[FIXED]Suggestions for better engine design

[Eric.B]

Welcome to the forums.

The weight of the engine should be mainly based on its physical dimensions and layout, not on displacement.

The length/width does effect weight, however it's not very much. You make a very good case for a change, so I'll tweak the numbers and increase its value while decreasing displacement's value.

Of course reliability should go down, and more drastically the closer you get to reduce.(it seems to have no effect of reliability right now)

Good idea, we should give a penalty/bonus to reliability based on the displacement slider.

I'm not sure I really like having a separate length/width either.. It can make for some strange engine with paper thin walls between the cylinders and thick outer walls..

Originally I had just a 'Size' slider, but people wanted more control over dimensions. I'll look into tweaking the numbers some more to prevent thin walls. If I can't make any progress, I may try a size slider and we'll see how that goes.

I would also suggest adding a Bore/Stroke ratio slider. This would greatly improve engine design. More bore = larger combustion chamber, bigger valves and more air and fuel equating to more power. But longer Stroke = more torque.. In reality its a little more complex than that, but since your not going for Automation level realism what I suggest should do just fine..

In the game now, displacement is pretty much the bore/stroke formula with bore being the displacement slider and stroke being various minor variables added together. Do you think I should ditch the displacement slider and add two separate sliders, one for bore, and the other for stroke?

While I'm on the subject of engines, my biggest complaint about this game is that there is no reason to ever use anything other than V engine. It is the most compact engine, and engine layouts don't seem to have any advantages/disadvantages between them so compact always = better.

The game does need some balancing, I plan to address this once I get all the major features finished.

Some engines are better balanced than others, such as Inline 6, Inline 8, V12, Flat 6 and Flat 4. Smoother engines are more suitable for luxury vehicles for obvious reasons. Of course some engines have drawbacks too.. Flat engines are quite loud, and that might put off luxury car buyers.. Flat engines also allow more aerodynamic cars(if Front engine), but the shape of the front end doesn't seem to affect what size engines fit in the car..

I do have comfort in my notes, but it never worked its way into the game. I'll see if I can work them in.

As for flat engines, there is no concept of height for both the engine and volume under the hood. Other than generating aerodynamic numbers,vehicle length, width, and total hight, the game has zero concept of the of the cars/models. If I had more resources this wouldn't be the case, but sadly it is.

Having none of these factors in the game really hurts the car design IMO. I hope these suggestions help create a more interesting and realistic game experience.

Well that's the point of beta . Remember I need your feedback on what would make the game better. You're the ones who will be buying it. I've already paid for my 800 copies!

Anyway thank you for the ideas, I'll see what I can work in for 1.09/1.10