Season 16 Plans and Discussion

[David Turnbull]

Hi guys,

May as well get this on the go so we have a few months to work on it

here's the provisional calendar for s16......

Febuary 10 - Austria
Febuary 24 - Hungary
March 9 - Britain
March 23 - Australia
April 6 - Bahrain
April 20 - China
May 4 - Sochi (if available)
May 18 - Spain
June 1 - Monaco
June 15 - Canada

and here's the settings we might use....

Game settings
Forced Cockpit View: On
Driving aids: All off except Automatic Clutch
Weather: Variable (if possible)
Start mode: Standing
Superpole: Off
Damage Sensitivity: 60%
Parc Ferme: Off
Mechanical Failure: On (Time Scaled)
Flag Rules: None (cutting is still prohibited)
Tyre Wear: Normal (to be discussed, maybe 1x or 2x track dependant)
Fuel Cons: Normal

also we can discuss what mod we use, if we stick with the ASR mod or we move to FISI or something else, when discussing this part we need to take into account will it attract new members, will it enable us to have more realistic races, and obviously is it better than what we use.

there will also be a poll at some point to see if present members would like to change days or times of the league, either to help more of us attend or to attract new members.

anything else you want to bring up then please do, we have plenty of time

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

With a few races left in season perfect time for any new guys to come along on join in the fun or guys to come back and both for preparation for next season.

Maybe also a good time for us to be thinking of if anything we can do to improve for next season if any of us has any thoughts on the subject that could maybe help numbers.

Obviously not much we can look at then say car used and schedule only really.
As for car I quite like it you guys will have more idea than me having raced it more this season, only other possible option would be Fisi now I suppose ? would a isi car be best option as well for anyone just trying to join servers nowadays through steam etc ?

Schedule we can think of our usual tweaks to debate the odd minute here and there to race or q etc.
The race being on Wednesday I think has been since 1st race right ? not sure I joined season 2 lol so pretty much traditionally been Wednesday.
We always viewed this as pretty important that it was at this time and also whole race event always stuck to what we always had.
Obviously this if we considered changing day it would be a massive change and think would be up to the Presto regulars to have a say in, as maybe affect the core that's always been at races and if other days clashed with other leagues and/or real life schedule commitments. If this did affect even 1 of the regulars then wouldn't be worth a change.

Ps. Feels good to have rf2 in steam now I'm liking the steamworkshop etc for collecting mods and cars etc now so much easier hopefully also isi goes a build behind for release or something for steam so the updated builds will be trouble free

 

[David Turnbull]

here's what I'd personally like to see next season.....

Car - Formula ISI
Reason - I feel it would be best to stick to ISI content as much as possible it makes it easier for new people to join us as their more than likely to have ISI content already installed which makes it easier if its only tracks they need, I also feel it offers us the best chance to do wet weather races with its diffrent tyre compounds.

Settings

I'd like to see longer races, around 70 minutes, I'd also like there to be variable weather used, tyre wear I'd like it to be constantly x2 wherever we go and damage a bit higher at 60%, all of this I feel would enable more strategy options as I really dont like 0 stop races, with FISI fuel tank capacity longer races should never be a problem on any track?

Times and days

I'd be happy with what the majority chose, I think Sean is right in saying that if theres even one regular member a new day or time doesnt suit then we can't change, but if its at all possible maybe Sundays 1hr earlier than usual could enable us to get more attendance.

Overall

I'm happy to go with what the majority chooses but I feel we need to make some changes to get numbers up and spice things up a bit for all who do turn up regular, we need'nt worry this time what other leagues use as we are the only active league here at RD in rFactor2 at the moment.

please give your thoughts/suggestions

 

[Dino Paolini]

Wet weather was still not beeing worked on by ISI so far. Should hopefully not be that much in the future now. Not many cars have working rain-tires in the first place. You should look into this:
http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.p...-the-FISI2012-will-have-updated-weather-tyres

Knowing how the FISI races were and regarding the fact that the goal is to have more drivers on the grid and not less, I would never recommend this car in that situation, the situation beeing few regular drivers and more come and go and some novice drivers.

My only idea would be either the IndyCar (still the only up to date open-wheeler by ISI, but a similar situation like with the FISI, as it also requires quite some effort).

F2 is also there, was not updated either. Is only really driveable nicely with heavy setup-changes, but I think the fuel limit is something like 60min.

Or the more accessible stuff from ASR http://www.**************/#download
No idea what exactly from this, they are all single cars. The 91 LE mod that we are driving is not listed anymore.

Summary: No idea
Also I don't know yet if I can do the season

 

[April Dillon]

Car
You can count on me to show up and drive whatever. I didn't like the FR35 '14, but I practiced for every race and drove every single race lap I possibly could. We could drop down to F3 cars, old cars, new cars, whatever, I'll be there. I'm not sure what would be the best option though. I find it hard to believe we really need to change the car though. We saw before the season began that the ASR mod is popular. Though, admittedly, it doesn't look much like that now...

I'd definitely like to stick to non-refueling cars though, if possible. The FISI accommodates this (it's a Formula 1 car, so can be fueled up for full 300km GP distances), the Formula Renault cars accommodate this as we saw during S14, and the current ASR F1 mod does too. I can't recall about the DW12 though.

2x tire wear... We'd need to consider what the car is before we can decide on this. But certainly I agree it'd be good to have more tire management. It's not like it ever holds us back when chasing positions, like it does IRL.

We could adjust the tire wear multiplier on a per-race basis. We should be able to agree what's right for each track before we've finished the previous race, and give people plenty of practice time on what we pick. It'd be like taking an imaginary soft compound to some races.

Race time
This is somewhat bad timing for me... A few weeks ago I was getting frustrated for not racing enough. So I found something to do on both saturday and sunday evenings. I won't lie, if I have to make any choices, I'm sticking with Presto. There's no contest for me. Though I guess weekends give us a bit of flexibility in terms of starting a little earlier/later. That'd help. Who knows, maybe that'd be a good opportunity to help any of our less euro-local drivers?

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

I agree with everyone about it new cars ,variable weather etc..any attractive is welcome but for found something of popular is not possible stick here in front page"RD news" something like a poll for example: what is your favourite day/car for race? we need more advertising think, because here in PrestoGP every season we put more difficulty to make the race more interesting for say: the attractiveness not missing


PS: Summary: No idea Im agree Dino

 

[Nicolas Rouge]

Sounds great! It would be perfect if we have changeable weather, something I really miss from Race07. About the car I really don't know, but ISI cars have the advantage to really use all the tire model features, so it's a good idea I think.

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

I know I always wanted to drive here, but never worked out so far, but I can give me 5 cent as I drove most of the open wheelers in some kind of leauge.

I drove the FISI a while back in a leauge and it was a pain. You have four tire compounds to choose from, pretty heavy tire wear, tons of setup options. The FR35 feels like locked setup compared to it. The FR35 2014 felt never great on my G25, but with my Fanatec CSW V2 it feels great, so I can understand why a lot of people don't like it.
The new Indycar is not my cup of tea. I drove a few leauge races with it and the car is really annoying. You have to drive it very low for good performance, but then every curb and bump is dangerous. The leauge I drove it in was split in three parts Skippy, FR35 and Indycar. In the indycar I crashed out on my own in two out of three or four races. The Indycar is not really newbie friendly.

 

[MOOOOOOOOOSCHT]

Here are my thoughts for next season, with the hidden agenda to bring more people on track and keep more over the hole season

Please don`t kill me for this

Practice Server:

I love to practice online, with the prospect to meet other there and practice together.
What I hate is to generate a long time, every time again, the rubber together with the crazy AI`s,
to practice some minutes with the same conditions as we have on race days
Maybe it would attract more people to the practice servers with more initial rubber, me definitely.

Qualifying/Race:

Maybe it would help to keep the thrill over the hole season, when we would have a penalty/reward system (e.g. a heavy car trailer for Dino)

Race:

In some races I had the situation, that there was no traffic or opponents almost the hole race, then it`s getting boring. The most thrill of the race was then the start.
Maybe it would make the race day more exciting when we split the race into 2 shorter races (so 2 starts), with e.g. reverse start grid.

Martin F.

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Some good points Mooooooooscht I agree practise some times if low numbers especially you end up add ai and then get some good practise towards end only to have to repeat again lol.

Maybe the short race long practise servers should be around 80% of full rubber just to make it more easier and less labour practising.
Also the 2 race say 45min and 25min or something reverse etc would also be a lot of fun and mix it up.

 

[David Turnbull]

in reply to Martin's post

your first point is a good idea, nothing worse than starting with a green track everytime, will see what we can do about this and come up with a rubber percentage that is close to the real race situation

the second point about qualifying is also good but can we make it an arctic lorry her pulls? seriously though I think over the last few race's even this season, although its looked like Dino has run away with everything there are a few who have got close on pace in qualifying and also in the race you can see progress from a number of people who can keep him on his toes, I think to be fair we just all need to practise more and catch up rather than try slow Dino down

last point although 2 races would be alot of fun we would lose out on strategy options, most times it would be 0 stop in both races, also some might try silly moves in the first race knowing they have another chance in race 2, I also think the aspect of looking after your tyres for a full race distance is good fun and sometimes frustrating but thats racing

good post Martin would be good if more let their feelings be known so we could get things sorted as close as possible to what everyone wants also remember the vote in the other thread

 

[Dino Paolini]

your first point is a good idea, nothing worse than starting with a green track everytime, will see what we can do about this and come up with a rubber percentage that is close to the real race situation

The best way could be to use some of the track-bound presets, like the 30% ones from the FSR tracks or a medium-rubber preset from most ISI-tracks.

The presets from the ISI tracks, atleast most of the newer ones, are done with humans testing on the track, so no pure AI lines there. The FSR ones cover the entire track; I woudn't use too high ones to keep the distinctions between online and off-line.

Also what David is already doing sometimes is saving the rubber after 2 or 3 guys did some laps on accelerated rubber and than taking it as the base.
As long as the base is not too much AI generated, this is all fine

btw making your setup on a not optimal-rubbered track is actually not bad, as you are pretty much including decent driveability in not optimal conditions into it (worn tires or wet track).

the second point about qualifying is also good but can we make it an arctic lorry her pulls? seriously though I think over the last few race's even this season, although its looked like Dino has run away with everything there are a few who have got close on pace in qualifying and also in the race you can see progress from a number of people who can keep him on his toes, I think to be fair we just all need to practise more and catch up rather than try slow Dino down

Results look more clear than they actually are. For some reason I have good luck here at the moment, somehow compensating my luck at other places

last point although 2 races would be alot of fun we would lose out on strategy options, most times it would be 0 stop in both races, also some might try silly moves in the first race knowing they have another chance in race 2, I also think the aspect of looking after your tyres for a full race distance is good fun and sometimes frustrating but thats racing

I will never be a fan of short open-wheel races; so many elements missing from proper races.


Maybe it would be an interesting idea to include another night-race into the calendar, if one of the tracks has enough lights to do it without headlights, or atleast an evening race ending in dusk conditions.

 

[Bob Luneski]

....
Times and days

I'd be happy with what the majority chose, I think Sean is right in saying that if theres even one regular member a new day or time doesnt suit then we can't change, but if its at all possible maybe Sundays 1hr earlier than usual could enable us to get more attendance.

please give your thoughts/suggestions

Since no one has chimed in on this, I thought I'd at least toss my 2 cents in.
Wednesday = Working, can't ever race
Sunday = Off and can race

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Ye its probably a good thing to think about, you would think the highest % of choice will always be at weekend for like you say Bob work and weds not great.

I think sometimes when saying don't change something, that's always been like that, but nobody remembers reason why it was like that, then there's no reason not to change it lol

I don't know why we always been Wednesdays ? anyone know ? I know we tried to always keep it around same schedule, time to suit most drivers etc and to be within the 7pm till around 9.30 pm and that's what we started with in the beginning. I know I was in same boat this season Bob for some reason with work, I could guarantee something would crop up race day and would need to work late.

Obviously changing day is big decision but maybe also give us scope to lengthen the entire session/race schedule ie longer q and longer races.

I think my favourite setup would be something like a single session q around 10/15 mins and with a single race around 1hr 10/15 minutes (ideally just longer than a 1 stop can manage), that's just my preference, I think the longer a race the more chance of changes by strategy etc like DIno saying as well.

I also think this may attract people looking for same as we are, the shorter double race weekends may attract people short term but in the end the usually type that don't stick around.

Thanks Bob for giving you 2 cents also

 

[Stenne]

One good reason for sundays is that there's usually no rF2 club races at sundays

 

[Tim McIver]

I'll use David's headings...

Car - ASR 92 (or one of there other F1 mods if suitable)
Reason - I like driving this car! I do see the advantage of driving stock ISI content, I'm just not convinced switching to a car that hasn't been updated for a long long time would serve us well. If one of the ISI open wheelers was updated before the start of the season I would be very happy to switch immediately (the exception being the indycar which I just really don't like).

Settings

I completely agree with David here. I'd like to see longer races, ideally normal F1 length, though I realise that might just be practically a bit much to fit in. I'm always happy to hear everyone's suggestions, but for me, two races would really take away from the point of Presto. Consistency and safety are the qualities which are rewarded with good race results and good championship standings. They also tend to give you the best chance of some good racing. I want few lap 1's as possible!

I think we should use a tire wear setting that makes the vast majority of the races a choice between 1 and 2 stops rather than 0 and 1. I certainly don't ever want us to have a mandatory pitstop to limit options, but our settings should make 0 stopping a very bad idea! I also think we have gone too light on damage. It is very frustrating when a light tap on lap 1 causes damage that lasts for the rest of the race, but it really shouldn't be possible to hit a wall hard in an open wheelers and have no damage, this seems to happen a lot.

Times and days

I like the current time and day. Sundays are my busiest day and I don't I will ever be able to commit to racing on the weekend. That said, if we did Sunday night races, I would actually be racing Monday morning. If we made this change, I'd still try and make all the races but getting up at 4am on Monday morning after a big Sunday would not be ideal.

I do like the simplicity of always running on UK time, but it also has draw backs. during Summer (AU summer) practice commences at 6am, but during winter it commences at 4am (your summer time starts, ours ends). This does mean if we run late and I have 9am meetings it gets tight, and I'm also advocating for longer races.

I suppose in summary, I'd be keen to leave the time and day as is, but if it does change, I'll do everything I can to keep racing. (I presume no one would be crazy enough to suggest Saturday nights, my Sunday morning, in that case I'd be out altogether.)

Overall

I think we need new members but lets make sure Presto retains its unique character and stays true to its original purpose, which was, to mirror F1 where practical whilst remaining friendly and creating good competitive racing. I'm looking forward to next season. I'm also hoping that Oculus and RF2 play nice and Sim racing gets a new lease on life!

 

[April Dillon]

I completely agree with David here. I'd like to see longer races, ideally normal F1 length, though I realise that might just be practically a bit much to fit in...

Definitely not practical, but I'd love to run 300km distance GPs some time. Maybe this is something we can do for fun as one-offs between seasons, like our Nordschleife race back on Race 07?

 

[Stenne]

Hi

I've not yet participated in a Presto GP race and thereby have no experience to refer to. But, given the opportunity on this thread I hope it would be valuable for you with some input to from the perspective of why I, with limited on-line racing experience (RD club races during this autumn), wanted to join Presto GP.

At this moment my main purpose with simracing is to have fun, experience tight and fair racing as well as to constantly improve my racing skills. Sometime in the future it might lead to winning podium places but right now my main concrete goal is to not be lapped by the winner

So with this in mind. Here are my main reasons for wanting to join Presto GP

• The sim - I tried several sims (GSCE, Race07, Asseto Corsa, iRacing) but for me nothing compares to the feeling of driving rF2.
• The cars - Although I fully enjoy racing GT and Touring cars my true passion is formula cars and especially F1. (LMP cars is another favorite)
• The concept
  • Reasonably long races including tyre management and pit stop strategies.
  • Day and time for race events are predictable over time. This makes it possible to plan ahead taking into account other obligations, private and work related.
  • Driving one car for a complete season. This creates a base for really learning the driving properties of the car which in turn I find is a base for improving driving skills. This also gives room for digging in to more serious work with car setups and telemetry analysis.
  • Demands for reasonably high level of commitment. This I believe encourages me to invest the time and effort needed to really take on the hill climb to improve my racing skills on a long term basis.
  • To be part of a community sharing a mutual interest.
• The codex
  • Overall I find the codex demanding but not too demanding. Thus representing a good balance between seriousness and enjoyment.
  • Exciting but fair and enjoyable racing
  • Avoiding incidents, focus on safety and margins
  • Focus on transparency and learning from each other
  • Focus on consistency and taking the car to the finishing line

Finally my thoughts about next years season using David's headings.

Car - I'll go for any good formula mod, preferring F1. ASR or ISI cars are both OK to me. Don't really like the Indycar though.

Settings - I would prefer longer races that includes tyre/brake/engine management and pit stop strategy. Main reason being that these elements takes the racing to a level that one very seldom get to learn/practice in the RD club races. I believe the concept of short 0-stop races is pretty well taken care of by RD club races. For me, one of the main attractions of Presto GP is that it represents something different from the club races. For other settings I'll go with whatever is decided.

Time and days - I'm happy to go with whatever is decided. With the commitment taken on by joining Presto GP, it's races will be of my highest priority. But, it would be fine if Presto GP races would not coincide with the main weekdays for RD rF2 club races.
As a humble wish from a strong rF2 fan, perhaps the schedules of Presto GP and RD rF2 club races to some extent could be coordinated ahead of the 2016 season.

Overall - I'm just happy, excited and a bit nervous to become a part of it.

 

[Mark Breslin]

@Stenne quite eloquently echoed my thoughts exactly.!!
Cars: While I haven't had any practice/time with other cars to chose a favourite, I'll still race with Presto regardless.
Settings: Pit stops are a must!
Rain is good and bad! Good that it adds another dimension to the race, and a possible chance for different 'winners' as mistakes can happen to anyone! Bad that it usually means more practice time required to handle the the car for each weather condition. (I for one would welcome it)
Time: Happy as is, but Sunday's could work.

 

[David Turnbull]

Thanks for your input guys its really appreciated, some good posts in here and lots to think about.

What really shines through is peoples commitment to Presto and for that we are all really gratefull