.:: Union Enhancements and Feedback ::.

I mentioned a while ago that I'd be updating the Predictions Championship rules in order to reflect the current state of Formula One, and now I've sorted it out. Here's how it looks now:

This is how the game is played:

For each GP:
- Each person selects 4 teams, each ranked 1-12 and the total must come to a MINIMUM of 27. Ranking is as follows:
1 - Red Bull
2 - McLaren
3 - Ferrari
4 - Mercedes
5 - Lotus Renault
6 - Williams
7 - Force India
8 - Sauber
9 - Scuderia Toro Rosso
10 - Team Lotus
11 - Hispania Racing Team
12 - Marussia Virgin Racing

- Of those 4 teams, the player chooses one driver from each to score their points for them in the race (I.E. Toro Rosso, Team Lotus, Hispania & Virgin Racing, and the player chooses Alguersuari, Kovalainen, Karthikeyan and D'Ambrosio). Points will be discussed later on.

- Extra points are available for correctly predicting who will have the fastest lap time in practice, the GP and who will hold pole. There are also points for who will be on the podium too. Every driver is available for selection, not just the drivers chosen earlier.

- Players may also select the Best constructor (the team with the best result in the weekend) and the Worst Constructor (the worst overall result).

POINTS

- For each constructor chosen (so both drivers from the 4 teams chosen), points are scored as follows:
1st: +25
2nd: +18
3rd: +15
4th: +12
5th: +10
6th: +8
7th: +6
8th: +4
9th: +2
10th: +1
All other cars running at finishing flag: +0.5
Cars not running at finishing flag: -10
Cars failing to qualify: -15
Front row starting position on the grid: +5

- For the 4 drivers chosen, points score as follows:
1st: +25
2nd: +18
3rd: +15
4th: +12
5th: +10
6th: +8
7th: +6
8th: +4
9th: +2
10th: +1
All other cars running at finishing flag: +0.5

- For the 4 drivers chosen, for each position they move up the grid, they score an extra 3 points. E.G. a driver starts 18th and finishes 16th, the driver scores 6 points. No points are lost if they go backwards.

- The last load of points are scored as follows:
Correct Driver for fastest Practice lap: +3 pts
Pole Position: +3 pts.
Fastest race lap: +3 pts.
Podium finish: +3 pts.
OR
Correctly predicted podium place: +5 pts.
If all three in correct predicted places: +5 pts. extra (making 20 in total)
Best Constructor: +5 pts.
Worst Constructor: +5 pts.

Predictions should be made in the way as the example post below:

EXAMPLE POST
TEAMS: Toro Rosso, Team Lotus, HRT, Virgin
DRIVERS: Alguersuari, Kovalainen, Karthikeyan, D'Ambrosio
FASTEST PRACTICE LAP: di Resta
POLE POSITION: Maldonado
PODIUM: Sutil, Trulli, Glock
FASTEST RACE LAP: Kobayashi
BEST CONSTRUCTOR: HRT
WORST CONSTRUCTOR: Red BullRedders1989

So the changes that are detailed in the above are as follows:

1. DRIVER POINTS SYSTEM is now updated to the 2010 version. This stands for both Drivers and Constructors.
2. DNF penalty has now been increased to -10 per driver. This is actually a benefit, as the points for a winning driver is two and a half times more than previously, whereas the DNF penalty has been doubled. The penalty for a DNF is now less than what is used to be.
3. PENALTY FOR DRIVERS FAILING TO QUALIFY have now been included. This increases the risk of choosing a lower ranked team, so be careful!

GREAT NEWS!

Due to my internet provider finally connecting me.... I AM BACK!

Due to my internet provider finally connecting me.... I AM BACK! KimisApprentice

Union has been enhanced!

Can we please upgrade our leader to Redders V2?

Hang on a second...

We need less threads sticked to the top! Like, a lot less please :]Alberto1978

In otther news, Adrian Sutil is now on Twitter. His handle can be found in the Welcome Guide, along with all other accounts. This leaves just Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen who don't have Twitter. 

Which raises the question, do we REALLY need that many threads in the first place? That Rush thread has had TWO replies (not counting yours Redders, as OP) since April. Do we really need three threads to talk about GT6, Forza 5 and F12013? This very thread had been innactive for over a year.

We have so many stickies for topics that barely get any activity, seems very pointless to me, and counterproductive since it make difficult to see new threads, which isn't particularly encouraging. 

We don't need more than 2-3 stickies at most.

With GS closing unions down (and seemingly we want to stay as a public forum based on the poll), I've decided to do what Alberto and a few others have wanted for a while: dramatically less stickies. We now have just six (will go up to 8 when a race weekend is coming - for the GP thread and for the predictions).

Gone are:

- This thread;
- All video game threads;
- Rush thread; and
- Hall of Fame (I laughed at whoever changed SadPSPAddict's entry in there as Vettel, but you spelled Sebastian wrong).

That's 6 regular stickies gone (plus the two for the Belgian GP just passed). When the time comes the one talking about our future will go anyway (so we'll actually have 5 main ones in total: Driver Line-Up, Predictions Championship, F1 Championships, Introduce Yourself and the Welcome Guide.

Hopefully, this may help us sway GS in allowing one of us to mod this place on the switchover (otherwise we're going to have to completely re-start some posts, I.E. the important links in the Welcome Guide as I haven't seen icytower on here in about 4 years). 

I would put these threads into the welcome guide. I can not find the hall of fame thread (I want to see this change to Seb haha). Also the welcome thread needs cleaning up. There is far too much information going on in there, it needs to be clear and concise (i.e. Leadership team, rules, important links for the union board, maybe some F1 team links and driver profiles but do we really need profiles of all champions etc as it just makes it far too cluttered to find information you may want).

I can not find the hall of fame thread (I want to see this change to Seb haha).Garfield360UK