
Trucks having been recently updated to max out at 4th gear is something that could be considered a necessary nerf to what is no doubt a very good class of movecraft, but I propose this comes in a different form.
As of right now, truck gears work as a simple toggleable mode where players can choose freely whether they want to go fast or slow at any point. This isn't realistic and while it is a fun feature, much more can be done to improve this.
I propose an update to how gears work in ccnet, where trucks must build up revs (and speed) in a certain gear before being able to move up to the next gear. For example, trucks cruising in 3rd gear would only be able to accelerate a certain amount before needing to move up to 4th gear to accelerate further. To tell your RPM and the gear you are in, there would be an audio cue of the sound of an engine getting louder the higher your RPM in the gear, along with a bar on your screen telling you your rpm and the gear you're in (and if you wanted, an indicator to tell players if they should move up or down a gear).
However, if people wanted to go slower, for example if they wanted to go up steep inclines or take a corner, being blasted by a loud audio cue constantly because you need to be in 1st gear would be annoying, so I propose a change in how trucks are controlled in dc mode;
- W would act as your "gas", where you can increase your RPM to get to higher gears.
- S would act as a "brake", where it would decrease the rpm until you cannot go any slower in the gear you're in (another way of braking could be just going down gears periodically similar to in real cars)
- If there is no input from the player, the truck would stay in the same gear, and same RPM as was previously set, meaning you can easily stay in whichever gear you like depending on what speed you want to stay at for a while.
Furthermore, trucks' speed should be decreased when impacted by certain external factors. For example, when approaching a corner, trucks that do not slow down would not take the corner very well and "skid" sideways possibly veering off course (this would also rapidly decrease the speed and RPM of a truck, requiring the pilot to downshift). Also going up and down blocks should either increase or decrease the RPM accordingly.
It is your decision whether or not to add "stalling" as a mechanic for trucks when their RPM gets too low for a certain gear, however if trucks are affected by the factors I've listed above I can see how that might just be an annoying feature rather than one that adds to the function of trucks.
With these changes alone, trucks could turn into not only a balanced movecraft, but possibly a class of movecraft that is extremely fun for players to mess around with piloting. However, I want to propose one final change to trucks that would make the biggest difference to the class so far.
As it stands, trucks that are 600 blocks and carrying max cargo are capable of travelling at the same speed as a 150 block personal car with no storage. After the 150 block mark, each block added as part of a piloted truck should impact it's max speed and acceleration. For example, a 200 block car with 2 chests designed as a personal vehicle could accelerate twice as fast and have a much higher top speed (16m/s) compared to a max size and storage cargo truck (10m/s) (note these are very rough top speeds and if any interest was shown in implementing this update I would be happy to iron out some details just dm me). As mentioned as well, number of chests should affect the top speed and acceleration of a truck, however not as much as the truck's size would.
This feature alone would solve the issue of people transporting massive amounts of cargo at Mach 1 in a massive truck on a big ugly highway, which I believe was the intention of the gear cap. Not only this but it doesn't take away from the people that may want to use trucks for their speed and unique way of piloting.
I understand that this is a huge overhaul to the way trucks work and it might not be for everyone to enjoy, which is why I think there should be an easier option. By typing either [Manual] or [Automatic] on a sign attached to the truck, players can decide whether or not they want to pilot the truck with manual gears or if they want it to accelerate as if there were no gears (automatic option). This would no doubt be the only option unimaginative players would use who just want to transport cargo with trucks, so the automatic counterpart to trucks should always be 25% slower than the manual version (with block count, chest count and armour count still taken into consideration before the 25% speed reduction)
I have spent a lot of time working with and building unique trucks in ccnet and I genuinely believe this update would be an incredible flavour feature for ccnet, opening up possibilities of different players having different skill levels in truck piloting, opening up the opportunity for racing with player-made restrictions on how big the car has to be and how much storage it has to have. Players could have rallies, tournaments, head to heads all because of one feature. Many people made brilliant points on how more roleplay/flavour features could limit players' creativity, however adding these capabilities to trucks would do the complete opposite, allowing people to make their own regulations for events, their own classes of trucks and so much more, all within a single movecraft class.
I know I've written a ton here but I hope any part of this suggestion is taken into consideration even if not implemented in full. Furthermore if there is interest in implementing this, please message me as I said and I'd be happy to help iron out the finer details that couldn't fit into the massively long suggestion.
MVPan out