For now, count me and my tent in as definately interested.

Tim

Quote from Bob Smith :

Tim - you're welcome to do whatever. IIRC, you'll be the only person other than myself to have attended all four meets,

I actually missed the first meeting, but the other three I have made, and actually last years jaunt out into Southampton for an Indian was really good and I enjoyed it - more of a restaurant outing than a pub crawl. This time *sounds* more like a pub crawl, and I will be steering very clear of such a situation.

Tim

Firstly, for all those who will be staying over and going back down the M1 on the Sunday (24th), I saw that it will be closed between J32 and J35 in both directions from 00:00 until 19:30 (i.e. all day long). It says on the Traffic England website that there will be a 20 minute delay, so I assume there will be some diversions in place. I don't know if it will affect anyone, as the A1 might be the better bet for most people, but I just thought you should all know

As for the after event stuff, I too am a non-drinker (by choice and not a doctors say-so). I will not be staying the night as I don't really fancy the idea of going out into Newcastle with you but I don't mind grabbing some food with some of you (depending upon the options and who is doing what etc).

The offer of going to your house, Ben, and playing LFS sounds OK, but not the drinking beer bit! I would like to play this by ear though and make my mind up at the time (depends on how I feel, if I am talking to people or if I am being a miserable sod and just standing at the back laughing at all the bad jokes that I can't actually make out over the rest of the din in the pub! - sounds wierd I know and might not make sense, but there you go, thats me)

The karting will be fun though! See you there.

Tim

Ben, just so you know, I am going to be on holiday from the 9th (I already paid the deposit) so don't be surprised if you don't hear from me until the 17th.

If anything major happens which changes proceedings, you can assume I will go with the majority and vote on my behalf

Tim

Hi,

I voted for the new plan because with driver changes, no one ever knows where you actually are until you cross the line at the end - and you can't discuss tactics/car feel and corners etc when there is only two in a team as you get out as the other gets in.

I have driven straight for 25 minutes before and I was knackered too, but that is all part of the fun - and we get two 15 minute sessions in between which we can compare notes on racing lines etc.

Tim

Quote from Bob Smith :

IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ
...Sunday 24th...

No big deal for me, as Monday the 25th is a bank holiday and I haven't booked anywhere to stay yet (still not decided if I am staying over or not, tbh)

Tim

Firstly, I have been out and very busy lately, so thanks JR for pointing me to this thread.

Quote from pearcy_2k7 :

Done all that, signed up, put my team and country in with no response so was wondering what happened.

Let me know your membership number and your team name and I will check them out for you.

Quote from horrgakx :

To be brutally honest, this is one of the best organised leagues I've ever seen (whether on LFS or other "games"). The amout of work behind the scenes is amazing (the way the server works for qualifying and racing) which I've not seen on other leagues.

...

As always, thanks horrgakx - we do try our best.

Quote from Fabio Maximus :

this is also my first time racing here. I just do a few laps and not really fast. My goal in qual is not be in the last pool, and i haven't dicide my pitstop. It will depend on whe place i got in qual.

Good luck Fabio - good to have you onboard!

Quote from Dac :

this will be my first race in any series. i usually just use redline or conedodgers. i need a bit of advice.

i have chosen the FZR however the best time i can do is 2:48. what kind of place could i expect to be with this kind of time?

also is there anything specifically yous could suggest i do to improve this time. im using a set from the linked setup site.

my plan is to fuel for 19 laps and do a pitstop on lap 17 or 18 using R4 tyres ofcourse. is this a good strategy?

my goal is to finish the race not last.

thanks,

Hi Dac,

Firstly, welcome onboard.
These are all questions that I ask myself every time a new event comes near. You never know what Pool you will be in until our illustrious leader makes the grids - and this is a manual process which does not lend itself well to programming/automation, so the split of Pools is never clear until it is done.
As for the strategy, it all depends upon how long your tires last and if you are quick with a car whose tyres can last or do you go quicker and hope your tyres dont degrade too much - and then after all that you watch the Pool 1 guys and their tyres stay perfectly warm all through the race and they only stop for milliseconds because they do not need to repair or change tyres. I really don't get it at all most of the time!

Anyway, back on topic. Everything you need to know about the league is on the site. I admit that the rules do need some editing and clearing up here and there, but the general core is good and worth a read.

Regards
Tim (OLFSL Results/Points manager)

Quote from leifchriand :

Am I the only one having trouble not flipping the car in T...,

Hi leifchriand, and welcome to the league. I trust you will enjoy yourself with us.

I have not put the car on its roof in your T5, and I don't think I am scared of doing, however now you have sewn a seed of thought, I expect to do just that on lap 1! I have put the XFR on its roof in T1 and the last chicane coming back onto the start finish straight.

Things can only get worse from here.....

Tim

Quote from russraine :

Good work Tim.

Thanks

Quote from russraine :

What circumstances would we need to switch from first sector lap counting to end of lap counting?
(out of interest)

In the normal run of things, probably we wouldn't, however, I did not want to remove the feature in case we needed it for a skill event or if (and it is a very big "if") I ever release it for other people to use.

Tim

First post updated with details of some recent fixes.

Hi ivantod,

Good to have you onboard!

I'm sorry you got caught out by the 12 lap limit, hopefully it will not ruin your experience any and you will be ready to Qualify properly for the next event.

Enjoy your race.
Tim

OK, here is some useful information for qualifying when there are a choice of cars to pick from.

Rules:

• You MUST race with the same car you qualified in. This WILL be checked (by me) after the race and anyone who does not do this will be disqualified and will get 0.0 points.
  
• You have a total of 12 laps (well actually 12 times past split 1 excluding your outlap) to qualify.
  
• You may change car during these 12 laps as often as you like.
  
• The car that you complete your fastest lap with MUST be the same car you take to the race.
  
• If you want to change to a different car, but can not beat your current best time set using another car, you can use the delete feature on the Qualifying page on the website to remove the faster lap.
  
• Deleting your fastest lap does NOT get you back any of your lap allowance, it simply removes your fastest lap from the standings. All laps previously done, including this fastest lap, are still counted towards your lap allowance.

I hope that is clear enough, but please post if not.

Thanks
Tim

Quote from Thunderdome :

HI Admins

Is it really necessary to stop qualifying at 18:00 GMT on Thursday ? Do you directly start with setting the grids ? I have no problem with Thursday , but 1-2 hours longer would be great.

Best Regards
Thunder

The guy that works out the pools and organises the hosts (S.Varjonen) lives in Finland. This is GMT + 2. Currently, we are on summertime, and that means he is GMT + 3, which means 18:00 GMT is 21:00 local time. This time suits S.Varjonen better and allows him to do some work on Thursday night instead of starting on Friday.

For now, it will stay 18:00 GMT.

Thanks
Tim

Pool 4 - started well and managed to stay in fifth position. Then got punched up the back end in the first chicane and ended up facing the wrong way.

Then the coolest thing happened where a car spun through the chicane flips over and bounced off the top of my car - I physically ducked!

Anyway, rejoined in 10th and stayed there for a bit with my mate bozo behind me. I seemed to be able to keep him behind for a bit, but then I lost it every so slightly, and he got past. Then another past me (horragkx I think) and then another - and now I was really disheartened. Then horragkx spun and I got past and I got some renewed energy and went after 3 FZ5's. Got past one cleanly, then tried the next but got a bit sideways! I think I would have made it too if I hadn't of hit my Windows key (my keyboard sits under my wheel you see)!

By the time I got LFS maximised again, I was in the wall and my steering wheel had got un-calibrated. I didn't know if I had ruined anyones race and, coupled with the fact that I was fighting all the time to keep the car going straight, I decided to end the race there and then.

I hate this car, and I still will not be driving it regularly.

See you all at the next race. Now that one I do like!

Tim

Quote from horrgakx :

Its really good that the team behind this series are taking these things on board and doing something about them. The new server qualifying system and the new race-start feature is absolutely excellent and something every series should have.

Well done devs, your work is hugely appreciated.

Thanks, kind words indeed.

Quote from Makinen :

I would like to report the unacceptable behaviour of First|Lenhert who restarted the session while I was qualifying and just a few meters before completing a fast lap. This should not go unpunished and I would like to know what is the appropriate course of action for me from now on since I probably lost a very good lap and a few places in the starting grid...

Hi Makinen,

The behaviour of First|Lenhert is only punishable if we can determine two things:

1. If it was First|Lenhert that caused the race to restart.
2. It is was done on purpose in order to stop someone completing a lap.

With the replay from the server, we can check (1), however, it is our word against his/hers as to if it was deliberate or not. Therefore, unfortunately, I do not believe there is any punishment that we can give out.

Also, we can not give you the credit for a lap that you have not done, no matter what the circumstances (which includes the Insim app crashing).

What I can do, to try to stop this happening in future, is programming into the LFSQual insim app the functionality to watch for restart requests and cancel them immediately. At this moment in time, I am not sure if this is entirely possible, but I will check and report back here. (most likely after this race weekend, as this is a busy weekend for me).

I hope this goes someway to help.

Thanks
Tim

Quote from bozo :

You fell into my trap . I've now gone a little quicker and positioned myself right behind you on the grid ... assuming you go no faster, and nobody else comes between us. Just where I was for the last race, and that turned out well for me.

Trust me, I am not going to go faster. I think I can, but I don't have time between now and the end of qualifying. I want to work on my race setup now as that was my undoing at the last event.

Tim

Quote from Makinen :

I got it Tim! Thanx a million! You're a life saver

Pleasure, and its gone again.

Tim

Here you are Makinen: link.

Let me know when you have it and I will take it down again.

Tim

Fair point, here you go!

Its actually a set from the interno website for a different (but similar) track (AS NAT)

Tim

/finds stable and drivable RAC set, recovers toys and shares bat and ball again

/joins qualifying server and betters bozo's time

WOHOO!

"Shut the boot, you're letting the water in!"

Too hard. I'm not playing. /throws toys out of pram and takes bat and ball home

Quote from Mp3 Astra :

Great update.

I notice in Y20: When you click a place on the timeline, the replay winds further forward than where you clicked and then moves back to where you initially clicked.

For example, in the attachment, the grey bar is where I clicked, but the replay winds forward to where the yellow bar is, then instantly goes back to where I clicked first.

That is because the bar resizes itself to full screen width while it moves and then shrinks to fit the list of racers on the right hand side when it has finished. When you have the tyre view at the bottom, this doesn't happen as the tyre view is always hidden while the replay bar is loaded.

BTW, I love the replay bar sooooo much. The most useful tool when reviewing OLFSL pool races!

However, I have noticed a strangety, which may be due to lag/internet and not a bug. I have not noticed this before but I am just reviewing a league race and wanted a way to define an exact point in a race (and I mean exact!). I was just playing with the new Y20 speedy fast forward when I noticed that the lap time (shown to the racer while driving) and the replay time (shown at the bottom right next to the replay bar) get out of sync very easily.

For example, a replay starts and the lights go green at exactly 19 seconds into the replay. From this point up until split 1, the lap time and the replay time stay perfectly in sync, seperated by exactly 19 seconds.

Then when the first car crosses split 1, its lap time skips back a few hundredths of a second. All the other cars (until they cross split 1) stay in sync with the replay time.

After all cars have crossed split 1 on lap 1, they are all at different times even though they are at the same actual point in time! I would have expected them to skip backward on the track too, but they don't. So it is like they are not in the same time dimension - they are in the same place they were, but a few seconds in the future - I think!! I need to lay down!

Anyway, so I have paused the replay on lap 1, 1 minute and 19 seconds into the replay time and the lap times of each of the cars are:

Pos Lap Time shown
1 59:63
2 59:97
3 59:67
4 59:80
5 59:55
6 59:52
7 59:55
8 59:69
9 59:96
10 59:96
11 59:46
12 59:55
13 59:81
14 59:60
NOTE: this isn't their split time, this is the "time into the current lap" which if I am not mistaken should be the same because they all started the race at the same time, ie when the lights went green!

Sorry for wasting your time if this is lag or due to the internet and the timing of packets over the internet and can't be helped - but I thought I would bring it up as I had just found it and found it wierd (and not very helpful for what I was trying to do!)

Thanks
Tim

ps did I mention, thanks for the replay controls!

Thanks JR, I'll take that as a compliment! :P

Also, everone note the main counter on the site is now counting down to Thursday 29-May-2008 18:00, which is the new end of Qualifying time.

Tim