People get frustrated when they're leading a race, and then it restarts simply because their opponents don't like the situation. I think the following procedure should be implemented for online pickup games.

Races in progress will restart if:
1) At least half of racers vote to restart INCLUDING the current race leader.
OR
2) Every racer except the current race leader votes to restart.

When a race in progress is restarted, starting positions will be determined by ranking immediately before restart (not from previous qualifying or race rankings). This will discourage aggresive starts, by punishing players who crash during starts with poor restart placement. Since restarts will be rare, a last place qualifier has little chance of gain by starting aggresively.

Finished races will restart if:
1) At least half of racers vote to restart.

Let me know what you think.

Great idea, its quite annoying when some idiot votes to restart in the middle of a good race and BOOM! RESTART! If im doing good in a race and it happens, i just flat out lose my concentration, often leading to increased mistakes at the cost of me and sometimes other racers.

RE-start feature has to be removed completely. (RE-start - restarting an ongoing race.) Only exeption is when ALL racers on track vote for a restart. And yes, even server admins couldn't RE-start the race.

The reason I say "all but one" (instead of "all") is because it is likely that one person may be AFK, or someone might be a trouble maker.

I would not have a problem if races in progress were never able to be restarted, but I think that many people would a problem with that.

Quote from Renku :

RE-start feature has to be removed completely. (RE-start - restarting an ongoing race.) Only exeption is when ALL racers on track vote for a restart. And yes, even server admins couldn't RE-start the race.

What about lag laps?

Quote from Cappy333 :

Races in progress will restart if:
1) At least half of racers vote to restart INCLUDING the current race leader.

Good idea, as I agree with the point in principle, but who do you know that as a race leader, will vote to restart? Chances are pretty slim.

First of all, if you, as the leader of the race, get pissed off because the other drivers vote for a restart, well then maybe you shouldn't be leading in the first place, should you? What I mean is, if you fear the restart, maybe you didn't really earn the place you're in.

Second, I do realize that restarting 2-3 times for every completed race gets annoying, but it's to secure that the race gets going with as large a pack as possible, which leads me onto the third and final thing. There really is nothing more boring and anticlimactic than winning a race with only a tenth of the starters left - and even worse, they're spread all over the track with huge gaps in between. Didn't we come here to race?

I'm usually pretty good at escaping the turn one trouble, but I hate to see my competition just disappear completely, because they got tangled up in some stupid incident and people don't want to restart. Hell, sometimes I even vote for a restart myself, even though I might be leading.

I'll say it again: If you fear the restart, maybe you shouldn't be in your position in the first place.

Don't fear the reap.. erh, the restart!

Hallo people !

There should be absolutely no restarts. Once the race is on, it`s on
If someone has caused problems in the start - Punish him/them instead.

BTW restarts in Lfs often are for the "incrowd" - When they are not in the lead - They whine restart all the time. When they have a start that suits them, then they don`t care about all the chrashes in the back of the pack.

read "incrowd" as them who rules the specific server.

restarts are for whiners

I can see only one situation, where restarts are relevant. If you are only 3 or 4 drivers on a server, and the most drivers crashes in the T1 - Then it`s plausible. I allways let the race leader decide, whether there should be at restart or not

I know racers which will not show up, on a server with restarts allowed.

I am absolutely for = NO RESTARTS - At all !

Quote from evans :

First of all, if you, as the leader of the race, get pissed off because the other drivers vote for a restart, well then maybe you shouldn't be leading in the first place, should you? What I mean is, if you fear the restart, maybe you didn't really earn the place you're in.

Second, I do realize that restarting 2-3 times for every completed race gets annoying, but it's to secure that the race gets going with as large a pack as possible, which leads me onto the third and final thing. There really is nothing more boring and anticlimactic than winning a race with only a tenth of the starters left - and even worse, they're spread all over the track with huge gaps in between. Didn't we come here to race?

I'm usually pretty good at escaping the turn one trouble, but I hate to see my competition just disappear completely, because they got tangled up in some stupid incident and people don't want to restart. Hell, sometimes I even vote for a restart myself, even though I might be leading.

I'll say it again: If you fear the restart, maybe you shouldn't be in your position in the first place.

Don't fear the reap.. erh, the restart!

Then you have invited the wrong people to your competition. People have to learn, that agressive starts is punished. That you don`t do with restarts allowed

So there should not be any fear of restarts, because the option should be turned off ! As simple as that

EDIT:
A spelling error was corrected

Quote from Renku :

RE-start feature has to be removed completely. (RE-start - restarting an ongoing race.) Only exeption is when ALL racers on track vote for a restart. And yes, even server admins couldn't RE-start the race.

Quote from alland44 :

BTW restarts in Lfs often are for the "incrowd" - When they are not in the lead - They whine restart all the time. When they have a start that suits them, then they don`t care about all the chrashes in the back of the pack.

Agree. If you knew that if you were going to ruin the rest of your race by flying full throttle into T1, then you'd think twice about it. You can't keep restarting until everybody is happy.

As for don't fear the reaper? Good song

Quote from alland44 :

Then you have invited the wrong people to your competition. People have to learn, that agressive starts is punished. That you don`t do with restarts allowed

So there should not be any fear of restarts, because the option should be turned off ! As simple as that

EDIT:
A spelling error was corrected

I think you missed the point of my post there. I'm not in any way supporting drivers who don't think further than the nose of their car during starts - in fact, I didn't mention any "type" of starters.

We have one problem in LFS that real life drivers do not have to struggle with - lag. Be it client side lag or server side lag, it is a really severe problem, and especially during starts.
Lag can end even the most passive starters' race in turn one, no matter how careful they may be.
And there's another thing - the careless drivers who always seem to crash in turn one (or at least on lap one) have the possibility of ruining other peoples races, so implying that anyone that crashes at turn one "deserves" it seems a bit daft to me, to be honest.

And, to all of you that didn't get it, the point of my previous post was that we are here to race. You can't race if all your competition (and by competition I mean the drivers that are on your level pace-wise) is wiped out on lap one.

Quote from Renku :

RE-start feature has to be removed completely. (RE-start - restarting an ongoing race.) Only exeption is when ALL racers on track vote for a restart. And yes, even server admins couldn't RE-start the race.

+1

2 real examples why I support Cappy's suggestion:

Was racing on a server with 12-15 cars. In turn 1 3rd place looped it and collected essentially the entire field behind him myself included. Immediately many people started asking for a restart. I and several others refused to vote for it because 1st and 2nd who did make it through the corner were having a terrific battle all the way through the race.

Another race on the same course again with 12-15 cars. I was starting 4th or so. Again essentially the whole field was collected in turn 1, but I made it through and had a good 20-30 sec lead. Even though I'm slow and never lead I voted for the restart because I don't want to win if I didn't actually beat those fast guys that got collected in the crash.

Your second story conflicts with your first. If you preach letting others finish the race regardless of what happened behind them, then you should have finished because you made it through alive

It's not like you're running a league race. It's merely a 'pickup' race as you mentioned, thus it really shouldn't be that big of a deal. The reset feature is nice for people who take casual races... casually. Plus, I find the standing start one of the most exciting parts of any race anyways, so I usually don't mind a few restarts to get it right. The only thing that I'd support is preventing a restart after X laps have been completed. That'll stop people from just randomly jumping into the middle of a half-completed race and provoking a restart.

Quote from ans7812 :

Your second story conflicts with your first. If you preach letting others finish the race regardless of what happened behind them, then you should have finished because you made it through alive

No they don't.
Example 1 = leader in a battle racing; has a great battle with at least 1 other person for duration of the race(applies to cappy's #2 for restarts).
Example 2 = leader racing all alone; hot laps for the rest of the race because he has such a lead no one can catch him(applies to cappy's #1 for restarts).

edit:
and more importantly
Example 1 = leader doesn't want restart
Example 2 = leader is fine with it

Quote from Shinomori :

No they don't.
Example 1 = leader in a battle racing; has a great battle with at least 1 other person for duration of the race(applies to cappy's #2 for restarts).
Example 2 = leader racing all alone; hot laps for the rest of the race because he has such a lead no one can catch him(applies to cappy's #1 for restarts).

edit:
and more importantly
Example 1 = leader doesn't want restart
Example 2 = leader is fine with it

Oh i see, you are making the point that the leader has more control over it.

But anyway, if you say the other guys are faster than you anyway, shouldn't they catch up? Thats half the fun, trying to drive error free and keep them as far back as possible. The battles are a bonus