Greetings, fellow kids, I hope you’ve built your dose of hypercars today already!
This open challenge is all about speed, all about campaign, and survival.
Can you build the fastest IRL car each decade and show them what Duesenberg couldn’t?
Put your engineering pants on and see if this is something for you:
Let me know if you have any questions and of course post your thoughts and episodes here as well I shall monitor this space before an episode of mine goes live to see who’s videos need to be included.
I see that we are allowed as many facelifts to our car as possible, but are we also allowed to have multiple trims of said car? Does the first car need to go into production before January of 1950 to count for the 50’s speed, like with the other decades?
I would assume that you can have multiple car trims, as you may have multiple engine families - how would you use them if you had multiple trims? Just the fastest one counts for the speed record. It would be good to have this officially confirmed though.
EDIT: Killrob actually says it in his video that you can have multiple trims.
Regarding production until January: The car does not only need to be produced, it also needs to be “delivered to buyers”, i.e. sold (not only pre-ordered and not only a showcar). This raises the bar quite a bit… But I now have two questions which go into even more detail:
until when does the car need to be delivered to be eligible for the record, for example for the January 1950 test? December '49 or January '50?
is the plural “buyers” important? I.e. do we need to sell 1 or at least 2 before/until January?
@Maverick74 You can have as many facelifts and trims as you want, but only one model per decade. The engine side is “unlimited” as well.
@cake_ape I’m going to do a vanilla body run. Having more choice will make it easier, but it ought to be rather well balanced with how bodies work in Automation now.
@Der_Bayer To keep it simple, the rule is that as long as you have delivered one or more cars to buyers in January, that car can also be tested for top speed. The plural isn’t important, no.
Final question from my side: one model per decade - does this relate to the date of start or end of the engineering project? I would assume it means the start.
Just to clarify with some specific examples, I believe this is all okay for this challenge:
-One model but multiple trims and engines is fine, so I can have 6 trims if I wanted, coupe, convertible, estate, V8, V12 options… As long as there is only 1 base model at any given time for my company?
-The car used for top speed in January of 19X0 is whatever facelift is on the market for that date, so if I rush my first car and it releases in 1948 and I do a quick facelift that launches in January 1950, that facelift is what I should use for top speed test?
-You don’t need to use new bodies every decade? So I can use the same model/body in 1960 that I used in 1950?
Not quite: ANY car you have delivered (!) to a customer to date can count for the highest speed. So even if your new facelift is slower than the old one, it is the old one that counts, regardless of when it was released. Not sure if launching the project in January actually makes you get a delivery, I think it needs to come out in December to get one delivered for January? But yes, you can facelift that highspeed car several times before it counts. Alternatively you could skip making a new model and just continue facelifting one of the cars.
You can use whatever body you like but I would recommend using vanilla only bodies to keep a fair playing ground.
I was just about to ask that, should we have it launch in December because you don’t see “actual sales” until the month after it launches. I will base it on that.
Hint to those doing this challenge, you can use a 1948 facelift to your advantage if you do it right (couple years of extra tire/brake tech, 2 Barrel carb) and facelift cost should be really low.
We have to have a model out for 1950 or is it when we get our first model out is when it starts? Like, my engine will not be finished engineering until 1951, so do I have to redesign it to be out at least by 12DEC49, am I understanding this correctly?
If you want to score for the January 1950 score, then yes, you need to have your trim delivered to a buyer latest in January 1950, otherwise you will get loads of negative points for the first of seven scoring slots
I have never recorded/streamed anything (old man here, 43), can figure that part out despite my shitty $15 amazon mic killing the audio quality.
question is what exactly should be in the video? just a short clip at launch showing it sold cars in January 1950, and then briefly talking about engine/car and showing the top speed (and test if Dalluha is available to you). What length video should we aim for?
Also you mention in your youtube video that we should submit them before your video goes live for that decade, but then mention tagging/linking it in the comments of that video, just wanted to clarify which is best to do. Just for fun so its no big deal but figured might as well try to do it correctly.
Glad you’re thinking about joining in as one of the most experienced campaign players out there it will be good to have you in the mix!
My approach to the videos is to show and explain all major design and strategic decisions. Why do I choose to set up my campaign a certain way, what am I planning to do, what engine tech do I go for and how can I see the path forward, how do I split up my trims and what markets do they target, how are factories and engineering set up to allow for all this… there is a lot to talk about.
If you have not seen my old series on this very topic, you can check it out here!
Sorry, I forgot to mention length and such.
I’ll be aiming for 30min each episode, but especially the first one might go a little longer because of how damn much there is to talk about. Naturally you cut out the boring parts.
I’m using OBS to record, that’s standard today and its free. Editing is more of an issue to most, I’m blessed with having access to the entire Adobe collection of tools from work, so I’m using Premiere Pro 2023.
You can message me your video link beforehand (for example via DM here) so that I can put it into the video description. I just want to make sure people can’t watch my episode and then go do theirs that would kill creativity a little.
I have recorded and edited the first 2 episodes already, with the first being 38 and the second 28 minutes long. It could easily have been more, but I sped up every longer car and engineering optimization section by the factor of 20x to get down to those numbers. Still, there will be a lot to watch if more people participate!
For editing I use the free version of HitFilm, it has everything you need including some basic effects, good project presets and is easy to set up and use. I just watched one 20 minute tutorial and was ready to go. Just make sure to not use any premium effects/features, as you would end up with watermarks on the video otherwise. The premium effects are clearly marked, so it is easy to avoid them.
I’ve now completed the recording of my first episode, boiling down 2h 40min of recording into 33min of premium Automation madness. You can send me (privately) your video links for your first episode / car and I shall link them in my video description!
damn, thought we had a week since you posted this thread, will try to get mine done today (car is done and campaign playthrough but not video), Is your video going up today?
I shall monitor this space before an episode of mine goes live to see who’s videos need to be included.
But I now have two questions which go into even more detail:
that would kill creativity a little.