Community Question | What Stops You From Racing Online?
- Thread starter Paul Jeffrey
- Start date
I have a family and real life, so can't dedicate set times to race online. Plus the small amount of free time I get, doesn't usually tie in with getting in a race. 30 min practice and 30 min qualifying session before a 10 lap race. Waste of time.
You have to come at an appointed time, which is not always convenient for me. I'm always afraid to spoil the game, as it was written above.
Also, some people are not quite adequate - toxicity.
Also, some people are not quite adequate - toxicity.
RF2
F_B
Premium
I use Iracing for online racing but since one year I'm more or less taking a break from it. Reason: not enough time and commitment. I just don't want to invest all my freetime in getting better at one sim. Sometimes it can even get very frustrating when you spend several hours practicing for one race just to be taken out in the first lap or making yourself an error early in the race.
However...when everything comes together online racing is without a doubt the best way to use a sim and have competition, no matter what sim you use. If you find some guys and are able to race clean in a pack, overtaking each other several times it's one of the best experiences you can make.
Regarding public multiplayer in other sims (not the regulated Iracing multiplayer) it's very often a bad experience tbh. Starting with let's say 10 people after lap 1 turn 1 you can bet that only 2 or 3 will survive and the rest probably (rage)quits. So you end up hotlapping.
I hope more and more sims will introduce something similar to Iracing (which is also not perfect imo, but it somehow works).
However...when everything comes together online racing is without a doubt the best way to use a sim and have competition, no matter what sim you use. If you find some guys and are able to race clean in a pack, overtaking each other several times it's one of the best experiences you can make.
Regarding public multiplayer in other sims (not the regulated Iracing multiplayer) it's very often a bad experience tbh. Starting with let's say 10 people after lap 1 turn 1 you can bet that only 2 or 3 will survive and the rest probably (rage)quits. So you end up hotlapping.
I hope more and more sims will introduce something similar to Iracing (which is also not perfect imo, but it somehow works).
Reason #1: (most obvious) job, family and small children. Time is the issue. And time slots
As a family man you have to take your momens of free time, but if those hours contradicts hours of quality online racing, it's not a possibility for me.
Speaking ACC, apparently too few competition servers, making it in hours not suiting me.
For instance the last tree days I had free time from my job and wanted to register at the ACC Competition Server 8am in the morning CET. But I completely forgot that ACC Competition Server registration window is in the afternoon - which suits me very bad, just as most weekend hours do not suit me
E.g. right now "Registration starts in 7h21m10s" (!) I cannot wait for that, since by that time I simply do not have the time! Family to take care of.
Before children I participated in plenty online series like Little Formula Racing Series and the successor Formula-Simracing and quality online series in rFactor and the Simbinfamily WTCC, Race07, GTR2, Race-On, R3E, etc and SimRaceWay.
It's impossible to join competition event from eg. 7pm-10pm CET with a family to take care of.
Ofcourse, the iRacing servers with other rush hours was a possibility and until 3-4 years ago I grew iRacing and liked it a lot as an European connecting to American servers in time slots suiting me. But I dropped iRacing with their new tyre model - what a decline. OK my oppinion, but to me it feels like the early access trial of pre-official rFactor(1) with tyre models like you drove on ice, not close to reality.
Reason #2: Open servers with too much "crash-fest"
10-12 years ago I liked online racing at SimRaceWay, when SRW was new and mostly solely dedicated simracers knew about it. That ensured some great close racing without a crash-fest. Then it became more popular for a wider scope, but resulting in newcomers not respecting simple driving rules. And then the proper simmers dissapeared quickly from here, sadfully.
Same could be said about ACC Quickjoin. And there you can get punished on your PA, CC, CN starting in a bad position midfield - ACC engine should be optimized here for the OBWP-part, for drivers not responsible for the accidents. Difficult to prevent an accident starting midfield in a field of crash-fest drivers, but you get punished in your rating in the carnage though no fault at all And getting PA-value below entry treshold leaves you driving offline events anyhow to get back to the CP servers - which event schedules do not suit me.
EDIT: OK mostly due to I've entered ACC Quickjoin servers in the middle of qualification, not able to set a reasonable lap time and hence midfield grid placement. It's actually easier to start from back of the grid and just waiting for the carnage to end. But still disturbing....
However, there's quite some decent online simmers in rF2 online. But the number of online simmers in rF2 is quite sporadic and often requires payable content to access. And then the few open servers do not have more than typically 1-3 online simmers. Same could be said about R3E and AMS2; Far too expensive to buy all car- and track mods to ensure you are able to participate on an online server.
Reason #3: Splendid offline racing with high quality free car- and track mods
When you have a big ocean of free hight quality mods at your NAS, collected through the last 20 years and especially the last 12-13 years for rF1, AC and GTR2 - what's not to like?
Especially in GTR2 it is quite easy to setup a free CLOSE series of your own choice. Don't even have to mingle with *hdv, *rcd, *gdb, etc. files (ok admitted, I do that too), but just using the met-tool and champion ship managers for GTR2 and rF1.
That's the competition part of offline racing.
Other thing is investigating classic cars and tracks, a free ride at Targa Florio, Nürburgring Gesamtstrecke, Kesselberg 70K, Machwerk in a high quality classic race car might not be so much about the competition, but the nice feeling it self, knowing that you'll never have this opportunity in real life in a high valuable classical car existing in only a few rare species today. And just trying to smell the sensation of old classic times
Combining those two formats is absolutely formidable. And running them 2-3 hours events close wheel to wheel give you the same satisfied feeling at the checkered flag as in longer close online events. Both in AC, rF1 and GTR2 you CAN get a close good battle with the AI's - believe it or not!
So do I do online racing? Yes, but very little.
Due to the reasons mentioned in #1, I do a little ACC Quickjoin and rF2 dropin sessions. But maybe only 5% of my sim time. OK this week maybe 30%. But digging into high quality mod offline racing as described in #3 still suits me the best as a sim racer.
I noticed a profile here in another thread define the offline simracer as a "sim gamer".
Personally I'll devide that into
"sim gamer" - when I do more investigation than racing
"sim racer" - when I'm racing offline in close competition series setup by quality mods in close AI battl - yes as I stated before, that is possible even with the older sim engines
As a family man you have to take your momens of free time, but if those hours contradicts hours of quality online racing, it's not a possibility for me.
Speaking ACC, apparently too few competition servers, making it in hours not suiting me.
For instance the last tree days I had free time from my job and wanted to register at the ACC Competition Server 8am in the morning CET. But I completely forgot that ACC Competition Server registration window is in the afternoon - which suits me very bad, just as most weekend hours do not suit me
E.g. right now "Registration starts in 7h21m10s" (!) I cannot wait for that, since by that time I simply do not have the time! Family to take care of.Before children I participated in plenty online series like Little Formula Racing Series and the successor Formula-Simracing and quality online series in rFactor and the Simbinfamily WTCC, Race07, GTR2, Race-On, R3E, etc and SimRaceWay.
It's impossible to join competition event from eg. 7pm-10pm CET with a family to take care of.
Ofcourse, the iRacing servers with other rush hours was a possibility and until 3-4 years ago I grew iRacing and liked it a lot as an European connecting to American servers in time slots suiting me. But I dropped iRacing with their new tyre model - what a decline. OK my oppinion, but to me it feels like the early access trial of pre-official rFactor(1) with tyre models like you drove on ice, not close to reality.
Reason #2: Open servers with too much "crash-fest"
10-12 years ago I liked online racing at SimRaceWay, when SRW was new and mostly solely dedicated simracers knew about it. That ensured some great close racing without a crash-fest. Then it became more popular for a wider scope, but resulting in newcomers not respecting simple driving rules. And then the proper simmers dissapeared quickly from here, sadfully.
Same could be said about ACC Quickjoin. And there you can get punished on your PA, CC, CN starting in a bad position midfield - ACC engine should be optimized here for the OBWP-part, for drivers not responsible for the accidents. Difficult to prevent an accident starting midfield in a field of crash-fest drivers, but you get punished in your rating in the carnage though no fault at all
And getting PA-value below entry treshold leaves you driving offline events anyhow to get back to the CP servers - which event schedules do not suit me.EDIT: OK mostly due to I've entered ACC Quickjoin servers in the middle of qualification, not able to set a reasonable lap time and hence midfield grid placement. It's actually easier to start from back of the grid and just waiting for the carnage to end. But still disturbing....
However, there's quite some decent online simmers in rF2 online. But the number of online simmers in rF2 is quite sporadic and often requires payable content to access. And then the few open servers do not have more than typically 1-3 online simmers. Same could be said about R3E and AMS2; Far too expensive to buy all car- and track mods to ensure you are able to participate on an online server.
Reason #3: Splendid offline racing with high quality free car- and track mods
When you have a big ocean of free hight quality mods at your NAS, collected through the last 20 years and especially the last 12-13 years for rF1, AC and GTR2 - what's not to like?
Especially in GTR2 it is quite easy to setup a free CLOSE series of your own choice. Don't even have to mingle with *hdv, *rcd, *gdb, etc. files (ok admitted, I do that too), but just using the met-tool and champion ship managers for GTR2 and rF1.
That's the competition part of offline racing.
Other thing is investigating classic cars and tracks, a free ride at Targa Florio, Nürburgring Gesamtstrecke, Kesselberg 70K, Machwerk in a high quality classic race car might not be so much about the competition, but the nice feeling it self, knowing that you'll never have this opportunity in real life in a high valuable classical car existing in only a few rare species today. And just trying to smell the sensation of old classic times
Combining those two formats is absolutely formidable. And running them 2-3 hours events close wheel to wheel give you the same satisfied feeling at the checkered flag as in longer close online events. Both in AC, rF1 and GTR2 you CAN get a close good battle with the AI's - believe it or not!
So do I do online racing? Yes, but very little.
Due to the reasons mentioned in #1, I do a little ACC Quickjoin and rF2 dropin sessions. But maybe only 5% of my sim time. OK this week maybe 30%. But digging into high quality mod offline racing as described in #3 still suits me the best as a sim racer.
I noticed a profile here in another thread define the offline simracer as a "sim gamer".
Personally I'll devide that into
"sim gamer" - when I do more investigation than racing
"sim racer" - when I'm racing offline in close competition series setup by quality mods in close AI battl - yes as I stated before, that is possible even with the older sim engines
Last edited:
hm, at this point it is only a beta for invited persons, if i understand it correctly. did you get an invite?Because after registering on simracing.gp months ago, there is only silence and an invite to join no where to be seen.
the ramming guys, the suspicious great speed of some guys and the need to make many many laps to stay at the same level of some (i dont like to spend so much time training!)
Yeah i am lazy and i suspect of everyone of you!
Yeah i am lazy and i suspect of everyone of you!
Other people.
Nah but seriously, I just prefer single player and couch multiplayer with friends. There's plenty of content for myself to be getting on with, and not having a wheel yet, the amount of effort and concentration I have to put in to be consistant against other players just isn't worth it for me, and i'm far more internally motivated by pushing myself further than playing against anybody i dont really care about online. Plus mods - I love me some mods
Nah but seriously, I just prefer single player and couch multiplayer with friends. There's plenty of content for myself to be getting on with, and not having a wheel yet, the amount of effort and concentration I have to put in to be consistant against other players just isn't worth it for me, and i'm far more internally motivated by pushing myself further than playing against anybody i dont really care about online. Plus mods - I love me some mods
Timeslots can be a problem, being in South Africa. A grading system would be nice, to get closer competition, especially if you are not experienced or do not have a lot of time for racing. Also, if a series can be run with beginners with the Mazda MX 5, Caterham 7 or Audi TT ( Yes, FWD and RWD series ) can be run, as was a done a couple of years ago.
RF2 introducing the multiplayer competion system where I can sign and race the slot bet suits me.
I'm done joining communities where there is the "golden rule" that if you hit someone not deliberately you need to wait that person rejoining the track . This kills competition and the fun of racing online.
As VR user, I cannot play ACC , AC servers has always the same events ,Raceroom is dead, Iracing is too expensive and AMS2 is too early stages at the minute.
So yeah, better experimenting with combos on RF2 offline
I'm done joining communities where there is the "golden rule" that if you hit someone not deliberately you need to wait that person rejoining the track . This kills competition and the fun of racing online.
As VR user, I cannot play ACC , AC servers has always the same events ,Raceroom is dead, Iracing is too expensive and AMS2 is too early stages at the minute.
So yeah, better experimenting with combos on RF2 offline
- In RD you have all the instructions just have to search them
(kidding)- How to join? Depends on the sim, should have some button on the bottom right corner.. (half kidding)
- Other people wll ruin your fun befor you spoil their fun , dont worry
(seriously)- Etiquete? nah, most people dont have that, sadly, so if you dont understand it wellcome to the massive club, it seems you are not alone, not anymore, lol.
I hope i have helped you!
MoerasGrizzly
Premium
For me it's mostly just that at the end of the day I don't have enough energy left to commit to fully concentrating on racing. Life's busy.
I have been an official simdriver for MSI for a few months and I can't help running online, not that before I didn't. I have no particular fears about running online, my only fear honestly is to find incorrect players all here but luck is a phenomenon in extinction and there is much more sportiness. I think in general people are afraid to run for this reason and also for fear of competing with others and if you lose you don't accept defeat (I know it's hard but life is so young).
Do not be afraid, run with courage and the first victory will come!
Do not be afraid, run with courage and the first victory will come!
It's getting slightly off-topic now, but yeah, that's the problem - only premium members got the access. It would be perfectly fine, because why not, premium is about benefits. My rant is about how it was announced, presented and handled.
One of the PR posts says "Simracing.GP fills gap created by global shutdown of motorsports". Lockdown is nearly gone and they filled nothing. I know new platform needs publicity to be succesuful but this classic PR talk and hype feels like some corporate bullshit so typical nowadays and I'm sad and afraid to see RD becoming exactly this lately. Doing anything just to get views and clicks (see all these "community questions" threads).
PS: Sorry for the rant and OT.
well the reason (for not racing online) depends on the sim, but ACC is the first game where i am actually taking part in online races consistently. easy-ish to find North American lobbies and the CP races are good. I would do iracing but i find the tire model extremely frustrating, where driving at the limit of grip is so difficult. The prices are high too so I’d probably wait till i amass some money. Otherwise im spending $15 for a track / week for the first 12-ish months. Rf2 online, I’ve actually started to play (POTATO server [24/7 pick-up and play]). but generally hard to find a NA server that is accessible.
Latest News
-
Gran Turismo 7’s Update 1.46 Includes Škoda’s Vision GTAn electric concept marks Škoda’s debut within Gran Turismo, and it will be joined by Honda’s...- Thomas Harrison-Lord
- Updated:
- 4 min read
-
F1 Manager 2024’s New Mentality System, Pitbox Order DetailedAlongside being able to create a custom team, drivers can now be poached, races can be simulated...
- Thomas Harrison-Lord
- Updated:
- 2 min read
-
How The BTCC and Motorsport Games ReunitedIn a surprise move last week, official BTCC content will once again be present within rFactor 2...
- Thomas Harrison-Lord
- Updated:
- 5 min read
-
Sponsored MOZA Racing & Lamborghini Redefine Racing Boundaries with The Real Race Super Trofeo 2024MOZA Racing proudly announces its collaboration with Lamborghini for the launch of The Real Race...- OverTake.gg
- Updated:
- 6 min read
-
Forza Horizon 5 Apex Allstars Update Adds Five New Race Cars, Plus Yet More DLCA new Apex Allstars Festival Playlist kicks off this Thursday in Forza Horizon 5, joined by a...
- Thomas Harrison-Lord
- Updated:
- 3 min read
-
F1 24's Updated Car Performance and Handling ExplainedWhile we haven’t tested it yet, on paper it sounds like significant changes have been made to...
- Thomas Harrison-Lord
- Updated:
- 3 min read
-
Tim Jarschel Wins 2024 DTM Esports Pro championshipCombining searing pace with consistency, Jarschel took home the title despite a charge from...
- Thomas Harrison-Lord
- Updated:
- 3 min read