However, a few things have started to bug me. Things that, I feel, could easily be remedied.
1. Speed (More so for Heavy Jeeps (HJ), though light jeeps also affected)
So your driving along at speed listening to 'Bohemian Rhapsody', while your squad sings along, when suddenly you start driving up a hill.
The singings stopped and your now going at 10mph with several squad mates opting to get out and run past the jeep mocking you.
Now I understand heavy jeeps are weighed down ('heavy' jeeps, who'd have thought it), but come on! For the love of god, hills are heavy jeeps worst enemies right now, I'm more reluctant to drive up a hill than drive near an AT troop.
2. Speedometer
Pretty simple, your driving a jeep and look at your dashboard. For some reason it's stuck on 35mph. Soon you realise it's a sticker with 'Fisherprice' written on it and your soon beginning to question the cars reliability.
Would this really be that hard to inlude, honestly? Just a little speedometer on the dashboard.
Possibly more of a cosmetic idea but should your vehicle sustain damage it's max speed should decrease slightly over time. How do you know, speedometer!
Edit3: Could only be displayed on the HUD, would it take away form realism much? or is it deemed unnecesary? Would be a useful tool for measring speed.
3. Mirrors
Ok the enemy base is on the right, Mirrors, signal, Manouveur....wait where are my mirrors? come to think of it where are my signals.
Now the Humvee is the only vehicle really capable of any degree of spatial awareness. Simply because you can see through the windows and the back.
China and MEC, however, are buggered. They have barely any way to know of incoming threats form the rear (passengers are pseudo awareness and don't count).
Surely it would be possible to include mirrors (ones that work! unlike the vodniks).
Simply add multiple camera angles to the humvee again but instead assign the view to the mirrors. So when you look at a mirror you see the cameras perspective.
Edit3: Restricted by the BF2 engine. Alternative is to include a rear view that can be assigned to a key. A compromise between realism and playability due to the lack of a realistic solution.
4. Gears
Now first off let me say I wouldn't expect the devs to make jeeps stall, as funny as that would be when a squad is trying to get away it would just be too ridiculous.
However, by adding gears you open a whole new avenue for vehicles. For one you'd have a reason to increase maximum speed, two jeeps would actually require some level of awareness beside holding a key down (assuming their not automatics, lazy drivers), and third it allows players to actually CONTROL THEIR SPEED. Something that really annoys me, and would only be good for the xtraction mission in 0.3
Edit3: Appears unlikely due to the BF2 engines restrictions. Possibly include a similar alternative that mimics the effect of changing gears;
I.e. Set caps at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50mph. When a jeep hits each cap they need to push a 'Gear' key to advance, otherwise they cannot go past said cap. Slowing down (or braking) would work as it does now, the 'Gear' key only needs to be pushed when accelerating.
5. Momentum
A small one to finish with. Right now jeeps screech to a halt almost instantaneously, it would be nice if they actually kept going for a little further. To stop people abusing this by bailing left,right and centre. Make sure the player incurs damage appropriate to how fast the jeep was going.
6. Protection
Simply put, the jeeps are somewhat underprotected, in particular the Humvee.
The vodnik is relatively fine, though you could add BP (Bulletproof) glass to the side doors not just the windscreen.
The Chinese one (name?) is better than the humvee but the troops and driver are still quite exposed, suggest BP glass on the windscreen and side doors with a canopy over the back, preferably BP to avoid the enemy getting a lucky headshot from the side.
Now the humvee, exposed in every way. No BP glass, lots of windows, and open back.
It is the quinteseential 'Glass Coffin'.
Simply, add BP glass to the windows and make the passengers actually sit on the seat so they aren't as exposed as the back of the humvee. Whilst adding a small canopy at the back so they have somekind of roof.
Edit4: All HJ's have BP windscreens upon testing. Also the Chinese HJ has almost equal spatial awareness to the hummer, yet slightly better protection for passengers.
The vodnik is still like driving a mobile home.
Edit5: Here follows a link to a thread started by Malik that suggests a solution to protection issues in HJ's: http://realitymod.com/forum/t5608-new-j ... hread.html
7. Damage
Another point, as it stands Humvees are strangely 'fragile' towards enemy fire. Now while obviously an assault rifle is unlikely to destroy one, a LMG could after a period of time.
As I understand the term 'Heavy Jeep' implies that these vehicles should be resistent to calibre fire of anything less than .50 (or fear a .50 itself for that matter).
I would mention AT rockets, however it would appear Heavy jeeps are capable of withstanding a single rocket sufficiently which I beleive is enough (even if it's a compromise between realism and playability).
Aside from enemy fire, damage is almost non-existent, by this I mean damage as a result from interaction with the terrain and environment. If a Jeep drives into a wall at high speed it (nor the driver) is barely scratched and can continue to be driven, the same can be said from falling down the hill.
A simple solution would be to not only increase damage on the vehicle itself (to the point of detonation in extreme cases, I beleive hitting a tank is one such instance), but damage the passengers as well, with death resulting from serious accidents e.g. rolling down hills, hitting object at high speeds, etc.
8.Brakes
The back button works as a crappy brake, but vehicles are still lacking in this department.
Assuming momentum can be implemented, braking will be very important (especially if gears are not possible to control speed).
As it stands there is also no handbrake, a tool invaluable to a skilled driver when attempting to take sharp turns, or do a complete 180.
Ok that wraps it up for now, I can't think of anything else to add.
I look forward to some serious opinions about this.
Oh and I do realise it's not a driving game, but it is a relaism game
Edit1: Added 'Protection' section. Props to 'Top _Cat the great' for pointing it out.
Edit2: Added 'Damage' section. Credit goes to Terranova.
Edit3: Added 'Brakes' section. Additional info for sections 2, 3, and 4, based on [R-DEV]KingofCamelot's comments.
Edit4: Confirmed BP windscreens on all jeeps, and tested the chinese HJ more.
Edit5: Added link to Maliks thread on HJ protection and variation.
