Cars and rules for 2021

[dreadnaut]

Here we are: rules proposal for 2021!

I will remove the SuperKart, F40 and Audi DTM. The new custom cars would be:

• Trueno
  
• Lotus Esprit
  
• BMW DTM
  
• Mercedes DTM
  
• Melange
  

Two slow cars, two DTM cars to complete the rotation, and the Melange because we miss it.

No Pontiac, still untested, and no McLaren for this year. I think it would be interesting to bring them in at the same time next year, possibly together with the Speedgate—and with very low bonuses. It would be cool to see this set in Race 4 Kicks 2021!

I prefer not to increase the number of custom cars further, both for accessibility, and because a large number of cars would make the first days of each race more "expensive", and even more difficult to collect leading time. As a note, we do want similar cars in the active set, so that each race can have multiple viable cars.

For 2021, I'd like to test single-race car bonuses: the points assigned by the track author will only apply for that race, and then be reverted. As such, author points don't need to sum up to zero anymore. Points rotation will continue as normal.

A new rule will require replays to be replayable from Options -> Load replay; this means participants will have to test powergear replays before uploading. If the car crashes, the replay will be invalid. I expect this rule to mostly affect extreme powergear laps, so it should not be a big obstacle.

LTB calculations will remain the same.

[Daniel3D]

For 2021, I'd like to test single-race car bonuses: the points assigned by the track author will only apply for that race, and then be reverted. As such, author points don't need to sum up to zero anymore.

Is there a maximum to this?
Some +10 and all others -10 would kind of unbalance it (if I understand the rules correctly.

A new rule will require replays to be replayable from Options -> Load replay; this means participants will have to test powergear replays before uploading. If the car crashes, the replay will be invalid. I expect this rule to mostly affect extreme powergear laps, so it should not be a big obstacle.

As far as I know, I'm not able to load replays from the option menu. Haven't thoroughly tested it though. I thought it was broken... I will try with replays of the last live race. ...

[dreadnaut]

Is there a maximum to this?
Some +10 and all others -10 would kind of unbalance it (if I understand the rules correctly.

I think we'll still have a maximum of ten point added or removed. That's in total, not for each car. So you could change two cars, +10/-10, or 3 cars, +10/-7/-3, etc.  Removing the "sums up to zero" requirement means you could add +6 to a car, -3 to another, and that's it.

[Daniel3D]

Is there a maximum to this?
Some +10 and all others -10 would kind of unbalance it (if I understand the rules correctly.

I think we'll still have a maximum of ten point added or removed. That's in total, not for each car. So you could change two cars, +10/-10, or 3 cars, +10/-7/-3, etc.  Removing the "sums up to zero" requirement means you could add +6 to a car, -3 to another, and that's it.

Oo,..  now it makes sense...

Nevermind then...

[Duplode]

I like the 2021 rotation. While CTG's case against the Melange makes sense, I think the Audi is the most IMSA-like of the DTM cars, while the BMW is the least, so it should play out okay.

For 2021, I'd like to test single-race car bonuses: the points assigned by the track author will only apply for that race, and then be reverted. As such, author points don't need to sum up to zero anymore. Points rotation will continue as normal.

That's nice!

A new rule will require replays to be replayable from Options -> Load replay; this means participants will have to test powergear replays before uploading. If the car crashes, the replay will be invalid. I expect this rule to mostly affect extreme powergear laps, so it should not be a big obstacle.

While I can't help but feel this is a bit harsh, it seems very few laps would be affected by this rule. In fact, even my unstable Z232 replay passes this test (that Overdrijf replay is really one of a kind!). So I guess I can live with it, especially given the added bonus of not having to think too hard about validation...

[Cas]

I reckon Dreadnaut's replayability rule is a very good example of how rules not necessarily complicate things. Sometimes, they make them much simpler. I'm not defending the rule, I mean, it's fine for me, but not having it is OK too... for me, anyway, a very unskilled pipsqueak   What I'm defending here is myself and my often criticised tendency to implement rules or propose them.

Thoughts about replayability - off-topic
Back to replayability, the fact that Stunts calculates one thing while driving and another while replaying in some situations, makes me wonder what the heck the difference is inside the code. My guess is that some internal variables (coordinates, current speed, for example) in Stunts normally carry digits behind the binary point (in a fixed-point math system) during the game, but when loading, saving or when one continues driving from a certain point of a replay, this mantissa is set back to zero, losing the accumulated error. If the error was high and the car was very near the finish line or something it could crash again, this could lead to instability. Only thing not explained with this is why replays at normal speed can fail even when played continuously from the very beginning.

[KyLiE]

The proposed rules and custom cars for 2021 look good.  I'm looking forward to the start of the season!

[Cas]

Anyway, giving my thumbs up to the new set up for 2021!!

[Overdrijf]

Something funny I noticed. I just got my first pole position in a while, and I noticed the system is carrying over LTB from last season. Was that intended?

[CTG]

Something funny I noticed. I just got my first pole position in a while, and I noticed the system is carrying over LTB from last season. Was that intended?

Yes. Duplode also carried 85 (?) hrs LTB from 2020.

Jan 17

dreadnaut
@CTG That was my idea yes. You and Duplode (and a few others) can get 300h+ easily, but for those that might collect just a few hours each race, a yearly reset would crush any hopes of accumulating enough hours.