Hi all After several dozen races, I wanted to propose a topic so that those who have ridden online can provide ideas for optimizing the experience, and so I start with what I think which is only personal but which has the merit of existing. The goal of this post is to push for the improvement of this excellent idea that is the online mode that we now have on RF2. I won't go back to the positive point of online, I think everyone agrees that it's a very, very good idea. Now, what I find that could be improved: Spongebob cars, lumps of butter : It's on all servers, the players who enter the server afterwards are shaped like sponges or lumps of butter. This is REALLY very unpleasant. Daily races : The structure at the start of December 2023: single-seater, prototype, GT. It’s good, it’s good because that’s the essence of motorsport. Having removed the single-seater this week is not a good thing. There should be this structure permanently. Servers available for training outside of meetings: The grip of the track which changes between offline and online. For what ? What interest ? Why not have public servers with the tracks and cars of upcoming races, a few days before? We should still be able to run with the conditions that will be those of the future server. Leaderbords: Unable to access leaderbords when the series is not in progress. For what ?? There should be permanently accessible rankings, either in the game or on the site. It could be added the best times in practice, the best in qualifying in addition to those in the race. Car tuning impossible: I understand that it is to allow everyone to have a chance, but with RF2 we are talking about a simulation. In motorsport (from karting), chassis settings are an integral part of training and the speed obtained, tire degradation, etc. Why not allow races where adjustments are allowed? A division with possible adjustment for example, and one without. It might be possible to exchange settings, to share them. And if you absolutely want to make money, you can offer to buy them in collaboration with other players (those who made them). Weather: There should be races with weather conditions other than dry weather, with light rain, heavy rain, dry track conditions etc. For GTs, night races are also exciting (e.g. Le Mans). A vote could be open 24 hours with the race to propose the choice of conditions depending on the tracks and modes. Intermediate races and special events almost all pay: ... When you have to pay around $17 to participate in a race (that you're not sure you'll be able to do again), it's not right. Besides, there is almost no one participating, and that's a good thing. The price could be for example, $5 for the 1st race including the content (track and cars), then for example $1 registration fee to participate in all future similar races. There, I would be ready to go there, but under current conditions, absolutely not. Optimized reporting of unsportsmanlike behavior: Today we must declare the precise moment when there was bad behavior on the track. Why not provide a shortcut key, which would allow unsporting behavior to be reported during the race, that would be much simpler. this would allow the information to be recorded (e.g. the last 30 seconds without needing to know in which lap it happened), then at the end of the race, we would have to come back to the report to confirm it or cancel if, for example, you did it out of anger. it would be useful and practical for the days and for the moderators. Contacts between players / Creation of divisions or leagues: We should be able to contact players to ask them to form a team, for example. So have access to the list of race participants after the races to be able to either chat with them or ask them to join a league. There you go, these are just my thoughts, and I hope that others will be able to provide their opinions, or new ideas in order to move forward with this new and beautiful project, which must take up both what made Rfactor successful, and what could be a more pleasant and exciting future for players. Thank you for taking the time to read. And happy racing!
You can use the menus to prevent the bubble cars, but then you have to be ready for momentary pauses everytime somebody joins. It is a learnable skill of freezing your hands for a half second but that is the cost of not having bubble cars. You could create a generic low poly GT car, but what happens when protos or Open Wheelers are used? How many generic bubble cars will you need, and how many server hosts will take the time to correctly add the proper type of car. But you are not alone, most new users have complained about this repeatedly. Rarely, however, do experienced users whinge about it. Just another 'thing' about rF2 that we all ignore after the first 15 minutes or so. I like the idea of an instant report...but worry somebody will just start clicking the button to be an ass. There are existing leagues that can provide the family you are looking for, getting better interaction to find teammates sounds interesting. Perhaps a Team Owner portal where a race team leader can look at the records of the drivers and use the game to approach them. Missing a particular style of car for a week or two is not heart crushing. If they have the content to rotate cars in weekly, then some weeks the GT's get booted, the rFPro, or the Protos....it is just a pause. I realize my message seems negative, I LIKE many of your ideas. Keep suggesting and who knows if the DEVS eventually .start looking for suggestions, hopefully they look at your ideas.
No, your post is not negative on the contrary, and I thank you for writing it. Thanks for the bubbles because I'm going to leave it as it is, I don't want to freeze. On the other hand, I find that the DEVS should have added the missing cars because they are official servers, and the types of cars are known. Regarding reporting, I find it difficult to express myself. Because it's a "1 click pre report" that I would like to do during the race, and which is then validated and possibly completed once the race is over, with a clear head. I think your idea is very good. Now, it would be good for others to participate in this post so that we can offer something complete to DEVS.
From my experience running the Caterhams at Lime Rock this week: The pace laps need to be computer controlled. Currently, too much abuse is possible with drivers hanging back and getting a run at the green. Also, the driver in front of me lost it on the pace lap. I continued on, rather than wait for him and was given a penalty.
@stuboyle I didn't try any rolling start yet, but it looks like rolling starts are not meant for beginner series? Maybe only on more experienced servers? Me, as beginner, wouldn't know how exactly proceed and can ruin someone else's experience... Regarding the main post: Spongebob cars, lumps of butter : As someone said before, could be great some other color than *that* yellow, a plain grey or black, but I think all of us just ignore those bubble cars after some time... Daily races : I'm good with rotation and different styles of cars. Sometimes is annoying because, In beginner series, if you want to play certain car you need to wait another 2.5 hours after finishing the race. I think if the community grows and have more and more players they could 'afford' to put all of the beginner races at the same time, overlapping the three different races. But you need a strong community and be sure you will have enough players in all of the races... same thing with intermediate and so on. Servers available for training outside of meetings: You can adjust the grip in offline mode and try to match server's. In fact, the road progression is not the same in practice, Q, and race! But, personally, I like that because it doesn't feel the same and you need to adjust your feeling and mentality. But you are right, they should open practice servers for all series, not just the following one... Leaderbords: Agree on that, we should be able to see leaderboards somewhere, not only that, we should see the schedule somewhere without entering the game (on a website, app... and be able to access to the store for items for a certain series like in-game). Car tuning impossible: Custom setups are available from intermediate onwards, if I'm not wrong. I bet they will eventually open the custom setups for some beginner series but for newcomers could be too much to play against people who can set up the car much better. Weather: Agree on this. I'd skip voting though Maybe match real time weather on the location of the track (at least IRL tracks)? Intermediate races and special events almost all pay: ... I have to disagree here... I'm not a guy that spends a lot of money in DLCs and that might be the reason, but what you are proposing is a subscription formula, similar to iRacing. The good thing about RF2 is that when you buy content, you own it. Obviously Studio 397 or Motorsport Games or whoever wants to make as much money as they can, and for that reason they are going to try to give us a mix of track/cars never used before, 'forcing' us to buy some content to play that specific series... I think it would be good some intermediate solution, such a commitment for RF2 to use certain vehicule or track for certain time (BTCC season that could last 6 months, or use X track for 6 months rotating between different series). That'd avoid a subscription, and we'd feel more confident that someone we bought will be used for a certain period of time (and we already own it, so in the far future we will be able to use it aswell). If we go to a subscription mode, I'd ask for a 'Netflix' of RF2: fixed monthly payment but accessing to ALL of the content. I really dislike the subscription + DLC formula... Optimized reporting of unsportsmanlike behavior: Agree on this, but when reporting specific cases, you'll need some real people checking it... more costs. They won't do it, is cheaper to achieve a solid automatized procedure to give penalties, I guess... Contacts between players / Creation of divisions or leagues: I'm antisocial, no comments on this xD Don't take it bad the disagreements, I think is good to open a debate and discuss! Cheers
@Allwin20200 The pace laps are not hard once you done one or 2 of them. You do have an odd driver ruining your race once in a while but that's to be expected for a beginner race. However, the bigger problem is with drivers getting a running start by laying off and timing the green.
I had that happen to me at another race and I had to do a stop and go, told me to let him pass when he wiped out and was sitting there, not good!!!
I would love to have the caterham in a permanent rookie series. Loved it at lime rock. That or the skip barber would be a blast and very good for learning. Lower speeds and lots of rotational control. Exaggerated weight transfer. All great for understanding and perfecting the fundamentals. (Not that I understand or have perfected anything)
