Hi Ron,
Other than the latency issue, which apparently is a big problem in your case,
pretty much everything you've said about F3 applies equally to F1. If you're
competent, you're pitting yourself against other drivers, not yourself, not the
car. Accomplished F1 drivers don't worry about taming the machine or staying
on the track any more/less than anyone else, it comes down to your ability
versus mine. Once you get over that huge inital hump of learning how to drive
the car, you focus on out-driving and out-thinking the others and winning. If
you believe it takes any less skill or race craft to win at F1 level, you
haven't been in any really good races. F1 drivers don't all just hotlap, they
don't all rush to post lap times on hotlap boards, and the ones I've raced with
don't brag about how they beat Joe Citizen's times in chat. Many are
competitive, clean, and extremely, consistently, fast. F1 races are not all
out-of-control demolition derbies. The outcome of the races does not rely more
on luck than skill. Not that you're knocking F1.
F1 races are just like F3 races, only faster. IMHO.
Doug
> > Hi All,
> > Having just had a revelation with the F1s after driving F2s all
> > the time, I'm wondering which formula everyone else prefers.
> > For me, F3s are just too slow, but that's not to say
> > they don't require their own skill set. I think I'm just not
> > smooth enough to make an F3 go fast.
> > Anyway, F2s are great fun and I just tried F1s to see if I
> > could stay on the track. Amazingly, I could, although I'll
> > continue to use F2s to learn new tracks. For racing, I
> > just love the F1s. I expect that when racing against others
> > online I'll be too slow in an F1 to make it worthwhile, so
> > I may have to race F2s online.
> > Which formula do others prefer and why?
> > -Nick
> Hi,
> I prefer F3 racing in GPL for a number of reasons..
> A few of the reason have been already mentioned in this thread, but another
> reason why i prefer F3 is that latency does not effect F3 on-line racing as
> much as it does F2 or F1.
> In F3 racing, latencys of up to .750 are acceptable as long as quality is
> good, try that in F1 or to a lesser degree in F2 and you will be warping
> and flickering all over the place.
> To me, the F3 class of racing is the ultimate on-line challenge, where i am
> pitting other driver's skill levels and race craft against my own in a less
> out-of-control enviroment than GPL F1 could ever hope to produce with the
> current state of net technology..
> IMO, with GPL F1, the main challenge is to yourself, taming the F1 cars is
> a challenge and that is where the biggest challenge lies in F1, where as in
> F3, the challenge is pitting your driving and race craft skills against
> other human players in a better controlled racing enviroment.
> I often read how drivers should start with the F3 cars, then advance to F2
> then to F1, i started with F1, advanced to F2 and now race the ultimate,
> the F3 class.
> I am not joking there, as i feel that the F3 class requires just as much,
> if not more skill to go fast and be competitive than the F1 cars do.
> Sure, as everyone keeps saying, "anyone can drive a F3 car", well the
> same applies to a F1 car, anyone can drive a F1 car too, but how many can
> drive a F1 car fast and be competitive in a clean and sensible way ?
> Answer: about the same ammount that are also fast and sensible in a F3 or
> F2 car...
> It is ridiculous to say that a GPL F1 car requires more skill and race
> craft than a F3 car or a F2 car.
> I am not talking about hot-lapping here, i am talking about racing on-line
> and mimicking reality as close as it is possible for us to do so.
> F3 racing to me is not about how fast i can turn a lap in, or trying to get
> my name up in lights on some irrelevant hotlap board, or bragging in VROC
> chat at how my times are so much quicker than Joe Citizen's etc, F3 racing
> to me is the closest thing that the internet can provide me with at this
> stage of net technology and sim technology to be able to get me as close to
> the feeling of racing in reality as my computer can deliver, and in F3
> racing the outcome relies more on skill and race craft than luck and
> connection.....
> I am not knocking F1, i am reasonably quick in F1, but for on-line racing
> enjoyment and close competitive racing against sensible human opponents, i
> find F3 is light years ahead of F1 and a fair few miles ahead of F2 as
> well.
> Regarding the comment from Speedy Fast's post:
> "I've never played anything but F1. Why would I want to drive a GPL any
> slower than what it was designed for?"
> I agree there and if i was driving a F1 car in GPL i would want it to go as
> fast as a F1 car in GPL was designed to go , BUT we as F3 enthusiasts are
> not driving F1 cars, we are driving a F3 car and while the F3 cars in GPL
> were not actually designed to mimic a true to life F3, they are the closest
> thing to a F3 car that we have available in the sim world and the times
> that the F3 cars in GPL turn at the different tracks is almost a mirror of
> the times a real F3 car of the era was doing at these tracks.
> We are all different and we all like different aspects of our class
> choices in GPL, but to me the F3 cars are the pinnacle of on-line racing in
> GPL, where as to others the F1 or the F2 cars give the same ***
> immersion.
> I like to race close, and i mean close, where inches seperate us for most
> races, all race long and with the net problems and latency & connection
> issues taken into account, not to mention the more predictable nature of a
> F3 car when compared to a F1 car, the F3's are simply unbeatable in human
> to human confrontation over the net with GPL with present technology
> levels..
> That is all IMO of course.
> Cheers,
> Ron Ayton
> Australia
