Valuations for user cars

[Vincent Viceroy]

An idea I've had for...well...years really as part of a bigger design for a racing game. This particular idea is to uphold a connection to what you have created.

Anyways the basics are a gamer buys and tunes a car to how he/she likes. Over time, purely based on online activities, it accumulates a 'History', cataloging events along with finishing positions, total earnings, average finishing position etc... The gamer has the option to sell it online but the price is determined by it's 'History'.

The seller loses the car but is able to keep the settings on file. The buyer gets the car and tuned settings. The buyer is able to sell-on the car but not the tuned setting of the originator. In that state the car loses value.

The impact on the economy would be cars that really do feel more 'personal' and have 'worth' rather than the whole roster tuned for a dime a dozen.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Maybe I haven't explained the system very well but I want the cars to have 'meaning' and 'worth' to players, rather than having a system where users sell-on cars for remedial reasons...like it's been resprayed or it's got a turbo or I created this livery and stuck it on etc...

 

[trk29]

Well one thing we don't know yet is if we are even going to be able to sell our cars and livery online in a showroom. Good idea though, it might point out the best cars in the game to race with based on popularity and winnings. I think most popular cars are going to be premiums and LM (race versions).

 

[analog]

Really like parts of your idea as it always struck me as a bit odd ( or a punishment ) that when you got rid of a certain car you heavily invested in ( tuning parts, restoration, etc. ) the price you got for it was even less then what the car was costing before you invested all those credits.

If we get an online trading aspect, especially something like E-Bay ( or any auction ) or just setting the asking price yourself a history file would make perfect sense showing perhaps all the money/parts invested, the mileage driven by the previous driver ( only relevant if the car was used when bought ) and all the races won with it ( both offline and online ) which would make other users decide if the asking price was fair or worth bidding for it.

The racing history is probably what can be defined as "legendary" and if a comprehensive customization element is added a car may become "legendary" or at least recognised or famous/infamous whilst racing online and maybe create a stir when offered for sale ( just like in real life when a legendary racer is offered at an auction house ).

If customization of certain cars can also be copied by the original creator you could even start a small business selling replica's of the "legendary racer" you created, given that the original has to become "legendary" in the first place.
You could pretend to be the gaming equivalent of Caroll Shelby, etc. tuning/ building your own cars, racing them yourself possibly with your own racing team and then start selling them, race on sunday sell on monday......
Might even be adding your own name/badge to the existing car it's based on.

 

[ACcartoons]

I agree. And some cars in the offline used car showrooms should be much rarer than others.

In this case, people online may be willing to pay over-the-odds for a car they never seem to find in their offline showroom



Cars of the same model should also vary in price.

That way, people could buy exceptionally cheap in their 'offline' showroom, and sell them on for a slight profit online.



And prices should go up or down offline depending on the market conditions online. Players could buy cars while they are cheap, and sell them for a profit in a couple of month's time when the market picks up. Sort of like an in-game stock market.




Obviously, this would play a minor role in the game, so as not to become more overruling than the actual act of racing!

 

[Nero9]

Why not just sell it for Cr, why does everything have to be sold for real money nowadays. E-bay for things like these? It's just stupid.
As you win races, etc. with your car, the value of it goes up, you can sell it the normal way (GT LiFE), or sell it online it someone wants it.

No, this does'nt have to cost money. That is bull:censored:.

 

[analog]

Why not just sell it for Cr, why does everything have to be sold for real money nowadays. E-bay for things like these? It's just stupid.
As you win races, etc. with your car, the value of it goes up, you can sell it the normal way (GT LiFE), or sell it online it someone wants it.

No, this does'nt have to cost money. That is bull:censored:.

Ofcourse I was referring to an E-bay system based on credits, not real money.........still a game after all.

 

[trk29]

Clearly Analog wasn't talking about real money.

 

[Dan_]

You could pretend to be the gaming equivalent of Caroll Shelby...

What? No one wants to be Uwe Gemballa?

On topic, I like the idea, selling a skyline for 3500 credits after reducing weight, adding a rollcage and a big turbo was really weird, hopefully the upgrades can influence the selling price of a car, I wouldn't be surprised if things are kept the way they always were, but still a good idea and for sure it might have passed on Kaz's mind.

 

[Maxiboy]

Haha ive been thinking the same thing for years now! If this does appear in GT5 it will put a much greater emphasis on tuning the cars, which is fantastic. I used to have tuning comps with my mate where we would select a car, certain parts to be put in, and a track we would race them on. Once we had both bought the cars and fitted the parts we had a week to tune it and see who could put down the fastest lap, then I would take over my memory card (remember them ?) and we would race them all weekend. This sort of thing could happen much easier and on a much larger scale with online mode.

 

[Griffith500]

LOVE this idea!

I've always (thought I've) had an ability to subtly fettle a car into a competent "club" race machine with very few modifications, as well as the full-blown "international series" style cars (well, I suppose we can only go as far as GT4-cup-style without "Race-Mods"...). I also look after them well, and have always been disappointed at GT's "valuation" of my cars. Not that I tend to sell many anyway.

Perhaps it could actually become a viable source of income, selling cars pre-tuned to certain specifications (e.g. online races) to lazy people!
That's if you can get your "name" recognised in what will undoubtedly be a vast sea of upstart "tuner companies" (player co-operation?)


Shotgun Bruce McLaren, by the way... or Colin Chapman... or Peter Sauber... crap, there are loads of people like this! I actually quite like Tatsuru Ichishima (Spoon Sports), too. Good sense of humour, no-nonsense attitude, attention to detail. Hmmm...

 

[Northstar]

It's a good but flawed idea, in a perfect world where every room is filled with 16 quality racers it could tell a lot about the car as well as driver. Unfortunately this isn't that world, people will punt their way to having a "1000 win car" or will just boost their totals by having a friend just start the race but not do anything.

If we do have the ability to sell cars to each other I hope it's an auction setup or we can set the prices(like a car lot).

 

[Anathema]

If customization of certain cars can also be copied by the original creator you could even start a small business selling replica's of the "legendary racer" you created, given that the original has to become "legendary" in the first place.
You could pretend to be the gaming equivalent of Caroll Shelby, etc. tuning/ building your own cars, racing them yourself possibly with your own racing team and then start selling them, race on sunday sell on monday......
Might even be adding your own name/badge to the existing car it's based on.

I agree with this completely; Modify a car with parts and (hopefully, if it is actually in the game) the livery editor to create a one-off build or a lot of cars, such as what you can do in the TXR series, then sell it after a lot of racing to see the "History" of the car. I just might start designing my own logo for this purpose, to signify it is my creation.

 

[analog]

Shotgun Bruce McLaren, by the way... or Colin Chapman... or Peter Sauber... crap, there are loads of people like this! I actually quite like Tatsuru Ichishima (Spoon Sports), too. Good sense of humour, no-nonsense attitude, attention to detail. Hmmm...

With your username I would've thought you'd go for someone like Trevor Wilkinson or Peter Wheeler but anyway I specifically mentioned Caroll Shelby as an example as he did use other cars as a basis for his own creations ( AC-Bristol and Ford Mustang for example ) and if we even get the option to create our own brands ( to add to the base car ) a lot would maybe use contemperary tuning firms as example.
The names you suggested ( Chapman & Co ) would be ideal as examples if there were to be a car-editor/designer tool which would be a completely different ball game............unfortunately not very likely.

 

[Griffith500]

It's a good but flawed idea, in a perfect world where every room is filled with 16 quality racers it could tell a lot about the car as well as driver. Unfortunately this isn't that world, people will punt their way to having a "1000 win car" or will just boost their totals by having a friend just start the race but not do anything.

If we do have the ability to sell cars to each other I hope it's an auction setup or we can set the prices(like a car lot).

Yeah, those are some "serious" issues to fix if this is to be done right, really.
(no sarcasm intended, just a nod to the fact that it is / will be "just a game")

Maybe the prestigious races could be PD hosted "events", with proper seasons and championships to compete in. Say you have to compete in one "sanctioned" race per week, but there are such races twice / thrice daily so it's flexible, but also highly dependent on your opponents in a given race, I suppose. I'm sure there are ways around it so that a car having won a "sanctioned" championship could carry a certificate denoting such.

Or something to this effect - no doubt it would be very tricky (expensive) to get right.

I agree with this completely; Modify a car with parts and (hopefully, if it is actually in the game) the livery editor to create a one-off build or a lot of cars, such as what you can do in the TXR series, then sell it after a lot of racing to see the "History" of the car. I just might start designing my own logo for this purpose, to signify it is my creation.

Yeah, I already have a name for this purpose!
A logo might just "fall out" as a result of the name, too. It'd certainly be "unique"...

With your username I would've thought you'd go for someone like Trevor Wilkinson or Peter Wheeler but anyway I specifically mentioned Caroll Shelby as an example as he did use other cars as a basis for his own creations ( AC-Bristol and Ford Mustang for example ) and if we even get the option to create our own brands ( to add to the base car ) a lot would maybe use contemperary tuning firms as example.
The names you suggested ( Chapman & Co ) would be ideal as examples if there were to be a car-editor/designer tool which would be a completely different ball game............unfortunately not very likely.

Of course, you're absolutely right about the differences between Mr. Shelby and the F1 (etc.) greats - and Mr. Wilkinson's TVRs, technically (although he did use somebody else's engines!)

Tatsuru Ichishima it is, then. Well, my version of him. It's all sounding a bit sordid, now...

Just as a side-note, my username was chosen when I was playing GT2 "all those years ago", and the Griffith (500 in this instance) was just a superb out-of-the box racer, given the relatively forgiving physics. Additionally, I remember wasting hours charging up and down Midfield's main straight, pulling J-turns, 180s, 360s, 540s and (attempted) 720s!
Very few other cars were so easy to manipulate in this way, in that game.

All TVRs were rocket-ship-like in this respect, but am I the only one to think the handling of almost the entire range was a bit of a letdown in GT4? Understeer; orders from "above"?

 

[Anathema]

All TVRs were rocket-ship-like in this respect, but am I the only one to think the handling of almost the entire range was a bit of a letdown in GT4? Understeer; orders from "above"?

Yeah, the understeer was a bit of a problem with the TVRs in GT4. A simple suspension/brake setting switch changes it, though.
Also, I was going to show some TXR3 pics of some of the customized cars, but the site that they were on is defunct.

 

[lbsf1]

I like this idea lots. Its abit like forza where tuned cars get more for them however your Idea would add to this by making it easier to see where the cash has been spent and the cars race history. Just the two thinks I didn't like about forza's selling system. Perfect.

 

[Vincent Viceroy]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I guess the OP was just to get the idea across so it was a bit ambiguous.

First, an amendment/clarification. I'd strongly suggest the full system is used in 'Official' races over a year. For example for the first 6 months PD provide, say, 5 races per day, per region, for anybody to compete in accumulating results/stats for valuation. After 6 months the top 50% go on to race in competitions culminating in a final race for the very best at the end of the year.

Outside of that you can still accumulate valuation stats in normal and private lobbies but at a quarter of the rate. Any people not completing the full race distance are automatically disqualified so they are unable to accumulate valuation stats or help to boost someone else's valuation stats.

I don't think the valuation should be broken up in to sub-systems to it should be valued purely based on performance with just a small added premium for parts used. I mean you could put a plethora of parts on a car and it still not be competitive...so you'd need a nurturing hand to find peak performance.

I'm hoping that idea motivates people to experiment more than they might already do if they want a car to rise through the ranks.

On that note the idea is this system is absolutely included in all future GT games so a legacy can continue throughout the franchises life-span. Eventually you'd get those few star cars that are the equivalent to the famous Maserati's, Ferrari's, Porsche's and Mercedes-Benz's of the racing world and costs millions of credits.

Hopefully that'll give you some idea of the impact I would hope this system to have in GT's world. I would also hope that over time, some new technologies would no longer fit older cars to give extra significance to a particular vehicle.

There's so much stuff to add but, really, it's long-winded.