You'd never get a race. 100 laps at Suzuka, including testing different set-ups, is about 4 hours. For one car/track combo..... If you want that kind of dedication, an organized league or one of the competitions is a better bet. I get the sentiment behind it, and I agree that there has to be some kind of measure of a players over-all level. But it also has to be balanced with the fact that most people are doing this for fun, while also trying to balance jobs and family. Also, having a ranking system means someone has to watch it, meaning it has to generate some kind of income. If you set the entry-bar too high, nobody is going to bother joining, and thus no money.
Where do you live, if I may ask? There's an asian league, but they don't race much. I think everyone out of Europe has some difficulties finding casual races at their time zones, even without ping issues.
I will not recommend anybody to hide inside a locked server. I think it's a selfish and counterproductive way to solve problems. It's like a gated community. The only ones who benefit from it is the people who live in it. The rest of the society will not. The "bad guys" is a minority, both in Raceroom and in real life. If more and more people join private - password protected - servers the situation on open servers will be worse and worse the occasional / sporadic races will die. I drive sporadically but frequently. I don't want to adapt my life to others. I want the ability to drive when it suits me. That's the thing with open servers. I really hope that the coming (soon?) online ranking system will give open servers what it needs to attract more drivers.
So you're saying it is my fault you can't have fun, because I want serious competition and reliable opponents instead of just playing 'casually' against random people? Sorry but this is BS.
I tend to agree an @Johnny Turbo Guttman but for sure understand @Balrog I often see private servers with one or two drivers and really ask my self, what are they doing there... For organizied racing-events for sure - a private server is pretty meaningful. But is it really necessary for a casual race?
That's enough, but not if you have to win to have fun. I rarely win but i do have fun. I like what Dirk wrote.
To much nerds online. Half of the field leaves after courve 2 ore races in the wrong direction. I race just against friends, which are all profesionall or semiprofesionall racedrivers. Best fun.
It is certainly very selfish. It is also the only way that actually offers any kind of "solution" currently available to us. The only other alternative is to just trying to ignore the problem the best you can and soldier on. I can usually do that and if someone rams me off the track, he rarely gets any other response from me than just a resigned sigh, but not everyone can do that, some just don't want to put up with it, and I most certainly don't blame them. But is it really that big of a problem when that "gated community" is perfectly willing to let you in, provided you follow a few simple rules? I mean, in a way, the ranking system is just a different kind of "gated community" if you put it like that - you still have to prove yourself to be accepted. And yet you're almost guaranteed to run into at least some of them on most public races (at least in my experience). Does it matter they're actually a minority?
I understand what you mean, but I think you exaggerate a lot. Nerds? Well I guess we all are nerds whether we call us professional or semi professional while playing car games
You have some good points @Case It's not that I don't understand why people join password protected servers, I understand that more then well, I have many hours on open servers I just don't like the consequences. And that is what i do.
Okay then. I think everyone who hides behind a locked server does it for a reason other than just being selfish. For example: - it's a club/league event - someone just wants to mess around with his/her close friends in the game - a team is testing setups/practicing strategies or certain scenarios for an upcoming online event And I also think that in all of these cases, the participants can unlock the full potential of the game in multiplayer. Because I think an essential part of racing is getting to know your opponents and how far can you go against them, what are their strengths and weaknesses etc. Of course in theory, you can do that on open servers too eventually, but I can only drive a few hours every week so it is pretty unlikely that I will meet mostly the same opponents everytime I join a public event. And driving against strangers always makes me more cautious, I want to be fair and don't give a bad first impression, but nobody really cares because we will probably rarely meet again, which results in agressive driving and lower driving standards overall. Actually when R3E's multiplayer released, I was driving a lot on open servers initially, but the amount of frustration it caused led me to join a league again.
hm, I made the experience that I often met the same drivers on public servers and yeah it's nice to race against them. At the moment public servers really aren't that bad. For sure there happen stupid accidents and things like that. But if you hang in after that, you can still have a great race... In addition, thats great training, too. But for sure, if the league-servers are full, and met your racing-time, it's great, too...
Had really nice online races today, okay some start chrashes (not in all races), as usual, but good fights after the first Lap. Thats absolutely right, after some races you know the "Good Guys" in Public Some of them i know for Years (the Names), really! also from other sims. The usual guy who buy content and go to race here isn´t a typical wrecker i think, this is such a special thing - most want a clean race, im sure about this. Many are "to fast" for their skills you can see this in the first round of nearly every public race. Thats my hope a Safety rating will fix this.
Thanks, your answer encouraged me to try again sometime soon I actually do have fun racing midfield (not even dream about winning tbh), but I'm still not consistent and fear ruining someone's race with my mistakes. If I am to settle with the back of the pack and capitalize on other's problems I can finish ok. RL inferference also ruins my concentration many times so I prefer to race SP where I can pause/restart the sim.
As I was saying elsewhere on this forum, I am really interested in the incoming multiplayer ranking system. And I agree it’s a hard stuff to find the good balance in entertaining casual players who want to race first for fun and the hardcore racers who have more dedication and want to compete with the most talented drivers. It will be the key of the success for sure in the tremendous e-sport era we are living So how to get it ? Some points that come to my mind are the following. First the license model. The devs might define racing level series from mandatory rookie cars series to extreme cars series. Something gradual, from the easiest to handle to the most difficult to drive...fast (setup needed ). To be elligible to race in a level serie, you have to reach a total of points : 0 for Audi TT Cup or Formula Junior to hundreds of points for FRX-17. Points are scored according to your race results like championship points (no negative points like in iRacing, DNF or over top 10 equal 0 for example) and added race after race. With the following limitations, points are only added the time you raced in a level serie. Once the amount of points achieved, the counter is reset to 0. And there is also a minimum of drivers required to score points. Now how to split racers in a level racing serie. As I think there is a minimum of dedication to be able to race, every pilot would have to do for example 10 consecutive laps in the 102 % of the best 10 laps time to pretend to participate in the top split (division1). Then 104 % for division 2 and so on. This is for sprint series. For "endurance" series you could imagine you have to do 15 or 20 consecutive laps. A qualifying session could remain attached to each race to decide the track position at the start. Depending on the number of pilots registered in a session it could be possible to mix div 1 and div 2 drivers but impossible to mix div 1 and div 3, or div 2 and div 4 pilots. Just one level left but bonus points for div 2 pilots who finish in front of div 1 pilots in a race for example. Nevertheless, everybody could practice in any practice servers with any cars he bought. With the ability for players to kick someone who do the mess (wreckfest) when others are focused to perform their consecutive laps. Not the "ultimate" solution just a draft in my head , so dont’ kick me please