rec.autos.simulators

I don't know why people whine about it. It's the same for everyone, so
unless you are really unlucky, your good driving will see your rating go up.

If you're a ***driver, then you're stuffed. Very realistic really!

Under the current system, good drivers advance and poor ones don't. So
what's the problem?

Depends what you mean by poor. People who can't keep a car on the
track will have trouble advancing, that's all. That's actually the
only time SR matters. Car to car contact happens little enough that
within a 12 week period, EVERYBODY should be able to counteract those
penalties.

Although unlikely, a group of players could decide to intentionally have
incidents with a targeted single player. The group would be distributing
the incident points between themselves, but the targeted player would be
getting all the incident points. Eventually a moderator could investigate
and stop this.

Since I don't rent iRacing, I don't know, but I would guess that most of
the poor driver incidents are going off track as opposed to accidents.

Also the standard for a "poor" driver apparently will increase quite a bit
in order to race in class A.

That might be pretty difficult. Although, like you say, possible.

They'd have to match his selection of what to race, match his iRating
and manage to be on track with him and hit him, while making it look
like they didn't intend to to avoid protest... Pretty tough.

Yes, most incidents are caused by off track. With regards to the
"rental" thing, have you read the EULA on any other titles installed
on your PC? ;) Reads very similar, you'll find.

Not sure what you mean in the last sentence, please expand?

Thanks,

Tim.

But with virtually all of the titles installed on my PC, I can
continue to play them after the publisher goes out of business -
although perhaps only in an offline single-player mode.  I'm afraid
this is not possible with iRacing.  I think that is what people mean
when they talk about "renting" iRacing.

Not legally. Most, if not all EULA's state that they are allowing you
to use their software in the manner they say - and they have the right
to change what they say at any time. Sure, nobody that I can recall
has actually done it, but the EULA (depending on what a judge says, as
always) could allow them to pull the plug quite easily.

I guess i just accepted this type of thing better, I played EVE-Online
for years and it's a similar type of development, launch, payment and
EULA.

Off-topic - EULA's are almost worthless in most states of the USA,
and completely worthless in the remaining states. In the USA,
a contract requires a witness or a signature.

Banks, the guys who handle the most money, accept an X in a text
field. Bank of America account creation requires nothing more than
that to be legally obligated.

However, I think this is one of the huge challenges of online racing: If
rFactor had a good way of evaluating an accident automatically, and it
could be enforced with flags, open online racing would appear very, very
differently.

If I wanted one single aspect of rFactor improved, it'd be the automatic
marshalling of races in a predictable and fair way. I don't think it'd
be very hard to do this, but the developpers need to know that there is
a need for it.

Maybe this is a task for the plug-in developpers to take on... It'd be
very interesting to put together a server-side plug-in that takes into
account aspects of general importance:
  - Velocity vectors, relative speeds and direction (is the driver
behind trying to avoid the car in front?
  - Braking patterns/behaviour just prior to the event (Is the car in
front trying to stop his car from rotating?)
  - Braking points based on statistics and comparison of actual braking
to statistics
  - Comparison of "stastic line" and "actual line"

It is not too tough to put together all this into a package, with the
possibilty adjust settings by way of a ini-file (so that you can create
setups for open racing, league racing etc etc)...

-A-

     If you think implementing this sort of stuff is easy then you're
kidding yourself.

    What if he (the trailing car) was hit by a car from behind himself. What
if the idiot in front hits the brakes for no known reason?

    What?

    Just rubbish.

    What?

    Yeah sure - it's all so simple. It's a wonder you haven't spent a half
hour or so doing it yourself!

    And the other thing here is that I'd rather have the cpu power dedicated
to a better sim than all this stuff. All you need is a well run league - the
only way to sim race properly. Everything else is just fun.

If you compare this chore with the chores of making hundreds of tracks,
the hundreds of cars like the online community have done with rFactor:
Yes, I would indeed say this sort of stuff is easy.

The velocity vector pattern and the braking pattern can uncover such a
situation. If the idiot in front hits his brakes, it would show when
comparing his "statistical" brake pattern with his discreet braking
pattern, and responsibility can be dished out accordingly.

Is monitoring braking patterns to determine degree of guilt a tough
thing to grasp for you? What is incomprehensible in that?

A well formulated argument, my friend. I see it all clear now, thanks to
your wit, your rhetoric skills and your genuine insight.

Typo there, I meant "statistic line" in comparison to "actual line".

So you think a half an hour project defines what I describe as an "easy"
chore? Where did I say that? I am so glad I don't have to work with
people like you; infinately impatient, pessimistic, pointing out
problems instead of pointing out possibilities.

I am sure you've never had one single good idea, but you're one heck of
a problems shooter. I know your kind. You may think I'm labelling you,
but I'm sorry: You display all the symptoms of that label. Who can blame
me for stating the obvious.

So you think CPU is maxed out on the dedicated servers? lol.

Your point about a well run league is fair, however. But I'm in a
situation where I'm not able to put in the time to do league racing, and
more importantly; not able to commit myself to it. I believe there are
many just like myself out there; thus making my point about a solution
in the racing incident responsibility department valid.

--A--

    Lighten up sweety.

    And if the "idiot" is maybe not an idiot and he is braking earlier for
any number of reasons like an incident ahead for example?

    What if his tyres go off, he has a puncture, some sort of damage,
(depending on the sim there could be oil/water down etc). Again, there can
be a zillion reasons for someone to brake in a manner different to previous
laps.

    See above - again, there can be a zillion reasons for inconsistency
here.

     And again, there can be a zillion reasons to alter ones line.

    I can just see someone who has spent countless hours over the course of
a season being dudded by a scenario that this "easy to put together"
software has hopelessly misinterpreted. I wouldn't go near a league with
that sort of stuff in a million years.

    Ok then, lets forge ahead oblivious to the horrendous problems! Lets
start a little software company called "*** the bugs you stinking
mongrels!"

    To bad you refuse to regognise the obvious when it comes to the
horrendous problems with what you propose.

    Well quite frankly, if you're not running in a league and you're simply
doing pickups then who really cares - iRacing should offer you more than
enough with their methods.