"Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!"
The standing "Grand Prix" start in GPL might be accurate, but in
online games over the Internet it leads almost inevitably to big
crashes. There seems to be no way of getting the race going without
being hit at least once by someone, which may be caused by driving
errors and/or warping.
All drivers and many spectators being killed in the first corner is
luckily not historically correct, so we should find a solution that
permits us to get a race going without a massacre.
So, last night, I proposed an "Indianapolis Start" on some VROC races
(AFAIR hosted by G.Stone (Silverstone), B.Myers (Spa) and T.Pod
(Monaco). TNX, guys! )
This would mean, that after the green flag, the whole field would
start slowly and carefully, with the pole-sitter leading a warm-up lap
at maybe 70% speed. All others follow in the grid order, without
overtaking or even getting too close to each other. Actions like
burnouts, heavy braking or other behaviour to warm up the tyres or
annoy the others behind or in front should be avoided - and especially
collisions, even those caused by warping.
The "real" start would then be at the end of this "warm-up lap", with
overtaking being allowed after crossing the start-finish line, not
before.
The leader should slow down before the last corner to give the field a
chance to close up, and then at the exit of the last corner he would
have an advantage in the drag race down the start-finish straight.
Yet, if someone gets a much better acceleration, this might give him
the chance to overtake (after start-finish line only!) or outbrake the
car in front into the first corner, similar to a standing start.
If this start would be exercised properly, it would IMHO give a much
more realistic race, with many advantages:
- warm tyres
- the whole field is ordered according to qualifying times, the top
qualifier is rewarded with a save lead, the slow ones are forced to
stay behind
- even the last car could have a nice view from La Source, watching
the stretched-out field speeding down the straight and up Eau Rouge
like a string of pearls
- it's an exercise in patience and sportsmanship
- mistakes, like spinning while accelerating, can be easier spotted,
and the evil-doers and over-ambitious drivers can get identified
easier
- the race is not decided in the first corner, all drivers have the
chance to compete, according to qualifying, with a slightly faster guy
in front and a presumably slower one behind, rather than winding up
somewhere after recovering from the start pile-ups
Very important is that an Indy start has to be announced early in the
chat, making sure that everyone knows about it and will respect it.
Discussing it 30sec before the start is too late.
Maybe the host should announce it in his VROC comment.
Opinions?
BTW: I did even a Le Mans start: Not showing up at the grid, then
after the race is on, it's possible to start from the pit lane. But
instead of speeding down the pit lane, Shift-R puts the car out on the
track, which is somewhat similar to the drivers running across the
track and climbing into their cars.
Might be fun to try that online, the different latencies and reaction
times (waiting for the green button to show up, then hitting it with
the mouse, then Shift-R, then shifting into first, plus probably
different loading times on different computers) should lead to
slightly different times the cars show up at the right side of the
track.
Here, they are lined up one after another, in pit lane order rather
than qualifying order. This might make it more likely to avoid crashes
compared to the close-packed GP standing start with cars standing in
lines next to each other.
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I 500\_____ 1977' Yamaha XT.Rex 500 Enduro
\____/\__I_I http://www.racesimcentral.net/