Wreckage is an experimental version of a driving simulation. Experimental meaning that the final outcome of this attempt, if any, will not be directly based on the game engine of Wreckage. Wreckage is written almost entirely in Blitz Basic. The engine for the new game is written almost entirely in C++. Wreckage itself will probably never be able to grow enough to match the features of the new engine.
The parenthesized numbers indicate the version in which the features were introduced. Bracketed numbers indicate the version in which the features were last updated
Select your control method using the appropriate gadget. You will not be able to use an analogue joystick unless you have used AnJoyPrefs (available on Aminet) to calibrate it.
If you are using a mouse then you can change its response by the two sliders Mouse Sensitivity and Steering Return The first one controls the amount the wheels turn when the mosue is moved, while the second one controls how fast the wheels go back to the central position.
Speed-Sensitive Steering increases the steering 'stiffness' as your speed increases. If you like to do a lot of 'drifting' then perhaps you should set this to zero.
Easy Driving does a couple of things to help you out: It increases your car's downforce without increasing drag, it removes the dynamics of the friction characteristic and it removes the effects of weight shifting.
If you are still having trouble then you can check the Throttle Help option. This reduces the throttle each time a power-spin is imminent. However it kicks in a little too easily and you will not be able to get the same performance out of your car with this turned on.
If you are still having trouble then maybe you should change the Terrain Settings, the Environment Settings or the Car Settings.
The most important setting is Hill Steepness. This is the average hill steepness and not the maximum! Values around 10% are best. Checking on the Flat Around Track gadget will make the landscape at and near the track flatter. This has the side-effect of creating canyons and or high narrow plateaus! So Take Care!
Another important setting is Squashed Terrain Function. This results in the terrain being splitted into 'hilly' and 'flat' zones. Half of the time the transitions between these zones are smooth and half of the time they are a relatively steep drop. Flat parts will actually be quite flat even on very high Hill Steepness settings. It is recommended that you use an increased Inclined Turns value if you have this enabled along with very steep hills, since otherwise the randomly generated track is very likely to go straight up a 50% steepness hill immediately after a flat zone... (well, just try it and see)
When the track is generated the steepness of a curve is proportional to the amount by which the road is banked at that point. Inclined Turns can be used to adjust the sensitivity of the generator. Low values will result in an almost straight road for even highly banked tracks. High values will result in a lot of S curves as the track goes back and forth from one hillside to the other.
NOTE:The track generator function can be viewed as a simple hill-climbing algorithm. The generator always tries to turn the track towards the lowest closest point. So, if I had used a parabolic function for the landscape, the track would always go into its centre and do loads of circles there, whose radius would be proportional to the Inclined Turns setting
The other road setting is Curve Steepness. Use this with care, as it does not take hills into account. High values of this and high hill steepness will most probably result in a lot of almost-impossible turns.
Finally Bump Height specifies the amount of disturbance that your car takes when you go off-road. High values will make it very likely that you will roll over, even on a Jeep.
Gravity is the most important setting. Increased gravity increases your road grip and it reduces the amount of time you spend flying :)
Track Grip - the only other environment setting does what it says. The default value of 50% is just fine. Higher values will help you with cornering, but will result in higher friction at high speeds. (For example, max speed of F1 on straight is 340 with 50% grip, but 260 with 100% grip). Using the clutch however will give you a few extra Kmh B] (F1 goes up to 300Kmh with sleazy clutch tricks)