At least in the rookie servers. Several drivers in every race are caught out by this and then just quit because what's the point? Yeah, I know that it's their fault for not studying the fine print, but as this sim seems to be haemorrhaging drivers every day, I think it would really help if this feature was returned.
Hahaha. Sorry couldnt help it. I have never seen this use of the word. Note: I agree its a problem they quit - but isnt this feature one of the few features that get Raceroom slightly closer to RL? I mean taken from TT mode I consider it 100% gamish that you can floor the throttle and just let the game start for you.
If that's the scope of the issue, I think it's better to turn the protection back on and think of more effective ways to inform drivers about that feature.
Depends on how much realism you want. For example, IRL drivers don`t have HUDs (yet) and yet many sim racers are willing to have a massively unrealistic amount of information taking up 30% of the screen. Also, I would only want this feature reinstated in the Rookie servers, not the others.
I admit I didnt notice this part of your post. But I would also like to add that in a relaxing way Im more or less against all the info and graphs I can see people does plaster their driving screen with. The only thing Im focused on personally is temp and laptime
We've discussed this issue prior to making that change and came to the conclusion that having different race start conditions between ranked servers would only make the situation even more confusing, potentially leaving people unsure about what rule applies for the server they joined. Hence we decided to enable the feature on all servers, eliminating at least that bit of uncertainty. I agree it's not ideal but let's give it some time to sink in. In a few weeks hopefully this will be accepted as the new "normal" and everyone will be aware.
In many ways this is simply a compensation for not having a team of specialists to take care of all that info. Players aren't just drivers, they also need to do engineers' and strategists' job.
Given that most other racing sims have had false starts in online racing since their release, R3E is the exception in having it as a relatively "new" feature. I mean, in every race I ran pre-change we had people making poor starts. When asked why it was revealed that they had no idea that it was impossible to false start, so were messing around trying to get the "perfect" launch while the rest of us were simply flooring the throttle the moment the lights come on. It's just an adjustment period, that's all. Once people are aware they won't make the same mistake repeatedly. (Well, some of them will but hey...)
The problem with that change is lack of communication or indication in the game that jump start is suddenly enabled after long time it was disabled. If there was a clear indication in the server details in the lobby or a clear message before the count-down, so ppl would have know. Only place i saw it, by chance, was on the ranked schedule list before i enter the lobby
I see at least two places: ranked schedule and server rules when you're on that server. Server rules when viewed only from the server list, don't seem to have that indication. I also think it would help if false start feature was announced while you're on a starting grid (how it is in GT Sport, for example).
I agree with having something that informs you on each race. Like maybe red font so it stands out cause you can say instance have race with the BMW 235 on zandvoort with False start on and then race the same car on suzuka and it won't be on. Ive had it catch me couple times. After a year on racing with it active on every track and car combo, you kinda get use it that away.
It clearly says "jump starts enabled" on the ranked schedule. But could anyway be easily remedied by having a screen with the rules that apply before every race. So after the race has loaded it will say "press any key to continue" or something like that. At this point you could present the rules instead (where it should say that jump starts are enabled and what the penalty will be) and have the user press a "I understand" button before entering the race.
It's also in the 'garage` menu, although you have to look for it quite closely to see it. I still think it should always be in the rookie servers. It's already a major problem that there is still no ranked skill matching (which exists in most other sims), although, given that there are no more than about 60 people in the ranked servers even at peak times, it's not surprising; but having yet another way the top 3 can easily get away from the actual rookies just makes things worse. I know you should - theoretically - just practice your starts until you`re good at them, but I wonder how many casual racers simply just quit the game for good after realising they have no chance of winning, or even finishing top 5.
Losing a couple of seconds for a bad start has very little bearing over the course of a race. If someone is so petty as to quit because the can't win then screw them. Do we want those people here?