Quote from ajp71 :

This thing is seriously evil, having decided I wasn't going to stay up for the midnight Solstice race I'm now considering respraying my Legends car pink and going oval racing in it

He's gone for sure....it's a sad sad day in LFS world.

To the rest of you, nothing good will come of this yunno, get out now and save yourselves while there's still time. Then please email your activation code to me.

First they steal your money, then they steal your soul Not that i care, my soul's worthless anyway. Just hearing you chaps having so much fun with this is starting to piss me off is all.

So Guiz... Is iRacing as shit as everyone predicted?

Yeh, what's the verdict? :P

I'm actually interusted in trying it but I doupt im ready to pay around 200$ a year for a game/simulator. :S

Is it really really worth it?

Quote from Hyperactive :

Anyways, it looks now that there is no point (literally) for me to do another race on this week because the results are averaged. So I'd need to win or be 2nd to make the race worthwhile for points. And that's very unlikely because I'm most probably going to be pitted against much faster guys on the next race.

No reason to do it for the irating and ttrating, you can get those from time trialing without any risk of losing points. Great intentive iracing, keep people away from racing so they can keep their points!

This isn't correct. The rating you can see at the moment is only your Safety Rating, not your iRating. Your iRating only goes up in races and it's the one that determines what drivers you get matched with. Usually it will go up if you finish in the top 1/2 of the field. Down if you finish in the bottom 1/2, but it is weighted on whether you beat or are beaten by higher/lower rated drivers. You can see who is rated higher by their car number.

So what is the incentive to do more races? The points you earn are based on the average iRating of all the drivers in the race. The higher your iRating is, the higher strength field you'll get in and the more points will be on offer. The highest I've had so far is 193 points for a win. If you only do 1 race a week you'll never get that many

For the rookie series though, the focus is on SR. Races will get that up quicker, which means you can start driving the advanced cars and D license cars sooner

They are working on open practice sessions (where you can join any time instead of having sessions every 2 mins) as a priority, so hopefully we'll see it soon.

Quote from ajp71 :

What do I have to do to get to the advanced cars/up a license level? Is it just getting the safety rating thing to 5?

If you click on the series page it shows the license requirements.

For rookie license:
SR < 3.0 you can only race Rookie Solstice and Rookie Legends
SR > 3.0 you can race the Advanced Solstice and Advanced Legends as well as the above
SR > 4.0 you can race the Skip Barbers and Late Models as well as the above

The license upgrades only happen at the end of the 12 week seasons, which will be the 2nd August so you'll only have 4 weeks as a rookie. To go up from rookie you need your SR > 3.0 and to complete at least 2 races or 4 time trials. Oval and Road licenses are separate, so you'll need to do that in both if you want your license to go up in both.

Quote from Hyperactive :

EDIT: Fastest 8 Lap Average: 01:03.952

01:03.818 ;p

But for some reason, I'm not eglible for ttranking, how fair is that!?

Quote from evilpimp :

Yeh, what's the verdict? :P

I'm actually interusted in trying it but I doupt im ready to pay around 200$ a year for a game/simulator. :S

Is it really really worth it?

In my opinion...

Cold dark night in hell when I come back to LFS.

except for prior engagements.

I'm actually getting slower each time I start this stupid game.

Quote from Jonesy_ :

01:03.818 ;p

But for some reason, I'm not eglible for ttranking, how fair is that!?

You don't get to see your ttRating or iRating when you have a rookie license. They want rookies to focus on just the SR Safety Rating so that you get in the habit of driving cleanly.

I still haven't figured out what the point of the ttRating is anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much about that one

Was there a tyre physics patch / change since the spring? Because Greger Huttu's PB in the Solstice around Lime Rock is 1:01.8xx, whereas my pb is 1:03.345, and I can't see how anything under 1:03 would be possible...

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

In my opinion...

Cold dark night in hell when I come back to LFS.

except for prior engagements.

Do you really mean that, or are you just being vaguely obtusely witty ?

Do you really think it's good enough to justify the (rental) pricing structure ? Or do you reckon it's just coz it's all new and shiny it may have stolen a few hearts ?

I'm genuinely interested to know if this thing has the potential to last for years to come. And it's a bit difficult to gauge when i've never played the thing, and all i'm going on is the comments in the various forums.

I guess i was hoping the majority would say "it's good, but not worth the expense" then hopefully that would lead them to change the pricing structure.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I'm actually getting slower each time I start this stupid game.

Lol, just blame it on your age, late nights and too many drugs in times past, that's my excuse anyway, and no one seems to mind. Either that or no one gives a stuff Oh, and the fact that i'm generally crap at everything i do...

I think the "newness" is a serious plus here as almost every lfs player is quite sick of the same cars and same tracks. And if you compare tracks, well, even the south city's bumps aint got shit on lime rock's bumps
I think i'll be into iracing for quite some time, and hopefully some other lfs'ers as well

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I'm actually getting slower each time I start this stupid game.

I'm actually getting faster each time (1.04.2x is my pb now), but each race im driving more like rosset, bernoldi, ide, verstappen, diniz (in short, I fail more and more and more...)

This is not doing good things to my ePeen or iRating

Quote from DarrenMarsh :

You don't get to see your ttRating or iRating when you have a rookie license. They want rookies to focus on just the SR Safety Rating so that you get in the habit of driving cleanly.

I still haven't figured out what the point of the ttRating is anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much about that one

What they want is my money. and how am I supposed to focus on any god damn rating when there's all three races a day I can take part in, I'm just asking. and in two of those I get taken out and for that awarded with some nice minus points too!

The game is fantastic driving wise, but they could have way gone way different routes at times.

Quote from DaveWS :

Was there a tyre physics patch / change since the spring? Because Greger Huttu's PB in the Solstice around Lime Rock is 1:01.8xx, whereas my pb is 1:03.345, and I can't see how anything under 1:03 would be possible...

Yes, those fast laptimes were from the alpha test. I think the physics change was just before the beta test started.

They were going to delete those laptimes but I guess it's on the bottom of the priority list

Quote from DarrenMarsh :

The license upgrades only happen at the end of the 12 week seasons

hang on a sec
so if youd like to drive the radical in a worst case situation youd have to wait 8 and a half months to get there?

Quote from Jonesy_ :

01:03.818 ;p

But for some reason, I'm not eglible for ttranking, how fair is that!?

Yeah, but you have no life. Life's at least worth of 0.5secs. Or 0.15 I hope

Quote from DarrenMarsh :

This isn't correct. The rating you can see at the moment is only your Safety Rating, not your iRating. Your iRating only goes up in races and it's the one that determines what drivers you get matched with. Usually it will go up if you finish in the top 1/2 of the field. Down if you finish in the bottom 1/2, but it is weighted on whether you beat or are beaten by higher/lower rated drivers. You can see who is rated higher by their car number.

I still do not quite understand and remember what all these ratings do, thanks for clearing this one out

Quote from DarrenMarsh :

So what is the incentive to do more races? The points you earn are based on the average iRating of all the drivers in the race. The higher your iRating is, the higher strength field you'll get in and the more points will be on offer. The highest I've had so far is 193 points for a win. If you only do 1 race a week you'll never get that many

Well, I have done just two races, 2nd and 1st being my finishing positions. If I'm reading it right I have now 96 points versus the 95 I had after my first race. I just wonder how many points less I'd have had I finished 3rd and last? - A lot less.

Hmm, so let me get this straight: drivers are pitted against drivers who have similar irating? But aren't the race grids decided by the qualify times?

Quote from DarrenMarsh :

For the rookie series though, the focus is on SR. Races will get that up quicker, which means you can start driving the advanced cars and D license cars sooner

The situation with the points will stay however. If I manage to finish high on my first race of the week there is very little sense to race again and risk losing lot of points that may even be impossible to get back. It says averaged and averaged is average .

Quote from DarrenMarsh :

The license upgrades only happen at the end of the 12 week seasons, which will be the 2nd August so you'll only have 4 weeks as a rookie. To go up from rookie you need your SR > 3.0 and to complete at least 2 races or 4 time trials. Oval and Road licenses are separate, so you'll need to do that in both if you want your license to go up in both.

So I have about 4 weeks to get my SR to above 4.0 to be able to race the skippie later if I choose to do so? Again, the system seems a bit strange. Some people are looking at grinds of 12 weeks while some may get the higher lisence within just week or two?

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I'm actually getting slower each time I start this stupid game.

Slow in, fast out

I don't mean to brag or anything but so far the system is putting me against people who are a lot slower than me. I just finished a race with a 38 seconds margin (the 2nd was 38 slower in 20 laps) and I even had a small off in T1. Well, at least my road lisence is now at 3.44 :/

Well, Summit point, here me comes.

Quote from Shotglass :

hang on a sec
so if youd like to drive the radical in a worst case situation youd have to wait 8 and a half months to get there?

6 months would be the worst case. You can race the next license level cars as soon as your SR is over 4.0.

The Radical is the B license car so you could start racing it as soon as you get a C license. So 3 months as rookie, 3 months at D, then you could start racing the Radical when you get the C license.

For you guys it'll be 4 months, 1 month rookie, 3 months D license, then you could start racing the Radical.

Quote from Hyperactive :

Well, I have done just two races, 2nd and 1st being my finishing positions. If I'm reading it right I have now 96 points versus the 95 I had after my first race. I just wonder how many points less I'd have had I finished 3rd and last? - A lot less.

Try thinking a little longer term. It's not going to make any difference in 4-5 races, but 20-30 races and you'll definitely start to notice. The guys who do more races (and finish in the top 50% on average) will get more points.

Quote :

Hmm, so let me get this straight: drivers are pitted against drivers who have similar irating? But aren't the race grids decided by the qualify times?

No. Say there are 60 drivers signed up to a particular race. The max grid size is 12, so the system splits up that into 5. The main factor in that split is iRating. Things like the friends list also factor in, but I don't know how much. The grids within those 5 servers are then ordered by qualifying times. Anyone who hasn't set a qualifying time starts from the back in order of iRating.

Quote :

The situation with the points will stay however. If I manage to finish high on my first race of the week there is very little sense to race again and risk losing lot of points that may even be impossible to get back. It says averaged and averaged is average .

Doing that may help you win the current season, but it will make it harder to win the next one, very hard to win the one after that etc etc

Quote :

So I have about 4 weeks to get my SR to above 4.0 to be able to race the skippie later if I choose to do so? Again, the system seems a bit strange. Some people are looking at grinds of 12 weeks while some may get the higher lisence within just week or two?

No, you can start racing the Skip Barber as soon as your SR is above 4. That took me about 4-5 days.

People who don't get over 4.0, but do get their license over 3.0 will be able to race them as soon as their license is upgraded in August.

Anyone who doesn't get their rating over 3 by the end of next month will be stuck in the rookie license for another 3 months, but give it a few more days and you'll see you won't have to worry about that

Quote :

Well, Summit point, here me comes.

Summit Point Jefferson in the Solstice is, without doubt, the worst combo available. Have fun

Quote from DarrenMarsh :

Summit Point Jefferson in the Solstice is, without doubt, the worst combo available. Have fun

I already tried

I would say the general verdict it, sim is good, multiplayer system needs work, but the beauty is, they are commited to continual improvements, so basically, it can only get better, surely thats a good thing?

I am enjoying it so far. I came into it without any real expectations, I honestly didn't know how it was going to be. And I must say I'm pleasantly surprised.

Initially the Solstice felt a little dull and lifeless, but as I started pushing it harder, I really began to enjoy the way it drives. It comes alive when you really start going for it, and you're constantly in four wheel drifts in the turns trying to get the best out of it. The setup is nice and neutral, with no nasty surprises unless you hit a bump badly or take too much curb, or heaven forbid, touch the grass with your outside tires The car feels to have a good weight to it, you can feel the momentum (especially once you're on the grass! it's not easy to avoid the wall sometimes). There is some real substance to the driving experience, something that is not there in LFS, but it is hard to put a finger on it.

After getting my laptimes down to the 1:04s at lime rock in the solstice (and managing a couple of 1:03s too) I had my first race this evening. Started 1st, had a little spin on the 2nd lap which put me down to 2nd place, and remained there a few seconds behind the leader for the rest of the race. I like the 20 lap races. I would much prefer having one good 20 lap race in an evening than a handful of 5 lappers, so this works well for me. But I can imagine it's frustrating if you get damage or get knocked out of the race and have to retire, given that there may not be another race for 2 hours, which could mean you end up waiting until the next evening...

I also did a race in the legend car on the small oval, which was fun too. Don't think I'd get too hooked in to the oval racing, not enough to buy any more cars, but it's good fun. The netcode seems solid so far, and overall I find it all easy to use. No real complaints with how it drives or how anything operates so far. Just need to learn more about the system as a whole and figure out what I like and don't like. So far I am enjoying it and really liking the 'career' focus of it, and looking forward to improving and getting onto some faster cars and different tracks.

I'm actually surprised I'm this positive about it to be honest. I was quite negative about the pricing initially, so much so that I wasn't even going to bother trying it at the moment. But as soon as I got the invitation I decided it might be worth a try and I'm glad I did. Perhaps the positivity is partly just because it's something new and shiny, but whatever, I'm having fun so far....

Mikey, I'm going into my first race in 5 mins, find me?

Quote from Michael Denham :

There is some real substance to the driving experience, something that is not there in LFS, but it is hard to put a finger on it.

Yes, there is something very visceral about the experiance, which makes LFS clean pretty sterile, clinical and lifeless in comparison.

Without trying it, I'd say (after tyre/physics model) a lot comes down to the sounds, then probably the interior details, interior shadowing (if you have that turned on) and lighting, and the more 'organic' nature of the tracks. I was amazed how a game like GRID, a fairly average arcade game with weak physics, was still a relatively enjoyable and immersive experience. Visceral was the word I used for it. That was mainly in the sounds I think.

Sound detail is where I feel LFS lacks the most, followed closely by visual interior details.

the iRacing cockpits (Solstice) are nothing short of spectacular. So detailed it's almost evil.

This iRacing is going to force me to go out and get a wheel finally. I'm itching to see what it's all about.