GROOV3ST3R and Marcus_gt500 present:
CSR88 - Back To The Future
The year is 2048. The air is thick. The sun is setting. In the distance, amidst the commotion of daily lives, sirens and gunfire can be heard. No two days are alike and yet every day feels the same. Welcome, to the future. Welcome, to Neo-Yamasaki.
Expand for more worldly flavour :)
The world united, the people divided. Words like ‘‘gender’’, ‘‘race’’ or ‘‘ethnicity’’ are now meaningless - people have been assigned IDs and serial numbers, with names becoming ‘‘nicknames’’ instead. There are no countries anymore, everyone is a citizen of New Earth. In a world where you are a number, personal identity is tantamount to power and great influence, a symbol of status in modern society.
The world has been left scarred with failures of previous generations, polluted and poisoned. Everything is old yet new. The future is freely mixing with the classic, creating a unique, deceptive style unto itself. It may all appear run down and dirty, but it’s all cutting-edge. Most things are recycled or up-cycled, very little is now wasted - at least in the more affluent areas.
People don’t just ‘‘go’’ places anymore, they get into a vehicle and are propelled toward their destination in blissful silence and comfort at great speed. Everything and everyone is connected, from your family to your toaster, even your pets. Everything runs smoothly, in a cold and calculated yet chaotic manner. Ride sharing is basically standard, most cars and vehicles are equivalent of public transport yet many still remain privately owned. Travelling and commuting is a far more social endeavour nowadays.
Technology has come a long way. Almost all manufacturing, mining and crafting is now done fully automatically, in factories ran by AI, spanning entire prefectures in size. Everything is automated.
This caused an unprecedented shift in society - on one side, the people who never have to work again were catapulted into vast riches. On the other, unemployment rose to over 30% and abject poverty, crime and wealth inequality are rampant. Hyper inflation means huge sums of cash are now almost meaningless while the poor stand little chance of improving their status.
Most notably, humans as we know them are now almost unrecognizable - with even the poorest citizens posessing artificial limbs and neural implants assigned to them - while the richest are practically androids with superhuman abilties. Let’s look a little closer…
Meet Fi-Vee
Citizen designated D5V42REL-154Z, also known as Fi-Vee, a government employee. Details of their work, classified, as is customary for all government employees of all ranks. Yet in this interconnected world, keeping secrets is practically impossible. It’s especially difficult to conceal identities of Logistic System Admins - the managers of the modern transport grid. Fi-Vee is one of them, keeping the self-driving transport system going and rectifying ‘‘bugs’’.
And by bugs, we mean accidents. They are a modern day equivalent of an NTSB marshal - when things go wrong, some poor soul must attend the aftermath.
As you may imagine, this exposure to a harsh and unforgiving nature of ‘‘errors’’ has put a huge safety concern over Fi-Vee. The system can be trusted, but it’s not bulletproof. Safety is a number one priority.
Away from work, Fi-Vee leads a very social life - often spending free time with friends and family. A very outgoing person and always on the move, perhaps overly romantic about the otherwise bleak and harsh world they have found themselves in. They practically never travel alone - whether to/from work, for fun or attending one of numerous city attractions or events - they always travel in a group of several people.
Additionally, seating capacity will be a huge bonus for when the car is NOT in use by Fi-Vee, as it will be sent to contribute to ride-sharing services in the meantime. Running costs for such a car must be kept to a minimum.
As it happens, Sys Admins earn a decent wage. While car ownership is considered a luxury these days and ride sharing is the de-facto standard way of life, Fi-Vee feels it is time for a little more… ‘‘independence’’. As such, they are looking for the perfect vehicle to cart them and their friends or family around. They will want a lot of seating space for everyone to fit - the more the merrier, though 6 seems to be a standard most vehicles these days offer and would fit the bill nicely.
People nowadays travel ‘‘light’’, with little cargo or shopping. To them, travelling is almost an extension of their social life, not just a means of transport. With this in mind, hurtling towards the local watering hole in a noisy cabin is unacceptable - a car must be nigh-on whisper quiet and luxuriously comfortable to minimize inconvenience.
Gadgets are an absolute must. A car is only as good as it’s ability to keep it’s passengers connected, entertained and happy. Fi-Vee is looking for something with as many bells and whistles as can be. A good car should also have a suitably nice interior. And after all, one does not get the position of a System Admin if they are scared or even indifferent to technology! Fi-Vee is very much a tech-lover, handy with all sorts of electronics, computer systems and gadgets.
Of course, there are government-imposed restrictions cars must pass in order to be type-approved for use on skyways. Brisk acceleration, high top speeds and exceptional reliability ensure everything runs smoothly and without delays. Driving however is almost a thing of the past - cars drive themselves now. Drivability bears no importance what-so-ever and Fi-Vee is fine with that. They prefer to talk with friends or focus on their daily tasks while on board instead of wasting time doing something as mundane as driving - it’s a job for the computer.
Fi-Vee is mainly looking for something that will stand out from the crowd and really help them carve their own identity out in the world.
They have no hard preference over the type of vehicle that it will be, only that it must follow the currently popular trend of ‘‘retro-wave’’ - the craze sweeping the all-nation. It’s all about bringing back the glamorous machines of yesteryear into the modern spotlight. Ones that most appeal to Fi-Vee usually stem from cars based on 80s platforms, though there are some gorgeous outliers that break this rule.
Whether large or small, it’s fine as long as it can carry them and their friends. They want something that appears almost ‘‘classic’’ but is otherwise modern.
They like clean, clever and interesting designs that really catch your attention A car must not be boring! ‘‘Crazy’’ isn’t necessarily what Fi-Vee is about - though their own appearance is almost a cliche Cyberpunk, their ideal mobile must have a certain tasteful flair and at least somewhat preserve the grace of the classics of old. Practically all cars now are very colorful and unique, shimmering with the ‘‘neon’’ glow of hundreds of pretty accent lights.
The condensed take-away is:
- a fast, efficient people carrier of sorts, though not necessarily a minivan or SUV - it could be any car that can fit at least 6 in any configuration, no regard given to cargo capacity
- comfort, safety and quietness will be hugely important to Fi-Vee
- it must follow the ‘‘Retro-Wave’’ movement - be it a classic with a modern twist or futuristic concept, neon glow, plenty of accent lights and intriguing use of fixtures
- cars will drive themselves - this means full assists must be present for a computer to take control of a car
- high-speed stability, acceleration and reliability will be key for use on skyways
- cars should ideally hark back to 80s, however can be a bit older or newer
- Fi-Vee is a real tech-head - the more complex and advanced the car, inside and out, the better
Rules for this round are:
- All years capped at and must be set to 2020 (game limit :S )
- Body choices limited to cars between 1960 and 1992, unlimited style
- Must reach mandatory minimum skyway speed of 255 km/h or better
- Minimum acceleration of 6 seconds 0-62mph (0-100kph) or better
- Fuel 100 Ultimate
- No race parts
- Limited production/No mass production parts ARE allowed
- Engine ET max 65, Trim ET max 70
- No PU limits - production tecniques and solutions of the future negate PU constraints
- For Lore purposes, all cars must feature some sort of Automatic or DCT gearbox and ESC+LC with Electric Variable Power Steering to simulate self-driving capabilities (no sequential or manual trans allowed)
- Catalytic converters are mandatory, no hard limit on emissions though
- Comfort 45 minimum
- Safety 50 minimum
- Reliability minimum 65
- Noise capped at 30
- Fuel consumption maximum of 10 litres / 100km or less
- 70.000 credits at 0%
- Must seat at least 6
- Designing the car while listening to approved or recommended playlists is strongly encouraged!
If for whatever reason any of the rules are unclear or you require further explanations/clarification/guidance, please feel free to ask or PM me or Marcus_gt500!
Rules are now locked! Unless there are serious failures or conflicts discovered, expect no changes to be made!
Inspiration
For styling cues, we’ve decided that we want to try something different. Please feel free to browse this playlist and listen to any part or all of it at your leisure to get into the mindset of the Era we envisage.
Synthwave/Electrowave Playlist
We recommend you pick a suitable retro/electrowave album to play in the background while creating your designs to really get in the mood. It’s optional, but recommended.
Feel free to browse works of these artists too for more inspiration:
- Emil Arts
- Fernando Correa
- WETA WORKSHOP DESIGN STUDIO
- Matthias Develtere
- Khyzyl Saleem
- Walter Kim
- Jomar Machado
- Rain Prisk
- Hugo Silva
- Filippo Ubertino
Visual Guidelines (image heavy)
Please note: These images are for REFERENCE ONLY! Feel free to put your own twist on the theme. We will judge all entries fairly and according to how well put together they are, not JUST based on how close you get to these pictures!
On stying approach
Styling will be judged based on a few cues - most notably, we are looking for a ‘‘Retro-wave’’ style vehicle. Think Cyberpunk, Blade Runner, even Mad Max. Gritty, angular, well-defined shapes, harking back to classics of old, yet with a futuristic twist.
Keep in mind:
- It’s the future. This means highly advanced tech is commonplace. This should likewise translate into styling cues. Crisp, clean lines, well defined shapes, angles and creases.
- try to envisage in your own ways how features such as wing mirrors, radars, antennas, fuel caps, wipers, washer jets etc. would or could evolve in the future
- We will reward/favor interesting/unconvetional use of fixtures in your designs (say repurpose roof rail as a handle of some sort but placed on a bumper with LED indicators in it? A similar sort of weird combination could yield interesting results and is what we will be looking for)
- Don’t be afraid to stand out and be different - it’s the future, individuality and personal identity is everything
- Feel free to take cues from popculture, artist impressions of retrowave or even blockbusters such as Blade Runner, Mad Max, Ghost in the Shell, Akira etc.
- Retrowave is the theme. This means we are mostly looking at 70s/80s designs with a future twist. However, that isn’t a hard and fast rule and you should be able to design a fitting car based on almost any given decade.
About bodies
Anything goes body-wise. As long as you can hit the seating requirement which will likely exclude supercar/sportscar bodies, we will consider anything.
Body choice is limited between 1960 to 1992. No earlier or later than that. All years must be set to 2020.
The only hard rule to adhere to here is don’t exploit any broken bodies or obvious min-maxxing exploits (we are relatively inexperienced here, so unless we can gain some extra help from the outside or spot anything obvious, we will rely on you guys to stick to this )
Naming
As always, standard naming scheme applies:
Car model: CSR88 - (username) (optionally + of any co-authors)
Car trim: Brand - Model - Trim
Engine family: CSR88 - (username) (optionally + of any co-authors)
Engine variant: Family - Variant
Submissions
Preferrably, send your subs to Me AND Marcus_gt500 via PM as we are both involved in judging cars. Also, on the off chance one of us is not around, this will speed the process up a little. It’s not a hard rule but make sure to drop your PM to at least one of us.
In order for cars to be accepted, an ad must be posted in this thread first.
1 car per person.
Everyone is allowed to send us an amended version of their submission. Be reasonable about this and don’t wait till the last minute to send us a completely altered vehicle! However if you feel you need to polish an aspect of your entry, feel free to do so. You are allowed 1 update so make it count.
If your vehicle does not meet the required standards/rules, we will try to contact you first before binning to give everyone a chance.
SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED!
Don’t rush your entries, as always. However, we will try to review cars as they come to avoid unnecessary delays at the other end so be considerate and don’t leave your subs till the last minute!
Please, feel free to leave us as much feedback as possible. Both of us are fresh to hosting CSR and we will do everything we can to make this round as smooth as possible. But we may require a hint here or there to make this happen, if you feel we are really getting off track, don’t hesitate to let us know. Likewise, if you really just don’t like something about this idea, also let us know and feel free to pass on your thoughts. We will attempt to be as fair and impartial as can be in the judging process.
Links:
Previous round: Scotty Doesn’t Know
General CSR ruleset: The car shopping round rules and stats
*looks like we caused an uproar 0.0 changes incoming hard and fast (but we do appreciate criticism, we WANT people to actually enjoy this round instead of thinking ‘‘wtf are these clowns doing’’)
