Rating system - Will frustration be replaced after time and a shake down?

I’m not an accomplished MP racer, I just don’t have the experience yet. What I am is a careful racer whose worked out that your rating will go up quicker if you finish a race rather than crash out, you’ll also have the bonus of garnering some respect and make some friends.

Whinge out of the way I’ve got two questions for those experienced with MP and ratings systems.

1. when you’re a mid pack qualifier is it actually better to qualify last than have everyone else ram you up the jacksie on the first corner?

2. IF, I can avoid having my rating damaged too much, is it reasonable to expect that in time that I’ll be driving more amongst those that share a level of ability (or desire to race as cleanly as they can) or is it simply about picking the right servers?

Unfortunately my play time means weekends and evenings are pretty much out so good leagues and regular servers are often out for me.

Apologies to everyone, this is a bit of moan having just lost 33 points due to a first corner incident and someone bouncing into me off a wall between The Cutting and Griffin’s Mount.

Yep, next time I’ll choose a wider circuit

 

1: It's always a crap shoot on the lower ranked servers. Get some friends and create a server to farm rating. Then stay out of the lower ranked servers. The system actually works in this aspect, as it keeps the lower ranks off the higher ranked servers.

2: Picking the right servers.

I'm very much in the same boat as you. I only have 2 online races and they were less than stellar. I even got rammed during the cooldown lap. I'm now told it's best to go hide behind the pit wall until the cooldown lap is over to avoid these incompetent "participants".

 

Instead of advising you to farm rating, I'd recommend being patient and realizing that in the beginning, the rating will bounce up and down and not always be a fair representation of your skill level. But over time, it should get gradually closer to representing your skill. This is why many metrics are needed: Results, incidents, time spent in multiplayer, et cetera.

 

I raced in Iracing on a regular basis for about four years and all I can say:
• hardest part is getting out of the rookies
• better to start last than to start midfield when amongst other players with low rating
• if you have to start midfield: try to stay out of trouble as best as you can (meaning: good enough distance, even if that means you’ll loose positions)
• don’t go for the first opportunity to overtake or divebomb someone, better start following and see where his/her weaknesses are, then use it for your overtake

 

Not everyone has unlimited time, so farming rating is not a bad thing if you're already an accomplished racer. Racing in these lower classes makes me want to quit racing, which is what I did for a long time. I'm giving racing another try, but these incompetent "participants" ruin online racing for me, so farming it will be.

 

I’m such a rookie I’ve never even heard of farming ratings. Easy enough to understand though.

I’ll hang back and just try to enjoy the race. It’s just so frustrating when you get banged by someone carrying way too much speed.

 

The PCARS MPRS was flawed, is flawed and is highly cheatable and useless in a context with open Lobbies
Better turn it off and continue to use invite only lobbies.

And yes it favors people in closed leagues. A1800 is achivable in a week. One would use side be side single lap races on the shortes tracks with predetermined winner to achieve that.

Been there, doen that, it made PCARS2 as a competion a joke in the end.

 

double post

 

To mitigate my initial whingeing post, I’ve just had five fantastic races with some really clean, competitive racers and it was chuffing marvellous.

Incredibly tight race at Bathurst for P1 and P2 with me in a ‘65 Cooper and the other racer in the Lotus 23. The Lotus being better on some stretches and the mini having it in others. I binned it at Foresters on the last lap and finished 7th…brilliant race though.

 

I'll be right back there with you Magnus. Im getting the urge to dip my toe back in the water but like you get frustrated at the lack of courtesy/ability shown sometimes.. hanging back pretty much guarantees a solid midfield finish (or higher) once the demolition derby clowns have crashed and exited.. so that will be my strategy too

 

I'm a regular iRacer. Of course, that is 'the definitive sim' as far as competitive, online racing against other humans, with a mature, established ability and safety rating system.

My advice, based on experience in iRacing, is not to focus on the ratings at all. Do what you enjoy. Certainly, do not let the ratings stop you from participating in the racing you have time to participate in.

Assuming the AMS2 system rewards clean drivers - by virtue of them finishing races, which is invariably the same thing as 'finishing races in good positions' - your ratings will take care of themselves over time.

If you are someone that wants to qualify competitively, I say - do it. If that means you end up in the middle of the pack, instead of 'safely at the back' - embrace that challenge. Putting yourself in as many situations as possible where you could be taken out by another car is the fastest way to learn how to deal with it: both in terms of how you react to it happening (i.e. getting over the annoyance/disappointment), but also learning how to avoid it. Both are invaluable skills.

Put it this way - if you learn to negotiate the carnage of T1 whilst being in amongst it, you are putting yourself in a position to be front-running from the start. Starting at the back, you'll only ever be starting from a position of still being at the tail of the field. If you start in P20 and five crash - you're in P15. If you start in P10 and two ahead of you crash, you're up to P8. I know where I'd rather be after one turn!

Using a deliberate strategy of 'starting at the back' to avoid T1 carnage can definitely be effective from a ratings perspective, but I think you would be hard-pressed to say it is more enjoyable overall.

That being said - do what gives you the most enjoyment. Online racing, in any sim, with any cars, will always carry plenty of jeopardy. The vast majority of people sharing that track with you are just not that good. If the way to accomplish an enjoyable race is to start at the back, give yourself plenty of room and then pick through the carnage, then do that. If you enjoy the buzz of being 'in amongst it', then do that - and accept the risk that comes with it.

Treat every accident - even the ones that are clearly 'someone else's fault' as an opportunity to reflect on what you could've done differently and you'll soon find you're caught up in less of them.

So this doesn't sound 'preachy' - I'll finish with what is the most important message in here: do what gives you the most enjoyment. Don't let anyone tell you which you should do. The right approach is the one that makes it fun for you - as long as you are driving in a fair way. In my opinion, the only 'unacceptable' approach is being reckless with no regard for others. People who do that, invariably, don't finish races and suffer more, overall, than respectful drivers. Their ratings will take care of themselves, too.

 

@maconnolly - That’s not sounding preachy, just sensible.

Question 1 was a little tongue-in-cheek, but as someone with only a few MP races I did wonder whether it was worth just hanging back and seeing what pans out. I suspect you are completely right though. Suck it up, learn (more than I will sitting at the back) as I go along and let the ratings take care of themselves.

Cheers

 

I wasn't aware you could gain from AI. I think all these ranking systems are flawed, but setting your lobby to a higher rank will keep a lot of the bad ones out. Of course not the ones whose sole desire is to wreck, but it will remove a lot of the problems. These systems are all trade offs. Will be interesting to see how it plays out if they setup some sort of hosted ranked racing.

 

That needs to change. Its effectively an exploit for the numpties..

 

Mid pack can often be chaotic, especially with large grids. Starting at the back avoids that and helps you level up safety rating (like now), but you may get bored after doing that too much. Some immersion in the mid pack can be worth it to gain experience at spotting trouble and picking your way through lap 1 chaos, at the cost of some knocks.

It's still early days for the AMS2 rating system and hard to predict how this will shape the multiplayer experience. I wouldn't set expectations too high for now, but wait and see.

First we don't know what Reiza has planned. I'm hoping they take the lead to shape the multiplayer experience.

If things are left up to the community, I think were flying blind trying to figure out what safety class is what level of clean driving and how many players will join a session set to some filter setting. Best case we might agree on some classes (like rookie,am,pro) that offers something to everyone but just enough servers that we can fill regularly. Worst case, lots of servers in the browser running random settings and too many of them empty.