Quote from StableX :

iRacing is as close as there is at the moment to a system thats like real racing. The way the points work too, it averages out your races so the ideal is to do one full race a week and win it!

Well, i know what your saying, but i don't really agree. In the real world you race for a season against the same people. You qualify with them and race with them in 1 race a week/fortnight.
That simply isn't reflected in iRacing. You qualify with a random group and then race against a different random group. (random as in 'not with the same people.':razz I know it supposedly matches you with equal racers, but that hardly ever seems to pan out either. I've witnessed many completely mismached races.

The point system is precisely the other reason i dont like it, for exactly the reason you stated. Have a great result and a clean race early in the week and theres really no motivation to race again that week. The only way is down :P

You cant shake me from thinking it doesnt know what it wants to be.

Still, the ovals are always busy, and my mate doesnt like them so i get to do a few races for him on them. I take no notice whatsoever of the standings, and just treat it like pickup racing. It's the only way to actually have some fun with it imo. (I won my first ever Legends race on my first attemt and loved every moment of it. Never won one since mind you )

Still it's a great drive generally, I just dont see it pulling in a lot more punters atm. Any serious sim racer knows about it already. Those that the system appeals to are already in. Then you have the sim racers that love their racing but the whole iRacing system isn't for them. (theres alot of us about I personally know 7 people, myself included that wont join up until it has some form of pickup and private league racing, which i dont see happening anytime soon. I'd bet theres a lot of people who feel the same)
I dont see many non sim racers/gamers/normal motorsports fans trying it, and if they do i cant see many sticking with it as (no disrespect to Joe Public) it's probably a bit to tough for the masses.
It needs a lot more racers, lets be honest. I dont know where they are going to come from.

Still, I hope i'm proved wrong and thousands flock to it. It's the only way it will develope into something bigger and better, with more appeal for more drivers. It's a bit of a catch 22 situation for them really. Do they add features that move away from their original vison, which in turn will bring a lot more people to it, or do they stick to their principals but have far lower numbers and income.
They may not be all about making a profit, but surely having bigger grids, more racing and making more money is a win win situation.

Quote from Liff :

There should be no shortage of drivers for the Solstice and Skippy races, definitely not during European peak hours. Both series usually get 3-4 grids of drivers for the races. Next season there will probably be less people in the Solstice and the Mazdas should start getting constant good grids.

The Skippy races are usually fairly busy (depending on what you call busy ) but the Mazda's are pathetic at the moment. My mate signed up for the 10 PM race and there's 7 people taking part. I suppose this is down to the amount of people who are licensed to drive it though.

Very rarely have i seen more than 10 on the grid for any road races, might just be bad timing on my part though.

What is the maximum grid size for the Skippys btw?

Quote from The Moose :

The point system is precisely the other reason i dont like it, for exactly the reason you stated. Have a great result and a clean race early in the week and theres really no motivation to race again that week. The only way is down :P

Yeah this is very frustrating... do you just do one race per week and do well in the standings, or do you just race as often as you feel like it? Currently I am just racing regularly, because I'd feel pretty stupid paying monthly for something I'm only going to use once or twice a week...

I'd rather that the current races every hour or two were not for points, just only affecting your iRating and SR, and then there was also a league setup of some sort. So your regular races still 'count' in that your iRating and SR are affected, but your result will not earn you (or lose you!) championship points.

Quote :

The Mazda is weird. I always find myself comparing SS cars to the ones in netKar Pro, and the Mazda is very strange to drive. It feels all wrong, but i cant put my finger on what it is exactly.
The fact that you can recover when the rear steps out more than 90 degrees doesn't help.

Yep, I still think nK has the best open wheelers available. The Mazda wasn't as bad before they opened up the diff. You could still spin the rears coming out of corners with the closed diff. I think that really hid some of the aero flaws with the car. I have absolutely hated it since it was updated, and have refused to race it the last 4-5 weeks. I tried after it was updated, but to me it feels like driving the Skip Barber with downforce, and the engine in the front. It went from my favorite car to my most hated.

Quote :

Still, one thing iRacing has done for me is get me into oval racing. It's a hoot!

Are you starting to step over to the darkside? I do agree with you, the oval racing is quite fun. Have you given the Silver Crown a go yet? That car is such a beast, and so much fun when it's not at the 1.5 mile tracks.

Since I got a new system last week (one that can actually run iR) I think I might give it another month's trial. I was in the beta, but it ran like crap on my old machine and I wasn't keen on the lack of pickup racing/types of racing available. I figure I owe it another go.

Mmmhh, update for Infineon and Lowe's available

Just signed myself up for iRacing, and had a blast in the rookie Solstice for a couple of hours last night. Was surprised at how real this simulator feels, probably more so than any other sim that I've played. Well impressed

Quote from Hyperactive :

Mmmhh, update for Infineon and Lowe's available

I didn't hear about the course cutting until someone mentioned it to me on ventrilo last night after the update. It was a tiny update of 17k so I guess the update was to fix that.

Quote from dawguk :

Just signed myself up for iRacing, and had a blast in the rookie Solstice for a couple of hours last night. Was surprised at how real this simulator feels, probably more so than any other sim that I've played. Well impressed

Cool........ don't forget to give the Oval a go. It's very different from LFS ovals

Quote from The Moose :

What is the maximum grid size for the Skippys btw?

twelve....

It's actually 14 But it's 12 for the rookie and advanced Solstice.

Well I just loaded up my wingman profiler for the DFP, and then ran iRacing, and WOW what a difference. I thought I didn't need it running given that I didn't need to change any settings or anything for iRacing. But with it running for some reason the FF is much smoother and feels more precise. Also I found out some of the screws were loose in my pedals, so I tightened them all up and now they feel more accurate, as where they hinge is held in place better. So overall I'm much happier and enjoying iRacing more than ever

Quote from Michael Denham :

It's actually 14

14? What's that all about then? It seems stupidly low. I can understand small grids for rookies, but if you cant race in a pack of 20+ cars when you've advanced then you shouldn't be sim racing.

Quote from The Moose :

14? What's that all about then? It seems stupidly low. I can understand small grids for rookies, but if you cant race in a pack of 20+ cars when you've advanced then you shouldn't be sim racing.

Ahum, what is the max in netkar again....I rest my case.

Its LFS which allows us to race big grids but the rest. Its in the case of iracing not a technical limitation it seems though. It is apperantly to save on mayhem .

Quote from SpikeyMarcoD :

It is apperantly to save on mayhem .

I think that this whole sim was created with that in mind - more racing, less dicking about

Quote from dawguk :

I think that this whole sim was created with that in mind - more racing, less dicking about

Yup, but if there are 40+ drivers of an apparently equal standing signed up for a race then why not have two grids of twenty.
Surely higher licensed drivers are capable of racing in a pack of 20+ drivers?

It shouldn't be mayhem if you have even a modicum of sim racing talent.


As i said before, for rookies it's perfectly understandable, but for the rest it's poor.

You tried 50 min races with 7 people? After 3 laps it's a very long and dull procession.

More drivers on the grid=more racing.


@SpikeyMarcoD

Yup, the limit in nKpro is 15. That's pathetic and one of the biggest gripes from nKPro racers. But iRacing is capable of large grids and should bloody well have them.

In Formula Mazda there are room for 20 on the server. That requires a C license or a D license SR above 4.0

And I think there will be 30 in Radical this season who requires a B license or a C license with SR over 4.0

Quote from The Moose :

But iRacing is capable of large grids and should bloody well have them.

You have to remember that the Skip Barber series is only class D, and it's basically still a car for freshly promoted Rookies (and rookies at 4.0 SR) so it's supposed to have short races with small grids. In effect the gridsize should increase gradually as you license up: the Mazda has a maximum grid of 20, and I'm sure the Radical will be around 20-24. Last 'week 13' we had the late-model madness with grids of 40 (I think) which did develop into total carnage as drivers from all levels were mixed, however it shows that they didn't put these grid limits in because of technical limitations, but because of how it fits into the licensing system.

Quote from StableX :

Like any sim racing game, each have their own merits and pit falls. Each different to the other one. We all know we'd love to take elements of rFactor, LFS, iRacing and NetKar and parcel them up in to a new sim that we all go WOW about!

I do find it funny when you get those going its a sim not a game!!!!! It's a bloody game

Yep it's a game alright its called 'how to con a few thousand people out of X amount of dollars every month whilst providing the least possible service' & guess who lost?
It's a simulation of real life racing you wally, GTA is a game.

How are people being conned LOL? They are free to choose the service if they like and not if they don't like, quite simple really. Also why do you have to come on this thread and call someone a Wally?

Of course everyone has the freedom of choice (well almost) just seems funny, they release half a sim & people still pay the earth to play it?

If you really believe that iracing is not a simulation then you are a wally.

Quote from anttt69 :

Of course everyone has the freedom of choice (well almost) just seems funny, they release half a sim & people still pay the earth to play it?

If you really believe that iracing is not a simulation then you are a wally.

So... are you positive or negative about iRacing? I can't really tell.

Quote from anttt69 :

Of course everyone has the freedom of choice (well almost) just seems funny, they release half a sim & people still pay the earth to play it?

If you really believe that iracing is not a simulation then you are a wally.

Well, LFS is no different then? It's an alpha which makes it even worse because at least iracing is 1.0 . Anyways, didn't we also go though this topic like 500 pages ago?

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There is a flipside to the high grid sizes as well. If you have 60 people entered into a race and you put them into 2 grids of 30 people you will have part of the group racing for positions like 20-30 who would be racing for win if the grid was split into 3 grids of 20 in each. Sure bigger grids are required for longer races but I think in the solstice and skippie levels the grids are large enough.

And there is also the funny thing (I'm smiling at least ) that in iracing the grid sizes get bigger as you level up in the licensing system but at the same time there are less people who have the lisence for those races. I mean, for the higher lisence races you may have grids for 30 people but what's the use if it takes a magic trick to get above 10? The support for big grid sizes is all great but it takes a lot people to get that many people racing on the server. Just like LFS supports big grids but how often do you see over 20 people on a non-drift server?

Quote from anttt69 :

Of course everyone has the freedom of choice (well almost) just seems funny, they release half a sim & people still pay the earth to play it?

You know, I thought a while (well, a split-second, actually) about why that is the case and I think I found the answer: Because they enjoy iRacing and can afford it.

I am fine with a grid of 14 for the Skippy races. The only thing that's frustrating is that as soon as it hits 15 you're split and only have 7 or 8...

Haven't played LFS for awhile and was just dropping by, didn't know so many of you guys played iRacing. I just can't go back to LFS and GTR now. I don't have much time for sim racing anymore and the quality of the online racing and superb tracks and cars is perfect for me. Maybe I've raced with some of you? I've mainly been racing the Skippy series this season, go by the name Patrick Spence.

Quote from griever :

I've mainly been racing the Skippy series this season, go by the name Patrick Spence.

have raced with you on there... Andy Kirschetorte...

just had a rush of blood and did enough tt in the legend to get my oval licence for next season, not really into ovals but i thought i'd take the chance to expand my options and i might get the taste for them so it made sense to do it now rather than in 3 months