The six-point performance information statistics are hard to compare and are mostly incorrect anyway, so the whole system lacks any real usefulness. I've begun looking at an improved way to show off the performance information of vehicles and provide a suitable class system to add as an extra optional restriction for vehicle selection in races I am developing. This post is a brief on the current 'idea' on what is to be implemented, and a showing of the current working concept.
Changes:
Performance Info
- Removal of durability, class, mass and other values implemented in V14. This leaves Speed, Acceleration, Handling and Braking - a good place to start.
- Removal of the six-point rating system, and instead replace with a ten-point rating system.
- Removal of all previous graphics relating to the performance information, and introduce a simpler, less-space hogging design.
- Implementation of a Class system, with vehicles rated either F,E,D,C,B,A,S or X. More details to follow in this post.
General UI
- Switch the placement of the top menu title and the top menu icons.
- Reduce the menu title by at least a third to reduce obstruction.
- Removal 'Vehicle' menu title. This is replaced by the actual vehicle name.
- Race selection screens to gain additional value to show the class restriction in use.
Class System:
How does the Class system work?
The concept is nothing new, most racing games have some sort of 'Class' system in place - this particular system I borrowed the basic layout from Forza 3. What this gives is F,E,D,C,B,A and S, plus the X to simply represent the damocles. A few examples of this works is as follows - A 'Riot' bike, a 'Psychotic Fox' Buggy and a 'Warrior' SUV are all F class vehicles. The fastest OFF disciplined vehicle is a 'C' class, as most OFF vehicles are never as fast as ALL or ROAD vehicles. By comparison a 'Bullet' Muscle car is a 'B' Class and a Sidewinder is a 'S' Class. There is only one 'X' class and that is the Damocles.... given that it goes 100 or so KM/h faster than any other vehicle in the game.
How is a vehicles class calculated?
This has been kept simple, essentially the vehicles top speed is recorded and that places in the Class. For instance Class 'F runs from 130 km/h (or below) to 145 km/h and thus a 141 km/h 'Riot' bike is placed in that class. Off course more that just the top speed is considered, for example if the acceleration is really high then it will be moved into the next class, but only if the top speed is borderline between classes, the same could be said if the vehicle has really low acceleration.
What is the usefulness of this system?
Say you want a Off-road Bike & Quad race with only the more slower bikes/quads... then you could restrict the race to 'F' class - giving you a choice of three vehicles: the Sludgray, the Riot and the Mudblaster. You could also say F & E or anything up to an E class and that would give the addition of the Shuriken, Quadram and Komodo.
Through these restrictions a race can be more competitive... and stops the picking of the fastest vehicle in the game. This will also help with a mix or AI issues as the AI vehicle will be of comparable performance to the player and thus prevent any silly errors.
But I don't like this whole 'Class' idea! 
To be fair it doesn't make any difference to how the game play's in any way what so ever. Its merely an added layer of restriction that can be called upon when needed when developing certain races or if your planning an online event. The system is only an alternate way to better display why vehicles are restricted in certain races and which vehicles are the best/least performing.
Screenshots:
I'll update this with more info later....
