Quote from ArosaMike :

Well at the end of the day IMO, you're only gonna win races by being agressive and trying to overtake. The definition of a good race to me is being in a battle with someone where I overtake them, then they overtake me, then I overtake them again and so on. If they want to behave like a retard and try and hold on round the outside then that's their problem if they don't have the skill for it. It aint my fault if they crash when I stick it up the inside and personally it's a huge advantage for me cause I don't have anyone behind anymore. It sounds arrogant I know, but no one I know won a race through being nice and considerate! If I can muscle my way past I will. I'm not into nudging people off the track or using them as a brake, but if the person turns in on me and crashes....it's their fault not mine!

If I am in front, I have a right to defend. If you get up my inside on the apex, good for you, I will not run you off the road. But I will, in some cases, force you to keep it tight to pinch your exit. I will stay side by side through the exit if I can. If you did not expect that, and you have carried too much speed to hold your line, then you just hit me. Are you trying to say that it is my fault that we had contact? If I see that there is no way to stay beside you, or the corner combination is not right for the above tactic, I will square up the corner and try to get back along side you.

Regarding Rosberg, he did not complete the previous chicane because Montoya had got inside on the apex. He is allowed to do that, but should not have gotten a clear advantage from doing so. He did get a clear advantage as he exited a few car lengths ahead of JPM, albiet at a slower speed. If the wreck had not happened, my bet is that Rosberg would have gotten a drive through penalty on the next lap. Going into the next corner, Rosberg admitted to pinching down on JPM to try and get a better run on the next corner. He even said that he probably went too far. JPM's comment was, "He wasn't going to make that corner anyway" implying that Rosberg had driven in too deep in the first place.

That incident highlights why I hate that type of chicane. They are terrible for passing attempts.

1) Delayed reset. This is an option to have the martials pull you out of the gravel trap, with a delay and ONLY when the track is clear. If you have ever played GPL, there is a reset, but it waits until there are no cars near you before it works.
This method would not fix damage. You have to be able to drive to the pits to get fixed.

2) Quick reset option. This option allows you to reset when the track is clear. Damage is not fixed. You must drive to the pits to get fixed.

3) Arcade reset. This option resets you and fixes your car. The reset will still only work if the track is clear. (default for offline driving)

4) No reset option. No resets are allowed at all. If you can get your car out of the sand and drive it, you can continue.

Option 2 would be good for online racing in most cases, but option 3 would be OK too in some situations.
Option 1 would be the best for league racing in my opinion, but option 4 would be viable too.

Try increasing the ratio for first gear. It helps some. However, the XRR will just not launch as fast as the FZR no matter what you do.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Interchangable parts are on GT4. And I think that 99.9% of players just stick the 'best' components on the car. Occasionally those with DFP's and a suitable desk might put crappy tyres on to try and cover up the arcade physics and give it an air of realism, but that's pretty much the only time a car is less than perfect.

With regards to over the top responses, I'd like to say that if you take an idea and push it to extremes to quickly find the flaws in an argument. Doesn't always work of course, and sometimes isn't even applicable, but can help sort the wheat from the chaff (or the automotive engineer from the ricer brigade).

lol, you are right of course. I should have put the smiley in my post. I knew what you were trying to get at.

It is a fair question considering the current trend in console racing games.
There are some good, if a bit over the top (tristen) responses.

The final answer is no. You can change suspension settings and tires all you want and the aero settings on cars that have it, but there are no engine or other "upgrades".

You get to personalize your cars with skins.

This is very like club racing or a spec series, the game mandates the formula, and you are free to set it up and paint it the way you like. It makes for a better overall game and better racing.

The problem that I see is that it takes two to tango. The passer and the passee (cool new words) have to work together to make it work.

If you jam the car down the inside, and you get alongside me, I recognize that I made a mistake, square up the corner and try to get you with exit speed. The classic re-overtake maneuver.

However, if I instead just take a wide line and push for all I am worth, we end up coming together on the exit, with me getting pushed off into the wall.

How do you know, as the overtaking driver, which kind of opponent you are facing? Public servers are not like a racing series where you get to know your opponents. So, I generally end up taking the conservative approach. I try to leave myself enough of a buffer to stay inside on the corner exit in case the guy I am overtaking tries to stay alongside.

I think that some of you are saying that this is an improper overtaking maneuver. That if I don't go in fully committed, I will cause the accident. I do agree, to an extent. If I go in fully committed, AND I can get my rear bumper in front of the passee prior to corner exit, then yes, this works great. But if not, somebody is mowing lawns.

In my league races, I am much more comfortable with this. But on public servers, or when I am racing with people I don't know... well you take your chances.

My problem comes in when I am setting up for a fast chicane, and somebody late brakes and takes the inside, I am already committed to taking the the apex, or I will crash. They on the other hand got on the brakes later, but in order to not miss the exit, they have to be slower when they hit the apex of the first curve of the chicane. So my options at this point are to take the apex and hope that it is only a minor bang. Or, try to keep braking and stop before hitting the wall or the tires and let the other guy go. To me, this is not aggressive overtaking and being fully committed. This is overly optimistic and expecting the other guy to just give room because you happen to be inside, even if you are not in a position to allow room for the other guy.

So what do you do in the case of the T1 T2 and T3 at Blackwood? I have had this happen a lot and seen all kinds of different outcomes.

Driver 1 is leading and stays outside going into turn 1 hoping to apex normally and maintain a fast exit speed. (probably a mistake, he should have protected the inside line)

Driver 2 late brakes and gets alongside.

Driver 1 can take turn 1 on the outside and hold position to the left of Driver 2.

Driver 2 loses exit speed because Driver 1 is still on his outside. (is this because driver 2 was not fully committed or because the outside line on T1 at Blackwood is not that much slower?)

Driver 1 now has the inside line to the first corner of the chicane, but driver 2 is determined and hold his position.

They are now both going fast enough where if they don't apex on both the corners of the chicane, they will go off track.

Who has right of way?

Quote from AndRand :

I dont know about national colours if they are strictly set but companies' colours are mostly given as pantones, when used in logos or layouts for marketing purposes.
So probably, their PR's should share that.

Exactly. We define our logo colors using the PMS (pantone) system. Photoshop also supports this color system.

However, just because you have the pantone color code does not mean that it will come out looking correct. In the real world, different paints on different materials will look very different. It is extremely difficult to get colors to match when you paint on metal and then have some sturated plastic parts all in one unit. Things just come out with slightly different shades of the same color.

In the virtual world, it is all up to your monitor calibration and your graphics card setup, and the program used to display the image. You will be able to get close, but not perfect. Close is good enough in most situations.

Quote from Vain :

Usually pitting removes two absolutely perfect hotlaps from the race, and destroys any ongoing fights for positions. ... Mandatory pits don't add anything to the game anyway, as there is no strategy involved. As a conclusion every action is allowed and should be encouraged to minimize the effects of mendatory pits.
If you don't want to have people pit on the last lap, remove mandatory pits.

Vain

That is is odd logic... but to each their own.

I would say that there should be an option to allow or to not allow pitting on the first and last laps in the server setup. That would take care of the issue.
I think pitting on shorter races can be fun. There are plenty of opportunities to screw up and it is good practice for longer races.

I'm sorry, but the prairie dog that is actually a beaver picture had me rolling on the floor. That was funny.

However, for those that don't know, Google makes a nice little toolbar that works in both IE and FireFox that has a great little spell checker built right in. It works great. I use it all the time.

The point is, if people do not understand what you are saying, you are not going to get the responses that you want. Make it easy for them by using real words. Goodness knows there are enough misunderstandings on this board without using phone speak.

Quote from SamH :

Hmm.. Eric, did you get the right replay? The one I have was S2 licenced (BF1s on Blackwood), with S2 licence names on Ctrl+Shift.

Let me know if something went screwy. The report Joen submitted was definitely S2.

[EDIT] I gather there's a little confusion. In the intervening time, until we get our full, server-independent system up and running, other servers are receiving ALL our wrecker reports.. Demo server reports as well as S2. Perhaps I can do a bit of quick coding to filter out the Demo reports and only forward the S2 server reports. I'll take a look at that today (once I've had some sleep.. been an all-nighter for me again )

Don't worry about it too much with the demo reports, we can handle the load for now. I can see in the future where it could get to be too much though so a filter would be nice to have. We are happy to be participating in this cooperative effort. I think it will eventually help to make LFS better for everybody.

We did get Joen's report and although the MPR was very short and only showed one incident, it was enough to confirm that those guys did intentionally wreck other cars. They have been banned from our servers.

Ahhhrrrgghhh, nevermind...

Quote from tinvek :

the reason i posted it here was so everyone could have a laugh at my expense re braking now

re the strain on pedals, i was worried but after asking for old squash balls off a few more athletic m8s, i've found one which is pretty soft, it just does enough to give some feel

re brake effort, yep raised it a bit already


going a bit too hardware ish

i'm actually tempted to get make a rig with a master cylinder connected to pedal so i can get true brake feel, i've got enough hydraulic parts left after i sold garage

Hey, you got to do what you got to do. Not everybody can afford the cool ECCI pedals. I have made many mods like this in my life... many on real cars that I have owned. If it helps you enjoy the game more, the more power to ya

You probably have it right there with the contact patch. But there is something wrong with the curb too. The picture shows both rear wheels off the ground. That happened while I backed over the curb at very slow speeds. The curb seems to be much higher than it is shown. It also happens on either side of the curb, front or back. It is not something that is isolated to the back side of the curb like it is for the Blackwood chicane.

However, if what you describe is true, it basically makes the XRR undriveable on KY3. You can't compete with that car unless you take some curb in the chicane. Every time you take some curb there, your suspension gets damaged. It becomes significant after just a few laps.

The chicane coming off the oval section has some very strange behavior.
The suspension of the car gets damage even if you go over the curb very slowly. There seems to be an invisible bump or raised curb on part of this section that makes the car bounce way up. Watch the replay and you will see the car hopping all over the place when driven very slowly over this section. Also notice that the suspension gets damaged while doing this.

I am with ayrton on this one. Many people have no frame of reference to understand a zip file, folders, double clicking and so forth. Saying simple things like "double click on the exe to run", means absolutly nothing to them. "Extract to a fold of your choice" also has no meaning.

A simple installer would be nice for those people, but Becky's comments are spot on. Just the choice of what to download is confusing. Then all the AOHELL users who can't download an exe anyway...

I think a set of graphics and very simple, step by step instructions written for the computing challenged on the main LFS site would be the best way to go for now. Avoid comments like "Create a target directory". Just show the steps. Open My Computer by double clicking on this icon...

Another thought would be for LFS to prompt you to install a desktop icon on first run. This would help some people a little bit.

I have done technical support over the phone. It is very difficult because you can't see what they are doing and they will lie to you. They say they did it, but did something else... very frustrating.

I love the install the way it is. No registry crap, no rebooting, I can keep older versions intact easily... it is great. But I have been using computers for a very long time.

Quote from JeffR :

Last I read it was about 850hp, but this may change from season to season, as it's mostly about much boost is allowed (via the spec waste gate which also controls the push to pass). Rpms are limited by spec to 8500rpm. I think Honda also makes engines for Champ cars.

Nope, 750HP and they are Cosworth engines. Honda supplies IRL which is a completely different league. The different nose cones went away with the open wheel split, unless IRL still uses them. I don't watch IRL much because it is boring and they only do about 2 road courses a year, the rest is ovals.

http://www.champcarworldseries.com/Tech/ChampCar_Specs.asp

Quote from col :

heh, oversteer when releasing the brake is very useful, but you have to learn how . If brake too late and too heavy, or you're not smooth coming off the pedal, and turning the car, you can lose the tail - especially if you are driving a 'fast' setup.
First try altering your driving - brake a little earlier, and stightly less heavily, start releasing the brake earlier, but much slower - ideally you will only have completely released the brake just as you want to start increasing the gas
another thing is in a corner that you find too twitchy, try keeping a little throttle through the turn (just a touch, to keep the car balanced).

If you're still having problems, you can reduce the trailbrake oversteer effect with dampers: Front rebound +, Rear bump -
(one click each, and test - this will also add corner exit oversteer, so be careful)
(Make sure you're not locking a rear - try brake balance more forward)

Or make the whole car more understeery with sway bars and/or shock adjustments (will slow you down)

Thanks for the tips. I do about a 1:34.4 around Blackwood in the GTi. Some sets, this effect is really bad, and if you are aggressive with your trail braking, you will have the rear step out. Yes, braking earlier and being very gentle coming off the gas helps, but you can't always to that in a race.

I found the MacEST set is very nice. It exhibits some of this tendency, but it is advantageous rather than unpredictable. So, a good set will fix this tendency without being so understeery, that it is not fast.

First of all, a CHAMP car would be great fun. Sure, it is another open wheeler, but can you really have too many? (rhetorical, you don't need to answer that)

CHAMP cars are spec built cars for the most part with Cosworth engines. They have NO driver aids at all. They do have a push to pass button that gives them an extra 75hp and is time limited. Gee, kind of makes you wonder where A1GP got the idea. They push about 700hp. Quite a lot of car to handle.

They do still do two ovals a year, mostly for historical sake because they used to do them when CART existed. Personally, I wish they would get rid of them.

As for George, you are really just being a 'gator. You don't like oval racing. Fine. We get the point. And I suppose just because George doesn't like it, then it must be shallow. Nice Ad Hoc logic there pal. I offer this opinion. ALL racing is shallow. It is a waste of valuable resources and money that could be better spent feeding the world's poor.

I think you could label another form of racing with a word too. F1 is BORING. Sure they turn left and right, but since the only passing that gets done happens in the pits, it surely indicates that the drivers have no talent.

Just to make things clear. I don't watch much oval racing and I love F1. I love ALMS and I like CHAMP car. But that does not mean that WRC is shallow because I don't (can't in the US) follow it.

I'm obviously bored tonight, doing the laundry. As for vanilla ice cream; there is a lot to be said for the purity and the subtle nuances of the different types. You have to really know your vanilla to appreciate the finer qualities. To get the most out of the experience, you have to do your homework, test and retest, get to know it better than your mother knows you. Adding nuts and chocolate provides nothing but a distraction from the perfection.

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

It happens to me frequently, mostly when trail braking, braking a little for a corner isn't a problem, it's when I come off the brakes the tail steps out immediately.

Yep, that is the situation. I have heard of an explanation for the physics of the behavior, but I don't have it happen on RWD cars and I have driven some sets that reduce the tendency. I was hoping somebody would have an idea. I have already tried moving the brake bias back further to the rear, I have it a 77% right now (GTi), but it has not helping much, if any.

The only thing I find to be a problem for me is the massive oversteer when you are letting off the brakes going into a corner. The rear just snaps around. I find this behavior difficult to drive with and I am not sure how to cure it. I think some drivers use this behavior to their advantage.
Even the Race_S set has this "feature".

Quote from Cue-Ball :

Looks like the race is around 5:00pm PST. Way too early for US West Coast people to play. I'm not even home from work by then.

We start practice and qual at about 5pm, but don't actually start the race until 6pm or 6:30 pm Pacific time. They mostly try to do that in honor of me and another team memeber who are on the west coast. I am in Oregon the other is in BC.

The events can be really fun and are very casual. Unfortunately, I will have a conflict this summer because of softball games on Wednesday nights

Quote from JohnPenn :

HI how can I send replays to nassa admin.
Another great race night ruined by 1 person

cheers
John

Send me a pm and I will get you an email address. We need to setup a permenant email address for this purpose.
Thanks

Remember, we are talking about deliberate attempt to crash other cars. A good example happened on our servers two weeks ago. Two drivers would crash cars in turn 1 of SO Classic. Then they would park in the middle of the chicane and wait for the cars to come back around. The parked nose to tail to insure that they blocked the entire road in a place where you couldn't see them until too late.

They did this in two separate races and it was actually hard for the racers to determine that it was actually wreckers.

With the MPR evidence, we banned the two drivers. We also forwarded the MPR's to Team CCUK via their website.

I think this is the best way to deal with it. There are accidents and stupidity, but then there are blatant, deliberate attempts to disrupt races. In the obvious cases, a group of Admins can easily decide for themselves who to ban and who not to. They are our servers and we can ban who we want, but we want good evidence first.

The harder we make it for wreckers to get their rocks off, the fewer there will be. But it is like trying to kill ants, you can get a few, but there are always more to follow.

As another thought, if LFS World kept a record of how many bans a driver has received, and made that public, then there would be another method for tracking the blatant wreckers. Sure, lots of people have received unwarranted bans, and a few bans on your record probably means nothing, but if you have 10+ bans in a short time, it probably means something. LFS does not have to take action with this information, but admins can if they choose to.

Quote from J.B. :

The track modelling doesn't seem to be very precise though even though the guy in the video says something about GPS data.

I always get a giggle when somebody says they used GPS data to accurately model something.
This is something I know more than a little about. GPS data can be mm level accurate, but it takes a lot of knowledge, time and effort. GPS positions can be plus or minus 30 meter accuracy too if you just use a standard receiver with no corrections.

You also have to stitch things together correctly and if you don't know what you are doing, then the results are not good.

So, just saying you have "GPS" data, does not mean that anything will necessarily be accurate.

Quote from Hankstar :

Hallen, I certainly appreciate the skill involved in golf as I've tried it a bit and sucked really, really bad However I still find it dull as heck to watch

I reckon you'd love the V8s - 5.7L V8s, 32 cars (two makes only - Ford & Holden four-door RWD family sedans) at about 1500kg & 600+hp each, all driven by very skilled pilots going hammer & tongs, nose to tail for the entire race, all capable of 300+kph (given enough room). Some rounds are made of 2 or 3 races which can test driver and machine pretty well. Throw in the 500km endurance races (and the Bathurst 1000) and you have a pretty sweet racing series.
Congratulations - now you're less ignorant

lol, Oh I have watched enough of it to appreciate the racing aspect. But it isn't just about the on-track action. I would have to follow the series for a year or so before I got excited about it. The problem is, we only see a few of the races here and they are all shown tape delayed, often by months, so it is tough to get into here on the top side of the globe.