Van Obsessions - Announcement & Discussion

[SO•Gaz]

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Here at Street Obsessions it is no secret that we are open to trying out all manner of different types of events. Today we are pleased to present to you our newest weird and wacky idea: Van Obsessions!

This event will be slightly different to those you are used to seeing on [TC], as we will be making use of a relatively new addition to the server: the cargo / freight system. During this week-end event, players will battle it out to deliver the most amount of cargo - only the most dedicated and hard-working will come out on top.

Especially after the recent additions of co-op jobs, as well as new items to increase the cargo capacity and lower the loading time of your vehicle, we hope this event will be a nice change of pace from the regular gameplay and an provide you with an incentive to try out the new mechanics if you haven't already!

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Event Information

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• Start: 25th November 2022 @ 18:00 UTC
• Finish: 27th November 2022 @ 18:00 UTC
• Server: Any [TC] CityDriving server
  

The results will be based on the total amount of undamaged cargo delivered throughout the event. Therefore, while any vehicle is allowed we would heavily recommend the use of a van or truck.

The amount of cargo delivered is tracked via the [TC] API. A tracker will be available during the event to monitor your progress or check up on your competitors.

Please note the following:

• Damaged cargo will not count towards your total.
• Jobs done in co-op mode will only count your personal contribution to the job.
  

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Event Rules

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• You must follow the [TC] CityDriving rules at all times (see: tc-g.uk/rules)
• If you are banned on any [TC] CityDriving server (excluding Code 1 bans), you will be disqualified
• You may use any vehicle with any upgrades
  

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Tracker

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Tracker

There is a backup system to keep at a minimum the starting and ending statistics in case of any issues.

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Registration

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Registration CLOSED

Registration is free and will be open until one hour before the event start time.

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Results

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Results

[[TC]►BP◄]

Congrats PVL!

(hh)

[Dino]

When SO Crash Obessions: Most heavy crashes in 48h?

[SO•Huski]

Vaaaaaaaans

[7mar]

pvl will win in a blinK loe

goodluck to everyone

[SO•Gaz]

With one week to go I would just like to make a short post to present the tracker which will be available during the event! The tracker will be accessible with the link below which is also in the original post:

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Tracker

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Registration will remain open until 1 hour before the start time. We look forward to your sign-ups!

[◄Chuck►]

Since hasn't been much response, how is the status on this ?

[SO•Sebas]

(2022-11-25 09:08)Chuck Wrote:  Since hasn't been much response, how is the status on this ?

25 Sign-ups for now. Tracker is up and running, we're all set for the launch tonight!

For those of you who aren't registered, or even unsure about joining the event, please register using the link below.

>Van Obsessions Registration<

Good luck to everyone!

[SO•Gaz]

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Results

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The results are in!

Throughout the weekend, with a total of 687 jobs completed, a whopping 4,519,366kg (just under 4520 tonnes) of cargo was delivered by event participants!

The battle at the top was especially close with Yukine and KaS0Y, in first and second place respectively, engaged in a weekend-long battle for the top spot eventually being just 89 tonnes apart at the end. Our congratulations also extend to Greg for rounding out the podium places. Two honourable mentions also go to SpeedDemon and Jardim for getting over 100,000kg each!

Unfortunately, P V L was disqualified due to use of an exploitative method which gave him an unfair advantage over other participants which has since been reported to the administration team. We thank all other participants for playing fairly and within the spirit of the event.

The final results are shown below:

Thank you to all those who took part, we hope you enjoyed the event.

That's all for now, we look forward to seeing you soon with future announcements!

[[RDSR] Ephwurd]

Thank you for great event (not Rauno)!

[SO•Sebas]

Great event as always, can't thank my team enough for the efforts they've put in to provide such an event.

I'm looking forward for the Christmas events.

Thanks everyone!

[[RDSR] Speed Demon]

Congratulations to Yukine, KaSOY and Greg. It was a good event. Thanks to the organizers.

[SO•Huski]

A big congrats to the top 3 and to everybody who drove in the spirit of the event! It was a good competition up the top and hopefully provided everybody who took part a new competition experience not yet seen in TC servers!

[[TC]►Carl◄]

I must give credit where it is due. It's a unique idea and I think it may gain more popularity on the next time if there are lucrative prizes.

The van/bus/truck advertisements on the lead up to the event were pretty cool too.

The PVL situation was unfortunate, but it was a good for you guys to understand the different ways a player could "compete" without risking a big prize pot and now you can make adjustments so that players must fully complete the job for it to be counted in future events if that is what you wanted to do.

[SO•Yukine]

That was an interesting experience.
Thank you KaS0Y for that ferocious fight.

I'm genuinely impressed by seeing all the work that was put towards the event.

Talented people working together does wonders.

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(2022-11-01 20:08)BP Wrote:  Congrats PVL!

(hh)

That aged like milk, didn't it?

The PVL incident is quite sad.
While cheating, by itself, is bad.. doing it during a friendly event which has no material rewards seems completely absurd.
It only shows the lack of respect towards everybody; people who worked hard to provide the event and every single competitor.

Interesting to see how some people can freely exploit the InSim though.

[[TC]►Carl◄]

(2022-11-27 20:11)Yukine Wrote:  That was an interesting experience.
Thank you KaS0Y for that ferocious fight.

I'm genuinely impressed by seeing all the work that was put towards the event.

Talented people working together does wonders.

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(2022-11-01 20:08)BP Wrote:  Congrats PVL!

(hh)

That aged like milk, didn't it?

The PVL incident is quite sad.
While cheating, by itself, is bad.. doing it during a friendly event without any gain from it seems completely absurd.
It only shows the lack of respect towards everybody; people who worked hard to provide the event and every single competitor.

Interesting to see how some people can freely exploit the InSim though.

I thought to comment because of your passive aggressive comments written in small grey text. From what I understand, he was delivering the amount exactly as the tracker shown. The aim of your game was to simply deliver as much as possible and not the amount of completed jobs.

Quote:The results will be based on the total amount of undamaged cargo delivered throughout the event.

So given that aim, everybody should have been adapting to that tactic since it was the quickest way and did not break any of the rules. The cost to being a bit quicker was of course paying the cancellation fee. As a suggestion, should you wish to run this event again, the cancellation fee (for the duration of the event) could theoretically be raised to an amount that would have a negative impact, therefore deterring people from cancelling and completing the job fully. Just a personal suggestion and may not be the best solution but it's an idea.

Even by cancelling jobs it's still nothing to do with cheating really, especially when there was no ruleset to even prevent it in the first place. A few more test runs and trying to circumvent your own rules before launching the event would have stopped that. However, it's not always possible to find everything. But unfair to call someone a cheater for doing what the task is, delivering cargo. Many people understood the spirit of the game was to complete the jobs, but when you introduce competiton, people will always find a way to win.

But anyways, while there were no prizes to be won there is no harm done and the next one will be bigger and better! I have heard you guys are making the next one more clear with less ambiguity.[/quote]

[SO•Gaz]

(2022-11-27 20:40)Carl Wrote:  As a suggestion, should you wish to run this event again, the cancellation fee (for the duration of the event) could theoretically be raised to an amount that would have a negative impact, therefore deterring people from cancelling and completing the job fully. Just a personal suggestion and may not be the best solution but it's an idea.

Thank you for your constructive suggestion Carl, we are looking into ways to resolve this and will take your suggestion on-board.

(2022-11-27 20:40)Carl Wrote:  Even by cancelling jobs it's still nothing to do with cheating really, especially when there was no ruleset to even prevent it in the first place. A few more test runs and trying to circumvent your own rules before launching the event would have stopped that. However, it's not always possible to find everything.

We did plenty of test runs, testing plenty of other potential issues, but I guess we just never expected anyone to use this particular method. We deemed it to be unfair, hence the disqualification. Nowhere did we intend to out him as a "cheater" (nor was that the intention in my results post, I apologise if it seemed that way) but rather just explained why we disqualified him. I agree - ideally we would've had a rule against this originally, but like I say we didn't think of this method at the time.

If anyone would like to provide any further constructive feedback, please feel free to send me a message.

[SO•Huski]

True, I have one issue with one paragraph however, as I stated multiple times when asked, if we added every single eventuality possible the rulebook would be insanely long, of which nobody would read and the same situation would happen again most likely. Its not being rude, its really, the reality of it, nobody will read a multiple page long rulebook for a casual for fun event over a weekend and even then, things will occur and be found that is not within the known scope and as such must be dealt with as and when they occur in a way that is (depending on circumstances) best for every party involved as a whole, on average.

In the end it was just a for fun, weekend long event, and while we could adopt basic comprehension and the typically accepted unwritten concept of "Spirit of competition" which exists in any and all events / contests of every size, shape, method and length some people do and will try and find ways to get out of / circumvent this.

While in nicer words, it was not explicitly against the rules, it was against the spirit and competition aspect, gaining an advantage while also on the other hand diminishing competition through typically unknown / unconventional means, while doing it in an event made for a bit of fun over a weekend just does jam the knife in a little bit, I cannot lie. And as such it has somewhat diminished my want to further theorize, conceptualise and plan events for a while, one bad apple doesn't spoil the bunch, however it makes it less appealing to dip your hand into that bunch for fear of finding another one once more.

Something I would like to take a moment to remind people that event planning and running is a personal passion of mine that I take great pride and joy in being able to run from beginning to end, and without the people around me who help make what ideas I come up with a reality is something I am both very grateful and very respectful that I have the support and people around myself to be able to make what I and more importantly we do as a team, for the community.

We do this in our own free time, with no incentive to do so whatsoever, to bring fun events be them short or long, serious or casual for the community as a whole to engage in.

What this has taught myself is that yes, there are some who will try and will bend and twist rules and words in much the same way a debate to try and just get an advantage over everybody and its something I do feel now going forward that every eventuality will likely need to be put into the future rulebooks, to ensure a fun, level and balanced playing field for everybody, we also do not have the ability to modify anything within TC servers and as such we are confined within the systems set before us from the get-go.

And with keen interest I have read as much as I could find from people and their reactions and opinions, which I do respect, everybody is entitled to an opinion and an opinion is never technically incorrect until its undeniably disproven.

With this I, as always want to extend my respect to the team members for their discretion and discussion as the facts were compiled and the verdict reached and implemented in the correct manner, situations such as these are not easy when you come across them and then must deal with and with the best interests of what I previously aforementioned.

That was really all I had to say, yes its long and yes its rambly, as they say every day is a schoolday and with hope as well as a keen look into the future across the horizon, every party involved can and will be able to take lessons from it.

I want to also take this second opportunity to remind and ask people, to please keep it respectful, we've all had our slice of shock first go pie and while constructive, helpful and progressive discussion is appreciated, abuse, bullying and general bad person-ery (I cant use the word I want) is not appreciated, nor wanted. Your opinion is your own, however keep it civil and respectful.

[[TC]►Carl◄]

(2022-11-27 21:43)Huski Wrote:  True, I have one issue with one paragraph however, as I stated multiple times when asked, if we added every single eventuality possible the rulebook would be insanely long, of which nobody would read and the same situation would happen again most likely.

Put in the effort and cover as much basis as you can, then you have a leg to stand on when someone does try to "cheat". Adding nothing because you think people won't read anything simply doesn't work.

[SO•Huski]

Somewhat I agree. Case in principal and the way I decided to chose my words was to convey this; we simply cannot, even with the most insane effort, plan and write up every eventuality and workaround, as quite simply, we don't know them all. Its why there was a great point raised ingame and in the Discord server. Of instead, a specific subcategory / rule specifically stated for a blanket term or somesuch, to alleviate this, however this also opens a can of worms and need for discretion and discussion of what classes as x what doesn't class as x, what is y and what isn't y, what about if y is done alongside x? which during an event can also lead to turbulence too. (every human makes mistakes sometimes, even computers do)

I also, while I don't believe this was your intent, I have to recognise the insinuation there was no / minimal / insufficient effort put in, which is something I firmly disagree with. As I will now put on the record, Van Obsessions had been as a concept from when I rejoined SO in active planning since September with a rather substantial amount of time and effort given to it during the two months planning phase.

As Gaz did state:

Quote:We did plenty of test runs, testing plenty of other potential issues, but I guess we just never expected anyone to use this particular method.

and that is the root cause, and it is a simple one, as with most things, the most simple things are the easiest to overlook or not notice.

Again, I thank you for the input and feedback, the most important thing is to learn, move forward and come back better, each and every time.