So, we do not want to go so far that weather for each session would be quite unpredictable (let's say weather forecasts would be 80% correct)?
I think what has been argued is that it creates a problem if we are told that there is an 80% chance of a wet race, in particular if this is told us 24 hours before the race. I think it is vital for PrestoGP that only practicing in dry can be considered a good preperation strategy.
If we are told a week, or 24 hours before the race, that there is a 30% chance of wet, there is consequently a 70% chance of dry, and you would not be disadvantaged if you can't make up more time for practice/preperation.
My personal favorite would be that the weather for each race would be as close to real weather in certain location (dry&hot@Bahrain, cold&rainy@Silverstone) as possible, and that weather forecasts would mostly be correct, but could sometimes go wrong (like in real life).
My impression is that this is what we have today. Not the "real time weather" but rather the typical weather for the location and season (simpler for Daniel).
I would also like to brake the rule that practice and race weathers should be the same, as this is not the case in real world either.
I am unsure if you are talking about weather and/or temperatur. So far the temperature have been 20 degrees on everything at all times, while there have been no connection between the weather in the race and the weather on practice servers (as I am the one that open the servers and have no idea what the race-weather will be like beyond the forecast)
However, there are effective and easy-to-use means to stop smoking, such as using lower revs for the rest of the race.
I agree it could be done, but would one do it? Considering/assuming smoking starts early in the race with wrong radiator settings I am afraid that many of our drivers would quit to garage instead of racing almost the whole race with reduced throttle and a constant focus on not smoking for others. In reality however, I believe we would end up agreeing either in the forum or in the chat before the race, on what radiator setting we need, and this way avoid smokers.
Would it be difficult to create let's say five weather files with different combinations of temperatures and wet/dry conditions, and use those in all the servers we use?
The dedicated server is limited to one weather file at the time. In other words, all servers must use same weather file or default weather.
My suggestion: ...is to have only have 1 forecast 1 week before the race. This way one can argue that everything is realistic, as it should be very hard for a forecaster to predict that rain will hit a particular place a particular time one week in the future with a certainty higher than 30-35% (unless we are in Monsoon-land or something )
Edit: It is also important to consider that the situation is very different in the front of the grid and further back. The front of the grid get quickly up to pace and competitiveness. For those further back, including me, it is more a question of getting enough practice to become competitive. If we make changes that reward more practice we will see the general gap/spread in our league increase.