Hello and welcome to…
THE AUTOMATION LEGACY CHALLENGE
The idea of this challenge is simple. All entrants will be running car companies in a fictional country - with lobbying, market effects and such included. Entrants may run any sort of company. Luxury, performance, commercial, offroad or just plain commuter cars… Just be aware of the market.
The challenge is inspired by CoP and SCCR, although it will follow the more open structure of SCCR.
Rules discussion will be allowed and welcomed for the first week; after that, I will “lock” the main rules and any non-urgent changes will wait for the next era.
HOW IT WORKS
Entrants will all have to register their company with their first entry; however, sub-brands of the same company will be allowed (and do not need to be pre-defined). Companies may be based inside or outside the company - to start, there is no difference, but certain lobbying moves may create (temporary) differences. When you submit your first car (or before), please submit the name of your company and where it is based. Any benefits to domestic or foreign companies will only last for one era, and will be balanced out by benefits elsewhere - so adding an import tax may mean I slap some negative quality on domestic cars because of reduced tech sharing or somesuch.This rule has been retracted.- Please keep all of your submissions and details within the same DM thread. Your .car files, your lobbying and your company info - all in one place.
- I prefer if each entry represents a new car but will not require that. Be careful though - there’s a reason why few models continue production for decades upon decades, and a simple refresh won’t move the dial too much.
- The challenge will be run on the opt-in beta branch, 4.2.
IfWhen an update borks entries, I will allow for resubmissions as if the round has been restarted on the date of the new update. All mods are allowed. - Some form of post in this thread is required for each submission. That can be as simple as a basic picture and the name, although some amount of lore/marketing is appreciated.
One entry per person per era.Entrants are allowed to submit two entries, which should use the same body family. See the rules post for round 3 for more details. Collabs are allowed, but please no more than 2 people on each car. If you intend on running a collaborative brand where every car will be done by two people, please inform me at the start (or when you decide to collab).- Feel free to skip any rounds, or to only participate in one round. There is no need to participate in every round.
- Rounds will all be set in eras of roughly 10 years; some eras may be shorter or longer (for instance, the IRL late-60s era only continues to '73 or so, when the Malaise era starts). This will be determined by a mixture of body availability, tech unlocks and pre-planned major events. The major events do not map onto real world ones, so no clairevoyance. Each car must have its trim and variant year set to within the era. Variant year must be equal to or less than trim year. There are no restrictions on model or family year but be sensible - as noted above, particular model lines rarely last several decades, expecially not in rich countries. Eras will continue either to 2020 or when I decide I no longer wish to host.
- You will have around a month to complete each entry in a given era. Entries will generally close on Mondays at 11:59 PM UTC. I will endevour to complete judging in around a month. If something comes up IRL which is likely to delay judging (or if I receive a ton of entries), I will try to make a warning post.
- Brands will not gain permanent reputation or tech benefits. This is one of several unrealistic elements, and exists for balance reasons. I do not want anyone to be “frozen out” by missing a round or two.
- Each brand will be able to lobby for or against various rules and taxes. Want to stop a displacement tax and ensure lax efficiency standards for your lazy pushrod V8? Sure! Want to push for taxes on footprint to benefit your small cars? Go ahead! Lobbying is not guaranteed to work, mind you - for instance, if every car on the market is an inefficient deathtrap, no amount of lobbying will prevent an intervention. Please submit your lobbying via DM, in the same thread as your car.
- Current laws and standards will be presented when entries open for each era, in addition to lobbying opportunities. The most common lobbying options will be safety (includes drivability, fixture and assist requirements), emissions, efficiency and taxation.
- Cars will be reviewed from an “in-universe” perspective, as a contemporary publication looking at various cars. Accordingly, expect to see cars grouped together during judging (similar to AHS judging). Depending on how I feel, I may also do a “final retrospective” on the highlights. There won’t be a full ranking at any stage, just general comments on the cars and specific notable mentions. There are no particular predefined stat priorities; rather, it’s largely based on what sort of market niche the car targets and how well it serves the needs of that niche.
- There is (almost) no such thing as a binned car. (Almost) every car is “canon” somehow… But be careful. Submit an entry with a very wrong name? Car never got imported to our fictional country but may still impact market trends. Submit an entry which breaks emissions laws? Enjoy your own personal dieselgate! The key exceptions to this are very low-effort entries (five fixture wonders and such), many meme bodies (train, bus, etc) and cars with unrealistic fixtures (like LEDs in the 50s).
- Entries do not have to be street-legal. Want to send a track toy, an open-wheeler or a literal race car? Go ahead! Just be aware these will have incredibly low impact on the market (rally, stock cars and GTs are the closest it comes) and won’t really be reviewed too heavily. You may ignore safety regulations on a non street-legal car, but you will need to inform me that it is intended as such. Also note that there are still certain expectations from customers - many of these cars still have some safety features, plus mirrors, headlights and such.
- There are no limits on production units, engineering time or price either… But remember, people won’t buy your car if it costs to much, and a race car that costs way too much and takes too much time to engineer will have its fair share of issues too. Be reasonable.
- All advanced trim options which have the same visual effect as an existing option in engineering should be avoided. All other advanced trim settings are allowed. The banned settings are:
– Wheel offset (making a trike is fine but expect stat adjustments)
– Wheel width
– Wheel diameter
– Camber
– Tyre diameter
– Both ride heights at once (only changing one is fine) - Cars should be named ALC<era number> - <YourForumName>.
THE COUNTRY
The country here is named Araga. It is temparate, mountainous and developed, starting with a moderate level of wealth. It is large enough to allow for a diverse range of markets, from cheap economy cars to more expensive luxury brands. To start, there are no massive market preferences out of the ordinary - but this will change based on what people enter. As a particular example, both small and large cars are appreciated to start - but if the large cars of the first round do poorly, that will reflect on the large cars of the future and so on.
Roads are set up to drive on the right, but there are currently no laws on where the driver’s side is.
ERA ONE: '46-'54
This era ends in 1954 for a pretty simple reason: a lot of bodies unlock in 55. That’s it. Regulations are fairly lax overall and the market is pretty open, so there is no massive need to worry about stuff. This round will be open for an additional week to allow for rules discussion; it will close on the 9th of May at 11:59 PM UTC.
Safety regulations and fixture requirements
- No safety requirement
- Headlights: at least one pair, round lenses are most common
- Turn signals: must be visible when looking directly at the front and rear of the car; side-mounted ones are not required but can be used (edit: in place of front- and rear-mounted ones) for this so long as they are visible. Light-based turn signals must be orange. Semaphore-style indicators are allowed.
- Tail lights: at least one pair required. Must be red and must use different bulbs to the brake light.
- Brake lights: at least one pair. Must be red and must use different bulbs to the tail lights.
- Reversing lights: not required.
- Mirrors: not required.
- Gas cap: not required - some cars had the gas cap inside the lights.
- Wipers: one wiper required on the front.
- License plate: Any (unscaled) plate will be allowed, as there are no standards yet.
Other Regulations
- Emissions and efficiency requirements: None
- Fuel availability: Regular and Premium leaded available.
- Vehicle Taxation: No stat-based taxes yet (registration, sales tax and such are flat and won’t be considered here)
- Tyres: Radials are not available in Auto, so no rules there. 90% Profile tyres are considered “standard”; any major deviations from that are slightly suspect.
- Name your model and family ALC1: YourForumName.
Current events
- 1946-1952: Steel Shortage! Due to the damage to steel plants in the war, any cars built with steel panels will have their chassis material costs tripled until 1950, doubled in 1951 and an extra 50% in 1952. (see here for an example. This will increase the car costs accordingly (i.e. with my car that reports 590 material cost, I will add an additional 1180 to final cost).
- 1953-1954: No events.
Lobbying Opportunities
The next era will be 1955-1964
- Emissions, efficiency and leaded fuel bans will not be brought in yet.
- Safety requirements can be lobbied for but are unlikely to be brought in.
- There are six taxation possibilities. You may lobby for or against any, or ignore some. Ignoring one category will increase your lobbying possibility elsewhere. The possibilities are:
– Displacement-based tax
– Luxury car tax
– Per-cylinder tax
– Footprint-based tax
– Weight-based tax
– Cargo capacity-based tax - In addition, you can lobby for either high, low or medium taxation; this may be lobbied around later as well.
- Radial tyres will become available in automation at the start of the next era, and tyre manufacturers already have the technology; however, they are not sure how widespread acceptance will be. As such, they are canvassing auto companies on their preferences between cross-ply and radial. While this is not strictly lobbying, it will have a similar effect; when you submit a car, you will be able to indicate a future preference for either tyre type, or no preference. This information will impact future tyre options.
- Remember: SEND YOUR LOBBYING IN VIA DM
Finally, a guide on how to find your previously sent DMs.
1: Click your profile up the top.
2: Click the little arrow
3: Click messages
4: Click sent
This will show you all messages you have sent, so you can find your previous thread.
Finally, a directory of important posts:
Round 1 Rules: This Post
Round 1 Judging: Instabins, Commercial, Sports, Sedans
Round 2 Prologue: Options, Answers, Lobbying Results
Round 2: Rules, Commercial Judging, Sedan, Wagon, Hatchback, Etc. Judging, Sports Judging
Round 3 Prologue: Options, Results
Round 2 Racing: Rules, Reviews Start Here
Round 3: Rules
