R3E Club Racing…. Suggestions Page!

Paul Jeffrey · Aug 27, 2015

Hi folks,

Well, the club has been back up a running for a while now and seems to be maturing quite nicely, so thank you to everyone who has participated in the races so far.. it’s very much appreciated I would like to particularly thank those of you who sign up for events week in week out, our little core group of people who continually participate in the races is growing weekly… I’m sure come the end of summer we will have a great group of racers fighting for position in large closely matched grids across the great variety of content on offer within our favourite sim… the future really is looking good here at RD with R3E, and I’m excited to be sharing it with you all in the coming weeks and months….

I wanted to create this thread as an opportunity for you all to offer your thoughts and opinions on what content and format the race club should take going forwards… please do use this thread to float ideas, make requests and just generally chat about what sort of things you want to see from your club in the future.
When we restarted this club a few weeks ago, it was decided to offer up a consistent weekly approach to our racing for the week, keeping the same track all week (something that will remain for the foreseeable future) and offering a consistent serving of week in week out. As you are probably already aware, the current format looks like this:
Monday – WTCC 2014
Tuesday – DTM92 & TC Classic
Wednesday – WTCC 2014 Double Header
Thursday – ADAC 2013/14
Friday – DTM 2013
Saturday – Alternates weekly
Sunday – Multi Class Endurance (alternate cars)

All races currently run to 30 mins each session (with the exception of Wednesday and Sunday).
A basic rule of thumb is that events should start and finish within 90 minutes as a standard practice. Ideally I try and keep to within this time window to allow those of us with less free time the opportunity to hop on and participate in these events.

These schedules and timings were created to offer up a consistent approach while the club re-establishes itself within RD, now we have been running a while I feel it is time to make some tweaks and tailor more to what you guys want to see.
I have a couple of things that are set in stone that I don’t want to alter, unless of course you guys all shout up about it and I have no choice

!!! These are as follows:

Monday and Wednesday will remain as WTCC 2014 events.
Wednesday’s double header timings will change to be the following (open to debate on this if you have a better idea) – P1: 10min Q1: 15min R1: 20min – P2: 0min Q2: 20 min R2: 25min (please note, I always aim to set the server up early before the first session starts, so if P1 begins at 18:00GMT for 10 minutes, the earliest I can setup the server would be 17:10GMT)
Friday’s DTM will be replaced by GTR3 Fridays (utilizing the soon to be massively updated GTR3 class)

As well as the above, obviously new content will arrive in the future (such as the Audi TT Cup) and these will take priority (if good) and be included in the schedule after release…
What I want from you guys (apart from offering up this opportunity to shout up what stuff you fancy racing) is some suggestions on the following things:

Tuesdays – Remain DTM92 & TC Classics or do something else?
Thursday – Remain ADAC 13/14 or do something else?
Saturdays – Retain use of different cars each week? If so, what do you want to race?
Are you happy with the schedule rotation? Do you want to see races in certain classes on different days than current, if so, what class, what day?
30 mins practice, qualifying and race… good or bad? What format do you want to use (double headers, longer/shorter races etc..)

Remember guys, this club is your club and we at RD want to make it something special that you enjoy and want to come back to time and again. The only way we can deliver the best experience for everyone is by working together to build something we all enjoy together.
Now its over to you to make the suggestions and get this thing really off the ground…….
See you on track!

Cheers,

Paul
p.s. Sorry for this bit, but after thinking more about it I thought I better cover myself….

I, as RD staff, reserve the right to have final say on how the schedule and format runs within the R3E Racing Club. Any and all opinions are welcomed, but please respect the final decisions that are made. Please respect others opinions on this thread. If I feel the atmosphere that was intended by this thread is being threatened, or the conversations and comments are getting out of control / not in the spirit of what the intention of this thread is, I reserve the right to close down this topic and remove it from the forums.

Brandon Wright · Sep 21, 2015

@Paul Jeffrey I commend your effort, and I appreciate it. Unfortunately I think it's an uphill battle because not very many people race R3E. If you check the servers at any give time you'll see maybe a couple dozen people at most, which means it's always going to be hard to get a group of more than half a dozen together for a race. And I understand, you have to put effort into this sim in order to love it and most people just don't seem to be willing or don't realize how much of a gem is hiding behind the screwy pay model and the frustrating FFB system. I've given up on it and come back to it at least three or four times and I've only known about R3E for less than a year.

I think going down to fewer days will definitely help, but it won't cure it overnight. Hopefully the new physics/ffb update next month will get some more people on track, but it's not a guarantee. If you want to save Saturday it looks like you'd need to go a couple hours before or a couple hours after the league races, and I'm not sure if that would work well. I'll try to do some brain crunching to see if I can come up with any ideas that may help attract a bigger crowd, but until more people adopt R3E I'm not sure what will work.

Paul Jeffrey · Sep 21, 2015

Any suggestions always welcome buddy, I really think, like you say, this sim is a gem and folk just need to get into it and they will be surprised im sure....

No matter what, we will always do our best to run a club worth being part of...

Cheers buddy

Brandon Wright · Sep 21, 2015

This physics/FFB update sounds very promising, but I'll believe it when I see it. If it is good and can quickly spread to all the cars, I think that could go a long way towards attracting/keeping more interest. And if they get the free cars finally feeling good, maybe some new players will get past that initial barrier and see all the goodness that awaits them.

Well, we can hope anyway.

Keith Joyce · Sep 21, 2015

R3E is my fave.

Paul Bennett · Sep 22, 2015

@Paul Jeffrey
If you still want races on Saturday please do let me know, we will happily reinstate this day in the schedule..
I have lowered the number of days to test if 'quality over quantity' works, however if demand is up enough we have absolutely no problems going back to 7 days or similar again, no issues.

As a member of 3 years at RD that's best post I've seen for club racing,supply & demand at last why did take so long for this to happen

Paul Jeffrey · Sep 22, 2015

Cheers Paul, appreciate the kind words fella

You know the best way to repay me? Sign up for some races

On a serious note though, we really do aim to make the experience as suitable for everyone as we can, but obviously without the imput of you guys telling us what you want, and then signing up to the races that have been requested, we are working in the dark and just using our own ideas and experiences to put togther what we think folks want to do...

This club has the potential to be immense... its all of us together who will make it work and i think we are slowly moving towards a really good situation, it just takes commitment for everyone who's involved, be it staff or racers alike..

Worry not mate, things are moving in the right way and I'm confident that sooner rather than later the R3E club will be flying high

Cheers buddy,

Paul

Paul Bennett · Sep 22, 2015

I don't have RR3 due to old PC ( long story) but may have it soon, so was just keeping an eye on the club. I have the funds for a gaming box now but have decided on a lifestyle change first, and get back into clubs later on. Spread the word on your race formats and wake up RD

Paul Jeffrey · Sep 22, 2015

Will do buddy.. will do

Good luck with getting sorted with a new rig mate, hope we see you out with us sooner rather than later..
Cheers

Brandon Wright · Sep 22, 2015

Here's some my ideas off the top of my head (so, they may be a bit dusty).

1. Rotate the car selections. You have it set for certain classes of cars every week and I think that's a good idea. But they're always on the same day, so if someone can only race on Tuesday then they only ever get to race one kind of car. Maybe a progressive schedule like;
Week 1 - Tues: Class 1, Thurs: Class 2, Fri: Class 3, Sun: Class 4
Week 2 - Tues: Class 2, Thurs: Class 3, Fri: Class 4, Sun: Class 1
Week 3 - Tues: Class 3, Thurs: Class 4, Fri: Class 1, Sun: Class 2
Week 4 - Tues: Class 4, Thurs: Class 1, Fri: Class 2, Sun: Class 3
(if you rotate the schedule backwards it prevents you from running the same class on Sunday and Tuesday).
This would allow people who can only run one or two days a week to get to race all the classes over a month's time, but we're still sticking with the four classes that we know most people own.

2. Have a theme for the tracks for each month. One month could be Murican tracks (Laguna Seca one week, Sonoma the next week, etc., etc.), the next month could be Euro tracks, the next month could be Asia-Pacific tracks (Suzuka, China, Bathhurst.........do we have a fourth?). It's a bit gimmicky and doesn't have any real impact, but sometimes it just takes a little gimmick to get peoples attention.

3. If we don't do theme, we could let one of the attending drivers select the track for an upcoming event. Obviously they couldn't pick next week's track because you want to give people some advanced warning so they can get their practice on, but maybe they could select the following week's track. Not sure how you would decide who gets to pick, maybe the highest average finishing position for the week, or whoever shows up to the most events for the week, or maybe just at random. It's nothing much, but sometimes all it takes is just a small amount of incentive and this could encourage frequent and regular attendance.

4. Maybe have a Wall of Winners thread where you can post the winner of each race. This would take a few minutes of extra work each week, but sometimes people like seeing their achievement recognized and it could give them the motivation to attend more races in the hopes of getting their name on the wall. I did this for one of the Gran Turismo clubs I hosted and it worked really well.

5. Have one of the more skilled tuners share a setup for each week's car/track. This could help some of the slower guys (like myself), or guys who are rubbish at tuning (like myself), have a better shot at doing well which should encourage more participation. Of course you'd have to find someone will to setup and post the tune, but hopefully someone would be willing/able.

Those are a few quick ideas, not sure how well they'd work here but I've used various forms of these in the past and they can work. At least they could be a good starting point for discussions. With the other sims that have larger crowds you can just kind of set the track and car and people will show up. Since R3E has such a small user base we may need to actively encourage people to give this sim a try and attend some events.

Andy_J · Sep 27, 2015

A bit moot now as the R3E club is finished after next week.

Kenny Paton · Sep 27, 2015

Andy Jackson said:
A bit moot now as the R3E club is finished after next week.

Why would you say that? It's coming into winter and I'm sure there will be more players happy to join a friendly club like this one.

Andy_J · Sep 27, 2015

Kenny Paton said:
Why would you say that? It's coming into winter and I'm sure there will be more players happy to join a friendly club like this one.

They might if there was a club Kenny. Maybe you can take over the reigns? See Paul's post here:
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/time-to-say-goodbye-sort-of.111495/#post-2099524

SOLO59 · Sep 27, 2015

R3E is Just getting started! Just wait, R3E will come out with improvements and new content by the end of this year that drivers can't refuse. If you are having troubles with setting up your wheel then please take a look at the FFB help thread for a variety of wheels and the same thing is on the Sector3 Studios forums. Also, ask anyone for help. I used a mix of settings from here and Sector3 Studios forums and tweaked it. It feels great! I can drive a straight line with one finger on my wheel

.... plenty of info coming to the wheel. I own a G27 by the way.

Kenny Paton · Sep 27, 2015

Andy Jackson said:
They might if there was a club Kenny. Maybe you can take over the reigns? See Paul's post here:
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/time-to-say-goodbye-sort-of.111495/#post-2099524

Sorry Andy, I hadn't seen that when I replied to you. See I'm a backmarker even at reading posts.
Sad news indeed about R3E club, I still think my point regarding winter is valid so you never know.
I wouldn't have a clue what to do I'm just a beginner at both the game and online racing but I will speak to Paul.

Andy_J · Sep 27, 2015

Kenny Paton said:
Sorry Andy, I hadn't seen that when I replied to you. See I'm a backmarker even at reading posts.
Sad news indeed about R3E club, I still think my point regarding winter is valid so you never know.
I wouldn't have a clue what to do I'm just a beginner at both the game and online racing but I will speak to Paul.

No worries Kenny. Lets hope someone steps up to keep the club going. Even if it was 2-3 races per week. I'll be trying my hand at online racing again soon, Starting with Pcars on Wednesday, but hopefully back to R3E after that. If I were running it I'd stick to ADAC/GT3 and DTM mainly, with the odd old car race.

Kenny Paton · Sep 27, 2015

Andy Jackson said:
No worries Kenny. Lets hope someone steps up to keep the club going. Even if it was 2-3 races per week. I'll be trying my hand at online racing again soon, Starting with Pcars on Wednesday, but hopefully back to R3E after that. If I were running it I'd stick to ADAC/GT3 and DTM mainly, with the odd old car race.

Well I've given it some thought and who knows, if it's not too complicated through RD. I managed to set up my own server and run 2 successful races last week so you never know. I will contact Paul privately and see what's involved.

Lars Hansen · Sep 27, 2015

Kenny Paton said:
Well I've given it some thought and who knows, if it's not too complicated through RD. I managed to set up my own server and run 2 successful races last week so you never know. I will contact Paul privately and see what's involved.

If you do get involved, let me know if you need help.
Not sure how much use I'll be since I have the technical aptitude of a hedgehog, but I'll do what I can.

The R3E club seems to be one of the few places where the emphasis is on fun.
(Not to mention that I finally figured the FFB settings out. Just when the club is closing....
Now that's called impeccable timing

)

SOLO59 · Sep 27, 2015

Send me a PM @Kenny Paton, I can post the events here in the clubs, calender and the RD "weekly whip". This should only take 30 minutes or so in one day each week. I'm on rotations at work. I'll never be able to make every week of racing here, but I can post the events before or after work pending weather I'm on days or overnights. I do hope we keep multiclass Sunday's and doubleheader Wednesdays

... I'm not looking to have much say because I won't be available as often as others but I do want to help

Kenny Paton · Sep 28, 2015

SOLO59 said:
Send me a PM @Kenny Paton, I can post the events here in the clubs, calender and the RD "weekly whip". This should only take 30 minutes or so in one day each week. I'm on rotations at work. I'll never be able to make every week of racing here, but I can post the events before or after work pending weather I'm on days or overnights. I do hope we keep multiclass Sunday's and doubleheader Wednesdays... I'm not looking to have much say because I won't be available as often as others but I do want to help

Thanks for the offer Dean, it's not the time factor I just need to find out what RD's needs are.

Kenny Paton · Sep 28, 2015

Lars Hansen said:
If you do get involved, let me know if you need help.
Not sure how much use I'll be since I have the technical aptitude of a hedgehog, but I'll do what I can.

The R3E club seems to be one of the few places where the emphasis is on fun.
(Not to mention that I finally figured the FFB settings out. Just when the club is closing....
Now that's called impeccable timing )

I know what you mean, I've just started "racing" online and like you enjoy the more relaxed nature of R3E club, and it's not closed yet.