Where do I find good online races?

  • Thread starter ILIV
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ILIV

ILIV

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Let me start by saying that I'm new to PC2 (I'm on PlayStation).

I have found it difficult to find good online racing experience in the standard lobbies.

Even on a weekend.

Several problems:

* most populated lobbies strangely race on the Monza track most of the time.
* there are lobbies offering other tracks but also fewer players (3-5)
* there are 1-2 lobbies with 10+ players at a time only

It feels like there's little choice.

GTS does a better job with their Daily Races of providing great racing experience that is easy to discover and have. Is there an equivalent in PC2?

Community Events, at least those I have seen, are all about time-trials and not "proper" multiplayer races.

Does all the good stuff happen in community events? If so, any recommendations?

Am I too late to the party and the community abandoned this game already?

I really love the strong sides of PC2 (feel and sound of the cars, difficulty of handling, penalties and anything that brings this sim experience closer to the real life) but I found it pretty frustrating just to find a good online race. It seems like I need to try and try many lobbies just to stumble on a good company.

To be fair, GTS lobbies are about equally as "good". The Daily Races in GTS, though, are the best thing ever for quick races against real players.

I guess only organized racing events beat them.

Anyway, any word of advice would be highly appreciated!

Thank you!
 
ILIV
Let me start by saying that I'm new to PC2 (I'm on PlayStation).

I have found it difficult to find good online racing experience in the standard lobbies.

Even on a weekend.

Several problems:

* most populated lobbies strangely race on the Monza track most of the time.
* there are lobbies offering other tracks but also fewer players (3-5)
* there are 1-2 lobbies with 10+ players at a time only

It feels like there's little choice.

GTS does a better job with their Daily Races of providing great racing experience that is easy to discover and have. Is there an equivalent in PC2?

Community Events, at least those I have seen, are all about time-trials and not "proper" multiplayer races.

Does all the good stuff happen in community events? If so, any recommendations?

Am I too late to the party and the community abandoned this game already?

I really love the strong sides of PC2 (feel and sound of the cars, difficulty of handling, penalties and anything that brings this sim experience closer to the real life) but I found it pretty frustrating just to find a good online race. It seems like I need to try and try many lobbies just to stumble on a good company.

To be fair, GTS lobbies are about equally as "good". The Daily Races in GTS, though, are the best thing ever for quick races against real players.

I guess only organized racing events beat them.

Anyway, any word of advice would be highly appreciated!

Thank you!
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Hi ILiv - I suggest you have a look at the online racing section of GTPlanet and try out some league racing, which is very good on PC2. Hopefully there will be some which suit your time zone. All the ones near the top of the list on GTPlanet will be good quality.


https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/board/pcars2-online-racing-leagues.419/
 
I can do 20:30 GMT on Mondays. Not sure about Wednesdays, though. Love that you have races planned out all the way to late Autumn. I think I should not look any further.
 
Great! Thanks. I've read the first 7 posts in the corresponding thread as well as the GTPLanet Online Racing Rules. In fact, I was just about to send you a private message and ask if I can race on Mondays only and how to join / when I should expect to be able to start racing :)
 
Private leagues are the way. If you like racing on a weekend GreenLightSimRacing do multiple leagues on a Saturday night. It's a small clean racing community. The standard isn't elite. They use discord for organising.

https://discord.gg/2H7v5Z9
 
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It depends on the league. The most serious ones (like gavra) can get quite dirty at times. Dirty? No clumsy may be more accurate. Others can be just about fun. Most leagues are somewhere in between - fun and clean with a competitive edge. I don't know sick's league but I'd love to try if i had the consistent available time in the week.

No league is anything like public lobby racing...

Best thing about league racing is getting to know a car. You'll do hours of testing and loads of races. By the end of a season you'll know how the car responds to setup like you did only dream of doing public lobby races. The bonus is, you can then be one of those people that turns up in a public lobby with said car and destroys everyone with ease.
 
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Sick's league sounds interesting to me. I get a sense from browsing the GT1 thread that this is going to be a very interesting experience. So, join up!

As for setting up a car, do you mean that during a season rules require that certain modifications be made to a car setup?
 
No but pretty much all cars need a circuit specific setup to be competitive. You can do it all on default setup if you want but you won't be winning anything.
 
Mr Sick runs with the default settings locked so there's no tinkering with the setups allowed. You do get used to each cars foibles over the course of the series, which is also kinda good to. And I suppose would help in jumping into default lobbies.

mattikake
You can do it all on default setup if you want but you won't be winning anything.
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There's always someone who crosses the line first. :)
(Usually it's not me unfortunately)
 
This is exactly what I like about racing simulators. They give you an idea about how all those cars handle and what the differences are. I guess when you know a car well only then tinkering with setups makes sense.
 
I much prefer the default setups that Sick uses. At least then everyone is on a level, non-optimal playing field. I used to race with a more competitive bunch of guys on Thursdays where setups were modifiable. I must have put in about 100 laps in getting my Formula Renault setup for the first race at Zuhai, a huge amount of time when all you have are evenings free. Then on race day, I get taken out at the first corner by my teammate! Frustrated does not even come close to what I was feeling.

That took the wind out of my sails a bit, so for the rest of the season I was always off pace because A) of my limited ability and B) because of my unwillingness to spend the time making a proper setup to reduce the effect of A.

It also meant that racing incidents were far more argumentative as not only was the race position affected but it also cancelled out all the free time we'd spent on setups. Some people like that aspect, but personally I'd rather leave that to the real racing drivers... they get paid to feel that way!
 
If someone uses default setup you can never be as fast as someone who doesn't because you can't adjust for circuit and weather specific requirements such as wing settings, brake and rad ducts, gear ratios and tyre pressures.

Also as personal habit I like the top of the wheel to point where I want to the car to go. This automatically makes you feed the steering lock on and feed it off (imagine turning into a hairpin, you'd have to steer more and more toward the apex first 30deg then 45deg the 90deg at the apex, before doing the reverse on the way out). It stops the scandanavian flicks and an unsettled car. Helps with directing the right amount if opposite lock should the backend come out - 20deg too much turn, steer 20deg the opposite way. Easy. Default setup steering ratios prevent all this.

As for being taken out in a setup race; sounds more like an issue with driving standards akin to public u lobbies to me. The door swings both ways; [in a clean racing community] if the field is investing time with setups they tend to drive much more realistically, like risk of injury (physical or mental!) knowing how much wasted effort it is put in by all sides should there be a crash. The closest most entertaining battles i've had have been in these kinds of leagues where fair racing room and care is given. Being battered to oblivion has *only* happened in default setup leagues. I'll have a vid coming up about this actually.
 
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mattikake
If someone uses default setup you can never be as fast as someone who doesn't because you can't adjust for circuit and weather specific requirements such as wing settings, brake and rad ducts, gear ratios and tyre pressures.
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That's obvious...I wasn't saying default setups are faster at all. I said that everyone is on a level, non-optimal playing field in a default setup league. Nobody has the best setup, but everyone has the same setup.

mattikake
As for being taken out in a setup race; sounds more like an issue with driving standards akin to public u lobbies to me.
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Nothing of the sort regarding driving standards. A lot of the guys were ridiculously fast and it was clean racing. But... racing incidents happen. Look at any real motor racing and you get racing incidents. So it's nothing to do with driving standards... If the best drivers in the world have racing incidents then a bunch of guys racing after a long day at work definitely will!

I'm not attacking setup lobbies or leagues at all. I was merely stating that for me, personally, I much prefer default leagues for the jump-in-and-drive aspect. Otherwise it just becomes an exercise into who can devote the most time into creating a setup, and I don't have that time.
 
I'm much like yourself rj. I don't have a ton of time nor desire to invest so much of it into weekend sim racing. Not at least at this point. So, I would be quite happy not having to do what you described above :P
 
rj5992
That's obvious...I wasn't saying default setups are faster at all. I said that everyone is on a level, non-optimal playing field in a default setup league. Nobody has the best setup, but everyone has the same setup.



Nothing of the sort regarding driving standards. A lot of the guys were ridiculously fast and it was clean racing. But... racing incidents happen. Look at any real motor racing and you get racing incidents. So it's nothing to do with driving standards... If the best drivers in the world have racing incidents then a bunch of guys racing after a long day at work definitely will!

I'm not attacking setup lobbies or leagues at all. I was merely stating that for me, personally, I much prefer default leagues for the jump-in-and-drive aspect. Otherwise it just becomes an exercise into who can devote the most time into creating a setup, and I don't have that time.
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Fair enough. I wasn't really defending either, just pointung out key differences.

As for setups. In the league I'm in, i'm regularly dishing out setups long before a race. I often set up multiple types too which can require quite different driving styles but can also lap within a few tenths of each other. I'm no setup master but I understand setup pretty well and that only comes from biting the bullet and devling in, in the first place. For months I was useless but in joining a league I was forced to try setups, learned a car, learned how setups work. Now I'm at the point where I can "fix" a car for myself or someone else in a couple of laps. (Perfecting takes a lot longer of course).

@ILIV I gave Maverick a chouce of setups for a FC on Tuesday and it immediately improve his laptimes by 4 seconds and less than 2 off me. The one he went for was much more stable than the default, as a result he should spend more time racing and less time spinning. I figure if it makes for closer racing, what the hell?
 
mattikake
@ILIV I gave Maverick a chouce of setups for a FC on Tuesday and it immediately improve his laptimes by 4 seconds and less than 2 off me. The one he went for was much more stable than the default, as a result he should spend more time racing and less time spinning. I figure if it makes for closer racing, what the hell?
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I'm intrigued :) I'd gladly try a ready-made solution just to see if it makes a difference. Actually, I have a perfect car for this. I was doing time trials at the Red Bull Ring in KTM X-BOW R' that had double the power and a bit less weight than what KTM manufactures (this is in GTS, all 4 levels of Power and Weight Reduction upgrades) and the thing is damn fast (it pounces from 3rd!) but incredibly difficult to keep in a straight line. Heck, it's difficult not to spin even with TC and ASM on! Even using factory setup (twice as less power and a little more weight). Think you help me set it up so it's more planted but still as powerful? :)
 

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