Historic Trans-Am Series - Round 1

  • Thread starter Thread starter TheCracker
  • 20 comments
  • 980 views
TheCracker

TheCracker

Nothing to see here...
Premium
Messages
24,613
United Kingdom
It/It
Messages
GTP_TheCracker
Its finally here!


Round1 - Portland Historic Races - Yosemite

El Capitan (normal)

- 9 laps
- enforced pit stop (everyone must pit at least once and change at least one set of tires front or back)
- minimum tire wear (change in options)
- difficulty setting of 5
- deadline - Sunday Oct 16th 12midnight GMT

Settings as per:
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=70562&page=1&pp=20

I've stretched the deadline a little to give everyone enough chance to notice we've started.
 
Alright! We're underway!

Too bad there's no chance of actually winning the race since the AI nimrods won't be pitting. Actually at a difficulty of 6 I don't think I could win anyway. Seems that the competition is selected when I select "6" for difficulty. Then I have to drop my horsepower to meet racing specs in the Shelby which drops me below the competition a little bit. That's why I chose "4" for the warm up. Not complaining...with the mandatory pit I think the difficulty is irrelevent - unless it's -10, then I might be able to catch those poor slow bast@#$%. At least they won't be getting in the way --- except at the start.

Do we actually have to change tires or take on fuel during the pit? If my memory is right it seems that you can actually choose not to change tires and I know you can take on SOME fuel but I don't know if you can just make a trip down pit road? The "Forced Pit Entry" penalty makes you cruise down pit road without stopping. I don't know if this is possible under normal pit conditions.

If I turn on the pit penalty can I smack someone in the rear and get the forced trip down pit lane witout changing anything. Would that count as the mandatory pit? Kinda sounds like twisting the rules (cheating).
 
Since we had little interest in the warm-up race, i think this first race will have to test the water. If difficulty is too high for everyone at '5' then i'll reduce it. If certain cars out perform the rest of the field by a large margin, then i'll add further weight or take away some power, as long as everyone agrees its fair. As for the pit-stops, i'll say that you have change at least one set of tires (ie front or back) - you can change both if you feel you need to, and even top up your tank if you want.

As for any kind of penalty (5, 10 seconds or Forced Pit Entry) - i think we'll knock that one on the head - no one should be swapping paint with the A.I. anyway.
 
The difficulty setting only changes the competition. With the mandatory pit in this short of a race it's irrelevent because the AI won't pit. In a 9 lap race you might be able to catch the laggers but not likely 1st or 2nd. For cars where HP is adjusted up difficulty needs to be higher than for cars where HP is adjusted down...because the HP is adjusted after the game has already selected the competition. It's kinda like TOCA's difficulty setting -- higher makes the AI drive better and tougher to beat. In GT4 changing the difficulty seems to just result in a different selection of cars to race against.

You can force the AI to run different tires than you are running. On the screen where you select difficulty you also can select say S1 tires. Everybody has S1s. Of course you can change your tires in the settings area but the AI stays the same.

I will leave my speed limiter penalty "on". Try as you might to avoid contact it still happens. With the penalty "on" it makes me try even harder to avoid contact. Knowing you're going to get to crawl for 10 secs is a big deterrent. With the penalty "on" at least if there is incidental contact and no penalty I don't have to wonder if I "cheated" without really meaning to. The biggest problem is that those lunkhead AI guys brake sooner than I do...sticking their big fat arses right in front of me for a kiss. It seems that this usually draws the penalty but once I braked hard and barely touched the car in front and didn't get the penalty. Maybe the game somehow measures the force of the impact or knows I was hard on the brakes or ???? I like the penalty...at least there seems to be boundaries that allow you to be a little aggressive where the AI touches you (instead of the other way around) and you don't draw the penalty. The arcade mode penalty does seem more leanient than license or missions (or wherever it is that they existed) penalties. It almost seemed that if you breathed on the opposition (or they breathed on you) you'd get a penalty. And of course you got a penalty if they hit you. The arcade penalty system seems more fair. Of course if you avoid all contact (and any situation that may result in incidental AI contact) then you're safe too.

Patience is the key. But patience costs time. Since we have some time before the 1st event I'll practice some races where I internally adjust my own personal agression setting and see what the net result is in final time. I'll try absolutely NO contact verses trying to out-brake and squeeze into a corner ahead of the AI. Usually the AI moves over and touches me as I'm on my way through. Is that kind of contact frowned upon / unacceptable?
 
Information sent to race control. Here are a few shots from the race weekend. 👍



Getting light over the hill.



Tricky downhill braking zone.



Pushing hard through the final series of turns.
 
Woohoo! It's started!

I should get a chance to run it, seeing as I have monday off (holiday) and the teachers are going on strike Tuesday (possibly longer).

Looks like fun!
 
Two quick questions before I post anything...
1. Do we only run each race once, or until we are happy with our times?
2. Can I post my fastest lap time/ overall race time, or just T-times?

I got a chance yesterday to run the race once, but I know I could shave maybe 10 seconds off the final time, probably more.
 
Slicks
Two quick questions before I post anything...
1. Do we only run each race once, or until we are happy with our times?
2. Can I post my fastest lap time/ overall race time, or just T-times?

I got a chance yesterday to run the race once, but I know I could shave maybe 10 seconds off the final time, probably more.
Click to expand...
TheCracker
Testing must be done in the 'Free Run' mode with the actual race ran only once.
Click to expand...
This was included in the main thread but I believe it applies to all the races. The link in the initial post above is to this initial thread. I think we submit only the final time to TheCracker. I'm not sure what we post in the thread for discussion purposes. I suppose during practice you may discuss lap times but after you've actually run the race I guess you just submit your time TheCracker and you're done...nothing left to talk about? I guess in keeping with typical OLR rules you wouldn't post your final time to the thread...it would really only hurt you anyway because it would give the rest of us a target to shoot for?
 
I just submited my fastest practice lap, then I broke down my race by the lap and submitted that, with a total race time.
 
You should only post 'split' times (no full lap times) before the race results are published.

And yes, run the race only once - practice/free run all you like.
 
Ran El Capitan reverse. 9 Laps. Finished 4th almost a minute behind the winner...he didn't pit...but I wasn't close before the pit. I was well behind the 3rd place car, 45s+/-? 1, 2, 3 and 6 didn't pit. I pitted and 5th pitted. I probably would have finished 4th anyway but might have been able to see the 2nd & 3rd place finishers without the pit.

El Capitan forward, practice. After 10 laps just barely below 2'02.
 
Got any results?
 
I've only received about half a dozen results so far, i was hoping for a few more if i left it for another day - so i'll post what i've got latter today. :(
 
ROUND 1 results

1st
Redline Fox
Plymouth Cuda
18'52:254

2nd
Schrodes
Camaro Z/28
19'10:736

3rd
goixoye
Shelby GT350R
19'12:669

4th
Slicks
Camaro Z/28
19'21:571

5th
SilverStang
Dodge Charger R/T
19'34:806

6th
TheCracker
Alfa GTA
19'41:979

A quick time there buy Redline Fox!

Thanks everyone for supporting the series, i think the series needs a little more 'marketing' - especially with so many other OLR series on at the mo!
 
Congrats Fox & Schrodes (edged me by 2s :grumpy: !) Fox spanked us all by 20s :bowdown:

Looks like maybe the top 3 need to be detuned a bit...either less HP or a lower grade tire? Were any of the lower finishes caused by driver error thus resulting in times that shouldn't be used to determine how equal the field is?
 
I'd be willing to accept rewards weight or a power restriction. The Cuda did seem to be much faster in the warm-up race as well.

I do tend to notice the tires hold up just fine as well.

There was only one time I got the ten second speed limiter penalty, that was coming into the tight left after the short bridge.
 
My race was driven perfectly :( - i think the lower powered cars were always going to struggle on this 'power' track.

Well done to everyone, look out for round 2. I'm off work next week so won't be around to post results if we went for a race ending next Sunday. I'll do a little testing tonight and announce a 'enduro' for the following Sunday (30th)
 
Redline Fox
I'd be willing to accept rewards weight or a power restriction. The Cuda did seem to be much faster in the warm-up race as well.

I do tend to notice the tires hold up just fine as well.

There was only one time I got the ten second speed limiter penalty, that was coming into the tight left after the short bridge.
Click to expand...
You got a 10 second penalty and still beat me by 20s? :crazy: ***shakes head*** simply embarassing
 
My time was far from perfect, as the real race was run w/out practise.
Lookin forward to getting some decent times for next week.

Edit - Cracker, you should give the Alfa an upgrade (provided that your race was clean/fast).
 
I didn't think my time was that good as I was having trouble with the last turn on most laps but I am pleasantly susprised about second position. We all have lots of work to do to catch Redline Fox by the look of it. I think my fastest lap was 2.01.XXX but I would have liked to have been able to record a consistent 2.01 or 2.02.
Laps eight and nine may have been a struggle without the pitstop. I saved the replay and watched it to record my lap times and the times for the two laps that were affected by the pitstop did not come up on the screen. Is this normal?
Unlike some others I don't use the penalty speed limiter but I do give a position back if I touch another car and gain a position from it. I had to give back a position once and that was on my out lap so I couldn't tell how much it affected the lap time.
Congratulations Fox, looking forward to round two.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back