I wonder if tool tips over menu entries would be a good thing and easy enough to do. If I am informed properly we actually do not use real letters but images as letters. This is probably rather complicated in the end and most likely makes it difficult to have small text. If we could introduce roll-over tool tips (using real text) we could even use "Win all races in an event to unlock further events and additional cars" in the first menu when people roll over "events" and we could explain the "practice" mode with: "Race maps of already unlocked events".
Now, that I think of it: To me the "practice" mode would make much more sense if it would allow me to train the single event races of the upcoming event I haven't unlocked yet. This way I could train before attempting the whole event again since it can be rather frustrating to have to race all maps only to get stuck again and again in the last map that I just can't finish in time.
Over all I am uncertain how sensible the whole separation between single races and events actually is. If all maps would become available as single race maps (after they have been unlocked by completing events) then we could throw out the practice mode all together (unless we define it as the stage where I can actually train only the maps of the event I need to complete next in order to progress and to unlock more events and cars). It could be presented like in the cars menu where I can also see what vehicles I can't use yet. The same could be true for maps. Being confronted with obviously not yet available maps should in principle motivate people to start an attempt to lift those limitations. (If done that way we should ensure that it isn't annoying to browse through many maps that aren't available yet to only occasionally find some available maps mixed in. Maybe by listing actually available maps first or having an option to filter what is shown. Or just having some information informing how many maps haven't been unlocked yet would be enough instead of showing all inaccessible maps in the selection menu also.)
This would make the game data structure clearer too. Events would just contain the event files detailing which single race maps are combined in certain events. Then you could actually really find all maps in the maps folder.
If I got it right when included as binaries in GNU/Linux distributions (and in the Windows executable) all maps and events are actually compressed into zip files like plugins (for performance reasons). In practice leaving no difference between included races and plugins. Therefore, to me it would make much more sence to treat all maps the same. Is there really a good reason to do the same twice only in different folders?
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I like the possibility to practise events and that the races of the events are grouped in the same way as in the actual event. On the other side I agree, that it is strange, that some races are located in the "practice" section while other are found under "single race". It should not be hard to change the menu code to also list the event races in the single race category. I also like your idea, that events can unlock some of teh single races as a reward.
I think the biggest problem of the events is, that they are completely unbalanced. It is quite hard to complete some races of even the first event while other races are no challenge at all. I think the target times need to be reworked. One option could be to add bronze, silver and gold target times, Bronze would be enough to unlock the next event, so this would satisfy the short term motivation to unlock everything. Silver and gold on the other side would be there to keep some users playing even more to for instance unlock the additional vehicles or some of the single races.
I am not sure about purpose of the the "plugins" folder. In my case it contains ZIP files of some of the races, but not of all. I will have a look into the background of this directory.
Regarding the menu the main question is how the different options should be grouped. For instance there could be a submenu of "events" that contains two items like "start event" or "practise event". However, this would add more depth to the menu and require more clicks by the player to start a race. Another option would be to group items on the main screen. For instance a new label called "events" could be added which is not clickable. Below that, the options "compete" or "practise" could be added.
I think the menu needs some redesign in general. The game is missing a settings screen that can be used to alter the items in the config file.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
It should not be hard to change the menu code to also list the event races in the single race category.
I was thinking the opposite: All maps could reside in the maps folder and the events folder would only hold .event files containing the information which maps to load in which order for the events. And maps of not yet unlocked events would be locked. (I suspect linking single race maps from the normal maps folder would be possible already. It just isn't what we have been doing so far.) And at the moment we don't have the possibility to lock or unlock single race maps.
I suspect further that it shouldn't be to hard to enable the possibility to practice all single races of the next not yet unlocked event (and possibly even in the order of the event). My argument about where maps are stored was just an attempt to make the folder structure less complicated.
About the plugins: Historically this folder was an attempt to make it easy to include user contributed maps without the need to alter anything else in the game structure. But I think this isn't actually necessary because it is no different from adding just an other map or event folder. (And Andrei, who contributed code a while back, has found out that loading zip files is actually more performant than loading the unzipped files. Therefore, he created some code for preparing releases where he does things like replacing PNG files with JPG files and packing maps into zip files.)
In more recent releases we put not as fleshed out races into the plugins folder as something not as deeply connected to the official game. But this didn't make any real difference because the fact where maps are stored isn't visible in the game anyway.
I think the biggest problem of the events is, that they are completely unbalanced.
I fear I am not very good with this. Maybe because I created most maps myself. I have absolutely no idea how to end up with a consistent difficulty level. It would be great if we could find people who are not blinded by knowing to much about the maps who can race at different difficuly levels. Unfortunately you do get better after some practice. Maybe we should just use special more extreme evaluation cars to get to the consistent time limits for different difficulty levels. I very much like your idea for different target times.
If we do not have enough space for "practice" and "start" in the events menu we could also use icons which might need less space.
Maybe we should join the events into a career mode. Then we could add a little story consisting of a few sentences before each event. But this would make the whole structure less flexible.
The game is missing a settings screen that can be used to alter the items in the config file.
Indeed. This is something I wanted to add for a long time. It would make the game surely more appealing to many people.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I wonder if tool tips over menu entries would be a good thing and easy enough to do. If I am informed properly we actually do not use real letters but images as letters. This is probably rather complicated in the end and most likely makes it difficult to have small text. If we could introduce roll-over tool tips (using real text) we could even use "Win all races in an event to unlock further events and additional cars" in the first menu when people roll over "events" and we could explain the "practice" mode with: "Race maps of already unlocked events".
Now, that I think of it: To me the "practice" mode would make much more sense if it would allow me to train the single event races of the upcoming event I haven't unlocked yet. This way I could train before attempting the whole event again since it can be rather frustrating to have to race all maps only to get stuck again and again in the last map that I just can't finish in time.
Over all I am uncertain how sensible the whole separation between single races and events actually is. If all maps would become available as single race maps (after they have been unlocked by completing events) then we could throw out the practice mode all together (unless we define it as the stage where I can actually train only the maps of the event I need to complete next in order to progress and to unlock more events and cars). It could be presented like in the cars menu where I can also see what vehicles I can't use yet. The same could be true for maps. Being confronted with obviously not yet available maps should in principle motivate people to start an attempt to lift those limitations. (If done that way we should ensure that it isn't annoying to browse through many maps that aren't available yet to only occasionally find some available maps mixed in. Maybe by listing actually available maps first or having an option to filter what is shown. Or just having some information informing how many maps haven't been unlocked yet would be enough instead of showing all inaccessible maps in the selection menu also.)
This would make the game data structure clearer too. Events would just contain the event files detailing which single race maps are combined in certain events. Then you could actually really find all maps in the maps folder.
If I got it right when included as binaries in GNU/Linux distributions (and in the Windows executable) all maps and events are actually compressed into zip files like plugins (for performance reasons). In practice leaving no difference between included races and plugins. Therefore, to me it would make much more sence to treat all maps the same. Is there really a good reason to do the same twice only in different folders?
I like the possibility to practise events and that the races of the events are grouped in the same way as in the actual event. On the other side I agree, that it is strange, that some races are located in the "practice" section while other are found under "single race". It should not be hard to change the menu code to also list the event races in the single race category. I also like your idea, that events can unlock some of teh single races as a reward.
I think the biggest problem of the events is, that they are completely unbalanced. It is quite hard to complete some races of even the first event while other races are no challenge at all. I think the target times need to be reworked. One option could be to add bronze, silver and gold target times, Bronze would be enough to unlock the next event, so this would satisfy the short term motivation to unlock everything. Silver and gold on the other side would be there to keep some users playing even more to for instance unlock the additional vehicles or some of the single races.
I am not sure about purpose of the the "plugins" folder. In my case it contains ZIP files of some of the races, but not of all. I will have a look into the background of this directory.
Regarding the menu the main question is how the different options should be grouped. For instance there could be a submenu of "events" that contains two items like "start event" or "practise event". However, this would add more depth to the menu and require more clicks by the player to start a race. Another option would be to group items on the main screen. For instance a new label called "events" could be added which is not clickable. Below that, the options "compete" or "practise" could be added.
I think the menu needs some redesign in general. The game is missing a settings screen that can be used to alter the items in the config file.
I was thinking the opposite: All maps could reside in the maps folder and the events folder would only hold .event files containing the information which maps to load in which order for the events. And maps of not yet unlocked events would be locked. (I suspect linking single race maps from the normal maps folder would be possible already. It just isn't what we have been doing so far.) And at the moment we don't have the possibility to lock or unlock single race maps.
I suspect further that it shouldn't be to hard to enable the possibility to practice all single races of the next not yet unlocked event (and possibly even in the order of the event). My argument about where maps are stored was just an attempt to make the folder structure less complicated.
About the plugins: Historically this folder was an attempt to make it easy to include user contributed maps without the need to alter anything else in the game structure. But I think this isn't actually necessary because it is no different from adding just an other map or event folder. (And Andrei, who contributed code a while back, has found out that loading zip files is actually more performant than loading the unzipped files. Therefore, he created some code for preparing releases where he does things like replacing PNG files with JPG files and packing maps into zip files.)
In more recent releases we put not as fleshed out races into the plugins folder as something not as deeply connected to the official game. But this didn't make any real difference because the fact where maps are stored isn't visible in the game anyway.
I fear I am not very good with this. Maybe because I created most maps myself. I have absolutely no idea how to end up with a consistent difficulty level. It would be great if we could find people who are not blinded by knowing to much about the maps who can race at different difficuly levels. Unfortunately you do get better after some practice. Maybe we should just use special more extreme evaluation cars to get to the consistent time limits for different difficulty levels. I very much like your idea for different target times.
If we do not have enough space for "practice" and "start" in the events menu we could also use icons which might need less space.
Maybe we should join the events into a career mode. Then we could add a little story consisting of a few sentences before each event. But this would make the whole structure less flexible.
Indeed. This is something I wanted to add for a long time. It would make the game surely more appealing to many people.