Supercars 2 communication screens

[jotd]

Hi,

I think it may interest people to know exactly how the scoring was done in SC2 communication screens.

I'm in the process of re-creating communication screens for my SC2 remake (with bits of Supercars International graphics BTW), and to do so I heavily used the WinUAE snapshot feature + memory rip.

I thought I would be a painful and long process but:

1) in memory, last answers are the good answers
2) it's a generic system: if you figure out how the scoring is done, then it works for all screens

There are 3 possible answers (wrong, neutral, correct), and 10 questions maximum. There are 10 different rewards/fines.

Here are the rules:

- If you answer correct or neutral on the 5 first screens you gain access to the 5 last questions
- 5 first questions: If you give the wrong answer anytime you're thrown out with a score of "number of right/neutral answers" (example: on inspector test you get 3 points docked if you answer correctly/neutral at the first 2)
- 5 last questions: If you give the wrong answer you're thrown out with a bonus of the last correct answered questions starting from 5

It means that you can answer neutral or right at the 5 first questions, it doesn't matter
A wrong answer throws you out anytime
Neutral questions don't add a point on the 5 last questions, they just don't throw you out.

Minimal effort to get maximum points: answer neutral at 5 first questions, and correct at 5 last questions

I checked my theory against the game and it seems to match.
No wonder why it took me a long time to figure how the scoring worked exactly

For those who are interested I can provide the correct/neutral/wrong answers to the screens.

[DamienD]

Very interesting...

Nice investigations jotd

[Avanze]

Sounds good to me. Go for it.

[DamienD]

Just a suggestions...

Maybe it's a good idea to put the the correct/neutral/wrong answers to the screens in a .txt file and attach it to a post

This way it doesn't spoil it for people who don't want to know but read the thread

[Codetapper]

Interesting. I never found those screens particularly tough in Super Cars 2, but the original Super Cars game - what a nightmare!

I'd love to know how you can talk the car salesman down reliably. I suspect it's just random. Anyone done any investigation on it?

[EmuChicken]

I love these Supercars threads :-D

But these screens were great in the supercars series, kinda like, use your mind to answer stupid questions... and the cats vs the bomb where almost everytime it ended in me paying a hefty fine. (grrr!)

[Miggy2TheMax]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

Interesting. I never found those screens particularly tough in Super Cars 2, but the original Super Cars game - what a nightmare!

I'd love to know how you can talk the car salesman down reliably. I suspect it's just random. Anyone done any investigation on it?

Well from memory, its not random. As I played SuperCars a bit I remembered the good answers. I found that once you got a string of right/neutral answers say 3-5, the car salesman would only come up with two options, either accept the price or walk out the door. I really got into SuperCars.. its one awsome game!

[Codetapper]

I dunno if I agree with that. I'm sure sometimes you ask about jazz music and he gives you a discount for being a jazz lover, and other times he says he hates jazz and to get the hell out of the office! Same question, completely different response. Ditto when you ask if it comes with fuzzy dice, sometimes he says "Sure" and lowers the price, other times "Sorry, that costs a bit more" and bumps up the price!

Maybe someone should disassemble it and look through the code!

[Bloodwych]

Nice info jotd.

The supercars test screens were fun! However, it's so hard to resist not choosing the wrong answers, as they're funny!

I challenge you to the road test:

[DamienD]

I always found the road test pretty easy, the answer are logical

The only question that sometimes got me was the license one (as I'm used to Australian licenses)

[jotd]

Originally Posted by DamienD

I always found the road test pretty easy, the answer are logical

The only question that sometimes got me was the license one (as I'm used to Australian licenses)

The license plate one too... In my remake, which is localized, I can change that (and also the tyre pressure shit in p.s.i when we've got bars in France)

Anyway, here are the answers (directly ripped from SC2 memory with the "strings" unix tool run on it to extract ASCII) for sponsor and driving test, as well as Supercars International full list of all enhanced comm screens (with 6 answers each, 3 picked at random among them but I did not figure it out yet).

With a memory dump while in the comm screens, you can get all the good answers (they're last in the list). Example (driving test):

What does this sign mean ?
I can't see it, I'm very short sighted. <- bad answer, thrown out
Eddie Kidd in the area ! <- neutral, not thrown out, no points from 5th answer, but doesn't matter in the 5 first answers.
No motor vehicles. <- best answer


About the car salesman from SC1, I think it's pretty much the same thing, but tougher because sometimes the good answer may not be in the list, you've got to use a not so good answer to stay in play (he increases the price) and at next question you can try to lower it again.

(use Wordpad to open the docs, notepad doesn't support unix/amiga style texts)

commscreens_sc_international.txt

sponsor_text.txt

transport_text.txt

[jotd]

I think that the "neutral" question may not be as neutral in some hard comm screens, such as the environmentalist. I still have to perform some other tests.

@codetapper: Supercars salesman comm screen is not random at all. It's just a little more complicated.
There are 2 ways to lower the price: either threaten him some way - it works but it infuriates him more and more and in the end he throws you out - or find an agreeable/sensible argument. in the second case, he may lower the price, but his face shows him no more infuriated.
If he raises the price after some answer, then threatening works again.

You've got to use threats & softer answers with good measure to get the best bargain.

I remember having negociated to the last bit and got 2 possible answers: Ok, and no. Then I knew I got the best possible price.

In SC international it's quite the same except that there are always 6 possible answers.