My SR Experience

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So, after 31 races I finally got the coveted S rating but in practice it was only 6 cleanish races from B to S.

I thought I'd document my experience, since i think its actually not as bad as it at first feels and indeed, it taught me to have a lot of patience and restraint :)

Initially, I'd been trying to actually race and was flip-flopping between A,B and C. Then I decided finally to give in and game it, letting crazy drivers who decide to undercut and side swipe into corners and approach you at ramming speed, simply pass, when it seemed there was a chance they were going to try that.

It felt unfair but I kept in the back of my mind the fact that they will be confining themselves to that sort of race unless they learn to drive properly. During the warmups, if I felt like there were a lot of crazies, I'd just sit out the race start and gently drive around myself at the back. Even then, I didn't actually come last since the sort of crazies that like ramming people tend to fly off the track on a regular basis, giving you chance to put a nice bit of distance between them and yourself.

Race Log:

5L Brands Hatch GP: B (white text) - clean race
5L Brands Hatch GP: +B (blue B) - clean race
5L Brands Hatch GP: +B - clean race
5L Brands Hatch GP: +A - one person rammed me from behind, so I got one orange SR
5L Brands Hatch GP: +A - Another rammer, one orange SR
5L Brands Hatch GP: +A - Had the line but side swiped on a corner, one orange SR
5L Brands Hatch GP: S - clean race

So it takes about an hour of actual cleanish driving to get to S, which seems kind of reasonable but it can be frustrating and counter-productive if you initial try to race and expect others to race fairly in the low SR races.

I think its clear that the SR system needs a bit of work still but I also understand it is maybe quite hard to judge who is to blame in certain scenarios. In the low SR ratings, its simply not worth trying to race fully, its effectively about just proving your patience and increasing your awareness.
 
Thanks for this tip. Clearly changes need to be made, and starting out in a cesspool of weaponized racers sure doesn't help. I'm going to throw a ton of races just to get my safety rating way up before I make any attempts at actual racing, my heart can't take it.

Still haven't made any contact of my own, just massive slams to the rear and sideswipes with orange SR drops all the way. Absolutely infuriating.
 
zoomyzoom
So, after 31 races I finally got the coveted S rating but in practice it was only 6 cleanish races from B to S.

I thought I'd document my experience, since i think its actually not as bad as it at first feels and indeed, it taught me to have a lot of patience and restraint :)

Initially, I'd been trying to actually race and was flip-flopping between A,B and C. Then I decided finally to give in and game it, letting crazy drivers who decide to undercut and side swipe into corners and approach you at ramming speed, simply pass, when it seemed there was a chance they were going to try that.

It felt unfair but I kept in the back of my mind the fact that they will be confining themselves to that sort of race unless they learn to drive properly. During the warmups, if I felt like there were a lot of crazies, I'd just sit out the race start and gently drive around myself at the back. Even then, I didn't actually come last since the sort of crazies that like ramming people tend to fly off the track on a regular basis, giving you chance to put a nice bit of distance between them and yourself.

Race Log:

5L Brands Hatch GP: B (white text) - clean race
5L Brands Hatch GP: +B (blue B) - clean race
5L Brands Hatch GP: +B - clean race
5L Brands Hatch GP: +A - one person rammed me from behind, so I got one orange SR
5L Brands Hatch GP: +A - Another rammer, one orange SR
5L Brands Hatch GP: +A - Had the line but side swiped on a corner, one orange SR
5L Brands Hatch GP: S - clean race

So it takes about an hour of actual cleanish driving to get to S, which seems kind of reasonable but it can be frustrating and counter-productive if you initial try to race and expect others to race fairly in the low SR races.

I think its clear that the SR system needs a bit of work still but I also understand it is maybe quite hard to judge who is to blame in certain scenarios. In the low SR ratings, its simply not worth trying to race fully, its effectively about just proving your patience and increasing your awareness.
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What happened to your driver rating at the same time. Has it fallen ?
 
I don't remember how many races it took me to get my SR to S, but to me it felt quick. I was trying to do the 15 clean races in-a-row achievement. I'm not a great racer (i.e. slow), so my DR didn't change that much.

On the comment about S = less likely to get dirty racers, that's pretty much true. So far, most of the races I'm in have clean drivers. I did, however, come across one of the dirtiest racers in recent races.. They kept on shunting cars to use as a brake and kept slamming cars off track. Raced with that person twice and in both races, someone got fed up with him and slammed him out of the track in both races.
 
After spending so long at DR D SR B, I did decide to game the system and started to just race clean at the back.

I just realised that my gaming the system in fact gamed me? In working out how to look for and avoid any possible collision, I learned a bit more awareness - that I thought I already had. It ended up stretching a while cause I got tempted into racing after passing wiped out cars on the grass, then having to be aware that they might be catching up. I went from SR B to sr A in one night/ 2 FIA races, then my next 2 FIA races I got SRS S!

B seems to be the one I spent a long time in. From the forums, I have had it easier than the Americas, who seem to be seeing more dive bombing, or at least more vocal about it.

Worked a little bit like some of the driving school lessons, that after racing through and crashing a few times trying to go 105%, I tried just going what I thought was dramatically slow - and golded the lesson.
 
deviln3
Honestly, drop to the back of the group, run a slow clean race. Do this 3-4 times, your SR should be A. Now you can race clean people like yourself.
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Interesting - I tried that for one FIA race last week at Alsace and my mid point D driver rating dropped heavily to just barely D so there appeared to be a trade off in play. Did get Blue SR and clean race bonus. I was lapped by 1st and 2nd too so maybe that had something to do with it. Were you ever lapped ?
 
What a lot of people do not understand and riding around at the back of a bunch of races in the lower SR does not teach them is how to race clean at race pace around traffic.

Then when they advance to the SR S class and try to pick up the pace and race in the middle of the pack their lack of experience comes to the top and suddenly they are the ones that are doing the ramming and being the bulldozers not because they are trying to drive dirty but they still have not learned to read traffic. braking zones or moves by other cars or when they are running at a pace they cannot keep and hold to say an inside line and drift out to a car occupying the outside lane.

I would say one thing that indicates this type of driver is one that is bouncing up and down, back and forth from one SR ranking to the next.

Instead of riding around at the back to get to the next higher ranking race where you are so when you do advance you are actually ready to be in that higher rating at race pace. Do not be the one in S class that everyone is constantly talking about being dirty because of a lack of knowledge.
 
Didn't try with FIA races, only in the daily races. I try not to get myself lapped. Also If theres a gap after the mid-pack and the last place cars then I try to keep my pace between the two groups so I don't come in contact with them. Another thing you can do is try to go slow in the first lap, but for lap 2 and then lap 3, try to improve your sector times. If your sector time goes up, your SR seems to go up too I think. I could be wrong.

VFOURMAX1
What a lot of people do not understand and riding around at the back of a bunch of races in the lower SR does not teach them is how to race clean at race pace around traffic.

Then when they advance to the SR S class and try to pick up the pace and race in the middle of the pack their lack of experience comes to the top and suddenly they are the ones that are doing the ramming and being the bulldozers not because they are trying to drive dirty but they still have not learned to read traffic. braking zones or moves by other cars or when they are running at a pace they cannot keep and hold to say an inside line and drift out to a car occupying the outside lane.

I would say one thing that indicates this type of driver is one that is bouncing up and down, back and forth from one SR ranking to the next.

Instead of riding around at the back to get to the next higher ranking race where you are so when you do advance you are actually ready to be in that higher rating at race pace. Do not be the one in S class that everyone is constantly talking about being dirty because of a lack of knowledge.
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I agree with you, if a driver doesn't have the experience of racing with others then they will cause wrecks. But I'm hoping that people that make it to S class at the very least don't ram people out of the way at the first corner. I expect there to be some minor scraps but not ramming people off the track. Also I'd expect people to get to Rank A and B where people at least try to drive a clean race, I don't advice for people to get to rank S by driving clean at the back of the pack. The point was for people to at least move out of the E rating to have a chance of racing somewhat careful drivers.

As far as the driver rating goes, if your lap time is not within 1 second of the person you are racing, then it will be hard to understand how they race. Like do they brake early, do they slide out in the turn etc. Your lines and braking zones will vary, and there will be collisions.
 
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zoomyzoom
So, after 31 races I finally got the coveted S rating but in practice it was only 6 cleanish races from B to S.

I thought I'd document my experience, since i think its actually not as bad as it at first feels and indeed, it taught me to have a lot of patience and restraint :)

Initially, I'd been trying to actually race and was flip-flopping between A,B and C. Then I decided finally to give in and game it, letting crazy drivers who decide to undercut and side swipe into corners and approach you at ramming speed, simply pass, when it seemed there was a chance they were going to try that.

It felt unfair but I kept in the back of my mind the fact that they will be confining themselves to that sort of race unless they learn to drive properly. During the warmups, if I felt like there were a lot of crazies, I'd just sit out the race start and gently drive around myself at the back. Even then, I didn't actually come last since the sort of crazies that like ramming people tend to fly off the track on a regular basis, giving you chance to put a nice bit of distance between them and yourself.

Race Log:

5L Brands Hatch GP: B (white text) - clean race
5L Brands Hatch GP: +B (blue B) - clean race
5L Brands Hatch GP: +B - clean race
5L Brands Hatch GP: +A - one person rammed me from behind, so I got one orange SR
5L Brands Hatch GP: +A - Another rammer, one orange SR
5L Brands Hatch GP: +A - Had the line but side swiped on a corner, one orange SR
5L Brands Hatch GP: S - clean race

So it takes about an hour of actual cleanish driving to get to S, which seems kind of reasonable but it can be frustrating and counter-productive if you initial try to race and expect others to race fairly in the low SR races.

I think its clear that the SR system needs a bit of work still but I also understand it is maybe quite hard to judge who is to blame in certain scenarios. In the low SR ratings, its simply not worth trying to race fully, its effectively about just proving your patience and increasing your awareness.
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I've tried and given up, there's just way too many dirty drivers online.
 
Once you get SR S, the races are pretty clean for the most part ... especially compared to the B, C, D level. It is worth getting to S, trust me.
 
I'm definitely not looking to get to SR-S by floating back. Aside from not being deserving of a top safety rating right now, you're right in that it isn't making me a better racer, certainly not a better competitor, and it sucks to have to do this.

But at the D-B starting level, the back half is shockingly incompetent (seriously, the things I saw from behind, and the effort required to remain last was amazing) and most of the middle is incompetent AND overly aggressive.

Once I see SR-A I'll start racing in earnest. Until then I'm sandbagging.
 
Ive barely played Sport Mode and Im a B and a S. Where I belong because Im a clean, fast driver but I have spent very limited time in Sport. The penalty system needs reworking. Especially scrubbing down penalities. Slow down, pit in should be the norm. Id also love to see a high damage model that ends your race day.
 
VictorViper
I'm definitely not looking to get to SR-S by floating back. Aside from not being deserving of a top safety rating right now, you're right in that it isn't making me a better racer, certainly not a better competitor, and it sucks to have to do this.

But at the D-B starting level, the back half is shockingly incompetent (seriously, the things I saw from behind, and the effort required to remain last was amazing) and most of the middle is incompetent AND overly aggressive.

Once I see SR-A I'll start racing in earnest. Until then I'm sandbagging.
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I will recommend to use arcade mode and AI as a tool to help you adjust to and learn to handle sudden off the wall changes in speeds and driving lines.

Do a custom race on a track you like to race and set it to start at the or near the rear will the full 20 cars and set the AI to professional and the boost to none and slipstream to real and do say 4 to 5 laps and try to move to the front as quickly as possible totally clean turning the fastest laps you can in traffic with 0 contact and not cutting the corners any on the track.

The AI is actually at times pretty unpredictable, they will brake check you out of the blue, change lines without notice, drift over and squeeze your line and approach corners in front of you staggered two and three wide. Will get a new driver accustomed to watching for and being prepared react to an unexpected action from another car.

Also a good tool to learn a new track offline as well, you can set the race length for as many laps as you want.


Great practice for a new driver trying to learn skills and get accustomed to driving around traffic and fun sometimes just trying to relax and complete your daily miles for your gift car if you do not feel like or have time to go on line and race..
 
VFOURMAX1
I will recommend to use arcade mode and AI as a tool to help you adjust to and learn to handle sudden off the wall changes in speeds and driving lines.

Do a custom race on a track you like to race and set it to start at the or near the rear will the full 20 cars and set the AI to professional and the boost to none and slipstream to real and do say 4 to 5 laps and try to move to the front as quickly as possible totally clean turning the fastest laps you can in traffic with 0 contact and not cutting the corners any on the track.

The AI is actually at times pretty unpredictable, they will brake check you out of the blue, change lines without notice, drift over and squeeze your line and approach corners in front of you staggered two and three wide. Will get a new driver accustomed to watching for and being prepared react to an unexpected action from another car.

Also a good tool to learn a new track offline as well, you can set the race length for as many laps as you want.


Great practice for a new driver trying to learn skills and get accustomed to driving around traffic and fun sometimes just trying to relax and complete your daily miles for your gift car if you do not feel like or have time to go on line and race..
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We have had a very, very different experience against the AI. Maybe it's the modes I'm playing (just been doing the "campaign" stuff to gold completion)? The AI hasn't changed much since the original, in my experience.

Anyway, I'm not a newcomer to racing Sims, but the horrible online in the past has meant my skills are entirely against AI. I need to get better against like-minded and similarly skilled opponents. The starting rank is a cesspool and with the way the SR system works, a horrible negative feedback loop to boot.
 
deviln3
I agree with you, if a driver doesn't have the experience of racing with others then they will cause wrecks. But I'm hoping that people that make it to S class at the very least don't ram people out of the way at the first corner. I expect there to be some minor scraps but not ramming people off the track. Also I'd expect people to get to Rank A and B where people at least try to drive a clean race, I don't advice for people to get to rank S by driving clean at the back of the pack. The point was for people to at least move out of the E rating to have a chance of racing somewhat careful drivers.

As far as the driver rating goes, if your lap time is not within 1 second of the person you are racing, then it will be hard to understand how they race. Like do they brake early, do they slide out in the turn etc. Your lines and braking zones will vary, and there will be collisions.
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The problem though, nobody starts at SR E. Everyone starts DR E / SR B. That's why B is so hard to get out of. They should have started everyone at SR E.

I may have to game the system for once. It took me a couple weeks to understand this SR system punishes both parties. I had just remained in B the whole time. Once I understood, I moved to A fairly quick. However, in my first Nations cup race... I got knocked around so much that I was a red B by the end. The next daily race and I was a C. But only a C for 2 races. Now I've been at B for a few days. I get 3 races with a blue B, then that one red B. I will never get back to A like that.
 
BigDawg_1281
The problem though, nobody starts at SR E. Everyone starts DR E / SR B. That's why B is so hard to get out of. They should have started everyone at SR E.

I may have to game the system for once. It took me a couple weeks to understand this SR system punishes both parties. I had just remained in B the whole time. Once I understood, I moved to A fairly quick. However, in my first Nations cup race... I got knocked around so much that I was a red B by the end. The next daily race and I was a C. But only a C for 2 races. Now I've been at B for a few days. I get 3 races with a blue B, then that one red B. I will never get back to A like that.
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I agree.Everybody should start at DR E/SR E and work to level up their ratings.BTW in my opinion its too easy to get to SR S they way the rating system works.
 
JulesDennis
I agree.Everybody should start at DR E/SR E and work to level up their ratings.BTW in my opinion its too easy to get to SR S they way the rating system works.
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I agree, it is too easy. That's why I don't want to work the system. But, after the incident I had yesterday... I think I'm going to. The driver shoved me off the track when I tried to pass him. I got by him later when he spun. At the chicane next (last) lap, he didn't brake or even slow down. He T-boned when I turned in. It was as if he perfectly planned it. That did it for me. I know how to run in traffic and I never make contact intentionally. So, I'm just going to not qualify and ride at the back for a few races.
 
BigDawg_1281
The problem though, nobody starts at SR E. Everyone starts DR E / SR B. That's why B is so hard to get out of. They should have started everyone at SR E.
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Didn't the Beta start everyone at C ? Even that was better than B.
 
I'd argue that you don't even want a S safety rating anyway, you'll never win a race again if you are not near the top 10 time wise. Whereas with A there are less aliens there and you at least have a shot.
 
ASH32
I'd argue that you don't even want a S safety rating anyway, you'll never win a race again if you are not near the top 10 time wise. Whereas with A there are less aliens there and you at least have a shot.
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Is the game not also taking driver rank into consideration? Being up against lower level performers with good safety ratings sounds, well, ideal for someone like me who hasn't earned any right to a podium but works his arse off to ensure fair play.
 
VictorViper
Is the game not also taking driver rank into consideration? Being up against lower level performers with good safety ratings sounds, well, ideal for someone like me who hasn't earned any right to a podium but works his arse off to ensure fair play.
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You're correct, Driver Rating has a bigger influence over who you race against than Sportsmanship Rating - a lower DR ensures that you will be racing against drivers with a similar skill level. Hopefully if they are all S SR then you should have a cleaner race......
 
bone_tone
You're correct, Driver Rating has a bigger influence over who you race against than Sportsmanship Rating - a lower DR ensures that you will be racing against drivers with a similar skill level. Hopefully if they are all S SR then you should have a cleaner race......
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That's definitely the hope. I'm totally cool with accidents and unskilled manoeuvering, and I expect these things (and will cause my own fair share). But just like any online game, sometimes you gotta find a way to get around the griefers. If I don't find a way around, the game gets shelved. Not worth the time wasted otherwise.
 
VictorViper
That's definitely the hope. I'm totally cool with accidents and unskilled manoeuvering, and I expect these things (and will cause my own fair share). But just like any online game, sometimes you gotta find a way to get around the griefers. If I don't find a way around, the game gets shelved. Not worth the time wasted otherwise.
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Absolutely, it doesn't take long to work out how to avoid the idiots!
 
I can still count on one hand the amount of times i've had SR decrease and I'm in D/S now. I hardly have encountered dirty drivers other than the new drivers on the first day in B class. Once I got into A and S almost all the drivers are clean and respectable.

One of the weirdest and funny moments was the other day when I was turning a corner on Nurb and got hit from behind which sent me off the track and when I re-entered I got an SR increase while I was expecting a SR decrease.

But there are some aspects of the SR system that still needs to be tweaked.
 
I think holding back and killing your dr is a bad idea. I've never held back, I've just raced clean and I bounce back and forth between dr b and dr a but I don't lose my sr s very often. Every time I go back down to A it's surprising how much of a difference there is between sr s and sr a. Also, I think the game is getting better with SR because I got punted off the track twice in the FIA race last night and the straight at the end of the race I was sandwiched between two a holes who were slamming into me trying to crash me to get past me. I still got back into SR S after that race and that was one dirtiest races I've been in. It was the same person every time last night and he had a red SR A at the end of the race but he was one of the dirtiest drivers I've ever raced. He sent me to last place on the first lap, I got back to 6th, he spun me again and I caught him again and then he and one other person used me as a drum slamming into me trying to get me to crash, I backed off and let the idiots by and finished 8th and I got moved back to an SR S and safety from the idiots.
 

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