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A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with

Author Topic: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with  (Read 15009 times)

Offline Wally

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A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« on: February 07, 2016, 11:55:59 AM »
Some of us are discussing driver swaps in this post. Here's an experimental version of PLP attached that some of you can play around with, to see how it might be used to implement driver swaps. You unzip this into Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\apps\python. You can overwrite your normal PLP - it won't affect normal behaviour.

The way it works is to send a chat message to your teammate, displayed in his PLP app (and no one else's). Suppose you're on track, and he's waiting in pits. When you enter the pit lane, coming in to do the driver swap, he gets a message on his PLP that says "Car 1 has entered pit lane". Then when you stop in your pit box, he gets a message that says "Car 1 has pitted. GO!". Then he can drive off for his stint, while you wait in pits for those messages from his car, when he comes in to pits.

What you have to do is:
Edit PLP.ini in Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\apps\python\PitLanePenalty with a text editor, and set

TEAM=1

Or any team number. Whoever has that team number is in your team, so Marty and Guybrush would both have TEAM=1, say, and Bird and I would both have TEAM=2.

Then you also set TEAM_CAR=1, say for Guybrush, and TEAM_CAR=2, for Marty. That's your car number within the team. Every team would normally have a car 1 and 2.

If you want to turn the team chart off, you just set TEAM=0.

Practice Session
As discussed, this would probably work best in a timed practice session of whatever duration you want the race to be, say 2 hours. The winning team would be the one that completed the most laps in total, when the session was up. The game wouldn't really handle what position anyone was in, or who was leading etc. You'd only know at the end, when you look at the results and add up the laps that both team members had done. You'd also have to pick a winner among teams that finished on the same lap by time, or who crossed the line first, or something.

Anyway, it's something to play with and try out online. Let me know of any suggestions or problems.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 11:01:38 PM by Wally »
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Offline Gratulin

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2016, 12:12:58 PM »
Very impressive Wally. Must be programming in front of tellie watching Bathurst 12 hour driver swaps!!

Offline Guybrush Threepwood

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2016, 12:35:57 PM »
Great stuff Wally.  Looking forward to giving it a run.

Perhaps we could organise a test session of say a 20 lap race?  In fact if there are enough people online today/tonight in the Tuesday night practice server we could give it a run.

Offline Wally

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2016, 03:00:58 PM »
Great stuff Wally.  Looking forward to giving it a run.

Perhaps we could organise a test session of say a 20 lap race?  In fact if there are enough people online today/tonight in the Tuesday night practice server we could give it a run.

It still just needs a quick try and test with at least 2 people. I've tested it as much as I can with 1 person, but see how it works with 2 first.
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Offline Guybrush Threepwood

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2016, 10:29:46 PM »
I'm not sure the app is working as intended, only because the messages are displaying for everyone in the server.

Could this be because others don't have the updated app and so aren't technically in a team?

Offline Wally

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2016, 10:39:19 PM »
I'm not sure the app is working as intended, only because the messages are displaying for everyone in the server.

Could this be because others don't have the updated app and so aren't technically in a team?
All the message will appear in the chat (as that's the only way the apps can send messages to each other), but if you look at the PLP app itself, you should only see your team's "entered pit lane", and "Go" messages.
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Offline Guybrush Threepwood

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #6 on: February 08, 2016, 11:11:26 PM »
Yes, sorry that's what I meant. The pit messages are displaying for everyone.

Offline Wally

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2016, 07:56:06 AM »
Yes, sorry that's what I meant. The pit messages are displaying for everyone.
In everyone's PLP app? I see whats happening, I think. If you have the ”normal” PLP app, you'll see all of the PLP messages. It's only the new app that hides messages for other teams. I can fix that.
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Offline Guybrush Threepwood

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #8 on: February 09, 2016, 08:59:19 AM »
Yep, in everyone's PLP app.  Does the app only display messages in a race session? That would probably explain why there were no messages displayed in one of the sessions we were in.

Offline Wally

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #9 on: February 09, 2016, 12:47:47 PM »
Yep, in everyone's PLP app.  Does the app only display messages in a race session? That would probably explain why there were no messages displayed in one of the sessions we were in.
Yeah, it may do. I'd have to check.
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Offline Wally

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #10 on: February 11, 2016, 11:02:48 PM »
I uploaded a new version in the first post for experimenting with that will only show team chat messages in the PLP app if you're using this version of it. In other words, people using the "normal" PLP won't see any team chat messages at all.
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Offline Wally

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #11 on: February 12, 2016, 07:35:50 AM »
I reckon this would work in a race session if you had a rule that each driver of a team has to do a total of half of the race laps. If you wanted a 40 lap race, you could set the server up as a 20 lap race, so as soon as someone has done their allowed 20 laps (say in 2 stints, which could be 10 and 10 laps, or 6 and 14, provided it adds up to 20), the race is over.

Actually, Driver 1 would have to do 19 laps in total, and driver 2 20 laps, so that the race doesn't end when driver 1 finishes his stint(s), and the race only finishes when driver 2 finishes his stints.

It would also be fairest to have a set entry list, so you can put the two team mates in pit boxes next to each other.
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Offline Guybrush Threepwood

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #12 on: February 12, 2016, 07:45:25 AM »
Yep, the hardest part would be making sure that driver 1 didn't accidentally complete the allotted race laps and end the game prematurely.  If you could set the race end time to infinity this would at least allow others to keep racing and figure it out at the end.

I think we should organise a Sunday test session - not this Sunday though, I'll be away!

Offline Wally

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Re: A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #13 on: February 12, 2016, 07:50:19 AM »
Yep, the hardest part would be making sure that driver 1 didn't accidentally complete the allotted race laps and end the game prematurely.  If you could set the race end time to infinity this would at least allow others to keep racing and figure it out at the end.

I think we should organise a Sunday test session - not this Sunday though, I'll be away!
Well to be conservative, you could even do 18 laps for driver 1 and 20 laps for driver 2. No one should ”accidentally” do 2 more laps than they're supposed to. The app could help with that with some kind of display of how many laps you have left, possibly.
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”

Offline Gratulin

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A "driver swap" version of PLP for experimenting with
« Reply #14 on: February 12, 2016, 07:57:21 AM »
Wally, is it possible to issue a warning to pit on lap 19? Would be easy for Driver 1 to accidentally overshoot and and inadvertently end the race for everyone.

 

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