Patch X has now been out a while and I would think some meaningful statistics can now be drawn regarding the car balancing being attempted online. I thought I would try to start the ball rolling by presenting the results of the GTRs on Conedodgers 2 server. This server runs lapper and therefore keeps a record of the best lap times recorded by each racer.
This is one circuit and represents only the fastest laps driven on a 10 lap race. We need to collect stats for other circuits and possibly distances but we have to start somewhere. If you know of other circuits running GTRs and lapper then highlight them here even if you don't want to present the stats.
Ok, I have taken the top 16 times for the FZR and FXR as these cars are by far the most popular to have been used on the server. I have taken the top 8 times for the XRR on the basis that if it was driven by twice as many people the 8th position time would drop to 15th. This improves the XRR average by 0.35 seconds but is probably more representative.
The fastest recorded times on the server are:
FZR 1:40.95
FXR 1:41.70
XRR 1:41.75
The average times for the top 15 times (or 8 in the case of the XRR) are
FZR 1:41.38
FXR 1:42.26
XRR 1:42.40
For this one circuit the results show that the FZR is still much too fast compared to the others. If the aim is to balance the field then the FZR needs more ballast and the ballast in the XRR is too much. Personally I feel the XRR and FZR are generally harder cars to drive in that they require better throttle control and put a wheel on the grass and you are in trouble. The FXR on the other hand lets you get away with clipping the grass and seems to plough through loose tyres with little trouble which would end you race in the other two. For this reason I would rather see their ultimate speed slightly greater than that of the FXR as the FXR driver is likely to be able to drive closer to its limit for the average driver over the course of a race.
My personal experience is that the FZR has lost about a second as a result of the ballast and the XRR has lost about 0.5 seconds. I don't know what the current ballast levels are (80kg & 40kg?). Doubling the FZR ballast would reduce it to where the FXR is now. For the reasons above this would seem too much as everyone would just drive the FXR so maybe a 50% more is what is required to just close them up? The XRR seems to need to loose it's ballast, or at least most of it to return its slight advantage over the FXR and get it to a similar speed to the FZR.
This is one circuit though so we need more statistics from other layouts to make an informed judgement. There was some talk about the endurance advantages of the various cars. To me endurance racing is a tiny part of how these cars are raced and endurance racing is much more organised. Given it is organised then the voluntary balancing can be employed by the organisers if they feel there really is an imbalance over longer distances. In my opinion, the cars should be balanced over the most commonly raced distances and this seems to be 5 - 10 laps.
The current useage of the cars shows that even with the imbalance, people drive the FZR because it is clearly the fastest and they drive the FXR because it is the easiest to drive near the limit. The XRR just isn't used that much because it has the handling troubles of the FZR but not the speed advantage. If nothing else is changed it seems to me the XRR ballast needs to be reduced or removed so that the mix in the field is more even. I will declare my bias here as I am traditionally and XRR driver on the verge of jumping ship to one of the others.
Lets get some other circuits analysed so the guesswork can be removed from the current ballast levels. It might be that AS3 just favours the FZR and the current levels will be seen to be correct across the full range of circuits. We won't know until we start checking.
Maxim
This is one circuit and represents only the fastest laps driven on a 10 lap race. We need to collect stats for other circuits and possibly distances but we have to start somewhere. If you know of other circuits running GTRs and lapper then highlight them here even if you don't want to present the stats.
Ok, I have taken the top 16 times for the FZR and FXR as these cars are by far the most popular to have been used on the server. I have taken the top 8 times for the XRR on the basis that if it was driven by twice as many people the 8th position time would drop to 15th. This improves the XRR average by 0.35 seconds but is probably more representative.
The fastest recorded times on the server are:
FZR 1:40.95
FXR 1:41.70
XRR 1:41.75
The average times for the top 15 times (or 8 in the case of the XRR) are
FZR 1:41.38
FXR 1:42.26
XRR 1:42.40
For this one circuit the results show that the FZR is still much too fast compared to the others. If the aim is to balance the field then the FZR needs more ballast and the ballast in the XRR is too much. Personally I feel the XRR and FZR are generally harder cars to drive in that they require better throttle control and put a wheel on the grass and you are in trouble. The FXR on the other hand lets you get away with clipping the grass and seems to plough through loose tyres with little trouble which would end you race in the other two. For this reason I would rather see their ultimate speed slightly greater than that of the FXR as the FXR driver is likely to be able to drive closer to its limit for the average driver over the course of a race.
My personal experience is that the FZR has lost about a second as a result of the ballast and the XRR has lost about 0.5 seconds. I don't know what the current ballast levels are (80kg & 40kg?). Doubling the FZR ballast would reduce it to where the FXR is now. For the reasons above this would seem too much as everyone would just drive the FXR so maybe a 50% more is what is required to just close them up? The XRR seems to need to loose it's ballast, or at least most of it to return its slight advantage over the FXR and get it to a similar speed to the FZR.
This is one circuit though so we need more statistics from other layouts to make an informed judgement. There was some talk about the endurance advantages of the various cars. To me endurance racing is a tiny part of how these cars are raced and endurance racing is much more organised. Given it is organised then the voluntary balancing can be employed by the organisers if they feel there really is an imbalance over longer distances. In my opinion, the cars should be balanced over the most commonly raced distances and this seems to be 5 - 10 laps.
The current useage of the cars shows that even with the imbalance, people drive the FZR because it is clearly the fastest and they drive the FXR because it is the easiest to drive near the limit. The XRR just isn't used that much because it has the handling troubles of the FZR but not the speed advantage. If nothing else is changed it seems to me the XRR ballast needs to be reduced or removed so that the mix in the field is more even. I will declare my bias here as I am traditionally and XRR driver on the verge of jumping ship to one of the others.
Lets get some other circuits analysed so the guesswork can be removed from the current ballast levels. It might be that AS3 just favours the FZR and the current levels will be seen to be correct across the full range of circuits. We won't know until we start checking.
Maxim
