rec.autos.simulators

My entertainment simply comes from the "driving" and when I get jack of
it (the sim) I simply give it a rest for a while.....maybe even delete
it from the computer for several weeks. Although it will take a long
time for that feeling to come around with GPL, I am sure!

Nope...."setting-up and testing", whilst an integral feature of any sim
worth its salt, is something that I can live without for my
entertainment.  I use my imagination to pretend that the test driver has
done all the hard work! :o)

I don`t know how many copies of N2 was sold in the US, but there`s
"only" about 6500 who play it on TEN

I play N2 on TEN, N2 is ideal for online playing in that you`re always
battling with someone on the track, you`re almost never alone

GPL around Nurburgring, hm.......I don`t know, 20 cars around a 20+ km
track, you could basically be driving every lap except the first one
without ever seeing another car, wow, exciting, err........, however,
when playing alone against the PC I can adjust the AI to run at my pace,
and presuming that the AI is any good, I can do this for the whole race

N2 is a game I never play offline (I don`t really like Nascar) except
for testing purposes (well I run the TPTCC, but that`s something else
:-), but I love playing online, from what I`ve seen, there`s a big
chance the opposite will be true with GPL

I also play strategy games, I love playing Age of Empire on the Zone,
but I`ve played is as much offline as I`ve played it online, and it`s
the only strategy game I`ve been interrested in playing online as well,
because I usually like to play at my own pace, think things through and
hit the "pause" key whenever I feel like it

Conclusion; I like playing online, but it`s no requirement for me, just
a nice bonus if it`s possible, and being on the retail end of games and
hardware, the feedback I get from my customers is much the same

Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy
UncleGoy on TEN

I guess I missed those last 4 words. I got confused since there is no
practice to leave or join up with while in progress in MTM2. He mentioned
MTM2 and F1RS. Two very different ways of online racing. With MTM2 (I'm sure
you already know this) you just have people type in you IP address and go. I
guess the only difference between CPR and GPL TCP/IP race setup is the
practice sessions.
Thanks for the info.

Dave
DmndDave

Dave
DmndDave

    I must say Bruce that you are only getting half the sim experience by skipping the
wonders and art of setups. Getting good at it and consequently being able to run with
pretty much anyone around is EXTREMELY rewarding I find! Time is of the essence of course
- if you quit posting to this NG for a while you'll no doubt become a genius at it! LOL.

   I must confess I was forgetting Europe, but in any case I'd like to know the ratio of
Europeans to Americans if you know off hand. Anyway, my point was that Papy seem to be
chiefly concerned with the American market ie a Yank based sim and the NROS server based
in the U.S. Not that I blame them of course, particularly with this sim. I just can't
understand their, and other companies to date, seeming lack of interest in multiplayer for
the world! Ubisoft seemed to be impeded by the F1 bozos for some unknown reason but a pure
online approach is not practical (particularly without an NROS type setup) IMO.

You`re leaving one important thing out of your equation, money

While a large number of people may enjoy online-***, they do not
require that it be in the game to buy it, so the developers have to
weigh for and against, after all, they are supposed to make money from
it

As for the schedule thing, once you get to know people you play against,
on the Zone, on TEN or whatever, you soon start*** with certain
"crowds", join leagues or whatever, then you`re into a schedule right ?

Don`t get me wrong here, I enjoy online ***, but I`d sure as hell buy
GPL even if didn`t even support LAN, I could lock myself in and play
this sim for ever if it`s anything as good as the demo promises it to be
and probably not miss playing it online very much, but then again I
haven`t played it against other humans, so I may be totally wrong of
course, only time will tell :-)

Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy
UncleGoy on TEN

(As for human competition, you`ve not played much N2 on TEN have you :-)

This was the BIG factor, the really major beef; that scheduling took
away the very reason that they used the computer when playing
games....that they did so when *THEY* felt like it and *IF* they felt
like it.

It was only after getting this type of response that we realised that
there is a large sector of the *** industry who perceives that the
majority of people who use their computers for entertainment want to
play games head-to-head with other humans. Nothing could be further from
the truth, it seems.

It was interesting that cost was secondary to independance...although
not by much! :o)

--
Regards,
Bruce.
----------

To me it's relaxation and the ability to marvel at what technology is
capable of....nothing more.

What we need is a way to eliminate the slowest part of an
internet connection from the process - namely, the phone
line connection between the host's modem and his ISP.  If
there was a UNIX based server program for GPL that would
run on a shell account, you would have a much faster
connection for all the clients, and bandwidth wouldn't be
much of an issue.  That would basically equate to NROS
wouldn't it?

As long as we are still tied to having all the positional
data traveling through the host's phone line connection
to the internet, it seems like on-line racing outside
of a dedicated server will not progress very far.  The
only way to effectively host a race would be with a
cable modem connection or something similar.  That
was a real limitation back in the Kali days of N2.

--
Pat Dotson
IMPACT Motorsports

Dave
DmndDave

Then again, I try not to make decisions without hard facts either, so I'm
certainly open to the possibility of being wrong. Either way, racing sims,
more than most other games, demands the ability to race online so the
majority of gamers opinions doesn't really matter all that much to me in
this case.

Regardless of what someone may think of MS, they do seem to hit on the
trends of the software industry as their success proves. Why do you think
they have made online racing such a priority with their releases? Their last
3 motorsport releases (CPR, MTM2, and MCM) all have online racing a top
feature. Their following motorsport games will do the same I'm sure.
Actually, they seem to be making it a priority in most of their ***
releases, and the Zone is part of that. I believe the poll you took is
correct in it's results, but I also see what MS is doing so your thoughts
would be interesting.

Dave
DmndDave

.

Dave
DmndDave