PIF Design Challenge [Yellow Group Thread]

[VicVictory]

I will let strop have his say on that before you move on to create the next challenge.

[Packbat]

That's reasonable.

[strop]

There seem to be some finicky saving issues around the active aero etc.

Fortunately the changes were preserved in the .lua files that you've sent me, and you've managed to pass the scenario! Well done, that was actually an honestly difficult challenge I set you with relatively little tolerance! Funny thing is, your setup has a fair chunk more power than mine does, and gets to 62mph a fraction of a second faster as a result. But I do find the ultra low profile tyre choice somewhat interesting.

At any rate, congratulations, you have succeeded and I assume it is now up to you to set the next challenge.

[Packbat]

Honestly, I blindly assumed that low profile = better. Another case of "it's not what you don't know that hurts you", I suppose.

Would you be willing to PM me your files? (I can install the community mod pack, if you used parts from it.) I'd like to learn from the differences in our approaches for my future competition builds.

(I have ideas for challenges, but my computer doesn't have enough RAM to run Automation and Firefox simultaneously.)

[strop]

I shall do that in the near future, when I get home from work!

[Packbat]

Sorry, going to take longer than I expected - I'll try to get it done as soon as I can.

[strop]

Rats, it turns out my car file no longer works properly, especially since I keep switching to the closed beta patch to test new changes

Let's just say my car had a higher profile tyre, and about 100 LESS hp, slightly less downforce, but a more aggressive suspension setup. The basic principle, however, was almost exactly the same!

[Packbat]

Oh, okay. Thanks for the attempt.

I think my car was at maximum Driveability/Sportiness camber - I'm guessing higher profile tires allow more camber?

[strop]

I'm not entirely sure what the Automation reason is, but there are a few thresholds for contact surface grip and driveability, and so far the only way I've found to really discover what they are is to test the track times with each profile. I've also found that smaller wheels are generally potentially faster, to a certain degree.

[Packbat]

Ah, okay. Well, if it was easy, where would the fun be?

(I think I have a reasonably good idea for a challenge, but I'm out of the house at the moment and there's more research I need to do to come up with the performance metrics.)

[Packbat]

One day, you're called into the office by the product manager. Your heart sinks when you see her reading a glossy (yet somehow cheap-looking) magazine. Before you can warn her not to take the writers too seriously, she spots you and hops out of her chair.

"Ah, you're here!" she exclaims. "Check out this review!"

"...is this for real?"

"Yes! We have a clear opportunity here to strike a underserved market! We'll have these - what do they call themselves, 'survivalists'? - all to ourselves! And it all comes down to you!"

"Are there really that many people worried about nuclear bombardment? The USSR is gone."

"Any publicity is good publicity - and according to this, our '93 model was the last major pickup truck that doesn't use any electronics. We won them once, and we can win them again. Make it happen!"

...and at that moment you are hustled out of the office.

Rules

General

Year must be 1995
Body must be standard two-door pickup truck (no utes)
No Lips or Wings

Engine requirements:

No VVL
No EFI
Regular fuel (91 RON, 87 AKI)

Engine specs:

Engine reliability no lower than 60
Loudness no higher than 45
Emissions no higher than than 900
Engine must be "torque-y" - max torque RPMs must be at or below 2/3rds max power RPMs

Vehicle requirements:

No Electric Differential (as if you could afford one...)
Hard or Medium Road tires
No Active Cooling
Edit: Entertainment is permitted (after all, a non-functioning tape deck doesn't do any harm...)
No Driver Assists besides Power Steering
No more than Basic 80s Safety (i.e. no airbags)
Total cost no more than $9500

Vehicle specs:

Economy no more than 15 lt/100 km (i.e. no less than 15.68 mpg)
Utility no less than 130
Offroad no less than 45
Environmental Resistance no less than 90
Avg. Reliability no less than 75
Driveability no less than 45
Comfort no less than 25
Safety no less than 40

[VicVictory]

Stuck. Safety is killing me. Even with steel body and paneling and a V8, I can't make it heavy enough... and I can only afford so much quality on the Basic 80's safety. Will continue work on it tomorrow, but this one is a lot harder than it looks.

[Packbat]

The big cost-saving trick I did was using Galvanized Steel for the chassis instead of Corrosion-Resistant Steel. (I still needed Corrosion-Resistant for the body panels to make 90 Environmental Resistance.)

Also: Body quality, Chassis quality, and Interior type and quality all affect the final safety total - if you haven't already, you can probably save some money by reducing the Safety quality slider and boosting these others. (Interior also benefits you by letting you reduce Entertainment quality.)

(Also: I really hope I haven't made this too hard. The requirements were intended to make a vehicle competitive with the 1995 Ford F-150, but even when I was making the challenge I couldn't come up with the 45 Safety that my F150 recreation had.)

(Edit: Especially because the inspiration for the idea was your Battle of the Half-Tons.)

[VicVictory]

I can't get the safety up above 38, no matter what I do. Body sliders, safety sliders, it doesn't matter. I run out of money LONG before I get to the safety requirement. Even at 37.6, my total costs exceed $12000. There's no way I can trim that much in other places without the rest of the stats falling below minimum

I'm going to have to throw in the towel on this one. But because of how insanely difficult this is, I'm requesting your finished LUAs showing the challenge is actually possible. You must provide them in 48 hours or the challenge is invalidated.

[Packbat]

Damnit. That definitely wasn't my goal with this challenge. (And now I'm wondering if stretching out the pickup bed to the max had some huge effect I didn't know about.)

Proof of feasibility attached. I think you might have to page through all the screens to get the settings to settle out correctly - and for some reason between saving and loading Driveability dropped to 44.9 and I had to stiffen the dampers to fix that - but in the version of Automation I'm running that has a safety of 40.0 and total cost of just under $9400. Let me know if it slipped below the threshold in any of the other requirements and I'll tweak to fix.