rec.autos.simulators

A message to Nick Jensen's On-Line F1RS racing:

My feeling concerning this issue, though not a popular one, is that
the use of driver aids is intended for lamers.

I have two 12-year old nephews who insisted on playing Quake with "god
mode" turned on (complete invulnerability).  I asked them what the
point of even playing the game was, since no challenge existed.
They had no answer.  I explained to them that they should play the
game with all help modes turned off so that they could use their wits
to defeat the game.  Solve problems, I told them, look for ways, i
said, to get around the obstacles presented.  You will fail often, but
from the failures you learn.  What you learn you use to conquer  more
complex problems which lie ahead.

The point is....well, the point is the same with F1RS.  When I first
installed the sim, aids were turned on by default, as I recall.  It
was very, very easy to get around the circuits in good time.

No fun.  Not for me, anyway.

So I turned them off.  The wheels locked up upon braking.  The rear
end slid out from under me. Couldn't get off the starting line without
smoking half the *** off the tires.

Then I thought, "Now i got somethin' to work on!"

Anyway, that's the way I feel. I can tell from some of the times
posted around the net, and from chatting on Kali, that we have a very
large crowd of F1RS lamers out there. Too bad.  Well, I'll continue to
drive the sim without aids, tweaking the heck out of setups, and maybe
eventually reach a point where I can compete with those help-using
deadbeats. Just wish there was a way to race, guaranteed, on-line with
some real racers (no aids).

In the meantime, keep up the good work on your excellent on-line page,

Ben Sides

PS,
I was planning to sign up for Melbourne, but if driver aids are
allowed, i respectfully decline :)  

I think most of the drivers on Kali will be very pleased to hear that
you are not interested in racing with them.  What a pile of crap!

A pile of crap?

In fact, it's not a pile of crap.  It's the truth.  Truth hurts, eh?
Try turning those helps off and having a go at it sometime, it can be
fun, it's just a bit more difficult (closer to the real thing).

As for Kali, I think it's about a 50/50 split between lamers and
drivers.  So, there's plenty of competition out there.  Besides, we
who use no help know each other, and we know who is using help.
I would venture to say that those drivers out there who don't use help
probably share my opinion.

Remember, it's just an opinion, and we know what opinions are worth.

Ben Sides

The reason you won't race at Melbourne is because you're not up to
speed yet. To suggest anything else is to defame some really fast
no-help drivers. You sir are out of order.

Regards

--
Neil Charlton      

http://www.charlt.demon.co.uk/  
--

Ben, I think you should join the league. Many of us dont use helps. Most of us
already have almost 1000 hours of no helps practice in GP2, though :o), so we
could be a bit hard to beat. Many of us in Nick's league know each other since
over a year back where we competed against each others in GP2. It will also be
great practice for coming racing sims where finally helps will slow you down
instead of making you faster. You will find drivers whom you trust and can
compare your results with. As long as there are no prize moneys involved we
could just drive for the fun of it.

Here's a thought for those who use helps - Where lays the pleasure of beating
another driver when he uses no helps at all and you use all the helps there
is???

/Christer Andersson, of course a no helps sim racer!

I am fully aware that you, along with many other Kali on-line
competitors, DO NOT use driver aids.  I've observed from monitoring
chat (lurking--you can learn a lot about human nature doing that!)
that you are indeed one of the best drivers of the F1RS sim on Kali,
and again, am aware that you do not use driver help.

However, I still maintain that quite a few participants who claim to
forego help options are indeed employing help options...especially in
the official heats organized by Nick Jensen.  I maintain, as well,
that these "drivers" are lamers.  Remember, that's just my opinion,
which really means nothing.  That simple.

My intent was simply to perhaps persuade some of these "lamers" to
turn of the help and attack the simulation as we do, as a challenge.
Unfortunately, the "lamer's" ego is a tough nut to crack, and they'll
do anything to win, no matter what feelings you or I express.

I hope I haven't alienated every Kali participant as a result of my
comments.  I'll find out a little later when i log on...if the flames
start or the silent treatment is employed, we'll know it's time to
leave.  Hope that doesn't happen.

As for Melbourne, don't be to sure about me not being up to speed. :)

As for being out of line, maybe I approached the line, ran a tangent
to it, but still believe I didn't cross it.

Again, thanks for your comments,

Ben Sides  

Sorry for injecting this, but after a few hours of work and setup
tweaking, I accomplished a 1:17.8 lap at Nurburgring...where does this
put me in terms of online competition...should I go back to the
drawing board or am I competitive enough to race with that kind of
time?

Randy

Hey Ben, this is DanP from Kali :)
The only 2 people on Kali that are in Nick's competition that I know have
used aids are Mr.Beany (Peter Arnholm), and Rene Sasman, but Rene did not
use aids for the actual heats. I do not use helps, and I was among the
fastest for the Spa qualifying heats, and the people who were faster were
not using helps. I think you are blowing this whole thing about using
helps way out of proportion. I have not heard of ONE person who cheats or
lies about the helps they use. Even the fastest hot-lapper, Sven
Schoenwiese, who many of us thought was cheating, does not use helps, and
he had the FASTEST qualifying time in the offline F1RS Competition98
(even faster than anyone in the Expert with Help group). I say, trust
people until you find they are not trustworthy.
-Dan Pyrik