Help us out: Engine Designer Revamp

[Killrob]

Hey guys!
Just wanted to give you a short update on what is going to get to you in the near future, and how you could
help us further improve the engine designer.

The next few weeks
Our next goal is to release V8 engines to those who have preordered the game. This will happen around end
of May already! After that you will have to wait less than a month to get to play 6-10 new smoking fresh V8
scenarios if you have preordered.

The Engine Designer Revamp
Right after you lay your oily fingers on the V8 scenarios we jump into the fray and completely revamp the
engine designer core mechanics and iron out a lot of the flaws that are still in there. Among those are things
like a new system to calculate fuel economy, bigger bore and stroke ranges, engine part weights that scale
correctly with engine capacity instead with the arbitrary block size, etc.

And this is where we need you! What core engine designer mechanic would you like to see improved, and in
which way? We will seriously consider all posts in this thread, and the best ones will have a good chance of
being included if we deem they would be good for the game. Be concise, to the point, and proof read stuff.

Please copy and use the following format:

Issue description: (current state)
Possible solution: (what it should/could be like)
Important because: (why you think it is important to change)

  Code:

[b][color=#FFBF00]Issue description:[/color][/b] (current state)
[b][color=#FFBF00]Possible solution:[/color][/b] (what it should/could be like)
[b][color=#FFBF00]Important because:[/color][/b] (why you think it is important to change)

That is all Tell us how we can improve, and the least we will do is listen well.
Cheers!
/Killrob

[tommie18]

Yeah good to hear (:

i'll keep watching out for those big roaring things :p

goodluck with further aprovement

[Punkal]

Issue description: Block size
Possible solution: when creating a I4 you already have 3 fixed points of reference here for each component (eg a small I4 cast crank is 8KG. medium is 12KG and a large is 16KG), assuming that the weights are determined for the largest capacity for each block (eg. 8KG cast crank is needed for a 1379cc engine) you could easily figure the weights compared to the capacity. Ill draw it in paint to make it as clear as mud...
I have used a the crank but the idea could be used for ever component (including the block)

Quick and dirty plus i only have paint :shock:

Weight of cranks.gif (7.46 KiB) Viewed 9720 times

Important because: Realism and options for creating different engines is greatly reduced by having it in its current form (you already know that) If you want a small engine you select a small block and drag the bore and stroke all they way to the top its going to be the same size as a 393cc engine anyway.

[Daffyflyer]

I think we've found a way to liniarly scale block size (visually too!) so this may all be moot

[Punkal]

Sounds good to me also the "visually too" sounds good too, that would mean a lot less art for you...

[Punkal]

And i wasted all that time in paint too

[Daffyflyer]

Sounds good to me also the "visually too" sounds good too, that would mean a lot less art for you...

Nah, its already scaled in game (I only make one scale) so should be fiiine

Not sure if we'll make carbies liniarly scale though.. that means carby flow scales with block size

[stephenl9000]

One thing
VVT on 5 Valve heads. The Toyota 4AGE 20V had VVT.
This could allow for much more fuel efficient/powerful engines

A bit unrelated, but speaking of fuel efficiency, what does the economy stat of g/kwh mean?

Fuel mixture
An actual ratio should be given, such as 14.7 or 11.5, like you did with compression.
If you have a number for compression ratio instead of 0-100, the same should be for fuel mixture.

Other than that this is a great game! Can't wait to make an AWD CRX with a V16

[Daffyflyer]

VVT on 5 valves is coming.

Fuel mixture can't have a value as it would be changing all the time, under load at high rpm it might be 11:1 but at cruise it might be 18:1, the fuel mixture slider represents "On average, how rich is this engine tuned"

[stephenl9000]

When you say "linearly scale block size" does that mean that we will not have to select small, medium, or large block and have a super short stroke (50mm) and super big bore (100mm) engine for high performance or long life applications?

Bore/Stroke limits
These should be raised, as quite a lot of larger engines have a bore of more than 100mm and a stroke of more than 100mm.
This would add more options for making engines, and would allow players to make engines with ridiculously big cylinders such as the 6.7 liter inline-six from a dodge ram or the enormous engines from 18-wheelers which are something like twelve liter inline sixes.

[Punkal]

The bore for I4's is limited to 100mm (it my change) but V8s and other engines will have the option to have a bigger bore. They have mentioned 12L V8s before

[Daffyflyer]

I think with this overhaul we will up the max bore and stroke of everything, but we need to introduce some severe vibration in things like 4.0L inline 4s

[autofrank]

VVT on 5 valves is coming.

Fuel mixture can't have a value as it would be changing all the time, under load at high rpm it might be 11:1 but at cruise it might be 18:1, the fuel mixture slider represents "On average, how rich is this engine tuned"

Yeah, exactly. I find fuel mixture difficult to tune. The help window says: "A ratio of 14.7 parts of air to 1 part of fuel is... the ideal ratio..." How exactly can we make this ideal ratio with a slider from 0-100? It's too complex to use in this way, unless the slider represents the amount of air:fuel, so 14-15 represents 14.7:1 air:fuel?

It doesn't work this way though, does it?

[Daffyflyer]

Yeah, that might just need better explanation. The air fuel slider is about how the engine is tuned OVERALL, because as I know from tuning my car, its not like an engine just runs a paticular air fuel ratio all the time, when i'm on light throttle the MX5 will hit like 16:1, but under high load/full throttle more like 12:1.

[Popolac]

This isn't the most intelligent reply, but it makes up for it with some awesomeness.

Issue description: No fire out of the exhaust
Possible solution: Add fire out of the exhaust during backfire
Important because: Because FIRE!