The Future of Monster Truck Simulations

[RKM]

I'll try not to start this off too long but I was just recently thinking while talking to Mark (Iron/Werner) about a few random things and I wandered off on to what could be the possible future of monster truck simulations after Rigs of Rods and I think there is a strong potential that it could be created by several of us here. We all know exactly what every one of us wants...as realistic monster truck sim as we can possible get our hands on (well most of us anyway). Some of you may not know but there have been several attempts at this back in the MTM2 days but they were either scrapped, lost or those working on it just lost interest or had no free time to develop it any further. With how many great game engines there currently are I think it is indeed possible for it to happen but not many of us have any sort of game developing or coding knowledge. Now the obvious issues that come up right away if you give any thought to this is going to be licensing for things such as names, bodies, chassis, etc though I am sure there may be some teams out there that would love this type of idea. I don't know about all of you but I certainly would enjoy being involved with something that could change the way monster trucks and monster truck games are viewed around the world...it honestly has got to be one of the largest fan bases without a licensed or official simulation game and I find that quite sad personally.

 

This is mainly to spark conversational and hopefully it can one day lead to something incredible.

 

A few honorable mentions of monster truck games and attempts at them will be listed below.

 

KEY: Green = Successful | Red = Inactive or abandoned | Blue = Short lived or unsuccessful

 

Monster Truck Madness

Monster Truck Madness 2

1NSANE

Monster Freestyle Racing (MFR)

rFactor Monster Truck Mod

Project Monster

Rigs of Rods

??? (METH's of MTM2Draggers.us)

 

 Not listed in any particular order

Edited May 26, 2013 by RKM

[NavySonicShell]

Interesting thought, I think if people like it enough, and if it is possible, the next step could be BeamNG (inb4 controversy).

 

And do you have any information about what Project Monster was? I had never heard of it before...

[Jon Cannon]

I've played all of these but ive never heard of project monster..Was it ever started?

[mdemko]

Money. Can't do anything without money....

[DannyMackey]

Well I do remember some random brainstorming for ideas once.  Happened to write them down:

 

-          Fully Fledged Breakables.

o   Fuel limits.

o   Pit Party with scrolling stats and breaks for qualifying.

o   Brake pad sparks

o   Smoke

o   Between race performance assessment.

o   Slow tire deterioration (2 years)

-          Budget League.

o   Contracts for single truck over multiple seasons.

§  Trade options for other trucks/money/parts.

o   Self maintaining points system.

-          Semi-Auto Ran Races.

-          Event Runners are USHRA Officials in-game who have to run to the truck to check truck.

o   Fully modeled responsive drivers who get out of truck after run.

-          Built in video recorder.

-          Driver Bios

o   Stats

§  Win/Loss Record

·         Racing

·         Freestyle

§  Double Downs

§  World Finals Double Downs

§  Events Ran

§  Seasons Ran

§  Points Series Won (Racing)

·         Racing

·         Freestyle

·         Both

o   Player Rankings:  Rookie (Just started), Young Gun (High ranking rookie), Semi-Pro (Has been racing for a while, not major racer), Pro (Has been racing for a while, is a major racer), Legend (Racing for a long time/major racer, mod, admin, tr?ck maker, event runner)

-          Deteriorating tracks and obstacles.

-          Game Modes

o   Freestyle

§  2 min, 1 min 30 sec, free ride

·         Option to add freestyle cars, vans, busses, and RVs to track

o   Racing

§  Practice w/ timer

§  AI system

·         Easy. Medium. Hard. Legend.

o   Online Multiplayer

§  Freestyle

·         2 min, 1 min 30 sec, free ride

o   Option to add freestyle cars, vans, busses, and RVs to track

§  Racing

·         Practice w/ timer

·         One Vs One

·         Winner Stays

·         Bracket

o   Single Elimination (Greater than 8 trucks)

o   Double Elimination (Less than 8 trucks)

o   Training

§  Tutorials

·         How to Race

o   Checkpoint Training System

·         Freestyle Tips

o   How to do moves

§  Donuts, Wheelies, Air Brake Technique, ect.

 

 

Most of this is probably damn near impossible or unneeded now that I look at this again, but whatever.

[RKM]

Interesting list you have there, I like some of the ideas but to me your list has a bit of an arcade feel more than simulation to me but I'm also realizing you have a lot of listed things for offline play which I also like. One thing I will instantly agree on that is missing is an instant replay that you can view races in slow motion and export the replay as a video file for easy upload to YouTube.

[MonsterJam2008]

We already have a really good game on our hands here. What about simply expanding the audience, indie game release? Maybe the people behind ROR would be interested in that.

[monsterjamcod0329]

What makes me sad is the fact that a couple of everyday people can make a much better monster truck game then some of the top video game developers can. One thing that i would add to Danny's list is the ability to make your own tracks ingame.

[Bobamatic]

All I want in the future is a good replay mode and something that can handle complex scenery and crash phisics on lower end computers without lagging.  Licensing would be a complete unprofitable nitemare if you want to have all the trucks in the current game.  I'm really happy with the way things are going with RoR after playing the MTM games for so many years.  I just hope the next game engine used will be able to handle more complex stuff with less lag.

[chromethunder]

Its not that everyday people are better than a majority of devs, its that MJ hasn't wanted to produce a realistic game up until they saw the results from their recent "What do you want to see in the next MJ video game?" poll were almost unanimously "realism".. so I wouldnt doubt the next game actually being realistic. 

[pj75]

lets hope so i mean atleast they have got better than the original MJ game that had weapons and poo haha

[Tom P.]

I was making a monster truck map in the Cry Engine 3 SDK. Its very easy to handle once you figure it out.

[AirForce116]

I can code easy but I have NEVER tried making a Monster Truck Game and I never will because the free time I have now is limited

[Outlawed]

I am interested to see what BeamNG will have to offer for us but yes if there is ever gonna be a simulator for monster trucks it will have to be end up being made by people like us, there just is not enough of a market to cater towards something as indepth as a Monster Truck Sim.

[Tom P.]

I am interested to see what BeamNG will have to offer for us but yes if there is ever gonna be a simulator for monster trucks it will have to be end up being made by people like us, there just is not enough of a market to cater towards something as indepth as a Monster Truck Sim.

From what I was reading on multiple forums, modding in BeamNG is going to a lot easier compared to the modding in RoR.