Feature Feature #9: Chassis Design

[Eric.B]

So this week we got a good review from Indie Retro Games who tested a pre-beta build of our up coming Open-Beta release. The major complaint they had with the game was bugs. Sadly when you're working on an indie title you don't have access to many different platforms to test your project on. A few bugs did manage to slip into the pre-beta build.

I decided to hold off finishing the racing section of the game in order to fix as many bugs as possible. So far so good, I think most of the issues that were in the Indie Retro News review have been solved. That's not to say there isn't any bugs for you guys to catch in beta!



Feature Feature #9: Chassis Design

We're nearing the end of our Feature Features segments. Starting March 28th you'll be able to play some of the game so you really won't need this section.

This week we're looking at the chassis design system. The system is similar to the other two components of car designing (engines and gearboxes). In order to make a vehicle in GearCity you need 3 components. A Chassis, an engine, and a gearbox. The engine also has to fit onto the chassis.







To create a chassis select Design>>Chassis inside the RnD Department.










You are then presented with the "Design Setup Wizard." The chassis has four major "parts" which you have select before continuing to the designer.







After selecting our four "parts" we are taken to the main design screen. It looks like a lot, but it's very easy to use. The top shows our four selected "parts" the middle is a Quick Details guide. These values are important, frame length/width affect which bodies you can use and "Maximum Engine Sizes" affects which engine you can use. On the bottom of the "Overview" panel are a series of buttons that allow us to tell the engineers what we want out of the car. To the right of that is our estimated stats, prices, and the build button.






Selecting the "Frame Dimensions" button on the bottom will allow us to alter the physical dimensions of the frame.






Selecting "Suspension" brings up the suspension menu. As CEOs we rarely get into the nitty gritty of engineering. We pay people to do that! What we do is tell the engineers what WE want. So if we want a comfortable ride, we increase the "Ride Comfort" toward "Concerned." The engineers we hire will then spend more time and money focusing on that than something we're not concerned with.







After everything is set and ready to go we select "Build" which will take us back to the RnD room. We now need to go back to the office and hire engineers to design our chassis.





Until next time,
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