Gameplay suggestions

Hello, I would like to give my feedback after playing this game (MR+ST) for quite some time with a friend:

The physics simulation of driving and of the mud is quite excellent, including the graphical representation. That's the foundation of this game and why people initially pull out their wallets for it obviously, including us.
However, the gameplay mechanics are severely limited to date, and years have passed:

  1. HIGH - Route development and maintenance needs to be developed to a very large extent. This includes clearing obstacles, grading, clearing mud, and even clearing new trails through falling trees.

  2. HIGH - To support route development/upkeep above the game mechanic of tasks and rewards needs to be revisited, where you need to deliver far more lumber to a mill to complete the objective. For example 20 trips. (this should be adjustable in game setup) To make the whole planning, clearing, maintenance of the roads worthwhile.

  3. MED - Marking out routes in scout vehicles is missing, currently no ability to add markers be it reflective or solar charged lights. They should also appear on the map.

  4. LOW - Requiring people to unlock diffs as soon as they are on a gravel surface is wrong. There is no damage that vehicles suffer when driving on regular forest gravel roads with fully locked diffs. Pavement with tight bends there is a bit of heat and wear of tyres yes.

  5. MED - Forcing the ADD night/day cycle is a terrible feature. Lots of people play in bright rooms and don't want to do night shift work. Most forestry operations don't run through the night for safety reasons anyway. A feature to turn off the full dark, or to have it follow a realtime 24h cycle (so there is many hours of daylight before night) would be welcome.

  6. HIGH - The vehicles shadowing out when an MP player is out if it is unacceptable. I refuse to spend another cent on this game series and to recommend the game until all vehicles are simulated when required in MP. We should be able to tow our friends' trailers as well.

  7. LOW - Some basic rudimentary AI drivers to follow your tracks would be useful for larger operations. They don't need to be good, just follow the tracks and if need be we jump in and unstick/recover them.

Overall, we have enough content, enough locations and vehicles. The game as is, with the current game mechanics does not warrant more than say 40h of gameplay before you get sick of the vehicle control in the mud thing to just do the same thing over and over, deliver 3 loads to a mill.
Please develop the GAME aspect, there are millions of possibilities on how to (often easily) enhance the game with the same basic physical simulation.

Thank you

last edited by bn880

Hello, thank you for your suggestions. I send them to the developpers. πŸ™‚

@bn880 said in Gameplay suggestions:

HIGH - The vehicles shadowing out when an MP player is out if it is unacceptable. I refuse to spend another cent on this game series and to recommend the game until all vehicles are simulated when required in MP. We should be able to tow our friends' trailers as well.

I have to say that this one is a solid one. This led me to stop playing multiplayer sessions since is like playing solo anyways.

Hello @Jayson , I'm a nice Community Manager who cares about video games issues ^^

β€žOverall, we have enough content, enough locations and vehicles. The game as is, with the current game mechanics does not warrant more than say 40h of gameplay before you get sick of the vehicle control in the mud thing to just do the same thing over and over, deliver 3 loads to a mill.”

I suppose that depends with every player. I finished all the maps 7 times (Old Timers map just twice because it forces me to use a specific tactic, which is hauling small log trailers with the Chevy Napco and, overall, is no way near as good as the other maps, in my opinion) and will keep playing it in singleplayer whitout running bored. Every time I try different vehicle combinations, routes, load etc and I find new small details with every playthrough. Mudrunner is the most relaxing and satisfying videogame experience I have ever had and I have played quite a few. Granted, the game needs to evolve, but, if it strays too much from its core, fans will likely be disappointed. For instance, when I first saw the trailers for Snowrunner, I was sad because there were no Russian/Soviet vehicles in them. Now, I see Lada Niva and MZKT copies in vehicle presentations, which made me excited again.

last edited by FirebonE

@zamal I didn't mean it to be rudeπŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚ I just never seen em before

I'm confused, not just by the appearance of an until-now unknown community manager, but also the fact that he's forwarding the suggestions as if MR was still in active development and open to suggestions. As far as we know it's a done game and the focus is on SR.

@Unster ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh mystery has been revealed, they are planning another DLC brother..................... 🀣

@zamal Even if so, it'll be a map and a new truck or two. I highly doubt the devs will be doing any major changes to the game.

@Unster, what changes do you expect, really, from a DLC? Did the current Spintires game latest DLCs change much? Apart from rain, a few improved textures, reworked vehicles sounds and a few new trucks, what else is there? Off-topic, they absolutely murdered E-7310's sound. The new one is way worse, in my opinion. Sure, the game now has the B-131 and C-4310, which is very nice, but Mudrunner also has these. The E-167 looks very cool at first glance, but is fairly limited in its overall use. The B-133 trucks look good, but, from what I have seen, behave a little bit worse than one would expect. Also, there is a fair amount of bugs, to be honest. I am not blaming anybody, but, if Mudrunner will ever get a new DLC, it will be more of the same. Borderlands 2 has a ton of DLCs and they are all pretty much the same gameplaywise. If you are looking for something different, wait for Snowrunner to hit the scene.

last edited by FirebonE

The only changes that are reasonable to expect at this point are some bug fixes. It seems that with every DLC at least one vehicle suffers from bugs that should have been rather obvious to fix, like the torque rating on the D538, the initially missing front halfshaft on the F-150, or the FWD Chevy Napco.

Both MR and Spintires have an old base at this point, but while Mudrunner decided to offer more content while not necessarily improving the base experience, Spintires is for now at least improving the base experience.

The most frustrating thing about these two games is that there is a community willing to point out issues and offer suggestions but there is either slowness or downright resistance from the developers to implement then.

Considering the rather limited market that the games can be sold to, I'm not sure that this way of doing business is very productive.

But time will tell with Snowrunner. We'll see how many of our recommendations made it. And supposedly we'll see the same for the follow-up game to the original Spintires.

@XenoRad Devs have to be careful about following suggestions from the community. They need to make sure they are consistent with the design and not just from a few loud voices. From my experience Oovee has been more open to community feedback than Focus, but of course even they won't implement everything suggested.

@FirebonE Not sure why you're directing your comment at me. I don't expect anything from a DLC other than a new map, a truck or two, and hopefully more bug fixes than usual. My point was that the OP was making big suggestions as if MR was still open to community feedback. It wasn't really even in the past, now it's even less.

@Unster, sorry if you took my comment as offensive. That was not my intention. I misread yours as some sort of lament towards DLC releases as in providing nothing really new from a gameplay standpoint. My apologies! When reffering to Spintires, I don't blame anyone. I was merely pointing out that DLCs are similar to Mudrunner: new maps and trucks, with same gameplay in mind, which is perfectly normal and expected. The only noticeable difference, in my opinion, is the quality of Mudrunner's new vehicles, which are actually of use. Well, maybe except a few. Also, what bugs were you reffering to? I don't recall encountering anything out of the ordinary or game-breaking in Mudrunner. Last but not least, I agree with you on developers listening to loud voices. Some of these loud voices wanted to get out of trucks and saw wood themselves, load lumber onto trains and whatnot. The game is great as it is and changing this will turn off a lot of fans.

last edited by FirebonE

@FirebonE No problem. Yes you misread my comment, but don't worry, I'm not pissed. πŸ™‚

The MR bugs are listed around the forum, many still have yet to be fixed, for example the missing front suspension on the Bison, FWD on the Napco and some others. Some other bugs like the downshifting automatic were eventually fixed after a long time, but not very well.

Yes, the DLC vehicles in ST have their own problems, bigger ones I'd say since they affect performance. There's a bug with how large wheel traction is calculated, it's much too low. The same bug is in MR but it's a bit less apparent since MR's mud is less soft. Anyway, I'm helping the devs resolve this (for ST, I don't think MR devs care).

@Unster, alright then. I couldn't agree more regarding the auto transmission downgrades. It's like 5 -> 1. Spintires has this covered so much better, with progressive downgrading, not an abrupt stop from top gear to motionless.

@FirebonE Yes, ST has this better implemented but I think it was like that even before Pavel left Oovee. It's actually kind of amazing how in MR the devs managed to make it worse. Another thing I like better about ST is that there's less wheel slip on pavement. It's not a huge difference, but it's noticeable if you pay attention. In ST the wheels may stop & spin repeatedly when they're on the verge of getting traction. In MR it's a constant slide like you're driving on ice. I've always found this annoying & unrealistic.