Lack of Rfactor events online

Grant Powell · Jul 11, 2008

I am new here and have been racing with Race07 but i notice there is a serious lack of Rfactor events.

I purchased Rfactor after playing the demo i thought this was fun and have been online with it on Racecast but all that seems to get raced there is Megane's on the same tracks over and over again (boring) and we all know what the public servers are like complete mayhem.

I see there are some great mods for Rfactor and have played these offline but found this very boring and that the game does not live up to much unless these mods can be raced online.

So is there a problem with Rfactor online or is nobody interested in it as at this rate my £18 I paid for it may well end up on Ebay for a fiver as the game has no life offline I feel through lack of polish in menus etc.

Patrick van Driel · Sep 16, 2008

Just join and we can help you with a setup and any tips that might improve your skills .

Eck Simpson · Sep 16, 2008

You can't, please all of the people, all of the time.

I have 4 installs of rF, some things I'll never get rid of, but they're getting less n less use. The Meganes, are one of the mods I'll never get rid of.
They're popular online, 'cause its a single make, which allows great racing. Very league friendly...

Most people, I see whinge (not all, and I'm not laying this at anyones door), about any mod being too popular on servers. Usually want said mod replaced, with whatevers new, at any given time. And then, they quickly move on, to the next new thing, and want it....
Or, they want whatever their favourite is. And, it doesn't matter if their favourite, is proven to be the worst mod for online use. They like it, so they want it.
I myself, cannot stand anything relating to modern F1. I could rant all day, about them.... lol.
People running servers, aren't gonna be changing the server content every five minutes. It doesn't allow for long term, league use. Its pointless and incredibly time consuming. They'll waste more time, changing server content, than it would ever be used.

So, instead of telling the world they are wrong. Stop and consider, maybe (just maybe) you're lucky, to have access to a server at all.

Richard Hamstead · Sep 16, 2008

Patrick van Driel said:
Just join and we can help you with a setup and any tips that might improve your skills .

Biggest problem is that the race starts at 4:30 AM my local time, so no go for me

Tim Ling · Sep 16, 2008

People are always impatient Eck, and yet they don't like anything new! I have run servers for CS (Counter Strike for you non-FPS freaks

) and you get nothing but moaning when you try something new! Why should it be different with online racers, just because they're a different flavour of geek

Richard Hamstead · Sep 17, 2008

Have you ever thought of doing an F1 club for the Oceana region?

Damian Henderson · Sep 18, 2008

rFactor has a massive comunity, one of the biggest out of all the games. but would like Racedepartment to do something like an endurance event, that would be fun.

Patrick van Driel · Sep 18, 2008

What are you thinking of ? We have events in the racingclub that usually last from 45 minutes to 1 hour .
Did you try one of the events ?

Club rFactor - RaceDepartment Forums

Greets Patrick

Damian Henderson · Sep 18, 2008

Will check them out! , but in endurance I mean like at least 6 hour events, like for example 12 hours of Sebring or something, with LMP1 and GT1 cars etc.

Patrick van Driel · Sep 18, 2008

Wow !!! thats long my friend :becky: I wonder if you ever get a full grid with that racetime.
I cant join a race that long but with enough intrest we can set it up.

Jens Piskorsch · Sep 18, 2008

6 hours is much too long for me, maximum is 2 hours race excl. training & qualy.

Andrew Evans · Sep 18, 2008

wow, 6 hours!... i doubt many have the stamina for that one.... but you can driver swap in rF, can't you? now that could be interesting... teams and shifts, etc... don't know if i could be trusted to keep the car alive for my stint though

Patrick van Driel · Sep 18, 2008

Jens Piskorsch said:
6 hours is much too long for me, maximum is 2 hours race excl. training & qualy.

Thats how we run the events now and after 2 hours im pretty tired

Jens Piskorsch · Sep 18, 2008

Well it's really ok how it's done here, but I meant 2 hours racetime after training and qualy - but this is really my maximum I think.

Damian Henderson · Sep 19, 2008

Of course for that many hours driver swaps is a must, you have like 2-5 drivers in each car etc, it's fun, but hey just an idea :thumb:

Marc Kollinger · Sep 19, 2008

Hmm, driver swaps.. has anybody successfully participated in a driver swap enabled race yet ? Does this work reliable ?

Had some difficulties setting up a server that allowed swapping (either hotswap or swap in pits)..

Damian Henderson · Sep 19, 2008

Yes, over at SSCA, we figured out how to do driver swaps without many issue's, have to hot swap and make sure you have no plugins installed, plugins can cause your game to crash if you disconnect for example.

Patrick van Driel · Sep 19, 2008

And the biggest problem is that everybody has to know exactly how it works !It takes a lot of concentration when to ask for a pitstop and if the second driver forgets it .....your out of fuel and over is your race.
I think you first have to make a real simple manual on how to do driver swaps.
Its nice but really hard to make sure you do it all as planned.
I did some tests with my team m8 James and well ...8 out of 10 worked

The other 2 made us stay beside the track without fuel :becky:

Damian Henderson · Sep 19, 2008

It's all about working as a team, once you know how to do it, it's really simple, you just have to know what your doing from a rule book and work as a team really and it all goes very well. We have probably done over 100 driver swaps so far, testing etc, probably about 30 alltogether in real racing events. Have to do quite a bit of testing make sure each driver in the team can do quite long stints mistake free etc.

I'm just throwing up idea's anyway, SSCA events are once every 2 months would be great if there was a club endurance event in between or something.

I'll post how SSCA do it just incase your interested.

1) The current driver alerts his replacement via TS that he is in his pit window.

2) Replacement driver (D2) connects to the server then alerts the current driver (D1) he has made it in.

D2 needs to come in as a spectator. Make sure D2 switches his settings before entering the server: Start rFactor>click on "Online Settings">change Spectate to "On"

The D2 driver then check's the garage area that he has his setup named the proper way and that it is listed as "Current" and "Default". D1 driver will go into the final lap of his stint and inform the pit-crew. Now D2 will then left-click on D1's name in the list (it should go red). D2 presses the "Passenger Select key" and click "Race". D2 should see a message informing him that "you are now riding with ..." just the same as D1 should receive an appropriate message ("... is now riding with you"). This should be done within one lap of the replacement driver joining the server.....NO MORE!! It is impertative that all non-drivers are off the server at any given time to reduce server load.

Current driver no longer needs to select driver in pit menu!

3) D1 driver pits, completes the pitstop and then when leaving the pits, he hits "Driver Hot Swap" key and the swap takes place in 3 seconds, as the car is rolling down pit lane . Make sure your replacement is ready for the switch!! Once D2 has taken control of the car, D1 will then need to hit the "Passenger Select" key. The D1 driver is then to IMMEDIATELY exit the server once this switch has been completed and he has hit the "Passenger Select" key!

Warning:Teams doing a driver swap while on the racing surface (mid-lap), will NOT be tolerated! These swaps can ONLY happen while in the pits. Your car has to come into pit lane, complete it's pitstop and then start rolling out of the pitbox before a swap can take place.

Kind Regards.

Patrick van Driel · Sep 21, 2008

Thx for the info, I know its possible and nice if everybody knows exactly what to do.
Im still not convinced about the intrest here to set this up at RD.
And on the other hand my time is limited to what i do now so anyone who wants to take a role in organising an event like this .....feel free to step forward!
I cant join an event that long but i will be happy to help wherever i can.

Andrew Evans · Sep 21, 2008

well, i think we could do something shorter as a test run - an hour race as normal, but with a driver swap after 30 mins.... have a test evening a night or two before where we ensure everyone has the driver swap technique down... accompanied by a clearly written "how to", of course....

maybe we could run a poll to find out if there's interest in running this kind of event, first?... at the moment, our rF grids are a little thin due to evomania...