"Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!"
The standing "Grand Prix" start in GPL might be accurate, but in
online games over the Internet it leads almost inevitably to big
crashes. There seems to be no way of getting the race going without
being hit at least once by someone, which may be caused by driving
errors and/or warping.
All drivers and many spectators being killed in the first corner is
luckily not historically correct, so we should find a solution that
permits us to get a race going without a massacre.
So, last night, I proposed an "Indianapolis Start" on some VROC races
(AFAIR hosted by G.Stone (Silverstone), B.Myers (Spa) and T.Pod
(Monaco). TNX, guys! )
This would mean, that after the green flag, the whole field would
start slowly and carefully, with the pole-sitter leading a warm-up lap
at maybe 70% speed. All others follow in the grid order, without
overtaking or even getting too close to each other. Actions like
burnouts, heavy braking or other behaviour to warm up the tyres or
annoy the others behind or in front should be avoided - and especially
collisions, even those caused by warping.
The "real" start would then be at the end of this "warm-up lap", with
overtaking being allowed after crossing the start-finish line, not
before.
The leader should slow down before the last corner to give the field a
chance to close up, and then at the exit of the last corner he would
have an advantage in the drag race down the start-finish straight.
Yet, if someone gets a much better acceleration, this might give him
the chance to overtake (after start-finish line only!) or outbrake the
car in front into the first corner, similar to a standing start.
If this start would be exercised properly, it would IMHO give a much
more realistic race, with many advantages:
- warm tyres
- the whole field is ordered according to qualifying times, the top
qualifier is rewarded with a save lead, the slow ones are forced to
stay behind
- even the last car could have a nice view from La Source, watching
the stretched-out field speeding down the straight and up Eau Rouge
like a string of pearls
- it's an exercise in patience and sportsmanship
- mistakes, like spinning while accelerating, can be easier spotted,
and the evil-doers and over-ambitious drivers can get identified
easier
- the race is not decided in the first corner, all drivers have the
chance to compete, according to qualifying, with a slightly faster guy
in front and a presumably slower one behind, rather than winding up
somewhere after recovering from the start pile-ups
Very important is that an Indy start has to be announced early in the
chat, making sure that everyone knows about it and will respect it.
Discussing it 30sec before the start is too late.
Maybe the host should announce it in his VROC comment.
Opinions?
BTW: I did even a Le Mans start: Not showing up at the grid, then
after the race is on, it's possible to start from the pit lane. But
instead of speeding down the pit lane, Shift-R puts the car out on the
track, which is somewhat similar to the drivers running across the
track and climbing into their cars.
Might be fun to try that online, the different latencies and reaction
times (waiting for the green button to show up, then hitting it with
the mouse, then Shift-R, then shifting into first, plus probably
different loading times on different computers) should lead to
slightly different times the cars show up at the right side of the
track.
Here, they are lined up one after another, in pit lane order rather
than qualifying order. This might make it more likely to avoid crashes
compared to the close-packed GP standing start with cars standing in
lines next to each other.
--
_____
/_______\ .\\ a t t h e a d
I XT /~~~~
I 500\_____ 1977' Yamaha XT.Rex 500 Enduro
\____/\__I_I http://matthead.home.pages.de/
An intersting idea, and something similar to a "spec race" whereby it
equalises the field and creates artificially closer racing by
eliminating some of the "skill areas".
A top racer or even "the" top racer is comprised of a blend of speed,
consistency, setup skill, racecraft etc, of which starting is a part.
Short races remove the "consistency" aspect, spec-races remove "setup
skill", just as Indy style starts eliminate the aspect of getting off
the line.
I think it would give a closer race, but I couldn't describe it as
more realistic. The most realistic race would be for Papyrus to
release a new track, and everyone is allowed two hours of practice
before a two hour race from a standing start - first over the line
wins it. That recreates as closely as possible what the drivers had to
challenge in 1967.
Cheers!
John
Quoted text (22 lines)
> > The standing "Grand Prix" start in GPL might be accurate, but in > > online games over the Internet it leads almost inevitably to big > > crashes. There seems to be no way of getting the race going without > > being hit at least once by someone, which may be caused by driving > > errors and/or warping. > I think the vast majority of the starting crashes result from folks > who simply mash the throttle and then can't control the car when it > jumps sideways. Also, folks seem to forget that one has to brake MUCH > earlier to make it through T1 the first time through with the whole > field. > I'd just like people to be a little more patient for the first lap. > I've been to a couple of races where I started in the top 6, got rear > ended at T1, ended up dead last just after T1, and then passed 90% > of the field through the remainder of lap 1 because they all got silly > and crashed into each other and off the track on cold tires. > Don't get me wrong, I kinda expect that and I'm not ***ing, but it > would be nice to see a little patients exercised for the first lap. > -John Doe-One more opinion - if you've ever participated on NROS you will know
that a rolling start is no less accident prone than a standing one.
Almost invariably on NROS I would deliberately start from the back,
pick my way through the spinning wrecks and be among the front runners
within two or three laps by default.
Cheers!
John
Perhaps there could be a online legue rule that simply says " no
passes on the first lap". This would result in a defacto rolling
start. It might go a long way in avoiding the crashes you cite.
Perhaps you could even extend it to also say " no passes on certain
corners ". This would cover those situations where some folks try to
force passes on corners where the chances of success are 100 to 1.
You'd need to make allowences for cars that have broken down, fallen
of the track, or for whatever reason are not up to the usual pace. The
stewarts would have to decide.
It almost makes qualifying last the desirerable thing to do. At least
you can watch as the fore runners take each other out while you bide
your time.
I have just tested a change to the Monza track.ini which puts the cars in a
modern grid formation: two files, nr.2 a car's length behind nr.1 etc. Only
the host needs to use this modified track.ini, the clients automatically use
the same settings.
This way the field is not so close at the start and there is more room for
warp jumps and mistakes.
It is availble for download at www.xs4all.nl/~westrab/gpl.htm. Try it out
and post your findings here or send me an email. If you like it, I'll do the
other tracks as well.
Regards,
Bart Westra
John Wallace heeft geschreven in bericht
>>satisfaction when acheived! Mind you, I have been pretty ****** off when I
