I was lucky enough to come across three different servers tonight running ten lap races, and had a lot of fun on each of them. I had longer battles with people my own pace, I sometimes stuffed up on lap one and still had time to catch the pack before the race ended, I beat faster people through consistent pace - stuff that just isn't likely to happen in five lap races. It also suited me better than shorter races because I just drive better in longer runs.

I suppose the downside is that, upon arriving at a server running ten laps, you might have to wait twice as long for the next restart, but I can't think of any other downsides.

Would ten laps be a more interesting "default" race length on public servers, or has five laps become the standard because it works better?

Depends on the track and car config you are using. Example:

XFG at BL GP is usually best with 5 or 6 laps for quick races. 10 laps would be too long for 'some' people.

XFR at BL GP is best with 6-8 laps.

Formulas or cars that can get around 1 minute average at BL1... that is like 8-10 laps.

And this all varies depending on the track mostly. So I couldn't choose anything from the above options. But basically, my general rule of thumb is having a race that is no less than 8 minutes in lenght, or no more than 15 minutes. Anything longer will not keep certain people interested... and only the serious or determined will stick around. Also, if you do have a long race set up, even though midrace join is a good option to have, it easily makes people leave and lose interest, because people come to play, and are impatient to wait until a race is over .... so it is best to allow people to join midrace if you want lots of people

I do agree that 5 laps would be a bit short for the XFG, so I would honestly go with an 8 lapper for XFG @ BL. Especially on our server, where we like to have it 'slightly' long, but not too long. Though, a pick-up race in my opinion is a 5-6 lapper. Those are fun, and keep a fast pace race by race.

What Tweak said Although mixing the average length up a bit, so its a bit longer would be pretty interesting from time to time

Naa I like XFG+BL1 5-lappers 10 laps is too long with GTR's at As3, it gets so monotonous after 4000 laps of it that 10 more makes you fall asleep I think as long as there are variations in length it doesn't matter what they are so you can choose how long you want to drive for.

Imo a 10 minutes race is the best length

Quote from GeForz :

Imo a 10 minutes race is the best length

Yeah going by minutes is better than determining laps. 10-15 minute races are best for everything other than oval

You know the biggest problem with long(er) pick up and play races?, the fact that after 5 laps half the field have either crashed or gotten bored and you end up racing with a field of 1 or 2.

Personally I would prefer 5 laps of racing in a large, battling field, than 10 laps racing with 1 or 2.

Dan,

Quote from danowat :

You know the biggest problem with long(er) pick up and play races?, the fact that after 5 laps half the field have either crashed or gotten bored and you end up racing with a field of 1 or 2.

Yea that's the problem with longer races on public server.. people getting in and out all the time.. it really sucks if you've had a good race with someone, running on your last lap and some impatient newcomers decide to restart

7-10 minutes is propably the best time for a pick-up race. (Noooo, not a race with pickups! )
The lap-count doesn't say anything. Just compare a BLGP lap with a AS GT lap.

Vain

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I suppose the downside is that, upon arriving at a server running ten laps, you might have to wait twice as long for the next restart, but I can't think of any other downsides.

Yeah i think the downside is TIME...not everyone has the time to play 1 hour LFS, some just get ín quickly want to do some races.
I wanted to hop in for some quick SO Town Reverse races yesterday, it was 10 Laps, which was around 12-13 Minutes of distance. I cam e in after first race was in lap 2 or 3 had to drive 10 minutes watching for blue flags. Then next race i crashed and the same thing again. The next race i could compete with the pace. But finally i spent 40 Minutes for 3 races. Not everyone has that time, so i understand why many servers have just 5 lap races!

The greater the number of people on the grid, the longer the race should be. 10 laps is often excrutiatingly boring if there's just 4 or 5 taking part. 5 laps is sometimes unnecessarily short when there's 20 drivers on the grid.

10 laps is the best for me

For the reasons thisnameistaken said. 5 laps is always too short.

When I host i always race about 13 laps, 5 is way too short and you cant really get into the race plus if you make a mistake you cannot fight your way back. 10 laps is resonable but i prefer around 13/14 laps distance. Quite a few people moan when they join my game but i just say, dont like it? then choose a different server.

5 laps is plenty enough, its enough for sum1 to come from 20th to the front and thats all that matters.

its a pain going on 20 lap races, and having a crash on lap 2 and having to wait for 18 more laps...

1 lap races should be done, that would be very exciting indeed.

Quote from danowat :

You know the biggest problem with long(er) pick up and play races?, the fact that after 5 laps half the field have either crashed or gotten bored and you end up racing with a field of 1 or 2.

Personally I would prefer 5 laps of racing in a large, battling field, than 10 laps racing with 1 or 2.

Dan,

I totally agree to this.

In that random pickup public server you get better fights when the races are shorter.

I prefer something a bit longer myself but the only plausible way to get that is league racing.

I hate 5 lap races. It means everyone has to push real hard to pass drivers and leads to people making ill advised manouvers. 10 laps give much more chance to be patient and wait for the right moment to pass.

And even if its one of the really long tracks 10 laps is still only 20-25 mins

Quote from danowat :

You know the biggest problem with long(er) pick up and play races?, the fact that after 5 laps half the field have either crashed or gotten bored and you end up racing with a field of 1 or 2.

Personally I would prefer 5 laps of racing in a large, battling field, than 10 laps racing with 1 or 2.

Dan,

Good point.

10 laps usually makes pit stops, and that makes the race very interesting.

Quote from Rappa Z :

10 laps usually makes pit stops, and that makes the race very interesting.

If its not mandatory, its not very clever to pit on most of the combos in a 10 lap race. Tbh, I cant think of any combo now, where you cant drive 10 laps without pit.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Yeah, mandatory pitstops are a bit of a fun-killer usually. One of the servers I was on last night required a pit stop, and it just meant that the people I would normally be racing on-track might be 20 seconds behind me for half the race, so I'd be lapping on my own until I pitted which isn't much fun.

Totally disagree. I think mandatory pitstops makes the race a little more unpredicatable and in some cases even out the grid because there is always someone driving near you. And it is a good way to get rid of someone by just pitting, while he continues on track.

But mandatory pitstops needs more than 10 people on the server, because otherwise there is the big chance that you end up driving alone...

I don`t think that time is the key. It`s the combination of track and car.
If the combo is easy, as fox on Ky oval, you gotta have more laps, than Rac on As Cadet.

When I drive a good combo, with lots of good racers, and tigth figth - I do not feel the time passing. I have sat and wondered, many times, when a race is finished "Man, did there just pass 25 minutes here"

It depends on time more than laps, last night i was racing xrt at aston gp which is 3:21.xx for the WR (iirc) so 5 laps of that was quite a long race for public server, where as GTR's at blackwood for 5 laps is short.
If i feel like racing xfg on blackwood i will go to demo ans 99% of the time pick the bremskiller (spelling?) event server as its 15 laps.

Quote from Hyperactive :

Totally disagree. I think mandatory pitstops makes the race a little more unpredicatable and in some cases even out the grid because there is always someone driving near you. And it is a good way to get rid of someone by just pitting, while he continues on track.

But mandatory pitstops needs more than 10 people on the server, because otherwise there is the big chance that you end up driving alone...

I agree. Its cool trying to keep track of where everyone really is when there are stops. And it's the only way slow guys like me have a chance.