RD Formula Pro Series S6 (rFactor 2)

[Andrew Ford]

hello.what happnened to this series please? is the f1 league now on rfactor 2 or something?

 

[Marco Bijl]

Well, like said, I have to look into it. I cant say yes or no to a car now. It's a matter of testing, and combining. If it all matches, the format will and can be decided.
If I do a championship, I try to match all the aspects. It's the total picture that makes a nice championship to a great one .

I like both the F2 and F1. For both, I have the same reservations in terms of a championship. I am very afraid that there will be a lot of people signing up, doing the first race, losing it in the 2nd corner, and drop out of the championship as its to hard, with some lame excuse. So, IF I am going to set this up, it better be a good combination of both car and tracks, to make sure all can have a lot of fun, and still have some decent driving.

 

[Andrew Ford]

Well, like said, I have to look into it. I cant say yes or no to a car now. It's a matter of testing, and combining. If it all matches, the format will and can be decided.
If I do a championship, I try to match all the aspects. It's the total picture that makes a nice championship to a great one .

I like both the F2 and F1. For both, I have the same reservations in terms of a championship. I am very afraid that there will be a lot of people signing up, doing the first race, losing it in the 2nd corner, and drop out of the championship as its to hard, with some lame excuse. So, IF I am going to set this up, it better be a good combination of both car and tracks, to make sure all can have a lot of fun, and still have some decent driving.

would it be worthwhile doing some pre league/race club events to check peoples full intentions?
i think we already know some honest racers who would regularly attend but if people had to say attend 3 pre season events, it might add to their credibility?

 

[Marco Bijl]

For all our leagues goes, that experience in the clubs is required. We select on that, and deny entry to those who have no experience at all.

But you are right. It will help a lot to have people practice. Probably, there will be some kind of test event(s) proir to the season, to get rid of the unwanted signups. Perhaps even a mandatory test event prior to each official event. Not 100% sure yet.

Ow, by the way, good to see the amount of likes in this thread. Means there are a lot of people that are watching this thread, which makes me believe there are at least some people interested.

 

[Andrew Ford]

For all our leagues goes, that experience in the clubs is required. We select on that, and deny entry to those who have no experience at all.

But you are right. It will help a lot to have people practice. Probably, there will be some kind of test event(s) proir to the season, to get rid of the unwanted signups. Perhaps even a mandatory test event prior to each official event. Not 100% sure yet.

Ow, by the way, good to see the amount of likes in this thread. Means there are a lot of people that are watching this thread, which makes me believe there are at least some people interested.

there's another one!

I'm sure you are over worked doing all these leagues/mods etc.
However, I'm not sure there are any rfactor 2 leagues on the go at the minute. There seems to be a core group of reliable people developing, even if small. With a bit of forewarning, advertisement and some pre-season events, I'm sure even more people would want to join. The clio cup was a credit to you and the guys.

I think I speak for many when I say that the FSR championship is a massive success using rfactor. I'm sure that whilst we don't expect that level of professionalism or dedication from this "possible" league, if we could get decent tracks, cars and stream these races it might attract more interest. The possibilities are endless but great.

On another note, I remember ages ago there was an endurance event but things went wrong with skins. Is this still a problem? if there was a championship, I might eventually consider getting my backside in gear and doing my own skin.lol

 

[Marco Bijl]

Indeed, there is no rf2 league running. We just finished the Clio's, so we can do another one again.
I also have seen that group developing, and I appreciate the fact that they are around all the time, and therefore want to do something for them. Keep them occupied sort of speak .

It surely is the intention to keep running leagues in rf2, as I believe it is 1 of the backbones of simracing 2.0. With all the new features which soon will become standard for all sims, I believe the future of simracing is here, with games like (like, so not alone) rfactor2.

In terms of the skins, I am not sure what I want. I have an idea for which i am exploring the options at the moment. If we would do that, there would be no need for you guys to create skins.

I was going to type something else, but then figured, why not disclose a bit of the ideas I have.

Ok, first of all, let me make it very CLEAR again, that I am just thinking out loud here. Me typing this is not the gurantee that this will be the format, and I will put this up. It's still under investigation of the options...

What I would like to do, is keep the first season relative short. 5 - 6 races max. Reason for this is simple, content and experience.
- Content
I believe it will be very hard to come to 6 suited tracks with the current content. I am afraid that I have to compromise to much, to get the tracks sorted if we go longer.
- Experience
For both drivers and organizers, this kind of league in rfactor2 is new. I rather do 2 short seasons, then 1 long one, which is dragging along because of a mistake made by either drivers or organizers in the beginning of the league.

I am thinking to do a double championship. So, you will have the individual drivers championship, and a constructors or team championship. Teams will be 2 drivers, and a total of 9 teams, which makes 18 drivers on the grid.
Again, I rather have 18 drivers who are dedicated to finish the season, then 30+ drivers in race 1, and 15 in the last race.

Car choice is still a mistery to me. I really need to do some more test driving with both cars, to rule on that. As I said above in a previous post, getting the tracks and car combined, is the hardest part of organizing a championship, as it is one of the most important tasks. It can make and break a championship, so decent testing is required.

Then skins, as that was originally your question. There are 2 options here. I can either make a complete new mod, as we did with the first RDWSR season. It will include all skins, driver names, team names and will be a seperate thing to install. This is the certain way of doing things, but it is also the most time demanding way.
Second option, is to keep the skins local. As we have the option now (and it also works!) to have skins shared via your local machine, there is also the option for all contenders to have their own skin on their computer, and select it ingame. All the skins will be shared, so after a few minutes online, the general idea will be the same, all cars have custom skins.
Now that is (for me) the most interesting option, as you can understand that making a mod (including all screenshots, icons mini-icons and vehicle files) is a lot of work. On the other side. it does give me the certainty that all will have a custom skin. Still thinking about that one.

For broadcasting, I can already say that there are certainly options for that.

Thats just a brief overview of what I have in mind now.

Now, as you all seem to be very keen on this, I would like to ask you guys the following.
If you want, please take a track you think is great to drive with either F1 or F2, and revieuw it here. I am not looking for posts like:
- I tried Silverstone, and it sucked.
or
- F2 @ Istanbul rocks

I want some positive feedback. What are the bad sides of the track, what are the good sides. What makes you think it is interesting for me to check it. Things like that.

After all, it's you guys who need to have the fun, and the combo's have to suit you all .

 

[Mickael Folcher]

I guess you can talk with Stefan who's managing a lot of club events on rF2 and he can give a lot of informations about it (and especially about the tracks).

I think short season with double championship is the best solution actually.

About the cars, MR01 is very nice but more complex, F2 is fun too, a little bit less challenging but maybe more easy to keep on track.

 

[Andrew Ford]

Marco Bijl

Thanks for that Marco. I know you're only thinking out loud at the minute but I agree with ALL of your ideas. Whatever the decision on skins, when the time comes, I will look at how to do it (whichever method is chosen). I don't want to create too much work for you (picture of you bleary eyed slaving over a computer is worrying lol) but if you're already putting in long hours, something like this championship would not only be fun, but also add even more life to racdepartment. when i joined there seemed to be lots of action and broadcasts. i know there still is but many would acknowledge that we've been at a sim racing crossroads for a while - wating for rfactor 2 to develop and assetto corsa. i'm thinking the AC thing could drag on and disappoint people. it may have bugs etc. it could go on forever whereas rfactor 2 seems driveable and great fun. i think its time we all threw ourselves into it and stop putting our lives on hold lol

regarding tracks, i will look into it and review. i am a bit biased. I'm an f1 fan but also a dreamer. i like to race sims which are believable. therefore the tracks and cars matching must be believable.
e.g. malaysia in a marussia is more believable than sebring in a marussia - in the same way that sebring is amazing with endurance cars at night. already i would say fuji and malaysia are good for marussia and f2 while sebring's laps are too long and wearing. the sebring track has a glitch with the marussia - whereby you hit a one kerb can the car fires up into the air or explodes front wing. it happened to me at the racing club event in practise. - so that is currently a definate no.
i will do a proper set of review starting this week (rather than a few sentences like above)

Thanks again

p.s. i think the fsr broadcast is on later after f1....ahh, inspiration.

 

[Marco Bijl]

I guess you can talk with Stefan who's managing a lot of club events on rF2 and he can give a lot of informations about it (and especially about the tracks).

Besides the fact that it is your opinion I want, I can tell you that behind the scenes, all is discussed before posted . All events are carefully planned, and tested before any official announcement, by a group of dedicated staff members. We try to do it all together, so we can offer the best of the best.

Marco Bijl
regarding tracks, i will look into it and review. i am a bit biased. I'm an f1 fan but also a dreamer. i like to race sims which are believable. therefore the tracks and cars matching must be believable.
e.g. malaysia in a marussia is more believable than sebring in a marussia

Although the rest of your explanation is very valid indeed, and I understand the point, I do want to point out that we are looking for a compromise between real calender tracks, and drivers feeling.
To me, the last is more important. You need to FEEL you are there, and to me, it is better to FEEL I am at Sebring, then to just be at Malaysia.
That said, I do agree that Sebring is out of the question

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Cant wait for something formula and rf2, had a lot of fun with f2s in club races a while back and would seem like a good car to iron out teething problems with rf2, but haven't played much recently as practising for presto atm, so cant really comment on Marussia and what are best tracks currently.

 

[David Turnbull]

id also be up for this, preferrably with f2's at the moment, ive tried the marussia and my first impression was that i wasnt too keen, but i'll give them another go at some point and make a better informed decision, like sean im also putting alot of time into presto and havent played much rf2 but the f2's allow a bit more leeway with regards practise time, i found i could be upto speed in a couple of hours with them for the club races i did.

anyhoo lets get it on!

 

[Dino Paolini]

I'm also looking forward to this
I would slightly prefer the Marussia but I'm fine with both the discussed cars.

Some good tracks for these would be Bahrain (tested with F1), Fuji (f2), Sebring (f2) and presumably also Hockenheim and Imola.

 

[Andrew Ford]

I'm also looking forward to this
I would slightly prefer the Marussia but I'm fine with both the discussed cars.

Some good tracks for these would be Bahrain (tested with F1), Fuji (f2), Sebring (f2) and presumably also Hockenheim and Imola.

where can i get imola bahrain and hockenheim? sounds great

 

[Ian Franssen]

I'm also looking forward to this
I would slightly prefer the Marussia but I'm fine with both the discussed cars.

Some good tracks for these would be Bahrain (tested with F1), Fuji (f2), Sebring (f2) and presumably also Hockenheim and Imola.

Hockenheim and Imola are unfortunatly not possible to use because they are illegal conversions

 

[Ian Franssen]

I think the most interesting would be to use as much tracks which are used or been used in the past for F1.
So far the tracks we have or coming in the near future would be:
- Malaysia (ISI)
- Portugal (ISI)
- Silverstone (ISI)
- Bahrain (conversion from McNolo with premission from CTDP, think we should only ask if the current version can be used for RD)
- Melbourne 0.1 (Nibiru, conversion from GP4 with premission)
- Fuji (Ethone/VirtuaLM)
- Turkey (TWU)

I never tested if the Potugal Bahrain and Melbourne track have DRS, but I believe so. These are all wide tracks so suitable for racing the F1 cars, most of them are quality tracks with proper DRS function.
If we need more tracks than this I would say the following tracks would also be candidates for me, thinking they are proper tracks for F1 cars to have a fun race for everyone:
- Poznan (feel3 has posted he will probably add a DRS zone in the future)
- Mills metropark
- Essington Park
- Orchard lake
- Texas Motor Speedway
- Sebring
- Mid-Ohio
- Toban long
- Montreal (not sure about quality, never tested)

I don't have much experience with F2 so have no real suggestions for those tracks.

 

[Miroslav Davidovic]

As for the F1 Marussia I would only like to race on real F1 tracks as everything else doesn't make sense to me so I'll just make suggestions for the F2.
I wouldn't have enough time for preparation to race currently in a league with the F1 either.

The tracks I think would suit the F2 most:

• Poznan
• Sebring
• Mills Outer Loop B
• Mid Ohio
• Portugal GP
• Croft
• Heartland Park
• Palm Beach

The length and the width is of OK of all tracks for this car. Personally I don't like tracks where you lap over 1.40.xxx.
Every track has some cool overtaking spots (except Croft but this track needs you to be very precise, there are always such tracks in a season calendar)
Poznan is just stunning and really cool with the F2, turn 2 is a nice overtaking spot.
Sebring, not much to add, great track again, sunnset would be cool again.
Portugal GP is tricky as Mills B with the long left turn where you have to brake sensitive for the hairpin.
Croft and the F2 is awesome. Very tight, better no make no mistakes.
Heartland park has just a great flow in the car, very good racing also.
Palm Beach is the shortest track of them and also very tricky with this car with some long low speed corners ( rain?? ).

They look very good, all of the ISI tracks are very rich with details and the others just look stunning IMO.
I can also imagine the F2's driving on these tracks IRL except on Croft but the virtual combo is just too good.
Not much to add here, I like all these combos and I think it would be an awesome calendar.

 

[Miroslav Davidovic]

Just read Marcos post where he says to review just one track.
I thought I will do Mills outer B loop.

Some general thoughts.
Mills is very rich with details. The pitstop area, track side objects, basically the track is full of stuff everywhere.
Overall the track looks very good, i prefer to race in the early morning hours with Toschs noexposure HDR profile which I use on every track BTW. It looks just great, the trees, the color contrast, the track surface, just the hole atmosphere is very believable and is a joy to race in a openwheeler. The track has also kinda street circuit characteristics as the walls are near to the track on some places but on the other hand there are also some oldscool gravel traps where one can get just stuck without being able to move a meter forwards or backwards.

Running in to the first corner there we have the first opportunity for overtaking. Nothing tricky, a standard 1-2 gear corner after a long straight. After the next two right-left turns we have a tricky right turn. The tricky part is not the corner itself but the braking into the next lefthander. You have to be very sensitive on the brakes here as you still want to position the car on the right side to get the lefthander as fast as possible but the same time you are on the brakes. It's a mix between understeer and oversteer.
A long straight again which leads to a slow righthander with the next overtaking opportunity which leads us to the next tricky spot. The first gear left turn, very slow, a bit of a beech generally with this car. Not much feedback in slow corners.
On a long straight again we come to the win or loose corner on this circuit. Long braking zone while still turning into the slow lefthander. Very twitchy with a graveltrap on the outside witch cought me several times. The next few corners are pretty straight forward but still fun. Important again to get the last corner right to have a good exit for the long straight.

IMO a very challenging track. Requires a lot of concentration with this car. Some good overtaking opportunities are promising good racing.