My Novice Frustrations

[Rick.]

Well not so bad really but want to vent. I read the ctra faq and agree on the clean racing.

Now I haven't earned point one, I can't just get fast enough. I finish near the end and race as clean as I can, but you get no points for clean!

Then again some of the fastest drivers seem to disregard the rules, and it helps them get up front at times. It's hard to pass clean, easy to pass dirty.

What I seem to see all the time is someone knocking me out of the way, I get a sorry and they just zoom away. I've never gotten them letting me have my pos back. Now I may be a tad slower, but not slow, and it's just annoying.

Another is rejoining after a wreck. People just zip right on the track again and you have to break your line to avoid them. This is probably because it's newer players etc, but boy it's also annoying.

Yes I know I can report people but I don't want to until I know what I'm talking about, just venting for agreement/disagreement!

[SamH]

Hey Rick..
I understand your frustrations. As long as you know there's nothing that the admins can do about it until someone raises a report... it's in your hands :)

[Viper93]

Hey Rick..
I understand your frustrations. As long as you know there's nothing that the admins can do about it until someone raises a report... it's in your hands :)


:nod:

We can only do our job as well as people can make reports :thumbsup:

[The Very End]

Well not so bad really but want to vent. I read the ctra faq and agree on the clean racing.

Now I haven't earned point one, I can't just get fast enough. I finish near the end and race as clean as I can, but you get no points for clean!

Then again some of the fastest drivers seem to disregard the rules, and it helps them get up front at times. It's hard to pass clean, easy to pass dirty.

What I seem to see all the time is someone knocking me out of the way, I get a sorry and they just zoom away. I've never gotten them letting me have my pos back. Now I may be a tad slower, but not slow, and it's just annoying.

Another is rejoining after a wreck. People just zip right on the track again and you have to break your line to avoid them. This is probably because it's newer players etc, but boy it's also annoying.

Yes I know I can report people but I don't want to until I know what I'm talking about, just venting for agreement/disagreement!

I understand your frustration when it comes to the points. At the moment you have to be something like top 5 in a race to get points. Well, I have got points at 8th place before, but then you need to have the fastest lap if I remember right.

But if I remember right, they say that they are working on a change in the point system at CTRA servers, since there is a lot of people that have the same experience as you, getting zero points because they are not on the top list. I do hope they find a solution for this, because there is a lot of people that deserves some points imo.

[Craig WA]

Rick,

I know it is frustrating when you are a clean driver and you get rammed, but you will get there in the end.

I haven't picked up many points lately but get a buzz out of improving my lap times.

To get faster spend some time watching the fast guys and concentrate on getting a good set that suits you. The fast guys sets are often a nightmare to use and often won't suit your wheel/pedal setup.

Good Luck:smileypul

[nigelpm]

Rick,

You're right, it's a pain but as you get faster you'll start further up the grid and the quality of racing is higher there although you still often get non-brakers into T1.

I wish the reporting system was simpler and/or there was a way for CTRA to auto ban (of course this is complex and I'd never expect it to happen).

nonetheless, it's a super system.

[xaotik]

I mostly play LFS offline as a form of relaxation - other people play solitaire, I do laps (around a circuit - don't get any funny ideas). Therefore I'm not really fast, infact I am rather very slow. However the other day I checked out the CTRA single seater server and had two or three races on it.

The quality was great - being a backmarker I yielded in logical places for the forerunners and didn't get in anyone's way without hindering my slow pace even though it was in South City Town Rev. No one rammed me, I even got people saying "thanks" when they overtook me cleanly. No spamming, no jabbering, etc.

Maybe the difference is I didn't try to overdrive myself, stuck to my snail-pace, or got anxious when I saw someone in my mirrors and just planned ahead where to let them through - OR I was just lucky and landed with a good crowd. *shrug*

[obsolum]

I wish the reporting system was simpler and/or there was a way for CTRA to auto ban
I think it's good that the reporting system isn't over-simplified. It takes a little effort to raise a new report and submit it. If it was too easy you'd get people raising reports for every little thing and the admins would be drowning in new reports even more so than they already are :)

[Dru]

Rick,

You're right, it's a pain but as you get faster you'll start further up the grid and the quality of racing is higher there although you still often get non-brakers into T1.

I wish the reporting system was simpler and/or there was a way for CTRA to auto ban (of course this is complex and I'd never expect it to happen).

nonetheless, it's a super system.



Nigel,

It's fairly simple only problem being if the guy you wanna report disconnects before you can raise a report..

In terms of the reporting thou, its been quite good..

I think i've raised 7 reports.

1 dismissed
3 warnings
1 cautioned
1 short term ban
1 ban

The system works, it just needs people to report things that are valid, also looking at the replays to see whether or not things were deliberate or just a geniune mistake..

[The Very End]

Yes the sytem work, and it`s easy to pass a complain about something. Often you don`t know what you`v done, but it allways get good explained when you get it.
And yes I talk by experience, 2 bans and 2 warnings, I know every part of the system :tilt:

[james12s]

i do find it very frustraiting when i always seam to end up just out of the points and the people in front are often platinum or gold witch i do find very annoying

[Rick.]

I realize I have to report, I just want to make sure it's not a false report. Maybe sometime I'll post a replay if I have a question about passing or something like that first.

And I guess to get to a better server you have to have skill points and slow guys won't get there.

But perhaps if the system could be tweaked to know if a car "did something wrong" they wouldn't get points. That "did something wrong" would be hard to know I suppose.

[Swiss_Tony]

Nigel,

It's fairly simple only problem being if the guy you wanna report disconnects before you can raise a report..


Hey Dru, you can still report that offending driver even though he's decided to do a runner :)

Simply fill in the report as usual but select any driver at this stage as the culprit. (Don't worry, no harm will come to them) When you look at the the report on the website you can then edit the details to the correct driver before submitting it. I think this is right as I mistook a driver one time but was then able to change it after watching the replay.

[The Moose]

i do find it very frustraiting when i always seam to end up just out of the points and the people in front are often platinum or gold witch i do find very annoying


The thing is James, the guys that are Gold or Platinum(or Titanium) got to that level by being fast and clean. It doesn't matter if your only Bronze, if your fast and clean enough then you will get to a points scoring position and progress more quickly up the license levels.

The system is set up to reward fast and clean drivers. If your not able to compete with the higher licensed guys then you aren't of a good enough standard to get the points. (I'm not referring to you personally btw :p)

[FL!P]

Another couple of tips to make sure it's not a false report:

- Wait for the next race to start before you fill out the report. From X-System point of view, a race ends only when the next one begins, and the replay becomes available in the list only at this point (this confused me at first).

- Get a link to download the replay emailed to you (requires you to set your email address, obviously), and check the replay before submitting the report (I've decided not to submit some reports at that point because only the replay showed that an accident had been caused by lag and not with malicious intentions). When you file a report from within LFS and click OK, the report is stored but not submitted. You have to go to your MyCTRA page on the website to submit (or delete) it.

- When watching the replay, don't look only at the incident that involved you, but check your "opponent's" behavior in the rest of the race. If the guy is clean the rest of the time, grant him the benefit of the doubt. He may have been disturbed IRL, or something. If he's always dirty, then he definitely deserves to be reported.

[james12s]

yeah moose i am more frustrated with myself tbo not the ctra system, mainly because i am a crap driver

[The Moose]

mainly because i am a crap driver

It just takes practice. Don't get frustrated, just think of every mistake as something to learn from. You learn something new every time you go on track.

I have done far to much racing on this sim, yet nearly every day i manage to improve my PB on one of the combos as i always find somewhere to improve my times, or i learn a slightly different way to take a corner.

Its just practice,practice,practice

Don't think of yourself as a crap driver, think of yourself as a driver that isn't as fast as others yet, but will be someday if you keep learning and trying new things:thumb:

[james12s]

It just takes practice. Don't get frustrated, just think of every mistake as something to learn from. You learn something new every time you go on track.

I have done far to much racing on this sim, yet nearly every day i manage to improve my PB on one of the combos as i always find somewhere to improve my times, or i learn a slightly different way to take a corner.

Its just practice,practice,practice

Don't think of yourself as a crap driver, think of yourself as a driver that isn't as fast as others yet, but will be someday if you keep learning and trying new things:thumb:
moose, thanks mate

[Rick.]

The thing is James, the guys that are Gold or Platinum(or Titanium) got to that level by being fast and clean. It doesn't matter if your only Bronze, if your fast and clean enough then you will get to a points scoring position and progress more quickly up the license levels.

The system is set up to reward fast and clean drivers. If your not able to compete with the higher licensed guys then you aren't of a good enough standard to get the points. (I'm not referring to you personally btw :p)

That's interesting. I don't know if the points system is supposed to represent normal real world racing or more like a ranking system.

It seems to me if it's more ranking, a higher level licensee beating a lower level shouldn't count as much. Because if higher level licensees run on the beginner server, beginners won't have a chance to get points.

So regarding this comment, if higher licensed players play on a novice server, they are artificially raising the standard of a novice server right? Unless the points system does like I said.

Think of it like chess rankings or other games, beating someone way below you should get you nearly nothing, and beating someone ranked way higher should yield the greatest reward. Just my opinion anyway.

[obsolum]

It seems to me if it's more ranking, a higher level licensee beating a lower level shouldn't count as much.
Exactly, and that's how the system works. A Gold, Platinum or Titanium driver will only receive very little points on a lower tier server :) I've had it happen quite a few times that I finished behind a Platinum licensed driver that got 0 points while I got 3 or so.

[zeugnimod]

I've had it happen quite a few times that I finished behind a Platinum licensed driver that got 0 points while I got 3 or so.

I can confirm that. :tilt:

[The Moose]

It seems to me if it's more ranking, a higher level licensee beating a lower level shouldn't count as much. Because if higher level licensees run on the beginner server, beginners won't have a chance to get points.

I jumped on the CTRA race1 server last night for a fewraces, just because it was late and there were no other servers that appealed to me. I thought it would be a challenge to race in cars that i have hardly ever driven as well.
My Titanium license counted for nothing in there i tell you:)
Not only was i soundly beaten several times by Bronze licensed racers who have experience of those cars (i was racing UF1's in my copper/bronze days) but when i eventually did win a race i got no points for it.

The 'begginers' scored all the points and were generally faster than the higher licensed guys on most occasions due to their experience with those cars.
The system works perfectly:thumb:

[richy]

I try to stay off of server 1 now. But I have to admit when I see a south city / XRG show up on there, I might pop in for a few races. But that is purely because of the combo and not because of points.

When you guys get your silver and higher licenses I hope to see you on server 2 where the real action is at (and points). :nod:

[Christofire]

If you want to know how to use the reporting system, there's a link to the Reporting Guide in my sig. :)

[Rick.]

Glad to find out the points work that way. Which means all I have to do is shed my stinky speed and I'm good, easier said than done!

And I really have to get a wheel, analog sticks aren't as much fun (I was an act labs user but alas it's no go on my vista box).

[richy]

Glad to find out the points work that way. Which means all I have to do is shed my stinky speed and I'm good, easier said than done!

And I really have to get a wheel, analog sticks aren't as much fun (I was an act labs user but alas it's no go on my vista box).

this is probably the largest reason you wont score highly in points, the joypad is just too hard to match a wheels performance. When my arms get tired from the wheel I plug in my joypad and try to play LFS but really, its near impossible to score any decent points. Sure I get a few points or get some lucky races or two but having both controllers, and using both, I can definately say that is 90% the reason why the wheel guys zoom off into the sunset. :razz:

[zeugnimod]

When you guys get your silver and higher licenses I hope to see you on server 2 where the real action is at (and points). :nod:

I dont think so. There is much action on server 1. ;)

Im Platinum and I almost exclusively drive on Race1 because I absolutely hate the GTRs and absolutely love the close racing with XFG and XRG. :D

I wont sacrifice my fun just for a few points. :tilt:

[obsolum]

I wont sacrifice my fun just for a few points. :tilt:
That's 'cause you're already Platinum, you don't need the points :)

But you're right, there's definitely some good action to be had on Race1 as well, if you like the XFG/XRG :nod:

[richy]

I dont think so. There is much action on server 1. ;)

Im Platinum and I almost exclusively drive on Race1 because I absolutely hate the GTRs and absolutely love the close racing with XFG and XRG. :D

I wont sacrifice my fun just for a few points. :tilt:

I like to think that we will see all the good guys who can win / complete races and stay clean are let loose in the big cars to try and do the same thing as on server 1. I agree that the GTRs are more spaced out and harder to drive in a race like we get with XFG and XRG but I fear this is more due to not giving it a try.

I think if we all spent a lot of time at server 2, got used to the cars and tracks, then we could really get some close and fun racing going. But saying that i'm not so sure it will ever be possible due to the speeds that these cars go at. The GT2's are much better though, Ive had some really good battles with 3 or 4 cars for laps at a time, bumper to bumper.

[Bean0]

Well, I've just come from Race1, XFG/XRG at Blacwood Reversed and it was great fun, and pretty clean all round from what I could see. Had some great close battles as well :D

Even winning races with a decent laptime gets me no points, I'm there purely for the fun factor.

[james12s]

i must admit last night i was on there and thanks to everyone at ukct i improve alot and started to really enjoy it

[Viper93]

i must admit last night i was on there and thanks to everyone at ukct i improve alot and started to really enjoy it

UKCT FTW =P

[james12s]

ok UKCT

[mtrein]

There could be servers for each car/class. For example: An XFG/XRG server for bronze, another for silver, so on. Maybe this would group drivers with similar skills, even if it wears the races a bit thin.

[Becky Rose]

There could be servers for each car/class. For example: An XFG/XRG server for bronze, another for silver, so on. Maybe this would group drivers with similar skills, even if it wears the races a bit thin.
I am posting this link in place of the several extremely sarcastic replies I didn't have the courage to post: http://raceauthority.com/servers.asp

[mtrein]

I wasn't trying to be sarcastic at all, Becky. What I meant is having more than one server for the same car (in the above example, the XFG and XRG). Or maybe I didn't understand your post. :shrug:

[The Moose]

I wasn't trying to be sarcastic at all, Becky. What I meant is having more than one server for the same car

Whilst in theory it sounds like a fairly reasonable idea, I don't think there's enough drivers to populate the servers like that. You'd end up with 10 man grids all the time, if you were lucky.

[mtrein]

Whilst in theory it sounds like a fairly reasonable idea, I don't think there's enough drivers to populate the servers like that. You'd end up with 10 man grids all the time, if you were lucky.

I agree. That's the main problem I raised up on another post. Maybe two servers for the XFG would be okay?

Anyway, I wasn't trying to be sarcastic or anything, just offering a suggestion, really. :)

[Becky Rose]

Oh I see

*removes foot from mouth*

I thought you meant to setup more race servers with different licence access levels and I was like "wtf - thats what we do".

Unfortunately the userbase is not large enough to populate all the servers we have at the moment.

[mtrein]

Oh I see

*removes foot from mouth*

I thought you meant to setup more race servers with different licence access levels and I was like "wtf - thats what we do".

Unfortunately the userbase is not large enough to populate all the servers we have at the moment.

Yes, my post wasn't clear enough. Sorry about that :thumb:

[Rick.]

you know, it's too bad this sim is in the category of amazed users discovering it instead of it being well known!

I sure would like to see the product be "boxed" on a retail shelf, it would help the popularity enormously. Plus it would have to be a bit cheaper to get no so serious simmers to try it.

Then if that's done, for sure you need servers for different levels, because with retail boxing you'll get crazy driving.

[Viper93]

you know, it's too bad this sim is in the category of amazed users discovering it instead of it being well known!

I sure would like to see the product be "boxed" on a retail shelf, it would help the popularity enormously. Plus it would have to be a bit cheaper to get no so serious simmers to try it.

Then if that's done, for sure you need servers for different levels, because with retail boxing you'll get crazy driving.

Bit OT, but I thought they were thinking maybe of doing this when S3 is finalized.

[Rick.]

Well to me the quality of the current s2 is pretty good and would sell well if they didn't overprice it. It sure impresses!

[Becky Rose]

In fairness Rick, S2 is not overpriced, you just live in a country with a war driven over stressed economy thats been shot to pieces. That's not really the fault of a lone programmer in Twickenham. :)

[Rick.]

In fairness Rick, S2 is not overpriced, you just live in a country with a war driven over stressed economy thats been shot to pieces. That's not really the fault of a lone programmer in Twickenham. :)


I don't know about that, but for uk/euro is this a typical game price? In the US it would be a bit pricey for what it is, that's all.

[Becky Rose]

S2 is a little over half the cost of a shop shelf computer game here in the UK.

Say hello to Mr Bush for me.

[Rick.]

S2 is a little over half the cost of a shop shelf computer game here in the UK.

Say hello to Mr Bush for me.

it came to $52 here which is more than a top release like bioshock etc, but since it's a niche that's why I figured it would have to cost less to sell.

I don't think Mr Bush drives sims. He's not even into reading email.

[Swiss_Tony]

I'd suggest that's because of your weak dollar at the moment. Usually it's us that get stung with gadgets/computer equipment costing roughly twice the price that you pay in the States. Not nice is it ? :)

[Zachary Zoomy]

I'm also finding very hard to earn points. I've been at 16% to silver for 4 months and its driving me crazy. if i finish a race in 3rd I might, might just get 1 point. with out setting fastest laps I cant earn points.

[Rick.]

I'd suggest that's because of your weak dollar at the moment. Usually it's us that get stung with gadgets/computer equipment costing roughly twice the price that you pay in the States. Not nice is it ? :)


I think you guys are missing my point. Products sell at differing levels all the time. If you want to sell a product worldwide you have to be price competitive a the local currency no matter what it is, or you don't compete.

So if s2 could be sold everywhere competitively priced and boxed it would be great to see the number of racers online go up. I'm just a big fan of it and want to see it become more know as it deserves to be.

[Becky Rose]

Scawen is a brilliant programmer. Absolutely brilliant.

However, he's also the business equivellent of a communist.

In many ways this is a good thing because what other developer would still be working away on the game all these years later and still improving it whereas many other would have moved on to other projects for more money by now - or found a way to charge more regularly for updates.

So I think we'll just have to do the marketing ourselfs if we want more players to race with ! :)

[mtrein]

Here in Brazil S2 costs more than 3 shelf games. Even though it costs that much, I think it is well worth it... And I would pay more, even.

[Jakg]

I'm also finding very hard to earn points. I've been at 16% to silver for 4 months and its driving me crazy. if i finish a race in 3rd I might, might just get 1 point. with out setting fastest laps I cant earn points.Which server is this on? Even with a platinum license on Race 1 i can still get about 3 points a race for a win + fastest lap.

[CELTIC100]

I'm also finding very hard to earn points. I've been at 16% to silver for 4 months and its driving me crazy. if i finish a race in 3rd I might, might just get 1 point. with out setting fastest laps I cant earn points.

Get on Race 2 in the UF1 and you should pick up 20 to 30 pts / race even with 2 or 3 other UF1's to race against and usually very good close racing :D

[AeoIus]

Get on Race 2 in the UF1 and you should pick up 20 to 30 pts / race even with 2 or 3 other UF1's to race against and usually very good close racing :DHe's unfortunately not yet silver and thus unable to join.

I can confirm this though. It's fun racing the UF1 :D