Who are you working for, if I may ask? I wish track makers would sell track packs (encrypt them or copy protect in some way)...perhaps for multiple sims if it's easy enough to tweak them for different titles. But no, each title wants to have it's own proprietary tracks, even though as you mention they will be ripped within a few months for all the other titles. We need fewer, but much higher quality tracks and we need to pay for them...otherwise very few scratch-made tracks of high quality will ever appear. The old days are gone. Who has multiple talented people and 1,500 hours to donate? What business model do you recommend that might distract people from the current ripping mania?
I made those tracks for a company planning to implement a new model in sim racing. And the model they have planned is the one I think will be the best for simracing. The idea is to create a plattform of rF2 users where drivers can join sessions to practice on a track, qualifyng for a race and racing; they would be able to find races in different categories at any time, and they will be ranked depending on their results on every car group, and the ranking will be varying as they drive within the plattform. In this way they will be able to join events, or to create an event for others to join, and this events can be reserved for drivers of selected ranks, or simply open to anyone. Members will be able to create even Leagues, they would be able to select cars and tracks from the plattform warehouse, and they can select their rules, drivers, and everything. The ranking system is a mix of what you get in tennis and in golf in real life; obviosly it will depends on the difficulty of the track and the car they're driving at any time, their past results on the same track or car, and the rank of the other drivers. It's already developed, but to long to explain here. The plattform will be running events on a continuous base, aside those organized and run by members, and both can give prizes to winners (absolute winners, or by ranking), and this prizes can be materail objects (for example in sponsored events) or money prizes that will be deposited on the members plattform accounts. Members don't have to buy cars or tracks, but running time (or mileage); they get the credit for that in their accounts and as they drive they're expending this credit; of course the rank of the driver and the opponents will apply, so if a low ranked driver improve his driving skills a lot in an event with high ranked drivers, he may be receiving a better prize than the other drivers, even if they finished in a better position, but they're not improve their results. The idea is every driver of every level will be able to participate and get rewards for the improvements; if the want to win a race, racing with lower ranked drivers they can, of course, but if they do it with higher ranked drivers, maybe they don't win the race, but they can improve their ranking and even get prizes. Modders could sell their tracks and cars to the plattform and they would be paid for them (if they sell it, they're selling the rights to this track or car), or they can offer their work on a paid-by-popularity basis, where they'll be receiving an ammount as members use their products. Event organizers will also receive a part depending on the popularity of the events they organize. They have developed a system to encrypt tracks and cars on the fly, so they can't be used outside the plattform, and drivers don't need to download any material previously to an event, as the system will do automatically it if the don't have the neccesary track or car, or even the right version of any of them. And there is a project to allow a "team director" to participate with a driver in any event, receiving live information from the race and deciding strategies on the fly, in contact with the driver. But this is another story. Having a place to race with the best cars on the best tracks, being able to organize your own race, or competition or even league inside the plattform, or simply joining events at any time having your own rank and knowing the rank of the drivers on this event, will offer simracing people a good way to be enthusiastic again.
Sounds very similar to Simraceway but paying for tracktime instead of cars, any pay to play scheme gets a thumbs down from me but each to his own.
iRacing does all of those things, and does better than any other sim. rF2 will IMO never be as good online platform, it would require changes to the core game. rF2 is a bit like Linux in Windows dominated world, its strength is that it's (almost) free to play. When you take away this aspect, I'm not sure a lot interest remains.
I would like to remain open-minded about it. For me it would depend on how much it costs to just practice. I don't want to participate in a service that dissuades (economically) practicing because that directly affects the quality of the eventual racing. iRacing you pay for cars, tracks and for the service. SRW you pay for the cars, but the tracks are "free" and the service is included R3E you pay for cars and tracks, but the service is included As described, this is a better/different service than SRW or R3E or what we already have with online rF2...more akin to iRacing, but better in some ways. Depending on the convenience and pricing model and how well it is executed, it could be more or less appealing.
Of course it depends on pricing, but I think R3E and SRW have a poor track and open wheeler warehouse, and in iracing you have to pay for everyting. Marc just said it's close to iRacing with some extra features (ranking system, prizes), I'm sure it will be much cheaper, and it's a good opportunity for modders to show their works with some compensation. I'm not part of the company, I just made tracks for them, but the idea seemed interesting.
