- First of all, the suspension of all cars is extremely stiff. One thing that gives that modern feel when driving over bumps and steering is how the car leans and wheels are flexible. In SR suspension is so hard you can barely tell it's there. I remember VDrift later fixed this after a BulletX update and it felt a lot better. Apart from softer steering, when a car falls on its wheels from large heights suspension should be so stressed that its bottom hits the ground and causes sparks. Currently this doesn't seem to happen no matter what force is applied to the car. Since this shouldn't require code changes I can look into tuning the cars, if CryHam doesn't intentionally want suspension to be like this.
- Cars need more sound effects. From existing ones, I think the suspension sound needs to be tweaked so you can hear the springs coil during bumps. In terms of new sounds, I'd like to hear the clutch click when changing gears, the brake pedal and brake disk pressure when braking, and the handbrake getting pulled when using it. I added those to VDrift myself, but sadly it was after StuntRally forked. The SR code is much more complex so I doubt I can do it again, but we can at least use the sound files from latest VDrift.
* Also, I'd like to see effects for components specific to sport cars. For example, seeing and hearing short flames burst from the exhaust when changing gears. I'd also love to hear the turbo (or overcharger) on cars that should have it. You know... that wet air sound when changing gears. Although this one might go in the category of performance tuning.
- I think cars are a bit too light and should be a little heavier. Sometimes it feels like they float away when you jump off some bumps. I already asked CryHam and he said he prefers car weight as is, so disregard this one. We could however have a world gravity setting, which would allow tweaking this to desired preference as well as moon-like races
- A less important factor that can improve the feel of cars would be camera effects over bumps and in crashes (for some camera types). The camera already seems to shake a bit when driving on rough terrain... perhaps this effect could be a bit more obvious. Another idea is shaking the camera powerfully when you crash, additionally adding a blur effect similar to damage blur in FPS games (like when monsters lash at you in Amnesia or Left 4 Dead).
I might play with suspensions if the admins accept to make them softer, and hopefully the other things can be easily added. If cars can have a more realistic feel, I think that would complete the most basic features of the simulation.
