Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 216: Another Birthday Gift

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 216: Another Birthday Gift

As part of my impending 33rd birthday celebrations, I have decided to give myself a special gift: a fully detailed Automation build. This one was originally built for a recent Discourse forum challenge (as shown here), and a more detailed writeup can be found here if you want to take a closer look.

Above, from top: As my 33rd birthday gift to myself, and in honor of everyone who follows this blog, the AMS Acheron 1.6R is a reflection of the virtues I desire most in a performance car - light weight, agile handling, minimal electronic assistance, sharp throttle response, and modest dimensions, with the right amount of power and braking force to exploit its chassis, thus preserving an ideal balance.

I enjoyed making this build, considering that I had prior experience with this body set (albeit not in the variant with a detachable hard top, as shown here - I simply changed its material to transparent to hide it) and found it to be very useful for lightweight sports car builds due to its small size. Here's to many more happy birthday celebrations!

But if you find the R trim to be a bit too hardcore, the slightly detuned S trim, with its softer suspension tune, regular sports compound tires, and premium interior/sound system (with the Touring Pack) may be for you.

Above, from top: The S trim offers most of the thrills the R package offers, but its greater level of standard equipment makes it slightly more usable.

In short, whichever trim level you pick, there's no chance you'll be short-changed by the AMS Acheron and its otherworldly ability to leverage a small, light platform with a modest power output.

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 215: What Year Is It?

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 215: What Year Is It?

Complementing the random color generator wheel I had made earlier, I recently made another spinner wheel - one for determining the model, trim, family, and variant years for an Automation build, but independent of my existing CEL Challenge Remix wheel set. Here it is:

Above: What a standalone Spinner Wheel for model, trim, family, and variant years (for random Automation builds) would look like.

I spun it a few times, and it came up with these:

Above, from top: Two of the results generated when I spun the random year generator wheel.

In short, I had proved the viability of a standalone spinner wheel for generating an individual build year for Automation - just as I had done with a standalone wheel for generating random colors.

Hotshot Tales, Part 16: Back in the Wheelhouse

Hotshot Tales, Part 16: Back in the Wheelhouse

In creating a new spinner wheel set for generating event type/car choice combinations in Hotshot Racing, I had to consider a lot of possibilities within the set. Not only did I have to take into account the map and track variant hosting the event, but I also had to plan for the type, speed class, and length (in laps) of the event in question. In addition to this, I needed to create two extra wheels: one for the team being chosen, and one for the car that will be entered from that team. Finally, to shake things up further, I added an eighth wheel: one for wild card modifiers. I designed that wheel to have a 50% chance of not generating a modifier, as well a 50% chance of generating one modifier that required me to spin one or all of the wheels if it landed on such a space. There is, however, a caveat in that this wheel set does not apply to Grand Prix mode (which cannot be played using any rule set other than Arcade Mode, or any distance other than 3 laps, except for the Boss Level GP, whose races are always 4 laps long, and even then, each Grand Prix always consists of four events raced consecutively, with each one taking place on a different map from the other four, although the actual variants used differ between GPs).

After my first attempt with the options for each wheel definitively finalized, the wheel set gave me this result:

Above, from top: This is my first viable result created using the Hotshot Racing Random Event Generator spinner wheels. I would have to pick Alexa's Balanced car (the Stallion) for a 7-lap Single Race in the Expert speed class on Heated Highway, the third variant of the Coast map. No wild cards were active on this attempt, though.

I then decided to attempt the event with the specified conditions, and somehow, I won - which was no mean feat considering how challenging the track was.

Above, from top: Some highlights from the randomly generated event whose parameters were created using my new Spinner Wheel set. It was tough, but I prevailed in the end, winning this grueling 7-lap battle by less than a second.

In short, I had a lot of fun with this new Spinner Wheel challenge - and it could even be adapted to multiplayer, with the Wild Card and Team wheels removed (seeing as I find them to be unnecessary for any multiplayer mode, in which players must be given the chance to choose their teams freely, with the additional requirement that no two players can select the same team) but with all other wheels retained and left as-is. In fact, I like the idea so much that I could even create a second set of spinner wheels for this game - but this next one could be based on customization options for a given vehicle from a particular team, for use in any game mode.

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 214: Taking Back The Wheel

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 214: Taking Back The Wheel

With the Al-Rilma update for Automation still in its open alpha phase (albeit with even more content than before), and the current stable release still as highly viable as ever, I decided to revisit my CEL Challenge Remix Spinner Wheel set, adding two new wheels and revising the others. The first new wheel, Color, determines the exterior color that will be used for the randomly generated build, and has 10 choices (Red, Orange/Brown, Yellow/Gold, Green, Blue, Purple/Pink, White, Silver/Gray, Black, and Any). The second new wheel, Year, denotes the last digit of the car model, car trim, engine family, and engine variant years of the build. Other changes involved replacing some redundant options on the Class, Era, and Location wheels with an "Any" space (just like the Paint Color and Year wheels had), which allowed the user to select from any option on those wheels.

Once I had finalized the changes, I decided to generate a random build combination using it, as an example of what it could do. The resulting configuration was as follows:

Above, from top: The first randomly generated combination from the revised and updated CEL Challenge Remix spinner wheel set. No modifiers could be used, but the car had to be American and from the 1990s - on top of that, in addition to having a black exterior color, it would have a model year of 1998 (since the Year spinner, which determines the last digit for the build's model, trim, family, and variant years, landed on 8), and with the Class wheel landing on Luxury, I would have to fit a luxury or hand-made interior, in addition to spinning the Class wheel once more.

After making a second spin of the Class wheel (as the rules stated), here's what it spat out:

Above: With the Class wheel landing on Sports Car after the mandatory respin, the build would be set as follows: a black 1998 American luxury sports car, with no positive or negative modifiers.

I later made a test build with the parameters I was given, and it turned out quite well, despite (or due to) the lack of modifiers. It should be noted that given that the Automation calendar begins in 1946 and ends in 2020, any build derived from any combination with an Era result of 2020s and a Year value  greater than 0 must have its model/trim/family/variant year set to 2020; for the same reason, any builds resulting from any combination whose Era is the 1940s and Year value is 5 or lower must have their model/trim/family/variant years set to 1946.

In short, the latest revision to the CEL Challenge Remix makes it far more relevant than it once was, and in addition to expanding and revising the CEL Challenge Remix wheel set, I also created yet another wheel set - one based on another game I own. You'll find out more about that one in my next post.

Update (6 August 2025, 10:10 am, UTC +7): I forgot to mention this earlier, but the US and Canada options on the Location wheel have now been merged into a single option (US/Canada), since despite these markets having significant differences from each other, I still consider them similar enough to treat them as a single region for the purposes of the CEL Challenge Remix. This merging of two options on the Location wheel also left some room for an "Any" option there. On that note, if the Class, Era, Location, Paint Color, and Year wheels somehow all landed on Any, you would have free rein to develop anything you want, from any year in any era, for any location, in any color.

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 213: A Pretty Pony

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 213: A Pretty Pony

It's taken a while for me to create a fully detailed build based on the '67 Cockatrice mod body set, but I finally did it with the 1967 WM Wight 5.0 Sprint. Using the fastback version as the basis, I ended up creating something that had a more refined, yet sporty look.

Above, from top: The 1967 WM Wight 5.0 Sprint may have a more refined and elegant look compared to its contemporaries, but it's still a potent performer underneath its sleek outer skin.

Built on a ladder frame with a coil-sprung live rear axle at the rear and control-arm front suspension, the Wight's 5.0-liter V8 breathes through a single 4-barrel carburetor and delivers a solid 220 net horsepower to the rear wheels via a close-ratio 4-speed manual gearbox and a clutched limited-slip differential - good for a 0-60mph time in 6.2 seconds and a quarter-mile time in the low 14-second range. But with all-around disc brakes (an optional extra on this trim level) and a sportier suspension tune, the Sprint is also more than capable of keeping up in the corners. And with a premium 2+2 interior and AM radio (an 8-Track player would become optional later on), the occupants would not be too uncomfortable sitting inside either.

Above: This may be my first attempt at making a fully detailed interior on anything with this specific body set, but it's a start - and it captures the premium ambiance well enough.

In short, it may my first try at making a fully detailed muscle/pony car build from the '60s or '70s, but the Wight was definitely vindication of my plan. I even entered it in a Discourse challenge, which you can find here.

Hotshot Tales, Part 15: A Rare Triple Hit

Hotshot Tales, Part 15: A Rare Triple Hit

Barrel Barrage mode in Hotshot Racing allows you to hit multiple opponents with the same barrel if they are close enough to each other when one of them hits that barrel, and if all of them have 20 health points or less, you can get a rare simultaneous multi-kill. Usually, this kind of combo hit is limited to two opponents, but it's also possible, though much rarer, to hit three of them at once. Here's a recent example from a particularly crazy session.

Above, from top: A rare example of a triple hit (captured from various angles) during a Barrel Barrage in Hotshot Racing, on the first lap of a 7-lap slugfest on Heated Highway.

My first Barrel Barrage triple hit came after nearly an hour of trying, on Heated Highway (generally one of the most difficult tracks due to its narrow roads, short straights, and tight corners) - and after many fruitless attempts, I finally got it near the end of the first lap, with a direct hit to Xing's Sentinel, and Keiko's Super F-90 and Viktor's Blade also taking collateral damage due to both of them being close enough to the barrel when it detonated. I went on to win that race easily after every single opponent was eliminated due to excessive damage from barrel collisions, but getting the triple hit was a victory in itself.

In short, getting a triple hit in a Barrel Barrage is very difficult (and hence rare), especially in multiplayer, but whenever it occurs, you should always celebrate the occasion.

A Lifer's Diary, Part 17: Revenge over Lawsuits - Which One's Better?

A Lifer's Diary, Part 17: Revenge over Lawsuits - Which One's Better?

Within The Game of Life, the concept of collecting money directly from an opponent by landing on a certain space (as opposed to having an opponent land on a space of a specific type) is not new, having first debuted with the Revenge mechanic in Generation I. It worked by collecting your salary from an opponent when you landed on a Pay Day space, but was strangely absent from Generation II (except in its video game adaptation, and even then, only in Enhanced Mode, where it could not be used against anyone who retired at Countryside Acres), only to be reintroduced in Generation III via the Lawsuit mechanic. This time, you had to land on a blue Lawsuit space to sue an opponent; however, whoever you sued won't have to pay you anything at all if they give you an Exemption Card. 

In Generation IV, Lawsuits returned, but only as part of two specific Action Cards; instead, they linked the Long-Term Investment numbers to the various Career Cards, and reworked them so that the player  holding that particular card would collect cash whenever anyone (including themselves) spun its number. Finally, in Generation V, there are once again Lawsuit spaces, but there are fewer of them, although investments must once again be bought manually, and are therefore no longer tied to careers (except in the spin-off video game adaptation, The Game of Life 2, which uses a different rule set).

While I liked the Revenge mechanic from Generations I and II, the logic behind it was flawed; it was most effective if your salary was high enough (although this raised the problem of players with such high salaries getting too far ahead if they got really lucky). On the other hand, if your salary was too low, you wouldn't be able to hinder your opponents as much as you hoped you would (even if you landed on Pay Day spaces often enough). It was for this reason that the standard ruleset for Generation II lacked this feature; unsurprisingly, later generations also forewent Revenge in favor of other means of disrupting opponents' progress as stated above.

On the other hand, I found the Lawsuit system in Generation III to be far more balanced. With only 8 Lawsuit spaces on the entire board, you can now only earn up to $800,000 from Lawsuits (assuming all of them are successful, and you also take the Risky Path where the penultimate Lawsuit space is found), but you are guaranteed to collect $100,000 for every successful lawsuit. In later generations, they are less lucrative, and the fact that you can now actually gain more money from your opponents through you investment number complicates matters even further.

So while the idea of reintroducing Revenge (by collecting your salary directly from any opponent who has not yet retired at Countryside Acres) through landing exactly on a Pay Day space is tempting, it's not as good an idea as you'd think. However, the Lawsuit system was never better implemented than in its debut for Generation III, and I'd like to see Generation VI revert to those original Lawsuit rules, even though they were still quite good in Generations IV and V. In short, Lawsuits are more useful in the Game of Life compared to revenge because although you get fewer chances to use them, you'll get the same amount of money from them every time you do so.