Grand Prix - What we know about how it works

[Miraglyth]

So the event is a mess and the explanation given is terrible. I know! I've done a bunch of research, and here's what we know so far:

The main part of the event is the Driver Dash. It is on the event page immediately beneath the team position chart.

Update for Day 2: You can now mouse over parts of the Driver Dash to get more information about how it works!

Update for Day 3: The structure of the Driver Dash and the points involved have been overhauled, eliminating the old "odometer" and "capacity" metrics that confused so many people. Now there are 3 main parts:

Update 2 for Day 3: The display for "Max Points" at the start of day 3 was bugged. It has now been fixed. I've updated the explanation.

Available Points
"Points you'll contribute to your team's distance when you boost - Max 1k/Boost"

This is a direct replacement for odometer, which even has the same mouseover text. So long as you have more than 0 points, you can boost which decreases up to 1000 points (or however many you have).

If (and only if) you have more Max Points than Points Boosted, boosting also increases the tokens you have in the pit stop by that amount. The pit stop page says how many points you will receive from your next boost below your token count, if you will receive any at all.

To earn points, you need to complete quests or claim achievements. This is only possible if you have fewer Available Points than the difference between Points Boosted and Max Points (described below).

Points Boosted
"Points you've already boosted that have been converted to tokens you can spend in the Pit Stop"

This is now self-explanatory. It's the score of how many points you have spent on boosts you've made during the event, with equals the number of tokens you've earned by doing so.

Max Points
"This is the number of points you've earned through purchases on Steam since the Lunar New Year Sale, including any unspent Lunar New Year tokens, plus any points granted for participating in the Grand Prix every day."

Again they have tried to focus on providing a simple explanation. This the limiting mechanic that replaces capacity from day 1 and 2. It is increased by 100 points per 1 USD spent (or a converted equivalent for other currencies).

Some players received Max Points for unspent coins in the Lunar New Year event earlier this year. The amount of Lunar New Years tokens earned was shown on the Pit Stop page but this did not include the amount spent during Lunar New Year itself, consequently players actually received less than it said. As mentioned, purchases on Steam after that event also provided some additional Max Points.

Generally within 1-2 hours of each new race day, players' Max Points are increased by 100 if and only if they used a boost on the previous race day. Shortly after day 3 started, players who boosted in days 1 or 2 also received 1,000 more Max Points for each of those days they boosted in.

Day 4 introduced Qualifier Tasks that allow players to gain 2,000 Max Points by performing four activities.

So long as Max Points is greater than Points Boosted, you can earn Available Points by doing quests or claiming achievements. If you have Available Points, you can also boost, which will bring Points Boosted up to Max Points.

To be clear, capacity is gone.
Steam have gone to great lengths to eliminate all references of capacity from the event, because it confused so many people. The Max Points mechanic replaces it, but it does not work in the same way. Lots of people are still talking about capacity - especially with reference to its former use - and they are giving you outdated information.

[CZBGR Icepick]

引用自 Miraglyth：

1. PLAY THESE GAMES YOU OWN PLUS FREE GAMES
2. PLAY THESE PARTICIPATING GAMES

I separated the matter with quests vs achievements types by describing the fact you had to play/p2w a game by actually playing, not simply "idle run" for some arbitrary amount of time. You'd have to be doing something with it by completing the valve-generated requirements.

When I was talking about achievement games, that was a different matter that applies below, and it shows some unique problems:

引用自 Miraglyth：

3. PLAY ANY GAME WITH STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS

This part is most obscure, given that it doesn't seem to work entirely or have a clear function. I have no way of knowing what the points do, earned from achievements already received, because even if you did the above where actual playing/paying during the event appears to count, there doesn't seem to be any perpetual value of having already previously played a qualifying game and earned achievements you have already worked for other than, normally, with Steam.

引用自 Miraglyth：

I'm confused. What's boost XP? You only get tokens for the pitstop by using boosts. I don't know how or if you get more boosts, but I imagine they might be tied to receiving Odometer Power.

*Boost XP. Literally, the points for the boost meter as it says right on the page, which was below your third part of the section. There's certain functions to it which contribute to the boost you use that goes to the top of the page to add to the multiplier of the boost/attack functions. Lunar New Year tokens unspent were also converted, where it was possible to start with over 100 points. At some point, the boost you've used up converts to tokens. It's not clear if you can keep generating it (it seems to be one time use/day), and/or whether the points you earned through this carry over. Because none of the points were generating after I did use a boost (because there was nothing that said whether it would keep generating or not), It's unclear whether it is supposed to function that way. All I know is somehow you have to coordinate boosts and time them, something which I know may be abused at peak times.

NOTE: I foresee another issue. In the rules, it states "Entries generated by script, macro or other automated means will be void.". Given that some qualified games allow the use of mods in some form while playing (some used for cheating, others not), it would eliminate a significant portion of users participating in this if one strictly enforced the rule. On the other hand, it is also harder to enforce such a rule with evidence if you cannot know whether someone has done so or not.

[CZBGR Icepick]

引用自 Hyphae：

I think you might have something with the odometer. Don't know exactly what I did to make it go down to 0, but yeah, it's 0 now lol

So I think you mentioned after you bottom that out you might be done for the race or whatever, who knows? Either way there's too many levels, I don't really want to operate a friggen submarine, nor do I have the time and already wasted enough trying to decipher this cash grab instead of actually playing a game.

I don't know if that represents your personal speed, and even at that, it doesn't seem significant.

However, the boost meter used dynamically changes over time. I have seen the multiplier fall for some reason, so there is some negative effect, somehow. It still doesn't seem have much of an effect on #TeamCorgi

I'm on #TeamTortoise FWIW. The other 3 teams are fighting on the same rung, and not even close to 1st place. It just looks like a rigged race, if you can even call it a race.

*Apparently, I forgot there was an attack option. That would likely cause a negative effect. The 'Tiels are suffering the most abuse. Tweet tweet!

[thewreckedangle]

wait, i'm still confused..?? i had only 2 or maybe 3 boosts, i clicked it once and the page died. when i get it to finally reload, i have no boosts, my red line indicator is at zero and i have 351/0 odometer and 4 nitro speedometer.
in the lower section it claims i have eg.13704 points from ad cap, but i cant claim them?! i'm so confused

[Miraglyth]

引用自 CZBGR Icepick：

引用自 Miraglyth：

3. PLAY ANY GAME WITH STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS

This part is most obscure, given that it doesn't seem to work entirely or have a clear function. I have no way of knowing what the points do, earned from achievements already received, because even if you did the above where actual playing/paying during the event appears to count, there doesn't seem to be any perpetual value of having already previously played a qualifying game and earned achievements you have already worked for other than, normally, with Steam.

We know for sure that achievements earned prior to the start of the event count. We also know that the value given for a selected game is the amount of odometer that would be given for claiming from that game, and that you only get (capacity - odometer) amount added to the odometer (i.e. making it match capacity) when you do claim, with the rest going to waste.

I haven't yet heard if you can claim achievements from a game, earn more achievements in that game, and then claim those extra achievements for a few more points. It might be that you can only claim from each game once ever.

Playing a game with achievements provides absolutely no benefit, unless that game is not presently on your list in which case you need to play it for 30+ minutes to make it appear so you can claim from it.

引用自 CZBGR Icepick：

引用自 Miraglyth：

I'm confused. What's boost XP? You only get tokens for the pitstop by using boosts. I don't know how or if you get more boosts, but I imagine they might be tied to receiving Odometer Power.

*Boost XP. Literally, the points for the boost meter as it says right on the page, which was below your third part of the section.

Huh, that used to just say "capacity". So what you're calling boost XP is literally just capacity, the red number on the Driver Dash, which I've already explained in the OP.

引用自 thewreckedangle：

i have 351/0 odometer and 4 nitro speedometer.
in the lower section it claims i have eg.13704 points from ad cap, but i cant claim them?! i'm so confused

I can't explain the rest, but you can't claim the points from achievements because you have no spare capacity. You have an excess of odometer (351 of a capacity of 0), so you can't get more. In order to claim from ad cap at all you would need more capacity, and in order to claim all of it you would need to spend $141 to get enough capacity to hold it.

[CZBGR Icepick]

引用自 Miraglyth：

We know for sure that achievements earned prior to the start of the event count. We also know that the value given for a selected game is the amount of odometer that would be given for claiming from that game, and that you only get (capacity - odometer) amount added to the odometer (i.e. making it match capacity) when you do claim, with the rest going to waste.

I haven't yet heard if you can claim achievements from a game, earn more achievements in that game, and then claim those extra achievements for a few more points. It might be that you can only claim from each game once ever.

Playing a game with achievements provides absolutely no benefit, unless that game is not presently on your list in which case you need to play it for 30+ minutes to make it appear so you can claim from it.

I added such a game and didn't actually play. As I said, the points from achievements counted, but never converted for the boost, and this was after a boost was used (and someone indicated there may be more than one use to it, its not clear)

引用自 Miraglyth：

Huh, that used to just say "capacity". So what you're calling boost XP is literally just capacity, the red number on the Driver Dash, which I've already explained in the OP.

I called it XP for brevity's sake because you're still allocating something that converts it to allocate for a boost multiplier, so it was just easier to say XP than typing out every letter. I said "boost", so that should have been associated. This somehow supposedly gets converted to tokens, but apparently paying for it may be preferential, which is also a disadvantage for limited accounts (but they are not excluded from participating notwithstanding).

All of this seems to be a community effort per team, and right now, Corgi is either using more speed because it has more people, or that there are more boosts used per person, and they are not even the ones being attacked as much to preclude them from being in first place in the first 24 hours.

[Miraglyth]

引用自 CZBGR Icepick：

I called it XP for brevity's sake

I'm not going to do the same, because nowhere in the event is anything called XP and the last thing we need to add to the confusing manual is even more inexplicable terminology.

引用自 CZBGR Icepick：

This somehow supposedly gets converted to tokens

You get tokens matching the amount of odometer spent when you boost. That's all.

引用自 CZBGR Icepick：

right now, Corgi is either using more speed because it has more people, or that there are more boosts used per person, and they are not even the ones being attacked as much to preclude them from being in first place in the first 24 hours.

Corgi has way more people, so nobody is attacking Corgi because there's no point. If you attack your nearest rival, you might overtake them (or prevent them from overtaking you) which is a tangible benefit. Attacking anyone else is not only wasting the attack but giving said rival the advantage as they will in all likelihood attack you.

[Garou]

So it looks like no one knows if boost capacity (red text) gets reset every day.
It will be pretty frustrating if you spend your entire capacity and only get 100 points to play with next day.

[Miraglyth]

引用自 Spooky：

So it looks like no one knows if boost capacity (red text) gets reset every day.
It will be pretty frustrating if you spend your entire capacity and only get 100 points to play with next day.

Correct on both counts. The manual and rules just don't say, so we'll have to wait and see really.

[happy]

can i get coins to buy stuff without actually spending money on steam?

[Garou]

引用自 Miraglyth：

引用自 Spooky：

So it looks like no one knows if boost capacity (red text) gets reset every day.
It will be pretty frustrating if you spend your entire capacity and only get 100 points to play with next day.

Correct on both counts. The manual and rules just don't say, so we'll have to wait and see really.

I'm near the end of my capacity and I started seeing this message in the pit stop "Compete in the races to unlock X more" where X is the total capacity I had today. Maybe there is hope.

[Schorsch Wadschinken]

I only read through your post once, I don't think I understood anything.
And I don't really want to. In past events I primarily just wanted to play the actual video games, not try to understand this whole confusing mess to figure out what to do and which game to play in the first place.

[DLM]

And people want Half Life 3? They can't even make a little game interesting...

[Consudo]

"Your account received 4,000 Boost Meter capacity based on your previous spend on Steam."

Plenty of people have this same issue. Wonder if the 4k will be there when I get on tomorrow. It was at only 100 when I started even though I should've had way more than that.

[NS Plover]

引用自 Miraglyth：

Quests

Beneath the Driver Dash are two rows of games with quests. The first row contains games in your library and Free To Play games (Team Fortress 2, War Thunder, Path of Exile, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and World of Warships).

The first row does not contain one single game from MY library - and I have lots of games with achievements including games that I have not completed all the achievements on. The first row only contains games that I am not interested in playing ever and don't want even if they are free. Very poorly designed task.

[Swirlpuffy]

My odometer didn't even start with any points at all. Not from past purchases, not the 100 I'm supposed to start with, nothing.

Anything I can do to fix this?