2013 WRS World Cup : Team USA Discussions

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Team USA 2013 WRS World Cup Thread

TeamUsaWorldCupLogo.png


The purpose of this thread is to organize Team USA and conduct discussions regarding team issues without polluting the general event thread. Obviously this thread isn't private... if there is anything completely top secret we'll keep that to PMs. And anything not team USA specific should go in the general event thread.

Thread Goals:
  • Facilitate Team USA communication and organization
  • Determine sub-team line ups for USA Red, USA White, USA Blue (Finalize by Aug 1)
  • Review and pick team liveries for all sub-teams
  • Organize team practices and scrimmage races(ongoing)
  • Other?

Practice:

Official Practice Lounge

GTP_DZ's private lounge
  • This lounge for any/all Team USA exclusive practices.
  • All Team USA members should be on the friends list of GTP_DZ.
  • All Team USA members are welcome to use this private lounge at any time between now and August 10th.
  • Any time you want to initiate a Team USA practice just post to this thread and join this lounge..
  • For any practice open to drivers from other teams use the shared 3D3 lounges instead, but be aware of conflicts with other series which take priority until after July 28 (GT3, F1, weekly races).

Practice Schedule:
TBD


Team USA Intra-Team Qualifying:

Method
  • Deadline: August 1 @ 10:00 PM Pacific
  • Track: Fuji F
  • Lounge settings: Exact same specs as the official event (tuning prohibited, PP limit, R1 tires, etc)
  • Type: Observed pre-qualifying race (one shot only)
  • Details:
    • Any other Team USA driver can serve as the observer and verify the lap, but both observer and driver must save the race replay
    • Race is set to 4 laps. 1 un-timed out lap, 2 timed hot laps, 1 un-timed in lap.
    • Fastest single clean lap counts.
    • If neither hot lap is clean then fastest dirty lap counts after penalties are added.
    • Penalties: add 2 seconds for each "off" that didn't "clearly cost the driver time"

Sub-team Selection
  • The fastest 4 drivers will make up Team USA Red
  • The next fastest 4 drivers will make up Team USA Blue
  • The next fastest 4 drivers will make up Team USA White
  • Might have to adjust based on reserve drivers / will not put 2 reserve drivers on the same 4-driver team
 
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Team USA Roster:

Confirmed:
  1. GTP_WRP001 - 1'35.802
  2. GTP_Gravitron - 1'35.906
  3. GTP_DZ - 1'36.291
  4. GTP_EDK - 1'36.427
  5. GTP_orsche - 1'36.574 (to Canada)
  6. GTP_LeftyWright - 1'36.792
  7. GTP_otxjto - 1'36.998
  8. GTP_RaceRyder - 1'37.590
  9. GTP_gman1647 - 1'38.824
  10. GTP_Jared93 - DNQ (to TBD)

Sub-Teams:
COKciwU2Wzt4FTpKnR_0_zps9f7cfe1a.png

Team USA Red:
  • Quali Date/Time: TBD
  • Livery: Patriot Blue Pearl Coat (Body) | Grand Prix Red (Rims)
  1. GTP_WRP001
  2. GTP_Gravitron
  3. GTP_DZ
  4. GTP_EDK
Livery_TeamUSABlue.png
(need update w/white rims)
Team USA White:
  • Quali Date/Time: TBD
  • Livery: Blu Daytona Metallizzato (Body) | White (Rims)
  1. GTP_LeftyWright
  2. GTP_otxjto
  3. GTP_RaceRyder
  4. GTP_gman1647
 
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So how do we pick the final red/white/blue line ups and how do we run the team overall?

I have an idea to propose and would like feedback from all the USA drivers.

We could split into teams and have each team work on their own from the start, but I don't think that will get the best results for the overall Team USA. Instead, I'd like to propose organizing into a single Mega-Team USA for July. Practice as a big group, share advice/tunes, etc. and run a few intra-team practice races and even mock quali sessions. Then starting in August we split into our respective lineups for the final touches on sub-teams strategies which probably have to take into account the individual drivers and their unique skills/goals.

My proposal for determining the team splits is to do it by "speed". We determine each driver's speed with our own Team USA qualifying. Each driver runs an observed qualifying run by July 31 (at one of the tracks or both). The fastest drivers form USA Red, then next USA White and the final USA Blue.

My thinking is that drivers of similar pace are more likely to be in a position to help each other during the quali or during the races themselves so it might make sense to group that way. What good can someone do starting in 3rd if their teammate is starting in 12th? Drivers of similar pace are much more likely to benefit from bump drafting over several laps and not just by chance once in a race. Plus, this might maximize the chance of getting at least one USA team in the top bracket.

The overall goal of the Team USA is to maximize the results of all the sub-teams. Prior to Aug 1 we do everything as one big team. Starting Aug 1st the teams split off and can develop their own strategies that suit those drivers for qualifying or the race.

Thoughts?
 
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I like the idea, as always super organized. 👍
I know i am at the bottom of our drivers, but please let me know what i can do to help with the team effort.:)
 
Sounds good to me. 👍 The rationale for keeping similar speed drivers together makes sense.

We know GT Academy will be running from July 2 through the 28th, and any available GT5 time I get will be split between that, and this. :)
 
So what do you guys think about our internal USA qualifying method? Laps at Spa or Fuji or both?

I'm thinking Fuji to keep things simple and it'll double up as practice for the official event qualifying, which takes place at Fuji, but I'm open to any options. Spa is an awesome track so I wouldn't mind lapping there or doing both and going with combined time of best laps from both runs.

Also, I'm thinking our normal pre-quali setup: Observed quali with out-lap, two timed hot laps and the in-lap. Seems the easiest to me with minimal coordination. Any other Team USA member can watch the run. I'd be open to alternatives like a group quali session of 20 minutes or something, but it'll be harder to coordinate us all being in the same room at one time.

I know as far as schedules... Patrick is away from July 26 - Aug 3. I'll be away until July 19th. By setting the internal quali deadline of August 1 it should accommodate anyone's schedule. Patrick will just need to make his run before the 26th.

After we all make our qualification runs, we'll organize the teams. If everyone is confirmed then we'll just go fastest to slowest and it's pretty obvious. If someone is reserve we may want to figure out what to do with them based on their % chance. We definitely don't want two reserve drivers on one team... We can obviously shuffle teams until we run our team qualifying for the official event, but probably want to minimize that as it will impact strategy, etc.

PS> Andrew (doodle) confirmed so I'm updating his status in the OP. If we can get Kevin (EDK) to commit that'll be 12 drivers which would be awesome for three teams of four.

PPS> If you guys have any other USA drivers in mind that you might want to recruit, post here and I'll add them to the list. Even if they were just stand-by it'll always be good to have a few extra. They are welcome to practice with us and fill in as needed if they don't want to take part in the official race... and maybe they'll be in a good position to step in should we have a cancellation.
 
From what I understand we can't adjust the adjustable suspension or tweek the tranny so I'm thinking that strategy has to be the key. Pit or no pit, tire traction loss vs. brake bias on the fly adjustment sequence, average lap time for greatest impact across the entire team sample...... etc

As groups go the fast guys need to be racing coaches w/ the emphasis on the coaching unless they are an all alien team in that case they just run for consistency. Championships are always won by doing better then the other guy when the times are the toughest. The slower guys being brought up to the middle speed pack would be where the greatest gains in overall points seems like it might be the easiest way to go.

Food for thought..........
 
From what I understand we can't adjust the adjustable suspension or tweek the tranny so I'm thinking that strategy has to be the key. Pit or no pit, tire traction loss vs. brake bias on the fly adjustment sequence, average lap time for greatest impact across the entire team sample...... etc

As groups go the fast guys need to be racing coaches w/ the emphasis on the coaching unless they are an all alien team in that case they just run for consistency. Championships are always won by doing better then the other guy when the times are the toughest. The slower guys being brought up to the middle speed pack would be where the greatest gains in overall points seems like it might be the easiest way to go.

Food for thought..........

Right, there are no settings adjustments so my comment about sharing tunes can be ignored... brain blip on my part. All we can change is BB which we can of course share.

As far as preparation/coaching... I totally agree. There is a lot to be gained by the fastest drivers trying to coach up the middle/back pack guys. The fastest guys are probably fighting for tenths near the end and the slower guys could still maybe gain seconds. And I believe we can invest significant effort into this coaching during the month of July. And a strong focus on qualifying effort as the further out front you start the less drivers you have to pass. Plus a better qualifying effort gets you in an easier room (hypothetically).

Once the race starts, by the points system, we will not combine points across all 12 drivers, but each team will score points "individually" so for execution on race day I think it's a bit different then if it was one giant combined team. In August (the last 7-10 days prior to the race) I believe the primary focus changes from an overall group effort/coaching to optimizing each sub-team performance -- practice drafting and helping others on the same sub-team in mock quali runs. That doesn't mean we can't still coach and share tips as we find better approaches to each track, but the actual race comes closer into focus at that point.

Speaking of which, I think sharing ghost replays offline might be a great place to start. Some of the faster drivers can create a ghost and then share it with the others. we should all be NTSC on this team so no problem sharing and chasing each others ghost.

Feel free to get started... I'll jump in on July 19th... until then I have no way of doing anything requiring track time. I can coordinate via the threads only.
 
Any you guys up for a little practice now? If so can we use the main lounge or either of the A or B lounges or do we have to go to our own lounges?
 
Any you guys up for a little practice now? If so can we use the main lounge or either of the A or B lounges or do we have to go to our own lounges?

For any practice where we don't mind of other team's drivers join we should use the "shared" 3D3 lounges. But we would have to watch out for conflicts with other events which will take priority as they are next on the schedule: F1 and GT3 and weekly races.

For any practice where we want to limit to Team USA drivers only we should probably designate a lounge. One of the Team USA drivers could set up their lounge to default to one of the tracks (say Fuji) and make sure all drivers on the team are on the list. Whenever a driver wants to practice with team USA, post to this thread and head to that lounge. We won't have to worry about conflicts with other events or teams.

I would volunteer my lounge, but I'm away so someone else should initiate. That person should post here and then send a FR to all the other drivers and set the default track for the event. Just remember, your lounge will become Team USA practice lounge, any Team USA driver can join at any time, so if you want to keep it for your own use from now until Aug 10 then don't volunteer.

Once someone volunteers their lounge I'll put that in the OP.

PS> I'll post something similar in the main thread and suggest other teams do the same.
 
I'll volunteer my lounge

👍 OK, send out the FR to all those on the OP. I won't be able to accept until July 19th, but send one to me anyway. :dopey:

I'll update the OP to say your lounge is the official Team USA practice lounge.
 
👍 OK, send out the FR to all those on the OP. I won't be able to accept until July 19th, but send one to me anyway. :dopey:

I'll update the OP to say your lounge is the official Team USA practice lounge.

Friend requests sent
 
This thread was much needed :lol: WRP, I like your ideas of practicing as a whole before we split up into sub groups. Lefty, the idea of coaching (similar to the academy rooms) sounds nothing but beneficial. That will definitely play a role in raising the overall skill level....we should start scheduling practices (for those able to do so) and get this ball rolling. Down to the minute details....livery choices?
 
This thread was much needed :lol: WRP, I like your ideas of practicing as a whole before we split up into sub groups. Lefty, the idea of coaching (similar to the academy rooms) sounds nothing but beneficial. That will definitely play a role in raising the overall skill level....we should start scheduling practices (for those able to do so) and get this ball rolling. Down to the minute details....livery choices?

I think that we could do practices every Tuesday and Friday (maybe Thursday).

For liveries I think we should try three different shades of a color, like grey, black, and white. And then have the designated colors of the teams by the color of the wheels
 
I think that we could do practices every Tuesday and Friday (maybe Thursday).

For liveries I think we should try three different shades of a color, like grey, black, and white. And then have the designated colors of the teams by the color of the wheels

Grey/Red, Black/White, White/Blue, if we do decide on something like that.

Possibly? Historically, white body, blue details was the US national colors for motorsport.

I like the idea with the wheels signifying each team, as long as there's enough of a variance in the body color to determine who is who.

Edit: Maybe even search for American named colors: Riverside Gold, Sebring Silver, etc. I'd suggest Daytona Yellow, but I believe Team PURE USA is going with that color (or whatever the C6 Yellow is named).
 
Also, it's entirely possible Team USA sub-teams may never even meet each other in the same lounge. It looks like we are running 4 lounges for the event!!!

We could just go with one livery for the entire team and different tires as said above. If we are on the same track at the same time we'll help each other anyway.

We could have the different rim color for sub teams.

The numbers are going to be unique anyway and assigned to each of us based on our event rank.

NOTE: There is white on the car that can't be painted away so it becomes part of every livery.

EDIT: If we go with one Team USA livery I wouldn't mind just stickign to the one currently posted for Team USA Blue:

Livery_TeamUSABlue.png


that or go with purple chrome body color and white/blue/red rims for the three sub-teams. :lol:
 
I think that might be easier to do then. That way once we are set with the teams, it's just a matter of painting the rims in the team color, instead of having to paint the rims and body.

What color is that blue? With no other team having picked blue yet, we could go with that. If not, we can pick some really off-the-wall color, like the suggested purple chrome, or an iridescent color. There's plenty of interesting DLC colors we could decide on.
 
I think that might be easier to do then. That way once we are set with the teams, it's just a matter of painting the rims in the team color, instead of having to paint the rims and body.

What color is that blue? With no other team having picked blue yet, we could go with that. If not, we can pick some really off-the-wall color, like the suggested purple chrome, or an iridescent color. There's plenty of interesting DLC colors we could decide on.

Not sure, I forgot who submitted it... Was it Joe? I'll search the thread and find out.

Edit: Yes, it was Joe here and he said "Starry Blue Mica". I think it's light enough not to conflict with a darker blue that Team Aussie might want.

If that color is not readily available we could pick a close blue from a car available in the new car dealership which would make it trivial to acquire.

PS> that color is not available in any new car. There is a "stormy blue mica" that is available from the Mazda Roadster RS (NC) '07, but not sure how close it is.
 
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Hey everyone, sorry I feel behind, but was out of service this week end.

First, I would really enjoy being coached by the faster drivers, I always wanted to get in on the academy, but my work never would let me.:grumpy:

As far as practice times, my best bet is week day evenings, but you know how that go's. When we start to schedule them I will do my best to make as many as I can.👍

And finally, I will go paint a car that stormy blue mica and share it so we can see if we like it. I will post in a little while to let you know when its up.👍

(Unless some one beats me to it):)
 
I looked through a paint list online and there is a Patriot Blue Pearl Coat, which comes from, of all cars, the PT Cruiser. :lol: Of course, with it being a Chrysler/Dodge color, they put it on pretty much every vehicle they made in the real world. Should look somewhat close to this, but with GT5's lighting, it will vary a bit, and paints always look better on the premiums so it would be hard to judge based on the PT Cruiser itself.

45025940.jpg


If someone has that color, we should see how it looks in-game. I'll check in a few hours when I get a chance. If I have the color I'll paint the Vette in it and put it up on share after I update my game.
 
Ok, I put the vette on share with the stormy blue mica, I think it looks great!

Also, I found another color,on a Alfa Romeo Brera Sky Window 3.2 Jts Q4 "06 its blu Daytona Metallizzato, and this one to me, looks a little closer to the first one. I put it on share just to look at.

And Shawn, I found that Patriot Blue Pearl Coat under Chrysler in my paints, but don't own a Chrysler, so must have came from random paints, and I only have 1 more. I do like the way it looks too, so I painted a car that color for you and put it on share.👍

1st one is Stormy blue mica, 2nd blu Daytona Metallizzato, and 3rd Patriot Blue Pearl Coat (That is a cool name)



I'll look for some purples' later in the week.(unless someone has some easy to get colors already)
 
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I'm partial to that first one based only on the small pic Looks sweet. But whatever you guys think given you can see it in game and have a better idea.
 
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