The Automation Gamer Challenge [NEW THREAD]

The Madson Brooklands Torpedo-AGV MOD

With recent restrictions on anti-gravity research brought upon by global automotive safety lobbyists, Arnage Research Industries brainstormed ideas to circumvent these regulations and progress the technology they have developed. A deep-cover project was conceived by ARI. Under the guise of an underground project by some part-time mechanical engineers in their spare time, Team AG.Engineering hacked up an ancient 1920’s Madson Brooklands Torpedo body, once designed for grand prix racing in its time with traces of its lineage leading to the ARI of today, combines a heavily modified 41 tonne FR-41H Mass Gravity Damper prototype as the crafts lift system with an experimental graviton siphon pump as the main thrust of this bullet. The project deep down is an experiment, a look into the possibilities of siphoning from the energy field created from the Mass Gravity Damper and creating an applicable thrust module and in the end will further the field of anti-gravity research. ARI saw the opportunity to show off their tech when the murmurs of an unrestricted, underground racing league, TIME ATTAC, started to roll around. ARI saw this as an opportunity to see their technology let loose.

Systems overview

Stats

Max Thrust: 56,000 pounds
Maximum Velocity: Mach 1.4, limited to Mach 0.5
Mass: 6,400 KG
Acceleration Capacity:
0-100km\h: 2 seconds
0-200km\h: 3 seconds
0-400km\h: 6 seconds
0-Limited V-Max: 10 seconds

The main systems that allow this craft to be a possibility in the first place are the combination of the ARI FR-41H Mass Gravity Damper and ARI Prototype Graviton Siphon Pump. Early on gravity dampers have been used to carry small shipments around town under autonomous methods but the mass they could carry was hindered by the increased power draw. By 2056, Arnage Research Industries in combination with Fujisaki Quantum Research developed a more powerful, portable Mass Gravity Damper. ARI’s solution was the development of a wave amplification module that could work with a 1 tonne Gravity Damper to counter 45 tonnes of mass and then for portability, an FQR developed portable fusion driver was used to power the entire system. In the end the FR-41H Mass Gravity Damper was the project’s end product and it could counter 41 tonnes of mass due to the added wight of the portable fusion driver. Another piece of tech is just as important, the ARI Graviton Siphon Pump system prototype. This system siphons Graviton particles from the intense high energy gravitational waves emitted from the MGD module and uses these to compress particles from the air sucked into the GSP’s atom chamber via a ram air system and form a surprising amount of thrust from the resulting energy release due to the splitting of atoms from the continual and immense crushing force applied from the now graviton filled atom chamber. With these systems, this current package allows the craft to travel at 500 km\h for 6 hours before the portable fusion driver requires a cooldown stop involving liquid nitrogen to be pumped through the systems.

The Pilot

The Team AG.Engineering main pilot is ambiguous. Mystique always lingers around the pilot from what they did for a living, their upbringing, their aspirations and goals, to whether they are human or not. However, they still maintain a decent level of respect in the paddock as anyone who can drive that missile even off the trailer is a hero. But unbeknownst to the other teams, the pilot of this beast is nothing more than a stand in. The systems perform a lot of the functions with the flight management systems especially computing the correct altitude due to the restrictions in place and heavily assisting the pilot in controlling the unwieldy craft. The pilot after all these assists just drives it like a normal everyday hovercraft, but with the power from the siphon pump the craft deep down behaves more like a rocket on cold ice. The pilot, emotionless and cold, uses the missile they have to cut through the field with no remorse, often to the chagrin of the other teams that have dealt with this team in the past.

Additional Images

16 Likes

AGC15 Submissions are now closed as of 21 minutes ago.

I have 18 entries from the people below:

Thank you to everyone who participated! If I’ve missed your entry and you submitted in time, kindly or rudely shoot me a PM. When will entries be out? Well, @SpeedyBoi will be busy this week, and I will be busy as well but not for long. Hopefully we can get round one of reviews out in 10-15 days.

15 Likes

I want to thank everyone that entered for the boost in creativity brung to our community. I loved to see such amazing builds reunited in one place!

7 Likes

laziness school really do be like that

On a more positive note, we’ll be hopefully less busy next week or so
The first round will be relatively quick, and there would be (hopefully) some spicy gameplay in the final round
In the mean time, stay tuned

Jeez you guys are making this hard for us, we’re trying to get some bins out, but most of them are so awesome I feel bad for binning them

10 Likes

Akatronix All-Terrain Leisure Transport

(awfully sorry for the delayed write up for this challenge)



The Akatronix All-Terrain Leisure Transport (or ATLT for sure) is one of Akatronix’s new lineup of consumer vehicular transport around these parts of the cyberworld.

Combining Akatronix’s knowledge of high-tech cyber military knowledge and RetroniX’s performance heritage, It is no wonder that this spacecraft will be one of top dogs in TIME ATTAC 2079



  • Powered by Akatronix’s in-house power generator, aptly named HyperVortex Particulate Generator, giving a maximum overdrive power output of about 489,971 lbf of thrust, bringing an estimated airspeed of about mach 2 - 2.5 depending on configuration.

  • If you tick one particular box in the options list, the Akatronix is equipped with Counter-Electronic-Attack-Mechanical-Override (CEAOM), it is an automatic override to mechanical controls if ever any known cyberattacks interferes with the vehicle (EMP, cyberattack, etc.).

Driver Still WIP, give me a moment
12 Likes

Altitude to ground throughout the entire race must be lower than 7m (for eliminating aircrafts and spacecrafts)

Description

“We took the term “Space Race” too seriously.”

The sky is the limit, they say, but what sits beyond that? Yet another frontier for humans to conquer. Beyond 2020, Zacspeed began branched out beyond wheeled endeavors with an aerospace arm. The company refined their technology through fighter jets and the like, catching the United States government’s eye. The funding they subsequently received let them pursue space works in 2040, starting with the laser-based ballistic missile defense system known as Aegis. Capable of shooting down ballistic missiles from opposing nations, Aegis represented a new dawn to defense.

It did not stop there. With space opening up a world of possibilities, other nations dumped their wealth into space defense programs. Space Force was not a meme anymore; it was a necessity. Others developed weapons systems to circumvent or disable Aegis; in response, Aegis received constant service and upgrades, including one gun-type failsafe that launched rocks fast enough to penetrate nosecones.

As countries expanded their offensive capabilities, both the government and Zacspeed realized more offensive equipment was needed. If they were to build something as large as Aegis, however, it would be an inefficient use of time, money, and troops. Thus, the idea was to build smaller spacecraft drawing from fighter jet experience.

Throughout the 2060s, several different starfighters were tested and produced - some with jet-derived ballistics, some with fission reactors, even one with splitting wings. The Phoenix, however, did not feature any of these, instead offering stun and damage laser turrets, one main thruster, and two auxiliary thrusters. Unlike its predecessors, it found itself at the center of an arms race spurred by these advances in technology.

Production began in 2078 on the outskirts of America’s newest state, Olympus. To ensure rivals and threats would have difficulty finding these operations, its facilities were built underneath the ground, which was formed from previous eruptions by Olympus Mons, the volcano on which this state’s boundaries were set. While a site of pride for Americans, those who governed the Republic of Phobos looked on it with disdain. A nation based on the moon of the same name, it formed over time after the United States exiled scores of criminals to this moon during the early 2050s, with multiple extremists taking office during the mid 2070s.

With Olympus Mons being rich in resources like natural gas (methane) and geothermal energy, Phobos accused the United States of attempting to dominate the energy sector, going further by claiming this would form a path to utilizing every other volcano in the Tharsis Montes region. Ironically, this is the exact reason why Phobos wished to take control of this area, along with capturing such a massive area serving as a show of force. The United States proceeded with energy operations and policies, leading to the Phoban government purchasing alternative starfighters for their military efforts.

On 13 January 2079, Phobos launched an attack on Franklin D. Roosevelt International Spaceport, a day that would go down in infamy for many. Phoenix pilots were called to action against the Phoban threat. Soon after would begin the Battle of Phobos, a five-week conflict pitting the new craft against multiple others. This ended on 17 February 2079 with the Phoenixes triumphing over the opposition. Following this, those who orchestrated and participated in the attack and battle were captured; they are currently awaiting trial.

The ship present in this running of TIME ATTAC was piloted by ace pilot George Petty. He found great success in this ship, destroying eight starfighters over the conflict’s course, but several rear panels were blown off the craft just before the last week. As mechanics replaced those panels, they realized the area blown apart could provide space for an expansion to the Phoenix’s arsenal. During that last week, the mechanics installed an experimental laser cannon in this opened area, with its sheer size contributing to its name: the Big Fucking Laser.

The weapon, first tested on the second-to-last day of the battle, stoked conversations between scientists about whether this was a worthwhile upgrade. Though once the war ended, the conversation that swirled about it disappeared. Without a need for this extreme weaponry, testing the systems fell onto the backburner, leaving it sitting for several days at a time. At Petty’s request, the rear panels were never restored.

Armaments

OPTEK DS3 Laser Cannons (4)

OPTEK’s DS3s are known for their strong damage output, rapid fire, and robust design, making them a clear choice for this application. Here, they are configured with an alternating fire order and a convergence point (where the laser beams intersect) of 540m forward of the craft.

The DS3 cannons come in two variants: stun and damage. The top two cannons are of the former type, and they slow down their target when they hit while doing no damage. The bottom two are the latter variety, and they deal damage to their target.

BFL

The Big Fucking Laser, commonly abbreviated to BFL, is an in-house experimental superweapon. Barely tested by technicians, it was cobbled together by powering 16 OPTEK HL9 lasers, installing a vast mirror housing to focus these beams into one, and running these through a Galilean beam expander.

While some power density is lost when the laser is routed through the expander, the result is still powerful enough to rip through armor and large enough to tear a hole one can see through. Those technicians who witnessed its power could only describe the impact as a “doughnut.” This does, however, put serious strain on the Phoenix’s systems, requiring a long while to build up enough energy for firing.

Flares

Hastily adapted for TIME ATTAC, this ship makes use of a pyrotechnic flare system. It consists of 18 Rigel M-211 MTV (magnesium/teflon/viton) flares released by the pilot in salvos of three per side. Replenishable between races, this flare system gives players three opportunities to evade homing attacks. This works together with EMP reinforcement to make damaging the armor or electronics more difficult.

Propulsion

Zacspeed HO-79 “Thunderforce”

The Phoenix features the new HO-79 powertrain system, also known as the “Thunderforce.” It consists of three thrusters - one primary unit and two auxiliary units. They are powered by a Cryodyne 04-M LNG cryogenic power generator with cryogenic capacitors storing additional power within the wings and cannon “hands.” Various power couplings share this energy between different systems on the ship.

The primary thrust unit is a RoKIT 424P fusial thrust engine, and the auxiliary thrust units are modified RoKIT 222S fusial thrust engines. The latter was built specifically for each engine to wrap around the back of each cannon hand, which could modify trajectory by outputting different amounts of thrust through these faces. This works in tandem with electromagnetic gyroscopes in all three engines to ensure the craft can make tight turns.

For TIME ATTAC, the craft’s onboard computers monitor various altimeters and sensors to determine height. The system is programmed to override the pilot if the ship attempts to breach the 7m restriction. This is done by expelling thrust out of both top faces and opening the cannon hands’ top flaps.

The flaps above and beneath each auxiliary engine can open and close to bend the air to its will when in the atmosphere. This can also be done to prevent the thrusters from melting the flaps. If needed, thrust can be vented through its sidepods to provide a reversing mechanism.

Pilot

Zachary Speed

After Zachariah managed to fuse with machinery, he taught others how to do this, including one of the most recent CEOs of the company. By the time 2079 arrived, uploading one’s conscience to a robot was a usual insurance policy, but as a further measure, Zachary uploaded his conscience to a server he calls Cortex. As he went about his day in a robot body, he could save his conscience to this server, and if he were to die, he could just load his conscience into another robot body in a similar manner to respawning.

This lines up perfectly with his predilection toward “spirited driving.”

Specifications
2079 Zacspeed Phoenix
Maximum Altitude7m (from bottom-most point, computer-restricted)
Powertrain SystemZacspeed HO-79 "Thunderforce"
Engine UnitsRoKIT 424P fusial thrust engine (primary),
RoKIT 222S fusial thrust engines (modified, auxiliary)
Power GeneratorCryodyne 04-M LNG cryogenic power generator
Maximum Acceleration4,000 G
Maximum Atmospheric Speed1,135 km/h (restricted)
ArmamentOPTEK DS3 Laser Cannons (2 stun)
OPTEK DS3 Laser Cannons (2 damage)
Zacspeed BFL
CountermeasuresRigel M-211 MTV flares (18)
EMP reinforcement
Controls

Resting - arms outstretched horizontally, hands open (like a T-pose)
Thrust - arms shifted forward
Brake/Reverse - arms shifted backwards
Up - lift both arms
Down - lower both arms
Left - rotate arms left (left arm down, right arm up)
Right - rotate arms right (left arm up, right arm down)
Barrell Roll - rotate arms left or right with toes up
Laser cannons - close hands beyond resting
Stun guns - open hands beyond resting
BFL - press thumbs on index fingers (like pressing buttons)

Trivia
  • Some claim the BFL, in structure, function, and paint, is reminiscent of an ancient meme. We at Zacspeed have no comment.

  • The general design for this ship is intended to mimic previous F1 cars.

Something to Think About

If you throw trash on US highways…

…Somebody up there’s gon’ be watching.

23 Likes

Round 1, Part 1

surprise, we are not actually dead!

November 15th, 2026, New York City




It’s a windy and gloomy day in NYC. After the rush hours, the city has returned to its quiet and calm state. In Liberty State park, a group of geese gathered on a lawn next to the river. A dozen of them took off, and flew towards the New Central Island. The New Central Island is an artificial island built and commissioned in 2023, located south of Manhattan and Governor’s Island. The state of the art skyscrapers on the island contrasts greatly from the old-fashioned buildings around them.

On the 87th floor of the newly built Enterprise Tower, a guy wearing a grey hoodie is playing Auto Turismo 6 on his PC, his controller clicking loudly. “Uhhh, why did I spend 1 million credits on this Prasu, it’s so freaking useless”, he says to himself.

“Is he here yet?” says a 20 odd year old girl as she walks into the room.
“Knock first, please.” The guy puts down his controller. “And I don’t think so.”

The guy wearing the hoodie is the lead developer of the highly anticipated video game, ATTAC 2079. His name is Boris, but he is better known as “Borliik” online, and no one knows why he chooses such a lame name. As for the other person, she is Christina Weissman, one of the 3D artists responsible for the next-gen graphics of the game. The place in which they are currently slacking off, located on the 87th floor of Enterprise Tower, is the office of Crankshaft Software. They have scheduled a meeting this evening, regarding the campaign craft competition for the closed beta testers. To show off the game a bit and get some feedback from people outside the beta testers, the devs also invited a special guest.

“Oh well, we might as well start the Judging now.”
The two stepped into the conference room. Inside the room, the other people are already sitting around the long table waiting. In the center of the table, there is a hologram projector.
“He here?”
“Nah, but we starting now anyways.”
“Right. Lets load our first car file…”


The Visual Criterion Compasses

“Oh by the way, since our entries are quite diverse in terms of visual styles, we designed a rating system to categorize them.”

How it works

There are two radar charts

The Aesthetics Compass

And the Yamamoto-Raleigh Index of Automotive Unconventionality

The first chart in a way, indicates the construction of the vehicle. There are crafts that uses the latest cutting edge technology, and some others are homebrew monster machines. This chart showcase that attribute between designs

The second chat determines how “unconventional” the vehicle is. We received designs from a souped-up regular car, all the way to some…well you’ll see later. This chart takes care of that part.

Note that if your craft is considered “normal” or “garage hackhob” doesn’t always means that it’s bad. The game needs that kind of stuff as well



Christina furiously types something on her laptop, and the hologram starts projecting an image of a very sleek and angular hovercraft. Hushed murmurs and some nods of approval slowly spread through the room.

Sky-High - B1 Alpha Pro R1 X Class


97349bb348884a97575b8686ed6546c3523d0996_1_690x388

Christina: “Our first entry is the B1 Alpha R1 X-Class by @Riley.”

Borliik: “‘.car’ file’s a bit generous, huh?”

“Please, sir…”

“Right. Well, I’m liking this already; it’s a very sharp look that kinda reminds me of those 80s supercars designed using only rulers and cocaine… I think it’ll fit right at home in TIME ATTAC. Remember that one game? What was it called… Digifunk 2707? This thing looks like it easily could’ve been pulled right out of its assets bin. They didn’t provide a character but I can picture him already, how about this; a retired F1 driver looking to relive his glory days! Or, or, his spoiled son who wants to follow in daddy’s footsteps? How about that? Wait… where are the guns? Or the guided missiles?”

“Looks like there isn’t any offensive armament at all.”

“Oooh, but with its thrust vectoring engines it’s sure to be one of the fastest vehicles on the grid. God, I can already tell this thing is gonna be a pain in the ass to kill or catch up to.”

Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

We quite like this thing. Sharp angles, an extravagant metallic orange and blue color scheme, and a visual flow of bodywork that travels upwards from the front to rear should clearly serve as a warning that if you try to race this, you’ll lose. The A pillar that wraps around the roof is a very nice look, and with all the angled control surfaces, lighting elements, and wedge-like proportions, this thing’s more or less a street-legal fighter jet.

The B1 Alpha R1 X-Class will be included in the game. Despite the many goodies it has, unfortunately it simply doesn’t quite have that uniqueness or outlandishness to be included as a main competitor.



Christina: “Alright, what’s next?”

Amore GT-8

@variationofvariables



She pulls up the next .car file and the hologram displays a bright yellow muscle car with a bigass wing and an even bigger supercharger, but its most prominent feature is its arachnid-like silhouette; the sight of eight massive mechanized legs is enough to frighten some of the attendees. However, it’s also enough to cause some to blush as Christina simultaneously displays its driver. “What kinda weirdo likes spider girls?”

Borliik: “…”

“…I figured.”

“It’s in.”

The weirdo

Capture

Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

It’d be a divine transgression to not have Cecillia and her GT-8 as a main competitor in TIME ATTAC. It is also being strongly considered for the game cover.

A yellow hatchback replaces the yellow 8-legged supercar, and everyone calms down.

Mrs. Lucy D.

@Marcus_gt500

91f05357ce173b898717739b890c8424b2b8e8c4_1_690x388

Borliik: “Hey, I remember seeing these things from my vacation in South America! Here’s my question, though… why modify a beater?” He looks around the projection of the little hovering box, constantly zooming in from different angles and carefully analyzing the model. “Let’s see here, mad scientist/engineer/fabricator turns his rusted-out hatchback into an even madder abomination of technology haphazardly thrown together. It’s a tried and true concept that was executed wonderfully. This is exactly what we’re looking for in TIME ATTAC.

In addition, I don’t think we will have to modify the proposed abilities that much; considering its highly vulnerable and explosive powerplant, it’ll need those fancy selectable driving modes and EMP system to prevent turning half of the course into an irradiated wasteland. It’s not an explicitly offensive vehicle but I think this will be very fun to bully larger racecraft with.”


Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

With such a meticulously designed, badass-looking racecraft, and an interesting character, ‘Mrs. Lucy D.’ will be added to TIME ATTAC as a main competitor. It is also being considered for the cover.

REAPER Khora EV8k

@Fayeding_Spray

ef993179403735c0c8c5fec639cfbc1834e78b54_1_690x388


“Our first two-wheeled entry,” Christina announced. The projected rendering displayed a dark superbike with a sleek, fighter jet-like profile. “The Khora EV8k by REAPER.”

“You know what, having an edgier character to spice up the roster is definitely needed,” remarked Borliik. “Can’t have just unusually buxom anthropomorphic monster girls, can we? I digress; I hated that flying missile motorcycle thing in Motor Vehicle Theft Online 5. I feel like we’d be seeing this thing a lot if we implemented it, we should at least try to make it somewhat hard to master so that we don’t see entire starting grids filled with these.

Its abilities do grant it a fighting chance against not just lighter racecraft but also against well-armored ones, though I myself wouldn’t feel that safe being close to a… let’s say, tank or something when draining their health. Especially with an exposed driver. Speaking of which, Jesus this is probably one of our edgiest entries yet. I reckon if we included something like a first person mode for his- its- handcannon abilitiy, we could even draw in some of that diehard FPS demographic.”

So is that a yes?” Christina inquired.

“Unfortunately, the current state of the vehicle just doesn’t feel as fleshed-out as its mechanics, to be completely honest. There isn’t much going on, and I get that it’s supposed to be a futuristic take on a superbike or something along those lines, but between minimalist and underdesigned, I’m leaning more towards the latter.

Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

Having a motorcycle in TIME ATTAC would be a very helpful and useful addition as yet another small, hard-to-hit, annoying vehicle to harass larger, tankier racecraft. The concept is ultimately good but is somewhat let down by the result, which is good but not stellar. The Khora EV8k will be included in TIME ATTAC as a quick-race vehicle.




Christina leaned back into her chair, audibly rolled her eyes, and sighed as the next .car file was slowly rendered

Suisei Type 20 IFV-1

@Falling_Comet



The meeting attendees, consisting mostly of different technical and directors in each developmental wing of Crankshaft Software, were either bantering, playing some gacha game on their phones, or both. “God, why’s this taking so long to load?” She complained. When it finally came into view, a tracked armored fighting vehicle of biblical dimensions exploded out of the holographic projector. Attendees were taken aback, accompanying the impressive display with a fanfare of oohs and aahs.

“Holy shit!” Borliik chuckled as the olive gray gargantuan wedge slowly rotated and hovered above the table. He turned to Christina and scoffed. “I thought we were making a racing game. Nevertheless, this needs to be ingame. It’s on the older side of designs, yes, but there’s just something special about a 50 year-old, 50-ton mass of composite fiberglass and steel armor that a brand-new hovercraft doesn’t have.

I think we might need to nerf this thing a bit… since, you know, a tank going over 120 miles per hour while shooting a lead hailstorm of 40-mil at 1500rpm would be too much even for TIME ATTAC. And the ATGMs… I get that we don’t have virtually any restrictions in terms of weaponry, but we don’t need to be turning this into an outright battlefield.

The character’s background, let’s see… childhood trauma inflicted by a different race- or species of humanoids, which leads to fear of said species that builds up over time in hate, driving him to form a demi-human death squad with other human purists? Feels awfully similar… this basically sounds like a massive allusion to extremely nationalist social darwinism. It’s almost too intense for the premise of this game, but considering we do have demi-human contestants in the roster, it’ll add an element of tension that’ll be perfect.
It’s a tank, what else needs to be said?”

Additional comments from the judges

Speedyboi: “Tonk”
Deltaruins: “Tonk”

Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

For the unspeakable amount of effort poured into the design, and for the character’s background and how it influences his motives, Itami Hiroyuki and his Suisei Type 20 will be included in TIME ATTAC as a main competitor. For the game cover, however, it is definitely an absurd entry, but including it on the cover might stray from the game’s original purpose.


To be Continued...

21 Likes

You know what, give me a moment, I’ll make the actual music playlist I’ve added to my entry and link it here, for mood setting.


Ok, here it is. It’s in the order of the list I’ve posted. Congrats to everyone that guessed all the artists right. I tried to include the music clip versions of the songs, so you guys have a good time. I’ll add it to my submission too. Don’t let the cover of the first few songs fool you into thinking this is a weaboo only playlist (only a little)

5 Likes

Darn. Only familiar with “Snail’s Tecno” and “Shoe Mop”, and “Roger Davids” was right under my nose…

3 Likes

So I hope the playlist brung you some new ones!

2 Likes
See I already told y'all in post #844

AGC 15 Judging is delayed until uhh...


The most recent patch (LC V4.1.5) appears to have a few issues. The details are unknown for now, but from what is observed so far, it might mess up the car savefiles. As a result, the next part of round 1 will be delayed for approximately the period the fix will come out. Actually, the delay might be even longer because both me and Delta are hit with the next wave of IRL stuff.


Not that we have a promised deadline in the first place, just keep in mind that this already very long round would be dragged for even longer.

Sorry for the inconveniences

15 Likes

Round 1, Part 2

WINTER BREAK EDITION

November 15th, 2026, New York City



Christina, Borliik, and the rest of the design committee had just returned from a lunch break, ready to review the next batch of submissions.

Borliik: “So far we’ve got some tracked vehicles, a motorcycle, some hovercraft, even one with legs. To be frank with you, at this point I’m not even sure if a regular four-wheeled car will satisfy me anymore.”

Christina: “Prepare to be disappointed, then.”

A new batch of .car files is readied, and the first one queued up is enough to instantly make Borliik regret his words.

The Edge Rider

@Maxbombe

“LET’S FUCKING G”

“Language.”

“Oh, right. But I take it back. This right here, this is right up my alley. You can have all your fancy anti-graviton field generators, your thorium reactor cells, your monster women; at the end of the day, nothing beats a good old American muscle car with a gigantic blower just sticking out of the hood. And those exhausts! The chop top! The humongous rocket thruster thingies in the back! This is a boomer’s wet dream, and it just might be mine too. You know what I think? I think that if you told a neural network to make the most stupidly American car ever and only fed it images of boomer hot rod abominations, top fuel dragsters, and Max Max cars, you’d get exactly this. I am in love with this car. Do we have any word on features?”

“Let’s see… fast… cool… very fast… it’s just fast? And no word on gameplay…”

“I don’t care. I love it. We need to have this in the game. By the way, Christina, you ever hear of a movie called Revlimiter?”

“No? Sounds too cheesy for my liking.”

Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

The Edge Rider is easily one of the most visually stunning, outlandish, and outright angriest designs received so far. It’s an American wet dream brought into the future with great execution and fits perfectly in the spirit of TIME ATTAC. For that, it has secured itself a spot in TIME ATTAC as a main competitor, and potentially some real estate on the game cover as well.


Kazuki Kita B4 Nitrox Crawler

@SyberRacer


Borliik: “Kazuki Kita, huh… I remember when I had one back in my college days. Such a fun little car, and it looked exactly like this! Minus the rally lights, the push bar, the wing, the space frame and rollcage, the long-travel rally suspension, the wheels… the Nitrox Reactor… I would’ve liked this version instead. This thing looks awesome with its oversized wheels and the exposed reactor in the rear, though it’s also very vulnerable. I’d like to see this thing just absolutely tear through sand dunes… 2500hp to the rear wheels does sound a little concerning for such a small hatch.”

Christina: “With how the wheels are sized, this really reminds me of those off road RC cars. It almost looks like a toy?”

“I’m a fan, but unfortunately the design just doesn’t strike as much emotion to me as other designs. Even this feels too tame compared to our other entries like the spider muscle car and god knows what else we’ll see.”

Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

For those who lust after the golden era of rally in the late 20th and early 21st century, the Kazuki Kita B4 Nitrox Crawler is a love letter and a tribute to them. It’s a very fun build but ultimately isn’t quite extreme enough to be truly distinguishable or be as competitive amongst other entries. As a quirky retro throwback, it ill be included in the game as a quick-race vehicle.

The design committee seemed to really like tanks. The next one was pulled up on the display and was immediately accompanied with hushed oohs and aahs, but upon further inspection, it was clear that this wasn’t just a tank. Being a visual mishmash of various automotive and even aeronautical designs haphazardly blended together, this design seemed to contort the recognizable into something entirely alien.

VARATA Type-IIIC "Aquilo"

@Xepy



Borliik: “I’d like to sample whatever the designer was on when they made this.”

Christina: “Where are people even getting these ideas?”

“The power of perseverance and psychedelics, I assume. You know, this reminds me of those cursed Frankenstein aircraft fuselages tacked on to truck frame abominations, except this is like a fighter jet and a tank went full on Discovery Channel and birthed this wicked creation. What even is this supposed to be? APC my ass, what kind of APC has a twin W16 with quad superchargers and a giant ricer wing that would make a C5 Globemaster writhe in envy? What kind of APC can go over 200mph? Forget that, this is a full-on hypertank.”

“This model is very well detailed. There’s suspension control arms and linkage for the wheels and the tracks are amazing.”

“Not gonna lie, though, this sounds very overpowered. Even more so than the Suisei Type 20. Top speed of 250mph, and it’s amphibious. Not only can this thing haul ass, it’s also nigh indestructible since it’s an armored vehicle at heart. For weaponry, it looks like we have air blast cannons… would those be sonic weaponry then? Regardless, it’s a unique weapon type that looks like it can also be used as a mobility boost in a pinch. Yeah, we’re definitely gonna have to nerf this.”

“I’m liking the character design, it seems like your type of thing too. What do you think?”

“Wait. There’s two of them.”

“We don’t have any rules against that… I think.”

“Fair enough. I think this is easily one of our most absurd designs ever. Whoever made this is equally insane. We need this in TIME ATTAC, hands down.”


Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

An amphibious hypertank is bound to create infuriating challenges for other contestants, which means that the VARATA Type-IIIC Aquilo is perfect for TIME ATTAC. It will be featured with its drivers as a main contestant and may even earn itself a spot on the game cover.

Borliik: “These entries are only getting more and more competitive. I’m getting spoiled, to tell you the truth. It’s going to take something absolutely bonkers to blow me off my seat now.”

Christina loads the next .car file and audibly groans. “Ugh, can we skip this one please? I don’t want you to go on another one of your tangents…”

“About what?”

RfX01 'Schneit'

@Dorifto_Dorito




Unlike the other entries before it, as soon as the model finished loading, its gargantuan height exceeded the bounds of the meeting room, and it towered above its occupants as its statuesque figure slowly rotated and flickered. No doubt everyone in the room was shocked and awed in one way or another; at this point, the previous entries had sparked a linear - if not exponential - increase in absurdity and lasciviousness, but this one easily takes the cake.

“Reject car. Return to monke,” was all one of the lead artists could say.

Borliik clapped and squealed as if he had suddenly reversely aged a decade a two. “Christina! This is what I was telling you about, do you know how damn long I’ve been trying to get my hands on a mint, unopened SSU+ grade founders’ edition model kit for the RfX-01?? I’ve looked everywhere, Scamazon, Aliababwa, the local Facecrook marketplace listings, hell, even the dark web. Not a single damn one for sale for the last two years! And those elitist bastards have the audacity to keep shoving these down my throat on my Reddit feeds! My childhood is built off this very model. And the pilot… imagine not having an Austrian-Taiwanese FRAME pilot girlfr-”

Despite having most of the room cheer him on in agreement, all it takes Borliik is one stink eye from Christina to shut up his spiel about his favorite franchise. He quickly gets back on topic.

“No doubt Nishima puts out some of the best looking FRAMEs in the segment, compared to those Soviet clunkers designed only with set squares and rulers or those hideously bulbous American ones that pump out more hydrocarbons than a fleet of cargo ships on full throttle…. No, what NHI has done is different. They’ve created art! You see, what we have here is an extremely clever fusion of function and form; those shoulder pauldrons either contain fuel for the auxiliary thrusters or house hard-kill countermeasures against guided weaponry - it could be either one since they’ve moved to a brand-new architecture - but its shape is obviously reminiscent of those classical mecha anime, when they started to introduce sharper, more angular designs as an evolution of the weird scuffed round ones. Hell, why stop there; this thing is angles from head to toe, all it takes even the untrained, uncultured eye is one second to appreciate this design.”

“Its looks certainly match its offensive capabilities,” Christina commented. “Those M3/50s have proven to be extremely effective against heavily armored targets, even more so than the 75mil it replaces. Then again, it’s only 50mm, so I imagine that even with different types of ammunition like the shaped charges it won’t cause much AoE damage. Being a smaller round, it probably can’t have as much explosive payload, so it seems very focused on armor penetration. The grenade/rocket launcher thing should help with that a lot, however.”

“Wait, Christina, how’d you know that?”

“With how much you’ve been simping over this series, I couldn’t help but take a look at it myself.”

“I see you’re becoming a woman of culture yourself. The one thing I am concerned about is how well it can take punishment, though. As badass as these designs are, I can’t help but notice that the torso is only suspended by four of those actuators, so that’s a pretty big weak spot. One more thing, since this brand new series has a monocoque-style construction pattern, it’s nowhere near as tough as its predecessors.”

“So your final verdict?”

“What do you think?”


Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

You can’t just picture this thing flying through the air (while still being within 7m of the ground), slicing another car in two, and say “yeah, it’s alright.” The RfX-01 is one of the most impressive creations in Automation I’ve ever seen. It’s guaranteed a spot in TIME ATTAC as a main competitor. But as was brought up before, seeing this thing on the game cover may make some people expect something entirely different.



Note: @TheAlmightyTwingo 's entry was supposed to go here, but we forgot to make your visual criteron compasses. We’re deeply sorry about this and will update this post ASAP when we get them done.


La Grande Nuit Noire

@Mikonp7



“I’d like to know your opinions on this one,” Christina said. “We’ve seen a particularly tall entry a few minutes ago. But how about l e n g t h?” With that, the next .car file projected spanned the entire length of the meeting room’s table. Most of the meeting’s attendees were impressed, to say the least. More so intrigued at the pure size of the thing and its somewhat familiar… shape.

Boris guffawed and leaned back in this chair. “This thing is so damn stupid, I love it! It’s like your typical ride from Revlimiter but with a little dash of grey poupon on the side, you know?"

“This thing has more overhang than a Boeing 747. I measured it myself; about forty percent of this car is hanging over the rear axle. I wonder how we would get this to fit in the car selection screen… that is, if it makes it in,” Christina pointed out.

“Ten meters in length, twenty liter 32-cylinder engine… hot damn, these guys took ‘landyacht’ a little too literally! The styling itself is beautiful and lets the body lines do the work of making this a truly intimidating ride. Ultimately the designer has reached a very good balance of prestige, regality, and ruthlessness for this absolute unit of a ride. Just look at that damn length! Something of this stature carries implications of tremendous wealth and status, and commands admiration from filthy peasants down below. This reminds me of those big American coupes back from when everyone and their grandma smoked a pack a day and crime thrillers were in style… extreme overhangs and more area on the hood than the allotted land in the Missouri Compromise. Everything that made those pompous, over-the-top gas guzzlers great can be found in this car, multiplied by a factor of ten.”

“So what’s your final verdict?”

“It pains me to say this. We need to face the facts, as much as I am in love with this ultra-deluxe coupe; despite its brilliant straight-line speed considering how big it is, it just looks extremely cumbersome at this point, and it would suffer greatly in tighter courses. In addition, the design doesn’t make any serious effort to adapt to the very diverse weather and land conditions that TIME ATTAC is renown for. It’s a very purpose-built design, and for that, it falls short of other entries.”

Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

A design that harkens back to the disgustingly large landyachts of 1970s America, when there was absolutely no compromise against luxury. The La Grande Nuit Nore is a larger-than-life emphasis of those personal luxury coupes, one that is as garish and stylish as it is totally impractical. It was a really tough choice to make, but despite the Nuit Nore’s absolutely imposing dimensions and its brutal visual delivery, it’s ill-equipped for the various types of terrain that will be encountered in TIME ATTAC. Sir Hendry Saxon van Kuppentrop und Tinnenberg VII and his ride of magnificent proportions is sure to be added in the game as a playable antagonist with well-stuffed wallets, but won’t make it into the pool of main contestants.


To be Continued... Again...

I apologize for the delay.

@Tzuyu_main

21 Likes

Round 1, Part 3

WE STILL LIVE EDITION

November 15th, 2026, New York City



“How long are we going to drag this meeting out?” groaned Borliik, leaning back into his chair. “Can we just call it a day?”

“We’re so close to the end. Just eight more entries.”

“Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

Midlands Ceres Apex

@Portalkat42

Borliik: “This thing has presence. That long hood like those classic GT cars, its obscenely 70s profile and proportions with that sheer length, and that muscle car look makes this thing just plain awesome. It’s such a timeless look, but with some futuristic touches here and there like the LED lights in the front and back. It’s almost like a rival to the Edge Rider, since both very clearly pay homage to the golden days. It’s also very clearly aimed towards the car nerd demographic. An F1 V12 engine and it’s also a fan car? These guys clearly have a hard on for classic motorsports. And it’s a good thing, because so do I.”

Christina: “Cold fusion engine, huh? Wasn’t your PhD thesis on that?”

“As a matter of fact, it was… compact, transportable fusion reactor design, to be precise. I wonder if I could sue these guys for theft of intellectual property. Hah, just kidding! But it looks like they’ve recreated a very realistic-looking rendition inside the cabin. I love how those tanks feed into the intakes of the V12, that’s a magnificent detail.”

“For this vehicle, the set of abilities looks highly dependent on the player’s own skill. It’d be very interesting to have that, which might be frustrating for newer players but will be highly rewarding for players more experienced with racing games. The other mechanics such as the thorium pellets are very similar to older games, which reminds me of nitrous in a way?”

“Listen, I think we can agree the car is badass and all… but the characters. One, I don’t want to change this game’s rating again, and two, I’d much rather our flagship game meant to show off a flagship console’s capabilities not to have that kind of fanart clogging social media. You hear me?”

Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

A 6x6 muscle car is a 100% badass build, one that anyone will be sure to appreciate whether they are a car fan or not. This design isn’t lacking in any department, and neither are the characters in a very specific one. It looks like there will be yet another duo amongst the main competitors, and if Borliik is willing to risk tainting his company’s reputation, the Ceres Apex and its drivers Gwen and Storm have a chance at making it to the main cover.


Madson Brooklands Torpedo-AGV MOD

@Sureascanbe


“Looks like this one will take some time to load, lemme check if our guest is here yet.”
While Boris is checking his DMs on Fixcord, a rather unusual looking silhouette starts appearing on the display.

“Aight I think he’ll be here in - WHAT IN THE FU-”

He looks around, and every other person in the room has roughly the same facial expressions as him.

“So lemme get this straight,” He finally sits down and sips his coffee “At this point, we have seen a huge spider car, a Hyper-tank and even a huge humanoid robot armed with an assault rifle the size of a car. But this, this is some next-level shi-”

Christina angrily stares at Boris.

“Ahem, right, let’s take a look at the creator’s comment on this thing.”

“Apparently, it’s based off a prewar racer. And then the entire front section is replaced with…that thing. Not too sure how that thing works, but my god it looks rad as fu- heck.” An artist in the meeting exclaims.

“I have something to add too.” One of the gameplay designers raises his hand. “The craft clearly is a monster in terms of outright speed, but the TIME ATTAC rule of altitude limit and it’s rather heavy weight and clumsy handling would balance it out perfectly. It’s perfect for one of those challenging crafts to master, and the game definitely needs one of those.

Borllik nods with approval. “So, it’s almost perfect for what we want.”

“Almost?”

“Like, this thing is basically the crotch rocket of the future. The person that rides this thing, is probably a psychopath and a half. I think the creator can elaborate on that a bit more…that’s all I can pick on this thing anyways. By the way, y’all saw the movie Revlimiter?”

“…”

“Anyways, it’s in, and the bar has definitely been risen again.”

Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

We'll even go so far as to call this art. Things like this you absolutely don't see every day. The execution, the idea, it's all perfect. It's undoubtedly making it into the finals.

2030 Delphinida Orca Atavis

@azkaalfafa



“…”

“Oh. Wow.”

After being deeply impressed yet again, Boris takes a deep breath and collapses into his office chair.
“Not gonna lie, I’m a bit jealous of this Keiji guy.”

“Huh?”

“Like, imagine not being able to show up your friends’ party blasting Life Grabs in this thing, and everytime you get into the craft you get chat with this AI instead of having to deal with my dumb friends who has less IQ and probably less EQ than this AI. If I’m in this thing, I don’t have to care about nobody, but you better give me your attention 100% of the time.”

“Hmm, now that I think of it.” Christina smirks, “This craft would suit so perfectly to you, because the dear Boris I know from high school just happens to someone that has no friends and wants attention all the time, no?”

The entire meeting room laughs.

“Owwwwwww, that freaking hurts, didn’t I pay you enough for this month? Anyways, y’know, I was bit worried about the role of, y’know, one of those rich family entries being missing after we binned the uhh, the La Grande Nuit Noir. As you can see now, we have the perfect candidate for that role. By the way, y’all seen the movie Revlim-”

“Actually, jokes aside, I think Boris has a point.” The story designer who has been slacking off the entire time suddenly speaks.

“About how everyone should watch Revlimiter?”

“Uh, no, about how effective the craft is at portraying the role of an entrant like Keiji. I think the advanced AI with that face is an extremely nice touch in my opinion, just imagine the potential storyline and conversations you can design around this AI. The rest of the craft captures his personality very well, and it has a theme, which helps set it apart from other hovercraft-type builds."

“Exactly! See what I mean? Quirky, cool, expensive car… hover-thing for a quirky, cool, expensive guy.”


Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

The Delphinida Orca Atavis is unique in the way that it acts as an extension of this character's personality. A clear amount of effort put into the design of both is highly impressive and only makes this more fitting as a potential finalist.

Skyfire Starship

@BannedByAndroid




“Well, some classic American muscle, who doesn’t love that?”

“Lets see, swoopy lead sled bodywork? Check. Enough chrome to cause 3rd degree burn to your retinas under sunlight? Check. Big fat blower sticking out blocking more than 70% of front vision? Check. Mhm. All it needs now is a pair of fuzzy dice hanging off the mirrors.

“So we’ve established that it’s pretty darn American. How’s the rest of the design?

“Well, it apparently offers a road mode and a levitating mode in order to clear rough terrains. Which is a bit of a shame, because with the rough terrain of the race, that V12 engine would be a dead weight doing nothing for the majority of the race."

“So what’s the verdict?”

“I think this has a place in the game, but it’s just not as impressive as it could be.”


Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

It’s not at all a bad design. The concept is good and so is the execution, but it’s just not quite good enough to make it into the finalists as a potential main rival. It will, of course, still find its way into the game as a quick race vehicle.


Zacspeed Phoneix

@chiefzach2018



Judging from the reactions around the meeting room, it was obvious that this next racecraft was instantly a favorite amongst science fiction nuts. One of them being Borliik himself. However, despite the overwhelming amount of approval from the rest of the developer team, it was still up to the man himself to call the shots.

“Right. So at first glance, this reminds me of that certain craft from Solar Battles, y’all know which one I’m talking about, right?”

“The T-wing? And I’m pretty sure it was Intergalactic Conflict, not Space Battles. How do you mix those two up?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, you’re right. But when you look into this bastard a bit more, it makes the Intergalactic Conflict craft look like some kind of kid’s play. Let’s start with the looks. I don’t care if this is clever product placement by Zacspeed attempting to rope zoomers into its aging customer base. Why? Because it works. They’ve always made stunning race cars throughout their history, and this thing right here proves that they know what the hell they’re doing with basically any kind of transportation they lay their hands on. The exposed mechanical stuff on the wings make this design even more extreme than it already is. I mean, it’s a literal freaking space fighter! Does that need any further explanation?”

“Spiritually, this reminds me of repurposed WW2 fighter planes that were turned into race planes. That this used to actually be a military aircraft according to its lore, but unlike other race planes, this one still has its armament. Which brings me to my next point: this is so extreme to the point that I feel like it doesn’t belong in the game, at all.”

“Well… when the premise of this challenge is that anything is fair game, this is to be expected. Because of that, I mean at this point it’s more like 60% racing 40% combat. All thanks to stuff like this, the VARATA, and the RfX01. Hmm… like old fighter craft with guns, the lasers on this are calibrated to converge trajectories at a few hundred meters out. They’ll be more effective at that range, but in street or jungle courses with very limited visibility and lots of blind turns and jumps, they might ont be as useful there. This is pretty clearly on the more offensive side with its… BFL. Hey, it uses a Galilean beam expander? I studied that in university! It’s super interesting how it works. You know the concept of tessellation?”

“…you already lost me there.”

“It’s simple, really. The beam expander is composed of exotic matter, which itself is composed of nearly infinitely-repeating units of crystalline manifolds. We can extrapolate the concept of tessellation from simple shapes and apply it to complex n-dimensional non-euclidean manifolds, similar to the ones that make up the beam expander in the BFL. With this construction, you’re able to alter the phase of the lasers on the fly and this is invaluable for high-energy applications.”

“I… totally understood all of that. So I’ll take that as a ‘yes’?”

“You’re kidding me, right?”

Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

Common sense: exist
Zacspeed Phoenix:



Vol-Tech XX80

@mart1n2005




An orange vehicle appears in the holographic display. Despite its cute and harmless looks, it possesses one of the most powerful stats on the grid.

“Picture this: this thing is moving out of a garage, and you first see its adorable and almost production car-like front and the next moment whaddaya know, a huge ass nuclear thrust nozzle appears in front of your eyes.”
“You know what scares me about this thing?” Boris says after a long pause, “Even though it is pretty crazy on it’s own, and every single brain cell of mine suggests that I should feel excited about this thing. But somehow…I…just don’t.”

“Why? What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing really…it’s just that I am an absolutely spoiled man after seeing some of the other crafts. Like, I feel sorry for the creator of this craft, but if I haven’t seen what this thing is up against, I’d include it, no questions asked. But then again, I’m spoiled."

Everyone nods in agreement.

“That aside, I do quite like the simplistic approach of it, but I can’t help but to question perhaps if it’s a bit too simplistic. You know, our players would think that a Mach 1.5 capable nuclear reactor powered missile would look a bit more insane than this.”

“Yeah, I can’t say much more about this thing. It’s good, but a touch too tame to our rather spoiled tastes.”


Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

The Vol-Tech XX80 is perfect for a cyberpunk setting and perfect for TIME ATTAC. Seeing all of these various takes on the hovercraft concept is very interesting, and this one does a very good job at looking distinctive and convincing enough. It doesn’t quite have what it takes to be in the finalists, however.



Akatronix All-Terrain Leisure Transport

@yurimacs




“Hah! This looks exactly like something you’d see if you asked someone from the 70s or 80s to make a hovercraft. This was back in the golden day of CAD! You know those crazy Italian concept cars back in the days? All hard angles. Not a single curved surface to be seen. Straight lines and simple shapes. I could see this being right at home in Solar Battles. By the way, they really botched the new trilogy, didn’t they? I mean, whose bright frickin’ idea was it to kill off-”

“You know, it’s really hard for me to tell if you hate something or like something. You just go on and on about it but it’s so hard for me to pick up on it.”

“Oh no, I definitely like this. I mean, compared to the other hovercraft we’ve had before, this is definitely set apart from the others aesthetically. I don’t know if the correct term is cassette futurism… or hell, what this specific style is even called anyways, if there exists a word for it. But it has such a cool retro-futuristic vibe to it that it’s gotta be in this game, no doubt about that! After all, RetroniX has made some extremely funky-looking cars throughout their history. This thing is no different.”

“This has just under 500 000 pounds of thrust… that really doesn’t sound usable at all.”

“So like the Brooklands Torpedo-AGV thing… this will also be another straight-line speed beast. I mean that basically outpaces the hell out of all the ground vehicles we have so far, it’s totally unfair. I think we’ll have to make a separate hovercraft class just because of this thing! Can you imagine being in that Kita buggy against this thing? But at those speeds, just how maneuverable will it be? I’m telling you, if you try doing any turns at Mach 2 you’ll be out cold faster than Christina on $5 wine.”

“W- what?”

“The CEAOM should give it a fair bit of protection against crowd control attacks, especially EMP-type ones, considering the pilot will still be able to regain control of the vehicle. But manual controls on an aircraft… at this speed… you better be damn jacked, you know what I mean?”

“I can’t quite put my finger on it but I’m just not feeling it for this, you know? It’s missing something. Personality. Don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly a nice design, and a very unique one for that matter… but it doesn’t quite inspire me in the right way."


Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

The Akatronix has incredibly sharp (literally) styling; it’s visually aggressive like the B1 Alpha Pro R1 X but with a funky twist that makes it feel somewhat retro despite very clearly being a futuristic, highly-advanced hovercraft. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t have the right touch to make it into finals, but it’s absolutely going into the base game.



KOBRA 1100

@TheAlmightyTwingo




“I think our resident old Merc simper will like this one.” Christina says as a boxy silhouette appears on the projector.

“Oh man, you’re definitely right on this one” Boris leans back into his chair “How many times did I tell y’all that I want a 300CEL?”

“Lost count of it.”

“Exactly. And look what we have here. As the creator suggests, it is based off the famous AMG Hammer coupe, but I can definitely see other influences here, the body kit reminds me of the 190E Evo 2. Heck, I can even see some Group 5 Silhouette cars in it. "

“Old car appreciation aside, it also has some cool details, like the massive blue tank in the middle of the car, it even has a pressure gauge on it.”

“You know that anime? Where the guy reaches his hands to the sides and opens a valve, those gauges goes crazy and the car just goes out of control ballistic. Imagine that in the game."

“It’s cool and all, but how would this thing be implemented gameplay wise? The intent seems to be a speedy but fragile vehicle, like the B1 Alpha. But…I don’t think it’s reflected enough in the design. It apparently has 5700hp, but to be honest, I don’t really see it. Certainly not with these wheels, which looks straight from the time this car originally came from. "

“That, and even though I love the idea of a super-modified icon, but really, it just looks like a generic road car out of the asset bin of Digifunk 2707. Uhh, a part of me really wants to make this a major vehicle, but I can’t really convince myself that it deserves it. It’s just, not quite there really.


Visual Criterion Compasses

Eligibility for Featuring

A classic that is revived with a large dose of technological insanity. Like the Kita, this is a love letter to the racers of the past. Its designs combines the visual features of iconic cars with a healthy amount of futurism. Unfortunately, when lined up against other competitions in this very harsh challenge, the execution of the KOBRA is not quite there. The idea of a ludicrously quick but fragile car is good, but the design doesn’t really bring out and support it’s rocket ship outright speed. It’d probably pass as a stylish daily driver, but not so much for this challenge. It will be featured in the game as a quick race vehicle.


Now all that’s left is the finals round. When is that coming? Good question.

21 Likes

How is it going here?

It’s…been a while since the last update
School finals happened for both me and Delta, probably some time after our last post, and more irl stuff happened since.
About why it took so long, we have our own personal reasons, but the TLDR is basically, too ambitious plan, too little time to finish them.
It’s a first for both of us to host a challenge of this caliber, and we admit that we completely misjudged the time it would take to finish the plan, and we completely blew the reasonable time budget of a few weeks or so.
Since everyone that made into the finals has put genuine effort into creating their craft, and we tried to bring out the highlights of the individual crafts as much as possible, which resulted in our student brains being completely burnt out, and the time it takes skyrockets like the engineering time when you jack the quality sliders to +15

That said, this is far from a dead challenge. Both of us are working on this whenever we have free time, albeit at a relatively slow pace, and we now have enough assets to publish the first part of the finals, although we eventually decided to finish the whole thing in one go, so the next post you see from us should be the end of this. When will it be? A few gameplay writeups away.

Our sincere apologies to the entrants and to the competition moderators.

10 Likes















AGC 15 // Finals

High school / university zombie edition
















Later that day






























“Oh wow, those reviews took longer than expected.” Boris says as he lays back in his chair. “Now we just need to wait for-”

Boris gets interrupted by the sound of a roaring V8. He goes towards the window and looks down. Even though he is looking down from 87th story, he immediately recognizes the black and boxy body of the car with a massive wing on its back, standing out from the traffic.

“Guys and gals, she’s here”

Despite being exhausted from the meeting, Borllik’s words immediately caught all of their attention. The technical directors scrambled into the room adjacent to the meeting room, inside sits a prototype of the PS-V suit, with many cables and hoses hooked up to the development rig. One guy is loading up the chosen vehicle files from the meeting, while others are doing a last-minute inspection on the equipment. A few minutes later, the guest in question arrived at the studio. “Welcome to our slightly messy looking studio! I’m Boris Hoffmann, project director at Crankshaft Software. It’s an honour to have you here.”
“Oh, my pleasure to be here as well.”
Rawr Ruka, a famous streamer with over 3 million subscribers was invited to the studio to try out the new game. On top of streaming the latest games, she is known for her coverage of retro action games.
“You know that she’s a pretty big deal, when even that Boris is being polite” Christina murmurs to a technical director beside her.”
“Sooooo, where’s the game?”
“This way please”



“Alright, this is the virtual reality suit that this game uses, it is designed to simulate your many senses, such as temperature and muscle load. Yeah… I know it looks a bit intimidating for now, but I can guarantee you that it’s absolutely safe.

“Huh…This kinda reminds me of the VR goggles accessory that Prostation 2 offered when I was in my teenage years. Back then VR was in its early stages, and everybody thought it was the craziest thing back then.
The gadget mentioned by Ruka received a lot of attention and praise back then, however it ultimately proved to be a massive failure. Boris knows that very well.

A few minutes later, the setup was fully ready. The air compressors on the suit whirrs into life as the tech people started the development build of the game.
“Alright, for the first test, you should be spawned in the garage now. You should be now inside a large showroom with a few vehicles around you. Everything good? How’s the temperature and everything?”
“It’s pretty surprisingly comfortable inside here, and I don’t feel the weight of the suit either.”
“That’s because the motor assist inside the leg and arm modules are working. When they are not applying forced feedback, they reduce the strain on your muscle by assisting them.” The representative from the development team of the suit says, “Glad to know that it’s working.”
“Although I don’t see any cars though, I can only see a while background with a floating window.”
A tension immediately rises among the Crankshaft crew members. “What does that window say?” Asks Christina as a bunch of people opens up the command console to check for any anomalies.
“Uh, lemme see…it says umm…sectsquash? I think?”
The tension in the room immediately dissipates. “…Right…it crashed again, of course”
“What’s the cause of the crash this time?”
“Surreal Engine 5 doing its daily routine of being useless, I guess”
Fortunately, the issue is resolved after a restart, and the testing continues.
“Since you can see all the cars now, why not get in one of those of your choice? Just walk next to one of them, then the game should give you the option of getting in it.”





“Oh wow, all of them look absolutely amazing. Your art team must’ve put in a ton of effort into them.”
“Nope, all of them are community made.”
“…I see.” Ruka chuckles in disbelief, “I’d like to take a look at this one first, this little yellow hatchback.”
“Ah the Lucy D, we quite like it when we saw it too, the maker of this really put a lot of thought into this.”
“Oh definitely, just look at all those goodies here” The guest says as he looks into the rear hatch of the yellow hatchback, admiring the details of the nuclear reactor in the trunk. “Well, I’ll take her out for a spin.”
As soon as she enters the car, the game HUD displays the instructions for the various systems of the car. Despite having never played anything like this before, the test subject quickly adapted to the game. As the tutorial finishes, the massive garage gate slowly creeps open. The cold air erupts into the garage like a tsunami. In reflection of that, the PS-V suit’s compressor ramps up suddenly, pumping cold air into the suit. “Don’t worry, as the engine warms up, you will get some heating inside the car.”
“This game is a lot more…hardcore than I imagined. Anyways, here goes nothing!”
As she floors the gas pedal, the thrusters on 4 corners emits a visible glow, and the little yellow hatchback rockets out into the snowstorm.
“You doin good? It’s no fun just cruising around, We’ll spawn a few…accompanying friends for you.”
The blizzard was suddenly lit up by bright red and blue flashes. A couple of police hovercrafts appeared in the mirrors of the yellow Volkswagen.
“I thought I’m a good character? Should I pull over?”
A slew of autocannon tracer rounds grazes over the car, taking out one of the mirrors.
“Guess not.”
She presses a button on the steering wheel, engaging the sprint mode. The handling immediately becomes much more agile, allowing him to dodge the incoming attacks easily.
“Well, you really are supposed to avoid the co-”
As Rawr yanks the steering wheel, the yellow hatchback does a handbrake turn in midair
“Take this!”
As her thumb presses the fire button, the helmet HUD display projects the lead marker, the automatic system aims the front of the craft directly at the hunters, and a machine gun pops out of this innocent looking hatchback. A cone of bullets flies towards the hovercrafts, and one of them goes down immediately.”
“…That works too I guess.” Says Boris, who now has his eyes on the killswitch for the PS-V, after witnessing the rampage Ruka is capable of outputting.
5 minutes later, the yellow hatchback arrives back at the garage.
“What do you think of this little thing?”
“I…”
Ruka temporarily exits the chaotic personality and gets back to his mindset of being a game critic.
“Aside from the game experience, which is obviously, bonkers, I think this car is quite interesting from a gameplay perspective as well. From the briefings you guys sent me, this game is most likely filled to the brim with heavily armed state-of-the-art vehicles, and this little thing can definitely stand out from them. It reminds me of the protagonist vehicles from some games and movies in the past.”
“Yup, I definitely agree.” Christina says as she writes in her notebook. “Although, you might like the other ones even more, so why not try a different vehicle?”




Early alpha screenshot
Statistics may differ from released game after balancing test



Exterior Design (Coolness, Creativity)

Mrs. Lucy D. is empirical proof that you don’t need a state-of-the-art, brand new vehicle or an unlimited budget to remain competitive in TIME ATTAC. While this little yellow rear-engine hatchback may have had humble beginnings and isn’t exactly the automotive equivalent of the Sistine Chapel, there’s a very certain charm to it. What this racecraft has is character. Don’t be fooled by its antiquated body, pockmarked and dotted with rust; if looking at the wheel wells isn’t enough of a hint for you, check behind the seats - or better yet - the underside. With its unassuming looks, the ‘Mrs. Lucy D.’ is sure to make its opponents do a double take as a nearly century-old hatchback leaves them in the dust. Its retro appearance combined with modern upgrades and the visible nuclear generators in the back is a very unconventional look, but it’s also a highly unique look that is guaranteed to be a fan favorite. Those familiar with this racecraft’s looks will be sure to appreciate all of the little details that give it its personality, from its taped headlights to its exposed rear-mounted cooling apparatus.



Engineering/Game Mechanics

Mrs. Lucy D. is similar in principle to the R1 X’s formula of absolutely featherweight mass, excellent maneuverability, and maintaining a small visual profile. Though not quite the land speed record setter, this old dog still has plenty of tricks up its sleeve. The electromagnets can keep aggressive drivers off its back in a pinch, and selectable drive modes will allow it to adapt to different kinds of terrain more effectively. Plus, crab steer sounds cool as hell. Its repair perks are a very useful and effective addition considering its relative vulnerability.
Exercise extreme caution when pulling off offensive maneuvers, however; Mrs. Lucy D. is at heart still a hatchback, and as a result is extremely vulnerable to counter attacks or punishment from more heavily-armed spacecraft. That thin sheet metal probably won’t stop any supersonic kinetic energy penetrators or your average high-phase neutrino singularity, and neither will those nuclear generators in the back.



“Right...can I try that thing next? That looks pretty insane.”



“Hoho, this thing is going to be fun.”
Ruka climbs into the rather spacious cabin, and immediately she is greeted by an equally outrageous control scheme, with buttons and screens everywhere.
“Right…at least I know where the start button is.”
As he presses the ignition key, the enormous V10 roars into life, with fire spewing out of the ten side pipes. The originally solid viewing panels turns transparent seamlessly, allowing for vision outside the cockpit.
“Oh my god, my eyes are burning!”
“Relax, that’s because the engine is running on nitromethane. Also, to demonstrate the capabilities on this thing, we’ll change the map a bit”
The huge gate opens again, but this time, what appears outside is deep inside a rainforest. The uneven terrain consists of endless trees and swamps.
“How do you even…”
“I’ll uhh, turn on the control assist for you, so all you need to do is to walk the thing with the center lever”
As he pushes the lever forward, the rev counter creeps up, and the 8 legs begin to move. Contrary to the Lucy D, the 8 legged contraption creeps out of the garage without the rocket-like acceleration, however it picks up speed steadily. The spider car skims on top of the muddy terrain effortlessly, although the ride is not quite comfortable.
“Hey, at least this thing has quite a lot of cushings inside, or else I’ll probably pass out from all the bumpiness”
Powered by the angry combustion engine, the huge metal legs move at physics-defying speed, stomping over the muddy terrain. The high frequency metal clacking
“How did this one go for you?”
It took Ruka much longer to recover from the shock than the other yellow machine.
“First of all,” Ruka says as he stumbles out of the GT-8, “it hurts my brain to even comprehend the capabilities of this thing. I mean, I don’t really know if there’s any equivalents of this thing in other games and movies, but being able to run at more than 400km/h with legs is just beyond my imagination. Like, looking out of the car, those giant legs move so fast I can barely see them. It’s like the kind of crazy stuff that I pictured in my head after watching the Shapeshifter movie when I was a kid, except that it’s orders of magnitudes crazier.”
“Also, the cabin being designed to accommodate a spider-humanoid gives me this unique feeling, that I accidently stepped into an alien cave or something. The way the controls are laid out and the materials being used really gives you this sense of, I don’t know, mystique and a bit of uncomfortable-ness?
“Yeeeah, I suppose we need to do something about the controls once we implement this thing.”



Cecilia isn’t 3D modelled in here? I demand refund!


Exterior Design (Coolness, Creativity)

Whereas other entries have opted for either wheels, tracks, or some form of levitation as their primary form of propulsion, the Amore GT-8 is only one of two other submissions to utilize legs. For a mechanical abomination like this to even exist is an affront to god in and of itself… and for that reason, it’s perfect for a balls-to-the-wall racing event like TIME ATTAC. But what fascinates me the most are the thematic parallels between the pilot of this vehicle and the vehicle itself. The numerous dents and in the classic muscle-bound bodywork, the carbon fiber blower that juts out of the hood and stands high, and the open header exhaust reminiscent of ancient fighter aircraft; all of these visual cues contribute to this feeling of pure, unbridled retribution, an ultimate release of decades’ worth of anguish that culminates in a giant middle finger against a system that’s failed to do its job, a society that’s taken too long to accept their kind. It’s a rebellion against convention in every possible metric that carries a statement; revenge is a cruel, eight-legged mistress. The Amore GT-8 is easily amongst one of the most competitive entries not just for its outlandish looks and approach to the race, but for how it manages to be a perfect symbolic reflection of its pilot’s ambitions and tribulations.




Engineering/Game Mechanics

One of the issues behind legs as a form of propulsion is its vulnerability due to its larger visual signature compared to wheels, tracks, or gravity-defying engines. Legs will be a common target for any limbed vehicle, and if any get damaged beyond repair, replacements in the field will be much harder to do due to the lack of heavy machinery, whereas wheels and tracks can be done only with tools. But what it lacks in ease of replacement and vulnerability, the Amore GT-8 hugely makes up for in its ability to traverse nearly any surface. Due to its legged nature, it can simply climb over obstacles that wheeled or even hovering racecraft would be forced to navigate around. Limb articulation also allows for more freedom in movement, such as allowing the GT-8 to rotate in place; as a result, it can be particularly maneuverable for its size. Under some circumstances, it’ll also be able to scale near-vertical surfaces, offering the pilot lots of backup options for positioning themselves away from danger or towards a shortcut. Combined with its rear-mounted rocket engines, the GT-8 should theoretically be able to perform extended jumps, providing many more opportunities for the pilot.
In terms of offensive ability, the GT-8 doesn’t have nearly as much firepower as other racecraft, but its four webslinger cannons mounted on the front and rear have some additional utility beyond pure damage output. If desired, the web projectiles can act as a form of crowd control, binding to wheels or tracks to slow down competing racecraft or even windows and sensors to temporarily blind them. Its ventral CIWS system can prove to be useful in a pinch, but its location prevents it from being useful against guided projectiles approaching from above the vehicle.



"Oooh, a tank!"




“You know what I’m dreading the most about this one?” Borliik said.
“What would that be?” Christina asked.
“Making the track model for this thing. I’ve spent six months supervising the physics team trying to develop the most realistic tire model ever; it’s a nineteen-parameter equation and works in conjunction with our suspension and chassis models. Then this thing comes along, we’re looking at what, another six months just to make this thing work properly? I guess we’ll have to ask the devs for that tank game if we can use theirs. What was it called again…? Battle Lightning?”

“Who cares! It’s a friggin’ tank, let me in!” Ruka exclaimed gleefully, clapping their hands together at the sight of the 20-ton olive drab behemoth before them. Its very presence in the room was gravitating in a literal sense, begging to be commandeered by whoever was daring enough to follow its inviting, threatening gaze. Ruka clambered onto the hull of the Suisei Type 20, crawling into an open hatch and into the drivers’ seat.
“WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
“Should we be worried?” Christina’s eyebrow twitched involuntarily. She could hear buttons being smashed and levers being yanked, which only sated her anxiety. Suddenly, inviting a hyperactive, chaotic streamer to test these vehicles didn’t seem like such a fun idea anymore.
“Nah,” Borliik shrugged without a care. “It took our lead mechanics eight hours to figure out how to turn this on, even with the classified documents we were given. There’s no way a bonehead like Ruka will figure out how to even get the lights on!”
“I… wouldn’t say that, after seeing what she can do in the spider car.”

It was at this moment that Borliik knew he had made a grave mistake. The starter screeched for a few seconds as it wrung the life out of the 20L turbodiesel V12. With a thick plume of black smoke billowing and shooting from the tail pipes, the Type 20 was roughly stirred from its sleep and let out a heart-pounding, ass-shuddering roar as Ruka hammered the throttle. Over the foul sounds of the screeching electronics and the clatter of the engine, Borliik could hear a faint maniacal laughter emerging from inside.
“Holy SHIT!” Borliik scrambled up the side of the IFV, using the tracks as a step for him to hoist himself onto the hull. He helped a very visibly terrified Christina up as well, and somehow they managed to find their way into the turret before Ruka started doing things like accidentally fire the autocannon into a nearby orphanage or lose control and steer into the street against oncoming traffic. As Christina hastily buckled herself into the seats, tears streaming down her face, Borliik crawled through the cramped interior to the drivers’ seat and found Ruka fondling the control levers, a crazed grin carved out across her face. “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Borliik spat, just about ready to slap Ruka out of her seat. “And how the hell do you even know how to drive a tank anyways?”
“Hey, wanna see me drift a tank?”
“What?”
The Type 20 howled and screeched as its metal trucks were wound up and spun up to speed by the turbodiesel V12, ripping and tearing into the concrete floor without remorse. Borliik was thrown back into his seat, the behemoth of steel lurching forwards at speeds no tank should be capable of going. In a matter of seconds, the sounds of the buffering wind assaulting the boxy silhouette of the IFV drowned out even the metallic din of the tracks, the screams of Christina, and Ruka’s maniacal laughter.
“OH MY PIPEGOD!” wailed Borliik, his hands turning white from how hard he was gripping the passenger restraint handles. Judging from how loud the wind and track noise was, they couldn’t be going any slower than 120mph, and it wasn’t showing any signs of stopping. He slowly started crawling to the driver’s compartment, in a hopeful attempt to wrestle the controls away from Ruka and bring it to a stop.
And just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, Borliik started to feel the ground shift under him and the Type 20 started shaking like someone had just tossed a cinderblock into a drying machine. The Suisei broke into an uncontrolled spin and Borliik’s body was flung all the way back into the gunner’s compartment due to the centripetal forces of the spin. A cacophony of tracks grinding against concrete, loose metal bits rattling and flying around, and the turbodiesel V12 bouncing off the rev limiter overpowered their screams. Finally, after what felt like hours of being violently thrown around inside the metal coffin, the Type 20 slid into a stop and jerked with one final tug of inertia.



The side benefit of sloped armor is that it’s now more aerodynamic



Exterior Design (Coolness, Creativity)

Details are crucial in a game like this, and the Type 20 delivers on this front. Every single detail from the infrared spotlights to the cupola viewports to even the bolts on the explosive-reactive armor has been obsessively detailed. As a bit of a military nut ourselves, it’s safe to say that we were jealous when we saw the tank in the Automation design room for the first time. It’s so well made, that some non-Automation players might mistake it as a 3D model for triple A title. If the game being developed here is something like War Thunder, we’d fall head over heels for this thing.




Engineering/Game Mechanics

Gameplay wise, unlike most vehicles here, an armored vehicle like this is obviously capable of taking sustained punishments. While it lacks the maneuverability to avoid engagements from either the race competitors or the cops trying to stop the race, it can simply tank the attacks and hold its ground. Its powerful and versatile main armament of autocannon also provides it the ability to fend off a variety of opponents. In terms of showcase the engineering in design, although we have nothing but compliments about the stunning rendition of a modern armoured fighting vehicle, we are still left a bit dissapointed. Although it has a significant upgrade over the classic tank, if we’re brutally honest, it still looks like a bone stock tank from decades ago. We love the idea of retrofitting a tank for a competition like this, especially after learning about the whereabouts of the driver, but it does not show it in its design. For example, while the hull offers great protection, it is most certainly not designed for the speed it can achieve after hotrodding a new engine in it, and we’d like to see some design changes on the tracks as well for the same reason. The Type 20 is undoubtly a solid entrant, but it’s perhaps not crazy enough for the premise.



"Woah, what are all these piping for?"





Boris coughs as he stumbles down the tank using the HEAT protection fences. The extreme G-forces in a box that barely has any outwards visibility has taken a toll on the balancing capability of Boris’ body.
“Looks like you’re having some good fun?” Christina leans back on her office chair.
“Very funny.” Boris finally reached a wall in the office to hold himself upright. “It’s so fun that I recommend you try this with motion blur and G-force assist set to max.”
“No thanks, unlike you I do value my health and sanity.”
While the two devs are chatting, Ruka already found herself inside the cabin of a muscle coupe.
“Hey you two, there instructions menu isn’t working for this car. You know the floating window thing that displays the instructions for how to control the thing? It’s not working for this car.”
“Wait what?” Christina flips through the game assets folder. When she clicks on the instructions documents, an empty text file shows up.
“Boris, did you seriously miss this?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell y’all about this. So basically, the author didn’t provide us with enough documentation for the physics people to build a detailed enough mechanical model. However, all the visual 3D modellings of its mechanical structures are there, so we were able to more or less estimate how this thing will function. We’re not sure if it’s 100% correct though, so we’re currently contacting the author about this, and the mechanical model will most likely have a major change in the next build. For now, this one should work.”
“Huh… that’s pretty odd, considering how detailed this thing looks. Well, accurate or not, why not come along for the ride Borluke?”

“You ready?”
“Yeah. Oh right, this thing has a ton of power and is rear wheel drive, so go easy on the gas, OK?”
“Nah.”
As Ruka stabs the gas pedal, the flaps on the gigantic blower opens, and flames begin to spit out of the the two rear tires lit up immediately, sending the car sideways into a spin instead of propelling it forward.
“Why won’t this thing go forward?”
“Because you didn’t listen to me!!!”
After a donut, the car finally starts travelling forward, with the rear tires still lit up. As the car hops over the uneven dirt surface, Ruka and Borllik are being thrown around in the cabin, with the occational bottom-outs making their head almost touching the interior headliners. Even in a straight line, Ruka steers the machine around intensively, trying to keep the rear end in check.
As they go across a paved road, Ruka turned the wheel in and stabs the gas. As the rear end goes wild again, she flicks the wheel the other way and catches it.
“Look, I’m Ben Glock!”
Boris in the passenger seat on the other hand, is not so amused at Ruka’s driving skills.
“Stop! stop! stop! For the dear love of pipegod I’m going to puke.”
“Why? I’m not done yet.”
“Just drive back to the garage like a normal human along this road, or else I’ll have to be hospitalized at this rate.”




Pipegod approves



Exterior Design (Coolness, Creativity)

When we created this vehicle designing competition, we decided to put “coolness” as one of the top aspects. Ultimately, the goal of this game is to create something absolutely over-the-top for the player’s senses. In this aspect, the Edge Rider absolutely killed it. Among the finalists, the Edge Rider is actually among the more car-looking vehicles. Despite that, the looks of it has nothing to do with “conventions” or “conformity”. When you take a massive coupe body, with the right proportions, of course, and then throw elements such as a bunch of jet boosters, chrome piping all over the car, a big ass blower, and put them into a well-made package, some people might say that it’s an overused cliche, we say that those people should shut the frenchfries up.




Engineering/Game Mechanics

That said, in a challenge about rough terrain and limitless designs, the speedy muscle hotrod formula evidently does have its drawbacks. In the massive amounts of creativity being poured into this machine, not much of it is focused on the task of making the vehicle all-terrain capable, aside from the relatively generous ground clearence. Even though the vehicle is clearly designed to be a glass rocket type machinery, with its design, it would be hard to fulfill the ‘rocket” part in actual gameplay. Another issue about this craft is that there just isn’t much information about it. Little is specified by the author regarding the abilities and gameplay of the craft. To be frank, it simply doesn’t have the detailing to be utilized as a craft that gets constantly featured by the game, especially when parked aside its competitions. From its looks alone, no one in the team can ever get to hate it. Unfortunately, when we want to learn more about it, we were left a bit dissapointed.




Ruka went back in the garage to choose the next one to play around with, and she settled her eyes on another tracked vehicle.




Capture

Due to the word limit cap, the review will be split into 3 parts
The total character count is like 80k or something


11 Likes


▷ VARATA Type-IIIC “Aquilo”

by @Xepy



“That’s it, I need a break now.” Boris coughs and sweats as he pauses the game on his side and takes down his helmet.
“Whaaaaa? I thought there are 10 of them in total, and we aren’t even halfway done yet?”
Boris looks at Christina
“Well, our guest needs someone to accompany her.”
Risking having his lifespan shortened by another 10 years, Borllik puts his equipment back on and returns to the game.
“I think I’ll try this one next!”
As soon as he joins back in the game, his heart sinks as he sees Ruka climbing into the white supertank. He very well remembers the horror inside the Suisei tank, and this one in front of him is a few times crazier.
“Christina, you coming with us?” With no way to escape, the only option presented in front of him is to drag his colleague down the water as well
“Can’t, that thing only seats two.”

“Unlike the other tank, at least I can see what’s happening in front of me right now.” Boris says as he tightens his seatbelts one last time.
“Aight, I don’t care if you’re ready or not, can’t hear you over the engine noise anyways”
Seemingly haven’t learned her lesson, Ruka firewalls the gas pedal, and the upswept exhaust splits out a rooster tail of flames.
The tank pops a massive wheelie (track-lie?) and heads straight into a tree ahead of them
Boris, realizing that he made a grave mistake again, attempts to wrestle the controls over. Ruka flicks the steering yoke, and the G-force plants Boris’s head on the windscreen.
“WOOOOOOOOO”
“AAAAAAAAAAAA”



As this point you should realize that the texts are written by two different people



Exterior Design (Coolness, Creativity)

Despite being the other tracked vehicle in the finalists, there are no worries about the Aquilo being too similar to the Suisei. A bullet-train like sleek cockpit, with a hotrod like tail? FOUR blowers? Exhausts that put bosozoku cars to shame? And a wing to cap it all off? In terms of craziness, it gives us the impression that the creator was on about 10 kilos of drugs when making this, so it passes this test no problem. Attention to details are also right up there. For example, one of the pilots of it, Piero was described as a pacifist, and the craft is equipped with a non-lethal air cannon as a result. There’s even suspension arms for the road wheels that help guide the tracks. All in all, design wise this machine is thoughtfully done and spot-on to what we want.





Engineering/Game Mechanics

First of all, the design choice of a small footprint, tracks and massive power to back them means that it is exceptionally suited to the rough terrains. It would not get any records in outright speed or crossing capabilities, but it’s excellent at both nonetheless. An interesting engineering choice on the craft is the air cannon. As one might expect from a competition like this, many vehicles are armed with weapons. Compared to its rivals, the air cannon is capable of knocking out its opponents, however, it does not actually harm them. This not only makes it extremely unique in the entire series, but also introduces an entirely new gameplay concept to the game. Combined with the extremely well developed characters, this attribute really makes us consider this as one of the top contenders for the protagonist.




After crash-landing back into the garage, Ruka settled her eyes on the tallest thing in the building





Boris breaths heavily as he stumbles out of the cockpit of the Variata.
“Can you pick something that’s less…intense this time? Because at this rate I’ll have to call an ambulance for myself”
“Hmm, does that count as ‘less intense’?” Unaffected by the onslaught of sensations during her ride in the previous crafts, she points at the largest vehicle in the building”
“…Shit.”
“Well, at least the RfX is a single seater, so we don’t need to take you to the hospital for now.” Christina sips her coffee.
“THANK YOU!” Boris celebrates as he escapes hell. “Well…I’ll look after you from the side monitors.”
Boris takes off his equipment with the assistance of Christina. Even though he turned up the AC compressor in the suit, Boris is still covered in sweat from head to toe.
“Aight, lemme spawn in a ladder so you can climb into that thing.”

As the huge craft comes into life, a HUD is projected in front of Ruka, displaying all the information.
“Yoo, how do you move this thing?”
“I think the system captures your movement. So uh basically this big ass robot will try to replicate your body movements” Boris says as he frantically looks up the manual of the craft.
“Aight lemme try that.” Ruka says as she steps her right foot to the front. The RfX immediately takes a step forward, crushing a car parked beside a road.
“Wow, this thing is really sensitive!”
“…Well now you know.”
“Oooooh boy, I’m getting fired up! Yo Borlock or whatever you’re called, can you spawn some stuff?”
“Alright, since you’re so confident, I’ll go just a little bit harder on you~”
After the not so pleasant experience of riding along with the VTuber, Boris is not letting go this opportunity of getting revenge on her. He moves in front of the development rig, typed in something, and switches to monitor mode with a smirk on his face.
“Aye, the thing stuttered a bit just then, what did you do?”
Christina peek sover, and her face expression tenses immediately.
“…Hey, you’re going to crash the machine with that many instances of this.”
“Ayeeeeeeee! Just tell me what did you do!” Ruka is getting impatient.
A hailstorm of siren sound fades in from a distance, and a hoard of police hovercrafts and heavily armored track vehicles storms in to engage the RfX.
“Whaaaaaa Seriously??” Ruka scrolls through the configuration menu in panic as the army gets closer and closer. “Uhhhh what does this say, armour piercing sabot whatever or High explosive anti-tank? I think I prefer more explosions!”
“Those don’t exactly deal damage by exploding, y’know.” Boris is enjoying the expressions on Ruka’s face. “Also for your information, all of them are controlled by AI, so you don’t have to worry about casualties and stuff, assuming that you aren’t dead by then.”
Ruka was quickly surrounded by all the units, and the machine was quickly covered from top to bottom by bullets of different caliber, however none of them managed to penetrate the thick armor. Ruka presses down the trigger, and a stream of metal flies out of the muzzles of the autocannon. Immediately, the ruthless stream of molten metal rounds turned a couple of lighter pursuit vehicles into piles of burning metal.
“GRENADEEEEEEEEEEEE”
A grenade the size of a naval cannon shell flies out of the launcher, blowing a bunch of units hundreds of feet midair.
“YOU’RE BEING A PAIN IN THE ASSSSSS!”
As Ruka draws out the huge tactical knife. Glowing at a white color from the temperature, she sliced through a building as if it was made out of butter, and the debris fell onto the ground and buried the rest of the enemies.
Boris stares at the absolute carnage created for a good minute.
“Well uh…” Boris finally starts cleaning the mess he made when he knocked the coffee mug over. “We certainly need to do some gameplay balance…adjustments.”


I wish photoscene UI allows me to scale the vehicle



Exterior Design (Coolness, Creativity)

Since I heard about the 3D fixtures update, I’ve jokingly teased the idea of making a whole mecha in Automation but I could never see myself doing it because I had no idea how to actually do it. The RfX-01 makes this look easy. I appreciate the lengths taken to make this design not just look good, but functional. Zoom in on the upper torso and you’ll see that there are piston-like mechanisms for manipulating the arms, head, and entire upper body. The areas around the limb and extremity joints are designed to not interfere with each other. As a sucker for detail, this hits all the marks. Also, can we just talk about how it looks in general? The RfX-01 looks right at place in TIME ATTAC, with sharp protruding angles and prominent features around the chest and shoulder area that make this mech look properly contemporary.



Engineering/Game Mechanics

Some challenges will naturally present themselves with a vehicle of this size; standing at around 10 meters tall, or around 2 stories, it’s a huge target that is sure to stick out like a sore thumb, especially in flatter, featureless terrain. Granted, its mobility is sure to alleviate this slightly, but the RfX-01 is still a massive target. Besides that, the RfX-01 boasts by far one of the strongest offensive armaments out of all entries received. It’s sure to make short work of even the toughest opponents with its 50mm cannon, especially armored ones; APFSDS will slice through armor like butter, although I question the effectiveness of HEAT rounds for such a small caliber. Nonetheless,



Suddenly, the HUD around Ruka goes dark, and the fan and motor noises dies down.




“Heyy, what’s happening now?” “Gimme a second.” Boris opens a tab. “Looks like the RfX is out of battery. And you should probably try another craft to uhh, calm down a bit.”

“…Fine~”

“Actually, now would be a good time to test the time trial function in the game.” Christina says as she puts on her helmet. “I’m now in my equipment by the way, so I can come around for the ride. Gimme a sec, I’m just going to bring up the time trial mode.”
“What vehicle are we driving?”
“Your choice! Although I’d suggest a ground vehicle for this, and there won’t be any weapon actions for this.”
“In that case, I think I’ll use this one!”
As she climbs into the 6-wheeled machine, the game teleports it into the location of the time trial.
“This path contains all kinds of roads, such as city roads, highways, as well as dirt paths, so it’s a good track for benchmarks. Oh, you don’t mind me riding along, right?”
“I don’t mind, but when did you get in?”
“Oh, I just spawned myself in with the world editor. The engine is warmed up for you, and you can start anytime now.”
“Here I goooooo”
The low end grunt heard on some of the previous combustion engined crafts are gone, and is instead replaced by a high pitched wailing from the 10k RPM V12 engine. All six tires are lit up with smoke as they struggle to transfer the enormous power to the ground, but the car is still being launched forward like a catapult on an aircraft carrier. Even on the broken road surface, the Midlands picks up speed and pulls like a dragster. Ruka aimed the very long car towards the apex, and the car responded with a laser precise 2G turn that pushed both girls into the bolsters of the bucket seats. Thanks to the 6 wheel AWD, the large muscle car zips around corners like a rally car with its tail swinging out. The exhaust manifold of the V12 emits an orange-red glow, and since it sits right behind the drivers, the noise only compliments the assault on senses along with the extreme G-forces. After cutting through the city blocks, they reach a seemingly endless stretch of highway.
“Wanna have some fun?” Christina smirks as she reaches her hand into a pocket located on the doorcard of the car and picks up a metal pellet. Holding it in midair, the curious looking pellet emits a dark red glow.
“What’s that?”
“Heh, you’ll know just what it is.”
As she barely holds onto that pallet under the G-forces and vibrations, Christina pulls open a tab beside the gauge cluster ,pops the nitro in there, and slams it close.
As the metal dissolves into the fuel with a loud sizzle, nothing happened for a second. Christina thought something was broken. As she inspects the gauges, the pitch of the engine noise suddenly increases, and the fuel pressure gauge creeps towards the red zone.
“Brace yourself, because it’s coming~”
Suddenly, both of them are pinned into their seats. As the analog speedo turns into the bottom of the scale, the vision of the drivers gradually turns into a tunnel, the color fades away and the space around them seems to be stretched from the sheer magnitude of the acceleration.
“Ho…l…y…shiii-”
The 6 wheeler pops a massive wheelie and pulls the horizon beneath its wheels with the tires smoking.
The acceleration eventually dies down eventually as the fuel pressure gauge goes back to normal. The car took a massive beating from the nitro, with white smokes coming out of the radiators.
“So a car doesn’t need machine guns to be fun to play after all!”
“Hey, watch out, the dirt section is coming.”
The highway is abruptly interrupted with a few containers, with arrow signs pointing towards the dirt road.
On the muddy trail, the Midlands doesn’t feel as alive as on the tarmac. Even with six wheels, 8000hp is still simply too much of a task to handle. As Ruka scandivanian flicks into the corner with a generous amount of gas on the way out, an enormous rooster tail of dirt is kicked up by the tires.
After much struggle, eventually Ruka reached the last checkpoint, and both of them are teleported back to the garage.




Ignore the wheel tucked underneath the door, that’s the rear wheels of the front part of the 2-car assembly



Exterior Design (Coolness, Creativity)

While the other long vehicle being submitted to this challenge is a land going superyacht that frankly looks out of place on our starting grid, this one is a stylish, one of a kind GT muscle. Although it lacks the outrageousness seen on some of its competitors, it manages to stand out from the crowd thanks to its tastefully done retro-inspired design. The elongated hood, the chrome grill, the round headlights with the X in the middle and the decals, all of them are nods to some of the blast from the past. The exterior design is also reasonably period-correct, and the car wouldn’t look out of place on the streets in 2079. Fortunately for the players of this machine, this design language also continues when you step into its posh cockpit. Not only does it remind us of some of the 60’s hits, the massive engine also sits between the drivers and within reach. We expect it to be a favourite among the car enthusiast crowd.



Engineering/Game Mechanics

The design is fairly functional too, with 6 fat tires and a venturi tunnel on the back helping the car put its power down. We’d imagine that it’d be quite fascinating watching this long six wheeler taking turns quicker than some circuit racers. That said, even with the help of the hydropneumatic suspension, being a road-focused vehicle, the car would struggle a bit in some of the rougher terrains in the race. Its long wheelbase and huge power ultimately determined its playstyle of being a road-focused rocket instead of a confident off-roader. In the gameplay department, the Midlands does not have any major faults, however, it does not offer many particularly unique quirks and features that sets it apart from other machines.




“Hey, why’s there a pillow on the back? And who’s that girl on it?” Ruka asked, pointing to the back of the vehicle.




“What?” Borliik turned around. As soon as he realized just what he was looking at, he felt a knot in his stomach harden. “Oh Jesus Christ.”
“Just…yeah ignore that for now, it’ll probably not be in the final game. It’s just something the author decides to include…for some reason.”
“Okeeey~”

The door slides open, revealing a modern, luxurious and cozy looking interior. Ruka jumps in the Orca and gets herself accompanied by the pillow.
“Keiji never admits it himself, but he really likes that pillow for some reason. Although he’d definitely get mad at me for telling this to someone else, haha.”
“That Keiji guy is definitely one of those weirdos.” Ruka puts the pillow back to its original spot. “…Wait a second, who was talking to me?”
At the center of the dashboard, Ruka is greeted with a smiley face on a screen.
“Ahaha, sorry ‘bout that. I’m April, Keiji’s personal AI. I am the personal assistance on board this craft, and I would be more than happy to take you a tour around the Orca Atavis, Ms. Rawr.
“Wooooow, there’s an AI in this thing? This game keeps impressing huh… Hey Christy, what’s the voice command to activate this AI? Can I ask it to check the weather?”
“Aww, I’m not those dumb AIs you see on your smartphones, I’m a next generation one created by Kokatsu, and you can talk to me just like other human.”
“…I see huh…” Ruka still doesn’t quite believe what she is seeing here. “Since I’m here to test this craft, but I don’t see any gauges or buttons or pedals, can you teach me how to pilot this?
“Mmhmm, I heard that you have already driven many of the other crafts already, so this one should be pretty manageable for you, Miss.”
The touchscreens around Ruka are lit up, displaying all kinds of informations
“While you can control manually, for the most of a journey, you can relax and let the autopilot do its job. Pretty nice, eh?”
“It’s not batshit crazy like some of the others I tested, but you know what, man I like this thing already. Hey April, can you set the autopilot to go along this road to this gas station here?”
“Sure thing~”
The flaps outside of the craft retracts, and the hovering machine steadily accelerates.

“Wow, this thing sure is quiet isn’t it?”
On its own, the Atavis is quite a quiet craft, because it is powered by electricity, and it hovers off ground and propels forward through the use of electromagnets. However at this point, Ruka is well accompanied by the sound of various internal combustion engines, guns and other loud stuff. The acceleration of the Atavis is not slow by any means, but without the accompaniment of thunder like noises and vibrations, it almost seems like the electric hovercraft is not much faster than the traffic around it.
“This craft isn’t even that big, but there’s only one seat in here huh. Man, I feel like I’m in some kind of first class lounge on a plane.”
The peaceful atmosphere in the Orca however, was broken by a distant siren sound from behind. Soon later, a few very familiar silhouettes with glowing red and blue lights appeared in the rear view cameras.
“Ah shit, here we go again. Yo April, what guns you have on this thing?”
“It does have a heat beam, but I have a better idea.” April winks.
Ruka hears an electric sound, as if something has just activated. But a few seconds later, it seems like nothing had happened.
“Hey hey, I’m pretty sure this thing doesn’t have any armor, you sure this works?”
“Relax, Just sit back and watch the magic happen.”
The autopilot pulls the craft off the road, and lets the vehicle hover there stationary. As the armored vehicles get closer, Ruka braces for the incoming gunfire. Instead of a hailstorm of bullets, the squad of vehicles drove past Ruka, and goes further away along the side of the road.
“What was that? Some kind of game bug?”
“Nope.” Christina typed something in the console. “Go to the third person view, and see for yourself. Third person view won’t be available in the actual game, by the way.”
As Ruka moves the freecam out of the vehicle, the white hovercraft is suddenly nowhere to be found.
“…Where did it go?”
“Just then, I activated the invisible cloak.” April explains. “It basically works by manipulating the lights surrounding the craft. Oh, it takes quite a bit of power to run, so it’s probably the best to return to the safehouse right now, miss.”
“…Right”



Keiji is a man of culture



Exterior Design (Coolness, Creativity)

While the Midlands represents a pair of enthusiastic classic car enthusiasts, the beautiful Delphinida Orca is the objectification of ultimate luxury at an age of chaos and unsettledness. Compared to the many homebrew monsters here, the Orca takes the exact opposite approach in creating a machine that can get from A to B quicker than its opponents. For starters, the bodywork is sleek, unlike many of the previous entrants, who tend to have a blower or some piping sticking out of the bodywork. Light strips can be seen everywhere on the car, further emphasizing its cutting-edge identity. The flaps not only has many uses, but they also look cool in their various different positions. Things only get more interesting as you move into the cabin. The place is filled with display panels and ambient light strips, and the April AI takes the centerstage. We’d done a few things on it a bit differently, and maybe the magnetic levitation ride can get more mechanical representation, but overall the design is extremely well done. For an adventurous individual seeking a personal ride with generations of wealth and power behind his back, we’d recommend him / her nothing other than the Orca.

It goes without saying that permanence is all but nonexistent in this world, but perhaps it is more interesting to focus on the subject of malleability. Specifically, our minds are never permanent or constant in their constitution; change is bound to happen over time. The automobile was only seen as an appliance at its inception, a revolutionary method of transportation but just that; a way to go from point A to B. But as the years have shown, our perception of cars have changed drastically, albeit in a predictable way. As cars became increasingly more prevalent in our daily routines, they’ve evolved beyond simple tools. They began to fuse with our identity and our expression of self; in a way, our cars are an extension of ourselves, and it’s clear to see why with the Delphinida Orca Atavis. Sleek lines stretching from front to back are grooved into a body of extreme length and width, harkening back to those landyacht concepts from just over two score ago. Its outward display of extravagance remains true to the character of its driver, and their compatibility is what makes this such a compelling entry.

That said, that Miho body pillow would most likely not be included in the game.



Engineering/Game Mechanics

In terms of engineering, the Orca is clearly a light and agile vehicle designed to wither away instead of taking fights head on. It has a bit of armor, as well as a light beam weapon, but what it really has over other vehicles is stealthiness. Why take unnecessary fights, when you can just go dark using the cloak and slip away? The controls are also relatively simple, with most of the controls being automatic with manual modes, and operated by touchscreens. Stealthiness isn’t the only thing going for this vehicle, though. Features like the grappling hook and slicing fins can change the tide of an engagement when used appropriately. All in all, just like its design, there is quite a bit of thought being put into the gameplay design of the Orca, and we would imagine it to be quite ideal for a fun but beginner-friendly vehicle.



10 Likes

After a few hours of testing, even someone as energetic as Ruka is beginning to feel the fatigue. She took off the equipment and took a break. After the break, she jumps right back into the action.



▷ Brooklands Torpedo-AGV MOD
by @Sureascanbe


“Soooo, we have two more crafts left to go. Lemme see…one of them is the Zacspeed Phoenix, the other one is the Brooklands Torpedo.” Boris, who has been overseeing the chaotic experience, can’t help himself and yawns.
The sky in New York City has fallen into darkness, and most of the staff in the Camshaft Games office has already left.
“Well, we better hurry up now, because it’s quite late here already. Well, which one do you want to go in next?”
“Hmm, I want some contrast with the modern looking Orca, so I’ll choose…whatever this thing is called.”
Unlike the other machineries in the garage, the “thing” she is pointing at is a vehicle that resembles nothing real life offers. Is it a plane? Is it a rocket? Is it a levitating locomotive? Whatever that type of vehicle is called, the dictionary hasn’t included it yet.
“Apparently it’s based off a 1920’s GP car. Then some engineering team just happened to be crazy enough to shove a gravity-warping engine into this thing.” Christina is taking off her equipment as well. “We haven’t tested this thing yet, but we suspect it will be a straight line missile. Oh right, this thing is a single seater, so you’re on your own again this time.”
“You haven’t tested these before huh, so I’m the guinea pig?
“Took you long enough to realize that.” Boris interrupts.

Having seen a good amount of insane machineries at this point, Ruka is still quite impressed at the raw mechanical goodness on the Brooklands. In front of the sheet metal bodywork rests the centerpiece of the craft: a huge warp engine covered with pipes and turbochargers. In contrast with Delphinda Orca’s sleek futuristic bodywork, the Torpedo is not shy when it comes to showcasing it’s muscle. Even though no one in the room has seen it in action yet, everyone is well aware that the hovercraft in front of them is most certainly a deathtrap. According to its creator, even driving the craft off a trailer can be a challenge, and Boris suddenly regrets letting Ruka loose once again.

As Ruka steps into the cockpit, she is greeted by gauges and mechanical linkages instead of sophisticated touchscreens. The simple windscreen and the mechanical control stick placed between her legs resembles a WW1 piston engine fighter, and hints absolutely nothing about the almost alien-like gravity damper placed just in front of it. Unfortunately, the levers and gauges did not intimidate Ruka enough to stop her from doing the “flicking switch till it works method”.
“Lemme see what this switch does, “siphon pump”?, I’ll switch that on, and what does this do? I’ll switch that on as well~”
“Hey, do you know what you’re doing? The manual for just starting up that thing is 5 pages long you know.” Borllik is getting uncomfortable flashbacks to the carnage inside the Suisei tank.
“Well it worked for the last 8 cars, so I don’t see why it’ll-”
As Ruka flicks one of the switches, the ring on the gravity damper starts to emit a bright red color. As if she has stepped on the tail of a dragon, the machine, of which was completely silent a moment ago, begins to vibrate violently. The cluster of gauges are alive, and Ruka can feel the heat wave from the engine.
“Ah shit, here we go again.”
Ruka pushes one of the levers, and as the airflow out of the bottom-facing exhaust intensifies, the Brooklands torpedo begins to levitate.
“Hey hey Borlock, what’s that look on your face? Scared again?”
Boris did not reply. His eyes are glued on the monitor displaying various sensor readouts from the PS-V suit. He does not want to know how the game engine would react to a gravity damper failure or Ruka’s character plunging upside down into the ground at full speed.
“Oh well, I’ll take her around for a spin I guess.” Ruka flicks the switch to turn on the horizontal thruster.
“HEY, THE OTHER STICK IS AT FUL-”
Ruka does not notice that her horizontal throttle is at full position. Before she could react, the Brooklands charges forward, firmly pressing Ruka in her seats. She pulls back on the stick, and the craft pulls a massive cobra maneuver. Ruka briefly blacked out from the G-forces (blackouts are implemented by blacking out the display output, the suit can’t simulate G-forces), and when she opens her eyes, all she can see is the blue sky. She pushes down the stick, and she almost gets slingshot out of the craft from the G-forces, of which is acting the other way now. At last she finds herself flying horizontal, but now the craft is inverted. The ground passes right over her head at 500km/h, and her hair is picking up dirt from the ground.
“Good thing that you’re wearing a seatbelt right now.” Boris is sweating just as much as Ruka, his hands are placed right on top of the system killswitch.
Eventually Ruka crash-landed the craft into the ground unscathed, somehow. The Madison Brooklands on the other hand, is not doing so well. With high pressure steam is leaking from some of its pipes, and multiple gauges are in the red area, it requires thorough refurbish.




The craft got the Automation update experience™, and I did my best to try to fix it



Exterior Design (Coolness, Creativity)

During the early stages of the ATTAC 2077 project, the design team studied many real life industrial designs for inspirations. There’s a saying that a functional design would naturally be pleasing to the eyes. At least that is our first reaction when we saw the Brooklands Torpedo-AGV for the first time. The entire machine is, well, exposed mechanical porn, and just looking at it tells most of the story. Starting with an 1920’s GP car body, then you strap a massive gravitational warp engine to it, strap another massive engine like device to it because one is clearly not enough, cap it all off with some detailed touches, and you end up with this thing. It is the materialization of the ethos of function above all, yet we have no clue how to make it look better than it already is. We did not expect something like this at all, yet it fits the premise of this game perfectly.




Engineering/Game Mechanics

Not only does the Brooklands resemble a 1920’s GP car visually, it also preserves the philosophy - if it can be called that - of shoving the most powerful power plant that one can obtain into the lightest possible body. Clearly, it is designed for nothing other than just outright speed, and we love it for that. It claims a 500km/h top speed before having to cool down, which seems very pessimistic considering what’s under the hood. As mentioned by the author, even on its own, the craft is a bit of a handful to handle, even with the assists. The one thing all flying vehicles suffer from in the competition is the altitude limit, but the Torpedo especially suffers from it. Even with the flight management system, we’d hope for a bit more creative engineering on keeping the wild machine under the altitude.




“We still have one left right? But I don’t see it anywhere…” Ruka looks around, and all the machineries around her are the ones she already tested.





“Well...the next one is so cutting edge, it requires a special facility to launch. In your HUD, you should see an option of changing the garage. Change it to the underground silo.” Ruka reaches her hand onto the HUD and selects the option, and the garage around her disappears.

After intense psychotherapy sessions, Borllik finally agrees to test drive the last “racecar” with Ruka.

After a brief loading screen, Ruka finds herself in what appears to be a top secret underground bunker. As numerous transportation vehicles goes around her, she follows them visually, and her eyes are lead to the centerpiece of the facility. On a platform covered by spotlights, rests the red Zacspeed fighter.

The spectacle before them is truly a sight to behold. The engineers and technicians on site (yes, they’re modelled in-game) had already begun the startup process for the Zacspeed Phoenix, which involved hooking it up to numerous exothermic pumps, cables, and various other indescribable machinery. Tendrils of wire and pipe sprawled out of the holes in the bodywork as if it is being reclaimed to the sea by some kraken unseen. It is a winged harbinger of destruction, beckoning for anyone who dared crawl into its cockpit to tame it in the dying art of the aerial dogfight.
It’s clear, however, that it’s seen better days. There’s obvious scarring on the bodywork and paint from laser cannon fire. The rims around the thrusters are burnt, their protective coating nearly disintegrated. And finally, the wings themselves are missing the entire rear half of their anti-heat ceramic shielding, exposing numerous cooling pipes and high-power electric servos and hydraulic piping. But if anything, its war torn appearance just makes it look cooler.
“Hey, this looks familiar!” Ruka exclaimed, pointing to the giant freaking cannon on top of the fuselage.
“Yeah, you see it too?” Borllik scratched his head in confusion. “I’m getting a massive deja vu moment looking at this. I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before… a long time ago on Ourtube or something.” His memory - or lack thereof - is getting the better of him now.
The inside of the cockpit is just as faithfully modeled as the exterior, with the wrinkled leather bolsters of the seats just starting to crumble if manhandled. Ruka turned around and sniffed the headrest of her seat, wanting to test out the headset’s olfactory replication system. “Eugh! Holy pipegod, did this Petty guy use any shampoo or anything? I swear I must’ve inhaled his dandruff or something. Wait. Is that a piece of his hair in there?”
“Damn, this model is top notch,” Borllik remarked with a slowly spreading smile on his face. He chuckled like an idiot as he waved his hands over the control panel, almost feeling the bare anodized metal finishing under his fingers. Some of the glass for the gauges were cracked, some were fogged. The tritium-lit numerals and script were dim and barely visible. With the flick of a switch and connecting a fuse, electronic readouts on the cockpit glass and heads-up displays flickered to life without second notice. Seconds later, the rest of the spacecraft’s electronics quickly whined to life. “I’ve wanted to sit inside - and fly - a fighter aircraft my entire life. This… maybe this will do.”
“Can I fly? Can I fly?” Ruka pleaded enthusiastically, tugging on Borllik’s seat.
“Hah! No,” Borllik scoffed. “I’ve already sat with you inside the tank and I’ve seen what you can do with the mech. We’re both flying this one at the same time and I don’t want to know how this suit can ‘re-create’ the forces of diving straight into the ground at mach 7. So I’ll be flying this time.”
The startup process is complete; Borllik hopes that the animation team can shorten or abridge the entire process since only about ten seconds of it will be seen before the race starts. All of the wires and pipes are removed and the bodywork replaced as the Phoenix is lifted up via a crane and placed into a long, sealed-off metal corridor, on top of a rail system of sorts. At the end of the tunnel is the ground, only this time it’s 50 000 feet away.
Suddenly, Borllik doesn’t feel very content with this method of takeoff.
“What’s wrong?” Ruka teases with a smug grin, poking Borllik’s shoulder from behind. “Getting cold feet? Or should I say, is it not just this space fighter but also your balls that haven’t dropped yet?”
“Yes… I mean what? No!” Borllik spat. He fidgets around in his seat a little bit, which feels tighter than usual. The polyester six-point harness suddenly feels like it’s been secured too snugly to the point the straps are digging into his skin. “I’ve prepared for this moment my whole life. I’m not going to let anything stop me, not even myself.” Flames erupt from the thrusters’ nozzles as the startup process is finalized and continue to grow in intensity. The blaze evolves into a geyser of plasma that stretches all the way to the heat shielding behind the Phoenix.
A terrible groaning noise starts to grow in intensity, probably from the electromagnetic restraint system growing increasingly fatigued as the three engines reach full thrust. “Well?” Ruka shouted impatiently over the straining thrusters. “All good up there?”
“Damn that’s looking kinda high up, isn’t it?”
“Fine. If you won’t, then I will!” Ruka snapped. She lifted her left leg up and brought her heel swiftly down onto the emergency release button. The locks were pyrotechnically jettisoned, and the Phoenix is flung downwards with incredible divine might. Within seconds, it reached terminal velocity, clouds turning into incomprehensible streaks of white and gray as they shot past. Noticing the ground approaching at roughly a few thousand miles per hour, the autopilot system automatically manipulated the control surfaces and angled the thruster nozzles upwards, and the ground rapidly shifted away from under the craft as the horizon is pulled down into view. Given the speed and tightness of this sudden maneuver, Borllik felt like his blood and soul is being sucked out through his nether regions, and his head went limp as it snapped to the side from the sheer amount of g-forces.
Borllik couldn’t let out much more than sporadic gasps. The very art of moving his mouth proved to be extremely taxing, as his cheeks felt like they were slipping off his face. On the other hand, Ruka is taking everything like a champ, and is seemingly unfazed even through the 10 g turn. The Phoenix executed one final jerk in upwards pitch moments before it could careen into the ground, and shot itself clear through the skyline of a highly-populated metropolitan area. Skyscrapers blended into streaks of gray, black, and blue on either side of the craft as it wove in between them effortlessly.
With heaving gasps, Borllik snapped back into consciousness and quickly glanced at his surroundings in panic. Ruka’s intoxicating laughter filled the cabin and only added to his confusion. “What the HELL was that for!” he shouted, looking to either side to try and steal a glance behind him. “Okay, what else do you have access to back there huh? The joystick? The freaking ejection seat release?”
“Yo, EYES ON THE ROA- I MEAN SKY!” Ruka screamed, kicking the back of Borllik’s chair. Its occupant refocused his attention back to what lay before him, which included a cliff that seemed to appear out of nowhere. With a sudden burst of competence, the game dev instantly assumed control of the craft and jerked it to the right while simultaneously actuating the rudder pedals, and the Phoenix pulled away from the rocky walls effortlessly.
“Holy pipegod, these controls have like no assists at all,” Borllik shouted through gritted teeth as he expertly maneuvered the craft through the cityscape. “Shouldn’t they have fly-by-wire now? Why is it all still manual?”
“I dunno,” Rawr shrugged, shifting in her seat under the intense lateral acceleration. “That bimbo is so obsessed about balancing, so maybe she had something to do with it.”
Despite the moderate amount of resistance offered by the controls, Borllik still found that at lower speeds, the Phoenix’s handling is akin to a cat chasing a laser point. Easing up on the throttle, the warbird effortlessly danced through skyscrapers without breaking a sweat, trails of condensation streaking from its wingtips. The RoKIT engines were perfectly calibrated and responded instantly to even the most discrete of Borllik’s inputs, making it feel almost weightless in atmospheric conditions.
“I should’ve become a fighter pilot instead,” Borllik remarked as he pulled the Phoenix back up into a rapid climb, ascending back to cruising altitude at no time. “This thing makes flying easy. Almost like… it’s a video game.”
“You don’t say,” Ruka scoffed. But Borllik wouldn’t be getting too comfortable for long, for he was alerted by a harsh, shrill beeping tone from somewhere within the control stack before him. Looking at the radar screen, he saw five intermittent blips on the screen rapidly approaching the center dot representing the Phoenix itself. He glanced up, and five singularities that had suddenly appeared on the horizon turned into black and gray streaks that shot by at supersonic speeds. The Phoenix was buffeted and thrown about by violent turbulence and a gigantic wave of pressure tailing behind the unknown objects, tossing Borllik and Ruka about in their seats momentarily as they both shrieked in unison.
“Uhh… well, that’s certainly strange!” Borllik choked out a stifled laugh as he started looking around the cockpit in fear, trying to ascertain the situation and find out what the hell had just done a mach 2 flyby past them and nearly collided with them in the process. He tried to make sense of the complicated readouts flying by his eyes on the numerous heads-up displays but failed. “I certainly don’t recall hostile aircraft being part of the testing routine. Maybe it’s Christina getting revenge on me for the time I hid Skittles in her M&M jar…”
“You WHAT?” Ruka kicked the back of Borllik’s seat in shock.
The harsh rapid beeping returned once again, but something was different. Twice as rapid and much louder, almost painful to listen to. Like standing right under a fire alarm. If the five new blips on the radar weren’t enough of a hint, perhaps the voice warning system was enough to strike enough fear into Borllik and Ruka. “GUIDED MUNITION IMPACT IMMINENT. EVASIVE ACTION WILL COMMENCE IF NO INPUT IS DETECTED.”
With Ruka screaming bloody murder in the background, Borllik flipped the Phoenix belly-side up thanks to its nimble handling characteristics, and yanked the joystick towards him, sending the spacecraft down in a steep dive towards the immaculately-rendered city skyline that was quickly approaching. The five missiles behind them had traced their path effortlessly and were still hot on the Phoenix’s tail like a buzzing, bloodthirsty swarm of giant hornets. As the tips of the tallest skyscrapers shot by Borllik’s peripheral vision, he pulled the joystick towards him but at an angle and gradually leaned his left foot onto its respective rudder pedal, leveling out the spacecraft while navigating it in excellently between two towers, with little room to spare. One of the missiles continued going and plummeted straight into a cornerside bakery, and two more slashed through the left and right towers and exploded in a billowing, self-enveloping balloon of fire and heat. But two still remained.
In the distance, Borllik saw the contrails of the five enemy aircraft above, which had just entered a steep dive not unlike the Phoenix’s prior maneuver. “Hey, look alive!” Ruka shouted, slapping the back of Borllik’s helmet. “Contact, 12 o’clock up high! Five bogeys!” The trademark distant howl of afterburners echoed through the valley of steel and glass, and hell followed within.
Footwork like an Irish tap dancer, the hand of god, and the eyes of the mind. It’s just like my granddad’s stories about MiG alley, Borllik muttered to himself under sharp, labored breaths. It was no longer a battle of clandestine warbirds and hypersonic high-grade precision-guided munitions; this was a conflict of man and machine in the dance of the dogfight, where one wrong step or one misplaced beat spelled death. Such was the unforgiving ruthlessness of the open skies.
The Phoenix cleaved through the gusty air like a finely-sharpened fillet knife against a rare cut of steak. Instead of slowing down, Borllik slowly nudged the throttle forwards as the spacefighter bobbed and weaved itself through the densely-packed city skyline. The enemy aircraft opened fire, and a monsoon of exotic-energy projectiles flew past the Phoenix. Bright orange and red streaks of light would instantly blossom from wherever the projectiles struck, visibly bending light around them as they flew. None made their mark.
It was like being flung by the hand of god. The Phoenix’s Thunderforce powerplant provided Herculean amounts of thrust on demand, to the point it nearly felt like someone bringing a sledgehammer to Borllik’s back at full force. As they happened upon a long main street flanked by financial buildings on either side, an enemy aircraft appeared on the opposite end. Borllik squeezed one of the triggers on the joystick and broke away as he did so, and two lances of brilliant light sprung from the tips of the DS3 cannons. The enemy aircraft was barely even in Borllik’s crosshairs for more than a split second, but his shots made their mark and reduced the opponent to a scorched husk of melted titanium and aluminum as it plummeted into the street, billowing jets of flames that reached stories high.
“I think- I think I’m getting sick,” Ruka shouted, but her words trailed off as she involuntarily started to heave. It sure as hell didn’t feel like a simulation for how well the g-forces were being transmitted to their bodies, but thousands of hours in Macrohard Flight Simulator had trained Borllik for this very moment.
Four of the aircraft still remained, but had split up and were surrounding the Phoenix in multiple quadrants. Two of them re-assumed formation and converged on Borllik’s and Ruka’s position from seven and five o’clock directions, dropping down from some sight unseen and showering them in a hail of cannonfire. They had chosen an interesting area to stage their attack, however; there was no forseeable escape route for the Phoenix, and it was heading straight towards a fancy high-rise complex.
“Not just yet….” Borllik said through gritted teeth, his thumb hovering just over a bright yellow button mounted on the joystick.
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! HEY!” But Ruka’s panicked screams were not enough to sway Borllik from his planned course of action. He continued to fly straight towards their doom, and the hostile aircraft were rapidly closing the distance between themselves and the Phoenix.
“NOW!”
The heads-up displays splayed across the cockpit and the electronic readouts that flooded the cabin in neon lights all flickered in unison before disappearing entirely. Suddenly, a sound not unlike that of being directly, continuously struck by lightning or a great arc of thousands of volts of electricity from a power line blessed their ears, and a great, blinding beam of light filled the cabin. When all was said and done, a gaping hole had been bored right through the convention center, and the opening on either end was still glowing bright red from the Big Fucking Laser’s impact as molten steel and glass dripped. It was of the perfect size as the Phoenix flew straight through without making contact. The enemy aircraft close in pursuit were perhaps too close and could not react in time to avoid the convention center barreling towards them.
One contact remained, but this time around it had the jump on the Phoenix since its propulsion systems were suffering from the immense power drain of the BFL. As it dove on the defenseless spacecraft, it let off a volley of concentrated cannonfire and broke away, quickly climbing back into the upper reaches of the stratosphere. One projectile struck the Phoenix’s left auxiliary thruster unit and exploded in a blinding flash of sparks that showered the cockpit glass. Ruka let out a brief yelp as copious amounts of smoke trailed from the tip of the left wing. And if it couldn’t get any worse, those two remaining missiles that had been fired at the very beginning of the confrontation were still hot on the Phoenix’s tail, and were quickly making up their lost ground.
“Are you a woman of religion, Ruka?” Borllik asked, breaking the tension that had been accumulating in the cockpit. It was suffocating, it wrung at Ruka’s heart and held her breathless. Maybe they had a chance after all. Or maybe Borllik was going to say one final prayer, knowing their imminent “death.”
“Wh… what kinda dumb question is that?!” Ruka scoffed. “Do you even tune in to my streams sometimes?”
“In the book of RENESIS, they say god himself was so dissatisfied, so disillusioned with the hedonism and the wicked spirit of man that they were beyond redemption. And so, when humanity had fallen beyond the brink of saving, when they had crossed the event horizon of irredeemability, he reached a final ultimatum. He vowed to blot out everything he had breathed life into from the face of the Earth.”
Without warning, he suddenly brought the joystick back towards him, and the Phoenix’s nose lurched upwards until they were flying directly vertically straight. Ruka saw the enemy aircraft, which had been circling overhead, break loose and dive straight for the Phoenix. Throwing the throttle lever into its furthest forward position, the RoKIT 424P and remaining 222S thrust engines kicked into overdrive and flung them upwards, heading straight for their target. Loud sirens flooded the cabin, warning of a failed cooling system and overheating oil and fuel temperatures.
“Why the hell are you being so goddamn chuuni right now? Have you gone goddamn crazy??”
“And so, he rained white phosphorus for 40 days and 40 nights until the filth had been ridden from the land they walked on.”
The two DS3 cannons fired once again as cannonfire from the hostile aircraft rained down from above, but as they hit their mark, there was no spectacular explosion to be seen. Instead, the aircraft directly in front of the Phoenix entered a free fall, as its control surfaces, propulsion systems, and weaponry had all been disabled. Borllik quickly flipped open a bright yellow switch guard and jammed his thumb into the red button it was covering. Suddenly, great burning streaks of pyrotechnic flares shot out from either side of the Phoenix and spread far and wide like the wings of an angel. As they flew past the falling enemy aircraft, it was showered in the burning magnesium, teflon, and viton flares left in their wake. The last remaining missiles broke their course from the Phoenix, and seconds later Borllik and Ruka saw nothing but a massive fireball erupt behind them. Trails of fire and burning residue flew outwards, the remnants and debris of the final aircraft that had terrorized their existence.
“I may have only cracked the bible open two times in my whole life,” Ruka said with a raised eyebrow, “but I’m sure as hell he didn’t say that!!”




Shut the fuck up I’ll lazer you with alien fucking eyes and explosion fucking head, shut the fuck up try to balance this thing in the game



Exterior Design (Coolness, Creativity)

The Zacspeed Phoenix is a truly outrageous craft. There’re many ways to make a design look good, and one of those ways is making the design believable. Where should we start, the exposed cooling fins on the wings, the piping that routes into the RoKIT 424P engine, or the tiny structural bits on the cannons? The big fucking laser just slapped on top breaks the flow of the craft but at the same time is extremely fitting, like a giant middle finger to convention. Just by looking at the Phoenix, even something as ridiculous as a quoted 4000Gs of acceleration doesn’t seem nonsense anymore, and that is something many of its competitors could not manage. History says that the performers are also the good looking ones, whether it’s a 80’s ground effect F1 car or a SR-71 spyplane, and the Phoenix belongs in that club.



Engineering/Game Mechanics

Most of the vehicles being presented can be categorized into two groups, the ones made to go as fast as possible and the slower ones heavily armed with weapons. The Phoenix can do both. If you want to know how the Phoenix competes with the other opponents, just imagine that there’s this race with small ultralight planes, and then there’s this guy that brought a F-22. Since it is basically a state of the art fighter jet repurposed for racing, even within the realm of unrestricted racing, the Phoenix is like bringing an orbital cannon to a gunfight. Even if it has to operate under the tight altitude restriction, the powerful engines are more than enough to push it to speeds no other crafts on the grid can match. And the weapons, well, let’s just say that they’re originally designed to counter a much bigger threat than a few individual crafts. Needless to say, our gameplay balancing department would have a bit of a headache dealing with this thing. Aside from being ungodly overpowered, the ex-fighter identity of the Phoenix also brings up the problem of staying under the altitude restrictions. It has some thoughtful engineering to counter that issue, such as an automated system capable of bleeding off thrust once the height limit is breached. However given its absurd speed, it’s doubtful that even that can prevent the craft from breaching the limit on rough terrains. In actual gameplay, it would be extremely difficult to manage, and we’d hope that the engineering can trade off some speed in return for better maneuverability. Even with the significantly reduced stats from the balancing, we expect the Phoenix to be among the strongest entrants on the grid.

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“Thanks for having me today~ I’ll definitely be looking forward to the final version.”
“No worries, although we… still have a lot of work left to do.”

Borllik typed a few more words, and saved the document. Tomorrow, he will present the list of strong points and drawbacks of all the entrants in front of his team, made with Ruka’s feedback taken into consideration. He’s the only one left in the office, and the surronding darkness is only lit up by his desk light.

“Well, this will be fun.”
He closes the desk light, picks up his jacket and leaves the office.

[End]













One word

Before you read into this, we just want you guys to know that choosing the ranking for top 10 is extremely difficult for us. Putting one ahead of another implies that one is overall better than another, but in this case, all of them are made to obscenely high standards, and we can see the efforts being put into them. And more importantly, all of them are unique in their own ways. If the fictional ATTAC 2079 becomes an actual game, those would be one hell of a lineup in a race. During our 3 month+ (yeah…sorry about that) judging process, the final ranking wasn’t decided until the very last second. I (Speedyboi typing) literally sat in front of my laptop for a couple of hours fighting myself about the ranking, and nothing came out. We did our best to make the good points of each car shine through, but we need to determine a winner, so please take the ranking with a pinch of salt.




Ready?



Here goes.

7th - The Edge Rider

One of the craziest looking Automation creations we’ve ever seen. We admire its insane styling and clever use of fixtures, unfortunately, it falls short when we want to learn about the engineering and thoughts behind it. If this thing gets some more development on the detail side, we wouldn’t hesitate to put this thing on the cover of the game. We’d kill for a model of this thing though.



6th - Suisei Type 20 IFV-1

An absolutely amazing rendition of a modern tank. Even here, the care and effort being displayed is just spectacular. My laptop crashed 3 times in a row trying to take a pic of this thing in the photoscene, from the amount of detailing around the entire tank. If it has the craziness in design that matches the flawless execution, putting this thing in 6th would be a massive injustice.



Also 6th - RfX-01 Schneit

One heck of a 3D fixture creation that captures the madness of ATTAC. To call it “over the top’’ would be a gross understatement. Having a mecha for a race that is all about speed doesn’t make the most sense to us initially, but you know what, we wouldn’t mind some extra explosions. We’d like to see some speed-oriented modifications done to this otherwise gorgeous piece of machinery.



5th - Midlands Ceres Apex

It might not be the craziest looking machine, but the formula of a tasteful looking GT muscle car with a bootload of power can stand its ground in the field. From the exterior to interior, from the engineering to the connection with its driver, everything about this machine is quite well executed.



4th - Delphinida Orca “Atavis”

As the representative of the cutting-edge side of the grid, the design of the Orca Atavis is futuristic, sleek, and fits exactly into the intended role of the craft. Some of the thoughtful details throughout the craft really brings the player to understand the personality of the privileged and charismatic pilot.



3rd - Amore GT-8

There’s a saying that the ideal machine should be the extension of its user, and in that aspect, this legged machine is so much more than just an engineering spectacle. The anguish deep down within the Arakune species are objectified by the visual elements on the craft, and we admire the thoughts being put into this.



Also 3rd - Madson Brooklands Torpedo-AGV Mod

The sheer amount of creativity poured into this thing is unbelievable. Not only does it feature some impressive 3D fixture work, but the craft design on its own is outrageously unique. The idea is fresh and original, and the execution is nothing short of spectacular.



2nd - Zacspeed Phoenix

It’s one thing to write down outrageous specs on paper, it’s another to be able to convince us that with its looks. The one single most important thing that we look for, aside from coolness, is to showcase its engineering in its design, and the Phoenix nails it. Its perfect blend of engineering and ridiculousness earns it a spot in both the evolution line of the performance house Zacspeed and in this game as one of the top entrants.



Also 2nd - Variata Type-III “Aquilo”

This super-tank is probably the most well-rounded entrant here. It’s got the cohesiveness, it’s got that craziness, it’s got the great fixture work, it’s got thoughtful engineering and above all, it is a vehicle that truly reflects the personality of its driver. We can find little fault in this thing, and we had to spend a lot of time to decide the winner between this, Lucy C and the Zacspeed.



and the first goes to...








1st - Mrs. Lucy C

The sleeper ethos of hiding outrageous performance behind an unassuming exterior has been brought to the next level. The idea of hiding a powerhouse under the bodywork of a Volkswagen econobox is something we adore, and that idea is flawlessly executed in the form of hyperdetailed mechanical goodness. The sheer level of detail, thoughtfulness and enthusiasm presented in both the written description and the Automation design, propels it to the top of this challenge. The fact that this yellow hatchback can compete and pull ahead in a field filled to the brim with crazy looking high tech monsters, is a testament to the effort put into it.



Congratulations to @Marcus_gt500 for coming out on top in this group of incredible vehicles!









Closing Thoughts

When we first heard about the impending 3D fixture update months back, I’m sure we all had our ideas of how many new doors had just been opened and how many more opportunities had been freed up. Because of this, we wanted AGC 15 to be less of a challenge and more a proof of concept. We have legged muscle cars, hovercraft, mecha, and a literal tank. Let this be the key to unlock the gates of hell that is your imagination.

Why did this take so long? In short, overestimating the free time we have with school and other stuff, and just bite off way more than we can chew. Needless to say, it’s a big relief for both of us to get it out and without sacrificing the quality.

We appreciate your long wait, and thank you all very much for participating in this challenge.



Oh and one more thing, Borllik is Killrob spelled backwards


25 Likes

all i can say is
this challenge probably has the most sophisticated writing i’ve ever seen in any forum challenge
it’ll be a while till something else of this calibre pops up i assume

the waiting time for the reviews were absolutely worth it, this will be my most memorable challenge i’ve ever entered probably
congratulations on finishing the challenge writeups and congratulations to the winner!
and thank you both for hosting!

This is the greatest automation forum challenge of All Time

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