Season 9 - General Discussion

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Cicada is a fantasy-track, my personal F1 dream track. I'm glad that others like it too. I had to resurface it, no shapes were changed, just varied the grip more... I'm expect that this version i'm compiling ATM is the final version.

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Cicada is a fantasy-track, my personal F1 dream track. I'm glad that others like it too. I had to resurface it, no shapes were changed, just varied the grip more... I'm expect that this version i'm compiling ATM is the final version.

Can you tell us anything about safety concerns on the track? Is this something you have considered when constructing it? (I do not mean this question in a negative way, it sounds a bit like I am trying to "find a mistake" and that's not my intention. I am just very curious if you considered run off areas, surface that helps brake the car etc.)

Your onboard lap is very cool Anthony, the track looks like a lot of fun and you drive it in a very alive way, if that makes any sense

 

[Reik Major]

I'd like to try your setup for this track Reik maybe just add it to your setup post in the setup thread.

I'm sorry for being late on this. Just added the setup for the hillclimb now (also link to the track and vid).

btw it would be nice if some of our aliens here like Sean or Tim (and all the other drivers as well of course) could also start to post setups in the setup thread so that it looks a bit more lively
Just making a post in thread would be enough for the beginning, you can add setups over time.

Finally it's not a must to have alien status. I know that "softer" setups like Nico often tends to create could suit many drivers better than my "stiffer" setups. But I know that it takes some extra time to search and rename all own good setups and to post them then. I accept that many drivers here have very few free time and first thing they like to do then is driving. (same goes for me)

 

[Tim McIver]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Jonas. The only reason I have been so quiet in the setup thread is because my setup technique is very simple. I download Reik's setup, then I drive. For the race I switch tires and put in more fuel. The last couple of races I tried reducing the camber and increasing the tire pressure a little, but I'm really just guessing. Once your on a reasonable setup, it's worth spending more time practicing driving and less time worrying about fine tuning the setup.

I highly recommend using Reiks setups.

 

[Reik Major]

Thx for explaining Tim and thx for your recommendation.

Of course it's a good thing to have a nice variety of different setups in that archive, so especially those who create setups which are different to my ones should feel encouraged to post them there and get the reward.

 

[Jonas Lex]

thx for your setup Reik I'll give it a try and Tim to be honest, Ive done exactly the same the last season as I seem to get along very well with Reiks setups, however there may be different types of drivers who dont get along with them so good so we need a variety

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Is it wrong i do the same lol Also my setup folders tends to be messy with 16 or so slight edited setups from Reiks anytime i beat pb with a change ill save the setup and try again later. I think the best things is putting in consistant laps and making small changes so you then can notice the differences.
Last night on Hockenheim99 i started to notice rear wasnt so stable on the exit of the 2nd chicane i would have to lift slight to control rear started to raise rear springs from 100 to eventionallly 110 and i could feel slight difference out of that chicane as i changed springs so my setup method is basically trial and error lol.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Last practice race at Monza, i switched midway thru practice to your setup, Sean. That felt immediately better so i used that. Only thing that felt weird was the rear, it felt like it was "round".. Lot's of grip but it was like big rubberball at the rear instead of two wheels, not a bad things as the load seemed the change smoothly, predictably. I had to raise up rear springs too just a tad, antiroll was good so didn't mess with that. Lost a bit of traction but lost that "roundness" too...

My pedal mod is a bit broken ATM, need to buy some replacement parts.. I'm doing a huge overhaul on the pedals, getting rid of all that gaffa tape and make up permanent fixtures to hold all the extra parts.

 

[Jonas Lex]

So should we maybe start to decide all the important things for the new season then?
I think it would be good to make these decisions (tracks/format) untill the next practise events so that interested drivers can see what exactly they would sign up for.
When done I could make a season 9 information thread (and also a sign up thread) and I could also write an article for the RD front page with the presentation video maybe in accordance with Nico

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

Yes, we will do the vote asap (but not now, it is too late tonight

I agree with the rest of what you say as well Jonas. I have some stuff I would like included somehow in the "promotion papers". I've tried to explain the essence (or at least some of it) of PrestoGP as shortly as possible. I think it is important for all members, new or excisting, to understand PrestoGP and their role in it. This is what I have written:

Philosophy/Vision
A perfect race is defined as following:

-A full grid
-No incidents between drivers
-No personal mistakes, big or small -> consistent lap times

A perfect season is naturally 10 x perfect races, (where it is the same full grid in all races). Obtaining this is virtually impossible, but working towards it makes sense, and how we do this is what I am going to explain.

Full transparency around setup
We have a thread that we use when developing setups for the races. There are no secrets around setups, you can have the same setup as any driver you wish, they will gladly share it. The reasons for this slightly unusual feature are:

-We want the average driver to spend as little time on setup’s as possible (to allow him to use more time practicing consistency etc.)

-We wish to remove the uncertainty that the setups create (believing others are faster due to setup’s etc. does not provide the optimal practice focus)

-It helps promote a friendly atmosphere

Racing guidelines
Our guidelines/rules are very similar to real f1, with a few exceptions. Where a real f1 driver’s main objective when fighting for position is to stay/get ahead, ours is that both parties comes out of it without an incident.

In the case of an incident there are no penalties. As avoiding incidents are so utterly important for all our members, the shame of creating one is punishment enough. Our only focus is to analyse the incident down to the smallest detail to learn what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future. This is done openly in the forum (within a few days) after the race and is the responsibility of the involved parties.

Our point system (relative to real f1) is constructed to reward those who complete the race and consequently punishing dnf’s and no attendance, to better reflect our values. In other words there are points for all places from 1st to 25th, ranging from 50 to 1 point.

A members contribution
This is the core of everything, that it is the sum of members contribution that is the league. If you show up for the race and complete it without causing any incidents and not making (a lot of) mistakes you have made a perfect contribution that round. Do it for all ten races and you are a perfect member. PrestoGP is constructed to help members maximise their contribution, but at the end of the day it is the member themselves that decides how good our league can be.

It does take some time and commitment and a good few hours of track time to be prepared for a race, and if ones race experience is not very good it is easy to lose motivation, practice less, deliver poorer contributions etc. You see the conundrum, that if everybody are well prepared and drive after our guidelines then we will all have such a great time that we have more than enough motivation to put in the practice needed for next race etc.

Epilogue
Do not misunderstand and think that we demand perfect and accept nothing less. Everybody makes mistakes on track from time to time, and sometimes in RL something gets in the way. What is important is that one understands how Presto GP works and has the right intentions in general.

 

[Jonas Lex]

Great stuff Nico very direct and completely understandable, love it.
I dont want to be rude but what do you think if this post would replace the first post in this thread over here
The reason why I suggest this is that I feel like this post here has all important points in it and leaves out points which seem naturally to me so that they dont have to be mentioned necessarily, for example the fact that new drivers have a test period and that drivers should take part in the forum.

However you decide I think this should become sticky somehow and this could maybe also become part of the sign up process, so that drivers have to read and agree to all these points in order to sign up.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I think that would make a good basis for an article, the philosophy behind PrestoGP. There are so many good points, the task would be to make it appealing too. As we can all testify, the philosophy works, races are all top notch quality. Decreasing time needed for practice by sharing setups.: for me one of the most important points have been the setups, i'm much more confident with the current system, there's no one with "magical setup". My last season would've been entirely only setup practice without it. And no one can deny that F1 is setup nightmare if you don't know what you're doing.

Safety of course will be a big portion of this.. It's gonna be a big task to cram this all in to one article.. Maybe two part serial article? One way to do it is if Jonas writes from his angle, being a new member last season and then quoting Nicos great post.. That would give good "newbie" point-of-view.

Also saying something about that it really isn't that hard, F1 suits some drivers better than others and you can't know it until you try. At least i am way better in F1 than with tinroofers and didn't know it.. As a step in the arduous process of learning how to be a good simracer, PrestoGP is a privilege and totally unique environment. If only people knew they would be lining up..

 

[Jonas Lex]

I think all of the points that you mentioned are worth to be written in the article Kennett because they are informative. (setup sharing, newcomerfriendly)
I was more thinking about keeping it short and informative, more than writing my opinion as new driver.
I feel like convincing should more be done by the way we present ourselfes in the forum and also on the webpage.
I'll just see what I come

 

[Nicolai Nicholson]

I dont want to be rude but what do you think if this post would replace the first post in this thread over here

I moved it there now and removed some of the excisting stuff. I also added a paragraph called speed/pace

 

[Jonas Lex]

I think the point speed/pace is a good addition.
Im writing the news article at the moment, im almost done with a first raw version
and added about the same speed pace point there

 

[Peter Marshall]

Although there appears to be a lot of info here [and there] for me to catch up on [I've been absent], it also appears as though everything is well in hand. Respect, salutes and and thank you all....

 

[Jim Hawley]

Although there appears to be a lot of info here [and there] for me to catch up on [I've been absent], it also appears as though everything is well in hand. Respect, salutes and and thank you all....

Ditto.... me too

 

[Dale Suttie]

Where can i sign up for the league?

 

[Tim McIver]

There's a sticky thread, 'New Member' with all the details Dale. Welcome.

 

[Reik Major]

Welcome dale!

Sign ups will open soon, as the season starts late in August. Would be cool to see you in some of the upcommign practise races here. Just look through the latest threads here.

And you should sign up with your real (ingame) name at www.prestogp.com and enjoy some quick laps at our practise servers. The quickest laps are listed at this page. I'm always curious.