What’s your preferred way to race offline?

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In today's article we are interested to hear from our community what your preferred way to race offline is.

As a sim racer myself, I probably spend around 90% of my time racing online in either ranked or open lobbies, for me there’s no AI in the world that can replicate the unpredictable nature of a fellow sim racer. If I’m racing for position, any position, I’ll get a rush of adrenaline - this is something that I don’t get racing against AI.

The time I do spend offline, this is normally spent within time trial modes or practice sessions; where I am either getting to grips with a new car or learning an unfamiliar track. Now I know they’ll be some of you who decide to do this in open lobbies, we all know this as we’ve seen you.

What are the benefits of racing offline?​

Racing against AI is less stressful, once you get used to the way AI races in certain sims, it is not very often they’ll take you out. Because they tend to be more predictable, you’re able to race closer to AI than you would dare to online against real drivers. If you are ever taken out by the AI, there’s no one to get angry at either. Or if you accidentally miss your braking spot and take out another driver, the AI isn’t going to hurl a load of abuse at you!

You can be king! I’ve done it and I’m sure many others have too. I've deliberately started from the pack of the grid, knowing that I have the AI turned down a little and knowing that I have a good chance of getting into the points and maybe even winning. It’s great fun diving into corners, out braking your opponents, making moves stick around the outside of corners - feeling like you’re the best driver in the world.

You also have the option to really test your ability by seeing how you compare to the AI when it’s turned all the way up. Depending on your skill, racing can be really tight and you can easily forget that you are racing against AI.

There’s also time-trials, where you see how you stack up to the rest of the world. I’ve spent many hours seeing if I can break into the top 500, 250, 100, or 10. By doing this, I have found extra pace at tracks and it has made me a faster sim racer.

Racing offline doesn’t need to be competitive. Blasting around your favorite tracks in various cars can be extremely fun. Or hoping into a historic racing car at a track from the past can feel very nostalgic. Even just getting into a virtual car and just driving, can help take the stresses of the real world away.

Do you race offline and if so which way do you prefer?

Image credit - Redvaliant
About author
Damian Reed
PC geek, gamer, content creator, and passionate sim racer.
I live life a 1/4 mile at a time, it takes me ages to get anywhere!

Comments

Premium
Only rarely do I race online. People are so annoying, and I race for a break from people. I spend my time offline going through the thousands of mods that have been created over the years. For me, it's like an art gallery. I hunt out and download obscure mods for old games, test them, and where I can fix them, I do that too. And through this process, I have had to learn to adjust the AI. RFactor, for example, has an abysmal offline experience unless you make extensive changes to the AI settings.
Racedepartment is doing us an excellent service storing a colossal segment of the mods that have been created over the years. But this history of sim racing is slowly disappearing. For different reasons, a lot of mods are slowly being removed from the internet. Websites become disused and closed. Modders remove their work.
Millions of hours of work have been put into modding, which led to the games we all enjoy today. And for me, my offline racing experience is about trying to see and experience that history before it's lost forever.
 
I race offline for the 2 most important reasons: to avoid being pin against a wall by teenagers with a cheesy G29 wheel or a pad on Online Lobbies, and to avoid my Motion Simulator from excessively moving. Simulator gets turn on every time I fire up my PC. Racing offline makes you feel the car on a different level, and you get to enjoy the tracks more. by racing solo, you feel more connected to the game.

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Short period races against ai for casual gaming fun, like it meant to be in the first place. As a 80's gamer, its still there in the mind. And I try to replicate the feeling that im "there" what ever im driving. Compensating that i havent ever had much chance to race anything really in real life. So i think, this is it, im there racing, for example driving 15 lap race in Porsche supercup. And i dont like to start from front row and just drive to win. I like to start somewhere in the middle etc and see the cars in action and having competition. I like to win yes, but not without great fight. So many times i only set race with random starting point and have a go. But still i like full sims. So.. hard to explain, but something like that.
 
Premium
I´m surprised to see that many people races offline always (or almost)! Like I, have to say...

First and foremost, I know racing online can be more exciting and that no AI is capable of mimic the behaviour of a real human being... but as I´m a newbie in simracing, I don´t want to deal with aaaall the hassle of racing online.

My driving skills are not the best for now (and it´s seems that this gonna be so for a long time...) and I have a lot of fun lapping in trackdays with lots of opponents in track, learning how to drive new cars in new circuits, slowly rising the level of difficulty, disabling ABS or TC, upping tyre wear or mechanical damage...

And peace to all. We need a little of that.
 
Varies by SIM. In iRacing to prepare for an online race with AI. In AC to free roam mods and to hotlap RSS F1, in AMS2 racing unique cars/weather and historic content with and without AI, in Raceroom for some h-pattern GTO races with AI, in RF2 hotlapping (never AI), not much in ACC lately. Just pic what I like best about each SIM and run with it.
 
Premium
After i got married 12 years ago :)confused: ) i definetly quit my "online career" and continued only with offline racing using different sims.
But i never was fully satisfied with only pointless single races or awfull career modes.

So i needed a plan, a good method :geek:
:thumbsup:
I started to create real like or fake custom championships withhin RRE, AMS, AC later ACC and AMS2

Right now i stick 90% with AC where i created about 55 championships (mostly with real driver names, skills, tracks, calendar and some fake championships).
The other 10% i spend with AMS2 and the only possible 4 championships.

Some peaple says the Assetto AI is awfull. I must deny that. If you have good AI lines and know how to set up fe. agression on given tracks you can have much fun with AI racing.

I always use the format: 10-15min practice, 15min qualifier, 15min race (depending on track mostly 6-8 laps)
I name a Championship for example F3 2019 95% <--- The percantage is the current AI skill level i race against the whole season. It depends on series. The CART 1999 season fe. is way "harder" The Ai is faster so i start with 90%

If i win the particular championship i raise the "difficulty" by 2% for the next season and start again with a new car.
If i fail slightly i decreasy only by 1 or 2& but If i fail big time i decrease the % even by 4-8 % All depending on my ranking at season end.

All in all i use about 500 cars on 150 tracks only in AC to simulate following series (real or fake):.

F1 1923
F1 1958
F1 1967
F1 1975
F1 1979
F1 1986
F1 1991
F1 1999
F1 2006
F1 2020
Formula 3
ATCC Group A
Super GT500 2013
JGTC 2000
JGTC 1996
DRM
DTM 1992
DTM 95´/02´
DTM 2018
CanAM 70s
V8 Supercars
BTCC (modern)
BTCC 92-94`
BTCC 95-99`
ETCC 1986
IMSA 90s
ALMS (US GT LeMans)
Group C
GT 1 90s
FIA GT 2003
FIA GT 2010
GT2
CART 1999
Copa Marcas 80s
Brasilero do Marcas 2014
Nascar Euroseries
Nascar "Street"
GT3 Blancpain Europe
GT3 Blancpain Asia
GT3 IMSA
GT4 Euroseries
GT Legends
50s Sportscars
60s Touring Legends
70s Touring Legends
60s GTC
80s Touring Cars
LMP1 2000s
WTCC 2008
WTCR 2018
Nippon 90s Streetcars
TransAM 60s-70s
60s-70s Sportscar World Championship
ETRC
Retro Supercars
STCC
Toprace
 
I'm part of the "Offline only" gang, as i'm just not interested in online mode, simply. The main reason would be : who wants to race with touring cars from the 80ies you've rarely seen, on a track you probably didn't even know it exist ? A few people maybe, but even less that are on the go for a drive, right now.

If I play 99% of my "driving time" on AC it's because it has become quite literaly a encyclopedia of racing. And that's my thing : endless possibilities, total freedom of choice and knowledge, any car, any track, any where. All thanks to a big chunk of community : curiosity and appreciation for what is, what have been and what could be. If I have to drive against a brainless computer to make it feel real, so be it. It's still more entertaining than an other GT3 at Spa, with Xx_Diablo67[PRO] insulting your mother. Goodbye, stupid people, welcome brainless robot !
 
D
I regret delving myself in MP, hehe. If I play Offline it sometimes doesn't feel right. The AI can be easily exploited cause you know and where the AI is going to do stuff... It's always the same pattern, sometimes a different pattern. In MP there's so much more happening. A disadvantage of MP is ofcourse the start and T1 mayhem.. and backmarkers.. Offline is great for learning the track and racinglines, tho.
 
AI for me is the sparring partner i use when learning a track, that is all. I do 2-3 full race weekends on a track (ACC and AC) to learn both driving and racing on it. When I have learned enough i jump to online which is way more interesting.
 
Maximum Immersion

I want to race a F1 Seaon like it was. I take the seat of a driver and then i race every Track of the Season to have it as real as possible. It was great in days like grammonds GP2 but nowadays it not a pleasing thing, because a lot of tracks ar custom and very diffrent standards. and also the sims are not made for this thing of racing. like AC it is more a driving simulator than a racing simulator.
 
So far I pretty much drive offline 99 % of the time. The rest are private sessions with friends. I race everything that has four wheels and mostly full race weekends. But also quick race or time trials. For years I never drove the same car and/or track twice in a row. Recently I started doing the career modes in every game that offers them and I find those entertaining.

I did a couple of online races on GT Legends way back and didn't do well. I've been thinking about doing online racing again for a long time but even though I have experience of playing since the 1980s every time I look into laptimes in online lobbies I discover I'm in a different zip code (something around 3-5 seconds slower depending on track). So I'm rather reluctant to go online and have my behind handed to me.
 
Premium
... Next question would be...
Is Online racing too much of a hazzle ?

For me, is a big yes... As I said in other posts, configure my pc for play online (servers, chats and this kind of things), commit to meeting schedules, remember all the rules and proper etiquette... overhelms this poor old man... It´s this, or I´m too lazy, I don´t know... :cautious:

... Goodbye, stupid people, welcome brainless robot !

Well... curiously, stupid people and robots shares the same atribute; both are brainless... :D
 
Just glanced the headline way into early bed, the Covid-19 finally having a lovebite on me and a heavy one.
So no engine power to sum up, but as a primarily offline simmer since ca. 1985 I've been through too many different approaches to mention even when I'm hopefully fresh again.

But last decade or so my primary target has been to have fun and endless joy while I'm simracing.
This through a ton of different approaches and very spontaneous ideas coming from out of nowhere while doing completely other things.
But actually that include the little online racing I've been doing most heavily 2019-2021 with competitive ACC and reentering iRacing for a season, by just jumping in without preparation and then mitigating from there. The fun has not been so much the few victories as the close battles, which goes quite well for the main part of my offline history through several sims, of more mingling with AI performance files, engine files and so on. And for those with no time I've just driven a bit slower yet still trying to have the feel of real immersion in my mindset, imagining I've just borrowed a priceless racecar of ehich I had to deliver back in perfect condition.

I think there's only been one stressfull period during my years with sim hobby, which was in 2003-2004 with Formula SimRacing Series. I had a bit more time then and prepared for race day by simulating several offline full GP distances through a week, just to make my own near-perfect competitive car setups and other race preparation.

But that time both off- and online racing became a stress factor and not a joy factor.
So now with very little time I just have the goal to have fun and endless joy while being behind the wheel. Then SRW appeared with the worst kind of open lobby arcade gamer opponents behavior I've ever experienced so back to 99% offline simracing by then.

But I think I have to follow up on this thread with a little more thorough answer when hopefully on the other side.

OP, thanks for opening an interesting debate, cheers!

Edit note to self: my love to authentic classic and vintage race cars started before my simracing hoppy, just so glad that it's now possible to 'drive' the untouchables at present times by simracing them.
Nore 2: Same goes for me speaking deceased historic race tracks, including ancient public road historic events, a whole universe still to grab out for in the future by the big sims, as well for modders.
 
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Racing offline for me in simulators are not that good. I prefer a lot to play versus AI in games like the F1 series where you actually have an objective.

But the perfect formula for me, is what Gran Turismo offers. Get the licenses, start with an old used car, in the sunday cup, and so on...
 
Because of bad Online Racing behavior, is it about time to implement some kind of warning system ?
In an attempt to letting the "good guys" do their races, in pease. Maybe there is one, put in place.
If it is, it seems not to be working..
Reading all this...
 
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