This year we had a lot of new cars and sometimes it's easier to me making some categories. The Need for Speed (1994) has 3 class categories A, B and C and the criteria is maximum speed. I think the original cars in Stunts are more versatile and there should be more features to take in mind. For example:
Rally: Lancia, Audi
Sport Cars: Acura, Carrera,
Super Sport Cars: Vett, Lambo, GTO
Trucks: LM002
IMSA: P962, Jaguar
INDY: Porsche/March
Then we have the custom cars, that I tryed only few but I could say they fit in these categories and there should be new too:
DTM: BMW, Mercedes, Audi
Rally: Lancia, Audi Quattro
Sport Cars: Acura, Carrera, Skyline, Trueno, Lotus
Super Sport Cars: Vett, Lambo, GTO, F40
Trucks: LM002, Ford Ranger
IMSA: P962, Jaguar, Melange
INDY: Porsche/March, McLaren, Contest Car
Not sure about Kart, Speedgate, Porsche 911 (can't remember it's handling), ZR1-GT3. Skoda Felicia is a fail car. I can't remember how the other cars are.
Other way of sort should be the Power Gear factor. It may be decisive in a contest track but I think it's only one more feature.
So at the time of building a car I imagine in wich of these categories it would fit. For example Dodge Monaco Highway Patrol will be a police car for chasing Sport Cars category so it will have similar features. Also I started to build Chevrolet K1500 Monster Truck and it will fit in "Trucks" category.
It would be cool if we build an open category system, wich we also can include new categories like DTM for example.
I was thinking the same way.
Combined with a car manager to make groups based on type (like your example)
Or car brand. A competition group for the current competition.
Most are straight forward except for type.
Can a car fit in more than one type category?
I think we can start to categorize on stats.
Acceleration, grip Vs road type, top speed.
Then specify further.
The 4d Driving user manual splits the cars in 3 categories:
Racing cars (Indy, Jaguar and P962)
Road cars (Countach, Acura, GTO, Carrera and Vett)
Off-Road vehicles (Lancia, Audi and LM-002)
User Manual:
https://thecompany.pl/manual/472_4d_sports_driving-manual.pdf
With 11 cars you can have three categories.
But with more than 111 we would need more distinction.
Maybe these 3 as main categories and subcategories?
Quote from: Daniel3D on March 20, 2022, 03:20:46 PM
Maybe these 3 as main categories and subcategories?
I like that. For example
Racing cars :sub categories:F1: McLaren Honda
INDY: Porsche March, Lola Cosworth (almost finished!:D)
IMSA: Porsche 962, Jaguar, Melange
DTM: Mercedes, Audi, BMW
With just the original cars 4 or 5 categories works pretty well: Fast cars (IMSA, essentially, racing cars), slow cars (sports cars, road cars), powergear cars and Indy, and maybe split the offroad/rally group off from the slow cars.
The custom cars make it a bit more difficult. The DTM cars are still pretty close to the IMSA's and fall under fast cars, as does the McLaren Honda MP4/4. It's very fast and conceptually closer to the Indy than to anything else, but it still feels like roughly the fast car category. But there are several others like the GT3, the F40, the kart and now the CERV III who blur the line between fast and slow, each in their own way. It's an interesting bit of design space left open by the original team. And then there are a few others like the Speedgate. Does that go under fast car, powergear car (despite not having true powergear) or even in the same category as the Indy?
Yes is kinda blured :D CERV is a steroidal road car and speedgate is a steroidal IMSA :D We could accept the blured edges of the categories. Yes, McLaren is an indycar more or less but it's not in reality. That's why I chose to write another category. Maybe somebody builds more modern F1, who knows :D
Cars can fit in multiple categories. No way around it.
Up to now is 3 main categories (those from the manual, Racing Cars, Road Cars and Off Road Cars) and then subcategories.
The question is what makes a car to be in a category and not another?
I would say: flat top Speed, real max speed, grip, acceleration.
A feature that wouldn't use for this category tree is Power Gear.
Why flat top speed and real max speed? Lancia Delta and Audi Quattro shares a lot of features and these are the most significative. Also both have the same grip in different surfaces. The same for Jaguar and Porsche 962. Now, adding the custom cars Melange is pretty similar of IMSA cars, the so called "third IMSA car" for this but Lancia Stratos doesn't fit in the same category as Lancia Delta and Audi Quattro. Should we take in mind also what is the real life category of the car?
The categories proposed so far:
Racing Cars subcategories:
- Indy: Porsche March, Lola Cosworth
- IMSA: Jaguar XJR9, Porsche 962, Melange XGT-88
Road Cars subcategories: (I didn't think about this yet, these subcategories are based only in flat top speed. it needs more in depth)
- Sport Cars
- Super Sport Cars
Off Road Cars subcategories:
- Rally: Lancia Delta, Audi Quattro
- 4x4: Lamborghini LM-002, Chevrolet Silverado
Let's distribute some cars in wich main category belongs. (please let me know what do you think): Lotus Esprit, Toyota Trueno, Ferrari F40, Nissan Skyline, Porsche 911 Turbo, Toyota Corolla and Ford Crown Victoria are Road Cars. Speedgate is a Racing Car.
Now there are cars that share some features but I don't know where to put them. Maybe all Road Cars but then I can see at least two new subcategories. First group LWT ZR1 Mark II, CERV III and Xylocaine and the second group is Caterham, Lancia Stratos and Superkart. I would like to read all comments and also their creators. :)
Also McLaren Honda is it an Indy or it should be added in a new category F1? There are more than 100 cars so the more categories (properly substantiated) the better the system is. [/list]
As it has been mentioned, some cars will fit into multiple categories. For example, in reality, the Audi Quattro and Lancia Delta Integrale are both road cars and rally cars. The same can be said for the Lancia Stratos. However, when you consider the existing categories, I think the cars should be categorised in the following way:
Racing Cars
- DTM: Audi V8 Quattro DTM, BMW M3 E30 DTM, Mercedes-Benz 190 E DTM
- F1: McLaren Honda MP4/4
- Go-Karts: Superkart
- IMSA: Jaguar XJR9 IMSA, Melange XGT-88, Porsche 962 IMSA, Speedgate XSD
- Indy: Lola Cosworth Indy, Porsche March Indy
Road Cars
- Police: Ford Crown Victoria
- Sports: Acura NSX, Caterham Super Seven JPE, Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, Ferrari 456 GT, Lotus Esprit Turbo SE, Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R, Pontiac Firebird Turbo Trans Am, Porsche 911 Turbo, Porsche Carrera 4, Toyota Corolla GTi, Toyota Sprinter Trueno
- Supercars: Chevrolet Corvette CERV III, Ferrari F40, Ferrari GTO, Lamborghini Countach, LWT-ZR1 GT3 Mark II, Xylocaine XF
- Utility: Ford Ranger
Off-Road Vehicles
- 4x4: Chevrolet Silverado Monster Truck, Lamborghini LM-002
- Rally: Audi Quattro, Lancia Delta Integrale, Lancia Stratos
The road cars are the most difficult to categorize. I think the cars would be caterized to people who never played Stunts so they will know exactly what it is. Let's try to "attack" some cars witch are hard to define. If you chose Ford Crown Victoria the subcategory "Police" doesn't say much about its performance like "Supercar" and CERV III. Supercars category for cars like CERV III fits excellent so I vote yes for this.
Maybe when a car is hard to define we can leave it in the most close category and give it a non category name as "Pack". DTM born as a pack of cars but its cars share many features that makes them also a subcategory. Then, "Police" would be a pack name but maybe the Ford Crown fits like a subcategory "Sports" while in real life of course it isn't.
Forget the real life here and let's define the categories by performance. Most original road cars have the same grip (if not all). The changes are in the mass, max speed, flat top speed and air drag as main features (if there are more tell me, let's be as accurated as possible).
Go-Karts and Utility seems good subcategories for me. Kart is a racing car no doubt, a slower racing car.
The Ford Ranger is also an off road right?
And indeed, it seems that the road cars are quite difficult to categories. But maybe on type (eg sedan) and performance (series a or something) would be enough.
Road car can be categorized like GT or NFS : A, B or C.
The categories can be made into groups in simple garage. If it would have a simple graphics interface it would be easy to view cars by category and select cars for the game.