The Club thing in the new Community Area. Can't see its usefulness.

[BigBravo]

Maybe it's just me. I only race dirty. Because even when you try to race clean there's always some dirty so and so on the track, so I prefer a level playing field where everyone's dirty. It's more fun too. Dirty isn't a type of race recognised by GT6 so it's often difficult to find dirty rooms. I thought the introduction of clubs would make it easier, but I can't seem to use it. I have joined clubs which are obviously dirty, but I can't see any races or join any races. The events section also seems empty. I know the process of joining a club isn't intuitive. The first few times I inadvertantly left the club I had just joined by leaving the relevant screen. But I have cracked it now. I def belong to at least 4 clubs but can't seem to utilise this membership. So the club thing hasn't been any use to me so far at all. What should I be doing. I appreciate I can click on friends down the left and then, if they are in a room, just click on "in room" and get straight to the room they are in, but why the existence of "clubs" then ? Don't get it so far. Any comments would be welcome.

 

[SJC ALPHA]

I have also been having difficulty. I have joined a few clubs including GTplanet and so far never had a race. Even with GTplanet it sometimes says how many people are in rooms but all I can do is create my own. I think I'm doing something wrong as I have not had a race or been able to do the TT as it always says rooms closed, so far seems pointless joining clubs and will probably leave them including GTplanet.

 

[Sick Cylinder]

BigBravo - if you are looking for dirty racing try Quick Match - the races are only a couple of laps long, but the few I tried were all a smash and bash fest rather than normal racing. You could also try advertising and setting up your own dirty race series or club.

Regarding the new club feature I'm also a bit mystified - it appears that the Host can't make any changes to an event so a meeting would be a series of races all at the same track, same cars etc. As a host my meetings have different details for each event at that meeting which doesn't appear possible with the new feature - I won't be able to use club feature to run my meetings until this is changed.

I've also heard concerns about connectivity - I stopped using private rooms because of problems with disconnections and lag - those problems are greatly reduced with public rooms. I've heard that Club rooms have the same lag and disconnection problems as private rooms - perhaps someone more experienced could comment on this?

I noticed that the categories which people can select are very limited so there is no dirty racing option and that is popular with some people also there are no categories for classic cars or historic race cars - it appears to be a feature from PD which is half finished, but not of much use as it stands.

The advantages of the club appear to be the forum feature and also that the results of races are automatically posted, whereas at the moment I post results manually onto GT Planet.Net.

Hopefully PD can improve the club feature so it does become useful - perhaps some people who are using this feature successfully (if there are any) could give us the pros and cons and let us know what we are missing.

 

[Famine]

Maybe it's just me. I only race dirty. Because even when you try to race clean there's always some dirty so and so on the track, so I prefer a level playing field where everyone's dirty. It's more fun too. Dirty isn't a type of race recognised by GT6 so it's often difficult to find dirty rooms. I thought the introduction of clubs would make it easier, but I can't seem to use it. I have joined clubs which are obviously dirty, but I can't see any races or join any races. The events section also seems empty. I know the process of joining a club isn't intuitive. The first few times I inadvertantly left the club I had just joined by leaving the relevant screen. But I have cracked it now. I def belong to at least 4 clubs but can't seem to utilise this membership. So the club thing hasn't been any use to me so far at all. What should I be doing. I appreciate I can click on friends down the left and then, if they are in a room, just click on "in room" and get straight to the room they are in, but why the existence of "clubs" then ? Don't get it so far. Any comments would be welcome.

I have also been having difficulty. I have joined a few clubs including GTplanet and so far never had a race. Even with GTplanet it sometimes says how many people are in rooms but all I can do is create my own. I think I'm doing something wrong as I have not had a race or been able to do the TT as it always says rooms closed, so far seems pointless joining clubs and will probably leave them including GTplanet.

The Club adds two new types of lobby for online racing. For reference the existing types were:

Open Lobby
With a set of parameters created by and altered by the lobby's host. These can be fixed ownership, disbanding when the owner leaves, or ownership can migrate. They are listed in the Open Lobby section and anyone can join.

Open Lobby (Private)
As above, but limited to people who are on the host's PSN Friends list.

Quick Match
Unrestricted open lobbies, with parameters set by Polyphony Digital

The new ones are:

Club Lobby
An Open Lobby, but limited to people who are in the Club. Anyone in the Club can create one of these lobbies. You can also set these to fully open, in which case they behave just like an Open Lobby

Event Lobby
A Club Lobby, with parameters set by the Club's Owner. Anyone in the Club can create one of these lobbies, but they are only able to change network settings (max participants, race and voice chat quality).


To join or create a Club Lobby:
* Go to the Club
* Select the second icon down - Club Lobby; The number of people currently participating in a Club Lobby is shown superscripted to the icon
* If a lobby already exists, move the cursor onto the Lobby and hit "X" and then select "OK" at the Confirmation screen. Note that the Confirmation screen also gives an overview of the regulations.
* If no lobby exists or you do not wish to join the ones available, go over to the right and select "Create Room". This allows you to Create a Club Lobby, just as you would Create an Open Lobby.

To join or create an Event Lobby:
* Go to the Club
* Select the third icon down - Club Events; The number of people currently participating in Club Events is shown superscripted to the icon
* An overview of all the Events set up by the Club Owner will appear here - tagged as Scheduled (not yet open), Open or Closed. Select any Scheduled or Open Event.
* On the event's overview screen you can check the regulations (the blue "Regulations" arrow in the top right) and, if you choose, Enter. Enter does not take you to any lobbies, it merely registers your interest for the event. You will then be counted as one of the Participants Anticipated (bottom left corner).
* Once the Event is Open and you have chosen to Enter it, you'll be presented with a green "Rooms" icon. Select this and you'll be taken to a Room Select screen.
* If a lobby already exists, move the cursor onto the Lobby and hit "X" and then select "OK" at the Confirmation screen. Note that the Confirmation screen also gives an overview of the regulations.
* If no lobby exists or you do not wish to join the ones available, go over to the right and select "Create Room". This allows you to Create an Event Lobby,but you will only be able to change network settings, not the Event's parameters.

Lobby results from Event Lobby races/time trials are automatically logged as messages in the Event's overview screen. However times are not - this is why GTPlanet's Events publicise our Weekly Race Series rather than being an official way to submit your times.

While tags exist for different types of racing, you don't have to create lobbies that only follow these tags. If you want a lobby full of griefers, create a lobby and put that in the room's title - you've got 30 characters to describe it. We won't boot you out of the GTPlanet club if you like dirty racing and race dirtily in a clearly-marked dirty race lobby...

 

[SJC ALPHA]

Thanks, I think I was getting confused as when I would see ' members in room' I assumed I could enter but would be told rooms closed and to create my own. From what I understand I can go to create room and still run to the events regulations, will try again later.

 

[Sick Cylinder]

Thanks Famine for extra detail.

From reading that and from my own experiments it appears that an "Event" is an event with a set of parameters which cannot be changed (apart from network settings). An "Event" could have a series of races, but they would all be the same. As a Host running three championship races per meeting all with different specs the new feature is of no use to me.

It needs a "Meeting" feature - a "Meeting" would be a series of "Events" taking place one after the other, all to different specs - just as you currently have at a real life race meeting - a series of support and main events each using different cars.

 

[Famine]

Thanks Famine for extra detail.

From reading that and from my own experiments it appears that an "Event" is an event with a set of parameters which cannot be changed (apart from network settings). An "Event" could have a series of races, but they would all be the same. As a Host running three championship races per meeting all with different specs the new feature is of no use to me.

It needs a "Meeting" feature - a "Meeting" would be a series of "Events" taking place one after the other, all to different specs - just as you currently have at a real life race meeting - a series of support and main events each using different cars.

You can set up ten different Events at once, but since results wouldn't carry over you'd need to get creative if you want to preserve results as onward grid slots. You'd need a new lobby for each also.

 

[Sick Cylinder]

Thanks again Famine - I'll experiment with multiple events.