FRJ,what can I do?

Discussion in 'Knowledge Base' started by Nash Bobo, Jun 17, 2020.

  1. Nash Bobo

    Nash Bobo Well-Known Member

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    Do I have to start trail and error on learning open set ups? I feel that a lot of drivers or most drivers are useing open set ups in leaderboard and its harder to go up the leaderboard. Is there a car, maybe FRJ that is fixed and can not be changed? I just do not want to start learning open set ups.

    "Nash"
     
  2. BeefMcQueen

    BeefMcQueen Well-Known Member Beta tester

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    Hi, Nash. In Leaderboard mode it is always possible to customize the cars to your own needs, only tyre pressures and temps are fixed here. The standard setups, however, are very good and also competitive. Many of the fast guys use them and anyway there is not THE setup that gains you several seconds. It's tempting to think that a few clicks in the right place will make you so much faster, but unfortunately it's not that way. So it is therefore not really necessary to dive into all that technical stuff if you don't want to. And trial and error is a time consuming thing that can be very frustrating if the desired effect just won't show up. I've been there and often went back to the dafault setup in the end...
    Two alternative things you could do would be to find someone on the leaderboard who is half a second or a second faster than you, for example, and then use the "challenge" button to race against and study that persons ghost. It's often just a different line or a "slower in" and "faster out" approach at some corners that all of a sudden opens your eyes and leads to faster lap times.
    The other possibility - if you want to be sure to fight with equal weapons - are competitions with fixed setups. There are some offered here at the moment http://game.raceroom.com/competitions/

    Oli
     
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  3. Vale

    Vale Well-Known Member

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    If you want to compete on equal terms then choose a fixed set up competition. ATM you have Silhouettes at Moscow and DTM at Lauritzring.

    Regarding leaderboards, the best option would be to pick a car with minimal set up options. The NSU springs to mind as there are only 3 or 4 things you can change and they don´t make a huge difference over one lap.
     
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  4. CrimsonEminence

    CrimsonEminence Well-Known Member

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    I can tell you, that you don't need much knowledge of setups to archieve good leaderboard positions.
    The gain of time to your maximum is driver specific, most of the time. Setup is for the last confidence boost.

    People, that are trying to tell you, you could gain several seconds, just by setup, are wrong...at least it isn't the way, if the car/tyre/camber behaviour etc. is not totally broken.

    Learn the basics, like what a lower wing does, anti-roll-bars/springs, transmission, brake settings (always changeable, also in fixed mode) and steering angle/ratio and you will be already good to go for open setup challenges.
    You don't even have to "understand" diff and dampers.

    There are so many tutorials out there about setup changes, if you want to aquire some knowledge.

    Also setup-exploits (which are indeed giving you massive advantages) are pointless, this isn't sim racing, this is guitar hero and you will probably not getting accomplishment of doing something special by that.

    With most basic setup changes, you can normally already get a top 10 position in normal leaderboards, by tryharding and a top 100 position in the huge competition stuff, like the Porsche challenge we had (which was fixed setup anyway).

    By tryharding i mean, you will run into several hours of frustration, until you may or may not find the "heureka", that gives you the last bits of time. Hot-Lapping can be VERY unrewarding, i know, it's not encouraging to say, but i'm not gonna lie about the rocky path to a good lucky laptime.

    The really important thing for setups is more in races and qualifying with temps and materials changing, especially longer ones, increasing your confidence of the car, so it feels, like it is unable to spin or die of tyre wear and heat.^^
     
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  5. Vale

    Vale Well-Known Member

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    I would add that you will gain more in lap times and consistency by finding a control method and device you are comfortable with and finetuning stuff like steering sensitivity and lock than with setup, which is often more placebo effect than any real gains.

    After that, follow the lines of the fastest drivers and you will gain seconds until eventuallly you a hit a wall, which is your true skill level. For some people, that level will be D rank - not everyone gets A´s in French at school even if they study.

    Recently, I have been trying all types of input devices - with and without force feedback, analogue and digital. They all offer different experiences and levels of immersion, but if I want to go for good lap times then it is always back to the good old keyboard. It works for me to be in the top 10% in competitions but I would never be a top 1% gamer, even in a full rig because I don´t have the natural ability or the dedication to spend the time practising needed to try and compensate for lack of ability.

    The FRJ is not an easy car to handle for noobs, despite recent improvements. It is much better to start with Silhouettes or the NSU or Audi TT and then work up to more challenging/frustrating cars.
     
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  6. Nash Bobo

    Nash Bobo Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the pip talk and advice guys. I spend hours chasing one ghost. I click on "all" in leaderboard and pick on the next guy up. I thought FRJ was the beginner car to go to. I am guilty of blaming other things than myself sometimes. I never seen a ghost take different paths on the track. Maybe on and off in the corners. I feel that RR's computer only do speed of my opponent not direction or place on the track. I feel that ghost laughing at me when i take the corner too hard and end up in the wall. I would really feel bad if it was a girl. I just learn the other day about TA "Competitions". I thought they were up coming races for the pros. Way above my league and skill level. So I have alway passed them up.
    "Nash"
     
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  7. CrimsonEminence

    CrimsonEminence Well-Known Member

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    It will never be different, there is always a bigger fish in the pond, at each level! ;)

    An example of my own experience (also with fixed setup):
    I was giving EVERYTHING in the Zhejiang Audi R8 Competition for the Audi Livery and Name in the Game and even catching P1 at some point, braking explosively like crazy and even feeling, that there is even more in the car, than i can wake up in it, but not being able to archieve consistently...the R8 felt more like a rallye car, than a GT3, when doing laps after a while, consistently sliding and touching the sweet boundaries of the vehicle. Then after a few weeks a time with 718 thousands faster was posted, showing my ego its limits, because i was not even imagining, archieving an improvement of almost a whole second. :D

    Don't be pulled down by a ghost or delta, showing you the actual personal limits. It's a consistent progress, getting better and receiving new findings of what you could do better and it takes massive amounts of time and dedication and other drivers going through the same progress, it's not just talent, but time.^^

    It can be crazy, what things can be a factor, to archieve a "level-up"...
    For example: i was not understanding the F309 in AMS, always having issues, driving it on tracks like Curitiba, Oulton and Donington, without spinning at least once, even if the pace was good... until i was driving the F-Renault 3.5 in pCars2 (yes...Project CARS 2), which gave me a better understanding of using a more locked diff better to receive better traction out of corners, with more power delivered under throttle...

    What i'm basically saying:
    The human brain is weird. :D

    You shouldn't!
    A Jamie Chadwick would roast us on pace alone on a race track in a Tatuus WSK. This is not about gender. ;)
     
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    Last edited: Jun 17, 2020
  8. Vale

    Vale Well-Known Member

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    Yes, if you look at the competitions where pro drivers take part, most of them are nowhere. Perhaps because they did just a few laps or perhaps because it is hard for them to unlearn their real life habits and adapt them to what a game requires.

    If you are just trying out free content then start with Silhouettes, drive them all and stick with the one you feel most comfortable with and then move to Hillclimb, Aquila then GTR1 and finally FRJ. The former two have factory TC and ABS whereas the others have less driver aids so you get a gradual learning curve. It´s true the FRJ has the least power but you need to be much more aware with traction, steering and braking.

    With competitions, I usually need to go back in 3 or 4 different sessions on different days to get my best time. It pays to disconnect and come back fresh when you hit the first time progress wall. Often by then someone has beaten the best time with a different racing line.
     
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  9. morsify

    morsify Active Member

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    Personally I think the Formula Junior is NOT an easy car to drive quick.
    It has very basic, soft suspension and no downforce, so you're having to get control of the rolling and pitching as well as your throttle, brake, gear and racing line.
    Of all the free cars, I think it's the hardest to drive (and for me it's actually one of the hardest of all the Raceroom content!, though I can't say I've driven every other car yet ).

    If you are looking for something a bit more forgiving, I'd try the Saleen or Canhard, or if you've got one, a Radical or similar, stiffer sprung sports car. They are 'easier' to get settled for entry into, through, and out of bends.
     
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    Last edited: Jun 19, 2020
  10. MARRIANNE

    MARRIANNE New Member

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    Thank god it wasn't imagine the shame 8-(
     
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  11. Zziggy

    Zziggy Well-Known Member

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    Great car to really learn how to be gentle on throttle and brake as not to unsettle it too much!
    Also the one where a good equipment pays off: you need a steering wheel and a system with little input lag and fast graphic output so the reaction can be in time. I guess it is nearly undriveable on a low spec system.
     
  12. anno900

    anno900 Well-Known Member

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    I have a quite low end PC. Radeon 6850 HD series or similar, 4 GB RAM and an older quad core AMD CPU. TS300 steering wheel. FRJ and Porsche GT3 cup make most fun to drive and I personally like WTCC and WTCR. So everything without driving aids. GT3 and GT4 are fun as well but more digital in/out to drive.
     
  13. Olaf Hülse

    Olaf Hülse Well-Known Member Beta tester

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    I would recommend the FrJr to everyone starting to get really into racing. Cars like the BMW M235i Cup are very beginner friendly and you can't do anything wrong when driving. But the FrJr teaches you a lot more than other amateur cars do. Especially when racing more Formula Raceroom cars or Prototypes/GTE/DTM etc.
    When designing the table for my R3E Custom Singleplayer career, I was unsure of putting the FrJr on the lowest tier. But if a rookie starts learning racing with these, you'll hear from these guys later-a lot more than some BMW Cup racer.
    It's a bit like a low powered open wheel Porsche Cup Sprint-just the raw and basic essentials-all you need to be competitive in all series. As example, Rene Rast is driving GT3, DTM and Formula E all very very fast. And he learned that in Porsche Cup.
    Greetings
     
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  14. Beastux

    Beastux Well-Known Member

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    I don't really agree with you, Olaf. Of course you will learn many things with the FRJ but you will learn them the hard way.

    I think morsify is right in his description of the FRJ behaviour and that to be efficient and fast with this car, you will need many different experiences with other cars, as Vale also wrote above.

    Nash Bobo, the next time you see a fixed setup competition with the FRJ, enter the competition and you will earn experience without thinking about the setup of the car.
     
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2020
  15. Nash Bobo

    Nash Bobo Well-Known Member

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    I like the way the suspension sounds. Its like someone forgot to grease it. All the squeaky sound. You guys made me car sick for it (FRJ). I am going to drive it for a while.

    "Nash"