Messages

Hi @KyLiE, I won't have the chance to make a track this time, but @stanceboyCZ sounded like he was keen.

I agree with others when I say it has been a privilege to race alongside you @Argammon.

As a top tier driver, your laps have always been breathtaking works of art.
Effortless (at least, in the replay!)  and seamless combinations of moves that seemed impossible to me when starting out.

Then, when I had learned more, your style became less impossible for me to emulate, more just improbable! XD
Seeing great things done gives us something to aim at. Even if we can't achieve the same lap time, we will almost certainly push ourselves to achieve our own best, and end each race happy with our efforts.

I have also found that the pressures of life can make it hard to give ZakStunts the time/concentration it can require to do well. Your quality of life must come first, and I hope that you will still race occasionally. And even if we don't see you on the track as often, you know of course, that the community will always be here off-track to chat.

Thankyou for the inspiration, and may you always drive in powergear!

I was thinking that i could make one or more snow tracks as a Christmas special. And the only cars allowed would be: Citroen ZX Rallye, Fiat 131 Abarth Rally, Lancia Stratos, Subaru Impreza, Audi Quattro, Lancia Delta, Lancia Delta HPE HF, Lancia Delta 2 TD, Lancia Delta Evo 2, Lancia Delta Evo 3, Lancia Delta S4 and Lancia 037.

I had this idea, because i thought it would be fun. i wish there would be more cars as Suzuki Escudo, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Celica, Peugeot 205, Ford RS200, Citroen BX 4tc Evolution and older generations of Mitsubishi Lancer.

If you agree with the idea, i'll be glad for some opinions, and you can tell me what else i forgot.

Ryoma gave us some upgraded Stratos with the Gr4 and Gr5 versions, available on his Mega. More speed, and Gr5 has fully digital dashboard. They are worth a look!

Also curious about Mazda 787B, Lada Niva and Citroën XM. I have not tried any but I feel they'd be nice novelties.

But maybe Esprit and Diablo tend to overlap a little bit too much, and my beloved Oxia should not become a regular presence to keep its magical aura.

I tend to agree with @HerrNove. I love the Oxia, but its brilliance has meant it has dominated a lot so far this year. Much as I love driving it, it is becoming more of a workhorse for me, rather than a fun toy!
As such, it should probably have a rest.

The DTM has similar amazing all-round performance, but as has been mentioned elsewhere, it has yet to get a win so could maybe be given rather chance to shine.

The Niva was fun in the night-time Live race (anyone who hasn't tried this track and custom cockpits, do it!). It drove the nicest of the three. This would be a great slow car, if it could be seperated enough from the LM002.

I haven't tried the XM, but it sounds interesting.

As for the Mazda 787B, it is a beautiful, fast and stable rocketship, and would be a great addition. But as we have found when it first appeared, unless we lose some other original cars like the Jag or P962, we risk saturating the roster with similar cars..
But it is awesome

Great to see such similar times from two different routes!

Although it's giving me flashbacks from the 3 weeks I spent trying to jump that island...

1. Argammon (probably in September or August)
2. Duplode
3. MiDiaN
4. KyLiE
5. Spoonboy
6. Alan Rotoi
7. Frieshansen
8. HerrNove
9. Overdrijf
10.Mortimer McMire
11.dreadnaut
12.Zapper

I'd take this result, if we wanted to call it and go home early!?

This season's new draft of amazing drivers is making it tough at the top, but this is what drives us to learn, encourage and improve.

Wow, @alanrotoi! Magnificent!

Great to see this test session @Marco!
@Zapper what you have achieved is fantastic, it would be great to get the cars included in races at some point (maybe R4K?).
@Erik Barros will you be adding the new pack cars to your Megapack project once available?

Put me down for November
I think my track building approach suits R4K better than Zak for now.

I would also add that I would be happy to keep the number of custom cars the same, if we don't want to risk causing problems.

But in any case, we should keep the custom list well refreshed each season, and aim to include 'new' additions as well as established favourite custom cars.
(A slightly increased allowance for them would help with this, but I won't labour the point!).

With this in mind, we of course need to make sure new additions are well tested before allowing into the arena. Trying them out in other series such as R4K works well.
But I suggest we could think about a more organised test program. The aim would be to assess a new cars' performance, abilities and possible quirks, with an eye on how suitable it would be for each series.
I'd be interested to hear thoughts on this, and would be happy to be a part of such a program if we thought it would be useful. As you can guess, testing new cars in Stunts is one of my favourite activities!

Remember custom cars are know only for member of the community. If somebody comes from the outside it could be hard to learn about new and different cars and it could be an excuse to leave.

This is a good point, and is the most worrying aspect of adding more cars, of all mentioned so far. @Duplode's points are also worth considering.
I'd also agree that removing original cars would go against what we are all here for - celebrating Stunts!

However, for me one of the upsides of including custom cars is that it provides a showcase for all the work the authors put in to them.
It could be argued that a series like R4K gives a good spotlight to any custom car being raced, as everyone is driving the same car. However, participation is higher in ZakStunts, so an included custom car has the potential to be tried by more drivers.
Increasing the number allowed by 1-2 (and varying the garage each season as we do), would hopefully provide a little extra exposure without disrupting the season mechanics too much.

It'd be better to be able to vote for a track during the race and change your vote any time you want until the race is over or something like that.

I agree, this would be a good adjustment to make.

Could the solution be to have a little bit higher of a total number of cars per season?  Because yes, most DSI cars are slow, but it'd feel like treason to not include all of them   We currently have 16 cars per season, of which 11 are the original ones and 5 vary among the custom ones. How about 20 = 11 + 9 total?  Just saying.

More cars is a great solution.
Just 5 spots for custom cars does feel quite restrictive, given how many we have to choose from, and how much effort goes into the making of them.
Yes, we have other series to use them in like R4K/CCC. But ZakStunts sees higher numbers of drivers, and would surely be the best showcase for these cars (after suitable testing, of course).

About Oxia I'm a bit concern. It's beatiful with an awesome dashboard but we never tested this car. Does the automatic transmission works fine? Does it have any bug? (Pg or anti-pg) Does it has a pg bug like speedgate? Etc...

I'm not sure to add a car without a deeper test. It could end in unwanted advantages.

About the others I love them.

I've driven the Oxia extensively and it has no PG / anti-PG behaviour that I have experienced. Auto works fine.
The occasional magic carpet is all I've found!

[Peugeot Oxia]

I would generally agree with @Duplode's list:

Peugeot Oxia
It's basically perfect.

Mercedes DTM
But to be regularly raced it would need better bonuses than it received last time around.

Lotus Esprit
Hard to argue with, it is lovely to drive!

Camaro for muscle car option.

Ferrari 512TR/Diablo VT
Still on the fence with these, either would be great. FWIW I prefer NFS dash for the VT.

The Stratos (maybe Gr4 upgrade) is still worth considering. Not sure which of the above categories it is competing against for a possible place? If with 4WD Diablo VT, Diablo would win it for me.


If even some of these are chosen, this season will have some amazing drives!