2012 | 300 Miles of Sebring

[Stefan Woudenberg]

300 Miles of Sebring- INTRO & INFO

The RaceDepartment staff expects people who sign up to read this entire article!

Event: 300 Miles of Sebring
Date: Saturday - October 13th 2012
Platform: rFactor2
Class: Nissan GTR, Nissan 370Z, Renault Megane
Track: Sebring 12h
Broadcast: under investigation
Driver Swaps: None

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to second official Racedepartment World Endurance Series event.
The Racedepartment World Endurance Series, or RDWES for short, is a series of (semi)endurance races we will hold during the year.
After a blast on Mid Ohio, we will again make a visit to the USA, to Sebring to be exact.
Sebring International Raceway is one of the oldest continuously-operating race tracks in the United States, its first race being run in 1950. As this track has a long history of Endurance racing, we feel we should honor it by this event.
There will be NO driver swaps allowed in this event. Total race length is 300 miles, which will equal about 2.5 hours of racing.


AVAILABLE CARS
The cars available will all be from the GT classes. In addition to the GT Endurance Series by ISI, we have decided to include the Renault Megane Trophy.
RaceDepartment will try to stay up to date with the latest patches and releases of these mod’s. This list will be updated according to the latest decisions of the staff concerning implemented patches and releases.
Available choices will be:

GT1
Nissan GT-R

GT4
Nissan 370Z
Maserati GT (taken out due to missing whipers and brake disc glow animation).

One-Make Racing
Renault Megane

SKINS
For this round, a custom MOD will be created. Everyone who wants to use a custom skin can make one and send it in a working download link. The DEADLINE is October 1st (!!!!), so after that you'll need to pick a standard skin for the race. Happy skinning guys! Don´t forget to put a RD logo on there.

Dead line costum skin period has ended!

SCHEDULE/SESSION INFO - ALL TIMES IN GMT
Official Practice: 16:30 (90 minutes)
Qualification: 18:00 (30 minutes)
Warm-up: 18:30 (15 minutes)
Race: 18:45 (82 Laps = +/- 300Miles)

All drivers must be in the server at least 15 minutes before qualifying, anyone who joins after the start of qualifying will start from the back of their specified class with the exception of people who experience last minute technical issues. The server will be open for unofficial practice before official starting time, and will be restarted at 16:30 GMT exactly. From that moment on, the server will stay up, so a nice rubber pavement can be made.

Signups.
To sign up for this event, you must have a valid license from Racedepartment. If you sign up, we do expect you to show up!. To sign up, please take a look in the Sign Up Thread.

For now, we have limited the signup list to 28 entrants. If needed, we can expand that number with an additional 20 drivers, so all can have a go at this.


Notes.
· Chatting of any kind during Qualifying and the Race is strictly prohibited in the chat. There is no need to say sorry/thanks/pitting/leaving pits/etc. Anything that needs to be said can wait until after the session.
· If you feel you were wronged in any way during an event and wish to report the incident, simply send the event organiser a private message. Please include a description of the incident along with a video. If you are unable to create a video, please include details such as who was involved and where the incident happened with a timestamp. Do not post reports/accusations in the thread itself - negativity and anger gets us nowhere.
· We encourage all our drivers to use Teamspeak 3, download here. Talking directly to your fellow drivers increases the fun and the ability to share information in an easy friendly way. It will improve your driving skills dramatically, Log in here
· Please take into account that rFactor 2 is still in beta stage and that technical problems might occur. If you spot a bug please post a (constructive) report in the dedicated bug forum here.

 

[Tiens Van Zyl]

Had a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone involved especially Stefan and Marco. @Stefan your setup for the GTR was awesome thanks for sharing here on the forums.

I spun out quite a few times, had to pit twice for repairs, stuck it out and had an awesome fight the last two laps with Nicky.

See you all again on the track soon

 

[Kevin Cox]

Well after all the problems getting this event going I am glad I stuck it out.

Sebring at night was amazing. The fireworks and the camera flashes from the crowd really added to the atmosphere.

The racing was great fun and was leading my class (370Z) for quite some time untill the first round of pitstops. After that I lost it countless times. I think I pitted 4 times for repairs which put me 7 laps behind the leader in my class.

Well done to Stefan for winning the 370Z class!!! Took it slow and steady. Also 3rd overall not bad for the slowest class car!!

Thanks again for all the hard work Stefan and Marco have put into this and hope all goes smoother next time.

 

[Scott Webber]

i never got to see the darkness, some dude hit me and messed up my suspension on corner 3 i think, sh*t happens , i carried on racing with the bent suspension and i was doing ok, but without realising each bump i hit the suspension only got worse, to the point under braking the car just lost it, smack bang into the wall

i don't know what it is, but when im racing with online folks and the car is good, it feels like real life to me, the graphics and feeling, i sometimes forget it's only a game.

thanks to everyone who was patient during the server changes due to unforseen problems, much appreciated.

my biggest thanks ad appreciation goes to stefan for all the hard work he done, if only you guy's knew how many hours he sacrafised for it, he would have earned a months pay within a few days

Marco thanks for helping out also, couldn't have been done without you two.

until next time!

 

[Larry Thomas]

Many thanks to Stefan for all his time and effort for this event. And many, many thanks to Stefan and Marco for hanging in there with all the problems. Really appreciate it.

As for the race I completely mucked up at the start. I have no idea what happened, can not explain it at all. So there I was already with half an hour behind . So I focused on catching up with Stefan, me in my Megane and Stefan in his 370Z. That was fun.
Up until I a bit over half way everything was going well and then I started to loose concentration. Accident 1 = 350 seconds of repairs . And then I got a drive through (as my steering wheel was at 90° coming into the pits I did not press the right button). And then another accident with over 200 seconds of damage.
Anyway, I hung in to the end and was happy to finish my first night race and my longest race to date.
Congratulations to the podium and all finishers.

As for rF technical issues; during my 2nd pit stop I got 20 seconds of damage repair even though I had no damage (confirmed by the pit menu).
During the night I also got a bit of stuttering when there were other cars near by even though it was fine off line with the AI's.

Now I am looking forward to the next event.

 

[Stefan Woudenberg]

Thank you for all the patience guys and all the kind words! It has been a hectic last two weeks and the last week with all the issues with the skin pack and server. It made my life a year shorter that is for sure. Better wait for gold before bringing in skin packs again. So sorry to all that couldn't make it due to not able to connect.
Thank you Marco for the help and back up I needed that!

Well the race which I was looking for for a long time. I love Sebring and I was looking forward to some nice battle with Chris who has the same race pace I do. Kevin and Nicky are too quick for me. When Chris clicked the wrong button I was like "Oh No!!! This is gonna be a looooooooong lonely and boring race!!!", but it turned out to be a great one.

I was starting slowly stay save at the back and try to find a save and steady race pace. I noticed that Larry and I were changing position a coupel of times. He in the quicker car, but due to small mistakes I could keep up ir stay in front.
Everyone was pulling away and some guys crashing and leaving (not repairing their car and continue?).
I was climbing the charts. My first pitstop was after 30 laps and only did fuel, my second was after 60 laps. My fronts were turned to red and I didn't want to take the risk to do fuel only again (whole race on 1 set of tyres). I wanted to change only the fronts but the game did not let me, so I had to comin in again to change tyres, so lost 30 seconds extra or so.
I drove my laps consistent (2:09's and 2:10's (best low 2:08)) and finisted as 3rd overall, 6 laps down to the winner! Just had 3 little spins without damage and that is for me a surprise with the little practise I had.
I felt pretty good and that has been a long time since I felt so satisfied after a race.

Thanks you very much again guys for make this race work out with all the bumps to get there. I hope to see you again in another RDWES race... Don't ask when that will be. .....yet......

 

[t.o.]

Sounds fantastic guys. One question I have is did none of you experience the pit glitch? Where you go in to pit and get dropped? I've hosted a couple of 30 lap races and in both races when I went in to pit I'd get dropped from the game. I'm surprised so many of you went in and nobody got dropped. Wonder what you guys are doing different or have you all figured something out.

 

[Kevin Cox]

Sounds fantastic guys. One question I have is did none of you experience the pit glitch? Where you go in to pit and get dropped? I've hosted a couple of 30 lap races and in both races when I went in to pit I'd get dropped from the game. I'm surprised so many of you went in and nobody got dropped. Wonder what you guys are doing different or have you all figured something out.

No I didn't experience any pit glitches. Just wished I didn't have to visit the pits as often as I did!

 

[Hugo Gonçalves]

Big BIG Thks to staff guys for the race. Sebring at night is a beauty. Hope next time we dont have so many probs, and hope next race will be soon

 

[Nicky De Fré]

So, the race just started, and most of you will be driving now. A nice opportunity for me to type something here.

First, let me appologize for the issues and delays. We did all we can to make it work in time, and properly. However, somehow we got challenged with some new technical issues, we have not seen before in any of the races we hosted. Not in this build, and not in builds before.
This caused a lot of problems. Some could have been prevented, some could not. For those that we could have prevented, I appologize.
The game is still in Beta, but I agree that a bit more stability could have been expected. However, I am just glad that we at Racedepartment have a crew of staff, dedicated enough to spend a lot of time getting it all together, and getting it all to work. Also, I am very happy with those that, dispite all the problems, still had the patience and will to do what we asked. It's good to see that the spirit in that department is ok with most of us, and I am thankfull for that. A big thumbs up for you

I am not sure if the next WES event will be in Beta, of in Gold. My gut feeling says Beta, and if so, we will keep it simple. No hastle with skins and stuff. We got tempted this time, and punnished hard for it. Won't make that mistake twice, I promis

Anyway, I still hope you all had fun. Especially Stefan Woudenberg. After all the hard work, you deserve it . Many thanks for it, and you did a great job.

Bit late on this post here

Well i have to disagree on that actually. Think we got the event started a bit in the wrong way. Mod was a bit late on release, on last day. Dont blame anyone on this, but would not trow away the idea of adding skins to the series. I think the problem should be search at what could cause the issue. Do think if we had the mod like what would i say 2 weeks before the event we could fixed any issue people would have. Even a test event, not for racing but just to test a full grid before the actual event. Like week before event or so, put like 30 min for everybody to get on just to test and close it again after. ofcourse we would need everybody on the teamspeak channel then so we could know who has problems to connect to the game.

Iam shure the message we had poping up on the side, was just because somebody tryed to join the server with incorrect files. Nothing else. So server was fine, just not the players who tryed to connect to it.

Spotted the track sebring aswell on signle player has only 19 slots free, more ai are not possible, so that could cause any issues there aswell. So that could be easily tested with 30 + people on track on the same time with standard cars. Only thing we need is people on the track to figure out the issue. Again not to race but to fully test a game.

The official server should be up at least 2 weeks before the event to avoid errors and allow people to test there install properly. A full pack to download, no updates. If there needs to be some changes in the pack reupload the pack and change the name, a name that you really can spot the change easily. A guide on how to install or reinstall. Hope these things dont get interpreted negative, this is just a opinion of a driver on Rd. And get Rd on rf2 on the road.

Really think we should get these things working, So we can use more of that in the futher.

 

[Marco Bijl]

Don't get me wrong, but thats easy talking for someone who does NOT have to make the mod, and deal with all the misery of the unexpected issues rf2 has at this stage of development

First off, do not forget that on request of members, skins where added just 4 weeks for the event. That means 2 weeks of skin making, which leaves 2 weeks to make the mod. If you have any idea how much work it is to create a skinpack/mod for rf2, you would understand that the mod is not released before.
Besides that, there where a lot of issues, not related to the skinpack directly. Those issues have to be addressed as well, which takes away the time to make the mod again.
The RD staff here also has a real life.... We all have a job we have to attend, and do all the work in our spare time. This limits the time a lot as well.

2 weeks in advance a server up is nice, but with the current stage of rf2 (development BETA stage), and all of the changes they make, we as staff take a big risk when doing the work so far in advance of the event. That could easily mean (had it before already) that ll the work has to be redone at the last moment, because ISI desides to change things again.

Sebring is driven with 19+ people already. This was tested before, so in principle, there was no need to test it again.
Creating full packs, and not updates can cause a lot of issues as well, as you have to repack all components also, and rename them to avoid issues.

Then there are the strange issues like the headlight issue with the meganes (floating headlights). Something that we had not seen before, and still can not explain. Any idea how much time it can take to troubleshoot a thing like that?

All in all, there is a lot more involved in setting this up then most realize. The ammount of time invested in testing, setting up, and mod creation is in now way acceptable regarding the actual event time. A 2.5 hour event like this one, costs multiple staff members a few full working days to set up and fully test!

In the future, when rf2 goes gold, and systems and methods of operation do not change anymore, things will be better. Until that time, things like this can occur. If you can;t handle this, then wait till the game goes gold. If you can handle this, then you can have a lot of fun in the events themselves.
And we, as staff, will survive. It costs us a lot of time and efforts, but in the end, we can make it work almost all the time.

For the coming period, so thats when it's still in Beta, we will not use skins anymore. Just default content. Simple reason is to avoid those last minute hasstle issues. But we will continue with the events!

 

[Andrew Ford]

For the coming period, so thats when it's still in Beta, we will not use skins anymore. Just default content. Simple reason is to avoid those last minute hasstle issues. But we will continue with the events!

I was bit gutted as personal circumstances (job interview) got in the way of me racing and i'd been looking forward to this. sounds like the moderators/organisers did a hell of a lot of work and there were issues - gutted for them too. we all know that rfactor 2 still has bugs and i sense people are just getting impatient for the final product generally.

For me, skins would be nice but not that important. are there any known issues just setting up the main sebring mod and 30+ people jumping in?

If not, i'd rather have a more regular endurance event with default than cause more/too much work for staff. i'm naive but could an event not just be posted on the server and people sign up?

At the minute, numbers are probably fairly low in races (altho seem to be new faces) and a few successful endurance events might encourage more to join in the fun for other races too.

i was bit critical of the f2 mod the other day but having got my head around it, i'm one of those in the background who would like to compete in the near future again.

Thanks for your hard work!

 

[Nicky De Fré]

Don't get me wrong, but thats easy talking for someone who does NOT have to make the mod, and deal with all the misery of the unexpected issues rf2 has at this stage of development

First off, do not forget that on request of members, skins where added just 4 weeks for the event. That means 2 weeks of skin making, which leaves 2 weeks to make the mod. If you have any idea how much work it is to create a skinpack/mod for rf2, you would understand that the mod is not released before.
Besides that, there where a lot of issues, not related to the skinpack directly. Those issues have to be addressed as well, which takes away the time to make the mod again.
The RD staff here also has a real life.... We all have a job we have to attend, and do all the work in our spare time. This limits the time a lot as well.

2 weeks in advance a server up is nice, but with the current stage of rf2 (development BETA stage), and all of the changes they make, we as staff take a big risk when doing the work so far in advance of the event. That could easily mean (had it before already) that ll the work has to be redone at the last moment, because ISI desides to change things again.

Sebring is driven with 19+ people already. This was tested before, so in principle, there was no need to test it again.
Creating full packs, and not updates can cause a lot of issues as well, as you have to repack all components also, and rename them to avoid issues.

Then there are the strange issues like the headlight issue with the meganes (floating headlights). Something that we had not seen before, and still can not explain. Any idea how much time it can take to troubleshoot a thing like that?

All in all, there is a lot more involved in setting this up then most realize. The ammount of time invested in testing, setting up, and mod creation is in now way acceptable regarding the actual event time. A 2.5 hour event like this one, costs multiple staff members a few full working days to set up and fully test!

In the future, when rf2 goes gold, and systems and methods of operation do not change anymore, things will be better. Until that time, things like this can occur. If you can;t handle this, then wait till the game goes gold. If you can handle this, then you can have a lot of fun in the events themselves.
And we, as staff, will survive. It costs us a lot of time and efforts, but in the end, we can make it work almost all the time.

For the coming period, so thats when it's still in Beta, we will not use skins anymore. Just default content. Simple reason is to avoid those last minute hasstle issues. But we will continue with the events!

Dont get me wrong there, i totally agree what you say there, but just thought we were starting off wrong and i knew this would been the issue as i did a lot off addon things that didnt work, and had a lot of those evenings before to knew that it would been one off those. On the day before the event that the pack needed it to been updated. I dont say that it was admin fault, i say we could maybe prevent it by starting a couple weeks or even months in front to figure out the issue (offcourse i cant talk about that as i dont have any knowledge about that, i agree. But i would be one off those who would be there for some advanced testing though)
Dont pointing any fingers at anyone here, but just think we could find out what the problem was, iam shure we could find 30+ people just to test out some stuff what works and what doesnt. But you guys are the boss. MAybe you right with just testing 30+ standard cars before we go further
Lot of work went in this event i realize that. And want to thank everybody involved. Sadly it wasnt a big succes, but will be there the next one

BTW those events are just to long almost wet my pants. Luck after having crash leading the 370z class, had a pitstop for 300 sec so i was relieved in stead of dissapointed , sat it out till the end, tryed to get P1 back from stefan (370z class) but sadly 1.40 was to much to close again. Instead of finishing 4th overall was stolen position and put back to P5 on the last corner by Tiens

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

Very simple solution for next time: You could plan a test event one week before and announce the date at the same day as the race day and everyone who does not attend the test has no right to post criticism

 

[Marco Bijl]

Frederic,

Thats a nice one However, everyone can post critiscism. Thats no problem. But people do have to remember how much work is involved, and that staff member is not a full time job, but something we do in our spare time.

A lot of the issues with this specific event where caused by the skinpack. Direct, or indirect. Due to the time it took to make the pack, other things where prosponed.
The other issues where caused by flaws in rf2, which ISI just simply doesn't address. We have to live with that. Can't influence ISI in that matter.

Last, a lot of things are tested before we host the event. However, with the crapy stability of rf2, we simply are never sure that no issues will rise. Let's hope that when the game goes gold, that will no longer occur.