The Problem with Manual Transmission in BF2

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Archimonday
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:11 am

The Problem with Manual Transmission in BF2

Post by Archimonday »

While I was waiting for my other laptop to finish rendering the videos I'm making, I decided to fool around with Forgotten Hope 2 vehicles, and see if I couldn't get them to have proper ratios for their transmissions, proper foot pounds of torque, and an overall more realistic feel than the lightning fast jeeps and kubelwagen's they have in their latest release.

It was during these experiments that I stumbled across more BF2 inadequacies. BF2 suffers from one primary problem with manual transmission vehicles: the lack of key mapping to choose gears manually (haha).

ObjectTemplate.activeSafe Engine WillysMB_france_zMotor
ObjectTemplate.modifiedByUser "knoffhoff"
ObjectTemplate.setNetworkableInfo BasicInfo
ObjectTemplate.floaterMod 0
ObjectTemplate.hasMobilePhysics 1
rem -------------------------------------
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate S_WillysMB_france_zMotor_RotationRpm
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate S_WillysMB_france_zMotor_Idle
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate S_WillysMB_france_zMotor_Rpm1
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate S_WillysMB_france_zMotor_Rpm2
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate S_WillysMB_france_zMotor_Load
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate e_exhaust_small
ObjectTemplate.setPosition 0.757587/0.206706/-0.578383
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate e_exhaust_small_startup
ObjectTemplate.setPosition 0.757587/0.206706/-0.578383
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate e_exhaust_small
ObjectTemplate.setPosition 0.757587/0.206706/-0.578383
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate e_exhaust_startup
ObjectTemplate.setPosition 0.757587/0.206706/-0.578383
rem -------------------------------------
ObjectTemplate.setMinRotation 0/0/-1
ObjectTemplate.setMaxRotation 0/0/1
ObjectTemplate.setMaxSpeed 0/0/6000
ObjectTemplate.setAcceleration 0/0/18
ObjectTemplate.setInputToRoll PIThrottle
ObjectTemplate.setAutomaticReset 1
ObjectTemplate.setEngineType c_ETNewCar2
ObjectTemplate.setTorque 87.3
ObjectTemplate.setDifferential 2
ObjectTemplate.setNumberOfGears 3
ObjectTemplate.setGearUp 0.99
ObjectTemplate.setGearDown 0.36
ObjectTemplate.setGearChangeTime 1
ObjectTemplate.setGearRatios 2.665 1.564 1
ObjectTemplate.spinWhenNoEngineInAir 1
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.minRpm 1000
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.maxRpm 3600
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.useClutchedTorque 1
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.wheelInertia 12.2513
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.engineFeedbackMod 0.2
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.brakeTorque 45
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.engineBrakeTorque 45
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.frictionTorque 45
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.frictionMod 1
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.slopeTorqueMod 1.45
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.wheelLongFrictionMod 1
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.wheelLongDriveFrictionMod 1.5
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.wheelLongPeakAt 0.1
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.wheelLongMinDynamicFriction 0.7
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.wheelLongScale 0.1
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.wheelLatFrictionMod 2
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.wheelLatDriveFrictionMod 0.3
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.wheelLatPeakAt 0.1
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.wheelLatMinDynamicFriction 0.7
ObjectTemplate.newCar2.wheelLatScale 0.1
ObjectTemplate.audio.newStyleAudio 1


Anybody who has driven a standard will tell you, that shifting down is crucial on hills. For these old World War II vehicles I can only imagine that fact was even more relevant. My Chevy S-10 is a 4 Cylinder, 5 Speed, with 92 horsepower. A similar Willys MB from General Motors is a 4 Cylinder, 3 Speed, with 60 horsepower. Now my 1999 Chevy S-10 struggles along the hills of Massachusetts where I live, even on light hills the RPM's drop drastically going up the hills. It is with this fact, despite the Willys MB being a 4wd vehicle, and my S-10 being FWD, that I feel like the struggle that this particular coding has for the Jeep up hills is pretty accurate. However there is one crucial problem with this coding (data was gathered from a Willy's MB Maintenance Manual from 1943). Without the ability to choose when to shift, you have to adjust the GearUp and GearDown ratio to compensate. If the GearDown Ration is too low, the MB will come to an almost complete stop before shifting down, and if setting the GearUP ratio too high, the jeep will never shift once it has shifted down. I've found a good balance between the two, but despite the balance, the jeep still struggles. Increasing the Differential makes it worse as well.

I would increase the torque, but that Ft/Lb value is accurate to the jeeps overall power. The vehicle can make good speed downhill and on flat terrain, reaching speeds 10 mph greater than the Kubelwagen I worked on similarly. This fact tells me its accurate, as the Kubelwagen, which was a 4 Cylinder 4 Speed with 26 Horsepower could only reach a top of about 49 mph, and it struggles even worse than the jeep up the hills (which was a known fact).

Regardless, the point im making with this thread, is that despite the wonderful new variables that allow you to define GearRatios, Engine RPM, Torque for Brakes, and modifiers for Torque in different situations, Manual Transmission Vehicles will still suffer from the fundamental problem in BF2: You cant choose when to shift.
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