I look forward to seeing the "Private Lounge System" in action. If some of you haven't heard about it yet, there's more information in the link below...it's quite an ingenious idea and I expect it to expand quickly throughout GTP, there's already a couple leagues/groups using it real efficiently.
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=229785
Thanks again for the great league directing Brandon and I'm hoping to be able to fit the upcoming Alfa league into my schedule too.
This is the basics of it. I'm very intrigued by it and I think if implemented correctly it can provide some great benefits, but it can also become a complete mess if it's not maintained properly or is too ambitious. The stewards and I have been discussing the ins and outs of this "network" for about 3 weeks now, trying to look at it from all sides and see if/how we can make it work for us. Take it all with a grain of salt for now, I think we've come up with a pretty solid plan but nothing is 100% right now. It's all been just discussion so far, no extensive testing, but we've been monitoring the other groups using this method to see the positives and negatives and learn everything we can. Rest assured that there's a lot of thought and effort going into this and it's not going to be a slopped together mess.
A quick overview of the private lobby network plan: Remember when RDAardvark got the DLC before us and we were all able to open his lounge (even when he was offline) to run at Spa (because it was set as his default track)? That is the underlying premise of this network. We will create actual PSN ID's that all the members will add to their PSN friends list. The main benefit here is that all the members can race together in a private room without having to add each other. Example, Blind posts in the thread that he's going to hold a practice session, right now he either has to do it in a public room, share the number and kick out Randoms, or he can do it in his lounge but anybody wanting to join has to be on his friends list. With this method, Blind will simply post "I'm going to open the Capp Cup lounge for some practice and free races" and since everyone has the Capp Cup ID added already they can join right in! So much simplier and way more flexible, you won't be dependent on a steward to host a room and since anybody can open the lounge there could be Capp racing every day!
We could essentially do this right now by using my lounge, but sometimes I do want to run things other than the Capp and honestly I can't even open my lounge to do some testing without 3 or 4 Capperino's popping up in a matter of minutes.
So this way my lounge will be free but everyone will have our very own Capp lounge that only Capperino's have access to and everyone can join. Best part, it's open 24 hours a day so we can have people from all time zones.
If there's enough demand we could even create a second Capp Cup ID to accommodate more people.
So, branching off from that, we're currently planning to have a lounge/ID specifically for the Alfa Points Series and another one that will be just for Capp Cup. For now the Capp Cup room will be mainly just for fun and free racing but we plan on organizing official one-off Capp events from time to time that will have prizes and such. But all of you will have access to it and can organize races or fun runs or whatever you want! If somebody wants to actually setup and run a mini-championship for the Cappy I'm fine with that too as long as you run your plans by me first and handle it fairly professionally. All practice and racing for the Alfa series will take place in the lounge of that ID and all members will be free to open the lounge during any non-official times (practice/qualifying/race) to tune/practice/race. There will be specificed areas for everyone to post details of when they'll be in what lounge, etc.
In addition to that, we're thinking about having 2 additional lounge/ID's, 1 for Spec Racing and 1 for PP Racing. These will be free lounges for all members to use as they please within the guidelines that everything in the Spec Racing lounge is run with the "Tuning Prohibited" option selected and the PP Racing lounge can be whatever kind of PP racing you like with all tuning permitted. What you guys do within those guidelines it totally up to you! You can do something as simple as "Hey guys, I'm gonna be in the PP Racing Lounge from 5-7 tonight, thinking some 450ppSS and maybe some 600ppRH", all the way up to organizing your own schedule events (NASCAR, GT500, Rally, etc.) or mini-championships.
Basically, we all enjoy racing together and I think we all agree that the public rooms are more trouble than their worth, this is a way for all the members to race whatever they want together, whenever they want to. Personally, I'd love to join up on a random Thursday night and do a pickup LMP race with Iforce, Torzilla, Blind, Cipher, Wardez, Trackbound......whoever! No points, no schedules, just 10 minute races every 20 minutes on differsnt tracks or whatever the hell we please.
So that's it. I know it sounds a little complicated but I hope it doesn't sound scary. lol Whatever we do, my motto has always been to require as little from the members as possible so it will be simplified and streamlined and all you guys will have to do is post in a thread, join a lounge, and race! You may have to send out up to 4 friend requests too, but I don't think that's asking too much.
I hope at least the bulk of all this made some sort of sense. Now that we have a good framework I'm ready for input from you guys so ask me any questions you want and let me hear your ideas our opinions.
