Car customization
This is a huge subject, so i'll try to break it down to smaller parts. Let's start with main components, then move to the weapons and finally armor and few words about
the damage model.
Main components
your car has 5 main components: Engine, transmission, suspension, brakes and wheels. Nothing special here. but let's still go through them.
Engine
Two basic types of engines, petrol and diesel. Petrol engines have good horsepower, not that much torque and relatively small mpg. Diesel engines have good mpg, lots of torque,
but not that much horsepower. In addition to this both engines can be charged. I see no point in making difference between different chargers, so it's just na or charged.
For those not familiar with torque and horsepower, basically, you need horsepower to go fast, but you need torque to move heavy loads. That is just the basic idea and
I think it's enough for this kind of game.
Engines also have mileage, so you have to repair them, and after enough miles, you have to replace them.
Different engine types, Inline 4, 6 and 8, V6, V8, V10 and even larger, especially for trucks and tracked vehicles.
While the engine is one component, it is broken down to smaller pieces. There are different fuel systems, intake manifolds, exhausts, etc.
One more extremely important part, meybe even the most important, alternator. Most of modules need electricity to use, if you have many modules that need lots
of power, you need a bigger alternator. Downside to large alternators is, that they use eat more hp and torque from the engine. So, there's one more thing for
you to balance with.
Transmission
If you want your car to have automatic transmission, you have to buy automatic gearbox. If you can handle manual, you can install manual gearbox. Simple, right?
Suspension
Every car has it's weight limit or maximum load. If you load lots of heavy cargo or heavy weapons on to your car, you have to get better and/or stiffer suspension,
which in turns makes the car harder to handle. Also you can get more traction by lowering your car, but then you may even get stuck on gravel roads.
Brakes
Haven't thought of anything special here. If you want to have ABS, you have to buy ABS brakes, that's all.
Wheels
Different wheels are better on different surfaces. Just like in any rally game out there.
Differential
Decided to add one more main component, the differential. There are diffs with different ratio, so you can change the acceleration/top speed ratio of cars.
There are also diffs with traction lock, used to gain more traction on slippery and/or uneven terrain.
And finally, there are computer controlled diffs, wich give huge boost to the traction.
Weapons
Weapon system consists of 3 different things, weapon hardpoint, weapon mount and the actual weapon. Some info about these will go into the Combat section, but I'll
explain the basics here.
Hardpoints
Hardpoints are car specific. Every car has certain number of hardpoints available.
Weapon mounts
When you have a hardpoint in car, before you can put weapon in it, you must first insert a weapon mount. In addition to working as a turret for the weapon, the
mount also contains the targeting system and ammunition storage for that weapon. Different weapons require different mounts, but for example cannons and machine guns
go on same mounts. The targeting system means that different mounts have different sized firing arcs in front of them, some have long, narrow arcs and other
have shorter but wider arcs. Also the size of the ammunition storage differs.
Weapons
Very basic stuff here. MGs, Cannons, rocket launchers, mortars, maybe some sort of EMP guns, flamethrowers, etc. Nothing special, yet.
Armor
It's hard to talk about the armor without going into detail about the damage system, but here goes.
Each car has at least 4 different damage sectors, left, right, front, rear. but for example trucks have different left and right sectors for cabin and cargo area.
One new idea is that after you get shot and your armor get busted, not only do you have to repair it, but also repaired armor isn't as good as good as new,
thus after taking enough beating and repairing your armor several times, you eventually have to replace it.
Another important point is the windows. Imagine someone sitting inside a car when it's shot with MG, what happens? Bullets go through windows and kill the person inside.
Now if you're think about automotive combat, that would be the last thing you want to happen to yourself, so you need something better. Now, I'm sure many of you
are now thinking about bulletproof glass. Sounds good, but in truth, bulletproof glasses don't stop a high caliber bullet, they are designed against handguns, so
we need a better solution.
Now here comes why I chose 1st person viewpoint. To prevent getting shot through the glass, you have a chance to bolt some armor plating to the windows to give
you better protection. Downside is that your view of the outside world becomes very restricted. So which one do you need more? Good view of what's happening
or better protection?
And last but not least, armor is very heavy, so more armor you bolt into your car, the heavier it gets, so it becomes slow. This leaves you balancing between speed
and maneuverability against good protection. Or maybe put a good front armor, but leave the rear without armor.
Paint jobs and such
Custom paint jobs of course, guild decals, special decals from missions and/or from NPC corporations you are in good terms with. Maybe even some tuning parts,
side skirts, bumpers, spoiler etc.