Permanent Tracks Competition
The Permanent Tracks Competition concept refers to the idea of keeping records of lap times achieved by racers on different tracks, especially well known ones, while always accepting new such records. This is in contrast with most tournaments in the community, which regularly or sporadically offer a race or challenge that specifies a deadline and finally, a winning podium.
As of June 2023, three platforms support or have supported this format: the Race For Kicks records, ZakStunts old Permanent Competition and the DOS Game Club Stunts Leaderboard.
History
The first platform to ever support a Permanent Competition system was ZakStunts itself. Forum posts indicate that this competition has existed since at least October 2002, about a year after the site first came up. At the time, ZakStunts did not have an automated replay upload system and this did not change for the Permanent Competition when the main tournament was updated. With time, the main championship gained a lot more attention while the PC gradually became abandoned. Because records were only kept on a table and there was no direct access to the replays on the site, many of these old records are unverifiable today. Some, though, can be found in the forum. Particularly for the Default track, many such record replays have been posted there.
In May 2014, dreadnaut created a thread in the forum (https://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=3073.0) suggesting a reset of track records and some changes to revive the permanent competition. While the idea did get a lot of support, this was postponed.
On 11 March 2020, after being given green light, Cas announced that Race For Kicks would include a Permanent Competition system and checked with the community if there was an interest of merging the old ZakStunts PC with it or connecting the two in some way so as to add to the idea instead of displacing it. The community was more inclined towards just moving forward with the new platform, since the old PC hadn't been updated in a very long time. While some records have since been posted in Race For Kicks, the popularity of the new PC has been pretty low compared to the main tournament. Yet, replays are posted there, so verification will remain always possible. Unfortunately, the new records are not nearly as good as the old, now unverifiable records. ZakStunts removed their old PC records from the site around 2021 or 2022.
On 10 June 2023, Tijn, from DOS Game Club, created a Stunts Leaderboard that follows the same format as the other two PCs. While the focus and objective are slightly different, this leader board can be considered one more permanent competition system and remains active today.
Known Permanent Competitions
ZakStunts Permanent Competition
The old Permanent Competition was a record table that existed in the ZakStunts website since at least late 2002 until around 2022. The table was manually updated by the site administrator whenever somebody posted a new record, which was done via e-mail. At the time, this was the same procedure used to participate in the main tournament, but later on, ZakStunts was updated with an automated system and the PC remained manual. Because record replays were usually sent via e-mail, many of them have been lost.
All original tracks well known in Stunts were available. This included DEFAULT, BERNIES, JOES, CHERRIS, HELENS and SKIDS. Each of these tracks was also available in a "flooded" version, to approximate some degree of OWOOT-ness. However, the rules for all tracks were completely free-style. Any car could be used and if there were any penalty time, it had to be included in the final lap time. If a time had been obtained without exploiting a certain freedom, this was not recorded. It was a competition for the fastest lap, no matter how. More importantly, no information about which car had been used appeared on the table.
Following are the best records ever achieved in this permanent competition for each track. Unfortunately, none of the replays corresponding to these have been preserved:
Original tracks
| Track | Racer | Time | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default | Renato Biker | 0:30.35 | 2010-02-23 |
| Bernie's | Alan Rotoi | 0:57.40 | 2021-10-02 |
| Cherry's | Renato Biker | 2:25.55 | 2006-01-30 |
| Helen's | Renato Biker | 3:31.60 | 2006-02-05 |
| Joe's | Duplode | 0:48.10 | 2010-02-26 |
| Skid's | Bonzai Joe | 1:10.65 | 2006-02-05 |
Closed tracks (flooded)
| Track | Racer | Time | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default Closed | Renato Biker | 0:42.60 | 2006-01-28 |
| Bernie's Closed | Renato Biker | 1:18.50 | 2010-02-26 |
| Cherry's Closed | Renato Biker | 3:02.95 | 2010-02-26 |
| Helen's Closed | Renato Biker | 4:06.65 | 2006-02-05 |
| Joe's Closed | Renato Biker | 1:04.95 | 2010-02-26 |
| Skid's Closed | Renato Biker | 1:27.05 | 2010-02-25 |
Race For Kicks Records
Race For Kicks provides a record keeping system upon which the main tournament is sitting. This serves as a new permanent competition. The administrators can activate and deactivate any track in the system to become part of the PC. All original DSI tracks are included, this is DEFAULT, BERNIES, JOES, CHERRIS, HELENS and SKIDS as well as VANCOUVR (the track that the DEFAULT replay was raced on) and Skids Marks (an old track that came with the first versions of the game). Some community made tracks are included as well, such as 4:00am. No flooded versions are available.
To upload a record replay, racers go to any of the available track pages and post them there. Any car can be used. When uploading, the racer can specify the set of rules that were used for this replay. Replays are later verified to follow the selected rule set so all this information is recorded. Replays are immediately made public.
DOS Game Club Leaderboard
Since June 2023, the DOS Game Club features a Stunts Leaderboard at https://www.dosgameclub.com/stunts-leaderboard that follows a permanent competition format. Any forum member can log in and upload tracks. When uploading tracks, only raw format is admitted and the track file name is used as track title. Long file names are not permitted. The Leaderboard debuted with the DEFAULT track and soon after, several others were posted. As soon as a track is posted, racers can begin submitting lap times.
In the Club's leader board, it's not required that racers actually upload a replay, but records are created from high score files. If the racer has a replay, though, he or she can proceed to upload it to the scoreboard and link it to the corresponding record. No verification is required, but since replays are public and members can see which lap times have replays available for download, credibility is sustained by this. In other words, verification is given by the users independently.
Any car can be used for a posted replay and which car was used is displayed in the scoreboard. However, the rules are specific. Records are assumed to be free-style and NoRH. There isn't any method to confirm replay handling, so this is based on trust. Penalty time is always automatically included in the lap time if it exists because this is how lap times are recorded in HIG files.
