BATracer general discussion (also if you're looking for a teammate)

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by kurtism

Firing up a public ChampCar team, password protected for 30 minutes under "Dola"

I joined up with you as spot #2.

[kurtism]

Welcome aboard, Alan!

[Emiliano]

Just registered, gotta try this one out.

[Emiliano]

Joined a new F1 2007 league, I'm in the Honda. Still looking for teammate, password is fofc, good for 30 minutes.

And BTW, wow, a lot of setup to do!

[Emiliano]

9th in my first practice with the Honda, not bad.

[FrogMan]

welcome aboard Emiliano

You'll see that the setting up of the car will become a bit mechanical after a while, the whole race strategy thing is a lot of fun too.

Oh, and practice times don't always transfer directly to qualifying and/or race times. I usually do all of my practice/warmup runs on the same set of worn out tires in order to save all my other tires for the race/qualifying laps, so I sometimes appear slower in practice...

FM

[Scoobz0202]

First race was tonight. FI2007. My honda drove out of Melbourne with 5th place. Pretty pleased with that for my first race ever.


edit: also notice I had the second best setup. Sweet.

[Emiliano]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

welcome aboard Emiliano

Thanks!

Originally Posted by FrogMan

You'll see that the setting up of the car will become a bit mechanical after a while, the whole race strategy thing is a lot of fun too.

Oh, and practice times don't always transfer directly to qualifying and/or race times. I usually do all of my practice/warmup runs on the same set of worn out tires in order to save all my other tires for the race/qualifying laps, so I sometimes appear slower in practice...

FM

Yeah, that's what I realized after having "heat cycled" all my 3 slick sets... What a n00b!!!

Anyway, this should be fun. Why don't we start a private fofc league??? Whatever series you guys want is ok for me, although I'd prefer F1...

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Emiliano

Thanks!



Yeah, that's what I realized after having "heat cycled" all my 3 slick sets... What a n00b!!!

Anyway, this should be fun. Why don't we start a private fofc league??? Whatever series you guys want is ok for me, although I'd prefer F1...

We currently have a private league running right now in champ car (we did F1 previously). Since the majority of players can only be in one private game at a time, we'll likely start a new one when that one wraps up. Would love to have you join in it too (whatever series we play)

[Emiliano]

Originally Posted by Alan T

We currently have a private league running right now in champ car (we did F1 previously). Since the majority of players can only be in one private game at a time, we'll likely start a new one when that one wraps up. Would love to have you join in it too (whatever series we play)

Nice! BTW, I'm only in a public game right now, so if there's a spot open...

[Breeze]

I got a private league I'm in (2006 F1), if you are interested:

ID = 15979
PWD = forza

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

First race was tonight. FI2007. My honda drove out of Melbourne with 5th place. Pretty pleased with that for my first race ever.


edit: also notice I had the second best setup. Sweet.

Watching races lap by lap is great, I love the suspense.

One of the things I really like about this game overall is that unless you are really stupid and push all the sliders all the way up, the learning curve isn't too steep that you have to go through a few seasons of complete suckage before you achieve something nice.

FM

[Scoobz0202]

That was definitely the best part. I was 2nd going into the last ten or so laps I believe. I was about .3 seconds behind the leader. I was definitely a little antsy. Of course, my little honda could only hold off the other Ferrari (The other one won the race, after leading 53 of the 58 laps), a McLaren, and a Toyota ( ) for so long.

[kingfc22]

I just created a team in the public V8 supercars series. Need a teammate

ID: 16074
PW: fofc

[Emiliano]

Originally Posted by Breeze

I got a private league I'm in (2006 F1), if you are interested:

ID = 15979
PWD = forza

Hey thanks Breeze! I see you haven't filled all the spots yet. I'm tempted to join (it's also a 2006 league, so slightly different rules from 2007 right???), although maybe I should wait and save my private spot for the fofc league, if we actually start one. Don't know.

My only concern with the game is: 2 days=1 race? That's about a month for a season. Wouldn't be better to make things a little quicker? I mean, you qualify, you obviously did your setup, you're good to go. Anyway, good time-waster.

[Mr. Wednesday]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

also, to get some talking going, what is your favorite series you've run in.

I like V8s a lot -- relatively similar cars means that there's no issues of cherry-picking, reverse grid races give everyone a shot at a result. The point structure makes the strategy there different than in some other carsets.

LMES is an interesting change from the other series, but my experience in LMP1 and LMP2 is that there doesn't tend to be a lot of action in the races.

7s are fun for the live qualifying.

[Mr. Wednesday]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

one thing I learned yesterday. When you have the thinker characteristic for your driver, you can run all of your practice/warmup laps with 100 experimentation and you will never have either of the overenthusiasm message nor a crash. That's one big advantage to know about...

It's great to have a thinker for a teammate.

When you're the one with it, you have the opportunity cost of foregoing a speed- or reliability-related characteristic. I'd still consider taking it in F1 (particularly if I don't know about trusting my teammate), and strongly consider it in LMES (where I think you can get away with only using two drivers in every race).

[Mr. Wednesday]

Originally Posted by Brillig

So, anyone have any tips on driver settings?

I think you'll find that you need to run at least in the 70-80 range on the pace slider to be competitive in most public series. I move this around depending on how I feel about my pace relative to the pack, as well as my position in the field -- starting from the back in an A1 feature race, say, where only the top 10 places pay and there's no additional consequences for crashing out, I'm going to go at a high pace to try to sneak back into the points.

I typically run with medium-high aggression, say around 65 or so. I've never really figured what the trade-off on that setting is... at higher aggression, do I get more passes and blocks but with greater risk of collision?

Tyres depends on how much I expect them to wear. Hards in F1, I run at 100. Many V8 races, I'll run 80 to 90. Softs in champ car, I run around 65. Only time I've run below 50 is one or two of the LMES races, where on certain tyre manufacturers you won't make it through the race at 50 (you'll know by the engineer saying 20% of the race when you only have three stops).

Mechanical sympathy I usually run quite low, say 15 to 20.

Pit settings, I vary a bit depending on the circumstances, and I always run with a higher driver setting than pit crew because a driver error costs a LOT less than a crew error.

Start slider, I swing depending on where I qualified. As with pace, if you start at the back of the field, there's not much to lose trying for a hole shot.

[Mr. Wednesday]

Originally Posted by Emiliano

My only concern with the game is: 2 days=1 race? That's about a month for a season.

It's the standard. Means everyone only has to have time once a day in order to keep up minimally, although it's better when you can get on a couple of times so that you can also apply whatever your teammate found.

V8s are usually four days for three races, but with the long calendar, it still takes 45 days to get through them.

[Mr. Wednesday]

Multi-dola, a couple more general things:
* Per Jules, control freak means that you can run at 100 start slider and have no incidents IIRC, per Jules, committed is a plus-speed characteristic that is worth a couple tenths per lap.

* For most of the settings on the car, the engineer's advice tells you where the average will lie (or the setting itself if there's not front and rear). Low, soft, and short are 0 to 33, medium is 33 to 67, high, hard, and stiff is 66 to 100. You can use this knowledge to your advantage when testing, it can help you reduce the possible range of values for a setting. e.g. if something is medium, one is spot on at 38, the other won't be below 30.

* For the special settings, the full wet adjustment is typically -10. That includes wheel stagger in CART, rollcenter in V8s, and splitter in LMES.

[Brillig]

Anyone know whether the driver settings are relative or absolute?

I.e., do I need to crank the settings down for a tough venue such as Monaco?

[Mr. Wednesday]

I don't know if you're more likely to make an error at a "difficult" venue. I don't think, offhand, I've been struck by abnormally high retirement rates at Monaco, though... take that for what it's worth.

I usually do dial my settings back a bit at Michigan in the Champcar series, as that really does tend to have high retirement rates -- possibly due to the length of the race (25% longer than the other ovals) rather than the venue.

[Emiliano]

Damn! In my first race (F1 2007) I made a driver error on lap 33 that forced me to retire. I was 5th.

[Emiliano]

BTW, the lap-by-lap is really tight.

Does any of you have the "Kool Tools"? I'm thinking about getting 'em.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Emiliano

BTW, the lap-by-lap is really tight.

Does any of you have the "Kool Tools"? I'm thinking about getting 'em.

I have them. They are handy if you like the game enough to play it alot. Its not like it costs much money. It lets you play in more games at once (instead of just 1 public and 1 private at a time) which is nice. Has some other features, most of which isn't a big deal unless your teammate doesn't cooperate. The best tool it comes with is for wet -> dry weather conversion, but once again its nothing that you couldn't do the math for without it if you wanted.

Basically if you like the game, and intend to play it alot, spring the $5 or whatever it is to support the guy making it and you then can play more

[Emiliano]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Basically if you like the game, and intend to play it alot, spring the $5 or whatever it is to support the guy making it and you then can play more

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Plus, since the pace of the game is quite slow, having more slots to play different leagues is very useful. I think I'll get 'em.

[FrogMan]

yeah, being able to run more series is one big plus. That way, you have something happening in each of your series every day, maybe half of them being races to watch and the other half being simply qualifying results to eagerly wait for.

The thing I like most about KT is that you see your teammates' min/max values. Even if your teammates are super communicative and all, if you don't see their min/max value, you have to write them down somewhere or remember them. With KT, it's all stacked on top of one another. Even more helpful in three driver teams, like the ChampCar we're currently running for FOFC...

FM

[vex]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Basically if you like the game, and intend to play it alot, spring the $5 or whatever it is to support the guy making it and you then can play more

When did you pay, 1962? It's $20 now

[Emiliano]

Just payed € 14. I'm joining an A1 league right now! Plenty of spots left.

[Emiliano]

Btw guys, which exactly is the "thinker" characteristic? I can't find it in the list.

[FrogMan]

it's not available in A1GP... read my post earlier

and read my dynasty, but be ready, A1GP is a challenge...

FM

[Emiliano]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

it's not available in A1GP... read my post earlier

Oh, I see.

Originally Posted by FrogMan

and read my dynasty, but be ready, A1GP is a challenge...

FM

Yeah, I'm reading it. That's why I got into it! Also, the A1GP is a great series to watch in TV. Did you ever watch it? Less technical, but a lot of fun.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Emiliano

Yeah, I'm reading it. That's why I got into it! Also, the A1GP is a great series to watch in TV. Did you ever watch it? Less technical, but a lot of fun.

nah, I had never even heard of it. It must make for an interesting series though, with all cars being exactly the same...

FM

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

nah, I had never even heard of it. It must make for an interesting series though, with all cars being exactly the same...

FM

For some reason, the A1 series are starting to annoy me. I think you and I are both in the same ones, and yeah I won the race last night.. but just the setup has gotten to grate on my nerves some. With very little pitting and it all being about getting a good qualifying just is annoying me.

I'm sure its just because somehow i ended up in 2 A1 races at a time, so it feels like 1/4th of my games are A1 and once I don't play one for a while I'll like it better

[FrogMan]

that's about my feeling with them too and I also was thinking that maybe it's because I'm also in two of them at the same time.

A driver I teamed up with is heading something called the Pacific Challenge in which they basically do an A1GP setup but with the ChampCar carset and teams of three. They are all forced to take all the same chassis/engine/tires. I just joined a team with two veteran drivers (i.e. 800+ public race starts) and it should be interesting to see how it unfolds...

FM

[FrogMan]

dola, one thing's for sure, with the ChampCar setup, there'll be a bit more strategizing...

FM

[Alan T]

I think what I have found is the games where I have an active teammate, regardless of the series I enjoy more than games I don't regardless of the series. That might be one reason A1 is getting to me. No teammate at all, and I do fairly well on my own, but I like the chit chat too.

[SirFozzie]

BTW. Nice win despite the last lap error Tee

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

BTW. Nice win despite the last lap error Tee

Yeah, I actually am not sure what is up with that. I was gaining time on the #2 car for several laps (about .250 seconds each lap I would gain), but the last lap i had the driver error, that did about 60% damage to my car, yet I gained almost 1/2 of a second the last lap which is double what I had been gaining. (plus had the fastest lap of the race there).

So I'm not sure if there had been another lap following it would have been disasterous or not. It said my error occured in turn 5, which isn't even half way through the lap.. So I'm a bit baffled by it, but not complaining

[vex]

I HATE A1.

[Alan T]

I am actually getting the craving to do more F1 2007 again. I only have 2 games right now that I'm playing F1 2007. one I'm 1st place in a ferrari (which isn't too difficult), and the other i am 15th place in a toyota with a teammate who doesn't ever do much of anything. I'm enjoying that challenge a bit more as every race feels like an uphill climb.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I think what I have found is the games where I have an active teammate, regardless of the series I enjoy more than games I don't regardless of the series. That might be one reason A1 is getting to me. No teammate at all, and I do fairly well on my own, but I like the chit chat too.

Agreed, having an active teammate makes a big difference and also gives you another driver to follow in the lap by lap of the race. I also gotta say I looove my V8 series with the single driver Paul Cruickshank Racing team. It's a heck of a challenge, being all alone, trying to set up that unresponsive b*tch of a V8 supercar, but the series throws curves at you, like that reverse grid start, and you sorta have to avoid retiring at all cost, cause every position makes points...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

A driver I teamed up with is heading something called the Pacific Challenge in which they basically do an A1GP setup but with the ChampCar carset and teams of three. They are all forced to take all the same chassis/engine/tires. I just joined a team with two veteran drivers (i.e. 800+ public race starts) and it should be interesting to see how it unfolds...

regarding that, the guy running that thing just posted this on the BATracer private series forum:

We have one team needing 1 driver, one team needing 2 drivers, and we had a complete team quit, so we need a full team of three as well.

Anyone interested, we are running Lola-Honda-Goodyear this season. The winner of each season chooses the carset for the following season, very competitive, and very fun game! A Special Thanks to those who have joined us or have raced with us before!

link to the thread:
http://forum.batracer.com/$1N//-ff?-...t&../3JN/-fm?B

Visit the thread and you'll have the name of the guy in charge, his name is Ron Campbell.

If you guys feel like putting together a serious FOFC team, this could be fun

FM

[Alan T]

Hmm if two others have private slots open, I'd be up for trying to get a fofc team of 3 together for it.

[SnDvls]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Hmm if two others have private slots open, I'd be up for trying to get a fofc team of 3 together for it.

I'd join

[FrogMan]

I see that SirFozzie has posted in that thread. I will vouch for you to Ron guys.

FM

[Brillig]

Sure, I've got my private race slot still open

[vex]

Posted on the board there, too late though I see

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by vex

Posted on the board there, too late though I see

well, maybe for the all FOFC team, but he's also said that one team need one driver and another needs two. From my chatting with my teammates, it's a very fun series and it seems to be highly regarded. Whoever you would team up with who's already in a team, I'm sure it would be just as much fun. I know the guys I'm with are very friendly.

FM

[Scoobz0202]

I would join a FOFC team.