From the end of year blog, we learned the following is in the works:
This really caught my attention because if/when this is implemented, R3E will emerge as a true alternative / competitor to iRacing.
That said, I'd love to hear more about what S3 has in mind with regard to player rankings in particular, and to a lesser degree, the type of licensing system that they have in mind.
Player rankings is something neat that iRacing does fairly well . . . up to a point. If you're not familiar with how things work in iRacing, when you participate in official races, you earn iRating (iR), which is determined by your finishing position in the field, with the amount earned being based on the aggregate iRatings of all other drivers participating in that specific event. Essentially, if you finish in the top-5, you're probably going to gain iRating, and if you finish out of the top-5 or in the bottom half of the field, you will lose iRating. Everyone starts off with a given iRating when they join (all new members start off with an iRating of 1350, I believe).
There are two "flavors" of iRating (iR): Road, and oval. Participation in road events affect your road iR, and participation in oval events affects your oval iR.
Beyond that, iRacing also has a safety ranking system -- when participating in official events (which includes qualifying for official races, the races themselves, and official solo time trials), you also earn or gain Safety Rating (SR) based on things like car contact, object contact, and off-track "events." Your Safety Rating is a reflection of your accumulated on-track events over time, based on the number of corners completed (number of corners are measured, not number of laps, so a lap at a track like Nordschleife is more "valuable" SR-wise than a lap at Lime Rock Park, for example).
Drive sloppy with a fair number of off-track excursions and contact with walls, barriers, and other cars, and your Safety Rating will drop, with the idea being that people with lower Safety Ratings will be less "safe" to be around, while those with higher Safety Ratings will be those drivers who have fewer off-tracks and who experience less car and object contact -- fairly straightforward.
iRacing then uses this Safety Rating (SR) as the basis for license levels -- you have to complete a minimum number of official events (qualifying sessions, races, or time trials -- typically 4 races or 4 time trials, for example) at a level HIGHER than your current license level, AND you have to have a high enough Safety Rating to earn a license level promotion (e.g., your license level must be above a 3.0 to qualify for promotion once you have completed the minimum requirements). This also works to a degree, but it also makes license levels and promotions a bit less meaningful, with the sole focus being on how relatively "safe" you are, and not necessarily being a direct reflection of how proficient you are at any given car/track, for example.
I have frequently been very critical (and vocal) regarding iRacing's rating system (iRating) because I feel that it's not granular enough, given all the different type of cars available -- I feel like how well you perform in one car should not affect your rating in another car, and therefore I feel that there should be individual vehicle ratings. If an overall rating would be desirable, then that should be an aggregate number that is based on the combination of all your individual vehicle ratings, for example.
So, from my perspective, if S3 is just planning on implementing a single driver rating based on your aggregate performance across all vehicles, that will be a bit disappointing to me.
Similarly, from a licensing perspective, I would love to see S3 be innovative and find some way to require users to complete certain specified "challenges," for example, in order to become eligible for license promotions. An example of what could be done would be to complete "x" number of practice laps at a given track with a specific car before you would be eligible ("licensed") to join official races at that venue with that specific car. This would ensure that everyone present on official servers would at least have SOME level of experience in that car/track combo before they would be allowed to turn a wheel in official competition in that car at that track.
This might seem harsh, but in an organized online "pay-to-play" environment, it would be nice to know that your fellow racers have at least SOME familiarity with the car and track they will be using alongside you -- and that's the kind of thing that makes licensing meaningful in this kind of environment, IMO.
So, in a nutshell, that's my initial thoughts -- anybody else given this much thought yet?
This really caught my attention because if/when this is implemented, R3E will emerge as a true alternative / competitor to iRacing.
That said, I'd love to hear more about what S3 has in mind with regard to player rankings in particular, and to a lesser degree, the type of licensing system that they have in mind.
Player rankings is something neat that iRacing does fairly well . . . up to a point. If you're not familiar with how things work in iRacing, when you participate in official races, you earn iRating (iR), which is determined by your finishing position in the field, with the amount earned being based on the aggregate iRatings of all other drivers participating in that specific event. Essentially, if you finish in the top-5, you're probably going to gain iRating, and if you finish out of the top-5 or in the bottom half of the field, you will lose iRating. Everyone starts off with a given iRating when they join (all new members start off with an iRating of 1350, I believe).
There are two "flavors" of iRating (iR): Road, and oval. Participation in road events affect your road iR, and participation in oval events affects your oval iR.
Beyond that, iRacing also has a safety ranking system -- when participating in official events (which includes qualifying for official races, the races themselves, and official solo time trials), you also earn or gain Safety Rating (SR) based on things like car contact, object contact, and off-track "events." Your Safety Rating is a reflection of your accumulated on-track events over time, based on the number of corners completed (number of corners are measured, not number of laps, so a lap at a track like Nordschleife is more "valuable" SR-wise than a lap at Lime Rock Park, for example).
Drive sloppy with a fair number of off-track excursions and contact with walls, barriers, and other cars, and your Safety Rating will drop, with the idea being that people with lower Safety Ratings will be less "safe" to be around, while those with higher Safety Ratings will be those drivers who have fewer off-tracks and who experience less car and object contact -- fairly straightforward.
iRacing then uses this Safety Rating (SR) as the basis for license levels -- you have to complete a minimum number of official events (qualifying sessions, races, or time trials -- typically 4 races or 4 time trials, for example) at a level HIGHER than your current license level, AND you have to have a high enough Safety Rating to earn a license level promotion (e.g., your license level must be above a 3.0 to qualify for promotion once you have completed the minimum requirements). This also works to a degree, but it also makes license levels and promotions a bit less meaningful, with the sole focus being on how relatively "safe" you are, and not necessarily being a direct reflection of how proficient you are at any given car/track, for example.
I have frequently been very critical (and vocal) regarding iRacing's rating system (iRating) because I feel that it's not granular enough, given all the different type of cars available -- I feel like how well you perform in one car should not affect your rating in another car, and therefore I feel that there should be individual vehicle ratings. If an overall rating would be desirable, then that should be an aggregate number that is based on the combination of all your individual vehicle ratings, for example.
So, from my perspective, if S3 is just planning on implementing a single driver rating based on your aggregate performance across all vehicles, that will be a bit disappointing to me.
Similarly, from a licensing perspective, I would love to see S3 be innovative and find some way to require users to complete certain specified "challenges," for example, in order to become eligible for license promotions. An example of what could be done would be to complete "x" number of practice laps at a given track with a specific car before you would be eligible ("licensed") to join official races at that venue with that specific car. This would ensure that everyone present on official servers would at least have SOME level of experience in that car/track combo before they would be allowed to turn a wheel in official competition in that car at that track.
This might seem harsh, but in an organized online "pay-to-play" environment, it would be nice to know that your fellow racers have at least SOME familiarity with the car and track they will be using alongside you -- and that's the kind of thing that makes licensing meaningful in this kind of environment, IMO.
So, in a nutshell, that's my initial thoughts -- anybody else given this much thought yet?
