Are you avoiding racing on-line? Still? Why?
If you are new to on-line racing due to downtime because of the pandemic, you may have found that the Daily Sport races and some custom lobbies can be pretty rough. That is an instant turn-off for all but the nihilistic. It is not fun, trust me. I stopped doing almost any Sport races more than two years ago because there was little chance of having fun. Occasionally, something like the Supra Championship will interest me in Sport Mode, but for the most part, I stick to custom lobbies that have good settings and racing with friends that I have learned to trust, but I still look for lobbies with unfamiliar drivers to me. That at least gives me some control over the racing environment, by picking and choosing custom lobbies which have great settings.
This is also why I host the weekly Monday Night Racing challenges. Using good settings that have stood the test of time, the environment can be set such that drivers soon learn on their own that they can't mess about and get away with much. Penalties are set to strong, damage is set to Heavy, and tires have limited grip. These three things are enough to set the tone of our races. The cars also have their original weight and power, so weight and braking can be a factor, too. Everyone knows (or soon learns) that, if they mess up, they will either have to limp back to the pits or they will have some sort of time penalty (within GT Sport's limitations, of course). They also learn better that they could be the cause of someone else's pain, too, and the empathetic drivers will calm down and are more cautious when around other drivers.
Limiting grip makes drivers more cautious compared to the carefree environment of almost limitless grip found in many lobbies. No Traction Control is needed for most vehicles in GT, so that weeds out more of the drivers who rely on it versus learning to drive without it, but this can affect some drivers using Dual Shock controllers. GT does not allow for compromise here, though.
Setting the grid to Fastest First usually eliminates a lot of the first corner or first lap incidents caused by crowding going into the first corner. It also adds a bit of incentive for the drivers with cars ahead of them to try harder and go faster, to at least try and catch up to them.
Each MNR's program is also comforting, in that you know that you usually only need one car, whether good or not so great, for the whole night. This gives you a chance to improve your settings for it, get more time to grow comfortable with individual cars, and gain more confidence in your driving. You also are likely to get a better chance to redeem yourself after making mistakes, so there is an incentive to sticking around for a while longer. The length of the races allow for making mistakes and still trying to recover and close gaps.
Our public lobbies are open for drivers joining us sight unseen. This is when it can get interesting because no one knows just who will show up. Experienced drivers will rise to the challenges and stay for the good racing. And believe me, there are some very fast drivers out there. Players new to on-line racing can also take a look, but, unfortunately, a lot of them don't stay for the clean environment. This disappointing but not surprising. They want clean, fun racing, but aren't willing to learn how to drive with less grip quite so soon, even though this is the environment that they actually need in which to improve.
The professional racing drivers are going through the same learning curve on-line today as we all have. Less cautious drivers on-line are causing their pro friends the same grief that we receive. Only they have scrutineers looking at replays after the fact, to try to figure out what to do about incidents. We don't have that luxury. We rely on finding a group of likeminded drivers who recognise what it takes to have good natured but challenging, clean fun racing together frequently. Where everyone can rise to the occasion and do their best every time without carelessly getting bumped around. That doesn't mean that we don't make mistakes, we all do, but an MNR lobby is likely to be much more challenging, much safer than what you normally find in GT.
Do you know what a true test of a great racing challenge is? Whether the drivers in chat are focused on their driving rather than talking. If they concentrating on their driving, then the racing will be tougher, closer, and cleaner, with fewer mistakes being made.
Are you avoiding on-line racing still? Maybe you haven't found the right custom lobbies yet.
Monday Night Racing: come for the free beer, stay for the great racing!
