Ultimate Checklist

This is a checklist that I thought of when thinking of what would be the ultimate Dirt Track Racing game for PC. I am comparing this list to Dirt Track Racing 2 if I say “more this” or “less this”, etc. If even HALF of these items can be met, we’d be looking at the best racing game ever in computer gaming. Feel free to add your feedback and suggestions. Share this everywhere possible so we can show game developers the interest there is in a new Dirt Racing Game for the computer. As someone who has raced dirt track racing games for the computer for over 15 years, I feel like this list is every dirt track racing fan’s gaming dream! I’ve divided it up into different categories and sorted the list in order from most important to least important. This list was originally posted at www.teamvlr.com. Here goes:

RACING
1. Dynamic Race Grooves/Terrain (Changing track conditions)- The ultimate dirt track racing computer game would feature tracks that start out tacky during a race. As the cars (online and offline) race the fastest groove, the line will darken over time, and slicken, in turn slowing that groove down. This will cause the fast groove to shift during the race to wherever there has been less traffic. Once the entire track has slickened up and turned dark, the fastest groove will even out and cars will be able to race all over the track, in theory, but overall lap times will be a good bit slower due to the slicker conditions and the tire wear. (Ability to turn off this option offline in the game options. Server host online can turn it on or off).

2. Noticeable cushion/berm. On the very high side of some of the tracks there is a buildup of dirt over time and in a dirt car you can hook your right rear tire where that berm begins and hit some fast laps.

3. More realistic handling race cars and lap times. On DTR2, we run around 13.5 seconds at Knoxville, a ½ mile track. In real life, lap times are usually around 18 seconds. Also make the cars to where they can lift the left front wheel off the ground when cornering. Make the cars drift through the corner better.

4. Consider adding racing grooves that can allow for ‘rimriding’ inches from the outside wall at some tracks, especially like Eldora Speedway.
5. Better damage modeling. Allow for small pieces to occasionally fly off the car, and allow for the quarter panels to be bent when hit by other cars.

6. More real life tracks. Have at least two or three tracks from each US region (Bold tracks are most popular). Good northeast tracks would be OCFS, Fonda, Lernerville Speedway, Rolling Wheels, Cayuga County Fair, PPMS, Syracuse Mile, I-77, Canandaigua, etc. Good southern tracks would be Tazewell Speedway, 201 Speedway, Volunteer Speedway, East Bay, Golden Isles, Batesville Motor Speedway, Bubba Raceway Park, Dixie Speedway, Charlotte Dirt Track, and Magnolia Motor Speedway. Good Midwest tracks would be Portsmouth Raceway Park, Brownstown Speedway, Cedar Lake Speedway, Beaver Dam Raceway, Southern Iowa Speedway, Knoxville Raceway, Lawrenceburg Speedway, I-80 Speedway, Eagle Raceway, Lucas Oil Speedway, Eldora Speedway, Boone Speedway, Terre Haute Action Track, Florence Speedway, Tri-City Speedway, etc. Western tracks would be Sunset Speedway, Cowtown Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway
Dirt Track, Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track, Silver Dollar Speedway, and Bakersfield Speedway.

7. No shifting. Only one gear for the cars.

8. Improved announcing. Not a big deal but would be cool for a more varied announcing dialogue related to the racing action. Would be able to turn this off in game option.

MULTIPLAYER – Multiplayer should be the most important aspect of the game since that is generally what keeps a game going for several years. With a game as good as this one, that would certainly be the case, so the Multiplayer needs to be up to par with the rest of the game.

1. Much improved multiplayer engine. The ultimate goal would be to be able to be in the USA and race someone from Australia with as little lag as possible.

2. Ability for at least 24 drivers to be in a server at once and race together at the same time. This would be huge.

3. A browser to see the list of available public servers to join, just like DTR2.

4. Make the Multiplayer friendly for online racing leagues (the main part of multiplayer racing). Include functions/formulas or commands built in that can automatically line up heat races, D, C, B, and A mains. For example, allow the server host to select how many cars they would like in each heat race and use a formula to divide drivers up into the proper heat race. All drivers in the server can qualify before the heat races if the league has qualifying. Allow for the server host to make completely random heats, inverted heats, or line the heat races up based off qualifying results.

5. Ability to swap setups in-game with other drivers. Also, allow for drivers to send each other their car skins in the game. And make it possible so a driver can download a track directly from the browser so they can race if they don’t have an add-on track that is being used. If this is not possible, let them join the server and give them a mismatch for not having the track so they will know which one it is and be able to download it.

6. Have an option in multiplayer to run fixed setups. Setup will be whatever is loaded or whatever the server host is using. Drivers will only be able to change their steering lock.

7. Have an option in multiplayer for hardcore mode, which forces the drivers in the server to all use the cockpit view only, for realism.

8. It would be insane if there could be like an “online career mode” similar to the online dynasties of NCAA Football games by EA Sports. This would allow drivers to show up on a scheduled night (Determined by the League admin) and race against a set number of AI cars at a new track for a full season. At the end of the season a champion is determined like in real racing, and the champion can be a human racer or an AI champion.

9. Ability to link server to website with live timing and scoring so the public can view live results if they weren’t able to race. Ability to export server logs out to .html or .xml, .xls, etc

10. Keep the commands that allow the server host to set the grid mode, points, etc. This will make it easier for league racing as well.

EDITING – If the game is going to be popular and have sales for a long time, modding has to be accessible to create new and updated content for the game. Below would be the most important things the dirt track racing game could have to keep the longevity and fun value lasting for a long time.

1. Strong cheat engine. With the ability to mod comes the possibility to cheat if precautions aren’t taken to prevent such things. If a driver has changed anything on a track or chassis that has been downloaded, they should receive a checksum mismatch like in DTR2, and not be able to race.

2. Ability to create new tracks and chassis from scratch, as well as importing tracks from other games. This would be huge. In DTR2 currently we have been able to make some amazing tracks and chassis given the limitations and the fact that we don’t have any tools to make tracks or cars from scratch. A new dirt racing game should allow us to do this with our 3D Modeling programs and also make custom textures for these cars and tracks.

3. As mentioned way up at the very top of this post, under Dynamic Race Grooves/Terrain, there should be a text file that track editors can edit with options such as these: Default Starting Slickness = (A number between say 1 and 10. 1 being not slick, 10 being extremely slick, almost non-drivable), and Default Ending Slickness = (between 1 and 10). For example, if a tracks starting slickness (Which is indicated visually by how dark the overlay is on the entire tracks racing groove) is 3, the entire track will be slightly dark to start the race indicating it is already slightly worn out (perhaps from qualifying/heat races. Server admin can have the option to change the starting and ending setting in Multiplayer to whatever they want.) If the Ending slickness is set to 8, the track will be very slick at the end of a race. This feature would be time scaled based on the number of racing laps. There should be an option to turn the scaled slickness off in the game and therefore the track would revert to the default slickness which would be 1, and it would stay at that level through the whole race and the tires would not wear out and the cars would be able to maintain their same speed on the track throughout the whole race due to the track not taking rubber and the tires not wearing on the cars.

4. In the text file that explains the dynamic race groove options, also have an option to change the starting race grip of the inside, middle, and outside grooves. This way you can adjust which groove starts out the fastest, or you can try to make them all start out as close as possible speed wise. Of course if one line is much faster than the others, it will wear out with all the traffic in that groove, and the racers may need to search for other lines as the race progresses. Once all the grooves are equally slick and worn out (Based off the default ending slickness), the groove that began as the fastest will tend to be the fastest at the end of the race.

5. Ability to paint skins outside the game like is currently in DTR2. Do not need an in game painter.

GRAPHICS – Graphics are another very important part of the ultimate dirt track racing game. I feel like these settings would be perfect for recreating the feel of a Saturday night dirt track race like is found all throughout the USA.

1. Graphics that are comparable with this generation of gaming. High resolution textures and race cars that have skins that are at least 1024x1024 in resolution. 2048x2048 is preferred, though. Make the graphics great, but make it so you don’t have to have a $2000+ machine just to run the game.

2. This is my favorite part that I think gives a great feel for dirt racing and is essential for a great visual dirt racing game. Dynamic lighting effects. If the lighting from WoO 2002 can be recreated it would be basically perfect. As in how the light reflects off the shiny dirt. When a track “darkens” as I mentioned at the very top of this post, it should appear almost shiny in most instances, as in real life the tracks will take on an almost glassy effect when they slicken up, and they tend to reflect light which looks really amazing in the game. WoO 2002 recreates this effect almost perfectly.

3. Working scoreboards and caution/green lights. This would be cool and add another layer of realism. If there is a wreck, the caution lights flash like in WoO 2002 showing there is a caution. Same thing when racing goes green again. Working scoreboards that show live standings would be great as well.

4. A nice HUD while racing, that takes on a minimalistic profile while still providing key racing data and shows where each driver is currently running in the field.

5. A new menu interface that looks nice.

OFFLINE RACING/GAME OPTIONS –
1. Make improved AI cars that run more dynamic paths on the tracks, and make the AI easier to tweak for the game modders when making new tracks. Allow for an AI catch-up option if they get too far behind the human player. Also make the AI car tires wear at the same level as the human player, and allow the AI cars to wear a groove in the track like mentioned for online racers. When this happens, have the AI cars to consider switching grooves like the human players in order to hit better laps.

2. Allow for user to select Arcade, Simulation, or Custom mode when racing offline. Arcade mode will basically turn off things like tire wear, dynamic racing grooves, etc, so that the driver only has to worry about driving. Simulation mode would be for the true sim racer, and all these options will be turned on by default. Custom option allows you check which options you want to turn on and off before the race.

3. Allow the human player to select at least up to 24 opponents to race with in single player mode. Preferably have real Dirt Track Racers as possible opponents.

4. Quick Race Mode: Give us the option to choose our starting position. After a couple of weeks, I can usually beat the AI at 100% fairly easily. It would be nice to force myself to start in the back and see if I can make a charge to the front in like say, 10 or 15 laps.

OFFLINE CAREER MODE –
1. Have real life tours such as Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Tour (If naming rights are an issue, make them up), WoO tour, etc. and allow the user to compete against AI cars that are drivers in real life and use the real paint schemes for their drivers.

2. Have several series to choose from for a driver to join. Driver starts out with a certain amount of money and earns more money by winning races, sponsorship, etc. Eventually the user can upgrade their race car or buy a new one in a higher class. When the driver first starts out, they may only have enough money to race at tracks near them. Gas, food, and travel expenses can be set by the game designer and taken out in a somewhat realistic sense before each race. For example, if you are racing in a street stock division and you select your location as New York when you create your career, chances are you are not going to travel to Bakersfield, California to race in a race unless it pays ~$30,000+ to win.

3. Have a local Saturday night racer mode. Let us pick a track and race that as our home track weekly, against the same guys. Give points and money for each race. Most racing on dirt in the states is done by locals, running at their home track. Only the "Big Dogs" travel. The vast majority stay at the same track all year. In other words, have a challenge to be the track champion, at one track, as you try to move up over time and become a “Big Dog”.

4. A series editor program would be nice if included in the game to adjust the payouts for races and create new series with new tracks and chassis.

CARS- These would be the most important chassis to include in the game in my opinion.

1. Dirt Late Models – Create Dirt Late Models as they tend to be the most popular chassis overall in the USA, and are gaining heavily in popularity at the moment. They ought to be able to take some punishment and keep going fairly easily. They need to look much more realistic though, than the ones in DTR2.

2. Sprint Cars – Sprint Cars are a must have in the game as well. These are faster than the Dirt Late Models, but smaller, and more likely to crash with less contact. They are easy to flip as well. They should be a bit tougher to drive than Late Models.

3. Big Block Modifieds – These are popular in the Northeast United States and are fast cars, faster than late models, usually, but slower than sprint cars. A little easier to spin out than Dirt Late Models thanks to their open wheel design.

4. Street Stocks – Grass roots racing here. Can make them appear beat up a big as these are just normal stock cars usually customized for racing and have to withstand a lot of beating and banging due to the drivers not having the big budgets of the other car classes. Would be the car you start with in career mode as you try to work your way up.
Whew! That’s all I can think of right now. I highly doubt anyone is able to read all that from the beginning to get to this point lol. If so, great job.

But there you have it, the ultimate dirt track racing game checklist. I’m sure I left TONS of stuff out, so other people can add their input to if they’d like. I’d love to see this end up a lot of places and get some recognition out there for the need to have an awesome new Dirt Track Racing game for the millions of dirt racing fans across the globe. Thanks for reading!