rec.autos.simulators

snip

Sage racing advice!
VERY good Mark... 8-)

G. Patricks

<...>

Maybe some people were using it as an excuse, sure, but in Q2, there
definitely was an advantage to a low ping. Put simply, with a low
ping, by the time you see the lpb, he's already seen you (and fired).
There is no way around it; having played both sides, there simply is a
big advantage to low ping.

But in GPL, I don't see the problem. It is simply more of a nuisance
to have low ping, because of warping and instability for the other
drivers.

Good points.

It is of course easier just to complain about it!

In GPL you personally do not suffer from a poor latency since you race
on your own system. The only way you will suffer is in the way your
latency interacts with someone else - i.e. they go for a gap that you
are already in, but they don't know it because of the warp. In that
case you both suffer. Low ping is a barrier to good racing, not fast
laptimes. Several times I've been frightened to pass someone because
they're warping so badly the risk is too much, and I've seen others
nervous about passing me for the same reason.

Cheers!
John

also played both sides I disagree. Playing as an LPB you may

Hi John,
              Well I never complain about LPB's in fact it is just a game.
But I find it hard to grasp what your saying here as I have played Q2 for
quite sometime now and find low ping to be advantage. But rather than mere
speculation or talk of algorithm's? :-) Perhaps you will just show me this?
I will host a game you will join standard death match no grappling etc.
Just standard deathmatch or rocket arena. Im sure your ping will be high
mine will be low. You use your prediction skills I will use my low ping.
What do you say? :-) 2 out of 3? or.................?
Cya,
         Mike

We simply disagree.

I don't think I've actually ever complained about it online. Mostly
what I complained about was the tendency of people playing CTF to join
whichever side was winning. Only about one out of 10 games was ever
very well balanced. I guess there were mods that avoided this... but
just finding CTF servers with low enough ping was usually a struggle.

Anyway, I don't play Q2 anymore since GPL online came along...

<...>

This is always the case, even with people with fairly low latencies I
think. Online racing is more about who is consistent than who is the
craftier dicer. I never try a pass unless it is a straight-away, or if
I know that I can outbrake someone at the end of a straightaway
without moving in on their line too quickly. And I basically don't
block, particularly if the other guy has demonstrated such respect. I
just take the best line, and if he can pass me with the second best
line, then more power to him. There is no doubt, though, that you can
wreak havoc with a guy's driving psychologically, by just being very
close behind him (but not touching him)- and that is a large part of
online GPL IMO.

The absolute worst thing about online racing (besides professional
starts with people who didn't just spend the last 40 minutes
qualifying!) is to be racing someone hard when they dissappear for a
second or two. Invariably, you have to let off the gas, because in a
number of occasions the reappear in my space or in some other equally
disastrous place. And this certainly has a lot or everything to do
with latency.

In the days when I used to play Quake a lot I'd have been glad to, but
these days I play once in a blue moon (and I use ISDN these days
anyway). You can still have a demonstration though - just search
Gamespy for Pants_McNailz and join the same game...

Hosting a game goes even beyond LPB - sort of a NPB :-)

Cheers!
John

Why lift? If you lift they're gone, if you don't you're still in with
a shout. I'd just keep my foot in and hope for the best - either way
you might hit them (and the guy behind will get a big fright when you
lift on him on a straight!).

Cheers!
John

today I start to train.
With my system and location I have the best chances.

P200 no MMX
voodoo I
Joystick
Living in Malaysia

;-)

See you
Jens

BTW: I'm not the fastest, but the funniest on the track

I was in a race at Monza a couple of nites ago. I accelerated from the start
clean down the right side from somewhere mid-pack. Started drifting left a
little under power, lifted and went back to the edge. Next thing I know,
some Coventry I'd passed a second before slams into my left rear, shearing
off the tire. Then the driver of said Coventry starts calling me names, and
implying that I deliberately took him out (why I'd need to do that when I
was already blowing past him down the straight is a question that don't need
answering).

Upon review of the film, it was clear that I never touched him - not even
close. But watching his car showed what appeared to be something striking
him from the *direction* I had been coming from. That is, it looked like his
front end interpolated my motion prior to correcting my drift and decided
that I would strike him a half second later, and then produced a collision
on his front end. Probably on his front end, it looked like I deliberately
swerved into him.

So if someone says they didn't try to take you out, it's probably best to
give them the benefit of the doubt. If when asked about a questionable
collision, they come back with a reply of "that's racing" or "tough crap",
then I guess it's open season.

And for that first half lap, it's especially important to take it easy since
cars are in such close proximity.

    -MSM

I love pro races... except for the first lap. When you've qualified
for 25 or 40 minutes and then immediately get hit by some person who
probably didn't even do one practice lap, doesn't know there is no
shift-R, and feels that a race is won or lost in the first 10
seconds... you aren't too happy. But I won a pro race last night, and
it was a lot more satisfying than the intermediate one I won at the
same track just before it.

I thought these are quite apt, if hilarious- thanks for the
observations:

The key thing people seem to forget on that first lap is that cold
tires and heavy fuel mean you really don't know where to brake. On
that lap I worry far more about the guy behind me, thinking he can
make his usualy brake markers, taking me out that the fellow in front.

--
Wolfgang Preiss   \ E-mail copies of replies to this posting are welcome.