I would like to see a rule in place for the number of laps a car can run without serving a penalty. If we are allowed to take as many laps as we like before serving the penalty (like bawbag did last round), it is possible to create a situation where effectively the penalty has no punitive impact (ex waiting until you have a big gap to the car behind you, a safety car period etc). Also, if a driver has a drive through penalty and commits another offence, how do the officials indicate to him that he has yet another drive through? Again, this can create a strategic advantage.
In real life racing (not other sim leagues necessarily) a driver has a very small number of laps to obey a black flag (indicating some sort of penalty) or they will be excluded from the event (timing and scoring will cease scoring them).
In real life racing (not other sim leagues necessarily) a driver has a very small number of laps to obey a black flag (indicating some sort of penalty) or they will be excluded from the event (timing and scoring will cease scoring them).
I have serious reservations about the need for ‘safety’ cars at all but since that’s what the league organizers want, I’ll live with it. In my opinion (which is shared by many of the clerks of the courses whose events I’ve raced at) safety cars are a tool for the event organizers to keep spectators amused while some sort of situation (crash, debris or whatever) is cleaned up on the track by the workers. This leaves the corner workers susceptible to injury by the cars still circulating on the track and in even more in danger from those cars coming out of the pits and trying to catch up to the pack (which is why the pits are often closed during a safety car period). Ideally, a red flag is shown instead and the race is stopped. This gives the track workers a much safer environment to perform their tasks.
There are some limitations within LFS and the difficulty that the race officials have in communicating with the drivers is certainly one of them. Corner workers (marshals) are able to communicate a LOT of information to the drivers in a real race through the use of their flags (not only in the color i.e. yellow but in the way that they use them) and even through the use of hand signals. During safety car periods the passenger in the safety car will indicate to the cars behind when to pass so that ultimately the safety car will pick up the leader of the race for the restart.
So, Marsh, in real life you don’t pass a safety car until you are waved by. Since we have no way to do this within the game, it is up to the individual drivers to make their way past the safety car to enable the safety car to pick up the leader. Since the fine details of how these situations are to be dealt with ISN’T covered in the league rules, we have to interpret it as we go. I understand that you were interpreting the rules in your way and decided not to pass the safety car. Unfortunately, as a consequence of that decision, we both lost a lap. You could argue that I also made a decision not to pass you during that period and so I am similarly at fault costing myself that lap. My decision was based upon the fact that in real life, you are OFTEN required to pass a safety car but you NEVER pass another competitor (unless they have a mechanical difficulty).
I apologize for my ‘tone’ in the race report and I understand that you were only doing what you thought was best. It was, however, a very frustrating situation. In real life the situation would have been remedied by the various forms of communication that are available. The only form of communication available to me during the race was the horn (because we aren’t allowed to use text). I honestly don’t see what I could have done differently.
There are some limitations within LFS and the difficulty that the race officials have in communicating with the drivers is certainly one of them. Corner workers (marshals) are able to communicate a LOT of information to the drivers in a real race through the use of their flags (not only in the color i.e. yellow but in the way that they use them) and even through the use of hand signals. During safety car periods the passenger in the safety car will indicate to the cars behind when to pass so that ultimately the safety car will pick up the leader of the race for the restart.
So, Marsh, in real life you don’t pass a safety car until you are waved by. Since we have no way to do this within the game, it is up to the individual drivers to make their way past the safety car to enable the safety car to pick up the leader. Since the fine details of how these situations are to be dealt with ISN’T covered in the league rules, we have to interpret it as we go. I understand that you were interpreting the rules in your way and decided not to pass the safety car. Unfortunately, as a consequence of that decision, we both lost a lap. You could argue that I also made a decision not to pass you during that period and so I am similarly at fault costing myself that lap. My decision was based upon the fact that in real life, you are OFTEN required to pass a safety car but you NEVER pass another competitor (unless they have a mechanical difficulty).
I apologize for my ‘tone’ in the race report and I understand that you were only doing what you thought was best. It was, however, a very frustrating situation. In real life the situation would have been remedied by the various forms of communication that are available. The only form of communication available to me during the race was the horn (because we aren’t allowed to use text). I honestly don’t see what I could have done differently.
In a real race series there would be a limit of the number of times they would tolerate you running around ignoring a black flag but you are correct, it isn't written into the IGTC rules so there's nothing to protest. Honestly, I thought the penalty was for lap 1 contact which was why I thought it unsporting that you would be able to use that to your advantage. Given that it was merely for the wrong car number it's no big deal that you stayed out tbh. Good stint.
I think that we should REALLY go over the IGTC rules and make sure everyone understands how to act with regard to safety cars. We lost a lap because the two cars ahead of us wouldn't pass the safety car for the whole caution period (the leader was directly behind us). Honestly I have no idea why we're using a safety car at all. It's not like we're trying to protect marshalls or corner workers cleaning up something on the track (which is what safety cars are really for).
Unless this was a 'real' race by any sanctioning body I can think of... would have been disqualified by now for failing to obey a black flag.
wanting to know why Mercury haven't served their penalty...
Perhaps their is some confusion, when I was referring to the 'selection screen' it's the one where you select the track, number of laps, qualifying period, weather and all those things. It's the first screen you go to when you join an empty server.
Anyway, I see things must have gotten pretty badly messed up because a lot of the servers seem to be reset this morning (the only reason I suspect they've been reset is that they're set to ALL cars on servers that wouldn't ordinarily do that, including my teams).
Our other team server is gone from the master list but was there last night.
Anyway, I see things must have gotten pretty badly messed up because a lot of the servers seem to be reset this morning (the only reason I suspect they've been reset is that they're set to ALL cars on servers that wouldn't ordinarily do that, including my teams).
Our other team server is gone from the master list but was there last night.
This is happening to me right now on both of my teams servers
.x.clownpaint.com #1 and
.x.clownpaint.com #2
I was able to join some empty servers but also got stuck in the selection page on
VMaxHome
The admin commands still seem to work on my team servers (I was able to change the car types with the /cars command)
EDIT: I used a /reinit command on .x.clownpaint.com #2 and although it didn't disconnect me (like it should with that command, right?), it seemed to fix the problem and the server is back to normal (although after issuing the command I once again had to use <CTL><ALT><DEL> and restart LFS).
I have left .x.clownpaint.com #1 in its messed up state incase you want to look at it yourself.
.x.clownpaint.com #1 and
.x.clownpaint.com #2
I was able to join some empty servers but also got stuck in the selection page on
VMaxHome
The admin commands still seem to work on my team servers (I was able to change the car types with the /cars command)
EDIT: I used a /reinit command on .x.clownpaint.com #2 and although it didn't disconnect me (like it should with that command, right?), it seemed to fix the problem and the server is back to normal (although after issuing the command I once again had to use <CTL><ALT><DEL> and restart LFS).
I have left .x.clownpaint.com #1 in its messed up state incase you want to look at it yourself.
Last edited by 87TIIV8, .
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