TL;DR
Update the controls for land vehicles for a better experience.What ?
The car does its job, and gets me from A to B without rails but has the controls from isometric racing games from 1995, which makes it a bit boring to use than other stuff currently in the game. It basically feels like placing belts without being able to hold down and run. Both would work eventually, but the difference is tremendous.Cars at the moment could get a huge improvement just from one small update to controls, which apparently can't be done through modding due to LUA not handling buttons being held down, only key presses. This change would probably make them much more fun, even for those people who already grew comfortable driving while using the current method.
Unfortunately I don't know what kind of image would help describe this better, so let's go over how I think this should be implemented (feel free to ask). I will now assume W is forward and S is backwards.
1. One key to brake. Currently, brake can be either W or S, being the opposite of the direction you're rolling. This is confusing, and I think one extra key to brake instead of W/S is easier to use.
2. Single responsibility principle. W should always try to achieve max forward speed, S should always try to achieve max reverse speed. Basically the same behavior as now, but don't stop acceleration/deceleration when you reach 0 speed. E.g. a car running at 50 km/h, player holds down S, after 5 seconds speed is -30 km/h (i.e. car is now rolling backwards at top speed, didn't need to release and press S again).
3. Optional 1 - Handbrake. This would make the car unable to roll while parked. Can have other effects, such as making it immune to belts, not roll back on collision, drifting (if physics are added later I guess).
4. Optional 2 - Steering and acceleration gauge. This would allow connecting other types of devices, like a steering wheel, to experience driving to its fullest. By having an axis instead of a button press the amount of acceleration could be calibrated, so if you want to accelerate at medium gas or only turn slightly to correct the trajectory it would be possible, rather than steering at max angle.
5. Optional 3 - Checkbox to enable/disable inverted rear controls. I personally don't like them, but I can see people preferring to turn around by holding down a steer button and alternating W/S. All about muscle memory.
Why ?
Giving cars this extra dimension of fun gets them ready for a completely new experience. As already exposed, it would be like the difference between planting belts one by one per click vs holding down and running. Not only that, but having reliable controls would allow players to arrange other activities other than making long distance trips, such as races and mini-games like mazes where handling is a core feature to score the lowest possible times.EDIT 1: Added list number 5.
