fiddling with a gearbox's individual gear ratios

[Gooles]

I searched the forums and couldn't find anything relating to this topic, so forgive me if I missed a thread.
Simply put, In the future, will we be able to modify the individual gear ratios of the gears in a transmission?
An example of what I mean is tuning gear ratios in a game like Forza or Gran Turismo, making an individual gear longer or shorter.
The system we have in the current build works as having to modify all the gears of the transmission to make certain gears longer or shorter.


And another related question, if i may.
I'm assuming in the Tycoon campaign that funds will have to be invested to create, research, and modify existing transmissions?
Like engines, materials don't grow from trees and must be bought unless you own the facilities responsible to produce them. (rather unlikely)
You also don't have all the time in the world to produce all these things by hand, so you'll probably be paying workers to do this for you of course.

In addition, this feature would be undeniably helpful in the creation of sporty and expensive vehicles that go fast, and have harsh competition when it comes to speeds and lap times.

[Killrob]

If we in an elegant way can make that happen UI-wise, then maybe. We think the current system is working reasonably well for the time being.

[OCAdam]

Only way I can see it'd work UI-wise... would eliminate the quick slider route. Replace the slider with something like the suspension tuning were the left and right clicks increase/decrease the ratio while the middle part says what the current ratio is (ie, 1.275:1). Might be worth more to allow the top speed slider to be an auto-gear function... which actually makes this all sound just like how Gran Turismo does actually now that I think about it.

[maffc]

I liked the idea of a gearbox designer, where you would design your box and then add them to the cars like the engine, but apparently it didn't play to well

[dduff442]

I'd like to second the gearbox designer idea. Shared gearboxes & diffs have always been important to synergy between models but imply design compromise also.

[nialloftara]

Maybe have presets and sliders like the turbos, so if people didn't want to muck about selecting each ratio They could pick "close", "standard" and "wide" buttons and those who want to can have a slider for each gear, with in reason of course, like how bore and stroke are linked so you can't break the calculation. ThoughIi guess the UI would look pretty cluttered with the 8 and 9 speed boxes...

[autofrank]

Curious... are we going to be able to design pickup trucks and other utility vehicles? Otherwise, why do we have more than 7 speeds available for manual gearbox? The only cars I've ever heard of to have a 7-speed manually are corvettes, and it seems quite rare to have more than 6-speeds. for most of the game 4- and 5- speed manual is going to be far more common.

[OCAdam]

I'm pretty sure there are plans for automatic transmissions later. Just to mention, F1 cars this year have 8 gears, but I also know there's a car or two with 8-speed gearboxes (though IIRC, auto). As for why it's 9... I dunno, it just fit the UI nicely?

[nialloftara]

Mercedes Benz has 9 speeds in their cars, a lot of larger cars are packing 7 and 8 speeds at least, also remember the time goes 2020 so there's some room for future tech.

[JayZee88]

I like the idea of a transmission builder. I will third that idea. It adds to the idea of designing motors for specific cars, why not transmissions to? You can use the engine builder as a platform and modify it for the size, strength, gearing, cooling style, etc of the transmission.

[Lanarius]

If I remember correcly, there was a gearbox designer planned, calculations made (just graphs) no visuals. It seemed not to be fun and worthwhile enough to make it in, so we have the simplified version in there now. Basicly the same thing that happend to valve timings. Just doesn't add much to the gameplay and you would have to do that for every car you make...I'm not 100% content with the solution atm. I sometimes would like to change a single ratio, just to see what it does, but as far as that goes, the gain is minor and the current version about sufficient in most cases. Remember: We build Roadcars here no F1 where you try to get the last single bit of acceleration out there

[maffc]

Just doesn't add much to the gameplay and you would have to do that for every car you make

Not really, you would design a box and save it, then add it to the car like choosing the engine. Yes it means that there would be compromises in the design, but would that not be more realistic.
Does every single car/model in real life have their own bespoke box?
The GM M32 gearbox is used in many models from Vauxhall / Opel and Fiat

[Killrob]

Just doesn't add much to the gameplay and you would have to do that for every car you make

Not really, you would design a box and save it, then add it to the car like choosing the engine. Yes it means that there would be compromises in the design, but would that not be more realistic.
Does every single car/model in real life have their own bespoke box?
The GM M32 gearbox is used in many models from Vauxhall / Opel and Fiat

We did have a gearbox designer in the game the way you are mentioning it here... it was pretty bad, confusing and played poorly, so we moved away from that.

[maffc]

Yep,I saw from an old you tube video.
Shame it didn't work well

[dduff442]

It's a fairly trivial matter -- choose number of gears (ideally no of those having synchromesh as well), spacing and torque rating. The final drive ratio would remain specific to the model.

This arrangement would prevent precise (and unrealistic) tailoring of the ratios for each model individually. It means if you're selling mass-market 50s models with wide-ratio 3- and 4-gear boxes then you can't just re-tune an engine to turn them into sports cars and if you want your 1.6L model to share a box with the 2.4L then either the 1.6 is going to be heavy or the 2.4 will be unreliable.