rec.autos.simulators

I seem to be finding all kinds of interesting problems with Papyrus
NASCAR Racing lately.  Last night I was racing and found myself in an
accident.  I lost my left front wheel.  I managed to make it to the pit
and decided since it was going to take over a minute to repair the damage
I would save the race for later.  When I restored the race, the sim
placed me on the track with the field at a stop under yellow conditions.  
I still had no left front wheel and thus I had to make it back to the
pits.  To make things worse, when I got there the pit was closed.  
Knowing that I would have been black flagged for entering a closed pit, I
decided to quit and start over, after all this was PRACTICE.

I've saved a race before and this didn't happen, but that was before I
upgraded to 1.2.  Has anyone else seen this ?bug? Or is this an attempt
to keep people from taking breaks from the race. :-)

David G. Martin        BBB  EEE EEE N  N   CC   OO  U  U N  N TTT RRR  Y Y
354 Burnette-Womack    B  B E   E   NN N  C  C O  O U  U NN N  T  R  R Y Y
CB# 7075 UNC-CH        BBB  EEE EEE N NN  C    O  O U  U N NN  T  RRR   Y
Chapel Hill            B  B E   E   N  N  C  C O  O U  U N  N  T  R R   Y
       NC 27599-7075   B  B E   E   N  N  C  C O  O U  U N  N  T  R  R  Y
919-966-5203           BBB  EEE EEE N  N   CC   OO   UU  N  N  T  R  R  Y

Len

You should have completed your stop and repaired all the damage before
saving the game.  Since you (if I understand right) exited and saved
during the stop, the repairs had not yet completed.  The game always
begins saved games from a stopped position out on the track.  The only
thing it seems to change is that lap traffic is relegated to the rear,
in other words the cars are lined up in the current running order, not
by track position.  We can make use of this "feature" to simulate what
happens in the last 10 laps of a real race by getting the lap traffic
out of the leaders' ways.

You won't get a black flag for entering a closed pit.  You just have
to rejoin the field at the back of the pack (the sim will just say to
stay behind whoever is at the back).  Since you're spending a lot of
time repairing damage and you would probably end up in the back of the
pack anyways, that wouldn't have been much of a penalty.

I don't remember what 1.0 and 1.1 did.  In 1.2, it's not really a bug.
There is a limitation in that the game can only make a limited
snapshot of the race when you save, and it can only restore the cars
out on the track in their current running order and damage status and
at the current race status (yellow/green).  You hadn't changed your
damage status when you saved.  Apparently the game goes to the start
of the yellow flag, so the pits weren't open yet.

Paul