Developers diaries #19

Hi! We remember our promise to show you a selection of bugs, but we think we’d rather show these after we share some gameplay videos. And while we are preparing the new layout of our Developers Diaries, we’d like to discuss the details from the previous diaries where we’ve mentioned something like “We’ll tell you later”.

Let’s start with the main component of CCD, that is, Traffic Rules Control. We’ve already covered this in Diaries #4 and #12.

When talking about changes, we’ve left out the details, namely, how exactly the new Traffic Rules Control works. In the original CCD, Traffic Rules Control works consistently following actions of the player.

Now, Traffic Rules Control works in dedicated areas only, where cameras monitoring actions of the player can be installed. We do not promote violations of the Traffic Rules, however, we aim for the most immersive car driving experience. Moreover, we believe that this mechanics will further consolidate the community and enable development of own camera maps and map sharing. We are planning to roll out this approach to exploring the game world.

Talking about the Traffic Rules, we would also like to share that now a car does not drive through pedestrians. We have enabled fully working physics of each pedestrian.

This has been a subject of violent debates in our team regarding the philosophy of CCD2. On the one hand, we believe that the player should dive fully into a driver’s life and be punished in a way largely equivalent to losing the game.

On the other hand, we do not intend to provoke accidents, and due to city level design, we understand that driving mistakes are virtually inevitable for beginners. Thus, we have reached a compromise: for any minor (up to 5 km/h) collisions with pedestrians, the player will be fined, but the pedestrian will not be shown as falling down.

For high-speed driving leading to collision, the pedestrian will fall down with the game stopping, and the player thrown back to the closest checkpoint as if it has never happened. Surely, this will be accompanied with the corresponding fine and the requirement to re-take the driving test.

What is your opinion of this mechanics? We’d love to hear your ideas. The best ideas might be implemented in CCD 2.0

And the last topic we have not covered in details in Diaries #15 is economy, namely, what high level economy without details means.

At this stage, we don’t see any point in spending efforts on developing a fully featured economy simulation. That is, dynamic price increase and reduction depending on the in-stock quantity of certain items. Or fuel deficiency for old or new cars. Moreover, as we’ve mentioned in Diaries #18 on balance, we are adding universal basic income. This will depend on your actions only, without any flexible management, such as employees or other external economic forces. (Surely, if we see this in high demand, we will add this to the game later, after CCD 2.0 is released for Early Access!)

Other than that, our economy is about common earnings from completion of various tasks and expenditures on basic car stuff, such as fuel, repair works, car wash.

On what engine is the game developed? We have already answered this, but an update is always a good idea. We use Unreal Engine 5.

When will the game be released? Why do you mention January 25? We are still aiming to release the game for Early Access by the end of Q1 2024. If this is postponed, we will let you know and inform you of the cause. While January 25 has been a mistake on our side. We have mentioned January 25 on third-party markets except Steam and failed to remove it. Out most attentive users have noticed it and asked us to correct the mistake.

When will minimum requirements be out? We are streamlining the game. It is still unclear, but we will definitely notify you of system requirements in advance.

What about the price? As we have mentioned, the price is yet unclear as well. We’d love to make the game affordable for everyone, but at the same time keep our potential for developing the game.

**What’s up with customizing? ** This is not planned for Early Access. Neither is the system of damages. However, we realize its importance for car enthusiasts and will be definitely adding it later.

If you plan on adding further cars to the game, how do you feel about voting for the community choices? We plan on extending our car fleet, and this is an outstanding idea. After we release the game for Early Access, we’ll be launching such events and votes.

Will we see an intercity road? For Early Access, we are developing and building a single city. Next, we’ll switch to the location, so to say, “upon request of the community”. This is why although we agree this is a cool idea, we cannot promise we’ll start with an intercity road. (However, we are offering a country road in Early Access!)

We thank you for your interest in our project, this is very important for us! We also love reading your comments and discussing things with you. We are looking forward to your questions and ideas, which are of great importance for development of CCD 2.0.

For any details about the upcoming game prior to its release, please check our Developers Diaries published every two weeks.