That's what I do as well but still it goes to sleep if not used for a certain period of time.
Peter:
First of all, my regrets for another disaster of a race for you it sounds like. Is there no end to what the game will dish out? I think not...at least for the near future. Just know you are not alone and the thread I created (I see your post! Thanks. And the thread seems to have struck a nerve, which is good) was done after some digging on the multiplayer side in the pCARS forums. More on that later. But also thanks for your staying positive and sharing your experience in detail. I hate it when anyone runs into a bug or has a race ruined through no fault of their own, since I myself have been on the receiving end of many a disconnect or bug. You have always put it into perspective and stay positive while with sticking with your racing mates when things don't go your way, in the end, balancing the negatives and the positives and trying to find an answer to the negatives. Some of that good spirit has rubbed off on me (finally) and I'm simply willing to put up with pCARS' flaws because the diving experience is simply miles above anything else out there (unless F1 really blows my socks off...we will know this week, but that still will not have the diversity of pCARS). You know how I feel...I love a full field, but I've been at this long enough to realize you can't please everyone and most frustrations are genuinely valid, whether they be self-induced or game-induced. There have been a few guys who have stuck with games in spite of not winning or even being hosed over and over. Maybe the key is to take a break every so often (kind of like what you are doing with F1 and I did with F1 2014) and focus in on what really makes you happy. For me, like you, that's pCARS, warts and all. From my end (and yours too obviously) many pieces of the game are broken, but the driving experience makes those pieces tolerable to be without. Remember all the games we have played over the years what didn't have the deep tuning options, pit stops, long races, weather, or other add-ons? We made do. Heck, one year I even ran a pretty well attended Race Pro league, which was about 7 years old at the time. And it's not like they have stopped working on this issue, but not being in the next patch is sort of discouraging. I wish we could get everyone together for a big testing session, pit about a million times, with ever variable known to man, record it, and then slam the videos in to the pCARS forums, but it's hard to organize that w/o eager participants and lots of patience. I understand also that it's not our job to do it, even though I think it would make SMS stand up and take notice a little better.
Re: Comms
Peter, you experience of being cut off after so many minutes of being either on batteries or on USB exactly mirrors mine when I was using the chat headset. As far as I know, there is nothing you can do about this besides moving the left joystick (not assigned in game as far as I know) to keep the controller "active" so to speak, but this is still a pain in the arse. I indeed did wear my chat set under my old 360 TB headset despite the discomfort, and I could tolerate it. The only thing that that will permanently fix this problem is the TB Ear Force One, as I have mentioned before. I hope you are able to get this soon, since it's virtually impossible to chat (unless you want to wear two and fiddle all race) without it, in any game.
re: loss of buttons
I cannot say I can link my controller with the loss of buttons in a race. Not after the TB EF1. Yes I can still occasionally turn on the game and have neither the wheel or the controller work at all and yes the ffb still craps out on occasion, but these have been greatly reduced and I can usually get the ffb back if I hit the "X" button (the big one) on the wheel and then "A" to go back to the game, or unplug both controllers and re-plug upon start up. Races still sometimes see a loss of ffb (and I'm wondering whether the ffb settings and other setting not applicable to the Spider still don't matter in your case), but I have not had this happen mid-race since the last patch. Then again, I had not been stuck in the pits either. So who knows.
re: Replays
I tend to use Twitch now since that is a better representation of my race (although no chat) and can be used to submit evidence to SMS as a real time problem.
re: track view
I have had this happen too, but not in a real race. It seems to be a known issue (lottery as to whether it will be fixed, of course) as I look over the SMS forums, but it does not appear in the 2.5 PC patch notes. :-/ It seems to just go away (for me and many others) when you go to another session. But I think you said it did not from practice to qualy. We do force cockpit, so hopefully that's what helped in the race.
re: bad handling
I know for a fact that your car can very easily be affected by a hit without showing a mech fault. I have had engine performance issues, handling issues (float) and a cocked wheel because of a hit, all with no mech fault indicated. I think this adds to the realism, although I wish there were a Forza style indicator to show you just what percentage of your car was damaged. Funny how the game SMS calls a "funeral procession" works flawlessly 100% of the time by keeping the pits simple (fix and change everything) and giving you a detailed damage page.
re: Cycling through pit strategy
Although that was needed by me because the game defaulted to GP3 despite me having selected GT3 and saving it in practice and qualy, I didn't change anything about the pit strategy itself. Everyone on the forums (and here as far as I know) said "do not change strategy" after entering the pits, but simply choose the right option and close. That's what I did. I think we can safely say that even doing that can now be linked to a faulty hold. Whether just closing the box (and thus having only one strategy) is a workaround...who knows...but I can't risk it at this point.
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