F1 2011 Online racing question

[SeanH]

This might seem an odd question, but does anyone know at what point a race start is recorded as a result when racing online?

In multiplayer "quick" races, I've noticed people who seem to wait until they're in the pits and can see their randomly assigned grid position. Then they quit if they don't like it.

Given the driving standards/ rudeness/ hostility problem, I can see why someone might not always want to hack their way through a field of 15 cars, but if you look through the top 0.1% on the global leaderboard, you see some players with conspicuously high win rates (up to 98%!) and I'm wondering if this is actually being used as a way to game the leaderboard.

I suspect that races don't register until the green light but, if so, that would be a shame for the reason given above (there's nothing random about start positions if you can avoid low grid assignments in this way).

I'd run the experiment myself but I'm somewhat finely poised at the 0.1% point and would rather not register several DNFs to find out.

Thanks!

 

[Richard Knight]

Does it not penalise you if you quit before the end of a race? Maybe that only kicks in after race starts - is this what you mean? I prefer starting from the back as your ranking will go up quicker if you can finish on the podium. eg: start 3/4 target 2nd or above, win race = 50 points. Start 12-16 target 5th or above, win race = 150 points. This varies I know buta good rule of thumb i think

 

[SeanH]

Yes, I mean is the green light (or some other point) the point after which you'll be penalized for quitting a race? I guess the following events could be the point at which your presence will count as a race entry, after which quitting will therefore hurt you in the standings:

1. Joining the lobby (I doubt it...)
2. Arriving in the pits
3. Starting the 30 second countdown to the race start
4. Arriving on the grid
5. The green light

I sometimes see high-ranked people arrive at point 2, see that they're, say, 13th or 14th on the grid, and then quit. This is understandable if, say, you don't want the aggravation of passing a dozen people weaving from white line to white line etc. but if you haven't been classified as a race entrant at this point, it could also be a way of gaming the leaderboard. Agreed on the points advantage for starting further back but I've been rank 50 and mostly stuck at 5000 points for months now. I'm inside the top 150 on the global leaderboard and my ranking vs. my peers (i.e. people with the same number of race wins as me) is therefore a function of of my win rate...which would be highly sensitive to the above question.

I guess I'll have to run the experiment to answer it, at the risk of logging a few unwanted DNFs.

And I guess my wider question is: how on earth do you log a 98.5% win rate (as one person has done from thousands of races)? Mine is a little above 50% from 400-some races. All credit and kudos to that person if it's "real" and I have no wish to throw accusations around, but I lose way more than 1.5% of races just from bogus penalties (like when someone hits you from behind and pushes you into the car in front, or someone pushes you outside the track boundary during a typical crashfest and you get a penalty for 'passing' cars which are stationary and pointing the wrong way). If you really can score nearly a 100% win rate without any, let's say, tricks, then I'm in the wrong universe and I really should go do something else!

 

[Robert Guy]

good point seanh. what you will notice alot is alot of people on 50 will quit and rejoin a different race looking for lower ranked people to race against to make them a cert for the win. being 50 myself and not a slow coach i have experienced alot of the same people with same rank who know i am much faster leave due to the fact im there or infact other faster/better drivers than me are there. (also noticed there online rank race etc and as you point out the wins pair race is alot) (cheating themselves) as for the quiting in game due to crash etc. it seems it logs your race as race done but you dont loose any rep as far as im aware.

 

[FearTheHands]

You can quit a race at any point before crossing the line on the very last lap & that race will not be counted against your rank or counted as a race co0mpleted.

What is common practice for people with falsely high rankings is to race a race until they know they cannot win & then quit before crossing the chequered flag. This protects your rank if you cannot achieve the goal given to you at the start. I.e.; if your goal is t finish 2nd & you are in 3rd & have no chance of gaining 2nd a player will quit & therefore not lose any rank as that race will not be counted.

This is a huge flaw in online rankings & allows people to have very high false rankings.

A particular case in point is a player who is well known as the most disruptive cheating player online GWFL name "Trigglety"who will ram you off the road if you dare to beat him (& most people do because he is not very good) then wait one entire lap for the whole field to pass again & deliberately ram you off the road again, then will quit the race & does not lose 1 single rank!

F1 2011 online is very very flawed & can be very boring if you are stuck racing these type of people ...

 

[SeanH]

FearTheHands - thanks! You answered the question. I was just finishing up reading the Codemasters forum where a couple of other threads confirm the same thing.

Honestly, I'm blown away. I only just noticed that there's a "retire" option and a "quit" option and by all accounts, you can quit any race that's going badly and it won't show on either the leaderboard or in your rank. That's an amazing hole and it makes the leaderboard quite meaningless unless (like me) you happen to know that you've never quit a race that's not going well and you therefore have at least a lower bound on your standing.

It seems to promote the "win or bust" behaviour that was such a problem with F1 2010 - go ballistic, show no respect or patience with anyone, and just quit if it all goes wrong. What a shame, and I guess I really am racing "just for fun".

 

[Akira Kain]

FearTheHands - thanks! You answered the question. I was just finishing up reading the Codemasters forum where a couple of other threads confirm the same thing.

Honestly, I'm blown away. I only just noticed that there's a "retire" option and a "quit" option and by all accounts, you can quit any race that's going badly and it won't show on either the leaderboard or in your rank. That's an amazing hole and it makes the leaderboard quite meaningless unless (like me) you happen to know that you've never quit a race that's not going well and you therefore have at least a lower bound on your standing.

It seems to promote the "win or bust" behaviour that was such a problem with F1 2010 - go ballistic, show no respect or patience with anyone, and just quit if it all goes wrong. What a shame, and I guess I really am racing "just for fun".

the reason thats done like this is to allow the CM people to try and compete with us lot. then they can quit out same as they did after Patch v1.2.. Hello CM it's still broke v1.3 coming ? hello? took them 2 months to have the balls to say anything, i suspect alot of these "quitters " work for CM ;-) hahahaha

 

[Paul Lock]

A particular case in point is a player who is well known as the most disruptive cheating player online GWFL name "Trigglety"who will ram you off the road if you dare to beat him (& most people do because he is not very good) then wait one entire lap for the whole field to pass again & deliberately ram you off the road again, then will quit the race & does not lose 1 single rank!

Its surprising how many people are aware of this guy. He is totally loopy I tell you. He pinned my car against the barrier once, and kept his foot on the gas so I couldnt escape. I went off, made a cup of tea, had a smoke, toilet, came back and he was still there - how I lol'd.

 

[LFCsmithy]

I agree.....the quitters make me laugh......all they are doing is cheating themselves. Im not gonna say ive never quit a race cos i have....but its only been if ive been interrupted...i.e someone at the door. Its very rare tho. Even if i crash on the 1st lap and drop half a lap for the pit stop, i will still carry on cos you never know what will happen in the rest of the race, and besides, i always wanna try beat my objective. Codemasters really need to clamp down and be much harsher with quitters. Losing 1 or 2 rank points is pretty pointless!!
Give them a big drop in rank, maybe then there will be less people quitting. I myself wouldnt mind taking a bigger rank drop if i had to quit for any reason.
Ive also seen many times where i enter an online race and there are 2 or 3 50 rank players in there. If one of those guys get taken off or they go wide and drop to the back, you can guarantee shortly afterwards you will see the dreaded ( xxxxx has been disconnected).
So so annoying....its like they cant stand to be beaten by someone like me who is ranked around 20. Poor poor losers. Cmon codies, sort these tossers out.