I finally found some minutes to post my thoughts on what might be cool for DSJ4 ...
- career mode:
Most sports games these days come with careers - because they're fun! In a career mode, the equipment of all the jumpers will play a role. There will be prize money and this how can buy better equipment. If you crash, the equipment will get damaged and needs to be repaired. The equipment will have an influence on the game physics (inrun speed, air). Also, the jumper ages and will need enough condition for the whole season. In order to prepare for a whole season, he has to buy training lessons. The jumper can also get sponsors to pay for equipment, training, travel costs and stuff. Also, the jumper will start off in FIS Cup ("DSJ Cup", since Jussi will have to do without licenses), then move on to "DSJ Intercontinental Cup" and finally "DSJ World Cup" - if his performance is good enough to qualify for his nation. During competitions, the jumper can choose to attend two training jumps or skip them. The more jumps during a competition, the more he loses condition if his training wasn't good enough during summer.
These are just some first thoughts on a career mode. I think, you could easily add to the list ... but these are probably the most interesting points.
- Team mode online:
I've suggested this before for DSJ3. There should be a possibility that 4 players can join together in a team and take part in team competitions. Maybe these team cups shouldn't always include all the hills since some teams might not have all 4 players online for an hour. But one thing is important: The teams shouldn't be randomized. This would be just the same crap as with games like Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2 or Left 4 Dead where you would end up with total strangers. 4 players that WANT to play together as a team should also be able to do so. Maybe there could be two team modes for online play: One with fixed teams (started by a team captain who invites the other 3 players) and one with randomized teams.
- Inrun gates - FINALLY!!!
I understand that Jussi tweaked the inrun speed by having the wind have an impact on the jumper's inrun speed. DSJ is known for its realism, so DSJ4 should finally change from this unrealistic solution to a new solution. In practice, you can freely choose the inrun gate - good luck, have fun. During competitions, a computer jury will determine the inrun gate depending on the wind.
- Wind and Gate rules:
Well, since the real rules changed, DSJ should also respect that change. The tricky part here for Jussi is to find a point system for wind and gate that isn't more unfair than the real one.
The wind should only be measured while the jumper is in the air and tailwind right at take-off should be rated in a positive way (for the gained speed) just like headwind from any point onwards. In reality, they would rate tailwind right at take-off as a negative thing, which is stupid. Oh, and once the jumper lands, the wind will not be rated anymore. There's no use for the jumper if he's alreay downhilling and has 4 m/s headwind ...
- Online mode, trial round:
All real competitions have trial rounds. The online mode should have an extra trial jump so that everyone can get used to a new hill BEFORE the qualification jump. This doesn't need to prolong the competitions for too much since there would be no "CLICK READY DAMNIT" break between trial round and qualification. Both jumps would be done consequently.
- Online mode, free jumps for players that didn't make it to the next round:
If a player fails to qualify for the 1st or 2nd round, he should a free training jump anyway. This is better than staring at the results. Also, if a player misses one or two qualifications, it's hard to finally get going since you never get into a "jumping rhythm".
- Online career mode:
Okay, what is this? This should be a mode where you need to buy extra equipment, just like in single player careere mode. In this online career mode, there will be no online rating. Instead, you collect the points you get for your results and level up. With each new level, you gain access to a new, improved item. Since this could result in a big disadvantage for non-regular players, there should be different rooms for this career mode. For example: a room with max level 5, then with max level 10 and so on.
- Jumper control:
In DSJ3, the jumper sometimes gets twisted sideways in the air. I already tried steering sideways in 3rd person cam view, but you really can't do that. This is quite annoying since in real skijumping, you would be able to correct that. There should also be a way to correct this. Actually, I think that the keyboard could come in play here. Keys A and D would come to mind. Mabye Jussi could add a small box in the top-right corner of the screen like in EPYX Winter Games to show the jumper from behind. This way, you could see when he's twisted and correct this. Now Jussi might say "This only happens when you don't take-off with both mouse buttons hit simultanously" - well, that would only affect the direction of the jump, really. Zauner is a good example for someone who jumps off more with his left foot, Koch would tend to jump off more with his right foot. So they fly to the opposite side of the landing hill. But it doesn't mean that they twist and turn in the air like crazy. This is only something that should be the case when there is strong wind from the side - and then you need to correct this with A and D or you might even be in danger of falling from the sky like Morgenstern in Kuusamo a few years back.
EDIT:
One more thing:
Make the calculation of the CPU jumpers' jumps as fast as in DSJ2 again, please! It's no fun to play a single player world cup with 60 or 70 CPU players when the calculation takes as much time as it would on the good old Commodore 64 ...