I've posted some improvements I would like to make "Sport" more interesting in the daily race discussion thread. To summarize these are my collective thoughts:
The sport side should be focused around having a progressive race experience so it is not intimidating for newbies and also has a quick race option for those that perhaps only do a couple races a week and don't want to spend all week "mastering" a track/car combo. It needs to fix the qualifier issue where people can spend hours doing QT only to then not be able to match it on track or that they QT in one car and that performance then applies to another which can't match it. Finally, it needs more rotation of race lengths (Sprint, Strategy and add endurance) and of car types while keeping what is popular.
I propose five races. Two change every day - truly "daily" races, and three change each week - so weekly races.
First we start with the daily races that truly only last for one day. Both these races are SR enabled but not DR. People should be able to jump on and had a fun race and not be worried about hitting their DR performance. Matching is based on SR first and then a pre-race qualifier to try to get a close and competitive grid.
Daily A
Short sprint - varied car selection - biased towards road cars like classic GT days - and have tracks sympathetic to those cars. Could be a one make race, or a selection of similar styles (Euro hot hatch for instance, or hyper-car, or classic 1960s cars tec). There is lots of opportunity here and this would be a non-DR but would have SR switched on.
For starting position a 1 hot lap qualifying run would be used (you can of course practice ahead but that would not count to your QT like today) and then race up to 15 minutes assuming the QT session is short - less if longer. The QT hot lap will terminate at 30 seconds past fastest lap - or some maximum value. If you have not cross the line by then, then your grid position along DNF cars is determined on how far you made it along the track - if no one did that then it's completely random draw.
This way, your starting position is directly related to you performance at that time and also the tune (if tuning is allowed) and set up of your car.
I think this would be an excellent way to have a "feeder" race into more involved races. It would also hugely benefit racers that just want to jump on and race, knowing that they will be racing others with similar QT to theirs so they won't get left behind if not that familiar with the combo. Also as it rotates daily, it will be mostly fresh for most people each day.
Daily B
This one is more involved and is designed for variety. It rotates between:
- Endurance: 50 minute races - 1hr race interval (including QT) with up to two pit spots
- Sprint: 15 minute race (including QT) - 20 minute interval
- Strategy: 35 minute race (including QT) - 40 minute race interval with 1 pit stop
QT would be a similar concept to daily A but perhaps the longer races can have two hot laps. I think each race length should rotate per day. That way over time everyone should have a chance of picking up an endurance or sprint or strategy race. The car selection should vary hugely as well. Give a chance to race some of these weird and classic cars we paid $20m credits for but have no other use as no in game races cover them..
Both dailies should have light damage model. Endurance races would obviously favor longer tracks like the Nordschleifer and Le Mans but could be anything.
Then we have the weekly races. These are the ones that build DR.
Weekly races drop what is currently daily A as that is moved to the true dailies above. The weekly races alter the qualifier so they run like today but with one big distinction. The QT you get for the week only applies to that particular car. You QT in the M6 and then go race the RSR then you start at the back of the grid unless you also QT'd in the RSR. This is design to separate the metas that may be fast in QT but are not so great in traffic vs these that are competitive in racing but may not be so hot in QT. It'll be interesting.
Weekly A - Sprint (15 minute race - 20 minute interval)
Similar to current format that is shorter races with no fuel/tire ware to worry about. Typically rotates between the ever popular Gr.4, Gr.3 cars with occasional road cars and tuner options thrown in.
Weekly B - Strategy (35 minute race - 40 minute race interval with 1 pit stop)
Similar to current daily C. However I would advocate for more car rotation options. This should have more Gr.2 and sport car selection. Also let's get more classic road cars and tuners.
Weekly C - Endurance (Expert level)
This would be the new addition that is sorely missing and much asked for. Longer, up to 50 minute races, on a 1 hour cycle with up to 2 pit stops with tire and fuel wear to factor. These should be pushed as expert races that have hard damage models meaning you have to pit to fix your car.
Car selection would be predominately Gr.3 and above but once a month there should be odd ball races. Could you imagine a "24 hrs of lemons" type race where in 50 minutes we cycle through an entire day and we race in cars that limited to say 350PP?
There should be much more 60s/70s/80s classic sports cars in these races as well.
Finally, race award credits and DR/SR performance points should relate to the length and difficulty of the race based on a per hour rate.
So points would have a multiplier applied based on length - the multiple stated in the race rules/conditions:
20 minute races X1
30 minute races X1.5
40 minute races X2
60 minute races X3
Bigger races give you an opportunity to gain a lot of points, but also to lose them...
EDIT: I forgot to add but races where tuning is permitted should be a regular occurrence. I don't think that makes sense for the daily races but for weekly, definitely. PD needs to implement it better than now though. We need to be able to save tuner settings the we determined during practice/race that can be called up at the start of the race rather than making a note somewhere and then entering them hurriedly before a race starts.
