How is driver rating calculated?

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wayneofgarth

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I'm confused about how driver rating is calculated. I had a decent race today, finished third from p6, pretty clean run. But the breakdown of the race said I was expected to qualify and finish p1... So I only got a minor uptick in DR.

I never put up a lap time less than 2 seconds off the leaders in that race, so I don't see how I could be expected to do so well in qualifying let alone taking first in the race.

It seems the expectations of the algorithm arent calculated based on my skill level or the that of the grid. So what's going on behind the scenes?
 
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I guess you had a higher DR than the rest of the grid. Thus you performed worse than some drivers supposedly inferior to you. I think the algorithm compares DRs and relative positions between drivers to balance their ratings in a way similar to ELO in chess. By comparing results and ratings between drivers and making corrections to the ratings they will eventually be ordered by their skill level.
 
Ok I guess that makes sense, still not sure how my Dr would be that high with only a handful of races and not a lot of great results. I'm sure it will level out the more seat time I get.
 
wayneofgarth said:
Ok I guess that makes sense, still not sure how my Dr would be that high with only a handful of races and not a lot of great results. I'm sure it will level out the more seat time I get.
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Sounds like it's time to retire on a high :D

Seriously though, your rating and that of the other drivers will get more accurate (representative) over time. So there might have been much faster drivers there, but if they haven't done many races (or had the chance to beat other ranked drivers) they might well have a lower rating than yours.

I think for now at least the whole "expected" thing is causing confusion, so probably just ignore that and focus on the DR change (if anything), again bearing in mind it's about how you go against your opponents and who they are (so a mediocre drive might gain you more than the best race of your life, depending). I'd say don't sweat individual results, just let the system do its thing and hopefully enjoy when you're racing people close to your level down the track (pun acknowledged).
 
Probably it does not help the algorithm the fact that race kind change continuosly, naturally some driver perform better with some cars or on some tracks, but all is mixed together.
 
The driver rating system lacks "progression" IMO. You stay pretty much where you started unless you improve your driving significantly. Maybe you do that if you are new to the sim, but for myself, the only thing that goes up is the safety rating while the driver rating is stuck in one of the bronze categories or I'm just too old as well like most of us on the forum..

It's probably also an issue of not having a large number of casual players, so you quickly end up racing the same people who have likely quite a bit of experience in the sim. The progression is hence limited since you need to finish ahead of higher ranked drivers to improve your ranking.
 
stonec said:
The driver rating system lacks "progression" IMO. You stay pretty much where you started unless you improve your driving significantly. Maybe you do that if you are new to the sim, but for myself, the only thing that goes up is the safety rating while the driver rating is stuck in one of the bronze categories or I'm just too old as well like most of us on the forum..

It's probably also an issue of not having a large number of casual players, so you quickly end up racing the same people who have likely quite a bit of experience in the sim. The progression is hence limited since you need to finish ahead of higher ranked drivers to improve your ranking.
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I think you just described an ELO rating system ;)

It's an interesting parallel to games that force you to pass some number of events before you can drive the next car, do the next track, but this one the difficulty is set to High and you can't turn it down. It's also more like real life, and in some ways you need to place some restriction on progression - if everyone gets a prize and moves up, no one is left doing the beginner races and then beginners have no chance to progress.

With more numbers there should be room for more races, so that even if you can't progress any further you can drive some of the same content (or, indeed, perhaps all the same content) as the upper classes.
 
I don't experience the problem, I'm a midfield guy, mostly I', 1.5 to 2 seconds off the record in any track / combo of beginner races, but my Safety rating is already silver, and I can access intermediate events no problem (apart my inexperience with making setups, and with content used there). My DR is still bronze, but I guess I need to improve my driving to become silver, but this does not impact my experience, and unless I make some error that make me retire or finish last, the DR usually rise a bit in general. I don't even look at gold events, as I don't think I have the skill or time to partecipate.
 
Sounds like talented folks entering the online rankings for the first time should sandbag for a few events if they want to watch their driver rating rise?
 
Emery said:
Sounds like talented folks entering the online rankings for the first time should sandbag for a few events if they want to watch their driver rating rise?
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I see so... which is highly unfair! Good drivers should climb faster in driver rank, safety ranking i agree it might take a bit longer, because fast not allways means "clean"...
 
So just to correct myself, I was linking DR to event levels and eligibility. I think it's SR only? So DR isn't actually limiting your experience at all, it's just a good way to match you with similar level drivers so you aren't blown away (or blowing others away) when racing, which isn't much fun.

And that's the goal, right? Have some good racing. SR fluctuations aside, if you're battling against people at a similar level you are actually racing, and by-the-by you'll probably improve by doing that too.

I see some comments regarding results issues and it sounds like people are wanting to build their career stats from day one, like it'll all be scrutinized at the end (same as when this was in beta, some people were hoping to make themselves feel better by guessing the stats would be reset when it went to release, which wasn't the case). I guess you can choose to judge yourself by your stats, and if you want solid numbers that's kind of all you have as a record, but you're as good as your next race (or last race) - you can't brag about your DR if you can't beat someone with lower DR at the next event.

And just to complete the circle, that comes back to: what are you hoping to achieve? If you want a nice shiny DR, then you have to improve from your current level. You have to actually get faster, and on average improve a bit more than those around you. Very often it's not easy to improve (this is why people make money, get famous, etc, when they reach the top) but that also increases the satisfaction you should feel when you do it.

In many areas (gaming or elsewhere) I think we often link history to skill, but skill is a "right now" thing that can be measured. When I play a FPS game and I'm crap (because I am crap), I'm still crap when I finish the game. Ok, if I finish the game. On Easy. With maybe some cheats. Someone who's great at those games, often will still be the same 'great'. when they finish the game. Going through the story might feel like an achievement, but I'd say very often there's very little actual skill change involved.

Anyway, I digress (again)...
 
Your safety rating seems to depend on your number of clean laps in qualify and race, regardless of your result.
So if you crash it's better for your SR to enter pit and repair if needed, and finish the race to get some clean laps.

Estimated result seems be your DR at start of the race compared to the other in your session, estimated have little to no impact on DR gain/loss.
At the result table after the race, your DR compared to others at start of the race is the (#number) after your name.

Your gain in DR seems simplified be 1/2 grid loose, the other gain with some fluctuation depending on your DR and those around you.

At least from my experience with mostly clean races, where expected and actual being all over the chart.
 
Seven Smiles said:
Probably not, keep it obscure to stop people arguing over fractions of points gained or lost.
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They'd halve the questions if they took out the expected/actual thing. It's an attempt to help explain points changes, but very often (at least at the moment) it's only adding confusion.

Ultimately you could maybe come close to replicating the calculation if you knew exactly how your displayed rating equated to a number, and do the same with all the other drivers, and then calculate everyone against each other ensuring a zero sum. From a practical point of view, just mentally note the change (if it bothers you) and move on :p
 
Hi,

question beside:

is there an option to see the results and an ranking outside the sim, like LFM in browser? I would like to see an ranking and regards from known people, but havn´t found anything.
 
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