No Vehicle Physics Changes?

[KuroBit]

(TLDR: Just read the bold parts, I'm really bad at shortening my writing, sorry xD)

I'm totally new to Trackmania 2 Canyon (But not to Trackmania) and it's scripting language, but I read that it doesn't let you change anything with the car.

Is this true? And if so, will this feature be updated in the future? I'd love to be able to do unusual things like giving the car the ability to jump, or forcing the wheels to go down if they are touching something, so that I could allow the car to drive up walls and ceilings as if it was magnetic . Maybe even levels that you can drive through "portals" and appear in another location on the track.

It seems like they've added so many new customizing features, so I feel it's too bad that this was left out. Maybe it could be abused in some way that I'm not aware of, but I'd figure it would be fine since it would be specific per-track.



Oh also, not to ask 2 questions in one, but I had thought you could change the time of day using the media tracker, so like you go into a tunnel during the day, and come out at night. I can't seem to find that option.

[Trackmaniack]

In terms of physics changes: If this were possible, this could very quickly break Trackmania, and if it didn't, then why would it be necessary for anyone to buy any other environments? Any good coder or scripter would only buy one title and be done--so Nadeo's left between a rock and a hard place when they implement that, so it was left out.

As for the dynamic day: That was a feature that was going to be in when the first TM2 was going to be Valley, but they realized that the CPU load was insane, so they decided that it was better left out. You can do that kind of effect in a movie with some slick mediatracking and good video clip editing, but it's not possible to actually accomplish with just in-game tools.

[SurferIX]

Why would it break TM²? On the contrary! Just imagine people looking for more realistic physics, trying very complex maths formulae, giving a harder (but why not better) driving experience?

[flunkorg]

Why would it break TM²?

Because its perfectly balanced as is and any modification to the physics would more then likely break that balance.
Theirs a reason that everyone on the track has "technically" the same car. No matter how much you mod your car. Your car is going to handle the same and have the same speed/weight as everyone else. Also, its to make sure that these tracks are possible. Even a slight weight change to any part of the car would make most tracks impossible. You got to keep in mind that this game is PURELY about precision. And it takes next to nothing to break that.

[SurferIX]

Yes but where is the problem? Imagine you connect on server called "realistic driving" and then you have a brand new way of driving, but it's just only on this server. So this would mean TM² wouldn't change except for some servers. What's wrong with that?

[KuroBit]

I definitely see what you're saying Trackmaniack, but it still seems like a big block on creativity.

I can't really think of a way around it though... Still, I'll have my fingers crossed that they'll add it at SOME point, even if that ends up being Trackmania 3 . I'd still love to see a WipEout/F-Zero physics server some day .

[SurferIX]

@Kuro: big +1

[Trackmaniack]

Why would it break TM²? On the contrary! Just imagine people looking for more realistic physics, trying very complex maths formulae, giving a harder (but why not better) driving experience?

Read the second part of my post. Even IF this were implemented in such a way as to not break TM, (which it will with inept scripters trying to change the physics) with the tools already in place to radically change the look of an environment, why would anyone buy any more environments of TM2? If you can completely change the physics, then you could make Canyon like Valley, thus precluding the need for you to buy it, resulting in a lost sale for Nadeo, and then many lost sales, should your physics change become public. This problem would only further exacerbate itself as the third TM2 environment was released, and then with blockmixing coming out eventually, the old TM1 environments would be able to be recreated...you see where I'm going? In -theory-, yes this is a good idea, but in practice, unless you want Nadeo to go out of business, this feature should not be implemented until, at the very least, Maniaplanet is complete.

[KuroBit]

Hmm, maybe it would be possible to implement it so that it was only possible if you already bought ALL the environments, it would allow you to download a "4th" sandbox-style environment where you can try out anything you'd like.

Sorry to be asking for so much, but after playing with LittleBigPlanet 2, I feel that more games should take the user-content created approach . It's just amazing what people can develop if they're given a bit of a boost by a large company. I realize this is going way too far away from TrackMania's design plan though, I guess it would probably be better as a separate game.

[SurferIX]

Why would it break TM²? On the contrary! Just imagine people looking for more realistic physics, trying very complex maths formulae, giving a harder (but why not better) driving experience?

Read the second part of my post. Even IF this were implemented in such a way as to not break TM, (which it will with inept scripters trying to change the physics) with the tools already in place to radically change the look of an environment, why would anyone buy any more environments of TM2? If you can completely change the physics, then you could make Canyon like Valley, thus precluding the need for you to buy it, resulting in a lost sale for Nadeo, and then many lost sales, should your physics change become public. This problem would only further exacerbate itself as the third TM2 environment was released, and then with blockmixing coming out eventually, the old TM1 environments would be able to be recreated...you see where I'm going? In -theory-, yes this is a good idea, but in practice, unless you want Nadeo to go out of business, this feature should not be implemented until, at the very least, Maniaplanet is complete.

The problem is that you have an old-fashionned point of view (sorry to be straightforward buddy). Imagine people developping Apache Webserver. If everybody could use it, make it their own, how would they earn money? In practice, people are positive and willing. What I mean is that if Nadeo have thought your way, we would never have been able to change something in the game, like every other classical racing game actually.
If I follow the way you think, why and editor? People should have enough with Nadeo tracks... same for vehicles. And I'm pretty sure: same for physics.
Giving the power to other people around the world brings to nice and good things, not bad things. Wikipedia is kinddof a Proof of Concept don't you think?
And last but not least: most of gamers won't use their spare time to design, or even try to change the physics: they'll play what others will have done. They'll buy Nadeo environment to gain medals, and to see other designs, with other blocs. I'm 100% sure that allowing people to change the physics would bring positive things, and not bad ones (like loosing money). It's exactly the same with what's already happening with Apache Webserver: more than 65% of the webservers around the world are Apache Webserver and guess what? Almost nobody contributes to development. Same for TM²! People just want to use it and that's it. 0.0001 % would like to change the physics and apply headbanging mathematical formulaes....