Previous Thread: Automation Legacy Challenge (LOBBYING PART TWO, AND A BONUS ROUND!)
Why A New Thread?
As you may have guessed by the link at the top of this thread, this is not the first thread for the Automation Legacy Challenge. Yes, there was a previous thread, so why make a new thread? Well, there’s a few reasons, but the biggest one is just that I am overhauling a lot of the ways things work, and differences to LHC that I wanna specifically call out. Rather than having a bunch of strikethrough in the original thread, or hiding the old stuff somewhere, I decided to start fresh. This also means that I can collect a bunch of information across the first few posts here, and have stuff broken up more.
Rounds will have a three-phase cadence: Submissions, reviews, lobbying.
Also, join the Discord for quicker updates, outsourcing and more!
- The submission phase will last for at least four weeks, but may be longer based on IRL events, game updates, my mood, whatever. I’ll try to stick to the timetable initially posted in a round’s thread, but no promises there.
- At the start of the submission phase, I will make a post outlining the rules, regulations, expected timeframes, current market effects and some worldbuilding.
- During the submission phase, entrants may submit a bunch of .car files. You can send in two cars, two non-cars and potentially bonuses.
- Cars are, uh… Cars. In particular, they are anything that Automation is equipped and designed to make and handle. Coupes, sedans, vans, wagons, that sort of thing. Standard automation fare.
– Your two cars should be on the same broad family (wheelbase variations are acceptable). For instance, a car on 78_CLux_3DR_CPP and one on 78_XLux_Sedan_CPP are a valid pair, because they are wheelbase variations of the same family.
– Cars should have similar mechanical underpinnings. Some variance is fine - I will never, ever bat an eyelid on swapping from monocoque to partial monocoque for a ute or adding rustproofing to a model, but changing everything will bat an eyelid. This is a little subjective, so I will try to make sure to pre-screen entries. If you submit with more than a week before the end, I will guarantee that you get screened. The closer it gets to the end, the less certain it is - if it’s only hours before the end, no promises. - Non-cars are the opposite of that. Planes, trains, trucks, sandwiches, 6x6es… Stuff like that, which Auto can’t handle.
– Your two entries should look at least a bit related, similar to the cars. This is looser, but there should be some relation between them. A fire truck and a crane. A tanker truck and a chassis cab. A jumbo jet and an AWACS. Stuff like that. - There may also be a bonus round. This will allow you to submit extra cars. Please do not submit the same thing to a bonus round if you also submitted it to the regular one.
- During this phase, you may submit “write-in lobbying”. This is your chance to send suggestions or ideas for what the lobbying phase will include. It won’t impact lobbying power, and it may be ignored completely as well.
- There may also be simple yes/no lobbying or “pick a number” lobbying. I’ll try to get answers from people on the yes/no and pick a number, but not on write-ins.
- Posting in the thread is no longer required, but strongly recommended.
- Submissions can be sent in either in a forum DM or via Discord - this is new too. I reserve the right to refuse or check entries on Discord if I suspect that your account is an alt or being used to evade a forum ban.
- The review phase is where your entries get reviewed.
- Yes/no and pick a number lobbying from the submission phase will close. There may be new ones which come up. Write-in lobbying will stay open.
- Reviews will be split into roughly four groups. Those are sport, utility, standard and premium.
– Utility is the simplest category. If you have a van or ute with a bunch of cargo space, it goes here. An offroader probably goes here too. At my discretion, wagons may be cross-shopped here in addition to the other groups.
– Sport will have 2-seater sports cars. In addition, stuff like hot hatches, super saloons and muscle utes may be considered here depending on amounts - they may go in other categories, and may be both here and there.
– Standard is anything that’s not a utility or sport car that’s below a certain price point. Premium is anything above a somewhat higher point. There will be a grey area between the two - these may go in one group or both. - Certain categories may be delegated to co-hosts. Please offer to co-host, I’ll have more on what that entails later.
- I will aim to get reviews up in the span of a month. However, due to the fact that co-hosts operate at different speeds, there may be sizeable gaps between reviews.
- Depending on how your car fares, you may gain or lose spending tokens or lobbying power. If you sell well, you can expect to gain. If you egregiously violate the spirit of the rules, you will receive a warning at the start of the review phase. Depending on the severity of the violation, you may be able to write an in-character response to get out of a penalty.
- Lobbying is only open to people who submitted in the previous round, or any inter-round bonus. Inter-round bonus submissions will always have the number of the lobbying round they make you eligible for. For instance, the drag race round required cars labelled “ALC4D” - so it lets you lobby in the lobbying after ALC4.
- By default, entrants get 75 spending tokens and 100% lobbying power. All bonuses are additive - not multiplicative. Getting +10% lobbying power and +20% lobbying power leaves you with 130% lobbying power, not 132%.
- If you provide submissions to two separate categories, you will get an extra 50 spending tokens and 20% lobbying power.
- Each entry can get additional spending tokens based on how successful they are in their categories, and how well their different entries complement one another.
- Bonus rounds will offer a variable distribution of tokens and power.
- You will have at least four weeks to lobby. I will try and make sure that this phase is where the majority of the delays due to updates and IRL happen.
- During the lobbying phase, you can spend those spending tokens and lobbying power to influence the rules for next round.
- For instance, you can change the taxes for next round, the safety regs, emissions standards and such.
- In any given round, there will be several different schools to invest in. Each one will help boost multiple different techpool areas. However, the further “ahead” you get, the more money it will take to stay ahead and get further ahead.
- You can always spend 35 tokens for an extra 50% lobbying power, or 70 tokens for an extra 100% power.
- You can save up to 30 lobbying tokens between rounds. If you do not submit anything, you will retain just 20 tokens - this is a compromise to avoid punishing people too much, but still incentivise participating somehow.
- You can only spend whole numbers of lobbying tokens, but you can spend any amount. 11, 16, 69…
A brand new mechanic is outsourcing. Want help on some element of your car? Want to work on even more cars than you are currently allowed to? This section is for you! Note that this only applies to cars, because there’s not enough division in non-cars where engineering doesn’t exist. In addition, requesting a crate engine means you cannot request outsourced styling, and vice versa. Here’s how it works:
- Join the Discord. This is absolutely needed to make administration possible.
- Make a post in either the “In Search Of” channel or the “Portfolio Sharing” channel. Posts here close halfway through the round.
– The “In Search Of” channel is to be used if you are looking to oursource part of your car. You should state what segment and type of car you are making, give a design brief, and specify what part you want help with - exterior styling, interior styling or exterior+interior.
– The “Portfolio Sharing” should show what you can do. Link to other past challenge entries, show your stuff. Say what you are available for. Also give an indication of how many cars you want to work on. For crate engines, feel free to show specifications if you have already made one! - Discuss with other users in the general chat. Once you link up with someone, use the handy dandy
botinstructions I have installed to create a channel with the two of you in the server - importantly, a channel that I can see. (We had a bot, it didn’t work, so plan B.) - Discuss further points in that channel. Share design concepts, ideas, etc.
- Avoid doing anything besides your role. If you are doing styling, either send a mule with stuff at defaults, or get a WIP from the other person. If you are doing an engine, just send it in a mule with the bare minimum done outside the engine.
- The person having their car done can request further tweaks, but the person doing the car doesn’t have to do them if it’s too far.
What do you get for doing all of this, for doing someone else’s car? You will receive extra spending tokens, if you put in an honest effort - how many depends on how much effort and how well you do. Spamming one engine everywhere won’t do as well. The goal should be to have your end of the bargain done with about a week or so to the end of the challenge. I’ll compare what you supplied to what you promised, and allocate tokens accordingly.