Oh, certainly, it's not meant for the devs to implement immediately in v .20.0 - That'd be a lot of cars (and therefore work) They could lay out the framework though, or modders could at least use it in the meantime (like Satsuma, Fintray and Charmand are now)
I don't quite know - with one of the dev team's foremost environment artists (read: map-makers) hailing from Austrailia, and given the vast geographical area and variety of terrains present in that continent, I wouldn't be too terribly suprised to see one or even several Austrailian maps make their way in-game over time in the same way that several U.S. maps have emerged. Not only would they be a good fit for new Austrailian cars, but RHD Japanese-domestic market cars would only need minor tweaks to fit in. There is a bit of an ace up the sleeve of any developer seeking to create Australian, South American or African vehicle content - parts commonality. A lot of those vehicles were built from parts originally designed for cars in other markets. Engines, supensions, platforms, and sometimes even entire models were shared across international borders. In some cases, it might be possible to introduce a new brand to BeamNG simply by adding in a new, badge-engineered version of a car (I do hope that at some point a set of fully badge-engineered 'twins' make it into the official game). Say, for example, we get something like the often-requested Modern American Muscle Car. For the sake of argument, let's assume that it's vaguely similar to the 2010-2015 Chevrolet Camaro. Now, that generation of the Camaro was built on GM's Zeta platform - essentially a shared drivetrain/suspension setup that allowed for a variety of bodystyles to be built atop it. That same platform underpinned a variety of vehicles, including the Chevrolet Caprice and Buick Park Avenue of the same years, but what we're most concerned with here is the Pontiac G8. That G8 was sold as the Holden Commodore VE in Austrailia, and more importantly for our purposes, was modified into the Holden Commodore VE ute. They share so much in common that the VE ute can be converted to LHD simply by swapping in interior parts from a U.S.-market Pontiac G8. So, if done a certain way, putting a U.S. muscle car in game creates a base on which to build a four-door U.S. sedan, which would require only a mirrored interior and some badging to become an Austrailian car. From there, all we would need is a second bodystyle to bring in the Ute. That's four vehicles (or three, depending on how picky we want to be about badge-engineering being different cars), all sharing a common core - wider variety with more resource efficiency. Granted, they'd all have to be about the same model year, and they'd share driving dynamics to a certain extent, but I doubt anyone would turn down having three bodystyles. There are going to be parts shared between the two, and I'm holding out hope for a FWD minivan from Bruckell built on that architecture. I'm also hoping for a Dodge Rampage-esque FWD ute-type vehicle on that architecture, because the driving dynamics of a FWD truck are unique. If we do go sports car, we should go full Bricklin. There's space in BeamNG's lineup for something along the lines of the Bricklin or Delorean - this wedge-shaped 'car-of-the-future' from the eighties with strange technical features, gull-wing doors, and an off-the-shelf powertrain from another manufacturer (again, parts commonality - useful for future expansion). Deloreans and Bricklins are far enough down the performance ladder so as not to step on the toes of the Bolide - though Deloreans weren't quick, Bricklins could keep pace with Corvettes of the same era. I think if we got something like this in-game, it would slot in well (as far as player experience goes) between the Wendover and the 200BX. Canadian Extreme-Duty trucks? I can't see it happening either, but I'd also love to be catastrophically wrong. If the Hayes approach is taken, the manufacturer could be used to kill two birds with one stone - on-highway and off-highway. I'm slowly (very slowly) warming to the idea of retconning Wentward to Canadian, but it'd be hard for me to accept it as such with the star-spangled livery intact. As an aside, Havelaar is up-and-coming, trying to be the first to bring electric pickup trucks to market, but I really don't know if they're managing to do anything. From what it looks like, they're back to selling powertrain conversions. I think Alder is slowly creeping out of wheels and into engine components. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It seems weird to me that there's no brand in-game dedicated to things like air and oil filters. --- Post updated --- A bit of an issue at the moment is that Jargl is only semi-offical at best, Fintray is entirely a creation of the modding community, and Satsuma was lifted wholesale from another game (My Summer Car). There are legality issues (some concrete, some only potential) surrounding them at this point. The thing is, we really need the brands in-game first if we expect modders to built upon them. Please refer to the section of the above post addressing ManfredE3 regarding these vehicles. I think this is more doable than it first appears because those niche markets tie into larger ones, sharing major components that can be used to create several vehicles across several markets. We have/once had an ... interesting aerospace industry. It would probably be better if it hadn't been squelched so badly by political meddling in the Avro Arrow program. Aircraft are firmly outside the realm of official BeamNG content at this point anyway - if they ever come officially, it will probably be via DLC. That's far off into the future in any case. I'd strongly encourage a brief dive into the story of the Bricklin SV-1, the Hayes Clipper, the Ontario Drive & Gear Company, and the history of the Canadian motor industry in general. We haven't got much in terms of designed-and-built-in-Canada content, (our auto industry today seems to mostly consit of parts supply, assembly for foreign automakers, and the occasional vaporware sports car, but we did manage to occasionally get something good out of the door). Breaking up the existing Gavril and Ibishu lineup would be perhaps unwise - there are already too many shared parts that bind Gavril products together to do anything there. While I can maybe see a few Ibishu products being split off to Hirochi or another Japanese manufacturer, I think it might be best to let sleeping dogs lie there.
Personally, I would like to see competing vehicles at some point. It would be nice to have at least 3 vehicles in each class from different brands and similar years. It would make racing, traffic, and selecting a vehicle much more interesting. Once there is competition and maybe a little backstory/history for each brand, the lore will basically write itself. I don't expect a vehicle list of that magnitude to be possible in the next 5-10 years though, I guess we will need to wait and see.
I think we just need some brands for Australia, another Japanese brand, Korean, and a Swedish brand. Otherwise, I think we need to focus on the brands we got and try to make more cars and expand Bruckell, Autobello, Civetta, Wentward, Soliad, Burnside, and Randolph.
I guess we could get some badge-engineered cars in-game, it just feels to me like a cop-out in the real world, but I guess for realism's sake (to be like the real-world, as that is what BeamNG is about) we could get something like that. Those would be cool. See later about Canadian companies. I completely forgot about Alder, but I think it is better to have them be a K&N type brand if that is what they are becoming. We need something like that. Satsuma might be an issue, but the other two are completely fine, and seeing as how the 210 is on the repo and not just a forum-only, I think it could be done. So maybe a parts company and a niche market maker could be Canadian? One providing powertrains and the other providing amphibious vehicles, a cab-over semi, and the Bricklin? Those seem to be the main things for Canada, or at least I think. The thing is, the Ibishu lineup isn't coherent at all (Covet = Honda, 200bx = Toyota, Pessima = Toyota, Hopper = Toyota, Miramar = Nissan and Pigeon = ???), and people don't know where to put their muscle cars as the Barstow invites them to Gavril. I think that soon enough it might be too late, as from my perspective BeamNG is taking off, given their recent magazine review, but now is just early enough to still catch these things. Although I am forced to note, Ibishu might be becoming Toyota despite their first vehicle being Honda-based...
What do you guys think about the names Auriga and Seoil for luxury British cars and South Korean cars, respectively?
Very good question - Auriga is "ore-ee-guh" and Seoil (as far as I can tell) is "seh-oil" Help on the latter @Urbanmaid ?
So I realized that there was no real British small car manufacturer, Mini or Rover, essentially. That has been fixed by the update to the top post with "Chester" --- Post updated --- Please let me know if you have any name suggestions.
I like Taruma, that's being added. Emernes doesn't sound English enough to me, but I guess I'll add it pending a better suggestion.
