Idea: 2D race view

[Bleek]

Okay, so I'm enjoying the game but I find the whole 3D race thing a bit of a waste of resources. It feels like a load of polish but doesn't actually give us any advantage. I just fast forward until key points.

I'd much rather the minimap/position tracker be bigger and we get more data overlays and analysis.

I appreciate that doesn't look as good and is less marketable to sell the game, but from a sim/management perspective it really makes more sense.

For example a proper driver lap counter with sector performance, lay by lap, so we can see their trending performance is really needed. Otherwise it's thumb in the air and fast-forward the race.

A spit strategy box would be really useful too, plan ahead.

A running log of the commentary and driver comms is required.

Perhaps with the 3D race in a 'tv' screen in a corner or expandable for those that want to watch a relatively meaningless show.

I really hope this will be moddable to that level of detail so us sim lovers can get our teeth really stuck in to this game.

[noxmortem]

It feels like a load of polish but doesn't actually give us any advantage. I just fast forward until key points.

Actually you are plain wrong here. Switching settings during animation keypoints can easily win you positions. MM is extremly gamey and much less simulation than you might think.

The game abstracts way too many stuff to be a "correct simulation". This however makes it a a) great game and b) accessible: You do not need to know anything about cars and car settings and can get perfect settings out of training. You don't have to know anything about break and tyre temperature and have a good qualifying setup. You don't need to know much about developement/racing tactics and can be a good Motorsport Manager :)

I am loving it for exactly that. I would not play MM a second if it was more like FOF7 (which I love) in terms of beeing very accurate simulation but text based and less game.

A running log of the commentary and driver comms is required.

Commentary log exists. See data centre.

[Bleek]

Thanks for the tip on the comments log, I didn't realise it was hidden up there!

I hear your points and wasn't suggesting to ditch the 3D view, the option of 2D view would still be great for those that wanted a more precision approach.

[noxmortem]

I completly get what you mean, especially as more stats have been requested by many people. I just wanted to point out that the game simulates much less correct than you might think. I am never against additional stuff for people who want more. Especially when a game like MM will be moddable and I believe highly in gaming modding communities. Give them the tools to make a complete overhaul of a game and they will do so :)

Changing driver settings based on the 3D view of two cars can in MM be more important than any simulation/theorethical based decision. This is because the game logic/animation is following rules which you can interact with. In MM if you switch from blue to red for just a very short duration you can break an overturn maneuver of an opponent even if your driver does not really do much "physics wise". Of course one can interpret such things as "you show that you can drive more aggresively and the opponents stops trying to turn over" but in reality it's just because the game logic tells the opponent driver he can't overturn anymore, even if he could because turn, track, car and driver skills would allow it.

MM is completly packed with such stuff. What I wanted to point out with "you are plain wrong" is not that you are wrong that you want more stuff, but that the 3D rendering in MM does not give you advantage. It does, because you can make decisions based on it which are much more important than anything you could get out of any statistic in the game, even if it would in real life be a very important statistic :). This is because MM is much more GAME and much less SIMULATION. However, this makes it also a GREAT game for me, as I can be successfull and have a lot of fun without ever liking racing/racing games or other stuff.

[grahamwaite]

The 2D view might also make the game more accesible as graphic requirements would be much less so instead of needing quite an up to date graphics card it could be played on a laptop which are far harder to upgrade.

[Bleek]

Originally posted by noxmortem:

I completly get what you mean, especially as more stats have been requested by many people. I just wanted to point out that the game simulates much less correct than you might think. I am never against additional stuff for people who want more. Especially when a game like MM will be moddable and I believe highly in gaming modding communities. Give them the tools to make a complete overhaul of a game and they will do so :)

I'm really hopeful that the modding isn't restricted, will be great to see potential unlocked!

I totally agree this is way more game than it is sim, but it'd be nice for people like me to given a few more slices of sim. I'll take your other comments on board about the 3D and play around with it some more, instead of it being background noise.

[Bleek]

Originally posted by grahamwaite:

The 2D view might also make the game more accesible as graphic requirements would be much less so instead of needing quite an up to date graphics card it could be played on a laptop which are far harder to upgrade.

Very true.

My laptop is high-end but the integrated graphics card means running MM at low rez and min settings.

On my desktop I noticed that my graphics card gets very hot with this game and the fan ramps up massively, which is odd because other games that look better and clearly have more going on don't have such an impact.