Is this likely to happen? It can't be much fun for either low or high ranked players to be in the same servers. Drivers at 1.8K + don't get much of a race and won't gain much, and it's not great for lower ranked drivers either.
I was just wondering about this also. There is a thread from earlier this year discussing it here. But yeah I hope that it's something that will get looked at in the future as ranked matures. I understand that it'll be tricky to find a balance but as it stands it just doesn't make sense that some of the fastest drivers in the game are racing against people who are potentially completely new to simracing. I realise not all unranked players are completely new but by the same token for the ones that are just finding their feet it can be extremely uncomfortable and frustrating to have to contended with being lapped/outpaced by drivers who are significantly more skilled. I think it should be just as important to keep more experienced drivers out of the lower tiers as it is to keep newer drivers out of the upper categories. There should be a clear progression in terms of licenses if you fall out of one you drop back down to the lower tier. I realise that there are a limited number of servers at the moment and that the cars offered in each category are just as appealing to all drivers, so hopefully if rank/rating caps do become a thing the same car classes will be available to everyone. Anyway it seems like it's early days, ironing out the server bugs is no doubt the priority.
And what would you do with a 1801 rating driver with a rep of 69? The rookie series is about the rep, no the rating.
Is that possible? Surely if you`re a 1.8k driver, you`re not going to have a rep that low. I think every server except one should have a minimum rep. In his latest video Georg Ortner questions anyone dropping below 90. That`s maybe a little OTT, but I get his point. I`m really slow (1.4k), but haven`t dropped below 85 for a long time. There`s no reason for anyone to drop below 70 other than bad driving. Maybe the prospect of being stuck in a server with other equally bad drivers would encourage people to drive more carefully.
If there was a rating cap then it would be harder/slower for good rookies to gain rating as they would be beating players with a similar rating. The player base is not currently big enough to warrant a cap either. There is more to gain for a beginner than an alien in rookie servers anyway as they are just one crash or disconnect away from a massive points drop.
Why shouldnt it be possible? Qualify in the top 10, punt everyone ahead of you, win the race, gain plenty of rating but have a terrible reputation. Not neccessarily something thatd apply to a lot of people but still possible. A more reasonable scenario would be a few disconnects over a short period of time and you can easily drop a lot of reputation while still having a fairly good rating. Addition: actually just had a look and found a guy on 1832 and 71.9 and another on 1869 and 74.6. One bad race or disconnect (with only few opponents) and theyre 1800+ sub 70. Not really liking that. Thatd leave all players that are new to ranked races plus all those with a bad reputation with just one combo per week (which they may or may not own and/or be comfortable with) and then they have to hope theres a maximum of 30 guys wanting to drive at the same time or else they have no chance of getting into a race
Unless the experienced players skip qualifying, they will be at the front and will rapidly disappear into the distance, causing no discomfort or frustration to anyone. And anyone finding themselves being lapped regularly in a 15 minute race has serious issues with pace or consistency and needs to go back to practicing offline before they enter ranked races.
I've seen a few rookie races now where there have been lapped back markers. So it does happen, even with such short durations. I kind of get your point about maybe those drivers should spend a little more time practicing offline, but to be honest I think rookie servers should be a place for new drivers to gain experience driving against other humans, which is very different to driving against AI, in as controlled an environment as possible. They already have to contended with each others inexperience\wreckers etc adding overly aggressive overtaking by much faster drivers into the mix seems unnecessary. Anyway like I said it's early days no doubt things will change over time. It just makes sense to me to have more of a clear definition between the categories in both directions.
Now here´s a possible alternative to a cap. Have the ballast system automatically reduce engine power and increase weight according to rating. This could also be done in weekly special races, which are often boring once the field has spread out. E.g. 1500 rating 100% power 0 kg; over 1600 rating 99% power 10kg ballast; over 1700 rating 98% power 20kg ballast and so on.
Its an idea, yes, but believe me during years of league racing I saw the usual aliens/highly-talented ones were able to cope with far more than 20kg of weight penalty - in a mix with experienced above average drivers/veterans... Only solution would be that drivers with a rep above 75 are not allowed to join open ranked servers anymore, cause let's be honest, joining those servers as a veteran/alien might be a the easy way out to take advantage to gain racing points/reputation. So if there is a let's say M235 i open Rookie Server you actually would like to join, there should be a restricted Pro one too. But atm I fear thats a matter of having enough resources (servers) left....(?)
Well, matchmaking exists for a reason, and if I understand correctly the current ranking system was made to be used for one. It's just not here yet.
If your ranking and reputation is high, you're not going to gain much by beating much lower ranked drivers in terms of ranking. You probably stand to lose more.
Exactly this. It's actually a huge risk for a high ranked player to enter a rookie race, the rewards are very low. Slow players need to realise that not everyone is good enough to win. Race the people around you and don't worry about who might be half a lap up the road. Nothing they do affects you.
Just as an example here is George Ortner. In the top 50 in ranking. Here's his first 10 races Big ranking points. Here's his last 10 ... And yes, that GT4 race is rookies at BHI.