Hey Looney, since we were discussing it the other night, I did some testing with the Stadium Truck mod, and here's what I have so far:
-The mod itself hasn't made any further progress since you last considered switching. Still no damage model, no gauges, rearview mirror, etc.
-From my personal experience, pretty much every rally course with the exceptions of the rally versions of Nurburgring and Riverside are undrivable. Each jump wants to throw the truck into a barrel roll even if you lift before hitting it like they would in real life, so we would have to run the mod with damage turned off, which tends to make guys drive over their heads since they won't have to worry about tearing their ride up.
-The tracks themselves are too long. Personally, I LOVE these long courses, but you know how most of the guys already feel about road courses, and putting them on one that can take up to 8 minutes to finish a single lap will unfortunately turn guys off from running the series.
-Not enough VARIETY in the tracks we would run with the SST mod. Even the Dakar stages are just rally conversions of other road courses (the mountain stage is just Beer Gut Gully with sand instead of pavement).
-Lack of setups. I know the mod came with one setup to show how the trucks are supposed to act, but using the same setup over and over again on each course will get old. Plus, we don't know anywhere near enough about the mod to make our own sets for it. And, I doubt any of us would have the time to build a good one from scratch because, as said above, the tracks are just too long.
-Only one truck comes with the mod. I would be willing to paint one for everyone, but I don't know how long it would take me to do an entire league's worth of paints. Some guys would have to wait a while, and that's not fair to anyone.
-Lack of developer support. I've emailed the guys at Smiffsden a few times, even back when the mod was first unveiled on Xmas eve. I've yet to get any response. Four months is too long to wait for any dev support, we could run almost 2 full seasons in that amount of time.
These are just a few notes from my end. I figured it would help you make a decision once the current ARCA season is over. I know you're a busy guy, and I just wanted to help out any way I could.
Thanks Kyle, all valid points. I think we will stay firmly planted on the ground until a usable mod comes along. Maybe we can play with it on a off night or after a scheduled race one night. Just have to put the mod on the server. But that's all it will be for now is a novelty.
