[ral] [tpk] [stg] Southern Ohio Forest Rally (SOFR)

[Aeon]

17 stages on 16 maps.
Build time 5 weeks.

This rally is based on the Southern Ohio Forest Rally. I took interesting portions of the rally maps and followed the basic height map and layouts. Nothing too realistic, just an excuse to do a forest rally that way I've always wanted. I made an effort to keep the height changes reasonably visible, and to keep trees from obstructing the path where it is inconvenient, while still allowing some trees to cover the road and give it a forest feel. Many of these stages are on ridge lines so don't be surprised if going off the road also takes you off the cliff. Each stage is intended to have something interesting to look at and something challenging to drive, giving each stage its own unique flavor.

You might question, where is track 01? Simple answer: I didn't like it. Goodbye track 01. It was a small in-town race that wasn't fun to drive and was annoying to work on.

Technically there should be 20 or so stages in this rally, but I only found 16 spots that were interesting. I could and still can add reverse versions of some of these tracks to accommodate the proper track count, but for the moment my motivation has run dry to work on this so I figured I'd better post it while I can.

AI competitors are included in varying AI levels. I tried to make sure the AI could beat me on most stages, and made use of a few AI tricks to help the AI on challenging corners. Honestly training the AI to drive these tracks takes more time than building the tracks themselves. I didn't use Yankee cars this time. I found it more enjoyable to use some cars designed for rally tracks. Slower and more agile. However, I've lost track of who made these cars or where they're posted for the moment. If you decide to race these in a Yankee, you'll have a stronger advantage as a Yankee can sometimes complete laps a second or two faster. But the rally cars were more fun to drive.

I thought about making modifications or special stages such as "there and back" or "point to point" stages, but if I decide to do this, I'll post them later. Feel free to post your own modifications to these tracks if you're so inclined.

[Kikwik]

That's quite incredible that you're still working on rally tracks for GR, and still with such quality !

Thanks a lot for those Aeon, as they're really enjoyable.

I'm a forest lover, so those rally tracks are a real treat to race on for me, and it provides a good amount of challenge to beat those AI (I was mostly 2 seconds late from the best with my first tries, sometimes more than 2 seconds if I felt from a cliff ).

I appreciate the fact that those tracks all share the same pattern but with small differences that make each one of them apart from each other. It's not monotous at all visually. And driving wise we're still on our toes until the end.

Personally I often use Hormous chibi rally cars as they are varied in visuals and driving, while having lot of rally eras available.

You made me play GR again and it's still a lot of fun. Thank you again.

[Gzehoo]

Writing my comment much later than wanted, but fck it...

As I'm actually doing some "private" fun rally series (only for AIs) and I needed some rally trackpacks, it's really good to see another one. Especially if located in any forest.

Inferno, Shawnee, LongRidge, Deadman are stages that deserve for "alternative" layout.
Courtney also could be done as much longer, using this "main" road.

[MidnightRunner]

Others have said it all, so all I have to add is that I love those tricky hmap. They're not exactly what they seen to be and it gives some Acropolis or Sardegna feel to it, too.

[Aeon]

The competition I want for AI is the one where different track makers all make their own AI lines for the same track and you see which AI(s) win the race based on the AI lines. Maybe with teams so each AI line has more than one chance. Sometimes the best AI times are purely accidental, like when the AI on Shawnee here jumped the hill instead of taking the corner and landed just right to score a lap time that nobody else could ever compete with. Sadly I updated the track after that so the record got deleted. Oh well.