1 month into iracing

[zzjorzz]

Have been simracing a long time. Played AC,ACC,RF2,PC1 and PC2, Automobilista,Raceroom,GTR1 and 2, GP legends, and a lot of F1 games.
While they all have there strengts and weakenesses none of them where able to to for me what iRacing did in one month.

I totally lost all fun in simracing. Even on the verge of selling my simrig and all my hardware.

Iracing is NOT a racing sim, it is a divebomb sim. It is a very expensive copy of wreckfest.

I am not the fastest driver, but certainly not the slowest either. Of all my races I only not qualified top 5 in 1. Off all my races I have not been divebombed of in...also 1.
People driving more then 1 second behind plowing into you in the middle of the brake zone, they make the corner with 2x penalty, I go off for 2x contact and 2x losing control, plus meatball flag to go for repairs. Wich means losing even more iRating, wich means driving with even worse drivers in the next race.

I have 11 months of subscribtion left, and bought some cars and tracks hoping it would be better in other series (spoiler alert, it is not!) so Iracing made good money out of me.

For those who say it gets better....well, I have watched a lot of higher tier races this month, and I see the same thing there all the time. I wish I wasnt, maybe then I would stick to it.

So, Iracing, thanks for taking all the fun out of simracing for me....

 

[zzjorzz]

Maybe a strange advice but you have to find a more tough compromise between driving polite and clean vs showing others (by your positioning of the car) that you are ready to defend your position.
You have to accept beforehand that you sometimes will be taken out by aggressive idiots with the result of impact on your safety rating - but it will probably be fewer times than if you drive overly cautious and polite.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Your attitude at start is ok - because being a bit hesitant before the first corners will probably earn you some positions when some of the mandatory 1st corner heroes does eliminate themselves.

I think that is good advice. I need to learn that.

 

[zzjorzz]

This is true, but I cant help my personality, and sadly I take these incidents personally and always will, so this game is simply not for me

I recognise that very much.

I am very pleased with the nuanced replys here. Sometimes if you speak not a 100% positive about a certain sim the fanboys come crawling out of the sewer of the internet to burn you down.

Iracing is not bad, it is very good. But just maybe not for me. I think it is expensive at the start. To get out of Mazda to a D class series you'll need to buy a car, like BMW M8 GTE of Skip Barber and 8 or 9 tracks for the season. Thats around $140. Some find that a bargain, others think its way to much. I think it is not to much perse, if Iracing gives you a lot of fun and satisfaction. But I share some of the issues people added to this conversation.

 

[thepharcyde]

Sorry to hear that, I keep wanting to scratch that itch of iRacing. But you have lessened my enthusiasm to take the plunge.

Of late the 'Ranked' servers on RaceRoom for the most part if you get a reasonable qualy produces some good racing. You see a lot of similar racers online that have good respect for the most part.

Just avoid joining when GamerMuscle is streaming, as it tends to attract noobs.

 

[BrunoBæ]

To get out of Mazda to a D class series you'll need to buy a car, like BMW M8 GTE of Skip Barber and 8 or 9 tracks for the season. Thats around $140

You can get from rookie to A for almost free.
I dont know if this is usefull - but when I originally joined iRacing I fast tracked from rookie to A in about 1 week!
Not kidding.
Instead of joining rookie and D class races and being taken out by idiots I just used TT(TimeTrials) to up my SR to 4.0.
When your SR become 4.0 you are immediately fast tracked to the next licence class.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: As said I used about a week to get from rookie to A - but it can probably be done faster than me.
Hehe because to not get bored in the TT mode I fighted both to get on top in the TT competition and up my SR at the same time.

 

[zzjorzz]

You can get from rookie to A for almost free.
I dont know if this is usefull - but when I originally joined iRacing I fast tracked from rookie to A in about 1 week!
Not kidding.
Instead of joining rookie and D class races and being taken out by idiots I just used TT(TimeTrials) to up my SR to 4.0.
When your SR become 4.0 you are immediately fast tracked to the next licence class.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: As said I used about a week to get from rookie to A - but it can probably be done faster than me.
Hehe because to not get bored in the TT mode I fighted both to get on top in the TT competition and up my SR at the same time.

My SR is D 4.29, no fast track to C licence.. IR so low because 4 very bad results. Got a false start when a racer behind me hit me when he made a jumpstart...

 

[Rob Every]

What I find rather weird is the way you are dumped fairly quickly out of rookies if you are even halfway decent, but then you literally have nothing to race.

So if you don't want to pay you are forced to race rookies all the time really. Now this can be fine, but it is invariably fraught and can lead to much stress and frustration.

When I got orange in all 4 sectors I had one race I could enter all week, rallycross, and that is a TT and I rating basher if ever you find one, that is simply stupid, it does not encourage you to proceed.

I think I might install again and do the TT thing, that might help. No racing, just a few TT, can you do them in any car and track available to rookies?

 

[thepharcyde]

Do you build IR racing the AI?

 

[zzjorzz]

Do you build IR racing the AI?

Yes, MX5 and Porsche Cup car. Not on all tracks though.

 

[BrunoBæ]

My SR is D 4.29, no fast track to C licence..

If you read your own posted message (pic) then it says that your problem before you automagically will be fast tracked to next licence class - is that you have to complete 2 more races/TT´s first.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: I admit that when I posted my advice above (about the TT trick) I didnt believe that people was unable to understand that there still existed a minimum participation rule.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

I don't believe you build ir racing ai.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

Yes, MX5 and Porsche Cup car. Not on all tracks though.

No, racing AI has no effect on your irating

AI Racing - iRacing.com

Race against highly customizable, computer controlled iRacing AI drivers without worrying about safety rating or iRating!

www.iracing.com

 

[zzjorzz]

I don't believe you build ir racing ai.

Sorry, misunderstood you, indeed no IR for AI races

 

[zzjorzz]

If you read your own posted message (pic) then it says that your problem before you automagically will be fast tracked to next licence class - is that you have to complete 2 more races/TT´s first.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: I admit that when I posted my advice above (about the TT trick) I didnt believe that people was unable to understand that there still existed a minimum participation rule.

Thats what I ment. But there are no D class road racing events at the moment where I have the car and the track. I always need to buy something. I did a few races in D after buying the skip, but now a couple of weeks no races with the default tracks.

 

[BrunoBæ]

@zz
Its more than a year ago since I aborted my iRacing membership after 5+ years.
So I had forgot that the track/car combination you HAVE to use in TT is the same forced in the official races by iRacing.
So you are right that because they want to earn money they ofcourse choose tracks they want to sell.
Often new or unused tracks.
But at least as I recall in the L79 and Kamel GTP series the iRacing guy responsible for the track turnarounds often asked members how they prefered the schedule.
Before the tracks was selected.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: My TT advice to get fast tracked from rookie to A licence in 1 week is still valid.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

... because they want to earn money they ofcourse choose tracks they want to sell.
Often new or unused tracks.

Nope, most (if not all) schedules are community voted and accepted by iRacing the way they are. Communities put a lot of thought into these schedules and often vote against the free tracks which is certainly not beginner friendly but makes for more variation for the chaps already in. For some series, the community decided to have a quota of free tracks, e.g. four out of twelve for the Skip Barber.
So far this season, I have seen the average amount of foolishness but in all but one race (4 in Skip Barber, 7 in the free Cadillac) I have easily managed to time my race so I am not affected. I literally had 10 very enjoyable meetings/hours and one effort terminated after 30 secs. A cautious lap01 goes a long way, as does a solid quali time, the higher up you are on the grid, the less fools you have to bear with, usually the mayhem is somewhere behind me. Oh, yes, and on the Nordschleife I started from pits, because that track brings out the dark side in many many players

 

[zzjorzz]

Nope, most (if not all) schedules are community voted and accepted by iRacing the way they are. Communities put a lot of thought into these schedules and often vote against the free tracks which is certainly not beginner friendly but makes for more variation for the chaps already in. For some series, the community decided to have a quota of free tracks, e.g. four out of twelve for the Skip Barber.
So far this season, I have seen the average amount of foolishness but in all but one race (4 in Skip Barber, 7 in the free Cadillac) I have easily managed to time my race so I am not affected. I literally had 10 very enjoyable meetings/hours and one effort terminated after 30 secs. A cautious lap01 goes a long way, as does a solid quali time, the higher up you are on the grid, the less fools you have to bear with, usually the mayhem is somewhere behind me. Oh, yes, and on the Nordschleife I started from pits, because that track brings out the dark side in many many players

My experience is very different. In almost all my races, last 2 excluded because I didnt try to set a fast time, I started in the top 5. In only 2 races nobody hit me from behind. One, as you can see in post earlyer in the thread ( https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/1-month-into-iracing.177200/post-3098362 ) even before the start.....

 

[BrunoBæ]

@eck
If your "nope" is about iRacings "want to earn money" then you are more naive than I thought.
A bit more.
And if you are able to read and understand the use of "often" in the sentence "Often new or unused tracks" then "often" does not mean the same as "allways".
And then after your out of context quotation we have to hear your lecture about how iRacing are so user friendly that they often does hear members wishes for track schedules.
Exactly what I mentioned in my post - but what you didnt quote .. because we have to hear it from you instead.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Its quite funny that inside iRacings own forum there was often (not allways ) pretty openminded discussions where members asked staff for more influence on track schedules.

 

[BrunoBæ]

My experience is very different.

@zz
Hehe you better give up on documenting all the wreckers and unskilled idiots there are inside iRacing.
There will allways be stubborn blind members who never have seen a wrecker in an iRacing race..
And if you try to document some wrecking with videos then they just say you are biased or that exactly this video is the exeption that proves that wrecking is sooo seldom in iRacing.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: What is the idiot thinking of in your video?
Maybe iRacing should allow machine guns in the cars.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

My experience is very different. In almost all my races, last 2 excluded because I didnt try to set a fast time, I started in the top 5. In only 2 races nobody hit me from behind. One, as you can see in post earlyer in the thread ( https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/1-month-into-iracing.177200/post-3098362 ) even before the start.....

that's a pity and a shame

 

[BrunoBæ]