Ideas in my brain, discussed! Summer league(s).

[Mouse]

Hello TS community. I have been away from playing for a while (always forum lurking though) and I'm getting the urge to get into the game again. In the summer I will organize and host a league, but before I plan anything, I'll share the ideas floating around in my head.

- Real Rally Cup
A rally cup not based on racing, but time trials. Very large tracks will be used (as in real rally stages). No points to decide cup standings. Each person's fast lap for each stage will be added, lowest total time wins. Probably a short league (probably 3 weeks) as it's needed that all rounds must be completed.

- Sprint car racing.
Small, very powerful cars on dirt ovals. Probably some very close racing for all drivers. Will not be 1 single race but multiple ones (probably 2 sprint and 1 main). Not a long league, 3-5 weeks).
A few links of World of Outlaws Sprint Cars (for those who don't know this kind of racing).:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KsuMzXuHOLE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bZYjjVgfUZI&feature=related

- Demolition Derby
Small dirt ovals. High damage to force multiple pit stops for repair (very short stops). Rough racing style allowed.

- Cart racing
Antislider type car, on small tracks (640x480). No pit stops.

- Cart F1 style racing
Antislider type car. Small tracks designed from real F1 circuits (640x480). Fuel on damage off.

- NASCAR league
Oval racing, of course. Pit stop strategy about how fast your stops can be (refueling just enough to make each stint, like real NASCAR). No fuel slowdown. Probably only 5-6 tracks of different sizes.

- Super Endurance
1 hour on a very long track. Don't call me crazy, I'm Mouse I love this stuff. Not a league, but a single race event.

- Missile Wars
I made a post about this some time ago, about a short missile war league. Long missile "reload time." Wins come from most hits on other's. No deaths.



Ah, those are just some ideas i had, none of them really done in a league before. I don't really want to do more 10-week leagues, because people (and myself) usually start to get bored half way through.

Give me your thoughts on my [sometimes crazy] ideas, it will help me decide what to do this summer!

Also, any "reviews" on the Ape servers? Good, bad? It's possible i will invest in one for the summer.,

[FDV]

Cool the real rally cup

[dede]

Real rally cup sounds interesting, but maybe some beefs consider it as "wanking". Maybe the best option, then, would be to release the car and do NOT release any tracks used in the league, so that nobody will have advantage by wanking tracks before.

Sprint car racing sounds funny, but cars shouldn't be bouncy and track has to be wide and without close obstacles/guard rails: this way nobody can crash and little contacts won't result in rough racing.

Nascar league could be nice too, but again: no close rails (better having grass) near the track, and wide track! Didn't get how pitstops work though.

Also, any "reviews" on the Ape servers? Good, bad? It's possible i will invest in one for the summer.,

I personally think that having multiple TS servers on one server is bad. At the moment Philippe's server is as stable as the beginning, just better than Ape's.

[Storm]

I love the Rally Cup idea. Using the wrc cars we already have ?(they are great)

I personally think that having multiple TS servers on one server is bad. At the moment Philippe's server is as stable as the beginning, just better than Ape's.

Yep, my server is not as good as it was before more ape server's come up, anyway u free to use my server.

[Mouse]

Thanks for the feedback so far guys.

The Sprint Car racing would have no bouncy cars, but they would slow each other down if they collide (open-wheel cars). And tracks would indeed be wide enough. I would also use a sort of slowing-terrain rather than objects on the inside of the track.

NASCAR would have the same slowing terrain. Tracks though would be scaled to real life tracks, so some would be very wide, some not. As for the pit stops, I'll explain. In real NASCAR, the teams do not worry about fuel slowdown, the fat stock cars are very heavy and fuel weight is not much of an issue. I would want to put the focus on how little time you can spend in the pit. In NASCAR fuel strategy is important, fill the car as little as possible to finish the race (which is why after most races, drivers are very close to empty). In TS, you would not really calculate a fuel strategy based on slowdown, but on using the right amount of fuel, and not filling any more than needed (wasting time in pit).

Anyway, I'm thinking now that a Rally cup could be the best. I have wanted to do it for a loooong time, and it seems people like the idea. Although, I should explain a bit more detail on how i imagine it working:

The track would be uploaded as normal, for people to practice. On race day, server would be opened for the signed-up drivers to join. A time limit would be set (probably an hour) and people can do as many laps as they can in the time limit. It's even an option to do 1 lap, and stop. Or do a lap, eat some food, and come back to do more laps. After exactly an hour, race will be quit and driver's best laps will be set. Now, another thing that may turn people away is that I would not want this to be a ghost event. In previous cups (my Anti league last summer, F1) I found qualifying with ghost off very enjoyable, using a bit of strategy to avoid others. I would want this in the rally league. The track will be big enough anyway, that people can spread out enough to avoid each other, and there will be a rule to "let faster drivers pass."

Here is a picture of a rally track i made last year:



On the longest layout, it will take about 6 minutes to do a lap. The area to the bottom-right is a "wooded trails" section. Very very small width there, hard to make it though without hitting trees, need to be very careful.

I think this would be a good track to use for a realistic rally cup. Possibly with a few rounds (as the track has 3 different layouts).

[Rendy Andrian]

Can the tracks downloadable? Because i can't download your Torrington track cuz the link was expired...

[Etmil]

Question: First of all, I love the rally track, picture for which you posted above. There are different routes, I see, but during the cup, will it be up for the driver to 'choose' where to go (like in WRC they have co-drivers to read the map) or will you mark the route before, like with road-blocks? (like 3 routes for each stage, which would mean you would have to create separate track files for each, with their own 'route' defined).

[Mouse]

Question: First of all, I love the rally track, picture for which you posted above. There are different routes, I see, but during the cup, will it be up for the driver to 'choose' where to go (like in WRC they have co-drivers to read the map) or will you mark the route before, like with road-blocks? (like 3 routes for each stage, which would mean you would have to create separate track files for each, with their own 'route' defined).

I'll place barriers so people know the correct route to take for each layout.

[Scud]

This rally idea may be really cool...

[olio]

Anyway, I'm thinking now that a Rally cup could be the best. I have wanted to do it for a loooong time, and it seems people like the idea. Although, I should explain a bit more detail on how i imagine it working:

The track would be uploaded as normal, for people to practice. On race day, server would be opened for the signed-up drivers to join. A time limit would be set (probably an hour) and people can do as many laps as they can in the time limit. It's even an option to do 1 lap, and stop. Or do a lap, eat some food, and come back to do more laps. After exactly an hour, race will be quit and driver's best laps will be set. Now, another thing that may turn people away is that I would not want this to be a ghost event. In previous cups (my Anti league last summer, F1) I found qualifying with ghost off very enjoyable, using a bit of strategy to avoid others. I would want this in the rally league. The track will be big enough anyway, that people can spread out enough to avoid each other, and there will be a rule to "let faster drivers pass."

On the longest layout, it will take about 6 minutes to do a lap. The area to the bottom-right is a "wooded trails" section. Very very small width there, hard to make it though without hitting trees, need to be very careful.

I think this would be a good track to use for a realistic rally cup. Possibly with a few rounds (as the track has 3 different layouts).

Rallying cup would be awesome! But since you talk about realistic rally cup, I just have to say: that description is not a rally cup, it's wanking cup

In rallying drivers aren't on the route at the same time. They start between 1 minute, or hot group (top drivers) might start with gap of 2 minutes so that they don't affect on others driving. They also do notes before for each stage driving it through slowly, but they can't drive one stage several times and pick up the best time. Well, in Finland we also have "dark" rallies, were you don't have notes for driving, only some really bad places that organizer have marked into route. So in those rallies they drive without notes, and maybe you could go to that kind of direction with your rallying cup.

So, one suggestion: only one chance to drive the track. Unreleased track, you'll put up server where you have that track, signed players will dowload it and go to drive it offline. You said that that track is 6 minutes, so give something like 10 minutes for players to send their recordings (times). That way no one can't drive it through more than once. Getting know the track before ("notes"/bad places marked by organizer) can happen by checking out the pat

And it would be nice addition to have something like 3 or more stages (different routes on one track could do it also), so that the winner of rally would be the one with the fastest total time.

[dede]

Yeah, I agree with mr.beef olio there. Much better idea imo.

[Mouse]

I would not want the track to be undriven before the cup. As I would like to participate, my creating and testing of the track would give an unfair advantage. I think that having people send recordings within a set time could be a mess.. hehe, I don't want to attempt that.

Instead, I have a changed idea:

Track is uploaded a few days before the rally. All players join server. Laps are set to 2. Everyone takes a lap, but stops before the finish line. One driver will take off every 30-60 seconds, to ensure no one will collide. A bit more realistic. I think it's too hard to do this on a totally unknown track, unless I don't participate.
I suppose ghost on is an option, but i have a few pros and cons:

Pros -
No collisions
No need to have people wait before the start line

Cons -
Could feel like you're racing someone, if you're near
Ghost sucks!

Another option is to make a track, and not test it. It's pretty easy for me to make a big layout in little time (Inkscape vector creator). Use of high damping grass (and some walls in hairpins) to avoid cutting. And I can also watch the replay to find cheating. This way it's an unknown track (downloaded in the server) and I can play with no unfair advantage.

[Keppana]

- Super Endurance
1 hour on a very long track. Don't call me crazy, I'm Mouse I love this stuff. Not a league, but a single race event.

This could be nice, if there is full house of players, because half of players still quit racing before the half of the race. There could be two class of cars, Prototype and Street car, like in Le Mans -series. Player choose his class and do use that car the whole season, maybe 5 races at all. Fuel for 20min and refuelling could be 2-3 min, time to visit in toilet and read daily newspaper.

- Demolition Derby
Small dirt ovals. High damage to force multiple pit stops for repair (very short stops). Rough racing style allowed.

We did test this somedays on Bowl style track. Idea was simple, destroy other cars by roughing them and hope you finish last. Kind funny racing, like this Banger Racing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWCclxt1 ... re=related

[Jarno]

- Real Rally Cup
A rally cup not based on racing, but time trials. Very large tracks will be used (as in real rally stages). No points to decide cup standings. Each person's fast lap for each stage will be added, lowest total time wins. Probably a short league (probably 3 weeks) as it's needed that all rounds must be completed.

How about rally with drifter

[Mouse]

Keppana you have the same ideas as I had long ago about a 1 hour race: Long refule time so people can do.. whatever. Would need a BIG pit so people don't bump (i would hate to have my car pshed into the grass while I'm taking a piss).

I would create a new track for that race anyway, something that would have long lap times (over a minutes) so that the track would not get too boring, and people would not get in the way so often.

I REALLY want to do a 1 hour race, and i WILL this summer. Just need to choose a car type... probably a custom one.

I'll pose some "prototype" track designs.

[Scud]

Fuel for 20min and refuelling could be 2-3 min, time to visit in toilet and read daily newspaper.

That would be good idea...i also waited something like this cup, hope this will come true someday. Some kind relay system would be cool also, like in real LeMans there is couple drivers in each car.