Damage modeling-both chassis and engine/systems

I was wondering what the view here is vis a vis damage to the engine or associated systems and suspension due to driver overuse, vs. "random" breakdowns. On the one hand, you have things that break due to the driver overdoing things (riding the brakes hard, overrevving the engine, shifting without lifting (yes on those cars where you shouldn't!), riding the curbs aggressively, etc.). On the other you have those items which will break strictly according to a random number-driver's style and abuse have nothing to do with it.

rFactor always seemed rather forgiving on a lot of things; while you can damage the engine by overrevving, that apparently is limited to crossing a preset threshold in RPMs-always stay below the threshold and you're fine. Brake wear is also modeled, but again you really have to be a brute to do them in (this depends on the mod tho I've noticed). You can also break the radiator and thus the engine, but again that's pretty black or white (watch the temps and you're OK). rFactor has no random breakdowns however, no damage to suspension parts other than by contact with other objects, and gears are perfectly fine no matter how much you speedshift (and there's no .ini line anywhere to add random ones).

So how do you feel about all that? Should rFactor2 widen the scope of driver-induced breakdowns? Should ISI go as far as to give you a random option as well? I miss seeing the kinds of things you do in say Le Mans, where a car might have to go behind the wall for various repairs minor and major. in rF1 things are too black and white and forgiving (and thus boring); creating an extensive damage model would add a lot of flavor to rF2.

And while I'm at it, it seems like even physical damage is oddly implemented (again might depend on the mod)-seems like the time you need to fix something isn't very closely correlated to the extent of the damage. That is, if I ding up my right rear fender a little that might cost me 30 seconds, while extensive damage to all ends of the car might only take 80 seconds to fix, and that doesn't seem right. Yes afterwards you are probably going to be quite a bit slower, but if you can get her into the Pits with the engine still running, rFactor will fix almost anything for you in a short period of time, no matter how close your car is to resembling a squashed cube.

 

A lot of the variables you're talking about (driver controllable ones) are fully defined in the files, some mods do basically give you no damage unless you do something silly, but a lot make it quite easy to break the engine / brakes. Setting up those figures is a balancing act in itself, quite often you'll see RPM 'damage' starting a good 2-3k before redline, so from a quick read of the file you might think you need to keep the revs very low but in practice everything all balances out with reasonable driving and you achieve reasonable lifetimes. (a lot of those figures are x-squared in nature, so while damage will increase exponentially when you exceed the limits you can also reduce the damage exponentially when you're below them... so working things out from the figures can be difficult)

Repair times are defined in the PITMENU section in the .hdv files if you want to take a look, they seem to me to be pretty general (and therefore lead to the sort of situation you've described) but rF2 might change that completely. Won't know until it gets here I suppose.

Actual random failures would add something for those that want it, obviously it'd need to be an easily changed option because I imagine a lot of people/leagues would prefer it off - in a sense it's a little bit like having slightly random car performance, you're bringing in real-life variabilities that sims are great for eliminating

I'd hope we'll see a little more in the way of managing/defining driver or setup related failures, and finer control of damage effects/repair. Whether that happens in the initial rF2 release or is expanded on later is something we'll find out... er... soon

 

Not sure what you mean LesiU-perhaps I meant overheat the radiator and kill the engine? Just crank the radiator size down/grille tape up and it's very easy to do.