Change to fuel consumption

[TheCactus]

Hello everyone. Since the update that modified fuel consumption for vehicles, almost all of them became less fuel efficient. I noticed that most people didn't really agree with the changes, however, that isn't really what I wanted to talk about.

Currently there is no reason at all for anyone to remove upgrades from their car and make it stock. If you buy a stock car, you will slowly try to upgrade it. If you buy it fully modified a.k.a. maxed, you are going to keep it like that unless you prefer higher suspensions.
 

The suggestion is the following:

• vehicles with stock engine and NO turbo upgrade = consume less fuel
• vehicles with upgraded engine and turbo upgrade = consume more fuel
   

Some of you may ask why would I suggest this and why would that make sense. I will explain it briefly here below.
If the only thing that interests you is how the suggestion will apply to the server, go directly to "Back to GTA V & EclipseRP logic".

 

Fuel usage on cars

I'll not go into detail (also I am not a mechanic) but most civilian vehicles that are meant for daily driving and not racing have engines designed to be as balanced and fuel economic as possible.

• A vehicle can be fuel efficient by being aerodynamic, having good quality well-inflated tires, careful weight distribution, having a modern automatic transmission, position of the engine close to the drivetrain, etc.
  The less energy it takes to make it move, the better.
• An engine can be fuel efficient by making it produce as much energy as possible while burning as little fuel as possible.
  Diesel engines were invented to produce more power while using less fuel. With the rise of electronic devices controlling the injection of fuel, engines became more efficient while reducing emmissions over the years i.e. vtec, gasoline direct injection, etc.

There is one thing that cannot be changed: the engine cannot magically make more horsepower without burning more fuel.

When you tune your engine to produce more power, measured with horsepower, you make it so your stock fuel injectors and valves are replaced by high performance parts that are better at injecting fuel with microseconds precision, more compression. At the same time, you will have your ECU (Engine Control Unit, basically the car's CPU) know that you want more power by adjusting certain parameters. This doesn't essentially mean it is going to be less fuel efficient, but it certainly won't be a better daily drive.
 

Turbos are devices that capture the compressed very hot air generated by burnt fuel and use it to spin a turbine. The whole system makes it so the engine can suck in more cold air that atmosphere alone would allow, making it burn fuel faster. 
These devices allow small engines to produce the power of bigger engines while eliminating the fuel economy penalty at low RevolutionsPerMinute.
A lot of new cars have turbocharged engines from factory. This, however, doesn't mean you can't replace the factory system with an aftermarket one that allows the engine to produce more power. I am aware that in GTA you can't really control RPMs so you will rev your engine to the max before it will automatically shift gears.

If you got lost during the boring part, I will repeat the sentence that kind of summarizes it all: the engine cannot magically make more horsepower without burning more fuel.

 

Back to GTA V & EclipseRP logic

Engine upgrade: increases acceleration and top speed. I believe it should increase fuel usage too (each upgrade +2.5%)
Turbo upgrade: increases acceleration and top speed. I believe it should increase fuel usage too (+15%)

I would also lower the fuel usage of all vehicles by at least 20% so fully upgraded cars will consume as much fuel as they do now. A slow vehicle will actually have its perks while a racing capable vehicle will stay as it is now. Obviously the percentages can be adjusted by the developers as they deem fit.

1. This won't only reduce the amount of vehicles we see fly at unrealistic speeds but also reduce the amount of overly modified vehicles that make us all look like fast & furious stuntmen or F1 pilots.
2. At the same time, people that don't buy certain cars to go 145+ will enjoy their daily drive while using less fuel at safer speeds. New players will have to stop at gas station less than others since they usually drive stock cars.
3. Some people may even purchase fully maxed cars to downgrade them. The used cars market will be more diversified. More work for mechanic factions.

Edited October 10, 2021 by TheCactus

[TheSnipe]

+1 Very well thought out and it makes perfect sense, you won't use a daily driver that is guzzling fuel and it adds more balance to just about every element.