I've just resubscribed for a month now that I've got my Porsche wheel and I can actually make it round the track without spinning.
After the first 24 hours my feelings for the game are a little mixed. So far I've tried all the rookie cars, and the SR-8, and I've nearly reached D4.0. I really, really love the schedule system, and the graphics are outstanding, and the tracks are amazing, but there's a couple problems that just keep me from loving it.
1. The snap syndrome. Been covered a million times. Same problem that rFactor had. Upcoming tire physics patch will hopefully fix. The Spec Racer Ford suffers from this immensely. I know people who drive these things. A few of them aren't that talented...
2. Uninformative force feedback. As a replication of a real car's steering, it's great. You feel all the bumps and jolts, but as you near the limit of grip, nothing changes. You can rotate the Solstice a good many degrees before it starts to talk to you, which means for the first part of a corner you're somewhat blind. If you rotate too fast, you won't see it coming and it'll snap. More information needs to be transmitted in the game, sooner, in order to replace the butt feeling. Ironically, this is something console racers do very well... (LFS too, and NetKar a little bit)
3. Safety Rating. I like the concept a lot. For the most part it works great. But gaining incident points for dropping wheels doesn't jive with me. In my opinion, incident points should only be gained with body contact, either with the wall or another car, and for spinning out into the sand trap. Spinning on tarmac, and dropped wheels should be harmless. Incidents for dropping wheels, combined with the snap syndrome, means that you dare not drive at 100% for fear of de-ranking too much.
If just two of these issues were addressed I would be a lifetime subscriber. Sure it's expensive, but they've got that juicy incentive program, and really the service is unrivaled. iRacing is something very special.
It's a love/hate relationship for me. I think having the SR hit for getting two wheels clearly off the track makes for people driving better [if they care about progressing up the licenses and/or maintaining it]. I can't see how but I'd like to think the person getting rammed or hit in the future, doesn't get all the SR hits!
The only thing that annoys me about the SR system is that so many people put such a huge focus on getting their SR up. They will just pull over and let you by because they're "just racing for SR". That just seems pointless to me, shouldn't your SR be based on how safe you are when you're actually racing people, not just running laps by yourself? I have gotten to A 4.99 just fine without farming SR. I am much more concerned with increasing my iRating than I am about my SR, the SR just kind of happens when you're trying to get good finishes, it does no good to wreck yourself out of races. I just wish more people would just race hard and clean and stop focusing so much on getting that number up at all costs, I think it dilutes the actual racing a little bit at times.
After almost a year with iRacing though, I am convinced that the SR system is pretty good. Its not perfect, but in most cases people seem to be more respectful of other cars on the track because of SR. If anything, I think the SR system is TOO easy on people, if it were tougher to get the higher licenses, I think races might be even cleaner up at the A/B level. I realize iRacing wants to make it easy enough for people to race whatever they want though(and thus buy more content), so I don't seem them making it harder any time soon.
I was racing against him yesterday (not WITH him lol). Since the 8th he's got 12 wins in 21 starts... dude's quick.
... which is still just dropped wheels, because rumble strips don't seem to count as track. Two wheels off the track pretty much means a safety ding. Dropped wheels are harmless to your reputation in real life, they should be harmless in the game. In real life, we call dropped wheels a "good save" (as long as it doesn't lose us the race).
That's what I'm talking about, people drive reserved for it. I care about my record, and I want to rank up so I can race the Radical next week. If you made only contact and major spins count for safety hits the racing would get better at all levels, I assure you. If they made it harder, even less people would be racing in the higher tiers.
The safety rating isn't a game breaker, and those three points are the only problems I have with the game. Otherwise I think it's brilliant, and I'm enjoying it very much. So far I've only encountered one wrecker in the game.
Putting the center line of the car past the rumble strips will get you a 1x. I've put two wheels over the strips plenty of times without any incidents. Uphill at Lime Rock is a great example. 2 wheels in the dirt and you're fine, center line in the dirt and you've got a 1x.
Of course, if you even think of going anywhere near some of those curbs in a few of the cars, a 1x will be the least of your worries. That being said, I'm excited to see the new tire model applied to all the old cars, hopefully that will help the Radical, etc...
For the most part, that ends when people get up to A-licence and realize that only way up is to start racing for real. Unfortunately, this means it's far easier to collect iRating in lower series where many drivers are just cruising to get licence up.
Well I bit the bullet and bought it with the Radical SR8 and Silverstone circuit. Bought one month and if I enjoy the racing then I shall pay for another 3. Going to be so poor when it comes to buying more content.
Well I've only just started so I'm in the rookie cars at the moment. I am really fuming right now. I just did my first race in iracing, Solstice at Laguna. Fought from last to first place, leading on the last lap by over two and a half seconds, then some guy two laps down decides to wander back into the racing line and brake. Big wreck, managed to bring it home limping for a third place finish. Still really pissed off about that though. Would have been a comfortable win in my first race in the sim. :grumpy:
This is one case where the option of turning collision off in such situations might be a good idea, even if it's not realistic. Some arcade type racing games do this (collision off if not on the same lap or if a player is driving backwards).
This is all too common for a first time out. The absolute key, especially until you're out of rookies, is to anticipate bonehead moves like that. If you expect the worst from everyone out there at all times, you can avoid most of it by sacrificing a little pace here and there. The second you start counting on people to do what they're supposed to do, you're in trouble. Voice chat is key as well, a simple "going left" over the mic can save a lot of trouble.
Rookies and D are, rather unfortunately, about survival. Sacrifice a little pace, and worry more about those around you than yourself. Once you're up in B, A or pro the racing and racecraft is leaps and bounds ahead of anything other sim imo.
I recall a comment from some post at RSC. SR seems like a honorary award. It's like the iRacing developers are thinking, OK, we know that most of the players at iRacing aren't competitive, so we'll promote them for being safe drivers instead, and allow them to run qualify sessions to increase their SR in case they can't increase it in races. Sort of like having a Nascar award for "cleanest car" at the end of each race. I guess this stops at "pro" level though, where I assume there's some minimal iRating requirement?
On a side note, is the number of active players continuing to increase and about how many are there now? With the reduced pricing, I would expect a pretty good jump in the number of players.
There has definitely been an increase in participation as of late, compared to last season anyway. Way more people in the practice servers at all times.