Welcome, all of you prospective team owners!
Today is January the 1st, 1923, which means it is finally time for the inaugural AIACR World Championship season for Grand Prix racing to begin.
As a team owner in this game, your focus will be neither on car development, nor really even on your financial situation. Instead, the most important thing to manage is politics. After all, in a post-WW1 world, bringing your cars to the racetrack may prove to be the most difficult of all challenges!
In this championship, you may wield your political power by making important decisions within your national Automobile Club (AIACR, after all stands for "International Association of International Automobile Clubs") - vote on rulesets, select the race tracks in your countries, decide on political alignments with the powers-that-be, organize boycotts of your rival countries, GP’s and World Championship, and so much more. The more cunning your moves, the better!
Hoping to get at least a few entrants because my intention is to simulate this universe until the WWII at the very least. Hopefully even longer.
To join the game - just post your intention to do so on this thread, state the name of your owner and select whether you wish to manage a factory team (in which case, please state which team) or a privateer (in which case, also state where your team is based).
AVAILABLE TEAMS (LINK)
Factory teams will always get an annual income on January the 1st. The amount depends on the whims of their factory. Factory teams are not allowed to buy cars, and are only allowed to sell cars at the permission of their factory. On the other hand, privateers start with $1500, are free to base their operations anywhere in the world, but no annual income. Note that if a privateer does well enough they may be asked by a factory team to become their factory team instead.
Factory teams that do not get a manager will be managed by girry-AI.
Privateer teams will get $1500 of cash but no annual income (other than possible extra funding from their national government if success is achieved). They are able to use any car and get to have their base anywhere in the world. Note that if a privateer does well enough, a struggling factory outfit may ask one to become their factory team instead!
AI-managed privateers might also enter the occasional race.
Word of warning though - the odds are heavily stacked in favour of the factory teams, at least at the beginning of the game!
Car development is automatic and more or less follows the reality (so factory teams will get new shiny cars in their factory automatically - unless the make has a BMW moment & pulls out, of course :sauber:), as does driver skill development. All drivers in the game are real and have realistic talent levels. However, drivers gain experience only by going races (and also improve as they enter their prime / decline as they age and exit it).
Driver injuries and deaths will occur through RNG. Hence they are, in fact, fairly likely. So be careful fielding certain IRL famous names too much on the most dangerous circuits of the era - or you might open some sliding doors...
Gameplay is very simple for the team owners. Before each season, there are two phases where you need to make bids, either on this forum thread or through discord. (If you fail to do this, don't worry - your decisions will be AI simulated.) The rest of the season will go through automatically.
Phase 1) Bid on drivers, buy your cars & vote on issues in your Automobile Club
Bidding on drivers is simple - just send a list of drivers & bids you wish to make on in order of priority. The highest bid wins, unless the bid is so small the driver does not wish to accept it, or one of the bids is from his local team, in which case the driver may be more likely to join your team. You can sign unlimited drivers, though after you sign your third driver, the drivers become gradually less likely to accept your bids.
LIST OF AVAILABLE DRIVERS (LINK)
Buying your cars is also simple. Either a) you agree on a fee with a fellow team to buy their old engine and chassis, or b) buy a chassis on the free market - just make your bids; the highest bid wins, this time regardless of nationality.
The issues to vote are subject to change annually. Throughout the season, you will be able to raise issues for the following year - only your imagination (and the AIACR boss’s discretion) is the limit on what you may propose for 1924.
In the meantime, here are the 1923 issues all members of the Automobile Clubs will be able to vote for. The option that gets a majority of the votes will win. (If there are fewer than five human players voting, some AI teams will also use their votes.)
1. What should be the length of the World Championship Races? [/b]
(300 Miles, 500 Miles or Free Choice between 300 and 1000km)
2. Will the Constructors' Championship suffice or should there be one for Drivers as well?
(Constructors / Constructors & Drivers)
3. Which Points-System shall the World Championship adhere to?
(The real 1925 WC system / AAA championship system / 8-6-4-3-2-fastest lap / other suggestions?)
4. Should the German Automobile Club be permitted to rejoin as a Full Member from 1924 onwards?
(Yes / No)
ITALY ONLY:
5. Which ruleset should the Italian Championship run to?
(Formula Libre / max 2000cc, same as the World Championship / max 1500cc)
6. Should foreign entries be permitted?
(Yes / No)
7. Which Points-System shall the Italian Championship adhere to?
(The real 1925 WC system / AAA championship system / 8-6-4-3-2-fastest lap / other suggestions?)
UK ONLY:
8. Should the UK host a National GP in 1924?
(Yes, Each team pays a fee of $500 to host a GP in 1924 / No)
Phase 2) Select the events you wish to take part in
No team is going be able to take part in every event, so as team owner you will have to prioritize events. To enter events, just select the events where you wish to enter your cars #1, #2, #3 etc. and then enter your drivers accordingly. Your team will proceed to try to enter them if it has money to enter them, and enough teams / drivers to race. (Calendar will be found below this section)
You may also request your driver to PUSH HARD at any selected event, which means a similar boost as a favourite track will be used - but his error proneness will also double!
If a driver crashes out of the race with an accident, their car will have to be sent back to the shop. The cost will be covered by insurance, however the car may have to miss races.
In 1923 there are three championships, with the most prestigious, World Championship events bolded. In addition to the World Championship, there is also the Italian Drivers’ Championship and the AAA Championship in America. If a country hosts enough non championship races, they might also organize a national championship of their own. Each race will be simulated and results posted here and on Discord. A full season will take around 3 to 4 weeks to sim.
SEASON CALENDAR (LINK)
Travel/Entry Costs:
Crossing the Atlantic, USA - United Kingdom, USA - Brazil or Brazil - USA: 45 days, fee: $1000 + $100 per car
Moving the team to a neighbouring country by road network - 4 days. (France and UK, and UK and Ireland are considered neighbouring countries.)
Entry fee for a regular race in home country: $50 per car
Entry fee for a regular race abroad: $100 per car
Entry fee for a World Championship GP: $400 per team
Entry form example (this imaginary team has two cars and three drivers available):
Targa Florio - Car 1 and Car 2 - drivers: A. Stooge, B. Stooge (in order of priority)
Circuito di Cremona - Car 1 and Car 2 - drivers: A. Stooge, B. Stooge
Grand Prix de France - Car 1 - drivers: B. Stooge, C. Stooge
Gran Premio do San Sebastian - Car 2 - drivers: A. Stooge
Beverly Hills Race Autumn - Car 1 and Car 2 - drivers: A. Stooge, B. Stooge, C. Stooge
This imaginary race plan (which, for the record, is *not* financially the smartest race plan - but alas) would incur the total cost of 2*$50 (Targa Florio entry fee) + 2*$50 (Cremona entry fee) + $400 (French GP entry fee) + $100 (San Sebastian entry fee) + $1200 (crossing the Atlantic with two cars) + 2*$100 (Beverly Hills entry fee) = $2100.
Using this race plan with more than two drivers, will help to deal with emergencies. If A. or B. Stooge are injured or dead, they will be replaced by C. Stooge at the French GP and at Beverly Hills - not at the Cremona nor at the San Sebastian, however.
Don’t forget to check the ruleset of the race you are planning to attend! If the car you enter will not comply to the ruleset of the race, you will be disqualified but pay the entry fees anyway.
Rules
World Championship - rules that are set in stone:
To be classified for a World Championship GP, a driver must finish the entire race alone, without relief or a riding mechanic.
To classify for the final standings of the World Championship, a constructor / a driver must start at least two races. Otherwise they will not be classified.
To be classified as a World Championship, the Championship must have at least four events on at least two different continents.
To classify for the World Championship event, the driver must use a car that complies to the pre-agreed rules of the World Championship. Otherwise the car will not be classified for points.
World Championship Rules that are set in stone for 1923 and 1924 but are subject to change for the years after
Only full member countries of AIACR have a right to host a World Championship GP.
The engine capacity must be a maximum of 2000cc (2.0 litres) in size.
Prize money for the World Championship: $25 000 for the winning constructor if a drivers’ championship does not exist, or $12 500 for the constructor if a drivers’ championship exists
Prize money for a World Championship event victory: $10 000
Italian Championship
Prize money for the Italian Championship: $10 000 (if foreign entries are permitted) or $5 000 (if foreign entries are not permitted)
AAA Championship
Prize money for the AAA Championship: $10 000
The engine capacity must be a maximum of 2000cc (2.0 litres) in size.
For the “races abroad” purposes, the ingame countries are the same as the actual 1923 countries.
For home team / home track purposes, countries are treated as a single region - with the following exceptions to make it fairer because the vast majority of drivers are from a handful of countries (so a driver with hometown in France won’t have 800 favourite tracks etc):
- USA is split into the real States
- UK is split into Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Northern England, Midlands and Southern England
- Spain is split into Spain, Basque Country and Catalunya
- France is split into Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Corsica, Southeastern France, Occitanie, Bourgogne-Franche-Comte, Nouvelle-Atlantique, Brittany, Normandy, Haute-de-France, Île-de-France, Northeastern France, Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes and Central France
- Italy is split into Libya, Sardinia, Sicily, Southern Italy, Central Italy, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Northwestern Italy, Lombardy and Southeastern italy
- Germany is split into Bavaria, Southwestern Germany, Northwestern Germany and Eastern Germany
Drivers are more likely to join a team whose headquarters are on the same region as their hometown. They are also more likely to perform better on a track that is located on the same region as their hometown.
Relevant Countries in 1923:
As it's the first game I am hosting I’ve probably forgotten to lay down a bunch of rules that only exist in my head so don’t be surprised to see more of them appear. In the meantime, please get signed up!
tl;dr lol it's not time-intensive as the length of this post makes it look, so just check out this spreadsheet and sign up: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 1954073554
Count Louis Zborowski
