World

listing suggestions about the world...

Some constructive criticism on the map:

Now that the new builder is publicly available and seems to work okay, I feel that's a significant project ticked off that you've spent a lot of time on, incorporating many new much-wanted features and new UI and tutorials to go along with it. A few hotfixes to come yet, but a major update accomlished.

I'm sure you have quite the list of things you'd like to tackle next, both things the player sees but also the coding and behind the scenes stuff that players do not see. I have some thoughts on the map I'd like to share, and putting it all here will be more helpful to learn from than scattered thoughts here and there.

When V15 was released the map and the version number were like a platform to build on. V15 wasn't the update itself, but the foundations for the update. As such, some aspects of it look and feel like a bit of a placeholder. Maybe it is, and that's fine, but if I and other community members can come up with some feedback we can help create some insight into what can make it better. [4:05 AM] Llama: Geometry Resolution: I very much enjoyed crawling all over the V14 valley, climbing massive boulders, the perimeter mountain range and the fun little multiplayer ramps that linked them. The rock edges were generally quite smooth and natural, quite nice to drive over. In general V15 has a lower resolution, and this is painfully evident in the V14 valley area where an underpass runs under the runway - the edge zigzags back and forth from node to node. This is evident all over the V15 world, not necessarily visually obvious like the valley underpass, but the summits of ridges in the desert, the tops of mesas and other crests, the ground polygons can be a complete right angle or even acute, and it's too easy to bottom out even purpose build offroaders with huge wheels and small gaps in between the wheels, the edges are merciless. If these sharp edges were blunted or smoothed with higher poly counts we'd still have the challenges of climbing steep surfaces but getting stuck on unrealistic terrain is a negative, not a challenge. [4:05 AM] Llama: Terrain Textures: I started in V14, and it was a nice lush green, not too bright or saturated, the texture was nicely varied and natural feeling with sprite tufts sticking out. It transitioned into dirt in an irregular, natural way with rocks, small tufts and blemishes in it. It looked natural, so it didn't draw attention to itself. V15 Mt Hero looks pretty gaudy all round. The grass looks fake, the dirt looks fake, the transitions are too harsh and it looks like some orangy brown was handpainted over some green as a placeholder for where a track should go. There's some algorithm in where steep sections have a different texture, but on the whole it looks very 2-tone.

Related to terrain textures / surfaces is the sounds - the runway on Mt. Hero has a proper tyre squeal when you skid, and that's quite appealing, There is both a lot of paved areas at the V15 airport and also most of the playerbase there, but skidding there just sounds like rubbing sandpaper on a rock, it's not very satisfying.

I appreciate the large V15 map, it gives us that much needed large airport and some nice big hangars to chill in and space for high speed testing, plus most of the old terrain as well so it's a win-win? Mostly, yes. The V14 valley was a nice spawn point, the community was all right there to engage with, with a nice ringroad to race around that required speed and stability, there was lots to climb, which was very motivating as a builder. The Highway was a real feature, and it was accessible with a minute's drive for racing or moderate speed testing with a small risk of drowning. I know we can still teleport to the highway, but I don't feel inspired to do so, I definitely appreciated it being accessible and being a significant feature of the island. Flatlands was a nice secondary place to teleport to for speed testing, mad max cruising or more mountain climbing but I feel a V15 desert is a bit barren for a primary spawn, and would be better as a chosen destination to teleport to. [4:06 AM] Llama: Topography: V14 valley was good for its size, a nice range. Mt Hero is a decent steepness for the size of the island, and the island circumference is a good length without being too long a circuit. What has become apparent, is although Mt. Hero is pretty tall, everything else is pretty tall. The canyon is pretty tall, Arnold's is pretty tall, the mountains in the west are pretty tall and so are the mountains in the east. It does vary, and it's good to have a large area to drive in but when you fly or pause mid-teleport and stop to think... it's all a bit samey. The tornado pokes out as being the tallest thing by miles, and it could bring a massive feeling of perspective if the centre of the island was not a canyon, but an actual mountain / volcano, something stunning. Something between 5-10x the height of other peaks, a big feature to really stand out from the rest of the map.

Some people have expressed wishes for a proper mountain road, like Pikes Peak or one of the many offerings in the Alps. Snaking up a mountain, hairpin after hairpin just metres from peril. A test to your cornering grip, and your power-to-weight ratio to climb this challenge quicker than other players. Besides looking lovely, it would add avery specific and welcome challenge for car builders, something with good acceleration, stability and grip around the corners but most importantly something to draw in players and inspire them, a focal point for the community.

So far that's increasing geometry resolution, terrain textures / details / surfaces, maybe reconsider spawnpoint, vary the topograhy more with massive mountain that feels like a mountain, and adding some paved mountain roads. [4:06 AM] Llama: I have a friend who has Forza Horizon, and one area that stands out as something I'd like in Homebrew is the motorway / highway, I know we have some salt flats and such and the old highway ringroad, but I feel it would be a positive thing to have this specific location, a long (mostly) straight, smooth paved motorway. When people ask "how fast is it?", unless you hit the limitations of gearing, it kinda depends how many bumps you hit between the saltflats over to the other side of the map. If we have a very specific location of fixed length, we can confidently say "it goes XXX mph on the motorway" as the length of the desert and bumps are taken out of the equation, we have a fixed feature to compete on.As for the length that depends where it goes, but maybe something between a quarter to half the radius of V15 island, a few miles. There would probably be a few drag races too.

Those are the main things that had been on my mind, I can't think of much else right now besides variety in racetracks or development of the one we have now. Now's the time for my comrades to chip in and agree, disagree or suggest other features the map could benefit from.

As a final note, I'd like to say I appreciate the new dirt track on Mt. Hero, the poly count there is good, the detail is nice, the mud texture is great, the littering of a few props is nice and homebrew and the cambers on the track are good fun to use. It's a nice specific location we can race live, casually drift together, compete offline via laptimes if we wish, and a feature we can build for, or at least tune for. Noticeably higher quality than the surrounding area, a good step forwards!

I think a lot the reason the map looks so lacking is because of the absence of vegetation not to mention that most of the map is a barren desert, which I really like but I think might be too big and takes away from the detail that could've been there