Blue flag penalties in races - can we turn them off?

[Lee Downham]

A number of times especially in endurance races there has occurred a situation where a driver is faster than a guy 1 lap ahead (simple eg. he is on new tyres after a pit stop and the other guy's tyres are bushed), and so is trying to unlap himself and move on at his own pace. The problem is, if he were to get in front of the other person, he maybe doesn't have enough speed to escape the blue flag and potential S&G penalty, so has to throttle off and sit behind them.

This quite frankly is a rubbish situation, and it becomes even more complex when several drivers are involved ... and when it lasts an hour as it once did for me, its frustrating as hell :frusty:

So ... here's a thought I had the other week and forgot to post until now. When setting up a dedicated server, you can either have flag warnings set to all, or just black.
Now overtaking on yellow flags doesn't seem to make any difference, so the only other flag that I think this can effect is blue flags.
Corner cutting is S&G and/or black flag material if done too often and stops not performed so I pose 2 questions ...

1. Does anyone know whether this would work and if it would in essence effect just the blue flags
2. If this would solve this issue (and the blue flag start line issue at some addon tracks), then should or could we run it on some servers.

BTW ... my guess is that the blue flags are still shown, but S&G's not given, and if a driver has grievance under blue flags here at RD, then they deal with in the normal complaints way.

Intrigued to hear others' thoughts and if anyone knows how this works exactly, if so it would help alleviate this very frustrating situation ... :eat:

 

[Richard Kay]

We did the same in the league I help organise for GTR2. We switched it to black flag only and reviewed any complaints, of which there were none. The bottom line is the game can't differentiate between the times when a blue flag is genuinely required and when it isn't. It makes it impossible to unlap yourself without getting a penalty. Black flags still stopped track cutting and pit lane speeding, not sure how it works in evo though.

 

[Neil Gault]

The blue flags can come a bit fast and furious on some twisty tracks where there are few passing places, i had a problem myself at Falkenberg just the other day when i think it was Henrik who caught me at the second corner and it was hard to let him pass without going off track or slowing him up to much.

Not sure if it will stop you getting a penalty but i did notice that if you request a pitstop then you do not seem to get blue flagged while the pit in is showing on the screen.

 

[João Andias]

Yes, I fully agree with you Lee.

In endurance race, and in particular in short tracks, this is no doubt needed (black only). If some problem/complain comes after the race, it can be judge in the replay (define penalties in time for non "real" blue flag followers for instances).


In my "unlap" experience at RD races I've been lucky so far, as I was moving so much faster that it was possible to get away quickly without receiving more than one "blue" flag warning.


Btw, one must not forget the meaning of the blue flag...

It means a slower driver has to give away the line to a faster one. And it is not necessarily given to a racer going a lap down. Here in Estoril, where I closely followed some track marshal work, I've seen even blue flags given to (for instances) a 4th under attack by a 5th placed driver. This happens if the front racer is so much slower (this usually can happen after a pit stop) that by fighting for position, the safety of all is compromised. If not respected, and as the car in front in this situation is so much slower that usually has to resort to blocking, harsher penalties can and have follow-up (stop & go and such).

​

Slight of topic, just remember how AI drivers completely ignore blue flags (GTR2, Evo whatever) and if one does an endurance race vs. the AI, a win to human player is almost assured because racers going a lap down won’t give line to the faster AI drivers

 

[Lee Downham]

Any of our lovely and respected admins care to comment on this one?
Has anything ever been tested with Evo to see what happens with "black flags" only selected?

 

[Jean Michel Rucheton]

The blue flags can come a bit fast and furious on some twisty tracks where there are few passing places, i had a problem myself at Falkenberg just the other day when i think it was Henrik who caught me at the second corner and it was hard to let him pass without going off track or slowing him up to much.

Not sure if it will stop you getting a penalty but i did notice that if you request a pitstop then you do not seem to get blue flagged while the pit in is showing on the screen.

Yes, I do agree with you guys, it is really annoying to get a Stop and Go when you get blue flagged in parts of the track where it's impossible to let someone pass you because the track is too narrow (near a chicane for instance) and there is nowhere to "move over". And very often, you have very little time to let the person pass you so you end up either getting the penalty before you can do anything issed-off: or panicking to free the race line and end up making a mistake that compromises your race and possibly the car behind you :disapointed: (because it tried to pass you while you tried to get out of his way...)

Is there maybe a setting other than disabling the blue flags to give more time to yield before the S&G penalty is given?

 

[Matt Alpeter]

I agree. In fact had this very same problem in one of my last races. I pitted early and came out behind someone with worn tires...passed him, then in 3 corners got 3 blue flags and was forced to pull over and wait. It takes about a lap to get a good bit of distance between you and someone, but you can get 10-15 blue flags in that time.