If anything, it would be the most cool if it or Grid Map were turned into something like the Millbrook Proving Grounds It's got high speed sections, a semi-oval part, roads going up & down like a rollercoaster, tight speedy corners, even an offroad test track & many many more
Hopefully I'm not too late to get a bit of feedback in the door... I think that's a very important goal to have! Gridmap is central to the spirit of BeamNG in many ways. It's the oldest map (although it has gone through multiple iterations), it's the one that was featured in the techdemo, it was part of the original videos that helped kickstart BeamNG's development into a game. It's the first map I (and I imagine many other players) encountered. I was looking at the early WIP map, and I noticed that there didn't appear to be the iconic loop anywhere. A version of this loop has been right there, dead ahead and in the line of sight of the default spawn point of every publicly-released Gridmap. I don't think that there's a single map element more important to the character of BeamNG as a game. Something about the wild shape of this crazy thing, the ease of getting onto it, and the fact that it's always challenging-but-not-too-challenging to complete invites the player and keeps them coming back to it until they succeed and feel like a driving hero. I think it would be really important to keep the loop right in front of wherever the default spawn turns out to be. Some more space needs to be allotted to ensure that it can be dismounted, but with the pipe and half-pipe already moved, I think that shouldn't be as much of an issue. I'm more curious about what this area will look like. Will it resemble existing pieces like the dirt path, or are existing pieces being moved and amalgamated into this area? Will there be a single large 'island' of realistic terrain, or will it be more of an archipelago of individual obstacles? If we are keeping, moving, and updating chunks of the existing terrain, I hope that the cave will be given a special place. It's not only BeamNG's first underground area, but it's also a unique experience compared to the ones recently installed in Utah and Small Island USA. It also has a valid reason to exist as part of Gridmap - It's an excellent test of how an offroad vehicle performs in confined spaces. Another area worth keeping and enhancing is this 3-lane obstacle course and the jump that overarches it. Being able to tackle three different types of obstacles, and quickly make a u-turn to attempt a different type of obstacle or up the difficulty is a very handy thing, and the short length of each run works in its favor. The jump is just the icing on the cake. It could use a bit of work though. One of the updates inserted rocks into the dirt approach road, which makes it very hard to line the car up with the narrow ramp and narrow gap through the trees, and even harder to do so while maintaining the correct speed needed to put the car down cleanly on the landing ramp. The rocks are kind of nice, and produce interesting effects on cars that drive over them, but they'd be more fun to use as part their own segment. Right now, the jump is interfering with using the rocks and the rocks are interfering with using the jump. Outside of the theme of the off-road testing section, I think there are a few more things to consider: I'll throw my hat in the ring as one of the people in favor of keeping the elevated perimeter circuit in some way, shape, or form. It is a really good track to push vehicles to their limits on. I also think maintaining this structure and its half-pipe ramp would be a very good thing for Gridmap. I'm always amazed at the sheer variety of vehicles that can pull off the insane-looking stunt of leaping from the ground to the very top and not suffer much in the way of ill effects.
agreed on this one.. as i am running a potato laptop, this map is the only one that usually gives me 30-40fps.. on low settings.. and im under the minimum requirements required fir the game.. (been doing this for a while with other games too..) and in some areas of the world, an i7 or an i5, even the previous generations, arent exactly "cheap".. neither are the graphics cards.. a 1050ti 5gb in my country costs around Rs.15k depending on manufacturer.. a 1060 is out of the question.. my crappy single core pc has a gt710 ddr5, that costs around Rs4000.. even second hand prices are a bit crazy at the moment due to cards not being in stock.. some of us are happy to just have a slightly capable pc/laptop.. Edit: Just checked, here in india, on amazon, the zotac geforce 1060 AMP Edition 3GB GDDR5, costs Rs.19,990.. Convert that to dollars, thats $275.5...... i dont know if thats expensive.. feels like it to me coz im poor lol
A car torture area would be cool. Big whoops made to bend frames, large potholes to wear down suspension, and jumps to break windows.
Maybe an offroad crash course? I know you can crash right in the offroad area but it's kinda your mission to go through the terrain without crashing, so what about, your car falling into rocks? Idk it's a rough idea I'm not a good thinker. :/ Edit: This would be good for lower-spec computers because some of us can't even load in a map with tons of terrain. And maybe you should make it simulation-like. What I mean by that is it feels like you are a dummy in a car getting thrown into rocks, like cars crashing in testing facilities! I feel like Gridmap has this set feeling, and it was designed for testing. (probably)
Agreed. Raising the specs just makes it harder for people with lower quality laptops that meet the minimum requirements when downloading BeamNG, to load the gridmap. The PC specs are perfect already. Loads fast, no lag, there's honestly no reason to raise the specs.
My laptop gets way better fps, and I still don't want the minimum specs to get increased - A mid-range i7 and a 1060 is better than the recommended specs. That is not nothing crazy. That is a massive increase. Current minimum specs on right. P_enta's recommendation on the left.
I know right. A massive increase. That would make the load times much longer. People don't have thousands of dollars to buy new computers to run one game. Raising the specs is just totally unnecessary.
I would like to clarify - P_enta was being facetious and I covered the issue here already: Let's move on to helping the devs create the best new gridmap
I kinda think a little lake of some sort and a bridge or a dock would be really cool for hydroplaning and stuff. But I would want it to look natural, not like the test strip lake in the current gridmap
Y'all think you have it bad? I play Beam with a amazing 7 FPS. At least on maps that have a lot of things on it. Gridmap gives me about 15 Fps
I just noticed from your sig that you play Teardown... how does that run on a machine that only gives 7 FPS on BeamNG? My son plays Teardown on my Ryzen 2600X/GTX 1660 Super machine, and that gets around 30 FPS on low settings at 720p
