About Melbourne

Today, April 30th, was the start of the new DnD racing at the Albert Park Melbourne racetrack simulating the 2009 F1 season.

During these personal times of stress though, i was not able to give it my best, or even my worst, in preparation for the race as i have been too tired and distracted to think about it.

But this had given me a chance to realize one important yet ultimately fatal aspect of this racing malarkey.... it is not fun anymore.

And here are the reasons to my mind as to why...

1: the race is too long.

Full race distances to match the ‘real’ races in the real world are an understandable goal of realism, but the problem is... we are real people with real lives, real responsibility’s, and real world interruptions.
spending 58-79 laps going around a track in pretty much the same formation as it was after the first 20, is not fun, its tedious.

2: the time at 2pm China is no longer convenient.

This is not just from me. In fact i was under the impression that the moving to a more user friendly time of 4pm china time, thus 6pm Adelaide time, was on the cards. I thought this was indeed the case today, though obviously not as being late for the practice session demonstrated.
But the truth is, smack bang in the middle of a Saturday, and is a no go for me. As for anyone else I’m not sure, but i want to rest, relax, fornicate, anything else i can do other than online racing.

3: The rules.

Rules are great, rules help everyone know and follow and thus become competitive, and rules help guide the flow of racing without cheating or overstepping boundary’s and effecting the enjoyment of other racers.
But.... rules depend on people, and too many become anal.
We haven’t got the people.
We have 5-6 regular drivers at best, who just want to go on, race around and have a laugh, to me rules that are enforced on a larger full grid of drivers is good and competitive, but on so few is dull and defeatist.
Again, following exact rules as far as possible to match real life racing is great and ads that level of realism, but with 5 people, it just gets in the way has the opposite effect of trying to keep people interested.
Just a rule of racing safely is enough for me.

4: The points system.
the race today, after the qualifying 7th lap, i had already decided that i didn’t want anymore. i was bored, tired, and weak from a lack of sleep n food, and thus wasn’t interested. I had informed my team mate of this, and was going to just leave after a few laps during the race itself.. But as i started, i pretty much was yawning loudly and just went from the pits, around a corner, and into the wall directly. On the shock realization that my car was amazingly still alive, i went along another part, and into another wall directly until my car was left in pieces and out of the race, i was satisfied and went back to bed
Imagine my shock that when i returned later from a loving sleep involving big breasts and a ham sandwich, i discovered i was awarded 4 points for my earlier display of a lack of driving skill n effort.... why???
This is a strange points system indeed, and takes away the very reason of racing to win, as leaving early for a spin or a crash gets you points anyway.
I imagine leaving to take a dump gets you more, and maybe driving backwards gets an added bonus?
Anyway it didn’t make sense to me, and a point system that makes no sense isn’t worth fighting for, imhp.

So, as a result of today’s experience plus a lack of general interest, i would like to back out of the championship, and wish you all well, and hope you get those numbers up.
If you do, let me know

English

Can't say I disagree with you about a few things listed there Jack. I also noticed the points system and thought it was just a programming "glitch". I love the racing but let's face it, it's bloody tough turning up every week for about 4 hours on a Satdy arvo when I've got a family, business, BBQ's etc to throw into the mix. Not sure what's the best way to run a comp like this but for us (me) amateurs, I find the fun aspect on the little low side as well. Maybe if we had a more flexible season and damage levels to get more in, we might find it more fun and then if numbers are there, then a more focused comp like we have now could be an off shoot.
Like I said, I enjoy the friendship and racing but it's becoming too difficult to meet the races on a regular basis. Hope this input is taken in the right way.

Well u 2,

I agree entirely with both post, i too have problems with the SAt afternoon, with the timing etc and most Sats. i have my grand-daughter to look after or we have our kids for dinner.

This was discussed with the members who are involved in this series and yes it is nice that a Wed night race has been organized, but ten again there has been no discussion with the racing members on what sort of race they would like to do, there is a lot of thought towards doing a V8 series or even a 2 Litre Sedan series.

The thing with this series is now in the control of DnD not Congo Racing so we discuss what we want to do, it is no longer up to 1 member to say this is what we will be doing.

Come on guys lets get back to having fun with this racing, lets get back to shorter racing with the damage dropped down to say 50 - 60%, lets mix it up a bit with open wheelers and V8/2 litre or even a bit of rally stuff.

Sorry if i have offended anyone not my intention, i love racing sims and it would be a shame if we let this slip into no racing between us all.

I know that this all mostly directed at me, but I want to take the constructively, as all I really want is to have fun racing with my friends.

if you were to ask me what I would like to do, then it would be qualifying in the week days, and 0% damage as I would just like people to keep racing, and race half race distance.

I actually dont care what time we start but in the post I did ask everyone but on Cropper replied. http://vapid.omgforum.net/t851-the-new-rfactor-championship-will-start-sat-23rd-april-2011

I also dont care what cars I race or when I race.

But it does seem that there is somethings not quite right here. What I suggest is that we arrange a meeting to discuss this and come up with something that we are all mostly happy with.

Hey Guys,

I put a lot of thought into replying to Toeys last post(above), i really didnt want to say anything, but im affraid this old bugger gets very pissed when somebody says i thing and means another.

Firstly im in agree that a discussion is needed to thrash this thing out, but do not agree that anyone person should have the upper hand because they have put a lot of time and effort into it, because it is now been bought over to DnD and there is no need for 1 person to do all the work, i for i is very happy to put the time in to get this up running the way we want it.

2nd i had a discussion with my Pommie mate a couple of weeks ago about the mid week race and mentioned that there was a some thought amonst some of us namely cropper, stormer & myself about a V8 Series and Toey said no he only likes to race open wheelers, hence the mid week Formula Renault, which i know for a fact crop has not installed. This is where the double meaning comes into this post Toey says in last post and to crop yesterday "i dont care what cars i race or when i race"

All i ask and expect is truthfulness, if there is going to be a discussion then it has to be all members involved has equal say and please lets put some thought into it so we can get something going that everyone is happy with and have some FUN!

I must end by saying Tony please dont get upset about what i have said, i dont want to cause bad feelings between us m8, it is probably my biggest fault that i speak out when something gets under my skin and 1 thing ive stressed on my kids always the truth and not with a fork tongue, sorry buddy!

Oh 1 last thing if it is decided that there will be zero damage then those of u who wanted me out because of the controller will get your wish!