Racing Tues night at 10:00 EST

The problem I have with pit stops is that with the frequency of caution flags, it becomes almost impossible to tell when you need to pit. There's almost no indication of tire wear during the yellow and there isn't enough time to figure out if you need fuel or not, especially since there's no solid fuel consumption per lap ratio (and the game fails on that too since you can be completely off the throttle down the whole backstretch and it will still consume fuel at the same rate, so there's no such thing as 'saving fuel')

 

If you blow a engine or really damaged a car, whats to say you have to stay in and watch others race, unless you are the host of course. Lets say were running a 100 lapper, if someone blows a engine on lap 25, they should be able to just quit the race. IF your the host, you could always go do something else and just leave the 360 on, as long as the screensaver feature is off (been there done that).

Black flags, I'm not really too worried about but I'd really like to see long races where cautions and pit strategy comes into play. Thats what's so fun is deciding whether to pit under green or try and hold out as long as possible for a yellow.

I'd like to see about 1 decently long race every week, where you have to kinda test and practice all week to work on the setup. Of course my ability to play really all comes down to what nights and times. Has anything been decided on yet?

 

Are you guys going to be racing again tonight?

 

You have a fuel gage. Now the tires I'll agree, pretty much impossible to tell when you need those.

If everyone's worried about how many cautions, I guess those can always be turned off. Takes alot of realism out of it but I also think that'd space the field out way too much. Does speed comp work when your a lap down? Or is just work to get you closer to the car in front? I mean if people can't/don't wanna work on making setups faster, whats the chances that they'd practice pitting under green.

 

IF you leave the game, are your stats still at the end of the race? If so, then you are correct. If we do just one long race, then that would be no problem. I guess I was actually thinking of doing 2 or 3 medium races a week to mix it up a little. But, you bring an interesting point about one really long race. Then you would have to have endurance too. Hope you don't have to go to the bathroom in lape 20...lol.


Nothing has been decided on nights or times yet. We are still working on the feesibility phase.

 

Speed comp actually works when you are away from the pack. When you make it back up to the pack, it goes away. From what I could tell. I've only played with it turned on once, maybe twice.

 

Unfortunately, I have 3 NBA games to play tonight that will most likely take up all my time. But, you guys should try to race tonight and attempt some settings and what not.

I can most likely race tomorrow night.

 

If fun is the #1 goal, and it should be, I don't see how we can leave damage on. Especially if these are going to be 14 player races. We're going to take damage, whether it be from ourselves or other people. Personally if I get wrecked out of a race all the time I'm going to lose interest in that first month. The thing is I don't have time to go home and tweak setups and what not, so I'm looking for fun experience and one that's going to leave me in the race and give me a chance.

I personally didn't have a problem with the no pitting no damage races we had the other night. That would be fine by me. If we do have pit stops, I'm okay with that too.

As far as finding middle ground maybe damage could be off at the restrictor plate tracks and short tracks and on at speedways.

 

I thought it was like Forza, where if you disconnected or soemthing, it'll just show you at the bottom of the standings as DNF. I'm not 100% sure of that but I thought that was how it was done. Have to do some testing to find out if thats true.

2 or 3 races would be good to mix it up, only problem is they'd probably have to be pretty short races which in turn eliminates the need for pitting.

 

Your not suppose to hit the wall or any other cars. :mrgreen: It must just be who I race with, as last Friday I raced 150 laps at a flat short track in Milwaukee. Room was full, 14 players. And granted it did start off slow with a few back to back to back cautions most of that was due to the no passing before backstretch rule and trying not to hit each other due to how EA gives you back control. I'll also be running 140 laps at Atlanta on Friday. As long as your smooth through the corner, if your not change sensitivity or setup, and communicate whether you passing high low or pitting or stuff like that. You can easily run full rooms of 14 players for 100+ laps without that many cautions.

 

You could eliminate some cautions my communicating. I was in one a 10 man race where almost everybody was talking and telling each other if they were going to pass them low or high. It really did help with the cautions

 

If only it were that easy, lol. I'd love to get into a race like that. Hit me up if you get one going. I'll agree, communication is key. One of the problems was that we were running custom cars and that makes it pretty much impossible to let whoever know where you are. Using normal cars is going to solve that problem.

 

If you turn on the driver tabs (A button), it'll put a blimp over each car in front of you. So that way you know what number the car is in front. As long as everyone remembers what car number they are driving, with no duplicates, it can be a blast.

 

Oh I have it on, that's not the problem. Well sometimes seeing who is who is a problem. But when 5 or 6 people have the car number 100 and at the same time trying to pay attention to what you're doing, it can get a little tough.

Custom cars are great, but online they just don't work.

 

Unless.... we turn on the need to pit up to x4 and set it to 56 laps or what not. It will tell us how many times we have to pit when we set those. That could have us pitting 8 times in a race ( just guessing, depends on track ). I guess, with a thought that just hit me. We can do the races on 25% and set the pit stop ratio at x4. Then it would be exactly like a real Nascar race pit stop wise, only we aren't racing for 3 hours straight. lol...

 

A very fine point! I think you are on to something there as I think you are correct. The only side effect is people putting their grill tape to 100% and not worring about an engine blowing up. I guess a give and take may be necessary. Or maybe if enough interested, we have two different classes of racing that we do. One where Damage is on and one where Damage is off. But, let's get one going first. BTW.. I am just thinking and typing at the same time ( in case your confused with what I just typed ).

 

How long did it take to do that? Seems like the perfect time for a league event would be at an hour. Be it one race or several. That race does sound fun though.

 

We had some connection problems, so not sure exactly what time we started. But I'd be guessing it took about hour and half.

My vote goes for Damage on but understand completly if the rest of the league wants it off or if you want to start a league with it off and then if it blossoms, make another with it on.

 

Pitting 8 times in 56 laps is a little much don't you think. i'm thinking 2 or at most three 3.

How about the hardcore racers be in the sprint cup and the casual be in the Nationwide. If someone can't race in the nationwide race then somebody from the sprint cup could race in their place and vice versa. Of course we would need a number of people to have both nationawide and sprint but judging from the interest thread I believe we have it

 

i really think the most fun i have had online is races where everyone has a shot.
here are my 2 cents on settings, and we can try this and other options out as we test.

laps, 40% around.
damage off
speed comp on.
yellows only.
wear x3 (should be about 2 pit stops)

only top3 in overall league points get to use custom cars. cars load way faster when fewer people in the room are running them, that way they are more of a trophy too.
in order to race peoples performance points have to be set at 100 engine and 50 everything else at that track. that way everyone is fastest. level is easy to achive when peoples profiles freeze before a race, etc.
i think setups should be equalized in grille tape, shouldnt matter if damage off but everyone has to run smae grill tape amount whether it be 85 or 100% or whatever.

i think like nascar he cars are mostly equal and everyone has a shot, people that drive better will go to the front. theres not alot of room for error at the top, but if there are mistakes and you drop behind speed com will get you back in the pack. but not to the front. you have to fight for that.

i think this wayy all our bases are covered. i am definitely open to suggestion and testing. this is just my opinion based on what i've seen playing different styles online.