Cars and rules for 2021

[dreadnaut]

Time travel!
Turns out that if you drive 43 tiles in a straight line in powergear, the Indy can travel through time! So I've gone ahead to 2021, since 2020 sucked anyway. It's warmer here

While the game stays the same, the Competition is open to rule changes. This thread is here to collect and discuss suggestions, and also to decide which custom cars will be allowed for the coming season.

See also: Cars and rules for 2020

[dreadnaut]

The big change for 2020 was the LTB calculations. That's done, althought there is still a display bug that I need to fix—you can see it now on the scoreboard too :| Any early opinions on its effects on the season?

[Duplode]

To begin with some low-hanging fruit: if we are sticking with two DTM cars for the next season (which feels okay to me), it would make sense to bring back the BMW DTM in the place of the Audi DTM, so that they are all given two seasons to shine.

The big change for 2020 was the LTB calculations. That's done, althought there is still a display bug that I need to fix—you can see it now on the scoreboard too :| Any early opinions on its effects on the season?

At this point, I'm getting to like the new system, in no small part because it tones down somewhat the effect of LTB on the season scoreboard (but not exaggeratedly so). It would be nice to see how a full-on LTB battle would play out under it. (Z229 had some potential -- if only CTG tried to take the handful of hours needed for LTB+1 at the end of the race...) 

[Shoegazing Leo]

Bring back that Melange!

[dreadnaut]

DTM rotation and Melange noted. It's been a while since I've driven a lap in it. (Maybe on Race4Kicks?)

[alanrotoi]

Yeah! I miss Melange. Also I would like to make a few changes in the shape and dashboard but seems I'm too dumb to use the tools I already have the bitmaps for the dashboard but can't use it.

[CTG]

Ranger? Lotus? Skyline? McLaren? Any new car?

I am really fond of Melange, but two IMSA and two DTM cars seem to be more than enough.

[dreadnaut]

I am really fond of Melange, but two IMSA and two DTM cars seem to be more than enough.

Mmmh, that's true. We could leave the Melange out for a year longer, and then we bring it in instead of the DTM pair.

For reference, we can now see which cars were in use in which season with the car podium stats.

Any new car?

Knight Industries 2000?

[CTG]

Any new car?

Knitght Industries 2000?

Ouch...

[KyLiE]

How are the car bonus percentages currently calculated for each track?

[Overdrijf]

How are the car bonus percentages currently calculated for each track?

You start with the number from last month, every car that didn't end up in the top 3 gets +1. The total amount of -'s needed to balance out those +1's (-15 if one car took all of the podium, -13 when there were three different cars) is split between the top 3 in such a way that the first place winner gets 50% of the -'s, second place gets 30% and third place gets 20%, so if one car won the lot it's -15, if one car got first and another got both second and third they both get -7. Then on top of that the track designer can add up to another +10% and -10%, freely distributable as long as there are the same number of +'s ad there are -'s, and no half percents.

We actually had a bit of a discussion about that a while ago. Since we changed from +3% for every month not won to just +1% the +/-10% from the track designer have the potential to wreck a car's chances for an entire season. So we were thinking of making them temporary. That is to say, the track designer still gives the bonuses, but at the end of the month they revert rather than carrying over. So in month A, which the Jaguar won, the Indy sits at -25% while the Carrera has 23%. The track designer gives the Indy the full bonus making it -14% in month B while the Carrera gets the full penalty for a total of 14%. Then the Indy wins the race. In the current system that would give the Indy -29% in month C and the Carrera 15% (the track designer for month C ignores these two cars altogether), while if we make the bonuses temporary the Indy goes all the way back to -39 while the Carrera gets 25%. So their bonuses are exactly as if no extra points were given or taken during month B altogether.

I've had some time to think about it, I figure this is the way to go. Especially since track designers tend to give their bonuses to cars that look like they could become relevant. This looks like a good track for an IMSA car but the Jaguar is all the way down at -15? Better give the bonus to the P962. The penalty meanwhile might be distributed among cars that are not going to be relevant this month anyway. So the system overall mildly favors whichever cars were already sitting in the competitive range.

We could even think about making the system less complex if it's temporary anyway, like maybe you don't have to give the same number of +'s and -'s, as long as neither is bigger than +/-10. Or there's a big, a medium and a small boost of +6, +4 and +2% and we leave the negatives out altogether, or...

I'm not particularly sure of the details yet, but I'm in favor of temporary track designer bonuses. In exceptional cases, like if we find out a new car was brought in at a way too low coefficient, we can have a special administrative bonus bump it up, rather than relying on track designers working it into their bonuses.

[KyLiE]

Overdrijf, thanks for the detailed explanation!  When I first signed up for ZakStunts, I thought the car bonus percentages were simply calculated for each track to make every car equally competitive, regardless of their performance differences.  After participating in a few races, I realised that this was not the case and that past results had an effect on the bonuses.  I think having the bonuses given by the track designers revert at the end of every month is a good idea.  Each track is different after all.  Whatever is decided, I think the simpler it is, the better.

In regards to which cars are used for the season, I would like to see the Superkart swapped for the McLaren Honda MP4/4 and the Toyota Sprinter Trueno swapped for either the Lotus Esprit Turbo SE or the Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R.  I am also in favour of swapping the Audi V8 Quattro DTM for the BMW M3 E30 DTM.  I would like to see the Melange XGT-88 back as well but if it will be back for the 2022 season in place of the DTM cars, I'm happy with that.

[alanrotoi]

What are DTM cars? Sorry I'm old

[KyLiE]

What are DTM cars? Sorry I'm old

The cars included in the DTM pack:

Audi V8 Quattro DTM
BMW M3 E30 DTM
Mercedes-Benz 190 E DTM

[Duplode]

What are DTM cars? Sorry I'm old

The period-appropriate trio of Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters cars created by Overdrijf: BMW M3 E30 DTM (which I used when racing you in Z219), Audi V8 Quattro DTM (which I used when racing you in Z224) and Mercedes Benz 190 E DTM (which Cork used when racing Seeker in Z225). Here is a download link, just in case. They are fun cars; I recommend giving them a go