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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rallycross is a relatively new motor racing discipline, having come about in the 1960s. Modern rallycross combines the best attributes of circuit racing and rally to produce one of the wildest and most exciting forms of racing today. With that in mind, I've devised a set of rules for a rallycross challenge for Automation: The Car Company Tycoon Game! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Challenge Description This challenge aims to try to capture the excitement and feel of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, with a realistic ruleset (with concessions to make it more fun and challenging for entrants), running through a simulated season of twelve rounds. The team that accumulates the largest amount of challenge points will be crowned the champion! Rules and Overview This will be by all accounts a very complicated and ambitious challenge, with both a user-driven driver simulation and pace control system (more on both of these later!) that entrants can interact with to give a greater sense of realism and interactivity. Combined with car to car interactions, this is not your average spreadsheet-based Automation challenge! Series Overview The Automation RallyCross League will run twelve rounds, spanning tracks the world over. Each round will run in the following format:
Car Specifications Cars will be made in accordance with the following ruleset:  Both the Engine Specification Calculator and Tire Size Calculator can be found on Google Sheets by clicking here! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you have completed your car, send it via PM to me, and you will receive a Scrutineering Report back from me, with the car's overall compliance level. Cars that do not pass scrutineering by the deadline will not be allowed to participate! Driver Simulation In this challenge, entrants will be able to customise their driver’s skills and perks according to their desires. These skills affect how a driver is able to drive their car on paved surfaces, unpaved surfaces, how talented they are at overtaking/blocking overtakes, how much they are affected by weather and how consistent their lap times.
Please do not use the Driver Entry Form unless you have received your TeamID in your Scrutineering Report! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reward Ballast and Pace Control In this challenge, a reward ballast system has been implemented. After each round, the top sixteen entries that earned the most Championship Points will have weight added for subsequent rounds, while the bottom eight entries that did not retire will have reward weight removed. The maximum permitted reward ballast for any entry is 250 kilograms, and the minimum possible reward ballast is -120 kilograms. To allow entrants to attempt to control when/how much reward ballast their entries accumulate, a pace control system is a central mechanic in this challenge. Entrants will be able to choose a baseline pace, from 0 to 10, that their drivers will drive their car in Qualifying, the Semi-Finals and the Finals. The maximum change in pace is plus or minus 1 percent, with a value of 5 being no change from baseline. Entrants can change their entries in the Pace Control Form once per week, with the cutoff for changes being Saturday at 2359UTC prior. Notice will be given when the deadline is for each week of the challenge. Finally, any entrants not wishing to participate in this aspect of the challenge, and any entrants that have not submitted anything will run at a default 5-5-5 setting, or the last submitted setting. Please find the ARXL Pace Control Form here. Please do not use the Pace Control Form unless you have received your TeamID in your Scrutineering Report! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Questions Will there be a BeamNG component to this challenge? No. It's already complicated enough as it is, and it would exponentially increase the amount of time it takes to run this challenge. What tracks will we be running? We will be running the tracks from the 2018 season of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, in the order they run in reality. You can find the Track Pack here! To install the Track Pack, extract the zip file to your Documents\My Games\Automation\Tracks folder; if you do not have a Tracks folder in your Automation directory, create one, then extract the zip file. Wait, different track surfaces? How's that going to work? Each track surface type has a time penalty associated with it; inside the simulation model each lap is divided into four sectors, which are all broken down into paved and unpaved sections. The appropriate time penalties are then applied in kind to each car. Different surfaces have different time penalties and will react differently if there is weather. Weather too?! Yes, weather. Each round of racing will have different weather for each Qualifying round, as well as both Semi-Finals and the Final. Weather forecasts will be published beforehand, so entrants will have a chance to adjust their strategies for each week of racing. This sounds pretty complicated... It's a complicated challenge, yes. For those looking for more information, I have written a challenge guide, with some insights into how the simulation model will work, as well as an overview of how this challenge will work, found here: ARXL Challenge Guide - This is important! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Submission Guidlines and Deadline To submit your entry to me, please export your .car file from send it in the following format: Car Model and Engine Family Name: ARXL-(Your Username Here) Car Trim and Engine Variant Name: (Your Trim/Variant Name Here) How do you export a .car file? By clicking on this button, right here:  Your .car file will appear in your Documents\My Games\Automation\CarSaveExport folder. Please submit this to at aisheepgame@gmail.com, along with team's name, your car number of choice and your car's country of origin. Car numbers will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis only. Entries must be received before 2359 UTC on Thursday, November 29th! (6:59 PM Eastern Time, 12:59 AM CET on Friday, November 30th) Please note that due to the complexity of this challenge, entries are capped to a maximum of 64! MrChips fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Nov 25, 2018 |
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Oct 24, 2018 03:18
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Reserved for Results!
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Oct 24, 2018 03:18
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Signing up! DTTC is back
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Oct 24, 2018 06:19
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Is "Team Red Cock Energy Liquid" too far? Motto "Red Cock! The FDA requires us to say that it is not suitable for human consumption" (it's caffienated Sriracha)
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Oct 24, 2018 13:46
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New England Motorworks will be taking part, will start work on my entry when I get home from work tonight.
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Oct 24, 2018 19:23
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Boy howdy this looks ambitious. I'm certain my thrown-together poo poo box will perform admirably
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Oct 24, 2018 19:59
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Will assemble necessary vehicle when liquor is obtained and it will probably be the same as with previous entries, slow but incredibly reliable.
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Oct 24, 2018 20:12
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Definitely going to be involving myself in this. And vehicle has been submitted. Rorac fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Oct 24, 2018 |
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Oct 24, 2018 20:27
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Glad you're all interested in this! However, I've had a couple of really big exploits pointed out to me in the simulation, and as a result I'm going to have to suspend entry submission for a couple of days to fix it. Anything that's been submitted so far will need to be re-submitted when the amended rules come into effect. Apologies all round for this.
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Oct 25, 2018 05:39
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Well, don't know what that would be but glad they were pointed out at this stage. Just out of curiosity, are there any mods that are recommended?
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Oct 25, 2018 11:21
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mekilljoydammit posted:Well, don't know what that would be but glad they were pointed out at this stage. All the mods are really good; the two HYPE MAN bodies are pretty mediocre though, since they don't have a lot of morphs and they are really unbalanced in terms of weight and drag. I'd say get pretty much everything except for the badge mods, since those are more just for the people who made them rather than widespread use.
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Oct 26, 2018 00:09
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Neat. Hope you iron out those bugs in your simulation quick, I've already gone an made a first attempt at a car that follows those rules. I'm using the beta version because I couldn't be bothered to revert, is there any big difference between it and the non-beta version in term of the car designer? Anyway, so far I've noticed that the engine limitations are painful if you want a big one, and there's nothing in the rules about power steering, just "use launch control". Car looks butt-ugly because I have no sense for design, but despite that it went through the Automation track at 2:07 without any tweaking beyond "make the wheels bigger", "make the brakes big enough" and "don't oversteer". Is there any way to make cars brake harder? I kinda know how to tinker with the other stuff, but my knowledge of brakes is just "make the brake force a bit higher than the grip and try to avoid brake fade". I guess since it's limited by grip, you want to increase tire grip so you can brake harder? Doesn't increased downforce help with that, I mean it feels like it should right? At any rate, it ought to help with cornering even if it does reduce top speed abit, so tweaking it is a valid venue of investigation.
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Oct 26, 2018 04:16
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I have a handle on these issues; I should be re-launching this sometime on Saturday I hope. There is no open beta version of Automation right now, so you can run either the normal or open beta version and it will be fine. There's nothing in the rules for power steering so go nuts with that if you like! As for tuning, well, you're on the right track (heh), but faster is always better; my advice is to make sure you're using one of the ARXL tracks from the Track Pack in the OP, since they are rather different to either the Automation track or the airfield track. And yes you're right that increased downforce does help the car brake harder, but the speeds we will be seeing in this challenge aren't really high enough for it to make a huge difference.
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Oct 26, 2018 04:52
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As for braking, yup it's limited by your grip. I'm finding the new engine rules hard to wrap my head around. But I've decided to go with a I4 with an enormous turbo.
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Oct 26, 2018 07:56
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I4 with turbo seems valid; it's one of my benchmark "beat this to be competitive" configurations.
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Oct 26, 2018 14:29
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I made an I5 turbo Sounds glorious.
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Oct 26, 2018 16:19
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MrChips posted:All the mods are really good; the two HYPE MAN bodies are pretty mediocre though, since they don't have a lot of morphs and they are really unbalanced in terms of weight and drag. Is there a mod pack or anything or should I just grab the stuff tagged UE4 off the steam workshop? I did one of you 70s ones previous and it was fun, might jump in on this one as well. (RIP my absurd FF hatchback)
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Oct 26, 2018 19:25
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Kilonum posted:I made an I5 turbo I'm going with an NA Boxer6 myself. With how much of the time is spent at either part or no throttle relative to other racing types, I think the on-demand power and lack of spool time might be a worthwhile advantage.
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Oct 26, 2018 19:47
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Submission sent. BTW, how many horses are you people getting out of your engines?
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Oct 26, 2018 22:14
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Rorac posted:I'm going with an NA Boxer6 myself. With how much of the time is spent at either part or no throttle relative to other racing types, I think the on-demand power and lack of spool time might be a worthwhile advantage. No kidding, I've been doing some testing myself and even though Bike Myson's Punch-Out!! Turbo has 150 more horsepower than the baseline non-turbo version, it barely registers in terms of lap times because most of that power is on the far end of the curve.
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Oct 26, 2018 22:15
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To be fair, the top half is the only part that matters in this particular form of sport.
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Oct 26, 2018 22:18
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I'm pretty happy with my solution - will be submitting after I make it look fancy and take care of a few other things.
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Oct 27, 2018 01:00
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Triple A posted:To be fair, the top half is the only part that matters in this particular form of sport. Automation doesn't drive like a race driver unfortunately. The boost has to come on early and ride out till the rpm limit.
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Oct 27, 2018 03:36
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EDIT: oops wrong thread
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Oct 27, 2018 04:35
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In the underbody section it says 'Offroad Skidtray Only', does that mean we have to use that, or are we allowed to use 'none' as well? It's not a big deal to me, just a little extra weight is all, but I figured I'd ask. Also, since this is mixed-surface racing, will the cars' offroad stat influence their performance on non-paved surfaces? I'm assuming not, because we're using semi-slicks, but I again I figured I'd ask.
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Oct 27, 2018 05:06
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Entry sent, though I'll see if I have to redo it after new revised rules.
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Oct 27, 2018 18:09
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Where do I find thermal efficiency?
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Oct 27, 2018 20:08
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Blackmage Yapo posted:Is there a mod pack or anything or should I just grab the stuff tagged UE4 off the steam workshop? There's no mod pack just yet, unfortunately; you'll have to go through and subscribe to them manually. Triple A posted:Submission sent. BTW, how many horses are you people getting out of your engines? This may or may not be representative of everyone else, but the test cars I made when designing the sim had between 500 and 570 horsepower. Boksi posted:In the underbody section it says 'Offroad Skidtray Only', does that mean we have to use that, or are we allowed to use 'none' as well? It's not a big deal to me, just a little extra weight is all, but I figured I'd ask. Also, since this is mixed-surface racing, will the cars' offroad stat influence their performance on non-paved surfaces? I'm assuming not, because we're using semi-slicks, but I again I figured I'd ask. You have to have an offroad skidtray; no skidtray is not allowed. Offroad stat in this challenge has no bearing on anything. Quinntan posted:Where do I find thermal efficiency? You can find it in three places; first, if you're in the engine designer, it's the percentage stat in the stats overview on the lefthand side of the page. Second, you can find it on the last tab of the engine designer, after you complete your engine's design; again it's the only percentage stat on the page. Finally, you can find it on the summary page after your car is completed as well, in the bottom right corner of the block of stats, labelled "Economy".  In the engine designer summary.  The final overview page.
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Oct 27, 2018 21:22
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MrChips posted:This may or may not be representative of everyone else, but the test cars I made when designing the sim had between 500 and 570 horsepower. 
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Oct 28, 2018 02:44
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Which version of the sim though? The latest tweak to the engine calculator, I'm having to work very very very hard to get over 500hp. edit: I've been mostly been testing on Circuit Trois-Rivières for development - in the 1:41.x range is definitely doable. mekilljoydammit fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Oct 28, 2018 |
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Oct 28, 2018 04:35
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I barely squeezed out a little over 350 horsepower. I have no idea how one manages 500 while staying within the design limits. That fuel consumption cap is a right bastard.
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Oct 28, 2018 06:55
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Oh yes, I am so in for this. Is it going to be teams of a couple of cars like SAGT-1975 was? And are multiple entries allowed?
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Oct 28, 2018 08:43
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Rorac posted:I barely squeezed out a little over 350 horsepower. I have no idea how one manages 500 while staying within the design limits. That fuel consumption cap is a right bastard. OK, so general tips on things automation likes and how to do these. Start off building a basic concept with a tune that won't throw any flags - the engine size and configuration you want. Then move it to full lean mixture (15.0:1) as a first step. Adjust things and see what that does - you're watching the octane requirements to stay below knocking. Some things like compression and ignition timing have obvious effects, some things like the turbo parameters and cam racinesss have unobvious effects. Quality points in fuel system help efficiency a lot (by reducing octane requirements) but are expensive in terms of engineering time, while at least for some builds, quality points on exhaust help and are basically free. If you're building a turbo engine, for some reason the game likes huge ARs so I always maximize that, then adjust everything else to see what the engine likes. A lot of it really comes down to fiddling around for me. Like, say, you have the engine at the edge of knocking... try backing off compression a click and adding ignition timing to the knock limit and see if it works better like that. If so, try another click, if not try more compression and less timing.
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Oct 28, 2018 14:07
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Oh, I follow those steps, believe me. I do literally exactly what you described. I just ended up jutting against the fuel consumption limit when I peaked at ~350hp, and I've run out of any wiggle room for improvements past that; adjusting anything will break a rule.
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Oct 28, 2018 19:54
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Well, this may not be an answer that you like, but what you're trying may not be an ideal engine combination. My baseline was a 1.6L I4 with 5/valve per cylinder, VVT on both cams, turbo, direct injection and per cylinder throttle. That was making more than 500hp. Part of the trick I found was try to delay boost onset - early boost makes it harder to avoid knock. It's annoying actually - the ignition timing is basically constant across the whole powerband, so the worst, most knock-prone point determines efficiency of the rest. Anyway, that's not the configuration I landed on in the end, but it should have been competitive, albeit boring. I'm trying to avoid too much detail; I figure people don't want to just cookiecutter something I tweaked.
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Oct 28, 2018 23:11
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It also seems like turbo quality is very cheap for the most part.
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Oct 28, 2018 23:19
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Bigger engines can have a lot more shiny toys stuffed in without breaking the rules, after all. My engine is a lot bigger and only makes ~480 hp, though that's mostly because I wanted more power at low revs instead of just throwing the cam up to 100. That said, I have no idea if I've made a good car or not. Mine does 1:35.12 at Killarney and I have no idea if that's good or bad because I have no reference frame.
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Oct 28, 2018 23:22
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 PepperBOMB XT (for XTREEEEEME!) I, right now, don't understand why the suspension tuning is working the way it is but it's working really well so far. I don't want to be nailed down to times before MrChips releases the revised rules, but one of my older versions of the PepperBOMB XT did 1:30.26 at Killarney. I'm doing most of my tuning at Circuit Trois-Rivières because I think it's the highest top speed course so it identifies if I do something silly with the gearing, and I'm under 1:41.0 there.
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Oct 28, 2018 23:42
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I ultra-optimized peak engine power (670 horses! 205 mph top speed!) but the car I ended up was pretty sluggish overall because, as I realized way too late, this is rallycross and not NASCAR. I'm back to the drawing board but next time around I'm going to focus on maximizing power low in the rev range rather than just at the peak.
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Oct 29, 2018 07:16
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Alright ladies and gentlemen, the rules have been revised to address a number of issues, and submissions are now open once again. Any cars that have been submitted before the suspension will need to be re-submitted for evaluation, as some of these changes are significant:
The Challenge Guide and the Rules and Calculators Sheet on Google Sheets have been updated to reflect these changes. Submission deadlines have been extended a week as well, to compensate for the lost time from the suspension. Thank you very much for your patience in this matter!
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Oct 29, 2018 08:08
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