AC Skoda 130 RS @ Calabogie - Mon 08 Jun 2020

[Chris Down]

And as usual, my VR onboard for race 2 (race 1 is also there, but is not so interesting since it was mostly a convoy).

Featuring a theatrical showing of Dude, Where's My Brake Marker? on lap one and a nice battle with @Medilloni

 

[Neilski]

Sorry not cool of me to not show up my first time, got a hard drive issue, was going to ask about race 2 but didn't fix problem in time

Ah bummer. I now realise that it was you on the AC server as "maoko". We tried to explain in TS and in the AC chat about changing the username but I guess you weren't seeing the messages, and because we didn't know if maoko was even signed up, Denis had no option but to kick you. Teething problems Happy to help if you need assistance before the next race.

So completely destroyed gearbox in race 1 without even realizing and then in race 2, due to a misconfiguration that I couldn't fix without leaving the game

Ouch

the only way to fix such issues in AC is to leave the game, because the devs couldn't manage to give people access to controls settings without leaving the race

Yeah, I reckon that's a regular source of irritation to most AC users. Such a great game in nearly every way, buth with some really dumb UI issues.

 

[johnfreeman]

Ah bummer. I now realise that it was you on the AC server as "maoko". We tried to explain in TS and in the AC chat about changing the username but I guess you weren't seeing the messages, and because we didn't know if maoko was even signed up, Denis had no option but to kick you. Teething problems Happy to help if you need assistance before the next race.

Ah right I wasn't going to ask for help I thought changing name on steam would work. Content manager didn't register my new name so I tried launching directly on steam, steam asked for an update then I got a cool I/O error so it made me too late. Cheers guys I'll test my setup in advanced next time.

 

[Denis Betty]

Ah right I wasn't going to ask for help I thought changing name on steam would work. Content manager didn't register my new name so I tried launching directly on steam, steam asked for an update then I got a cool I/O error so it made me too late. Cheers guys I'll test my setup in advanced next time.

If you are able to use the default launcher, just change it there. It's dead simple honest.

 

[Ernest Raoult]

@Ernest Raoult Thank you for the advice. Don't take it the wrong way, but I'd dare to say I am familiar with the concept of shifting. Doesn't really help much when the shifter is misconfigured in the game and not working as expected, and especially if you only notice that mid-race, since the only way to fix such issues in AC is to leave the game, because the devs couldn't manage to give people access to controls settings without leaving the race.

I don't know what to say then. Check your shifter driver to see everything is ok.

Anyway, bad luck happens sometimes. If I continue racing, which is my intention, I hope I will have less bad luck.

 

[Partick Eaton]

That sure was fun. In race one I managed to get up to eigthth position and I had a bit of a train behind me, that was nerve wracking. I justed couldn't keep on track and eventually blew my braking point.

In race two I had a screen freeze and ended up last.

It felt great to finally qualify in the top half.

Thanks for hosting, looking foward to the next combo!

 

[GeekyDeaks]

Thanks for organising this one @Denis Betty , really enjoyed trying to keep pace with you and @Kek700, but I got a little overconfident with the car in both races

I seem to be able to mix it up in the mid pack more in these kind of combos, similar to what @Medilloni also runs

 

[MJBTV]

Sorry for the disappearing act during race 1. Was struggling with the car all through practise and qualifying and just couldn't keep it in the right direction. When the leaders caught up to me after like 2 laps I thought it best to just get out there way for this one! Sorry!

 

[GeekyDeaks]

Was struggling with the car all through practise and qualifying and just couldn't keep it in the right direction

I couldn't stop the damn thing swapping ends for the first few laps as I kept downshifting mid corner. Once I managed to kick the habit and started to downshift on exit instead I noticed that it was way more stable downshifting under power and started to be able to do it earlier by applying a bit of throttle at the same time mid corner

EDIT: thinking about it now, I guess that's because I wasn't matching the revs on downshift

 

[GEO147]

Denis sincere apologies for missing this yesterday. I had to travel at short notice and was driving for hours from 4pm.
Was 9pm by time I got home.

I normally always send advance notice if not attending but was hoping I'd make it and had no internet when I realised around 7pm that I wouldn't.

Hope you all had a great race.

NB woke up with some serious neck issues so hope that won't interfere with upcoming races

 

[GEO147]

Also. Im not getting notifications for a lot of events these days even after I'm signed up/subscribed to thread.

Nothing to do with missing yesterday though.

 

[Medilloni]

Sorry for the disappearing act during race 1. Was struggling with the car all through practise and qualifying and just couldn't keep it in the right direction. When the leaders caught up to me after like 2 laps I thought it best to just get out there way for this one! Sorry!

Hey Mathew, many of us have done that in the early days - main thing is just to keep going, for your own enjoyment and fun... it's the one thing we all have in common

These events are ideal for the simple reason there's a huge difference in abilities, but the quick guys have bucketfuls of empathy and understanding, so don't hesitate to ask for help; whether that be your driving, the car, or a setup (to fit your style, not necessarily to make you quicker!).

I saw you go off a couple of times on corner entry, so don't know if this will help you but..... These cars are fairly sensitive to downshifts at high revs; John Watson's (very underrated F1 driver of the time!) advice was - "two thirds of your braking distance should be on the brakes, the last third is when you downshift with lighter braking". This is so that the engine braking isn't so severe as to upset rear grip (aka lock-up with brakes as well), which in turn affects weight transfer making the rear unstable. More modern cars don't seem to be as badly affected (closer, and more gear ratios, better suspension, electronics etc etc), but anything old will almost certainly be easier to drive with the heavy, main braking out of the way.

I waffled, sorry Really hope to see you again soon buddy

 

[HF2000]

@Medilloni John, I hate to say it but it's very doubtful that I can be on time .Will certainly miss practice and qually. But if I can make it I will join for race 2 because I just love this combo.

 

[Medilloni]

@Medilloni John, I hate to say it but it's very doubtful that I can be on time .Will certainly miss practice and qually. But if I can make it I will join for race 2 because I just love this combo.

Thanks for letting me know Han, hope to see on track buddy

 

[Neilski]

Also. Im not getting notifications for a lot of events these days even after I'm signed up/subscribed to thread.

Nothing to do with missing yesterday though.

Sorry to hear that George. I'll have a poke about in the system to see if I can figure out what's afoot.

I do find that the colours on the alerts bar are a bit too similar for my eyesight to tell them apart reliably.
So my solution has been: after each time I read my alerts, I go to the "watched threads" list just to double-check that there are none showing up in bold font (i.e. unread). (This may also be useful for you @Martin Fiala since I think you've also had issues with alerts recently.)

 

[Case_]

@Neilski I wouldn't say recently, I am having issues with RD alerts intermittently for a long time (like years at this point). Some threads seem to stop sending notifications randomly. Didn't find any consistent pattern so far.

 

[Neilski]

@Neilski I wouldn't say recently, I am having issues with RD alerts intermittently for a long time (like years at this point). Some threads seem to stop sending notifications randomly. Didn't find any consistent pattern so far.

Well, me too, I guess. I've never managed to convince myself that it wasn't my own fault though (even after looking in the logs).

I do know for sure that on some occasions I've failed to realise at the bottom of a page that new unread posts are on the next page, but that doesn't explain all of the issues I've found. My other suspicion is that I've managed to just plain misclick on some alerts and fail to open them in a new tab while clicking on 20+ alerts.
Finally, I also often hit "watch" on a thread quite a while after first opening it (having done the 20+ new tabs thing). That leaves me very vulnerable to new posts having arrived between me loading the page and hitting "watch". In that instance, the posts which have already been made certainly don't generate an alert, and I'm not even certain that new posts after I've watched it will generate alerts (I must test that in fact).
One way or another, I've found that the only reliable backstop is to keep checking the "watched threads" list...

 

[Neilski]

Sorry to hear that George. I'll have a poke about in the system to see if I can figure out what's afoot.

I do find that the colours on the alerts bar are a bit too similar for my eyesight to tell them apart reliably.
So my solution has been: after each time I read my alerts, I go to the "watched threads" list just to double-check that there are none showing up in bold font (i.e. unread). (This may also be useful for you @Martin Fiala since I think you've also had issues with alerts recently.)

I had a wee look @GEO147 - seems like the alerts are functioning OK at present. The database says you have 8 live alerts at this instant, including Han's post above and my own mention of your name in the quoted post (this mention will bump it to 9, I expect). So... all I can say is to let me know as soon as you spot an issue again.
@Martin Fiala - the last time I noticed you commenting about a specific missed alert, it was sadly too late for me to investigate it in the database because alerts only survive for 7 days after you've seen them (or 30 days if you don't). Do give me a yell though if you happen to spot a post which didn't seem to generate an alert, if it's less than 7 days since you might accidentally have viewed it.

 

[BertramRaven]

Bummer. Might be a fixable issue though, with luck.
Juicy alternative rig, indeed!

I usually keep work and play separate on my machines. What I've done is add a new boot SATA SSD and 1TB HDD just for gaming. The upside is I don't need a new Windows licence - MS just treats it like the same machine

 

[Denis Betty]

Hi guys.
The car has had an update, including some physics/suspension tweaks. I've scheduled a race at Mas Du Clos for next Monday, was hoping that some of you might like to give this little beauty another run out?

The track/car combo should offer something for everyone IMO - easy enough to learn, but just enough difficulty to make it a challenge to really master.

I'll put the event up in the AC Racing Club mass PM.