BetMGM - MGM Resorts

A Breakdown of Sedans and Hatchbacks from Different Classes for 2020/2021 in the United States

Hi everybody! I hope you all are doing well and staying safe!
I joined this subreddit a few months ago because I recently got my learner's permit, and I like to learn about different car models in general out of curiosity. I noticed during my time here that there seems to be a lot of people looking for certain cars from each different type of class. Due to this, I wanted to try to make a post that looks at each class and highlights some cars to consider.
Some caveats I want to mention before writing this post is that this post will be focused on new cars releasing in the United States. In addition, because I'm on a learner's permit, I have only driven a limited amount of cars, so I unfortunately do not have experience driving many cars and a lot of it comes from stuff I read on other sites, saw in reviews, or anecdotes from friends/family. I hope this post helps gather some information, though, during your car search!
Legend
+ means a pro of the car.
- means a con of the car.
Bolded cars mean they are available with a manual transmission.
Italicized cars mean they are available with a CVT.
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Subcompact Sedans/Hatchbacks
Cars to consider:
Honda Fit
Hyundai Accent
Kia Rio
Toyota Yaris
MINI Cooper
Neutral:
Mitsubishi Mirage
Not recommended:
Nissan Versa
Q: What should I get?
A: If you are looking for the sportiest and most powerful small car you can find, then the Mini Cooper may be your best bet. It has the most power and is known for having the best handling. Otherwise, if you are looking for overall good value and well roundness, the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, and the Kia Rio are probably your best options.
Q: Why would I not recommend the Versa?
A: The Versa is one I do not recommend mainly because of Nissan's CVT issues. In addition, the Versa has typically been known for having a lot of reliability and quality issues in general.
Compact Sedans/Hatchbacks
Cars to consider:
Mazda3
Honda Civic
Toyota Corolla
Kia Forte
Hyundai Elantra
Hyundai Veloster
Volkswagen GTI
Volkswagen Golf
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Not recommended:
Nissan Sentra
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Midsize Sedans
Cars to consider:
Kia Optima
Toyota Camry
Ford Fusion
Mazda6
Honda Accord
Hyundai Sonata
Kia K5 (Soon to be replacing the Kia Optima in the United States)
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Not recommended:
Chevrolet Malibu
Nissan Altima
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Large Sedans
Cars to consider:
Toyota Avalon
Kia Cadenza
Chevrolet Impala
Not recommended:
Nissan Maxima
Although this car has some great benefits associated with it, such as a pretty powerful V6 engine loaded, great safety score and safety features, and a lot of available features, the CVT definitely limits it from being a solid recommendation. Nissan's CVT is known for historically having a lot of problems, which doesn't make it the best choice reliability wise. However, the Maxima is definitely far better made than the Sentra or the Versa, and if you are into Nissan's exterior design, it might be worth a consideration. However, I would definitely recommend cars like the Cadenza, Avalon, and Impala to anyone over the Maxima, particularly because those three cars generally accomplish the goals of Maxima better.
Chrysler 300
I am saddened to put this on the list of cars to avoid because this is actually all around a decent car. In my opinion, it has a super good looking exterior design, and Chrysler has made a lot of leaps in terms of making the engine and car a lot more reliable. It's also decently powered and is known for having a fantastic interior. However, it doesn't have the best rear visibility, which can make it a challenge to drive sometimes, and its safety crash test ratings are pretty poor in comparison to other sedans being released in 2020 and 2021. If you can find one for cheap, though, and are okay with the cons that come with, though, it may be worth test driving and seeing if you find it to be a good fit.
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I hope this helped! I don't know if it would be in popular demand, but if people want to see something like this for trucks/SUVs/minivans, I'd be happy to try to give it a go.
Have a nice day!
submitted by eccentricgalaxy to whatcarshouldIbuy [link] [comments]

The Current OP Meta is a Result of all of Valorant's Combined Flaws.

Hey guys, I'm a 10 year CS player here. Previously played at Level 9 Faceit and A - ESEA. Have probably 1000+ hours of watching pro games under my belt, and even more spent in KZ and HnS servers. I love Valorant, and I love a lot of what they're trying to do with this game in comparison to CS. But, I think the current OP meta is a result of almost every short coming the game has right now (for the most part).
Firstly, I think it's important to preface this by saying that Valorant is 100% by design, made to be easier / more approachable than CS:GO. You can see this in almost every aspect of the game. If it's something that was intimidating to new players in CS, it's been massively simplified here. Spray patterns are far less aggressive. Lineups have been almost entirely eliminated, or completely streamlined. Movement speed has been reduced to allow for easier tracking and aiming. Counter-strafing has been forgotten and replaced by instant momentum. Even the slight advantage you got from good movement (brought along by thousands of hours of practice in CS:GO) has been entirely eliminated by a massive simplification of movement in general, as well as how severe tagging is. I'm not saying these are negative aspects of the game. I understand almost if not all of these changes. Tons of these choices succeed in their desired goal, and it's lead to tons of my friends enjoying this game despite never getting more than 4 games into CS.
With all that said tho, lots of these choices indirectly feed into the current OP meta.
I don't say this lightly either. If you were to directly compare the AWP and the OP, the AWP is hands down 3x more powerful than the OP currently is.
It boasts :
//Thanks to u/IAmNotOnRedditAtWork for pointing some of these out as they escaped me
I have a shortish video on this, with some old community server / lower level faceit games. It's presented as more of a frag movie than anything so there's no need to watch it, but I do think it can offer some important context when talking about how insane the AWP actually is for high level players.
I've edited it to have specific time stamps in the description so that you can jump between the clips that are actually relevant to this discussion. Turn down volume as there is music and I'm sure its obnoxious. Here you go
Despite the obvious advantages the AWP has, we don't really see it being as prevalent and oppressive as we do in Valorant. We do not see double AWP and Triple AWP rounds being NEAR as viable as they are here, with triple AWP rounds being almost nonexistent.
I chalk this up to quite a few things :
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And this kinda brings me to my next issue. And probably the one we all should have expected.
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CS has very tried and true bits of utility at play. Smokes, Mollies, and Flashes. When you play CS at a level where executes are necessary, it's actually quite fascinating to learn how each map has been designed with utility constantly in mind. Cache B site for instance, there's a window directly above site meant for throwing utility. Mirage A has a massive area above ramp for throwing util. Inferno Apts even has fucking windows on the opposite side of site, with a chimney adjacent to them in order for you to bank utility off of. Dust 2 recently underwent a change in B tuns to allow for more utility and site executes given how hard the site was too take control of. Whether it be on attacks or retakes. Valorant has streamlined "utility" so much, that they've forgotten the exact reason why it was implemented in the way that it was in CS:GO, and why it worked so well. Valorant has thrown thoughtful map design out the window in favor of meaningless gimmicks that fall flat after your 5th game on the map.
Guess what Riot, I don't care about opening and closing destructible doors, or ropes that give you a surprising amount of velocity and accuracy while attached, and definitely not 3 fucking sites. I play ranked games where my opponents go 3-14 and then start fragging out when they decide to whip out the OP. The gun is too easy to use and it sports almost zero counter-play. IT IS AN ISSUE. I understand not jumping the gun and rushing towards some half ass balancing decision, but you've been so quick to address smaller issues that didn't actively suck the fun out of the game and reward players for using an obvious crutch.
// People have pointed out some poor phrasing on my part here, would just like to iterate that I'm not against these kinds of gimmicks, they have a place and I don't mean to undermine anyone who enjoys them. I just think these gimmicks are being used in place of good map design. Sort of a "sure ascent is a terrible map but here are some doors you can open and close, this one has ropes!"
Ascent is the closest map to CS design we currently have in Valorant in my opinion, and it still ignores most of what made those maps work in the first place. Scrap the gimmicks. Nobody wants this random shit. I want maps with intelligent design choices, meaningful spots for fair trades at the beginning of rounds, I want maps designed with rotates in mind and counter-play at heart. You can tell CS maps are designed with all the games utility in mind. I'm constantly reminded that I can't say the same about any of Valorant's maps.
With that being said, what are some ways to fix these issues?
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  1. Add a slight time frame with the OP that adds inaccuracy after moving, keep this outside of movement speed, have it be its own value. For instance, if you scope in with the OP, then strafe to the side and stop moving, add an extra .5 or whatever amount of time where there is still an innaccuracy debuff applied. OPs are meant for holding angles, they are already ridiculously good at that in this game. Punish them for playing aggressive.
  2. Phoenix's flash needs a slight "rework" to come more into line with vision blocking utility in relation to cutting off angles. Phoenix's flash shouldn't pop so quickly. I think it sports niche usability with little counter-play. When throwing out Phoenix's flash, have it hover in air at the very end of it's duration while giving it an obvious "charge-up" animation, give a larger (but still small) window in order to either back off an angle, or to turn your back too it, and then have it pop, and increase the time frame in which you're flashed slightly. I also considered having Phoenix be invulnerable to his flash, as a way to give Phoenix a way to more reliably entry, while still forcing him to play slightly outside of his team in these situations, (or risk flashing them). This promotes playing anti flash and/or less predictable and maybe even more dangerous positions in order to deny Phoenix this ground when he attempts to entry. I think it adds a reasonable amount of counter play in a game that severely lacks it currently, I think it gives Phoenix some needed independence and room to make these types of solo plays, while also letting an agent specifically gain ground around OPers. I think a good way to envision this is Ascension A site. Instead of OPing heaven when you know Phoenix likes to flash in from main and push you off your angle, you can play on site to the left, and play anti flash in order to kill him when he attempts to entry. Diagram Here
  3. LET YOUR COMMUNITY DESIGN MAPS FOR YOU. For the love of god the fact that I even have to say this makes me angry. Community interaction has lead to CS being the powerhouse of an E-sport it is today. Volcano's involvement is proof of this. No one is saying you have to add them as actual competitive maps, but acting like you can produce better content than your entire community is ridiculously naive when you've already shown that's NOT the case. Add some kind of community tool for your players to design maps, and have some kind of game mode that rotates these featured community maps every couple of months or something. Even if it's just to give the team at Riot ideas and inspiration. I was worried months ago when you said you weren't going to allow even the most basic of community creativity in this regard. It's okay to be wrong Riot. Valve was smart enough to realize the community could carry some of that workload, while also teaching them and giving them inspiration. Volcano is on your dev team because of this reality.
submitted by mckaystites to VALORANT [link] [comments]

An extensive list of features I would like to see implemented into TC2 or any future titles.

This list will consist of the beginnings of an outstanding open-world racing game from many of the features I've conceptualized. I've always had a thought/fantasy in my head of taking some of the best features from many racing games and rolling them into one fantastic game. There have been so many quirks and great things across many racing games and even non-racing games that could be implemented into other racing games to improve upon games. I think some game developers and creative directors owe it to themselves to play many other racing games themselves to draw inspiration from other games and they should directly use polls in social media to see what people want the most, so resources can be allocated in that direction. I will refer to many games throughout this as I feel a lot of racing games (and other games in general) made over the last 15 years or so have features that could contribute to the concepts that would create a great game. Game abbreviations will include MC (Midnight Club), NFS (Need for Speed), TC (The Crew) FH (Forza Horizon), FM (Forza Motorsport), GT (Gran Turismo), GTA (Grand Theft Auto) and TDU (Test Drive Unlimited). This list will not be suggesting any locations, vehicle or part manufacturers directly unless something is used as an example, this is just features that could be incorporated upon a base game. Developers will obtain whatever licenses they can and I don't see this as a thing to extensively cover. An example is that we would all love to see Toyota, but obtaining their license recently has been difficult for many companies. One thing that I can't speak of as I have no personal use, is steering wheels. I'd like to hear some feedback on how to create the optimal steering wheel experience in a racing game.
Physics: Driving physics control the entire driving experience of a racing game so these are ultimately the most important thing to get correct. There have been many games that have gotten so many things right with a mediocre or worse physics system that detracted from the experience so much that the legacy of the games it applies to are tarnished regardless of how many other things are done well, with TDU2 is a great example. Ideally, they would be on par with FH4. Some extent of arcade physics would be nice, but not to the extent of some of the Ghost produced NFS games to where there is some oddly conflicting attempt of two physics systems fighting each other to determine if you are attempting to drift or grip. There would be a difference in the feeling of drivetrains and the AWD wouldn't be dominant over RWD in paved road scenarios, tuning and efficient driving could make RWD better due to the car being lighter.
Controller mappings/settings: I will continue to reiterate the ability to customize things to the user's liking should be the biggest priority in many categories. The ability to enable and disable vibration in the handles and triggers individually would be nice. It's good to have the choice setting of linearity and inner and outer dead zones. I will be using an Xbox controller for my ideal pre mapped settings. I think FH4 has the best control scheme, but could still use some improvement (and features). To maximize the inputs available, the photo mode should be accessed through the start/pause menu, rather than having them mapped to buttons that could be useful for other functions. The standard LT brake, RT accelerate, LS steering and RS camera (with the click of it being a 180 degree look back) are a very simple base scheme. LB to use the clutch, X and B should be downshift and upshift respectable, RB for the handbrake, A for nitrous, Y for rewind, LS click for the horn, the "select" button would be for interact/map when there's nothing to interact with, left d-pad would function the same way GTA5's would regarding the radio (including holding it + RS to select a specific station), down d-pad would function as FH4 does, where you can choose telemetry or a gps assistant, up d-pad could enlarge and extend the mini-map to give an idea of what is ahead. right d pad could pull up a list of mini functions, such as blinkers, headlights, windows, convertible roof, neon lighting, engine off, hydraulics, air bags, cruise control, etc.
Map/Environment: The map can be a real place or a fictional place. Being able to visit a real place from the comfort of your home is nice, but visiting a fantasy land with no creative restrictions would be nice. Some really cool things that were imagined could happen because there is no need to resemble a real place. Day/night cycle with a weather cycle depending on which part of the map you are on, where snow can be on top of mountains. The map needs to be large, no smaller than FH4, ideally larger than the individual TDU2 maps with little to no exploration restrictions. I'd like to see a couple very long straightaways or near straightaways to allow cars to top out on speed. This could be combined with a highway loop system that can wrap around a large portion of the map. Beaches, bumpy terrain areas for intense offroading and of course tunnels for the sound of engines roaring through and echoing. A moderately large mountain would be cool for a hill climb and maybe somewhere to descend from the mountain with multiple consecutive hairpins from the mountain would be nice for drifting. I’d love for the map to have spots to evoke nostalgia for many of us that have played many racing games throughout the year, with an example being when I played TC1 for the first time and I was in LA, it brought back fond memories of MCLA. Even some areas do not have to be specific, but some areas on TC2 reminded me of the speed challenges on NFSPS. Having a/a few tuning shops across the map would be really cool, along with a few NPC cars completely RNG based on model and visual customization so that every time you visit the tuners, you see something new so the tuner feels less stale over time. Barn finds/TDU2 style wrecks. Having racing tracks incorporated into the map that are accessible while in free roam and used for races would be cool, like TC1/TC2, especially an oval track with an optional infield layout. Having a parking garage or two would be nice as you can do many things with them. I liked how there was one incorporated in MCLA and NMFSMW(2012) provided a good experience while in them. We should have a GTA5 style 48 minute irl day/night cycle with about 10 hours in game (20 minutes irl) of nighttime and 14 hours in game (28 minutes irl) of daytime to provide a balance most would find enjoyable. While viewing the full sized map in the menu, we should be able to zoom out a lot or zoom in to nearly street view, like TC2. Roads need to have believable lane width, unlike how the lanes have become wider and wider every FH installment. We should have some back roads that are very slim and have room to accommodate one car width covering both directions. Gas/petrol stations are nice to see as that is something that some games don't include enough. The planes flying in TC2 add to the immersiveness. Having an airport with a long airstrip is something that is seen as important. It was a place for people to frequently congregate in GTA4/FH2 and the lack of a nice, unobstructed airstrip in FH4 is seen as something that's a letdown. Real life traffic cars with several color options each to increase immersiveness, also cars represent surroundings (taxis in the city, utility vehicles in a rural area, etc). Having pedestrians on foot can also add into the immersive feeling, including them reacting to your presence by having dialogue and running away if you're being reckless. Some places will be in various stages of construction (similar to GTA) and over the course of updates they'll come further along and finish construction and some will become interactive spaces. Some places will also become the sights of demolition.
Camera settings: Getting the right view and feel for cameras is important to giving you the most comfortable experience to get the feel for where your car is at and focus on surroundings in the way that is desired. Importantly, having bumper, hood, cockpit (with and without steering wheel) and chase cameras is a great start. There should also be an "action" camera with additional sense of speed, sensitivity towards turns, etc. Although this isn't a racing game, Rocket League inspired me to take a deeper dive into the thoughts of camera perspectives. Adjusting RL camera settings can assist your ability to be aware of surroundings and I'm sure the same would apply to actual racing games. Settings for RL that would be nice to apply to racing games would be the ability to turn on or off camera shake upon collisions, the FOV, distance of the camera away from the car (and distance gain relative to speed, if desired), camera height in relativity to the vehicle (could be important with SUVs/trucks) and angle at which the camera points towards the ground/sky. I'd like to see settings to turn vignetting and motion blur from a 0-100% scale. This effect is often used to create a sense of speed, but is often found to be disruptive towards viewing surroundings and braking zones. As I feel this would pertain to the player's perception/camera adjustment, I think the cockpit views should contain an adjustable seat, such as TDU1. Keeping something like the drift camera for cockpit views, along with the settings they have related to it in FH4 would be nice.
User interface/HUD: I think being consistent to many other racing games would be good in many ways. Ideally, the ability to adjust which corner things are in would be the best, but if the customization wasn't an option, this is how I think it should be. Having the speedometetachometeodometer in the bottom right would be nice, along with the ability to display it in an analog or digital format, such as FH4. The map should be on the bottom left and should have two levels of details for options; one being a minimalist design with no border that gradually fades out (similar to Grid Autosport's track layout minimap, mixed with the off road icon detail of FH4). The second map option should be similar to a mixture of NFS Heat and TDU1 in terms of borders on the mini-map and detail to show side roads/terrains. The ability to adjust the map rotating or not would be nice. We should also be able to see our recent driving path in a thin line on the map, such as TDU2. The race position should be in the top right and all other race details (total time in race and sprint race % or lap count, best and previous lap) should be in the top left. Another thing that could add into the immersion would be changing the opacity of the HUD, from 0-100% so you could make it mostly transparent, but visible enough to be useful if that is what is desired. Having an odometer built into the HUD would be nice as well. Games such as TC2 have the speedometer and mini-map flipped from the standard positions and it is a minor grievance. The speedometers in non-cockpit views should be able to resemble the car's actual speedometer as seen in TDU and NFS Shift. We should be able to filter the map well when in that menu, similar to FH4.
Event Types: Blueprints (FH3), random events where you can taxi or tail someone (TDU2), Drag races with proper street light, track light or an NPC human signaling in the middle of the road making the countdown (also with burnouts like NFSPS), score based drift racing, sprint races, circuit races, speed trap races (NFSMW), pink slip and money wager races (MCLA), unordered races (MC3), rivals (FH3/4), true street races and official sanctioned races (FH3/4 and NFSH) and end the game with a goliath type of race (FH3/4). Off road racing in the form of sprints and circuits would be nice. Bringing over speed traps, speed zones, drift zones and danger signs/long jumps from FH4/NFSH would be nice. Removing the potential disruption of traffic would be nice by ghosting vehicles in these situations, as FH4 has done. A route creator along the lines of MCLA/FH4 would be nice with the ability to add/remove some objects like barriers and ramps. The TDU2 style limited time events would be cool. Maybe a certain event would be worth double money or level progression. Some of the limited time races would utilize the places being constructed and demolished.
Online Play: Free roam such as TC2/FH4 in terms of grouping with friends is ideal, but have the option to have private lobbies (up to as many players as the developers can make work) and the ability to search for public free roam lobbies based on preferences of drifting, car meets, cruising, etc. Free roamers should be able to disable or enable collisions with random players not in their group. Lacking the collisions removes some of the immersiveness and the ghosted appearance ruins things such as drifting tandems and trains with random players. Something similar to Forzathon from FH4 could help players unite and group together and optionally have something to do in the lobby every hour. Ranked and unranked playlist organization like FH4, but make completely separate on and off road playlists for online along with a voting system for the class of racing and location. Online race collision penalties and ghosting similar to FH4. Free roam quick 1v1 wager races against other players in cruises. We should have the option to play through the campaign in a cooperative fashion, similar to FH4/TC2. Cross play would be nice to implement.
Driving Features: Race Driver Grid style rewinds as they're probably the smoothest working rewinds compared to the segmented rewind system in other racing titles. TC2 back on track compared to FH4 weird reset, FRIM (TDU2)/skill chain (FH1-4) in freemode to reward in small XP/money. The ability to enable settings on a 0-100% slider would be nice as well as a detailed damage model. The ability to render in more tire smoke than other games would be nice. I'm aware it requires a lot of system resources, but I would like to see how far it could be pushed on next generation consoles/and always-improving top of the line PCs. Using the car with manual transmission would allow us to put the car in neutral. Some vehicles with visible engines/engine components have a noticeable shake while idle, so seeing that would be nice. Being able to enable/disable fuel management (both for cruising/racing) would be nice, along with gas/petrol stations to refill the fuel and nitrous (just a drive-thru required). Slipstreaming other cars will make your car faster, not give nitrous like NFS. Nitrous should slowly regenerate like NFSMW2005, where there is also a slight delay for it to begin regenerating again, unlike TC2 where it begins regenerating immediately. Difficulty settings to lower driving assistance, if desired. Wipers operating along with rain buildup would clearly add some realism. Reversing your car would add a backup camera in place of the infotainment system displaying the map until you've left the reverse gear. While driving in the cockpit, the wheel needs to be given a 900ish degree rotation from lock to lock to add into the realistic feeling of being in a car.
Non-Driving Features: Players should be able to enter their homes similar to GTA5 and TDU2 and they should be able to have a vast array of customization for their house and a trophy room, which can be earned from high tier sanctioned races/tournaments (inspired by NFL 2K5/Auto Modellista), photos taken in game can be framed and displayed around the house (TDU2) and multiple garages and garage types like TDU/GTA along with the ability to interact with and move cars around different garages and spaces within the garages. The ability to test drive any car at any level of progression and visit themed new dealerships and used dealerships would be cool (TDU/TC). Character customization would be nice to control the appearance of your character, such as a plastic surgeon and clothing stores. The ability to control blinkers, headlights, windows, convertible tops/sunroofs, neon lighting, turning the engine off, operating hydraulics and adjusting air bags. Having a large variety of standard and gimmick horns. Using horns to control police lights to flash rapidly upon the horn being pressed, along with the siren remaining operating upon letting go of the horn. The internal navigation/infotainment screens of cars show the in game map/gps (TDU2). We could see the drone from FH4 return as it’s a good way to view tricky areas and get a live view of other players without obstructing them. Wheelspins (FH4) exist, but guarantee car or money and have the potential of earning clothes as a side bonus. We could maybe have a casino (similar to TDU2/GTA5) with various attractions, such as slots, a daily wheelspin for a rotating car weekly, the ability to bet on real life PvP races that the large room would randomly put you into spectate and other casino based activities. Our character shouldn't be mute throughout the story, we should be given a few voice choices for a little more personality for our character (similar to how Saints Row operates its voices). Car clubs would be cool, similar to FH3, along with leaderboards based on the clubs. Oil changes at the performance shops and car washes would be nice. Garages/dealerships and tuning shops will have various ambient noises (hydraulic lifts, airsaws, torches, metal slamming, etc.) and subtle music.
Photo mode: This deserves its own category and also can help a company market the game by users sharing their photos if the mode allows such great photos people will be prone to sharing them. We should have a filtetime of day/weather system like TC2. The focusing and motion blur of FH4 is well executed. We should be able to zoom in and out (adjust focal length) without it altering our field of view. We should be able to apply different lens effects, such as fisheye, rectilinear, etc. The camera should have the ability to position freely, in terms of raise, lower, tilt, rotate, etc. The maximum height for the camera needs to be much higher than FH4. The camera should have the potential to be on a gimbal, so it can remain even while a car is going up and down a hill to emphasize how drastic the ascent or descent is. All these features on top of standard stuff such as exposure, saturation, etc. Also, the live rewind and fast forward again option in TC2 is amazing. It’s easy to miss that perfect single frame shot on other games, but the ability to do that solves it.
Soundtrack: It needs to be eclectic with hip-hop, rock and electronic (maybe 2 of each) like modern and classic hip-hop and rock and electronic can be split between chill and hype. Maybe we can get pop, country and classical stations? Have a mix of some lesser known songs and also some billboard topping hits. Don't have stations where many of their songs sound very similar. Something great that could be added could be Spotify integration if any company can figure it out/contract Spotify. Groove integration was a good idea on FH, but Groove wasn't successful. Having the ability to fully mute all music sounds would also be nice (unlike FH4).
Vehicles: As I said, I will not be going over brands, but I would like to see a variety of entry level cars, sports cars, super cars, hyper cars and full on race cars. Concept cars would be great, as they are seen in limited fashion on most open world titles. I'd like trucks and SUVs as well for off roading and to maintain a wide variety of vehicles on par with FH4. I’d also like to see a vehicle categorization similar to FH4 (i.e. Hypercars, classic muscle, etc.). While I'd like to see a variety of vehicle types, I'd still prefer to see quality over quantity. Each vehicle needs to be replicated well and many should have extensive customization. We should be able to favorite cars and also choose a random car (totally random or random from favorites for whatever vehicles are applicable to the given event or freeroam. We should be able to tag vehicles as designed for off-road, wet driving, drifting, drag, etc. These will just be two examples, but we should be able to provide donor cars to speciality shops and convert them into improved, rarer editions. Two conversions that I'll reference would be converting a Porsche Carrera GT into a Gemballa Mirage GT or a Mustang GT into a Saleen S302. A growing variety of vehicles over the course of time, similar to FH4 and TC2.
Visual Customization: No visual adjustments will relate to performance gains or losses (i.e. camber, wheel swaps/sizes, bodykits, etc.) other than you will need to equip some form of spoilewing to adjust rear downforce. We should be able to set wheels smaller than stock, as well as larger. Track width should be an option with multiple sliders (like NFS2015). We should be given manufacturer options for paint, wheels and interior choices, etc. (TDU2/TC2). We should be able to save paint colors (MCLA), instead of just having them in recents and eventually disappear (FH). We should be able to adjust trim as chrome, titanium, gold, black, etc. (MC3) The paint options of NFS Heat and MCLA would be nice, such as gloss, metallic flake with size options, carbon fiber varieties, chrome, matte, satin, fading from left to right as well as top to bottom and the ability to add multiple colors in a color shifting paint job (MC3), colored nitrous (MC3/NFSH), colored tire smoke (GTA5/NFSH) and backfire (NFSH), tire design (MCLA/NFSH), wide body kits (both from manufacturers and developer designed), bumpers, spoilers/wings, skirts, mirrors and fenders (non real life brands can autosculpt like NFSC). Neon colors designs and patterns (TC2/NFSH), hydraulics (MCLA) and airbags (MCLA/NFSH) Brake calipers should be able to be from brands (MCLA/NFSH) or painted (TC2). Interior parts such as steering wheels and seats (MCLA), along with materials, alcantara, suede, leather, plastic, carbon fiber, chrome, etc. (TC2). We should be able to chop the roofs of some vehicles (MC3). Cars have individual licence plates and can get multiple states/countries given they fit the spacing allocated on each vehicle for them (MCLA) Tinted headlight and taillight housings are great options along with light bulb temperatures. Although it isn’t the taste of many people, we should be able to do all kinds of unique styles, such as monster truck (or at least an extreme lift), donk, bosozoku and even NHRA style drag body modifications (with optional wheelie bar) for some of the vehicles you would see them on in real life, but modifications this drastic will impact performance and vehicle hit box/collision physics. Vinyls on widows should be a thing with the ability to make vinyls able to utilize different paint materials (NFSH). FH4 has the numerical system to mirror and scale things fairly well. I’d like to keep the placement system of FH4. Also, the FH4 marketplace to download tunes and designs is the best I've seen, so that can be duplicated. As this will blanket all of the above, some customization parts should be recommended by a popular magazine or website. MC3 did this with Dub and created a fantastic game with a lasting legacy and many of the style options were relevant when the game was released and for a while after. We should be able to adjust tire width and profile, similar to MCLA. The ability to paint engine bays and accent parts would be nice, similar to NFS UG2. Custom exhaust tips/mufflers would be something nice that many other games have incorporated.
Performance Customization and Tuning: PI system like Forza with classes (but actively tuned for balance), different turbos for rpm ranges/turbo lag, supercharger. We should have different tire compounds, even being able to set for front/rear separately. As mentioned earlier, a RWD car that is tuned well and driven well should have the potential to beat an AWD vehicle due to it being lighter. Keeping the tuning settings of what you can adjust would be ideal. We should have the ability to combine the live tuning of NFSH, but enhance it while at a test track (with an off road area in the middle) connected to the tuning shop. You can isolate many tuning options and slide them around while hot lapping. I’d like the ability to run fat rear drag tires, unlike FH4 where it’s just a tire compound.
Audio: This is something that will be very important to many, so great sounds like the noise of turbos on NFS2015 and raw engine noises of FH2 and other games held to a high standard will be important to nail. Exhaust tuning from NFSH was nice, but I would like to see a little more of a difference in the sound with this idea further improved. Getting the proper transmission noises can be useful for cars on top of just the engine noise. Tires skidding is nice noise to get correct for realism as well. Having nice ambient sounds will also be important for immersiveness, such as birds chirping, waves washing up on the beach, wind noises and great echo sounds for traveling through tunnels or densely surrounded areas, such as down a row of highrise buildings). Other than making a car sound how it sounds and making realistic sounds for the environment, there is not much more to be said. It's a moderately limited description, but still something that is pivotal.
Story/post launch content: I would like to see a sense of progression built up throughout the game by starting in a low end car as someone who freshly arrived in the are the map takes place in (MCLA), maybe the antagonist could be someone who scammed you in a previous city or dismissed your talent at the beginning of the game. For me, the outright story isn't too important, but can contribute to how much you will enjoy a racing game. Any DLC map expansion needs to be seamless and not require a separate load in, similar to Burnout Paradise Big Surf Island bridge or (MCLA South Central expansion) and unlike FH4 Fortune Island. The 1000 Club was a great thing that occurred on FH1 that would be nice to bring reason to use every car and for the 100%ers to have something else to chase. Police are something that hasn't been done extremely well in a racing only game in a very long time, in my opinion. I would ideally focus on everything else before attempting to add police in. If they were added in, something along the lines of NFSMW (2005) would be nice, but with higher stakes. We should have an end-game hero car, similar to the M3 GTR from NFSMW, but make it a car that isn't already iconic from another game, movie or real life racing, as people wouldn't think of the hero car associated to this hypothetical game, but related to whatever it was previously iconic in, as whatever work that went into making it that car would go to waste as people would want to overwrite that design. Alongside the hero car, we should also have a couple cars that are unique variations of pre-existing cars (Dub Edition cars of MCLA) for other special events (MCLA hard tournaments/FH3 street race bosses). The post-launch support needs to be good, unlike NFSH. Adding cars monthly would be a great start, along with any necessary QoL updates.
Sorry for any formatting or grammatical issues. I’d like to hear any additional features to add into racing games from the feedback of other people or changes that they would prefer. Also, if there are any ideas in here that others would like to emphasize. Any of this content is free for content creators to recycle if that is desired. I’d like to see some of these ideas be passed around and heard to developers on what could be improved upon. Many games have great ideas and I’d like to see them build off of each other’s greatness.
submitted by jxfl to The_Crew [link] [comments]

An extensive list of features I would like to see implemented in the next Forza Horizon or potentially added to FH4 as it is still receiving support.

This list will consist of the beginnings of an outstanding open-world racing game from many of the features I've conceptualized. I've always had a thought/fantasy in my head of taking some of the best features from many racing games and rolling them into one fantastic game. There have been so many quirks and great things across many racing games and even non-racing games that could be implemented into other racing games to improve upon games. I think some game developers and creative directors owe it to themselves to play many other racing games themselves to draw inspiration from other games and they should directly use polls in social media to see what people want the most, so resources can be allocated in that direction. I will refer to many games throughout this as I feel a lot of racing games (and other games in general) made over the last 15 years or so have features that could contribute to the concepts that would create a great game. Game abbreviations will include MC (Midnight Club), NFS (Need for Speed), TC (The Crew) FH (Forza Horizon), FM (Forza Motorsport), GT (Gran Turismo), GTA (Grand Theft Auto) and TDU (Test Drive Unlimited). This list will not be suggesting any locations, vehicle or part manufacturers directly unless something is used as an example, this is just features that could be incorporated upon a base game. Developers will obtain whatever licenses they can and I don't see this as a thing to extensively cover. An example is that we would all love to see Toyota, but obtaining their license recently has been difficult for many companies. One thing that I can't speak of as I have no personal use, is steering wheels. I'd like to hear some feedback on how to create the optimal steering wheel experience in a racing game.
Physics: Driving physics control the entire driving experience of a racing game so these are ultimately the most important thing to get correct. There have been many games that have gotten so many things right with a mediocre or worse physics system that detracted from the experience so much that the legacy of the games it applies to are tarnished regardless of how many other things are done well, with TDU2 is a great example. Ideally, they would be on par with FH4. Some extent of arcade physics would be nice, but not to the extent of some of the Ghost produced NFS games to where there is some oddly conflicting attempt of two physics systems fighting each other to determine if you are attempting to drift or grip. There would be a difference in the feeling of drivetrains and the AWD wouldn't be dominant over RWD in paved road scenarios, tuning and efficient driving could make RWD better due to the car being lighter.
Controller mappings/settings: I will continue to reiterate the ability to customize things to the user's liking should be the biggest priority in many categories. The ability to enable and disable vibration in the handles and triggers individually would be nice. It's good to have the choice setting of linearity and inner and outer dead zones. I will be using an Xbox controller for my ideal pre mapped settings. I think FH4 has the best control scheme, but could still use some improvement (and features). To maximize the inputs available, the photo mode should be accessed through the start/pause menu, rather than having them mapped to buttons that could be useful for other functions. The standard LT brake, RT accelerate, LS steering and RS camera (with the click of it being a 180 degree look back) are a very simple base scheme. LB to use the clutch, X and B should be downshift and upshift respectable, RB for the handbrake, A for nitrous, Y for rewind, LS click for the horn, the "select" button would be for interact/map when there's nothing to interact with, left d-pad would function the same way GTA5's would regarding the radio (including holding it + RS to select a specific station), down d-pad would function as FH4 does, where you can choose telemetry or a gps assistant, up d-pad could enlarge and extend the mini-map to give an idea of what is ahead. right d pad could pull up a list of mini functions, such as blinkers, headlights, windows, convertible roof, neon lighting, engine off, hydraulics, air bags, cruise control, etc.
Map/Environment: The map can be a real place or a fictional place. Being able to visit a real place from the comfort of your home is nice, but visiting a fantasy land with no creative restrictions would be nice. Some really cool things that were imagined could happen because there is no need to resemble a real place. Day/night cycle with a weather cycle depending on which part of the map you are on, where snow can be on top of mountains. The map needs to be large, no smaller than FH4, ideally larger than the individual TDU2 maps with little to no exploration restrictions. I'd like to see a couple very long straightaways or near straightaways to allow cars to top out on speed. This could be combined with a highway loop system that can wrap around a large portion of the map. Beaches, bumpy terrain areas for intense offroading and of course tunnels for the sound of engines roaring through and echoing. A moderately large mountain would be cool for a hill climb and maybe somewhere to descend from the mountain with multiple consecutive hairpins from the mountain would be nice for drifting. I’d love for the map to have spots to evoke nostalgia for many of us that have played many racing games throughout the year, with an example being when I played TC1 for the first time and I was in LA, it brought back fond memories of MCLA. Even some areas do not have to be specific, but some areas on TC2 reminded me of the speed challenges on NFSPS. Having a/a few tuning shops across the map would be really cool, along with a few NPC cars completely RNG based on model and visual customization so that every time you visit the tuners, you see something new so the tuner feels less stale over time. Barn finds/TDU2 style wrecks. Having racing tracks incorporated into the map that are accessible while in free roam and used for races would be cool, like TC1/TC2, especially an oval track with an optional infield layout. Having a parking garage or two would be nice as you can do many things with them. I liked how there was one incorporated in MCLA and NMFSMW(2012) provided a good experience while in them. We should have a GTA5 style 48 minute irl day/night cycle with about 10 hours in game (20 minutes irl) of nighttime and 14 hours in game (28 minutes irl) of daytime to provide a balance most would find enjoyable. While viewing the full sized map in the menu, we should be able to zoom out a lot or zoom in to nearly street view, like TC2. Roads need to have believable lane width, unlike how the lanes have become wider and wider every FH installment. We should have some back roads that are very slim and have room to accommodate one car width covering both directions. Gas/petrol stations are nice to see as that is something that some games don't include enough. The planes flying in TC2 add to the immersiveness. Having an airport with a long airstrip is something that is seen as important. It was a place for people to frequently congregate in GTA4/FH2 and the lack of a nice, unobstructed airstrip in FH4 is seen as something that's a letdown. Real life traffic cars with several color options each to increase immersiveness, also cars represent surroundings (taxis in the city, utility vehicles in a rural area, etc). Having pedestrians on foot can also add into the immersive feeling, including them reacting to your presence by having dialogue and running away if you're being reckless. Some places will be in various stages of construction (similar to GTA) and over the course of updates they'll come further along and finish construction and some will become interactive spaces. Some places will also become the sights of demolition.
Camera settings: Getting the right view and feel for cameras is important to giving you the most comfortable experience to get the feel for where your car is at and focus on surroundings in the way that is desired. Importantly, having bumper, hood, cockpit (with and without steering wheel) and chase cameras is a great start. There should also be an "action" camera with additional sense of speed, sensitivity towards turns, etc. Although this isn't a racing game, Rocket League inspired me to take a deeper dive into the thoughts of camera perspectives. Adjusting RL camera settings can assist your ability to be aware of surroundings and I'm sure the same would apply to actual racing games. Settings for RL that would be nice to apply to racing games would be the ability to turn on or off camera shake upon collisions, the FOV, distance of the camera away from the car (and distance gain relative to speed, if desired), camera height in relativity to the vehicle (could be important with SUVs/trucks) and angle at which the camera points towards the ground/sky. I'd like to see settings to turn vignetting and motion blur from a 0-100% scale. This effect is often used to create a sense of speed, but is often found to be disruptive towards viewing surroundings and braking zones. As I feel this would pertain to the player's perception/camera adjustment, I think the cockpit views should contain an adjustable seat, such as TDU1. Keeping something like the drift camera for cockpit views, along with the settings they have related to it in FH4 would be nice.
User interface/HUD: I think being consistent to many other racing games would be good in many ways. Ideally, the ability to adjust which corner things are in would be the best, but if the customization wasn't an option, this is how I think it should be. Having the speedometetachometeodometer in the bottom right would be nice, along with the ability to display it in an analog or digital format, such as FH4. The map should be on the bottom left and should have two levels of details for options; one being a minimalist design with no border that gradually fades out (similar to Grid Autosport's track layout minimap, mixed with the off road icon detail of FH4). The second map option should be similar to a mixture of NFS Heat and TDU1 in terms of borders on the mini-map and detail to show side roads/terrains. The ability to adjust the map rotating or not would be nice. We should also be able to see our recent driving path in a thin line on the map, such as TDU2. The race position should be in the top right and all other race details (total time in race and sprint race % or lap count, best and previous lap) should be in the top left. Another thing that could add into the immersion would be changing the opacity of the HUD, from 0-100% so you could make it mostly transparent, but visible enough to be useful if that is what is desired. Having an odometer built into the HUD would be nice as well. Games such as TC2 have the speedometer and mini-map flipped from the standard positions and it is a minor grievance. The speedometers in non-cockpit views should be able to resemble the car's actual speedometer as seen in TDU and NFS Shift. We should be able to filter the map well when in that menu, similar to FH4.
Event Types: Blueprints (FH3), random events where you can taxi or tail someone (TDU2), Drag races with proper street light, track light or an NPC human signaling in the middle of the road making the countdown (also with burnouts like NFSPS), score based drift racing, sprint races, circuit races, speed trap races (NFSMW), pink slip and money wager races (MCLA), unordered races (MC3), rivals (FH3/4), true street races and official sanctioned races (FH3/4 and NFSH) and end the game with a goliath type of race (FH3/4). Off road racing in the form of sprints and circuits would be nice. Bringing over speed traps, speed zones, drift zones and danger signs/long jumps from FH4/NFSH would be nice. Removing the potential disruption of traffic would be nice by ghosting vehicles in these situations, as FH4 has done. A route creator along the lines of MCLA/FH4 would be nice with the ability to add/remove some objects like barriers and ramps. The TDU2 style limited time events would be cool. Maybe a certain event would be worth double money or level progression. Some of the limited time races would utilize the places being constructed and demolished.
Online Play: Free roam such as TC2/FH4 in terms of grouping with friends is ideal, but have the option to have private lobbies (up to as many players as the developers can make work) and the ability to search for public free roam lobbies based on preferences of drifting, car meets, cruising, etc. Free roamers should be able to disable or enable collisions with random players not in their group. Lacking the collisions removes some of the immersiveness and the ghosted appearance ruins things such as drifting tandems and trains with random players. Something similar to Forzathon from FH4 could help players unite and group together and optionally have something to do in the lobby every hour. Ranked and unranked playlist organization like FH4, but make completely separate on and off road playlists for online along with a voting system for the class of racing and location. Online race collision penalties and ghosting similar to FH4. Free roam quick 1v1 wager races against other players in cruises. We should have the option to play through the campaign in a cooperative fashion, similar to FH4/TC2. Cross play would be nice to implement.
Driving Features: Race Driver Grid style rewinds as they're probably the smoothest working rewinds compared to the segmented rewind system in other racing titles. TC2 back on track compared to FH4 weird reset, FRIM (TDU2)/skill chain (FH1-4) in freemode to reward in small XP/money. The ability to enable settings on a 0-100% slider would be nice as well as a detailed damage model. The ability to render in more tire smoke than other games would be nice. I'm aware it requires a lot of system resources, but I would like to see how far it could be pushed on next generation consoles/and always-improving top of the line PCs. Using the car with manual transmission would allow us to put the car in neutral. Some vehicles with visible engines/engine components have a noticeable shake while idle, so seeing that would be nice. Being able to enable/disable fuel management (both for cruising/racing) would be nice, along with gas/petrol stations to refill the fuel and nitrous (just a drive-thru required). Slipstreaming other cars will make your car faster, not give nitrous like NFS. Nitrous should slowly regenerate like NFSMW2005, where there is also a slight delay for it to begin regenerating again, unlike TC2 where it begins regenerating immediately. Difficulty settings to lower driving assistance, if desired. Wipers operating along with rain buildup would clearly add some realism. Reversing your car would add a backup camera in place of the infotainment system displaying the map until you've left the reverse gear. While driving in the cockpit, the wheel needs to be given a 900ish degree rotation from lock to lock to add into the realistic feeling of being in a car.
Non-Driving Features: Players should be able to enter their homes similar to GTA5 and TDU2 and they should be able to have a vast array of customization for their house and a trophy room, which can be earned from high tier sanctioned races/tournaments (inspired by NFL 2K5/Auto Modellista), photos taken in game can be framed and displayed around the house (TDU2) and multiple garages and garage types like TDU/GTA along with the ability to interact with and move cars around different garages and spaces within the garages. The ability to test drive any car at any level of progression and visit themed new dealerships and used dealerships would be cool (TDU/TC). Character customization would be nice to control the appearance of your character, such as a plastic surgeon and clothing stores. The ability to control blinkers, headlights, windows, convertible tops/sunroofs, neon lighting, turning the engine off, operating hydraulics and adjusting air bags. Having a large variety of standard and gimmick horns. Using horns to control police lights to flash rapidly upon the horn being pressed, along with the siren remaining operating upon letting go of the horn. The internal navigation/infotainment screens of cars show the in game map/gps (TDU2). We could see the drone from FH4 return as it’s a good way to view tricky areas and get a live view of other players without obstructing them. Wheelspins (FH4) exist, but guarantee car or money and have the potential of earning clothes as a side bonus. We could maybe have a casino (similar to TDU2/GTA5) with various attractions, such as slots, a daily wheelspin for a rotating car weekly, the ability to bet on real life PvP races that the large room would randomly put you into spectate and other casino based activities. Our character shouldn't be mute throughout the story, we should be given a few voice choices for a little more personality for our character (similar to how Saints Row operates its voices). Car clubs would be cool, similar to FH3, along with leaderboards based on the clubs. Oil changes at the performance shops and car washes would be nice. Garages/dealerships and tuning shops will have various ambient noises (hydraulic lifts, airsaws, torches, metal slamming, etc.) and subtle music.
Photo mode: This deserves its own category and also can help a company market the game by users sharing their photos if the mode allows such great photos people will be prone to sharing them. We should have a filtetime of day/weather system like TC2. The focusing and motion blur of FH4 is well executed. We should be able to zoom in and out (adjust focal length) without it altering our field of view. We should be able to apply different lens effects, such as fisheye, rectilinear, etc. The camera should have the ability to position freely, in terms of raise, lower, tilt, rotate, etc. The maximum height for the camera needs to be much higher than FH4. The camera should have the potential to be on a gimbal, so it can remain even while a car is going up and down a hill to emphasize how drastic the ascent or descent is. All these features on top of standard stuff such as exposure, saturation, etc. Also, the live rewind and fast forward again option in TC2 is amazing. It’s easy to miss that perfect single frame shot on other games, but the ability to do that solves it.
Soundtrack: It needs to be eclectic with hip-hop, rock and electronic (maybe 2 of each) like modern and classic hip-hop and rock and electronic can be split between chill and hype. Maybe we can get pop, country and classical stations? Have a mix of some lesser known songs and also some billboard topping hits. Don't have stations where many of their songs sound very similar. Something great that could be added could be Spotify integration if any company can figure it out/contract Spotify. Groove integration was a good idea on FH, but Groove wasn't successful. Having the ability to fully mute all music sounds would also be nice (unlike FH4).
Vehicles: As I said, I will not be going over brands, but I would like to see a variety of entry level cars, sports cars, super cars, hyper cars and full on race cars. Concept cars would be great, as they are seen in limited fashion on most open world titles. I'd like trucks and SUVs as well for off roading and to maintain a wide variety of vehicles on par with FH4. I’d also like to see a vehicle categorization similar to FH4 (i.e. Hypercars, classic muscle, etc.). While I'd like to see a variety of vehicle types, I'd still prefer to see quality over quantity. Each vehicle needs to be replicated well and many should have extensive customization. We should be able to favorite cars and also choose a random car (totally random or random from favorites for whatever vehicles are applicable to the given event or freeroam. We should be able to tag vehicles as designed for off-road, wet driving, drifting, drag, etc. These will just be two examples, but we should be able to provide donor cars to speciality shops and convert them into improved, rarer editions. Two conversions that I'll reference would be converting a Porsche Carrera GT into a Gemballa Mirage GT or a Mustang GT into a Saleen S302. A growing variety of vehicles over the course of time, similar to FH4 and TC2.
Visual Customization: No visual adjustments will relate to performance gains or losses (i.e. camber, wheel swaps/sizes, bodykits, etc.) other than you will need to equip some form of spoilewing to adjust rear downforce. We should be able to set wheels smaller than stock, as well as larger. Track width should be an option with multiple sliders (like NFS2015). We should be given manufacturer options for paint, wheels and interior choices, etc. (TDU2/TC2). We should be able to save paint colors (MCLA), instead of just having them in recents and eventually disappear (FH). We should be able to adjust trim as chrome, titanium, gold, black, etc. (MC3) The paint options of NFS Heat and MCLA would be nice, such as gloss, metallic flake with size options, carbon fiber varieties, chrome, matte, satin, fading from left to right as well as top to bottom and the ability to add multiple colors in a color shifting paint job (MC3), colored nitrous (MC3/NFSH), colored tire smoke (GTA5/NFSH) and backfire (NFSH), tire design (MCLA/NFSH), wide body kits (both from manufacturers and developer designed), bumpers, spoilers/wings, skirts, mirrors and fenders (non real life brands can autosculpt like NFSC). Neon colors designs and patterns (TC2/NFSH), hydraulics (MCLA) and airbags (MCLA/NFSH) Brake calipers should be able to be from brands (MCLA/NFSH) or painted (TC2). Interior parts such as steering wheels and seats (MCLA), along with materials, alcantara, suede, leather, plastic, carbon fiber, chrome, etc. (TC2). We should be able to chop the roofs of some vehicles (MC3). Cars have individual licence plates and can get multiple states/countries given they fit the spacing allocated on each vehicle for them (MCLA) Tinted headlight and taillight housings are great options along with light bulb temperatures. Although it isn’t the taste of many people, we should be able to do all kinds of unique styles, such as monster truck (or at least an extreme lift), donk, bosozoku and even NHRA style drag body modifications (with optional wheelie bar) for some of the vehicles you would see them on in real life, but modifications this drastic will impact performance and vehicle hit box/collision physics. Vinyls on widows should be a thing with the ability to make vinyls able to utilize different paint materials (NFSH). FH4 has the numerical system to mirror and scale things fairly well. I’d like to keep the placement system of FH4. Also, the FH4 marketplace to download tunes and designs is the best I've seen, so that can be duplicated. As this will blanket all of the above, some customization parts should be recommended by a popular magazine or website. MC3 did this with Dub and created a fantastic game with a lasting legacy and many of the style options were relevant when the game was released and for a while after. We should be able to adjust tire width and profile, similar to MCLA. The ability to paint engine bays and accent parts would be nice, similar to NFS UG2. Custom exhaust tips/mufflers would be something nice that many other games have incorporated.
Performance Customization and Tuning: PI system like Forza with classes (but actively tuned for balance), different turbos for rpm ranges/turbo lag, supercharger. We should have different tire compounds, even being able to set for front/rear separately. As mentioned earlier, a RWD car that is tuned well and driven well should have the potential to beat an AWD vehicle due to it being lighter. Keeping the tuning settings of what you can adjust would be ideal. We should have the ability to combine the live tuning of NFSH, but enhance it while at a test track (with an off road area in the middle) connected to the tuning shop. You can isolate many tuning options and slide them around while hot lapping. I’d like the ability to run fat rear drag tires, unlike FH4 where it’s just a tire compound.
Audio: This is something that will be very important to many, so great sounds like the noise of turbos on NFS2015 and raw engine noises of FH2 and other games held to a high standard will be important to nail. Exhaust tuning from NFSH was nice, but I would like to see a little more of a difference in the sound with this idea further improved. Getting the proper transmission noises can be useful for cars on top of just the engine noise. Tires skidding is nice noise to get correct for realism as well. Having nice ambient sounds will also be important for immersiveness, such as birds chirping, waves washing up on the beach, wind noises and great echo sounds for traveling through tunnels or densely surrounded areas, such as down a row of highrise buildings). Other than making a car sound how it sounds and making realistic sounds for the environment, there is not much more to be said. It's a moderately limited description, but still something that is pivotal.
Story/post launch content: I would like to see a sense of progression built up throughout the game by starting in a low end car as someone who freshly arrived in the are the map takes place in (MCLA), maybe the antagonist could be someone who scammed you in a previous city or dismissed your talent at the beginning of the game. For me, the outright story isn't too important, but can contribute to how much you will enjoy a racing game. Any DLC map expansion needs to be seamless and not require a separate load in, similar to Burnout Paradise Big Surf Island bridge or (MCLA South Central expansion) and unlike FH4 Fortune Island. The 1000 Club was a great thing that occurred on FH1 that would be nice to bring reason to use every car and for the 100%ers to have something else to chase. Police are something that hasn't been done extremely well in a racing only game in a very long time, in my opinion. I would ideally focus on everything else before attempting to add police in. If they were added in, something along the lines of NFSMW (2005) would be nice, but with higher stakes. We should have an end-game hero car, similar to the M3 GTR from NFSMW, but make it a car that isn't already iconic from another game, movie or real life racing, as people wouldn't think of the hero car associated to this hypothetical game, but related to whatever it was previously iconic in, as whatever work that went into making it that car would go to waste as people would want to overwrite that design. Alongside the hero car, we should also have a couple cars that are unique variations of pre-existing cars (Dub Edition cars of MCLA) for other special events (MCLA hard tournaments/FH3 street race bosses). The post-launch support needs to be good, unlike NFSH. Adding cars monthly would be a great start, along with any necessary QoL updates.
Sorry for any formatting or grammatical issues. I’d like to hear any additional features to add into racing games from the feedback of other people or changes that they would prefer. Also, if there are any ideas in here that others would like to emphasize. Any of this content is free for content creators to recycle if that is desired. I’d like to see some of these ideas be passed around and heard to developers on what could be improved upon. Many games have great ideas and I’d like to see them build off of each other’s greatness.
submitted by jxfl to forza [link] [comments]

With the next NFS in works, here is an extensive list of features I would enjoy seeing deployed into the game.

This list will consist of the beginnings of an outstanding open-world racing game from many of the features I've conceptualized. I've always had a thought/fantasy in my head of taking some of the best features from many racing games and rolling them into one fantastic game. There have been so many quirks and great things across many racing games and even non-racing games that could be implemented into other racing games to improve upon games. I think some game developers and creative directors owe it to themselves to play many other racing games themselves to draw inspiration from other games and they should directly use polls in social media to see what people want the most, so resources can be allocated in that direction. I will refer to many games throughout this as I feel a lot of racing games (and other games in general) made over the last 15 years or so have features that could contribute to the concepts that would create a great game. Game abbreviations will include MC (Midnight Club), NFS (Need for Speed), TC (The Crew) FH (Forza Horizon), FM (Forza Motorsport), GT (Gran Turismo), GTA (Grand Theft Auto) and TDU (Test Drive Unlimited). This list will not be suggesting any locations, vehicle or part manufacturers directly unless something is used as an example, this is just features that could be incorporated upon a base game. Developers will obtain whatever licenses they can and I don't see this as a thing to extensively cover. An example is that we would all love to see Toyota, but obtaining their license recently has been difficult for many companies. One thing that I can't speak of as I have no personal use, is steering wheels. I'd like to hear some feedback on how to create the optimal steering wheel experience in a racing game.
Physics: Driving physics control the entire driving experience of a racing game so these are ultimately the most important thing to get correct. There have been many games that have gotten so many things right with a mediocre or worse physics system that detracted from the experience so much that the legacy of the games it applies to are tarnished regardless of how many other things are done well, with TDU2 is a great example. Ideally, they would be on par with FH4. Some extent of arcade physics would be nice, but not to the extent of some of the Ghost produced NFS games to where there is some oddly conflicting attempt of two physics systems fighting each other to determine if you are attempting to drift or grip. There would be a difference in the feeling of drivetrains and the AWD wouldn't be dominant over RWD in paved road scenarios, tuning and efficient driving could make RWD better due to the car being lighter.
Controller mappings/settings: I will continue to reiterate the ability to customize things to the user's liking should be the biggest priority in many categories. The ability to enable and disable vibration in the handles and triggers individually would be nice. It's good to have the choice setting of linearity and inner and outer dead zones. I will be using an Xbox controller for my ideal pre mapped settings. I think FH4 has the best control scheme, but could still use some improvement (and features). To maximize the inputs available, the photo mode should be accessed through the start/pause menu, rather than having them mapped to buttons that could be useful for other functions. The standard LT brake, RT accelerate, LS steering and RS camera (with the click of it being a 180 degree look back) are a very simple base scheme. LB to use the clutch, X and B should be downshift and upshift respectable, RB for the handbrake, A for nitrous, Y for rewind, LS click for the horn, the "select" button would be for interact/map when there's nothing to interact with, left d-pad would function the same way GTA5's would regarding the radio (including holding it + RS to select a specific station), down d-pad would function as FH4 does, where you can choose telemetry or a gps assistant, up d-pad could enlarge and extend the mini-map to give an idea of what is ahead. right d pad could pull up a list of mini functions, such as blinkers, headlights, windows, convertible roof, neon lighting, engine off, hydraulics, air bags, cruise control, etc.
Map/Environment: The map can be a real place or a fictional place. Being able to visit a real place from the comfort of your home is nice, but visiting a fantasy land with no creative restrictions would be nice. Some really cool things that were imagined could happen because there is no need to resemble a real place. Day/night cycle with a weather cycle depending on which part of the map you are on, where snow can be on top of mountains. The map needs to be large, no smaller than FH4, ideally larger than the individual TDU2 maps with little to no exploration restrictions. I'd like to see a couple very long straightaways or near straightaways to allow cars to top out on speed. This could be combined with a highway loop system that can wrap around a large portion of the map. Beaches, bumpy terrain areas for intense offroading and of course tunnels for the sound of engines roaring through and echoing. A moderately large mountain would be cool for a hill climb and maybe somewhere to descend from the mountain with multiple consecutive hairpins from the mountain would be nice for drifting. I’d love for the map to have spots to evoke nostalgia for many of us that have played many racing games throughout the year, with an example being when I played TC1 for the first time and I was in LA, it brought back fond memories of MCLA. Even some areas do not have to be specific, but some areas on TC2 reminded me of the speed challenges on NFSPS. Having a/a few tuning shops across the map would be really cool, along with a few NPC cars completely RNG based on model and visual customization so that every time you visit the tuners, you see something new so the tuner feels less stale over time. Barn finds/TDU2 style wrecks. Having racing tracks incorporated into the map that are accessible while in free roam and used for races would be cool, like TC1/TC2, especially an oval track with an optional infield layout. Having a parking garage or two would be nice as you can do many things with them. I liked how there was one incorporated in MCLA and NMFSMW(2012) provided a good experience while in them. We should have a GTA5 style 48 minute irl day/night cycle with about 10 hours in game (20 minutes irl) of nighttime and 14 hours in game (28 minutes irl) of daytime to provide a balance most would find enjoyable. While viewing the full sized map in the menu, we should be able to zoom out a lot or zoom in to nearly street view, like TC2. Roads need to have believable lane width, unlike how the lanes have become wider and wider every FH installment. We should have some back roads that are very slim and have room to accommodate one car width covering both directions. Gas/petrol stations are nice to see as that is something that some games don't include enough. The planes flying in TC2 add to the immersiveness. Having an airport with a long airstrip is something that is seen as important. It was a place for people to frequently congregate in GTA4/FH2 and the lack of a nice, unobstructed airstrip in FH4 is seen as something that's a letdown. Real life traffic cars with several color options each to increase immersiveness, also cars represent surroundings (taxis in the city, utility vehicles in a rural area, etc). Having pedestrians on foot can also add into the immersive feeling, including them reacting to your presence by having dialogue and running away if you're being reckless. Some places will be in various stages of construction (similar to GTA) and over the course of updates they'll come further along and finish construction and some will become interactive spaces. Some places will also become the sights of demolition.
Camera settings: Getting the right view and feel for cameras is important to giving you the most comfortable experience to get the feel for where your car is at and focus on surroundings in the way that is desired. Importantly, having bumper, hood, cockpit (with and without steering wheel) and chase cameras is a great start. There should also be an "action" camera with additional sense of speed, sensitivity towards turns, etc. Although this isn't a racing game, Rocket League inspired me to take a deeper dive into the thoughts of camera perspectives. Adjusting RL camera settings can assist your ability to be aware of surroundings and I'm sure the same would apply to actual racing games. Settings for RL that would be nice to apply to racing games would be the ability to turn on or off camera shake upon collisions, the FOV, distance of the camera away from the car (and distance gain relative to speed, if desired), camera height in relativity to the vehicle (could be important with SUVs/trucks) and angle at which the camera points towards the ground/sky. I'd like to see settings to turn vignetting and motion blur from a 0-100% scale. This effect is often used to create a sense of speed, but is often found to be disruptive towards viewing surroundings and braking zones. As I feel this would pertain to the player's perception/camera adjustment, I think the cockpit views should contain an adjustable seat, such as TDU1. Keeping something like the drift camera for cockpit views, along with the settings they have related to it in FH4 would be nice.
User interface/HUD: I think being consistent to many other racing games would be good in many ways. Ideally, the ability to adjust which corner things are in would be the best, but if the customization wasn't an option, this is how I think it should be. Having the speedometetachometeodometer in the bottom right would be nice, along with the ability to display it in an analog or digital format, such as FH4. The map should be on the bottom left and should have two levels of details for options; one being a minimalist design with no border that gradually fades out (similar to Grid Autosport's track layout minimap, mixed with the off road icon detail of FH4). The second map option should be similar to a mixture of NFS Heat and TDU1 in terms of borders on the mini-map and detail to show side roads/terrains. The ability to adjust the map rotating or not would be nice. We should also be able to see our recent driving path in a thin line on the map, such as TDU2. The race position should be in the top right and all other race details (total time in race and sprint race % or lap count, best and previous lap) should be in the top left. Another thing that could add into the immersion would be changing the opacity of the HUD, from 0-100% so you could make it mostly transparent, but visible enough to be useful if that is what is desired. Having an odometer built into the HUD would be nice as well. Games such as TC2 have the speedometer and mini-map flipped from the standard positions and it is a minor grievance. The speedometers in non-cockpit views should be able to resemble the car's actual speedometer as seen in TDU and NFS Shift. We should be able to filter the map well when in that menu, similar to FH4.
Event Types: Blueprints (FH3), random events where you can taxi or tail someone (TDU2), Drag races with proper street light, track light or an NPC human signaling in the middle of the road making the countdown (also with burnouts like NFSPS), score based drift racing, sprint races, circuit races, speed trap races (NFSMW), pink slip and money wager races (MCLA), unordered races (MC3), rivals (FH3/4), true street races and official sanctioned races (FH3/4 and NFSH) and end the game with a goliath type of race (FH3/4). Off road racing in the form of sprints and circuits would be nice. Bringing over speed traps, speed zones, drift zones and danger signs/long jumps from FH4/NFSH would be nice. Removing the potential disruption of traffic would be nice by ghosting vehicles in these situations, as FH4 has done. A route creator along the lines of MCLA/FH4 would be nice with the ability to add/remove some objects like barriers and ramps. The TDU2 style limited time events would be cool. Maybe a certain event would be worth double money or level progression. Some of the limited time races would utilize the places being constructed and demolished.
Online Play: Free roam such as TC2/FH4 in terms of grouping with friends is ideal, but have the option to have private lobbies (up to as many players as the developers can make work) and the ability to search for public free roam lobbies based on preferences of drifting, car meets, cruising, etc. Free roamers should be able to disable or enable collisions with random players not in their group. Lacking the collisions removes some of the immersiveness and the ghosted appearance ruins things such as drifting tandems and trains with random players. Something similar to Forzathon from FH4 could help players unite and group together and optionally have something to do in the lobby every hour. Ranked and unranked playlist organization like FH4, but make completely separate on and off road playlists for online along with a voting system for the class of racing and location. Online race collision penalties and ghosting similar to FH4. Free roam quick 1v1 wager races against other players in cruises. We should have the option to play through the campaign in a cooperative fashion, similar to FH4/TC2. Cross play would be nice to implement.
Driving Features: Race Driver Grid style rewinds as they're probably the smoothest working rewinds compared to the segmented rewind system in other racing titles. TC2 back on track compared to FH4 weird reset, FRIM (TDU2)/skill chain (FH1-4) in freemode to reward in small XP/money. The ability to enable settings on a 0-100% slider would be nice as well as a detailed damage model. The ability to render in more tire smoke than other games would be nice. I'm aware it requires a lot of system resources, but I would like to see how far it could be pushed on next generation consoles/and always-improving top of the line PCs. Using the car with manual transmission would allow us to put the car in neutral. Some vehicles with visible engines/engine components have a noticeable shake while idle, so seeing that would be nice. Being able to enable/disable fuel management (both for cruising/racing) would be nice, along with gas/petrol stations to refill the fuel and nitrous (just a drive-thru required). Slipstreaming other cars will make your car faster, not give nitrous like NFS. Nitrous should slowly regenerate like NFSMW2005, where there is also a slight delay for it to begin regenerating again, unlike TC2 where it begins regenerating immediately. Difficulty settings to lower driving assistance, if desired. Wipers operating along with rain buildup would clearly add some realism. Reversing your car would add a backup camera in place of the infotainment system displaying the map until you've left the reverse gear. While driving in the cockpit, the wheel needs to be given a 900ish degree rotation from lock to lock to add into the realistic feeling of being in a car.
Non-Driving Features: Players should be able to enter their homes similar to GTA5 and TDU2 and they should be able to have a vast array of customization for their house and a trophy room, which can be earned from high tier sanctioned races/tournaments (inspired by NFL 2K5/Auto Modellista), photos taken in game can be framed and displayed around the house (TDU2) and multiple garages and garage types like TDU/GTA along with the ability to interact with and move cars around different garages and spaces within the garages. The ability to test drive any car at any level of progression and visit themed new dealerships and used dealerships would be cool (TDU/TC). Character customization would be nice to control the appearance of your character, such as a plastic surgeon and clothing stores. The ability to control blinkers, headlights, windows, convertible tops/sunroofs, neon lighting, turning the engine off, operating hydraulics and adjusting air bags. Having a large variety of standard and gimmick horns. Using horns to control police lights to flash rapidly upon the horn being pressed, along with the siren remaining operating upon letting go of the horn. The internal navigation/infotainment screens of cars show the in game map/gps (TDU2). We could see the drone from FH4 return as it’s a good way to view tricky areas and get a live view of other players without obstructing them. Wheelspins (FH4) exist, but guarantee car or money and have the potential of earning clothes as a side bonus. We could maybe have a casino (similar to TDU2/GTA5) with various attractions, such as slots, a daily wheelspin for a rotating car weekly, the ability to bet on real life PvP races that the large room would randomly put you into spectate and other casino based activities. Our character shouldn't be mute throughout the story, we should be given a few voice choices for a little more personality for our character (similar to how Saints Row operates its voices). Car clubs would be cool, similar to FH3, along with leaderboards based on the clubs. Oil changes at the performance shops and car washes would be nice. Garages/dealerships and tuning shops will have various ambient noises (hydraulic lifts, airsaws, torches, metal slamming, etc.) and subtle music.
Photo mode: This deserves its own category and also can help a company market the game by users sharing their photos if the mode allows such great photos people will be prone to sharing them. We should have a filtetime of day/weather system like TC2. The focusing and motion blur of FH4 is well executed. We should be able to zoom in and out (adjust focal length) without it altering our field of view. We should be able to apply different lens effects, such as fisheye, rectilinear, etc. The camera should have the ability to position freely, in terms of raise, lower, tilt, rotate, etc. The maximum height for the camera needs to be much higher than FH4. The camera should have the potential to be on a gimbal, so it can remain even while a car is going up and down a hill to emphasize how drastic the ascent or descent is. All these features on top of standard stuff such as exposure, saturation, etc. Also, the live rewind and fast forward again option in TC2 is amazing. It’s easy to miss that perfect single frame shot on other games, but the ability to do that solves it.
Soundtrack: It needs to be eclectic with hip-hop, rock and electronic (maybe 2 of each) like modern and classic hip-hop and rock and electronic can be split between chill and hype. Maybe we can get pop, country and classical stations? Have a mix of some lesser known songs and also some billboard topping hits. Don't have stations where many of their songs sound very similar. Something great that could be added could be Spotify integration if any company can figure it out/contract Spotify. Groove integration was a good idea on FH, but Groove wasn't successful. Having the ability to fully mute all music sounds would also be nice (unlike FH4).
Vehicles: As I said, I will not be going over brands, but I would like to see a variety of entry level cars, sports cars, super cars, hyper cars and full on race cars. Concept cars would be great, as they are seen in limited fashion on most open world titles. I'd like trucks and SUVs as well for off roading and to maintain a wide variety of vehicles on par with FH4. I’d also like to see a vehicle categorization similar to FH4 (i.e. Hypercars, classic muscle, etc.). While I'd like to see a variety of vehicle types, I'd still prefer to see quality over quantity. Each vehicle needs to be replicated well and many should have extensive customization. We should be able to favorite cars and also choose a random car (totally random or random from favorites for whatever vehicles are applicable to the given event or freeroam. We should be able to tag vehicles as designed for off-road, wet driving, drifting, drag, etc. These will just be two examples, but we should be able to provide donor cars to speciality shops and convert them into improved, rarer editions. Two conversions that I'll reference would be converting a Porsche Carrera GT into a Gemballa Mirage GT or a Mustang GT into a Saleen S302. A growing variety of vehicles over the course of time, similar to FH4 and TC2.
Visual Customization: No visual adjustments will relate to performance gains or losses (i.e. camber, wheel swaps/sizes, bodykits, etc.) other than you will need to equip some form of spoilewing to adjust rear downforce. We should be able to set wheels smaller than stock, as well as larger. Track width should be an option with multiple sliders (like NFS2015). We should be given manufacturer options for paint, wheels and interior choices, etc. (TDU2/TC2). We should be able to save paint colors (MCLA), instead of just having them in recents and eventually disappear (FH). We should be able to adjust trim as chrome, titanium, gold, black, etc. (MC3) The paint options of NFS Heat and MCLA would be nice, such as gloss, metallic flake with size options, carbon fiber varieties, chrome, matte, satin, fading from left to right as well as top to bottom and the ability to add multiple colors in a color shifting paint job (MC3), colored nitrous (MC3/NFSH), colored tire smoke (GTA5/NFSH) and backfire (NFSH), tire design (MCLA/NFSH), wide body kits (both from manufacturers and developer designed), bumpers, spoilers/wings, skirts, mirrors and fenders (non real life brands can autosculpt like NFSC). Neon colors designs and patterns (TC2/NFSH), hydraulics (MCLA) and airbags (MCLA/NFSH) Brake calipers should be able to be from brands (MCLA/NFSH) or painted (TC2). Interior parts such as steering wheels and seats (MCLA), along with materials, alcantara, suede, leather, plastic, carbon fiber, chrome, etc. (TC2). We should be able to chop the roofs of some vehicles (MC3). Cars have individual licence plates and can get multiple states/countries given they fit the spacing allocated on each vehicle for them (MCLA) Tinted headlight and taillight housings are great options along with light bulb temperatures. Although it isn’t the taste of many people, we should be able to do all kinds of unique styles, such as monster truck (or at least an extreme lift), donk, bosozoku and even NHRA style drag body modifications (with optional wheelie bar) for some of the vehicles you would see them on in real life, but modifications this drastic will impact performance and vehicle hit box/collision physics. Vinyls on widows should be a thing with the ability to make vinyls able to utilize different paint materials (NFSH). FH4 has the numerical system to mirror and scale things fairly well. I’d like to keep the placement system of FH4. Also, the FH4 marketplace to download tunes and designs is the best I've seen, so that can be duplicated. As this will blanket all of the above, some customization parts should be recommended by a popular magazine or website. MC3 did this with Dub and created a fantastic game with a lasting legacy and many of the style options were relevant when the game was released and for a while after. We should be able to adjust tire width and profile, similar to MCLA. The ability to paint engine bays and accent parts would be nice, similar to NFS UG2. Custom exhaust tips/mufflers would be something nice that many other games have incorporated.
Performance Customization and Tuning: PI system like Forza with classes (but actively tuned for balance), different turbos for rpm ranges/turbo lag, supercharger. We should have different tire compounds, even being able to set for front/rear separately. As mentioned earlier, a RWD car that is tuned well and driven well should have the potential to beat an AWD vehicle due to it being lighter. Keeping the tuning settings of what you can adjust would be ideal. We should have the ability to combine the live tuning of NFSH, but enhance it while at a test track (with an off road area in the middle) connected to the tuning shop. You can isolate many tuning options and slide them around while hot lapping. I’d like the ability to run fat rear drag tires, unlike FH4 where it’s just a tire compound.
Audio: This is something that will be very important to many, so great sounds like the noise of turbos on NFS2015 and raw engine noises of FH2 and other games held to a high standard will be important to nail. Exhaust tuning from NFSH was nice, but I would like to see a little more of a difference in the sound with this idea further improved. Getting the proper transmission noises can be useful for cars on top of just the engine noise. Tires skidding is nice noise to get correct for realism as well. Having nice ambient sounds will also be important for immersiveness, such as birds chirping, waves washing up on the beach, wind noises and great echo sounds for traveling through tunnels or densely surrounded areas, such as down a row of highrise buildings). Other than making a car sound how it sounds and making realistic sounds for the environment, there is not much more to be said. It's a moderately limited description, but still something that is pivotal.
Story/post launch content: I would like to see a sense of progression built up throughout the game by starting in a low end car as someone who freshly arrived in the are the map takes place in (MCLA), maybe the antagonist could be someone who scammed you in a previous city or dismissed your talent at the beginning of the game. For me, the outright story isn't too important, but can contribute to how much you will enjoy a racing game. Any DLC map expansion needs to be seamless and not require a separate load in, similar to Burnout Paradise Big Surf Island bridge or (MCLA South Central expansion) and unlike FH4 Fortune Island. The 1000 Club was a great thing that occurred on FH1 that would be nice to bring reason to use every car and for the 100%ers to have something else to chase. Police are something that hasn't been done extremely well in a racing only game in a very long time, in my opinion. I would ideally focus on everything else before attempting to add police in. If they were added in, something along the lines of NFSMW (2005) would be nice, but with higher stakes. We should have an end-game hero car, similar to the M3 GTR from NFSMW, but make it a car that isn't already iconic from another game, movie or real life racing, as people wouldn't think of the hero car associated to this hypothetical game, but related to whatever it was previously iconic in, as whatever work that went into making it that car would go to waste as people would want to overwrite that design. Alongside the hero car, we should also have a couple cars that are unique variations of pre-existing cars (Dub Edition cars of MCLA) for other special events (MCLA hard tournaments/FH3 street race bosses). The post-launch support needs to be good, unlike NFSH. Adding cars monthly would be a great start, along with any necessary QoL updates.
Sorry for any formatting or grammatical issues. I’d like to hear any additional features to add into racing games from the feedback of other people or changes that they would prefer. Also, if there are any ideas in here that others would like to emphasize. Any of this content is free for content creators to recycle if that is desired. I’d like to see some of these ideas be passed around and heard to developers on what could be improved upon. Many games have great ideas and I’d like to see them build off of each other’s greatness.
submitted by jxfl to needforspeed [link] [comments]

As TDU3 is under development, here is an extensive list of features I would enjoy seeing and hopefully some can be implemented.

This list will consist of the beginnings of an outstanding open-world racing game from many of the features I've conceptualized. I've always had a thought/fantasy in my head of taking some of the best features from many racing games and rolling them into one fantastic game. There have been so many quirks and great things across many racing games and even non-racing games that could be implemented into other racing games to improve upon games. I think some game developers and creative directors owe it to themselves to play many other racing games themselves to draw inspiration from other games and they should directly use polls in social media to see what people want the most, so resources can be allocated in that direction. I will refer to many games throughout this as I feel a lot of racing games (and other games in general) made over the last 15 years or so have features that could contribute to the concepts that would create a great game. Game abbreviations will include MC (Midnight Club), NFS (Need for Speed), TC (The Crew) FH (Forza Horizon), FM (Forza Motorsport), GT (Gran Turismo), GTA (Grand Theft Auto) and TDU (Test Drive Unlimited). This list will not be suggesting any locations, vehicle or part manufacturers directly unless something is used as an example, this is just features that could be incorporated upon a base game. Developers will obtain whatever licenses they can and I don't see this as a thing to extensively cover. An example is that we would all love to see Toyota, but obtaining their license recently has been difficult for many companies. One thing that I can't speak of as I have no personal use, is steering wheels. I'd like to hear some feedback on how to create the optimal steering wheel experience in a racing game.
Physics: Driving physics control the entire driving experience of a racing game so these are ultimately the most important thing to get correct. There have been many games that have gotten so many things right with a mediocre or worse physics system that detracted from the experience so much that the legacy of the games it applies to are tarnished regardless of how many other things are done well, with TDU2 is a great example. Ideally, they would be on par with FH4. Some extent of arcade physics would be nice, but not to the extent of some of the Ghost produced NFS games to where there is some oddly conflicting attempt of two physics systems fighting each other to determine if you are attempting to drift or grip. There would be a difference in the feeling of drivetrains and the AWD wouldn't be dominant over RWD in paved road scenarios, tuning and efficient driving could make RWD better due to the car being lighter.
Controller mappings/settings: I will continue to reiterate the ability to customize things to the user's liking should be the biggest priority in many categories. The ability to enable and disable vibration in the handles and triggers individually would be nice. It's good to have the choice setting of linearity and inner and outer dead zones. I will be using an Xbox controller for my ideal pre mapped settings. I think FH4 has the best control scheme, but could still use some improvement (and features). To maximize the inputs available, the photo mode should be accessed through the start/pause menu, rather than having them mapped to buttons that could be useful for other functions. The standard LT brake, RT accelerate, LS steering and RS camera (with the click of it being a 180 degree look back) are a very simple base scheme. LB to use the clutch, X and B should be downshift and upshift respectable, RB for the handbrake, A for nitrous, Y for rewind, LS click for the horn, the "select" button would be for interact/map when there's nothing to interact with, left d-pad would function the same way GTA5's would regarding the radio (including holding it + RS to select a specific station), down d-pad would function as FH4 does, where you can choose telemetry or a gps assistant, up d-pad could enlarge and extend the mini-map to give an idea of what is ahead. right d pad could pull up a list of mini functions, such as blinkers, headlights, windows, convertible roof, neon lighting, engine off, hydraulics, air bags, cruise control, etc.
Map/Environment: The map can be a real place or a fictional place. Being able to visit a real place from the comfort of your home is nice, but visiting a fantasy land with no creative restrictions would be nice. Some really cool things that were imagined could happen because there is no need to resemble a real place. Day/night cycle with a weather cycle depending on which part of the map you are on, where snow can be on top of mountains. The map needs to be large, no smaller than FH4, ideally larger than the individual TDU2 maps with little to no exploration restrictions. I'd like to see a couple very long straightaways or near straightaways to allow cars to top out on speed. This could be combined with a highway loop system that can wrap around a large portion of the map. Beaches, bumpy terrain areas for intense offroading and of course tunnels for the sound of engines roaring through and echoing. A moderately large mountain would be cool for a hill climb and maybe somewhere to descend from the mountain with multiple consecutive hairpins from the mountain would be nice for drifting. I’d love for the map to have spots to evoke nostalgia for many of us that have played many racing games throughout the year, with an example being when I played TC1 for the first time and I was in LA, it brought back fond memories of MCLA. Even some areas do not have to be specific, but some areas on TC2 reminded me of the speed challenges on NFSPS. Having a/a few tuning shops across the map would be really cool, along with a few NPC cars completely RNG based on model and visual customization so that every time you visit the tuners, you see something new so the tuner feels less stale over time. Barn finds/TDU2 style wrecks. Having racing tracks incorporated into the map that are accessible while in free roam and used for races would be cool, like TC1/TC2, especially an oval track with an optional infield layout. Having a parking garage or two would be nice as you can do many things with them. I liked how there was one incorporated in MCLA and NMFSMW(2012) provided a good experience while in them. We should have a GTA5 style 48 minute irl day/night cycle with about 10 hours in game (20 minutes irl) of nighttime and 14 hours in game (28 minutes irl) of daytime to provide a balance most would find enjoyable. While viewing the full sized map in the menu, we should be able to zoom out a lot or zoom in to nearly street view, like TC2. Roads need to have believable lane width, unlike how the lanes have become wider and wider every FH installment. We should have some back roads that are very slim and have room to accommodate one car width covering both directions. Gas/petrol stations are nice to see as that is something that some games don't include enough. The planes flying in TC2 add to the immersiveness. Having an airport with a long airstrip is something that is seen as important. It was a place for people to frequently congregate in GTA4/FH2 and the lack of a nice, unobstructed airstrip in FH4 is seen as something that's a letdown. Real life traffic cars with several color options each to increase immersiveness, also cars represent surroundings (taxis in the city, utility vehicles in a rural area, etc). Having pedestrians on foot can also add into the immersive feeling, including them reacting to your presence by having dialogue and running away if you're being reckless. Some places will be in various stages of construction (similar to GTA) and over the course of updates they'll come further along and finish construction and some will become interactive spaces. Some places will also become the sights of demolition.
Camera settings: Getting the right view and feel for cameras is important to giving you the most comfortable experience to get the feel for where your car is at and focus on surroundings in the way that is desired. Importantly, having bumper, hood, cockpit (with and without steering wheel) and chase cameras is a great start. There should also be an "action" camera with additional sense of speed, sensitivity towards turns, etc. Although this isn't a racing game, Rocket League inspired me to take a deeper dive into the thoughts of camera perspectives. Adjusting RL camera settings can assist your ability to be aware of surroundings and I'm sure the same would apply to actual racing games. Settings for RL that would be nice to apply to racing games would be the ability to turn on or off camera shake upon collisions, the FOV, distance of the camera away from the car (and distance gain relative to speed, if desired), camera height in relativity to the vehicle (could be important with SUVs/trucks) and angle at which the camera points towards the ground/sky. I'd like to see settings to turn vignetting and motion blur from a 0-100% scale. This effect is often used to create a sense of speed, but is often found to be disruptive towards viewing surroundings and braking zones. As I feel this would pertain to the player's perception/camera adjustment, I think the cockpit views should contain an adjustable seat, such as TDU1. Keeping something like the drift camera for cockpit views, along with the settings they have related to it in FH4 would be nice.
User interface/HUD: I think being consistent to many other racing games would be good in many ways. Ideally, the ability to adjust which corner things are in would be the best, but if the customization wasn't an option, this is how I think it should be. Having the speedometetachometeodometer in the bottom right would be nice, along with the ability to display it in an analog or digital format, such as FH4. The map should be on the bottom left and should have two levels of details for options; one being a minimalist design with no border that gradually fades out (similar to Grid Autosport's track layout minimap, mixed with the off road icon detail of FH4). The second map option should be similar to a mixture of NFS Heat and TDU1 in terms of borders on the mini-map and detail to show side roads/terrains. The ability to adjust the map rotating or not would be nice. We should also be able to see our recent driving path in a thin line on the map, such as TDU2. The race position should be in the top right and all other race details (total time in race and sprint race % or lap count, best and previous lap) should be in the top left. Another thing that could add into the immersion would be changing the opacity of the HUD, from 0-100% so you could make it mostly transparent, but visible enough to be useful if that is what is desired. Having an odometer built into the HUD would be nice as well. Games such as TC2 have the speedometer and mini-map flipped from the standard positions and it is a minor grievance. The speedometers in non-cockpit views should be able to resemble the car's actual speedometer as seen in TDU and NFS Shift. We should be able to filter the map well when in that menu, similar to FH4.
Event Types: Blueprints (FH3), random events where you can taxi or tail someone (TDU2), Drag races with proper street light, track light or an NPC human signaling in the middle of the road making the countdown (also with burnouts like NFSPS), score based drift racing, sprint races, circuit races, speed trap races (NFSMW), pink slip and money wager races (MCLA), unordered races (MC3), rivals (FH3/4), true street races and official sanctioned races (FH3/4 and NFSH) and end the game with a goliath type of race (FH3/4). Off road racing in the form of sprints and circuits would be nice. Bringing over speed traps, speed zones, drift zones and danger signs/long jumps from FH4/NFSH would be nice. Removing the potential disruption of traffic would be nice by ghosting vehicles in these situations, as FH4 has done. A route creator along the lines of MCLA/FH4 would be nice with the ability to add/remove some objects like barriers and ramps. The TDU2 style limited time events would be cool. Maybe a certain event would be worth double money or level progression. Some of the limited time races would utilize the places being constructed and demolished.
Online Play: Free roam such as TC2/FH4 in terms of grouping with friends is ideal, but have the option to have private lobbies (up to as many players as the developers can make work) and the ability to search for public free roam lobbies based on preferences of drifting, car meets, cruising, etc. Free roamers should be able to disable or enable collisions with random players not in their group. Lacking the collisions removes some of the immersiveness and the ghosted appearance ruins things such as drifting tandems and trains with random players. Something similar to Forzathon from FH4 could help players unite and group together and optionally have something to do in the lobby every hour. Ranked and unranked playlist organization like FH4, but make completely separate on and off road playlists for online along with a voting system for the class of racing and location. Online race collision penalties and ghosting similar to FH4. Free roam quick 1v1 wager races against other players in cruises. We should have the option to play through the campaign in a cooperative fashion, similar to FH4/TC2. Cross play would be nice to implement.
Driving Features: Race Driver Grid style rewinds as they're probably the smoothest working rewinds compared to the segmented rewind system in other racing titles. TC2 back on track compared to FH4 weird reset, FRIM (TDU2)/skill chain (FH1-4) in freemode to reward in small XP/money. The ability to enable settings on a 0-100% slider would be nice as well as a detailed damage model. The ability to render in more tire smoke than other games would be nice. I'm aware it requires a lot of system resources, but I would like to see how far it could be pushed on next generation consoles/and always-improving top of the line PCs. Using the car with manual transmission would allow us to put the car in neutral. Some vehicles with visible engines/engine components have a noticeable shake while idle, so seeing that would be nice. Being able to enable/disable fuel management (both for cruising/racing) would be nice, along with gas/petrol stations to refill the fuel and nitrous (just a drive-thru required). Slipstreaming other cars will make your car faster, not give nitrous like NFS. Nitrous should slowly regenerate like NFSMW2005, where there is also a slight delay for it to begin regenerating again, unlike TC2 where it begins regenerating immediately. Difficulty settings to lower driving assistance, if desired. Wipers operating along with rain buildup would clearly add some realism. Reversing your car would add a backup camera in place of the infotainment system displaying the map until you've left the reverse gear. While driving in the cockpit, the wheel needs to be given a 900ish degree rotation from lock to lock to add into the realistic feeling of being in a car.
Non-Driving Features: Players should be able to enter their homes similar to GTA5 and TDU2 and they should be able to have a vast array of customization for their house and a trophy room, which can be earned from high tier sanctioned races/tournaments (inspired by NFL 2K5/Auto Modellista), photos taken in game can be framed and displayed around the house (TDU2) and multiple garages and garage types like TDU/GTA along with the ability to interact with and move cars around different garages and spaces within the garages. The ability to test drive any car at any level of progression and visit themed new dealerships and used dealerships would be cool (TDU/TC). Character customization would be nice to control the appearance of your character, such as a plastic surgeon and clothing stores. The ability to control blinkers, headlights, windows, convertible tops/sunroofs, neon lighting, turning the engine off, operating hydraulics and adjusting air bags. Having a large variety of standard and gimmick horns. Using horns to control police lights to flash rapidly upon the horn being pressed, along with the siren remaining operating upon letting go of the horn. The internal navigation/infotainment screens of cars show the in game map/gps (TDU2). We could see the drone from FH4 return as it’s a good way to view tricky areas and get a live view of other players without obstructing them. Wheelspins (FH4) exist, but guarantee car or money and have the potential of earning clothes as a side bonus. We could maybe have a casino (similar to TDU2/GTA5) with various attractions, such as slots, a daily wheelspin for a rotating car weekly, the ability to bet on real life PvP races that the large room would randomly put you into spectate and other casino based activities. Our character shouldn't be mute throughout the story, we should be given a few voice choices for a little more personality for our character (similar to how Saints Row operates its voices). Car clubs would be cool, similar to FH3, along with leaderboards based on the clubs. Oil changes at the performance shops and car washes would be nice. Garages/dealerships and tuning shops will have various ambient noises (hydraulic lifts, airsaws, torches, metal slamming, etc.) and subtle music.
Photo mode: This deserves its own category and also can help a company market the game by users sharing their photos if the mode allows such great photos people will be prone to sharing them. We should have a filtetime of day/weather system like TC2. The focusing and motion blur of FH4 is well executed. We should be able to zoom in and out (adjust focal length) without it altering our field of view. We should be able to apply different lens effects, such as fisheye, rectilinear, etc. The camera should have the ability to position freely, in terms of raise, lower, tilt, rotate, etc. The maximum height for the camera needs to be much higher than FH4. The camera should have the potential to be on a gimbal, so it can remain even while a car is going up and down a hill to emphasize how drastic the ascent or descent is. All these features on top of standard stuff such as exposure, saturation, etc. Also, the live rewind and fast forward again option in TC2 is amazing. It’s easy to miss that perfect single frame shot on other games, but the ability to do that solves it.
Soundtrack: It needs to be eclectic with hip-hop, rock and electronic (maybe 2 of each) like modern and classic hip-hop and rock and electronic can be split between chill and hype. Maybe we can get pop, country and classical stations? Have a mix of some lesser known songs and also some billboard topping hits. Don't have stations where many of their songs sound very similar. Something great that could be added could be Spotify integration if any company can figure it out/contract Spotify. Groove integration was a good idea on FH, but Groove wasn't successful. Having the ability to fully mute all music sounds would also be nice (unlike FH4).
Vehicles: As I said, I will not be going over brands, but I would like to see a variety of entry level cars, sports cars, super cars, hyper cars and full on race cars. Concept cars would be great, as they are seen in limited fashion on most open world titles. I'd like trucks and SUVs as well for off roading and to maintain a wide variety of vehicles on par with FH4. I’d also like to see a vehicle categorization similar to FH4 (i.e. Hypercars, classic muscle, etc.). While I'd like to see a variety of vehicle types, I'd still prefer to see quality over quantity. Each vehicle needs to be replicated well and many should have extensive customization. We should be able to favorite cars and also choose a random car (totally random or random from favorites for whatever vehicles are applicable to the given event or freeroam. We should be able to tag vehicles as designed for off-road, wet driving, drifting, drag, etc. These will just be two examples, but we should be able to provide donor cars to speciality shops and convert them into improved, rarer editions. Two conversions that I'll reference would be converting a Porsche Carrera GT into a Gemballa Mirage GT or a Mustang GT into a Saleen S302. A growing variety of vehicles over the course of time, similar to FH4 and TC2.
Visual Customization: No visual adjustments will relate to performance gains or losses (i.e. camber, wheel swaps/sizes, bodykits, etc.) other than you will need to equip some form of spoilewing to adjust rear downforce. We should be able to set wheels smaller than stock, as well as larger. Track width should be an option with multiple sliders (like NFS2015). We should be given manufacturer options for paint, wheels and interior choices, etc. (TDU2/TC2). We should be able to save paint colors (MCLA), instead of just having them in recents and eventually disappear (FH). We should be able to adjust trim as chrome, titanium, gold, black, etc. (MC3) The paint options of NFS Heat and MCLA would be nice, such as gloss, metallic flake with size options, carbon fiber varieties, chrome, matte, satin, fading from left to right as well as top to bottom and the ability to add multiple colors in a color shifting paint job (MC3), colored nitrous (MC3/NFSH), colored tire smoke (GTA5/NFSH) and backfire (NFSH), tire design (MCLA/NFSH), wide body kits (both from manufacturers and developer designed), bumpers, spoilers/wings, skirts, mirrors and fenders (non real life brands can autosculpt like NFSC). Neon colors designs and patterns (TC2/NFSH), hydraulics (MCLA) and airbags (MCLA/NFSH) Brake calipers should be able to be from brands (MCLA/NFSH) or painted (TC2). Interior parts such as steering wheels and seats (MCLA), along with materials, alcantara, suede, leather, plastic, carbon fiber, chrome, etc. (TC2). We should be able to chop the roofs of some vehicles (MC3). Cars have individual licence plates and can get multiple states/countries given they fit the spacing allocated on each vehicle for them (MCLA) Tinted headlight and taillight housings are great options along with light bulb temperatures. Although it isn’t the taste of many people, we should be able to do all kinds of unique styles, such as monster truck (or at least an extreme lift), donk, bosozoku and even NHRA style drag body modifications (with optional wheelie bar) for some of the vehicles you would see them on in real life, but modifications this drastic will impact performance and vehicle hit box/collision physics. Vinyls on widows should be a thing with the ability to make vinyls able to utilize different paint materials (NFSH). FH4 has the numerical system to mirror and scale things fairly well. I’d like to keep the placement system of FH4. Also, the FH4 marketplace to download tunes and designs is the best I've seen, so that can be duplicated. As this will blanket all of the above, some customization parts should be recommended by a popular magazine or website. MC3 did this with Dub and created a fantastic game with a lasting legacy and many of the style options were relevant when the game was released and for a while after. We should be able to adjust tire width and profile, similar to MCLA. The ability to paint engine bays and accent parts would be nice, similar to NFS UG2. Custom exhaust tips/mufflers would be something nice that many other games have incorporated.
Performance Customization and Tuning: PI system like Forza with classes (but actively tuned for balance), different turbos for rpm ranges/turbo lag, supercharger. We should have different tire compounds, even being able to set for front/rear separately. As mentioned earlier, a RWD car that is tuned well and driven well should have the potential to beat an AWD vehicle due to it being lighter. Keeping the tuning settings of what you can adjust would be ideal. We should have the ability to combine the live tuning of NFSH, but enhance it while at a test track (with an off road area in the middle) connected to the tuning shop. You can isolate many tuning options and slide them around while hot lapping. I’d like the ability to run fat rear drag tires, unlike FH4 where it’s just a tire compound.
Audio: This is something that will be very important to many, so great sounds like the noise of turbos on NFS2015 and raw engine noises of FH2 and other games held to a high standard will be important to nail. Exhaust tuning from NFSH was nice, but I would like to see a little more of a difference in the sound with this idea further improved. Getting the proper transmission noises can be useful for cars on top of just the engine noise. Tires skidding is nice noise to get correct for realism as well. Having nice ambient sounds will also be important for immersiveness, such as birds chirping, waves washing up on the beach, wind noises and great echo sounds for traveling through tunnels or densely surrounded areas, such as down a row of highrise buildings). Other than making a car sound how it sounds and making realistic sounds for the environment, there is not much more to be said. It's a moderately limited description, but still something that is pivotal.
Story/post launch content: I would like to see a sense of progression built up throughout the game by starting in a low end car as someone who freshly arrived in the are the map takes place in (MCLA), maybe the antagonist could be someone who scammed you in a previous city or dismissed your talent at the beginning of the game. For me, the outright story isn't too important, but can contribute to how much you will enjoy a racing game. Any DLC map expansion needs to be seamless and not require a separate load in, similar to Burnout Paradise Big Surf Island bridge or (MCLA South Central expansion) and unlike FH4 Fortune Island. The 1000 Club was a great thing that occurred on FH1 that would be nice to bring reason to use every car and for the 100%ers to have something else to chase. Police are something that hasn't been done extremely well in a racing only game in a very long time, in my opinion. I would ideally focus on everything else before attempting to add police in. If they were added in, something along the lines of NFSMW (2005) would be nice, but with higher stakes. We should have an end-game hero car, similar to the M3 GTR from NFSMW, but make it a car that isn't already iconic from another game, movie or real life racing, as people wouldn't think of the hero car associated to this hypothetical game, but related to whatever it was previously iconic in, as whatever work that went into making it that car would go to waste as people would want to overwrite that design. Alongside the hero car, we should also have a couple cars that are unique variations of pre-existing cars (Dub Edition cars of MCLA) for other special events (MCLA hard tournaments/FH3 street race bosses). The post-launch support needs to be good, unlike NFSH. Adding cars monthly would be a great start, along with any necessary QoL updates.
Sorry for any formatting or grammatical issues. I’d like to hear any additional features to add into racing games from the feedback of other people or changes that they would prefer. Also, if there are any ideas in here that others would like to emphasize. Any of this content is free for content creators to recycle if that is desired. I’d like to see some of these ideas be passed around and heard to developers on what could be improved upon. Many games have great ideas and I’d like to see them build off of each other’s greatness.
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The Cryopod to Hell 210: The Demon Homeworld

Author note: The Cryopod to Hell is a Reddit-exclusive story with over three years of editing and refining. As of this post, the total rewrite is 222 parts long and 953,000+ words. For more information, check out the link below:
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(Part 001)
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After speaking a Word of Power, I step toward Mara and ease her to the ground. To my surprise, the blonde-haired demoness melts into my arms, weighing so little that I have a hard time believing her body isn't made of feathers and fluff. After laying her on the ground, I do the same for Ying-Ying and wipe my forehead.
"Hurgh. Well done," Kar says, as he walks over and pats my back. "That was a successful mission if I've ever seen one."
I stand up while keeping an eye on Ying-Ying's slumbering face. "No. I didn't want to incapacitate these girls. Where possible, I will always prefer using discretion to force."
Blinker flies over and lands on Ying-Ying's arm. "You're wrong, Jason! It's okay to use your strength sometimes. After all, these girls are Barons. That means they ate over a hundred thousand souls to evolve! They might look like cutie-patooties, but these two are killers to the core."
Kar nods. "Butterfly is right. What good did all of your preparation do, in the end? Peaches still uncovered your identity. Blossom was not as smart as her sister, but even I noticed how she talked about humans. Neither of these girls were friends of humanity. Sooner or later, they would have uncovered your identity. You merely delayed their hatred."
I nod. "You're right, but only somewhat. Tell me, Kar, how did Samantha reach the rank of Emperor?"
Kar shrugs. "Hurgh. By eating human souls?"
"No. Sam got her power from a dragon. She told Phoebe once that she's never killed a human before, nor taken one's soul. Now, I'm not saying this is the case for Mara and Ying-Ying, but I am saying things aren't as black and white as they might first appear."
I turn my gaze toward the monsters and demons milling about across the room. Thanks to my Mirage spell, they have yet to notice their downed superiors. As far as they can tell, Kar has resumed his conversation with the Baron of Games.
"When I told Mara that you evolved me from a Lord to a Baron by using Wordsmithing to refine Monster energy into Demonic energy, that wasn't merely a lie to conceal my origins. It had a granule of truth in it."
Kar scratches his head. "I... I don't follow, Turtle."
"Think about it, Kar. Why does consuming a soul improve a demon's strength, and why does consuming many souls cause them to evolve?"
Blinker raises her hand. "Ooh! Ooh! I know the answer! It's because each soul raises a demon's mana capacity!"
"That's right. So, if Kar gave his energy to a demon, he could, theoretically, evolve that demon without them needing to consume souls."
Kar nods, but a look of skepticism appears on his face. "Hurgh. But as you told Peaches, monster and demon energy are opposites. They would clash and possibly kill the demon if he were to take my mana."
"Yes, but my Wordsmithing might be able to bridge that gap. I might be able to transform demon and monster energy into one another, thus boosting demons without them needing souls."
Blinker flies off Ying-Ying's comatose form and lands on my shoulder. "Hmm, you keep saying 'might' a lot. Haven't you tried doing the conversion already? Don't you know for sure?"
I shake my head. "No. A lot of things could go wrong. For example, my Wordsmithing uses Holy Energy to create its magical effects. You guys saw what happened when I tried to mimic demonic mana. Without Solomon's Crown, I have to feel it out and use you two as reference. If I tried doing the conversion, I might screw everything up."
With a shake of my head, I sigh. "I couldn't risk someone else's life over a hunch. Unless I get Solomon's Crown back or find a suitable replacement for his knowledge and computational power, I won't even try doing something so dangerous."
Kar slowly kneels down to stare at the unconscious demonesses. "Hurgh. I see. You must have told these two about your conversion concept for another reason, then. You... you want to give them the idea that if they follow you, they won't have to consume souls anymore."
"That's right. Demons don't need souls to survive. They can already live forever, barring death by accident or battle. If I can find a way to replace their need for souls, I can outline a more persuasive case for the end of the human-demon war. After all, demons might not need souls to survive, but souls give them purpose and a chance at advancement."
Blinker's shoulders slump slightly. "Jason. Don't you think you're acting a little too casual about... about all this? Like souls and stuff. Demons aren't just 'powering up' with human souls. They're eating fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers. I've met a lot of humans since moving to Tarus II, and I wouldn't want any of them to end up inside some demon's gullet where they'd get tortured for all eternity. It's terrible, Jason. Simply awful."
Blinker's words give me pause for a moment.
"Yeah. I know. But what other option do I have? Demons are sentient creatures, just like humans. If they were all horrible, evil monsters, it would be all too easy for me to invent justifications for their genocide. However, they aren't all bad. Many simply live within the Council's system and do what they must to advance. If I could offer them an alternative, they might leave the current regime behind."
Blinker squirms uncomfortably on my shoulder. "I know, but don't you think you're giving most demons way too much leeway here? Demon Grunts act like feral, wild animals. You saw what they did to those two men when we walked in here. They do stuff like that all the time!"
Kar sighs. "I have always been an open-minded crocodile, but even I know that demons are some of the most barbaric beings in the universe."
"You're both missing the point," I mutter. "But it doesn't really matter. I can't expect you to have faith I'll overturn the evils of demonkind. Hell, I don't even believe I can. It's just... when I look at the history of the demons, they were set up for failure from the very beginning. Their hatred dates back to the first imps who escaped from Heaven. They've lived and breathed violence for their entire existence. First, they had to survive, then to infiltrate, and finally, the last hundred thousand years of violence have all been so they could exact their revenge on humanity. They torture us because they think it's their purpose in life."
When my gaze meets Blinker's, I notice she looks unconvinced. Compared to her, Kar's expression seems much more open-minded.
"Hurgh. Perhaps you may have a point, Turtle. For one as dense as you to dwell on such grand themes, it makes me happy. You may yet have a chance at advancing your intellect."
I roll my eyes. "Ugh, shut up, Kar. You're such an ass, sometimes."
"Damn right, he is!" Blinker laughs. She flies off my shoulder and lands on Kar's. "Anyway, what are we gonna do about these two unconscious beauties? Don't get any weird ideas, boys. I've got my eyes on you."
"We'll leave them here," I say. "I already extracted the layout of Hell Harbor from Ying-Ying's mind. Surprisingly, I managed to map out a huge portion of the planet. I can open a rift almost anywhere."
"Hurgh. The closer you can get us to Ose's location, the less hostile territory we'll have to travel through," Kar remarks. "Where is she now?"
I shrug. "If I had to guess, her estate. But, surprisingly, Ying-Ying's memories didn't tell me where it was, only its appearance. I don't even have a vague direction. There is, however, a mountaintop not far from some of Hell Harbor's lower dominions. It has a great view, and more importantly, it overlooks a bunch of important landmarks. We'll go there and scout the area."
After pausing to take a breath, I speak a word of power. "Portal."
Whoomph.
Ten feet away from me, a huge suction of air makes Kar jump in surprise. He quickly recovers from his shock as an opaque warpgate appears, allowing us to enter Hell Harbor.
Before we step through, I pause and glance at Mara again. "Extract."
Instead of aiming for a specific part of Mara's memories, I aim for a holistic view of her entire life. Thousands of images enter my mind, memories upon memories. My head quickly swells with information, forcing me to my knees as I absorb her knowledge.
Before her memories can overwhelm me, I grit my teeth and speak another word. "Terminal!"
Just as quickly as the pain of assimilation strikes me, it vanishes. Inside my mind realm, a large computer terminal appears, complete with a viewscreen capable of looking up information.
My mind-wife, Phoebe, speaks, confusion in her voice. "Jason? What's this? What did you do?"
I stored all of Mara's knowledge in my Mind Realm, separate from my brain, so I won't lose myself. I'll be relying on you to give me any relevant information.
"Me? But why? Does she have any information we need? It's beyond discourteous to look into someone's memories."
I know. However, if I've learned anything, it's that entering Hell Harbor as an unknown Baron will only be asking for trouble. I'll impersonate Mara, instead.
Rising to my feet, I utter several words of power. "Disguise. Appearance. Voice.
Bit by bit, I change different parts of my body, transforming myself into the demoness I interacted with only minutes before. Kar and Blinker watch me as I become a perfect facsimile of the Baron of Games.
"You know," Blinker mutters to Kar, "I never thought about this before, but Jason could turn himself into a lady and do all kinds of pervy things to himself!"
With my voice sounding identical to Mara's, I reply, "Samantha could do the same thing, and you never had a problem with her."
"Yeahhh, but it's different for a guy," Blinker replies. "Guys are way lewder than women. That's just a fact."
I try not to roll my eyes. "...Right. You might have a point. For now, let's focus, alright? I'll impersonate Mara, so if we need to bypass any security checkpoints, we'll be able to get past them with ease."
After the three of us check to make sure my Mirage is still working, we step through the portal and leave the Baron of Games and her sister behind, arriving on the world of Hell Harbor.
The moment we arrive, a litany of sights and smells assaults me, along with the difference in the planet's air pressure, making my ears pop. Having experienced the turbulence of portal-walking on countless occasions, I barely even notice what I once considered head-splitting pain.
A flat, rocky plateau stands atop a five-hundred-foot-tall mountain, its position overlooking the entrance to Hell Harbor, where newcomers arrive via the Keymaster's portals. Ordinarily, nobody can leave or enter the planet via teleportation magic, except through the authorized warp points. Too bad for the demons, my Wordsmithing doesn't have such a limitation. If it did, Kar and I might have to sweet-talk our way through hundreds of potential enemies.
After gazing at the speck-sized demons and monsters milling about in the distance, I turn my gaze north, along the edge of the western beach. Hell Harbor's Annex, the heavily reinforced building for entering and exiting the planet, sits only half a mile away from a vast, sparkling ocean. To my surprise, the seawater is so clear that I can make out the movements of gigantic underwater predators off the coast, each one dwarfing Earth's blue whales.
Hell Harbor's sky distinctly reminds me of Earth's, with its bright blue coloration and white clouds. Interestingly, this planet's star appears noticeably more orange than Earth's, giving the air a warmer tone.
Several other things catch my attention, like how the planet's grass appears far more vibrantly green than my homeworld's. Exotic dragonfly-like insects buzz through the air, while a few clumps of bright purple flowers snap shut on any critter stupid enough to land on their buds.
"Wow," Blinker says, echoing my thoughts. "I thought Hell Harbor would be... I dunno... ugly? Barren? This place is amazing! It's an oasis!"
"Indeed," Kar says, stroking his chin. "Hurgh. I have never come here before. However, Mother has spoken of it on several occasions. It is a luxurious homeworld for any demons or monsters who have earned accolades. While some might state that only Baron-level demons may come here, that is not strictly true. A few Lords live here as well, those who have yet to rank up to Baron, but have performed noteworthy deeds for the Council. Also, countless slaves live here, be they human, demon, or monster."
I nod. "Yeah. Don't expect more than a faint veneer of civility with the slave trade here. I can only imagine the horrible shit the Demon Council's members do to their human pets."
With a sigh, I speak several words of power in a row.
"Invisibility. Invisibility. Invisibility. Telepathy. Telepathy. Stealth. Stealth. Stealth."
Over and over, I use my Wordsmithing to turn Kar, Blinker, and me into invisible agents of deception. Kar stares at me as my body turns partially translucent, along with his and Blinker's. Once I finish, he speaks. "Hurgh. Why imitate Peaches' appearance if we are going to become invisible? I do not understand."
"My goal is to reach Ose and speak to her. For now, though, I don't want anyone seeing us climb down the mountain. It would invite too many questions. Once we get to the bottom, I'll need to find someone who can tell us where Ose is hiding and extract her location with my Wordsmithing. After that, it's smooth sailing."
Blinker narrows her eyes. "Riiight. Smooth sailing."
I start walking down the mountain, and Kar follows behind me.
"We can see each other thanks to how I formulated my magical intent. However, our voices are still audible to anyone nearby. From now on, use telepathy to communicate with each other. Alright?"
Kar frowns. "Certainly. Hurgh... but how?"
[Like this. Think the words in your head, and aim them at Blinker or me.]
[Hurgh... like... this?]
[Yep.]
Kar and Blinker fall silent for a moment, indicating they must be exchanging words with each other.
Telepathy sounds overpowered, but it has many downsides. For example, when I try to read people's thoughts, I can only hear one person's mind at a time. Even when I listen, I can only hear their present top-level concerns. That's the biggest thing that sunk me when I tried to fool Mara. I didn't understand the importance of Soul Tokens, and I couldn't get the information from her brain either, not without using Wordsmithing to extract that specific information.
Most people think on their feet. Their thoughts prove to be a jumble, only slowing down when they enter a conversation. However, the moment they stop talking, their brains fire up to maximum speed, making a thousand words travel around at a mile per minute. When Mara mentioned Soul Tokens, she didn't need to think about their definition or function, as that information was ingrained in her subconscious. It was only when I started asking questions that she began pulling her knowledge to the surface.
By that point, it was already too late. She'd realized that I, a supposed self-respecting Demon Baron, would know everything she did. How could I make such a casual mistake?
From there, it was just a matter of piecing together the other inconsistencies I'd accidentally let slip.
Now that I've downloaded all of her memories into my Mind Realm, Phoebe can peruse them and help sort out the useful information I might need later. Who knows what other trivial bits of information I've taken for granted?
As Kar, Blinker, and I all trudge down the well-worn mountain trail, Kar's telepathy tickles my brain.
[Turtle. I must say, your performance against that Baron female was decent. How did you manage all that future-seeing stuff? Your explanation sounded fine, but surely you used your Wordsmithing to see into the future, right?]
I shake my head. [No. I used a Word of Power to grant myself enhanced predictive capabilities. Unfortunately, they were far less potent than when I used them in conjunction with Solomon's Crown a few years ago. His Crown greatly accelerated my thinking speed, which also improved my predictive accuracy.]
[Hurgh. Your accuracy seemed just fine to me.]
[It wasn't. I only managed to guess half a dozen or so exchanges into the future. Predicting beyond that would have led to a large number of errors. Any set of probabilities will grow exponentially more chaotic as you add additional variables.]
I can almost hear Kar's head bobbing as he nods behind me. [Hurgh. Yes, yes, of course. I understand.]
Phoebe laughs. "Haha! Kar doesn't understand a word you just said!"
Probably not, but let's let him have his moment.
...
It doesn't take long before the three of us reach the bottom of the mountain, where we arrive at a sparsely populated, lightly forested woodland area. A few dozen trees sit amidst heaps of leaves as fifteen goblins work together to rake them up.
"Nyeh! Work work, that all we do! All stinkin' day, rake leaves, shovel hellhound skarn! This big unfair!"
"Shut mouth, Bobo!" A second goblin hisses. "If Master hears you bitchin', we all get three kicks!"
"Me complain if me want!" Bobo groans. "It hot outside! Me want go back underground!"
I hold up my hand, causing Kar to slow to a stop.
[Wait,] I say. [Goblins have excellent senses of smell and hearing. We won't be able to walk past them. Stand still; I'm going to 'jump' you somewhere safe.]
[Hurgh. What do you mean by 'jump me'?] Kar asks. [In my language, that is a term exclusively reserved for one who wishes to copulate with a potential mate.]
My cheeks flush red. [No, idiot! I mean that I'm going to teleport you out of the goblins' range. Do you remember when I held up my hand and made that notepad and pen appear?]
[Hurgh. Yes. That parlor trick you used to enhance the Baron's lust for you. It was an excellent technique. Her eyes dilated by 200%.]
[Kar, I'm going to beat you senseless when we get home.]
I turn back to look at Kar. He grins at me, as does Blinker. Both of them chuckle into their hands, clearly delighted by my discomfort.
[You two are so immature,] I grumble.
Without waiting for a reply, I aim my mind at them while visualizing a clearing at the edge of the forest.
Foop!
Kar and Blinker disappear from existence, only to reappear half a mile away, at the edge of the clearing, far from the goblins.
Alright, time to do myself, I grumble.
However, just before I teleport to my friends, Phoebe stops me.
"Jason. Hold on. Um, I don't know how to explain this, but I think someone is trying to contact you."
Who? Is it Ose? Has she already found me?
"No. Whoever they are, I don't think they're hostile. They seem to be lightly tapping the edges of your Mind Realm, almost like they're knocking on a door. Shall I allow them to enter? If they have any ill intentions, I can push them out."
I nod. Go ahead. I'll wait while you investigate.
I transmit my thoughts across the clearing to Kar, as he and Blinker lurk behind a tree, keeping away from the goblins. [Kar. Give me a minute. I'll be right over. Something came up.]
[Are you alright?] Kar asks, a note of alarm in his voice. [Is it Ose?! Say the word, and I'll shield your fragile little body with mine!]
[No. I don't think it's her. Just... hang tight for a minute.]
After pushing away Kar's concerns, I turn my attention inward, to my Mind Realm.
There, I witness a shocking sight!
Phoebe, Shana, and Lorent sit on a bench and smile at a group of winged men, all of whom I instantly recognize as the Archangels.
Raphael? Gabriel? Michael? What are you three doing in my Mind Realm? I thought we couldn't communicate without Solomon's assistance.
Gabriel stands nonchalantly with his hands behind his back, taking in the sights of my futuristic and retro-looking mindscape. His appearance betrays no emotion, and only a faint hint of curiosity.
Michael, on the other hand, ignores the structures within my Mind Realm to examine Phoebe, Shana, and Sir Lorent. "Human. Thy appearance befuddles me. Have we met before?"
Lorent raises an eyebrow. [Are you referring to me?]
"Yes. Thy face seems oddly familiar to me, yet I cannot place it."
[I am Sir Lorent, knight of the Round Table,] Lorent replies. He tilts his head slightly. [We have not met, but how could I not recognize the Archangels of Wisdom, Courage, and Power? Your portraits hung from my king's walls. I observed them many times during my strolls through the palace.]
Raphael, unlike his brothers, wears a scowl on his face. He gives my Mind Realm a once-over before turning his attention to Phoebe.
"Hmph. Thou art the Wordsmith's wife, but what events have transpired to place thy soul within his mind's confines? Unless..."
Raphael's expression turns solemn.
"I see. Jason, am I correct in my assumption that thou hath once again used thy powers for the sake of soul manipulation?"
I nod. Yes. I copied my wife's soul. Solomon betrayed me, and without him, my mind could be easily taken over by Ose or another mental manipulator. I only copied Phoebe's soul because she's my wife. I don't trust anybody else with access to my memories and knowledge. Heck, I don't even trust myself. Just look at what's happened to Hope.
"I see," Raphael mutters. "Never mind. None of that is important right now. Jason, where are we? I cannot see outside of my ring."
We're on Hell Harbor, I reply. The demon's homeworld.
"By the Creator!" Raphael gasps. "What reason have thee for coming to such a place?!"
I intend to negotiate a peace treaty with Ose. At the least, I feel I have to try. Why, are you going to try and convince me to stop?
"I... I do not know," Raphael mutters. The old man walks over to a bench opposite Phoebe in her flower garden and takes a seat. He sags into the chair and rubs his forehead. "Jason. The reason I attempted to contact thee — it was due to a particular mana signature I detected somewhere within my ring's range. To say its presence worries me would be a great understatement, especially now that I know thou art standing on the demon's homeworld."
Something about Raphael's tone sends a chill down my back. What do you mean? What sort of mana did you sense?
"'Tis difficult to put into words. However, worry not, young Hero. The mana I sensed was not demonic, nor was it evil. It was... kindred. Angelic."
Raphael's words draw the attention of my Mind Realm's inhabitants. Phoebe and Lorent gaze at Raphael expectantly, waiting for him to elaborate.
"If this world is the demon's homeworld, then there is a chance they may have captured an angel and held them here. Not just any angel, but an Archangel!"
Raphael sighs.
"Who, then, might they be? Of all the possibilities, only Uzziel and Camael make any sense. Samael ended up inside Satan's Mind Realm, while Uriel became ensnared within Barbatos. Tch. To think the disgusting vermin may have captured and isolated another of my family... it burns my blood. Jason, I am incapable of ordering thee around like a servant. Instead, I plead with all of my heart that thou shalt seek out this poor, captured soul and uncover their identity."
"Their fate rests within thy hands," Raphael finishes.
I nod. Alright. If I can rescue an Archangel, you bet I'll get right on it. Can you still sense their mana?
"I can," Raphael replies.
Good. Stay in my Mind Realm. Contact me if you sense that I'm getting closer. After I discuss terms of peace with Ose, I'll set out to find whoever you've detected. I won't let the demons keep any angels prisoner.
Raphael forces a half-hearted smile. "Good. Yes, good. I thank thee, young Hero. As for the matter of thy flippant soul manipulation..."
He pauses.
"...well, everyone makes mistakes. Thy intentions appear noble, and in this instance, thou have yet to harm anyone. What sort of hypocrite would I be to decry all forms of soul manipulation, given my sordid history?"
I shrug. What sort, indeed?
Without another word, I aim my mind at Kar's location.
Foop!
A quiet rushing of air teleports me from the mountain's base to about ten feet behind Kar, half a mile away. I arrive to find the big gator hiding behind a boulder while he and Blinker peer out at the nearby Warpgate Annex.
[Kar, I'm here,] I say. [Let's get a move on. We have to find Ose's estate.]
[No.] Kar says. [Wait a moment. I'm watching the demons.]
I shoot a glance over my shoulder, but the grumbling goblins still haven't noticed our presence. Stealthily, I sneak over to Kar's side and follow his gaze.
Two male Demon Barons, both with black hair, sporting gold and silver armor, respectively, shoot the shit with each other. The golden-armored one stands a mere six and a half feet tall, but his body reminds me of a minotaur's. Hulking muscles, barely concealed by his demonstone platemail, allow him to sling a gigantic battleaxe and greatsword across his back. Unlike Barbatos's armor, which was piecemeal and formed for function, this Baron's armor appears spit-shined. Every inch of it glistens from head to toe. He tucks a helmet under his arm, while grinning and clapping the other Baron on the back.
Meanwhile, the second Baron, wearing silver-colored demonstone armor, is only half a foot shorter than his comrade. Unlike the bigger fellow, the second Baron has a heavy club slung across his back, two shortswords at his waist, and a razor-sharp pair of spiked gauntlets stuck to his hands. Upon closer inspection, they remind me of the makeshift claws Barbatos used during the Ancient Era when he fought the Balrog.
As far away as I am, I can only make out bits and pieces of the two Baron's conversations. However, I manage to solve that problem for myself with ease. "Hearing."
As my ears attune themselves to the distant conversation, I turn to ask Kar if he and Blinker would like a boost, only to notice both of them leaning forward while listening attentively.
As monsters, their hearing far outclasses mine.
With a shrug, I turn my attention toward the two Barons.
The smaller one rants and raves at his taller colleague. "-whore, thinks she can tell us what to do?! Man, I tell you what, little bro, that bitch has got to go. We had the whole run of the place when that lazy shmuck was the boss. ...The fuck was his name, anyway? I already forgot!"
"You're such a moron sometimes," The taller demon laughs. "It was Diablo, big bro! Deebs! Sheesh, he's only been gone for six years. How could you forget the name of such a good-lookin' demon guy? I know he was your type."
"Right, yeah, Deebs, now I remember. You know how bad my memory is, man! I don't even remember how many fleshbag heads I chewed off yesterday! Besides, that Deebs guy was way too hairy for my liking. What about you? You gonna plug Beelzebub's butt, or are you afraid of getting burned? Bahaha! I knew it! Just look at the disgust on your face! I didn't know you could hate a guy so much!"
"Laugh it up, Zammy-boy," The taller Baron snorts. "You ain't found a nice piece of ass since that fleshbag from twenty years ago. The look on your face when I caught you goin' to town on him, it was pathetic! You got so embarrassed you gutted the poor cunt!"
"Nuh-uh!" 'Zammy' says. "I don't remember that at all! I'd never pork a fleshbag, and you know it! Don't make me sick!"
The taller Baron smacks his older brother's arm. "Haha, yeah, maybe it's my memory messin' up this time, eh, Zammy-boy? Anyway, count your blessings. While you were off teaching the troops about that invasion shit, I had to sit in on one of Ose's boooring meetings. The whole time, she kept giving Beelzebub 'fuck-me' eyes. It was gross, man."
"Yeah, I bet. Ose's a total skank," Zammy replies. "Stupid, stuck-up prude. They say she knees any guy who approaches her right in the demonhood!"
"Serves 'em right!"
"Damn straight."
I roll my eyes, finding the demon's trash-talking too obnoxious to listen to any longer. I reach over and nudge Kar's shoulder. [Hey. Let's get out of here. I'm going to extract those guys' memories, and see if they know the way to Ose's hideout.]
However, Kar doesn't reply. To my surprise, his reptilian irises have narrowed to mere slits. He leans forward, revealing a look of rage.
"Hurgh! It's... it's them...!"
Kar forgets to use telepathy. He growls his words out loud, instantly sparking my nerves.
[Kar! Kar, buddy, what's wrong? Who are you talking about? The two Barons over there? Keep your voice down! We don't want them to hear us!]
Slowly, Kar hunches forward. He coils power into his legs. A vicious snarl, unlike any I've ever seen, appears on his face. He raises both arms and spreads out his claws.
The sunnofabitch is about to pounce!
[Kar! Kar! Calm down!] I yell. [What's wrong? Who are these guys? Do you know them? Do-]
Suddenly, I stop mid-sentence. A sinking feeling appears in my gut.
Wait a minute. Zammy-boy? Zamiel? As in, one of the two Battle Brothers? Are these Barons the fuckers who wiped out Kar's species?!
"Do... do not... attempt... to stop me..." Kar growls. His voice turns feral as rage boils within his veins.
Shit! Shit! What do I do? I came here to ask Ose to sign a peace treaty! If Kar kills the Battle Brothers, we'll definitely have a war on our hands!
However, if I stop Kar, what kind of friend would I be? These are the two pieces of shit who killed his wife and children! They murdered everyone in his family, all the people he loved! According to my basest instincts, he should have the right to exact his vengeance, and if I consider him my friend, I should help him!
A thousand thoughts race through my mind. In the blink of an eye, I come to a realization.
I jerk to the side and grab Kar's arm.
[Kar. Wait. I'm not going to tell you not to fuck these guys up, but before you do, I want you to listen to me.]
Kar jerks his head to the side to look me in the eye. He bares his teeth, scaring the bejeesus out of me. "Do not... stop me..."
[I understand. These scumbag genocidal barbarians deserve everything they have coming. However, does your wife?]
Kar pauses. His rage instead morphs into a hint of confusion. "My... wife... Butterfly?"
[Yes. If you attack these guys, Blinker could get hurt. She could die. All they would have to do is sound the alarm, and all sorts of Barons, Dukes, and Emperors will come raining down from the skies. Will you be able to fight them off? Even if you can, what about Blinker? Fairies possess potent illusion magic, but that won't protect her from demonkind's mightiest warriors. Not even I could do such a thing. If you attack, you'll sign a death warrant for all three of us.]
Several seconds pass.
Kar's breathing slows. His eyes dilate back to their original size, and he averts his gaze.
The giant crocodile backs down, uncoiling his muscles as a hint of shame appears on his face.
"I... I... understand. Hurgh. My apologies, Turtle. I lost myself for a moment. I put you in danger, after everything you've done for me. I will understand if you want to end our friendship over this."
[Don't even think something like that, Kar. You've got me all wrong, buddy. I told you, didn't I? I'm going to help you kill these scumbags. They don't deserve to live after what they did to your people. My only issue is the timing. Now is the worst possible moment you could attack them.]
I turn my gaze toward the Battle Brothers. They saunter toward the Annex, away from Kar and me, laughing about all sorts of crude, despicable acts.
[Remember their faces, Kar. Burn them into your eyes. I promise you, we'll work together, and we'll make them suffer. As your friend, on my honor, I won't let them get away with the evils they've committed.]
The two brothers disappear into the Annex, vanishing from my sight.
I could have extracted the location of Ose's estate from their brains. However, doing so would mean downloading all of their other memories. I don't want to see all of the horrible shit they've done. I don't want their recollections to taint me.
Maybe I'm acting selfishly. Either way, I'll find someone else. There are bound to be countless demons and monsters who know Ose's location.
[Come on, Kar. Let's go.]
[Hurgh. As you command,] Kar mutters.
Both of us skulk away from the Annex, looking to find some lonely demon all by themself.
The realization that I nearly lost one of my best friends chills me to my core. Thankfully, I managed to stop him.
Luckily, I didn't let Kar lose himself to rage.
Next Part
.......................................
Author's Note:
This is Duriel.
This is Zamiel.
These are both Battle Brothers.
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