Hello everyone, First of all, forgive the naivety of my questions. I am a total beginner. I haven't played a racing game for more than a decade, and it was closer to arcade. I find RaceRoom very interesting and intriguing. However, I believe it has a really steep learning curve for people like me. I have only played a few hours in amateur mode. The level of my driving skill is "I'm happy when I complete a timed lap without getting out of the track more than once". I've completed a few online races. I finished last in all of them except one, but I did finish them proudly, respecting the fair play and all (yeah I was +1 lap behind). My questions are these, if you are willing to help: 1) Is there a beginner's guide somewhere? I can't find anything. 2) Is there an explanation for the countless technical options in the car setups? I find it really weird that there is no description anywhere. Does this game ignore people with no technical knowledge? 3) Are there no extended stats? For example, I couldn't find a complete list of the qualifying times of all cars or a stats report after the race, personal or overall. I find that demotivating. 4) How do you know the type/general specs of each car category? I mean, there is no description about anything. Thanks for reading. Don't misunderstand the motive of my questions. I find the game great. I'm just searching for some guidance, because it's overwhelming.
welcome Zen Well, we all were rookies at some point so no need to apologize. The speed comes with practice and experience, and R3E is great experience. If the sim was easy to start with then it would probably get boring quickly. 1. I dont know of a starter guide but this can be helpful to begin with. https://forum.sector3studios.com/in...ng-experience-faq-and-game-features-w-i-p.72/ 2. We are lack of setup guides but there is a hidden section in the forum for people publishing their personal setups here https://forum.sector3studios.com/index.php?forums/car-setups.78/ and Mr.C setup guide in here (dont know why its not in this forum) http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/mr-c-tips-hints-points-setups.115618/ 4. Most of the cars has some of their specs in their page in the store (in small letter on the top bar - easy to miss)
Welcome! I hear you on the learning curve and completing clean laps. Sounds like you are on the right track. I can recall two things that really boosted my skills to "passable" (im still not very fast among the really good drivers). 1. Learning to brake at the limit....lots of brake at first, then back off as you slow down to avoid locking up. When your braking distances are similar to top drivers, you can run with anyone and not cause problems at least as long as you know the track. If you have to brake 50 meters early to make the turn, this can mess up some races. 2. Rarely, if ever coast....if not braking, then be on the gas, at least some. This really helps you learn to balance the car and maintain traction. I wouldnt worry too much about setup at first, maybe rear wing, but early on it wasn't my setup, it was my driving.
One thing that can help a lot is to watch real life onboard cameras of the car/track combo you want to learn. You can really get some precious tips from real drivers' behavior.
When I was a noob, I wish someone would have told me a systematic way to learn a track. Below is the methodology I follow - note that these are in the order that will improve your laptimes the most. As an added piece of advice, try this in the tamest car you can find (everyone wants to start ripping off laps in the X17, but start with something you can handle very easily). 1) BIGGEST POTENTIAL LAPTIME GAIN: Learn the line. I mean *really* learn the line - you need to know every piece of curbing, every brake marker, every bump, every degree of camber by heart. Drive like a granny if you must (and, as a noob, you may need to), but find the smooth line through each turn, getting your wheels within inches of the track limit at the 3 key points of the turn (turn in, apex, and track out). Be disciplined enough not to move on until this step has tattooed the track in your gray matter. 2) NEXT BIGGEST POTENTIAL LAPTIME GAIN: Maximize you corner exit speed. Turn by turn (and focus on 1 turn per lap until you've mastered that particular turn - trying to master every turn on an individual lap is a recipe for frustration for a noob), focus on getting the accelerator back to the floor as quickly as possible without running of the track. If you are doing it right, you should be able to pour the throttle on progressively without having to lift. On an ideal corner exit, the car should be at full throttle and *this* close to running off the road at the track out point. Note you may need to revisit step 1 during the course of step 2, as you'll maybe find your apex and track out points have now adjusted based on your throttle experimentation. 3) NEXT BIGGEST POTENTIAL LAPTIME GAIN: Maximize your corner entry speed. Again, turn by turn (focusing on 1 turn per lap), make sure you are carrying the maximum amount of speed from the turn in point to the apex. In other words, you are finding the fastest you can be at the turn in point and still get within inches of the track limit at the apex. How I like to do this is by granny braking - at no time up to this point should you have been getting super aggressive on the brakes, but during this step I get *really* conservative with the brakes. I start braking way earlier than I need to and lift off well before the turn in reference point so that I can be sure I have really careful dialed in a good speed when I begin turning in - that's all that matters on this step. Again, as with step 2, your findings in step 3 may cause you to revisit step 1...and then step 2 again! 4) SMALLEST POTENTIAL LAPTIME GAIN: Minimize your braking distance. Turn by turn (1 turn at a time per lap), save your braking point for later and later on each straight until you are at full threshold braking (braking as forcefully as possible without inducing lock up) from initial brake application until your turn in point (with the tricky part of course being that you want to be at maximum turn in speed as determined in step 3). Once you are consistently threshold braking on every single turn on every single lap, now you will take things to their white-knuckle maximum and push your braking point even later yet by employing the very tricky technique of "trail braking" (progressively letting up on brake pressure in concert with your wheel turn in angle, pushing it to the point where you only completely come off the brakes when you are right upon the apex). Don't expect to be able to get to step 4 overnight. If you are disciplined and truly take the time to master steps 1 and 2 for a given track, you'll be surprised how many apparently "faster" drivers you'll outpace over the course of a race. Be patient with yourself and before you know it you'll be tackling the trickier steps 3 and 4.
Actually, if you're a total beginner my advice would be forget setups completely. The best thing you can do is practice, practice, practice. Unless you're particularly gifted you won't be outrunning the default setups any time soon so stay out of the garage....seat time is infinitely more valuable to you.
The cars base setup in this game is a actually quite good and you should start from there. But if you want to start learning about what the different setting do. This a good article to read http://www.rapid-racer.com/suspension-tuning.php#Damping: Bump and Rebound It is written for real race cars and is very useful
I wish someone had handed me this along with the advice "relax, have fun, and practice, practice, practice". Would have saved me a lot of time spent down rabbit holes.
This zero coasting exercise is really good, it's hard at start, but it really bring those precious seconds back. The rule is simple, if not on brake, on power, and vice-versa. There are situations where coasting is acceptable but if you can avoid, better. I don't know if we have a pedals overlay here in R3E, but I always have a few laps around nords in AC with the pedals app up.