UKGTL GTC-TC-76 Night Race - 21st April

[Paul968]

My head told me I wouldn't enjoy this, partly because I hadn't driven GTL 76s for months but mainly because it was a night race. My heart OTOH told me to race or I would regret missing out. I should have listened to my head...

I just cannot see the point of night races. It's hard enough trying to control a racing car using a pixelated 17 inch monitor and no sense of G forces, but to then turn the lights off seems daft to me. Real sprint races are not normally done at night, so why are we? To add insult to injury the practice was done in the daytime, so there was no chance to get used to the lack of visual cues. As I expected, after a few laps I missed my braking point because I couldn't see it and slid off.

Unless there is a really good reason to compete, I won't be doing any more night races. Life's to short to spend an hour and a half doing something ultimately frustrating and unenjoyable.

Paul

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

My replay wasn't saved well, so I need somebody else's

Server replay

[Simon Gymer]

Well it's nice to know some people appreciate something different even if there are some moaners out there.

You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time.

[Paul968]

In 2 months there have been two 76 races. I couldn't attend the first and the second was a night race. Since I like the 76 cars I'm just frustrated to miss out on any normal 76 racing. I would rather have seen a 65 tc night race (where the cars are easier to handle), and I would certainly have prefered to practice in the same conditions as the race.

I think we are all entitled to a moan sometimes, even you.

Paul

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

and I would certainly have prefered to practice in the same conditions as the race.

You could've done that offline though..

[Simon Gymer]

The game does not have the option to set the server to have any particular time setting for practice settings in multiplayer games and as Gizmo says practice can be done off-line.

Some people expressed an interest in having a night race once in a while so we had one. It's the first one we've had since the ONE in Season 0. It can hardly be said we're always having night races. Time of day setting is a nice option in GTL so it's nice to use it once in a while as we've had ALL day races since Season 0.

I just wish people had the sense to see their own faults, not the organisers of the race or the fact that it's a game so you can't feel real sensations with it.

[Zacari]

One of the chief reasons why the wet weather is set beforehand in GTR is so all sessions are run in the same conditions, surely it's not unreasonable to expect a night race to have night practice also?  However, I had no idea sessions could not be individually set and I expect Paul didn't either or he wouldn't have asked why it wasn't different!

I'm glad the GTL races are being varied but with the slowness of even the GTC-76's and smaller grids I'd prefer shorter tracks to keep the racing more interesting, but that's my opinion and not a complaint.

My main PC is totally flumped atm so wont be even trying to run GTL on my old systems Ti4600 gfx card, even if it's daylight!

[PaulW]

I genuinely enjoyed the night race last night, primarily because it was something different from a graphica point of view and provided a new challenge in terms of driving. We rarely make use of the excellent lighting effects GTL has. At the end of the day, it was just a fun race so if you don't like them then surely you could have just given it a miss?

[Paul968]

I know my own faults Simon thx. That's exactly why I don't like night races, because I know I will miss a braking point and crash at some stage. I simply don't have the time (let alone the inclination) to practice for night racing - I can think of few things less enjoyable or more pointless.

I wasn't aware that you couldn't set time for the the qualifying period, so I take back the comment about practicing in race conditions.

I never said we were always having night races, merely that I couldn't see the point of racing at night. Clearly some of you like it, but I don't understand why.

As I said, this is more about me being frustrated than anything else. I've waited 2 months for a 76 race and the first chance I get is to race at night. I just wish I had listened to myself and done something else instead. Whatever, you won't hear me complain again since I wont race anymore at night.

 

[Simon Gymer]

I'd prefer shorter tracks to keep the racing more interesting

If anyone has a preference for a short track to use then please reply. We have complaints about bad corners at short tracks and also that the short tracks dont give the 76 cars chance enough to stetch their legs, so we either put up with a few bad 1st gear corners, don't let the 76 cars get circuits they are more suited for or we have very unvaried track choice on short tracks.

How about Dijon Short with 76 cars next week? Gonna change it to Thursday as the recent poll suggest thursday is the best night overall.

[Zacari]

One thing'd be cool would be minis at mondello short...

Dijon short with GTC-76s would be cool 

[Jeffrey]

I like driving at night. Just what was said in the briefing, Spa is a beautiful track at night. The light start/finish section, and the darler back.
It also looks cool to see cars with their headlights on, driving up Eau Rouge. It's the little bit more atmosphere, or maybe a bit more of a challenge for me. It also makes you watch your car better, 2 broken headlights and your are either blind for the whole race, or you have to do a pitstop. This prevents kamikaze-overtaking (I think  ).
It was a good change for once with a field of 14. More and it would have been more problematic.
And I disagree on the big-track thing. I hate those short tracks (Hock-short, Mondello short, Anderstorp short etc.), especially in the 76 class. Shorter tracks don't give closer racing, it only cause more people to be lapped, which can result in more incidents.

[Jeffrey]

My replay wasn't saved well, so I need somebody else's

Server replay

Thnx, but the downloaded file doesn't work. It's no .vcr, and even changing the name to .vcr doesn't work either.

[Paul968]

It's a zip file - you need to extract it.

[Jeffrey]

It's a zip file - you need to extract it.

Oops , I feel dumb now . But the image of the file was the same of a .vcr file. It didn't change in a zip-file-image.