Do any decent drivers still play public servers?

When MP first came out servers most of the time had a good amount of players in them and probably 1/3 of the time I'd have a good race where I'm at least racing against 1 person. Now though, it seems that somewhere in the region of 1/10 races I actually have someone to race against. I'm either miles ahead of everyone, get crashed off the track on the first corner (or everyone else does), am in a game with about 3 people (again, slower or not playing properly), half the players leave or everyone is 0 ping pre-booked. Is everyone in locked league servers or something? It seems to be at all times of the day as well.

 

Im decent in the way that i race clean, and that i have patience for practise and qualy. Even if my setup and testing is done i let everyone else use the time they need, and when i race i rather stay clean than win if i have to. And i can honestly tell you that public races are very very annoying. Yes, you can be lucky like in all games and meet cool people, but too often its the muppet show in there.

I also opened my server a bunch of times, and same there - sometimes really cool people, but also very often the same. Crashers, no patience at all: vote skip, vote skip, leave if not nr 1 in the race, half of the grid in pit doing nothing - for the whole race etc etc.

I must be lucky though - or i was a little ambitious in the beginning when i came to the forum. Made friends first week and now we are a gang of almost 10. And they are all really cool nice guys, and good drivers. All it took was reaching out in the forum and get some steam buddies and some steam voice chat on that. And we keep adding more and more people - snowball effect. Everybody knows someone. So what im trying to say is that we dont really need to go public even though we do for a laugh once in a while, and you guys can do the same. We are always open to more clean racer buddies preferably in europe for good ping. And no need to be pro. Thats what practise is for. We all share one thing in common though - we have a strong passion for AC and sims.

Sorry for wall of text and maybe a bit OT, but thats how i feel about it.

 

I'm starting to see more and more of what you mentioned Matty28

Nice to hear its working out better for you Alex72

 

Exactly! I forgot about the votes as well. Loads of votes to restart when most are still racing or skip sessions. I was hoping to not have to join a league or group or w/e to avoid any schedules or commitments but I think I might have to. I remember on Codemasters F1 games ususally there would be a couple of good racers in every race and another load to build the numbers up. Maybe that was because it was less of a simulator and on consoles so more players. If I miss the first corner carnage then I always had good races and even if I didn't it was fun to get through the field. I really can't comprehend those who spend £30 on a racing simulator to ruin the race for everyone on the first corner and then leave. It would be fascinating to look into their thought process.

 

some people are just not patient to learn, and most want to win
it is really strange, since at this point, there's nothing to be gained, no official medals/stats, .. so why can't people take it easy and learn is beyond me

 

Alex72 i might have been on your nordschleife server once and Snoopy was there too crashing on his own creation.

Ps end season vote with 2min quali left is so irritating I wouldnt mind eating that guys guts for dinner. Hope kunos updates this Friday so we can finish lap when counter hits the bottom.

 

Yeah i remember you. Good driver. Fast! Welcome back anytime buddy. Will open server tomorrow. Lots of good and fast guys coming. Will be passworded though. Drop me a PM tomorrow afternoon if you want to come. Will be running all evening/night. Some practise and some racing.

@Matty28 The best thing is that you dont have to start out with league. Personally i just posted in the steam friends thread and got like 70 people friended. Among them there were some gold nuggets (im sure they all are), but those i started come in contact with because we started to chat and go voice turned out to be super - like you almost always find out in the sim community. People that are into sims and hang around the scene (like in this forum for example) are usually mature and nice guys. So its not hard to find some people that you casually can hook up with and do some races/having fun with. Our group have no schedule, but it works out great anyway. Its so easy to host from your own pc as well that if you take a bit of initiative you can set it up and invite some people from the forum. That way you'll surely find some racing buddies in no time.

 

All good info Alex, Thanks

 

Wow lol. Yeah I think the type of person who doesn't play the game properly is not the type to make the effort with forums or groups etc. Any spaces left in your server tomorrow?

 

Im sure there will be space. Drop me a PM tomorrow and ill give you the pass.

 

I just found out about skip voting for the first time last night. A couple guys did a qualifying lap quickly and the voted next session leaving the reset of us wherever we were on the grid. Kind of annoying thinking you have ten minutes to only get an outlap and part of a real lap before its all over.

 

I still join random rooms from time to time in hopes of finding some random(s) that is competitive. Otherwise even if it turns into a hop lap, I still treat it as I've got to maintain pace and not mess up as that might just cost me a race.

 

Just a thumbs up to @alex72. I joined his server once at Nords after an invite, and would visit again. If only I get to remember the track better... and also get better pings so as not to ruin their race

 

Public servers for me have been hit or miss. Today i had one race where this guy ran me off the road 5 times in the first lap. Then I change servers and 3 close races with drivers that drove clean.

 

I havent raced that many races online yet, but most of the time I've been lucky. I honestly thought it would be far worse, but Ive had some really good GT chases as well as one very nice F312T race, which was highly unexpected.

 

Yesterday practice done, was fun tho.
Quali and they vote directly - nobody lapped and race was a mess.

Drove yesterday against Andy Go GT3 Imola, damn this guy is really that fast even in the race.
Niki D. also very fast, sadly my setup didnt saved and lost a few seconds per lap on silver internationel.
Alex is a place free?
Need some enemies, i drive only with abs

Gesendet von meinem HTC One mit Tapatalk

 

Interesting to hear. A couple of times I've got into a good race with one guy and he crashes after a few laps. I slow down so he can catch up and then they rage quit

 

I hate when that happens! Tho I've had atleast two races where I waited and we both continued to race through to the chequered flag. I don't remember their names (I think one of them was named "Ash"-something or the other), but kudos (or should I say Kunos) to those who stay for the thrill of the chase and race.

 

I drive only public servers and only 3 types of car.
I am sure that if the race distances were lengthened (they are just frantic sprints at the moment) the better drivers would return.
For a start the longer the distance, the easier it is to recover from the 1st lap mayhem and the griefers would lose interest.
At present quite often better drivers rage quit at the first corner because they see no way back into the race.
Good luck to you guys who are making your own private world - but I like driving when I feel the urge and so must stick to public servers (thanks to those server admins!!)
And anyway, having been a member of an rfactor clan a while back - it is not all rosy and clean in the league scene. ( cynical shunts, setup scrounging etc)

 

Come join my server, its up most nights, (just finished building our 24hr server, it will be up once the linux server protcols get updated ) its called www.TheAutomotiveMayhem.com
I can only vouch for the TAM members, there will be randoms in there as well when the server is public but feel free to drop in, we always race clean and when someone does make a mistake they will wait for you, and usually call for a pace car.