A Proposal to Level Out the Performance

[blackcat77]

Back in the good ol' days of GPL, the faster drivers always drove the Hondas and BRMs to make for better races because those cars were much heavier than the others. I would like to suggest that we do something similar by making some changes to the cars.

Right now, they all have the same horsepower, torque and weight. That isn't realistic. But for the sake of keeping things simple -- and keeping testing to a minimum -- I think what we should do is change the weight of the cars to more accurately reflect real life.

Right now, everyone is 1544 lbs. I'd like to change things as follows:

Brabham - 1394
Lotus - 1444
Ferrari - 1494
Eagle and McLaren - 1544
Cooper - 1594
Honda - 1644
BRM - 1694

I think everyone in the league knows their skill level relative to other drivers and I also know that, especially in a summer league like this, the idea is to have fun, and the best way to do that is close racing.

Everyone could choose their own car, and you could change every race if you were too quick or too slow for the others.

Let me know if you guys are interested in this and if so, I'll modify the appropriate files and submit them to Ced.

[BCurtis]

seems a good way to do it. Also, RFactor has the ability to add weight penalties.
You just type in the command in the chat box at the beginning of the session, I cant remember the command right now but I have it at home -u can add up to 200 kg (450 lbs). This gives you the ability to change weight penalties at each track and keep the same car.
So a few options really...
1) keep the cars as is and add weight pens
2) use the altered car weights only
3) use the altered cars plus use weight pens.

[Bob"oldnslo"Roberson]

I go for option 2

[blackcat77]

Either way is fine with me. The Pro tires were just too much to serve as an effective balance and so I think weight -- by whatever means -- is the best way to balance the field.

Brent -- when you get home post that method. Thanks.

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Edit: I think it would be better to keep people in the cars they like. I tested the Cooper with 625 and 775 kg and the difference was about 1.7 seconds a lap at Rouen. We might want to extend the weight range from -100 to +100 and that should be about 2 seconds a lap at a normal track.

[Sandy Robinson]

Did a google search and found this:

www.nrtservers.com/site/index.php?option=com_quickfaq&view=items&cid=4:rfactor&id=14:rfactor-commands--in-game-&Itemid=102

Look for the /setmass command on the page.

Not sure if an admin has to do this or not. I'll give it a try tonight though.

SandyR

[BCurtis]

yes i think the admin has to do it and you can't do it offline (from my experience) to test what the added weight will do to your setup.
Here's the command:

/setmass 50 playername

where 50 is the amount of weight to be added in kg
and this would have to be done for each player that has incurred a weight penalty

[blackcat77]

You can just add the weight manually to the mass setting in the HDV file when you're practicing offline. Be sure you put it back to 700 before going online, though, or you'll get a mismatch...

And it's only a positive number? You can't have a negative setmass?

[BCurtis]

re: negative setmass.....I read where the value is 0-255 kg so negative looks like no.

[Bob"oldnslo"Roberson]

After some thought I think that Paul's original idea was best. Then the cars themselves would be more realistic. Even if I had to drive a car other than my beloved Ferrari I would like to see his idea used.
Like real life, drivers didn't always get to choose their ride. Of course this would work in reverse because I'm sure Ferrari and Lotus would be recruiting our "Top 3 " to drive their cars and I would have to settle for the Cooper.
And adding or subtracting weight ala TPTCC isn't enforcable. I discovered this quite by accident. I was supposed to have a weight reduction but was unaware of it. So nobody told me at race time that I was overweight.
Like I said I'd prefer Paul's original idea.

[JABowders]

My 2 cents worth...

First, I have no problem driving any of the cars, and the custom paints really don't matter.

That said, we could run each race with a single car, that way our season would not only span a group of tracks but we would drive all the cars.

Or, we simply just drive whatever at where ever and let the chips fall where they may.

James

[blackcat77]

We could go either way. Only an admin could use the SETMASS command, so everybody should be correct and drive the car of their choice as well. Additionally, the reward weight for each driver could be adjusted based on the results for each race. But adjusting the mass of the cars to more historical settings has merit as well.

Let's just choose something pretty soon so if I have to change cars, I can start practicing.

[seboyle]

I second Head Weasel's idea of running a race with a single car type. A bunch of Lotus' duking it out for a win........sounds like fun to me.

Susan.....Weasel Wench

[Bob"oldnslo"Roberson]

Nay Nay ye brazen wench.............gotta have all the cars. That's the beauty of this mod. All those memory invoking great cars. Cars that you never saw competing in anger. You were probably still just a happy thought in your daddy's head when these cars were racing :-)
It doesn't bother me if you leave everything like it is. I'm used to being blown off the track by our other competitors but please............lets have all of them .

[seboyle]

Bob.....the Lotus' were just an example for one race. I think one car type per race would be fun and we would all get a chance then to drive each.

BTW in '67 Let's say for now that I do remember these cars racing........

Susan.....The Weasel Wench

[JABowders]

Remember them? Of course she remembers them, she was on a pit crew...she was the pit crew...she knew a pit crew...she dated a pit crew...something like that...

What did I come into this room for?

Bobs said it best, the hell with making it fair, lets just race 'em all.

James
Head Weasel