Have you ever raced with RD?

[Nick Brooke]

Hi all,

I am looking at what we can do to get the Club events back on track so to speak and one thing is clear there is still plenty of interest in Race Series. What we do see however is smaller numbers in the Club events than in the past. A few people move on and new ones come so in order to see why numbers have decreased a little i have produced this poll to see whats happening.

please take time to post in it.

Nick

 

[Nick Brooke]

I will be posting a poll at some point to see what people want to run ie: class or car and types of track

 

[Szymon Olizarowicz]

Good idea. Thanks.

 

[Arunas]

Hi for all,
I am new here, but not in simracing. I think RD needs to create like test (license) days for newbies, to show and introduce what are rules and spirit of the RD racers. So nobody would afraid of racing online on RD events. Now i registered in this forum and i'cant race, because i'm not licensed driver..
Sorry for my bad english

 

[Nick Brooke]

Have you applied for a licence yet?

 

[Arunas]

Have you applied for a licence yet?

I have applied 1 day ago, so i just waiting for license to try to race in RD

 

[Dennis Phelan]

Welcome! Hope to see you ontrack!

 

[Arunas]

I'll try my best Looking forward to start RD career with Mini's

 

[Nick Brooke]

Ok a little info for you, the Series i am going to do with be a feeder series. It will be point awarded club races but to take part you will have to have done a pre determined club races which i will let you know ahead of time. It will be for people new to league races first and foremost but it doesnt preclude the others who have run leagues in the past.

I am working on the mod we will use atm and seeking the tracks.

 

[Szymon Olizarowicz]

Sounds interesting. Unfortunatelly, my internet connection still causes some issues. Though I hope to solve it this or next week. What kind of mod are we going to use? I mean what is the main purpose of it?

 

[Nick Brooke]

Ok

Well the reason i want to run a mod is because the leagues tend to run mods, this is a feeder series so people who have never done leagues before get a chance to see what its like without the strict nature of a league. I want people to experience the full nature of league racing however and a mod will assist in this.

I have said you will need to have raced in club races first even to get into this one because you learn how to drive in club races before you join a league. Can you imagine the mayhem created by someone who never raced before joining in a league. this should also give you some kudos when you apply for a proper league afterwards if you keep your nose clean and race in a fair manner.

It really is a win win situation for all the newer players. This will not happen for a few weeks as i am on holiday soon but when i return i will start it. A single car series with a small amount of setup options to keep it simple, There maybe a need to team up that is not decided yet but it would be good for people to have teams of 2-3 people to see what it is like joining together in a common goal.

I will be posting a poll soon enough when i have thought through some of the points so keep your eyes peeled.

 

[Szymon Olizarowicz]

I support the idea of having teams. This could add a bit more emotion when fighting for any position awarding points. Even when your rank is low you will still fight to improve on the team's position.

One question though - why only one car (unless ofc you ment something else)? I believe it would be best to make a whole class available (unless we use e.g. production cars, which would make Audi R8 less competetive than say Koenigsegg.). People would then have a chance pick the car that they feel more comfortable with. Say for a wekk or two before the league starts we decide to go for WTCC 2008 cars. People would have a week or so before deciding which car to use from this class. Other thing is that some people have no experience with FWD will fail short when forced to drive Seats. And vice versa people normally playing with Seats would find it very difficult to drive BMWs. Also this can make the series less interesting. Also it is more fan, when you drive a number of car models instead of one.

I also don't see a reason to make the setup options simpler. Yes, many people (including me) may mess something up but this is the best way to learn how to NOT change your car settings. If the options will be limited we will never learn how to set up the car. This may also cause some problems such as people wanting to use more advanced setups. If I want to change my settings to something I personally found to be the best - will I still be able to do that when the setup is limited? I know that noobs should be 'protected' as it may discourage them when they lose because of wrong settings. This happened and still happens to me BUT there is a plenty of help with that on this forum and others. You can ask question. You can donwload already made setups. You can read (with sufficient detail for noobs) a number of guides about settings. Finally you can and should use common sense when creating your setup and change one setting at a time and don't go to the extemes like increasing all differential settings to max.

EDIT: As for the requirement of racing in RD club I have to admit it seems necesary. At the moment I don't have a licensed account since I don't play online but in two weeks time when I solve my connecion problem I will get the membership and join club series. There is no other way as somewhere people need to learn the basics of following the RD rules not only prepare for pro leagues.

 

[Arunas]

One more vote for having teams.
And i think it's bad to have one car, we need freedom to chose FWD or RWD
But in other hand this is just for learning good driving and showing respect to others, it's no matter in what car
FWD or RWD is for later time..

 

[Szymon Olizarowicz]

I think the purpose of the league would not be to learn showing respect as this is already required to join. This is the most basic skills you learn in the RD Club and I think it should stay that way as RD Club gives a relatively wide choice of classes, cars, tacks and mods. It's also less demanding so it will always be a better place to learn showing respect and following the rules set by RD. For everyone, who wants to learn the racedepartment 'rules' that should be enough. Obviously, newbie league would develop these skills but I don't think it should be the focus since RD club series seems to work well in that regard. I am looking forward to join one of the club events soon.

As for differences between cars - I think variety is necessity. Not only it reduces the risk that people get disappointed with car choice (and there will be a plenty of them anyway) but also helps the noobs to get into the league. Like I said, some of us have experience with one car only. If someone was driving Seats moving to BMWs just before the start of the series will be very hard and even exprienced drivers may face difficulties with competing with others.

I believe there should be no restriction unless specific cars give advantage over the others. In WTCC 07 the car specs are the same for all cars so we should be allowed to use all of them. In production cars there is a difference between say Audi R8 or Koenigsegg. If we decide to go for a specific class where cars are not balanced well then deciding for one car makes sense. Otherwise not really.

 

[Dennis Phelan]

Professor, I know you can't get in online races right now so I'm speaking to the others, that are hopefully, at least, driving online somewhere and haven't raced at RD yet. Drive at every event, RD or not, as though it was an RD event. Be a good driver all the time and don't act like those others! It's not really about respect but more like driving as though you were in a car that you invested a minimum of $50k in just to have fun and you're on track with others of the same inclination. No one wants their car wasted. Coming right back ontrack after sliding off and into the driving line in front of another just isn't fair to the other. Driving closer than you can to another driver and making contact enough to upset him isn't fair, learn to drive closely and pass cleanly, clearly, this is a WIP! I'm not talking about ramming to pass, just about passing cleanly and hopefully more like a real life racer would and not just hold a line bashing the other driver into submission.

Please do not hope that the races Nick are going to provide this. You must learn, practice and improve on you own, by driving online!

If you're not a licenced driver can you still see the RD schedule in the Racing Club section for the forum? Notice that ALL of the US club races have only a few entires! Many times the EU club has openings in the field. Please, participate! Last hight we had good races going with a couple of guys that heven't been on RD long, races among themselves and all that they involve. You can be there.

 

[Nick Brooke]

Please do not hope that the races Nick are going to provide this. You must learn, practice and improve on you own, by driving online!

If you're not a licenced driver can you still see the RD schedule in the Racing Club section for the forum? Notice that ALL of the US club races have only a few entires! Many times the EU club has openings in the field. Please, participate! Last hight we had good races going with a couple of guys that heven't been on RD long, races among themselves and all that they involve. You can be there.

Well said mate,

Nope the races i will provide in the event planned will not help you start, it will get you accustomed to how things work in a league type enviroment only. There will be penalties imposed for careless driving, there will be points awarded for good positions just like a league.

A league is not where you learn to drive club races and practice sessions are for that. If enough of you want some practice sessions opened on the server so you can get together without the worries of making your own servers get together and ask i am sure i can help you.

To another point raised. Most league series run off one car formats, yes there are some that have multi car but single format is something that means there is no differential betweencars and its more down to the driver and driving style. This seems to me to be the way forward for people just getting ready for leagues. I did not however say that one car would be used for all of the series in fact i have in mind that we would use maybe 3 different ones throughout the season.

Again there is little point at this moment in going to deep into conversation about such matters until i can fully commit to this which will be in a few weeks after my holiday. We will be looking at setting this up very early in October. Holiday commitments mean i cannot do it any earlier however i will give you all a challange to complete before i go in order to be able to compete in the series. That will be posted in the next few days along with a pre registation poll

 

[Szymon Olizarowicz]

3 different cars in a whole season is definitely not enough if we go for a class that let's you drive 5 different cars. But it's better than one car in the whole season I guess. For me however, mixed competition would be better. I suggest a poll should decide. As for the leagues using only one car - depends which leagues. Here at RD it seems like RDGT and RDTCC use a full class not one car and it's not seen as a problem.

I also don't think that a car model would make huge difference in the newbie league. When racing in the pro leagues it's obvious that better car is a serious advantage. However, assuming it will be (mostly) a noob event differences between cars will not make such huge difference. It will be dependednt on your ability to learn.

IF we decide to go for one car only type of races then I'm even more against limited setup options. I mean bearing in mind all have the same cars it would be nice to be able to set your car in a completely different way to what your rivals plan. Also when forced to drive FWD Seat (I have no experience with these) I would benefit from customising the car so that I get more comfortable with the new car capabilities.

EDIT:
I just registered on RD as there is hope to solve connection problems by the end of this week. The 'new' name will be Szymon Olizarowicz. Hope to see you on the track soon.

 

[Stuart Rinck]

I have not raced yet with you fellows. I would like to at some point. One of my biggest problems is sorting out all the addons and mods you have. I see several "mods" listed in the downloads section:

Race Serie Racing Club Mod package (155.77 MB) Race Serie Racing Club Mod package(part 2) (134.21 MB) Race Serie Racing Club Mod package(part 1) (185.36 MB)

And then there is the track packs each month?
When I extract the packages to my Race 07 folder as instructed it always asks to overwrite files already there. I do have alot of extras from Weisbierbude too.

A sticky that states in order and in detail which mods/files are needed and exactly when where and how to install them correctly.
I don't mind doing this at all. I just need to get a better idea of what is going on. But I would think that this might discourage newcomers that have installed the game and now want to race, and not mess about for hours installing tons of extras and add ons. Just my 1/2 cents worth. Hope to see you on the track soon!

 

[Marco Bijl]

@Stuart,

At the event posts, on top, the needed tracks and other mods are always listed. Same as which add-on (STCC, RaceOn) is needed to play.

To make things more easy, the admins release a month package, which contains all mod's used in the comming month. This is to make it more easy for the new players to get all the tracks and needed other mods.

I recoment you use the simracingmanager. Search for it on the forum, it aint hard to find. That organizes the mod's you have installed a bit.

Just take a look at the posts from the several events. You shall see that all the information is there per race, and there is always a link to the mod package as well. Only download if you don't have the track or needed mod already (save on the download quota).

Example:
Server name: RACEDEPARTMENT.COM MINI
Required RACE 07 expansions: -
Class: Mini Challenge
Track: Istanbul 06
Practice: 19:00 GMT
Qualification: 19:30 GMT
Warm-up: 19:50 GMT
Race: 20:00 GMT 80 Minutes
Password: click here
Rules: Click here

This if for the Mini race of tonight on Istanbul. You can see here:
No expansions are needed, just Race07
Track is standard (no download link supplied)
Class is standard as well, also no download link specified.

So, for this race you don't need to download any mod's.

Hope this clears things a bit for u.

 

[Nick Brooke]

Guys i am watching this thread and i am taking all your views i assure you. This is not for me this is for you as the poll stated that some felt they wished to have a session that would help them in getting used to leagues and such like.

Nothing is final before i say it is and i stated there will be a poll before this startes so you all have your views aired. Dont worry it will be a set of events made up of what YOU the members want.

Im listening

Nick

 

[Aaron DeMarre]

I have raced in all the seasons of the RDRC (rally), but I have not raced any roundy-round with RD.

I would like to get in on some casual club races in the future tho, are the US races always M-W-F? Hopefully I can get into an event soon, probably next Monday if I can make it home in time for the start of the race.