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A Sindome Expansion: Regulation Alpha
Bringing Formula 1 and Its Intrigue to Withmore

So, before reading any of this, I recommend watching something like Netflix's Formula 1: Drive to Survive, as it will convince you of the potential for this idea more than any forum post will. I also will put the disclaimer that this is not at all a priority implementation, and there are literally hundreds of things that need more dev, and the staff is already overworked. With that let me now propose a ton of work.

So, a brief summary of F1 will help make the rest of this proposal flow more smoothly. 10 teams, 20 racers, each season a new "formula" of rules is put out that teams must ensure their racing car fits within. 21 races, a point based system per position in race ultimately resulting in a singular champion and purse payouts to teams based on rank. It isn't necessarily about being first, but more so beating the teams around you, and maintaining consistency to earn points and get payouts and publicity. The cars go very fast, and the races are extremely difficult.

You may already be seeing potential hooks for good RP, with the teammates being built-in rivals, extremely demanding background work just to get the cars working, and the format allowing for success at all levels and not just one winner.

Enter Regulation Alpha Racing. My proposal is for 4 teams, 8 racers. Viriisoma, NLM, PRI (with the team being a combination of Mixer and Corporate) and ideally a Mixer exclusive team, perhaps something like CHEX or Kro's. This would allow for further mixing of corporate and mixer RP that staff seems to be angling for with how PRI is playing out. It would also allow for more corporate driving-centered jobs.

Behind the drivers themselves would be the engineering and management teams, which is where a lot of the painful coding work would now come in. Ideally I envision a system in which the parts of the cars are essentially bundles of skillchecks and tunables. Perhaps at the start of a season the teams could be given an essentially semi-randomized car based on team wealth. A certain amount of changes allowed before each race, by each official engineer, which would be skillchecks in addition to decisions. Feedback from the drivers and the engineer's own observations would inform these decisions, things like "more traction in the rear for risk of understeering" or "lighter front wing for risk of easier damage" or "reduce breaking power to prevent lockups at risk of lower performance." This all would of course run the risk of failure during the race, as these are extraordinarily complex machines and midrace failures are far from rare IRL.

Now, the hard part for this is how to make the driving more interesting. The first element of this would be the brand new PRI DynaTrack (TM). It would be a racing track changed for each race, presumably composed of virtual rooms like the Market or Junkyard. The next element is going to be much harder, as an important part of F1, and I think an important part of making this a more robust system, is decisions and actions the drivers can take outside of just following the track. Things they can adjust, and ways they can put their own personality into their driving. I do not know how the driving is coded, so I really can't even begin to make logical suggestions, so I will just make it all up. Perhaps in addition to regular driving difficulty checks, have particular sections of the track be more reliant on elements of the car decided by the engineers, such as having advantages to checks on tight turns, or advantages to speed on straightaways. Perhaps have the ability to adjust certain things like front/rear traction, and whether the engine is tuned for overtake/turns/or straightaways. Perhaps have things like contested checks against other cars for overtakes and slipstreaming.

Ideally there would also be the most iconic part of F1, the pitstop. Where the car comes in, gets repairs and new wheels, and then goes back out. This element is critical to the strategy for the races, as tires and cars begin to wear out, and when you box, and how fast your pit team is, are critical. It also could do things like affect skillchecks, if you haven't boxed in a long time, your tires will lose grip. It also gives the engineering team something to prepare for and plan around during the race.

The potential for RP surrounding all these nightmarish to code mechanics is also, of course, enormous. From things like engineers trying to sneak in illegal or extra modifications, to teammate rivalry, to management of finances and development, there is incredible potential just within the team ranks. Between teams there is potential for espionage, hostility and violence, driver and engineer poaching, and sponsorship stealing. I think it could be the impetus for some of the most interesting moments Withmore has seen.

So that is the basic proposal, and before you type it, yes, I know it is a lot of work, and isn't necessary, and there are a million things that should be added. I don't plan on trying to corral poor Mirage into making this. It is really more just to put the idea out there so that one day, maybe some element of it may help the game. Please say something more constructive or informative.