Ok, I may have confused things with my last post so i'll try and be clear here.
First of all, we are discussing a change that
DIDN'T HAPPEN. Funny in one respect but a little silly in another, lol.
I'm still getting mixed messages about what the aims of this Championship are. On one hand we want ultimate realism and severe penalties, but then we say we want to encourage more drivers to join, especially newer drivers (eg. "I'd rather lose one alien than lose 10 normal drivers" ).
I'm all for realism, BUT, if we go overboard in the pursuit of extreme penalties, it may well result in deterring the "normal" drivers from participating.
We are trying to have both these things, yes. It is not a mixed message, it is the balancing act we are trying to get right. If we make it very easy for those coming in for the first time to be fast, then would it be challenging enough for the drivers with experience to keep them interested? Both are equally as important.
The team
CONSIDERED having more extream penalties but it was thought that it would discourage new comers too much and would make life difficult for the score keepers. We decided to stay with the current system (reduced damage/RSRBR stage penalties only) as it seams to offer to best mix of making it difficult enough to be challenging for those that are fast and clean but not TOO hard for those learning. If anyone can come up with a better idea please let us know, its the best we have right now.
This is especially so if you design the rules in a way that basically says "if you make one mistake and get a DNF, you should quit the Rally at that point". We already have a points system that heavily penalises a DNF, because basically if you get one DNF, you are highly unlikely to get a point. Fair enough, but at least drivers are encouraged to continue in the Rally to see how their later Stage times compare to others (maybe even get a Stage win). This may at least help to give drivers some enjoyment and desire to continue the Rally.
Having a rule that says says a DNF means you forfeit the entire Rally is a huge deterrent and enjoyment killer. (Even in real Rallys, mechanics can often repair damage and drivers can re-join the Rally).
Ok, here is where my "hardcore" approach seams to be at odds with others. Maybe if I explain the reasons behind my thoughts a little better it will become clearer. I think making the penalties harder and introducing realistic damage would INCREASE the likelyhood that a driver would try and finish an event instead of just driving like a mad man and HOPING they finish. What is more fun, driving at 90%, finishing and scoring points while you learn and develop or driving at 110% and crashing every second corner?
I know what I would prefer and I believe it is the best way to learn. I think that SHOULD encourage more drivers and help them to become faster and enjoy the game more in the long term but.........as I said before, i understand not everyone argees and that is why we have made the rules less harsh than ABSOLUTE realistic. This is the balancing act we are working with.
As a side note, The FIA is currntly looking at scraping the super rally rules in the WRC. Personally i have never liked them for the following reason an it is why i don't want to encourage it in our championship as well.
As an example, in the last round this season, Jakub (sorry to use you mate but you make the best argument here:wink
retired on SS2, if he had have then not retired from 2 more stages he would have still finished 7th, in front of 10 other drivers that didn't make a mistake. We are then penalising 10 drivers for what reason? It is why I also mentioned the idea of offering extra points to grade 3 & 4 drivers for each stage they finish as an incentive to keep driving and learning.
Yep, other on-line Racing sims are different and a disconnect during the race results in a DNF for that Race (although you can re-enter during qualy, or many on-line races are two race format and you can re-join for Race 2 in the event).
The difference here though is that we CAN allow people to rejoin after the disconnected stage, they can't. We are suggesting a rule to prevent them re-joining (or at least discourage it).
I think that is harsh, based on my comments above.
Running 2 "heats" or legs on different days was also discused but was thought to be to difficult to maintain from both the scoring side and the drivers side.
If we use accumulating damage then I don't think it is possible (I could be wrong) to make it possible to rejoin if you are disconnected. But if we could it rasies another issue. What if a driver that is having a really good rally crashes once during ss8 (example), it doesn't even have to be a retirement, it could just put him behind his rival. He can then claim his connection dropped out or had a system failure and we would let him restart the rally and have a second chance to win? Even if the driver is being honest, no-one can be sure and it can cause arguments and other drivers to leave feeling the championship isn't fair. Again, if you have an idea of how to solve both of these issues then let us know.
I said at the start here that BOTH making it difficult for the fast guys and not too hard and encouraging those learning are important. Neither is more important than the other. I think the rules as we wrote them give the balance of doing that. But if you can give any suggestions we are MORE than willing to listen.
Thank you also to Sebastien, Ludovic, Pete and Terri. I would have included your quotes in this but I don't know how to get them from more than one in a reply
