Magic Lap Racing :: Obsolete Thread - See GT6 forum

[dylansan]

Indeed, I did have a read through that when someone mentioned bracket racing before.

It is quite similar, though in bracket racing there is an actual winner and loser because of all the specific times that can be recorded, while in GT5 we can't exactly have that accuracy. It would be really cool if PD included some kind of option for this, not just on drag racing circuits either.

One other difficulty though it the first lap will always be slower than the others, and this affects slower cars more than faster ones due to their poor acceleration. So not only can the first lap not really be timed correctly, it can even give certain drivers an advantage.

As much as I would like to be able to keep track of winners and losers in each race, it doesn't seem possible without quite a lot of changes to the game and a lot of effort. I have, however, added something to my excel spreadsheet which reduces the disadvantage slower cars have at the start. A sort of multiplier which gives them a slightly greater head start that can be fine tuned to prevent cars finishing in order from fastest to slowest. I've attached it below.

 

[Chiochan]

Figure 8 craziness, I'm not gonna miss this. Not sure what to drive... what are you guys driving?

 

[dylansan]

I'm probably going to switch between an Elan and something a bit faster, the RM Elise perhaps, or an E-Type.

Should be fun.

 

[cmbeal317]

I'm gonna start with a Jensen Interceptor, then later on change to a TVR Tamora.
Particularly the Interceptor because of this:

Mine's gonna be Clarkson's black Interceptor.

 

[Chiochan]

Hilarious

 

[cmbeal317]

Here's what I was talking about:


Jessica with car engines:


James May's Toy Stories: The Great Train Race


James May's Toy Stories: Lego House


James May's Man Lab Episode 1


Episode 2


Episode 3

 

[Chiochan]

nice videos. I got discon so i'm going to go to bed. thanks for the races guys.

 

[dylansan]

More racing tonight, with the British cars again. Feel free to try out cars you didn't get to use last week, or stick to the same ones. I don't have the times still recorded so unless you remember you'll have to rerun your times either way.

One thing to note: Feel free to run some laps on your own in a lobby to get your times before the racing. If you have two or more cars you plan to run, get times for a couple of them so you don't need to run laps every time you switch.

And I'm working on a banner for these events in the same style as the other S.N.A.I.L. banners. Maybe I'll have it done by tonight and post it with the room number to grab people's attention.

 

[dylansan]

Audi Racing tomorrow! Hope to see a wide variety of cars there! You'll probably see me driving the A2 and something else.

Please note that tonight's racing starts at 9, not 10. This is to give us a bit more time as we often waste a lot of it. I'm trying to streamline the process to help as well, but the biggest help will be having people test their cars before they show up for racing.

 

[cmbeal317]

Audi Racing tomorrow! Hope to see a wide variety of cars there! You'll probably see me driving the A2 and something else.

Please note that tonight's racing starts at 9, not 10. This is to give us a bit more time as we often waste a lot of it. I'm trying to streamline the process to help as well, but the biggest help will be having people test their cars before they show up for racing.

I should be able to join but not until around 10pm, great to see some German cars, any idea where we'll be racing?

 

[diabolicwyvern]

How many audi should someone prepare for this event?

 

[dylansan]

How many audi should someone prepare for this event?

As many as you want. If you plan on driving something really slow or really fast, it would be nice to have something in between as well. That way if someone wants to race something really fast and you have somethings slow, they won't have several hours for the delay, or vice versa. You can leave one car untested as we'll still be running laps when the room opens, but once we start, I'd like not to have to do any more testing when people feel like switching.

 

[diabolicwyvern]

Came home from work and took a nap... to late to join?

 

[dabneyd]

Came home from work and took a nap... to late to join?

Nope! We've only done one race, starting the second now.

 

[dylansan]

Well, I've decided the open lobby just isn't the place for this. Yes, it's nice to have more people racing, and a few randoms have actually become weekly participants, but dealing with people who have no idea what's going on is just too hard.

For one, we have to explain the entire process every time anyone joins, and some people don't comprehend it and end up ruining races. Tonight we had someone who repeatedly told us to "just start the race, man" despite not setting any lap time. We eventually kicked him, but it's just too frustrating. At another point someone joined the room and the race right as it was starting, causing us to have to start over.

Most importantly, the time-saving technique of having people get times before they show up is worthless if random strangers are showing up too. Unfortunately, there is no way to let people run laps while the race is going on, without them leaving the room. And as if they would come back (except one did, which was nice). This means we still get very little racing accomplished as we spend most of our time just waiting.

In essence, it boils down to this: I would much rather do two hours of racing with three or four good drivers who know what's going on, than do about 45 minutes of actual racing with twelve drivers, some of whom are clueless and destructive. I'm willing to sacrifice the number of drivers for more and better quality racing overall.

If the process is streamlined enough, perhaps starting at 9 will be unnecessary. I noticed a few people left about two hours in at 11 anyway, so it didn't give us that much more time.

Anyway, if we're ditching open lobby, we need as much participation as possible. I know there are people who would be interested in this but have no idea about S.N.A.I.L., and now it will be very hard to reach these people and show them this. If anyone wants to try hosting this on their own time to find interested people and lead them here, feel free. But it's a lot of work to weed out the crazies and get good racing in, so I can't expect anyone to do so.

It's just a bit frustrating because getting the most enjoyment out of this requires several good drivers. It just isn't fun with very few people or with horrible drivers. Right now I'm just trying to find a balance between those two extremes. Any help getting there would be much appreciated.

 

[tezgm99]

Only thing I can think of streamlining the process even more would be to race it in someone's lounge, not the SNAIL one. I say that so people who are in SNAIL might just be browsing their friends' list and see a bunch of us in there (I admit to doing that fairly often since practicing by yourself all the time gets dull), but not have any idea of what we're trying to achieve when they join since they haven't read this thread

 

[dylansan]

So I've updated the first post again, and I just wanted to bring the back up to the front page and point out that:

Anyone is welcome to join us for this! However, it is held in a S.N.A.I.L. lounge so you will have to ask in the S.N.A.I.L. thread for a friend request from the division 3 lounge (just tell them you want to try some Magic Lap)

If you're not a member of S.N.A.I.L. there's less we can do to ensure you follow all the rules, but if anyone's being overly aggressive and unsportsmanlike, I won't hesitate to kick them, and possibly ban them from participating if necessary. This all sounds so mean, but I don't really expect that to happen.

 

[dylansan]

I'd like to announce that this series will be returning this summer, with quite a few changes (including the move to GT6). Watch this space, as the OP will be updated very soon, and the first Magic Lap of 2014 will be underway!

As a little teaser of what to expect, have a look through the Mitsubishi dealership and see if anything catches your eye. But don't go on a shopping spree yet - I'll be providing a list of cars later for you to peruse, along with guidelines for how this will work from now on. The new system is expected to be much less complicated than before, and should allow for much more racing during the night and less fiddling with complicated math (that's the power of spreadsheets).

A few concerns I'd like to bring up:

The day: When are people available to race? I'm currently available most of the time, but I may have a job soon which could require me to change the schedule a bit. Let's not worry about that now. If you're interested, post here and let me know when you're available.

The host: I've had many problems with reliable internet in the past. This has led to situations where the room has been passed to another player to do with as he pleases, while I try and reconnect so I can give everyone their instructions. With the new system, the room should be mostly self sufficient, but a solid connection for racing is still desirable. If anyone thinks they may be participating in this often and has a good connection, let me know, and maybe you can host the room yourself so I don't have to.



We've had a lot of fun with this in the past. It would be nice to see faces both familiar and new this summer. If all goes well, I guarantee we'll have a blast!



Edit: Since this is in the GT5 forum still, I'll make a new post in the GT6 forum soon.

 

[cnd01]

I'm pretty busy at the moment, but I can race on most weekends. I'd like to get back into this if it fits my schedule