This is how to play online with your friendsPS4 

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United Kingdom
United Kingdom
WarriusZero
A lot of people still complain about the lack of private lobbies, which is understandable, but are shouting that they can't play with their friends, especially ones that live on the other side of the world. And that's not true. So here is how to play online with your friends: (this is for the PS4 but I'd think it's very similar on XB1)


Assumptions:
1. Your group would have agreed in advance what and where to race. It's not necessary but it's easier to manage
2. You more or less are going to turn up at around the same time (although it's possible to join later a lobby with a search - check tip #5 and note #2)

How to proceed:
1. Pick a 'team leader', someone who is going to send out invitations
2a. As the team leader, pick an empty lobby that matches your car/track combination (use the track filter and look for a good ping) and press 'Continue'
2b. On the screen where you pick your car and can see the list of players joined, press SQUARE
2c. Select players to invite. You can choose from your friend list but also from a username search or even a favourite group

2d. When everyone is invited, pick your car (when applicable) and press 'Continue' then 'Start'
3. As the rest of the team, patiently wait for a lobby invitation. When it arrives, press the PS button (if the pop up has disappeared, press 'PS' and go to Notifications > Game alerts) and join the lobby from the invitation

Tips:
1. You may want to keep your lobby 'private' by kicking out random players. Necessary if you want to keep control of your lobby. To kick someone, go to the in-lobby menu, select 'Session', scroll to the player to kick and press TRIANGLE. Other players must vote by pressing R3
2. Skip qualifying sessions if you want to avoid having to do the above too often
3. Ignore people asking for a cigarette break. It's bad for their health and it makes possible for 'randoms' to turn up
4. If you are outnumbered by randoms and no longer have control of your lobby, leave and start a new one
5. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of kicking out other players, find yourself 15 willing and punctual friends
6. If someone is late and their lobby invitation has somehow expired, do a search by track, it should be easy enough to identify where your friends are (check the list of players joined)
7. Having a party running with audio chat is VERY useful. This is set up independently from the game
8. If you are more than the maximum of 8 people in a party (that's a nice problem to have, by the way), have 2 parties so no one is left out without some audio chatter
8b. Help communication between 2 parties by having a group chat. It is also useful when sending out lobby invitations

Notes:
1. You cannot see or join a lobby when a race is ongoing.
2. You cannot send lobby invites once you have joined the lobby
3. Invitations work even if you are not in the same region
4. Not all 'randoms' are bad drivers. How do you think we recruited in the first place...
5. For a call to skip/restart/kick to be accepted, you need at least the majority to vote but even then, it may fail. We haven't worked out the exact figures just yet


I hope the bit of experience our group has gained will be profitable to others.
Now stop complaining about not being able to race with your friends and enjoy racing with like minded people! :D

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EDITED with a few more tips
 
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Just to add on, we found that at times it's best for everyone that joins to send an invite to everyone in the Chat group for instance, this way one can always jump out and change their car or even fix some settings.
thanks @WarriusZero for this helpful post.
 
That looks like it'll definitely confuse some people, but there will also be many others who are finally able to enjoy playing with their friends. Looks like a good work around while waiting for Kunos to code in private lobbies. I'm sure there will be a ton of, "Well...I shouldn't have to do this. I'm just going back to pCars, GT6, Forza...", but I think it's great that you found a work around in the meantime. I hope the console players finally can enjoy racing with their online friends. 👍
 
Ok, I missed last night's racing.
I got a 'Friend's Request' to check out a 'Vegas' style buffet and grill in OKC.

I'll be on around 6:00-9:00PM Central time. Is Saturday night your race night?
 
Ok, I missed last night's racing.
I got a 'Friend's Request' to check out a 'Vegas' style buffet and grill in OKC.

I'll be on around 6:00-9:00PM Central time. Is Saturday night your race night?

Not sure it will be regular. It was impromptu last night but we had 8 clean racers of various levels, 1 guy who didn't know how to use brakes. Overall the most fun I've had with ac. I've got a favorites group I'll be inviting to play regularly. What's your tag?
 
Around 13:00 PM to 16:00 PM U.S. EST there were several rooms with 12 or more drivers.
We used a room at Spa with the GT4 Porsches at 123ms.

I'm sure as more drivers make the switch to Assetto Corsa the selections will increase.
 
I should mention that since update 1.09 I can now see hundreds of lobbies from all over the World now. It looks like Kunos has turned off region locking. I can now also search on ping times, although it is pretty bare below 240ms :-(

Silly me, for a split second I thought your post was going to finish with a happy smiley! :D

I get better pings on average so I guess European players are at an advantage.
 
Silly me, for a split second I thought your post was going to finish with a happy smiley! :D

I get better pings on average so I guess European players are at an advantage.

Unfortunately ping is distance related and the higher the ping the more chance of lag. I have played in rooms with 450ms ping with hardly any perceivable lag yet in a room with about 340ms there was a huge amount.

So it is a double edged sword now. I am really happy :-) there are rooms with people in in but I am unhappy that there is lag and due to my time zone (UTC +8) so when I am on at night I am usually playing with kids on controllers that just got home from school :-(

So really my smiley should be :-l
 
Unfortunately ping is distance related and the higher the ping the more chance of lag. I have played in rooms with 450ms ping with hardly any perceivable lag yet in a room with about 340ms there was a huge amount.

So it is a double edged sword now. I am really happy :-) there are rooms with people in in but I am unhappy that there is lag and due to my time zone (UTC +8) so when I am on at night I am usually playing with kids on controllers that just got home from school :-(

So really my smiley should be :-l
Well Australian internet,is wonky at best. My friend Daisey couldn't even join rooms because of crappy internet.
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-21/fact-check-australias-internet-speed-rank/7509352
 
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Unfortunately ping is distance related and the higher the ping the more chance of lag. I have played in rooms with 450ms ping with hardly any perceivable lag yet in a room with about 340ms there was a huge amount.

So it is a double edged sword now. I am really happy :-) there are rooms with people in in but I am unhappy that there is lag and due to my time zone (UTC +8) so when I am on at night I am usually playing with kids on controllers that just got home from school :-(

So really my smiley should be :-l

Well, it depends. Jitter is the biggest part that will affect lag. Check pingtest.net to see how good or bad the jitter reports.
 
Look, I don't even have AC, but this is ridiculous. Players shouldn't have to jump through hoops like this to play with their friends.
 
Look, I don't even have AC, but this is ridiculous. Players shouldn't have to jump through hoops like this to play with their friends.
I don't think anyone said that they're pleased about jumping through hoops. That point was, since things suck - here is a way to make it suck a little less. Of course, no one is under any obligation to jump through these hoops.
 
Basically exploit the lobby and kick ALL the innocent unaware users :lol:. Doesn't sound really nice to be honest :scared:.

"Assetto Corsa, Your lobby kick simulator":yuck:.

The first few weeks, I would PM every single 'innocent unaware user', explaining what we were doing and asking if they were in. Very few would even acknowledge my message but those who did were not being kicked out. That's how we found many new players. Also those who were clearly showing (with or without a message) that they were clean drivers would stay with us. Sure, we must have kicked genuine clean players by accident but we've been trying to be fair. But yes, it doesn't sound really nice... :)

As @Johnnypenso put it, "when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade".
 
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This is how I always did it when I found a new friend a while ago(and hey, he knew me from here on GTP:tup: when I added him he was like "aren't you from GTP?..yes you are!") and we wanted to play together. Problem was the voting to skip sessions. Even though we both (sometimes we were a few more) voted yes, the vote failed. Something they should patch, if they haven't already.
 
From our experience, you need a strong majority for a vote to get through, not just more than half the players. Only 2 people will struggle to get a vote through. The best way is to invite all the others players to a group chat to engage some communication.

Edit: (oh wow, did I just make it to the front page?)

I just edited a small mistake in the last step: "press 'PS' and go to Notifications > Game alerts".
 
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