Pirelli tires and 2011 rule changes:
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/6/10935.html

The adjustable rear wing system sounds overly complicated. The drivers have plenty to distract them already.

107% qualifying will be interesting.

First, this is the last corner (or next to last) of SO3 (i think. the short one) Fill the grid with UFRs and watch them lose control on the bump and slide into a big pile.



Next, I discovered I could add barriers anywhere and anytime. :mischievo The AI just drive right into them.


Note: This is not an "action" shot below. These cars are actually stuck in place, not moving.



Then I went to Blackwood and discovered the ramps. :icon23:
Note: This is not a panorama, it is one single screen shot (cropped).

zoom:



I also put ramps on top of the jumps on the rally tracks. You can only go a couple laps without terminal damage, but it's fun. I just wish there were wider ramps. It gets tedious lining up those skinny ones just right. (I also wish there were ramps on all the other tracks.)

Quote from tristancliffe :

disqualify Hamilton for lying (he probably did).

what?

40.13 seems clear to me, but they confused everybody by telling the teams that the safety car was coming in and then waving green flags.

Either way, 20sec is a harsh penalty. The should have just given 6th place back to Alonso.

Quote from PaulC2K :

...

I see what you mean, but I think he's made a couple good decisions which put him in a position where he didn't need to pass. Boring maybe, but even Hamilton admits it's successful. Still, Hamilton has been more interesting to watch. I wonder what would happen if they gave points for overtaking...

If the red bull's had not kept breaking, they would be far ahead of everyone with no overtakes (pole to finish).

I'm not trying to argue with you, just stating some observations.

Last edited by ultrataco, Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:43.

but it wasn't an overtake attempt, and hamilton wasn't blocking. Hamilton moved first. If Petrov was trying to overtake, he would have tried to go straight past Hamilton, not follow behind him.
Hamilton was trying to move out of Petrov's way, but petrov needed the slipstream so he followed hamilton.

Blocking is when the guy behind moves first to pass, then the guy in front moves over to block him. this hamilton vs. petrov thing is the opposite of that.

edit:
all i could find in the rules was this:
"- illegitimately prevented a legitimate overtaking manoeuvre by a driver ;
- illegitimately impeded another driver during overtaking."
under the "incident" section, which are all at the discretion of the stewards.

Petrov was trying to draft, not overtake.

Last edited by ultrataco, Mon, 5 Apr 2010 08:29.

Hamilton got only a warning because that rule is about blocking an overtake move (I think). Hamilton wasn't blocking. He was actually getting out of the way so Petrov couldn't take advantage of the slipstream. He moved first and Petrov followed.

Risky and questionable, but not against the rules, so no penalty.

Last edited by ultrataco, Mon, 5 Apr 2010 08:06.

There must be some way to create the competative conditions of a wet race without the water. All that the water does is reduce grip and reduce the effect of aerodynamics. They need to reduce/simplify aero. All the rule changes they can think of won't do any good if cars can't pass each other.

Increasing mechanical grip might help, too. I'm not sure if that would help or not.

Track design seems to affect a lot as well.

Schumacher fired

up for Bahrain GP.



Freaked me out for a second. :doh: :dunce:

Do you have $40?

Yes? Buy Live for Speed S2!

No? Do not buy Live for Speed. Save your money or get a job or something. Then buy Live for Speed!

Last edited by ultrataco, Fri, 5 Mar 2010 20:29.

If the tracks were designed better, we wouldn't need shorcuts just to let people pass more.

Schumacher racing for Mercedes in 2010:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/h ... t/formula_one/8427552.stm

http://wot.motortrend.com/6621 ... th-mercedes-gp/index.html

(Someone already mentioned it in the shumacher mercedes thread, but I thought I'd post it here, too.)

2010 should be epic. (not just because of schumacher.)

none of my friends really care about cars at all, much less care about any racing games. so none for me...besides myself. I got my dad to play once. he seemed to enjoy it.

Report: Schumacher Verbally Agrees to $5.1 Million Mercedes GP Deal for 2010

http://wot.motortrend.com/6599 ... -deal-for-2010/index.html

It's really just more hearsay and inside sources, but I'm a little less skeptical now. How trustworthy are these German publications (Bild and Focus)? I don't really care if he comes back or not, but it would be interesting.

I'm glad to see Heikki will be back for 2010.

Last edited by ultrataco, Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:56.

Quote from lamerr :

Why? Hes back racing for Mercedes next year alongside Nico Hulkenberg! This will be awesome, can`t wait to see the rain master back on track..

How? I thought he wasn't even fit enough to replace Massa this year because of his neck. How's he going to be able to go an entire season?

I see someone mentioned the new points already. There's also some good news about stewards:

Quote :

Friday’s WMSC meeting agreed a number of other changes for 2010, including the use of experienced former F1 drivers to assist stewards in decision making relating to race incidents. A permanent panel of three FIA stewards will now attend every Grand Prix, joined by an additional local steward at each race.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/12/10279.html

Shift lights are probably more useful in games because we can't really feel the power.

Quote from Kosmo :

I As for beeping lights... Well. I have only ever come across two cars with those in my life, they are completely pointless, redundant and distracting. No they are not preferred by racing drivers, and no they are not common in F1.

I assume this is in response to me since I mentioned my beeping RX-7. (or did some else mention a beep?) I just want to clarify that it is not a shift light. It is a factory installed safety feature (also present on the RX-8) which comes on just before redline, which may happen to be the ideal shift point. I don't know.

The car has a rotary engine, which revs quickly and smoothly. The beep (actually more of a buzzer) is mostly for people who are used to driving piston engines which tend to approach redline with lots of noise and vibration. With a rotary, 2k rpm feels the same as 8k. Also the powerband is really linear, so you don't really feel the acceleration much. It's really smooth so it feels slower than it is. The power seems closely proportional to the revs, at least in my non-turbo car. Once you get used to it, the beep is not necessary (especially for racing) but it's a good feature for the street and rotary newbies.

It does have one advantage over a light: it's not visually distracting. Of course on a race car it would have to be impractically loud.

Quote from Hezath :

lol actually my shift light is nearly 20mm in diameter, very bright and pointed directly at my face... I notice when it comes on regardless of where I am looking.

Fair enough, but I was talking about the little red light in LFS. I don't usually look directly at the tach either, but it's easy enough to notice when the needle gets near the redline without focusing on it.

You all make it sound like the absence of a shift light means you have to listen to the engine. What about the tach? Isn't that why it's there? You have to look at it to see the light anyway. It's not any more difficult than looking at the light and it's more precise than listening to the sound. I don't see how anyone can really be precise just by sound. I listen to the engine too, but I shift based on the position of the tach needle/lights.


My RX-7 makes a loud beep noise at redline. I usually shift slightly before that, but it's an interesting and useful feature.

Last edited by ultrataco, Mon, 7 Dec 2009 08:10.

Wow, thanks. That helps but I'm still not very good. (I already had auto clutch and ABS off.)

I just spent two hours trying to do the Carrera GT invitational at Spa. :bananadea:chair::gnasher: I think I only completed 2 or 3 full laps (not consecutively) in many many restarts. The stupid super-human AI are insane. I passed two at the start for 10th place, then just hoped the rest would crash. Then if I missed the giant invisible bump :gnasher: on Eau Rouge , I'd get up to 7th or 8th (sometimes) by being stupidly aggressive (and lucky) at the chicane after the long straight when the ai bunch up and crash into each other. Then it was simply a matter of trying as hard as possible to keep blocking the guys behind me without crashing, but they either pass me or wreck into me (usually both) or I'd go off track despite going slower than the ai :grumpy:.

I finally gave up and turned the AI down to medium, which was a bit too easy, but once I was in first place I enjoyed driving the GT around Spa. I'll probably have to stick with medium when I get to tier 4/5 (and maybe 3). Less rewarding, but more fun I guess. (And it will definitely save lots of time.)

:arge:

/rant

I've never been very good at braking (in sims), but at least in LFS I can pretty much tell if I'm doing it right or not (mostly by listening to the tire noise) and make corrections and improve. In Shift it's all guesswork and trial-and-error.

Also, in shift, sometimes I'm going around a corner at what I think is the limit, then I press the gas more and I stay on the line. It's just really hard to find the limit and stay there. Shift is easy to pick up and drive, but very difficult to master. It's fun and frustrating. I enjoy just driving more than racing, (though that's true with LFS and GT, too), but I want to complete the game before I spend time just doing hotlaps.

...

:cookiemon

I like shift and had no big problems before (or after) the patch, despite having an ATI 4870. Though after the patch, I noticed the absence of the exaggerated snap oversteer and the FFB feels a better.

Patch or no, I still drive pathetically bad in this game. If I try to drive like I do in LFS (smooth and precise), I'm really slow. There's some sort of balance between aggression and precision that I can't figure out.
A lot of my problem seems to be the braking (same with LFS). I can't heel-toe properly in SHIFT like I do in LFS. It's like the pedal inputs lag or something. I also can't brake with any sort of precision because it's impossible to tell what the tires are doing- if they're locked up or what. I never know how hard I should be pressing the pedal. Sometimes I'll brake really hard several car-lengths behind an AI, yet they make the turn and I fly off the track as if my brakes failed.:bananadea

The driving is fun, but I should be way faster. I'm only on tier 2 and the AI seems really really hard.

...this is all kind of random I guess, but I just played Shift and needed to rant.

Anyone have any driving tips for SHIFT?

mods already: http://www.virtualr.net/need-f ... ift-first-mods-coming-in/
remove highspeed blur/dof, lower ai agression, and reduce grip.
Also some ffb mods here: http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=164378 (Not just in-game, but xml settings)
Guide for modding xml ffb settings here: (written for GTR) http://www.race2play.com/homepage/show_posts/7229

I haven't had time to read all this or try any of these mods, but it all looks promising.

I liked High Stakes the best, with NFSII a close second.

Quote from Zalex :

Just for curiosity, what platform are you using ? I use PS3 for Shift ...

I'm using a g25 on PC. I'll try the SHIFT PS3 demo whenever it comes out just for the heck of it, but I prefer PC gaming. I bought a PS3 just for blu-ray and GT5.