Rudyard's David & Goliath Chase Challenge

I hope people don’t object to me launching this challenge, while I have another competition currently active – if the majority of members think this is too much, then of course I can postpone the event for later. I thought this might be a somewhat light-hearted event that shouldn't take up too much of peoples' time, although perhaps some may find it a touch boring (apologies if this applies to anyone!)

The premise of the challenge is ‘little versus large’. Weaving through a field of hulking multi-tonne monsters with your wee flyweight machine around tight, twisty courses. Deft car control and quick reactions should be just as important as outright speed and racings lines as you tiptoe between trucks, trying to avoid heavy collisions.

Race Settings in the 'Game Set-Up' tab of a private lobby are as follows:
Rules
Number of AI Cars: 11
AI Difficulty: Professional
Damage level: Simulation
Collisions: Default
Advanced Rules (Click RB on Controller)
Grid Ordering: PI
Ascending: Set this so that you always start from the back of the grid. See individual legs, below
Per Car Roll Off Delay: This will be 1 or 2 seconds depending on the race - see individual legs, below
Timer: Give yourself plenty of time to finish each race!

For each leg you will drive a designated small vehicle (in stock PI form – no upgrades or tuning permitted), and race against an AI field comprising of 11 designated large vehicles (all stock, and all the same type) for each leg. Staggered (roll off delayed) starts will be used with you (the entrant) always positioned last on the grid.

The objective is to gain as many positions as you can in each race, while sustaining minimal damage.

Scoring: If you finish 4th in a race then you are awarded 4 points for that leg (e.g. 2 points for 2nd place and 8 points for 8th position…). However, incurring excessive damage can lead to additional point penalties (see below). The entrant with the lowest combined points tally over the four legs is the winner.

Replays: A replay of each race uploaded to the storefront would be ideal (and appreciated), but is not necessary – hopefully we can trust each other to announce our results honestly (please no cheating)!

Damage: Entrants must check the damage cost at the end of each race as penalties may be applied (the damage penalty is to encourage precise and controlled driving rather than a gung-ho, late breaking and smashing approach to every corner!). If damage amounting to more than 1,000CR is sustained, a plus one point penalty will be applied. Any damage amounting to more than 3,000CR will incur a plus two point penalty. For example, if you finish 7th in a race with 3,280CR of damage, then you will score 9 points (7 for the race position plus 2 for the damage penalty). If you forget to check your damage CR at the end of a race, I think it’s only fair that you re-do the race again (they don’t take long). Again, there will be no way to verify damage sustained (short of taking a photo of the screen and uploading it), so we will be relying on entrant’s honesty here!


The Six Races (Legs):

1.Fujimi - Old Downhill
Number of Laps: point-to-point (4.8 miles)
Entrant Car: VW Rabbit GTi (PI: F182)
AI Cars: 11x Hummer H1 Alpha (PI: F151)
Grid Order PI – Ascending: YES
Start/Roll Off Delay: 2 Second Intervals

2.Fujimi - New Downhill
Number of Laps: point-to-point (5.4 miles)
Entrant Car: Lotus Exige Cup 240 (PI: A510)
AI Cars: 11x BMW X5 M (PI: A508)
Grid Order PI – Ascending: YES
Start/Roll Off Delay: 2 Second Intervals

3.Positano Full
Number of Laps: 3 (3.45 miles)
Entrant Car: Lotus Elan Sprint (PI: E206)
AI Cars: 11x Land Rover - Range Rover (PI: C357)
Grid Order PI – Ascending: NO
Start/Roll Off Delay: 1 Second Intervals

4.Positano Reverse
Number of Laps: 3 (3.45 miles)
Entrant Car: Renault 5 Turbo (PI: E284)
AI Cars: 11x Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 (PI: C413)
Grid Order PI – Ascending: NO
Start/Roll Off Delay: 1 Second Intervals

5.Ladera Test Track Full
Number of Laps: 4 (4.84 miles)
Entrant Car: Lancia Stratos (PI: D346)
AI Cars: 11x VW Touareg (PI: C373)
Grid Order PI – Ascending: NO
Start/Roll Off Delay: 1 Second Intervals

6.Nurburgring - Stage B
Number of Laps: point-to-point (3.1 miles)
Entrant Car: Lotus Elise '99 (PI: B492)
AI Cars: 11x Mercedes ML 63 (PI: B444)
Grid Order PI – Ascending: YES
Start/Roll Off Delay: 1 Second Intervals


Prizes:
(based on total combined points across the six legs - the lowest total is best):

1st Place Overall: Any car to value of 1 million credits, plus a Lotus Exige Cup 240 (in stock form – I’m no tuner!) complete with a commemorative ‘David & Goliath’ - Winner livery (see photos, below)
2nd Place Overall: Any car to value of 500,000 credits, plus a Lotus Exige Cup 240 (in stock form) complete with a commemorative ‘David & Goliath’ – Runner Up livery (see photos, below)
3rd Place Overall: Any car to value of 250,000 credits, plus a Lotus Exige Cup 240 (in stock form) complete with a commemorative ‘David & Goliath’ - 3rd Place livery (see photos, below)

All Entrants who complete all six legs and post their results will also receive a VW Rabbit GTi (in stock form) complete with a commemorative ‘David & Goliath’ livery (see photos, below)

In the event of a tie for a prize, I'm sure I can work something out - perhaps a liveried Exige for both and a split pot - guess I’ll think of something.

If I feature in the top three positions, the next placed entrant will qualify for the prize instead (although your Exige may state on it 4th rather than 3rd…!)









These photos can also be viewed on my storefront.

If you wish to enter, please post a reply and then let us know when you run each leg, stating: a) your race finishing position; b) either the approximate amount of damage sustained, or simply any point(s) penalty to be applied - for example: 5th place, plus 1,300CR damage, or 5th place plus 1 point penalty; and c) whether a replay is available for viewing on your storefront.

Legs can be run in any order and completed either in one sitting or spread over the duration of the competition.

You may save and upload replays of your races to your storefront if you wish (appreciated, but not necessary).

I struggled to find what I thought would be a challenging blend for each race so that things weren’t too difficult, but not too easy either for the most skilled drivers. You’re certainly not expected to win the races (I’ll be truly impressed if anyone does win one - if you manage it I would love to see a replay!) Indeed, it might even be impossible to finish in the top few spots on certain legs – at least unless your gamertag is daveyskills or tpr b0x!!!

I guess there is a risk that many of us will fall within the same three-five seconds finishing time or so for each race, meaning that a load of us could end with the same position (give or take) in each race. However, let’s just see what happens eh? If it doesn’t really work as a meaningful competition, well, at least hopefully you might have had a little fun with something slightly different!

I will update the second post with entrants’ best results and latest points tallies. Feel free to run each leg as often as you wish and then update us with your latest (best) result. You may keep improving individual race results (even after you have already posted results) to improve/reduce your overall score until the competition end date.

A few key points to remember:
- Cars must be stock, no upgrades or tuning allowed!
- 11 (eleven) AI cars must be selected as the competition for each race. These differ for each race, but in any specific race all will be the same vehicle type (e.g. BMW X5 M).
- Damage must be set to simulation, and remember to take note of your damage sustained figure at the end of the race.

My apologies for the length of this post. I don’t think the rules or race set-ups are that complicated, but I just wanted to try to cover everything in one go. If I have missed anything, or you have any questions, please just shout out and I’ll try to clarify/help!

Provisional Competition End Date/Time: Wednesday 22 August at 10pm (GMT)

Good Luck to all!

Entrants and Latest Results List

1. Rudyard77
Fujimi Old DH: 4th (no penalty) - 4 points
Fujimi New DH: 4th (no penalty) - 4 points
Positano Full: 5th (no penalty) - 5 points
Positano Rev: 2nd (no penalty) - 2 points
Ladera T.Track: 4th (+1 penalty) - 5 points
Nurburg St B: 5th (no penalty) - 5 points
Total: 25 points

2. Ben2012X
Fujimi Old DH: 4th (no penalty) - 4 points
Fujimi New DH: 4th (no penalty) - 4 points
Positano Full: 6th (no penalty) - 6 points
Positano Rev:
Ladera T.Track:
Nurburg St B: 4th (no penalty) - 4 points

3. Mr Antt
Fujimi Old DH:
Fujimi New DH:
Positano Full:
Positano Rev:
Ladera T.Track:
Nurburg St B:

4. Granturismoman
Fujimi Old DH:
Fujimi New DH:
Positano Full:
Positano Rev:
Ladera T.Track:
Nurburg St B:

5. Jim1
Fujimi Old DH: 3rd (no penalty) - 3 points
Fujimi New DH: 4th (+1 penalty) - 5 points
Positano Full: 4th (no penalty) - 4 points
Positano Rev: 6th (+1 penalty) - 7 points
Ladera T.Track: 5th (no penalty) - 5 points
Nurburg St B: 5th (no penalty) - 5 points
Total: 29 points

6.

I'm in! Great idea, thanks for doing these!

Post as many competitions as you like.

This is a really good idea, you're quite creative with these events. There's quite a while until the deadline, so I'll definitely get this one done. I'm finding myself with little time, (and occasionally drive (no pun intended) to play Forza at the moment), but this one seems like quite a bit of fun so count me in!

Great stuff! Yeah, I might extend the deadline on my other comp by a week if there are no objections. Those races are a good deal longer, with a more complicated lobby set-up - and quite honestly, overall interest seems a little thin on the ground, so I'll give newcomers and other folks a bit more time to make their entries on that if they wish. If it fails to take off, well, there's no harm done and it can always be re-run (or some variation of it at a later point) if/when there are more active members on this forum.

Thanks for the interest in my new challenge anyhow!

I'm in. Quick question-would you prefer us to run these races just once each or have multiple tries at it to see how high we can get?

You're welcome to try each race as many times as you like. Post up when you've completed a race with your position and damage etc, and this will then form your 'base score' for that race/leg. However, after that point you are free to keep making fresh attempts to improve your position. If you manage to improve on a previous race/leg result, then just post here and I'll edit your standings. Cheers!

Just ran the Fuji old in the Rabbit.

Finished 8th, clipped the barrier with the front, however received no damage penalty. Finished in 8th having had an absolute failure of a first run, totally wrecked the car.

Replay is on my storefront

This is a hell of a tough challenge, I'll give you that!

- Anthony.

Now done the Fuji run is the Exige, much more fun. I love that little car. Had to have two runs again as I did exactly the same thing as before.

However, I finished 7th with 794cr of damage. Replay is also on my storefront

- Anthony.

Rabbit: 8th, -221cr.

The Rabbit, grrr... On a scale of 1 to 10 it's incompetent!

Forgot to save replay, will re-attempt.

Well done guys.

Ant - Damage amounting to 1000CR or less doesn't warrant any penalty, so you're good on the Exige run

Ben - A replay isn't absolutely necessary. I'm sure we can take your word for it. Its really just incase there's any doubt - e.g. someone claims to have won a race when no-one else has managed better than 5th, or if folks are curious and fancy watching your run for giggles or to pick up some tips.

I hope they aren't ridiculously challenging - that wasn't my intention. I just wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be a load of us taking 1st place all the time, which would defeat the point of it. Remember, you can always keep trying to improve your results.

I'll update the second post in a bit with your results to date. Cheers fellas!

7th with -493 cr.
Replay saved.

Sounds fun, Im in! Like the prize cars too!

Ben2012X wrote:7th with -493 cr.
Replay saved.

Ben, if you want to share any replays (so we can all see them), you need to upload it to your storefront. At the moment there's nothing there. There should be an option to upload after you save it, or if you go into your saved replays (in Profile > Media > Replays) and click on it there should be an option to upload. Again, no obligation to upload them if you don't wish to.

Ooops! Saved and forgot to upload - will do that tommorow...
Thanks!

After about five attempts (which all ended in varying degrees of disaster - including a roll onto the roof), I've finally managed a 6th place on the Rabbit vs Hummer leg, Fujimi Old Downhill. The damage was 468CR. I've put a replay on my storefront - with me driving the D&G Total Racing Club liveried Rabbit as shown in this thread's first post. I'm not sure if I might be able to stretch to a 5th place if I practice some more (will be really tough), but I'll have some more attempts at this leg once I've finished a first run at the others. If anyone watches a replay, have a watch from the default camera for a bit to check out how tiny the VW looks compared with the Hummers!

Same here, after several disasterous atempts I manage 6th position with 140CR of damage on Fujimi - Old Downhill. Not sure I could get 5th, that would take a fantastic run.

Replay is on my SF

Had a go at Fujimi - New Downhill too. Best I got was 7th with 1169CR of damage. I think I can do better on this one though so Ill try it again later. Replay it on my SF

IMPORTANT

Ok guys, after seeing the results posted so far (for the Rabbit-Hummer leg) and having myself just been attempting the Ladera leg, I realise that I've gone a bit overboard on the difficulty of this challenge. My concern had been that we'd have a load of people finishing 1st and 2nd, but clearly on the VW Rabbit event it looks like the bulk of the results are perhaps likely to range between the 10th/9th to 5th/4th range (possibly even just 8th to 6th). I guess none of the club's members are super elite drivers and so perhaps I was too stringent on the race set-up conditions.

So, if you guys don't mind, perhaps we could tweak some of the settings and start afresh? I realise some of you have already done some runs, but hopefully it would make the races a bit more interesting, with better results possible. I was thinking of reducing the start intervals on Legs 1 & 2 (both the VW and Exige runs to 2 seconds rather than 3). For legs 3 and 4 (Positano and Ladera) I have already made an adjustment to the number of laps (up to 5 from 4) - as it looks like nobody has run them yet. I had of course tested these before I originally set them, but should probably have been a bit less focused on making it so difficult.

I'm really sorry to fiddle (or suggest fiddling) with these settings once the comp has started. But perhaps, with the opportunity of bunching the AI up a bit more, and more scope to gain positions, it could be more exciting and we might have a bigger range of results (so far for leg 1 its just 6th, 7th or 8th - perhaps these could then change to between 2nd to 8th or something).

If this is going to annoy people, I can of course leave it as it is. But for those who have already started (Ant, Ben and Jim) I'd be grateful if you could please say whether you would be ok with me adjusting as suggested - meaning you'd need to re-run your legs...

Thanks all, and apologies.

I wouldn't mind re running, I probably will anyway. I quite like the severity though, its nice to struggle!

Ben2012X wrote:I wouldn't mind re running, I probably will anyway. I quite like the severity though, its nice to struggle!

Thanks. I understand. Hopefully, the adjustments would still mean that no-one is truly likely to win a race (or if they did it would be jolly well earned) - it would just mean more cars to pass and hopefully a bigger range of results - i.e. a bigger differentiator between overall finishing positions. Of course, we could always get a skilled new member join us who might then obliterate us and finish 1st in every race, but then that's not the end of the world


I'm sorry to ask people to re-run, but they are short races and there is plenty of time until the deadline (which can be extended if need be).

I had planned to do re-runs anyway, so tweaked settings are no problem on my end

Thanks, hopefully Jim won't mind too much either. I will clear the results summary to date and tweak the settings. Please give me a little time to check them out. I will post again when I've had a trial run to hopefully check that finishing 1st in a race won't be too easily achievable.

i don't mind re-running them, they don't take long anyway.

Ok, I've tested each run and made some tweaks which I reckon should improve the scope and spread of results, and hopefully make it a bit more fun.

See this thread's first post for the revised list of legs and settings. Please note there are now six races rather than four (I thought this would be alright as they are short).

I think it might now be possible for a skilled driver to finish first in one or two of the races (although certainly not me!). If you manage it, give yourself a pat on the back and let us see your replay!

Don't worry too much about aggresive driving styles - in my test runs I practically assaulted a few of the AI cars in corners, and bounced off several walls on Positano. Your driving style is your choice, but of course can lead to greater damage and therefore penalty points. One things for sure, I reckon you'll be sick of the sight of 4x4s at the end of this - while practising earlier, I was getting very frustrated at how badly my car came off (spinning out) in some of the heavier collisions with the AI.

For the fifth leg (Ladera), I think its fine for people to use the full width of the track (white and yellow areas too), i.e. not frowned upon to corner cut a bit - as it would be v. difficult to overtake here otherwise.

I know Nurburgring Stage B isn't the tightest or twistiest track, but I thought I'd inclue it for greater variety - it is a point-to-point afterall, and I think stage B is the twistiest section of the 'Ring. Also its quite a narrow track anyhow.

Thanks for your patience and understanding! Feel free to resume racing this event and posting your results again