Ladies and Gentleman

I will be opening our latest server, Single Seater 2, later tonight.

The server requires a CTRA National B licence or higher and is a multi-class server, featuring the FOX (with no clubman drivers) and Formula Junior cars.

As with our other multi-class servers the grid is organised with the faster Formula Junior class at the front and results and points earned are entirely independent.

The server has 25 slots and so theoretically more points are available.

I would be interested to hear from current National licenced drivers
to know what sort of race length you guys would like.

Currently there are not many national licenced drivers but we hope there will be enough of you to give some good quality racing with other highly skilled and qualified drivers.

The time of opening will be edited into this post a little later today.
EDIT: SERVER IS OPEN.

Woohoo!

Now if only I was fast enough in the single seaters to gain more than 5 points a race... if I am lucky =) Those people that have their national licenses have definitaly earned them =) Grats everyone and enjoy the new servers =)

damn - although i did all of this in beta testing it's gonna take me a while to get up there, only got 130 odd points in SS at the mo, its 300 isn't it just to be allowed to race the fox on there....take me ages to get back into my beloved restricted fo8 and race you again sam/becky


also just seen there are only 48 people able to go on this server with only 5 on the fo8.

from the last few nights of racing on the ss1 if the national B drivers move up there will be a split right down the grids and you'll lose alot of race craft and good close race battles.. its been fantastic the last few evenings with ZWR vs FPR vs R4R vs Spdo and ELR (editting cuase Nobo is better at names than me :P)

Yeah Dru you are right, the last nights have been absolutely awesome!! Such great and fair racing, never seen before on public servers! You forgot Spdo and ELR
Dont know if its already the time, because i like races with 10+ drivers and i dont think we can get a SS2 server filled already.
Concerning the race length, 10 Minutes seems just fine for me. Everything shorter is to quick, everything longer you'll need to wait far to long to get started. I am already sometimes frustrated with the 9-11 minutes we have now on SS1


@Dru i think its not that hard for you to earn the missing points in the next evenings!

@ Nobo - changed - could not remember the names

but you are right - i've only been involved less than a year in LFS but the quality of the public racing on the SS1 servers has gone up through the roof recently, everyone seems happy to race, share sets gentlemanly race etc etc, its a total pleasure

Also i think the race length and tracks are spot on. 10 minute races are great you don't have to worry about waiting for ages between them, you don't or should not have to worry about car tyres overheating TOO much i think a few other tracks 'could' be added or seen, but its great fun, even BORING westhill is fun when the top 6-8 cars are getting tows from each other 90% of the circuit, almost like monza before the chicanes

Regards,

Dru.

Hmm, perhaps I should venture on SS1 sometime. Haven't been on there yet as I've been focussing on moving on to the Silver license in the tintops, and I'm not a fan of the FOX. Also, I've seen people say that it's harder to earn points on SS1 than it is on Race1 and I'm having enough trouble to earn points there And the fact that I'd be starting from scratch is kind of putting me off; I'd rather focus my efforts on the tintop classes where I'm already a bit underway as far as points and license are concerned.

Excelent, time to get in SS 1

I also think that the current race distance is fine.

And I also agree that the racing standards have greatly improved in the last few days. There are still some people who obviously don't know the combo and should practice offline a bit before joining, but much less than before. I guess the "novelty effect" is wearing out, if you see what I mean.

The new mid-race joining restriction seems to help a lot, too. It has only one inconvenient, IMO: now that you can telepit and go back out only once, it's no longer possible to tweak your setup while practicing. Maybe it would be possible to consider the number of yellow flags the driver triggered in the current race and allow them to telepit more than once as long as the number of flags remains under a certain threshold?

@Dru: don't worry about the time you'll need to reach nat B, mate. With the fastest guys on SS2, you'll score points much faster. It shouldn't take you much more than a few day, IMO.

@Becky and Sam: thanks a lot again for your hard work and congratulations about the great skills you're demonstrating!

Quote :

Also, I've seen people say that it's harder to earn points on SS1 than it is on Race1 and I'm having enough trouble to earn points there

It uses the exact same algorythm, the misconception has arrisen because there was a lower standard of competitive driving and general lack of public experience with the FOX car on the tracks we run.

Quote from obsolum :

and I'm not a fan of the FOX.

I wasn't either to start with, but i stuck with it just to work on the new license and it's rapidly become one of my favourite cars in the game. (FOX@SO5r...what a great combo)

There is some fantastic racing to be had amongst the top FOX drivers.

I have hardly set foot in my beloved XRT since the new servers opened.

Server 2 will take a while to become really popular i think, but hopefully Andy(ger) will start driving the FJR soon so i can nick all his good setups

Quote from The Moose :

I wasn't either to start with, but i stuck with it just to work on the new license and it's rapidly become one of my favourite cars in the game. (FOX@SO5r...what a great combo)

There is some fantastic racing to be had amongst the top FOX drivers.

I have hardly set foot in my beloved XRT since the new servers opened.

Server 2 will take a while to become really popular i think, but hopefully Andy(ger) will start driving the FJR soon so i can nick all his good setups

Ooops did you say that out loud

Quote from FL!P :

The new mid-race joining restriction [...] has only one inconvenient, IMO: now that you can telepit and go back out only once, it's no longer possible to tweak your setup while practicing.

Tweaking your setup is something you do either offline or on an empty server IMO. You can always make a few simple adjustments after a race, but if you really want to create a whole new setup or do some serious tweaking then it shouldn't be on a packed server.

Quote from The Moose :

I wasn't either to start with, but i stuck with it just to work on the new license and it's rapidly become one of my favourite cars in the game. (FOX@SO5r...what a great combo)

Yes, I can imagine that's a very fun and interesting track to drive with the FOX, once you're used to it. I think it's a unique combo that you don't see on any other servers. Guess I'll be popping into SS1 sometime this weekend and see how I compare to the other drivers in terms of skill and pace

After hearing all those positive remarks about the quality of racing on the ss-server, maybe it is time for me to venture there -- again .

Quote from obsolum :

Tweaking your setup is something you do either offline or on an empty server IMO. You can always make a few simple adjustments after a race, but if you really want to create a whole new setup or do some serious tweaking then it shouldn't be on a packed server.

Little tweaks, like fine tuning your braking force or wings, may take a few tries. My point was that if you manage to stay half a lap from the pack and never cause any trouble, there's no reason to prevent you from telepitting several times.

Quote from Linsen :

After hearing all those positive remarks about the quality of racing on the ss-server, maybe it is time for me to venture there -- again .

Wow even I have more now and i started a thread about it. The timing you are on the server is also critical atm. Once server 2 opens it will get better for us mortals.

Quote from SpikeyMarcoD :

Wow even I have more now and i started a thread about it. The timing you are on the server is also critical atm. Once server 2 opens it will get better for us mortals.

Well, that's from six races of which 2-3 were not tracked because of system downtime. In another 2 or 3 I was wrecked*.


*) It wasn't really bad wrecking but more the small annoying kind where you ask yourself whether it's worth reporting and decide against it, because you're too lazy to figure out how the reporting system actually works. Was annoying enough to not race there anymore, though.

I am hoping that the really top SS drivers will go use the SS server 2 and let the points for the SS1 go to others not quite as fast as the super 1337 like Andy and Moose..... and a few of the CORE guys.

Not that its not great to race with them and see how it should be done, but I just dont think once you get the license to go to the next server, you should be able to get points on the lower one!!

Please note: if the top drivers cant get points on the lower server already, then thats great and my mistake

can SS noobs like me go on the SS2 server and watch?

I love the fact I can go on the regular server 3 for the gold and plat license holders, and watch. I think more people should do that and see how clean racing works.... really fun to watch.....

Yes and no, to access second tier servers as a spectator you must have earned at least one licence. This was not originally in the plan back when STCC was launched but what happened was lots of people joined and got spectated causing join lag and second tier racers spent most of their time answering the same question, "why cant i j01n?!!!!!??? 1!?! ! ffs".

So fairly early on I had to change the system to only allow spectator connections on tier 2 servers to people who have earned the first licence level.

Hi,

I've had a go at the new FJR and it is a very good "halfway house" between the FO8 and the FOX, both of which I know quite well.

I haven't seen Becky state what the restriction / ballast details are so I won't spill the beans myself, but suffice to say you can't stick a normal FO8 setup on and expect it to work. A lot of the balance of the normal car in my experience comes from the rear wheels - throttle steer. You don't get that with the lower power. With less spin the rears don't heat so you can run lower pressure, lower wings, or both.

So, it will take some getting used to and I've had no one to race yet but so far .

Just to interject on the telepit debate: Would it be possible to restrict only the non-licence holders to the one-pit rule? I'm sure the National (and equivalent) runners are experienced enough to handle free pitting and it would then become one of the perks of holding a licence.

had a mixed evening - hauled myself up to 260 points - so not much until 300 and national B license

trouble is it is clear that the SS2 will help the 'better' racers and i mean that nicely have better races becuase there are less 'bad' drivers on the track

i can clarify what i mean as bad, not slow or bad is race craft, but people like......


leaving the pits and racing the leaders

or hiting the leaders

or crashing and leaving it parked on the track for 20 secs plus before typing lol etc etc and ruining other people races

also at the mo, numbers are limited.. there was 20 people i think on FE3R tonight past midnight, then 10 when onto the SS2 serverleaving 10, then it slowed quickly and then a change to WE1R killed the server....

is there a better way to handle the changeover at the mo??

Cheers,

Dru

BTW thanks for everything you've done (you know this from the beta testing etc etc) but you've got something special here and it might be a difficult balancing out before the SS servers are truely established with lots of racers on BOTH servers

Quote from Dru :

trouble is it is clear that the SS2 will help the 'better' racers and i mean that nicely have better races becuase there are less 'bad' drivers on the track

Well, that's the point, isn't it? Your first goal is to get in Nat B to be assured clean races (hopefully), and then you want to keep getting up the rank to get a faster car.

Well as soon as I have my Red grade license from Bump & Jump it is time to get serious again. Then I`ll jion the SS server.

I also waited because its popularity. Now the SS2 is open there will be a new group frontiers on SS1