DR

[Oldrver51]

I will finish better than where i started against same level or better competition and my DR goes down.
My Safety rating went up because i ran a clean race as usual..This happens to me on a regular basis.
Can anyone explain why this happens?

Its bad enough I have to deal with all the "fast" drivers with no control who have safety ratings of A or lower, but when I do navigate them to move forward and finish better than where I started only to see my DR go down it sucks.

Signed
Frustrated Driver

 

[Pigems]

You have to finish in the top half on average to make gains, there is an entire formula for it if you wanna go down the rabbit hole. Starting position doesn’t matter at all, whether you start first or last is irrelevant. Only where you finish matters, the more higher rated drivers you beat, the more DR you will gain. Beating an equal rated driver is worth 80 DR points, iirc. And it goes up and down from there as the DR spread grows, up to 160 points per driver beat, iirc. I’ll see if I can find the whole formula.

Edit: Here’s a better description and/or explanation.

 

[Oldrver51]

Thank you for the answer. That makes a little more sense now.
It also makes the wreckers or checkers crowd, that i seem to be a magnet for, that much more frustrating. I have been as high as B level {just barely} then immediately got wrecked in 3 straight races by people with A and B level safety ratings sending me tumbling down the C ratings where i have been playing the YoYo game.
My safety rating is S level, never been lower.

 

[Talon16]

Here's the formula if interested. I copied this from @Famine so credit goes to him (I did snip some bits out as it was part of a different conversation that's not relevant here). This topic comes up a lot so I figured it'd come in handy. IMO, the first sentence sums up how it works very nicely and is quite concise.

DR is solely determined by your race finishing positions: a straightforward exchange of points between you, the people you beat and people who beat you scaled according to the relative difference in points between you.

snip

For every car you finish in front of you gain: 80 - ((Player DR - Rival DR))/500)DR

For every car you finish behind, you lose: 80 + ((Player DR - Rival DR))/500)DR

As you can see, unless the difference is in excess of 39,500pt, you'll lose at least one point.

In a race where everyone has identical DR, this is the change in points after the race:
1: +1200
2: +1040
3: +880
4: +720
5: +560
6: +400
7: +240
8: +80
9: -80
10: -240
11: -400
12: -560
13: -720
14: -880
15: -1040
16: -1200

snip

 

[Oldrver51]

So 8th or better is the goal

 

[sonnyboychris]

Maybe I'm crazy and completely off base here, please correct me if I am. It seems that that formula is only remotely fair if they had standing starts.

I understand that it puts an emphasis on qualifying but that's just an excuse imo. Someone can put time and effort into qualifying well but still start 10th or worse and have the odds stacked against, under the looming threat of being forced into lower lobbies.

 

[Famine]

So 8th or better is the goal

Not exactly, but on average a top-half finish will gain you points and a bottom-half finish will lose you points - as you gain points from everyone you beat and lose them to everyone who beats you.

It can be skewed by having wildly different DRs in the lobby: if you're A+ and finish 5th (out of 16) behind a bunch of C drivers you'll probably lose points.

But on average, top half is good enough if the DRs are close together.

 

[Oldrver51]

Not exactly, but on average a top-half finish will gain you points and a bottom-half finish will lose you points - as you gain points from everyone you beat and lose them to everyone who beats you.

It can be skewed by having wildly different DRs in the lobby: if you're A+ and finish 5th (out of 16) behind a bunch of C drivers you'll probably lose points.

But on average, top half is good enough if the DRs are close together.

I was basing the 8th or better on the assumption that the DR's were close together as that was my original post/complaint..lol

 

[Oldrver51]

Maybe I'm crazy and completely off base here, please correct me if I am. It seems that that formula is only remotely fair if they had standing starts.

I understand that it puts an emphasis on qualifying but that's just an excuse imo. Someone can put time and effort into qualifying well but still start 10th or worse and have the odds stacked against, under the looming threat of being forced into lower lobbies.

I don't think how you start has any bearing on where you finish. Where you start definitely can.
Although i tend to start towards the back of the field and work my way forward because i run laps comparable to my qualification laps in race and a lot of people run way slower in race than they do on the one lap.
Personally I think they should do a 2 lap qualification before each race. Wouldn't even take that much more time, 1 out lap and a hot lap with a timer on it to keep people from holding everyone else up. I think it would be way fairer because there's a difference between getting it right once in several hours of practice and getting it right in 2 laps, consistently.