iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations

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Beta testers

Any RD members on the beta of iRacing? Im just curious to see what people think of it,
I thought it was going to be fantastic but it seems to be missing lots of features right now as ive read at RSC, Jeez it does not even have yellow flags or pitstops in its current state :)
 
  • shenken

Missing a lot means: Beta :) to be added soon

But I hope when racing late models on Super Speedways or normal oval tracks in a race condition that Full Flag Rules are used and not only Black Flag settings. That would be lame.
 
Theres that word "soon"

Once they get the features added maybe it will good fun. I think now I have more info and movies to watch ive been turned of it quite a bit. Also the pricing seems to be a little steep, Not the subscription but payment for addon cars and tracks, £12 for a track. hmmmm.

Races every 2 hours, So does that mean we cant host private servers for say RD members? That would suck.

I think I will probrably leave this one for a while, Hopefully GT evo will be with us in the not too distant future and I shall be running that a fair bit.

I think I will forget going straight for the 6 months and just try one once its released.
 
  • shenken

The money is also a needle in my eye so that hurts but once you have purchased additional content, it is all yours for lifetime so you don´t need to repay for it again, only the normal subscription for racing of course. That how I understood Shaun Cole´s preview of iRacing.

InsideSimRacing - Home
 
yes that the way I see it, but if you look how many tracks they are planning to have, You could run up quite a bill :)

Im more worried about the server issues, I have not heard anything about being able to host private servers. That would be such a shame if you cant. You simply would not be able to host RD events... Maybe im miss informed, I hope so.
 
  • shenken

yes that the way I see it, but if you look how many tracks they are planning to have, You could run up quite a bill :)

Im more worried about the server issues, I have not heard anything about being able to host private servers. That would be such a shame if you cant. You simply would not be able to host RD events... Maybe im miss informed, I hope so.

I don´t think they will offer or sell private servers. My main concerns are for Leagues out there. If it stays only like it was shown in the preview, then Leagues will not have a chance to enjoy this product. I don´t need a ladder system or driver stats, or track records stats, if I don´t get "as real as it can get" :)

But i´m not that much involved into iRacing yet so i´ll keep waiting until release day while will be propably a few more months.
 
I have some concerns regarding the money too. I don't care to spend 10 eur each month on it, but I car about cars/tracks.
If we want an event for our members, I guess we have to reserve some space. Then if we choose a car and track (maybe more tracks), every driver has to be in possession of the car/track, which is very costly for lots of us.

We have to see how this works when its released, of course I give it a try for one or two months.
 
honestly i do not like at all this whole concept of pay always continuously for everything. not that i can not afford it by myself, but i simply refuse to allow to anybody to suck my blood like this.

I think exactly the same, but when something is very good, I am willing to pay for it.
Don't forget you don't pay it in total for the game. They are trying to run a community with all services which comes with it included. Including a game (excluding some cars/tracks)

If you look at it this way, it sounds reasonable. At the moment I donate more to RD for our services/community then iRacing will cost. :)

So it better be good :)
 
I personally have no big problem with their pricing method - I played WoW for some time - but I can 100% fully understand why people would have a problem with it.

I'm absolutely fascinated in what they're hoping to achieve; and it's very refreshing to have a new physics and 3d engine on the scene as well (I never played any of the Nascar games so it's totally fresh to me). Each engine has it's own 'feel' to it; in the same way that in the FPS world you can tell by the way things move and respond to your inputs whether you're in, say, the Unreal Engine or the Source engine etc, you can tell here in the sim world whether you're in the Motor engine or the nK(P) engine etc, even before you get to the specifics of the physics and graphics.

What they're trying to achieve may be either the best thing since sliced bread or a complete flop (resulting in a small 'closed' community), but either way I want in on that ride just to see how it goes. Being in a live development process is, as any LFS veteran will tell you, a great experience, especially when the developers are as they are reported to be regarding community involvemen in iRacing.

It might just get me into Oval racing as well :)

I'm in 'the list' for the next batch of testers (or indeed the first batch of non-testers) for the ~13th, when I get invites I'll be sure to hand them out here.
 
  • shenken

I also shall get an early invite too hopefully and then I will see if its any good or not. The Papy days were pretty awesome and I had much fun racing leaguewise but as iRacing is not going to be league friendly in the early stages and that also Yellow Flags will be missing but added in the near future, makes me consider to test for 30 days but then cancel it again and until the end of this year and how iRacing considers to support Leagues with individual room setups and custom rules! Let´s see!

I´m mainly interested to run late models and oval racing!
 
  • shenken

If its any good then i´m up for it to hook up with iRacing. About the money... Well you start small with a small license and i´m going to buy more content when my driver license has a status to be able to run other types of racing cars and what not. I will though propably sign up for a 3 or 6 month contract though :)
 
  • Robert Hicks

Robert Hicks - iRacing Review

Any RD members on the beta of iRacing? Im just curious to see what people think of it,
I thought it was going to be fantastic but it seems to be missing lots of features right now as ive read at RSC, Jeez it does not even have yellow flags or pitstops in its current state :)

I am a beta tester. At least for another day or so till it goes live. :)

The physics are great and the graphics are amazing. While you do have to pay a monthly fee, you don't have to pay anything for the game.

There are no flags except black at the moment and all races are short enough that pit stops aren't needed unless you crashed. (you get a limited number of resets each race) The rating system seems very solid and should help place drivers in races where they will race against others of equal skill and safety ratings. The reason I say 'should' is when there are few enough people signed up for one race, it lumps you all together since there really isn't an alternative. If there are 100 ppl signed up for a race, it will separated them into about 9 or 10 separate races where the aliens will all run together and the slower people will all run together. If only 12 people have signed up for the race, then you will all be put into a single race and you may have a couple of aliens against a slower field. I think that having very few people signed up for races will be a thing of the past once it goes live.

Currently there are races in each division every 2 hours on alternating times. (road 2pm, oval 3pm, road 4pm, oval 5pm etc) The races take between 15-25mins with a 5 min warm up. Position in the race is determined by a qualify time that you set in a separate qualify event. In the case where several have not qualified, the drivers will be ranked in order of rating.

Rating system - makes you more aware than ever of how you drive. You get free practice and test times that do not effect your rating, but when you race, qualify or run a time trial, anything you do will effect your rating both good and bad. IE:
run a clean race = safety rating goes up
run a race with mistakes = safety rating goes down
finish in the top half of the race = race rating goes up
finish in the bottom half of the race = race rating goes down

The positive effect of this is that it of course will help seed you into the proper group for you, the negative effect is that it can make you drive slower than you are capable because for the first time, you are really worried about driving clean.

Pros
-No initial cost for the software
-Amazing graphics
-Automated race schedule that almost guarantees there will be a race you can attend several times a day
-Great physics
-Rating system - works to ensure you will be racing against people of equal speed and safety ratings
-The game will be a living thing that will have new things added continually
-Seamless organization of race events

Cons
-Monthly fee (while I know that most of you are against this, you have to consider that there is no cost for the software you will get many updates and changes for free throughout the life of the game. To put the cost into perspective; if you go see 2 movies a month, you've spent as much or more than the cost of iRacing. 2 movies = 4hrs of fun while iRacing = almost endless hrs of fun)
-Automated race schedule that means you will have a race schedule to follow and won't just be able to set up a race any old time you feel like it. (though there are plenty set up already) I think they have plans to let you set up a private series, but I don't know how that effects the ability to set race times
-No yellow flags (this isn't really a big deal for me) but they are coming
-No endurance races IE no pits stops. (again not a big deal for me) Right now the races are short enough that pits aren't really needed. They are working on pit stops as well as longer races will be added later in the game.


My overall thoughts:
I really like the game. I am still slow like I am at every other sim, but it's fun. The races are very intense both because I want to finish well because this is the first game that actually fills you with urgency about driving safely. I am going to try it in live and see how it does. After all, the most you have to lose is $20 and you might find your new home in simracing. I think that at $20, the risk is less than most other games you take a chance on.
 
  • Robert Hicks

Who wants a nomination?

I haven't used any of my 10. Let me know if you want one. I will need your first and last names as well as an email address. Feel free to PM me if you want one.
 
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