My tournament record:
I won 4 airplane tournaments:
https://www.simpleplanes.com/Tournaments/View/573503/The-Dragon
https://www.simpleplanes.com/Tournaments/View/626638/Daredevil
https://www.simpleplanes.com/Tournaments/View/647066/Trench-Run
https://www.simpleplanes.com/Tournaments/View/1085400/Shark-Tooth
Admittedly the last one arguably doesn't count.
I also got 2nd place twice and got to the semi finals multiple times.
On reliability:
You should test your plane on each lane in 'race against oppoenents' atleast 10 times, and your plane must survive atleast 90% of the time on a pc running on high physics. A really fast 70% reliability plane has almost no chance of winning a tournament. But there have been multiple cases of a fully reliable propeller plane reaching the finals in unlimited class tournaments.
Size:
Don't understimate how much help being small can be to prevent random crashes. Try to always make your planes as thin and short as you can (without sacrificing agility, of course). `
The KiNo trick:
Having double equal sized vertical stabilizers with the controlsurface bound to roll with the upper one inverted. Like this plane does: https://www.simpleplanes.com/a/AWJ57e/D-AMPF-wespe-VI
Does wonders on some races like Indy Air Race and Trench run, and is worth experimenting with.
Speed and acceleration:
Maximum speed is determined by power-to-drag.
Acceleration is determined by power-to-weight.
Disabling collisions
This is a form of XML-modding that is allowed in every tournament. Always disable the collisions of all your parts. To reduce the risk of crashing into opponents and to reduce the risk of your plane randomly exploding.
Propeller tournaments:
I haven't ever made a glitch plane, so I can't really help with making those. My advice for Unlimited-class and Mod-class planes will be more relevant than the advice here if you make one. I'll be talking about propellers instead.
Unless the race is called Indy Air race you should really be having 100% reliability and be flying close to the maximum speed for props of 760mph.
Use T-3000 props rather than T-1000 props. They have a better power to weight ratio allowing for better acceleration. To minimize drag, copy this plane's nose cone design: https://www.simpleplanes.com/a/u8cfyG/Mehgjik-2-11-Homura-Madoka-no-max-RPM . To futher reduce effective drag I recommend putting multiple engines through eachother. Usually 3-4 of them is a good balance between convenience and power. Going for more after that gains you very little.
You should set-up your propeller as follows: Set Engine power, blade diameter, blade thickness and blade count to max. Set pitch control to manual and set the neutral pitch to neutral and the pitch range to 75%.
Unlimited(jet) tournaments:
These are mostly about balancing speed with reliability. I recommend to always err on the side of reliability.
On races were going much faster than 1000 mph is too risky you should use VTOL engines rather than jets as they have superior acceleration.
In a lot of cases normal wings are too weak for the high speeds of unlimited/mod planes. It is allowed to XML-mod structural wings to have control surfaces. And I recommend you do so in most mod and unlimited class tournaments.
Mod tournaments:
As mentioned earlier. Power-to-drag determines max speed, power-to-weight determines acceleration. So the trick is to maximize power-to-weight while keeping power-to-drag relatively low. To do this, design your plane to have high drag. XML mod your engines power scale to a silly high number and reduce your plane's weight by reducing mass-scale to 0.2 or however low you can make it without breaking the game.
Don't do this in tournaments that aren't mod class as that would just get you disqualified.
@xiaofootball The glitch planes kinda defeated the whole purpose of a tournament redo. The first one was crashed multiple times where we used glitches for the sake of being competitive and it was extremely unfair. But then when the time came for a redo, the general idea was to avoid using glitches and do a proper and fair competition. The people that are currently being "salty" had the faster planes the first tournament and would have been able to fix the stability issues within a week. The main argument here is why should the rotors be allowed when the airbrakes arent. Cause it breaks the stream? well we can make sure that it doesnt now cause we know how to fix it now.
I see a lot of salt over rotator driven planes. The way I see it, the rules are clearly stated, and anything else are rules you've made up in your head. I had submitted a prop engine design, but then I got curious at how people are breaking the speed limit for a even faster time. I took the time and effort to learn about my competition and rotator propulsion so that I can create my own. I took advantage of the time given to me to build a competitive racer. If you didn't because of arbitrary reasons, or was too lazy to submit a competitive design, then that was entirely your choice. At the end of the day, it is a matter of how much you really want to win the tournament. Plus, don't think that having additional rules and restriction is going to help you. There's always a better builder out there.
this is what I needed!
It’s just that I don’t know if I should use these exploits in the future tourneys, since I think they are really unfair. I’m quite new, and I still don’t understand everything, but maybe should moderators decide that glitch planes are forbidden at tourneys, and like find a way to punish the ones who create them, if that’s something they are able to do. Or, on the other way provide plenty of information on how to make these glitch planes so that tournaments are fairer.
@Minecraftpoweer soo should everybody next time try to use these exploits of the game instead of sticking to the rules, or should people doing tournaments decide not to use this, so that nobody has an unexpected advantage. I mean, I’m new and I understand that these tournaments are no longer as fun as they were because of these planes. And also, some people try to stick to the rules while others don’t, so should there be like a general agreement to decide if this will be allowed or not?
You can make it not roll too
I found 80% neutral pitch works better
I've just given up with tournaments. Always going to be someone with a glitch plane that wins
@MelucapLabs general rule people follow is just to make sure that the tournament validator allows it. Some stuff is clearly xml modded but allowed (Like having 10+ rotors on the propeller etc) But tournament validator allows it and the devs haven't said anything about it.
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So basically if the tournament validator allows it, you should be fine.
@randomusername so then, what’s the difference between this and modifying the plane like Zkillerwolfe did, which is also oddly legal?
@randomusername but isn’t that still xlm editing?
@randomusername oh ok.
@randomusername didn’t your plane in the tournament today use electric engines, which have xlm modified max power?
@randomusername
In mod tournaments it isn't that is why they are called mod tournaments. I changed my post a bit for clarity about that.