RD Rally Championship Season 9 - Feedback & Season 10 Rules Discussion

Elikian · May 8, 2021

Where did you hear about/find RDRC for this season?

Pretty sure it was on the front page here at Race Department. Having been mostly a passive reader I noted it was open to non-premium members and decided i would give it a go.

What is your best memory from the season? (On stage, forum, wherever)

First rally, in Monte Carlo. Summarized in this post: https://www.racedepartment.com/thre...7th-february-2021.197439/page-11#post-3339551

If you could change one thing about RDRC S9, what would that be?

As others have said, it would be nice to have a sort of "2nd tier" for the less talented or experienced people out there. I realise it could be a lot of extra work for you organisers, but maybe they could have their own championship? I would like to drive the same tracks as the real dudes and dudettes, but maybe have some an extra time for repairs and a bit more time to make them?
There should maybe be some way to prevent guys who are too good from entering that newbie scene, so maybe you may not have been in the top 50% of the previous 2 seasons to be able to enter this?

And as others have said, maybe reward finishing the whole rally with at least 1 point. It will not affect the rankings at the top one bit, but it rewards players at the lower end.

Any other comment?

Something that doesn't affect me much i suppose, but i saw this mentioned in a rally thread by someone at the sharp end: Someone mentioned that the option to see the itenaries up front, and allowing to break-and-continue might turn it all into a bit of a hotlapping competition,
Since people will pracise a stage xx times before the real go, and then go on to the next one. I tend to agree.

So might be an option to maybe not disclose the stages at all? Just mention that there will be 4 tracks (2 long 2 short), 15 min repair, 1 long night stage, and then 4 shorts for final repairs of 30 mins.
No rain expected on day 1, but maybe some light snow towards the end of day 2.

Not sure if that would be a good or a bad thing to have, but just throwing it out there.

Once again, thanks to all who make this event possible, and if possible I'd like to try again to better myself next season

Linkendorf · May 8, 2021

Hmm..well, in order of questions:
1: I heard about the RDRC here on RD, I had just joined the site and was looking around for something to do in DR2.0 that would be fun and engaging with this community.
2: My best memory of the season was during Rally Spain, when I slammed into a rock wall I'd always dodged, popped off a tire and had to limp the rest of the rally to the end. It was a challenge, and I rose to it to keep my position.
3: I don't think I'd change anything, I think the Rally went well, I had a blast and hope the next season will be at-least as challenging.
4: Thank you to everyone involved in putting this together for all of us Mud Sharks (haha!), I originally wasn't going to take part, and I'm glad that I did.

Ole Marius Myrvold · May 8, 2021

Elikian said:
Something that doesn't affect me much i suppose, but i saw this mentioned in a rally thread by someone at the sharp end: Someone mentioned that the option to see the itenaries up front, and allowing to break-and-continue might turn it all into a bit of a hotlapping competition,
Since people will pracise a stage xx times before the real go, and then go on to the next one. I tend to agree.

So might be an option to maybe not disclose the stages at all? Just mention that there will be 4 tracks (2 long 2 short), 15 min repair, 1 long night stage, and then 4 shorts for final repairs of 30 mins.
No rain expected on day 1, but maybe some light snow towards the end of day 2.

Not sure if that would be a good or a bad thing to have, but just throwing it out there.

Once again, thanks to all who make this event possible, and if possible I'd like to try again to better myself next season

The stages will be disclosed in the racenet-rally club section in the game. You can see the stages, weather, services etc. there, so the only difference would be that you would have to wait for the session to open to be able to see it.
Also, there's no way to disable/set custom checkpoints for save and re-join in DR2.0 (as I know of). So we are pretty much locked to what we can do there.

Ole Marius Myrvold · May 8, 2021

A couple of things I see so far is that we should look at the points system (but as shown here, it's not easy to find a system that suits different eventualities).
Also, have a look at a potential grading system like we had pre-DiRT Rally. However, that is a much easier task with 50-70 drivers, than 350!

Eckhart von Glan · May 9, 2021

Ole Marius Myrvold said:
A couple of things I see so far is that we should look at the points system (but as shown here, it's not easy to find a system that suits different eventualities).
Also, have a look at a potential grading system like we had pre-DiRT Rally. However, that is a much easier task with 50-70 drivers, than 350!

it's a pity DiRT does not have a built in points system like ACC, that would help immensely. One could let all players do one of the DiRT stages which are on each week, but who is to stop a guy from sandbagging? The only feasible way I see is letting everyone start in the same class and do a short season (3 rallies on different terrain) and use standings from that short season to allot possible choices for next season, so top 25% get to pick from all classes, next batch only get to pick from the second fastest class down and so on.

Philip Morby · May 12, 2021

Where did you hear about/find RDRC for this season?
Friend (Ben Willis) who had joined before me

What is your best memory from the season? (On stage, forum, wherever)
Actually finishing a rally, and in the points at that, in Spain. First ever Race Department points

If you could change one thing about RDRC S9, what would that be?
Have to agree with others, I was using this championship as an excuse to play DR2.0 and do something different to circuit racing. Enjoyed not having to commit to the same evening every week, but I somewhat lost interest a bit once I realised J-RDRC wasn't full of other like minded people. Sure, no way you can stop people hot lapping offline (my pre race practise was loading the car/setup on 1 stage, making sure recording stuff worked, then jumping straight in), but may need to look at either some other way of limiting what should be 'the entry league' for those that have earned less than x points/podiums in previous seasons (say, once you've got a podium in J-RDRC you can't do it again next season, bit like the John Sears Trophy in BTCC which is given to the highest points earner yet to get a podium?)

Any other comment?
Thanks again Ole

bladechildx · May 13, 2021

Where did you hear about/find RDRC for this season?
Through a friend.

What is your best memory from the season? (On stage, forum, wherever)
Getting points in Argentina!

If you could change one thing about RDRC S9, what would that be?
Points could be fleshed out a bit. Having an incentive to actually finish a round by giving a point or two. Making the power stages less powerful like someone else said, should only be 5 points for 1st and 1 point for 5th. Have the top class have their own championship, doesn't really seem fair for someone finishing just outside of top 20 and losing points to someone that is getting top points in their own class already.

Would be cool to see a little bit of a placing system at least for J-RDRC because as name implies it is the junior class and should be treated as such.

I agree with what someone else said that there shouldn't be a car change at all you pick what you pick and that's that.

Any other comment?
Glad to have been apart of the season, really appreciate all your hard work putting this together and especially going above and beyond with the magazine.