Season 2 start?

Turbo · 10-08-2006, 11:14 PM

I was just wondering, are we taking this week off then starting season 2 the weekend after or do you have a date set already?

**Mirfee** · 10-08-2006, 11:18 PM

I was going to announce the next phase in the next day or so once I iron it out.

General plan is, no official race next Saturday, but we will be racing.

Wulfyn suggested an open event to welcome the newest drivers to get the game. I rather like the idea. Figure a couple hours each Fri/Sat nights, with some short practices/qualifications and 5 lap races to get folks' feet wet. Mix of cars and tracks... kinda like we did before the league got all formal like.

How's dat?

RocketPunch · 10-08-2006, 11:20 PM

Great Idea!

Turbo · 10-08-2006, 11:29 PM

One other thing, maybe we should shorten some of the races if the tracks are really really long. I am liking the 40-50 minutes, don't know if I could do much more then that.

**Mirfee** · 10-09-2006, 12:01 AM

Yeah. I think I like the idea of putting a time cap. We'll be able to caculate total time based on typical lap time for a track. And then specify 20 laps or xx minutes (say, 40?), whichever comes first.

RocketPunch · 10-09-2006, 12:08 AM

Can you even set a race time cap in the game? or we can just adjust the lap count to match the time we want.

Nikolas · 10-09-2006, 01:23 AM

I'd rather go into an event with a set number of laps to aim for than to say that it's over after x minutes. Just seems more "right."

I also think it'd be fun to have a few longer races; the increased bumpiness of the tires, unsettled feeling of the car, and the possiblity of pit strategies to remedy said problems all sound like fun. But then, it gets very tiring after a while and Wulfyn is joining us at 4am, so maybe not! :]

**Mirfee** · 10-09-2006, 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RocketPunch

Can you even set a race time cap in the game? or we can just adjust the lap count to match the time we want.

You can only specify the number of laps.

What I meant by x time was, figure out how long a typical lap takes (for example, Magny-Cours, and being generous), say 2:15. Then calculate how many laps you can get out of a 40min session... in this case 17.7 laps, or 18 when rounded up. This is close to 20 laps, so I'd say just bump it up to 20... the extra few minutes won't add a significant amount of time.

However, some larger maps, say Spa, are considerably longer, so this method would be more useful in a race like that.

**Mirfee** · 10-09-2006, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xTYBALTx

I'd rather go into an event with a set number of laps to aim for than to say that it's over after x minutes. Just seems more "right."

I also think it'd be fun to have a few longer races; the increased bumpiness of the tires, unsettled feeling of the car, and the possiblity of pit strategies to remedy said problems all sound like fun.

I prefer this as well.

Quote:

But then, it gets very tiring after a while and Wulfyn is joining us at 4am, so maybe not! :]

This is a significant reason to keep the races within a certain limit.

However... I can set races to simulate longer endurance runs by accelerating time, tire/fuel wear, etc. I have to check for the exact adjustments, but it can be shifted to give us 'longer' races in the same game time.

Nikolas · 10-09-2006, 12:37 PM

Really? Maybe we should test those settings out this weekend, since it's not for points or anything, and see what it's like?

**Mirfee** · 10-09-2006, 12:55 PM

Can do. I have another little gem to try as well... rolling starts. Got it enabled on a test run myself, so hopefully it'll work with the whole field. I'll explain in depth in a dedicated post re: server changes.

Turbo · 10-09-2006, 04:15 PM

Rolling starts would be fun to try. I kind of like the standard starts though, it leave's more room for error.

**Mirfee** · 10-09-2006, 04:32 PM

One of the advantages of the rolling start is that the car is warmed up. Tires should be a bit stickier, preventing many of the first lap, if not first *turn* spins.

Sadly, GTL doesn't have a pacecar feature, so the actual warmup lap isn't driven (in multiplayer... in single player you can drive the full warmup lap with a .ini tweak, though still w/o a pacecar). So in multiplayer, it jumps to a few hundred feet before the checkered flag, with AI controlling your car for a couple second countdown (at yellow speed). There's a couple more seconds you're in control until the green flag drops, and then it's on!

**Vulcan** · 10-09-2006, 04:50 PM

I'm looking to get into some racing with you guys but right now I'm not setup with proper driving hardware. I don't really like wheels, i prefer a controller with analog buttons, can anyone refer me to a controller for PC that has analog buttons (ala PS2 and Xbox controllers). If not i'll buy an adapter for my ps2 controllers.

Currently using a p2500 and no analog accelerator will kill me.

Turbo · 10-09-2006, 04:54 PM

I have heard good things about the 360 controllers. I haven't used one myself though.