Quote from DevilDare :

Wait, so they pay you to race?

If you participate in 8 out of the 12 weeks in a season, they "pay" you store credits which you can use to buy new tracks/cars.

The maximum that you can earn is 10 credits per season. 4 seasons in a year, 40 credits worth of content. You need to compete in both a B and C class series to earn the full 10 bucks though - I think otherwse it's split 4 and 6 between C and B class.

It's kinda complicated.

Grrr. The PS3 went from 600 to 900 points. Granted it's the 250 GB version instead of the 120, but still.

Well, my sub just expired the other day.

I'm not sure what to think really, now that the "holy crap this is the best thing ever" excitement has worn off. I really, really love the service, I think the leagues are awesome and I love the seemingly constant software updates. The tracks are the best I have ever seen, and probably the best I will ever see for a long time. The racing is great, respectable and close, and I like the car selection - lots of American oddities that probably won't ever make it into any other game. Every bone in my body yearns for that upcoming FR500C.

But, there's just something missing. The handling just lacks something to make it really feel like I'm driving a car (something LFS nails, IMO). And it must be said, the game is a little unforgiving in terms of spins and dropping wheels etc (but it's not too bad, and obviously I haven't tried every car). It also feels a bit like each car is using a completely different physics model (at least between the 3 rookie cars and the SR8). I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

LFS has it's problems in terms of handling, but overall it feels better to drive to me, more engaging. If iRacing had LFS' handling, with iRacing's tracks, cars and service, I would buy every ounce of content (road side anyway) and a 5-year membership. But I think for now iRacing will remain an expensive vacation from normal simracing in LFS and NKP.

If that dude isn't famous and drowning in chicks right now in that region then there is something wrong with the world. Awesome.

Quote from draugdel :

Why are the cars even crossing the railroad if the gates are already closed? That´s just stupid.

South/Central America. It's what they do.

I'd put away 10 thousand for a starting season of privateer karting in a regional series, including a kart. The Jim Russell arrive and drive series I've been in for the past two years is about 6 grand per year. You can find non-coached arrive and drive karting for as little as 1 grand per season though.

20 grand will get you a regional run in the Skip Barber F2000 series. That's about as cheap as serious arrive and drive road racing gets. Expect similar prices for renting an SCCA Spec Racer Ford, Spec Miata or similar. Skip Barber National is in the 50 grand region.

You could run a regional program in the SCCA or NASA with a 4-grand Honda + trailer or similar for about 5-8 grand per year depending on the cheapness of the hotels and how gentle you are on tires. You won't be anywhere near the front unless you're a spectacular driver with that kind of equipment.

You know you're an LFS fanatic when you come to a set of roadworks and spy some red and white barriers. You start sweating profusely, you slow down to 3 MPH and creep past them, using every fiber of your body trying not to hit them.

In a hypothetical scenario where LFS's development time was in line with iRacing (new builds seemingly every month and continual content additions), and if they offered similar matchmaking and leagues as iRacing including official servers and special events, then I would pay monthly.

But as it is right now it's not really set up to be a subscription game, so no, I would not pay monthly for LFS in it's current form.

Quote from 1993weeman :

Edit: just did my first race on it. Was in the Legends car on the Lanier National Speedway. Started 9th finshed 6th. No incidents. A Clean race and i can tell am going to enjoy this sim

Lies. There ARE no clean rookie Legends races!

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Also that first flip was really, really odd.

These cars are set up to go left on a 30 degree banking, so a sudden right turn at high speed isn't ideal! Still weird how it flipped just by "digging in".

^ prolly sorting out world cup stuff.

California finished last... with 19 points. LOL

DE AT CH won it with over 140 points I think.

The feed for the world cup is a joke. I can't see anything, and it "started" 15 minutes late.


mms://ec2-75-101-218-208.compute-1.amazonaws.com/HighQ


^That seems to work.

EDIT: OH WOW! They're doing it as a radio broadcast.


"3:09

Dave Kaemmer:
Audio only guys, how is that for pathetic? This is absolutely embarrasing for iRacing.com "

EDIT 2: Apparently Dave Kaemmer was a moderator imposter. lol They quickly removed a lot of the comments.

What a farce.

Last edited by MadCat360, Sat, 6 Feb 2010 20:21.

I am very jealous...

Quote from mdmx :

Those things affects much much more to your lap times than perfecting the shifts, first things first, right? And why don't you learn to shift then, instead of complaining about shift lights?

Quarter car length compared to.. what.. Perfect shift vs good shift? I don't think so.

With intelligent shift lights, like in LFS, which knows the exact optimal shifting point on every gear, nobody gains nothing. Without shift lights, the ones who actually bothers to learn how to shift will gain that small advantage. Which is very good thing.

I'm not complaining about shift lights. I was commenting on the idea that an imperfect shift doesn't matter - it does. First things first, yes, but you're not cornering while you're going down the straight are you? A quarter car length is easily the difference between an average shift and a perfect shift, once you factor in momentum losses and speed at the end of the straight.

If two identical cars are going down a half mile straight, having just exited a 2nd gear 40 MPH corner at exactly the same speed and directly alongside one another, perfect shifting versus good shifting will win the drag race before the braking zone.

The benefit for total lap time for perfecting your shifts is small, but what else can you do on the straight other than draft?

Last edited by MadCat360, Fri, 5 Feb 2010 01:28.

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta... it's all semantics. It's a product we can buy, it's still evolving. Is WoW still in Alpha because they're still making changes and adding content?

Quote from Niels Heusinkveld :

At the end these things tend to be won by 'gamers' by which I mean people who spend hours and hours using the fact that the track conditions and car condition is the same (or at least changes at exactly the same rate) everytime.

This possibility of extreme practise still requires some talent, even with GT5, but there is more gaming determination involved than driving skill to make it to the top of a hotlap competition..

Ultimately it still comes down to a panel of judges watching you drive for a week in the real world. The guy who wins will be deserving.

Quote from JohnPenn :

Had my first few practise laps tonight In the Skippy@ Infineon the most demanding and Infuriating track so far for me...I Love It.

Infineon is, in my opinion, the greatest track in North America. It's future proof - even though it was built during a time when the cars were vastly different, it still races well with new machinery of all speeds. There are plenty of places to pass, but you need tons of balls to do it.

And people always coo over Laguna Seca because of it's negative Gs going over Corkscrew. Laguna has Corkscrew, but Infineon has turn 2 (negative G at the apex, after braking up a mountain), turn 3 (negative G on the blind exit), and braking for carousel.

It's also one of the few remaining dangerous tracks. It hasn't got sand traps, there are no tire walls (at least where they matter), and it becomes a monster in the rain (braking for turn 2 becomes a waterfall, there are rivers going into 3 in the basin, and turn 10 becomes a massive puddle). I was actually there in 2008 when a USTCC car speared off in 1 and launched into the stands under the timing tower. Those have since been closed, and a concrete barrier is on the outside of T1 now. No tires, either - just concrete. Go off there at 130 in one of the Jim Russell F3 cars and you will die.

In short, yes, it's a ****ing awesome track.

Quote from Gills4life :

You've kind of proven you're not reading all of what he has said then. You are only reading that one line of text. To answer your question: Yes, I am reading what he says. The difference is, I am reading all of it, and not focusing on one sentence.

If you read the context of the thread he is talking about setup settings. He even states that he has to use wildly different settings than in real life to make the car behave as it should.

The baseline, default SRF doesn't even drive like a real car, let alone like the real SRF.

Last edited by MadCat360, Tue, 2 Feb 2010 01:25.

Quote from Gills4life :

Edit: MadCat I'm not sure you're reading all of what he says.

Quote from Doug :

I've been racing REAL SRFs for 10 years, and they are nothing like the iRacing car.

Are YOU reading what he says?

It doesn't handle like the real car. Period.

The SRF in iRacing handles horribly. This is fact. No "good" car snaps like that when driven "improperly" (entering on the throttle, name one serious racing machine that requires this - even the real cars DO NOT require this). To fix this, the car needs unrealistic settings and tire pressures (the real car does not have adjustable springs).

Quote from Gills4life :

Then you're driving it wrong. Source? It was updated in the new build by the way. It feels great to drive now.

http://members.iracing.com/ifo ... readID=62633&tstart=0. Doug Azzarito.

It was not updated in the new build. Only the throttle map and and power was changed. It handles exactly the same as it did before. Those of you who think it handles differently are fooling yourselves. There are videos on youtube comparing Ric McCormick (my first racing coach) and iRacing. Ric drives the car completely differently than you do in iRacing and you can easily see how the car handles differently.

Quote from Dajmin :

I'm all for the endless games that MadCat360 mentioned; a co-op squad-based RPG/shooter with a never-ending story would put me in a state of perpetual bliss from which I may never recover

There are games pushing the procedurally generated envelope. Infinity: Quest for Earth (a space MMO) is procedurally generating an entire galaxy with millions of stars and planets. After a procedural world comes procedural missions. It shouldn't be too hard to make a procedural story after that. Voice synthesis is getting better and by the time a game like that is ready should be producing believable results.

Procedural generation is a very powerful tool. It can be defined and scripted to produce very accurate and refined results. A system could be programmed, in theory, to produce a story with very accurate and hand-crafted pacing guidelines (at x conditions, character of type a dies, at z conditions, faction type b attacks faction type c). Procedural generation, I think, is gaming's next biggest revolution.

Last edited by MadCat360, Mon, 1 Feb 2010 20:22.

The Spec Racer is so unbelievably unstable it's not funny. Guys who race the real thing say it's not even close. Even with a good setup it's still got extreme oversteer. iRacing guessed, and they missed.

Site's down for maintenance right now.

Quote from adamlfs :

Now to wait a year for the epic end to this brilliant series.

A year and then some, probably. I'd guess holiday '11 or early '12.

I can't wait that long. I'm already getting withdrawl. I NEED to know what happens next! These games don't really hold the same fun for me going through it again. I already know what happens, and that's really the biggest part of the game. I'll play around with some other dialogue choices and get some of the achievements I missed but I can't see myself playing through it a second time. In a couple decades we'll have games that never end, and I won't have this problem.

Quote from squidhead :

And I've read that Miranda fails as a shield generator and one of yours gets killed.... I still don't know how I screwed up Legion in the vents... maybe a complete new walkthrough will be better...

Probably has to do with who was in the other positions.

There *might* be some random luck in there, too. That would really suck if true. IMO they shouldn't have put an achievement in for getting all the squad out. Kinda makes it feel like you've lost the game if you lose someone.

Quote from danowat :

Urrrgggghhh SPOILERS

Don't read it then goofball.

Sigh. Lasted all of 5 seconds from what I can tell. What bull. They really need a better way to make sure people get equal share.