I have a passing interest in Trackmania, and with that brings some interesting content, namely this:
Decently self-explanatory. Make a TM map in under 10 blocks.
Partway through the video it occurred to me that this would actually be a pretty cool idea for Automation. We have a wide breadth of choice as far as fixtures are concerned, so why not run a challenge around it?
Ok so here’s the challenge: make a car under any or all of these limits:
10 fixtures (very hard)
25 fixtures (difficult)
50 fixtures (medium)
75 fixtures (easy)
100 fixtures (very easy)
Rather than judging based entirely upon styling, this will be judged via a combination of styling and creativity of fixture use. Being able to use fixtures in unusual ways is a skill like any other, and will be rewarded. If you make a car that uses incredibly unique techniques, it will be scored highly.
I hope to judge this as more similar to one of the magazines, such as TOR or Trafikjournalen, rather than having a set due date.
Name it (LEC(fixture count category) - yourusername)
for example (LEC25 - Ldub0775)
no real submission limit, but try to be reasonable
For the difficult and very hard categories, it may well be easier to make something from the 1990s and earlier because cars back then generally had simpler shapes and styling features. Anyway, a detailed interior will not be necessary or even desirable in any category.
Hmm, what is the bare minimum to make a car look road legal?
A pair of “all in one” integrated headlights that have the indicators and headlights in one fixture. Needs to be wrap-around to also function as side reflector/indicator.
A pair of “all in one” tail lights that have the indicators, rear lights, and brake lights in one fixture. Needs to be wrap-around to also function as side reflector/indicator.
A pair of mirrors.
One wiper (a pair if they can be mirrored to only use one fixture, otherwise it’s already two).
A pair of door handles or buttons.
An exhaust tip.
So that is 6 as a bare minimum, which still assumes that:
A number plate is not required (show room model?)
A grille is not required (EV car?)
A gas cap is not required (EV car/hidden cap under lights '50s style/tank under the bonnet Trabant style?)
Assuming those are indeed required, then we’re up to nine required as bare minimum… What is the one remaining optional one to “spice up” the design?
Fair enough. Would be quite a power move to submit a completely bare car in standard Automation red and say it’s an EV race car with some proximity sensor and automatic door opening mechanism… Or if it’s an open top you don’t even need a door opening mechanism at all. I guess technically then you could submit a zero-fixture car.
so this is Richard and he is a 10 fixture organism. I had the choice between plates or wipers so I went for plates, because I think they are more important
helo guyse here is my first ever autoamtion car its called the 1971 eagle freedom liberty it has a 10.2 liter v8 that makes 75 hp because its american and american v8s make low power haha isn’t that hilarious please laugh
You know, even though the days of old Automation are long gone, I still long for them dearly. I first got the game on October 23, 2018 and I remember damn well that the first thing I made was this Honda City thing with a 3 liter V12. And like many others during that time, I was desperate to drive my horrid contraption in BeamNG; that was the main reason I even bought Automation in the first place.
It ticked all the boxes for a first car: +15’d to hell, it was an absolute eye sore, and most importantly, the classic suspension setup of solid axle in the front and independent rear. It was absolutely god awful; even I knew that back then.
However, I still feel there was an odd charm to it, as it represented much similar times when design standards were much lower and no one had a care in the world about how much effort they put into their cars. And now, with the bar for Automation skill being raised exponentially high, (especially due to the addition of 3d fixtures) those days are dead and buried 6 feet underground. I mean, could you ever imagine someone ever even think about creating something like the Zacspeed Helios back then?
So now over 2200 hours later, the inevitable automation player femboy metamorpasis creeps closer and closer and I guess this might be the last 10 fixture car I will ever make, because god forbid the file size of anything I make is under 100kb now.
)