LVP 4 - "Semi-Wanking" server

[Whiplash]

I'm kinda failed to convince Badeend to open it as a "ordinary" wanking server, but what about a "semi-wanking" server?
This is what could be done:
- random default car per each race
- not more than 5 laps (to give a motivation to average players and newbies to gain some good "lucky" laps)
- default-ish racing tracks (6-10 per cup)

What would script do:
Basically, it should make a "rally style" results based on summarized lap times. We would hunt "fastest laps", not "lap records".
Script
First race
(Let's say that AmateurA got fastest lap 0:29:352, AmateurB 0:29:425, AmateurC 0:29:498)
Script will show results and gaps of those times:
1. AmateurA 0:29:352
2. AmateurB 0:29:425 (+073)
3. AmateurC 0:29:498 (+146)

Next race
(Let's say that AmateurB got fastest lap 0:12:110, AmateurA 0:12:295, AmateurC 0:12:328)
Script will automatically summarize it with the previous results and show results and gaps of those summarized times:
1. +1 AmateurB 0:41:535
2. -1 AmateurA 0:41:647 (+112)
3. +0 AmateurC 0:41:826 (+291)

Some players could miss some of the races. Their results should be on the bottom of the list and marked somehow.
I'm sure this will be interesting way of competing and bring the good old default cars in da house again.

[Stylus]

I think this is a very good idea, I love to drive those old cars

[Alex Novo]

I am agree,i love wank and i love those old cars, good idea whipe!

[GR8Arjen]

As always, Whip manages to turn a good concept that is simple and effective, into something complicated. (Ever heard of K.I.S.?)

Can't we just have the original weekly wank back? (If it ain't broke, then why try to fix it?)

See also: http://turbosliders.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=20056

And ofc with an active standings list like we had here: http://www.turbosliders.com/weeklywank/isthmus.html

Once a week a mod picks a track and selects 3 cars, and that's it, the script and autoserver settings should run this thing all by it self. So it is not much work at all to maintain.

I also prefer the old rankings that were per lap and per track, since then you can very quickly see how fast you are compared to the other players, and thus can work on yourself to improve.

[Whiplash]

As always, Whip manages to turn a good concept that is simple and effective, into something complicated. (Ever heard of K.I.S.?)

I suggested this because Badee cried about "ordinary" wanking server. He thinks that it will be played only by Mike and Alex.
And no, I don't know what K.I.S. is.

[GR8Arjen]

Ah, well sorry there then Whip...

Badeend is clearly wrong thinking so.

If one would look at some of the older result lists of the "ordinary" Weekly wanks we had.

Like here:

http://www.turbosliders.com/weeklywank/orefield.html
http://www.turbosliders.com/weeklywank/rockfore.html
http://www.turbosliders.com/weeklywank/clockwise.html

Then he would see that many many people really liked to participate in such simple but very fun format.
It also did make people to become significant better players, and also introduced them to cars they normally would never drive.

Another big bonus of this simple format is that since your racing with the purpose of improving your ranking, you don't need to have more people in the server other then yourself. Since you can compare your times with the other players it is still challenging.

But an even bigger point which I think is the most important one: How many times people start up TS, and then quit because the servers are empty? I guess a lot!
But with the wanking server up, you can still have fun, since you don't need direct opponents on the track. This means that the chances of people being around will be much bigger, since they won't quit TS instantly, but start wanking laps. New people start up the game, and instead of seeing empty servers like normal, they see someone in the wanking server, and thus joins in as well to see who it is, etc etc. And so on and so on, more people will join, and after they get bored wanking, they now have enough people so they can race F1Fairplay, Full Contact, or do Puna.

The wanking server thus also acts as a nice gathering place, which results in more activity in general on all the servers.

Oh and K.I.S. which perhaps is better known as KISS, is a principle that stands for: "keep it simple (and straightforward)" or "keep it short (and simple)"

[Whiplash]

I agree with all you wrote there and I already used all those arguments while talking to T, dede and Badee. It's hard to understand their lack of interest.

[Ender]

Good idea!

[Whiplash]

I'd play TS whenever I'm free. But when I see THIS, I totally lose my motivation. Playing FC hoping that somebody will join you is just a time wasting. And even when people join, it becomes senseless after few matches because the game doesn't care if you're there or not. That "top 5" script gives you some kind of goal, but even that goal is pretty forced and senseless inside of such a server.
So, the main problem with the TS is a goal. Currently it's only reaching a goal to be dead.
Somebody could say: "The goal is to have fun." - but that can't be a philosophy for any game that is trying to be alive.

TS should care about these things:
- The game is there to be alive.
- To be alive the game must invent some "materialistic" reason for players to play it even if there is nobody online.
- Players should be forced to improve their skill because that's the main motivation generator - when a player is skilled, he's always looking for a new competitions to exploit that skill and enjoy his power against the other players.

To make a game fun, we can't just force people simply to have fun. Every fun comes always at least from some kind of pseudo-seriousness. Other than that, we can have some funny moments inside of servers like FC is, but even that one should be more "serious" and care more about its players on some "materialistic" way.

[shyguy1001]

It's coming! Tonight or tomorow night Punaball CL should be announced! The game will rise once again!

[shyguy1001]

Or, maybe I have to put it off a few days more... only so I can make a truly awesome promo film!

[Mike Nike]

yeah..and that promo film we gonna send to some communities, such as the haxball one and get some players to participate ...or at least get to know the game