@
BrandonW77
I understand your points, and where you're coming from on this.
You might not understand where I'm coming from on it though, which might be where the confusion is.
Damage Heavy is not about trying to clean up races or whatever. Just an FYI.
That's what the rules are for, and post race penalties, and warnings, and not being able to participate in future races if someone drives like a jerk, flouts the rules, and doesn't clean up their act and improve their track etiquette
if they're found wanting in that department.
(I think that's the best we could do to prevent nonsense, funny business, or plain idiotic behaviour. I mean there's no way to know until you race with someone, how they're going to behave on track. Other than if they're a jerk yellin' totally crazy rude stuff on the forum & in the lobby
, that probably means they're not going to fit in, in any case. But that's thankfully pretty rare in organized racing here at GTP.)
My thinking is - in a long race, where everyone will likely pit... getting damage and having to pit doesn't set you back so much. You can still have a chance at gaining positions back, etc. Maybe you didn't pit yet, so you're not even pitting more than anyone else will have to for other reasons.
Now if someone only thinks it's worth it to stay in a race until the point where they know they won't make podium - so if they can't make podium, they're not enjoying it anymore - then obviously this could be seen as a problem.
I don't think that's the case for most of us.
But half the grid would leave an hour race by 3/4 through if their only idea was to win or go home. And if all but 3 leave, then yeah, every racer that raced will have a podium finish.
BUT, with the fuel/tire/damage... that spices things up.
After all, I won a race last year, when I didn't think I even had a shot at the podium by halfway through.
And that was TOTALLY due to damage/tire/fuel settings. If it was damage light & tire wear low, people would've taken more chances and raced much faster, and there would've been no way for me to catch up with the leaders - because they really were that much faster than me. If they didn't need to pit for fuel, the leaders wouldn't have run out of fuel, and I wouldn't have won.
So in other words, I see the Damage Heavy and fuel/tire settings
as another element of the racing that we can add in, in long races.
💡
Instead of just having it be a straight up competition of the drivers driving as fast as they can without any real consequences of damage, or any pit strategy to think about.
OTOH, with cars as slow as the 2CV or Carol, I don't think most people would want to drive a car that slow on one track for a lengthy time. It's more fun to sort of sample cars like that (like a buffet
), rather than spend an hour of driving in just one on one track.
I'm probably only one of maybe 2 or 3 people on this forum, who would be willing to drive the Fiat 500 for 45 minutes at Monte Carlo, and I'm aware of that.
So I take that into account.
Actually I might be the only person on the planet who would be willing to sign up for that race event now that I think about it.
Actually, I'm not sure I would even want to sign up for it.
Anyhoo...
And in sprint races (especially without even a pit to repair damage - or with a pit lane as long as Eiger
)... if you're the only person who gets severe damage, you will have no chance of even gaining another position at all because
nobody else will need to pit or slow down for any other reason... so that's why I think people get frustrated with damage heavy in short races - particularly on tracks without pits.
So adding those elements in seems to be more problematic & less possible in shorter races.
Though, I would totally do it if I could get more people together willing to race EVERY race with damage heavy. I would totally race 100% of the time with damage heavy. I'm compromising (not a dirty word!) on that point, because I know it wouldn't interest a lot of people in sprint races.
And that's what it's all about folks. More elements of racing added into the experience.
As much as we can put in and still have a variety of people interested.
And, my primary purpose when organizing races, and coming up with track itineraries and event ideas, is to make it so that the
maximum amount of people vaguely interested in the race idea will sign up, and that most people will have a shot at having an enjoyable time of it.
Obviously I recognize that I can't guarantee every single driver will have a pleasurable time in every race. That's the breaks. But I do think I've been pretty good at setting things up to give everyone something to enjoy, and something they find attractive about the event.
Or at least that's what I hope is happening, and hope will happen, with every event I put together.
FYI: I feel absolutely bad when someone has a poor experience in one of my events. I really do feel disappointed for the person who is disappointed.
And any time someone has a poor experience, I immediately look at WHY. And see what I can do about it, if anything, in future race events, to better the odds.
In some cases, there's nothing I can do about it, because the person who had a bad time, had a bad time because they simply don't like the kind of racing it is.
That's OKAY. But there's nothing they can do about that other than not doing that type of racing, because it just doesn't appeal to them.
Whereas others will like the type of racing.
I mean there's tons of race series on this forum that I have no interest in. Maybe it's the type of racing, maybe it's the cars they're using, the format, the regulations, whatever. Obviously some of them are very popular, so clearly - different strokes is the issue.
Anyhow, that's where I'm coming from.
And as far as quitting (ie: resigning from a race). I of course highly discourage disruptive rage quits obviously. 👎
Just because it tends to create animosity, and I really like to keep a light friendly atmosphere. 👍
It's hard to keep a spirit of camaraderie if half the participants think
one person is a hot head douche bag or whatever.
But if someone's just having a really bad time of it, there is no reason that they should continue if they're not enjoying themselves or they think everything's gone to hell and they can no longer concentrate or whatever.
In that case the proper friendly manner to resign a race & that I would expect to conduct themselves in would be to:
Not exit the race around other cars (disappearing cars can be disruptive)
Pull into the pit to exit.
Or,
if you're not in view of other cars, simply pull to the side of the track to exit.
Even if there are no cars around, still pull off track, in case a car is nearby and comes to your position before you have a chance to get through the exit menu button pushing & you're sitting parked in the track - never park in the track during a race, no matter what.
Don't say why you've left the race during the race, but definitely post to the forum about it, so people don't think you're rude
(Unless it's a case of dirty driving or rule breaking or something that the other racers or the offender should know about! In which case, keep it SHORT, just the facts,
and don't rant on about it.)
If you stay to watch the rest of the race, do so without comment until after the race. 👍
(I mention the above rules for resigning,
not for @
BrandonW77 -
because he already knows this procedure -
but for other newcomers who might be reading this with interest.)
But my main point is, that if anyone thinks the races are damage heavy for the purpose of somehow
trying to control people's driving behaviour... that's not what it's about.
As cc570 once said (or something like this)... to curb
some people's aggressive reckless driving - even damage PERMANENT wouldn't deter some people.
Clearly, since the real roads are full of accidents caused by reckless driving - even when the real possibility of real life death or dismemberment is on the table!
People also break the traffic rules in real life all the time - despite having to pay hefty fines.
Clearly, consequences only go so far.
It
may keep
some people from driving more aggressive & risky,
to a point.
And that, I think, is more of
an added feature if it happens to work out that way.
Some people, on the other hand, might see that as a bug.
Viewpoints.
It just had a tendency to misbehave unexpectedly there in particular. 
)
