rec.autos.simulators

Okay, I've lost it. I don't understand a single thing of it anymore. What
happened? I just did a 30% race at Indianapolis. There were 4 yellows. I
pitted the first. At green I was nr. 22. During the second caution I didn't
pit. Some others did. To my surprise they passed me all, when we were
approaching green (I have double file restarts enabled) and kept driving on
the inner lane (which I thought, was only meant for cars 1 lap down!) Then
another caution period came, with still 18 laps to go. I was 13th when I
passed the finish. I decided to pit, together with 4 other cars. When I came
back on the track (as last) I decided to see what happened if I too drove on
the inner lane. There were 5 cars were there too (one was a lap down, the
rest had just pitted). I drove further until I was second (!). I expected a
back flag or something after the restart, but nothing happened! When green
came up I immediately took the nr. 1 spot and didn't give it out of my hands
anymore. With 12 laps to go there was another yellow. No one pitted. But at
the restart there was one car on the left of me, and that was indeed the car
with a lap down.

So I won the race. On the Final Standings screen I was first. Andretti
second, Irwin third, Martin fourth. All was great. BUT!!! On the leaderboard
(which you can see beside the replay screen) I saw at lap 48 of 48, Irwin
was first, Martin second, Andretti 4 at an interval of 1:41 and I was 13th
at an interval of 1:22!!! And nr. 3 was 0.9 down!) Now is this a bug or
WHAT?

Maybe you can understand I just don't get it anymore now. So I'd like to now
the following:
When a caution period has started you stay behind the car you are behind.
Simple. But when you pit, where do you get on track again? Behind the car
you were behind when caution started? Or behind the last car (which means
that you can or cannot lose places when you pit well or bad)? Or may you
drive on the inner lane??? I'd like to know what's the official rule, but if
the AI cheats by driving on the inner lane, I'd be crazy if I didn't do that
too: it's BY FAR the easiest way to get at the nr. 1 spot...

Jeroen

P.S. When a yellow flag is declared and the leader already passed the
finish, but you haven't, are you allowed to overtake other cars, until the
leader (and you) pass the finish again and you hear the spotter say 'We're
under caution'? Is this right?

The official rule is you stay behind the car you came out of the pits behind.
If you go in 1st and come out 5th you stay behind the 4th place car.  Only cars
a lap or more down can be on the inside line on the restarts.  Now i dont know
how you did what you did but it would appear to me you came out of the pits in
2nd somehow and were able to pass everyone except the leader.  Thats the only
logical explination.  The illogical explanation is that the computer messed up
the scoring and had no idea where anyone was.  Seems unlikely but I've seen
stranger.

Chris

Q: "When a caution period has started you stay behind the car you are
behind.
Simple. But when you pit, where do you get on track again? Behind the car
you were behind when caution started? "

A: After you pit under caution, or anytime for that matter, you assume the
position that you are in when your car leaves pit road. The spotter usually
does a pretty good job of telling you who to stay behind.

Q: "Or behind the last car (which means
that you can or cannot lose places when you pit well or bad)? "

A: No.. fortunately not! You can definately gain or lose positions in the
pits! Just make your pit-stop speedy, get to the end of pit road, and listen
to the spotter and monitor your F2 display to see how well you made out!

Q: "Or may you
drive on the inner lane???"

A: The inner lane is for the lapped cars when "Double File Restarts" is
checked on the options screen. I'm not sure why those cars would have passed
you unless they were lappers. Sometimes the "timing and scoring" part of any
of the Nascar games I've played (1,2, &3) gets screwy for who knows what
reason. The best bet in that rare case is to restart the race.

"When a yellow flag is declared and the leader already passed the
finish, but you haven't, are you allowed to overtake other cars, until the
leader (and you) pass the finish again and you hear the spotter say 'We're
under caution'? Is this right?"

Yes.. you can pass cars until you actually cross the start/finish line and
take the yellow flag (hearing "'We're under caution...")

I hope this helps! And good luck!

-Bill

Schlomo4 heeft geschreven in bericht

Okay, that's clear.

Now way! The pack was already out of turn 2! I came out last and caught up
with them between turn 3 and 4! So I should have been last when the race
restarted, but I just drove on to the front. I didn't dare to take the nr. 1
spot (that seemed a bit too daring :-), so I stayed 2nd till green. And
became 1 after that... The other cars on the inner lane also didn't drive in
line: they drove left and right of each other, it looked very messy. So it's
a terrible BUG! That's a shame. Now the only solution is to disable double
file restarts: I don't want anyone who pits to become nr. 1, even if that
would be me!

What can be more strange than this... This is Nascar 3! The BEST sim of
Nascar racing there is, so they say... It's downright incredible. I like the
game, but I just don't understand how some things are still present (for
example cars stopping behind crashed cars; cars braking SUDDENLY during
caution periods; no pit crew animation (okay, not that important, but don't
tell me you didn't expect this to be in Nascar 3!) and so on). Will there be
a patch, Papyrus? Or do we have to wait for Nascar 4 (in 2003...)?

Jeroen