rec.autos.simulators

The entire "entity" is the NASCAR Racing League (NRL).  The NRL will
offer 3 types of events: 1) pickup races; 2) user created series; and
3) NRL series.  Pickup races are pretty much exactly what we have on
Hawaii now.  A single race, nominated by a user.  User created series
(UCS) are also pretty much what we have on Hawaii now.  A series of
races coordinated by a series administrator.  NRL series are
sanctioned NASCAR events.  Think of them as user created series in
which NASCAR is the series administrator.

If you want to participate in NRL series, you will have to become a
member of the NRL.  If you want to be a series adminsitrator for a
user created series, you will have to join the NRL.  However, if you
just want to run in pickup races, or if you want to be in a UCS
without being a series administrator, you will not have to join the
NRL.

Ed Martin
Producer, Series Director
NASCAR Racing League
Papyrus / Sierra On-Line, Inc.

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Great! So now, if I create a user series with a fixed set of drivers
participating, will I be able to put together a car set such that every
driver will get the same car for each race? And can I now distribute that
car set to other drivers so everyone will see the same drivers in the same
cars?

Dave "davids" Sparks
Sequoia Motorsports

No.  You have to use the NRL cars.

Ed Martin
Producer, Series Director
NASCAR Racing League
Papyrus / Sierra On-Line, Inc.

As a league administrator, I have to join the NRL. But the drivers in my
series do not necessarily have to join the NRL. But, you are saying that
even the users who do not sign up for NRL will have to use NRL car sets?

Dave "davids" Sparks
Sequoia Motorsports

Ed Martin
Producer, Series Director
NASCAR Racing League
Papyrus / Sierra On-Line, Inc.

So let's say, for argument's sake, that Kellog decides to sponsor a NRL car
(forgive my bias, but I'm rooting for the driver of the #5 car). They're
basically paying to have their logo displayed on Hawaii for all to see. So
the reason you can't allow us to drive our own cars is because the sponsors
are paying to have their logo displayed no matter who the user is (NRL or
not).

The only problem I see with that is a lot of people turn off the car detail
to get a better frame rate, so the sponsor's name may not even be displayed
on all user's systems.

Assuming this is cast in stone (and a lot of us hope it isn't), will we at
least be able to assign a driver in a closed series to a specific car on a
more or less permanent basis? Could this be done by having every driver in
the series set their first choice to a different car number?

Dave "davids" Sparks
Sequoia Motorsports

As for user-created series, the bok is still open on how we're going
to handle that.  All I can say is that we obviously know that people
want the ablity to drive the same car all the time (ya, like we don't
want to do that, to! <g>), but there are a lot of forces at play.
I'll keep everyone up to date!

Ed Martin
Producer, Series Director
NASCAR Racing League
Papyrus / Sierra On-Line, Inc.

Nascar did not link up with Sierra out of the goodness of their
hearts. I'm sure the old $$$ has something to do with it. Besides
their collection of participants licensing fees, there is sponsorship
$$$ to be made. The logos on the sides of those NRL cars won't be
freebies. Therefore thou shalt use NRL carsets to keep NASCAR's
sponsors happy.

1)  If I went out and bought a car and got Goody's to sponsor me, you
could see a Goody's car in the next WC race. No rules against who can
sponsor cars in WC, only NRL.

2)  Unless there is server software that allows the server to check
every pixel in the clients carset to make sure there were no
alterations, other carsets can be used. Either that or the server has
to send the car texture info which will really slow things down.

I'm also sure that those of us that don't live in big citys will be
paying the big LD bills plus access charges, more then we are now. If
there were ways of getting this kind of service to the little towns
for cheap, don't you think that AOL and Compuserve would be doing it.

Rick