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....

 

[BrunoBæ]

That sounds depressing.
But in my aborted 5+ years membership I had some of the same experience.

One of the reasons you take this quite normal iRacing experience so hard could be that you (somewhat like me) try to drive very carefully not spoiling others races.
But just like outside iRacing this is not the common attitude in public and non-league MP races.

Your only chance to get rid of all these unskilled and over-aggressive idiots is to find one of iRacings member created leagues that use a car you like.
Just like outside iRacing you will find some much more carefull drivers in such a league.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Signing up for a 1 year membership without trying 1 month first isnt the smartest thing - if I may say.

 

[jeroenalmere]

.......same story here, i stopped playing it....

 

[Kurupt CDN]

Totally iracings fault lol
How not to get divebomb from my experience...don't leave an opening on the inside and stick to the inside of the track well before the corner.

Situational awareness and car positioning is key in sim racing
Another thing most don't understand is netcode....just because someone looks to be a car length behind isint always the case.

I've never really understood why people think because they pay for a subscription the driving is going to be any better than a non subscription game?
The only difference your getting is scheduled races, season stat tracking and the option to protest a race incident if you feel someone broke the rules.
I've raced mp in every sim and have had good and bad experiences.

It is interesting tho, the number of threads I read similar to this one and when on the iracing forms hearing veterans complaining about the quality of driving has deteriorated over the past few yrs as it's gotten more popular.

Are people getting to competitive, lack of skill and respect etc etc...who knows but sadly I don't think any racing sim will be able to cure this issue unless they come up with some system that suspends ones license after x incidents....which would involve a complete rewrite of incidents and probably cause more head ache than there is already.

As mentioned, join one of the thousand available iracing leagues.

 

[BrunoBæ]

sadly I don't think any racing sim will be able to cure this issue unless they come up with some system that suspends ones license after x incidents....which would involve a complete rewrite of incidents and probably cause more head ache than there is already.

While I was a member I carried forward in the forum that if you caused accidents/was involved too often in the same race or 2 races in a row then your licence was not suspended - but your car was imidiately teleported to a ghost level where you and the other drivers could drive on - but they couldnt see you anymore and you could see them but not interact with their cars.
First time this happened you were punished with 1 month as a ghost.
Next time 2 month and so on - until you learned or decided not to cause accidents.

It would be pretty easy to implement because it is allready now possible to participate in a race as a ghost.
Hehe but I stopped carrying this forward mainly because I realised that a lot of people got involved in accidents because of others intentional or unintentional faults.

 

[Rob Every]

I have had a somewhat weird intro tot he game, only playing for 3 months, could not really turn down a fiver for 3 months!

Have managed to get to D in a few days on three licences, tar oval is the best series, better drivers, other than pickups which are crazy, dirt road is daft mainly because you always race at short Daytona which is tight, and awful.

Dirt oval is one car and class so far, OK

Road is reasonable but I am no good at Laguna and MX5's are stacked with aliens!!

But am doing oK so far, I can see why people don't like it, there are some guys who you wonder why they bother, and it is up to you to avoid them, but when no-one else seems to give a damn...

 

[zzjorzz]

One of the reasons you take this quite normal iRacing experience so hard could be that you (somewhat like me) try to drive very carefully not spoiling others races.
But just like outside iRacing this is not the common attitude in public and non-league MP races.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Signing up for a 1 year membership without trying 1 month first isnt the smartest thing - if I may say.

That is exactly why it is so frustrating! I really try to drive clean, give other players room. I am very carefull at the start, always backing out to let people get into their race. But then as a thanks I get divebombed out of the race, every single time!

And by the way, you are right, but went for the black friday deal....

 

[zzjorzz]

Totally iracings fault lol
How not to get divebomb from my experience...don't leave an opening on the inside and stick to the inside of the track well before the corner.

Situational awareness and car positioning is key in sim racing
Another thing most don't understand is netcode....just because someone looks to be a car length behind isint always the case.

While you are actually completely right, of course, it is very hard to avoid divebombs when the car behind you is over a second away at the start of the breaking zone but hits you full in the rear at the turn in point....

 

[Cercata]

After 3 weeks my experience is totally the opposite, I have had more clean and disputed races in 3 weeks than in 2 years with PC2, AC, R3E ...
Off course the first 2 days I had some problems with dive bombs, first turn is allways hot, and in the mazda cup with rockies much more.
But those dive bombers, they have 2 choices, learn and stop doing it, or staying stuck in lower licences with very low iRating ...

How not to get divebomb from my experience...don't leave an opening on the inside and stick to the inside of the track well before the corner.

Very Good Advice !!!!!!!!!

 

[birle1]

I have started on iracing last year, and today i still have problems like these. The advise of sticking inside of the track is good, but you can do otherthing. Look your mirrows, be aware and when you see someone divebooming, stay out, just let him go to the gras and say goodbye. It does not woork all the times, but these guys usually brake late and use you as a wall.

You can have clean races at the global mazda. In my last race there, yesterday, i was in a good split, with very good drivers, and had fun till i made one mistake.

 

[BrunoBæ]

That is exactly why it is so frustrating! I really try to drive clean, give other players room. I am very carefull at the start, always backing out to let people get into their race. But then as a thanks I get divebombed out of the race, every single time!

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.

 

[Rob Every]

I gave up today a few weeks into a 3 month sub.

Simply was not enjoying it, very stressful, you spend every race managing other drivers, worrying about touching grass or a wall, all, fair enough it's a sim, but it was not enjoyable in any way for me.

And some of the other drivers also made it less than fun, personally I have had better races on public servers than in this game for over a fortnight. Bizarrely the best stuff was the tar ovals, best racing by far. Everything else was fairly disastrous, even if you try really hard not to get involved or give people a wide berth. This would be fine in other games, but in this one everyone loses, not just him, you do too. And that is not very fair.

It is a great model, a simply genius business model, but fun it most certainly is not.

And I play games largely for fun and enjoyment And this is neither of those things.

 

[BrunoBæ]

@Rob Every
I admit I had something of the same experience.
My guess is that its some kind of negative sideeffect of the impact on your safety rating and iRating by others aggressive and overall goofy behaviour.
Something that you more or less cant control.

Because in a league and public race outside iRacing then its also frustrating being taken out - but it doesnt influence your personal 2x ratings.

 

[F_B]

I’m more or less taking a break from Iracing since last spring/summer. Why? Because it’s too competitive for me. I somehow managed to get into a low 3k Irating but realized that every race is too much stress and time consuming. My average weekend from 2014 until last year looked like this: preparing for one or more races, practicing the car/track combination to be competitive. I’m at a point where I simply don’t enjoy that anymore, I just want to hop in a car and have a race when I like to without being chased by aggressive idiots and/or aliens. Also I really don’t like all these new GT cars or openwheelers. If they add a Porsche 962 I might reconsider racing more often but right now I just lost interest.

For people who are dedicated it’s a nice service of course.

 

[Ricardo Rey]

Greeting!
I stayed away from iRacing for years mainly because of all the horror stories; especially since I am just an average racer and no time to commit.
A few weeks ago I found about about the addition of AI racing and thought I would give it a shot. I have so far enjoyed the AI races and IMO are better than most; not perfect. I like the tracks and cars, but will have to see if cost justifies it in the long run. If I can improve I may try the human competition as well.
I do see the original OP's point.
Cheers!

 

[BrunoBæ]

My average weekend from 2014 until last year looked like this: preparing for one or more races, practicing the car/track combination to be competitive. I’m at a point where I simply don’t enjoy that anymore

Part of the same story as mine in iRacing.
But the strange thing is that what you describe is exactly what dedicated RL racing drivers does love.
In my younger days I was racing FF1600 and would often transport my lil open wheeler several thousand km just to get to a competition.
And when I and the competitors arrived to a track - then exactly what you describe was the thing we used all our moneys on.
And we loved it.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Pretty strange that the same thing get two different outcomes in the virtual and real world

 

[Rob Every]

I think there are many good things about Iracing, the community are great, helpful, but you can find that anywhere.

I do not like the price model, but it does work and has been proven to do so. And some categories are great, oval racing seems much better, driving standards far higher, but I crave more than that sometimes too.

I simply was not enjoying it, the rating thing becomes a bigger part than having fun, yes that is on me, but after reading countless testimonials, it is common. And sometimes you can try as hard as you like, but if you are qualifying up front, there is always some idiot that takes you out first bend. I even tried the start at the back thing and had the worst race I had ever had in the game as a result, despite deliberately trying to pick a slow car, and run around.

That is not fun, it is a chore, because you have invariably put in an hour or so of practice. And then they slag you off and just carry on regardless. You lose. And I simply do not have the ability to deal with that very well in a game environment, in real life, yes, but not in a game. I end up making mistakes and driving like an idiot, so my fault too, but again, no fun.

I guess it comes down to if you have the patience or the desire to invest several hours of your life to grinding an MX5 or whatever round a crappy track, when you could be driving something awesome round any track you want or having a blast playing Wreckfest, or taking on a Stratos in New Zealand in DR.

Yes these games are not as immersive or structured, maybe not as good, but they offer three things Iracing does not, fun, enjoyment, and a stress free environment.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Haha I suddenly recall that something that frustrated me was that there were actually some guys who was able to find the right balance between being fast + reasonable agressive + (and that is urgent ) didnt let their day be spoiled even if they with all precautions became taken out by some idiot.

They were often pretty helpfull and friendly against others in practice.

Their safety rating were not height (mostly about medium) but their iRating were allways height.
Hehe and when there were splitting they ended allways in the top splits.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: It was "frustration" in a good sense. Because I could use it to say to myself: Look if you hadnt been so fu** grumpy when someone took you out then life both inside and outside iRacing would be much easier.

 

[Rob Every]

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

 

[F_B]

Part of the same story as mine in iRacing.
But the strange thing is that what you describe is exactly what dedicated RL racing drivers does love.
In my younger days I was racing FF1600 and would often transport my lil open wheeler several thousand km just to get to a competition.
And when I and the competitors arrived to a track - then exactly what you describe was the thing we used all our moneys on.
And we loved it.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Pretty strange that the same thing get two different outcomes in the virtual and real world

Well, I guess I know where the difference is.
When you start with real motorsport at a young age you're 100% dedicated to what you're doing and want to (perhaps) become a professional racing driver, making your hobby a profession.

Now comes the average simracing driver (like me).

I started racing more serious (meaning: with a wheel and using only racing sim titles) in 2008 or so. Racing games have always been my favourite games, dating back to Pole Position on an Atari 2600 or F1 GP on the Amiga 500. Yet, it was and is still just a hobby, not a profession. I don't want to be a professional racing driver as I a) don't have the talent and b) I'm much too old now. Looking at Iracing there's lot of competition, seriousness and not a lot of fun the higher you rank, at least that's my opinion. And after a tough day at work I don't want to have the same level of stress in front of my computer.

So the big difference is the motivation and perspective behind all this. A young BrunoB probably had the dedication to race his FF1600 in real life with all this pressure and stress as it was his "job", so to speak. Nowadays the average sim racing guy like me with not much time (because of a job) on his hands does not want to have a second job in his free time, thus my dedication for that is quite small.