What Do You Think About Dirty Driver and How To Deal With That?

@Horus

Yeah, I don't doubt there'll be some superb setups running AC, and assuming I can find something at a time I can regularly make I fully intend to get involved with my customary display of mediocrity. I just worry that we're going to see a whole load of newbies giving multiplayer sim racing a go for the first time and they're going to be thrown into a really hostile environment that's not representative of the full experience, and that the big long term sales advantage that Steam gives (AC will keep cropping up in sales for years, so should keep bringing in new punters, unlike Ye Olde Days) will be watered down for late joiners by a lack of open multiplayer servers.

Being all positive for a bit...

Two mega-simple things Kunos could do to help would be to provide us with a publicly visible (as in, no need to create a forum account) forum on which league admins and server hosts could advertise their offerings... then provide a link to it from with AC itself so players aren't left to their own devices. Looking down a list of locked servers is pretty disheartening, as are empty servers, and it's very easy for such systems to give the impression that multiplayer is dead (see rF2 for details). The dedicated server system means the community will become very fractured, so the more Kunos can do to help point them in the direction of the sort of thing they're after the better. Even something as apparently trivial as easy access to a forum post saying something like "Bobs' M3 Challenge - tomorrow at 8pm, 15 laps, Imola, PM me for a place" means the new guy's a way of knowing what to practice and when to show up, and isn't faced with the prospect of having to try and jump into combos they're not familiar with in order to get a race (which is potentially very daunting, and surefire way to increase risk all round).

Really? That wasn't (and isn't, resubbed whilst waiting for multiplayer to develop here) my experience on the road side. Ovals, yes, sure - stuffed to the gills with nutters - but not on road, especially if the fixed setup series are handled correctly (i.e. avoided like herpes). Yes, there's contact, yes there are mistakes, and yes my A4.5+ road license has been dented on a few occasions by really boneheaded moves (some of which were mine ), but the number of absolute nutters is pretty small and the level of "dirtiness" is fairly representative of the real thing.

 

Been on iRacing since the beta days and has gotten worse over time. Ran 5 races in the new Ruf and in two was crashed out on the pace lap . If you are one of the top 2 or 3 qualifiers it is not a problem but if you start in the middle where my skill level falls look out.

It doesn't help that Ice Racing is very slippery with a super sensitive damage model. I have never driven real race cars so can't comment on the level of grip being realistic but I do know that if you error on the side of a little too much grip the fast guys will still win and it can be more enjoyable for all.

AC is much easier to keep on the track at a normal pace which I think will make for much better online racing. On the limit AC is as difficult as any sim.

 

Am also mid-pack and, yeah, that's the dangerous bit. The lack of mandatory qualifying (or "no qualifying, just line up in iR order") just makes things far more dangerous - fast-slow-fast-slow grid order is stupid beyond belief in a sim, and how they came up with the system in question eludes me entirely. Then again, it comes from the minds who came up with the original grid order for multiclass, so I guess there are no depths of intellectual bankruptcy that can't be expected to be plumbed.

Also, with respect to iRacing and cleanliness, if you've been about since beta then you'll have either raced a good few 24 Heures du "Fun" or avoided them all like the plague. No league admin, no SR, and the result is absolute banger racing, every time, without fail

Regarding the ease of driving, I don't think it's actually all that relevant to cleanliness of racing on unmoderated open servers (which is all I'm on about in any of this) because a lot of that's about driver intent rather than car control. Stick me in something diabolical (say, iRs' DP when it was released) or extra-friendly (AC's Formula Abarth) and set me the task of coming back from the pub and ruining as many unmoderated open servers as I can and I'll do an equally good job in both.

 

Your examples are from non-hardcore sims or mostly arcade games.
I will play on Bierbuden Servers only as they have strict rules and keep banning nigga crasher.
Hate them

 

I have been playing Victory age of racing which is only MP really, most the racers are fair but a couple are rammers when ever they join a race I am in I just leave and join another race. If rammed in a race and the person wins I will send a message saying "that is a hollow victory or deep down you must feel like you really did not win by racing only by wrecking.

 

Comparing GRID series with things like GT is not too relevant... In sim-racing games (or semi-sims like F1 series or GT etc.) yes driving with responsibility is good. In GRID or GRID 2 I think I will just ram everyone in front of me, because it doesn't matter in an arcade game.

 

Thats a great shame to me. I've only been racing online since the day netKar Pro was released. Since then i've done thousands of races in netKar, LFS , rFactor and iRacing and can count the bad experiences on one hand. If you find the right groups/communities/sites to race it should be an overwhelmingly positive experience. If you jump into random, public servers then you will of course have a ****ty time.

 

Groups/communities will be the best place for respectful and friendly racing. For pick up races or randoms maybe a system to vote kick to kick out the wrecker is viable depending on how easy it is to vote and abuse resistant. Other than that all you can do is leave and find another server.

 

you don't know many people if you truly believe that. there's a lot of wrecker racers out there. some are just young, some are just jerks.

 

I played GT5 and GTR2 online with pickup races and you will always see wreckers and/or inexperienced drivers that will ruin races.

The best racing is in a league that has regular practices and races. You get to know the racers and people are much more careful.

Unfortunately, my busy schedule does not allow me time to join a league to meet at specific times on specific days so I am stuck with online pickup racing. For this I joined iRacing and it is the best for MP. It is not perfect, but much much much better than my experiences in GT5 and GTR2 online pickup races.

My plan:
Assetto Corsa for offline racing and league racing
iRacing for online pickup racing

win-win for moi!