There's this one area, on the freeway (near beachgate, just when the freeway begins) where one onramp links to the 2 lanes going the same direction, and I always go there to patrol. The traffic is absolutely horrible, because vehicles are going VERY fast and can't stop fast enough, so they always rear-end eachother causing a huge traffic jam, and quite often, deaths. It'd be great if there were an option to have something like "Stop Traffic" but "Slow Traffic". It creates a maximum speed, maybe even toggled so that you can have very slow speeds for streets, and a decent speed for freeways and such. It won't stop cars, but it will slow them down so that they are less likely to run into things at crime scenes, or into other vehicles.

 

Thanks!

~Zelyth

Well, it could be made.
It can keep applying "Slowdown" (check SNT, it has that option for player vehicle) until the (traffic) vehicle reach that certain speed.

The speed can either be mentioned in the .ini,  or a option ingame, pressing a button combo to bring up a menu for it (yet another menu to toggle).

It would be pretty cool if something like this could be made but at least the crashes aren't as bad at GTA SA Freeways they used to all go at like 100mph +

There is just one issue with this.

 

All cars which enter the slowdown area, will slow down. (usually go from the current speed instantly to a lower speed you define) well that is great. But what about the cars which haven't entered the radius yet?

Picture it like this....Car 1 enters the radius, drops from 60mph to 30mph. Car 2 hasn't yet entered the radius, still doing 60mph. If the gap between the two isn't big enough, car 2 will not go from 60mph to 30mph quickly enough and still rear end car 1.

 

BUT let's say it does slow down quickly enough, and let's say the area can hold 4 cars on the road at 30mph. Ok, so Car 1, 2 and 3 all come in, hit the radius and slow down, begin to drive at 30mph. Car 4 comes in, just about manages to slow down but is on the very edge of the area.

Car 5 comes along at 60mph, will pile into the back of car 4 before it even hits the radius. Then car 6 will pile into the back of 5, and so on and so on.

 

You will always get pile ups in GTA IV I think, no matter how much you add slow down tweaks to areas etc.

However, I do, really like the potential this idea has. If it's done precise enough, it could work quite well. But it would take a lot of playing with different speed modifiers to get a good balance.

I'll keep my eye on this ;)

There is just one issue with this.

 

All cars which enter the slowdown area, will slow down. (usually go from the current speed instantly to a lower speed you define) well that is great. But what about the cars which haven't entered the radius yet?

Picture it like this....Car 1 enters the radius, drops from 60mph to 30mph. Car 2 hasn't yet entered the radius, still doing 60mph. If the gap between the two isn't big enough, car 2 will not go from 60mph to 30mph quickly enough and still rear end car 1.

 

BUT let's say it does slow down quickly enough, and let's say the area can hold 4 cars on the road at 30mph. Ok, so Car 1, 2 and 3 all come in, hit the radius and slow down, begin to drive at 30mph. Car 4 comes in, just about manages to slow down but is on the very edge of the area.

Car 5 comes along at 60mph, will pile into the back of car 4 before it even hits the radius. Then car 6 will pile into the back of 5, and so on and so on.

 

You will always get pile ups in GTA IV I think, no matter how much you add slow down tweaks to areas etc.

However, I do, really like the potential this idea has. If it's done precise enough, it could work quite well. But it would take a lot of playing with different speed modifiers to get a good balance.

I'll keep my eye on this ;)

No, that's not what would happen. Distances between cars would shrink, but times would not. Think of it like this: All cars entering the radius slow down at the same rate. If Car 1 has slowed to 30, then the distance it's gone is enough to slow from 60 to 30. Car 2 cannot plow into car 1 at 60; that would only work if it actually decelerates more slowly than car 1. However, if the cars are, say, 5 seconds apart, they will be 5 seconds apart in the slowed down section as well; car 2 enters the slowdown 5 seconds after car 1, completes the slowdown 5 seconds after car 1 did, but car 1 has now traveled 5 seconds at 30 mph and is not hit by car 2.

No, that's not what would happen. Distances between cars would shrink, but times would not. Think of it like this: All cars entering the radius slow down at the same rate. If Car 1 has slowed to 30, then the distance it's gone is enough to slow from 60 to 30. Car 2 cannot plow into car 1 at 60; that would only work if it actually decelerates more slowly than car 1. However, if the cars are, say, 5 seconds apart, they will be 5 seconds apart in the slowed down section as well; car 2 enters the slowdown 5 seconds after car 1, completes the slowdown 5 seconds after car 1 did, but car 1 has now traveled 5 seconds at 30 mph and is not hit by car 2.

 

Depends entirely on what method you do and what speed the vehicles are at prior to hitting the radius. You clearly know your stuff so I won't insult you by going through the maths but any competent human knows that higher speeds correlates directly to increased stopping time and thus larger stopping distances.

But to cut a long story short, look at the traffic lights.

 

Vehicles get within a specified proximity to the lights then apply the brakes (if red light is showing), some vehicles stop correctly, some fail to stop in time, come to a halt after the junction and then proceed (due to the handling) to accelerate through the junction having already failed to stop at the red light.

This variation is what causes the collisions in the first place, one car slows down and then the other either slows down or piles into the back of the car.

 

Essentially what adding this feature is doing is saying "there is a red light here" or "a vehicle has stopped in front of you here" and so the AI applies the brakes.

THIS is what I mean by the vehicles slowing down would still cause pile ups. Either you apply the exact same braking function to the AI when they get in the radius, and so don't even remotely alter the chance of a collision happening. Or you apply a forceful speed change to each vehicle entering the area, which will either cause more collisions or reduce collisions depending again, on prior speed.

 

This is why I said at the end, if it's done correctly, and you get a good balance in the speed changes, it could work quite well.

That's because the cars *stop*. 5 seconds away when *stopped* is right on top of each other. But you're ignoring that when car 2 slows, car 1 isn't standing still - it's moving away from where car 2 slows at a speed of 30 mph. The time that stays constant is front-to-front: time from front bumper of car 2 to front of car 1. If this time times the final speed is more than the length of car 1, they will not crash.

It would be pretty cool if something like this could be made but at least the crashes aren't as bad at GTA SA Freeways they used to all go at like 100mph +

 

Oh, the memories. :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KO7KL2IVCE

 

[This is not my video, btw]

There is just one issue with this.

 

All cars which enter the slowdown area, will slow down. (usually go from the current speed instantly to a lower speed you define) well that is great. But what about the cars which haven't entered the radius yet?

Picture it like this....Car 1 enters the radius, drops from 60mph to 30mph. Car 2 hasn't yet entered the radius, still doing 60mph. If the gap between the two isn't big enough, car 2 will not go from 60mph to 30mph quickly enough and still rear end car 1.

 

BUT let's say it does slow down quickly enough, and let's say the area can hold 4 cars on the road at 30mph. Ok, so Car 1, 2 and 3 all come in, hit the radius and slow down, begin to drive at 30mph. Car 4 comes in, just about manages to slow down but is on the very edge of the area.

Car 5 comes along at 60mph, will pile into the back of car 4 before it even hits the radius. Then car 6 will pile into the back of 5, and so on and so on.

 

You will always get pile ups in GTA IV I think, no matter how much you add slow down tweaks to areas etc.

However, I do, really like the potential this idea has. If it's done precise enough, it could work quite well. But it would take a lot of playing with different speed modifiers to get a good balance.

I'll keep my eye on this ;)

 

cp702 already gave a explanation.

Another alt is to have incremental areas.

Area 1 is largest area & slows down cars a little, say until 50mph, Area 2 is a little smaller & slows down cars until 40mph,  Area 3 will be smallest & slows down cars until 30mph. That way you get incremental slowdown (almost like real life) & no chance of collision.

In the menu/.ini, whatever speed value the user puts in, the script will automatically add 10mph for limit of Area 2, & 20mph for limit of Area 1.

 

You can also add a small chance that one car will be ignored in the slowdown. Therefore adding realism, as if that vehicle driver wasn't paying attention/watching the road, & he/she created a TC (if the normal GTA traffic behavior isn't able to avoid it quick enough)

 

EDIT:

Yet another alt is to increase time between when slowdowns are applied.

For eg: In SNT if you hold the Slowdown button, you will likely slowdown from any speed to 0mph in 1 second.

However, press the Slowdown button, once every, say 0.5s, & you'll slowdown at a slower rate.

So, make the script to apply slowdow to a vehicle a maximum of once every 0.1s, 0.25s or 0.5s.  This will also create incremental slowdown without use of different Areas.

The rate at which slowdown is applied can be messed with & changed until you get the optimal rate.

Edited May 10, 201411 yr by Rocking_Star101