Open letter to Jussi about suggestions
Posted: 21 Feb 2011, 13:25
Dear Jussi,
hope you're doing fine
I took some time to properly write some suggestions down, which in my opinion shouldn't be too complicated to implement, but would improve the game much more than even you might have thought it possible - at least that's what I dearly hope
1. Start gates instead of non-realistic wind influence during in-run
Making a new game should introduce some new features: Start gates are a both realistic and necessary new feature to the DSJ series. It will make jumping more realistic since the wind will only affect the jumper after take-off. In order to adjust speed, a CPU jury will set the gate automatically during contests and there will be plus or minus points for gate change (like in reality). In practice mode, the player can choose the start gate freely.
2. Advanced jumper control
While DSJ3 had already a pretty advanced player control system, side-control was missing even though the jumper could sometimes start to twist and turn sideways. So basically, when that happened, the player was not in full control over the jumper anymore, just like in RTL Ski Jumping where the player also had barely any control over the jumper during the jump itself. Instead of advancing jumper control in DSJ4, jumper control has been reduced instead.
In reality, when someone jumps, his upper body is raised up. In ski jumping, however, it is necessary to keep the upper body low, as seen on TV by professional ski jumpers. In order to do that, you have to be able to work against that natural behaviour of pulling the upper body up since you’d otherwise lose too much speed. In DSJ4, this would currently result in the jumper crashing. Instead, you would have to do nothing – as if you were playing RTL Ski Jumping.
After take-off and pushing the upper body down, the angle of the skis has to be determined. In DSJ3, you could perfectly adjust that angle during flight and react to changing winds during the flight – which often happens in DSJ3. In DSJ4, however, you can’t adjust that angle anymore, it seems fixed. Instead, you move the whole jumper-ski-system forward or backward, as if the jumper was only a dummy doll fixed to a pair of jumping skis. Of course, you don’t have to adjust that angle as much as in DSJ3 anymore, since there are no changing winds during flight anymore, but that is not a good solution. In reality, there can well be backwind at take-off and headwind in the mid-section of the hill. I understand that changing winds as in DSJ3 needed to be prevented due to the missing chance of adjusting the ski angle, but that’s just another good reason to bring back the advanced control system of DSJ3 when it was possible to adjust that ski angle.
Without being responsible for keeping the upper body low at take-off and without being responsible for adjusting the ski angle, the player basically only controls take-off and landing anymore. Just like in RTL Ski Jumping. DSJ was always the better game because it provided a much further advanced and more realistic jumper control system. There was no need to change that control system, but an addition of side-movements, which could be controlled by way of having a small window in the top right corner which shows the player from behind, would be a further improvement of the excellent jumper control system of DSJ3 which also ensures that DSJ4 will have a new control system since it’s a new game. Reducing the control system in order to have a new control system is not the right choice, advancing it would be!
3. Physics
New wind physics are basically great, but ski physics need some adjustment. In DSJ3, the skis were a little too heavy and not flexible, in DSJ4, they are too light, they almost feel like feathers in the wind. However, real jumping skis are heavier than it seems on TV and on a scale of “ski hardness” from 1 to 10, when DSJ3 was 1 and DSJ4 was 10, I think the right value would be 6 or 7. With the skis being a little harder, minor adjustments during the flight also shouldn’t have an impact as huge as it’s currently the case.
4. Online records for Online Mode
Offline records are single player records and online mode is the multiplayer mode of DSJ. Accordingly, there should be separate records for each mode. It should also add to the excitement of playing online against other players, when someone jumps a new hill record “in front of a live audience” rather than jumping a new hill record offline when no-one is there to witness that moment.
5. Display record lines as game setting
In the settings menu, it should be possible to select which record lines will be shown. Plain and simple.
6. Team mode for Online Mode
There should be a possibility to start team competitions. The first step is to start a team in which three other players can join. Players may choose which team to join or they can click on a “random join” button to randomly join a team. Also, a team can be filled with up to three average CPU jumpers, so that everyone can take part in team competitions, but a team with CPU jumpers shouldn’t be able to win due to the CPU jumpers being average only. Once the team is full and ready to go, the team captain can enter a team competition. The captain of the team will have the ability to kick players from the team, but only in between competitions. Also, the rest of the team might vote a teammate off with 3 votes, which could be the team captain in which case a new team captain is determined automatically. There are no restrictions as to a player’s nationality. Personal online ratings will not be affected by team competitions.
7. Quick Play Mode for Online Mode
There should be game rooms for fast play in which the waiting time in between jumps is reduced to 5 seconds instead of 10 seconds. Since there is always someone who doesn’t click the Ready button, a reduction to 5 seconds is the only way to provide faster competitions for players that want faster competitions. However, this should only be an additional mode since everyone, who loves staring at the screen for 10 seconds doing nothing, should still be able to do so.
8. CPU jumpers
Bring back CPU jumpers that don’t take ages to generate results, just like in DSJ2. There is no need to simulate their jumps since no-one wants to watch CPU jumpers jump anyway. Only generate their results based on a formula with a few key factors, that’s all we need for single player mode. Again, no-one wants to WATCH CPU jumpers ...
9. Career mode
A simple career mode could easily be added to the game in a future update. If an easily added simple career mode is wanted, I could share more thoughts on this. And no, I’m NOT talking about some super complex career mode which would certainly be too much work for a single person. A good career mode doesn’t have to be complex in order to be entertaining.
10. Offline record hunting mode
There should be a special offline record hunting mode in which there is always random headwind of 0.5 m/s to the limit of DSJ4. This way, players won't have to start and quit competitions repeatedly until the wind is "right". Also, this mode would be similar to practice mode: You play with your "own" jumper (the one from practice mode) and will have endless jumps available. There is no competition going on, you can't add additional jumpers and won't have to. You can go on hunting for new personal records as long as you want.
That's all. Looking forward to proper feedback. Thanks for reading.
Kind regards,
Andy Jakesch
hope you're doing fine
I took some time to properly write some suggestions down, which in my opinion shouldn't be too complicated to implement, but would improve the game much more than even you might have thought it possible - at least that's what I dearly hope
1. Start gates instead of non-realistic wind influence during in-run
Making a new game should introduce some new features: Start gates are a both realistic and necessary new feature to the DSJ series. It will make jumping more realistic since the wind will only affect the jumper after take-off. In order to adjust speed, a CPU jury will set the gate automatically during contests and there will be plus or minus points for gate change (like in reality). In practice mode, the player can choose the start gate freely.
2. Advanced jumper control
While DSJ3 had already a pretty advanced player control system, side-control was missing even though the jumper could sometimes start to twist and turn sideways. So basically, when that happened, the player was not in full control over the jumper anymore, just like in RTL Ski Jumping where the player also had barely any control over the jumper during the jump itself. Instead of advancing jumper control in DSJ4, jumper control has been reduced instead.
In reality, when someone jumps, his upper body is raised up. In ski jumping, however, it is necessary to keep the upper body low, as seen on TV by professional ski jumpers. In order to do that, you have to be able to work against that natural behaviour of pulling the upper body up since you’d otherwise lose too much speed. In DSJ4, this would currently result in the jumper crashing. Instead, you would have to do nothing – as if you were playing RTL Ski Jumping.
After take-off and pushing the upper body down, the angle of the skis has to be determined. In DSJ3, you could perfectly adjust that angle during flight and react to changing winds during the flight – which often happens in DSJ3. In DSJ4, however, you can’t adjust that angle anymore, it seems fixed. Instead, you move the whole jumper-ski-system forward or backward, as if the jumper was only a dummy doll fixed to a pair of jumping skis. Of course, you don’t have to adjust that angle as much as in DSJ3 anymore, since there are no changing winds during flight anymore, but that is not a good solution. In reality, there can well be backwind at take-off and headwind in the mid-section of the hill. I understand that changing winds as in DSJ3 needed to be prevented due to the missing chance of adjusting the ski angle, but that’s just another good reason to bring back the advanced control system of DSJ3 when it was possible to adjust that ski angle.
Without being responsible for keeping the upper body low at take-off and without being responsible for adjusting the ski angle, the player basically only controls take-off and landing anymore. Just like in RTL Ski Jumping. DSJ was always the better game because it provided a much further advanced and more realistic jumper control system. There was no need to change that control system, but an addition of side-movements, which could be controlled by way of having a small window in the top right corner which shows the player from behind, would be a further improvement of the excellent jumper control system of DSJ3 which also ensures that DSJ4 will have a new control system since it’s a new game. Reducing the control system in order to have a new control system is not the right choice, advancing it would be!
3. Physics
New wind physics are basically great, but ski physics need some adjustment. In DSJ3, the skis were a little too heavy and not flexible, in DSJ4, they are too light, they almost feel like feathers in the wind. However, real jumping skis are heavier than it seems on TV and on a scale of “ski hardness” from 1 to 10, when DSJ3 was 1 and DSJ4 was 10, I think the right value would be 6 or 7. With the skis being a little harder, minor adjustments during the flight also shouldn’t have an impact as huge as it’s currently the case.
4. Online records for Online Mode
Offline records are single player records and online mode is the multiplayer mode of DSJ. Accordingly, there should be separate records for each mode. It should also add to the excitement of playing online against other players, when someone jumps a new hill record “in front of a live audience” rather than jumping a new hill record offline when no-one is there to witness that moment.
5. Display record lines as game setting
In the settings menu, it should be possible to select which record lines will be shown. Plain and simple.
6. Team mode for Online Mode
There should be a possibility to start team competitions. The first step is to start a team in which three other players can join. Players may choose which team to join or they can click on a “random join” button to randomly join a team. Also, a team can be filled with up to three average CPU jumpers, so that everyone can take part in team competitions, but a team with CPU jumpers shouldn’t be able to win due to the CPU jumpers being average only. Once the team is full and ready to go, the team captain can enter a team competition. The captain of the team will have the ability to kick players from the team, but only in between competitions. Also, the rest of the team might vote a teammate off with 3 votes, which could be the team captain in which case a new team captain is determined automatically. There are no restrictions as to a player’s nationality. Personal online ratings will not be affected by team competitions.
7. Quick Play Mode for Online Mode
There should be game rooms for fast play in which the waiting time in between jumps is reduced to 5 seconds instead of 10 seconds. Since there is always someone who doesn’t click the Ready button, a reduction to 5 seconds is the only way to provide faster competitions for players that want faster competitions. However, this should only be an additional mode since everyone, who loves staring at the screen for 10 seconds doing nothing, should still be able to do so.
8. CPU jumpers
Bring back CPU jumpers that don’t take ages to generate results, just like in DSJ2. There is no need to simulate their jumps since no-one wants to watch CPU jumpers jump anyway. Only generate their results based on a formula with a few key factors, that’s all we need for single player mode. Again, no-one wants to WATCH CPU jumpers ...
9. Career mode
A simple career mode could easily be added to the game in a future update. If an easily added simple career mode is wanted, I could share more thoughts on this. And no, I’m NOT talking about some super complex career mode which would certainly be too much work for a single person. A good career mode doesn’t have to be complex in order to be entertaining.
10. Offline record hunting mode
There should be a special offline record hunting mode in which there is always random headwind of 0.5 m/s to the limit of DSJ4. This way, players won't have to start and quit competitions repeatedly until the wind is "right". Also, this mode would be similar to practice mode: You play with your "own" jumper (the one from practice mode) and will have endless jumps available. There is no competition going on, you can't add additional jumpers and won't have to. You can go on hunting for new personal records as long as you want.
That's all. Looking forward to proper feedback. Thanks for reading.
Kind regards,
Andy Jakesch
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