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Someone from Gaia *coughdevelopersmaybecough* should go to the SEMA show where Scion's about to unveil the next 3 top scions from the tuner challenge, and have the winner do some body and aftermarket mod designs for gaia cars.

I believe defending champ Team Hybrid is a full-on southern california team as well as team AutoConcept.

I mean honestly? The bodykit design for the scions right now is kinda... ummm... failed attempt at a widebody? ;___;

or maybe gaia can release their own brand of gaia cars. biggrin

I got so excited by this idea, I came up with a bunch of stuff.

Here's a concept.

The actual game would be a very simple track-based racing game. I'll maybe draw a sample screenshot tomorrow to give you an idea of what it would look like, but those of you who have played older racing games like Top Gear will probably have an idea of what it might look like.

The performance of the cars would be divided into three stat categories:

Speed-The maximum speed the car can go in each gear.
Acceleration-The rate of speed increase in each gear.
Grip-The maximum amount of gravity a car can take before losing traction. (Think skidpad ratings)

Each car would be entered in with different combinations of these stats. For example, a Mazda Miata would have low/mid-range Speed, mid-range Acceleration, and high-range Grip. In graphical displays of the stats, modifiers such as gear ratios wouldn't be noted. (A six-speed might have better Acceleration and Speed than a five-speed, but we wouldn't make specific note of it in the graphical display, we would just show the Speed and Acceleration of the six-speed car as being higher)

Obviously, we can't actually put in the names of cars, since they're copyrighted. We can use the chassis numbers, though. (For example, we can call the Corolla GT-S an AE86). The cars we use have to be recognizable and popular, outside of the car nerd community, or be distinctive-looking enough that even people who've never seen the car before would want to pick it as their car.

This part is purely theoretical, I'm not really sure how it would work yet
Speed would be determined by redline. We simply correspond what we determine the top speed for a certain gear is with the redline (For example, we can say that for a certain car, the redline in 2nd gear would occur at 45 MPH).
Acceleration would be determined by the amount of time it takes to redline each gear. (For example, we can say that for a certain car, it would take 4 seconds to reach redline in 1st gear) The subsequent speed increase would be determined by the gear itself, if that makes sense. (For example, we could determine that in 1st gear, a car's speed would increase by 5 MPH for every 100 RPM) I'm still working on this in my brain.

The transmission would act as a modifier for Acceleration and Speed. Each gear would have a set top speed and a set Acceleration modifier. Here's a full example:

The transmission of this example car with a 5-speed transmission would be set up like so:

1st gear: 3 seconds to redline from idle, unmodified Acceleration stat, tops out at 25 MPH.
2nd Gear: 5 seconds to redline from idle, 5% Acceleration reduction, tops out at 40 MPH.
3rd Gear: 7 seconds to redline from idle, 8% Acceleration reduction, tops out at 60 MPH.
4th Gear: 10 seconds to redline from idle, 12% Acceleration reduction, tops out at 100 MPH.
5th Gear: 16 seconds to redline from idle, 18% Acceleration reduction, tops out at 130 MPH.

While the mechanics of the ingame transmission clearly differ from real life, the modification of driving habits is about the same, (With the exception of the ingame ability to launch your car in 5th gear). For better acceleration, sticking with the lower gears is necessary, and of course 5th gear is really only used when top speed needs to be hit. Also there is a marked difference between 1st-3rd gears, and 4th-5th gear, like most street cars.

This is what I have for now. Please posts opinions, comments, questions, suggestions, or brilliant ideas. I'll try to expand a bit more tomorrow, both on the game, and the customizing/modification aspect.

Of course, the real question is: Would a game like this really appeal to Gaia's userbase?

I like this concept, and if you were to put effort into it, then I'm sure it would make an excellent game.

As for would it appeal to people on gaia, I'm sure it would. Many gaians may not be gearheads like us, but most of them have some car fandom. I think it would be up to gaia to make or break the concept.

The problem with the car modder on here is that it isn't taken seriously (Nitrous tanks on the outside of a car, WTF people).

IMO, the game should be set up like this;
I. Dealership has multiple cars for sale
1. Compact (Honda Civic, Nissan Sentra, ect)
2. Muscle (Ford Mustang, Dodge Charger, ect)
3. Sports (Honda S2000, Nissan 350Z, ect)
4. Luxury (Infinity G35, Lexus GS300, ect)
5. High End Sports (Dodge Viper, TVR Sagaris, ect)
6. Exotic (Ferrari F430, Porsche Carrera GT, ect)
7. Truck (Cadillac Escalade, Ford F-150,)
Note- Price's and availability are relevant to type.

II. Mod Shop
1. Body Paint
2. Wheels
3. Wheel Paint
4. Body Kits
5. Window Tint
6. Body Graphics
7. Performance (Handling, Acceleration, Top Speed)

III. Rally Game
1. Different tracks based on the Gaia universe.
2. Gold awarded based on time, with a ranking system.

IV. Car Meets
1. System that is set up now.
2. Voting competitions.

@ Masticatius: The problem with your idea is that it's arleady been done. "Drift City" is a flash game with several cars and already meets all of these requirements and ideas. So, in order to beat them, Gaia would have to be able to design tons of upgrades in a way that they aren't also competing with NITTO1320CHALLENGE and other online race games.

Also, in regards to cost, just starting to work on such a concept would take years. Toss in the fact that when the gaia rally first came out... SEVERAL KIDS WERE SAYING "YEA I WIN RACES EASY HERE CUZ I STREET RACE IRL!!!"

@Chrisb319: Scions are the new Civics with the TypeR and APC logos. They're cheap, the xB looks like it came with a factory bodykit, the tC somehow turned into a purely female-appeal car, and the xA was a failure until the 06 scion challenge where Team Hybrid actually made it look decent and got widespread magazine coverage worldwide for actually pulling off a Garrett Turbo setup.

Think of it this way...

Tons of people can afford and purchase scions. they will soon want to look different so they don't mix up their cars in parking lots, so they change up paintjobs, rims, halo headlights, etc., and eventually don't want to spend a lot on their cars but still want to look different, so cheap bodykits, neons, soundsystems, $20 6" exhaust tips, etc. are added in.

Congratulations. APC, TypeR, MatriX, and bBist have now all been moved onto a new class of ricers... THE SCIONS.

Don't worry, the SRT4 was in this class as well. a low power turbo compact with tons of ppl slapping BOVs on. SRT realized this and pulled it off the market the next year for this reason. The cheap price plus the turbo basically screamed for the next gen ricers.

Any car that's affordable off the lot and looks aesthetically pleasing WILL be whored out and WILL be riced out.

@ gman15975: tC has potential... but somehow, when you think SCION, everyone thinks of xB.

and also, Scion would have a bigger fanbase if they actually pixellated REAL bodykits like Ings+1, VARIS, bBIST, AirWalker, DAMD, Anceltion, Fabulous, etc. and had some engine mods that they could display on the side...

come to think of it, Turbonetics released Scion tC turbo's that guarantee a 150hp gain off of 12psi... and GReddy has superchargers and turbo's out for the xB...

Here's a bit more on the game concept.

I think to keep things simple and accessible, steering should not be an aspect. Cars should move along a set "track" defined by different frames of animation cycling through. The game would be set by acceleration, braking, and shifting (for those who choose to use manual. We also have to allow auto-shifting, and have a program for it.)

As a car approaches a corner, a warning would flash on the screen, specifying a low-speed, mid-speed, or high-speed turn. The player would have a set amount of time to brake to a proper speed to take the corner. If the player enters the corner too fast, the car will hit the wall, either ending the game or earning some sort of time penalty. Entering the corner too slow would of course cause the player to lose time accelerating back up to speed. This should greatly simplify the engineering effort that would need to be put into this game.

One more factor I hadn't thought of is Braking. This stat should be added to the Acceleration, Speed, and Grip stats.

As for the dealership idea, it could work with some adjustment. First of all, obviously we can't use the actual brands without permission, but I'm assuming you knew that.

One of the successes of the Gaia Rally program is the fact that everyone gets a free car. It's the "upgrades" that cost money. Maybe it should start simple, with about 5 economy type cars available for free, and then if the program is successful, add more expensive cars in the categories you mentioned, available as premium cars, and costing a hefty chunk of gold. This would also create a need for different racing classes to ensure an even match. Whaddya think?

The xB just isn't a race car. Granted, it could be tuned or made into a sleeper, but why? When I see an xB, I don't see a race car, but because of all the body kits and external modifications offered, I see a wanna-be tuner car for kids. Granted, this is only appearance and nothing more, but that's the name it seems to have earned itself (at least around here).

... then again, I watched an older Dodge Caravan sleeper take on your average Mustang GT the other day at a drag (the Voyager had a Mitsubishi 6G72T engine in it too, go figure), and won. It was funny, though, because the original Voyager was not designed to race, nor did it give off that wanna-be appeal.

As for the tC, I've actually got nothing against it. Most of the Scions that I see that are actually tuned well are tCs. Although I've only had to ask a tC owner once about why he chose the tC over the xB, he stated that he simply didn't want to be seen in an xB.

.... and as for Gaia cars, I'm glad to say that I own a Possum, and haven't touched any of the other cars. :3