Exhaust Tuning Will Make Cars Sing in Need for Speed Heat

[MIE1992]

I believe it is more to nostalgia, a lot of people started playing NFS from Underground and it is one of the more unique games at its time.

As much as I think a series should look at prior installments for further inspiration and evolution, I think the very concept of nostalgia relies on willful ignorance, for the most part. Instead, it operates based on cloudy memories and a time when an item was the best experience the person could imagine at the time. It’s largely just pathos.

 

[T0MMY3688]

As much as I think a series should look at prior installments for further inspiration and evolution, I think the very concept of nostalgia relies on willful ignorance, for the most part. Instead, it operates based on cloudy memories and a time when an item was the best experience the person could imagine at the time. It’s largely just pathos.

The series do need to bring back some of the features from past titles but at this point I think Ghost got most of it and should further improve on what they have. Nostalgia seems to sticks around the NFS franchise a lot more than others, probably too many started racing games at one of the NFS and kept wanting something identical to it while there isn't any alternative for it.

One argument that often thrown around is to revisit them but I find some of the older games doesn't age that well when I went back to it not too long ago.

 

[MIE1992]

The series do need to bring back some of the features from past titles but at this point I think Ghost got most of it and should further improve on what they have. Nostalgia seems to sticks around the NFS franchise a lot more than others, probably too many started racing games at one of the NFS and kept wanting something identical to it while there isn't any alternative for it.

One argument that often thrown around is to revisit them but I find some of the older games doesn't age that well when I went back to it not too long ago.

Agreed. I do believe that for most IPs, it's good to look back, and specifically examine both what did and didn't work, and pick what features still have potential to evolve. For example, I think the territory mechanic from Carbon has a ton of potential to become a multiplayer feature that would promote a self-sustaining ecosystem of emergent gameplay. I also really liked the reward card mechanic, FWIW.

But yeah, I could see the territory mechanic being revived, where it'd keep the concept of there being three or four teams, and each one would have multiple sub-teams that fit the "major" team's motif. Idk if the various motifs in Carbon would be best, though - I'd likely keep some while replacing others. It'd also depend on the cars available. I could see a team that has a motif of using cars that've been homologated into FIA GT3 cars in real life, for one idea. So that'd mean cars like the 458, the Huracan, the GT-R R35, 12C & 650S, and so on. If a player gets bored of a team, they could switch (both between sub-teams and major teams), but there could be incentives if one of these teams has a disproportionately low amount of players, such as credits bonus if you win an event while driving with that team. It'd be made so that you're not locked into a team, but players are encouraged to keep the population of each sub-team (and thus, major team) relatively balanced.

 

[T0MMY3688]

Agreed. I do believe that for most IPs, it's good to look back, and specifically examine both what did and didn't work, and pick what features still have potential to evolve. For example, I think the territory mechanic from Carbon has a ton of potential to become a multiplayer feature that would promote a self-sustaining ecosystem of emergent gameplay. I also really liked the reward card mechanic, FWIW.

But yeah, I could see the territory mechanic being revived, where it'd keep the concept of there being three or four teams, and each one would have multiple sub-teams that fit the "major" team's motif. Idk if the various motifs in Carbon would be best, though - I'd likely keep some while replacing others. It'd also depend on the cars available. I could see a team that has a motif of using cars that've been homologated into FIA GT3 cars in real life, for one idea. So that'd mean cars like the 458, the Huracan, the GT-R R35, 12C & 650S, and so on. If a player gets bored of a team, they could switch (both between sub-teams and major teams), but there could be incentives if one of these teams has a disproportionately low amount of players, such as credits bonus if you win an event while driving with that team. It'd be made so that you're not locked into a team, but players are encouraged to keep the population of each sub-team (and thus, major team) relatively balanced.

It is an interesting idea but it is really hard to get it work well. The Crew 1 has faction system that barely works since everyone just cramp into the faction with most players in it. Don't think factions by car types will work well judging on usual NFS community, the JDM and supercars team will be pack full of players. It also comes with the other problem how are you going to get players keep on playing for the team, does all races counts into the point count or only the few special weekly events count. Also if the reward is just more cash will just make a good chunk of the player ignore it or having real exclusive content like a brand new car that a small amount of players could obtained and left the majority annoyed. Maybe the less populated teams can have some sort of handicap to give them equal chance to go against bigger teams but generally I don't think splitting the players in online factions could work well.

But I think keeping the idea to players vs AI could work in a way. A faction war against the cops could be interesting, starting a chase at cops controlled areas will have even tougher/more cops, more pursuit tech and shorter backup time while starting a chase at racers controlled area could have weaker cops and easier for players to escape. The reward system will be simpler and if exclusive content happens it won't split the community either.

 

[MIE1992]

It is an interesting idea but it is really hard to get it work well. The Crew 1 has faction system that barely works since everyone just cramp into the faction with most players in it.

Which is why there'd be incentives to join factions with less members. You wouldn't need to, but there'd be little nudges to get players to join, like a winnings bonus that can increase depending on how much less players are in your team.

Don't think factions by car types will work well judging on usual NFS community, the JDM and supercars team will be pack full of players.

Yeah, I could see that. But I could see muscle cars having enough of a following insofar that the basic three motifs from Carbon could be re-used, with tuner/exotic/muscle cars being the themes.

It also comes with the other problem how are you going to get players keep on playing for the team, does all races counts into the point count or only the few special weekly events count. Also if the reward is just more cash will just make a good chunk of the player ignore it or having real exclusive content like a brand new car that a small amount of players could obtained and left the majority annoyed. Maybe the less populated teams can have some sort of handicap to give them equal chance to go against bigger teams but generally I don't think splitting the players in online factions could work well.

Credits was more of a somewhat random example, I'm not too sure. Maybe it could take less wins for under-populated teams to establish territory?

But I think keeping the idea to players vs AI could work in a way. A faction war against the cops could be interesting, starting a chase at cops controlled areas will have even tougher/more cops, more pursuit tech and shorter backup time while starting a chase at racers controlled area could have weaker cops and easier for players to escape. The reward system will be simpler and if exclusive content happens it won't split the community either.

PvE could be neat, too. I don't think I had considered that.

 

[T0MMY3688]

Which is why there'd be incentives to join factions with less members. You wouldn't need to, but there'd be little nudges to get players to join, like a winnings bonus that can increase depending on how much less players are in your team.

Credits was more of a somewhat random example, I'm not too sure. Maybe it could take less wins for under-populated teams to establish territory?

If something like that to be in game, they do need incentives to balance out each faction but generally I don't think it is a good idea to split the community to factions. Like if they have exclusive underglow for the winning faction, the other losing ones will be complaining. If they made it just free for the winning faction while in game currency for losing ones, I think most will just not care about it much.

Yeah, I could see that. But I could see muscle cars having enough of a following insofar that the basic three motifs from Carbon could be re-used, with tuner/exotic/muscle cars being the themes.

I do love the split in car types in Carbon but I don't think many players chose muscle cars back then and stick with it. I don't mind seeing this mechanics return for another game when NFS has a more even split of car types, the current pile lacks muscle cars and way too many supercars.

 

[Griffith500]

I somehow missed this first time round. It's an interesting idea, but it's a little superficial and as a result the outcome is pretty subtle - dare I say it, even inconsequential. Except for the overrun setting.

The throatiness setting seems to open up the sound a bit, so it could be as simple as stereo cross mixing? There's a mids thing going on that would suggest so. Also "simple" might imply "mono".

Timbre is pretty interesting, as it gives the impression the sound is multi-layered. Either they pre separate the samples into the base tone and the high frequency embellishments, or they have some fairly well made filtering / distortion going on. The latter would be more resource friendly and ties in with the resonance option.

Overrun is obviously just increasing the density of the "pop" events in time.

Resonance is shifting the centre frequency of a resonant filter, oddly enough, that seems to mostly affect a noise source. Whether that's part of the samples or generated separately (as above), is hard to say.


At some point with this technique, after ramping up the complexity and resource requirement, you have to admit defeat and go fully synthetic.

This could be approached a little differently, perhaps offering a way to tune the base pulsetrain itself, like changing manifolds. E.g. a screaming 6-into-1 exhaust for the Porsche is not outside the realm of possibility using the same recorded samples.

 

[VXR]

I could have fun with that on headphones for quite some time.