MULTIPLAYER Competition Server changes - 1.8.4

Interesting stuff, mainly the statistics

 

Sounds exciting. Wish I lived on the other side of the pond

 

I try 16.00h CP and all drivers lost connection when go out of pit (or something like that)
And also cars missed tires
18.00 was fine

 

I did the 15:00UTC/16:00CET slot today, I was in server 2/10

Practice, Quali and Race all went without a problem (although we did have a full formation lap, I thought the shorter format would have the short formation lap).

Personally though, I would love to have 1 or 2 of these races be longer than 30 minutes. The old format I always had more fun and enjoyment in the 1h races rather than the 45m.
I think longer races introduce more management skills into the picture.


TLDR: Love the new format for the bigger amount of races, but would love 1 or 2 time slots where we have a longer race (45m/60m)

 

Any hope of these changes coming to the NA servers? Is there any way to switch to EU?

 

Did 2 CP races back 2 back 17:00 CET CP4 and 18:00 CET CP5 and no freeze or crash.

 

I like also to have one race on the day 1h long.
Is good for training

 

May i suggest consider leaving CP races throughout whole day, not just in evenings (lot of people drive in EU region, sometimes from very differing timezones. Also should cover often more free time available in weekends. Very welcome part of changes), but return longer actual race times?

This sim is about endurance racing championship. Short races leave outside picture many important tactics like saving tires, being more careful to avoid repairs in beginning of race, pitstop strategies, in longer races weather can change (sometimes even twice) adding more challenges and making races more interesting. Frequent short races also imho is minor but nevertheless factor reducing cleanliness of driving, as people have less to loose, "died this time, no probs, will retry in next session soon". Short race time also makes way less desirable finishing race in case of any substantial damage, as pit visit time for repairs is too time consuming relative to (now) short race time.

There are many public servers around with race time of 20 or 30m already. Even of similar SA requirement. It seems waste to leave actual endurance racing only to portal events (that happen less often and have even higher chance of event time to not be acceptable for those of more distanced timezones, unlike CP, that covers broader time window). Why make CP almost same as public servers or simgrid daily races are?

There are many places where one can shave off time to enable more frequent CP race cycles, eg. cut registering time, eliminate free practice alltogether, reduce qualy time (already done), reduce wait time between FP-Q-R switch .. but i'd love to see old race times of 45 & 60m back. If CP will take some middle ground - eg. session every 1.5 hours, but with no FP but of old race times .. it looks to me as better compromise, that will make races more frequent then 2h cycle in past, but will retain endurance element. At very least, consider making CP races 45m long per current hourly sessions. Seeing race 30m long but with mandatory pits .. just way too unrealistic.

 

Unfortunately unable to edit previous post to not create another one, but also with such short races .. why still retain full formation lap? People should be able to heat up tires with brakes+accel even on partial formation, even more so that brake pad wear doesn't matter for such short races, and one can afford extra pad wear by overheating them to red for sake of tire temps. If no other suggested steps to lengthen race seem worth doing, like eliminating FP and upping race to 45m, or no FP and race 60m every 1.5h, then at least this as most minimal change. Saved time on formation lap can be added to register/qualy/session switch/setup times.

 

@churchx the 3 to 5 min free practice is the time to join the server. When qualy starts there are no more server joins possible, to prevent join lags. Therfor it is not possible to get rid of free practice completely.

 

I love the new hourly schedule. Something easy to keep in mind and shorter periods where I can race. Much more handy from time comsuming wait for register... fail... wait 2 more hours. Will test this today and report back.

But as the other stated - I think there should also be some longer races maybe once a week or in generel on the weekends?

 

That is the most disapointing change in ACC since early access. I am absolutely devastated that there will be no more longer races in the main slots. Since when is GT racing and ACC and CP racing about 30min sprints. What you have done there is make the CP races be open lobby full risk sprints. It will be a mess. Please, please, please give us at least the known race durations during the old timeslots. The newly added hourly sprints can be a nice addition during the rest of the day and will be regularly used.

I cannot understand why the devs would so drastically mess with a system that they clearly state works so well. I am shocked.

 

Another way for possibly making everybody happy might be somehow decoupling registration & full racing session times, eg. so that everybody still can register once per hour, but drive longer, even if it's past next session registration time, but i have high doubts if it can be easily implemented with how CP servers are scripted, and how registration is implemented in game client executables, as it sounds way above simple tweaks to race length on scripts handling/automating server side, also may increase hosting provider costs on server side, if it happens to double servers running count for those that just register + those that still get racing in for previous session

 

I am disapointed, too. I loved the 60 mins more. They could've changed the 45mins to 30min races and try to keep at least one 60min race each day on one slot in the evening - or something similar. But don't delete them all

 

I don't really know if I want to play this game with that short races... The 60min races was the most interesting of whole game. I don't have enough time to search and prepare for external league races and the CP was an alternative for that, now It's just a public with graduated ranks...

 

Don't get me wrong, I really like the fact that we have CP races now all day long, I will participate. BUT: I absolutely cannot understand why these 30min sprints are now the ONLY option of "high level multiplayer racing" in ACC. Kunos develops a high end simulation with a sophistocated tire model with tire wear and brake wear and refueling and tire changes and gradually changing weather and NONE of that is available to actually use on a simulation level in multiplayer without using a third party provider. We are all proud of calling ACC a simulation but now the "in game multiplayer content" is down to "game level". Which professional racing series in the world uses 30min races WITH a forced pitstop? The new 1.8 update is absolutely brilliant in terms of physics and performance improvements but at the same time the CP races go towards arcade racing. The difference to open lobby is just so small.
Compared to iRacing the new CP format resambles the very entry level series for the first steps in the licence process of iRacing. There are also hourly races. Come on, Kunos, most of your users are much better than that, give them some endgame content to challange us!
I know, one of the answers will be: join a league. I think I am not alone in the ACC fanbase who is not a teenager with a free schedule. I have a family, kids, a job etc. Simracing is not my first priority but I still love it very much. I cannot commit to a fixed schedule. That's what I loved about ACC that on a free evening I could join a "league level" race with all the things that this awesome Sim has to offer. I am still in server 1 every time, I am not slow.

I also do not understand what the logic of Kunos behind this decision is. They outline in detail how successful the old CP format was and then they change it completely. Why not add the hourly sprints during the times where there were no races so far and keep the well established and beloved format during the old hours?

 

I don't want be a negative guy here, but this imho is one of the worst decision ever about AC(C).
There was 2 formats which was a little strange (1 hour and 45mis... Was they so different?).
Now they are replaced by 30mins format.

Only 30mins race (correct me if i'm wrong).

Oh dear, to me the way to improove multy side was sooo easy just cutting off the 45mins format and replace it with the new 30mins. So we can have 1hour races (which are the standard format of real GTWC) and 30mins race. I really don't see a better and easiest solution to this.

Buh, sometimes things are so hard to understand (i'm talking about me, abviously), but ok, that's it.