[FIXED]Radial Engine Format Needs To Be Added To the Game

[Arakash]

Thanks for the link!

Radial engines in cars are pretty rare. I can't find the exact numbers but I only know of 3 cars that used radial engines and none if them were successful.
The problem with them is they are very tall and wide and need good air flow if they are air cooled which means they pretty much have to be mounted right on the front if the car which causes major weight distribution issues making the car difficult to control and dangerous in a crash.
The alternative is to water cool the radial (which has been done once in a car that I know of) which lets you mount the engine anywhere you want saving the weight distribution issues. But, as I mentioned before, the problem is that water cooling radial engines is very difficult and complex. This massively increases cost, weight and chance of failure.

If all that wasn't enough, radials also tend to rev a lot slower than inline engines do which limits peak power output. Less of an issue these days but back in the days when cars were pushing their engines close to the limit just to get to 100km/h (60mph) it was a big problem.

Put bluntly, radial engines are inferior in almost every way to inline engines for automotive use.....

Having said that, they have been used so it would make sense to include them because people will see it as something cool enough to make them buy the game if they were otherwise unsure.

Also, there have been a number of tanks powered by radial engines. Mostly in the 20's to 40's. Most of the problems with radials in cars aren't a factor for tanks. Weight isn't an issue so you can mount a big fan to cool the engine wherever it's mounted and tank designers tend to be less concerned with occupant comfort so using lots of room on the engine isn't a problem and tanks want slow torquey engines so the lower rev limit doesn't matter.

Eric has said tanks might be a dlc/expansion thing so maybe introducing the radials as part of that could be an option?

Y'know, I personally would enjoy the challenge of trying to make a successful company that only used radial engines. If they were implemented right it'd be super hard!

On the Radials:
Thanks for describing their pros and cons and some of the history, that was an interesting read.
While im pretty familiar with WW2 tanks and warplanes, i didn't realise that tanks also used the radial engines, that was interesting to hear.
Just doing some reading on wikipedia was interesting, apparently a lot of the radial engines for medium/heavy tanks, like the Sherman were 20L ones At 400-600 HP these were some damn big engines.

That said, i think the small number of vehicles produced with radial engines justifies them being less of a priority than other game fixes/improvements.
You may be right that the novelty of those engines and the challenge they present may attract new players and interest existing ones. (it sounds challenging and interesting to me too)
Even knowing that, my opinion is that its more appropriate for a later expansion or modding, rather than the initial game release.

On General Military Vehicles: (im drifting a bit off topic here)
I think its plausible to be able to design regular military vehicles, everything from support to reconnaissance, but not really tanks (for the reasons i post at the end).
A good example of this might be the Kübelwagen, which judging from its Wiki page, seems to just have been a modified, lightweight and strong beetle with off-road capabilities.

Beyond designing support or reconnaissance vehicles, i also think you could still design and contract out engines for most light tanks without any major changes to the Gearcity design interface.(medium and large tanks with huge engines might be a problem, but light tank engines like the 120hp S6 engine of the Panzer 38(t) are totally plausible imo)
I hope we see both of these things eventually.

On the Tank Design in Gearcity: (this is also off-topic, but i had to say it
It seems a bit pie in the sky to me. (overambitious)
Specifically, the idea of actually designing them in the vehicle screen.
I tend to think its really outside the scope of Gearcity now and perhaps for a long time.
A lot of support vehicles could have their place in the game, everything from trucks to reconnaissance or general use cars, but i think vehicles designed purely for armored combat(tanks) really require very different parameters/options, making them more suitable for a game of their own imo.