Sim Discussion Monday - RaceRoom Racing Experience

[Paul Jeffrey]

Another working week on the horizon and to lighten the mood (probably), let's have ourselves a discussion about RaceRoom Racing Experience..

The sim with the silly name, RaceRoom Racing Experience has plenty of licenced racing content to offer players who can navigate their way through the occasionally confusing pricing and store structure.

If you do manage to find you way into the game itself then you are rewarded by a product that has come on leaps and bounds in recent years. With plenty of officially licenced racing series to be found (no road car nonsense here), a very robust and varied selection of greater and lesser known circuits and easily the best audio experience in the sim racing marketplace, RaceRoom and Sector3 Studios have pulled together a very compelling product for sim racers to enjoy.

With all that said, the core game experience does still lack in several fundamental areas before it can genuinely be considered a true racing simulation, to be frank that same accusation can be levelled at pretty much all the current crop of sims to varying degrees, and what it does it does very well indeed.

So in the spirit of sharing our collective experiences and knowledge can our community let us all know what we like / don't like about the sim, share any useful tips to get the most from the title, let us know what you'd like to see in the future and just generally shoot the breeze for a day or two about Sector3 Studios current racing simulation..


Mondays be like...

Image credits: M-Bimmer and TheReaper GT

 

[Nick Hill]

Also curious ;-)

What's in beta is tire compounds. Going to have to clean up the test team again I guess. Someone can't even leak stuff right...

Not that long ago, I wouldn't have believed I would be saying this, but tire compounds are a WAY more compelling addition to the sim than pressures/temps.

As I said in more detail over on the Sector3 forums (https://forum.sector3studios.com/in...you-drive-multiplayer.8624/page-5#post-126279), I've taken the time to "master" setting pressures in both AC and AMS. It's an absolute thrill the first few time you do it as you watch your laptimes drop massively...by the 4th or 5th time, it's a mundane clicking exercise.

(By the way, I still love AC and AMS - don't take my comment above as a critique of those sims...take it as a statement of personal opinion that being able to dial in correct tire pressures is routine to the point of boredom once you have it down)

Personally, I would rather just have everyone in an online race automagically running "ideal" pressures to level the playing field (and in my opinion, this is actually *more* realistic, as in real life in high-level racing, most drivers have very little knowledge/opinion on tire pressures/temps - they are counting on their engineers to do their jobs).

Many sim racers (in my experience, even ones who purport to have mastered more complex chassis setup options) lack either the knowledge or motivation to mess with pressures. I think you can make a case for permanently leaving them out - let's race (and let the advanced guys tinker with more interesting/subjective setup options if they want).

 

[Christian Moreau]

Not that long ago, I wouldn't have believed I would be saying this, but tire compounds are a WAY more compelling addition to the sim than pressures/temps.

As I said in more detail over on the Sector3 forums (https://forum.sector3studios.com/in...you-drive-multiplayer.8624/page-5#post-126279), I've taken the time to "master" setting pressures in both AC and AMS. It's an absolute thrill the first few time you do it as you watch your laptimes drop massively...by the 4th or 5th time, it's a mundane clicking exercise.

(By the way, I still love AC and AMS - don't take my comment above as a critique of those sims...take it as a statement of personal opinion that being able to dial in correct tire pressures is routine to the point of boredom once you have it down)

Personally, I would rather just have everyone in an online race automagically running "ideal" pressures to level the playing field (and in my opinion, this is actually *more* realistic, as in real life in high-level racing, most drivers have very little knowledge/opinion on tire pressures/temps - they are counting on their engineers to do their jobs).

Many sim racers (in my experience, even ones who purport to have mastered more complex chassis setup options) lack either the knowledge or motivation to mess with pressures. I think you can make a case for permanently leaving them out - let's race (and let the advanced guys tinker with more interesting/subjective setup options if they want).

I agree. As nice as tyre pressures are for fine tuning, tyre compounds are what really makes race strategy interesting and where you see drivers try various stint lengths and perhaps steal a few positions up the order using a more conservative strategy. Should spice things up nicely in longer races.

 

[protonv5]

Not that long ago, I wouldn't have believed I would be saying this, but tire compounds are a WAY more compelling addition to the sim than pressures/temps.

As I said in more detail over on the Sector3 forums (https://forum.sector3studios.com/in...you-drive-multiplayer.8624/page-5#post-126279), I've taken the time to "master" setting pressures in both AC and AMS. It's an absolute thrill the first few time you do it as you watch your laptimes drop massively...by the 4th or 5th time, it's a mundane clicking exercise.

(By the way, I still love AC and AMS - don't take my comment above as a critique of those sims...take it as a statement of personal opinion that being able to dial in correct tire pressures is routine to the point of boredom once you have it down)

Personally, I would rather just have everyone in an online race automagically running "ideal" pressures to level the playing field (and in my opinion, this is actually *more* realistic, as in real life in high-level racing, most drivers have very little knowledge/opinion on tire pressures/temps - they are counting on their engineers to do their jobs).

Many sim racers (in my experience, even ones who purport to have mastered more complex chassis setup options) lack either the knowledge or motivation to mess with pressures. I think you can make a case for permanently leaving them out - let's race (and let the advanced guys tinker with more interesting/subjective setup options if they want).

I absolutely agree completely with your comment here. I too have felt this exact same way and have been very frustrated with where this leaves sims like RR and Assetto because they rely on this 'hidden' feature/functionality to make the game more challenging. (?). Seems absurd to me. And it's quite unfortunate because so many come into an online session and don't stand a chance of getting around a track when they're racing against top guys that have found the 'secret settings'. On top of this there is no ranking system so no matter what race they join, chances are they will get slaughtered and just quit out. I see this all the time. What a waste. Once I fiddled with settings and did my laps, I quickly realized that it's kind of a waste of time. I get in a multiplayer race, got my car setup, going pretty well, and I get rammed off the track. So it's like, what's the point? Then I feel bad for the noobs that can't even get around the track. Sheesh. I just think the cars should work out of the box and have very good settings and good grip and races should be listed based on their challenge: Amateur, Advanced, Pro etc. This way people can choose. Anyway, I know it's open for huge debate, but it's strange that online racing should be the most fun part of your day. It's a game! But most of the time it's so frustrating that it's no fun at all. Developers: Fix this!
Not only this. But as I've also said before, in a sim like Assetto I need to run softs or super softs in order to compete. Makes no sense. Who in GT3 runs softs on a hot afternoon? Yet, in the sim this is your only option. Or you lose. How is this real?

 

[apex11]

You've touched on the "secret settings" that people find and unlock over the default settings and they can then become so much faster and better in LB's and online. I've often wondered whether this is why some folks are very vocal about sims being 'arcade' if they display any grip at all, because clearly race rubber is extremely good at what its meant to do and in no way is it developed to be grip less, ok some series ask to develop a tyre with some built in give but they still are not asked to develop a tyre that is like ice on ice.
But i digress so people like to have these games with ice tyres as default so they can then set about manipulating the settings themselves and then finding grip within the tyre model and settings even to the point of finding out how to break the system... then they are ahead with actual grip whilst others struggle with defaults etc..
I remember Forza being like this and when you downloaded someones 'grip set up' you suddenly had access to a car that did what it was supposed to....grip the road...

I guarantee anyone of these people who say sim games with actual grip are arcade, I bet the first thing they do is find out the optimum set ups to actually get grip from the cars....