Well, now we are starting to get close to Steam release... I'm back again to this topic I started to discuss time back about what I would like to see to raise online activity. Scheduled servers. The possibility to run a server, make It run sessions every day at time you want, permanent practice and then make It go Q and R at scheduled times, 2, 3, 4, 5 times every day, as admin wants. And make It all visible from server list, filters by time, car, track... as user I want to join multiplayer and see race times and stuff. And even server stats from previous races (stats from a server). So if we are not a lot of players, at least we can check when a race will start, and everyone will know a race starts at XX:XX, we avoid boring times waiting for races in empty servers. I think this would encourage players to join MP, check races, creating a more attractive multiplayer. Good for public races, good for league racing. Win win. Sorry my english, no time for more at this moment.
Basically, this is what a SimRacing-GP "Challenge" intends to be. For example, at the moment, there is a Palatov server running at Malaysia (North & South) and Silverstone (Int & Nat). A 20min. race starts every hour at the half IF 3 drivers are on the server, otherwise it will switch to the next track. Between races, the server is in (private) Qual. session for simple hotlapping, and a message pops in to tell in how many minutes the next race is. Want an other car/track combo ? Other Timing schedule ? Let me know, I can probably set it up I agree the problem is less what is possible to do but how to make sure people know it even exists. The server browser would benefit from more filters options.
That is great, but It's useless for most players, we need something from ISI, something native from rFactor default interface. Go to server list, click a server, look all info about races, previous results, next race times and race format... as easy as click and see from list. For my taste 1 race evey hour is not the way to go at this point. There is not enough players to fill any race. Maybe the way to start is creating 3 or 4 official servers by ISI or at least supported by them, running for example 3 races every day, or not even every day... make a schedule for every server. Fast example: ISI_Renault - Wednesday/Friday/Sunday, 4 or 5 races in a day to cover different time zones. Restart to light rubber at the end of every day. Change track every 2 weeks, 1 week with Clio, 1 week with Megane. ISI_GT - Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday, 4 or 5 races in a day to cover different time zones. Restart to light rubber at the end of every day. Cahnge track every two weeks, 50 mins races and 2 classes. ISI_Oval - Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Sunday - 4 or 5 races in a day to cover different time zones. Restart to light rubber at the end of every day. Change track every two weeks. ISI_F1 - Wednesday/Sunday, 3 races in a day. Restart to light rubber at the end of every day. 60 min races. FISI as mod. Change track every two weeks. Somehitng like that, would be an epic way to start, even more epic if you can click the server and check previous stats, previous race results, check next race times and schedules, or even confirm your participation for next events to let others know when people will join to race. I'm still hoping this can be made, and managed by server admins too, all this info would be stored by the race server, not by ISI, so leagues can make use of It in different ways. Edit: If It's not clear, I'm not talking just about the organization, but about tools to create this automization and make It visible, easy, and functional, from ISI and integrated in server list interface. With my knowledge I can create a server and make It run alone, but is useless while nobody can know how It works and nobody can check that server easily and ckeck stats, race times...
