frustrating. I do 20 laps with Force India, and I really struggle to keep up with the pack, but then as soon as I do I have to pit and end up coming out further back as my pit crew are awful. Have this happen 4 or 5 times a race and its race over.

The problem I have is that the back markers such as Force India and Brawn NEVER score points as no cars ever retire. You can have a brilliant drive but still end up 15th as no cars in front of you ever crash out.

[Shepherd]

Yeh agreed there needs to be more AI mistakes, crashing into a wall high speed = having to retire and maybe ability to see things fall off the car.. another thing would be the Safety car.. i think when theres a crash (although i never seen 1) the safety car should come out like IRL..

Just small things like this make a game amazing :)

[Mr Bismarck]

The crashes are out there... I saw Heidfeld destroy himself into a wall in Monaco yesterday, but with everyone having to pit every five laps for fuel even on long race distances there often isn't time for the AI to build up enough damage to their car before they're into the pits and fixed again.

If the fuel calcs were changed so that a full tank takes you five laps or [race distance]/2 , whichever is the greater, then on long race distances you'd see several AI cars either stopping to fix issues, or dropping out.

It would have to be carefully balanced however, as races where almost no one finished are much worse than races where everyone finishes.

[maivia87]

* Fuel and tyre strategies - the ability to alter your fuel load for the start of a race as well as tyres etc.

This possibility it's very important

[ravezz]

How does the date of birth (dob) in the database work?

For example, Mark Webber's birthday (27.08.1976) is '2443017' in the database. I don't see how the system works :redface:

Edit: All right, it's Julian Day. What a cruel calculation of times :blimey::D

[siread]

New version. Just install over the old version:

http://download.newstargames.com/Install_NSGP.exe

v1.04
Added back up security check
Updated team nationalities
Added end of season prize money message
Fixed end of season car stat update
Fixed Championships stat not updating
Reduced weather variabity in longer races
Increased easy and normal difficulty slightly
Improved com racing line on Australia track
Fixed com cars missing pit lane
Added fuel left message
Increased effect of pit crew relationship
Added Polish language
Added Dutch language
Added German language
Added Italian language
Added Finnish language
Added Brazilian language

[ravezz]

New version. Just install over the old version:

http://download.newstargames.com/Install_NSGP.exe

v1.04
Added back up security check
Updated team nationalities
Added end of season prize money message
Fixed end of season car stat update
Fixed Championships stat not updating
Reduced weather variabity in longer races
Increased easy and normal difficulty slightly
Improved com racing line on Australia track
Fixed com cars missing pit lane
Added fuel left message
Increased effect of pit crew relationship
Added Polish language
Added Dutch language
Added German language
Added Italian language
Added Finnish language
Added Brazilian language

Thanks so much! :dance:

First of all the bold updates are really important for long-time motivation.
I guess the new languages are the updated and corrected already?

[Sida79]

Is everything OK with the Quick Race difficulty setting? It seems to me that whatever difficulty I choose it's much too easy compared to same race in career mode.

[BiffMan]

Great update and very quick, thanks!

One thing that's struck me when I'm following someone down a long straight is the lack of drafting. Would love to see that as a future feature, but imagine that might be tricky to implement since I'd definitely want to see the AI benefit from that as well and not just have my own personal boost.

[Shepherd]

Yeh VERY nice to see you doing the updates so quick Si, I think ive seen around 5-10 VERY good ideas so i hope they get put into the game soon :)

Going to buy it when i got some Cash :P (Skint Atm)

[Olm 2003]

Great work on the updates. I have just brought a licence after many hours playing with the demo version.

One thing I did notice in the new version was that there wasn't much of a penalty for using wet tyres in the dry. I was in a race which was wet for a while, then it dried out. I made a pit stop just before it stopped and I was stuck on a dry track with wet tyres. Despite this I managed to keep up with the car in front, which also had superior stats. I didn't notice any loss in grip either, which would surely have been the case. There was an increase in tyre wear however, which I would have expected. Great game anyway!

[BiffMan]

Doesn't appear that the 50K stake on the Fruit Machine is working. I can pick that as the stake, but no money is subtracted nor awarded when I play at that wager level. Is there a certain level of total cash I need to have to be able to wager at that level?

[siread]

Doesn't appear that the 50K stake on the Fruit Machine is working. I can pick that as the stake, but no money is subtracted nor awarded when I play at that wager level. Is there a certain level of total cash I need to have to be able to wager at that level?

Sounds like a bug. Will sort it. :)

[Shepherd]

Ok this going to sound real nooby but like i downloaded new patch and everything is reset, eg peoples names, logos ectect.. what i have to do eachtime a new patch comes out to prevent having to redo them?

[ravezz]

Ok this going to sound real nooby but like i downloaded new patch and everything is reset, eg peoples names, logos ectect.. what i have to do eachtime a new patch comes out to prevent having to redo them?


You can't prevent that.
But it's really not that much to do - just make a backup of your NSGP.db and your team logos folder and copy it back after updating.

[FattySock]

Hi Si,

Tiny thing here... but maybe can just have a look for the next update.

Just doing some practice in Australia, and afer 3 laps was running low on fuel so popped in for a top up. As I was racing as Brown/Brawn, my pit lane was right at the back, and hence I didn't complete the lap until I had finished my pit.

On the way out of the pits, I finished my lap, and obviously the lap time was very slow due to the pit stop. Unfortunately, I got a big red sad face from the boss for that effort.

As I said, not a big thing at all, but if you could make it so that the boss discounts a lap that involves a pit stop, would make it easier to keep him happy ;)

Ta

[Shepherd]

You can't prevent that.
But it's really not that much to do - just make a backup of your NSGP.db and your team logos folder and copy it back after updating.

Argh i copy n pasted my DB and team logos to the new patch but they didnt stay in there as when i booted it up they showed Lewis Himilton :wall:

Tried it about 5x and hasent worked.. what i did:

Went to old DB file, copied and then replaced the new patched DB with this,
Same with teams logos but :fail:

[nneumann]

The quick updates are awesome, thanks!!

I'd still like a quick practice mode though, sometimes I just like to try to get my personal best on a track but I can only practice a track when I am in that particular week in career mode.

Another little thing: In the blackjack game the dealer will hold on 15 or 16. Most (if not all) casinos require the dealer to hit on 16 or lower.

[Alex Reeves]

As this appears to be the new feature request thread now, I've cross-posted the suggestions from the other thread -

* Black flags for speeding in pit lane, jumping the start and serious crashes.
* Flags in general, yellow, green, blue flags for on-track incidents.

* Fuel and tyre strategies - the ability to alter your fuel load for the start of a race as well as tyres etc.
* 3 stage qualifying (although I worry about the lag this might cause on races)
* More configurable options around acceleration vs top speed vs handling.
* A system where refueling provides pointers to the time/laps that this amount of fuel will give you - it's really painful to have to try and guess this! Your pit crew rating could affect the accuracy of this!
* Section Times and pit-crew comments based on them.
* Pop-up race updates for times and places of other racers/rivals.
* KERS? Every good arcade racing game needs a turbo buton...

In addition -

* Downloadable replays of best times. This serves a dual purpose of identifying cheaters/cutters, and providing a super-challenge for ghost lappers in pseudo-online contests.
* Using the wrong type type should have a more dramatic penalty in loss of speed/handling and in type wear. I've comfortably completed races without changing tyres and only noticed about a 1-2 second drop in lap times and not a lot more difficulty in handling.
* I just ran a race in China, where I messed up my fuel for the final lap. I was miles ahead, so I did a U-turn and drove backwards into the pit lane! This should be disallowed/black flag behaviour....
* Perhaps restrict access to the top teams initially. It's not realistic to get a drive a Ferrari/McLaren without getting some experience first! I know this is an artificial way to create longevity, and in reality a Karting/F3000/F1 progression system would be ideal, but I think the challenge of grafting your way to the top is a good one.
* In-race challenges/achievements. Again, thinking about the longevity of the game, set some goals in races for bonuses/bragging rights. Some examples :
- clean-laps or clean-race challenge : complete a lap/laps/race without going off-track.
- clean-pass challenge : complete x number of passes without hitting a rival car (I admit it, I'm a dirty driver!).
- lap your teammate : for the ultimate humiliation and in-team bragging rights...
- lap-the-field : a challenge to lap the entire field in a race.
- last-to-first : Qualify last but finish first.

* Make money more relevant to the racing. A simple idea would be to make Tyres/Damage/Fuel/race entry cost money, and perhaps split your earnings and the team's earnings so that if your salary demands don't match your performance, then you can send the team broke and/or get fired (or require a desperate run to the Casino to keep yourself afloat!)... your "score" can then be the amount of personal wealth you achieve in 10 seasons as well as titles etc. Perhaps we could have a career leaderboard then as well as a race one online?

Just throwing ideas out there - there's the potential for a lot of fun here, I just hope that there's enough that can be added to sustain it.

[siread]

Some nice ideas Alex. I'm particularly interested in what people think about using your cash to improve car performance. I didn't consider it initially as it's a little unrealistic expecting the driver to fund the engineering, but it might make for a more interesting management style game.

You could say, spend 50,000 to alter your setup (change stats from 3,4,3 to 4,3,3 for instance) or 250,000 to buy a new star (4,4,3). Something along those lines.

Or should the stat increases come from practicing tracks? Or do you have another idea?

[Sida79]

I'd find it strange... perhaps some connection between your driving style and car stats, e.g. if you drive a season with minimum bangs into other drivers you can add a handling point to the car. If there can be better ideas along those lines, of course :)

[kustom_02]

Some nice ideas Alex. I'm particularly interested in what people think about using your cash to improve car performance. I didn't consider it initially as it's a little unrealistic expecting the driver to fund the engineering, but it might make for a more interesting management style game.

You could say, spend 50,000 to alter your setup (change stats from 3,4,3 to 4,3,3 for instance) or 250,000 to buy a new star (4,4,3). Something along those lines.

Or should the stat increases come from practicing tracks? Or do you have another idea?

Practice would seem more realistic to get your stats up, also maybe towards the latter stages of your career and being involved with a team for a number of years with money, buy a hand in the team?

[Alex Reeves]

Apologies first - This was meant to go in the other thread about suggested improvements. Don't know why it got posted here, or maybe I was just having a confused moment...

Re: Money. I don't know if I'd really thought through the gameplay mechanics of it, but the prizemoney etc doesn't seem to be relevant to the game, apart from the capacity to bribe people into liking you more and vanity purchases. The idea was to try and make it relevant either as a score/leaderboard measure or as a gameplay mechanic. From a realism perspective, it's more realistic to expect drivers to be on a salary/contract than payments based on performance, so I don't think it's a big stretch to add some sort of simple economic angle to the game as far as paying for engineering/performance/repairs etc. Having a fixed 10 year career to earn as much as you can, but with having to fund expenses etc adds a little risk/reward to the game. Especially if there's a facility to upload your career stats as an online leaderboard. In keeping with the nature of the game, don't think it should get too complex, but some sort of simple management options could enhance the experience.

[Mr Bismarck]

Real F1 drivers have to buy a "super license" every year to compete.

It costs ~$13,000 a year and you have to pay more for every point you earn, (really), with a win costing ~$2,500.

[DarrenG]

I read on the BBC website that Hamiltons Super licence cost him £276,000 !!


Also - Si... the lights that come on before you start ? how come there`s oranges and greens in the top row.. what happens in RL is that the red lights come on one after the other.. when they all go out.. you go go go !! :D:D

[markohladnik]

I've been thinking about the money/improvement aspect, and I can share some of that thoughts with you now :P
So, overall, I believe that for the further developement of this superb game one thing is necessary - namely, separating the property of cars on the one hand and the ability of the driver(s) on the other. The RPG stats building aspects of NSS3 is what has kept me going ... What the best system to implement that would be I do not know exactly.
It seems an okay idea to invest your money into team engineering innovations (it's not far from reality that a team has more money if they have successful drivers - from win prizes and sponsors). Driver experience could/should be built through practice runs, good moves in races, and challenges ... And the two factors - car properties and driver experience - should limit one another: a driver with good stats can get a bit more out of a bad car, and a good car can help a bad driver a bit in some aspects, but only to a certain very limited extent.
A player of this game will thus strive to improve their stats, and to deliver good performances to earn a place in as good a team as possible.

[BiffMan]

You could say, spend 50,000 to alter your setup (change stats from 3,4,3 to 4,3,3 for instance) or 250,000 to buy a new star (4,4,3). Something along those lines.

I'd say that could work pretty well, but would think you might want to go to a 10 point (or greater) scale for the stats so that a single point bump isn't as big of a deal and that would let you do more steady development rather than just go play Fruit Machine for a few minutes and buy yourself a top-end car in one shot. Shouldn't be any need to rework anything by changing the stat scale, you'd just effectively wind up improving in .5 increments with a single star if the scale were doubled.

[Mr Bismarck]

So, working off of the ideas mooted here about having something to spend your money on and personal development in an "RPG-lite" fashion, I have an off-the-cuff idea to maybe promote some conversation about new additions to add depth.

This idea requires the implementation of a set of skills for the driver, but they work as potentiometers - the higher your skill, the more you can get out of the available ability of the car.

So if you have a car with a four star rating for handling and power, and you, the driver, have a 75 rating for handling and a 40 rating for power, you're actually getting 3.75 stars in handling and 3.40 stars in power.

The bottom of the skill range isn't at zero stars, because then at the start of your career you'd be terrible. :D

The skill range should extend a short distance past 100, so that a particularly talented driver is able to get more from the car than expected.

You can then improve your skills by practising, but significant improvement only comes by mixing practise with a good personal trainer, which you would have to pay for. Trainers would also have mixed ability, so some would be better at helping you improve one area of your driving than another.

Either you could pay a wage for a personal trainer, or you could use ad hoc trainers on a one-off payment system. A training facility rating could also be added for each team to work in conjunction with your personal trainer.

Outside of conventional skills like handling and speed, other skills could be available for training, like "Smooth driving style" which would lessen the amount of tyre wear suffered and make a small difference to fuel consumption too and "Rain master" which slightly lowers the effect of being on the wrong tyres in the rain.

Continual focus on one area of ability would trigger a slow decline in other skills to promote a balanced training program.

All of this would then come into play at the end of each season with your new drive offers. If you're a superfast driver with bad handling skills you probably don't want to sign for a team with a superfast car with bad handling characteristics, or you'll just drive very quickly into a wall. You'll start looking for teams that compliment your abilities.

If the driver contract section was concluded before the new car design was launched then you could end up signing for a team whose old car was perfect for you, but whose new car doesn't suit your driving style as exactly, giving you the challenge of adapting your abilities to the car for that season.

Throughout the season you could give feedback after each race; "I need more power!" or "Improve the handling!" to get the team to fine tune the car to your liking. Of course, the other drive in your team may be giving them the exact opposite advice, which is where your relationship rating with the Boss and the pit crew would come into play.

[Martin]

So, working off of the ideas mooted here about having something to spend your money on and personal development in an "RPG-lite" fashion, I have an off-the-cuff idea to maybe promote some conversation about new additions to add depth.

This idea requires the implementation of a set of skills for the driver, but they work as potentiometers - the higher your skill, the more you can get out of the available ability of the car.

So if you have a car with a four star rating for handling and power, and you, the driver, have a 75 rating for handling and a 40 rating for power, you're actually getting 3.75 stars in handling and 3.40 stars in power.

The bottom of the skill range isn't at zero stars, because then at the start of your career you'd be terrible. :D

The skill range should extend a short distance past 100, so that a particularly talented driver is able to get more from the car than expected.

You can then improve your skills by practising, but significant improvement only comes by mixing practise with a good personal trainer, which you would have to pay for. Trainers would also have mixed ability, so some would be better at helping you improve one area of your driving than another.

Either you could pay a wage for a personal trainer, or you could use ad hoc trainers on a one-off payment system. A training facility rating could also be added for each team to work in conjunction with your personal trainer.

Outside of conventional skills like handling and speed, other skills could be available for training, like "Smooth driving style" which would lessen the amount of tyre wear suffered and make a small difference to fuel consumption too and "Rain master" which slightly lowers the effect of being on the wrong tyres in the rain.

Continual focus on one area of ability would trigger a slow decline in other skills to promote a balanced training program.

All of this would then come into play at the end of each season with your new drive offers. If you're a superfast driver with bad handling skills you probably don't want to sign for a team with a superfast car with bad handling characteristics, or you'll just drive very quickly into a wall. You'll start looking for teams that compliment your abilities.

If the driver contract section was concluded before the new car design was launched then you could end up signing for a team whose old car was perfect for you, but whose new car doesn't suit your driving style as exactly, giving you the challenge of adapting your abilities to the car for that season.

Throughout the season you could give feedback after each race; "I need more power!" or "Improve the handling!" to get the team to fine tune the car to your liking. Of course, the other drive in your team may be giving them the exact opposite advice, which is where your relationship rating with the Boss and the pit crew would come into play.

I simply loved this idea!

[siread]

Nice ideas Mr Bismarck. Food for thought. :think:

[Mr Bismarck]

Nice ideas Mr Bismarck. Food for thought. :think:

It's easy for me. I don't have to do any of the coding. :D

I just write out a longwinded post and then wave my hand and say "Make it so, Si."

[Sida79]

Seems great for an online game, or a hard core RPG. I think I'd throw an arcade game with that much complexity out of the window! :)

[markohladnik]

Thanks for fleshing out the ideas, Mr Bismarck.
@ Si, glad that you like them ...
@ Sida - I agree with you to some extent, and expect that after feeding his thoughts with them (:D) Simon will eventually come up with some ingenious system that is a bit less complex, but captures our ideas of the directions the development NSGP could take :)

P.S. It's great to participate in the discussions, I feel they are really constructive, and I love the responsiveness of the developer. That's what indie gaming is about ;)

[BiffMan]

This idea requires the implementation of a set of skills for the driver, but they work as potentiometers - the higher your skill, the more you can get out of the available ability of the car.

So if you have a car with a four star rating for handling and power, and you, the driver, have a 75 rating for handling and a 40 rating for power, you're actually getting 3.75 stars in handling and 3.40 stars in power.


Elegant. Very nicely done. And very much in keeping with the RPG elements of NSS.

Nice way to separate car and driver development. Also could be combined with the support series ideas (carts, F3000, etc) and let you build skill in a lower series but then only carry forward 1/2 or 2/3 or such of your skill when you move to a new series as you have to learn a new car.

[Cookie Monster]

I wonder if we will sometime have NSGP online? Maybe the leaderboards are a step forward in that direction :)

[Martin]

I myself don't look that forward to playing online. Honestly, it doesn't attract me too much. I'd rather see all the RPG-style stuff added.

But that's just my opinion...

[ravezz]

I myself don't look that forward to playing online. Honestly, it doesn't attract me too much. I'd rather see all the RPG-style stuff added.

But that's just my opinion...

Dito. Singleplayer part is most important, and that's the case for all NSGames imo.

[nneumann]

I started a new game (with the same driver name of course) and when I submitted my new best lap at Australia it did not replace my old lap on the online leaderboard. Now my name shows up twice.

[siread]

I started a new game (with the same driver name of course) and when I submitted my new best lap at Australia it did not replace my old lap on the online leaderboard. Now my name shows up twice.

Was your new lap time better or worse than the old one?

[rc81_fcp]

One little suggestion:

- During practice you should be able to tune your car. You drive a few laps and then when you come to pits you should be able to give feedback to your team about the car. Thinking about something like that:

. In the start of practice you decide whether you want to improve the car or the setup for that race.
. If you select to improve the car you would have 10 laps and you'd have to do at least 5 or 6 laps below a certain time (let's say, 26 seconds for Australia in Hard) to improve the car. The more laps you do below that range the more improvement the car has. (Maybe a Driver Caracteristic like Feedback Master)
. If you select improve the setup you'd have 10 or 15 laps and have to do 1 lap below a certain time. When you complete that lap, the next time you pit you'd be able to tell your engineers you need more handling, power or acceleration, and have a little boost in the selected area only for that race. Then you can repeat all this until the 10 laps are over.

This would really add interest to the practice sessions :)

[Sida79]

Interesting RC... many of the proposed changes seem tempting but demanding.
Btw, how come the drivers don't have their own helmet colour? Not the design, of course, just a prevailing colour if possible... :)

[Alex Reeves]

I wonder if we will sometime have NSGP online? Maybe the leaderboards are a step forward in that direction :)

I like the idea of ghost laps and/or ghost races for online. Set a standard set of environment and race factors (e.g. Hard, 20 laps, no weather changes) and a particular car setup or team, and run a weekly comp for the best race time. If the races/laps are uploaded in full, cheaters/cutters can be eliminated (and banned!) easily through a review/protest system. You could even run a virtual championship over 18 weeks this way! Trackmania (among others) do this sort of thing, and it works well.

One RFE that would be nice would be to get the team, car settings and weather for laps submitted to the leaderboard, so that a fair comparison can be done. For example, all the laps I've submitted so far were with a mid-range team (Red Bull) but are competitive times nonetheless (mostly in top 20 so far!). It'd be good to know/compare whether my times are faster or slower than people in equivalent cars or with equivalent stats.

[Alex Reeves]

One little suggestion:

- During practice you should be able to tune your car. You drive a few laps and then when you come to pits you should be able to give feedback to your team about the car. Thinking about something like that:

. In the start of practice you decide whether you want to improve the car or the setup for that race.
. If you select to improve the car you would have 10 laps and you'd have to do at least 5 or 6 laps below a certain time (let's say, 26 seconds for Australia in Hard) to improve the car. The more laps you do below that range the more improvement the car has. (Maybe a Driver Caracteristic like Feedback Master)
. If you select improve the setup you'd have 10 or 15 laps and have to do 1 lap below a certain time. When you complete that lap, the next time you pit you'd be able to tell your engineers you need more handling, power or acceleration, and have a little boost in the selected area only for that race. Then you can repeat all this until the 10 laps are over.

This would really add interest to the practice sessions :)

I like this idea, but would suggest it in a different way - have three settings - top speed, acceleration and handling. Allow slider bars on each, but all affect the other e.g. Adding top speed reduces handling and acceleration, adding acceleration reduces top speed, adding handling reduces top speed and acceleration. For some tracks (Monza, for example) it's obvious that top speed should be tuned above all else. For others (Malaysia?) handling and/or acceleration is more important. These can tweak the base settings that the car and the team have slightly, and it potentially could cost money to tweak these for each race. Practice would then be about seeing which tweak serves you best, and perhaps the boss or pit crew can set you a challenge time for extra credit.

I think it's a bit unrealistic to have to meet a standard to improve preformance, because if you can meet that standard, then obviously you don't need the improvement!

[Sida79]

I think it's a bit unrealistic to have to meet a standard to improve preformance, because if you can meet that standard, then obviously you don't need the improvement!

Indeed. The idea was for a driver to further improve in an area where he is already good (in contrast to the other areas, etc) thus giving a player a form of 'specialty'. Gaining these would serve as an additional challenge more than it would as help.

Too much direct control could affect the smoothness of gameplay, though. Like if you would know there is a lot to gain from fiddling with the slider but still would not feel like doing it? :D

+ managerial aspects probably fit with arcade-y style better than simulational ones. It would bring money into play if you had things like:

personal mechanic (what are those called?) with different skill levels that would cost from a little to A WHOLE LOT and whose help would be absolutely needed for success on the highest level of difficulty. E.g. you'd ask for more handling/speed/acc and depending on their skill level they would do the job right to a certain extent and in a certain number of cases.

With several more nice touches like that + the existing ones, a new depth would arise (- LOL!)

The question is, how many would want 'complicated' things, and would their existence on the 'casual player' difficulty level (normal and lower?) substract more than it would add.

[rc81_fcp]

I think it's a bit unrealistic to have to meet a standard to improve preformance, because if you can meet that standard, then obviously you don't need the improvement!

It's not unrealistic. See, in practice, in order to obtain good feedback about the real performance of the car, you need to push it 100%. When you do that you really know what your car worth.

Tha same for setups. In order to have the best setup you need to find it having feedback from the best laps you do ;)

[Hudson]

I am very much enjoying the game but there are just a few issues:

- In practice if I pit the boss is upset with my lap time.
- Practice times for the other drivers so you know what is a good time before qualifying on the Saturday. Perhaps a random selection of drivers could choose to practice each day so there were others on the track when you chose to go.
- For qualifying I fuel myself up with just enough to get me round three laps, that gives me three timed laps then as soon as I cross the line I turn round and go in to the pits from the wrong end. I should be disqualified for going the wrong way.
- Fuel updates during practice like in the race would be useful.
- Around the pits cars don't collide, they pass over each other, is this done on purpose?
- Driving in the rain with slicks seems a bit easy.
- The 50,000 level on the Fruitie doesn't work.


I had a thought that maybe the team could develop your car as the season went on, changes would be very minor and it would be affected by the amount you practiced.

[Hudson]

Just thought of another thing. You could increase friendship rating by going to the race track with friends, providing you have bought them a car.

[Rory426]

I think this may have been mentioned before but I raced at Monaco today and I randomly moved to 20th place when I was lapping in 6th! I don't know if I skipped a bit of the track to make a lap not count or something, but I don't know how I could have considering the walls around Monaco's track! This was double frustrating as it then started to rain and I dived in the pits before everyone else (I saw the weather changing and gambled) and then passed the whole field as the skidded off in the rain, turns out this was all in vain as I was showing as 20th before I pitted rather than 6th.

[MarcoGazpacho]

My two pennies worth:

1) In practice, if I go to options at any point, I can change the number of laps I do from 5 up to 60 (if I want to, I can change it to 10,15, 20....etc). Obviously, this is unfair as if you run a good stint the boss becomes exceedingly pleased.

2) The front wings aren't actually the 2009 front wings, they aren't wide enough. They should spread to about the width of the car (alright, I'm being nit-picky now!)

[Alex Reeves]

Too much direct control could affect the smoothness of gameplay, though. Like if you would know there is a lot to gain from fiddling with the slider but still would not feel like doing it? :D


The question is, how many would want 'complicated' things, and would their existence on the 'casual player' difficulty level (normal and lower?) substract more than it would add.

The standard setup should be fine for casual players. The tweaking is really for the expert players and those that want to get a little more OCD about being their own laptimes and/or online times. From an AI perspective, I'm sure it would be easy enough to build 4-5 different slider setups and allow these to be used in race. Thinking about this more, moving sliders could also impact fuel usage and tyre wear, which could add some much needed variety to the AI's pit and racing strategies. Food for thought....

[MarcoGazpacho]

Oh, one more thing...

On the times leaderboard, let people know which car set that laptime. I've put some decent laps in but using the Williams and the Brawn GP cars, which aren't the quickest in the field in this game!

I'd rule out car setups, tinkering with them is one of the most tedious things in car racing games. The fastest driver should be the one who gets the car round the black stuff quickest, not the one who happened to have a finely-tuned setup. Admittedly, only my opinion!

[markohladnik]

I second it, actually.

[GranPree]

Id like random car failures ie Engine/Mechanical etc

More variety in pit-stops (chance to pick and change your strategy pre-race)

Harsher punishment for shunts...

[markohladnik]

I wonder what Simon is working on now ... ;)

BTW, a minor glitch I have noticed - negative amounts (such as expenses for buying property/cars on the $ page) are not displayed correctly:
€-,10,000 for instance, if I remember right.

[Paper Luke]

I hope this is ok.

I'm wondering, could the Fuel refill tell you how many laps it will add/have?

So if you have half a tank, and you refill another little bit, it could tell you that you went from 3 laps, to 4 laps, by adding 1 lap of fuel.

[markohladnik]

I object, that would be too easy ;) the end lap estimate added in the latest version is quite sufficient.

[BiffMan]

I'd rule out car setups, tinkering with them is one of the most tedious things in car racing games. The fastest driver should be the one who gets the car round the black stuff quickest, not the one who happened to have a finely-tuned setup. Admittedly, only my opinion!

I'm with that. Give us depth on the RPG side, not complexity on the racing side. My favorite idea is the one where the abilities of your driver determine what % of performance you get out of the car. For me, improving the skills of my driver would be way more compelling than optimizing a setup.

[markohladnik]

Hear hear! :clap:

[nneumann]

Was your new lap time better or worse than the old one?


The new time was better than the old one.

Theoretically someone could keep starting new careers and litter the leaderboard with their name, which might be a little annoying.

[hellboy1975]

I'm with that. Give us depth on the RPG side, not complexity on the racing side. My favorite idea is the one where the abilities of your driver determine what % of performance you get out of the car. For me, improving the skills of my driver would be way more compelling than optimizing a setup.
I mostly agree with this. I think most of the development should be in the RPG side, though I wouldn't object to some basic tweaks to the car (maybe just a simple slider to favour high grip/downforce over top speed), I think care needs to be taken to retain the arcadey nature of the racing.

I do think the best way to spice up races though would be via tyre strategy. It would be cool to choose between hard, medium and soft tyres, where hard tyres has less grip, but last longer, and soft vice versa. With the AI making choices here as well, would also go a long way to breaking the monotony of all cars pitting at the same time.

[statto]

I think you could do more with the weather too. It rains a lot in the game which is fine but you could have weather reports before the race and introduce heat and cold (don't know what effects they have) to go with the rain?

I do know the race they held in Phoenix in the middle of the summer in 1989 and I think six cars finished because of the heat.

[Paper Luke]

I think you could do more with the weather too. It rains a lot in the game which is fine but you could have weather reports before the race and introduce heat and cold (don't know what effects they have) to go with the rain?

I do know the race they held in Phoenix in the middle of the summer in 1989 and I think six cars finished because of the heat.

Heat means that the tires are heated quicker, which means better control and less skidding.

Ice and cold cause them to cool, and so they begin to skid off the track more, and handling worsens.

I'd like to see the Kers system implemented, but I don't know overly much about coding, so it could be overly difficult.

[hellboy1975]

A couple of other suggestions:


It would be nice if it's raining at the beginning of qualifying/practice, that wet tyres were selected automatically.
As far as impressing the boss goes, one way to get around dissappointing him on pit stop laps during practice, would be to have sector times on each track, and have his impression improved/decreased for faster/slower sections times.
I don't know about everyone else, but I find it's very easy to upset the pit crew, and quite hard to get them back on side. Going to the casino with them seems to have a very minimal effect, and my driving is bad enough that they're hard to impress during a race, especially when driving in traffic.
I think I've mentioned this before, but it would be nice if the AI would show a little more respect when being lapped!

Keep up the great work!

[Shepherd]

Another Few Ideas / Recaps

1) Said it already but Cars having big crashes, and Safety car comes out
2) More than 10 Seasons, Seems like thats pretty small for addicts!
(Havent brought it yet, due to just buying my season ticket for Accy)

[markohladnik]

Yes, 10 seasons might a tad on the short side (especially when you include RPG elements :P and everything is developing a bit slower) ... some of the best drivers I checked raced, or have been racing, for 15 seasons or even longer, and that's in F1 alone.

[Richard99]

Can someone tell me how to change the bit of track im laying in the editor, all i can lay is straight.

[Rory426]

Just a minor thing for 1.05:

If you have both music and sound fx down to 0 on the volume levels in options, there's still noise when you enter the casino. I didn't realise this til I was playing while my girlfriend slept last night, with the computer volume on max, but NSGP volume off... or so I thought.:doh:

[MarcoGazpacho]

Can someone tell me how to change the bit of track im laying in the editor, all i can lay is straight.

Scroll your mouse over to the far right of the screen and a menu should appear with plenty of track pieces. Click the left mouse button to go to the next page of tiles, the right mouse button for the previous one.

Now, if only there was a way to alter existing racing lines more easily by adding points in between existing checkpoints, I'd be a very happy track editor guy.

[Conway1992]

I was just looking on the blitz community and found NSGP(I was like cool),you will also see what Si might be doing next.:whistle:

[kustom_02]

In the editor is there a way to have the pit lane and main straight on a diagonal?

[Alex Reeves]

More thoughts :

* Would be nice to get a daily weather forecast for expected probability for rain on each day. This could assit in practice, qualifying and race strategies.
* Rain should be a bit more relevant to geographical location - it doesn't rain in Bahrain that often!
* Times in the wet should be slower than dry times - on wet tyres in the rain, I can do almost exactly the same times as in the dry. The time and performance penalty for wrong tyres should be much more dramatic!
* Restating - starting fuel and tyres should be configurable. The AI for each track should be able to have a short stop or long stop strategy for the first leg. Based on the times I've seen, on a 10 lap race in most cases a well managed 2-stop strategy with "splash and dash" pitstops come in at about the same time as a 1 stop strategy where a full fuel load is taken. High rain possibilities, qualifying position and different drivers could determine whether they take the different strategy.
* The AI should be smarter about refueling to the end of the race. Taking a full fuel load when there's only a couple of laps to go isn't clever.
* Damage should take a lot longer to repair. Perhaps also add a variable that some damage can't be repaired to simulate serious shunts/crahes.
* Some crashes/damage should cause a DNF. Particularly if you hit a wall or similarly strong static object. Not a fan of the safety car idea, but wrecks and damage debris could add an interesting driving challenge...

[FattySock]

I've come up with another tiny little thing that could be implemented but is probably too much work to bother with... but it appears that the little flag next to "Fans" is always a Ferrari flag no matter who you are racing with. Perhaps that could change to suit the team you are racing for (I'm not fussed if Ferrari fans are unhappy while I'm racing for Williams!)

Also, with Practice, the boss is happy, unhappy, or indifferent depending on your lap times. Just wondering if the boss has different expectations depending on what team you're racing for/whether your the #1 or #2 driver etc or if they are constant across all teams/conditions? i.e. A sub 31 second lap in Australia seems to get you a smiley face when racing for Williams, but will I have to go quicker to get a smiley face in a Ferrari?

[macio]

whats with australia's best lap? 19sec.?!? it must be a bug.

[Rory426]

whats with australia's best lap? 19sec.?!? it must be a bug.

I could be wrong, but I think this is due to people using the track editor and saving over the Aus track. I think this might have been fixed since those times were submitted...

[Cookie Monster]

I propose an MD5 check for the track file and Engine.ini before the game lets you submit anything. For those who don't know what MD5 is, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5

[Alex Reeves]

whats with australia's best lap? 19sec.?!? it must be a bug.

Easiest solution - make people upload the replay with the time. Make the replays downloadable and able to race against as ghost laps. Add a "report this time" option so that the leaderboard is self-censoring.

I was wondering how long it would take for this sort of nonsense to go on. Happens in every racing game with an online leaderboard.

[Alex Reeves]

Another suggestion around this - let only registered users submit times to the online leaderboard! Two advantages, first, cheaters can be tracked (and banned). second, hacker/cheater types don't corrupt the integrity of the leaderboard.

Seeing as keeping competitive on the online leaderboard is my biggest motivation to play at the moment, I'd really like to see something implemented here.