How did you like the boat and buggy steering?

G

gsmollin

Guest
I thought the swamp boat steering, and the dune buggy steering were pretty poor. There was no way to turn the wheel, or the rudder, and hold it steady during a turn. Instead, I'm repeatedly tapping the strafe button to go around a turn, and the buggy (or boat) is weaving all over the road. A combine soldier should have stopped me and given me a breathalizer test!

"DUI, Gorden Freeman, you drunken fool, you're weaving all over the road. No, officer, its just that the stupid controls automatically return to straight-ahead when I release the strafe button, so I can't hold the wheel through a turn. Honest, officer, all I had from that vending machine was a fruit juice!"
 
It took some getting used to, but i felt like it made for a more realistic simualtion. It would be really hard to steer and shoot at the same time in a real vehicle.
 
I think the steering is good enough. I had no problems with it. The steering isnt like NFSU2 but HL2 isnt a race game. I think the race chapters were cool. :E
 
Worked fine for me. Just hold the strafe button to keep turning, no?
 
I had no trouble with the steering of either. The buggy was suprisingly easy to steer with good accuracy, which is a somewhat rare event for a first-person control scheme.

I don't see why you had to repeatedly tap strafe. You just hold strafe until your car is pointed the right way, and then let go.
 
They were both easy to steer... Just note when you use turbo in the buggy, it's quite difficult to steer, unless you brake a little bit...

But I found the boat chapter too long... My least favorite part in the game for sure.
 
I thought the vehicle controls were spot on. Not quite as good as Unreal Tournament 2004 but much better than Far Cry.
 
it was terrriable, because like consoles in first person shooters, you cant adjust in small amounts. In halo, if you want to go left 2" in .25 seconds, you cant. Because when you press left it rotates at a speed that you only dictate how long it should move at that speed. Stupid.
That being said, not only does the stearing suck, but the physics do too (for the vechiles) i'm sorry, but car reacted far too quick for any vechile on a beach.
 
So overal everybody sais that the steering is good enough. And some even love the controls. So I think It has something to do with your hands or something ;). Keep practising and you will love the steering at one day :E.
 
I thought the physics where great, steering for both veichles was pretty easy to get the hang of. I honestly dont understand why whoever felt the buggy's physics where unrealistic.. for starters you dont actually know how light or heavey it is.. and the manipulator packs quite a punch anyway.
 
I think the way both vehicles handled was fantastic, and I think the buggy is extremely light for a vehicle, but it's still packed with an extremely powerful engine. The fact that you could flip over the buggy if you weren't careful made it a lot more intense and exciting.
 
Cypher19 said:
I think the way both vehicles handled was fantastic, and I think the buggy is extremely light for a vehicle, but it's still packed with an extremely powerful engine. The fact that you could flip over the buggy if you weren't careful made it a lot more intense and exciting.
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Yea and don't forget those round light blue things on the road. They were quiet anoying but made it more fun overall.
 
xcellerate said:
i'm sorry, but car reacted far too quick for any vechile on a beach.
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Naturally. If they'd modelled it correctly with respect to how most cars actually handle on soft sand, we'd all be on here complaining that we couldn't finish the game due to repeatedly getting bogged during Highway 17. It's no fun (in a game, that is - in real life it's a fun challenge) to get out, lock free-wheeling hubs, lay down supporting grip, and employ the use of jacks, tire anchors and more, just to progress to the next area.
 
When i first played canals, it took me a fair amount of time to adjust to the sensitivty of driving the mudskipper, but eventually you adapt. The buggy was piss...same as driving in any racing game even. Gotta love the roaring when you press down on the turbo :dozey:
 
i loved the mudskipper. the steering was terribly easy to get used to and it was fun as well, running over all the combine bastards that drop down from the helicopters :D the buggy bit however, was probably my least favourite part of the game, i didnt like it at all
 
Halo still has the best vehicles in any FPS but the ones in HL2 were pretty damn good. I thought both the vehicle sections in HL2 were awesome.

(But I thought every chapter awesome so that may not be saying much)
 
The boat was nice (Liked that you could steer right and left when standing still :)), but I really didn't like the physics on the buggy, felt totally unrealistic. The steering on the buggy however was pretty good though.
 
I felt the boat was fun to drive, not sure if it realistic or not because I have never driven a hovercraft made out of scrap metal.

This is one of the first games I have see to use the games physics to make the vheicles move. like the buggy not moving if your back tires were off the ground.
 
The airboat was perfect, but with the buggy, sometimes it felt like I was driving on ice. Besides that, the buggy physics were pretty good.
 
Anyone here played Hydrothunder? It's an arcade boat racer. Playing through the boat levels on HL2 gave me the distinct impression someone on the HL2 team liked that game.
 
I liked it :D worked perfectly for me, but I uess I havent played that many car games althouh I have played a bunch.
 
xcellerate said:
i'm sorry, but car reacted far too quick for any vechile on a beach.
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Ever driven a dune buggy? They are designed to react quickly on sand. Not commenting on the realism of HL2s vehicle physics, just pointing out that it was probably the worst comment you could've made to illustrate your point. :p
 
Accually the vehicle ingame is more of a sand rail than a dune buggy. You folks from back east don't get to use them much due to your weather and terrain. Here in the SW they are common and popular.

A "True" dune buggy is on a VW chasis (Either bug or van, I've seen and driven both) and has a fiberglass body. More for just putzing around the hills and beaches. They handle amazingly well in sand and lose dirt and with paddle tires will traverse these areas even better. However, due ot the smaller engines, they tend to not do as well as sand rails on the dunes.

Sand rails are designed for higher speeds and racing in the soft sand and dirt. They are very fast and handle very well and would react much like the one in HL2. The front end is very light and if you goose it too much ( Like in turo) you will have problems steering.

Tires also make a major difference in how a Buggy or rail handles in the sand. Most off roaders who are driving all sand will use a paddle tire. If you are road driving, then paddles will get ruined quickly, so you have ot use the road paddle tires (a Hybrid) or a "Off road" regular tire.

My 2 cents
 
The buggy had massive understeering issues..this was most apparent when you hit the "Turbo", which didnt make any sense, because a turbo cant just be turned on with the flip of a swtich.

They should have called it Nitrous if anything.
 
I think Valve handled the challenge very well. To me, the vehicles felt controllable enough not to be frustrating while still providing a reasonable sense of "realism" in how they would respond to my orders.
 
I'm amazed at the quantity of responses, but puzzled at the quality. I don't understand how anybody can say that it was good, let alone "loved it". At best, it has to be mediocre, since there is no steering wheel. Are you guys old enough to drive the real thing? I have driven a dune buggy (and it was a Porche, dude, not a VW) and go-cart racers. The HL2 buggy is in between, but it felt like a video game, not a vehicle. The wheels turned too slowly when I was backing around an obstacle, and way too fast when at top speed. The automatic-centering was hideous. If Valve had just removed that, so the wheels would stay where you turned them after you let go of the strafe button, the control would have been twice as good as it was. Speed-sensitive response should have been also included, because there is no steering wheel.

Valve should have included a steering wheel too. I believe this IS a race game, since I spent so much time in the swamp boat and the dune buggy/sand rail. We've got enthusiats spend $k on computers and graphics cards, why not put in a steering wheel interface? This game is supposed to be sooo realistic, but there I was, looking at a steering wheel on the screen, and pushing keypad buttons. It's just plain funky.
 
it was nice, once i made a slide-ride. but why actually there's a low amount of jumps in that chapter? it isn't Colin Mcrae rally!
 
Teta_Bonita said:
The airboat was perfect, but with the buggy, sometimes it felt like I was driving on ice. Besides that, the buggy physics were pretty good.
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agreed.
only thing off about the buggy was the "driving on ice" part because it really did feel that way at times..

anyway good enough for me :thumbs:
 
Mr.Wotsit said:
I think Valve handled the challenge very well. To me, the vehicles felt controllable enough not to be frustrating while still providing a reasonable sense of "realism" in how they would respond to my orders.
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:monkee:
 
I thought it was the best steering in a FPS game to be honest.
 
When you drive the buggy fast you cant expect it to turn well...
In half life 2... when you drove fast (does not have to be in turbo). you couldnt turn wel...
The buggy isn't extreemly heavy... but it isn't lite.
 
gsmollin said:
I don't understand how anybody can say that it was good, let alone "loved it".
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It's our opinion.

At best, it has to be mediocre...
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Incorrect. It doesn't "have" to be anything since that's just your opinion.

...it felt like a video game...
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Captain Obvious to the rescue!

The automatic-centering was hideous.
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Automatic centering is an absolute necessity for driving games using binary controls (that is, controls that are "on" or "off", like the buttons on your keyboard). Manually recentering the wheels with keyboard controls would have been a nightmare.

Valve should have included a steering wheel too.
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And raise the price another $50? Yeah, great idea.

I believe this IS a race game...
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Nope, it is quite definitely an FPS. Trying to redefine it as a "race game" is begging the question.

We've got enthusiats spend $k on computers and graphics cards, why not put in a steering wheel interface?
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Graphics cards and the like are multipurpose. A steering wheel has very little utility outside of driving games.

This game is supposed to be sooo realistic, but there I was, looking at a steering wheel on the screen, and pushing keypad buttons. It's just plain funky.
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Yeah, it would have been so much more realistic to plant your ass in an office chair, stare at the monitor, and grip a faux-steering wheel with your sweaty little hands.
 
Vehicle control was way better than Far Cry. Anyone saying that the controls weren't realistic enough is probably missing the point - HL2 is an FPS, not a driving Sim. The controls needed to be as user friendly as possible, I doubt very many would have the patience to learn how to traverse cambers etc. just to drive to the next shooty bit.

Saying that, the Airboat handled quite a lot like my old Radio Controlled Hovercraft. Actually a bit more responsive, reasonable as it had much more powerful engines.

The Buggy's engine sound is that from a '68 Chevy Camaro - gotta love that V8 rumble!!!

Oh and gsmollin - how realistic is a game that forces you to use a keyboard to control your own legs? Let alone a car! Think about it :)
 
Mountain Man said:
It's our opinion.


Incorrect. It doesn't "have" to be anything since that's just your opinion.


Captain Obvious to the rescue!


Automatic centering is an absolute necessity for driving games using binary controls (that is, controls that are "on" or "off", like the buttons on your keyboard). Manually recentering the wheels with keyboard controls would have been a nightmare.


And raise the price another $50? Yeah, great idea.


Nope, it is quite definitely an FPS. Trying to redefine it as a "race game" is begging the question.


Graphics cards and the like are multipurpose. A steering wheel has very little utility outside of driving games.


Yeah, it would have been so much more realistic to plant your ass in an office chair, stare at the monitor, and grip a faux-steering wheel with your sweaty little hands.
Click to expand...


lmao...PWNED!!!!11111
 
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