I’ve been using the create a route mode for awhile and while I do enjoy it, I tend to find it quite frustrating at times. It has a lot of potential still waiting to make it truly amazing. Here are some suggestions on what could make it better.
- Let us “paint” the racing line without driving it/make the line not tied to the car itself.
I find myself driving through the route I’m making at a slow pace trying to make sure the route doesn’t clip much or have any issues. Which later turns out to be a problem when I go to test drive it after finishing. Adding something like the free camera in blueprint mode and allowing us to “paint” the racing line would be a nice addition.
- Allow us to edit the route after we have finished test driving it/after it is saved.
This is probably one of the biggest QOL changes we could have. I find it annoying that after you finish the route you must test drive it only to discover issues with the route that you can no longer change. Please let us go back to editing the route after driving it. There is no reason we should have to make a new route just to edit some mistakes, which can easily result in more mistakes within the route.
- Placing of checkpoints in blueprint mode/not tied to car
This is another big one. Untie the checkpoint mechanic from the car. This allows for greater positioning of checkpoints and an easier time avoiding shortcuts or horrible lines that you won’t notice until after you once again completed the race and can no longer edit it.
- Toggle for snapping building pieces
It can be quite a time waster to try and perfectly align certain pieces that clearly go together. Allowing for snapping of specific building pieces would not only save time for the player but allow for less headaches in the long run. For instance, trying to make a big loop using the half like pipe pieces resulted in around a 1–3-foot gap at the very end of its completion regardless of how well I was able to place them together.
- Larger selection of custom cars for route allowed/custom grouping options
With over 500+ cars in the game it seems a little silly that we can only select 50 cars max for a custom vehicle option in the create a route. Allow us to pick more then the limit of 50 or add an option to make our own racing categories. An example would be I made a cross country style route just yesterday and realized it really wasn’t good for the bigger off-road vehicles. When going to select the custom cars that had been allowed in the race, I realized I could also not get all the ones suitable for it.
- Editing of certain objects in the world space
We can place small bushes and trees down in the editor, so why are we unable to remove those same ones already in the world? Allow the deletion/movement of objects that are allowed for placement in the editor such as plants/debris. There have been a few times I found an amazing line I wanted to create only to realize there was so many debris/plants/trees in the way that it became a nightmare to try to build or even drive through the area. Allowing this brings a greater customization to the editor and users.
- Allow no clipping of objects
Sometimes it is nice that items snap to the ground. Other times I would like if I could just turn on an option that makes the object clip easily into the terrain. This especially starts to become a problem when you want to rotate an object a specific way, but it continues to snap to the terrain rather then allowing you to clip it in easily. As of right now you have to copy a item in order to clip it easily into the ground, this should just be a toggle.
- Allow for objects to have an input for specific axis/degrees
Not sure why we don’t have a custom input for setting an object to a specific degree. I’ve seen it used in the paint/design shop and would love to see something similar added to the route editor. Having it would make it easier for more precise placements. As much as I like the precise toggle it doesn’t allow for the greatest degree of freedom when editing. Having an option to specifically enter a number and the object rotates to that would be immensely helpful.
- Allow saving the route midway through editing/add an autosave in case of crashes during editing
This is a big one. Losing your progress halfway through editing something due to an issue popping up is horrible to say the least. Allow us to save routes at any times without ending the route itself. Editing a route is a timely process and not having save features means hours of work can just be gone in an instant.
- Infinite rewind time
Honestly if some of the other things above are added then this is not an issue at all. However, as it stands right now this is highly needed. Since the placement of checkpoints and the route painting is tied to the car not having infinite rewind seems strange.
This is just my take on some of the things that can be done to bring the route editor in to its own. There are quite a few other things that can be added and fixed, and I most likely missed a lot as well. Still, this feels like a good starting point. If anyone has any other ideas that could improve the editor, please feel free to say what you’d like to see!