NASCAR 21: Ignition ‘Dev Diary’ #1 provides deeper game details

Details continue to emerge on the upcoming NASCAR 21: Ignition racing title from Motorsport Games. Earlier in the week, a list of Xbox achievements for the game leaked some Career Mode features related to contract details and the accumulable Legacy points. On Wednesday, the first NASCAR 21: Ignition ‘Dev Diary’ dropped with some juicy details.

Focusing on what it took to get the NASCAR Cup Series stock cars in the game in the right capacity was the focus of the first of three video diaries. The video is just less than three minutes long, but if we could get a 30 minute reaction to the one-minute trailer, there’s a lot that can be dissected from these new visuals and commentary.

DATA DATA DATA

It should be commended that the team at Motorsport Games is aiming to make this title as realistic as possible. The dev log delves into a brief synopsis of the process of getting the right numbers to make the car feel different in different settings.

The build team utilized data from NASCAR directly to get the handle of your car, the AI’s cars, the effects of racing in a pack, and the effects of running different aero and engine packages.

We get a glimpse of what could be the tablet screen where things can be adjusted before going on the track. The user is tabbed onto the Car Setup and here we see five different setup settings for the driveability of the car.

There are some descriptions for the different settings.

• “Tight”: “The front tires will lose traction before the rear tires. The nose of the car will slide towards the retaining walls.” (The car is off the line and pointed toward the wall more than the next dot)
• Dot between “Tight” and “Stable”: “The front tires will lose traction before the rear tires. The nose of the car will slide towards the retaining walls.”
• “Stable“: “The car will feel balanced with neither the front or rear tires losing traction first.”
• Dot between “Stable” and “Loose“: “The rear tires will lose traction before the front tires. The tail of the car will slide towards the retaining walls.”
• “Loose“: “The rear tires will lose traction before the front tires. The tail of the car will slide towards the retaining walls.” (The car is more sideways than the previous dot)

They are accurate descriptions, but fairly minimalistic. Hopefully, in future updates, we’ll get to learn of a more detailed garage setting with realistic numbers for things like tire pressure, camber, and other things of the sort where these five settings can be expanded upon to a more precise level. As of now, though, we don’t know if this is all we are getting.

The menu there gives some more details such as wind speed and direction, ambient temperature, time remaining and cars on track. The other tabs we don’t get to see include Overview, Lap Data and Options.

We’ve got a good look here at two of the spoilers for the differing packages. Some intermediate tracks run the big spoiler while short tracks and road courses run the smaller one. Engine horsepower is different on these packages as well. The tracks that run the big blade have 550 HP while the small blade gets an added 200 HP on top of that.

“NOVICE” MODE

A revealing part of the diary was the difficulty mode titled “Novice” that will be introduced in this game. Per the video, the player will need just a single button to drive, comparing the virtual racing to slot car racing in this mode. That could be a great mode for young or new gamers getting their first NASCAR racing experience.

Of course, one of the pull factors has been the inclusion of rFactor 2 physics for the simulation crowd. It will be nice to have both of those capabilities if it’s done right. Most racing sims or games only focus on one or the other, where it’s fairly difficult for a kid to pick up iRacing in the same breath that many sim racers shy away from touching NASCAR Heat.

Presumably, the button will be the throttle, and the rest of the game will do the rest for you. You probably can’t hold down the button for the entirety of the race. If you do that in slot cars, the car will fly off the track. Likely, a hit to the wall or other cars will still be capable in this mode.

GAMEPLAY REVEAL?

In this mode reveal, we possibly also have our first look at some on-track gameplay. Riding on what looks like the chase cam behind Joey Logano, we can see some of the Heads Up Display (HUD) that may be available when on track.

It looks like a practice mode is in play here. The top right includes the time remaining, a lap counter and some lap time information. The best lap, the last lap. and what looks to be a rolling current lap are all underneath that.

In the bottom right is the gauge. A color-coded RPM line with a numerical reading curves around the current MPH. A shift indicator, the OT (Oil Temp) and WT (Water Temp) are also adjacent.

The gear is highlighted in the box to the right of the MPH. Under that, there is BC, TC, and SC. That could be a light up section where it shows if aids such as brakes, traction and steering are on, but I am merely speculating.

If you haven’t already, check out the dev diary embedded above and let us know what your thoughts are on the latest revelations!

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