Reopening Race For Kicks

[Cas]

Hey, guys, as you may know, I'm thinking of reopening the R4K tournament. This time, I want to do it in a more organised way, so before I just start up, I'd like to check some things with you and see what the best way would be.

One thing is that I'm planning to make the races more regular and to keep record of the tracks, the final scoreboard, etc. To do this well would require that I do some PHP first, which would make it start a little later (for example, I'd like to make the site auto-record every significant event in sequence, auto upload tracks, etc.). On the other hand, I could just start in a quick-and-dirty fashion with the current system so that we already have a race and work in parallel. What do you think?

Another thing is that perhaps "Race For Kicks" sounds like it's not important and maybe I should rename it just "Bliss", to make it consistent with my editor or give it some other good and simple name. Ideas and opinions are welcome. And I also wonder if it'd be possible to link a sub-domain from stunts.hu as an alias to the site, like say bliss.stunts.hu -> bliss.dimioca.com, so that it can be more easily found?  This is not necessary, but it'd look cool. If it costs anything to do, we can just leave it as it is, no problem.

About cars, up to now, the idea was I designed a track and picked a car, usually a fast car, for everyone to use on that track. Now I'd like to start with a track for the Kart and maybe other people could design tracks too and the track creator picks the car. Being able to use more than one car on a track could be complex. If that were desired, I'd have to use some handicap system, but I'd prefer it to be at most two cars per track, so the can be picked especially for the track, so the handicap system should be more manual, unlike ZakStunts'. Opinions on this, also welcome.

Another thing I've been thinking for quite a while is running the OWOOT side of the so-called "permanent competition". If you guys want, we could run a joint effort and just make it one thing where both things could be posted, or that could be done later, as the records will be kept anyway. I've read somewhere in the forum that at some point, a few pipsqueaks spoke of resetting the permanent competition, so if that were ever to be done, it would be the right moment for me to start with the OWOOT side. But even if it's not done, I could start that too.

And well... any other thing you'd like to state, say it now

[dreadnaut]

To do this well would require that I do some PHP first, which would make it start a little later

Happy to help, and there's probably pieces of ZakStunts that we can reuse. If you put the code on bitbucket (private repo?), I can put my hands on it

I like the name though, I'd say keep it like this! We can definitely have a redirect, but Zak might be able to give you some space here too. (but that's for him to decide)

Happy to go for fixed-car. It makes it easier to design a good track I think, and easier to both run the competition and race  without thinking about coefficients.

I've read somewhere in the forum that at some point, a few pipsqueaks spoke of resetting the permanent competition, so if that were ever to be done, it would be the right moment for me to start with the OWOOT side. But even if it's not done, I could start that too.

Argh, I have been so slow on that side. Like four-years slow But! many of the required pieces are now in place. I could make a final sprint and try to get it done...

[Cas]

Hey, Dreadnaut!  Thank you!  Yeah, I've been trying to make the code as pure and simple as possible, but it still does have some confusing parts mainly because of the menu system. I could add to it or redo the whole thing in a more organised way. I'll take a look at it and see and I could send it to you so you can take a look. I'll PM you with more details on what I like and what I'd want. I know I can do it. I'm only much more comfortable with non-web programming, but in the web world, I really think nothing is neater than PHP. We can also discuss how to organise the permanent competition. We could work together. I think I had posted about it in the past. I'll PM you.

[Overdrijf]

My two cents: since this will be running alongside the mainstay of the stunts competitions Zakstunts I think it's fine to do things differently. Doing one car per track with tracks specifically designed for that car is a cool variation.

As I said elsewhere: I am available to do one or more tracks. I'm always happy to build a track for my 250cc superkart, but if anyone else has some really cool idea they want to do with it I can do the track for another car. My favorite from the original cars is the Jaguar, if the season is going to be custom car based any of them is cool really. Especially since this competition is about fast cars, can't go wrong with those. Xylocaine for instance is just plain cool.

[Cas]

Alright. I'll download the data currently on the site, so that I can get it ready for the next race. Let's put it for the 1st of October, though, if I see it comfortable, I may start it earlier.

[Overdrijf]

I've got a nearly completed kart track.

[Cas]

I think I've got the new version of the site ready. I can keep on adding touches, but the main funcionality is already complete. Send me the track when you're ready

[Overdrijf]

As seen on the Zakstunts messages: The race is live.

[Cas]

That's right!  Come and join the race!
Track: A Literal Race
Author: Overdrijf
Car: Super Kart
Tournament site: http://dimioca.com/r4k

[dreadnaut]

I'm away until Sunday, but I'll sign up first thing next week

[afullo]

I will be of the match, though not really soon...

[Duplode]

Let's go! I have just posted a test lap... it will be fun to see how far we can push the Kart here 

(With respect to the site, the one suggestion I have is to change the downloadable .trk file name from curtrack.trk to something race-specific, to make archiving easier.)

[Cas]

You're right, Duplode. The system archives each race in one directory, so at that point, the tracks could all have the same name, but put the tracks together for anything and you end up having to manually rename them all. I think I'll implement season_racenumber.trk for the track file name.

There are a number of other things I have to fix, such as the race start date. The way the messages are handled in the chat is also very messy and primitive. I left that for the end because it's not obvious from the outside.

Are you guys able to properly see the green flag, hourglass and download arrow in the scoreboard?  I'm considering changing them for images.

[Duplode]

Are you guys able to properly see the green flag, hourglass and download arrow in the scoreboard?  I'm considering changing them for images.

The flag and the hourglass show up fine here, with Arch Linux + Firefox + a few font packages which cover emojis (I guess the arrow will work too, but there isn't one on the scoreboard right now).

[Cas]

On my computer, using the IceCat browser, I noticed that the hourglass shows well on a regular font, but is invisible when italic (that is, when it's in your own lap). The flag and arrow appear normal. The new version of Tor seems to use custom icons for some items, so the hourglass looks multicolour and I think it will show up even in italic, but I have to test that. That's why I'm asking. Well, so far, so good, then