The Arstotzkan Automobile: Results part 4! (Also part 3 I didn't update the thread title)

Community Challenges & Competitions
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You did not watch the video? ENTRY DENIED. Glory to Arstotzka. You must submit to mandatory penis inspection before receiving an updated passport.

Submissions are open now! Game up 1/28 affected engine tunes, car weight and costs so make sure your tune is good for the new version. Submissions extended to 1/31. Budget increased to $16,500.

The Arstotzkan Automobile
Intro Video:
Welcome to the Arstotzkan Automobile challenge! As explained above, the nation of Arstotzka is in need of a passenger vehicle for ordinary families and workers. The needs of the many are varied, but the factory can only produce one vehicle, and the budget is slim. Furthermore, the leading officers have a conflicting idea of what an Arstotzkan automobile should strive for.

This will be a VIDEO challenge, with the results delivered in video form similar to my CSR 142 video.




Requirements:
  • Game Version 4.2
  • Trim and Variant year: 1970
  • Hard budget limit: $16,500 AMU (see the CALCULATOR)
  • Top End Quality: 0 (there is a bug which causes this quality to ignore costs)
  • Fuel: Choose from Unleaded Low Quality “A-76”, or Regular Unleaded “AI-93” fuel (93 RON)
    • To make AI-93, you will need to choose Regular Unleaded, and then add 2 points of octane with the Tuned Fuel Type. Your final tune should be 93 RON/88 AKI for regular, or 85 RON/80AKI for low quality fuel. Do not touch the Tuned Fuel Type except for this purpose.
  • Only full seats may be used in the front row
  • Basic 60’s Safety minimum
  • You must post an ad/proposal for your design, with at least one image of the car. It doesn’t have to be very serious, but it’s also your opportunity to explain how -15 quality fiberglass is totally those cotton-resin body panels from the Trabi or whatever.
Priorities:

  • Manufacturing Cost:
    The more materials and man-hours each vehicle costs, the longer citizens will have to wait to receive their vehicle. If the car is too expensive, many families will be without a car indefinitely. Simplify everything! In an effort to eliminate burgeous wastefulness, you may need to make extensive use of the negative quality sliders.
  • Fuel Economy
    Passenger vehicles might strain the oil industry. Consider the prices of fuel when choosing a fuel type: per gallon, Regular AI-93 costs $3.37, and Low Quality A-76 costs $2.66
  • Maintenance Cost
    Maintenance cost for five years will be factored into the total cost of the vehicle.
  • Drivability
    These cars are for EVERYONE! The easier they are to drive, the better.
  • Practicality/Utility
    While a micro-commuter might be considered, most of the party members agree that the vehicle needs to be able to transport a family and their luggage.
  • Reliability
    These cars need to last a long time, and repairs are wasted labor.
  • Comfort
    This is one of the main ways the people who actually drive the cars will judge their quality of life. A rock hard ride will make our citizens feel impoverished.
  • Offroad
    Many roads outside the cities are unpaved, so the cars need to be able to travel on them.
  • Style
    While the party members are split on a more modern or conservative style, the appearance of the car will be a major point for our cars to be judged compared to foreign ones, so don’t make us a laughing stock! Even cheap cars should look fully-featured, and not like an Automation blob. Also, visual design should reflect engineering choices, such as engine position and ventilation. Interiors (optional, but always a plus) should reflect interior type and quality.
  • Performance
    The car needs to have enough power to travel on the highway and at least keep pace with trucks. While high performance is not particularly necessary, very low performance will be penalized.
  • Safety
    There’s no advanced crash testing in Arstotzka, but the inclusion of more safety features could be a good idea. “Seatbelts” are catching on in the West, apparently.
  • Sportiness
    A value above zero will make the cars feel less miserable to drive.
  • Environmental Resistance
    This will be treated as a modifier to reliability, primarily.
  • Everything Else
    While “realism” isn’t a major goal, having any extreme noticeable downside might be an issue.
The Council

SergiuVonelDmitri

Besides the official brief, the members of the Automotive Council have their own opinions.
  • Vonel (center) is most concerned with cost and efficiency. Not only should every worker have a car, they should have them as quickly as possible, and the upkeep should be minimal, so he cares especially about fuel and maintenance costs, and dislikes unnecessary features. In Vonel’s opinion, the cars will mostly be used to commute to work, and don’t need to do more than that.
  • Sergiu (left) wants to see a rugged and durable car. He would rather spend more on a car that will last longer and carry more people and cargo than provide workers with very small and cheap cars. If a car can pull double duty as a work vehicle by towing or driving through fields, even better.
  • Dmitri (right) likes western cars and thinks Arstotzkan cars should be just as good. He’d like to provide luxuries like a radio, a comfortable ride and enough power that the car isn’t seen as sluggish. He doesn’t want Arstotzkan car owners to feel envious of their western counterparts. Dmitri says that the quality of the car one of the benchmarks of citizens’ quality of life: nice cars, happy citizens. (But it still must be cheap!)

Any two council members can veto a car. So, try to make your car stand out in at least two areas.




Notes:
  • Realism
    Realism in a challenge like CSR usually means the engineering must be somewhat conventional. I really don’t think there’s any good reason for that sort of thinking to apply here, weird designs are basically up for grabs. However, I will not appreciate any abuse of bugs, or weird game mechanics that couldn’t possibly work in real life. Ask yourself: am I turning some “unimportant” stat into a dump stat? Could I actually use this vehicle in real life?
  • Quality Sliders
    Use 'em! It seems that in 4.2, the diminishing returns for very low quality sliders are a lot less. In other words, you actually save good money by going all the way to -15. Experiment and see which areas you can afford to sacrifice. Just remember that lost fuel economy and increased maintenance costs you a lot too. You might even use your savings for positive quality in some areas.
  • Known Game Issues
    I want to use 4.2 for this challenge because it’s new and exciting, but bugs and hotfixes might screw with the challenge. Just try to make the best of it. Known issues right now are that

    • Engine top end quality cost doesn’t always work (hence the rule to leave it 0!)
    • Engine intake stats are all weird,
    • Fuel economy and weight are screwy. In particular, wheel weights don’t respond to wheel radius changes, interiors are very light, and low profile tires benefit gas mileage more than narrow ones.
  • Don’t forget the Cost Calculator! The total cost of your car considers fuel and maintenance!
  • BeamNG
    Since this is a video series, I’m going to want to get some footage of the cars rolling around in Beam. I don’t really intend to use Beam handling to judge the cars (because it’s not always very accurate), but I might use it to illustrate conclusions I’ve already made from what I can see in Automation. So, avoiding stuff that’s known to break BeamNG makes my life easier!
Fuel and Fuel Prices

I did my best to research this, but as you might imagine, all my information was very wrong! With the help of someone who speaks Russian I have updated the fuel types and prices. Now there is ONLY A-76 low-quality fuel and AI-93 Standard fuel. AI-95 was not available in 1970, and contrary to my sources, the 1970 VAZ-2101 did not run on AI-95.
A-76 is a MON number, so it’s actually 85 RON, while AI-95 is a RON number to begin with (that’s what the A or AI designate).
Prices are higher (see REQUIREMENTS above); applying inflation to the USD (to which Automation money is pegged) based on prices of soviet goods is a very inexact science, but I decided to go with a source from 1968 on soviet fuel prices and just translate all the prices.

Submissions:
  • Name
    Model/Family: ATZ - Your Username
    Trim/Variant: The car/engine name
  • Contact
    I prefer to receive .car files here on the forums, but I’ll also accept them on discord, since if you’re new to the forum it won’t let you send files. I have a channel on this Discord. You can also find me on the official Automation Discord.
  • Ad
    You don’t have to make anything elaborate but I need at least a picture of what your car looks like and a short description so I know if something breaks during import, and have something to go on for the video. May be sent by discord.
  • Deadline
    All times are in US-CST.
    Round opens
    23:59 JANUARY 22 2022
    Round closes
    23:59 JANUARY 31 2022
    Times may be delayed if there is a hotfix which significantly affects game balance.
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Is there consideration for basic optional extras, or is it assumed that every car that rolls off the line is entirely identical? (for example, could we indicate that the inclusion of a tow hitch is “optional,” only fitted on some cars to save on the production costs of fitting one to every car?)

On an unrelated note, what is/are the climate(s) of Arstotzka?

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This is to be a standardized car without optional extras. For anything that actually impacts judging, you get only one shot (otherwise people would all want to submit three cars to increase their chances!) In the case of a tow hitch specifically though, we can imagine every car to be capable of fitting a hitch without requiring you to place the fixture. I can add one myself if, for example, I want to grab footage of the car pulling a trailer in Beam.

In fact, speaking of BeamNG, maybe I should add a note to the rules that I might drive the cars in BeamNG. I don’t really want to judge them on BeamNG performance, since it’s not very accurate to Automation, but I may want to use it in the video to illustrate the cars’ behavior.

The Climate in Arstotzka is varied, the winters are long, cold and snowy but it also gets very hot during the summer. The country is big enough that there are warmer and colder regions. So, a car should be able to handle any climate.

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To clarify about the tow hitch, is there any harm in me fitting it anyway, if say, I think it looks good or something?

Also, about the climate: what about vegetation? Is plant life very dense, like a forest, or is it more of a grassland or desert? And is the nation vary mountainous and rocky, or more flat? What does the environment look like?

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You can put the tow hitch on the car, yes.

As for terrain, idk just look at russia. It shouldn’t inform your design too much, since it’s going to spend most of its time on roads (paved or unpaved) and maybe sometimes in fields or the like.

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Also, is this badged as one of our own brands or a fedraly run one? Or do we submit it as one of our own but then you rebadge it under liscence? Also, how much western (or particularly American) influence should there be on styling?

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Use whatever sort of badging you want. Realistically, if it’s a foreign badge, the car would probably be re-badged once adopted to something suitably Arstotzkan, maybe VGAZ (Vostok Grestin Avtomobilny Zavod, or East Grestin Automobile Plant). But, I’ll just assess cars with whatever badging they come with.

As for styling, you’ll have to take your best guess at what the council members would like, though you can certainly consider what cars were chosen for inspiration pictures. The Bronco is the only US market car and mostly chose it because the Land Rover might be too upmarket, but really I think I got my wires crossed with modern cars and in 1970 it’s probably the other way around.

I guess what I mean by my rambling is, probably not very American (but some American influence isn’t forbidden either).

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I expect both engine and trim reliability to figure into the final scoring, given that the Arstotzkan populace would rather have a reliable engine in a reliable car than an unreliable one of either.

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Rules Update!

Fuel types and costs have been revised! Premium fuel is gone, there are now two fuel types: AI-93 is 93 RON (or 88 AKI) fuel, it’s Regular Unleaded with +2 added to the tuned fuel type. Low Quality fuel, or A-76, remains unchanged.

Costs have increased considerably: AI-93 costs $3.37 AMU per gallon, and A-76 costs $2.66.

The calculator is available at the same link, and has been updated, so make a new copy. If you’ve already started making your vehicle, make sure it is re-tuned to a valid fuel type when you submit!

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Ow come on!

I was 1500 under target with positive quality!!

With that TAX increase, fuel is unaffordable!!

THIS the start of a revolution!

Let’s all put our yellow vests and protest!!

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:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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I got a question about that calculator


in the Trim>Mfg. Cost, am I supposed to enter a value there or go with the one thats calculated? It’s the latter right?

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Yeah, that’s supposed to be a calculated value, so don’t overwrite the equation there lmao
Edit to clarify: If anyone’s wondering, yes, this IS supposed to be different that your Estimated Cost within Automation. My formula tracks fairly close, but not exactly, and penalizes very high ET in particular.

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lol, yo man, Im trying to get it RIGHT :rofl:

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93RON unleaded in 1970 communism?

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Yeah, this was based on some research with the help of someone who speaks Russian. As far as I can tell, this is the fuel type which was used for passenger cars during this time, especially the Lada (VAZ-2101) which was probably the most-produced soviet passenger car, and began production in 1970.

The Soviet Union actually began banning leaded gasoline at a municipal level in 1967. While Russia has a modern reputation for lingering with leaded gasoline (by the 90’s, they were the biggest country still using it while the US and EU had banned it completely) they were also early leaders in eliminating its use. I believe this essentially took the form of banning it in populated areas and passenger vehicles while allowing its use in commercial vehicles and farm tractors outside of cities.

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Glory to Arstotzka

Arstotzka Heavy Machinery Company

January 23, 1970

To the esteemed members of the Arstotzka Automotive Council Mr. Vonel, Mr. Sergiu, and Mr. Dimitri. The Arstotzka Heavy Machinery Company (AHMC) hopes this letter finds you well. We are submitting our proposal for the national passenger vehicle.

Photo18_1,920-1,080
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The vehicle you see here is a fully working prototype for which we believe will suit the needs of the Arstotzkan people. We hope that this design, the AHMC Vulkan, may become the principal design and us the main producer for the national passenger vehicle. We understand that there are several requirements laid forth by each member of the council. Please let us address your individual requirements. We apologize for any vagueness encountered in this letter as AHMC believes that this letter carries a risk of being intercepted by rival company spies as it is an early submission.

To the requirements of Mr. Vonel, cost and efficiency is was the leading ethos of the design. We understand the shortage of Arstotzkan engineers has been an issue in regards to retooling factories to build vehicle. The Vulkan has pushed the engineering time to a minimum allowing factories to begin producing the vehicle as quickly as possible. As a result, Vulkan is projected to cost almost one thousand credits below the intended budget. The fuel consumption and maintenance cost are also projected to be low courtesy of the ability for this vehicle to run on almost any form of liquid fuel no matter the quality. Additionally, AHMC utilized the wind tunnel originally used to test the Arstotzkan Ballistic Missile project to finely tune the aerodynamics. This was done to such an extent that, despite the vehicle looking like a brick, it glides through the air like a fighter jet.

To the requirements of Mr. Sergiu, the two box wagon design in conjunction with its off-road ability allows the vehicle to be used to carry almost anything, almost anywhere. With more than half a ton of carrying capacity, there is the ability to carry 5 average Arstotzkans along with the capacity to carry their luggage and equipment. To add to this, the vehicle was built with the possibility of conversion to a conventional offroad light truck should a national security emergency arise and repatriation of civilian vehicles be required. With the threat of the Kolechian insurgency as well as terrorism threats by EZIC, this is a very real possibility and the flexibility of the vehicle lends itself not only for use in work but national security.

To the requirements of Mr. Dimitri, we understand that although the vehicle must serve different purposes no civilian wants to ride in a vehicle without a bit of prestige. Our engineers have made careful decisions to make the Vulkan as comfortable as they would like it, it may even make our Orbistan neighbours jealous. An AM Radio, comfortable suspension geometry, and power steering is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In addition, we have carefully created an engine so smooth that even higher capacity western v8 engines would be jealous of our design. This is one car that’s so easy to drive and so plush, any babushka could happily use it.

We hope that the following design may be accepted for production as the national vehicle. Please feel free to contact us regarding any inquiries you may have. We will be awaiting eagerly for your stamp of approval.

Glory to Arstotzka!

Arstotzka Heavy Machinery Company

January 30, 1970

To the esteemed members of the Arstotzka Automotive Council Mr. Vonel, Mr. Sergiu, and Mr. Dimitri.

As a result of unexpected circumstances, we regret to inform that an adjustment need be made regarding our claim. We understand your budget has been increased to a total of 16,500 credits. Our current prediction now lies at approximately eight hundred and fifty credits below the intended budget. Please see the updated Mark II prototype below. Additional safety equipment such as a rear wiper, side indicators and additional headlights have been installed in addition to several fundamental engineering changes. We hope these changes may offset our regrettable decision of requiring an adjustment of our cost targets.

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Glory to Arstotzka!

Arstotzka Heavy Machinery Company

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GSI Sochi 1600
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You can’t fool us, american spy! This ad reeks of capitalism!

Đ’ĐĐ–ĐĐ«Đ™

Very nice

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Blast, using freedom units gave me away! :male_detective:

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You could give some arguments, you know. Writing “X is bs” is a rather destructive approach. And honestly as someone from a formerly-communist state who knows its history and cars from that period somewhat well I can’t see a reason for such judgement.

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