rec.autos.simulators

Ed, I have a question that has recently been bothering me and now that
the sponsorship info has been delivered to us I am really wondering.  
I for one have not had a chance to get on the MP system yet.  The reason is
because I simply can't afford the phone bill from North Carolina to Boston.
I'm sure several other folks out there have the same problem as well.  Now
for my question.  Obviously several people have already tried out the system
and they have done so quite often.  What happens when it opens up with
local or 800 numbers so everyone can access?  Does everyone that has been
unable to connect during beta get snubbed when it comes to getting into the
elite NRL divisions??  I'm far from one of the best Nascar drivers but I am
good enough to be in the top ten of the hardest division of the NASS series.
Just because I can't afford a phone call to establish a high skill level am
I going to be looked over when it comes to creating leagues?  I know several
others are in the same boat that I am so I'm sure any answers would be greatly
appreciated.  

Kelby Cody

I was also wondering are we going to keep the same skill level when it
continues or will everyones go back to 0

As far as the NRL goes, everyone will be able to join.. whether you've
used the prototype or not.

As for skill levels, yes, the skill levels from the prototype will
carry over into the real service once complete.

Although I understand what you're saying, can you honestly say that
it's fair the other way?  I mean we've got people spending a lot of
their own money to help us perfect Hawaii & turn it into NRL.  It
seems to me the least we can do is to preserve their racing records.

Ed Martin
Producer, Series Director
NASCAR Racing League
Papyrus / Sierra On-Line, Inc.

Well iam one of those people i was hoping they were going to remain.  I
built my self should be a 10 anyday now but i would hate to lose all that
time and money.

Thanks for the replies.  I am not saying the guys that spent money should
be dropped back to 0.  That would be an awful thing to those that have spent
money playing and working on their ratings.  I am just hoping we all have an
equal opportunity to get into the top divisions??

Kelby Cody

 Believe me, you will have the opportunity.  :-)

Ed Martin
Producer, Series Director
NASCAR Racing League
Papyrus / Sierra On-Line, Inc.

I understand what you mean, so don't get me wrong.  However, as closed beta
tester I can tell you this...You could be the hottest driver with AI cars this
side of the mississippi, but driving online with real drivers and real idiots, it
takes hours of driving on different tracks to even think about joining an elite
league. Trust me on this..everyone who thought they were good before they joined,
generally gets humbled quickly.  So as to yourself in NRL..when you finally join
and start racing, if you are good enough, it doesn't take that long to get a
decent rating.  It's not like you'll have to be on for 8 months..the ratings are
currently reevaluated based on a rotating last 10 races..so it's quantity of
races, not length of time on the system.  It's my understanding that even that
will eventually be updated to change your rating(if it does change) after every
race.

KenH

Skill levels will be transferred over to any new system, if there is any
way for us to do so.  Rating systems work much better when you've got a
fairly accurate "pre-seeding", so we _want_ to keep existing ratings in any
transition of rating system or service provider.

Charlie Heath
Papyrus Design Group

Kelby -

Sorry, you will have to "pay your dues" to get your ranking up into the top
tiers, but if you're really as good as the top tier drivers, you can move
through the ranks pretty quickly.  We're planning the NRL tournament series
as quarterly events, so I'd guess worst case would be that you'd need to
work your way up the ranks for one quarter before you could qualify for a
higher tier.

The alternative would be that we would have to delay _all_ NRL series
racing until several months after we launch the service, since we would
need to establish a statistically valid set of ratings from ground zero
before we could set up racing tiers!

Keep up your single and two-player racing, and pay particular attention to
racing in traffic rather than learning how to trick the AI cars, and you
should be able to get your driving skill up to par for Hawaii driving.
Hope we'll see you on the service once we've figured out how to deliver
something to you at a reasonable cost ...

Charlie Heath
Papyrus Design Group

To expound on this, 17 percent of the drivers on Hawaii are Level 7 and
above. The average number of starts for a Level 7 driver is 94. If you are
good, you will move up more quickly than that. For example, it only took me
3 races to move from Level 8 to Level 9.

Dave "davids" Sparks
Sequoia Motorsports

You can be a skill 7 or 8 in less than 30 races. Your rating will be free while ours
will have cost several thousand dollars.

Chuck Stuart - Mesquite TX USA