Each car has a rated level based on performance and costs (car-elo)
Getting top 3 in a matching car-elo race increases your and your mechanics’s exp for that car
Consistently using certain consumables gives you a discount, but they fade as you use different types or when logged into the game don’t play enough
Consistently winning in a specific car in matching car-elo can net you specific discounts for parts
Consistently winning in a car brand improves you dealer rating, but this is a “faction” like system where there are rivalries.
- Eventually you can get liveries which give you better benefits
- Eventually you can be part of the R&D, receive test items for free, be be able to send in many items for sampling for free, e.g. engine blocks for wear analysis, oil samples, etc.
Endurance races or pitstops in any car-elo increases mechanics exp with that car, reducing in-race service time and garage service time
Season/cups and timing:
Season time is ascribed to cars and parts.
You can use a different car or part for a season as the season time isn’t moved forward by service etc.
Season time overlaps to the next season
- If you’ve a week of season-time work on a car, and a new season starts tomorrow, you’ll still miss those 6 days
Major things like engine swaps or rebuilds, building roll cages, etc. take season time
Local seasons (as in offline and near your HQ) are free to travel to and don’t need a car reserved.
- Timing is based entirely on when and how you play, they don’t expire by being offline or by playing other races
National seasons (offline) require travel time/cost and mark the car as reserved, and expire with any time spent in the game (idle included)
International seasons (online) require travel time/cost and mark the car as reserved, but have an online ranking and expire offline
There’s a limit of national/international seasons you can be in. You can reserve any number of cars per season
Qualifying positions are done early in the season, so being prepped is rewarded
Different season params:
Can be locked to specific car - like rally, you need to make it through all stages in one piece
Can be locked to model - if you’ve multiple cars of the same model, and car A will take a day of season time to complete work, you can use car B
A season can be comprised of individual and separate races, so you can partake in just one race for a podium
A season can be linear, so you position in each race and need to partake in all races
- Each non-international race happens on a certain season day, with possible gaps in-between. If you took more mechanics with you, you’ve a better shot at good service between races
Fuel type limits, and different on-site fuels provided
- Fuel sold on-site is more expensive than that ordered to your garage
NA, turbo, supercharged limits, and max boost PSI
Restrictions on if/what type of catalytic converter is required
Exhaust loudness dBA limit
CCV/Catch can required, or allowed to vent to atmosphere
Typical limits like drivetrain, power, engine size, rollcage, NOS
Unmodified (blacklist) x, e.g., engine, specific engine parts, suspension.
- Or only modified in certain ways (whitelist), e.g. only brakes can be upgraded
- Or completely stock
Original-manufacturer-only parts, i.e., can only use newer or better parts from BMW on an E46.
No engine swap limits
Engine config or manufacturer limits if swaps allowed
street races:
Cannot use reserved cars, but season-time doesn’t affect being able to race
You cannot take any mechanics with you
Less restrictions, e.g.:
- Only RWD,
- Only a certain car model or brand
- Usually any fuel type
- NA or FI
Can only use pump fuel or fuel you have at your garage
Have some sort of rep system where you get more street races available to you as you progress.
- Eventually you can host your own races somehow
mechanic and driver availability:
Any service work on a car allocates a mechanic
Car service or modification uses mechanic time
Some work requires multiple mechanics
You need to take mechanics with you to race with pitstop availability.
- Up to a limit, the more you take the faster the pitstop.
- International races have a set requirement of mechanics.
Normal service items cost money but don’t have a real/season time cost if you can allocate a mechanic in-house
Being in a current race (saved in progress) or series reduces mechanics available in garage
You cannot majorly modify a car that’s occupied/reserved in/for a race or season
Your driver can replace engine oil, power steering oil, coolant, and brake pads with experience, but induces a small real-time lock on racing
Your driver can race anywhere without real time cost
Your driver has a limited time she can spend on service per real life hour/day
- e.g., only 2 oil changes per hour
- e.g., only 6 oil changes per day
Each mechanic has a hour/day limit like your driver does, but much higher
insurance:
You build general insurability reputation by not crashing and driving cleanly.
You get “premium” insurance at no extra cost once you’ve high enough general rep
If you’re partnered with a dealer, insurance costs for that brand are much lower, and you gain faster category rep for that model.
- Once you’ve premium insurance and high enough car-brand insurance rep, you can test drive their cars for free
The higher car-elo a race is, the more reputation you gain.
You only gain general reputation whilst insured
You do not lose general reputation whilst uninsured
If you’re in a horrific crash whilst uninsured, you’ve a season-time penalty for international races
- I think inducing a season-time penalty for offline races may be harsh and fuck gameplay
- I want to treat international seasons as somewhat special
Uninsured massive crashes will have high repair costs and induce major season-time cost
Insured massive crashes will simply add a certain flat cost to your next N insurances
There’s a ceiling of reputation gain:
- Low car-elos can, e.g., build general rep up to 1000
- High car-elos can, e.g., build general rep up to 10000
- Driving with low car-elo when, e.g., you’ve a general rep of 8000 doesn’t reduce it
The higher car-elo you crash in, the more general rep you lose.
The general rep doesn’t block what cars can be insured, but the cost will be inflated
There are specific rep categories, which all start at 0 and can become negative, e.g., for:
- Car brands
- Car models
- Drivetraion config
- Wet/snow conditions
Street racing or high risk seasons cannot be insured
Certain combinations can be a “risk”, e.g. RWD BMW in snow
- This’ll either require a minimum rep category to be insurable, or just affect prices. Could also require a certain license instead of a minimum rep category, and then also affect prices.
- If the former, people will have to drive uninsured in certain categories if they fall too low, which could be too punishing
International races:
- Touch-enabled races require premium insurance
license:
You can do street races without a license
- Could be cool to have some sort of police system but that’d be a massive scope increase and could dilute gameplay, but crashing or DNFing whilst uninsured has some risk.
- - E.g., if you DNF, you pay a fine or something. But this may be dull without open world.
You must complete a basic license before competing in any seasons/cups, even beginner ones
- I want to structure it so that you start off with street races and are encouraged to sort of fend for yourself with what you have in your garage
Lower level licenses can be done in your own car as long as it doesn’t exceed the performance spec and matches params like RWD drivetrain
Structured similar to Gran Turismo 5 or whatever, where more prestige licenses are required for more prestige seasons/cups
open world?:
Ideally there’ll be a relatively wealthy open world, which could also serve as a lobby for offline and online street racing and just messing about.
- Any street race would require you to drive to it and you’d need to be prepared. Then with more street rep it’s more convenient
If you DNF a street race, and the license system is used, players would be fined or something for skipping driving back to their garage. I’d really want this to be something where the loser has police heat but idk if literally building AI cops is gonna fit the game.
After any street race end, you have to drive back to your garage.
- Risks include running out of fuel, and if you have to ditch your car you pay/wait for towing.
garage:
Either rent or buy. Not sure which, or maybe allow either.
Either upgrade or change garages.
- Maybe both, e.g., you can buy lifts for a garage to increase car storage, but there’s a limit until you need to move.
Porbably limit of one garage because this isn’t an MMORPG
Limit of cars stored
Limit of mechanics
Storing fuels
- Can buy more barrels, probably will have only one size barrel available for simplicity.
- Max limit of litres
- Each barrel can only store one type of fuel
- You can take x amount of barrels to a race, so either all of the same fuel or different fuels
Ordering fuels has a season-time
tools/parts/etc.:
You can buy or receive sponsored tools to be able to do work in-house
Parts are localised and if you take them to a season, are reserved
Either tools are localised, so if you take it to a season they’re reserved, or once you have it you have it everywhere
- If the former, you can buy more of the same
Special tools required for specific actions, e.g. boring out engine cylinders
mechanical:
Each part experiences some kind of wear, depending on temperature etc.
Can replace individual parts down to valves and valve springs, conrods, and head gaskets
Either simulate engine components somehow, or model stress and failure chance under different conditions
New or rebuilt engines need a break in period on test/practice, otherwise you get lower compression
wear:
tires
brake pads
brake discs
engine mounts - engine movement so maybe slightly worse cornering, and vibrations
transmission mounts - lower safe torque on driveshaft, maybe very slightly slower shifting
engine oil (engine wear, eventually engine clogging up with gunk and performing worse)
power steering oil (slower turning?)
transmission oil (very slight shifting time increase, very slight increase chance of mis-shifting)
diff oil (?)
coolant (very slightly worse cooling performance, neglect for long time causes issues with cooling that require cooling system rebuild/refresh (major service))
brake pads and discs. No status bar or anything, but based on visual inspection
timing belts and chains - if neglected you can grenade an interference engine
suspension - mostly just cheap shit will end up having bad rebound or whatever after some time
cylinder walls - higher oil consumption and lower compression
piston rings - higher oil consumption and lower compression
valve carbon deposits - lower compression due to sealing, only happens on diesel or DFI without additional port injection
coolant:
can run different glycol amounts
some races require running water
can’t race in winter race cups with pure distilled water
engine oil:
Selection of engine oils, have effect on wear and performance.
- Selecting too viscous of an oil will ruin certain parts, like in the S54 the rod bearings
- You can “send” oil samples to be tested, game doesn’t tell you which oil is ideal but has manufacturer suggestions
- - costs $
- - has a reasonably short delay, not MMO style. Counts online and offline time