Post by Momoko Murasama on Jan 10, 2022 2:01:22 GMT -5
Things are chaotic here... but our first canon campaign in two years is finally underway!
Queen's Reign Campaign
If you haven't noticed already, the Queen's Reign campaign is in the closing stages of preparation. This is a GT endurance racing campaign that takes place in the 2021 season, where rivalries in the J-Speed GT Masters and IMAS GT Championship run white hot and could blow over into an inter-series war. Players take control of one or two-car teams, with each car controlled by two drivers (a "Squad" in game terms), with pit tactics, simple car development, and the reintroduction of tuning setups!
There's still spots in the AM division of the J-Speed GT Masters - and two new cars coming your way! Check the campaign here! (click)
Game System Updates
It'd take all day and night if I were to cover the changes from GT Master League to Queen's Reign, but I'll cover a few key points that you need to know. Firstly, all the changes warranted a "v1.0" of our forum game system, and these changes are now part of RHU's Core System Reference Document (which you can read up by clicking here). Secondly, numerous sim-side tweaks were introduced to improve the racing experience on-screen.
Core Team Management Sheet
Quality of life improvements, from lessons learned in the GT Master League.
Drivers:
- Your list of assignable cars for each driver now depends on the Nicknames you set in the Garage section of the Overview page.
- Driver costs were updated to reflect changes from the Core Rules, and now also include halved hire costs with Squad Rules turned ON in the Support Points page.
Garage:
Chassis/Quick Durability was REMOVED per changes from the Core Rules. There is a basic engines used tracker that shows if you are using your first, second, or third engine on that car.
Car Management:
- Lots of updates to reflect changes from the Core Rules.
- Engine durability now automatically updates according to what you set in "Eng. Durability"!
Major Game System changes:
Sim-side, in general:
- The high wear rate experiment from GT Master League Round 7 and 8 proved that wear was an important part of tactical decision making, but for low Conservation Drivers/Squads, this limited their ability to strategize too much.
TireManagement is the parameter for Automobilista's AI drivers' tire wear rate, rated from 0-100. Originally this was 70-100 for GTML's first six races, but it made Blockers and LightFooted racers a poor choice overall. Round 7-8 had this range at 40-100, but this penalize low Conservation drivers too much. New range is 55-100, which is in-between.
- Minor AI improvements to low-speed maneuverability.
- Reduction in overall aggression.
Sim-side: Addition of Push-2-Pass
In race sessions, both PROs and AMs now have access to Push to Pass boost. The drivers will activate push to pass occasionally in the following situations:
- when very close and making an overtake on a straight
- when lapping other cars
The Push to Pass boost lasts 10 seconds, has a 5 second cooldown, and can be deployed enough times to last a whole race distance in the hands of the AI drivers. The power boost is as follows:
AMs: +8 HP (+1.6%)
PROs: +10 HP (+1.5%)
The power boost scales with power adders like engine mode and tuning engine map, but even with relatively well-developed setups, the boost is usually only enough to assist in setting up overtakes. Unless you have a huge advantage in some other way, this doesn't guarantee overtakes.
Sim-side, GT Endurance PROs:
- Base power 610 HP -> 670 HP. Partly because rule of cool™️ - RHU is anime lunacy packed into a motorsport tactics sim, big numbers sound cool. Also the difference between PRO and AMs in perf was too similar on the straights. For some tracks, this also necessitated new final gear ratios to prevent them from topping out far too early.
Driver Class Hire Costs:
Rookies: 20 SP
Regulars: 60 SP
Veterans: 100 SP
Elites: 140 SP
Masters: 180 SP
I did some more test races and felt that with maximum possible tuning points on an average tuning stat line (ie. 5/5/4/4 for 300 pts and a Regular driver) that Regulars could not close the gap in performance quickly enough to be worth using in series without success ballast (eg. IMAS GT has no ballast).
Campaigns and Support Points
Chassis damage and enhancement REMOVED. Chassis/tub/frame damage is nearly irrelevant in canon with the advent of advanced industrial-grade 3D printers capable of manufacturing metal components and carbon composites on a large scale. Most race teams in the series depicted in RHU either have several of these or at least know someone in the industry with similar manufacturing capability.
Advanced Hybrid
We noticed that this system could likely be abused to circumvent the main drawback of Super Sprint engine mode: you get a reliability penalty when activating Hybrid Modes and Sprint Modes together, which stacks if you Super Sprint.
Simulation improvements
We made some changes to AI driver's caution radius and Sudden Move Scalars for both PROs and AMs. These changes should make them react better to slower class cars with minor compromises to on-track aggression.
Queen's Reign Campaign
If you haven't noticed already, the Queen's Reign campaign is in the closing stages of preparation. This is a GT endurance racing campaign that takes place in the 2021 season, where rivalries in the J-Speed GT Masters and IMAS GT Championship run white hot and could blow over into an inter-series war. Players take control of one or two-car teams, with each car controlled by two drivers (a "Squad" in game terms), with pit tactics, simple car development, and the reintroduction of tuning setups!
There's still spots in the AM division of the J-Speed GT Masters - and two new cars coming your way! Check the campaign here! (click)
Game System Updates
It'd take all day and night if I were to cover the changes from GT Master League to Queen's Reign, but I'll cover a few key points that you need to know. Firstly, all the changes warranted a "v1.0" of our forum game system, and these changes are now part of RHU's Core System Reference Document (which you can read up by clicking here). Secondly, numerous sim-side tweaks were introduced to improve the racing experience on-screen.
Core Team Management Sheet
Quality of life improvements, from lessons learned in the GT Master League.
Drivers:
- Your list of assignable cars for each driver now depends on the Nicknames you set in the Garage section of the Overview page.
- Driver costs were updated to reflect changes from the Core Rules, and now also include halved hire costs with Squad Rules turned ON in the Support Points page.
Garage:
Chassis/Quick Durability was REMOVED per changes from the Core Rules. There is a basic engines used tracker that shows if you are using your first, second, or third engine on that car.
Car Management:
- Lots of updates to reflect changes from the Core Rules.
- Engine durability now automatically updates according to what you set in "Eng. Durability"!
Major Game System changes:
Sim-side, in general:
- The high wear rate experiment from GT Master League Round 7 and 8 proved that wear was an important part of tactical decision making, but for low Conservation Drivers/Squads, this limited their ability to strategize too much.
TireManagement is the parameter for Automobilista's AI drivers' tire wear rate, rated from 0-100. Originally this was 70-100 for GTML's first six races, but it made Blockers and LightFooted racers a poor choice overall. Round 7-8 had this range at 40-100, but this penalize low Conservation drivers too much. New range is 55-100, which is in-between.
- Minor AI improvements to low-speed maneuverability.
- Reduction in overall aggression.
Sim-side: Addition of Push-2-Pass
In race sessions, both PROs and AMs now have access to Push to Pass boost. The drivers will activate push to pass occasionally in the following situations:
- when very close and making an overtake on a straight
- when lapping other cars
The Push to Pass boost lasts 10 seconds, has a 5 second cooldown, and can be deployed enough times to last a whole race distance in the hands of the AI drivers. The power boost is as follows:
AMs: +8 HP (+1.6%)
PROs: +10 HP (+1.5%)
The power boost scales with power adders like engine mode and tuning engine map, but even with relatively well-developed setups, the boost is usually only enough to assist in setting up overtakes. Unless you have a huge advantage in some other way, this doesn't guarantee overtakes.
Sim-side, GT Endurance PROs:
- Base power 610 HP -> 670 HP. Partly because rule of cool™️ - RHU is anime lunacy packed into a motorsport tactics sim, big numbers sound cool. Also the difference between PRO and AMs in perf was too similar on the straights. For some tracks, this also necessitated new final gear ratios to prevent them from topping out far too early.
Driver Class Hire Costs:
Rookies: 20 SP
Regulars: 60 SP
Veterans: 100 SP
Elites: 140 SP
Masters: 180 SP
I did some more test races and felt that with maximum possible tuning points on an average tuning stat line (ie. 5/5/4/4 for 300 pts and a Regular driver) that Regulars could not close the gap in performance quickly enough to be worth using in series without success ballast (eg. IMAS GT has no ballast).
Campaigns and Support Points
Chassis damage and enhancement REMOVED. Chassis/tub/frame damage is nearly irrelevant in canon with the advent of advanced industrial-grade 3D printers capable of manufacturing metal components and carbon composites on a large scale. Most race teams in the series depicted in RHU either have several of these or at least know someone in the industry with similar manufacturing capability.
Advanced Hybrid
We noticed that this system could likely be abused to circumvent the main drawback of Super Sprint engine mode: you get a reliability penalty when activating Hybrid Modes and Sprint Modes together, which stacks if you Super Sprint.
Simulation improvements
We made some changes to AI driver's caution radius and Sudden Move Scalars for both PROs and AMs. These changes should make them react better to slower class cars with minor compromises to on-track aggression.