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Author Topic: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars  (Read 3782 times)

Sensei

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This is a simple little browser game I've been having a bit of fun with lately. The premise is simple: you are living in Britain in a more innocent time, the year 2000. You have a low wage job, and you want to own a car. So, you save up some money, and browse the newpaper classifieds to pick out a cheap used car:

Car prices are roughly period accurate based on actual newspapers and a dynamic system that estimates for different states of wear and tear.

Once you have your car you can fix it up (most used cars are in various states of disrepair), modify it with a long list of aftermarket parts, and race against NPCs and other players or take on part-time jobs. Car stats are pretty detailed, and include hidden stats beyond just what's visible here.


Every IRL day represents a week in-game, and you get some passive income to spend on your car as well as hours of free time. You can save up to 100 hours, so you only need to check up on the game every couple days to be using all of them. Part-time jobs, attending races, and even things like visiting cars advertised in the newspaper all take up your time.

Once you start really saving up money, you can move to a bigger house (with more garage spaces) or start shopping for some more impressive cars. If you're smart about it, you can even make a profit by buying and selling cars.


I've had a good bit of fun modifying my car to top the race time leaderboards (although I haven't actually topped any yet) and talking about car stuff with people on the discord.

If you're thinking about signing up, here's a few quick tips:
-You want to look for a car that can do taxi jobs as early as possible, this is the best way to earn money in the early game. That means it has to have 4 doors, at least a 1.4L engine, and a Medium or larger cargo space. If you're patient you might get something like a Vauxhall Astra 1.6 for cheap enough that you can afford it with your 850 pounds of starting money. If there's none on sale, it's still okay to get something else in the meanwhile.
-If you're modifying your car for racing, handling parts like sport suspension, brakes and tires are a far better choice than parts that add engine power. Lightening 1 is also a dirt cheap good choice.
-Race classes E and F aren't too bad, but above that the game suffers from a bit of a 'meta cars' problem where only a few cars are viable to win, even with good mod choices. There's certainly some good ones still undiscovered, but if you want to race in these classes look at "last race" and pay attention to what cars are winning. Don't despair if your favorite car isn't a race-winner right now, big balance changes are coming.
-Be careful about clicking on cars in the classified ads. Seeing the details on a car 120 miles away will use up 4 hours of your time! If you need to know more about a car, this google sheet has a lot of information. That can save you a lot of effort finding out if a car has medium cargo or not!
-Damn, cars used to be cheap.  :'(
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Shooer

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2021, 09:10:33 pm »

This is so hilariously niche that I just have to play.
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LoSboccacc

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2021, 07:59:10 am »

very interesting. I'm just running chinese food deliveries in my trash fiat, but I didn't quite get how time works
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SOLDIER First

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #3 on: October 16, 2021, 09:45:30 am »

Looks pretty neat.
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Shooer

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #4 on: October 16, 2021, 10:34:17 am »

very interesting. I'm just running chinese food deliveries in my trash fiat, but I didn't quite get how time works
Time is just energy gained over real world time.  A job will say 35 hours a weak so you need 35 hours to do the job.

I picked up a Ford Escort Ghia since it qualified for taxi work.  Had to spend nearly as much as I paid for it to fix it enough to use it for taxi work, but worth it.
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Sensei

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2021, 12:11:46 pm »

Remember you can use your overtime too. It uses 2 hours at a time and pays 6£ per hour without using any fuel. So, it's better than some of the low-paying jobs.

As a rule of thumb, it's cheaper to buy a car in a sufficient state of repair than buy a broken one and repair it. Car prices are tied to their "estimated value" and when you spend money repairing a car, the value increases by less than that amount in most cases.
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LoSboccacc

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #6 on: October 17, 2021, 06:42:49 am »

So Alfa 156 is coming next car pack now I've an objective

e:

meanwhile sniped off the bargain section a banged up  Rover 214 Si, should get me some of these odd taxi jobs once repaired up a little
« Last Edit: October 17, 2021, 12:06:02 pm by LoSboccacc »
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Sensei

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2021, 02:07:52 pm »

I threw common sense to the wind and bought a Jensen Interceptor 7.3L instead of permanent garage space. What could go wrong?

I was mostly attracted to it because such a monstrous engine HAS to be good in drag racing, right? Well the first thing I learned is that's it's C class stock, and there's no regularly occurring drag racing events below A class. So, all of my money later...

This thing runs the quarter mile in about 13.4-13.5. That puts me on the leaderboard, technically, but I think mostly because there aren't a lot of people trying to build drag cars. It looks like I need to get it under 13.0 to actually take first in drag races. Any part I add now, I need to take something I have off, so I don't know if I can get it that low- it might have been a bad car pick altogether. I'll probably waste more money on it trying out (Extra Large!) upgrade parts though, so I'll keep you posted.
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Iduno

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2021, 09:35:35 pm »

So how do people go about making and saving money early game? Just buy a car and use it for missions without doing repairs until it falls apart?
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Sensei

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2021, 02:13:55 am »

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Your job pays enough to cover more than the wear and tear, but (for low-cost cars) it's even more profitable to just eventually buy a replacement car, rather than repairing. Your first goal should be to save up for a cheap car that can do taxi work. From there, you can save for something even more profitable: winning races (but only if you actually win) makes a lot of money, and prestigious chauffer cars, vans, and ice cream trucks can do jobs which pay more than taxi work.
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Iduno

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #10 on: October 20, 2021, 05:07:08 pm »

Yeah, Taxi Work has requirements that a lot of vehicles don't meet, but eventually you get lucky and find one. 1.4L engine (found in the name), 5 seats, 4 doors, 3 luggage capacity. Haven't found one that can do that and also delivery work, but taxi appears to pay better.
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Sensei

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #11 on: October 21, 2021, 01:18:26 am »

The big benefit to delivery work is that, if you pay attention to the job description, there's almost no mileage. That means you're saving on gas and wear and tear. For a cheaper car that might only be something like 0.66 per work hour but if you have a luxury car with terrible gas mileage, it could be a lot more. It still won't really pay as much as a good taxi job, though.
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Add me on Steam: [DFC] Sensei

LoSboccacc

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #12 on: October 21, 2021, 01:04:17 pm »

Yeah waiting for jobs with better margins is almost always worth it. I finally got my taxi running, which is nice.

How true is the track leaderboard? I see all kind of E Cars in top that ran stuttertrack in 1:45 flat, but daily races distribution seems to suggest only few are actually able to do that these days

Glad to hear championships are coming tho, that will  at least solve the issue with ppl showing up with the perfect car for each track
« Last Edit: October 21, 2021, 01:08:46 pm by LoSboccacc »
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Iduno

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2021, 04:15:34 pm »

Yeah waiting for jobs with better margins is almost always worth it. I finally got my taxi running, which is nice.

I think I saw as high as 6.50 for a delivery job, and as low as 5 or 5.50. Waiting is a good idea, and using your overtime instead is fine with the first vehicle (6/hour, and don't pay for gas).

Taxi jobs are 10 or 10.50 from what I've seen (haven't looked for low), and a car that can do taxi work can be cheap (got mine for a bit over 1k). But make sure you have leftover money for gas.

I don't know what the maximum number of hours is, but when you spend 30 or 35 at a time, you get back near zero quick.

I'm nowhere near close, but how much is an ice cream van, and where are they found?


Edit: I just found a basic delivery job for 7/hour, 30 hours. Only vehicle restrictions are no more than 90% damage to any part. Much higher than I expected. Also, I just found a taxi job for as little as 8.50. Waiting for good jobs is worth several dollars an hour.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2021, 07:52:36 pm by Iduno »
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SOLDIER First

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Re: Motornation.net - The Browser Game about Owning Shitty British Cars
« Reply #14 on: October 26, 2021, 12:26:48 am »

The singular vehicle suitable for ice cream delivery is the 1983 Bedford CF1 2.3 Whitby Morrison, holding the unique honor of being the sole Ice Cream Van-subtype of van in the game. Apparently it only ever shows up as a classified ad being sold by an NPC, and at a hefty price, to boot.
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