Chapter 1409 Became a Torture Game

A perfectly good racing game was turned into a torture game.

Zhang Yan was unwilling to give up. She didn't believe in fate and tried other methods.

She tried the keyboard and gamepad, but eventually returned to the steering wheel.

Because the keyboard and gamepad were even harder!

Of course, as a qualified racing game, *Safe and Civilized Driving* also fine-tuned the controls for keyboards and gamepads to allow players to better control the vehicle.

This is a basic optimization that all racing games must do, because keyboards and gamepads lack the precision of a steering wheel. For example, a keyboard only has four states: turn hard left, turn hard right, floor the accelerator, and slam on the brakes. To turn and drift precisely, you have to rely on the game itself to optimize the controls so that the button presses more easily achieve the player's true intentions.

But even so, it was still difficult!

Because this was testing for the driver's test, not real-world driving.

The road is wide, and as long as you follow the traffic rules and lane markings, you'll be fine. But the driver's test requires high-precision control of the vehicle.

Don't even mention newbies; many experienced drivers who have been driving for years would find it difficult to adapt if they suddenly had to go back and take the driver's test. At most, they would get familiar with it much faster than a newbie, but this familiarization process cannot be omitted.

Can you pass the driver's test in *Safe and Civilized Driving* with a keyboard and gamepad?

Yes, but it requires very good driving skills.

Take parallel parking as an example. You need to carefully observe the rearview mirror, predict the trajectory of the wheels, and fine-tune that trajectory.

The "fine-tuning" alone is enough to discourage many impatient players.

Because fine-tuning with a keyboard and gamepad is much more difficult than with a steering wheel.

The methods taught in driving schools are actually for passing the test. Most students don't really master the principles of parallel parking; they just memorize the markings by rote. In the real world, many people still rely on the car's reversing camera.

But the parallel parking in the game doesn't have those markings, so it all depends on the player's raw skill.

Of course, the game developers may have considered that this operation is indeed difficult, so they have shown a certain degree of mercy to the players: players can choose to use other perspectives to pass the driver's license test, such as the rear-view perspective.

This actually greatly reduces the difficulty.

But Zhang Yan didn't believe in fate; she wanted to complete the test from the in-car perspective!

After all, there is no such thing as a rear-view perspective in reality.

Moreover, there are already some people online who have passed the driver's license test and are sharing their experiences. According to them, the system records which device and perspective you used to pass the test. The in-car perspective and the rear-view perspective are two different records.

Obviously, passing the driver's license test from the in-car perspective has a higher gold content.

Zhang Yan persevered and kept trying.

Fortunately, this was a game, not reality, so there was no need to repeatedly schedule appointments for the test. If you fail the second part of the test, you can just keep taking it until you pass.

As the voice of "Test failed, please keep trying" kept ringing, Zhang Yan felt that her driving skills were improving bit by bit. She also recalled a lot of the knowledge from when she took the driver's test before, and a lot of muscle memory was being activated.

Finally, after six or seven tries, she finally passed the second part of the test!

To her surprise, those seemingly freebie items in the driver's license test actually caused her trouble. For example, right-angle turns and S-turns. When she took the driver's test before, she just memorized the points, but now that there were no points to refer to, she didn't know how to do it, and she would accidentally run over the line.

After the second part of the test, there was still the third and fourth parts.

The third part was much simpler. It was just normal road driving, following the instructions on the screen to make left and right turns, overtake, and perform other corresponding operations. Don't even mention using a steering wheel; it shouldn't be too difficult with a keyboard and gamepad, and the difficulty was greatly reduced compared to the second part.

After the third part, there was the fourth part, which was questions related to safe and civilized driving and road traffic regulations.

In the game, the first and fourth parts were actually combined into one, and these test items were not called the second, third, and fourth parts, but "Field Driving Skills Test," "Road Driving Skills Test," and "Traffic Rules and Safe and Civilized Driving Knowledge."

The number of questions was also reduced to only 50 questions.

This should be to streamline the game process; otherwise, if players had to pass the first part of the test as soon as they started, the game experience would be too bad.

After all, many players have never memorized the first part of the test, and they would have to go and cram or ask Qian Du, which would make the game experience very poor. And even if many experienced drivers can still easily pass the first part of the test, answering so many questions would still seriously affect the game experience.

After all, there are still 50 questions even after the reduction!

Putting the second and third parts of the test first, at least the players are driving.

But Zhang Yan seriously doubted whether this was useful or whether it would have the opposite effect. Because passing the second part of the test is much harder than memorizing the questions for the first and fourth parts!

Was putting the second part of the test at the front really not meant to discourage players?

But no matter what, she finally got her driver's license!

Zhang Yan breathed a sigh of relief and sincerely felt a sense of accomplishment.

This sense of accomplishment was certainly not comparable to the sense of accomplishment of passing the fourth part of the test and getting a driver's license in reality, because this was a game, but it had a very special feeling.

Her confidence soared to unprecedented levels!

Because the driver's license test in reality has a certain degree of "exam-oriented education," and many subjects are passed by rote memorization, while the test in *Safe and Civilized Driving* is passed by raw skill.

Therefore, if you pass the driver's test in reality, you may still be a little nervous when you actually get on the road, and some people may still need the accompaniment of an experienced driver.

But in the game, Zhang Yan felt that she was completely fine and could definitely get on the road safely!

After getting her driver's license, Zhang Yan received 240,000 in start-up funds in the game, and she could freely choose a family car.

Zhang Yan took a look. The selection of these models was not as rich as in reality. About 70% of them were fictional brands, but you could vaguely recognize their prototypes in reality. The remaining 30% were existing brands, obviously licensed, but mostly domestic car manufacturers. There were only a few foreign manufacturers, and none of them were well-known brands.

When choosing a vehicle, there were no bar graphs of parameters like in other games, which clearly show the handling, acceleration, and other content with intuitive charts. Instead, the game used the parameter data from real-world car purchases.

Of course, due to price reasons, these models were basically all family cars and SUVs. There were no sports cars, and their appearances were similar.

With a budget of 240,000, there were not too many or too few models to choose from.

Moreover, it was best not to spend all 240,000. The official tips said that you can earn more money later, but you must keep some money in your account for emergencies, such as traffic fines and accident compensation. You can have a certain amount of credit and delay payment, but you still have to pay it back eventually.

Zhang Yan felt that her decision-making difficulties were acting up a bit.

When the budget is sufficient, you don't need to be so picky. Just buy the classic models of those famous brands. No matter how bad they are in other aspects, they won't be too bad. But when the budget is a little short, it becomes very awkward, because these models will always have this or that small flaw.

Either the power is insufficient, or the safety is slightly worse, or the appearance is not good... In short, if the budget is not enough, you definitely can't have everything, which further stimulates Zhang Yan's decision-making difficulties.

"Shen Che Mini? Wow, I really want to buy this. It's so small that it must be easy to park, and the top version only costs 40,000!" (神车mini = "God Car Mini")

"Hey, but will buying this car affect the subsequent game process? It's cheap, but the performance is a bit too weak."

"Forget it, let's consider a more stable choice."

"Hmm? Isn't that Da Zhong's Passat? The price is quite reasonable. The new business version starts at 190,000, plus car insurance and miscellaneous expenses, it's just within the budget, and there's a little bit left for emergency use." (达众 = Da Zhong; 帕沙特 = Pa Sa Te)

"That's it!"

Zhang Yan looked at several models, and also looked at some new energy vehicles, but ultimately chose the Passat, which currently has a good reputation, as her first car.

Of course, it's not called this name in the game, and the car logo has also been slightly changed, but you can probably see its prototype.

Although this car doesn't feel very suitable for girls to drive, it is said that you can earn money by driving a ride-hailing service in this game, and this car is very suitable for that.

If I really buy a Shen Che Mini, I would be very happy driving it myself, but will the fare be very low for ride-hailing?

It would be embarrassing to earn very little money for the same mileage.

And the Shen Che Mini is too cheap after all, and the safety won't be very good. I wouldn't dare to go on the highway if I wanted to drive a long-distance trip in the future.

After all, in this game, driving is both work and entertainment. For the first car, you must first meet the needs of work, ensure a certain degree of business and safety, and then seek higher pursuits after saving some money.

After choosing various options and paint jobs according to her preferences, she can directly drive it on the road.

The license plate is also automatically installed, and players are allowed to customize it freely, using random provinces, letters, and numbers to spell it.

I have to say, after all, it's a game, and this aspect is very convenient, even giving Zhang Yan the illusion of "it's actually so smooth."

Then she thought, isn't this what it should be! This is just a game!

Maybe it was because the driver's license test was too torturous, so that Zhang Yan was grateful for the slightest convenience afterwards.

After driving on the road, Zhang Yan's first feeling was, refreshing!

This feeling is very different from other racing games.

Other racing games start with a wild ride on the road. It is indeed refreshing, but the subsequent experience does not actually improve much. It is nothing more than more complex tracks and faster enemies.

But *Safe and Civilized Driving* is different. The first time you get on the road after getting your driver's license, you inexplicably feel nervous and uneasy, and after driving for a while, you didn't even hit anything!

You know, Zhang Yan inevitably has minor bumps in other games.