rec.autos.simulators

For all of you who have become distrustful of your manly-hood and rally
driving skills......trying to get from a 2:28-to-2:29 range down into the
2:22-to-2:23 range where the "aliens" are running.........you've just been
vindicated!  It is unfortunate however, that many of you have already hung
yourself or jumped out of 5th story window of your office building or
apartment complex....in total frustration.  May those of you who have done
that already..........."rest in peace!"

To those of us who are left on this planet with us..........

**Take note:  A bug was found in the RT demo that invalidates any stage time
much below 2:28 or so.......maybe even hire.  Certainly, any time turned in
well below that is completely bogus!  Essentially what this means is, if you
were running your well-driven stage runs at around the 2:28 to 2:29 range or
so.......that's your real time and you are a very good rally driver (at
least in RT you are).  Those times are the same as the 2:22's and 2:23's
others were getting, but their computers were reporting those times from a
bogus coding bug.....their times really are the same as the 2:28's to 2:29's
you get!

"""""WATCH THE ALIENS SCATTER""""""

This is very important******  This applies only to the RT Demo which is
confirmed by Bugbear codeheads - THE DEMO IS NOT FINAL CODE and this bug
does not exist in the Rally Trophy Final Release code (due out in 13 days).
We can all rest assured, and wait in high-anticipation....for the final
release of RT....it will be awesome and we now know that we have a good
group of people at Bugbear (the developer) who will stand behind their code
and work with the sim community to make their product better as time goes
on.  BRAVO!  Bugbear!  I'm buying three copies of RT just to say, "thank
you."

**Related Story**

It is thought by many code-savvy techies that a similar bug exists in GPL
and has never been fixed.  It is being, however, exploited by many of the
historical "fast-guys" on VROC which have now been termed "aliens" by the
rest of us.  This "bug" is being confirmed and validated as we speak.  A
list of people known to have been exploiting this bug and taking credit for
being good sim drivers, is now in preparation for widespread distribution to
all known league officials and sim racing websites throughout the Internet.

The RT story, and so forth......just goes to show you why all this emphasis
on "hot lapping" in GPL and to a lesser extent, in N4....is such a huge
waste of time and effort.  It also leads to the phenomenon seen currently on
VROC as follows:  The new "hotlapper breed" that has been termed,
"aliens"...... races the same way as they "practice" hotlapping (funny how
your mind, and hand-eye coordination tends to do what you practice making it
do).  They crash and burn themselves and anyone around them..........9 out
of 10 races they enter.  They win one of them with a 5 lap margin (usually
because another "hotlapper-alien" has taken out the rest of the field).

Fortunately.......These people are very easy to spot and avoid.

Just ask them, "How good of a driver they are in GPL?  When they respond
with telling you their PB times at every track....avoid them like the
plague......these people are like insects with anthrax spores on their hairy
arms and legs!  Stay away from them!  I vote we change the term we use for
these "hotlappers" from **Aliens** to **Insects**  .....it fits them so much
better!  Aliens at least have an intelligence factor associated with
them....that is completely lacking from these "hotlappers".....insects do
not have any brains at all (or maybe just some green microscopic mush),
"insects" is a much better fit of a term, I think..... for these
"hotlappers!"  Don't you think?

From now on, when you ask someone on VROC or in N4 how good of a driver they
are, and they respond with telling you how they are doing in their current
"Friday Nite" league, or they tell you about a good online race they won
last night, or last weekend......and they never mention anything about their
fastest lap anywhere at any track.  Then.......that is a good guy!  You
should embrace him, get his email address, invite him to race with you and
your group.......nurture him!  If you find an "insect"........spray him with
RAID! .....RUN FROM HIM!  HE HAS ANTHRAX SPORES ALL OVER HIM!  He will kill
you......(and this sport of sim racing).

We've come all this way from the days of "Dega" pick-up races on "TEN" to
come to this?  What a sad commentary that is..... on sim racing today.  It
makes me want to cry.

Tom Pabst - Insect Hunter
Pabst-Racing

<snip>
<snip>

Interesting. I hope we all get to find out what the level is. Not that
I care much, as I'm never going to get to that level in any case.

It does seem a little bit odd that no-one's noticed, though - after
all, there are plenty of "alien" replays around - has no-one ever
checked them with a stopwatch?

And let's not pretend that laptimes mean nothing at all - if I ever get
below 8:20 at the ring I'm damn well going to shout about it.... :-)

--
Sceptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which
deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense -- Carl Sagan

The GPL Scrapyard returns (slowly): http://www.hillclimbfan.f2s.com

What a poor excuse for your 1:33 laptimes at Monza :)
But seriously, this is very interesting. First thing that strikes me
is you say 'it is THOUGHT..that a similar bug exists' and then you
continue with 'it is BEING .. exploited'. Hmm..

And how can one exploit a timing bug on purpose, and even more, how
can the techies you mention detect -who- exploits this on purpose?
Very weird post Tom, more details please..

Anyway, you say it's being confirmed and validated. Please keep us
informed with any concrete results.

Andre

PS Somehow I think this is the troll of all troll posts, but I
consider you too professional for a cheap prank like this.

It seems many of the people who have to luck into a good finishing position
by others dropping out are trying to demean those of us who are faster than
they :)

--

Ian P (who USED to be quite good at GPL ;) )
<email invalid due to spam>

Nice you have the money to do that, but isnt it a bit misdirected, it seems
you will be giving more money to the distributors and shops rather than to
the developers. Why not buy one copy and send a cheque for the other 2
direct to Bugbear, or even better to charity.

As for the rest of your post, how and why do you think you have the right to
tell people how to play their sims, if someone gets fun out of a game by
hotlapping what is wrong with that, I didnt notice any rules on the box of
GPL saying no hotlapping and no telling anyone your best lap times. Seems to
me you are just jealous of the fast guys lap times and you just want them
all removed so you can claim to be the fastest. I suggest just relaxing and
letting people do what they want.

Alex Cameron

dc

<snip>

I can confirm that, we had 3 GPL lan parties here in Holland and Andy
for example visited 2 of them (he was ill during one of the lans) and
he won them both. Well deserved I might add, the guy is so ***y fast
AND consistent, amazing to watch. Same goes for all the other ALIENS
who were there..
Roland Ernhstrom for example. We were driving in these hyperstims.
Great equipment, but it takes some serious time to get used to them.
Normally I can run '27s on Monza, now I could barely do '30s. Later
that day when I got used to the hyper, I got back to my normal
laptimes. Roland however, jumped into the hyper for the first time of
his life and after a couple of laps he allready drove laps faster than
my pb..

And I think most of us who had online races with the aliens know most
of them are very good and consistent drivers. To be able to drive such
fast laptimes requires you to understand the car and its limits to the
fullest.
Man, I rather have a race with 19 aliens online than with 19 people
who barely can drive 1:33 laps at monza.

Andre

I think that's the point Tom is trying to make.

--
David G Fisher

Andre

I do appreciate some of what Tom says and his description of "Johnny
fast but last" is certainly true of some but not the majority.

I'll happily quite my PB to someone if they ask, in the knowledge that
I could run 5 laps within a couple of 10ths of it and in all likelyood
match or beat it in a qual/race situation.

I probably wouldn't make too much fuss about it though if I did. But
if I'd run most of the race within a few 10ths of it (allowing for
fuel early on) and gotten a sub .5 consistency rating in GPLRA
then I am likely to remark on it and be particularly proud of it.

I'm not mentally able to race at 95%, hence the nickname. If I
could I'd probaly acheive this more often. I therefore accept the
fact that I stand more chance of having an incident in a race.

It is MUCH more difficult IMO to run consistent FAST laps in GPL
than in real-life. I can (or have in the past) run a dozen laps within
2-3 10ths of each other.

I think Tom sees all hot-lappers (which would include anyone
who has an account at GPLRank) as people who would go to
any lengths and try to drive way above themselves, crashing
more often than not to get an extra few 10ths off their times.

The number that appears on the pitboard to me is a measure
of how well I've driven. If I compare my new PB with the old
I can see it is usually smoother, more under control, with
better track usage, nearer the apex's, using more of the track
on entry and exit.

Once I've done a 1:40 at a track I know I can then run 1:40s
to 1:40.5s pretty consistently.

I do recognise that in earlier days when I was still getting to
grips with GPL I would come up with those odd lucky laps
that beat prev PBs by a large margin and which I could never
expect to get near again without similar luck. Thats just the
learning curve of GPL. Now, my new PBs are based on
better driving.

I would finally say however that beyond a certain level GPL becomes
very much a "game" and to be good at a game you need to fully
exploit it. I think 1:28s at Monza can be achieved by simple good
technical driving, but to get 1:26s you need to do other things
(techniques) that exploit the GPL physics engine. Once learnt they
can be used anywhere/anytime in so-called hot-lapping or racing.

I have great respect for the top drivers in GPLRank because
they are exceptionally good at the game of GPL. I have much more
respect for the guy who's replay I may watch and he is driving
smoothly, using all the track, hitting his apex's etc. often however
these are the same guys ...

Maxx

Ruud van Gaal
Free car sim  : http://www.marketgraph.nl/gallery/racer/
Pencil art    : http://www.marketgraph.nl/gallery/

Good point, I only know the basics of how the cars work, and learned
how the car reacts by practice, not by technical insight.
Maybe it's time for me to study those Caroll Smith books I ordered
from the States but never read.. :)

Andre

 I'm buying three copies of RT just to say, "thank
| you."
| Tom Pabst - Insect Hunter
| Pabst-Racing

May make a difference. Or at least help you understand why your setup
gives you the responses that they do.

Ruud van Gaal
Free car sim  : http://www.marketgraph.nl/gallery/racer/
Pencil art    : http://www.marketgraph.nl/gallery/