I am looking for some input and information to aid in developing a better
randomizer and qualification ordering program. The current YADR2 program
tries to do some of this stuff - but not well enough IMO. Any feedback is
welcome ....
1. Papyrus - are there any plans to allow a roster of greater than 39
drivers in N2 ? Particularly in the next 6-9 months.
2. If 1 = NO, would there be interest in an option to create a custom
driver list with greater than 39 drivers and specifying odds of qualifying
out of the field. This would be run as part of the randomization prior to
running N2 and beginning a race. This would be similar to the YADR2 -o
option - where driver orders are shuffled and some drivers are shuffled
towards the back depending on preset value for the type of track you will
be racing. The difference would be that the number of drivers competing
for the 39 or less spots would be > 39. I suspect - however - that this
will not work in season mode. I personally run my own season and don't
bother with season mode anyway. Maybe integrating a package that will
gather season results from standings files (which would be written by the
user after each race) would make this better. Any thoughts ? There are
lots of new drivers on the WC circuit and 39 drivers causes us to omit 6 or
7 drivers that I personally would like to see running every now and then,
the #95, #96, #78, #1 ... etc.
3. How about an option to create multiple car sets, one for WC, one for
Busch etc. and keeping them in seperate folders ? The randomizing program
would take an option of which car set to make active. This would also help
to catagories which cars to include and shuffle for qualifying for (2)
above. This would require the user to use the programs SETUP process to
import cars from the orignal CARS directory into the WC97, BGN97 or other
folders that were created.
4. How should drivers be randomized ?
- track type, like YADR2 does.
Types = restrictor, speedway, one mile oval, short track, road course, and
flat track.
- for each track on the circuit. Would it be useful to assign a driver
different values
for Martinsville and Bristol for example.
Keep in mind that the randomizer cannot automatically randomize for the
track you are running since it is not integrated with N2. You would have
to choose which track you are racing before running N2. Maybe with a
season package the program could pick the next race for you.
5. Should the randomizer/qual ordering package's setup program be a Windows
GUI program ? This makes setup much easier - since GUI's allow things like
drag and drop etc. However, this means that anyone running N2 in DOS ONLY
mode will have to run Win95 or Windows NT while setuping up the drivers.
The actual randomizing step would still be DOS - since you want to be able
to randomize - run N2 - randimize again - run N2 .... etc. without having
to boot or jump through hoops. This is particularly important if we are
again given the ability to randomize after qualification like we could in
N1. This will be possible if Papy implements a SAVE RACE option between
sessions at a minimum.
Other ideas are welcome. Also, if developing this stuff outside of N2 is
just undesireable - give your input too.
Thanks, /THansen