Is iRacing worth it?

[William Moody]

I have rfactor 2 and AC i am thinking of getting iracing just for the open wheelers is it worth it just for that?
If so how much would it be for 1 year membership and the open wheelers?

 

[yusupov]

yeah, gonna do time trials, apparently they arent available this week/(last week?). but def wanna try another race on week 1 just to see if this crap continues.

 

[Blkout]

It shouldn't when the new season starts. In the last 3 months I've been playing, I can only recall one race that I felt like people were out of control. In that race, I was DQ'd for reaching the 17x incident limit in a race. I was pretty pissed about it since you can get a 4x just from someone hitting you even if its not your fault. i thought my SR was going to take a beating, but I only lost .12 points. I expected much worse.

 

[Kevin Watts]

I thought I wouldn't be buying any more content for iRacing after Assetto Corsa was released and I've not be really active in iRacing for a long time but I crumbled and bought the BMW Z4 and COTA and had fun racing a couple of races over the weekend, I didn't do too well in them but had fun none the less. Week 13 can be a bit crazy with people racing hard because there is no SR penalty but it doesn't help either that iRacing started fast tracking drivers through the ranks IMHO. I tend to do a lot of hot lapping and ran a lot of league races on RD where you get to know how hard you can race each other but during the normal seasons on iRacing the racing is pretty clean once you leave the rookie class.

 

[Blkout]

COTA is a seriously challenging track, the BMW Z4 is awesome.

 

[yusupov]

does the 24 hrs du fun or w/e its called change tracks each week? i have no interest in buying cota until i need to, but if it's the only way to race gt3 for me till i get to...whatever level, i'd probably do it.

 

[Blkout]

The 24 hour races are only for week 13, just for fun. The schedule will go back to normal for the new season. I would be surprised if COTA is not required for the next season. That being said, you don't have to race it if you don't want to buy it. In a 12 week schedule, you don't have to race every week if you don't own the tracks, you can skip those weeks if you don't own them and race on the weeks that you do own the content.

 

[yusupov]

yeah, i wont be eligible this season anyway (i assume). will try to ghost as many races as possible though.

 

[Blkout]

yeah, i wont be eligible this season anyway (i assume). will try to ghost as many races as possible though.

You'll be able to race in many events with just a basic subscription if you don't mind racing with the cars and tracks that come free with a subscription.

I will admit though, the ghost sessions are an awesome feature, its as close to racing in actual race as you can get, the only real downside is that no one sees you so there's no pressure on them or you if you're close to them, and of course they can drive right through you or you through them which isn't like having to actually go around someone or move out of the way.

 

[Niel Hekkens]

i tried racing for SR last night after i got some advice on racing the star mazda & man did i get boned terribly. i was told it's week 13 issues but, yeah. DNF because 4 guys intentionally ran through me. will have to see if it changes now.

Could be me, but I can't find an official series with the Star Mazda where SR & iRating is in effect?

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

It is still week 13 for another 5 or 6 hours; tonight the start of week 1 of the season begins and there will be official races.

 

[Niel Hekkens]

I know, that's why you can't race for SR. That's what I thought was a bit weird.

 

[yusupov]

well...you can race to lose SR, so i assume you can gain it as well. at least as a rookie.

 

[yusupov]

oh i see the confusion. no the advice was for fast-tracking to be able to race it this season, so iwas just trying to pick up some SR points an SRF race

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

During week 13 there are only a couple rookie series that SR and IR are in effect for. And quite a few long time members use promo codes to start up a new account just to 'have fun' griefing rookies..please don't ask me how I know this. A year ago spectating bottom split rookie legends races during week 13 (where the field size was twice as big or more than regular) was the most entertainment you could ever hope for.

 

[yusupov]

yeah thats utterly bizarre but makes perfect sense. like i said the knockout (in both cases) came from a group of 3 travelling close together, in the last case driving 3 wide. i checked up on them & all were DQ'd & they were rookies whose SR was as low as mine, in a couple cases worse. dunno exactly how thats fun, but the internet is full of weirdos.

 

[Bakkster]

literally within 20 seconds. one guy plowed thru me, clearly intentional, then a gang of three boxed me in until i was DQd. second straight time the latter has happened to me, although that race i was goofing off & karmically or w/e deserved it.

I hope you saved the replay and protested that. This is not acceptable behavior from them, and iRacing only gets better if these kinds of people get protested.

And if they were longtime members who started up trolling accounts, iRacing will ban both accounts if they can link them.

 

[Bakkster]

I am not familiar with the iRating and how it works

@Blkout was close, but might have been a bit confusing.

iRating is just a rating system where each race you earn some points from drivers you finish ahead of and lose some points to those who finish ahead of you. If you finish ahead of higher rated drivers you earn more points, and fewer points for beating drivers rated lower. At the end of the day, this rates everyone based on their expected finishing position. The higher your iRating the higher you're expected to finish races on average.

The average iRating of a race determines how many points the winner earns, with each position below earning less. The better the drivers in a race, the more points earned. Your week's points are the average of your best race in 4. If you run up to 4 races, your best race counts. If you run 5-8 races your best two races are averaged. Running 9-12 races counts your best three, and so on.

These are simplifications, but should be enough to understand the way the system is intended to work.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

I hope you saved the replay and protested that. This is not acceptable behavior from them, and iRacing only gets better if these kinds of people get protested.

And if they were longtime members who started up trolling accounts, iRacing will ban both accounts if they can link them.

Actually my buddies troll account from a couple years ago just received an offer of a year of iracing for a dollar.

 

[Bakkster]

Actually my buddies troll account from a couple years ago just received an offer of a year of iracing for a dollar.

Was it ever banned? Might be an oversight on their part that the automated renewal offer script doesn't skip banned users.

I know at least one griefer was banned last week.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

The account never even had a protest against it.

I watched Nim pluck a driver out of a race one time..the same guy was in the very next race so I wouldn't be so sure about how long they 'ban' anybody.

I forgot how much fun simply spectating oval races is...I see guys I ran with years ago that have no more car control skills than they did back then yet still have egos a mile wide...It really is amazing how different the mindset is between the oval side and the road side.