Disqualified again and again!

[Cattant]

Hi everybody!

I'm totally new about Assetto Corsa Competizione, and I'm struggling to use it and achieving a race without being disqualified. I read the various threads about disqualification, however none applies 100% to my situation, likely because I'm so ignorant about video games.
Please find hereafter the decription of my issue.
I want to race at Monza, with the Porsche GT3, race downsized to 30 minutes, there is no incentive to race 3h when you know you will eventually be disqualified at the end, it's better to save time.

My fuel/pit stop strategy is the following:

Fuel: 62L
Tyres: dry
Tyres sets: 2

Pits stops: 2 (I tried one pit stop only but when I start the race, the game tells me I have 3 pilots and it's mandatory having the 3 of them driving during the race, thus I'm back to 2 pits stops).
Fuel: 0L
Tyres sets: 2
Fuel (white font)

Then, I launch the game.
The driver clock top left, allows 15 minutes driving for the first pilot.
After 10 minutes, my engineer tells me I have to pit, which I do after 11 minutes of driving.
Entering the pits lane, the pits stop windows opens bottom left, and that's where it goes wrong.
In the right rectangle, I can read from the top to the bottom:

Mandatory 0/2
INVALID (in a red box)
Requirements (in white font)
Driver swap (green font)
Tyres change (green font)
.....

During the stop, the game selects the second driver in the list of 3, sets the driver clock driving to 15 minutes, changes the tyres and gives me the go-ahead after the mandatory 30 seconds. However, the pits stop counter stays at 0/2 instead of switching to 1/2, in other words, the game is not taking into account my pits stop. Same story with the second pits stop (driver, clock, tyres), with the pits stop counter locked on 0/2, the INVALID message in the red box being still activated. Thus, no surprise I'm disqualified in the end, not having registered any pits stop for the game.

Note that I'm playing on a PC and that the keyboard is iddle, I cannot interact with the game whatever the key I touch, except the "exit" key allowing to exit the game, I have no means to change anything into the game, that is perhaps where things go wrong.

Last thing, English is not my mother tongue, thus, please excuse me for my sometimes poor English (I'm French).

Regards

 

[Jempy]

I think the problem is .... that you didn't change the driver name for the new stint before stopping the car at your pit place.

INVALID (in a red box) means that the driver is surely not different from the one for the 1st stint.
If the good driver is selected this red invalid should become valid.

But this needs absolutely to be done before stopping at your pit place.

All necessary keys or buttons assignments need to be done for that .... I'm also of course on PC with a wheel and a keyboard etc ... all controllers are working... if they are perfectly assigned in the options.
Even with a driving wheel ... you can assign keys of the keyboard ( there are different columns in those options ) ... you may use any of them .. wheel button or keyboard )

For making changes in the pits preset you need:
- MFD toggle... to make the pitstop menu appear any time on track or pitlane
- keys for up-down-left-right and confirm are also necessary to select lines, etc ... in the pitstop menu.
As you need to do this at the latest in the pitlane before your stop ... wheel buttons are the best choice but keys are also possible.

 

[JoelGL]

I think the problem is .... that you didn't change the driver name for the new stint before stopping the car at your pit place.

INVALID (in a red box) means that the driver is surely not different from the one for the 1st stint.
If the good driver is selected this red invalid should become valid.

But this needs absolutely to be done before stopping at your pit place.

All necessary keys or buttons assignments need to be done for that .... I'm also of course on PC with a wheel and a keyboard etc ... all controllers are working... if they are perfectly assigned in the options.
Even with a driving wheel ... you can assign keys of the keyboard ( there are different columns in those options ) ... you may use any of them .. wheel button or keyboard )

For making changes in the pits preset you need:
- MFD toggle... to make the pitstop menu appear any time on track or pitlane
- keys for up-down-left-right and confirm are also necessary to select lines, etc ... in the pitstop menu.
As you need to do this at the latest in the pitlane before your stop ... wheel buttons are the best choice but keys are also possible.

While at it, how do I compute the 'actual' race time, for ex. How long would the Endurance Race '8 hours' actually last?
Also, I noticed when I did Career, pit stops are required every 20 minutes or so. Is this amount definable in quick race? TIA.

 

[Jempy]

I must admit that the Stint system can be well done for Driver Swap Online as the drivers' order can be changed for one or other reason... but should be different if possible for Offline.

In fact, that's just an AI driver's name that's modified .... so why not do it automatically for Offline ? worse when stints are necessary even for a 30 minutes race !??? ... or even make possible in a setup preset to already define the AI Driver for the stint.
In quick race ...only choose "No Stint" might be the right option to choose for shorter races.

For the 1st question ... that's just the right time acceleration to define in the race options according to the time you wish to drive those 8 hours.

For example:
- for a 8 hour race that you wish to do in 2 hours: time acceleration x4 .....
- for this same 8 hours race, you wish to do it in 80 minutes: time acceleration = x6
( 8 hours*60 minutes)/80 minutes = 6 ( 480/80=6)

 

[Cattant]

Thank you very much Jempy. This is a big step forward. However, I'm not done yet.

I understand that I have to open the pits stop window before stopping the car at its pit for selecting the next driver and switching the INVALID message in VALID message.

Now, my issue is that my keyboard and my wheel buttons are idle, I cannot open this pits window. Actually, the only active keys of my keyboard are exit, F1 & F3 & F6 (camera switch), F2 (all bunch of controls) and F11 (full screen/down sized screen).

Thus I understand that I missed something in the options menu.

When I opened the option menu for the first time, I noticed that all wheel controls (direction, shifts, accelerator, brakes) were OK, thus I did not touch anything. Now I understand that I should have tuned some options. First, I don't know which ones and second I don't know how (I feel a little bit like an idiot here !).

Regarding the driving control, given I'm using a wheel, I don't think I have to worry about the two other control means (joystick and keyboard).

Regarding the control binding, I don't see anything preventing using the game as it is, and most of all, I don't see any command for opening the pit window. Just by curiosity, I clicked on one box and noticed that the open circle was replaced by three full circles and then???

To make it short, I need advice to open the pits stop window on my screen when, racing.

I'm embarrassed because I imagine helping solving such basic issues may be a big burden for very knowledgeable people as you, so I would understand you drop the case.

Regards

 

[JoelGL]

Thank you very much Jempy. This is a big step forward. However, I'm not done yet.

I understand that I have to open the pits stop window before stopping the car at its pit for selecting the next driver and switching the INVALID message in VALID message.

Now, my issue is that my keyboard and my wheel buttons are idle, I cannot open this pits window. Actually, the only active keys of my keyboard are exit, F1 & F3 & F6 (camera switch), F2 (all bunch of controls) and F11 (full screen/down sized screen).

Thus I understand that I missed something in the options menu.

When I opened the option menu for the first time, I noticed that all wheel controls (direction, shifts, accelerator, brakes) were OK, thus I did not touch anything. Now I understand that I should have tuned some options. First, I don't know which ones and second I don't know how (I feel a little bit like an idiot here !).

Regarding the driving control, given I'm using a wheel, I don't think I have to worry about the two other control means (joystick and keyboard).

Regarding the control binding, I don't see anything preventing using the game as it is, and most of all, I don't see any command for opening the pit window. Just by curiosity, I clicked on one box and noticed that the open circle was replaced by three full circles and then???

To make it short, I need advice to open the pits stop window on my screen when, racing.

I'm embarrassed because I imagine helping solving such basic issues may be a big burden for very knowledgeable people as you, so I would understand you drop the case.

Regards

First off, what wheel do you use? Trying to determine if there are buttons on it (or better yet, maybe you have a button box?). Hoping that your wheel has buttons, you assign a button to access the MFD, and also directional buttons/keys to go up, down, left, right. Then on track you press this to cycle through 4 or 5 options (I believe the 3rd is the Pit options). When you see the Pit options, you then use the directional keys you assigned to edit the various pit options (ie. Driver, fuel, etc). Start with these first, advise what wheel you have.

 

[eracerhead]

As Jempy said, you need to bind a key to the "Cycle MFD" option; this changes the relative timing box in the lower-left corner of the HUD to the pit strategy screen (among others). It'll stay open so that you can make changes during your lap, using the directional controls you've also set.

edit: ninja'd by JoelGL

 

[Cattant]

Thank you, another step forward.
First of all, my wheel is a Thrustmaster TX Leather Edition bought in 2018. From your comments, I understand I have to assign a function to each/some of my wheel buttons which are currently idle.
Now, would you be kind enough to tell me how I can do that? I went in the option menu and didn't find my way to do that.

Thank you again for helping.

Regards

 

[Jempy]

In ACC options for controllers ...simply click the one you wish to assign to a button ( the three points ... means it's waiting for your new choice )..... click on the wished wheel button or keyboard key and .... that's done.

Don't search for a "Pitstop Menu" in the controls ... you won't find it. As @eracerhead repeated, you have to assign the "Cycle MFD" one ... one of the page choice ( by cycling ) of this "hud" is the one for Pitstop, among other possibilities as ranking in race and other options menu.

Save your preset when done for everything ....under a personal name.... so it can be retrieved and chosen in case of a random problem.

NB: same principe for assigning buttons or keystroke in most Sim games.

NB2: look at the right of the screen in the options: It's perfectly clear when reading the title: " Control Bindings"

 

[Cattant]

I try to understand. My game being in French I struggle to find out what is "Cycle MFD" in my French "control bindings" list, and what "hud" means. I may assign many keyboard keys and in the list I should, by chance, finding the good one! Cycle being both an English and French word, I should find "cycle xxx" in my control bindings list but I don't see any.

However, I think you paved the way for solving my issue; I'll work on it two morrow (it's 10 pm now!) and let you know my progress.

Thank's a lot

 

[Jempy]

I'm belgian and french speaking.
If you need more help in our own languages contact me in private conversation and we might speak in Discord.
But 1st in private written message so we might find the right day and time

 

[Cattant]

Great, that's fantastic!
Let me try to solve my problem based on the crystal clear indications you gave me on my other thread and if I still cannot go through, I'll contact you in private conversation. You already did so much for helping me that I don't want pushing the burden too far.
Stay tuned!

 

[Cattant]

I'm almost done (see my other thread), I'm going to contact you by private message to finalise it.

 

[Cattant]

Thank's to Jempy, problem solved.

I started my race with 62L of fuel. Given my race was requesting less than that, I didn't plan any refuelling along the way and that was the issue. The refuel box staying red, as planned in the strategy, the pits box was locked to red INVALID. By adding 1 l of fuel (+ driver swap + tires), everything turned to green and by-by the disqualification. The drawback of adding fuel, even as few as 1 L, is that the controls, during the pits stop, are locked during 1 minute instead of 30 s.

Conclusion, don't try to think, just follow the rules, providing you can find them somewhere...

Thank you everybody for the help for my both threads.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

#01: this thread shows how much an instruction on how to play the game is needed. In former times one used to buy a box with a CD / DVD and there was a nice little booklet in it, then there were DVDs with a .pdf file on them, now people are left to their own devices, I find this inacceptable and I thank the users here on RD who helped the poor chap out.
#02: I always play the race weekend where you can set everything from the ground up, I think the option is called "individual weekend" or sth. Then, you do not have to scale down an 8h race but just set the parameters to your liking. I found that this solves a lot of issues. Just an idea.

 

[Jempy]

Same for me, @Eckhart von Glan ...When I'm not driving in events on our league servers, ... that's the race format I mostly use: "Custom Race Weekend"

This said, even though we need to know the other rules in the purpose not to be in big problems when we are forced to use them.

For the instructions nowadays .... that's really rare you can find them even in a simple pdf file in the game folder itself.
The only one I'm aware of was AMS 1.
I'm sometimes wondering if that's .... really legal !... not to have a minimum "How to" or at least a link to a perfectly explained one ( not mixed in a lot of other blah blah blah and loosing sometimes 1/2 hour to find or not find what you are looking for ).

 

[Lucky John]

I don't think any of this answers why I am DSQ race after race! This is against AI in career mode. I get all green/valid in the MFD and still disqualified!!!! Why??? I can see NOTHING on screen that isn't green!