IMPORTANT: This is a "beta" version of the game. BATRACER RALLY STAGE EDITOR |
IMPORTANT: This is a "beta" version of the game. BATRACER RALLY STAGE EDITOR |
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BATracer Rally uses HTML5, for this reason it is essential you use the latest version of your browser.
Chrome Excellent support, this is our recommended browser. Ensure latest version installed. Internet Explorer Good support, this is our recommended browser. Ensure latest version installed, we do not support anything under version 11, sorry. Firefox Good support but render performance is currently slower than other browsers though we hope to improve this. Ensure latest version is installed. Safari This is a webkit-based browser like Chrome so support should be good, however we have not performed full testing. Opera We admire the Opera project but due to time/budget restrictions we have not been able to fully test under this browser. Ensure latest version is installed. Mobile Browsers Any webkit-based browser ought to allow you to play the game but currently we are optimised for desktop and tablets. We hope to improve things for small-screen mobiles users as demand dictates.
If you have unlocked custom livery uploading you may find the following templates useful. Select a template which is roughly appropriate to your car design based on your chosen body kit. Stage Editor Help BATracer Rally includes a Stage Editor, so that you may make your own rally stages/maps. These are then included in the map pool, and picked at random when new games are created. Getting Inspiration Before you make it is best to have an idea of what you would like to create. One idea is to use roads or trails from your local area. This will ensure a realistic feel to the stage, if the map is based on a real area. Also consider using Google Earth as reference material. This is especially useful to try and recreate the natural placement of fields, hedges, trees and so on consistent with a real-world place than something made up entirely in your mind. You can of course, take cues from many real world places and combine them into your rally stage... use your imagination! Curves The vast majority of a map is made up of curves. These primarily mark out the roads, but can also be used for fields, hedges, walls or other decorations. Create curves via Create New. Click 3 points on the main map area and your first curve will be created, additional points are then added with Add. The Move, Insert and Delete controls are self-explanatory. You always need a minimum of 3 points to create a curve. Curves can be placed in front or behind one another with the Bring to Front and Send to Back controls. A quick note about the curve mathematics: They work best with fairly equally spaced out points. If you have two points very close to one another, followed by the next point being proportionally very far away, the curve may not appear as you expect. The solution is to increase/decrease the gap between each successive point gradually. Badly out of shape curves can be fixed by inserting additional points. Roads Curves don't do much on their own, but each curve can be turned into a different object. The most important of these are roads. Create a road using the Road CENTRED (single/double) controls. A double road is essentially wide enough for two cars, a single (which most of the rally stages are) is for just 1 car. With your road created, select the surface type from the drop down (include water for rivers). You can still edit the points after a road is created. Fields Fields make up the bulk of background scenery in the game, acting as a base upon which other objects or shapes are laid down. Fields is a catch-all object and can also include large tarmac or gravel areas as well as water (lakes). If you're planting large forests, it's also recommended to create a dark coloured field, or use the "foliage" field type as a background. Fields tend to have harsh or abrupt edges, so best practice is to soften the edges with other objects such as hedges, trees, other field types or a few special tricks with the Drawing object type (see below). Hedge/Wall/Lines Another catch-all group, can be used to quickly create hedges, walls, white painted lines (for additional road markings), bunting flags, bales, crash barriers, and so on. Make good use of these, as all these small details really lift an otherwise bland stage and add to the realism. Drawing This allows your curves to actually be used as a traditional drawing application, with lines and in-fill shading. The actual value/use of this seems limited initially, but it really comes into it's own for advanced tricks. For example, creating some polygon shapes and using alpha-blending skills, you could add subtle shadows or highlights to terrain and create the simulation of hills, valleys or other undulations. Likewise, you could use alpha-blended colours such as green or yellow at the edges of fields to make them look more realistic, or paint subtle wet or dark areas to represent boggy ground. All of these tricks are used in the Castle 1/2 demo map which the game was initially launched with. For help on how to implement these, create a Curve then convert it to a Drawing in the editor. Below the drawing options there is a button named "Show/Hide Colour Help" which will explain how to get the best out of fill and line codes. As an example, to create a hill shadow on the terrain you can build up some several polygons filled with "rgba(0,0,0,0.1)". This is the colour black, but only 10% opacity (Castle 1/2 maps actually used only 5% opacity and 3-4 drawing objects on top of one another). Be sure to set the line colour field to empty, and the curve type to "Looped". For the truly dedicated artist, you could even add in shadows for trees and buildings, but this would be quite painstaking work and push the file limits, so would be a challenge in efficiency! Route Curve This is the final curve type and is used for crafting the exact route and line which the rally cars will take. This is a complex process so at present it is recommended you simply mark the route you wish the cars to take by using a "Drawing" object set to a suitably bright colour, and with a width of about 5 pixels. If your rally stage will support different routes (other than running the same route in reverse), then mark the other routes in different colours. The final route curve will then be generated by admin when your map is being reviewed.
Buildings are also placed like trees, but include a rotation slider to allow you to place them at your chosen orientation. There are three colour schemes for buildings, and numerous house designs, though the graphical representation is simplistic. You can get realistic houses or out buildings by simply adding objects around them, lawns, paths, trees in gardens, flower beds, vegetable patches or a paddock area for horses. You can also combine buildings on top of one another to create large halls or narrow streets in towns. Both techniques are present in the Castle 1/2 map. Finishing Touches Once you are happy with the appearance of your map, go over the route. Think about how a real rally would be setup, where spectators would be and crash barriers, or coloured spectator tapes or flags. Most of the back sections of remote stages may not have any spectators at all, but there still needs to be marshalls. Busier sections may have crowds, but often these crowds would need services such as a burger bar or toilets (constructed with outbuildings). These little touches can prevent your map from seeming bland. Most people won't see more than a few yards away from the rally stage, so for this reason you should concentrate most of your detail close to the track. The road surface itself is also important... consider what happens when a surface changes from one type to another (e.g. on gravel changing to dirt, typically some of the gravel is carried by passing traffic into the dirt, and vice versa - rarely a sudden change). At junctions, roads often blend rather than being at right angles. In open fields, vehicle ruts are not always singular, sometimes (particulary at river crossings) there might be several diverging paths, some fading. Road or trail withs are not always the same width, sometimes widening or narrowing according to the terrain. Main roads often have lay-bys for drivers to take a rest, and single track roads usually have passing places. Again, this attention to detail can make your stage more pleasing to play - but also the surface changes have a result on gameplay too. And to repeat earlier tips, make full use of the Drawing object to add shading/highlight relief to the terrain, dark and wet patches of different colour, subtle field edge blending, road markings, and many other tricks. Final Submission Before submitting your work mark on the stage the route which competitors will take. Use the "Drawing" object type, setting a pixel width of about 5 and use a bright colour. If your map supports several routes, draw it in a different colour. Do not use the Route Curve function, as this is a complex setup procedure currently performed by admin only. Finally, from the file menu (with the map saved - which you should do often!), click the Request Review function. It cannot be promised that your map will be used, for example the quality and attention to detail must be at a bare minimum on the same level as those already included in the game. But we hope to approve all maps that achieve this standard so that others may enjoy your work, and the BATracer Rally map pool will grow so each championship features new challenges. Getting Started Everybody account comes with one free car and a pre-created driver. You can add more cars by using XP (gained by competing in events) or with purchasable in-game currency. Drivers are free. Join a new game via the Cars page. Games currently consist of a sequence of rally stages. XP is awarded for fastest times, but the biggest prize is for being the overall winner after all stages are completed. Order of Play The game does not officially start until sign-up is complete when a certain number of players has entered the rally. Thereafter, the game advances at the rate of one rally stage every 24 hours. If you have not completed the stage by that point, you will be removed from the game. Inbetween stages you can also work on your car in "Service". There are four types of service:
New equipment or alternative parts can be purchased for XP or coins. We have tried to balance the game so that these parts don't give you a significant advantage as we do not wish to encourage "Pay To Win". So, higher performance parts tend to come with a greater amount of problems. Furthermore, repairs, replacement parts and new tyres that you have already purchased are FREE as we did not want players to be paying an ongoing cost, or using up their XP just to maintain a workable car. Driving "Ahead" It's possible to drive several stages at once and not wait for 24 hours to elapse. This is useful if you will be away for the weekend, or if you enjoy playing the game in larger chunks. Eventually, you will not be able to drive any further ahead and will have to wait 24 hours for the others to catch up. XP is only awarded at this point. It is also possible to finish the rally a few days ahead of everybody else, but you will have an agonising wait to see if you have been beaten. The table on the Results page shows the current rally progress and your own. The most competitive players may prefer to wait to see how their competitors perform rather than driving ahead. Consider if your main rival crashes out, you can then back off, save the car and gain success easily without taking risks. Driving The Rally BATracer Rally is played corner-by-corner. You decide how you will tackle each part of the stage, pushing hard where you feel you can make gains and backing off to avoid danger or preserve the car. You have 24hrs to complete a stage and don't have to do it all at once, when you return to the website your car will be suspended in time, waiting for your next move.
1. The decision point type The decision point may control acceleration, handling, braking, cutting of corners and even the handbrake. This is important because if you have a particular strength or weakness you can exploit or manage it here. For example, if you are suffering a braking problem you may wish to brake earlier. But if you have the ideal tyres and suspension setting for the surface you can really lean on them. The various types of decision point are:
2. Performance Dial The coloured round dial is not so much a speedo or RPM gauge, but a visual indicator of how much influence the driver can have over the cars speed at this particular decision point. Some corners may have such a low bearing on success some players may decide they're simply not worth the risk. Others may be dangerous corners but have such tempting performance to unlock that an aggressive approach could be justified. 3. The Map Take a good look at the actual rally stage, shape of the corner. BATracer Rally uses basic physics principles to propel the cars around the track, so as with any motorsport a corner leading onto a long straight is of some significance. Likewise braking late at the end of a long straight at high speed can leverage a faster time (at the expense of corner exit), but isn't for the faint hearted. Of no less significance is the distance to the next decision point, because your pace slider will influence the car over that period. The distance to the next devision point is now displayed beside the performance dial in metres. 4. Speed Line This is the bright green line on the graph, and corresponds with your pace slider position. The higher the speed line, the greater the performance. Thus, you can take an informed decision about how hard to push. Often, the Speed Line may remain flat in which case there is little logic in moving the pace slider higher as it will not leverage greater speed (but usually greater risk). Conversely, the Speed Line may also rocket up at such a rate that just a small increase in pace slider will have a significant impact on performance. 5. Risk Line - The Chance of a Mistake As a counter to the Speed Line, players must always weight it against the Risk Line, represented by the yellow/red area on the graph. Higher risk is represented by a higher point on the chart, and as before this can change very quickly with just a slight increase in pace, or not at all. The higher the risk, the higher the chance you will make a mistake. 6. Danger Colour - The Consequences of a Mistake The actual colour of the Risk Line is very significant. Some corners may carry a high chance of making a mistake, but have only minor consequences if you do so. Others may be easy to drive but result in a very severe crash. This is represented by the colour of the risk line, with white/yellow indicating low danger, and orange/red very high danger. You will see that the colour deepens further to the right of the chart (higher pace slider), so it's entirely possible to have no higher risk (a flat line), but much more danger. If you're confused, just remember The Danger Colour is only of any relevance after you make a mistake. 7. The Surface The surface is always visible in the map, and the key point here is tyre selection. Even "safe" surfaces such as tarmac can become hazardous with the wrong tyre. Each car is fitted by default with the best "all round" tyre. As you gain XP you can obtain different tyre compounds (or acquire them via coins). Just remember that there nobody is rarely on the "right" tyre for a stage, because drivers must select a tyre that is optimum for all the stages between services. Whilst a tyre may look ideal on paper, wear rate may force fitting of something else (see also the Tyre Wear slider). Aside from this, an unsuitable tyre may be quite dangerous to drive and force lower pace settings. 8. Your Surroundings If the rally stage is surrounded by trees the danger of a mistake is probably quite high. This is usually reflected in the graph. 9. Your equipment The state of your equipment may force you to reduce your pace, if it is damaged. Likewise, unsuitable suspension or jammed settings may also have an influence. Just remember that rallying is essentially an endurance event, and others will be struggling. A slower pace may cost you time, but a mistake will cost you the rally.
The image above shows an example of a mistake. You are faced with five options. Each option has a chance of success expressed as a percentage, where 100% and above means you will definitely achieve that goal. Note that the percentages are only displayed if your driver has the "Sixth Sense" characteristic, otherwise you only have a rough estimation of success based on the colour. The options to the left are safer but often mean you will be slower, the options to the right are more risky but can turn your mistakes into legendary examples of driving excellence. 1. Maximum Preservation This is the safest option, but also carries with it the greatest time penalty. This is akin to losing the back end on a corner, or running wide - all of which cost you time. But at least you havn't crashed! 2. Minimise Lost Time You don't lose as much time as with Maximum Preservation. 3. Let Fate Decide This is the completely neutral choice, no time lost but obviously with greater risk than the previous choices. 4. Press On For the braver driver, you can actually GAIN time, if you are willing to take that risk. Note that some corners have so little danger than the most competitive players may try and intentionally trigger a mistake to get the chance of this performance boost. 5. Be a Hero As you have probably guessed, this offers huge gains but also the greatest risk. In the examples presented here, it's clear that Maximum Preservation will allow you to avoid an accident of any type as the chance of success is a whopping 110%. Lucky drivers may wish to chance Be a Hero, but over the course of a rally a 50% chance of having a crash is to most people considered suicide. One last consideration of the performance benefits or penalties of mistakes is that the actual corner will have an impact on the magnitude of the effect, since everything is passed to the physics calculations. So for example, a mistake on a slow corner with a short gap to the next decision point won't hurt you much. Likewise, you wouldn't want to try and Be a Hero on such a corner because there is little to be gained. The opposite is true on a long fast sweeping bend... especially if you went into it with a high pace setting which will compound the benefit!
How to Avoid Mistakes And Crashing Mistakes are part and parcel of competitive driving, it's crashing you should be more concerned about. Beware of very high Danger levels, even if the Risk is relatively low - you may get yourself into a situation where you have nowhere to escape, even if you use Maximum Preservation. Those trying for the outright rally win will be counting on other "faster" drivers sooner or later making a mistake, where "Maximum Preservation" and other penalties represent the best way to stay in a rally near the front. If you select a very high Pace slider where high Danger is present, you may find "Maximum Preservation" in itself carries enough risk to put you out of the rally. If you do progress to a mistake you need to avoid a crash at all costs - here the Sixth Sense driver characteristic is very useful. How to Win Rallying is an endurance game, and it is inevitable that many new players will be making mistakes and crashing quite often. A rally is so long and with so many decision points across a stage that crashing isn't really an option. However, if faced with a lot of new rookie players you may find that even a spin or crash still leaves you in a position to challenge for the outright win! But ultimately, there really is no reason for a driver to lose control at all with experience. Once you have mastered the ability of keeping the car pointing in the right direction success now comes to exploiting each individual decision point for it's maximum. Here is where the vast majority of the speed lies, and one simple piece of advice is to take your time, there is so much to consider with each application of the pace slider that if you complete a rally stage in a few moments you have probably missed some time somewhere. Sadly with rallying, you don't get a chance to go back and drive another lap! Upgraded car components can help but they also bring with them increased problems. Be sure you have a good team of mechanics to be able to resolve any issues during your limited service periods. If you have parts fitted to your car that have selectable modes, don't neglect them and be ready to change the settings as circumstances dictate. Tyres are to many "half the car", and if you are fortunate enough to have access to tyres other than the "All Round" compound, be sure to study the surface types and service times during the course of the event. There are a large number of compounds and tread patterns available and you need to consider not just the surface you are driving on but tyre durability. Last of all, always, always, ALWAYS check and replace your tyres during noon and night services - new sets of the same compound don't cost anything and you'll kick yourself the moment you realise you just started a sequence of stages on tyres which are already worn! FAQ I keep crashing damn it! (Answer pending) How do I change my tyres? They are nearly worn out! Tyres can only be changed at a service, or when your car is not competing in a rally. The service schedule is displayed on the results page. To change tyres, goto the Service tab and find your tyres in the Fitted section, then click replace. This only costs time, never XP or Coins. Be sure this is one of the first things you do at each service (rather than say, inspections) or you will find your mechanics do not have enough time to replace the tyres! I can't drive the whole rally, it says I have to wait? You have to wait 24 hours between driving each stage, to give all players time to complete it. This is similar to BATracer Classic's order-of-play. In Rally, you can "drive-ahead" several stages, but eventually you will reach a point where you need to wait 24 hours. The ability to drive-ahead is useful to avoid having to employ an "account sitter" as was often the case with BATracer Classic. Do I have to buy new tyres which become worn with XP or coins? No! All parts can be replaced and/or repaired for free, the only cost is time. XP and coins can be spent on car part upgrades. Multiple Accounts Well, the main rule is pretty simple - no multiple accounts! You will simply be banned. If you want more of BATracer Rally, you can add more cars to your account for a small fee. If you like the game, please consider contributing to it's upkeep. If you cannot spare the small change, you can still acquire most things by paying with "XP", achieved by success or through publicity in the rallies. You can also get Coins by referring other players to the game using our referral scheme, or by making rally stages in the editor. Exploits Making use of an exploit is an account-locking offence. If you discover an exploit you MUST report it immediately. An exploit is a bug which gives an unfair advantage or allows certain elements of the gameplay to be bypassed. Loading... BATracer Rally © BATracer 2000,2003,2006-2014
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Get More XP
XP is awarded for success on individual rally stages, your overall rally finishing position and any other notable performances where you earn Publicity.
Most items can be purchased with both XP and credits with the exception of driver characteristics which come only with experience. Get More Coins
Coins can be acquired at the following rate:A purchase of coins is broadly equivalent to a purchase of KT in BATracer Classic, enough to outfit most players with all they need to enjoy the game further, but not essential. 1000 Coins - $20
Additional cars can team-up in the same rally or allow you to enter several different rallies at once.
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"On the edge of adhesion you teeter between the abyss of disaster and the triumph of genius." "Time has brought disaster before you, but he is patient."
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