New website section: Records

[PaulC2K]

Im not going to put this onto the homepage news just yet, but over the last couple of days i've been working on a fairly basic stats/records page.
Its obviously relatively empty for the time being, were only 4 rounds in so there isnt much to work with, but the majority of the records will be dynamically generated when you view the page, however some will have to be worked out manually because they're a little too messy, though i'll definately be trying to do them dynamicly, thats for sure!

http://www.lfsproseries.net/records.php

At the moment, whats showing is what i've got. Team stats are a little trickier, the stats come directly from stored MPR data, it just requires a different type of info request than ive used before creating this page, JoshDF mentioned it a while back to me and i hadnt had chance to look into it, but i stumbled upon it while trying to find a simple way of getting an answer, and this method is used as part of things and it could drasticly reduce some of the code dotted around the site where ive had to write messy code to do something simple.

If anyone can think of something to add in there, let me know, some of the stats i may go deeper with, so as well as showing the single 'top' answer, give the option of seeing all, so you'd have Most Wins, and the option of seeing the top 10, or maybe even all winners. Getting all winners is just as easy as who has the most.
I'll also look to add a tooltip to explain the record, in places where its not that obvious exactly what it means, just for clarity's sake.

[andRo.]

Interesting! You keep making these series more and more interesting and better. I guess it takes a lot of your free time...Maybe you could make also records for best lap times etc. For example, it shows the combos that we've driven, and it shows the person's name and time who got the best time during the race or qualification. It's probably not needed, but for me it would be interesting in future to check etc.

[PaulC2K]

I did think about that last night, and the original Calendar page was supposed to include something like this, showing the HLVC time from lfsw pubstats, previous winner, fastest lap w/ sector times etc, but its pretty unlikely we'd continue to run the same combos.
Cant say too much about future seasons, but a considerable part will be decided by the people who've already taken part, letting their opinions guide the direction we take.

If there are potential records/stats which have the potential to be beat, then they'll probably figure in there eventually. But im not sure about having...

Season 1 - Round 1 - Pole Position - J. Bloggs
Season 1 - Round 1 - Race 1 Winner - J. Bloggs
Season 1 - Round 1 - Race 2 Winner - J. Bloggs
Season 1 - Round 2 - Pole Position - J. Bloggs
etc

Im looking more for guiness book of records type stuff (without the weird stuff) rather than a record of history, something to recognise acheivements and bring some interesting info about the series, the good and the bad (worst grid, most retirements etc).
Im deperately hoping to think of some worthwhile & positive stats which get as many different peoples name mentioned, rather than just having 4-5 names cover every aspect of the records as that'd be a little dull IMO. though as i say, i dont want pointless records just to include someones name, like most squiggles above the letters in their name, or most points for someone with a Q in their name and has their birthday in June

One stat i've thought of was most places gained of the grid, we already have a points script capable of awarding bonus points for each place you improve, a well as a limit (ie 1pt per place, with a max of 5pts) so thats not complicated to work out. I'd put money on Hugo owning that record for a while, from ~26th to 3rd yesterday in race 2.

[andRo.]

You can put records like:

Most tires popped - Me
Most fails - Me

Nah, I am just messing around, but you should put something that is not so hard to get for the slow racers, so they could also have their name somewhere etc. Of course nothing stupid, but maybe there is a thing that wouldn't be so mean to write about etc. But there probably isn't anything to write about.
It's actually pretty interesting for other people and even for us who compete in the race to look at these records. Maybe years later we will still be playing LFS, and it would be pretty interesting to see them.

BTW, put most lost connections - Hugo! Especially in Race 1. Hugo, don't take it personal, I'm just messing around with people tonight.

[PaulC2K]

yeah, i was adding some of the DNF's to previous rounds last night, i lost count of the number of times i added Hugo in there

I'll probably add a simplified version of these stats into the user area, showing the same sort of thing for that particular user, so you'd have LFSPS records, and your own, so the main records could show Hugo with 23 for Most places improved during a race, and in your own area it says your personal best is 10 places.

[PaulC2K]

Minor update to the page, realised the single season stats were completely bogus, in the sense that there wasnt any process to ensure it only took place over 1 season, although atm it makes little difference. Now it'll cut records short if the season ends there, which is important for something like the most wins, as season & all-time will be very different.

Added some tooltip info, nowt special though.

Update 29/3:
Ive just realised, after writing an annoyingly complicated script to calculate the team consecutive wins record, that asside from the fact it probably isnt the best way to go about it, its also not compatable for future seasons, and nor at the individual driver stats. Single seasons are fine, but the All Time stuff needs a rethink
The database has a table for the entrant info, that applies to 1 season, Bawbag's ID is #1, but if everyone reentered for a 2nd season his ID for that season would be in the 40's-50's because its data for a seperate season. So the script would have to look for a different ID when it moved onto season 2 etc.

At least i now know i can calculate the consecutive records, i thought that would have to be done manually.
The whole thing will probably have to be redone, its slow as hell too, but for the time being its good enough
I might have to come back to this page between seasons, or just remove the 'All time' records cos while they display correctly they're not scripted to do the job it suggests it's doing and im not happy having something fake on the site.

Update 30/3:
I've updated the page, removed all the consecutive based stats because most of them were too complicated to do for the time being and it looks a little odd leaving a page half empty.
So all the straight forward records are completed, and ive even included the option to see the top 5 by pressing the arrow icon.

I'll also look into the possibility of displaying multiple people where they share the same record, rather than it showing the first in the list and leaving it at that.

Update 31/3:
Ok, i know whats causing it to be so damn slow, but i dont really understand why. Id created some simple functions to fetch specific info when given say a users ID, it'd tell run the function and have all their details. Normally i'd do this the long way, by telling the page to go fetch x,y&z based on what i needed, and the site runs fine like that. Now i try and simplify things its being a PITA.

[GreyBull [CHA]]

This seems to have crashed :

Fatal error: Call to undefined function getuserinfo() in /home/lfspro/public_html/records.php on line 104

[PaulC2K]

Well of course it has, i wrote it

oh well, i think i uploaded an updated version by mistake only to find out its stupidly slow at getting each answer, and it'd be much faster with crappy long-winded coding than the relatively straight forward way i was trying to use for the first time.
Theres quite a lot going on at the moment, so i think this page/area will be put to bed for the time being, and i'll bring it back as soon as i have some free time.