Electric Car DLC?

[Monkius]

Hey Red Dot,

Have you guys ever considered including cars like the Tesla Roadster, Nissan Leaf or VW e-Golf in your game? As neat as it is marveling at all the intricacy of a carbureted OHV V8, I am starting to become even more fascinated with this new wave of cars that have parts like battery packs, inverters, AC synchronous motors and DC-to-DC converters instead of fuel tanks, spark plugs, pistons and manifolds.

You even have an existing car model that is arguably based off of a VW Golf, so that would even save you a bit of work.

[Hans-Ulrich Rudel]

I think this sounds like a great idea. I hope Red Dot sees this post and takes it into consideration.

[xdarkicex]

Yes This would be very cool, I'd pay to a electric car pack if they had unique parts. :D

[Limmin]

Definitely a great DLC idea. After all, we'll see more electric and fewer hydrocarbon vehicles in the future.

Also in this DLC introduce "hybrid" type cars with a small generator (like the Chevy volt) and large battery, electric motors, etc. For body types you could model your cars on the Volt and Prius.

FWIW I would NOT suggest a Prius type hybrid's innards, as this has so many unique part types not repeated in other vehicles.

[Monkius]

I've actually heard a rumour that they are going to open up the cars to modding like they have with test tracks. So, maybe we could get to working on stuff like this, ourselves. Hopefully they find a better way of doing it than the current method of forcing modders to buy/pirate expensive software like Unity Pro.

Heck, I would settle for an EV "parts library." I have learned from screwing around and swapping parts via text-file editing that Red Dot have made the cars fairly "modular." It would be just as sweet to have a tickbox for "EV conversion" that would be greyed-out until you have removed all of the engine-related parts. Then you would have the option of replacing the engine unit/12V battery/fuel tank/multi-speed transmission with a rotor/stator/inverter/HV battery pack/single-speed transaxle. This would also be a lot less work for Red Dot--I assume modeling entire car bodies is much harder than just doing a set of parts.

[Limmin]

Ouch. Yeah, having made mods myself, you need to do the mesh, textures, then all the testing yourself, with many repetitions. One really would need the Unity software to do it right.

OTOH maybe someone(s) our there with this software already can also become modders for this game...

[FordGT90Concept]

I dunno, electric cars, in terms of their mechanics, are very simple compared to internal combustion (battery, motor(s), suspension). Hybrid models of the existing cars would be a nice edition though.

What I'd like to see some exotics explored that aren't so simple (e.g. Ford Nucleon, Chrysler Turbine Car, Dobel E-20, Mazda RX-8). It would give gamers a little history leason too. :D

[Monkius]

Try soldering together your own motor controller/inverter or building your own high-voltage battery pack, then come back and tell me that EVs are "very simple."

Go on, I dare you. :P

Lol, but I get what you mean, in that they have very few moving parts. Computer programmers are usually smart dudes though, so I'm sure they could figure out a way to balance the game if they wanted to.

Unfortunately for me, I don't think that is high on their list of priorities. The top of that list is probably more like "keep the company afloat," judging by how fast they have been cranking out paid DLC with this game.

[Oparator Stalker]

Humm, really not much of mechanics, I mean granted they have suspension and a battery, sorry, batteries, and a body shell. I just not seeing the auto fundments, just the model build and science of it all. Lets face it, electrice car is just a road zombie.... really not much of a living breathing engine about it...

[Monkius]

You can "face" that if you want, but I think it's pretty "special" to think that an engine is "living..." It's a chunk of scrap metal, dude. I say "scrap" because a top-notch gasoline engine with all the modern trickery is maybe 30% efficient, whereas one of the best electric motors is 90-something % efficient. This is why 2-tonne behemoths like the Tesla Model S can either go 0-100 km/h in 3 seconds, or get 100 mpgE, depending on the driver's mood.

Next time, please think a little before you go touching a keyboard. I'm sure that a whole lot of people will appreciate it.

[FordGT90Concept]

[offtopic]Not that it really matters in the context of CMS but you have to look at efficency from start to finish. The motors may be 90% efficient but your batteries sure aren't and the power plant that generated that power in the first place is maybe running 70% at best. There's also 10-20% losses in grid transmission and we can't forget the cost of building/maintaining that grid, the power plants, and supplying their fuel.

2015 F-150 Platinum 4x4 weighs 5500 lbs with a twin-turbo 3.5L gasoline engine which is motivated to 102 kph in less than 6 seconds. What's more, it can go twice as far as the Tesla Model S without stopping (extremely conservative estimate) and can reasonably travel 1000 miles in a day. You can even install an additional fuel tank in the bed to make it go 1000 miles on one fill up. If it breaks down, there's service centers all over the place, likely with parts on hand to fix it immediately. It can haul your toys around too. Pretty sure Castor Earthquake is an F-150, Rex is Raptor.

Ford sells as many F-150s in the USA in a day (71,332/31=2,301) as Tesla has sold Model S in all of North America total (2,322). More Ford GTs have been sold.[/offtopic]

Going back to the game, I think hybrids are ideal for CMS. All it takes is different model of transmission with what is effectively a really big starter.

Electric-only vehicles remove too much from the game (literally picture the engine gone, a battery in its place, and a slightly different axle with an electric motor bolted to it). If cars are separated into difficulties, EV would undeniably be in the "easy" category where pushrod engines would be in "hard." I wouldn't mind if they were added but I expect compensation to scale accordingly.


Edit: Speaking of turbos, I'd like to see more engines with not only one turbo, but twin turbo or even Volvo's super-charge + turbo-charger design. Straight up super-chargers would be nice too.

And PLEASE give us a super car to work on like a V12 or W16. In which case, there could be four turbo-chargers on it. OH, OH, mid-engine too! :D

[Oparator Stalker]

Originally posted by Monkius:

You can "face" that if you want, but I think it's pretty "special" to think that an engine is "living..." It's a chunk of scrap metal, dude. I say "scrap" because a top-notch gasoline engine with all the modern trickery is maybe 30% efficient, whereas one of the best electric motors is 90-something % efficient. This is why 2-tonne behemoths like the Tesla Model S can either go 0-100 km/h in 3 seconds, or get 100 mpgE, depending on the driver's mood.

Next time, please think a little before you go touching a keyboard. I'm sure that a whole lot of people will appreciate it.

I understand, your a green guy, so anything gasoline or desil will always be scrap. Sorry, But I disagree with you 100%. I on the other hand find the electricle car a health hazard due to the batteries (since I had to scrape them off the road after a collision, nothing like having acid every were). And I did put thought into it, this isn't the electric company, this is auto mechanics. So I see nothing in genarators and electrice motors and a dozen of egg smelling batteries burning the barin out about it being auto mechanics in fixing a engine. Most here complain about SUSPENSION!

Most work in a electricle car gonna be about, SUSPENSION. Its gonna get old with many to be just changing suspension, body parts, and some failed batteries, and a relay or two, with a compleate electricle motor replacement. Compleatly defeats the Auto mechanic thing. I compleatly understand, the reason of the GAME.....

OBTW, Crude oil base products are many things beside fuel, includes plastics and composits as well, like the trim or bumper cover of your car...

[Monkius]

Actually, I'm not even close to green. More of a light pinkish-red, really.

Lithium ion batteries don't have a single drop of acid in them and are no more of a "health hazard" than say, a 60-litre tank full of flammable liquid. Sulfur in gasoline actually smells like eggs; ironically, old lead-acid batteries in fossil-fuel cars are the ones that become sulfated, not the ones in "electrice" cars.

Thanks for actually making a point against yourself... Yes, electric cars (aside from the Tesla) are actually way more reliable. But this game isn't exactly what you call "realistic," so they could easily come up with ways to fix them, like a simplified "soldering station" where you could replace components on circuit boards (which aren't likely to fail at all in real life.)

You've made it apparent that you are thoroughly ignorant when it comes to electric cars, so maybe you should leave this thread to the people who actually like them and save yourself the stress.

[Oparator Stalker]

Originally posted by Monkius:

Actually, I'm not even close to green. More of a light pinkish-red, really.

Lithium ion batteries don't have a single drop of acid in them and are no more of a "health hazard" than say, a 60-litre tank full of flammable liquid. Sulfur in gasoline actually smells like eggs; ironically, old lead-acid batteries in fossil-fuel cars are the ones that become sulfated, not the ones in "electrice" cars.

Thanks for actually making a point against yourself... Yes, electric cars (aside from the Tesla) are actually way more reliable. But this game isn't exactly what you call "realistic," so they could easily come up with ways to fix them, like a simplified "soldering station" where you could replace components on circuit boards (which aren't likely to fail at all in real life.)

You've made it apparent that you are thoroughly ignorant when it comes to electric cars, so maybe you should leave this thread to the people who actually like them and save yourself the stress.

Yeah, yeah what ever, it is the most auto unrelated point you made tree hugger. Lithium batteries have health hazzard warning lables and despose instruction on tiny electricle devices. And further more already had towed a wreaked electricle car, which acid had to be sprayed off the bed.Thedy have to be speacly marked and kept away from the other cars at the inpound. So your telling me NOTHING, but you made it very clear your the most airogent, ignorent, rude, green loveing trashed I have ever met. Go plant yourself, mabe you grow as a nicer flower than a sour grape vine.. So there is no point in being nice to people like you.

I would never buy a electric car DLC, there plenty of gas sucking green crushing engine cars that can have hopped up super chargers, that I want to fix, rebuild beside suspension work. Who wants to be bothered with some kind of wineing crying electric motor and a dozen batteries, this isn't the ocean, car isn't a sub, I want roar, not wine, I am getting pleanty of that from you...

[Monkius]

@ warcatt

K. I'm unsubscribing from this thread.

I hope you get cancer.

[Oparator Stalker]

You will get over it, love you man like a bro... have a good day