Vehicle Speeds, Controls and How to Improve Them

[HisDarkestFear]

Greetings,

Let me get straight to the point; Most ground vehicles are almost useless in the current version of the game. Other than performing functions similar (though with less impact) than building tools, most vehicles that don't fly or submerge are not worth riding. It's more worth your while to run than drive.

So, why is it better to run instead of drive? Exploring on foot allows you to switch between climbing, running, swimming, and diving in an instant, all while maintaining a fast speed (near that of most ground vehicles). There are barely any ground vehicles in the game right now that drive fast enough to make-up for the time it takes to switch methods of non-human transportation or navigate sharp hills.

There are two potential reasons for ground vehicles to be almost as slow as running; Chunk load times and an on/off throttle control scheme. Seeing as ground vehicles have become very lackluster, I've written-up my personal thoughts on solving these problems;

*

Firstly, let's look at the chunk load times. Since I'm not familiar with the Lego Worlds game engine, my proposals will focus on vehicles and control schemes, not something as user-subjective as chunk loading script.

If a vehicle drives too fast, most players will either notice very limited visibility or fall into a pit where a chunk of the world is still loading. However, a better CPU can often load more chunks faster. The solution cannot be a universal change, free of user choice.

My solution is relatively simple; Add a Vehicle Max Speed option with these three choices:

• Max Speed:About three times the current speed.
  
• Min Speed: The current vehicle speed, almost as slow as running.
  
• Chunk Speed: The max speed slowly fluctuates between the Max and Min Speed, depending on how far the player can see.

Chunk speed should be the default option, giving a player the best exploration experience possible on their computer. A better CPU can load more chunks faster, more chunks is a higher view distance and therefore higher max speed.

Clients will inherit a sever's max speed option. Chunk speed will use the server's amount of chunks loaded to define the client's max speed. This keeps races fair for online play.

*

Now, let's take a look at vehicle controls. Users can currently choose no speed, max speed, or tap the gas repeatedly for a less than max speed. Mouse control is the only exception. I have two proposals, both of which can be added as options if need be.

First, there's a held throttle. Holding the gas button brings you closer to the max speed, but releasing the gas holds you at the current speed. The player must hold brake or hit an obstacle to slow down.

Secondly, a gear shift keybind. Pressing this key would switch between a 25%, 50%, and 100% max speed. This could be the silver bullet for both chunk loading and speed control issues, as players can lower their gear when in towns or when their CPU can't keep up.

*

Thank you for your time, I hope you've understood my gist, and if not; Comment below! I'd be glad to answer any of your questions.

Your best,
~Darkest

[HisDarkestFear]

I have made some contextual edits to the main post. Previously, I mentioned vehicles in general multiple times while, "most ground vehicles," was more accurate.

[hymn]

I would also like to see faster vehicles, primarily to mess around with racing and track building. Getting that right is not merely a matter of boosting speed though, suspension, breaks, traction, drifting, the vehicles are lacking in all those areas with a very rigid handling as a result. Technically speaking that's what LEGO vehicles are but once you've experienced CITY Undercover driving and vehicle damage there is no way back imo. Not employing that tech for a LEGO Racers reboot would be a terrible waste.

As for the world loading, disk reading speed is the bottleneck there, especially in multiplayer the game occasionally has to load and stream multiple separate areas. On console that makes it inevitable you will run into invisible walls of chunks being loaded. So in a sense max travel speed shouldn't be determined by world loading because what that tries to prevent is already happening anyway.

There could be other factors at play as well, with the terrain made up of individual bricks the number of collisions that have to be checked could already be higher than normal but I have no clue about that.

I can't find a global vehicle speed multiplier so it's difficult to test what is holding it back, most likely still console limitations.

[the4thgoatboy]

Thank you for posting, this has been on my mind for a while. I've experimented with racetracks, but the driving is just too slow to be effective. Even the driving mechanics in The Lego Movie Videogame would be an improvement, however that obviously is a completely different engine. My goodness, I'm just imagining Undercover's cars with their handling/collision existing in LW, *gasp* :D

While we're on the subject of dreaming, I wish they could widen the 1rst person view, at least in vehicles, so there could be a little more immersion.. Don't know how that would adversely affect the game performance / mechanics. Oh, and what if the lego body didn't disappear in 1rst person, so you could see your own lego hands holding the steering wheel! Just some fun ideas I guess.

[thorm81]

I'd like to add that the turning isn't sharp enough to use the roads very well.