Season in Review & Feedback

[David Dominguez]

Hi all,

As some of you might know already, I'm the new president since some days ago. I hope we can give some info soon about next season, meanwhile I think it's time to talk about the 2011 season

Please consider such questions as:

Calendar: Was the season too long? Too short?! Were the tracks the correct tracks to choose? Were they of high enough quality?

Enjoyment: As a driver or a spectator, was this an enjoyable season? Did you enjoy driving around the other drivers? Who did you enjoy driving with the most? And the least?!

Organisation: What could be improved about the organisation? What did you like about the organisation? How would it be improved?

SimSync Pro: Was this the correct way to go? Did drivers like being able to update skins? Easy to use? Any instructions improvements needed?

Mod: Did you enjoy the FSR 2011 mod? What could be improved to make it better? What impressed you about it?

Live Broadcasts: Were these enjoyable? Which features would you like to see implemented?

Highlights videos: Again, did you find these enjoyable? Which features would you like to see added if possible?

General feedback: Anything else you can think of that would help improve the series.

Of course you can add whatever you want apart from those questions.

 

[Edgar Herrero]

Calendar: For me, the length of the season is good, no changes there.

Enjoyment: As a driver yes, the season was very good (maybe because it was the "real" first one). I think that I've enjoyed driving with everybody, but sometimes I felt alone on track

Organisation: Hm... I think that at the moment, nothing can be improved, just the game, and I think that rF2 will solve that .

SimSync Pro: Useful tool, in general it's practical, but and sometimes it gives you headache, mismatch...

Mod: Love the mod of this year, very good cars and physics!

Live Broadcasts: Very enjoyable, in part thanks to a great commentator as Liam is Maybe I would like to see an updated tv style, more actual, but it isn't that important...

Highlights videos: Superb race reviews by Simon and commentators as always.

General feedback: N/A

PS: Changed my feedback a bit, as I thought it better about the calendar... I've just driven in 7 races of the season... I'm not the correct person to say: add more lol

 

[Nick Rowland]

Hope you do not mind me posting in this part,

Calendar: I think the season was just right 16-18 races is fine. 20 is to long. Alternate split season of 10/10 races. Tracks I thought were of a good quality.

Enjoyment: Commentating on the events was a little tedious at times. I felt the dirty air was a little to inefficient and could have done possibly with the cars closer together. I drove the car a little, not significantly enough but I was not a big fan of the Bridgestone style tyres. Look forward to them be revised to Pirelli next year.

Organisation: I had little activity on the forums but in terms of broadcast, I was always kept up to date via MSN and informed any information. From my side and commentary side I had no issue. It appears that some drivers to become frustrated though. Need to create some form of stability and consistency.

SimSync Pro: Very good idea, efficient, clean and easy to use. Approve this highly.

Mod: Drove the car a very small amount. As said above I really did not enjoy or get on top of the tyres. I was working of a very basic setup and never got a true feel. I think the tyres were the most disappointing in my opinion. Models looked pretty good. Dirty air effect may need some work also. Cars just get that little closer.

Live Broadcasts: It was unfortunate that I could not commentate on all events but the events I did were enjoyable to do. I have no issues with the camera work and think the general standard was good this year from a personal stance.

Highlights videos: Thoroughly enjoyed these, well organised and put together. Keep these up and use them a promotional tools for new recruits as well.

General feedback: Time and people change and I think since 2009 there has been some great positives but also some disappointing negatives. For 2012 it would be great to see FSR galvanize itself together and kick start again. Bring back the community aspect of Sim-Racing while still keeping it the "pinnacle" of Sim-Racing. Bring those 'alien' fast drivers in but also the characters and good people of the lower leagues. Take pride and passion in what this league is. Do not try and compete against anyone or anything, let FSR be itself and it's own brand. There is no point is trying to be something you are not, much like life. Let FSR expand and grow the way it did but make sure the administration have a tight lid and control on everything. Keep the efforts up and the rewards will follow.

 

[David Dominguez]

General feedback:Time and people change and I think since 2009 there has been some great positives but also some disappointing negatives. For 2012 it would be great to see FSR galvanize itself together and kick start again. Bring back the community aspect of Sim-Racing while still keeping it the "pinnacle" of Sim-Racing. Bring those 'alien' fast drivers in but also the characters and good people of the lower leagues. Take pride and passion in what this league is. Do not try and compete against anyone or anything, let FSR be itself and it's own brand. There is no point is trying to be something you are not, much like life. Let FSR expand and grow the way it did but make sure the administration have a tight lid and control on everything. Keep the efforts up and the rewards will follow.

And what do you think we should do to "bring back the community aspect of sim-racing" ?

Since 2009, there were only 2 big changes; the division system (from 5 divisions to 3), and and the pricing of the drivers licenses.

 

[Muhammed Patel]

Calendar: I think maybe a race or two more could be good. The tracks were high quality for sure but please no more F1 2010 conversions

Enjoyment: I think this is more to do with rFactor 1, but the early phase of the season was fun with big grids in WS, but they quickly dropped and to drive with 10-12 guys is very dull. Nonetheless, the races did give some good fun with some close wheel to wheel action sometimes.

Organisation: Great work by directors and also the press guys did well (I put my hands up for sometimes putting my race reviews on a bit late )

SimSync: Great.

Mod: I think the mod was easy to drive and I think most of the time you could use setups from tracks from before. I think reducing the tyre life would be good and it could get some good stratergy involved. Hopefully we could do something so we have to use both compounds in a race because I think most the guys were on the same stratergy generally.

Live Broadcasts: I can't criticise the camera guys and those that did the commentary, they did excellent, but as Ondrej said it was very bad. I think maybe there could be one of those pre-race things possible? Like an onboard lap and slight introduction on the track? Maybe that could be put on before Quali or inbetween Q and R?

Highlights: Absolutely excellent. Hats of to Simon!

General Feedback: If I am correct next year would be with rF2? - So I guess the season might have to be a bit shorter if the tracks in rF2 for F1 aren't at the standard needed. But also I think most of the problems at the moment (Interest) could generally be because of the old rF and FSR can't really do much about that.

 

[Nick Rowland]

And what do you think we should do to "bring back the community aspect of sim-racing" ?

Since 2009, there were only 2 big changes; the division system (from 5 divisions to 3), and and the pricing of the drivers licenses.

Everyone will have differing opinions on this one David. Personally, I think FSR has a chance to capitalise on the potential of rF2. Drop the costs a little for a year, get the interest levels up again. People wanting to do well with rF2 and build on the League. Keep to three divisions unless the subscription level requires more. You will have more keen drivers in rF2. Essentially make it a competitive yet cost effective league in rF2 first year and then build upon it.

 

[David Dominguez]

So assuming to your words, the main issue regarding "the community aspect" was the pricing?

 

[Nick Rowland]

Price one of the reasons as, again, I personally felt that I drove people away than brought people in. I may be wrong with that though.

 

[David Dominguez]

I see, but I want to know why do you feel that.

 

[Nick Rowland]

FSR went through a transtition phase as we all saw. It tried to become to become a business entity rather than keep the soul of what Sim-Racing is about. Yes, you can expand, and get sponsors but you can not be to greedy to fast.

FSR requires balance. It needs those drivers like Bono, Mikko, Dennis etc but also need those lower drivers to progress through and come up to there level. At the moment that comes at a high cost which could then be classed as "elitest". This element I think needs taking away and allowing those lesser, inexperienced drivers a fair crack at the whip at affordable costs.

We all want to compete. Sim-Racing goes beyond just being a game, it is a community, it is trying to touch reality through virtual reality. Lets make it so that is open to everyone. We know how good and competitive WC is, now lets get the appeal of the other leagues and get the teams back in.

 

[Scrambles]

Calendar: I think 16 rounds is a good length for the season, but I wouldn't want to see the season any shorter. 16-18 rounds is ideal imo. 19+ is excessive.

Enjoyment: Very enjoyable season.

Organisation: More transparency in the organization.

SimSync Pro: Brilliant! Dead easy to use.

Mod: I think the number of setup options needs to be drastically reduced. Focus should be on driver skill, not setup. I'm not talking about fixed setups, but the setup should be there simply to compliment the driver's ability, not the other way around.

Live Broadcasts: The broadcast team did an excellent job. PSRTV on the other hand did an awful job. Hopefully we can find a good broadcaster for next season. A hotlap video along with the highlights before each Grand Prix would be nice too.

Highlights videos: They were awful. What has the producer of these been smoking?

General feedback: Promotion Promotion Promotion. It needs to be improved.

The website also needs updating desperately. There are still links in there that date back to 2009. More media would be great too. The current media team did a fantastic job, but there is only so much work that they can do.

Would like to see teams articles also make it to the main FSR page e.g. the articles written by Smirnoff about FTS, and Saxén's Precision reports etc...Luka's videos on the front page...make the website more active

 

[Fred Owen]

Calendar: 18 rounds is ideal, fitting some of the new tracks in would be nice.

Enjoyment: As a driver (slightly) and a manager I thought it was enjoyable and I'm definitely coming back for more!

Organisation: Good.

SimSync Pro: Fantastic, please use it again because dragging and dropping files is just a pain.

Mod: A little harder to drive, because it seemed almost relaxing, needs something more on edge.

Live Broadcasts: Commentators, cameramen ect. did a great job, as for PSRTV.... I would put forward TwitchTV.

Highlights videos: Well, nothing to say, just awesome !

General feedback: I quite like the idea of maybe 4/5 series. Because nowadays we have people who want to join but don't like the license fees. Also what about a promotion/relegation thing for drivers?

 

[Santiago Niza]

Hi, I am back!
Due to not be driving in 2011 championship, I am only going to talk about the 2 items that I know from 2010.

Calendar: Between 16 and 18 races are ok, but PLEASE, take in count that all us have real life stuff, then I think could be mandatory discard for example 2 races. Then championship standings are not going to be corrupted due to see people losing some race.
As said, all us have real life,(drivers, comentators, stewards...) then more than 17 or 18 races are a huge work.

SymSinc: Great tool, really usefull.

PS: See you on tracks

 

[Marcel Rautter]

Calendar: As a spectator i would say, the more the better, but i think 16-18 is about right.

Enjoyment: I enjoyed the season, i hope the championship will be closer next year.

Mod: I drove it from time to time and it was nice, but perhaps a bit too easy. As for a spectator i would suggest a stronger slipstream/drafting effect (not as high as 2010) to make overtaking a bit easier, but not too much of course.

Live Broadcasts: The commentary and camera work was great, but i think it´s absolutely necessary to drop PSRTV. Compared to 2010 it was a step back, i would say. I read from Johannes, that the PSRTV-server is located in the US while the game server is located in Europe, so the delay caused the broadcast to look slightly like cars were "floating".

Highlights videos: Really great work, Simon is a god. It brought me to watch the broadcasts of FSR. Luka´s videos were awesome too. Perhaps you can find a guy that will make similar videos for WT.

General feedback: Something like a "prediction game" perhaps.

 

[Benjamin Chong]

Calendar: I think the season was just right. 18 is the magic number for me. Anything more is too many.

Enjoyment: As a driver I had a lot of fun. Racing was mostly clean where i drove. As a spectator the races were exciting to watch.

Organisation: More communication and transparency.

SimSync Pro: This system is fantastic. Very effective and efficient to use. However there are some minor bugs with a few people. Sometimes it redownloads the entire mod.

Live Broadcasts: I was very disappointed with PSRTV. I felt like it was a big step down from a year ago with multibc quality wise. Very very poor service. I remember earlier in the year they don't even broadcast the races on their main page, rather run replays of some boring iracing indy race. Image quality is very important to spectators. I think it helps bring sponsors in.

Highlights videos: Amazing vids from Simon and Luka all year long.

General feedback: Like Simon said, website needs an update.

 

[Luka Oslakovic]

Calendar: 18 rounds is good, if it would be my choice I'd make it 20.

Enjoyment: As a driver I enjoyed 2011 season, there was many good fights.

Organisation: Concerning the races it was very good. Things were always as scheduled except for some PSRTV fails. Meybe I'd like a parade lap after each race aswell for more immersion and broadcast viewers enjoyment.

SimSync Pro: Very good choice

Mod: I enjoyed this year's cars, but as Simon said before, focus should be on driver's skills and not setups THAT much.

Live Broadcasts: Don't take this as a complaint, I'll just go thru facts that could be done better. Broadcasts need more organisation, more content in live broadcast such as track presentation, meybe quick previous round highlights and new tvstyle for next season, current one was outdated. Camera could be also done better, camera guy should have controls to move camera in and out etc.(it gives really nice effects to make look formulas even faster) Also cameras should change more often, more angles on and out the car. Commentators did a good job, but could also make it more interesting with saying some track specifics and driver's introductions. A little more talk about previous races and favourits. People who are in this business of doing live broadcast should prepare a whole programme before the race, give them some credits for each race meybe and they'll take it more serious aswell. Broadcast quality must get better with simrace.tv, so also people who dont drive in the league can enjoy the action aswell as our friends etc.

Website: Must be dynamic with new content constantly. Some flash wouldn't harm. There should be news written by teams aswell such as new contracts, new sponsor deals etc. If it would be possible to give 2 columns, one for official fsr news/race previews/reviews and one for news from the teams. If there's any new videos concerning the league, they should all be on front page availible for big majority that like them I guess.

General feedback: General feedback would be to organize broadcasts better and with more content. Overhaul the website meybe also website header change for each race to make spirit for each GP. Promote the league as much as possible. Getting some new sponsors would help enormously. Don't forget to put some contests for FSR car livery and new TV Style.

 

[Scrambles]

I forgot to add - Bring back the fantasy league!! It was very popular back in 2010.

Was Christian too busy this year to do it? Perhaps the admin could give him some more support?

 

[Ivar Kalamees]

Calendar: The length was good. I personally would like even shorter season.

Enjoyment: Racing was really enjoyable, WT was always very competitive till the end.

SimSync Pro: I'm starting to like it more and more...

Mod: I really loved the mod, but I think it was too easy to drive. We need something more challenging.

Live Broadcasts: I quite liked the broadcasts but the thing that put me off was that some commentators didn't really understand the track or F1 aspects too well. I think commentators should do more work with the track, learn the facts about the tracks and racing overall.

Highlights videos: Really well done. Good job Simon.

 

[Karim Wezenberg]

I might be wrong about certain things here, hell i could be wrong about everything, if you disagree with something please explain why.

Organisation: I think many things were good and definately the Race Directors did a great job as far as i know. Things can be better however and i definately think there is a bigger need to ask drivers for their votes/opinions in order to see what the majority would like/prefer. I understand nobody wants endless discussions on the forum where people lose focus on the topic, but i think if simple Suggestion topics were made and more importantly Vote topics where 2011 License drivers can choose their own fate for next year on a variety of topics. It’s impossible to please everyone as is well known, but at least drivers have a choice to make about what they want and actually think about things how the league can be improved. Also the staff can at least say they tried to get the drivers involved and if the drivers don’t choose to do so they can only blame themselves!

Calendar: 16 Races is more than enough for me personally. Once again maybe a top 10 Tracks Vote could be made by drivers who had a license in 2011 season or something similar and then the Top 16 tracks that got the most votes could make up the Calendar. Most drivers will choose tracks that provide good racing and good overtaking so that should lead to an awesome calendar and tracks that really challenge the drivers. Offcourse the tracks need to have a certain standard and not every one of them might have that (in RF2). But you get the picture.

Enjoyment: Apart from a few drivers i think the driving compared to other years was more respectful, while remaining the intense good and hard fighting on track. FSR has great drivers and FSR definately raises your game and brings out the best from you which can be very enjoyable.

SimSync Pro: Easy to use and does the job perfectly.

Mod: It was enjoyable for me, i can agree that it should maybe be a bit more challenging. But what is more important is how the Mod can improve racing. Get drivers opinions/votes on things like: Should Refuelling come back and does it improve racing? How many Tyres should there be (2-3-4??). Qualy setup, how many Q sessions? how long should it be? How many runs should you get? Should setup options be more fixed or open (Rad, Duct, Disc, etc...)???
The point is to think about ways the mod can improve racing without decreasing quality or becoming too big of a time demand on drivers than already is the case.

Live Broadcasts: A change was absolutely necessary and i hope SimRaceTV will treat FSR much better. Quik thanks to the people who did their best commentating and camera’s etc.. in 2011.

Highlights videos: Simon brought these to a whole new level, deservedly gets a huge amount of respect and praise for them. Luka’s highlights were great aswell. Well done Guys.

General feedback: VOTING/suggestions. I may be completely wrong about the whole Voting idea, but as of this moment i really think it is a crucial element to making the league better and more satisfactory for everyone. Too many decisions are being made for the drivers, drivers need to become a part of the league and say what they want and be clear to the Staff.

Personal Suggestions/Opinions to improve Racing:
1: Bring back Refuelling: Non-refuelling has No advantage. With Non-Refuelling the winner and even the podium positions are usually decided after qual or the 1st lap, as everyone is on the same fuel and if u had a bad qual it’s very hard to make those positions up.
I am clearly for Refuelling as you can choose your own fuel and more importantly it makes races more interesting as u don’t know what amount of fuel each driver has. Bring back the MIND to racing and have drivers going for more stops with ligher stints or qualifying lower with heavier fuel and making up positions. Also like other drivers, i get no enjoyment from driving a car with a ridiculous 200L in the car! Racing is not just driving fast and consistent, strategy should play a bigger role than it has now!
2: Bring 2 types of tyres to each race: This is an area where it might be good to follow real F1. It’s okay to have 4 tyres, but when the track is released, state 2 of those 4 tyres which will be taken to a specific track (SS- S= Monaco, Med-Hard= Barca for example). This will challenge drivers to handle different types of tyres at different tracks and like refuelling makes things more interesting. I don’t know if this can be done, but it might be worth checking out.
3: Both tyre compounds must be used in the race: Also like Real f1, it could be very interesting to see drivers handle the 2 tyres that have been chosen on that track. More interesting and challenging.
4: Remove slow outlaps in Qual: If possible, remove slow outlaps needed from the tyres for a fast time in Q. They are only likely to ruin another drivers chances in Qual and increase penalties.

There are probably more things that i can’t remember right now, but i think the post is long enough now.

Most importantly: Make suggestion topics where drivers can give idea’s on mod/rules/setup and all these things that effect them and every suggestion needs to explain why it will improve racing or fsr.
Then the staff decides which suggestions/ idea’s seem best for 2012 season and drivers can Vote on these choices.

I remember we had a voting back in 2008 or 2009 about wether Singapore or Fuji should be used and it got a lot of responses. Some drivers were unhappy about the choice made, but at least they had a say.... and it was a succesful topic. There is no reason why it can’t happen again, Drivers and Staff just need to work more together and be appreciative of eachother. Hope this helps and FSR can have a great year in 2012.

 

[Nick Rowland]

That is a fantastic response Karim and I think you have some very valid points there. Excellent work.

I would like to second that in the sense of having more democratic and open voting on certain topics.