I tried to add this to one of the existing topics, but I was advised by the system to start a new thread. I have a few thoughts on development. My understanding is that a game engine is close to being selected, if it hasn't been already. In any case, there are many available. While I don't recall if I mentioned it before, I wondered if parts of TORCS, which is open-source, could be used for the racing scenes. The physics files are a lot like Redline, so I would find them easy to work with, but I should move on to my main point. Not being a low-level programmer, I should leave the serious technical stuff to others. My point is this....
While the engine is being chosen and modded, the content will have to be created. I would argue that it would save us time if we use the models from the beta, and I've worked on modding them slightly, as I assume many others already have. I also assume that most of my mods, if they survive, will do so in concept only, as all of them will likely have to be recoded for the new beta. However, while I've already outlined this point elsewhere, I've thought of taking the intiative (when I have time in a month or two) to produce some new cars and mods. Presumably, the tracks will have to wait until we know what engine (and preferably app) we're making them for. I could test them in TORCS, obviously, although I'm still figuring out that program and have only built one mod for it so far.
At the moment, it seems the Beta lacks some of the basic building blocks of the Street Rod concept. What are these? I would argue that they would be the basic cars that a player would start with, and the cars they would end up with. At the moment, the cars in the beta like the GTO, the Mustang, and the Deuce are more mid-level cars. There isn't any C3 Corvette yet, there isn't any Camaro yet, and there aren't any entry-level cars to start with. In the old game, these were cars like the Falcon and the Fury, or possibly the C2 Corvette (in SR2). If we're going to do an early 1970's game this time, then, it would make sense to have a Ford Pinto (or another Falcon), a Chevy Nova (and/or Vega), and a Dodge Dart. I'm not joking about the Vega, actually. These cars were supposedly excellent track cars, better than some of their European competition, they could be fitted with V-8's (Chevy actually did this with the Monza), and were very cheap. Yenko also had a version with turbo for the 4-cyl. engine, which was already unusual for a Chevy of the time as most were 6 or 8 cylinder. Novas were similar, of course, and very popular hot rods, but in hindsight they aren't as interesting as they were far more conventional, and many, many of them survive today. The same can't be said of the Vega. I haven't seen one in over 20 (maybe 30) years, not even at a car show. Other oddities and newcomers (for SR3) could be as follows:
Plymouth Roadrunner (or the Plymouth GTX)
Dodge Charger Daytona
Dodge Challenger
Dodge Monaco (maybe with the 440)
AMX
Lincoln Continental (for the 460)
'57 Chevy Belair (which is before the time period of the game, but neglected in both SR1 and SR2)
Ford Thunderbolt (like the Belair, old but neglected, and an excuse to include the 427 side-oiler)
What the King will drive is another question. I think I've said elsewhere that he could have a GT40, an A/C Cobra, or a Corvette L88 or ZL1. None of these fit the ideal of a muscle car or a hot rod, but they all use American big-block V-8's, and would give the King the edge over everything that isn't a very extreme hot rod.
Finally, it would be especially cool for the cars in the old games to reappear. That would give the game a great deal more depth, but would require a lot of modelling. This is what could be done while the engine is being prepared, however, as any good game engine will take a model format that either the models will be built in, or which they can be converted to. In the meantime, the new models could be used in TORCS.
I'm just posting this now while I'm thinking of it, partly to see what other people are thinking of or working on. I've been distracted by this for a few days, even though I can't built any actual models yet. Another thing to consider is that I don't want to build anything that other people are already building.
