DiRT 4 Road Book - 17/02/17

[enamel 0]

I agree with Alf, love those interviews with the other team members!

[Plaargath 0]

After watching the DiRT Show you linked there I was left with few questions (and a fair deal of excitement).

The procedural road generator - great idea and a very ambitious one. It surely raises many questions. I'm aware that you already stated that you won't be saying too much about it. It's fine, I understand the reasons behind it even if it's the technical details that are most interesting to me. However, there are two things that really need to be asked and answered, both regarding how is this feature actually going to influence our game experience:

1.
In the video you showed us a terrain map/grid on which the generator is visualizing generated roads. The way the white line is generated shows all three dimensions of the track, and the vertical dimension of the white line seems to correspond with the flat background image of the terrain. Therefore it seems that the generator is using some way to calculate a possible way through a 3D terrain, which would have to take verticalities under consideration, like slopes or cliffs that are impossible to drive. Those are very often the very reasons why certain real-life roads go and look the way they do, with (for example) cliffs being natural borders for the roads. The opposite of such natural borders was invented in video games and most often come in form of fences. Odious, boring, immersion-breaking and countering most of level designers' honest efforts fences. My question is - is your road generation method going to sentence us to fences? Should we abandon hopes of having roads that feel natural like they were in DiRT Rally?

2.
Another concern for me is the usability and playability of the generator feature. From what can be seen in the video the only control over the generating process we will have is setting some two implicit variables: length (one that is self-explanatory, which presence is not even a real choice, it clearly just has to be there. However, it's beyond me to justify why on earth would you decide to obfuscate it and hide a numeric label with amount of km's?) and complexity (one that is completely enigmatic). Time and weather belong to another system, so I don't regard them as parameters of the road itself. So at this state you show us something that looks more like an early prototype than a feature. It's supposed to bring us new procedurally generated content, which is great and I assume it will do its job. But at the same time it's a teaser, we won't have any meaningful control over the generating process with this tool. Or to be precise with something that mimics a tool, since it neglects to provide any in-depth functionality. I don't see why you shouldn't add more variables to control with sliders / numeric input or even go for more contemporary UI/UX solutions and let players draw a course over the terrain grid and then do the algorithm magic as close to the given course as possible. So the question is - are you planning to leave it as it is now? Because my guess is it that doing so will backfire at you, it's bound to frustrate (especially repeating the generation in hope of some specific change that might never come) and thus will obscure the fun it's supposed to give. From the designers perspective I find it more than risky to throw something that's rather a random generator to the players which they cannot actually use and hope they'll like it for the sheer love for a method that's great code-wise. From rallye games fan perspective I know that I'd hate it and the first thing I'd do with it would be to dive into the game files and try to mod it to be able to have more control over creation process. I understand that you do not intend to make a road building tool, but what the generator does in the video looks just like something that a single 'random' button should do.

The rest of questions are about the cars:
3.
I'm not sure if understood correctly, but it seems that because of licensing reasons there are not going to be any 2016/2017 WRC cars in the game. There is no point in whining about that, but an important question is: are there going to be any cars that drive like modern WRC cars? I mean, we don't need to have exactly the same look, but obviously it's hard to imagine a rallying game without something that drives like them. If you do intend to include contemporary rallying beasts - are they going to be last seasons ones or do you intend to include 2017 era machines' analogues too? And if you go for some 2017-like cars, are you going to add the possibility of manual diff control?

4.
What changes regarding the damage system are planned?

5.
And finally two short ones about the lights: are we going to have the possibility to choose if we want to equip the additional lights or is this going to stay automatized and beyond our control? Also can we expect a better control over existing lights (switching inner/outer etc.)?


OK, that's some amount of text here, but - believe me - I didn't ask everything that came to my mind about the game. You made DiRT Rally an excellent game and I'm very happy that its successor is coming. Good luck with your work, best wishes for the dev team!

[Thierry97 89]

There are now three months at the date of launch of this game..us any news on possible or almost certain cars present?

[RodgerDavies 933]

Thierry97 said:

There are now three months at the date of launch of this game..us any news on possible or almost certain cars present?

That question is literally answered already on this page. I'm impatient too, especially for the modern content (hoping for Skoda and Hyundai R5s), but Christina says above end of March, early April, so we'll probably have to wait another month.

[Thierry97 89]

seeing some videos on dirt 4 does not seem so difficult as dirt rally..Spero it is unplayable as dirt rally

[bogani 756]

Thierry97 said:

seeing some videos on dirt 4 does not seem so difficult as dirt rally..Spero it is unplayable as dirt rally

Huh? Spero? Huh?

[Thierry97 89]

I hope excuse me...seeing some videos on dirt 4 does not Seem so difficult as dirt rally..i hope it is unplayable as dirt rally

[bogani 756]

Thierry97 said:

I hope excuse me...seeing some videos on dirt 4 does not Seem so difficult as dirt rally..i hope it is unplayable as dirt rally

DR is far from unplayable. 

[SirPhilMcKraken 279]

Thierry97 said:

I hope excuse me...seeing some videos on dirt 4 does not Seem so difficult as dirt rally..i hope it is unplayable as dirt rally

The simulation side is better than DR. And its perfectly playable.

[bogani 756]

I assume he actually means he is hoping it will be as challenging as DR. Not unplayable.

[KevM 44]

bogani said:

I assume he actually means he is hoping it will be as challenging as DR. Not unplayable.

Everyone likes a challenge!

[Thierry97 89]

maybe I already asked earlier ... But there will be automatic brake as dirt 3 for beginners? :/

[ChristinaMc 784]

Thierry97 said:

maybe I already asked earlier ... But there will be automatic brake as dirt 3 for beginners? :/

The gamer handling will have intuitive assists that mean when you lift off, the car will brake etc  - but sim handling won't! The options/assists for players with DiRT 4 run far and wide, so we can offer something for every skillset.

[shadow118 18]

ChristinaMc said:

Thierry97 said:

maybe I already asked earlier ... But there will be automatic brake as dirt 3 for beginners? :/

The gamer handling will have intuitive assists that mean when you lift off, the car will brake etc  - but sim handling won't! The options/assists for players with DiRT 4 run far and wide, so we can offer something for every skillset.

If we feel comfortable with DiRT Rally handling, we shouldn't have much problems with DiRT4 Sim handling, right?

[Thierry97 89]

There will be four levels of difficulty?

[ChristinaMc 784]

Didzis said:

ChristinaMc said:

Thierry97 said:

maybe I already asked earlier ... But there will be automatic brake as dirt 3 for beginners? :/

The gamer handling will have intuitive assists that mean when you lift off, the car will brake etc  - but sim handling won't! The options/assists for players with DiRT 4 run far and wide, so we can offer something for every skillset.

If we feel comfortable with DiRT Rally handling, we shouldn't have much problems with DiRT4 Sim handling, right?

Exactly! It's definitely been refined with the help of a couple of professional drivers, but the foundations of that are rooted in DiRT Rally's handling. If you want the challenge, it's absolutely there. Just wait until you unlock Fearless Mode. ;)

[Thierry97 89]

Sorry for all those asked on this topic but I having played dirt rally found it very difficult in comparison of Dirt 3 and 4 dirt I hope can be more similar to Dirt 3 either as aid or as races :/

[SirPhilMcKraken 279]

Thierry97 said:

Sorry for all those asked on this topic but I having played dirt rally found it very difficult in comparison of Dirt 3 and 4 dirt I hope can be more similar to Dirt 3 either as aid or as races :/

This game appeals to both fans of Dirt 3 and also Dirt Rally so you will be fine :)

[Thierry97 89]

there will be rewind for this game? and how many will?

[RodgerDavies 933]

Thierry97 said:

there will be rewind for this game? and how many will?

I can't remember the numbers but I think that depends on the difficulty level you choose.

[Thierry97 89]

there will be a split screen?              

[RodgerDavies 933]

Thierry97 said:

there will be a split screen?              

I don't believe so, no.

[LeoniMarco63 0]

i have dirt rally xbox edition, is possibile play dirt rally location in dirt 4 ? 5 D.R. location + 5 D.4. location = 10 location, why not?

[SirPhilMcKraken 279]

LeoniMarco63 said:

i have dirt rally xbox edition, is possibile play dirt rally location in dirt 4 ? 5 D.R. location + 5 D.4. location = 10 location, why not?

The tracks wont be carried over from DR to D4

[Thierry97 89]

news? when there are now three months launch the game?