Online Driver Swaps

  • Thread starter LVracerGT
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LVracerGT

LVracerGT

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LVracerGT
Thread title is pretty self explanatory. It would bring a new aspect to online racing not done on a console before (as far as I'm aware).

rFactor had online driver swaps and I used to race in an ALMS league that ran endurance races with driver swaps. It was awesome trying to push at the end of your stint to try and get your teammate that was about to take over the car an advantage. Imagine being able to do true 4/8/12/24 hour races at the Nordschliefe, Spa, De La Sarthe, and Daytona.
 
So..., I drive for a while, then another player takes over and drives for a while, and then another player takes over?

If I got it right, I like it but it could have problems. Do we pre-determine players to take over? If so, do we also pre-determine when they are to take over? What if we're sixteen hours in and one of our team can't make it to his stint because something came up or maybe he is going to be a half hour late?

That would suck for all involved, and it would require that some players force themselves to be up at odd hours. Do random players online take over for a previous random driver? If so, you have no guarantee that a player will he available and waiting right at the moment that the time comes for the swap.

The best way that I see to do it is for a handful of people to get together to commit to doing a stint, the first guy does his run, and then the race is suspented with relevant data stored on a server to await retrieval from the second guy when he has time to get to it. He runs and then again it is suspended and awaits person three. When it's your turn you get a message inviting you to take up the event.

"That's not how it works in real life.". No, but in real life we're all physically there together rather than hoping to meet up online and we're paid to sit through the full race weekend.
 
How it worked in rFactor, the driver wanting to swap in would come in the server as a spectator and focus on his teammates car. He then hits a "hotkey" that alerts the driver his teammate is ready to take over. The driver then hits his hotkey to accept the swap. Then when the driver pits the sim automatically transfers the waiting driver in control and the person who was driving get transferred to spectator mode and would then leave the server (per league rules).

I used to do races with just me and one other person and we would swap every 2 stops. So you could swap in and out more than one time of course.

As far as the last bit, races like this are usually well planned, and it's up to the team and drivers to be there when they're supposed to be. Trying to save sever data etc would be too complicated and not fair to everyone else showing up on time and racing. Worked brilliantly in rFactor.

That same league also had full course cautions enabled with an A.I. Pace car. The sim could tell how many cars were involved and if a car got stuck on the racing line it would throw a full course yellow. GT needs this too.
 
I would absolutely love this in GT6! :drool:
 
I was thinking about this the other day, although in GT Mode with the B-Spec drivers so I don't have to do the 24 hour races by myself. :lol:
 
R1600Turbo
I was thinking about this the other day, although in GT Mode with the B-Spec drivers so I don't have to do the 24 hour races by myself. :lol:
Click to expand...

An amazing, groundbreaking feature like that might only be possible in... Oh, GT4 :sly:

The suggestion in the OP could be a lot of fun. Like others, I have concerns about the logistics of it, but I think that can be overcome. There are fans out there who'd definitely work past that to get the full experience.
 
It's a nice idea that doesn't even just have to be restricted to lengthy races. You could have say a 6 lap race with two drivers, you have to pit and switch half way through. It could be a fun, different way of doing short races and it'd be good if people were randomly paired so you could have one fast driver, one slower, so on the second stint they're playing catch up or hoping they're far enough away. You get the idea.
 
SimonK
It's a nice idea that doesn't even just have to be restricted to lengthy races. You could have say a 6 lap race with two drivers, you have to pit and switch half way through. It could be a fun, different way of doing short races and it'd be good if people were randomly paired so you could have one fast driver, one slower, so on the second stint they're playing catch up or hoping they're far enough away. You get the idea.
Click to expand...

That's the only way I would really see something like that working. I raise an issue brought up earlier, what if someone can't make it for a longer race? That would cause some problems.

Now, I wouldn't mind seeing implemented for the reason I quoted, but I think it would be the only enjoyable thing that I personally would enjoy.
 
Would be a great feature for online racing leagues and open up a lot of opportunities and possibilities. Let's hope they can pull that one off successfully
 
Love the idea, would be great to have it sort of like how you can switch from A-spec to B-spec in GT4 endurance races.
 

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