An adequate development system in online racing?

Question

Game development

There are not many online races. And this is not surprising. The world is still worried about the presence of MMORPGs, where both developers have a well-trodden path of pumping, and everything is familiar to users - kill non-living players and progress. And games where you can compete with real opponents can be counted on one hand.
Personally, I ran into a huge problem. There must be progress in the game (few people want to drive the same cars from morning to evening). And whoever "progressed" more means cooler (more money - better cars). From this follows the conclusion that there should be games between more or less equal participants. And if there is a car for $1,000 and there is a car for $1,000,000, then there are quite a lot of gradations. But what if there are not so many people in the game? Not Electronic Arts after all!
The other day I reinvented the wheel: what if we give players the opportunity to have several cars and compete with weak opponents on a weak car, with strong ones on a powerful one? For example, I have a Cossack and a Ferrari in my garage. Unfortunately, now there are no “elite” cars and decent awards on the network, but with pleasure you can drive a Cossack and win some trifle.
Or maybe you should not limit the class of the car? Let people on a Ferrari participate in the race of the Cossacks, all the same, the profit is ridiculous, hardly anyone wants to compete for so long.

Answer 1

I will honestly say that I am not sure that the system I proposed below will be suitable without bringing it online, but the most adequate development system that I saw was in the game Toca Racing Driver 3:
Depending on which races are closer, initially the player there is a choice of touring car racing and open wheel. Accordingly, there is further development within its class, conditionally from karting to formula 1 and from VW Golf to DTM cars.
The bottom line is that in order to progress from class to class, you need experience, and to progress within a class, you need money to upgrade. In principle, as mentioned above, pay attention to World of Tanks, where they perfectly solved the problem of the participation of different classes.
Maybe it will still be useful: in the same endurance races (the most famous 24 hours of Le Man) there are several classes of cars on the track at once (3, if memory serves). All cars are on the track at the same time, while each driver is fighting in his class. Conventionally, the 1st class pilot wins only when he arrives first, and the 3rd class pilot can come 10th and win if he is ahead of everyone in his class.

Answer 2

a) Make fewer gradations, for example $1000, $10000, $100000,… Each gradation is a separate class of cars, they should not intersect in competitions. Plus, for each class of cars there are upgrades, but (!!!) in total they insignificantly affect the lap time (10% difference in time between the slowest and fastest cars is the ceiling)
b) Of course, allow the player to have several cars of different classes at the same time. This is possible in almost all games :)
IMHO, these two simple steps should allow you to create an interesting toy. Be sure to tell us about it when you launch :)

Answer 3

In this regard, it is good to look at World of Tanks. There are also different classes of cars, their different levels and modifications. Each tank can be upgraded to a certain limit (and the very limit can only be afforded for gold - it's quite difficult to play so much game money without gold).
In essence, the differences between racing and tanks:

• in tanks there are two teams, in races it's every man for himself;
• different classes of cars participate in tanks in the same round, in races ... I don’t know, it’s unlikely that pickups will be able to compete with rally cars;
• in racing rounds last longer on average.

Answer 4

if I'm not mistaken, even in the first Undergroud (or in the second), while playing on LAN, it was possible to move the slider responsible for auto power balancing.
those. if one of the players chooses mazda miata, and the second nissan skyline, then they will be approximately the same in terms of speed.

Answer 5

And if you add bonuses on the track? I didn’t come first due to the fact that all the other participants have better cars, but at least I earned extra money on bonuses.
like flatout or carmageddon. Well, there he cut off the path 5 times or beautifully got out of the skid and avoided a collision ...

Answer 6

I was a member of the Tank War project. Tank war is very similar to racing. We change tanks for cars and races for races and everything is in chocolate.
The strategy of the game is such that there were tanks in the hangars. You can buy and sell and upgrade them. (in your case, tuning spare parts...)
How many hangars you build, so many tanks you will have. (in your case, buying an additional garage)
There were two (or even three) categories of fights:
- with Bots, you gain rating
- Fights with other participants in your rating category.
— with friends, it’s fucking cruel — killing friends…
In your case, it’s better to do it
— test races (with a bot), gaining a rating…
— races by categories, you enter any car of a certain class, for example, limited by engine size
— races by categories, for example, beginners, amateurs, experienced, sports category -3...1, kms and master
— rally, survival races, by category or among a specific group, such as rally winners or masters.
well, it is desirable to think over an incentive rating system
We have a rating system:
- combat rating, depends on victory with live participants
- level, depends on victories with bots (number of killed tanks of varying complexity)
- title, we get from the combat rating
- medals, for definitely carried out campaigns, for example, when winning by numerical superiority ...
Restrictions: certain units are only available with a certain rating.
In general, you also have options:
- medals, for victories in certain competitions ...
- titles: Honored Master of Sports ...