Poll: Do you want "characters" as racers in Grip?

[Chris_CE]

We're debating whether to have Grip's car's driven by actual characters, or just be nameless.

As far as implementation, you would hear them taunt you as they pass by or shoot you with something, and their avatar would pop up on the HUD somewhere as it happens.

I figured that races would become more personal if each car is driven by a character. You might want to seek out and destroy the specific racer who just riddled you with bullets or rammed you off the road, rather than just focus on winning the race. It adds another element.

Vote above, and post your thoughts below.

[tjgcrush]

having characters in a game like this would personally ruin the feel for me, what rollcage stage 2 did made it feel like i was the driver and gave me a more real experience

[SuperSomariDX]

I'd have to agree with tjgcrush above me>

It didn't matter whom or what I was. It was all about those beautiful vehicles and all that action that followed.

[Broscar]

Funnily enough, I'm the opposite of tjgcrush and disliked the fact that RC2 lacked faces (and personalities) for the racers.

But you have to focus your attention and resources on where it matters, and I don't think this is a vital part of the game.
Besides, I have my doubts about the implementation of such a thing. Having your opponents taunt you is fun, but you get overtaken in a race multiple times and sooner or later you're gonna start hearing the same dialogue over and over again (no matter if you have 5 different spoken lines or 1000), which will negatively impact the immersion-factor of the game a lot. Seems like a whole lot of effort for something that could actually harm the game to me.

Either way, I voted yes, but more in the vein of character portraits on the car select screen.

[KazzyMac]

What Broscar said.

Having characters might help the career mode too in terms of having people to interact with off the track in some way. offering special events/races for bonus prizes? Special things like setting a faster lap-time in their car to win something, beating a 'dare' of theirs?

But yeah. Concentrate on the game first. Having some portraits for the characters and a little bit of backstory would be nice at the least. x3.

[SuperSomariDX]

You know. Thinking about that honestly. The idea of a little box appear on the screen on the bottom right showing your character react to getting attacked, over taken, and boosting would be pretty funny actually.

[Sceptre]

I'm for characters. Perhaps even your own custom driver?
Maybe there is a good balanced way to improve stats as you progress through a career mode and leagues. Possibly use your custom driver on multiplayer? Of course it can't go overpowered like a certain character we all know of...

I think having a faceless driver and being able to set your favorite color would be cool. Maybe even more detailed car colors? Customization can be it's own discussion on its own, but maybe certain modules on your vehicle can be changed to match your taste in how it looks. Do I want it to look slick and speedy or look like a tank? The stats could affect this as well, the more top speed could change the size of your engine/booster, and the strength could affect the visual appearance of armor or something.

[Whiskey]

having characters in a game like this would personally ruin the feel for me, what rollcage stage 2 did made it feel like i was the driver and gave me a more real experience

This /\ I want to feel like its me doing the driving and I pick the car I use. Changing 'character' to use different cars always seemed a bit goofy to me. RCSII nails this system, more cars, more versions of models and the manufactures help tie the world together. It was all about the Unity Type 3s.

[Stinkinmushroom]

Huh? Please no, no characters. PLEASE don't waste your time on that feature. No voices and stuff, just the sound of machine guns and explosions please

[Miasmata]

I actually really like the idea of different characters. Voice lines when getting hit, starting a race, winning a race, etc. can really put a player into the seat of the driver. Personalities, some racers being friends or enemies, etc. I think it'd be a great idea if you had diversity between your racers, like the 1998 game Powerslide did, although there weren't vocal lines for that game.

[Cruckeyee]

Maybe not voiced characters, just something similar to RC1.

[Chris_CE]

Just to clarify, I was thinking that opponent cars could have characters, but your own is just you, with no indication of gender or race.

Say for instance you start career mode and choose the same model car as another character, that's fine, you'll be customizing it to look different, anyway.

As for taunts, they definitely wouldn't happen every time, that would be non stop smack talk (ie. annoying as hell).
There would be an option to turn it off an on as well

That said, this wouldn't be a feature that we'd think about in the near future, more an added feature at the end if people seem to like it.

There are plenty more important things to do, I just wanted to get discussions going

[harrisonosirrah]

I like when drivers have personality and would prefer if each racer was their own 'character'. Like others have mentioned though, I worry about in-race comments becoming repetitive and annoying after some time.

And am I the only one who pictured carmageddon-esque live-action pop up boxes for the racers?

[Moo]

And am I the only one who pictured carmageddon-esque live-action pop up boxes for the racers?

Now you're not the only one. Something like that in CGI could be a good idea!

[Torben]

I would like to see characters, but they do not have to have an entire backstory or something. The only one who partially had that was Yuri in Rollcage.

Either way, we will refer to a certain vehicle as either the model name of the car or the character who's driving it.

[Yrch]

im all for characters just like in RC1 one but please dont do that taunt and avatar pop-up thingy.
XGRA did that and it was annoying as hell.

[WROB3L]

NAAAH i dont like the idea of characters... I prefer when you dont know with who you`re racing. Maaaybe if there would be a character maker, you know Like sims (Because everybody loves sims xD) and you could make your own driver, with which you could connect in some way (You will know that this character is you, not somebody else)

[Moo]

NAAAH i dont like the idea of characters... I prefer when you dont know with who you`re racing. Maaaybe if there would be a character maker, you know Like sims (Because everybody loves sims xD) and you could make your own driver, with which you could connect in some way (You will know that this character is you, not somebody else)

Yeah, I'd say that's a better choice.

[harrisonosirrah]

NAAAH i dont like the idea of characters... I prefer when you dont know with who you`re racing. Maaaybe if there would be a character maker, you know Like sims (Because everybody loves sims xD) and you could make your own driver, with which you could connect in some way (You will know that this character is you, not somebody else)

Unfortunately, with create-a-character type games, the only personality the character ends up with is the one you project onto him or her yourself. You're just left with cookie-cutter characters.

There is also an issue of driver balancing. If everyone is 'themselves' that would mean everyone just picks their own stats. Eventually, people will figure out the best few stat layouts and everyone will be the same again if only to have a better chance of winning.

With well-defined drivers with stats and personalities of their own, people can choose who they like or identify with (or, more likely whoever has the best stats) and the game can remain nuanced and balanced.

[WROB3L]

Unfortunately, with create-a-character type games, the only personality the character ends up with is the one you project onto him or her yourself. You're just left with cookie-cutter characters.

There is also an issue of driver balancing. If everyone is 'themselves' that would mean everyone just picks their own stats. Eventually, people will figure out the best few stat layouts and everyone will be the same again if only to have a better chance of winning.

With well-defined drivers with stats and personalities of their own, people can choose who they like or identify with (or, more likely whoever has the best stats) and the game can remain nuanced and balanced.

NO NO i meant making your own character only visually, because stats will be probably applied to vehicle. And as we know Cars will be customizable so stats will change with every part you install to your machine.