[iRacing] General Discussion

+1

My first time trying iRacing was a horrible failure.  I canceled and moved on.  After a few months of racing on Forza and then purchasing my CSR I decided to give it another go. Man what a difference, it is very rewarding to complete a race or time trial.  The price I think overwhelms people until you put it in perspective.  They usually have a promo going for new accounts that will get you atleast a free month or two. You begin with a basic set of cars and tracks. Make no mistake these are more than enough to get started in several series.  The Miata that you start off with is the same car as someone that has been a member for a year or two.  There are no mods to buy and put on the cars, you can join series later on that allow you to make suspension and transmission shifting adjusments.

Here are some things I learned:

1. Don't go and start buying tacks and cars as soon as you join.  Build up your rating and get into the higher classes and then decide what series you want to race and then buy your car and tracks accordingly.  You have two different licenses in iRacing, Road and Oval.  You have to level each of these in order to race in their respective higher series.

2. Do not expect to jump right into a race and do any good. With my limited experience I noticed a huge difference between iRacing ffb and physics compaired to the SimBin series and Forza 4.  I was so use to having the braking line shown in Forza 4 that I could not do a lap in iRacing without flying off the track.  You can have a brake line on during practice but not during a race.  So you really have to learn the tracks. I also watched all the videos in their driving school. 

3.  Always to the qualify segment. When you first start out you will probably go the Legends League or the Miata League.  These are the noob rooms basically and a lot of people will not take the time to qualify.  This means they start at the back of the pack behind people who did qualify.  I have had pole position several times due to being the only one that qualified. 

4. As far as the beginner leagues go be careful.  Most people want to race, some are idiots.  These rooms invovle a lot of crashing, some because somebody just wants to ruin it for others, some because the person is learning and is making a mistake.  I'll make a post in the forum with the steps I took to quickly increase my driver rating so that I could move up to better leagues. 

They usually have promotions going and I just signed up during their Christmas promotion, one year for half price.  To me it is worth it, the feel of the sim and the feeling when I finish a race is just awesome.  I can't wait to get my pc back and start racing again.  iRacing is also my motivation to do a triple screen setup :)

Yes they are, and give it time most of my public races were an exersise in frustration with more time spent in the pits than racing. I may create another account and come back for a few months just to join back in the GBR races. But to be honest rF2 has just as good physics, and in time will have far more features like real road, amazing tire models and a decent offlone mode. That is was gets me about iRacing, No offline mode.

Ooh...my guess would be a world of pain.

If you do start up a new account (assuming you haven't "leased" anything on your old account, and not just renewing the old one), you can get a free 3 month trial through Cadillac which also includes Mosport, Sonoma & Mid-Ohio as an added bonus.

Another thing to keep in mind, Lawyer is looking at starting to branch outside of base content in the near future...so there may be tracks/cars that will end up being required.  Though the next 4-6 races will probably be run w/ the SRF (Spec Racer Ford), which is a base car.  February's track is tenatively scheduled for Okayama, which is also base content.  Tracks have not been decided upon beyond that yet though.

Thanks...still pondering as the odds are the only time I would use it is once a month, thats how it panned out last time...

Yeah, I hear you there.  It took me forever to try it.  Honestly if I could only have rF or iRacing.....I'd still take rF.  iRacing is fun, but doesn't provide enough variety to fulfill my needs. 

With the new wheel the game is feeling even better, and i can finally brake properly

as for no offline that doesnt bother me a bit i never run them.....i basically just spend countless hrs tuning/practicing/ hotlapping for upcoming races....and i only race online. 

The 2 things that have me really drawn into this game are the beauty of these tracks just dont compare and the complexity of the tuning, cause most of the base tunes are crap but with patience and tweaking the cars become unreal!  really not sure why they make them so bad?  but every aspect of this game seems to be a challenge.......i can see how people can be turned off by it, but if people decide to take the challenge and put the time in to learn things it becomes a very rewarding game :)

FFB may not be the best but the more i play it the more iam starting to feel real car sensations in the physics which i really enjoy.....only real way that i can describe it is that it actually feels like a tire.....grip could be a bit better but ive never driven a 600hp car so i really cant make a judgement on that....if race cars were as grippy and easy to drive as they are in most games we would all be real life race drivers :)

But i also dont think some of the cars in this game would be as difficult to drive in real life than there made out to be in the game.

The biggest problem ive found in the game is that the physics have a great deal to do with your speed, but the sense of speed is bad......a good example of this is the caddy....stop the car turn the wheel and let it rotate by itself with no gas.....it turns at 19mph tap the gas and it shoots up to 45mph lol so when your mind thinks your going slow and you should be able to handle your current speed your actually going way too fast which in return causes alot of loss grip and spinning out......if they could fix that the base tunes and lower the prices by a few dollars there wouldnt be much to knock for those looking for a challenging sim

Having tried it for three months, I know its pro's and cons...Sense of speed does take a little getting used to, triples help there I got mine mid time through my trial and it made quite a difference. Offline with AI gives a chance to get in among cars as in a race, for me a key part of practice. Bottom line is I guess, if I could just pay the money required for the small amount of use I would get (as compared to the other sims I have) I would just get it without thinking, so for me it is purely a financial thing.

I know I keep banging on about rF2 but you really should give that a go too. Yes it still has a way to go, but things like rubber being laid down, physics on some of the cars already as good or maybe better than iR and the FFB...well I have never felt better. Would be really interested on your take on it. Of course I would also benefit from your tuning skills LOL

Damn it...I just can't live with Kurup having a Sim I don't have, did a bit of hunting and found this deal http://www.iracing.com/leagues/pricing.php $49 for a year with the same seven cars and ten tracks that come with the standard £99 price.

Church when I get iR downloaded (not today last day of my data month) I'll try the joypad and see what it's like.

Some of the promos are for returning subs and active subs.  You just have to watch for announcements, most are aimed at new subs though like the 3 month promo that is usually running.

Well your missing the most innovative sim of the bunch, but I know what you mean. 

what innovation am i missing, that you speak of? besides the fabulous ffb :)

Real road is the biggy, tracks going from green to fully rubbered over time, dynamic weather (still work in progress) but you will have air temps, humidity, wind, track temps all changing over time. No other sim has these. Tire modeling will include flat spotting, blistering and dynamic temp and pressures.

What they are going for is the most in deph sim on the market. where everything is connected to create a dynamic enviroment where everything changes over time.

Okay I grant you not all these things are ready now, but even in it's present state you can feel you are driving something not like anything else.

There are sims I drive because that is what the folk I enjoy racing with are using, then there is one I drive for pleasure, that Sim is rF2.

And the iRacing server...that is why I dislike not having an offline mode. No Ai and no use when the servers are down.

ahhhh......pcars will has the dynamic weather changing temps etc not sure about humidity.....tire model...wet line dry line road rubber, word is it might be linked to weather network?  they just have to hurry up and release/improve the tire model,  Simbin new project and gtr3 are supposed to have the above ideas.......after pretty much testing all of the upcoming sims it seems there all trying to do the same thing, some just havent got to certain aspects atm......its just gonna come down who did the majority of features the best

In all honesty i cant really tell a  difference in ffb between all the sims ive tried beside some feel stronger than others.....it really comes down to the car physics, some seem too easy to handle some crazy hard.....i like a challenge but not crazy unrealistic if all race cars were as easy as they seem in some sims we wouldnt be playing them we would be getting paid to drive them :).....another biggy for me is how it feels out the box, nothing annoys me more than spending weeks searching the net for settings just to feel somewhat comfortable with the game.

Guess will see in a yr who can do what ?

Should be a great yr for sim racers :)

Well lets put it this way I have it, so am coming from a position of being able to directly compare...The cars are not what I would call easy. but they are rewarding of practice. The ffb is great out the box by the way, but as it is something of a subjective thing I suppose, you might not agree, but I have yet to see anyone other than G27 owners complain. Most if not all others say best in class.

Okay Church, I installed iRacing onto my laptop and plugged in the Joypad...world of pain. So I popped onto the forums to see what may be there, I saw nothing that hinted of a better way of setting it up but enough to see that there are some joypad users, at least one very fast. So it's up to you. From my point of view I wouldn't go near this with a Pad but that goes for every sim but Forza from my point of view, you make it work on PC so for you it may be worth a shot. You could pick up a cheap three month deal or just a month to test.

The one I posted a link to is the best at the moment, a year for $49 or for a $9 three month tester use this code PR-3for9

here you go m8, free 3 month trial....word is near the end they will send you an extension promo for $49 for a yr

https://cadillaccupracing.com/