Races in California Time Zone?

[Sk3ptik0n]

With the new tracks and the upcoming cars and rain I would love to race NKpro more. Unfortunately, I live in California and when I have time to race (evening/late night/ weekends) the servers are all empty.

I'd love to be able to join the races at 20:30 GMT, but I am working at that time and even though I work for myself at home, I really can;t afford to take the time. Plus, usually my phone rings off the hook and there is always some client needing something urgently so it's out of the question.

So I am wondering if there are many other people in the PST time zone that would like to race now and then. Maybe there are and we all check the servers 5 minutes from each other and decide that no one is racing and go on to other things.

If there are other folks interested, post here and if we can get a few people going maybe we can all agree on times and servers to go to and practice in the hope we can put together some fun races.

 

[Phil Hopkins]

Similar problem for me. I can only make the weekend races most of the year. I'm in the CST timezone so close enough to PST for it to work. Hopefully we can find some others and knock together some events. It would be great to develop something like they have over in the Race series with both EU and US events and folks from all areas Racing in both whenever possible.

Thanks for starting the thread.

 

[Ray Nelson]

I am on the west coast as well - Seattle area so I would be interested in getting together. The only times I am committted to other leagues right now are Sunday and Wednesday evenings.

 

[Sk3ptik0n]

Well, at least so far it's 3 of us. I'd also like to learn how to setup a server. I lease a webserver in Texas but I am not sure what it's needed. I ahve a couple of extra computers I could use as servers as well but I'd have to learn how to set one up. I am very good when it comes to web servers, but I know next to nothing as far as simracing servers and how they work.

I am saying this because when I looked last night the pings were pretty high and the only time I went online in a NKpro server the lag and blinking cars took most of the fun away. Maybe I am spoiled by iRacing, where 99% of the time it's flawless

Anyway, let's monitor this thread and see if anyone else posts. I could also post something on the California club forum in iRacing (They don;t seem to mind, there has been a NKpro post for months now and a lot of folks meet regularly - still in EU though).

Thanks guys.

 

[Sk3ptik0n]

Hi Guys, I posted the same appeal in several other places: iracing, radiator springs and nogripracing.com. I am looking for other places to post into and I am redirecting everyone to this post until we can figure out a more permanent home if enough people show interest (hopefully).

If you like, feel free to post in other places you frequent as well. Also, I wouldn't mind coming up with a day and a time we can try to go online together right now. Something like Wed. at 7:30pm or any otehr day that at least the three of us can meet and test the servers. We can use teamspeak or Skype.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to form a pacific/central league? Especially with the new content coming out it would be a blast. I love NK but it's sad to look at the servers and see no one there.

 

[Phil Hopkins]

I'm pretty flexible in the evenings. Your 7:30 would be my 9:30 and that's probably fine as long as the practices and quali's aren't too long. Saturdays are good also, usually. I'll be racing with the EU guys on some Sundays in the NGP. TS is good. I don't have Skype.

 

[Sk3ptik0n]

Thanks Phil. It may turn out that 6:30 works better if there are other folks from the central time zone joining. My 7:30 was trying to be a compromise and 6:30pst works just as well for me.

Weekends are also very good. While it's easier to get on the EU servers over the weekend, the time difference still favors them and the physical distance (if the servers are in the EU) could make us ping too high for good gameplay. So if we can manage to organize something it would be ideal to have a server more local to us. Unfortunately I know nothing on how to set up an NK server, but I can learn. I have spare computers I could use and if there is any way to install the server on Apache I lease a host in texas with a very fast connection.

The few times I was able to go online, it was really weird and i think it was due to the high ping I was getting.

Thanks again

 

[Phil Hopkins]

I've only raced once, and that was recently at Brands Hatch in the F1800. I didn't check my ping, and I don't know where the server was, but the race was fine for me. I suspect it was in EU somewhere. I wish I knew more about servers. But I have a TS server I rent and I can set up a channel for us.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I wonder if there are enough US players to start a US racing club? How many are here?

 

[Phil Hopkins]

I worry that it is not that many. I wonder if we can seduce some of the US guys over in the Race series or one of the other clubs with a lot of US members to come to NKP. Maybe 1.3 will entice them, particularly if the net code is improved. Such a great sim.

 

[Sk3ptik0n]

Good point, NKpro is a great sim but it has a bad reputation for lack of cars, tracks and poor netcode, as well as lack of players in the US. The latter is a typical positive feedback loop that will break only when we reach some critical mass of online players (which, in truth would be only 10 to 12 online at any given time out of a population of 350+ million, so it should not be impossible to achieve).

Poaching players from the other sims is a good idea. It's not like we had to sign an exclusivity contract.
My main sim is iRacing and unless rfactor2 or GTR3 turn out to be really exceptional, I don't see that changing anytime soon.

However, I enjoy NKpro (and rfactor and GTR occasionally) and the price of entry in NKpro is prety low these days.

I think that if we can even just get 4 or 5 people to meet regularly once a week at a given time, eventually our ranks would swell and we couyld have a US league going.

Maybe the best way to attract new players would be to set up a tournament of sorts. Something like a 5 races league we could advertise on RD with enough time for everyone to notice it and attract new drivers.

I would wait until 1.3 has been released and tested as doing it before then could prove the last nail in the coffin, but I know I could easily advertise it on iRacing (where a number of people already race nkPro regularly) and here. Maybe we could get some help from radiator springs which seems to be the only organization that focuses mainly on NKpro.

Anyway, let's wait for 1.3, but in the meantime I was thinking of hosting a test mini-race this Wednesday (or any other day next week) at around 6:30 PST to give everyone a chance to participate. I could even host an open practice every night during next week, but I also need to practice the Star Mazda at iRacing (I am trying to finish in my division top 10) and I am not sure my connection could stand to host NKpro and run iRacing at the same time.

Anyway, let's keep monitoring this thread. If any of us frequent other forums let's start thinking about what type of post would be the most effective to try recruiting drivers from the other sims (something that doesn't get us flamed, possibly)

 

[Phil Hopkins]

Sounds good. I think you're right to wait for 1.3 and some testing. I'd be interested in doing some test sessions with you. Can't this Wed., as I have a Race Mini series race that night at the Glen. I saw your posts over at RSR and NGR. You're putting the word out! Let's see if we can set up a few test races without advertising too much, and see what happens. Then, after we test 1.3 for a bit, we can try out a 5 race series as you suggest. Great idea. When you want to test, let me know. Like I said, I have a TS I can provide for us.

 

[Terry Rock]

I'll take you up on that offer. I live in California, and am always looking for good racing in NKP.

 

[Sk3ptik0n]

Well, it looks like there is some interest. Not overwhelmingly so, but some. I think that once 1.3 comes out (was it January 2011 or 2012? One has to wonder) it will give us the kick start we need to interest more people and repost again in all the various forums.

The bottom line here is to try to liven up Pacific coast time zone racing all across the board. I Have pretty much every Sim there is (aside ARCA since I am not an oval guy) and all of them seem to lack participation in the PST time zone. Even iRacing, once the East coast guys leave is pretty sparse for a few hours. I can never catch a race during the week unless I get off work a bit early.

So if we get a weekly race in NKpro going to the US left side would be great and maybe we could build on that to expand to other sims as well. In fact, that may be also a key to increase participation in the NKpro races.

I am looking into GTR2 and the fact that there are several group of people that are working on some interesting projects for that sim, like new Physics and new mods. Recently, I Have even downloaded a FIA GT1 2010 mod that is just a blast to race.

Anyway, NKpro comes first but I am not beneath using any mean available to increase participation. I am looking into maybe building a website to make it a more central place to organize races. We'll see. Building a site is not a problem. Maintaining it is so before I do I'd have to be sure there are enough people willing to lend a hand.

 

[Phil Hopkins]

Sounds good. Count me in when things get rolling. I have LFS and also the Race Series. There are races in the Race series in the US, but they mostly start at 20:00 EST, so too early for you, I think.

I'd be happy to get GTR2, if needed. I tried installing GTL on my win7 system, and it was a no go. But NKP is my preferred sim. Just love it!

 

[Ray Nelson]

I race over at R2P - primarily the P&G mod and I am adding a V8 Supercars series (rFactor). There was a nKP league there a season or 2 ago after 1.2 came out but it couldn't sustain any traction and was discontinued in subsequent seasons. It would be nice to have someone to run some nKP laps (at least) on a west coast friendly schedule. Monday, Friday and Saturday (most of the day) would be possibilities for me.

 

[Sk3ptik0n]

Well, still waiting for 1.3. Sorry guys. However, since I last posted I also started playing around with GTR2 and I found that things are stirring in GTR2 land as well. Some new mods and more people racing it. So maybe since in the west coast we have few opportunities to race online we could see about organizing a Sim agnostic league for west coasters (and anyone else that wants to race in our evenings and weekends).

I was thinking of building a website to use as a headquarters for race times, passwords, etc.

Anyway, let;'s keep our hopes up and maybe we could open a new thread in the general area forum to see if there is interest to get something started in our time zone. I think there is a lot more simmers that don;t have NKpro than those that do, but maybe some will not mind buying it and join us.

by the way, I have win 7 64 bit and GTL works just fine on my rig. I think the forum here has the instructions on how to do it but if you cannot find them, PM me and I'll see if I can help you.

 

[Mark Oates]

I'm not yet licensed (not sure why the wait) but I am in the US and totally interested. I PM you Corrado... let me know if anything is going.

 

[Chris Bailey]

I am EST, but would love to get in on this too and don't mind the late nights.

Just remember, this is the _last_ release before the announcement of the new project, so you might see a dwindling community more than a burgeoning one.