Competitive online racing?

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Hi, I'm new here and haven't seen any recent posts on Project Cars 2's online racing mode, the feature that I'm most looking forward to. There was some information on this in February (https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/project-cars-2s-new-online-championship-mode-detailed.353781/), but it seems that the feature wasn't available to beta testers back then. Is it available now? What impressions do you beta testers have of PCars2's online racing mode(s)?

I used to race only against AI, but after trying iRacing for a month, I know that racing other humans is way more fun, if the game has certain rules in place to keep racing clean. Will PCars2 have a "safety rating" system which professionally players behave on the track? Will it have official races every hour like iRacing, or will the entire online racing schedule be community-driven, i.e. lobbies and leagues created ad-hoc by players?
 
Hi, I'm new here and haven't seen any recent posts on Project Cars 2's online racing mode, the feature that I'm most looking forward to. There was some information on this in February (https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/project-cars-2s-new-online-championship-mode-detailed.353781/), but it seems that the feature wasn't available to beta testers back then. Is it available now? What impressions do you beta testers have of PCars2's online racing mode(s)?

I used to race only against AI, but after trying iRacing for a month, I know that racing other humans is way more fun, if the game has certain rules in place to keep racing clean. Will PCars2 have a "safety rating" system which professionally players behave on the track? Will it have official races every hour like iRacing, or will the entire online racing schedule be community-driven, i.e. lobbies and leagues created ad-hoc by players?
Don't think it has official races. But it does have the Competitive Racing License which is discussed here. http://www.projectcarsgame.com/esports-projectcars2.html
 
@Ryzza5, I don't play very consistently, so I don't think the league system with a fixed race schedule would suit me well. I might spend one Sunday racing all afternoon, and then not play for a couple of weeks. That's why I'm hoping Project Cars 2 will have some sort of matchmaking system that will allow me to find a ranked race ad-hoc, or at least once an hour like in iRacing.

What would a new player do if only community-created leagues exist and all of those had strict entry requirements? Would that new players be unable to join ranked online races?
 
@Ryzza5, I don't play very consistently, so I don't think the league system with a fixed race schedule would suit me well. I might spend one Sunday racing all afternoon, and then not play for a couple of weeks. That's why I'm hoping Project Cars 2 will have some sort of matchmaking system that will allow me to find a ranked race ad-hoc, or at least once an hour like in iRacing.

What would a new player do if only community-created leagues exist and all of those had strict entry requirements? Would that new players be unable to join ranked online races?
https://www.gtplanet.net/driver-rating-system-to-be-included-in-project-cars-2/
 
@Ryzza5What would a new player do if only community-created leagues exist and all of those had strict entry requirements?

Some Leagues / Clubs are more relaxed about attendance and some run open nights which are open to non-members.


@Ryzza5, I don't play very consistently, so I don't think the league system with a fixed race schedule would suit me well.

This is true of many people, but I think, if possible, it is worth committing a small amount of time (perhaps just one hour per week) to attend a club / league meeting reasonably regularly. Other, occasional time on the game can then be spent on practise for the upcoming round or on career mode.

Once you have got used to racing regularly with clean, considerate drivers and perhaps have even learnt their strengths and weaknesses and driving styles you will probably not be satisfied with racing with strangers even ones put up by a match making system. Project Cars 2 and GT Sport are both bringing new systems, but in my view they are unlikely to be as enjoyable as actual club / league participation - provided of course you find one that suits.

For anyone who is interested "Sick's Race Room" will continue to offer great racing with a classic flavour on Project Cars 2.

Poster V12 Jaguar.jpg
 
Some Leagues / Clubs are more relaxed about attendance and some run open nights which are open to non-members.
And others ban you when you make an attempt to show up but don't follow through because of reasons outside of video games. Sorry, little salt left over hehe

There should be a lot more online racing and leagues in PC2 because you will actually be able to name the lobby. This will help for recruitment since people can check out practice nights or come in to watch a league night if there's extra spaces. SNAIL Racing (see link in my sig) has plans to adopt the PS4 soon, whether that is with PC2 or GTS we're not sure yet but it will be evolving if the necessary systems are in place.
 
Did my first online stint about a week ago on PC1 and found the racing easier (3rd, 1st, disconnected whist 2nd) and cleaner than Forza random lobby.

That being said finding a race was difficult (not may players) and not being on a dedicated server the was problematic because of lag.

I'm hoping SMS can have dedicated servers with fixed times as well.
 
Yea, there's always lag with someone, and it's tough finding a room when you know nothing about the settings until you join.

I usually check the ones with more people in them first and hopefully one is towards the end of a qualifying session. I get people make that session long to allow time for drivers to get in and fill it up, but people just want to race. I like to set a room up with 10 or 15min races with a 5 minute qualifying to act as a break period in between. I never get a lot of people though and I don't want to sit online for hours hoping it works. We need more leagues.
 
I usually check the ones with more people in them first and hopefully one is towards the end of a qualifying session. I get people make that session long to allow time for drivers to get in and fill it up, but people just want to race. I like to set a room up with 10 or 15min races with a 5 minute qualifying to act as a break period in between. I never get a lot of people though and I don't want to sit online for hours hoping it works. We need more leagues.

That's exactly why I'd like PCars2 to have official, automatically hosted races every hour, like in iRacing - in addition to the custom league/e-sports racing schedule features they're adding. I don't like every hosted race having completely different rules and different start times.
 
That's exactly why I'd like PCars2 to have official, automatically hosted races every hour, like in iRacing - in addition to the custom league/e-sports racing schedule features they're adding. I don't like every hosted race having completely different rules and different start times.
This would be a good idea. Maybe matchmake players together based on their CRL and have a circuit and car combination for a week and tie these in to the Motorsport presets.
 
The hosting options were limited in PC1 - I was quite disappointed with the options after 5 years of hosting on GT. These things reduce the number of rooms available for people to race in by making it a less popular game to host on:

1. Lack of a reverse grid option.
2. Inability to set qualifying at 6, 7, 8 or 9 minutes - it's just 5 or 10, but no inbetween option.
3. Inability to calculate a qualifying position from an incomplete lap - so long qualifying sessions have to be used with long tracks or no qualifying.
4. No option to start qualifying from the last corner so the minimum qualifying length for a medium length track becomes 10 minutes due to the need for an outlap.
5. Poor start procedure which can be anticipated (i.e. inadequate delay between final light and start) - this results in frequent first corner wrecks. Why do we have the unrealistic lights countdown system anyway? It's not used at any real life race meeting that I attend.

Most of these result in a need to have longer qualification sessions and in my view long qualification sessions are the enemy of informal ad hoc racing. They also stop me hosting two races per meeting which I would love to do with saloon cars.

Hopefully some of these will change / improve in PC2.
 
And others ban you when you make an attempt to show up but don't follow through because of reasons outside of video games. Sorry, little salt left over hehe

Do you really want to open this can of worms? :rolleyes: Most little children learn when they touch a hot stove and get burned they do not keep returning to touch the same stove. :O

You have been banned from more than one league, not because of reasons outside video games :confused:, but directly related to your actions during the race. :banghead:

Good luck with the sale of your PS4, and your new beginning on Xbox. Time to move on.
 
The hosting options were limited in PC1 - I was quite disappointed with the options after 5 years of hosting on GT. These things reduce the number of rooms available for people to race in by making it a less popular game to host on:

1. Lack of a reverse grid option.
2. Inability to set qualifying at 6, 7, 8 or 9 minutes - it's just 5 or 10, but no inbetween option.
3. Inability to calculate a qualifying position from an incomplete lap - so long qualifying sessions have to be used with long tracks or no qualifying.
4. No option to start qualifying from the last corner so the minimum qualifying length for a medium length track becomes 10 minutes due to the need for an outlap.
5. Poor start procedure which can be anticipated (i.e. inadequate delay between final light and start) - this results in frequent first corner wrecks. Why do we have the unrealistic lights countdown system anyway? It's not used at any real life race meeting that I attend.

Most of these result in a need to have longer qualification sessions and in my view long qualification sessions are the enemy of informal ad hoc racing. They also stop me hosting two races per meeting which I would love to do with saloon cars.

Hopefully some of these will change / improve in PC2.
1.
Your grid choices are by normal (not reverse) Qualy Time or Random.
2. Why would you ever need something in between 5 and 10 minutes?
3.
Should be able to finish qualy lap online. Just yesterday testing Indycar _offline_ at Long Beach I crossed S/F with 0:01 remaining and was pleasantly surprised the game let me finish that lap.
4. That's a Gran Turismo exclusive. I wouldn't hold your breath for it.
5.
pCars 1 most certainly does have a random start sequence. It can give a false impression of being predictable since it looks like a drag racing tree.
 
2. Why would you ever need something in between 5 and 10 minutes?
Why would a game have such limited options when it would be just as easy to put in a timer with 1 minute increments?
 
Why would a game have such limited options when it would be just as easy to put in a timer with 1 minute increments?
You could say the same thing about practice sessions and race timers. Is it reallly necessary though? There has to be a line drawn somewhere.
 
Why would a game have such limited options when it would be just as easy to put in a timer with 1 minute increments?
They had 1x increments for weather/time back in pCARS1 early builds. I guess the thought is that it would be too much trouble for console players to have to "scroll" through all the single minutes/Xs to get to the desired value and that the reasonable amount of presets should work fine for most. I'm sure they could easily add that in, it's not a code issue.
 
You could say the same thing about practice sessions and race timers. Is it reallly necessary though? There has to be a line drawn somewhere.
Why does the line have to drawn somewhere beyond 1 minute increments?
 
1.

1. Reverse grid would be useful to me as I host meetings with people whose English may not be so good - I know that some people manually form up and create their own reverse grid for race two - that isn't an option for me as I sometimes host for people whose English is not great. This is a very simple option which could have a big effect on Project cars making it possible to run second races to a format which mirrors some real race series.

2. Why would you ever need something in between 5 and 10 minutes?

On GT I frequently set qualifying to 6, 7 or 8 minutes. I used a standard setting of 5 minutes, but this would be extended if the track length required it to complete the planned number of qualifying laps. With a tightly scheduled mid-week meeting every minute counts and for example if 6 minutes would have been just right, but Project Cars forces me to use a full 10 minutes that is 4 minutes of wasted time which I could have added to the race duration.

3. Qualifying positions calculated from an incomplete lap is a godsend at tracks like Nordschleife, but I understand it is a very clever piece of programming and unlikely to appear.

4. That's a Gran Turismo exclusive. I wouldn't hold your breath for it. Ditto

5.
The start system may have a random element, but it doesn't really work as intended because the time interval is far too short - in real life racing I believe it is between 1 and 3 seconds, which I think is also used in GT - in Project Cars it seems to be between 0.1 and 1.0 seconds which is not enough.

It's a great game and I really enjoy it, but I do find some of it very frustrating.
 
The start system may have a random element, but it doesn't really work as intended because the time interval is far too short - in real life racing I believe it is between 1 and 3 seconds, which I think is also used in GT - in Project Cars it seems to be between 0.1 and 1.0 seconds which is not enough.

It's a great game and I really enjoy it, but I do find some of it very frustrating.
It is 1-3 seconds. This has been confirmed by many people within SMS.
 
@Ryzza5, I don't play very consistently, so I don't think the league system with a fixed race schedule would suit me well. I might spend one Sunday racing all afternoon, and then not play for a couple of weeks.
Yep I know the feeling, I hardly race as often as I used to, my YT channel is evidence of that. Leagues that I have joined have usually featured 1 or 2 'drop rounds', where each player has the points from their worst 2 rounds deducted at the end, which allows you to be absent for up to 2 races with no points disadvantage.

Between 'seasons' of league tournaments, communities may hold one-off 'fun nights' that you could join.

Alternatively, why not see if you can setup some one-off events on these forums. Give plenty of details and structure in the OP with enough notice and see who replies with an intention to join. As already mentioned, plenty of people are in the same boat as yourself, it just takes one brave person to create the event for them. :)
 
I have repeated (a slightly edited version of) my earlier post because I made an error with the quote positions with the result that it didn't display as intended.

1. Previous race order finish and reverse race order finish would be useful to me - I know that some people manually form up and create their own reverse grid for race two - that isn't an option for me as I sometimes host for people whose English is not great. This sounds likes a very simple option which could have a big effect on Project cars making it possible to run second and / or third races to a format which mirrors some real race series. (I know nothing about game design so perhaps it is not at all simple)

2. Why would you ever need something in between 5 and 10 minutes?

On GT I frequently set qualifying to 6, 7 or 8 minutes. I used a standard setting of 5 minutes, but this would be extended if the track length required it to complete the planned number of qualifying laps. With a tightly scheduled mid-week meeting every minute counts and for example if 6 minutes would have been just right, but Project Cars forces me to use a full 10 minutes that is 4 minutes of wasted time which I could have added to the race duration. (I run all my meetings to a very strict time schedule with as much racing and as little wasted time as possible because members are sometimes planning to enter other series which follow my meeting).

3. Qualifying positions calculated from an incomplete lap is a godsend at tracks like Nordschleife, but I understand it may be a very clever piece of programming and unlikely to appear anywhere except GT.

4. That's a Gran Turismo exclusive. I wouldn't hold your breath for it. Ditto

5. The start system may have a random element, but it doesn't really work as intended because the time interval is far too short - in real life racing I believe it is between 1 and 3 seconds, which I think is also used in GT - in Project Cars it seems to be between 0.1 and 1.0 seconds which is not enough.

It is 1-3 seconds. This has been confirmed by many people within SMS.

Yes - I have heard this from SMS people a number of times, but it doesn't tally with my personal experience - I have now hosted quite a lot of online races on Project Cars and I have never seen the time interval between the final red light and the green light be anything other than a fraction of a second. On Gran Turismo this interval varied from very short to several seconds so that the start could not be anticipated, but in my experience this is not the case on Project Cars 1.
 
I have repeated (a slightly edited version of) my earlier post because I made an error with the quote positions with the result that it didn't display as intended.

1. Previous race order finish and reverse race order finish would be useful to me - I know that some people manually form up and create their own reverse grid for race two - that isn't an option for me as I sometimes host for people whose English is not great. This sounds likes a very simple option which could have a big effect on Project cars making it possible to run second and / or third races to a format which mirrors some real race series. (I know nothing about game design so perhaps it is not at all simple)

2. Why would you ever need something in between 5 and 10 minutes?

On GT I frequently set qualifying to 6, 7 or 8 minutes. I used a standard setting of 5 minutes, but this would be extended if the track length required it to complete the planned number of qualifying laps. With a tightly scheduled mid-week meeting every minute counts and for example if 6 minutes would have been just right, but Project Cars forces me to use a full 10 minutes that is 4 minutes of wasted time which I could have added to the race duration. (I run all my meetings to a very strict time schedule with as much racing and as little wasted time as possible because members are sometimes planning to enter other series which follow my meeting).

3. Qualifying positions calculated from an incomplete lap is a godsend at tracks like Nordschleife, but I understand it may be a very clever piece of programming and unlikely to appear anywhere except GT.

4. That's a Gran Turismo exclusive. I wouldn't hold your breath for it. Ditto

5. The start system may have a random element, but it doesn't really work as intended because the time interval is far too short - in real life racing I believe it is between 1 and 3 seconds, which I think is also used in GT - in Project Cars it seems to be between 0.1 and 1.0 seconds which is not enough.



Yes - I have heard this from SMS people a number of times, but it doesn't tally with my personal experience - I have now hosted quite a lot of online races on Project Cars and I have never seen the time interval between the final red light and the green light be anything other than a fraction of a second. On Gran Turismo this interval varied from very short to several seconds so that the start could not be anticipated, but in my experience this is not the case on Project Cars 1.
You can prove this to yourself by recording the start and using a stopwatch. A tenth is a a lot faser than you probably think it is.
 
You can prove this to yourself by recording the start and using a stopwatch. A tenth is a a lot faser than you probably think it is.

I will try and get round to that - but strange that I noticed the time delay on GT6 and the cars were sometimes held long enough for me to start counting in my head (just like when I watch real car and bike racing), but I've never noticed any significant delay on Project Cars.

I love many aspects of the game, but the start routine in Project Cars really bugs me.
 
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