After thousands of laps I finally managed to get a silver license yesterday. To my dismay, I found out two things though: firstly: I can't control the TBOs anymore, too much power And secondly: Race 2 is empty most of the time.
As I wanted to get back into Race 1, it was full, so I couldn't join. Now today while driving to work, following idea dawned on me, which could lead to more evenly used servers:

Merge Race 1 and 2. Make it multi class, so that copper and bronze can drive with the XFR and XRG, while the silver+ can use the TBO.

That way, we'd have two servers where the majority of people could race, people with higher licenses who still prefer the XFG and XFG could still go there and use them, and TBO fans wouldn't have to race on empty tracks.

Even if only one or two are driving in TBO's, it wouldn't be "point whoring", as that can be done on an empty track too, and much more easily.

The only problem I see with that is that it would be a tad more difficult to drive as there would be more lapping due to the faster cars, but I don't think that would stay an issue for long as people would get habited to it.

So, I think the only obstacle in the way of this suggestion is the to me unkown amount of work to be done by Sam to do it, and his willingness.

Putting lower licensed drivers in Race 2 defies the point of having it at all.

I think that having hardly any racers on Race 2 does the same. Of course I don't know the exact numbers, or even rough ones, I can just judge it by my own experience, but it seems to be a huge interest for Race 1, but only a little for Race 2.

Of course, it's just an idea and it should be fleshed out to work actually, so there could also be a bronze XFG/XRG + TBO on Race 2, giving hopefully a tad cleaner racing than a ffa Server. Saying that, I've raced against very clean coppers and very reckless silvers and golds, so a higher license is no guarantee for a higher racing standard.

I think this problem has got much more to do with the fact that with a silver license you can also race in the Race3 server with the UFR and XFR, and it looks like most of the people prefers to drive those instead of the TBO´s. I´ve been racing in Race2 last week and was planning on doing it again this week, but most of the times I join the server, do a race to see if other people join and end up leaving the server because no one joins or the ones that do, just leave the server right afterwards without even joining the track. Don´t think that allowing the XFG and XRG to race there would do any good, because if you were the only TBO racing it would be exactly the same as it is now, and you would end up changing to one of the other cars to have a proper race, transforming Race2 in the second Race1 server.

Good points made, but I think that's actually the remedy, as I do think that if one or two would start using TBOs on an already full server, more would join in. Especially if it would be promoted to the system, for example by having the points distributed by license, not by class, so one who uses a TBO kind of forces the others who are able to join in.

Popularity seems to flow between race 2 & 3, hense silver drivers have access to both.

Adding TBO to Race 1 would not be difficult (it's just a config file change), but it would be necessary to increase the grid size and that could have serious repurcussions.

What about adding XFG & XRG to Race 2?

There are times when race 1 gets full so it would help solve this problem and also it means that race 2 can stay silver and above.

Quote from menantoll :

What about adding XFG & XRG to Race 2?

Yeah I was going to say the same thing, alot of higher lic drivers actually like xfg/xrg racing so if race 2 was multiclass but you still had to have silver or above to join it might get busier I haven't been on ctra for ages and have silver lic - with xfg/xrg on race 2 I would very likely become more regular on ctra.

The problem with Race 2 being empty most of the time has existed for quite some time now. It was "cured" temporarily a while ago when Race 2 suddenly became a bit more popular, probably due to a number of threads here in the CTRA forum about there never being anyone on the server and about the balancing of the cars

When reading the forums it always seems that there is plenty of interest in the TBO's, but reality suggests otherwise. Maybe it's just a case of "organizing" something. Like some kind of semi-event or something, announced here with a set date and time so people know about it and can plan it into their busy schedules

Merging Race 1 and Race 2 is a big no no for me. The race quality would suffer greatly from that. I'm Gold licensed myself and I do enjoy TBO racing but whenever I race on CTRA it's usually on Race 1 because a) I like the XFG/XRG slightly better than the TBO's and b) there's never anyone on Race 2 when I check it and I can't be arsed to join and drive around on my own waiting for enough people to join and actually stick around before I can have a race Despite the fact that I prefer the XFG over the TBO's I would definitely race on Race 2 if there was actually racing to be had, just because the overall quality will undoubtedly be a lot better and because there's more points to be had.

Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

I've been fighting hard for my Silver Licence recently and can't wait to get out of the XFG & XRG. Merging the two would be a disaster! I like it the way it is...

Just wait for me to get to silver - then there will be 1 more to race with on Race 2

Nice Idea, then there would be low-level multi-class racing
+1

I like it the way it is. If you change it to multi class it will only have the effect of moving the people that race the TBO's to race 3.
Race 1 is there for a reason. To learn enough race craft to move up with others of your level.
This is why Race3 works so well. Silver and above have learned enough about how to drive in a crowd without crashing to race multi class.
Most on Race1 have not learned this yet.

i think there is some things that could be done to make race 2 more popular but merging it with race 1 is defiantly not one of them

I think leaving race 1 alone and adding XFG+XRG to race 2 would be a great idea. It would let the copper+bronze drivers have a better chance of scoring points and give cleaner races to the silver+ drivers on race two. I'm sure it would also increase TBO activity on race 2.

There seem to be 2 ideas running through this thread now.

1. Some sort of merge of race 1 and 2 as the thread title says

and

2. Adding XFG & XRG to race 2


It would be nice if Sam could give his opinion on both ideas.

Sam?

I'm not yet convinced that there is actually a problem to solve. I definitely wouldn't open Race 2 to Copper/Bronze. That would destroy the quality of the racing there. The only possible route, if we were to go any way other than the way we are now, would be to allow Silver licenced racers to use XFG/XRG on Race 2 in a multiclass environment. That would broaden the track availability for XFG/XRG drivers, since Race 2 is S2 rather than S1, but I don't think that it would increase the popularity of Race 2 in the right way or for the right reasons.

In short.. I'm still thinking...

Quote from peterules :

Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

I've been fighting hard for my Silver Licence recently and can't wait to get out of the XFG & XRG. Merging the two would be a disaster! I like it the way it is...

Just wait for me to get to silver - then there will be 1 more to race with on Race 2

and once you've obtained silver, maybe you can move on to single seater........

Quote from menantoll :

2. Adding XFG & XRG to race 2

Doesn't sound bad at all. Though Race1 could then have its name changed to "CTRA Wreckers Limbo"

Quote from AjRose :

I think leaving race 1 alone and adding XFG+XRG to race 2 would be a great idea. It would let the copper+bronze drivers have a better chance of scoring points and give cleaner races to the silver+ drivers on race two. I'm sure it would also increase TBO activity on race 2.

+1, sounds great.

Quote from zeugnimod :

+1, sounds great.

+1

I do like these cars but i would rather drive them in a place safer than race 1 generally is.

TBH race 1 is pretty ok when u get the hang of it but i do think that the higher licenced racers are earning too many points there... I see many Silver, Gold & Platinum drivers earning like 20pts or more. I think they need to be dropped a bit then it might free it up for the rest of us and give them more incentive to go into race 2/3

20pts is nothing to those guys.

Ban Silver and above drivers from race 1, then race 2/3 would fill up a lot quicker.

A lot of silver+ drivers enjoy the XFG+XRG...

Make a silver+ XFG and XRG server which awards more points.