Possible new player looking for advice please!

[Dan Holland]

Hi everyone - first up thanks for reading this!

I've really only been on RD so far to play F1 2010 as I really love that style of single seat racing. However I'm looking for a new multiplayer racing game because even on RD there are far too many people that are deliberately making contact / not driving carefully enough because the game doesn't punish them for doing so (for example even full damage doesn't break the car as often as it would in reality). I've grown completely fed up of this, so am thinking of starting iracing.

The main reason is that I like the safety feaure that it has. This seems to me that it makes all people think seriously before trying an overtake, or be a little more passive when closely following another car. The thing that I am worried about is that if I only want to do the faster single seater racing will I have to buy lots of things I'm not so interested in to be able to progress to the level i need to be at to unlock those cars?

Any advice is really appreciated - thanks!

 

[George Pilkington]

Dan, hi there.
I was just like you before christmas.
Then I jumped into iracing with the 'trail pack' + the williams, silverstone and Brands.
Thank goodness I did.
Not touched another since.
Do not hesitate, enroll today. "You have been driving the wrong sim mate"
You will love it.
Hope this helps
Regards
George

 

[Onno Naber]

Go for it Dan,I think it will put a on your face

 

[Daniel Pettit]

I'm not a fan of elements of the safety racing but my complaints are all to do with how it punishes you for clipping the grass rather than car-car elements.

Between the fear of losing rating and the ease that cars damage, certainly my experience of iRacing over the last week or so has been its more crash free. However.... accidents do happen in any racing.

 

[Yoeri Gijsen]

Dan, you must not think that any safety system is going to prevent people from touching, but at the end of the day the fact that incidents impede a driver's way to the top in iRacing, you will leave the majority of the idiots behind as you proceed finishing your racing without incidents.

To get to the fast single seaters - F1 and IndyCar - you have to get through Rookie, D and C class first. You can technically get away with buying one D road car and one C road car (or take the Mustang that features in both) and one track of their respective season calendars that you hit 4 Time Trials on during the week it is featured. You will still have to work on your Safety Rating by doing a lot of races. The cheapest way is to do the Racing in the Rookie class and do on week with at least 4 TT's in the D and C classes. For F1 you will need to get through B class as well.

 

[Dean Thomas]

Definitely get iRacing.

I like F1 2010, i like GT5. iRacing is in a league of it's own. The community are great, and the majority of players are great. You get the odd spanner who wants to ruin it for everyone, but you can normally see who they are from the first corner.

Make sure you turn on the Spotter. He'll shout at you when someone is to the side of you, and let you know when it is clear again.

Avoid piling into the first corner, i tend to back off (if i get a bad start) and let the pack fight, then slowly work my way back through the pack one by one. I'm happy to finish outside of the top 3 if i get no damage, and just enjoy the racing.

Hope this helps

 

[Erik Tveit]

If you get iRacing make sure to refer to someone.

Probably your best mate racing over there and so on. They will get 10 iRacing dollar cash.

Or you could refer to me. :tongue: (PM)

 

[Dazmaniac]

I've been there just over 2 years now and when I initially signed up, I imagined it being one of those things I would try (with the default cars/tracks that come with the subscription) for a few months and then think it wasn't quite my cup of tea, because of the ongoing subscriptions and the additional cars and tracks that have to be bought (if you are wanting to race beyond Rookie).

Once you look past the negative posts from the overall sim racing community about iRacing being too expensive, it is only as expensive as you want it to be. If you are shrewd, you can make use of iRacing offers regards subscriptions and in return get iRacing dollars/credits. Also purchasing content in bulk gets you differing rates of discount. From C license and up, participation in series will also see you with the chance of recouping more credits.

Whilst you need to move up the license ladder in iRacing to race official races in certain cars at certain tracks, with great sites like RaceDepartment around, you can still be a Rookie and race in cars, at tracks, that wouldn't be possible in the official iRacing races.

So, its worth keeping an eye out for what iRacing have in the upcoming months schedules to see what they are racing and where at. If its something that you fancy, take the plunge, buy the content, and I would have to say you won't regret it.

Don't let the SR dictate your racing. I appreciate that the odd wheel off the track will get you a 1x, but you can still gain SR in a race even if you have had a few 1x's. Unless your a 'Bumper Car Billy', if you race steady and are for the most part clean and tidy, the SR will take care of itself. It can be a bit fraught in the Rookie leagues in the early days of your iRacing adventure, but you'll soon learn how to cope with it all and before you know it, a D license will be yours.

Whilst I don't race everyday and participate in bucket loads of official races, I am now 2 years in to my subscription (which currently runs through to 5th Jan 2014) still have $43 iRacing dollars left, have 100% service content (with the 2 new cars/tracks on pre-order) and have found this great place here, with like minded folks who love their iRacing, are great to race with and are always willing to offer assistance, should the need arise.

I love most racing genre games/sims, but iRacing is the only that currently resides on my PC, but I do have a handful of other titles on my PS3, which I still visit.

Play the sim within your budget and you'll have a great time, and meet some great people and have some great races. I'm so glad I stuck around beyond my initial subscription back in 2009.

 

[Nick Brooke]

Hi Dan

I started iRacing 2 weeks ago and i have to say the SR rating can be off putting to start with but as others have said you have to try to forget it and race. I did my D licence in 5 days with not really putting that much effort in but now i have slowed down trying to really understand the game. It is unlike other games thats for sure and more enjoyable in many ways, hell i even like the oval races which i never thought it would. the first couple of races i did i tried to ensure i was at the back of the pack to allow the bumping to go on infront of me but now i just do my best.

The cars are fun although one or two are hard to manage at first, skippy being one of them. Once you understand the track however it appears to lose you 5 seconds or so off the time without going too mad. For me i did TT alot and i found that having just me on the track was a help as i only had to worry about my car.

My races have not been incident free however and the SR rating system does not automaticaly get a clean race for you i found in the rookie and D classes due to them all learning the game but i am sure up more in the licence will bring a closer and cleaner race.
I have to say that although i do not race every day i do enjoy iracing for what it is the best advice i can give is forget your SR and just learn to race with these cars.

 

[Steve O'Malley]

I am fairly new to IRacing and have to say its definitely worth getting. Previously I have been racing RFactor with Rd specifically 1992 F1 and every week a number of people have their race ruined by the irresponsible actions of one or two individuals.
In this case, you have to wait a week for the next race. If you get smashed out of a Star Mazda race at 7.30, you can try again 2 hours later.
Also, I have noticed people are more aware of avoiding accidents as they do want to protect their SR to a certain degree.

My advice: Try it. Practice hard before entering races and beware of incidents in Qualifying and Time Trialing which will also affect your SR. Also incidents in warm up will cost you so take it easy.