As the campaign mode slowly reveals itself in the recent releases, I've thought of two things that would really help connect and relate every type of car guy to the characters, as well as a interesting sandbox-ish type idea for campaign mode. - Campaign Mode Idea- Upon entering campaign mode, once you choose your character and set them up, you would start in a main, free roam-type map. You will be driving on this map when you are not doing any missions in campaign mode (not at a race/junkyard/shop/gas station/dyno/tuning shop/etc.), to give more realism. You will now experience the need to drive to a mechanic, parts shop, junkyard, dyno, tuning shop, gas station, track, etc. There would be traffic, and police, and weather of course. It should be one big map (each character would be in a different region, so it could be one big map and each character is in a certain section) that has several mechanic shops, parts shops, dyno/tuning shops, tracks, etc. Some you can't enter, some you can depending on who you know or how much cash you have. Depending on the store, times, and availability, some shops may be closed, and you might need to take a long trip downtown to get to the nearest one! As new levels emerge, it would be difficult on how to annex these new maps into the main map. To make this problem simple, we should create an area on the main map that has a truck with a loading bay for vehicles. You would be forced to load your vehicle into a truck as it takes off to being you to your chosen map, as it fades to black. -Character Idea- Besides each character being exclusive to their look and personality, what I believe can make each character uniquely iconic is their niche in the car community. For example, one character could be a person that is on the poorer side and has lived off the bare minimum, and makes it day by day doing street races only. Thus, he only cares about function, not form, and is heavily into hitting up the junkyard for parts on a budget to put in his rusty, paint-chipping sleepers to give him the best runs for the buck. He may or may NOT have a drivers license (this could make police AI stuff really fun during and not during racing). The fact he lives off of street racing gives him a better driving skill to start off with as well as easier races compared to track, but the drawback is one, maybe just maybe a second beat up car with little-to-none mechanic connections, and just enough cash to eat campbells to make it the next day. This character would only see street type levels to perform in campaign, unless he moves on up and upgrades to track racing! Another character could be a wealthy individual that has the opportunity to own multiple cars at once, as well as money left to upgrade them, but because of this, his beginning stats would be a rather noob-ish on the driving skills, but his money and mechanic connections (knowing good mechanics and shops w/ possible discount as opposed to no connections and higher pricing) will be much greater! This character will start on tracks, not street, but will be more difficult to win races as he is lacking in driving skills and isn't starting on street. Unless he becomes bankrupt from losing or blowing too much money on parts and upgrades, back to street racing he goes! These are mere examples, so obviously there would be more characters with more specific situations.
