[idea, need help] Interplanetary Rallycross.

[automcdonough]

Let me float an idea to you guys:

This is not an official challenge yet as there would be a lot of prep involved and I need help to get things ready.

Also I want to make sure the rules are 100% ironed out before the official start. There have been a lot of racing threads with half-baked rules and they aren't satisfying. I have real-life racing experience and let me tell you, if you don't pin it down 100% then someone will ride that loophole to the end. So let's get it right before we start.

I've been considering starting a challenge thread for racing. The ones I've seen so far have mostly devolved into jets+massive downforce, or people letting mods with game-changer parts enter. They don't really promote good vehicle design, and I'm looking for a way to measure performance of various interplanetary rovers. Much in the same way that most race leagues don't let you race a car unless it's an actual production model.

What I'm considering is this:

Interplanetary rallycross.

3 leagues: Kerbin, Mun, Minmus

All stock parts are allowed, ONLY stock parts allowed, and in any configuration.

That said, you will be downloading a save file which contains a course on all 3 planets. This will likely be in the form of flag checkpoint gates and/or dropped parts which look like arrows to keep you on course.

The course will have good straightaways, a few twisties, and at least one hairpin which will be large enough to turn smoothly through but I intend most people to half to take it at 10mps or slower. Catching air is allowed and I will ensure that there at least a few bumps to put your handling capability through a test. But course design should eliminate using high-speed gliding and the airplane wheels which do not turn as a legitimate strategy. We may also need to add a rule that the rover must be in contact with the ground at all checkpoints, or perhaps even a >50% air = disqualification rule. Perhaps the checkpoints will be gated? I prefer not to artificially limit the height of your rover but perhaps we can agree on a reasonable height. opinions please.

Low gravity worlds are tricky, which is why I am leaving the construction options open. I don't want to disqualify using rockets for downforce because they help and a lot of people do use rovers with an inverted engine for this purpose (myself included). I already know some people will be using them for steering and everything. The fairest way to deal with this is through design of the course, someone using that much fuel will have a difficult time carrying enough to get through the course without crashing.

If you run off-course, you must turn around and re-enter at the same point you left at.

Course layout I will attempt to make around 10mins total at 20mps pace, might take 3 laps or so. It should short enough to be fun and not tedious, yet long enough have fast sections and to make sure wheels are doing most of the work and not a buttload of fuel.

Rover must be manned by at least 1 driver, and he has to survive. The vehicle can be in any condition at finish as long as the driver is in it and alive.

If you enter a time for more than one planet, it has to be the same craft design. 1 race team, 1 car. Yes this means if you take jet turbines to Mun they are dead weight. Either deal with it, ditch them, or forfeit that planet's time. This rule is to encourage building a competent rover that is interplanetary and versatile.

If you build a different rover and want to use it's faster time instead that is fine, just all 3 leaderboard times from same person must be the same rover.

No refueling/pit stops. If you get a busted wheel then hop out and fix it but no going off-course on purpose.

Scoring will simply be ranked times for each planet, we could also figure out some type point system for overall performance to promote having 3 good times. Maybe just multiplying all 3 ranks together, 1 is best. Suggest taking video for fun and profit, especially if you post a remarkable time.

At this time there are no bonus points/etc. If you make it more difficult than it has to be by bringing a busload of kerbs or enough fuel to go back to Kerbin, that's on you. For enhanced fun and profit of course.

Let me know what you think. Also let me know if you want to help lay out a course. or if you have a super cool mod that would make it easy because this will get tedious. and possibly laggy. I'll try to keep part count to a minimum and visibility to a maximum.

If we have to make a mod for purposes of laying out a non-laggy and easy to navigate course, that may be ok. But I would REALLY prefer that everyone can participate in this with an out-of-box install.

Opinions, please.

Thanks for reading, here is a picture of my team landing for practice

Edited May 28, 2013 by automcdonough

[lyndonguitar]

My idea, the entire Course should be video-captured. then It's just a matter of who's got the shortest video (provided that you completed all the courses), + the craft file of the vessel you used.

This would be a good challenge!

When a certain deadline finishes, the top and the 5 next closest entries' videos would be edited side by side and then It's like a real race! Complete with commentary if someone wants to do it

Edited May 28, 2013 by lyndonguitar

[automcdonough]

That would be pretty cool.

I agree video would be best. Also makes it easy to pull timing.

I started a thread over in mod request section, hopefully we can get some low-poly checkpoints and signs made. Might also look into painting the course on the planet texture. This should keep things running smooth.. having 200 parts laying around would get kinda laggy for most people.

[Francesco]

you know what's the best place for catching air? Dres

that's where I'm heading right now, to test the massive rover on the bottom of this ship:

[automcdonough]

Dres is nuts!

If this works out well we can open it up to other planets. For now I want to keep it simple, doing setup and racing on those planets will take a lot of time.

Gravity between Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus pretty much cover the board.