Changing cars in UKGTR Season 4

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Because we're using a season-wide ballast system to even out performance of the cars, and not changing the ballast for each event, it's desirable that people should pick a car and stick to it. There will therefore be a 20% points deduction at any event where a driver uses a different car from the one they used at the previous event in the same championship (so you can run different cars in Endurance and Sprint, for example).

This points charge will apply only to the drivers championship, not the team or manufacturers championships.

Because it's a percentage charge, only front running drivers will see much different. Drivers finishing 10th or less will see little or no difference to their scores, and indeed we would encourage such drivers to change freely to both gain experience, and find a car whose characteristics suit them.

Sorry about the late notice for this; the moderating team have only been discussing it since the weekend.

[greg130]

Does that mean the ballast weights are now set for the season and will not be changed ?
However if further adjustment is required to even the cars out will drivers be allowed one penalty free change for the new weights ?

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Does that mean the ballast weights are now set for the season and will not be changed ?
However if further adjustment is required to even the cars out will drivers be allowed one penalty free change for the new weights ?

If necessary, ballasts will be changed when we do the mid-season skin update.

I can't answer the second question yet because I've not had time to look at the implementation of the car change penalty. If I can allow one free change without making life too complicated then I will, but if so it's unlikely to be tied to the pack refresh.

[fozzmeister]

Good call Gizmo, I like this idea greatly. I hope to re-activate myself in the short to mid term.

Your friendly forum stalker.

[purdie]

easy dave!

i was wondering if it was possible to make cars lighter? or do you use the games process of applying ballast?

if there is a tutorial anywhere for doing this wud u let me know! i wanna make the GT2 lighter to see if its competitive in GT's on offline racing

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

i was wondering if it was possible to make cars lighter? or do you use the games process of applying ballast?

if there is a tutorial anywhere for doing this wud u let me know! i wanna make the GT2 lighter to see if its competitive in GT's on offline racing

We can't use the in-game ballast system because it's not available through the dedicated server. :'( What I'd really like is to be able to set the ballasts in the class GDB file - having to manually set them in the dedi server wouldn't be that much fun (though if it were an option, a car change penalty plus ballast only for the championship leaders would probably serve the purpose just as well).

If you want to hack the physics, find the .HDC file in the appropriate car's directory (in the GT2's case GTR2\GameData\Teams\GT\Porsche 993 GT2 Teams\993gt2.hdc) and alter the line which starts "Mass=". That's essentially all my scripts which generate the ballasted cars do. Putting the car into GT is certainly a possibility, although we're very wary of a knee-jerk reaction on the basis of two races at a new circuit.

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

Okay, I've now coded the sucker and you all get one free car change this season. If we do something radical with the GT2, like moving it to another class, banning it, or painting it pink, I will consider giving out a second free car change. If it just gets more ballast mid-season then you won't get any more.

[purdie]

i was wondering if it was possible to make cars lighter? or do you use the games process of applying ballast?

if there is a tutorial anywhere for doing this wud u let me know! i wanna make the GT2 lighter to see if its competitive in GT's on offline racing

We can't use the in-game ballast system because it's not available through the dedicated server. :'( What I'd really like is to be able to set the ballasts in the class GDB file - having to manually set them in the dedi server wouldn't be that much fun (though if it were an option, a car change penalty plus ballast only for the championship leaders would probably serve the purpose just as well).

If you want to hack the physics, find the .HDC file in the appropriate car's directory (in the GT2's case GTR2\GameData\Teams\GT\Porsche 993 GT2 Teams\993gt2.hdc) and alter the line which starts "Mass=". That's essentially all my scripts which generate the ballasted cars do. Putting the car into GT is certainly a possibility, although we're very wary of a knee-jerk reaction on the basis of two races at a new circuit.

cheers dave! i know wot u mean about the knee-jerk reaction! its a great system the ballast, nice not to have a field of porsches and ferrari's in NGT!

and anything to stop people always driving the 550 in GT is a plus to me!