Board Thread:Game Discussion/@comment-38514388-20190213161215/@comment-27798333-20190215203101

Amrosa wrote: RandyMc wrote:

Amrosa wrote: RandyMc wrote:

Amrosa wrote: @SouthBorneoBMWEnthusiasts I wish I could convince Matt to invest the resources to bring a practice (sandbox) mode to the game. But I haven't figured out a convincing enough argument.

I am even okay if it is a for-pay add-on to the game to unlock, or something like requiring the player to reach level 150-200 or above to unlock, but I think that there is a fear that players would stop competing for new content. Isn't it already available for Apple TV users? I know some people have access to a 'pick your car and track' feature. It's already in the game, just unlock it for everyone. What counter argument do they have for NOT doing it? I think you are talking about Party Play mode... I think it unlocks for everyone if you connect to 2 BlueTooth controllers... as for why not, read my last sentence again. I doubt it would have any appreciable effect. Players are still going to want the new cars, and they'll have to continue with career to unlock cars, farm to gain currency (or buy it), etc. Having a sandbox or freeplay is not good for anything without the cars in the game. I don't think that a freeplay/sandbox/practice mode would be a bad thing. I have asked for it for a long time. I also think it "solves" some of the issues like opening up old series to add new tracks, as you could simply make your own race on the new track with the car of your choice from your garage.

But FM doesn't feel the same way.

From a technical perspective, there may be an issue with the balancing of bot difficulty. Currently, they run simulations of car, track and event for each and every event in the game. There is also TSM data that gets built up over time that refines the performance of the bots and the ones that they face to the driver's perceived ability level (this is why sandbagging works to lower the difficulty of races in series).

If they have never simulated a car/track combination, then the sandbox races may not run properly. The AUDI R8 LMS ULTRA is a great car in the game that has never run a lap on COTA... There are a lot of players who might chose to run this in free play, but if FM hasn't run the simulations for this and optimized the performance of the combination, it may end up being a horrible experience.

I will repeat it. A free play mode is something I would be willing to pay to unlock, assuming that it is within reason, in order to justify the development cost, but as is often the case with a lot of the things we suggest here, what seems like a no-brainer to us presents significant technical challenges to the game team to implement. They even tested semisolid "ghosts" for OMP, so that if you rammed a car it would not effect the other player's race and vice versa, but they could never get it to work and settled on the full ghosting we have now. I guess we're looking at this from different perspectives. I had assumed ( I know, bad) that if I picked a car and a track, my opponent bots would be in the same car, OR I would be racing against a friend (with no bots involved) so the majority of that extra programming would not be needed.

But I think you missed the importance of my previous statement. It's already in the game (apparently if you have controllers), so apparently the programming is already there. Just unlock it for everyone else.