[PITS]Project International Touring Series presented by SNAIL SundaysPS4 

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HazardLvL4
To Penalty or Not to Penalty, That is the Question?​

As the PITS reporter, I am going to approach both sides of this issue in this article. This past Wednesday's race took place at Spa Francorchamps. Spa poses a few interesting challenges when it comes to discussing the Out Of Bounds issue, OOB. Spa has 3 sections that through shear G-force try to force the car wide off track. These sections are at the top of the hill of Raidillon after Eau Rouge, the high downforce double right hander at Pouhon, and the high speed left hander at Blanchimont. These areas seem to be the most common locations to see drivers repeatedly exceed track limits. But there is another issue that Spa poses in these sections as well. LAP TIME. To obtain a good lap of Spa it is key to nail these sections perfectly. There is almost this double edged sword at play when racing at Spa Francorchamps. To obtain solid lap times the driver will have to allow the car to give in to the G-forces and go slightly wide in these sections, and to not fight it due to the deficit it will cause to the lap time. Now this reporter is by no means condoning shear track cutting, or going off track, coming back on, and hitting someone to defend from a mistake.

With that said, there are usually two schools of thought on how to approach the OOB issue. One, is to keep the game's penalty system disabled and use the honor system. The second, is to utilize the in game penalty system, but that brings its own slew of issues as well. The honor system is what most of us would prefer, including myself. The reason being is it allows drivers to battle and drive hard without fear that if they make a mistake and go wide on one lap, it won't destroy their race with a 5 to 10 second penalty. However, the honor system does come with its own problem, and that is it can be and most likely will be abused by drivers. Let's be honest, we all have abused it to some extent. We all want to win, and we are all driving at the limit to make that happen. Thus, when you are on the limit for 45 minutes odds are some dodgy moves will happen. The other thing about the honor system is, to believe it has anything to do with honor. Yes, most of us will tell on ourselves if we make a repeated infraction or mess up big. However, we are not going to tell on ourselves, if it is a subtle harder to observe infraction. This, does not make us bad cause we don't tell on ourselves, it makes us human. It makes us race car drivers.

The other side of the coin to control OOB incidents is to use Project Car's penalty system. This system is a bit of a mystery on where it will pause a driver and for how long. Thus, this inconsistency can be just as frustrating as a seeing a guy repeatedly go wide at a corner and gaining a tenth or two each lap. The penalty system is designed to punish drivers who put all 4 wheels off track, and could potentially gain a pace advantage from it. If the system is triggered on a driver's car it will shut down throttle for 5 to 10 seconds. The positive side of this system is once triggered it doesn't discriminate. However, there are a few downsides as well. If someone pushes you off at speed, your able to hold the car, and return to track at pace, you will be penalized for 5 to 10 seconds by the game due to all 4 wheels leaving the track and you maintaining speed. Now how does race control handle that situation, a driver has just lost multiple positions for a mistake that they didn't make. If a driver makes a mistake and goes to wide from going to hot into a corner they will get penalized. Not to mention as I stated above some tracks in PCars tries to force the car wide every chance it can, and sometimes it is what is necessary to have a good lap. The last consideration to think about the penalty system is once this has been triggered enough on the same driver they will be DQ'd from the race. This seems harsh especially for drivers who are struggling at that particular track. It forces the affected driver to make a decision, slow down and give up positions and not finish as well as they have to potential to, or keep pushing and risk being DQ'd by PCars. Yes, the system is indiscriminate, and will punish evenly, however, I feel that it will also neuter on track battles and driver personalities.

I felt it was only fair to explore this issue from both sides. Each has its pros and cons, yet neither is really better than the other. Both can cause issues for drivers in the league. Regardless, what ever race control decides, this PITS reporter will continue to be driving as hard and fast as I can.
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Very well said, Hazard. It is a difficult decision indeed, but that's why Zii and Alex are paid the big bucks. Oh, wait...
 
We will run with them on just to see how it works for us. There is nothing saying we can't turn it back off. We at race control don't want to scrutinize every race and as our reporter pointed out that the honor system works and has worked. But as he also pointed out we have all taken advantage of it at one point or another. Plus this car is a handful so that plays a big part into our lines. The penalty system being turned on is like probation for all of us. I'm honestly opposed to it due to the cons that hazard pointed out. After a few races if things seem clean we may shut it back off.
In a situation where someone pushes you out and you get penalized then it is on them to wait and return the position or you to file an IR so that they LEARN from that and are deducted points equivalent to the incident.
 
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Nissan is not amused haha
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Zii1993
We will run with them on just to see how it works for us. There is nothing saying we can't turn it back off. We at race control don't want to scrutinize every race and as our reporter pointed out that the honor system works and has worked. But as he also pointed out we have all taken advantage of it at one point or another. Plus this car is a handful so that plays a big part into our lines. The penalty system being turned on is like probation for all of us. I'm honestly opposed to it due to the cons that hazard pointed out. After a few races if things seem clean we may shut it back off.
In a situation where someone pushes you out and you get penalized then it is on them to wait and return the position or you to file an IR so that they LEARN from that and are deducted points equivalent to the incident.
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Yeah, let's do it this week and see what happens.
I think the honour system is the way to go as well, but Hockenheim is also a track where exceeding limits can really gain you time (looking at you, second chicane!).
 
FlipJ
Yeah, let's do it this week and see what happens.
I think the honour system is the way to go as well, but Hockenheim is also a track where exceeding limits can really gain you time (looking at you, second chicane!).
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LOTS of time to be gained there, but you don't have to go OOB to reap the rewards. The carousel is enough to keep one honest for those keeping excess in mind.
 
Ran some practice laps last night. Definitely a track that suits this car. I'm afraid to see what kind of times the faster guys can pull off. Thought the brakes would be trashed in no time, but it seems the long straights help with cooling. I'm digging it.
 
Great article, cub reporter Hazzard.

Z, remember when GTR got hit with all those OObs? Way to go by the way. It cleaned up his act pretty quick. We all go OOB at one time or another......no big deal, it's the few of us who constantly run with 4 tires off the track boundary and continue on with no lift or concession that bugs the bunch of us who do race within the track limits. If you are going OOB all the time, maybe it's a sign you are pushing the car too hard.

Yes, the games penalty system sucks, but if some of us are not going to abide by the rules that were laid down in the beginnings of Snail, so be it. I know by driving within the track boundaries, it's annoying to see someone gain time by cheating the same corner almost every lap.

This is a very well run league with a bunch of guys I really like, Aero aside. Lets respect the rules and have fun

Last night me and Hazzard had some epic battles in the Half Arsed room. Old ford Fucus at Brands Hatch Indy. Super clean and respectfull racing between us.....and ya, we both hit a couple of OOBs while fighting for position.....and no, there was no lifting. I don't think either one of us would have wanted one. I was in second with two laps to go, got a flat tire, ya, a flat tire. Huh? I limped the car around for the last two laps to finish 4th.

.
 
I ran 4 laps yesterday (testing PCars Dash) and best of those was a 16.7.

By the way, thank you @Alex ONeill for telling me that it would work with the PS4 wired. It's a really cool app and should make things a bit easier in regards to strategy.
 
FlipJ
I ran 4 laps yesterday (testing PCars Dash) and best of those was a 16.7.

By the way, thank you @Alex ONeill for telling me that it would work with the PS4 wired. It's a really cool app and should make things a bit easier in regards to strategy.
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How did you do that? I don't have wifi where my rig is. Would like to run it on my laptop if possible.
 
aerolite
How did you do that? I don't have wifi where my rig is. Would like to run it on my laptop if possible.
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FlipJ
Plug and play. I turned both on and it just worked...
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Yup, I use PCars Dash, and I'm hard wired. The tablet gets a wireless signal from the PS4, maybe Bluetooth?. Who knows, magic to me, but it does work. I use Crew Chief too, on the same tablet. Both apps will run consecutively. Sometimes I have to restart Crew Chief at the start of a race, but they do work together.
 
The tablet/phone apps get the information wirelessly via the router ( the peripheral is already using that network). It actually has nothing to do with the PS4 itself using a wired or wireless internet connection. If you were to turn off wifi on the device, the app will cease to receive data.
 
The app runs off the wireless Bluetooth signal from the PlayStation,you have to go into settings menu on Pcars and set UDP to 5,it's under gameplay at the very bottom
 
Lessen
The tablet/phone apps get the information wirelessly via the router ( the peripheral is already using that network). It actually has nothing to do with the PS4 itself using a wired or wireless internet connection. If you were to turn off wifi on the device, the app will cease to receive data.
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@Lessen makes more sense,but I do know the UDP has to be set to 5
 
Lessen
The tablet/phone apps get the information wirelessly via the router ( the peripheral is already using that network). It actually has nothing to do with the PS4 itself using a wired or wireless internet connection. If you were to turn off wifi on the device, the app will cease to receive data.
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So, the signal for the apps comes from my I.S.P., and not the console? Man technology just blows my mind!
 
Gr8_Lakes
So, the signal for the apps comes from my I.S.P., and not the console? Man technology just blows my mind!
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No, not quite. The PS4 is connected to your home network, whether by wire or wifi. The device (phone/tablet) is also on that network (wirelessly of course). The PS4 sends the data to the home network which is then available for the device to receive. So it kinda goes from PS4 > router > device. The data is kinda contained within your home network, but it does not get to the device directly from the PS4. If I turn my phone's Bluetooth OFF, the app still works (my phone has never been linked to my PS4 via Bluetooth anyways). If I turn my phone's Wifi OFF, the app no longer receives data because it has been disconnected from your HOME network (your pc and all connected peripherals), not the BIG network (internet via ISP). I tried it earlier to test, once I turn the Wifi off on the phone, the session timer in the app just froze. When I re-enabled the Wifi, the clock caught back up to the game. It is pretty fascinating that all this information is flying around us almost instantaneously. Pretty cool this Playstation thing is. :)
 
I'm in for tonight. I can always tape HeeHaw.....(google).

Very cool day, I was burning some maplewood for a cool walking stick. Used a dermel with a stone bit on high speed to get the burning effect. Worked like a dream, but with all the smoke created, my hands and clothes smell like burnt maple syrup.....Now I want some pancakes. Dinner idea. Bacon too.
 
Mike Lobban
I'm in for tonight. I can always tape HeeHaw.....(google).

Very cool day, I was burning some maplewood for a cool walking stick. Used a dermel with a stone bit on high speed to get the burning effect. Worked like a dream, but with all the smoke created, my hands and clothes smell like burnt maple syrup.....Now I want some pancakes. Dinner idea. Bacon too.
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men141.gif
Stay in bounds!!!
 

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