Traffic Signs for the in-game maps

This game features maps which often have poorly maintained roads with plenty of unexpected twists, turns, and pavement damage. The only way to avoid these dangers is to know the map, but for anyone driving for the first time on a certain map, these things can be nearly unavoidable.

One particular case that annoys me is this corner in Utah. This sucker right here.

Every single time, even at low speeds, the unexpected tightening of the corner leaves me falling to my death, and what was once a beautiful coupe (and a wonderful mod by @NinetyNine! ) becomes a nearly unidentifiable smoldering wreckage.

So, my suggestion is to add traffic signs to the in-game maps. There are next to no signs on Utah, and some other maps, where there should definitely be some kind of warning and/or information about the road you're driving on. I have seen some signs in screenshots of West Coast, USA so I assume this will be a feature in upcoming maps, however it would be nice if the devs could revise currently released maps aswell

Since utah is set in the USA, it could look like this:

(I know the sign should be further away from the corner itself, but I couldn't be assed to go and take another screenshot)

Let me know what you think

 

I agree, though speed limit signs are also necessary for the turns.

 

It would make things more lively. For JRI, the signs should be covered in vegetation and be rusty. It would be small but it would add nice details.

 

I figure the biggest problem is how to handle collision. Road signs don't usually stop speeding vehicles cold, and BeamNG was always built so that interaction with any non-jbeam object had one of two outcomes: either the two objects phase through one another, or the jbeam object stops extremely suddenly and the static object remains perfectly unfazed. Soft bushes were a step in the right direction, though any quick survey of the playerbase would indicate otherwise. Environmental jbeam objects, if handled properly, could mitigate this.

But, I agree. Level design alone isn't sufficient to let the player know the dangers ahead, and relying on knowledge and familiarity instead of skill isn't as satisfying as successfully cutting up roads that are entirely new to you.

 

I suppose the jbeamed official signs are or were supposed to be the path for road signage. I wonder what happened with that, framerate
issues? Right now these signs are worthless except for single use cases. They cannot be saved in a mod
map and be expected to retain their jbeam functions. Makes me wonder if these signs will ever be removed from the vehicles slots and
made their own separate jbeamed selection, that can be permanently placed and saved. Certainly something like that is the goal I figure.

They are cool for statics sans the jbeam however.

 

Utah has signs. Maybe it could be like that.

 

This game has bushes that can crush a speeding semi truck full of cement, i'm sure it won't be a big deal if they make the signs static

 

Or the signs could have no collision whatsoever.

Also, there are German road signs in the game files, and WCA and Italy will have working traffic lights.

 

Yeah, but even the toughest of the soft bushes only slow vehicles down by an average amount (unless you're talking about woody plants and saplings, which remain far too sturdy). Plus, there's the angle of player experience: as with your above example, tumbling off a cliff is a more interesting fate than being stopped abruptly by a flat immovable surface.

Yeah, no collision might be the best compromise for the time being. Though many of the road signs that have been shown are either overhead, or mounted to a pole that would probably bring a vehicle to a pretty quick stop in the real world, so collision there isn't as big a deal. Traffic lights are a different story, though, as they're generally pretty hard to bring down, and the act of a passenger vehicle doing so will usually completely ruin the vehicle anyway, so static would be more believable.

As for Utah's interstate signs, not one of them isn't mounted on or directly in front of some form of sizeable boulder, to make a less-than-200lb road sign acting like a reinforced concrete wall more feasible.

 

True, given that most people see BeamNG as a crashing simulator above all else. Plus, I'd say with confidence that 90% of the BeamNG playerbase isn't even old enough to drive, so they wouldn't know how to utilize the signs and their information anyway. Still, for the 10% that can actually appreciate the fine details (if you can even consider essencial information a fine detail) it would be worth the trouble of adding proper signaling to the in-game maps.

 

So, have the small signs with the tiny poles have no collision, and have it for the larger ones.