Gauging interest: Spec Miata online series in FM4 (Flyin' Miata Super Cup *new logo*)

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Wardez

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Friday nights 6pm Pacific - 9pm Eastern - GMT 2:00 Saturday




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All races have a green flag race time of: Friday 9pm EST - Saturday 01:00 GMT

  • Pre-season race - October 14th - Indianapolis Road Course 2.6 miles/ 4.19km
    18 laps = 75km
  • October 21st - Hockenheimring National 2.2 miles/ 3.54km
    21 laps= 75km
  • October 28th - Infineon Raceway Cup (NASCAR) - 1.99 miles/ 3.2km
    23 laps = 75km
  • November 4th - Catulyuna National 1.85/ 2.98km
    25 laps = 75 km
  • November 11th - Road Atlanta Full mini-enduro - 2.54/ 4.08km
    31 laps = 125km
  • November 18th - Tsukuba Full 1.27 miles/ 2.04 km
    38 laps = 75km

    *Holiday week break*

  • December 2nd - Sebring Club 1.7 miles/ 2.73 km
    27 laps = 75km
  • December 9th - Suzuka West 2.15 miles/ 3.46 km
    22 laps = 75km
  • December 16th - Laguna Seca mini-enduro - 2.24 miles/ 3.6km
    35 laps = 125km


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Rules:


  • Environment = Schedule
  • Track = Schedule
  • Max Players = 16
  • Laps = Schedule
  • Damage Difficulty = Cosmetic
  • Collision Mode = On
  • End of Race Timer = 160 seconds


Advanced Rules:

  • Scoring Type = Time Based
  • Compare Best Lap Scores = No
  • Grid Ordering = TBD

Car Restrictions:

  • Allow Upgrades = Yes
  • Car Class = D
  • Performance Index (more or equal) = 304
  • Performance Index (less) = 305
  • Make = Mazda
  • Model = MAZDA MX-5 Miata '94

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Click this button in order to view this week's qualifying registry:


Qualifying is still being determined at this time. So we'll first just let you know what we'd like to do before we actually get our hands on the game: In order to achieve the closest field of competition possible we will do away with the club-style format that utilize "driver slots" that anyone can claim. We're going to use a qualify-for-your-spot format.

When a driver registers, they're not guaranteed a spot on the grid for the race. A driver must make the top 16 cut-off, or "bubble", time in order to make it in each week.

The actual qualifying session is a "live" (meaning online in the presence of a Capable Host) sole qualifier.

Drivers will have 4 laps to set their best time. 1 warm-up lap, 2 flying laps, then 1 cool-down lap. Only your best time from the 2 flying laps will be taken if clean. Dirty times will have a standard 3 second penalty added to them. You only get once chance for that week's race to qualify, so choose your time wisely.

It's similar to NASCAR style qualifying where one driver and car is out on the track at a time in order to set their fastest time within a limited amount of laps. This system involves one (or up to three drivers depending on the track length) being let out on the track for that week then having a race start (since there's no free run) and be observed by the Capable Host.
A Capable Host is someone who the administrators of the series trust to know the procedure of qualifying well enough to host sessions without the presence of the admins. They will be asked to become CH's privately once they have shown beyond a doubt that they are qualified enough to become one.



This is what the ideal process of qualifying each week will be:
A driver can submit a qualifying time through out the race week which typically starts the day after the the last race. The deadline will be Midnight on Thursdays Pacific time. Drivers will have the entire week leading up to the race on Friday to practice and then contact a Capable Host in order to set up a public room in order to do their qualifying runs in a controlled environment.

Group sessions are allowed in that the qualifying room isn't limited only to the person qualifying. We only ask that all mics be turned off during qualifying runs of others as to not interrupt their laps or be penalized.
There will be instances where one "qualifying room" will become host to a number of drivers all there waiting for their turns to set their times.

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(from the previous GT5 version of the series)
2 Lap Live Exhibition Qualifying:
Drivers only have one attempt at setting their fastest lap so choose the time you qualify carefully. Any laps or sessions disrupted by disconnections or network failures will not be counted what so ever. Even if you just crossed the line on your second flying lap.

Procedure: A capable host will open a qualifying room.

When the qualifying room is ready to start a session we will let one or two (depending on room size) chosen drivers go out one at a time (to give eachother room). When the qualifying session begins on track, one driver will be chosen to start their out lap first and the second driver will be told to hold on the line for 20 seconds until they can start.
All other visitors in the room will simply observe the session, mics must be off.

The room will be set to a 4 lap race. Only laps 2 and 3 will count as qualifying "flying lap" times.

The driver's fastest lap will set their qualification. Your official valid time will then be put up on a Google Doc's spreadsheet containing all times for the week. Your time will be sorted among the other competitor's through out the qualifying week up to deadline.
A link to the sheet "qualifying registry" will be posted here shortly for you to bookmark. The easy to remembery bitly link will be: (http://bit.ly/fmsclivequalifying).

Qualification will be floating format:
You can choose to qualify during any time of the week after the prior race (Friday night) up to Midnight, Pacific time, on Thursday night.

Qualifying will always be done with limited damage and on the mid-day versions of tracks we visit that feature variable time.
I'm allowing anyone that I deem qualified enough to hold qualifying sessions. These people will be called "Capable Hosts". They will set up the rooms properly, set your session on, save the replay and submit the time to our qualification time spreadsheet.

It's a very liberal system that takes the stress off of people needing to wait for the head of the series to be around. I will not allow new drivers I don't know or people who aren't trustworthy to be capable hosts. The list will be kept at the top of the OP under the "Race stewards" title.
Any capable host can note the time and post the official ranking in the thread.

  • Once the race has been started by the host, cars will roll on their warm up lap.
  • Drivers must leave gaps between each other to allow sufficient space (around 20-30 seconds).
  • Drafting between cars will immediately cause the lap to be made invalid.
  • If a protest arises over a doubtful or dirty lap, the replay will always be saved by the host and checked by the stewards.
  • If confirmed dirty, a timed penalty will be imposed depending on the severity of the offense (Standard 3 seconds).
  • The process will be until all drivers that are confirmed for the race have qualified.
  • All drivers must stay on track after their third lap until the CH has confirmed that the times have been collected. Then you may exit the track as they say so.
    1. If a driver runs into ANY trouble during an official qualifying session, the session can under no circumstance restart. Unless: Someting happens
      during the outlap, and you're the only car on track, the session can restart as long as the timer for the first flying lap has not been activated.
    2. A driver may not leave the track and back out to the lobby until the observer confirms his time by entering it in the lobby chat. Only until then can you leave the track.
    3. If a driver disconnects during a session, he may reconnect and drive up to that at which he got DC'd. If the DC occurs while on the 1st (2nd lap)
      qualy-lap, he may restart and this time ONLY his 2nd (3rd lap) qualy-lap will be valid. The lap where the driver got DC'd counts as "dirty" with
      no registered lap-time.
    4. If one of the driver's quali. laps are "dirty" there are 2 scenarios:
      a. If a lap time beyond any doubt was slower due to an "off track/dirty" situation, no penalty is given and the lap-time stays.
      b. If a lap time could have gained any time what so ever due to an "off track/dirty" situation, a penalty of 3 seconds will be applied to the lap-time.
      c. If the lap time that had the 5 seconds docked on for a bad lap is still faster than the other flying lap of the driver the slower, non-exploitative, lap will always be taken.


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    The race will have a rolling start in order to implement our qualifying order. The grid order to the room will be set to random so when we start the race we'll communicate each other's positions over the mics in order to get ourselves in the correct running order. Then we will do one formation lap in double file @ exactly 55mph/90kmh until we reach the front straight.
    Like so:
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    Pole sitter must lead the pack effectively and not leave anyone behind. The pole sitter decides when the race starts. Once everyone is on the front straight the pole position driver (or a designated started) will countdown from 3 and the race will start on their "go."

    Each race will have one mandatory pit stop. You can not pit on the first two or last two laps. Wou will be disqualified if you do not abide by these rules.

    RESTARTS
    A restart can only occur if the following happens:
    • The lobby has been setup incorrectly
    • A driver lags out within the first 3 laps (for Race's 4 and 8, this is the first lap only)
    • Racing collision involving 4 or more cars within the first 3 laps (for Race's 4 and 8, this is the first lap only)
    • Large lag related crash within the first 3 laps (for Race's 4 and 8, this is the first lap only)

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    Points system:
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    1 point for fastest lap - 1 point for pole position -

    The points table for the series will be a self-calculating Google Docs spreadsheet that currently being designed.

    Lagouts and Retirements:
    If you do not complete the race through whatever reason, you will be classified as a retirement and your finishing position will be determined by the 75% rule, whereby if you retire before 75% race completion, you will receive last placed points overall with the lap you retired on determining your position amongst other drivers of a similar situation. However, if you retire after 75% race completion, you will receive last placed points for your lobby. With subsequent grids based on finishing results, retirees will probably start the following race in the next room below, unless there were more than 3 retirements, of which case the laps retired on will determine room placement.

    Connection Problems:
    If you cannot connect to your race room, you will receive last placed points for your qualifying room upon completing the Connection Confliction procedure stated below. This will be for the first 2 conflicts only, upon which you will then only receive overall last placed points.

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    A full list of racing guidelines will be posted here in the coming days.

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    CONNECTIONS

    Having a good connection will directly dictate how good your racing experience will be and so it is vital that it is the best it possibly can be. Many factors can affect the quality of the connection from bandwidths, signal strength and NAT settings, so please take the time to read this Connection Guide and enhance the experience.

    If you cannot connect properly on race day, then it will not be delayed. Conflictions with other racers preventing access to rooms will need to be sorted by those in question, and those 1 or 2 racers will need to sort their problems or they will not be allowed to race. The person with the better qualifying will be allowed to race, as long as he does not conflict with others. If a confliction prevents two or more other drivers from participating, then that driver in question will not be allowed to race. It is strongly recommended to get online 30 minutes before race time to work out any connection problems.

    CONFLICTION DURING A RACE MEETING
    If there is a confliction within your race room, you must find out who the confliction is with. The Room Host will invite all his drivers to the room, with the driver who cannot get in then proceeding to open a new room. He will then invite a driver from the room and wait for him to gain access, before inviting another driver. The process is repeated until the confliction is found, of which the driver with the better qualifying will be permitted to race, and the excluded driver receiving points based on Connection Confliction points. This process should not take longer than 5 minutes.

    If you have any questions or queries regarding any aspect of the series, get in contact with the Series Organiser or the Series Support Team. Alternatively, Race Stewards are available and they will be able to either answer your question or point you in the right direction. Either PM them on the forum or send them a message on XBL, but do not send a friends request as this will not be accepted if we don't know you, or we don't have room. A message will be read though.


    Who would be down to help get this thing started on Forza 4 once it drops in October? We'll have plenty of time to figure out what we'd want to run as far as tracks, cars (an Mx-5 obviously) and regulations go.

    One thing that'd really help me out is if any one here has experience running leagues or series in previous Forza Motorsport games.

    I've looked at a few different forums dedicated to Forza trying to figure which one would be best to base it in but I'm thinking of just starting it here on GTP small, then working our people up through the forums till we find our place.

    That way we can post the series to tons of different forums in order to get a good amount of people in on it.

    I looked at Forza Central and their online section seems really inactive at the moment but it'll obviously pick up soon, same with the official Forza forums so we'll need to get cracking on getting the name out there.

    Also, I'm going to buy a Fanatec GT2 CSR in order to get cracking on Forza 3 again and try and get a good idea of its online limitations, ins and outs.

    Should be awesome this time around though in FM4 since they're supporting 16 car fields. We'll find lots of ways to make the racing interesting and clean by brainstorming and testing. If you'd like to be a more major part of this venture into FM4 then please let me know here or in a PM if you'd like to volunteer your time in getting it up and going.

    This could become a very big series (as it has here on GTP for GT5) so I hope the thought of starting with the series in its infancy in Forza will peak all your interests.

    We have plenty of time :) 👍
 
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I'd be interested in a general online series that wasn't limited to one specific make for the entire series. I'd be more interested if each race was limited to a specific car class (Week one: Class E cars. Week two: Class D etc...) or perhaps a different make/model every week or the choice between several makes that were close in performance like say Camaro vs Firebird or Viper vs Corvette.
 
I'd be interested in a general online series that wasn't limited to one specific make for the entire series. I'd be more interested if each race was limited to a specific car class (Week one: Class E cars. Week two: Class D etc...) or perhaps a different make/model every week or the choice between several makes that were close in performance like say Camaro vs Firebird or Viper vs Corvette.

That's what we're doing tonight. I got the idea from watching the Continental Tire Challenge. We're letting you bring either Camaro, Challenger, BMW (certain year) and Shelby Mustang. You must have cage installed (for safety ;) )
http://wheelracers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=446
 
The FMSC Is so much fun, i hope it turns as popular on FM4 as it is on GT5
 
I'd be interested in a general online series that wasn't limited to one specific make for the entire series. I'd be more interested if each race was limited to a specific car class (Week one: Class E cars. Week two: Class D etc...) or perhaps a different make/model every week or the choice between several makes that were close in performance like say Camaro vs Firebird or Viper vs Corvette.

The FMSC is strictly Miata's. So doesn't sound like what you are looking for.
 
I'd be interested in a general online series that wasn't limited to one specific make for the entire series. I'd be more interested if each race was limited to a specific car class (Week one: Class E cars. Week two: Class D etc...) or perhaps a different make/model every week or the choice between several makes that were close in performance like say Camaro vs Firebird or Viper vs Corvette.

Yeah, this one is strictly one-make spec racing. There'll be an overflow of series like the type you mentioned so you'll easily find one to race in. Spec Miata's more clean cut and easier to jump into and just race instead of worrying about car levels or anything.
 
I'm tentatively interested depending on the talent level. I fear I'll have my backside handed to me.
 
Well you should always remember that the best way to get better is to race along side more talented drivers.

You should try even if the field's full of Schumachers or Vettels, it's not like we're racing for money :P

Thanks for showing interest, hope to see you around 👍
 
Starting this up as a Friday night series guys! We're gonna start testing next week and will be using the series as a cheap and easy introduction to higher racing levels that will come in the future, namely the Coupe Apex d'Le Mans cup series and a V8 SuperCar World Series.

Feel free to put forth interest through here. We're going to be simultaneously hosting the series on both Forzacentral.com and forums.forzamotorsport.net
 
I'd love to get in on a spec miata series, but I'd prefer to limit the series to wheel racers with clutch use (spec means spec, right?)
 
Hmm, that would be an awesome way to go (as I use all of what you mentioned) but unfortunately it only draws a small crowd.

This series will allow any view, but absolutely no assists what so ever save for the clutch, which will not be enforced.

If there's enough interest in your sort of series then we could try to get a few like minded people together based off the same specs as this but with more regulation on a different night.
 
Thanks for the interest KFC. I'm gonna be putting up the sign-up button in a bit so you all can officially register.

btw, I just updated the op with the spec sheet for the car. Keep an eye on the OP, it'll keep getting stuff added to it.

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I hope to join a test sesson is see how the ping works out first, if it is alright I am extremely interested.
 
I hope to join a test sesson is see how the ping works out first, if it is alright I am extremely interested.

I'm sure it'll be fine. Glad to have your interest.
 
Don't be so sure yet cos I am across the pond. :P

use to run okay in a east coast based FM3 league but 16 players will make things different I think.
 
Alright everything's pretty much done for now. I've posted this thread to ForzaCentral and the official Forza forums so I'm just gonna wait for the registrations to, hopefully, come in.

If you guys see anything wrong with something in the OP, no matter how small, please feel more than welcomed to say so. The collaboration begins now :)👍
 
Would I be able to drop into a race without doing any qualifying or whatever and just start from the back of the pack? I might be interested in one or two races but not the whole season.
 
Yeah man, you can always do that. It's such a given that I forgot to include a word about it in the op, thanks.
 
Gamertag is VVV Aizen93. I am up for it as soon as the game launches here in europe. I'll try to get more friends on this.
 
We can create our own liveries right? I know it's a dumb question, just wanted to be sure.
 
Yeah of course. Under regulations there's a bit of a mention about it.

Once I get my hands on the game I'm gonna be using my HD PVR to grab screens of a bunch of stuff after I make the number plate, windshield banner and other stamps.

Basically, you're going to need to display your number on the rear right bumper, the passenger side of the top of the trunk, and the hood, where the plate will be set at an angle.

Then the only thing you'll need to display is your name, the url, " www.flyinmiata.com " on the front and rear and that's about it. There'll be some basic guidelines put in place in order to prevent liveries of bad taste.

But pretty much it'll just need to look like a race car above all else.
 
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