Official GTP Online Racing Discussion Thread

[Snaeper]

Official GTP Online Racing Discussion Thread
Lets improve racing online for GTPlanet​

Well gentleman (and ladies), we all feel the hot breath of GT6 snaking down our neck, and I know some of you series organizers are already brewing up the possibilities on what you can do when the new title releases and an influx of new members hit the freshly-launched brand new version of .

Before that time comes, lets start a discussion on what we can do to improve racing online, if you feel there are any improvements to be made. Personally, there are a number of things that I have seen that could be greatly expanded upon, but it really requires the manpower of the entire community working together to make it happen. Your feedback and contributions matter!

I've been given permission to create this General Discussion and Ideas thread to hear questions you guys may have been wanting to ask for some time now, as well as share my own ideas for improvements. Take a moment to read below, and then let everyone know what you want to do! (Think of this as like a GT Wishlist, except good ideas will most likely be acted upon!)

Join the Skype Conversations! ​

I'll be hosting conversations that are open and available to any member who wants to join. Here's how:

1. Get Skype if you don't have it, and make an account. It's free!
2. Add me to your contacts: Water_Halberd
3. Stay signed in! We don't yet have a decent schedule for conversations, but that will be up soon. In the meantime, stay signed in so you'll know when a conversation starts!

This way we can better explain ideas and hear concerns.

EDIT: I would like to stress that only the discussion portion of this thread is official. My ideas are no less likely to be official than yours are, I am simply putting them here to help structure conversation.

• Regimented Racing "Semesters" Available Block Scheduling System

The Problem: Racing Series start and end erratically, often with weeks in between events, causing a series to stretch to almost 6 months long or more, when it could be done in half that time. This is unattractive to members who may have turbulent schedules as it's difficult for anyone to guess that they'll be available at the date and time for the next few months.
The Solution: Universal start and end dates for every and all participating series, with two lengths available: 5-weeks and 10-weeks.

Note that not all weeks have to have events scheduled (you could select a 10 week and have two off weeks), as long as they all share the uniform start and end dates.
This ensures the driver pool is active, and gives everyone a fair chance at collecting a grid of drivers for their series, it also gives plenty of time for members to create series. Individual events would be given emphasis in the in-between weeks, preferably by members looking to test rules and car combinations for a full series.
This also allows for a clear period of when a series is or isn't registering drivers. I've heard that one of the biggest problems with collecting a grid of drivers is that many members never know if they can register or not (if there's room for them, etc.)
Additionally, if extra organizational effort is given, it could help in reducing the number of similar series, by inter-changing between them, because we all know that we're about to see a metric ton of FIA GT-style series using the GT3 cars.
This, in conjunction with the gtplanet calendar, would also help members avoid other series in similar time slots, by moving to later or earlier times if necessary.
Ultimately, this allows for drivers to be given a number of opportunities to race in different kinds of cars and series if they choose, allowing them to try them all out.

Update: It seems there's been much confusion over how this idea might work, I've made some clarifications throughout the thread that can be read below.

Here
Here
Here
Here
Here

To summarize. You run your series in the time you want to run it, the time that works for you. Just like how a series is run now. The only difference is that we have recommended start and end dates, so that all of the driver pool is active at the same time when it comes to registering for their next series. Giving the opportunity for friends to race together, and hopefully, keeping all of the new drivers we're about to get in our series' over the next year involved in the long run. I want to attract people that are not normally involved in the online racing section and get them into online racing! I want to grow this! And I feel using a method like this is more attractive to new series and drivers to participate in. It is by no means mandatory, but I would hope that it would be beneficial enough for the majority of members to use it. Those with established racing series and driver following can, of course, continue to do what they've been doing, since it works for them and theirs.

• Uniform car regulations

The Problem(?): Multiple series use similar cars but with different regulations.
The Solution: I don't have one! But I think there needs to be one! Volunteer group, maybe? Open track days with community assistance? Whatever it takes to build a universally agreed-upon set of regulations for multiple cars and car types.

It's time we all sat down at the table and took a serious look at bringing a universal method to balancing a type of car for any and all series to use. If all series using that car work together, we can take strides to make those cars even more uniform.
I'll use Super GT as an example. Super GT series on gtplanet have always been a head-scratcher for me, as some will exclude certain cars that others might include. It's understandable why this might happen as those cars may be unbalanced and they might not have the man power to properly homologate them. A solution to this problem could hopefully give everyone access to the manpower they need to include as many cars as possible.
Additionally, by using a universal homologation, it allows participants to set up a car once and then bounce between two series and even individual events that use the rules, without worrying about changing cars.
This is similar to what PURE has been doing, but on an even greater scale.

Update:
Oink's Suggestion
JohnScoonBeard's thoughts

• Merge the Interest Check, Racing Series and Single Event Section into one area and distinguish them with colored titles.

The Problem: The Interest Check and Single Event section only get a small amount of attention
The Solution: It could serve to benefit the two, as well as the Racing section, by integrating all three of them together, and adding the title system that's seen in gtplanet's motorsport section to distinguish between them. Additional titles could distinguish when a series is in registration, in progress, or complete, with the possibility of others.

This isn't actually my idea, but something that Wardez threw out while I was talking to him recently. I thought it was brilliant and others have agreed with me, but I've decided to share it to see what you all think.


Let me know what you want to do, below! Make suggestions for the community, or for gtplanet on what the staff can do to improve the Racing Series section! And discuss ideas like mine above, polite criticism is always accepted.


Here are some of the current ideas:

EDIT: Just had an idea. What if there was a colored dot by every thread title that dictated which day it was on? Then you could filter the series by day to find one? Example:

Monday series would have a red dot next to them
Tuesday series: Blue

Example:



Blue dot meaning the series runs on Tuesday (I don't run on Tuesday... But blue was the color already selected...)

• Educational Sticky for new members.

The Problem: New Members often risk making overly-complicated technical regulations and post them in text-only formats. Either one of these risk losing regular member's attention and could result in the new member having a bad experience on GTPlanet before they even got a chance to race online.
The Solution: Create a resource tool to let new (and old) members know what the most effective way in handling a series is, listing proven examples as proof.

This allows potential series organizers to develop threads and series that are attractive both to them (and their ideas) as well as to members who are used to seeing a bit more eye candy in a thread.
This resource tool could also list do's and do not's to further help them avoid implementing activities that are proven to be unattractive or ineffective in online racing.
The same resource could list current racing series, to show these members what's already out there, and possibly turning them into drivers when they find the series they wanted to make is already out there!

What if there was a master time trial that all leagues used. This would allow people to have an idea of where they would fit in. For instance if I am a D4 racer and if a series is made up of mostly D1 guys I would have an idea about how I would compare and may want to look for a different series with guys a bit slower.

Second is to try to group people into regions. While these could be geographically based I think they would be more time based. This would allow people to find people that race at a similar time.

How could this work? We'll say there was a drivers roster on GTplanet. It could look like this

1. Jobyone - D4 - R4
2. Some Alien - D1 -R4
3. Some Mortal - D3 - R4

So I could see that all three of these guys are in my region but only Some Mortal is likely to be a similar speed as I am. So he would be a good person to reach out to.

Now if we also had a series lineup on GTplanet it could list the days the league runs, the region (time) it runs and the average division of the racers. This could look like

1. Performance Cap - Monday - R4 - D2
2. Academy Practice - Wed/Sat - R3 - D1
3. Some series - Saturday - R4 - D4

I could see that Some Series might be a good fit for me. It is my region and largely made up of people of a similar speed.

I am not sure how this would work logistically but it might help people more easily find a good series that they could join.

I think we need a better way of organising the threads for racing series.

ProblemIt is very difficult as a series organiser to keep all of the information needed in an orderly fashion. Some threads end up having all of the required info(e.g. Car regs, driver lists, series regs etc) spread across the thread, this makes it difficult for the series organiser to edit and organise the info and it makes it difficult for potential racers to find and interpret all of the relevant info.
Solution-Have a standard racing series thread layout, this would mean that all series threads would have the same type of info in the same places, this would eliminate the problem above.

Problem-Not everyone has the time to regularly check the thread for the series they are involved in, this means that some racers can miss out on important info and updates regarding the series.
Solution-Have an easier way to notify racers of updates to the series, such as a feature to send email notifications regarding important updates and changes.

Problem-It can be difficult to keep a record of championship points, standings and penalties. Some use google documents, others post the information in the thread. Either way, it can get very confusing and time consuming for series organisers and racers.
Solution-Create some sort or table system(similar to excel) that can be used in the opening post of a series. This would mean that all of the point tables, standings and penalties will be in one location, this gets rid of the need for annoying hyperlinks or messy typed up points tables.

The issue i have had is the social side of things on GTP, we have moved alot of our things over to facebook groups as we find it creates more of a social environment than GTP can offer as it is hard to keep up with the posts.

It would be great be able to search for categories of series, so say by car class used, multi class, single spec class, etc. Something that would help narrow down what drivers are looking for.

The other thing i would like to see is more of an inviting layout with series information etc, so that race organisers can advertise the series alot more clear than now.

The next season of the WEC will be 7 months long with 14 rounds with 48 drivers, we have the following to pull it off due to the specs we run and the rules and regs put in place (just like any successful series) but the GTP side of things is just for regulation and to keep the non facebook members in the loop.

PAPPACLART's suggestion can be read here due to it's length.

And a follow up can be read here.

A single suggestion of my own.

2: How about having a thread listing all the different racing series into catagories? I'm confident that we'll see a huge increase in threads on the Racing Series board once GT6 comes out, which results in users having to go through several pages of threads, while perhaps looking for a specific type of series. This is made even more daunting by the fact that not all thread names give a clear discription of what kind of races are being run.

Having a single thread stickied at the top, dedicated to grouping the individual series's into catagories, results in a fast and easy way to get an overview of the current types of race series being held. This of course requires someone who's willing to spend time inserting all the info into the OP. He/she will get the info and link from the different race organisers, either by PM or by the organisers posting in the thread.

Actually, I probably wouldn't mind being responsible for this, if the idea is approved.

Simplified example of the thread OP.

GT3:

Super Awesome GT3 series - Link - Race date start/end
Even more super awesome GT3 series - Link - Race date start/end
Insert generic GT3 series name here - Link - Race date start/end

GT300:

Japanese GT300 season 2014 - Link - host name - Race date start/end

GT500:

Japanese GT500 season 2014 - Link - host name - Race date start/end

Stock normal road car Racing Series:

Race series name - Link - host name - Race date start/end

Tuned normal road car Racing Series:

Race series name - Link - host name - Race date start/end

Stock sport/supercar Racing Series:

Race series name - Link - host name - Race date start/end

Horrible idea?

Just realized something as well, people that want to run extremely long series aren't terribly interested in attracting more or new drivers to the series. Those groups that want to run 6-month + long series are essentially clubs running their seasons in the Racing Series section.

So one proposal gained from that is coming up with a standard of classification for what the different between a club and a series is. Clubs could be something like, series that run for more than 3 months, or around there.

Using a tagging/label system to make threads and series content a lot easier to define at a glance.

These are the type of tags I'm thinking should be used, and not only just to point out what type of racing it's using either btw, it can be useful for lots of different things.
What I'm imagining is a dual tag system, so when you first start up a thread, you select from two drop down boxes, one is for series status, and the other is racing type. Here's just a few I've had in mind -

Series status:
Looking for drivers or Need drivers - Sign ups open - Sign ups closed - In progress - Postponed - Canceled - etc.

Series type:
- NASCAR - GT - Endurance - Spec Racing - Touring Cars - Open Wheel - Rally - Road Cars -Other - Clubs and Leagues - etc.


That does a lot of good for clearing up space in the thread titles in order to allow them to be more descriptive, letting drivers know exactly what the threads are about just at a glance, increasing the ability for organizers to promote their series and just making things easier.

As for what I would recommend, it's really quite simply. Implement some sort of filtering system that new or current members can utilize to quickly and easily find a series "match". I've never used match.com, but I know that their members have to fill out a questionnaire in order for the website to suggest potential matches. Simply take that concept and apply it to GTPlanet's racing series. Some example questions could be:

• What days of the week are you available to race? (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc)
• What time zone do you live in? (US Eastern, GMT-6, etc)
• What time of the day would you like to race? (afternoon, early evening, late night, etc)
• What kind of cars are you interested in racing? (Touring, NASCAR, Open-Wheel, etc)
• Do you like to tune your cars or have the option to? (Yes, No)
• What is your preferred race length? (Sprint, Endurance, etc)
• What is your online racing experience/skill? (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, etc)
• What type of racing are you looking for? (Casual, Competitive, etc)
• How often can you commit to official races during a season? (Once a week, every other week, etc)

Each question above would have a drop down selection, and each answer would help determine how good of a fit a given race series would be for the new, prospective. or current member. Let's say there are ten questions on the questionnaire. If a race series matched all ten answers provided by the member, then that race series would be listed for that member as a "perfect match". If eight or nine of his answers were matched by one or more racing series, then those series would be listed as "potential matches", and so on and so on.

Basically, let software do the heavy lifting for potential series participants rather than forcing them to read through thread after thread trying to weed out the important info, then hope they stick around long enough to find what they're looking for. I don't know if GTPlanet's new software will be capable of such a filtering questionnaire, but if not, it could probably be done with a Google docs form. Simply make a sticky thread with a link to the form and give all racing directors the option of whether or not they want to participate in the questionnaire. If they do, they simply need to provide the document owner with the "answers" to the questionnaire that best match their series. Their answers will then be implemented into the form and they now how the potential to recruit any members who complete the questionnaire.

 

[Wardez]

Hey guys, I hope this thread gets a lot of use as we're heading into new horizons with GT6 and the goal we have is to help out everyone in the forum in order to hit the ground running, organizationally, once GT6 launches in just a few weeks.

Since we're kept in the dark about most aspects of GT6's online structure besides the obvious features we've grown to know and "love" we believe it's important to work as a group in order to get the best out of the game in order to really just get that side of things out of the way as fast as possible so we can just get on and race and do what we love for fun.

So cheers to anyone who even reads this thread let alone contribute! We'd love to see not just series organizers, but all participators in online racing. Whether you've only thought about racing or have thousands of miles of experience racing online, we wanna hear from you.

This should turn into an amazing repository of knowledge so get your ideas in and get them in early!

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

Great idea, Snaeper!


Is there a series running similar regulations to ITCC? I don't think so...


+1 the idea of merging the forums into one place.

-1 the idea of semesters... Unless we call them seasons.

Edit: Nope nope nope nope. No semesters. ITCC 4 (first season on GT6) will be 12+ weeks, at least.

 

[Snaeper]

Great idea, Snaeper!


Is there a series running similar regulations to ITCC? I don't think so...


+1 the idea of merging the forums into one place.

-1 the idea of semesters... Unless we call them seasons.

Edit: Nope nope nope nope. No semesters. ITCC 4 (first season on GT6) will be 12+ weeks, at least.

They would be called seasons, I only use the term Semesters to give people an idea of what I'm talking about. I just wanted an idea that would keep people interested in racing online. Being able to do a short 5-race series, then immediately jump to another short 5-race series after their last one ends is attractive to me. Just wanted to see how other people felt about it.

I do ask though... why 12+ weeks? Why make it that long? That's almost 4 months of racing at a minimum. Ultimately, there could also be a 15-week slot!

Ultimately, the idea may not work for everyone, but it would be nice for new events to be able to use it with other participating events to help grow their series. Feel free to make your own suggestions!

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

They would be called seasons, I only use the term Semesters to give people an idea of what I'm talking about. I just wanted an idea that would keep people interested in racing online. Being able to do a short 5-race series, then immediately jump to another short 5-race series after their last one ends is attractive to me. Just wanted to see how other people felt about it.

I like this idea, but can we have an example of what would happen if a series director wanted a longer series?

 

[Furinkazen]

Official?

Semesters? Totally pointless. If it's your series, it's your responsibility to have dates updated, and keep to schedules. The longest I run something is 8 weeks max usually with maybe 1 off week. GTP NASCAR Sprint Cup lasted 16 weeks in one season near enough.

Also if your idea interests people and time suits, you will get entries regardless. I'm keeping to my usual weekend slots on GT6 and already have a lot of things planned out.

Uniform car regulations are also pointless. Everyone goes there own way. Every series concept is different. To standardise the racing series section will stifle creativity and be pointless. I have let people use my regs in the past, as long as I get a credit for them.

Also people may not want to race in lots of series. I'm mainly a Touring Car and Sporstcar guy, with some NASCAR thrown in, but i'm not interested in running an open wheeler for example.

+1 to the race series idea. I would like to keep a "Clubs" section. For example fr GT6 my FRL threads will have a general drivers club thread created that will act as like a central hub for information on rules and regulations.

 

[IforceV8]

A balanced set of specs for series would be great to have.Too much time is spent looking at a series list of cars,then testing them to see which car is the best and what car to avoid.

 

[Snaeper]

I like this idea, but can we have an example of what would happen if a series director wanted a longer series?

I made some edits above, but basically, as long as the series starts with everyone, and ends with everyone, it could ultimately be as long as a director wanted!

I merely used 5 and 10 week examples, to keep things open for new members. Longer schedules can seem daunting. It's one of the reasons I haven't really raced online. My schedule isn't concrete, so there's no way of me to say that I can make that time slot in two weeks, let alone four months from now.

Again, though, the main idea was to just get everyone in a rhythm, so that as series' are ending, others are beginning, and all a member has to do is jump from one to the other. Constant racing available, no downtime trying to find another series they like or waiting for it to start.

Official?

Yes.

 

[joetruckv8]

I'm launching my Super GT series bi weekly with a FIA GT3 competition all build into the same op so drivers will get to experience driving 2 types of chassis during 1 season. This will kill some of the drivers we lose due to wanting to drive something else mid season.

Also I'm going to re do Blancpain in 2014 were I will follow in lock step with real life racing canlender As the real race happens. I will have a race at the same time, for starters my 1st Blancpian event will be the Rolex 24hr and then Daytona, and then Bathurst 24hr, Nurburg 24hr etc until the end of 2014. I will be keeping track of points for the whole year but it will be a come and go spot race series with drivers only participating in the rounds they like are can make. Blancpain will start in Janurary and end in Oct after the last major big race.

Those are pretty much my big plans for GT6 and 2014!

 

[Furinkazen]

A balanced set of specs for series would be great to have.Too much time is spent looking at a series list of cars,then testing them to see which car is the best and what car to avoid.

If you have a series with like 10 cars in, then generally the onus is on you to find the car that suits you how you want it for the driving.

 

[HP]

This thread is JUST what the Dr ordered, well done Snaeper.

I'm on holiday right now so I won't comment just yet but when I'm home in a few days I will definitely put up my thoughts

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

I'm slightly opposed to the idea of the semester system, still, unless we can find a way to, as you say, bring the racing to the drivers.


It would be cool if people could just jump into whichever series they want to jump into, but I don't think it would mean that every series gets good attendance rates anyways. ITCC, for example, has always been a very flashy series (YouTube videos, photography,) and the close racing just makes it more worth it.


But, there are some people who don't put any efforts into the OPs of their series and so I don't feel like it'd be fair to have to bend my series around someone else's rules if they are not willing to even use proper grammar in the OP, for example.

 

[Furinkazen]

I'll add I usually have a set rota, of what I have on fridays, saturdays, and sundays, and that is known usually a good bit in advance. Heck, I already know when I am starting with GT6.

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

Furinkazen just brought up an interesting point, too. My friends on here and I never run our seasons at the same time for the fear of running two series at the same time. If we do run GTP seasons, then ITCC and Rolex seasons, for example, will possibly clash. 👎

 

[Furinkazen]

Furinkazen just brought up an interesting point, too. My friends on here and I never run our seasons at the same time for the fear of running two series at the same time. If we do run GTP seasons, then ITCC and Rolex seasons, for example, will possibly clash. 👎

Mel, much as we have had disagreements in the past, there's a certain co-operation in here to ensure we get best grids. You know full well my timeslots (evenings GMT/BST from Friday to Sunday), I know yours. Also you are in Canada, I am in the UK. Timezones work differently.

 

[Snaeper]

Semesters? Totally pointless. If it's your series, it's your responsibility to have dates updated, and keep to schedules. The longest I run something is 8 weeks max usually with maybe 1 off week. GTP NASCAR Sprint Cup lasted 16 weeks in one season near enough.

Also if your idea interests people and time suits, you will get entries regardless. I'm keeping to my usual weekend slots on GT6 and already have a lot of things planned out.

Uniform car regulations are also pointless. Everyone goes there own way. Every series concept is different. To standardise the racing series section will stifle creativity and be pointless. I have let people use my regs in the past, as long as I get a credit for them.

Also people may not want to race in lots of series. I'm mainly a Touring Car and Sporstcar guy, with some NASCAR thrown in, but i'm not interested in running an open wheeler for example.

+1 to the race series idea. I would like to keep a "Clubs" section. For example fr GT6 my FRL threads will have a general drivers club thread created that will act as like a central hub for information on rules and regulations.

I felt I laid out my points clearly enough to earn more than a "pointless" remark for them. If you can't see how they might suit you, that's fine. But please don't assume they're worthless ideas.

The Semester-seasons idea would benefit a lot of good racing series that don't get participants due to commitments in established racing series. It would help newer members establish their ideas on GTPlanet in my opinion.

I agree that if the series idea is good, then it will succeed, and this would be no different. But now, everyone would have a fair shot at collecting drivers for their series. And if they can't get them, then they know they need to fix something.

 

[IforceV8]

If you have a series with like 10 cars in, then generally the onus is on you to find the car that suits you how you want it for the driving.

I'm talking about big picture as stated in the OP,not in a individual series.A balance set of specs for GT500,GT3,LMP,etc that anybody can use to run a series.

 

[LancerEvo7]

I think it's safe to let series organizers run whatever schedule is most convenient to them. There's a point where too much planning and organization will hurt more than help.

As for the shared spec idea, it sounds great in theory, but after a while I feel like series based on similar concepts would end up feeling the exact same.

 

[Furinkazen]

We already had that effectively. A bit of research and you could see say, Scott, Memto, and Dave's WEC had best specs for LMPs and GTs. If you just look around, garner peoples feedback you can make a judgement for yourself. My fear is making some specs "mandatory" essentially.

@Snaeper. It's not a good idea. If a series is good it gets participants regardless. Mandating semesters is being restrictive, when part of the success of a racing series is being flexible with your planning.

 

[Snaeper]

I'm slightly opposed to the idea of the semester system, still, unless we can find a way to, as you say, bring the racing to the drivers.


It would be cool if people could just jump into whichever series they want to jump into, but I don't think it would mean that every series gets good attendance rates anyways. ITCC, for example, has always been a very flashy series (YouTube videos, photography,) and the close racing just makes it more worth it.


But, there are some people who don't put any efforts into the OPs of their series and so I don't feel like it'd be fair to have to bend my series around someone else's rules if they are not willing to even use proper grammar in the OP, for example.

I'll add I usually have a set rota, of what I have on fridays, saturdays, and sundays, and that is known usually a good bit in advance. Heck, I already know when I am starting with GT6.

Furinkazen just brought up an interesting point, too. My friends on here and I never run our seasons at the same time for the fear of running two series at the same time. If we do run GTP seasons, then ITCC and Rolex seasons, for example, will possibly clash. 👎

Mel, much as we have had disagreements in the past, there's a certain co-operation in here to ensure we get best grids. You know full well my timeslots (evenings GMT/BST from Friday to Sunday), I know yours. Also you are in Canada, I am in the UK. Timezones work differently.

I believe you're misunderstanding my Semester suggestion. Nothing changes at all from how a series is currently run on GTPlanet, with the sole exception that you share your start date with every other series, and your end date with whichever have selected the same season length as you.

If you want to run Friday's at 6pm, you'll run Friday's at 6pm for the next 5-10-15 weeks.

If you take the time to make a good OP, and someone else who wants to run a Touring Car series on Friday's at 6pm doesn't, guess who's going to get all the drivers on Friday's at 6pm? You are.

 

[Furinkazen]

I believe you're misunderstanding my Semester suggestion. Nothing changes at all from how a series is currently run on GTPlanet, with the sole exception that you share your start date with every other series, and your end date with whichever have selected the same season length as you.

If you want to run Friday's at 6pm, you'll run Friday's at 6pm for the next 5-10-15 weeks.

If you take the time to make a good OP, and someone else who wants to run a Touring Car series on Friday's at 6pm doesn't, guess who's going to get all the drivers on Friday's at 6pm? You are.

As I said, if you co-operate with other hosts (which I have done in the past) then all those issues are bypassed. I don't see need for a "set" time. Who would enforce such a thing?

And totally agreed on the last point.

 

[Snaeper]

As I said, if you co-operate with other hosts (which I have done in the past) then all those issues are bypassed. I don't see need for a "set" time. Who would enforce such a thing?

And totally agreed on the last point.

It would ideally not require enforcement as being in the rhythm would hopefully be beneficial enough that you'd want to be in the rhythm.

The reason I called the idea "Semesters" is because it works exactly like a school semester. As one winds down, all the students (drivers) begin looking at what classes they want to take for the next semester (season). They sign up and are ready to go for the next semester (season).

Everyone has access to the same drivers, since fewer people are committed to another season, since all of the previous seasons ended at the same time.

This is meant to help new members start their racing series, by breaking down the established organization and understanding of current organizers and opening it up to everyone. Why should only a few people be able to run racing series here on GTPlanet just because they have the experience? It would also benefit new drivers who cannot commit to longer schedules, to help grow the driver pool overall.

 

[Furinkazen]

It would ideally not require enforcement as being in the rhythm would hopefully be beneficial enough that you'd want to be in the rhythm.

The reason I called the idea "Semesters" is because it works exactly like a school semester. As one winds down, all the students (drivers) begin looking at what classes they want to take for the next semester (season). They sign up and are ready to go for the next semester (season).

Everyone has access to the same drivers, since fewer people are committed to another season, since all of the previous seasons ended at the same time.

The only time I have ever known a driver shortage is now as less people play GT5 now. I can see the idea but at same time nothing is wrong with the way online structures are sorted.

Thoughts on the race clubs thread? So FRL can have there own, PURE has one for themselves... Like a stable base for those who run a larger multitude of competitions.

 

[trustjab]

I think the unique rules and regulations in different series' makes for variety. Some like to run higher power levels for the same car types. Some like to run softer tires. Some series have very high level skilled drivers while others aren't as quick and feel left out.

It would be interesting to see series that have a 'driver level' ranking with certain driving aids or not allowed. Some people run without abs or tc, others don't. Irl series like the WEC, there are driver rankings for the pilots of the cars in lmp2 and GTE-AM. Something like that could transfer to 'series rankings' where its bronze silver or gold depending on driver skill or driving aids allowed. That would be helpful for beginners or those who have been racing on Gran Turismo for longer periods of time to know which kind of racing/racers you will challenge. It could also go to a level of PP (performance points) the cars put out or power level. Something color coded would work, like blue for low level (<200-300hp, street cars), green for medium (touring cars, supercars, Time Attack), yellow for high (GT3, GT500, lmps) and red for extreme (like F1 or Red Bull).

 

[Com Fox]

Is anyone using GT3 cars for their series that is not multiclass. Because, I plan on using GT3 cars for Global GT 3.

 

[polarbear345]

Great ideas! This is the time for this to happen, hopefully we can get some good stuff out of this to use when the new game comes out! We all know it's going to be wild!

I'll give a basic view on two points I care about.

1. Organized seasons. Could be wonderful if pulled off. This is one of my favorite aspects of iRacing, and would be awesome to have here. Everyone on a 5; 10; 15 week circle would be sweet. If we could get a week number at the top of the page that would be great too (I really don't care if we do this, just think it would be really cool with the excitement of a new season)

2. Standard Specs. Depends what it is. For Super GT, FIA GT3 (Lord help us with the amount of these series...) and any other real life group of cars this would be nice. Would really take a bit of testing out of the equation. But let's be honest, we all would like to blame someone else for a change if one is too quick

I think that if someone wanted to use road cars in their series, or anything like that, they should not be limited. Maybe make up a little graphic for us to use in our OP's if we are using the GTP regs.

All good ideas, hopefully we can get some stuff done before the storm!


EDIT: Just had an idea. What if there was a colored dot by every thread title that dictated which day it was on? Then you could filter the series by day to find one? Example:

Monday series would have a red dot next to them
Tuesday series: Blue

Example:



Blue dot meaning the series runs on Tuesday (I don't run on Tuesday... But blue was the color already selected...)

 

[Com Fox]

That would be a great idea .

 

[Snaeper]

Is anyone using GT3 cars for their series that is not multiclass. Because, I plan on using GT3 cars for Global GT 3.

I would expect a number of people to use the coming FIA GT3 cars, and it would be unreasonable to give any series exclusivity on the cars.

Great ideas! This is the time for this to happen, hopefully we can get some good stuff out of this to use when the new game comes out! We all know it's going to be wild!

It's exactly why I've started the thread! Now is the time to make any changes if we decide on them.

2. Standard Specs. Depends what it is. For Super GT, FIA GT3 (Lord help us with the amount of these series...) and any other real life group of cars this would be nice. Would really take a bit of testing out of the equation. But let's be honest, we all would like to blame someone else for a change if one is too quick

This is the perfect use of universal specs. Real life racing cars balanced out, jumping from one FIA GT/Super GT series to the next with the only concern being different tires or other minor adjustments.

I think that if someone wanted to use road cars in their series, or anything like that, they should not be limited. Maybe make up a little graphic for us to use in our OP's if we are using the GTP regs.

I agree that road cars should remain blank canvas to anyone that wants them to be. But there's no reason why we couldn't have available regulations for those who want to run single events, or for others to use as a starting point to morph into their own regulations (especially if we can develop a library of information on how cars balance against each other and advise performance tweaks for users to meet their needs).

EDIT: Just had an idea. What if there was a colored dot by every thread title that dictated which day it was on? Then you could filter the series by day to find one? Example:

Monday series would have a red dot next to them
Tuesday series: Blue

Example:



Blue dot meaning the series runs on Tuesday (I don't run on Tuesday... But blue was the color already selected...)

I like that idea! That would certainly help organize races even further.

 

[Com Fox]

True, well I'll be using GT3 cars .

 

[Downhill Dino]

I like the idea, creates a standard that everyone follows. Ease of entry and such. Sort of reminds me of ORB. Except this plans to change the way the forum works rather then a governing body. Very interesting.