Permanent Competition at R4K

[Cas]

When I coded version 2.0 of Race For Kicks, I made sure to include not just races (also called "challenges"), which are part of the tournament seasons, but also tracks that can be raced occasionally at any time. All tracks used for races appear when you select the "Tracks" menu, but some of them are also active for the Permanent Competition. This includes all original tracks that come with Stunts as well as a few of our own. To quickly filter the tracks, click on "See classic tracks only", which will display only original Stunts tracks (although other tracks are active too, as you can see when you go back to "See full list").

When you post a replay for a track in the Permanent Competition, you are allowed to use any of the cars currently available in R4K and you can select any set of rules (Freestyle, like in ZakStunts; Free OWOOT; Strict OWOOT, like is usual in R4K or GAR). All replays will share the same permanent scoreboard and all replays there are public (if I remember well, because I've coded this long ago). Your replay will be verified according to the rule set you select. Both the replay and the lap information will be kept so there is proof for the future. If you have created a better replay for one of these tracks in the past, you can upload it too.

Since this has been available on the site, few people appear to have noticed it so it is not as thoroughly tested as the race system is, but it should be OK. Let us know if you find any bugs. If we see more activity there, we'll keep improving the system.

[Daniel3D]

I did notice, but kind of forgot about it again.

But I also have an idea. (sorry  me again)
Can you make a new track section of "Player uploads"?
So you can upload a replay for a new track so that that track gets added (fair use applies, moderator discretion)
I had many tracks that are fun to race, but not suitable for competition. Those tracks would fit here.
But also golden oldies can be reposted. (field for track designer and year of creation would have to be added)
as well as automatic track extraction from replay and available for download.

(just an idea)

[Cas]

As a matter of fact, R4K already has the ability of allowing pipsqueaks to upload tracks, but this is disabled by default and we have to enable it for each pipsqueak. In part, it is because all uploaded tracks are going to one pool and then we would have tons of random tracks there, so it does make sense what you suggest of being able to separate that.

The site also does have a feature to set a moderator specifically for one race, but that needs some changes and isn't working very well. In the past, I've been updating the way races are stored because it was a mess too, but I didn't stop to do the same on the permanent tracks because they don't seem very popular. I discussed this possibility with KyLiE and we agree that it can anyway be reformatted at any time, so if we see there's more activity, we can get to do it.

The thing is even the original DSI tracks don't have many posters right now, so adding new tracks there would be a little premature at this time. But the idea is good.

[Daniel3D]

The thing is even the original DSI tracks don't have many posters right now, so adding new tracks there would be a little premature at this time. But the idea is good.

The original DSI tracks are 'to put it mildly' not much fun to drive.
When I drive for fun I currently drive on a normalised version of Cactus. A short challenging track but not too difficult.
Some old competition tracks are fun to drive again.
From JTK's competition (I believe) 2003a is good to.
And many others of course, but I haven't been racing much this year.

[Cas]

Yes, it's true that the original tracks are not so appealing to race on. Default earns posters because it's so well known and sometimes Skid's is appreciated too, but most tracks we race on in ZakStunts and Race For Kicks as well as previous tournaments, are more fun to try. On the other hand, for a permanent competition, there has to be something special about the track, something memorable. Maybe from time to time, there could be a poll to choose among a set of tracks that have been in tournaments and pick one to be added to the permanent competition, say, one per year, for example, among 10 nominated.

[Duplode]

In the spirit of Alan's shoutbox comment, I have just uploaded my record lap at Joe's to R4K's permanent competition. That's a very nice and ever-relevant feature, so let's occupy those scoreboards 

[Cas]

Thanks, Duplode!  I think I should start putting my marks on some of the tracks at the Permanent Competition, because I actually haven't posted on all of them yet!

[alanrotoi]

Yeah! Uploaded Bernie's lap as well.