Season 5 is right around the corner, suggestions?

How about putting some turns, loops, hills, and maybe even some jumps in the racetrack?

I've decided that the Rookie Picks will not be part of Season 5. I don't think it worked out like I was thinking it would. I'm drawing out some ideas for a new side game for the league, so that might show up if I have time to build and test it, otherwise that will be added in Season 6.

I'm with you on the rookie picks.

Trying to pick a car that would be good enough to win races but not matches AND would be picked regularly for as many races as possible...out of cars that have never raced before... No criteria in the world could help anyone do that.

I was thinking that it would be fun to count up points for the cars that people picked. So, regardless of your picks to win and the score you'd earn from those picks, if the car you chose to enter wins its first round race, you'd get 10 points...a second round race win for your car would earn you 15 points, etc. The problem with that is, of course, only some people will get to pick cars...and that just doesn't seem fair.

So, bad idea.

My only other suggestion would be to continue the unique stipulations for matches--with each week, there could be one race being more wide open, and the other race reducing the available car pool to a small subset.

Some specific stipulations off the top of my head: I could see a "Cherry Buster 500" where the only cars that could be selected would be cars that haven't won before. A Bethlehem Steel Nationals where every car available is painted in a metallic color. Brand Power Major Event, where every car must be advertising a product in its paint scheme. Decade Race-Offs, where every car is from the 70's...or 80's...or 00's (etc.) Birdwatchers Special, where every car available to be chosen is named after a bird (or Fish in a Barrel for fish, ZooNationals for animals, etc.) ...Motorcity Benefit, where every car has to be from one of the Big 3 manufacturers...or Tucker Memorial, where every car has to be from an American car manufacturer that is NOT one of the Big 3. Or, how about a "World Tour" concept, starting with Mothra Madness, where every car must be from a Japanese manufacturer...Big Ben Blowout, for UK manufacturers...etc.etc.etc.

You could also do matches where HOW the cars race is important: Sdrawkcab Invitational, where the cars are put on the track backwards. Train Rally, where cars race in groups of three per track...winning "train" is the one that has its third and final car entirely cross the finish line first (probably need a video camera for determining that.) Tag Team Races, where cars advance through the bracket in pairs: Car A & B versus Car 1 & 2, in each round. So, if Car A beats Car 1 and Car B beats Car 2, then Car A & B move on. If Car A beats Car 1 but Car 2 beats Car B, then Car A races Car 2...and if Car A wins, then both Car A & B move on. (This could be made more fun if the tag teams were determined randomly...or if one car had to be ranked above 1200 and the other car had to be ranked below 1200...or other tag team stips could be created.)

I also think there should be more incorporation of the "TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP" somehow...either with having the Teams "draft" cars at the beginning of the year, and letting them acquire points by how their team's cars do...or something.

(I can't figure out how to do it, but I really like the idea of selecting exactly the number of cars for each tournament of the year at the beginning of the year and then choosing what cars to enter in what race from that limited selection--putting strategy and not just whim behind car entry. BUT, again, that doesn't work because there are more players than there are slots... You could reserve a slot in each tournament for each team...but that means fewer players can enter cars, and that's no fun either. You could run a specific mini-tournament each week for the teams (if we had eight competitive teams, it could be easily done) but that's just creating more work for you...and creating a separate new game, rather than building it out of the game everyone else is playing.)

BUT...honestly, if NOTHING changes from this season to the next, I'd be happy...because I've really enjoyed Season 4. (And thanks for making this all happen for us to share it with you!)

Very interesting suggestions. I like the unique tournament ideas, with the backwards racing and the tag team events. I also agree we should do a little more with the 'Team' aspect. Connecting our teams to certain cars to get points throughout the season would be fun. Drafting cars for our teams would be somewhat like having the garage aspect back in the game. The challenge of all of this however would be how to incorporate more fun into the season while still keeping everything fairly simple and not adding a lot of extra work for Brian, the wonderfully talented and creative founder of Redline Derby Racing.

The challenge of all of this however would be how to incorporate more fun into the season while still keeping everything fairly simple and not adding a lot of extra work for Brian, the wonderfully talented and creative founder of Redline Derby Racing.

This!

Thanks for all the feedback, it's great! I agree with you on many of the points and suggestions. Some those are easy wins and some of them require some deeper thinking.

The hard part about tournament restrictions is that not all that data is in the system so it can't automatically be generated as a tournament. This means for these specific tournaments they will have to be pre-picked, so you won't enter a car, you'll just pick the brackets. I don't think that's a big deal as long as it's not that way for every race. I like all your ideas for grouping cars too but the catch there is that I only race one type of each car. The photo you see on the page may not be the exact car going down the track, so I'm not sure how to handle that. That makes it tough to do things like a tournament for "only green cars" because what's to say if a car is green or not...the photo or the fact that there is a green version in production, even if it's not in my collection? More general groupings are easier and less questionable...ones like the Big 3 are much more do-able, then it's just a matter of if I have at least 16 cars in that group.

You guys are dead on with teams too. It's on my list to do a complete overhaul on how teams work. To be honest, they were somewhat of an afterthought and thus they never got the attention they needed. Right now It's too hard to create and join a team, plus doing so doesn't really get you anything. I really want to do some sort of draft concept with the league but I'm just not sure how to design it around the existing system. I do miss the garage aspect we had in the first season, so I'd like to tweak that into something that will work. I don't mind doing more races each week either but I have to keep a close watch on how much real racing I add to my process.

I see the future of the league as a set a of games that you can choose from. At it's core will be the bracket picking but anything added will probably be a separate game with its own points so not everyone has to participate if they don't want to or just can't because of time.With Nashville coming up I'll be in front of a lot of people and when they hit the site I want them to understand the basics quickly, and I think the bracket picking does that pretty well. Then assuming they become regular players, they can explore secondary games that are more involved and maybe require some personal racing experience.

I appreciate all the feedback, it tells me you guys are enjoying yourself and I couldn't ask for more - your support has been awesome. I don't mind doing a lot of work to improve the league - web programming is what I do - it's mostly just finding time. I've decided that I am not going to run the league over the winter, it just gets too cold here in Ohio and I don't have the space to run inside all the time. I plan on doing some major system work during those cold months but I want to do as many seasons as I can before this Winter so I'm kind of hesitant to change things a lot now...I don't want to break things in the middle of summer and waste good racing weather.

Wow, you guys put a lot of ideas in my head and I can't wait to start thinking more about them and see which ones turn into new games. I think a lot of what you've guys brought up is very do-able and could be great "extra" games to play within the league. Keep those ideas coming!!

Another thing I need and plan on doing is re-thinking the entire Redline Derby site strategy. There are 3 major parts: the blog, forums and fantasy league. The league and forum are sort of tied but the blog is kind of promoted as a separate thing and if I'm going to be honest with myself, the blog is very minor. There are some useful articles out there and some great interviews, but when people go to RedlineDerby.com they're not hit with the Fantasy League, which is what I really want them to do. Sooo...I'm thinking I may change things around a bit design-wise so the main web address drops you right into the league and the blog becomes more of a "and fries with that" type feature where I can dump features as they come about.

Fact of the matter is, I just don't have that much to write about. I think there's only so much to feature when it comes to racing and even modding. I'm really not that great of a modder or customizer so I'm hesitant to talk about it and I don't want the blog to be only interviews, which it almost is anyway. I like reviewing tracks and stuff but those are so few and far between that the magazine-style I use on the blog right now just falls flat. I mean, the top post stays up there for months and that just looks bad.

You guys have made these message boards incredibly valuable and rich with content, more so than I could do alone writing blog posts and interviewing people. I don't want to stop doing that, I just need to evaluate my own goals and focus on what needs to happen.

(Sorry, all that really has nothing to do with Season 5 but I needed to brain dump all that )

One other idea...and I realize this one might not settle very well with people that have been doing this longer...we'll see.

If a car wins a race during the year, it is taken out of circulation for that year...to come back for that year's Season's Championship. I think that the only cars that should be "permanently retired" should be each of the Season Champions. And I don't think they should be able to be un-retired during a season. Let those few cars enjoy their rest.

...until the end of the year.

AFTER each year's Season Championship, with a new Season Champion crowned...you have a CHAMPION'S GAUNTLET RACE as a year-end bonus. You put the newly crowned champion at the start of the gauntlet...and then RANDOMLY put the other, retired, Season Champions into the gauntlet.

So...this is Season 4...the Gauntlet Could Look Like This:

Gauntlet Match #1: Season 4 Champion versus (order chosen randomly) Season 1 Champion.
Gauntlet Match #2: Winner of Gauntlet Match #1 versus (order chosen randomly) Season 2 Champion.
Gauntlet Match #3: Winner of Gauntlet Match #2 versus (order chosen randomly) Season 3 Champion.
Winner = Grand National Champion for Spring 2011.

Granted, that's not much of a tournament right now--although, it does keep giving retired cars more stats and chances to prove their greatness--BUT, as the seasons stack up and the gauntlet gets longer and longer...it can get interesting. Not only that, but, PICKING WINNERS becomes an interesting challenge...as you have to base your choices on your previous choices...

Just a thought.

I have fun trying to pick brackets, but I don't think I'm quite as serious as some...

One idea I had the other day though was a 'roll-over' on the cars in the brackets pics so the stats would pop up quickly.
You have the botton to click on to bring up the weight/points but I thought a rollover might be cool. And that it would work as you progress through the brackets so anytime your mouse rolls over a car the stats pop up. Probably more work that it's worth in the long run.

I'm having fun, i'm doing decent this year for the first time and it helps me be on the lookout for some quicker cars!
I had no idea bout the Fandango...and I had one sitting in my donation case...i took it out

I'm glad you're enjoying the league and doing so well this season Bryan.

I had no idea bout the Fandango...and I had one sitting in my donation case...i took it out

I just don't like that Fandango. I think it's ugly and shouldn't be as fast as it is

@Seattle - I like your retirement ideas. Some day there will be a super season championship tournament but right now seasons are somewhat inconsistent. I don't start seasons at the same time each year so there's not always the same number of 8-week seasons in a year. This year there was racing in Jan and Feb and next year that won't happen, so that's a loss of one "season". At this rate we won't have 16 season champions for a while. But that doesn't mean there is other opportunity for some one-off retirement races, like all the runners up or something like that.

@Jobe - I sat down last night and sketched out some design changes for the league and sites at large. I know that little fly-over icon is trouble and a little too small to be useful. That will get some attention as will the layout for some other things. The left-side column was a good design idea but turned out to be less than ideal for communicating, so me thinks that will kind of go away and be used only for menu options (as one might expect).

@JDC - I agree...I don't like Fandango either. It's like the ugly fat kid you expect can't do anything but then runs a mile in less than a minute.

@JDC - I agree...I don't like Fandango either. It's like the ugly fat kid you expect can't do anything but then runs a mile in less than a minute.

Right! Fat kids aren't suppose to be fast