◆ SNAIL [Enduro] Racing - Closed Until Further Notice

[fzappa]

Just ran some practice laps. Boy it was a handful.
Also, What do you think about during the caution laps we run those in the computer mode. The car runs 40 mph and it would give anyone time to use the restroom or grab a drink?
All you have to do is hit the pause button and it takes over.

I think running the caution laps in 'computer mode' would be a good idea. At least until everyone catches up. That would give some of us old guys a chance to hit the rest room. But if the race starts up and your still in 'computer mode', your screwed

We could do that, although the only problem is it takes your car to the pits. We talked about that in the room last Saturday, and what we decided upon for right now, if you need to get up and do something else quick, then use the pause button, but if not, just keep driving as usual. Of course we can use this test session to test that out as well.

We just have to make sure that if, let's say, kendawg is in 1st place, whether he's in 'computer mode' or not, you cannot pass. That will also hold true 2nd on back. The car does go into the pits when in your 'computer mode', that's why I think you should be able to pit anytime during the race.
Let's test it as cmbeal suggested.

Man I really wished my Saturdays were free to run this with the new caution rule and no boost.

I would like to offer one suggestion. When you all come around to get the green flag. Allow people to pit.

So if lap 24 caution comes out. You bunch up and cross line at end of 24. Coming around to receive green flag on end of lap 25. Open put lane then. It would add one last bit of strategy.

Also if a car spins and they have a mic. Allow them to call for a caution. That would be awesome too. Maybe bring that in after this new caution format is used. At which point you could do a one mandatory caution mid race. Then there could one or five during the race.

Anyway. Love the idea and I'm envious to know end of you guys. So much I want to run a duplicate of this on Thursday over Nurb night. LoL

Best of luck fellas. You got a good thing going.

I think I can speak for everyone in SPEC that we wish you could join us!👍
With the new format, this is right up your alley.
If, at anytime, you can make a race, please feel free to join in.

As I said above, I think the pits should be open under caution. If your leading and you pit under caution, you can possibly come out in last and it's what place you come out is where you restart. This also plays into what your strategy is going to be.

I like the idea of calling out a caution. But it would have to be in the case of someone knocking you off or something of that nature. Just because if your about to go a lap down, then you could just spin the car and call caution.

But it does sound like something we could talk about. Thanks Owens..👍

Been there, done that. Calling out cautions was a disaster. Remember, not everyone has mic's

Calling out caution has been tried before in this series. Less than stellar results to be honest. We even had a dedicated pace car, similar outcome.

To say it as only a NYer can say it, calling out cautions was a 'Cluster 🤬! It was worse with the Pace Car. In my opinion, it had everything thing to do with not everyone having a mic. We even tried a 1 letter/number code that you would text if you didn't have a mic.

 

[fzappa]

I remember when I was the pace car driver!!

Only one race though, then you told me that if I wanted to race with you, and here we are

And remember how that turned out👎

👍

Sorry, didn't mean to make my previous post sound defeatist. If we want to give them a try, maybe we can make them work this time.

You are absolutely not sounding like a defeatist! If it wasn't tried, maybe, but it was tried and it sucked! The only way that I would want to try calling out cautions ever again is when everyone in the race had a mic. But also remember that if the room is full or almost full, it could effect some people's connections.
I also want to have as many laps raced as possible and calling out a caution every time someone goes of or crashes takes a lot away from that.
Mandatory cautions twice in the race, I think would be a great way to go.
There's going to be a lot more strategy now that the boost is off.

 

[zer05ive]

👍

Sorry, didn't mean to make my previous post sound defeatist. If we want to give them a try, maybe we can make them work this time.

I don't think it sounded defeatist, it just sounded like the truth. The first month and a half of this thread was dominated by us discussing and developing rules on how to call out cautions and how to deploy pace cars (or having the race leader act as the pace car). However, the downfall of the idea was always that one person who didn't understand the rules. I still clearly remember the frustration of spending all that time discussing and developing the idea, only to have it all fall apart in the final dress rehearsal before officially implementing it. During that dress rehearsal, someone called for a caution, but the race leader just continued racing at full speed. We screamed and yelled in to the mic that there was a caution, and we typed all sorts of ALL CAPS messages in text box for him to slow down, but it didn't matter.. he just didn't have a clue! And because of him, we scrapped the entire idea!

I hind sight, we should've just let him speed away by himself and DQ'd him while the rest of us enjoyed the realism and "bunching up of the field" that the idea was intended to provide. If only we had a rule in place that automatically DQ'd anyone who was clueless! I still think the idea could work beautifully if everyone was on the same page, but that's hard to guarantee.

 

[cmbeal317]

As it has been said before, when we tried calling out cautions and it was a disaster, if everyone had mics it may have worked, but it would have taken a long time to get everything right.

I'm also going to revise what I said earlier, and the pits will be open all the time. Gaining a position during a caution would only happen if someone in front of you pits. Also I think we'll go with the idea of using letting the computer take over if you need to do something else quick(drink,bathroom, etc.), and if it pits you in, then you'll just end up at the back of the grid. Though don't go into "computer mode" until you have caught up with the rest of the cars.

So for example, if Kendawg is leading and he puts it into computer mode and it forces him to pit, correct me it this is wrong, who ever is behind him may continue on and take over the lead. The only way you'll be able to keep your position is to stay out of the pits. Though you could use pitting in to give you the advantage of getting on fresh tires for the restart at the end of the caution. Strategy is going to be extremely important from now on.

cmbeal317

 

[fzappa]

As it has been said before, when we tried calling out cautions and it was a disaster, if everyone had mics it may have worked, but it would have taken a long time to get everything right.

I'm also going to revise what I said earlier, and the pits will be open all the time. Gaining a position during a caution would only happen if someone in front of you pits. Also I think we'll go with the idea of using letting the computer take over if you need to do something else quick(drink,bathroom, etc.), and if it pits you in, then you'll just end up at the back of the grid. Though don't go into "computer mode" until you have caught up with the rest of the cars.

So for example, if Kendawg is leading and he puts it into computer mode and it forces him to pit, correct me it this is wrong, who ever is behind him may continue on and take over the lead. The only way you'll be able to keep your position is to stay out of the pits. Though you could use pitting in to give you the advantage of getting on fresh tires for the restart at the end of the caution. Strategy is going to be extremely important from now on.

cmbeal317

No matter what the circumstance is, if you pit, you start the race where you come out. So, your possible bathroom / drink break during cautions will also play into your strategy.

Don't hit that computer mode button until you have caught up to the leaders, under caution, that is.

I really think this format is going to work and it will be a lot easier for everyone to understand. To many confusing rules ruins the fun.

 

[kendawg]

Kinda jumping to a different question. What will be the points at the cautions and the points at the finish?

I think the two caution rule will work for what we are trying to accomplish. If there was a way that someone (an official) could watch the race and see the whole track and every car then he could call a caution. It would be kinda cool if GT had a way to do that.

 

[zer05ive]

I really think this format is going to work and it will be a lot easier for everyone to understand. To many confusing rules ruins the fun.

I'm actually quite surprised you guys are going to try it out. When I posted it, there was only one person who seemed to like the idea so I just figured you guys decided against it. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're giving it a shot but I'm not quite certain you guys should commit to using it for next season until you see how the test session goes tomorrow night. It could be a mitigated disaster for all we know (as was the case in my post above ). Fingers crossed though! I'm going to try to make the race so that I can help you guys simulate the grid size of a typical in-season race. However, there are a few things that still need to be decided on before the test session. For example..

Kinda jumping to a different question. What will be the points at the cautions and the points at the finish?

I think the two caution rule will work for what we are trying to accomplish. If there was a way that someone (an official) could watch the race and see the whole track and every car then he could call a caution. It would be kinda cool if GT had a way to do that.

This is definitely something that needs to be pre-defined before the test session because it will determine the level of risk/reward for pushing hard and eating tires for the sake of championship points. The more points that are awarded mid-race, the harder drives will be willing to push and sacrifice their tires to get them.

I know I originally suggested awarding points during each caution lap, but another idea you guys might want to consider is to just borrow some aspects of NASCAR's points system. So instead of awarding points during the caution laps to prevent divers from sandbagging excessively (saving tires and simply using the final caution lap to get into striking distance of the leader), you could simply award a bonus point to every driver who leads a lap and another bonus point to the driver who leads the most laps. This might make it easier to score points after the race and will basically make the final race results the only consideration in the championship points battle. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing though..

 

[kendawg]

I was thinking maybe something like this:

Cautions
Top 10 get points
1(10) 2(9) 3(8) etc.

Finish
Normal points
1(16) 2(15) 3(14) etc.

If your running out of the top 10 and a caution is coming up. Then you have nothing to loose by pitting early and having fresh tires after the caution and ahead of anyone that pits.
Or if your right behind the guy in tenth then you have a chance to drive a little harder and get that point.

Or we could just do one point for the guy leading at the caution.

 

[kcheeb]

I'm going to try to make the race so that I can help you guys simulate the grid size of a typical in-season race.

Wait, what?

 

[fzappa]

We did some practicing with implementing the new format tonight and I think we figured out a few things.

1 - The pause button definitely works. As soon as the leader crosses the start/finish line at said caution lap, it slows the car down and puts you at about 35mph.
The next in line catches up to the leader and when he is about two car lengths away, approximately, he hits his pause button and the next car does the same thing and so on. The game will then keep everyone in line, in the same position going around the track.

2 - You cannot pit when in computer mode. What happens is the game will bring you into the pits and you just sit there until you unpause. Also, the option box that pops up when you come into pit that gives you how much fuel and what tires you want does not pop up. To eliminate that from happening, as soon as the game puts you in pit lane, you must take it off pause before entering the pit; before the game grabs your car. Then the box will pop up and you pit as normal.

3 - If you don't want to pit during the caution, right before the pit, you take your car off pause and maintain 35 mph until you pass pit entrance, then hit your pause button again. That would also apply if you don't want to pit on the second caution lap. It will be up to the driver to make sure his car doesn't enter the pit in 'computer mode'. So, if you need to use the restroom, I would do it after you catch up and apply your pause button. If you enter the pit in 'computer mode' and lose spots, that's on you. So not only will you have to think about race strategy, you also have to think about pee strategy

We practiced on Fuji Speedway F and it took about 3 minutes to do a full caution lap in computer mode. I don't think anyone is going to have a problem catching up, even if you are a lap or two down. We should also cut qualifying down to 10 minutes from 15 minutes to compensate for the caution laps so we have more laps to actually race. I think the size of the track will determine how many caution laps there are. 2 laps max but if we race Sarthe or Nurburgring 24 or tracks that are long like that, then 1 lap should do the trick.

4 - Restarts. When you come around the last turn, before the start/finish, take you car off pause and maintain the 35 mph speed. The race starts again, for all, when you cross the start/finish line. No one can pass before the start/finish line but you can pass, if you can and are clean about it, after you cross the start/finish line.

This is all going to take some practice but after tomorrow night, we will have it down. It's not complicated at all. Remember, we're Snails!👍

As for the points awarded,

1 point for pole

Just award points on how many are racing that night. So if 11 are racing, the leader after the 1st caution will get 11 points, 2nd will get 10 points and so on. That will also apply on the second caution.
Since there is 16 spots in the room, the overall points awarded for the race should be; 1st - 16 points, 2nd 15 points and so on.

I will be the scorekeeper during both cautions, if you would like.

I think that this is going to be the best season in SPEC.

Please feel free to comment.

 

[THRASH]

Hey guys i will be there tomorrow night but I just want to throw my 2 cents in here. In my opinion there is no point to not being allowed to pit under caution. People can just pit the lap before they know there's a caution and when the full course yellow is thrown they just automatically catch up. I like the idea though

 

[kendawg]

Should Danica Patrick get a boob job to increase sponsorship?

 

[kendawg]

Hey guys i will be there tomorrow night but I just want to throw my 2 cents in here. In my opinion there is no point to not being allowed to pit under caution. People can just pit the lap before they know there's a caution and when the full course yellow is thrown they just automatically catch up. I like the idea though

But you will be loosing out on the bonus caution points if you pit before the caution. So, do you stay out and get the points. Or do you pit, loose the points but gain track position.

There will be alot of strategy involved.

 

[THRASH]

But you will be loosing out on the bonus caution points if you pit before the caution. So, do you stay out and get the points. Or do you pit, loose the points but gain track position.

There will be alot of strategy involved.

Wait there's bonus points I'm confused

 

[dangerzone641]

Should Danica Patrick get a boob job to increase sponsorship?

If she did, motorsports would grow incredibly (just like her boobs)

 

[kendawg]

As for the points awarded,

1 point for pole

Just award points on how many are racing that night. So if 11 are racing, the leader after the 1st caution will get 11 points, 2nd will get 10 points and so on. That will also apply on the second caution.
Since there is 16 spots in the room, the overall points awarded for the race should be; 1st - 16 points, 2nd 15 points and so on.

Read this

 

[fzappa]

Should Danica Patrick get a boob job to increase sponsorship?

Simpson Racing would have to redesign the six-point restraint, just for her.

 

[rossitronic]

Points awarded should be uniform and not determined by the number of drivers competing. Also points at the various caution breaks should be awarded to the top 5 drivers with 5 points awarded to the driver in first position.

I think this is gonna be a great season.

 

[kendawg]

Points awarded should be uniform and not determined by the number of drivers competing. Also points at the various caution breaks should be awarded to the top 5 drivers with 5 points awarded to the driver in first position.

I think this is gonna be a great season.

I'm in agree-ance with this.👍

 

[kendawg]

I'm bored and ready for some racing tonight. Been raining all day for the last 3 days. Only the frogs and ducks have been enjoying the last few days.
Wait, I see a frog carring an umbrella. Now the frogs are even tired of it..

 

[fzappa]

Points awarded should be uniform and not determined by the number of drivers competing. Also points at the various caution breaks should be awarded to the top 5 drivers with 5 points awarded to the driver in first position.

I think this is gonna be a great season.

I'm in agree-ance with this.👍

Figuring out how and when and how many points to award will be the easiest part to plan.

I think the main focus of tonight's practice should be the racing format. Getting everyone on the same page, when it comes to the cautions, pits and pause button. I think this is going to be awesome when everyone gets the new format down:tup:
Pit strategy is going to play a much more important roll this season.

 

[cmbeal317]

I'm still not sure how we'll award points for the caution periods, but for tonight that is the least concern we have. Lets just focus tonight on getting the racing down, then we can deal with the points discussion after we confirm that everything will go smoothly tonight.

cmbeal317

 

[kendawg]

But I want to win practice...

 

[dangerzone641]

But I want to win practice...

You'll have to get through me first

 

[Chiochan]

That was fun. After watching the replay it is clear we were not on the same page in regards to the caution laps and pitting rules. I personally erred when I passed the whole field coming out of caution. At least I was first for like 10 seconds! HAAHAHA

 

[kendawg]

Yea, Watched the replay and the first pit was all screwed up. We should have slowed at the start of lap 24 instead of 25. We only did one lap instead of two.
The second caution was better. We slowed on lap 48 and resumed at the start of lap 50. Everyone seemed to have the idea by then.

Going forward, after the race last night we discussed the caution laps. Take last nights race for example:
Caution laps are at the start of lap 24 and 48. So, the pit road will be closed on lap 23 and 47. No one can pit on these laps. You must get the caution flag, start of lap 24, then you can enter the pits when you come back around. Then at the end of lap 25 and the start of lap 26 racing will resume.

Some of us that have mics will remind the leader and everyone else that the start of the next lap will be the caution lap. Sometimes in the heat of the race guys loose train of thought on what lap the caution comes out. So, it will just be a friendly reminder.

 

[kendawg]

If points were awarded last night using the top 5 get points at cautions and normal points at the end.

First caustion
1. dabneyd (5)
2. Vail (4)
3. Kendawg (3)
4. kcheeb (2)
5. rossi (1)

Second caution
1. Vail (5)
2. rossi (4)
3. dangerzone (3)
4. Kendawg (2)
5. kcheeb (1)

Finsh
1. dangerzone (16) 1 point for pole (17)
2. dabneyd (15)
3. kcheeb (14)
4. Kendawg (13)
5. rossi (12)
6. tcrash (11)
7. Vail (10)
8. Goat (9)
9. Beal (8)

Standing Points
1. Dangerzone...........20
2. dabneyd...............20
3. Vail......................19
4. Kendawg...............18
5. kcheeb..................17
6. rossi.....................17
7. tcrash...................11
8. Goat......................9
9. cmbeal...................8

 

[kendawg]

Lets go guys, Need some tracks from Vail, tcrash, RacingChamp, cmbeal and Kendawg..

 

[fzappa]

Lets go guys, Need some tracks from Vail, tcrash, RacingChamp, cmbeal and Kendawg..

Vail picked Suzuka

tcrash15 picks Fuji GT

 

[kendawg]

Fuji GT or Fugi F?