Formula 1 - Apolyton (aka Yet Another Forum Game)

[vovan]

That's right, as if we haven't had enough of those.

Okay, "simple" rules:

We have eight racers, and eight tracks.

Drivers race in pairs of two on a track that the moderator chooses in advance, but doesn't show the players its original configuration.

Tracks look like this:

....
.o..
....
....
....
 ....
  ..o.
  ....
 ....
....
....
....
 ....
  .o..
   ....
    ....
    ....
    ....
    ....
   ....
  ....
  ....
  ....
  ....
  ....
  ....
  ....
  ....

The dots denote the asphalt. The o's denote obstacles (consider them very slow opponents ). Each racer takes up one spot, like an o.

The game is turn-based. Each of the two drivers issues two orders for each turn. Possible orders are as follows:

1. Change speed:
a. Accelerate - add one to speed
b. Decelerate - subtract one from speed
c. Don't change speed

2. Steer:
a. Left
b. Right
c. Don't change direction

When the player chooses to steer, his car moves diagonally forward and to the side where he wants to steer one dot, and then continues on straight. For example, consider the following situation:

....
....
....
....
....
 ....
  o...
  ....
 ....
....
.v..
....
 ....

v is the racer. Say, he is traveling with speed 3. If he doesn't change anything, he goes off-road. If he decelerates, and does not steer, he remains on road and moves as follows:

....
....
....
....
....
 ....
  o...
  ....
 v...
....
....
....
 ....

His speed is now 2.

Back to the previous situation. Suppose, the driver steers right. He then moves over one to the right and then keeps moving foward.

....
....
....
....
....
 ....
  o...
  v...
 ....
....
....
....
 ....

The driving rules are as follows:
o If the driver enters an empty square (no dot), he's gone off-road and goes out of the race.
o If the driver enters an o square, he's smashed into an obstacle and goes out of the race.
o If the driver enters a square with another player in it, both loose the race.
o If, after the start of the race, the player decelerates so that his speed is down to zero, he stops and kills the engine: he's out of the race.
o The players start with the initial speed of 3.
o There is no limit on the maximum speed, but note that by the way steering works, you may not be able to stay on track going really fast.

Track specifications:
o Each track is 100 lines long.
o Each track starts with 5 lines of starting straight. No turns in the asphalt are allowed for the first 5 lines.
o Each track ends with 10 lines of finish straight. No turns in the asphalt are allowed for the last 10 lines.
o Each track can have at most one obstacle per five lines.
o The "turns" cannot offset lines by more than one position.

....           |     ....
 ....  - legal |   ....   - illegal
  ....         | ....

o Each track must have at least 50% straight lines and at most 80%. (The start and finish straights are considered neither straight nor turning. In fact, they aren't considered part of the track. So we are talking about 100 lines of track, out of which at least 50 lines must be straight, and at least 20 lines must be turning, plus five straight lines in the beginning, and 10 in the end.) A "straight" line is such that it has the same alignment as the line before it. Consider the following piece of track:

....     - straight
....     - straight
....     - straight
....     - straight
....     - straight
 ....    - turning
  ....   - turning
  ....   - straight
 ....    - turning
....     - turning
....     - straight
....     - straight
 ....    - turning
  ....   - turning
   ....  - turning
    .... - turning
    .... - straight
    .... - straight
    .... - straight
   ....  - turning
  ....   - turning
  ....   - straight
  ....   - straight
  ....   - straight
  ....   - straight
  ....   - straight
  ....   - straight
  ....   - straight

(The track specifications are given to aid the moderators in creating good tracks - which promote speed, and don't contain too many turns and obstacles. They are also given to help the drivers so they can expect what they will see.)

Visibility.
The track is built by the moderator of the game in advance, but at any given time, the drivers only see the next 12 lines of the track and two previous lines of the track. Essentially, the moderator of the game first posts the positions of the players and the beginning of the track. For example like so:

 ....
 ....
  ...o
   ....
    ....
     ....
    ....
   ....
   ....
   ....
   ....
   ....
   -ab- - start

Here we see the 5-line start straight, some turns and an obstacle, as well as the two drivers (a and b) on the start line. The initial speeds of the racers are 3 each. Both of them can now issue orders. Their orders are then processed one at a time to avoid numerous collisions. For instance, suppose b chooses to accelerate and keep going straight, and a chooses to keep speed constant and steer right. Then, if the turns were processed simultaneously, a and b would collide on the spot just above the finish line in front of b, and both would loose the race. However, this way, I think, there would be too many collisions. So, we process the turns one at a time. First, we move b, and then a. This way, collisions can only occur at final points of the turn, not at intermediate points. New position:

 ....
 ....
  ...o
   ....
    ....
     ....
    ....
   ....
   ..b.
   ..a.
   ....
   ....
   ---- - start

Next, the moderator would post the new view of the track for each racer:

a... Speed: 3.
     View:

  ....
  ....
 ....
 ....
 ....
  ...o
   ....
    ....
     ....
    ....
   ....
   ..b.
   ..a.
   ....
   ....

--------------------

b... Speed: 4.
     View:

 ..o.
  ....
  ....
 ....
 ....
 ....
  ...o
   ....
    ....
     ....
    ....
   ....
   ..b.
   ..a.
   ....

Now, we are ready for the next round of orders.

------------------------------

That's about it for the rules, I think. If anyone has any suggestions, improvements, or polishes, feel free to add 'em. Otherwise, we can play.

------------------------------

EDIT: Come to think of it, maybe we could stick more drivers into each race to make it more fun. If there are only two players in each race, one collision ends the race. If, on the other hand, we have, say 8, or even 12, then it might become more fun, although passing on a 4-tile-wide road might be near impossible...

[Jamski]

It sounds GREAT. Count me in as Jamski Mansell. One thing - to make it a little bit harder, have the maximum distance ahead measured as 8 or so, from the first car, and only show one "map" as the trailing player can see the other car ahead of him anyway.

I would also suggest that a crash simply reduces speed to 0, not kills the driver.

-Jam

[rah]

I suggest a track with wide straightaways and a modified oval. (more Lemans style) and have 8 drivers. It will make record keeping easier since there will be only one race at a time. (and reducing speed to zero if crash should be sufficent of a penaly and not eliminate everyone.)

But the one weakness I see, is that in any prolonged race, a person that gets an early lead really can't be caught.

[Jamski]

Make people stop for petrol. That works in real F1

-Jam

[rah]

That's why a repeating track is necessary. When the leader catches the back of the pack, there will be opportunities for them to try to pick him off.

[Jamski]

I see, they could try and ram him off.

Good idea.

-Jam

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

Sounds interesting.

[Jamski]

Can I drive a green Jaguar please *begs*

-Jam

[rah]

You could have people choose cars with different capabilities.

Having hairpin turns that if cars go through faster than speed 2, spin out.
So being able to go through one at speed three.
Or one that accelerates or breaks faster than one a turn.
Or a car that can steers better, (can move 2 squares sideways instead of one a turn)
Etc.

[vovan]

Well, I am not sure about circular tracks... I mean, the way I wrote it up, we have it so that all the cars always move up essentially. This way, you need to be smart using your accelerator and your break. Suppose you have the following situation:

     ....
    ....
   ....
  ....
 ....
....
....
....
....
....
 ....
  ....
   ....
   ....
   ..r.
   ....

r = the racer

So, the best way to be here is with speed 4, and steer left. Then, steer left again, and slow down. Then, you'd essentially need to slow down to almost a crawl for the diagonal segment. If you are coming into the first leftward turn with speed more than 5, there is no way whatsoever you are staying on the track. So, you've got to be smart and break early, choose the better side of the road, etc.

However, suppose this is part of a circular track...

          ...
        ......   ....
       ..............
      ...............
     ....    ........
    ....      ...
   ....
  ....
 ....
....
....
....
....
....
 ....
  ....
   ....
   ....
   ....
   ....

(Still only part of the track shown, because I am too lazy to draw the whole thing. )

Then this diagonal section does not qualify as a sharp turn any more, as it did before, because the player can say (and would be correct in saying) that he turned his car diagonally up and to the right, and thus can maintain the high speed.

I guess what I am worried about with circular tracks then is how do we determine where the car is facing? That adds extra complexity (unneeded complexity at that, I think) that is not present in the unrolled track version I proposed initially.

------------------------------

As far as penalty for collision goes, I like the idea of just dropping speed to zero, instead of putting the player out of the race. Also, with many people racing at the same time, I think it makes sense to remove the obstacles I intriduced earlier as another form of challenege. Turning and passing others should provide enough challenge as it is.

EDIT: Now I'm confusing left and right.

[rah]

Yes, but in a non looping track, once one driver gets a lead, he can't be caught. So whoever gets lucky on the first few moves will automatically win.

[Jamski]

Loop the track, without making it a circle. Once you drive off the top, you enter at the bottom.

-Jam

[rah]

Originally posted by Jamski
Loop the track, without making it a circle. Once you drive off the top, you enter at the bottom.

-Jam

Good Thinking. DOH

[vovan]

Good point, Jamski.

But I think there still need to do something so that the drivers are able to catch up and pass. That is to say, we need to make it so different strategies are possible and this doesn't turn into synchronous driving. Because if the player that gets the lead maintains it, and the only way to get him out is to ram him off the track when he passes you by one lap, then even Jamski's clever trick won't help - there's something conceptually wrong with the game.

I think, however, that allowing for different cars would help alleviate this problem. Indeed, suppose people compete on different vehicles: some of them can steer better, others - change speed, others still can go further on one tank of gas. Then, the driving style even will vary. People that can steer well will go faster through the corners, while those that do well in changing speed, will go faster on the straights.

That can help with the early winner syndrome.

[Jamski]

I'm willing to give it a try, and then we can tinker with it to see what's wrong.

-Jam