As we have released the game the to wider public. I would like to share with you our plans going forward.
A lot of this is under the premise that the game does well on Steam (and any other platforms we decide to publish on) and is financially self-supporting.
And obviously general bugs and issues are on the list but should not have to list these here..
Our other two main priorities are as follows;
1. Add Steam Auth to the game client. WIP but delayed due to COVID-19
2. Optimize the backend database or deploy replication SQL Server. Not currently being worked on or planned.
Staff
We currently only have a handful of people working on the game programming and server-side maintenance.
My time is limited due to work so moderation of the community will be passed onto a Community Manager.
We are also going to start offering Game Sage roles to outstanding members of the community who have shown a real passion for the game and have a great knowledge of the inner working of the game.
Those who moderated the game back in the day will also be offered roles.
We are at this time not looking to receive applications from anyone. Please do not send them, we ignore all applications for GS roles.
Looking forward to Q1 2020 and beyond.
We will be adding back in the rest of the cars that were removed due to licenses running out. WIP June
Ideally, we would re-license these cars (and we will try in January to do this) so that you can have the authentic experience.
To do this we need the player numbers to go up and this is something we will be working on via advertising the game once our main issues are sorted out.
If we are unable to obtain the licenses, we will add back in the modified versions that look similar but are not the branded cars.
We will also try to add back in the new maps from Level R and Heat Online that are currently missing. DONE
Hopefully, they don't need any work doing to them so we can just drop them into the game but we are unsure at this time why our build did not include them.
It could be that things changed in these later builds that made these maps incompatible with Project Torque Fiona build. We will see.
Improving the graphics is something we would love to do and hopefully, we are able to achieve this.
Currently, the game runs on DX8 and DX9. It is possible to upgrade to DX11 but this will take a lot of work and will probably not be worth it.
So what we want to do is push the DX9 engine that is there because we know it can do more than what it currently does.
The biggest thing is shadows in-game being crap even at the highest settings.
Native resolutions is something that also needs work.
Improving textures and UI.
I have already been playing with some of the UI elements and running them through waifu2x with great results.
Obviously this does not compare with having the original art assets and exporting those at a higher resolution so this is something that we will try and do if Invictus has these assets still available.
Textures are a little harder as they are mapped. This means we can't just double the pixel count and for it to work. But we do still want to work on this so we can add HD car textures for vinyls.
Adding more car vinyls and paints. WIP June >> https://community.projecttorque.racing/threads/more-paint-options-update-wip.1217/#post-7361
Along with the ability to show HD vinyls, we want to add a lot more customization to the game so cars feel more unique.
This means adding more vinyl to all the cars along with more paint options. With most cars getting the full rainbow along with some special model-specific colours.
Adding colour finishes is also something we would like to do such as adding a matte finish so you have a choice of matte or glossy.
Adding more maps and extending others.
While there are 100s of circuits to choose from in Project Torque, there are only a few dozen maps.
I feel like this game would do well to have more map choices that push the skill of the drivers a bit more.
I and many others love Wangan and Tanzawa but feel like they are too short. So these maps we would like to rework into longer versions.
Adding maps to this game is going to be very difficult without the map tools. Hopefully, we can get them from Invictus.
Adding back game modes and creating new ones.
Sumo and TeamCTF are two game modes added into the game quite late on. These should not be too hard to add back in.
I personally would like to see 2 new game modes added to Project Torque as I think it suits the game.
First being Rally. Off-road rally cars with time trial like gameplay with 2-5 stages of a difficult map with different road surfaces and terrains.
Second, being Circuit. Would like to see circuit cars and maybe even F1 style cars be re-introduced along with circuit tracks such as Silverstone, Donington, Nuremberg etc
Obviously Circuit is very much like TA. But I feel there is enough difference to have its own game mode as there are rule and maniacal differences.
Events
Level R had events and they did pretty well from what I hear. I never got to partake in them but I am guessing they were weekly challenges for rewards?
Combining in with Circuit racing a Rally, I could see weekly events happen around these and some other game modes such as fastest lap, the most amount of laps, etc.
Openworld
It has a bad rep with HeatOnline players but that is because of how it was implemented and due to bugs with the game at the time.
I would like Open World to return to PT as a mode in-game that allows 100s of players to connect to so they can socialize in a virtual world, show off their cars and doing some light racing around a map.
Multi-language support. WIP, Due June
I would like to add back the ability for players to switch in-game language so that the UI is in their native tongue.
This will require a launcher until an in-game option can be created.
There are a few other things I would like to see in-game but I think this is enough for now.
Like I said, this is all based on the premise that the game does well on Steam. Meaning we need to see lots of people playing, sharing and spending money on the game to make this viable.
Game development is not cheap. So far everyone has been working pro bono. But I would like to have a few people come on who can dedicate a few hours a week to the game.
Ideally, I would love to have a few people on full time who can work on the game code and adding new content.
But this is all down to you the players.
Please leave feedback below, and just that. If you want to discuss anything at length with others, go do it in another topic.
A lot of this is under the premise that the game does well on Steam (and any other platforms we decide to publish on) and is financially self-supporting.
And obviously general bugs and issues are on the list but should not have to list these here..
Our other two main priorities are as follows;
1. Add Steam Auth to the game client. WIP but delayed due to COVID-19
This will allow you, the user, to login without a username and password. No more signing up on this forum to play.
This will help out a lot of users who have been having issues signing up due to emails not arriving or passwords not working.
If we knew the game would have had this sort of reach this early into launch, we would have done this prior to launch.
2. Optimize the backend database or deploy replication SQL Server. Not currently being worked on or planned.
Currently, due to backend database issues, we are unable to deploy the game servers in their geographic regions.
This means the North America server is currently being hosted in Europe and not in America.
This results in some lag issues for users playing in the US, Canada, etc
Once this is fixed, we will be able to move the NA and SEA game servers from Europe to Chicago and Singapore.
Other locations are being looked at for SA, the Middle East, and Australia, though demand at this time is not high enough to warrant the cost and ongoing maintenance.
Staff
We currently only have a handful of people working on the game programming and server-side maintenance.
My time is limited due to work so moderation of the community will be passed onto a Community Manager.
We are also going to start offering Game Sage roles to outstanding members of the community who have shown a real passion for the game and have a great knowledge of the inner working of the game.
Those who moderated the game back in the day will also be offered roles.
We are at this time not looking to receive applications from anyone. Please do not send them, we ignore all applications for GS roles.
Looking forward to Q1 2020 and beyond.
We will be adding back in the rest of the cars that were removed due to licenses running out. WIP June
Ideally, we would re-license these cars (and we will try in January to do this) so that you can have the authentic experience.
To do this we need the player numbers to go up and this is something we will be working on via advertising the game once our main issues are sorted out.
If we are unable to obtain the licenses, we will add back in the modified versions that look similar but are not the branded cars.
We will also try to add back in the new maps from Level R and Heat Online that are currently missing. DONE
Hopefully, they don't need any work doing to them so we can just drop them into the game but we are unsure at this time why our build did not include them.
It could be that things changed in these later builds that made these maps incompatible with Project Torque Fiona build. We will see.
Improving the graphics is something we would love to do and hopefully, we are able to achieve this.
Currently, the game runs on DX8 and DX9. It is possible to upgrade to DX11 but this will take a lot of work and will probably not be worth it.
So what we want to do is push the DX9 engine that is there because we know it can do more than what it currently does.
The biggest thing is shadows in-game being crap even at the highest settings.
Native resolutions is something that also needs work.
Improving textures and UI.
I have already been playing with some of the UI elements and running them through waifu2x with great results.
Obviously this does not compare with having the original art assets and exporting those at a higher resolution so this is something that we will try and do if Invictus has these assets still available.
Textures are a little harder as they are mapped. This means we can't just double the pixel count and for it to work. But we do still want to work on this so we can add HD car textures for vinyls.
Adding more car vinyls and paints. WIP June >> https://community.projecttorque.racing/threads/more-paint-options-update-wip.1217/#post-7361
Along with the ability to show HD vinyls, we want to add a lot more customization to the game so cars feel more unique.
This means adding more vinyl to all the cars along with more paint options. With most cars getting the full rainbow along with some special model-specific colours.
Adding colour finishes is also something we would like to do such as adding a matte finish so you have a choice of matte or glossy.
Adding more maps and extending others.
While there are 100s of circuits to choose from in Project Torque, there are only a few dozen maps.
I feel like this game would do well to have more map choices that push the skill of the drivers a bit more.
I and many others love Wangan and Tanzawa but feel like they are too short. So these maps we would like to rework into longer versions.
Adding maps to this game is going to be very difficult without the map tools. Hopefully, we can get them from Invictus.
Adding back game modes and creating new ones.
Sumo and TeamCTF are two game modes added into the game quite late on. These should not be too hard to add back in.
I personally would like to see 2 new game modes added to Project Torque as I think it suits the game.
First being Rally. Off-road rally cars with time trial like gameplay with 2-5 stages of a difficult map with different road surfaces and terrains.
Second, being Circuit. Would like to see circuit cars and maybe even F1 style cars be re-introduced along with circuit tracks such as Silverstone, Donington, Nuremberg etc
Obviously Circuit is very much like TA. But I feel there is enough difference to have its own game mode as there are rule and maniacal differences.
Events
Level R had events and they did pretty well from what I hear. I never got to partake in them but I am guessing they were weekly challenges for rewards?
Combining in with Circuit racing a Rally, I could see weekly events happen around these and some other game modes such as fastest lap, the most amount of laps, etc.
Openworld
It has a bad rep with HeatOnline players but that is because of how it was implemented and due to bugs with the game at the time.
I would like Open World to return to PT as a mode in-game that allows 100s of players to connect to so they can socialize in a virtual world, show off their cars and doing some light racing around a map.
Multi-language support. WIP, Due June
I would like to add back the ability for players to switch in-game language so that the UI is in their native tongue.
This will require a launcher until an in-game option can be created.
There are a few other things I would like to see in-game but I think this is enough for now.
Like I said, this is all based on the premise that the game does well on Steam. Meaning we need to see lots of people playing, sharing and spending money on the game to make this viable.
Game development is not cheap. So far everyone has been working pro bono. But I would like to have a few people come on who can dedicate a few hours a week to the game.
Ideally, I would love to have a few people on full time who can work on the game code and adding new content.
But this is all down to you the players.
Please leave feedback below, and just that. If you want to discuss anything at length with others, go do it in another topic.
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