Overview of the Series
Page 1 of 1
Overview of the Series
by Steve Aboagye Thu Apr 28, 2016 7:57 pm
OSARS - Online Simulated Analytic Racing Series
OSARS is an offline series much like NASRAC, but unique in it's own way. All of the setups submitted to me are put into the game I am using manually, and all of the sessions are run by me. If this series takes off to a degree where we have a large amount of people signing up, I may need someone else to help run it for me.
Weekly Format
Races will be run weekly, with practice and qualification sessions happening during the week. Setups will be submitted to me through PM on this forum for now (until I find a way to streamline the process to make it quicker and easier for me), and I manually enter them into your driver's ratings. An initial setup is submitted to me for practice, and they are alterable after practice and qualification sessions. There will be a deadline to submit your setups before each session. I am generally lenient when it comes to the deadlines, but if you submit your setup while I am running the session, it will not be used for that session. Each session should be spaced between two or three days, and the races will (almost) always be run on the weekends. NOTE: When submitting setups, please make the subject line [track]_[session]_1. This helps me filter out which messages are your actual setups, and decreases the chance of me accidentally skipping yours.
This is how a normal week should look like (note that they will not always be like this):
Monday - Practice Opens unless it was already open Saturday/Sunday (Setups being accepted)
Tuesday - Practice still open
Wednesday - Deadline to submit practice setup (around 3:00 PM PST) (Practice is run)
Wednesday (Post-Practice) - Qualification Opens (Q setups being accepted)
Thursday - Qualification still open
Friday - Deadline to submit qualification setup (around 3:00 PM PST) (Q is run)
Friday (Post-Qualifying) - Race Setup window opens
Saturday or Sunday (normally Sunday) - Race is run, results posted.
Post-Race Sunday or Saturday - Setups open for next race
How the Setups Work
There will be a set of "Perfect Numbers" that are predetermined before the setups are accepted. These are the numbers you will be trying to match. The challenging part is you have no idea what they are, and you only get one chance at it (EDIT: with the inclusion of practice and qualification, you'd actually get more than one try).. Now, before you say "Well great, that means this is completely based on luck...", it isn't, and I'll explain that later.
The purpose of the setups and "Perfect Numbers" is this: The closer your numbers are to the "Perfect Numbers" (I'm going to abbreviate them "PNs" from now on), the greater the likelihood of your ratings for each specific category to increase for that race. Basically, the closer you are to the PNs, the higher the chance of your ratings being higher for that race. Please note the use of the word "chance". Being close to the PNs doesn't necessarily guarantee that your ratings will increase for that race, it increases the CHANCE that they will increase. This adds another element to the game, because you most likely will not know FOR SURE if you were very accurate or very inaccurate with your setup, which is why it is hard to master.
Each setup you submit to me will consist of 8 numbers. The first three will be between 0-99, the fourth 0-5, and the last four 0-6. The first three are for different components in/on the car, and the fourth will be for risk. The first number will be for aerodynamics, the second chassis, and the third engine. The following is important: The values you chose for the components (first 3 values) are NOT realistic values for real life application. For example, the value you chose for engine has nothing to do with how it will be built (for higher speeds or lower speeds, its strength, etc.). These numbers will be ALMOST completely random, and I'll touch on that later. As for the risk (the fourth number), 5 means max risk, 4 means risky, 3 is normal risk, 2 is conservative, 1 is very conservative and 0 is no risk whatsoever. A higher risk will increase the likelihood of your speed improving, but will also increase the likelihood of your speed DECREASING. A lower risk will decrease the likelihood of your speed improving, as well as decrease the chance of your speed decreasing. The higher you set the risk, the more each likelihood will be affected.
**New Factors**
These are the last four numbers. For all of the following numbers, 3 is the normal value. If you do not submit numbers for these setups, I will assume you wanted it normal.
Qualification Risk (0-6) - This dictates how well your driver will run in qualification. A higher value will increase the chance of your driver being fast during qualification, but will also increase the change of your driver being slower during qualification as well. A lower number does the opposite.
Aggressiveness (0-6) - This dictates how aggressively your driver will race. I'd say it's pretty straightforward; higher could mean faster, but could also mean mistakes. Lower could mean slower, but less mistakes. 0 will mean the least aggressive possible, 3 is normal aggression, and 6 is all out aggression.
Race Risk (0-6) - First of all, this is different from the other risk you have been giving me (the one that was 0-5). That one was SETUP risk, and it dictates the chances of your setup improving or getting worse. This one is RACE risk, and it dictates how your driver will run. It has a big effect on how consistent your driver will run; a higher value increases the chance of him running consistently, but also increases the chance of him running inconsistently. A lower value does the opposite.
Late Race Risk (0-6) - This dictates how your driver will run in the later stages of the race. A higher value will increase the chance of your driver being fast in the late stages of the race, but will increase the chance of your driver running slower as well. A lower value does the opposite.
The last three numbers (aggressiveness, race risk, and late race risk) all only affect your driver during the race. You can submit them to me at any time, so if you don't think you'll have time to submit them between qualification and the race deadline, you can submit them before practice, or whenever. Again, if you don't submit values for these factors, I'll assume you wanted them all at 3.
I WILL ALSO NEED YOU TO LABEL ALL OF THE NUMBERS YOU SUBMIT TO ME NOW. Sorry about that, I wasn't planning on adding these, but I think they will add to the immersion of the game.
Now to the "this isn't based solely on luck" part. There IS a method to this. If you're assertive and analytical, you CAN figure out which setups to use when. This is why teams (VERY MUCH like NARAC) are CRUCIAL in succeeding in this game. The teams with the best minds will and the best teamwork will succeed, and dynasties like X2X will be built. What I'm saying is there will be a pattern to the PNs; I'm obviously not going to say exactly how they will vary, but I will tell you they can be affected by track type, temperature, time of day, wind, past PNs, and more. I find this to replicate real NASCAR well, as setups change with condition. If you "crack the code" in a manner of speaking, you will succeed, and your team will as well. Of course unexpected things will happen (crashes, DNFs, mishaps), but if you are hitting the marks on the setup, results will show.
The most important thing to take away from all of this is as follows: Your success, although not solely, depends on your setups. It is very possible to have a good setup but not run well, and vice versa. Drivers can have good days and bad days, much like real NASCAR. Crashes happen, damage happens, mistakes in the pits happen, and mechanical failures happen. A driver with only a decent setup could beat a driver with a better setup, it all depends on how things go and how your luck plays out.
Sessions
Practice: Practice will be the earliest session run during the week. It will be an open practice, lasting for about 90 minutes. Everyone will participate, and setups submitted before the deadline will be used. Practice is best for understanding where your setup is at. Although results aren't completely indicative of how accurate your setup is, it can give you a fairly good idea as to whether you should make minor changes, or scratch it and try something completely new for qualification. I will try to give updates during practice sessions, so if you guys are around while it's going on I can update you on where your driver is on the leaderboard using the chatbox on the index page. I'll be sure to give you a heads up as to when it's starting, so you know when to be online.
Qualification: It will be done using the old format (as that's all what I'm using can run). It will consist of two laps, and the system will take the fastest of the two. When this series gets out of testing into the real season, it will be possible to not make the race. I will go over that more later.
Race: The race will be run on the weekend, and will most likely be shorter than actual NASCAR events due to time constraints. Unfortunately, I don't have four hours to run races every weekend, so it will have to be shorter. It will be a good distance, so no worries about not being able to climb up through the pack and all that. I'll try to be around like practice and give you guys updates on how it goes. There will also be a race summary that the game generates that I will post, so you guys can follow how it went and know exactly what happened to your car (if anything).
NOTE: After you have submitted your practice setup, you do NOT have to change it if you are fine with it. This goes for qualification as well. If you have submitted a setup for a previous session and don't submit one for the upcoming session, I will assume you do not want to change it, and will use the same setup you submitted for the previous session.
Season Format
When we start seasons after testing, they will consist of somewhere around 20-30 races. The points system will be the same as NASCAR's current one, and I am debating whether to use the new knockout chase system, or the old one. The old one would be easier for me, but may not be as interesting as the new one. I'll probably make a poll on it so you guys can have a say in it. If we use the new one, race winners will be locked into the chase, and there will be 16 spots up for grabs. If we use the older one (not oldest), there will be 12 spots up for grabs. The amount of races in the chase will be around 5-10. There may be an all-star weekend (you guys would vote on who gets in), with potential bonus points up for grabs.
Teams
I plan on teams playing a huge role in this game, as it did in NASRAC. I'm not sure what NASRAC would've been without teams, but I can tell you it wouldn't have been as fun. I suggest you start forming teams now, so when we're done with testing they will be ready to go. PM me about owning a team, and make sure you go over the team rules in the rules section. I plan on having teams impact the performance of team members in-game as well. This will not be a big impact, but it will be sizable. Teams with driver/team championships will be given boosts for drivers/equipment on their team in-game, which places more of an incentive to work hard as a team, and increasing the value of being a successful and prestigious team.
Mods/Admins
Right now, I don't see myself needing any additional mods or admins. I definitely do see a need for them in the future, when more people join. I always have people in mind, and I will contact you to ask if you are interested when I need some.
OSARS is an offline series much like NASRAC, but unique in it's own way. All of the setups submitted to me are put into the game I am using manually, and all of the sessions are run by me. If this series takes off to a degree where we have a large amount of people signing up, I may need someone else to help run it for me.
Weekly Format
Races will be run weekly, with practice and qualification sessions happening during the week. Setups will be submitted to me through PM on this forum for now (until I find a way to streamline the process to make it quicker and easier for me), and I manually enter them into your driver's ratings. An initial setup is submitted to me for practice, and they are alterable after practice and qualification sessions. There will be a deadline to submit your setups before each session. I am generally lenient when it comes to the deadlines, but if you submit your setup while I am running the session, it will not be used for that session. Each session should be spaced between two or three days, and the races will (almost) always be run on the weekends. NOTE: When submitting setups, please make the subject line [track]_[session]_1. This helps me filter out which messages are your actual setups, and decreases the chance of me accidentally skipping yours.
This is how a normal week should look like (note that they will not always be like this):
Monday - Practice Opens unless it was already open Saturday/Sunday (Setups being accepted)
Tuesday - Practice still open
Wednesday - Deadline to submit practice setup (around 3:00 PM PST) (Practice is run)
Wednesday (Post-Practice) - Qualification Opens (Q setups being accepted)
Thursday - Qualification still open
Friday - Deadline to submit qualification setup (around 3:00 PM PST) (Q is run)
Friday (Post-Qualifying) - Race Setup window opens
Saturday or Sunday (normally Sunday) - Race is run, results posted.
Post-Race Sunday or Saturday - Setups open for next race
How the Setups Work
There will be a set of "Perfect Numbers" that are predetermined before the setups are accepted. These are the numbers you will be trying to match. The challenging part is you have no idea what they are, and you only get one chance at it (EDIT: with the inclusion of practice and qualification, you'd actually get more than one try).. Now, before you say "Well great, that means this is completely based on luck...", it isn't, and I'll explain that later.
The purpose of the setups and "Perfect Numbers" is this: The closer your numbers are to the "Perfect Numbers" (I'm going to abbreviate them "PNs" from now on), the greater the likelihood of your ratings for each specific category to increase for that race. Basically, the closer you are to the PNs, the higher the chance of your ratings being higher for that race. Please note the use of the word "chance". Being close to the PNs doesn't necessarily guarantee that your ratings will increase for that race, it increases the CHANCE that they will increase. This adds another element to the game, because you most likely will not know FOR SURE if you were very accurate or very inaccurate with your setup, which is why it is hard to master.
Each setup you submit to me will consist of 8 numbers. The first three will be between 0-99, the fourth 0-5, and the last four 0-6. The first three are for different components in/on the car, and the fourth will be for risk. The first number will be for aerodynamics, the second chassis, and the third engine. The following is important: The values you chose for the components (first 3 values) are NOT realistic values for real life application. For example, the value you chose for engine has nothing to do with how it will be built (for higher speeds or lower speeds, its strength, etc.). These numbers will be ALMOST completely random, and I'll touch on that later. As for the risk (the fourth number), 5 means max risk, 4 means risky, 3 is normal risk, 2 is conservative, 1 is very conservative and 0 is no risk whatsoever. A higher risk will increase the likelihood of your speed improving, but will also increase the likelihood of your speed DECREASING. A lower risk will decrease the likelihood of your speed improving, as well as decrease the chance of your speed decreasing. The higher you set the risk, the more each likelihood will be affected.
**New Factors**
These are the last four numbers. For all of the following numbers, 3 is the normal value. If you do not submit numbers for these setups, I will assume you wanted it normal.
Qualification Risk (0-6) - This dictates how well your driver will run in qualification. A higher value will increase the chance of your driver being fast during qualification, but will also increase the change of your driver being slower during qualification as well. A lower number does the opposite.
Aggressiveness (0-6) - This dictates how aggressively your driver will race. I'd say it's pretty straightforward; higher could mean faster, but could also mean mistakes. Lower could mean slower, but less mistakes. 0 will mean the least aggressive possible, 3 is normal aggression, and 6 is all out aggression.
Race Risk (0-6) - First of all, this is different from the other risk you have been giving me (the one that was 0-5). That one was SETUP risk, and it dictates the chances of your setup improving or getting worse. This one is RACE risk, and it dictates how your driver will run. It has a big effect on how consistent your driver will run; a higher value increases the chance of him running consistently, but also increases the chance of him running inconsistently. A lower value does the opposite.
Late Race Risk (0-6) - This dictates how your driver will run in the later stages of the race. A higher value will increase the chance of your driver being fast in the late stages of the race, but will increase the chance of your driver running slower as well. A lower value does the opposite.
The last three numbers (aggressiveness, race risk, and late race risk) all only affect your driver during the race. You can submit them to me at any time, so if you don't think you'll have time to submit them between qualification and the race deadline, you can submit them before practice, or whenever. Again, if you don't submit values for these factors, I'll assume you wanted them all at 3.
I WILL ALSO NEED YOU TO LABEL ALL OF THE NUMBERS YOU SUBMIT TO ME NOW. Sorry about that, I wasn't planning on adding these, but I think they will add to the immersion of the game.
Now to the "this isn't based solely on luck" part. There IS a method to this. If you're assertive and analytical, you CAN figure out which setups to use when. This is why teams (VERY MUCH like NARAC) are CRUCIAL in succeeding in this game. The teams with the best minds will and the best teamwork will succeed, and dynasties like X2X will be built. What I'm saying is there will be a pattern to the PNs; I'm obviously not going to say exactly how they will vary, but I will tell you they can be affected by track type, temperature, time of day, wind, past PNs, and more. I find this to replicate real NASCAR well, as setups change with condition. If you "crack the code" in a manner of speaking, you will succeed, and your team will as well. Of course unexpected things will happen (crashes, DNFs, mishaps), but if you are hitting the marks on the setup, results will show.
The most important thing to take away from all of this is as follows: Your success, although not solely, depends on your setups. It is very possible to have a good setup but not run well, and vice versa. Drivers can have good days and bad days, much like real NASCAR. Crashes happen, damage happens, mistakes in the pits happen, and mechanical failures happen. A driver with only a decent setup could beat a driver with a better setup, it all depends on how things go and how your luck plays out.
Sessions
Practice: Practice will be the earliest session run during the week. It will be an open practice, lasting for about 90 minutes. Everyone will participate, and setups submitted before the deadline will be used. Practice is best for understanding where your setup is at. Although results aren't completely indicative of how accurate your setup is, it can give you a fairly good idea as to whether you should make minor changes, or scratch it and try something completely new for qualification. I will try to give updates during practice sessions, so if you guys are around while it's going on I can update you on where your driver is on the leaderboard using the chatbox on the index page. I'll be sure to give you a heads up as to when it's starting, so you know when to be online.
Qualification: It will be done using the old format (as that's all what I'm using can run). It will consist of two laps, and the system will take the fastest of the two. When this series gets out of testing into the real season, it will be possible to not make the race. I will go over that more later.
Race: The race will be run on the weekend, and will most likely be shorter than actual NASCAR events due to time constraints. Unfortunately, I don't have four hours to run races every weekend, so it will have to be shorter. It will be a good distance, so no worries about not being able to climb up through the pack and all that. I'll try to be around like practice and give you guys updates on how it goes. There will also be a race summary that the game generates that I will post, so you guys can follow how it went and know exactly what happened to your car (if anything).
NOTE: After you have submitted your practice setup, you do NOT have to change it if you are fine with it. This goes for qualification as well. If you have submitted a setup for a previous session and don't submit one for the upcoming session, I will assume you do not want to change it, and will use the same setup you submitted for the previous session.
Season Format
When we start seasons after testing, they will consist of somewhere around 20-30 races. The points system will be the same as NASCAR's current one, and I am debating whether to use the new knockout chase system, or the old one. The old one would be easier for me, but may not be as interesting as the new one. I'll probably make a poll on it so you guys can have a say in it. If we use the new one, race winners will be locked into the chase, and there will be 16 spots up for grabs. If we use the older one (not oldest), there will be 12 spots up for grabs. The amount of races in the chase will be around 5-10. There may be an all-star weekend (you guys would vote on who gets in), with potential bonus points up for grabs.
Teams
I plan on teams playing a huge role in this game, as it did in NASRAC. I'm not sure what NASRAC would've been without teams, but I can tell you it wouldn't have been as fun. I suggest you start forming teams now, so when we're done with testing they will be ready to go. PM me about owning a team, and make sure you go over the team rules in the rules section. I plan on having teams impact the performance of team members in-game as well. This will not be a big impact, but it will be sizable. Teams with driver/team championships will be given boosts for drivers/equipment on their team in-game, which places more of an incentive to work hard as a team, and increasing the value of being a successful and prestigious team.
Mods/Admins
Right now, I don't see myself needing any additional mods or admins. I definitely do see a need for them in the future, when more people join. I always have people in mind, and I will contact you to ask if you are interested when I need some.
Steve Aboagye- Admin
- Posts : 19
Join date : 2016-04-19 -
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