First off, I want to say a big "thank you" to everyone who's sent me their
comments on these matters. Your support means a lot to me, and has made the
decisions a great deal easier. Thank you.
Since the vast majority of you seem to agree that save/restore laps are not in
the spirit of the competition, they are and will remain illegal. The same goes
for "wall braking", that is, using the walls of street circuit like Phoenix and
Monaco instead of the brakes. Any new times sent in _must_ observe these new
regulations.
Now, there are a number of times currently in the HOF which break these rules.
Since they were technically legal when set, I do not propose to unilaterally
remove them. However, I am appealing to the drivers of such times to re-drive
those times, under legal conditions, and allow me to move the current times
into the "absolute records" area (where only the fastest time will be shown).
I will not hunt down the drivers of such times; it is up to your consciences
whether you wish to replace them or not. Those who've already admitted to using
this technique I believe are honorable people who will want to uphold the
spirit of the HOF, and with F1GP/WC version 2 probably less than six months
away, there seems little point in getting tough about this.
[Yes, I decided to punt. :-]
On the matter of slipstreaming, opinions are more divided; since it's allowed
in real F1, I'm going to allow it here. Note that this means that if you want
to do well on the HOF you will _have_ to perfect your slipstreaming technique,
and find ways to improve your slipstreaming opportunities (like reducing the
length of qualifying and practice sessions, and using game editors to alter
opponent speeds).
Slipstreaming a human opponent in linked play remains illegal.
The F1GP/WC v2 HOF will outlaw slipstreaming in normal competition; that's
official and not open for discussion. Other rules may be more flexible; of
course, the actual features of the game are not known yet, but I am open to
discussion on how the rules of the current HOF could be improved for the v2
HOF.
Once again, thank you for your comments, your encouragement, and most
importantly your lap times, without which the HOF would not exist; it's a
privilege to know you all. Good luck, and happy racing to you all.
-- Gizmo
