- 26,911
- Houston, Texas, USA
- JMarine25
I have a lot of material to get to. So I've broken this all up into a few parts. You are reading Part One here.
It was something I mentioned in one of the GT5 threads. Someone mentioned how there were different personalities of AI gamers in Forza 2 along with names of drivers. Then too, you have the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series where you go up against drivers with all kinds of stories. I still tend to laugh in Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero when reading about Speed King. Talking about "rumor has it he's 40 and smells really bad." One of my mottos is "lead by inspiration." So this thread is inspired by what I discussed in another thread, and the respective series of Forza and Tokyo Xtreme Racer. Let me provide you some insight as to this deal.
--- Background ---
I'm referring to this deal as a roster just to refer to all the different racers available to go against. A feature like this will allow for more human AI- those with names and driving styles different from others. The deal with these AI racers is that you can go up against competitors and be able to identify them by name, gender, location, nationality, and that sort of stuff. Just like racing against actual people online. Many would agree that it would be better to identify people by name and car rather than just the car being raced. Don't you want to have the feeling of, "holy crap! That's [FirstName LastName] chasing me down for the win!"? An aura of realism is added by placing in believable people into a game like the GT series, even if they are just AI drivers. Take college sports for example. Game devolopers aren't allowed to use actual players to play against. So instead of a lot of believable players, you'll find some rather generic folk to play against. It's why you won't see Vince Young in his exact facial experessions for the 2006 Texas Longhorns in NCAA Football 2007. But back to racing. The variety of racers in a racing game would range in the following categories:
Normal - people who have little or no racing experience
Amateur Racers - those who aren't serious racers; mostly race for fun
Active Racers - racers who are more serious about racing and usually compete in higher-level series
Racing Champions - those who have won championships and acheived fame
All-Time Greats - those who have won championships and acheived fame multiple times to deity status.
Retired Legends - champions of racing that have since retired. May race in One-off events or some championships.
Retired Racers - those who backed away from racing and haven't won too many significant championships
* The Normal racer is one who isn't seriously a racer. Most of these would have generic profiles and simply want to have fun The Amateur Racer is simply someone out racing for fun. They are usually more involved than normal racers and may step up to higher levels of difficulty. Active Racers are very serious about racing and compete at the highest level. Racing Champions are some of the finest drivers racing today. They have won championships and has built an incredible audience around the world. All-Time Greats and Retired Legends shouldn't be confused. All-Time Greats are some of the finest competitors in just about every motorsport they've perfected. They are the racers fans (as well as other racers) hope to be like come retirement. Retired Legends are racers who are all-time greats, but no longer active in competition. They may only race some events to gloss up their resumés a bit more by winning more races, or compete in exhibitions. * Naming these characters and giving them personalities make them more human and makes you think about certain racers more when you look back on your GT career. You'll even be able to tell a jackass driver from a talented one by knowing their driving style and their personality. Will the driver in question allow his/her teammate to catch up and pass to win the race for him/her and his/her team? Or will the driver in question try to win the race himself/herself... at the expense of spinning out his/her own teammate? Will the driver drive like a seasoned F1 driver, or like a daredevil? Will the driver in question make clean passes, or make like NASCAR drivers at Talladega in trying to make passes? This could add a lot of character (no pun intended) to GT5 if such a deal is implemented. You can add the name of actual racers yourself if you're willing to take a chance modifying certain AI drivers to be at the same level they basically are. Imagine (granted we get it) there are a lot of the Australian V8 Supercars featured in GT5. Instead of a generic name for racers of the Aussie V8s, you can replace them with names like Craig Lowndes, Steven Richards, Mark Skaife, and whomever else you want.
To explore this sort of possibility further, I've devised a few models. Find out which one you think would work best.
--- "Roster" Model A: Same Names With Evolving Talent Levels ---
This model shows that you'll face a variety of racers who'll be on your level, below your level, and above your level. Users are able to go against competitors driving certain cars in certain races. Every driver competiting in Gran Turismo 5 will evolve to become better drivers... only as long as they allow themselves to evolve. That guy you easily beat in the Sunday Cup races? He might end up beating you by 25 seconds at Suzuka for the win in the Gran Turismo World Championship. It's something you want to be careful of because it shows characters more able to compete and win. Think of these AI drivers more like racing against B-Spec racers. B-Spec mode tends to evolve the more you use it to win races. Fewer mistakes. Cleaner passes. That sort of thing. Only negative to this is that it wouldn't really allow new racers to come along. It means that every racer you go against with names and personalities will be a lot of the same racers you'll encounter throuought GT5. There are different racers with different levels of talent, but you don't get to meet complete unknowns trying to make a name for themselves. You don't get to go against completely new people. And if teams play a part in GT5, imagine being teammates with people... including established unknowns. An example of same names in certain series is "ToCA Race Driver 3" in which you'll go against some generic(?) racers with the same name like Katsuo Hane, for example.
--- "Roster" Model B: Same Driving Talent, Randomized Names ---
This model is different. It means that every race has drivers with great personalities, then drivers with terrible personalities. The racers you actually go up against will have their share of good and bad drivers, but the names and personal information about the different racers will be completely random. Let me put this into perspective. If you compete in a Single Race in GT4 with a defined "roster" of racers, this would be the other five racers:
1 - Tommy Hastings
2 - Satoshi "The Dragon" Matsuda
3 - Angela Strawberry
4 - Joshua Aboya Jr.
5 - Saroja Naranyanan
6 - [FirstName LastName] (in other words, you)
But re-do this race on another day, you get the same racers and their driving talents to boot. But you get these names:
1 - Cheryl Chavez
2 - Giancarlo Rossolini
3 - Santosh Girish
4 - Jon Kramer
5 - Pierre St. John
6 - [FirstName LastName] (in other words, you)
The negative to this is that there aren't any one with distinct personalities that you can readily identify and race against whenever you like. Basically, the toughest racer from a certain series still has his/her own personality, but not a real person you can identify and refer to. This is even more of a problem in much more presitigous series where you have some of motorsports legends competing on the track. As an analogy of this model, think of having to race against Tom Kristensen in the 24 Hours of Le Mans... only the AI driver's name isn't Michael Schumacher. Instead, the top-flight racer carries a random name each time you run a Single Race or seperate championships. The person's name can range from Joe Nobody, to Peter Dumbreck, to Ukyo Katayama. I think it would be pure coincidence if there are actual drivers' names that end up being the random names for drivers. If you race in a championship, the drivers' names will be unchanged for each round of the championship. They will also be unchanged if GT5 had some sort of tournament racing.
--- "Roster" Model C: Updated Talent ---
Racers already competing in Gran Turismo 5 will stay. But racing against newcoming AI competitors will be possible. This mdoel will allow for new characters to join the GT world complete with their own personalities and profiles. Something like this mimics rosters for college sports. Think of all the outgoing players for collegiate teams to be replaced by freshmen straight out of high school. Think Matt Leinart being replaced by John David Booty (yes, that's his name) at QB for the Trojans of the University of Southern California's football team. This model would work best for racers trying to join the officially-sanctioned Gran Turismo events. You may face some completely random people in the Family Cup races. Some of those could move on to the officially-sanctioned GT races after doing Family Cup and One-Make races. Some or all of the different completely random novices will want to race in the more challenging series and races. Some racers may just get away from racing or race some of the lower series. It's also possilble that different AI drivers will fill in for other drivers for a race. They are basically racing versions of walk-ons. A non-racing example of this model can be found in Major League Baseball when teammates get called up from the minor leagues to make starts in major league games or play in relief or pinch hitting.
I'll look at defining this further in Part 2 of this discussion.
It was something I mentioned in one of the GT5 threads. Someone mentioned how there were different personalities of AI gamers in Forza 2 along with names of drivers. Then too, you have the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series where you go up against drivers with all kinds of stories. I still tend to laugh in Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero when reading about Speed King. Talking about "rumor has it he's 40 and smells really bad." One of my mottos is "lead by inspiration." So this thread is inspired by what I discussed in another thread, and the respective series of Forza and Tokyo Xtreme Racer. Let me provide you some insight as to this deal.
--- Background ---
I'm referring to this deal as a roster just to refer to all the different racers available to go against. A feature like this will allow for more human AI- those with names and driving styles different from others. The deal with these AI racers is that you can go up against competitors and be able to identify them by name, gender, location, nationality, and that sort of stuff. Just like racing against actual people online. Many would agree that it would be better to identify people by name and car rather than just the car being raced. Don't you want to have the feeling of, "holy crap! That's [FirstName LastName] chasing me down for the win!"? An aura of realism is added by placing in believable people into a game like the GT series, even if they are just AI drivers. Take college sports for example. Game devolopers aren't allowed to use actual players to play against. So instead of a lot of believable players, you'll find some rather generic folk to play against. It's why you won't see Vince Young in his exact facial experessions for the 2006 Texas Longhorns in NCAA Football 2007. But back to racing. The variety of racers in a racing game would range in the following categories:
Normal - people who have little or no racing experience
Amateur Racers - those who aren't serious racers; mostly race for fun
Active Racers - racers who are more serious about racing and usually compete in higher-level series
Racing Champions - those who have won championships and acheived fame
All-Time Greats - those who have won championships and acheived fame multiple times to deity status.
Retired Legends - champions of racing that have since retired. May race in One-off events or some championships.
Retired Racers - those who backed away from racing and haven't won too many significant championships
* The Normal racer is one who isn't seriously a racer. Most of these would have generic profiles and simply want to have fun The Amateur Racer is simply someone out racing for fun. They are usually more involved than normal racers and may step up to higher levels of difficulty. Active Racers are very serious about racing and compete at the highest level. Racing Champions are some of the finest drivers racing today. They have won championships and has built an incredible audience around the world. All-Time Greats and Retired Legends shouldn't be confused. All-Time Greats are some of the finest competitors in just about every motorsport they've perfected. They are the racers fans (as well as other racers) hope to be like come retirement. Retired Legends are racers who are all-time greats, but no longer active in competition. They may only race some events to gloss up their resumés a bit more by winning more races, or compete in exhibitions. * Naming these characters and giving them personalities make them more human and makes you think about certain racers more when you look back on your GT career. You'll even be able to tell a jackass driver from a talented one by knowing their driving style and their personality. Will the driver in question allow his/her teammate to catch up and pass to win the race for him/her and his/her team? Or will the driver in question try to win the race himself/herself... at the expense of spinning out his/her own teammate? Will the driver drive like a seasoned F1 driver, or like a daredevil? Will the driver in question make clean passes, or make like NASCAR drivers at Talladega in trying to make passes? This could add a lot of character (no pun intended) to GT5 if such a deal is implemented. You can add the name of actual racers yourself if you're willing to take a chance modifying certain AI drivers to be at the same level they basically are. Imagine (granted we get it) there are a lot of the Australian V8 Supercars featured in GT5. Instead of a generic name for racers of the Aussie V8s, you can replace them with names like Craig Lowndes, Steven Richards, Mark Skaife, and whomever else you want.
To explore this sort of possibility further, I've devised a few models. Find out which one you think would work best.
--- "Roster" Model A: Same Names With Evolving Talent Levels ---
This model shows that you'll face a variety of racers who'll be on your level, below your level, and above your level. Users are able to go against competitors driving certain cars in certain races. Every driver competiting in Gran Turismo 5 will evolve to become better drivers... only as long as they allow themselves to evolve. That guy you easily beat in the Sunday Cup races? He might end up beating you by 25 seconds at Suzuka for the win in the Gran Turismo World Championship. It's something you want to be careful of because it shows characters more able to compete and win. Think of these AI drivers more like racing against B-Spec racers. B-Spec mode tends to evolve the more you use it to win races. Fewer mistakes. Cleaner passes. That sort of thing. Only negative to this is that it wouldn't really allow new racers to come along. It means that every racer you go against with names and personalities will be a lot of the same racers you'll encounter throuought GT5. There are different racers with different levels of talent, but you don't get to meet complete unknowns trying to make a name for themselves. You don't get to go against completely new people. And if teams play a part in GT5, imagine being teammates with people... including established unknowns. An example of same names in certain series is "ToCA Race Driver 3" in which you'll go against some generic(?) racers with the same name like Katsuo Hane, for example.
--- "Roster" Model B: Same Driving Talent, Randomized Names ---
This model is different. It means that every race has drivers with great personalities, then drivers with terrible personalities. The racers you actually go up against will have their share of good and bad drivers, but the names and personal information about the different racers will be completely random. Let me put this into perspective. If you compete in a Single Race in GT4 with a defined "roster" of racers, this would be the other five racers:
1 - Tommy Hastings
2 - Satoshi "The Dragon" Matsuda
3 - Angela Strawberry
4 - Joshua Aboya Jr.
5 - Saroja Naranyanan
6 - [FirstName LastName] (in other words, you)
But re-do this race on another day, you get the same racers and their driving talents to boot. But you get these names:
1 - Cheryl Chavez
2 - Giancarlo Rossolini
3 - Santosh Girish
4 - Jon Kramer
5 - Pierre St. John
6 - [FirstName LastName] (in other words, you)
The negative to this is that there aren't any one with distinct personalities that you can readily identify and race against whenever you like. Basically, the toughest racer from a certain series still has his/her own personality, but not a real person you can identify and refer to. This is even more of a problem in much more presitigous series where you have some of motorsports legends competing on the track. As an analogy of this model, think of having to race against Tom Kristensen in the 24 Hours of Le Mans... only the AI driver's name isn't Michael Schumacher. Instead, the top-flight racer carries a random name each time you run a Single Race or seperate championships. The person's name can range from Joe Nobody, to Peter Dumbreck, to Ukyo Katayama. I think it would be pure coincidence if there are actual drivers' names that end up being the random names for drivers. If you race in a championship, the drivers' names will be unchanged for each round of the championship. They will also be unchanged if GT5 had some sort of tournament racing.
--- "Roster" Model C: Updated Talent ---
Racers already competing in Gran Turismo 5 will stay. But racing against newcoming AI competitors will be possible. This mdoel will allow for new characters to join the GT world complete with their own personalities and profiles. Something like this mimics rosters for college sports. Think of all the outgoing players for collegiate teams to be replaced by freshmen straight out of high school. Think Matt Leinart being replaced by John David Booty (yes, that's his name) at QB for the Trojans of the University of Southern California's football team. This model would work best for racers trying to join the officially-sanctioned Gran Turismo events. You may face some completely random people in the Family Cup races. Some of those could move on to the officially-sanctioned GT races after doing Family Cup and One-Make races. Some or all of the different completely random novices will want to race in the more challenging series and races. Some racers may just get away from racing or race some of the lower series. It's also possilble that different AI drivers will fill in for other drivers for a race. They are basically racing versions of walk-ons. A non-racing example of this model can be found in Major League Baseball when teammates get called up from the minor leagues to make starts in major league games or play in relief or pinch hitting.
I'll look at defining this further in Part 2 of this discussion.
.
