What do we think of the 1 minute penalty?

[Norrin Radd]

To be fair, the penalty for ignoring the regulations has been around long enough to make checking them 2nd nature for most. Kudoprime makes a note of any requirements too and we've all got a device to check them days before the race starts.

Which is fine for people here and others who want a racing game, but it's a game and we need the casual players who don't know where to check. Think of a game you might pick up and play now and again....got it? Now what would you do if you got penalised for something and you have no idea why?
All online games rely on numbers and they aren't made up of the really good players or even people who are decent but play all the time, it's all those casuals who play a few games a week that keep it going.

 

[kilesa4568]

How many one minute penalties do you need to get before you look for the reason why? Once should be enough of a reminder to check the regs before your next race.

 

[Norrin Radd]

How many one minute penalties do you need to get before you look for the reason why? Once should be enough of a reminder to check the regs before your next race.

Me just the one, but my point is about casual gamers and how many pens do they need before they just quit?

 

[kilesa4568]

This might sound callous but who cares if casuals quit after refusing to learn the reason? It's their choice if they want to or not. No skin off my nose.

 

[O604]

Ridiculous thread derail. By 1 off-topic person.

Simply put, rules are what make the races competitive. At the highest levels, it's what separates a field spread only by .00 seconds.

One of the most obvious "rules" in GT Sport is the BOP. The game calculates it. The rules for races are decided by those factors. ie tires, fuel....

If you don't like fuel/tire rules, there's 2 other races every week.

Discussion here is whether the joker lap penalty is appropriate (OP suggesting it should be harsher). You just need to ignore the 1 user to avoid confusion.

 

[stpatty]

It's worth remembering that when Gran Turismo did their Nations Cup streams last year with streamers, aliens and real life racing drivers who were otherwise new to the game that they didn't tell the noobs about tyre penalties either:



How little do they care about communicating it to players if they don't tell a professional racing driver they've got to stream their game to a growing audience?

 

[Norrin Radd]

This might sound callous but who cares if casuals quit after refusing to learn the reason? It's their choice if they want to or not. No skin off my nose.

Everyone should. No casuals means no (or very few) C and D players, which means newbies get matched with much better players which makes for worse racing and a newby finds it hard to progress so is more inclined to quit meaning less top tier players and worse racing. Just go play in OZ and you'll see what the problems are. We need the casuals to make the game better for us, it also keeps the numbers up meaning we have a game. So the game needs to be casual friendly or it dies....well at least is less popular leading to worse races.

 

[Junkman55]

Cool. Still begs the question why, with your history of being adamant that you are sim racing, you're bitching about a real-life racing regulation being part of it.

The thread is for the consequence of breaking that regulation, not whether you think the regulation should be part of the game.

I need to know from you knowing I am not a gamer using GTS software with a PS 4 Pro in my driving simulator . Do you think I should not participate in this gtplanet forum. Let’s make this easy yes or no?

 

[kilesa4568]

Everyone should. No casuals means no (or very few) C and D players, which means newbies get matched with much better players which makes for worse racing and a newby finds it hard to progress so is more inclined to quit meaning less top tier players and worse racing. Just go play in OZ and you'll see what the problems are. We need the casuals to make the game better for us, it also keeps the numbers up meaning we have a game. So the game needs to be casual friendly or it dies....well at least is less popular leading to worse races.

Wouldn't that make your location the problem, not the hidden behind a button press race c rule sheet?

 

[Famine]

I need to know from you knowing I am not a gamer using GTS software with a PS 4 Pro in my driving simulator

I use GTS daily online racing

This is about the fourth time you've invaded a thread to whap on about your own personal definition of what you're doing when you play Gran Turismo, as if playing a game is something to be ashamed of.

We're not doing it again. If I have to remove you from another thread, I won't be merely removing you from the thread.

 

[Darla Starch]

Ooooh, Famine's rolled up their sleeves just in case.


Anyway, a minute seems like a reasonable middle ground between "lol what's a penalty" and "lol DQ".

 

[BloodRaven]

I say go beyond the 1 minute or DQ. If someone hasn't pitted by their last lap, then they get disconnected from/by the game. They also lose DR/SR; the same as you would if you quit a race while it was running.

Don't want to follow the rules? Then you don't get any benefits from playing the game.

 

[OJBrit]

Although I get your point, at the end of the day it is still a game and as such should be pick up and play wherever possible. The issue about needing a stop and being informed could be easily addressed by a banner on "joining session" screen or if that wasn't possible having something which highlights the race details when "warm up" is on. So yes we should check the rules, but that's no reason to hide the info that is important.

It's not hidden. It's under a button labelled race details. It's where you go to find out the race details.

I many times tried to communicate to you to the best of my ability that I do not play the game GTS .

I use GTS daily online racing as software in my driving simulator. I do not need the stress of gaming to enjoy online racing.

Then why are you complaining about the penalty if you do not play the game to even be in the situation to get the penalty?

It's not that it's impossible or even difficult to check. It's that checking then becomes part of the game, and if you don't do it then you just fail.

The common one I see often in more "serious" sims is fuel - fuel is almost never set up correctly for the race by default, you just have to remember to do it. If you don't then at best you get yourself an extra pit stop when you notice, at worst you run out of fuel and DNF. Now, in a "serious" sim that setup phase can be looked at as part of the game. Serious sim racers get joy out of setting up their car and strategy perfectly before the race, and are willing to eat the consequences for failing to do so.

But for a casual audience who just wants a fun blast around a track I'd argue that it's all negatives and no positives. They don't get any joy out of checking the rules (or even setting up their cars, generally), and there's always the potential that they mess up and just make the race unfun for themselves. Having the rules stuck in a sub-menu is one way to do it, but I don't think that it lives up to Gran Turismo's core values of accessibility and casual friendliness. It's not that it's awful, it's just that it could be better by making some simple changes.

Honestly, I'm not sure why having rules, penalties and generic race information on the loading screen isn't already a thing. That seems like the super obvious place to put it - the player is waiting anyway with nothing else to do and so giving them useful information during that time seems like a win for everyone.

Why are you even here on this gaming forum if you don't game? It's full of gamers here in this gaming forum, all busy playing their games with their game controllers on their game consoles. You might want to consider whether this is the appropriate audience to talk to about not gaming.

It is a game so the option to fail should always be there if you do not play the level correctly. Ever played sonic? Did you know beforehand thet if you are hit you loose your rings. Hit with no rings and you loose a life? No. You experienced it once and you learnt from it. You fail once so you have 2 options. 1) Play the levels with no tyre regulations. 2) Check the race details which are on 2 separate screens to see what you have to do to not fail.

 

[Junkman55]

This is about the fourth time you've invaded a thread to whap on about your own personal definition of what you're doing when you play Gran Turismo, as if playing a game is something to be ashamed of.

We're not doing it again. If I have to remove you from another thread, I won't be merely removing you from the thread.

Thank you for your answer

 

[Sven Jurgens]

Wouldn't that make your location the problem, not the hidden behind a button press race c rule sheet?

The problem is low numbers. Racing would be better with higher numbers. PD split the Americas server for a while which both improved the races and made them worse. It got better because smaller latency differences between players. Northern USA / Canada to South America is just too far for quality close racing. Yet it got worse since with the player base split in two match making didn't have enough to work with to make decent matches, just like in Oceania. (It was split there too and you had rooms with one or two people during off hours...)

Same thing with SR. Races are somewhat better now the penalties are non existent since the pool at SR.S is now large enough to make decent races. However the lack of penalties spoils those races. (I tried race C again today, just got used as a guide rail in corners or bumped wide to make room, not fun). If you manage to drop down in SR you'll see what lack of players does the races. D/E to A/A in the same room.

To keep the numbers up, it needs to be casual friendly. Hook the casuals to race more often and bring in their friends. Greeting new players with unexplained 1 minute penalties isn't the way to do it.

Europe has it easy in this game. Half the player base is there and internet latency across Europe is excellent compared to the Americas and Oceania. Yet also there, losing all the 'casuals' would hurt the experience and bring in less money to add tracks and cars.

 

[RacingGrandpa]

So you suggest we make everything as easy and casual as possible for the casual players? Or is it only this?
If that's what you want the pitstop/tyre penalty should be taken out of the game. And probably also tire wear and fuel use. And the SR reduction..
The list is long of things makiing it harder for the casual player.
But the reason is that this is a racing simulator game..there should be some learning curve. And if pressing a button labelled "Racing Details" is too hard then I think there's other stuff that's harder.

 

[Sven Jurgens]

I suggest we make the rules clearly visible in the HUD. Pitstop pending, tires still required before the last lap. Similar to the low fuel warning and remaining laps estimate. Or should that be removed to add to the learning curve? Hide the tire wear display as well and the radar and proximity detectors.

The game is full of assists for new players and veterans. I still use TCS because I'm a hazard on the track without it. Plenty people rely on cones for brake markers, some have the brake warning on. I often use the flashing gear indicator as an indication when to brake when re-familiarizing myself with a track.

The pit stop and tire rules are the outliers. Very important information hidden at the bottom of a sub menu, no presence on the HUD. When you're new to the game, it helps to have the important info highlighted. Not blending in with a ton of stuff that never changes, hiding in the initial information overload.

 

[kilesa4568]

The problem is low numbers. Racing would be better with higher numbers. PD split the Americas server for a while which both improved the races and made them worse. It got better because smaller latency differences between players. Northern USA / Canada to South America is just too far for quality close racing. Yet it got worse since with the player base split in two match making didn't have enough to work with to make decent matches, just like in Oceania. (It was split there too and you had rooms with one or two people during off hours...)

Who you race with definitely needs improving but using this as a reason for the low player base is a stretch.

Same thing with SR. Races are somewhat better now the penalties are non existent since the pool at SR.S is now large enough to make decent races. However the lack of penalties spoils those races. (I tried race C again today, just got used as a guide rail in corners or bumped wide to make room, not fun). If you manage to drop down in SR you'll see what lack of players does the races. D/E to A/A in the same room.

Now Summer is over, I had a few no qualifying races yesterday and couldn't believe how bad the racing was. I wanted to see how it was without penalties and hoped people would calm down a bit but it's had the opposite effect. Again though, this penalty has nothing to do with that.

Greeting new players with unexplained 1 minute penalties isn't the way to do it.

That I agree with but seeing as they don't explain it, it's down to the player to grumpily look for why.

It wouldn't surprise me if somebody quit the game over this penalty but when it's so easily avoidable, maybe racing wasn't for them.

 

[Famine]

Europe has it easy in this game. Half the player base is there and internet latency across Europe is excellent compared to the Americas and Oceania.

Mmm... yes, but also no.

Internet latency across Western Europe is pretty great, and across Europe in general it's pretty good. But this isn't Europe:

Or at least not in GT terms. This is Europe:

And while map projections do give a false impression of relative sizes, it's 4,400 miles from the western tip of Iceland (which is actually where most people in Iceland live) to the city of Petropavlovsk on the eastern tip of Russia, 7,200 miles from Iceland to Cape Town in South Africa, and 10,000 miles from Cape Town to Petropavlovsk.

It covers a lot more territory than any other region and - and I don't intend to be dismissive of any particular nation's internet infrastructure - while you've got 350 million people in the European Union and the UK, there's a billion-plus in India and Bangladesh, and their data has more than 4,000 miles (a ping of 75ms or so) at best to travel to even Amsterdam where PD's FIA server for Europe is located. Through Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus (although it's more like to head down to SeaMeWe, across the Indian Ocean, up the Red Sea and through the Suez, and across the Mediterranean into Toulon/Catania; 5,800 miles/100ms, but a high-tech connection).

It is entirely feasible in the EMEA region - Europe, Middle-East and Africa - for someone in Kolkata and someone in Vladivostok to join a Daily Race with someone in Cape Town, someone in Kiev and someone in Murmansk... as well as 14 people in Western Europe. I have definitely raced in a lobby with an Indian and a Ukrainian flag at the same time.

Incidentally I don't know how Greenland, Nepal, and Bhutan are classified, and I'm pretty sure that Martinique is classed as France, which adds a whole new set of problems.

Yes, the bit of Europe that's probably got the most players - the EU, EEA, and the UK - has a very high average quality of internet connection, but it's a small part of what EMEA is.

To keep the numbers up, it needs to be casual friendly. Hook the casuals to race more often and bring in their friends. Greeting new players with unexplained 1 minute penalties isn't the way to do it.

So you suggest we make everything as easy and casual as possible for the casual players? Or is it only this?

Part of GT's appeal and indeed ethos is democratising realistic (we can debate how realistic, but that's part of the point) racing. GT needs to bring in the people who don't go on discussion forums for the game as well as keep the people who do.

That does mean presenting information to players in a more readily accessible fashion. Information that's one click away is one click too far away - it should be there, in front of you. Now, again, there is a box on the main race screen that says "Tyre Requirements", but that doesn't necessarily convey the idea that you must use these tyres or get a penalty.

Not only that, the fact that there is a penalty for not adhering to mandatory tyre regulations is not one click away. It's not any clicks away: it doesn't exist, even in the game manual. Penalties get mentioned once in the game manual, on the page dealing with setting up your own lobby.

There is, in effect, no information presented in the game that says "if you do not use all types of tyres as listed under "tyre requirements" in the race you will get a one-minute penalty when the race ends". People get a one-minute penalty, or see themselves falling down the order, and have no idea why. We know this because they sign up here and ask.

Ultimately it's not being as "easy and casual as possible", but giving players all the information they need to race and have fun without burying it. If they're coming away confused as to why they got a penalty, it's not doing that.

 

[Sven Jurgens]

Mmm... yes, but also no.

Internet latency across Western Europe is pretty great, and across Europe in general it's pretty good. But this isn't Europe:


Or at least not in GT terms. This is Europe:

View attachment 1085594

Ahh, yes that's quite a big territory.

But how often do you get rooms with half Iceland vs South Africa, or Portugal vs Kamtsjatka. On The NA server is quite common to have the room half filled with Brazil, couple Argentinians, couple Americans, and a bunch of Canadians together. NA vs SA is pretty even split, while Western Europe dominates the rooms with a couple outliers that are easily avoided. But maybe those outliers wouldn't be outliers if they weren't always at a lag disadvantage?

I just got lag punted again by two South Americans, really wish there had been enough players to keep the server split between NA and SA. The latency is sapping the fun out of the game. Maybe it was intentional, the second one did get a red S. I got a 1.5 sec penalty for hitting the barrier (got punted into it at the chicane on Spa). Dealing with cars wobbling all over the track is every single race.

Anyway, more friendly to new players, means more players, means better matchmaking in smaller regions to keep the latency down.

 

[RacingGrandpa]

@Famine and @Sven Jurgens I see your reasoning about the penalty and agree in that.
In fact I don't think any penalties are listed in game, they should be.
And having the rules in the HUD makes sense.
I'm done now

 

[Mercia]

Not sure where the idea came from that information being accessible is catering too much to casual players or somehow dumbing down the game.

It's not just in this game or this forum either.

Ease of use should be what we are always striving for.

 

[MidnightRun85]

Ultimately it's not being as "easy and casual as possible", but giving players all the information they need to race and have fun without burying it. If they're coming away confused as to why they got a penalty, it's not doing that.

This is the key here. If information isn't blatantly visible, people miss it, get confused and upset, and end up either leaving to find other more enjoyable means of entertainment or start having to find other sources to work out where they're going wrong. PD should make the penalties more obvious in the pre-race screen and the tyre/pit requirements should be there as a set of conditions. It wouldn't take much to have a section of text (not clicked away in a sub-menu) which says:

"Tyres: RH and RM must be used.
Pit Stops: one pit stop required.
Penalties: 1-minute for failing to use both tyres."

I'm no developer, but surely it can't be difficult to implement something to that effect. Hopefully it's more obvious in GT7 to stop casual players getting frustrated.

 

[Imari]

It is a game so the option to fail should always be there if you do not play the level correctly. Ever played sonic? Did you know beforehand thet if you are hit you loose your rings. Hit with no rings and you loose a life? No. You experienced it once and you learnt from it. You fail once so you have 2 options. 1) Play the levels with no tyre regulations. 2) Check the race details which are on 2 separate screens to see what you have to do to not fail.

One difference is that you almost certainly haven't spent ten minutes playing Sonic before you get hit by an enemy the first time. It generally happens in the first thirty seconds, because the game is designed that way. If you need the player to fail in order to teach them a game mechanic, and that's a completely valid way to do it that is used by many games, it's worth doing it in a way that doesn't make the player feel like they wasted their time. It feels bad to lose a race that you spent a significant amount of time on because of information that was made intentionally obscure.

You're absolutely right that there should be the option to fail if you do not play the level correctly. But implicit in that is the definition of what "play the level correctly" should be. The developer can choose to make a third option - 3) Read the race details that are available to you directly on the main race screen or HUD.

What if every Sonic level had a check at the end to see if you remember the name of the stage? That's easy, if a bit frustrating the first time when you didn't know that it was something you needed to remember, and any subsequent times that you accidentally just click past the splash screen with the name on it without memorising it. That could be a valid part of "correctly" playing the level, and you have the option to either remember the name or not. But one might question what such a system really adds for the player. Is memorising the name of the level adding to the experience in some meaningful manner? Or is it just busy work, another opportunity to fail if you don't complete a checklist of random tasks that aren't really related to the specific gameplay that you came for?

I'm arguing that the "gameplay" of going and looking in a menu for the race regulations doesn't improve the experience for most Gran Turismo players. It's a thing that exists, and it's either trivial busywork or a frustration if you happen to not know or accidentally forget. Neither of those things are positive, so why not place the information somewhere obvious so that players can get on with the actual fun parts of the game? The rules are necessary for diverse and engaging gameplay, but there's no reason why they can't be clearly and unambiguously communicated to the player in a way that can't be missed before every race.

Not to be terribly impolite, but I feel like people who are OK with others struggling with this "administrative" side of racing are those who aren't actually that keen on fair competition. The only downside to giving this information to everyone is that you don't get free places when you're racing people who are more ignorant than you. I'm fine with that, because I'd rather race people straight up. To me, that's where the meat of the game is. If you want a game where players have to pass the menu check before they get to race then that's your choice, but I'm not going to agree that it's better for a casual friendly game like Gran Turismo.

 

[Norrin Radd]

It's not hidden. It's under a button labelled race details. It's where you go to find out the race details.

So you click "race details" and you see "race rules" and nothing there, next is "regulations" still nothing, "basic race info" OK getting to the boring stuff shouldn't be here and it isn't ........."race settings" no, "penalty" no and then finally right at the bottom (not at all hidden) is the "pit info"

So you suggest we make everything as easy and casual as possible for the casual players? Or is it only this?
If that's what you want the pitstop/tyre penalty should be taken out of the game. And probably also tire wear and fuel use. And the SR reduction..
The list is long of things makiing it harder for the casual player.
But the reason is that this is a racing simulator game..there should be some learning curve. And if pressing a button labelled "Racing Details" is too hard then I think there's other stuff that's harder.

Well only if you want a decent game, at around 20K or mid B, Kudos tells us we are top 6% of players and B starts at around 15%. So most people who play this game don't get to B and every time that player quits because they don't understand something because they expect it to follow gaming rules of simplicity and not real racing rules and hiding info it makes it worse for everyone.
Why can't the rules be on a screen you have to see? Even most people here have made one or two errors because they forgot to check the rules, so what is bad about simple and straightforward?
Casuals soon work out that A, B and C races are different and can choose well enough what type of race they want, they just don't expect to have to hunt for rules.

 

[Cherryturbo]

This is all very interesting but sadly one fact remains.

Experience has shown that PD will do nothing whatsoever to address any player concerns nor action any player suggestions.

Information the game displays is largely historic. There is still “news” relating to events that took place years ago. GT navigation has always been a detailed menu tree. Most information is there, if the user is prepared to “go down the rabbit hole”. It strikes me that it has always been the case and is highly likely to remain so in the future. Look at the trailers for GT7. Menu Map look familiar?

Unless there is a significant change in the way that PD interact with the player base, in my opinion, the status quo is going to remain.

 

[Famine]

But how often do you get rooms with half Iceland vs South Africa, or Portugal vs Kamtsjatka. On The NA server is quite common to have the room half filled with Brazil, couple Argentinians, couple Americans, and a bunch of Canadians together. NA vs SA is pretty even split, while Western Europe dominates the rooms with a couple outliers that are easily avoided. But maybe those outliers wouldn't be outliers if they weren't always at a lag disadvantage?

You don't need all that many to make a difference - even one, on a mesh P2P like in the Dailies, is enough. One driver from South Africa results in five times the latency of a purely Western Europe race.

As with being stupid, the issue with it is that the guys who are laggy aren't necessarily aware that they're the laggy ones Everyone else will see the laggy guy glitching, but they'll see everyone glitching. It's actually a good rule on P2P, that if one guy is bad it's them, but if everyone's bad it's you.

And it's not all that rare. I see the occasional Icelander, and sometimes an Indian, Saudi, or South African, but it's not unusual at all to encounter drivers from Ukraine and Russia (whereabouts in Russia is its own question, and it makes thousands of miles of difference), and pretty common to see Polish drivers.

 

[RacingGrandpa]

So you click "race details" and you see "race rules" and nothing there, next is "regulations" still nothing, "basic race info" OK getting to the boring stuff shouldn't be here and it isn't ........."race settings" no, "penalty" no and then finally right at the bottom (not at all hidden) is the "pit info"

Well only if you want a decent game, at around 20K or mid B, Kudos tells us we are top 6% of players and B starts at around 15%. So most people who play this game don't get to B and every time that player quits because they don't understand something because they expect it to follow gaming rules of simplicity and not real racing rules and hiding info it makes it worse for everyone.
Why can't the rules be on a screen you have to see? Even most people here have made one or two errors because they forgot to check the rules, so what is bad about simple and straightforward?
Casuals soon work out that A, B and C races are different and can choose well enough what type of race they want, they just don't expect to have to hunt for rules.

Two things: firstly I have already come around and agreed it should be displayed in the hud.

Secondly, and that's more important for your argument: 80 percent of the people who played GTS didn't do more than two sport mode races.
So the 15% you talk of is the absolute majority of players

You don't need all that many to make a difference - even one, on a mesh P2P like in the Dailies, is enough. One driver from South Africa results in five times the latency of a purely Western Europe race.

As with being stupid, the issue with it is that the guys who are laggy aren't necessarily aware that they're the laggy ones Everyone else will see the laggy guy glitching, but they'll see everyone glitching. It's actually a good rule on P2P, that if one guy is bad it's them, but if everyone's bad it's you.

And it's not all that rare. I see the occasional Icelander, and sometimes an Indian, Saudi, or South African, but it's not unusual at all to encounter drivers from Ukraine and Russia (whereabouts in Russia is its own question, and it makes thousands of miles of difference), and pretty common to see Polish drivers.

I often have russian, ukranian, an Indian and a South African player in the same race, especially if I race in the mornings.

Edit: @Famine sorry... I double posted....

 

[Sven Jurgens]

Two things: firstly I have already come around and agreed it should be displayed in the hud.

Secondly, and that's more important for your argument: 80 percent of the people who played GTS didn't do more than two sport mode races.
So the 15% you talk of is the absolute majority of players


I often have russian, ukranian, an Indian and a South African player in the same race, especially if I race in the mornings.

Edit: @Famine sorry... I double posted....

Cool mix. Here early in the mornings matchmaking is scraping the barrel and even if you're A/S you have a good chance to end up with a poorly filled room down to D/E. Western Europe is pretty much one timezone, UK an hour off. Here Brazil and Greenland are up first, Alaska and Hawaii last. 3 hours difference between East and West coast USA.

Anyway, it's not often here, it's always. Brazil, Argentina and Canada are pretty much in every race. It's very rare to have an all North American race (or all South American, but I wouldn't know of course). Plus it's pretty common to have alt US accounts (probably in Europe as well) using VPN servers. The game reports them as 4 or 5 bars with low ping, yet that's just to the VPN server. The car is moving suspiciously across the track anyway (jumping back in braking zones, forward at corner exit) The indications aren't all that useful either. Often red bar connections have more steady car behavior than some green bar connections. VPN server probably (the green connection) vs some parameter GTS isn't happy with (red connection). I also often have races where everyone has 3 yellow bars, and it only reports me as 4 green bars. But maybe they see me as 3 yellow bars as well.

I sometimes inform a driver their ping is over 600ms when I see them 'rampage' through the field. (That is the ones without a vpn server where the game reports the actual round time trip). They probably can't do much about it, but at least the are aware. What is less nowadays are the cars that erratically glitch back and forth and teleport accross the track. The game kicks them out earlier nowadays.

Anyway, back on topic. Just signed in for race C, can't see the race details while looking at the countdown, so had to check KP what to expect tire / pit stop wise. (Since I'll miss the pre-race lobby when it comes up). Got to change to medium tires before the end of the race. Race loading, 5 South Americans (Argentina, Brazil, Caribbean), 6 Canadians, US in the middle. And crap, too late to change my tires, starting on intermediate wets somehow 🤣

 

[RacingGrandpa]

Is it common to use a VPN connection to run an alt? Why would anyone do that when you can run it straight up? When I run in NA (I do about once or twice a week) I have 3 or four yellow bars.
It's very rare that I see someone lagging, even if it's both SA and NA and likely about 3-4 EMEA players with a NA alt judging by the bars.

But I guess I won't see any problems if I am the one lagging. Never had anyone complain about it though.

Usually when I race in NA it's at turnover for races. Often there's 13 players or less, spread from A+ to C.
I was p7 in a race with @Mistah_MCA Grove, OGMoverman and PRST_Joker today among others and I didn't see any lag.

If anyone else did I would like to hear it.