Suggestions for future Rally Events

Warren Dawes

Premium
As advised in the French Seasons Rally thread, we would appreciate any feedback or suggestions for future Events. The Club Events have a small core of loyal supporters, but frankly, we are struggling to survive long term at this level. Each week we seem to get a couple of new drivers, only to lose a couple more.
So this is aimed mainly at those who currently join these RBR Club Rally's, or those who would seriously consider joining.

As a starter, any thoughts about the cars used, the weather used, the track surfaces. We have tried to use the default stages rather than BTB addons at this stage, mainly to keep it simpler for newer drivers. Similarly we have opted for default track surfaces (mostly). Weather conditions have been varied to keep it interesting and challenging, maybe we should keep it easier for a while????
For car classes, we have tried to stay with the traditional 4WD Rally Cars, mostly WRC cars. For the last event, we used the S2000 cars, still 4WD but a little less powerful. Some of us liked them a lot, would you like to see them used again next Rally, but on a gravel surface such as Australia?
Finally, are events too frequent, not frequent enough, they are currently each second wednesday?

I'd rather keep this thread constructive and focussed on the actual Rally design, so please don't use it to rant about any installation or game problems. I am doing as much as I can to provide tutorials elsewhere, and will try my best to help, but post those issues elsewhere in this forum.
 
As a noob, who is acclimatising, I would probably appreciate being able to run the same cars next rally (to give me more time to get used to them). As for stages - Australia as you suggested sounds like a good choice. I wouldn't mind snow stages again either. I struggle with the fog to be honest (not knowing the stages much meant creeping around and sticking my nose on the screen :D).

Frequency sounds good at every other Wednesday. I run the RDV8SC, so this fits in nicely.

After the next round, I would definitely like to explore other cars as well :D.
 
Just on the cars subject, I'd like to add that I have tested each car in the N4_S2000_1 class, and they are all very similar in performance and handling, so drivers should be able to try different cars in this class and feel at home.
 
Every second week works well for me too and I definitely think another round with these cars would be great fun. To mix surfaces a bit, you could run a gravel rally (like Oz) but with snow over the middle stages. Think of it like climbing up through the mountains, over the top and back down again.
Night stages are always entertaining, changing the light over the course of a rally could be interesting too, though I seem to remember we had problems with the 'Dusk' setting in the past. I'll have to check and see if it's been fixed.
 
I'd rather keep this thread constructive and focussed on the actual Rally design, so please don't use it to rant about any installation or game problems. I am doing as much as I can to provide tutorials elsewhere, and will try my best to help, but post those issues elsewhere in this forum.

Is that aimed at me by any chance :p hehehe

As a newbie I honestly dont mind what happens but I have tried the FWD cars and didnt find it very enjoyable so I would rather not use those and stick to the 4WD. I then tried the M3 and that was crazy!! I couldnt keep it in a straight line!

I would love to see the same cars used for a gravel surface as I tried the Lada out on gravel and it felt really great :)

I would be really happy to see a rally every week but wouldnt want to wait longer than 2 weeks to get my fill of the rally events :) As I have said before you will see alot more from me, I aint going anywhere! I will also try and get a couple of existing RD members to join in who I know have the game they just dont use it.

As for the weather I dont know how rain would affect a gravel stage as I havnt yet tried the different weather conditions until last night but I am guessing rain would affect gravel in a different way to the tarmac. So Im happy to try what ever is thrown at me, Nothing can be as bad as the final stage last night :tongue:

And on to your point of keeping it easier again, I found last night pretty tough so how much harder does it get? :eek: Although, liek Mark, I wasnt in the best shape for the event last night, I almost didnt join as I had been totally overworked and fell asleep for an hour before the event start. I should have been using that time to practice a bit more :)

How many regulars are there btw? I am used to racing with small amounts of drivers as the other community that i raced with for the last few years didnt have alot of participents so i feel quite at home here!!! But yes, it would be great to see larger grids (can i call it that in rallying..?)
 
Is that aimed at me by any chance :p hehehe

Not at all Mark.
However, I'm well aware of some people who have expressed frustration at not being able to get RBR or RSRBR running correctly, and I just didn't want to confuse this thread with more of that.

As for the weather I dont know how rain would affect a gravel stage as I havnt yet tried the different weather conditions until last night but I am guessing rain would affect gravel in a different way to the tarmac. So Im happy to try what ever is thrown at me, Nothing can be as bad as the final stage last night :tongue:
....And on to your point of keeping it easier again, I found last night pretty tough so how much harder does it get? :eek:

Unfortunately, the last stage of the French Seasons turned out much more difficult than I planned, I tested it off-line but they seem to end up different on-line. They don't come much harder than that one. Sorry about that.
The rain and gravel is quite different, and it can add a lot once you get more experienced with RBR, but maybe we should aim for a lower level of difficulty until most of us get some Rally's under our belt. Try some off-line anyway and see what you think, but as I said, I'm finding big differences between off-line and on-line, don't know why. Often, the on-line has more grip in poor weather, but certainly not last night.

How many regulars are there btw?

We probably have about 12 or so drivers who have joined Rally's over the past couple of months, but on average we are getting about 6 to 8 for each Rally. I could live with that if that number was reliable, but the last two Rally's, we have had about 3 confirmed sign-ups with a day to go, resulting in me nearly cancelling the event. We even had to reschedule the previous Rally due to only a couple of entries.
TBH, a reliable group of about 10 to 12 each Rally would be ideal, if it gets too large the workload to compile results gets huge. I have to go through a tortuous process to get all the results from the server and then compile everything into one set of overall results. I do it manually because the Server doesn't provide what we need. If the numbers grew beyond about 15 to 20, I'd probably go bananas trying to pull it all together. :wink:
 
Here’s my comments:

Cars:
I would love drive the S2000 once more, one other idea would be a group N battle between Mitsubishi and Subaru.

Tracks:
I really would like us to use the BTB track sometimes; installing shouldn’t be more difficult than installing a car-pack. But I don’t know if there are any problems with BTB stages online.
Maybe some test rallies?
I don’t think that the stages are to difficult, maybe with exception of the change from dry tarmac to bad Monte Carlo in the last rally :confused:
Rally is all about not going to fast:smile:

Dates:
I would be nice to have a rally each week (so you don’t have to wait 4 weeks for the next event) but 8-10 starters aren’t enough for that.
I try to join when ever I can.

Thanks for organizing this Warren:thumbup:
 
We probably have about 12 or so drivers who have joined Rally's over the past couple of months, but on average we are getting about 6 to 8 for each Rally. I could live with that if that number was reliable, but the last two Rally's, we have had about 3 confirmed sign-ups with a day to go, resulting in me nearly cancelling the event. We even had to reschedule the previous Rally due to only a couple of entries.
TBH, a reliable group of about 10 to 12 each Rally would be ideal, if it gets too large the workload to compile results gets huge. I have to go through a tortuous process to get all the results from the server and then compile everything into one set of overall results. I do it manually because the Server doesn't provide what we need. If the numbers grew beyond about 15 to 20, I'd probably go bananas trying to pull it all together. :wink:

I have convinced my friend to join RD who ownes RBR and a wheel etc he just doesnt compete online in any races. But he has plenty of practice round my house and is pretty good so thats 1 more regular that will join in :)

I really appreciate the effort you put in and I have seen in the past how frustrating it can be for the admin staff who put in their time and effort into a league/event and dont see the following it deserves. I was in a league with 20 sign ups and only 5 or so people were turning up so the guy running it all just quit, never to be seen again!! So I dont wanna see that happen here :)

And I agree with Tomas, if there isnt enough people to warrant an event every week then every 2 weeks is great :)

Back to the cars, I would definately want to see the same cars as last week on the next event, i tried the WRC cars last night on one of the French stages and wow they are fast!! Crash crash crash was about all that happened for half an hour or so!!
 
I have convinced my friend to join RD who ownes RBR and a wheel etc he just doesnt compete online in any races. But he has plenty of practice round my house and is pretty good so thats 1 more regular that will join in :)

Good news Mark, sign him up.

Back to the cars, I would definately want to see the same cars as last week on the next event, i tried the WRC cars last night on one of the French stages and wow they are fast!! Crash crash crash was about all that happened for half an hour or so!!

Try the WRC cars on the other Countries, especially gravel and snow, they are much more suited to these, France is pretty tight and twisty. Once you get used to the WRC cars, they are great on gravel.

Looks like a vote to keep the S2000 cars for the next one, I think they will be great on gravel. I'll certainly have a look at the Group N cars for the future too.
 
Thanks for the feedback so far guys, very much appreciated. Keep any ideas coming.

Since we have a few newer guys who are keen for more experience, I thought I'd post another Rally for next week, Wednesday 31st March, using the same N4_S2000_1 class cars, and driving the 8 Stages of Australia, with all good day conditions. This would be good practice in the less powerful 4WD cars, and with clear weather you can get to know the tracks / stages better. It would also let you get more familiar with the game, and you could practice / prepare more easily if you want.

I'll organise it within the next 24 hours, so if you have any friends who are keen on some Rally action, invite them along.


Tomas, I have had a look through the available car classes, but I can't find a group that includes both Group N Mitsubishi and Subaru together. We have N4_1 which has the Lancer's, or the N4_2 with the Impreza's. The best way to get both available might be to use one of the earlier A8W cars such as A8W-01, A8W-02, A8W-05, or A8W-06. That way we could ask everyone to chopose either Lancer or Imprezza from the selection menu. Would that be ok, or did you have another class in mind?
 
Tomas, I have had a look through the available car classes, but I can't find a group that includes both Group N Mitsubishi and Subaru together. We have N4_1 which has the Lancer's, or the N4_2 with the Impreza's. The best way to get both available might be to use one of the earlier A8W cars such as A8W-01, A8W-02, A8W-05, or A8W-06. That way we could ask everyone to chopose either Lancer or Imprezza from the selection menu. Would that be ok, or did you have another class in mind?

I didn't check that but you could allow all cars and then we are instructed to use only Subaru N12 (N4_2) or Mitsubishi Evo 9 (N4_1)
 
Don't choose any pack at all, it works :smile:

You are right, it DOES work. :thumbup: I learned something new. :biggrin:

I ran a test over a couple of England stages (On-Line), and sure enough you can select any car / class. So we can certainly run a Group N Challenge as you suggest.
The idea looks good too, these cars were really nice, good models, good interiors and driving views, great sounds, and nicely balanced to drive. Both the EVO 9 and the IMPREZA were very closely matched too. These would make a good step up for everyone towards the WRC cars, but lacking the beastly power of the WRC cars.

Looks good Tomas, this could be our next Rally, and since it is your idea, do you have any Stages or Countries in mind? We could ask drivers to nominate which Team they want to drive for (Mitsubishi or Subaru) at sign up so that we might get an even balance. Any more ideas for this Rally Tomas?
 
What do you say about simulating an old RAC rally, England stages with some fog and rain and maybe one stage in snow too.:wink:
To avoid duplicate stages we could add some Finnish stages in gravel-mod.
Could be a very hard rally, feel free to make it easier if you want.
I would also be nice to include the BTB stage Sweet Lamb.
 
The old style RAC sounds good but I'd like to see BRAND new stages used WITHOUT pacemotes. The RAC only started using notes in 91. Blind brand new stages would really even things up;)

How much detail do peo[le want in these stages? You can create a drivable stage pretty quickly with BTB, but with low detail and not much scenery past the drivable terrain and no notes. just a thought.
 

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