Australasia Joint Series

Discussion Forum for Joint Aus/NZ Series.
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Bull
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Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Sun Aug 26, 2018 11:33 am

Hey All,

Something I have been quietly working on behind the scenes last month or two has been the idea of a joint series between Aus/NZ communities on rFactor 2. Obviously the main idea behind it is to have a strong series with a good turnout of drivers, also representing their respective communities.

I have had pretty good feedback from various people from other communities and we are planning a get-together this Sunday on Discord to discuss. This is an open meeting - anyone can join. Or if you'd rather post your suggestions to this thread I can express those for you at the meeting. Ive posted below my initial proposal, and then the post for the meeting.
Hi, my name is Matthew Pluck and I am one of the main admin and series organisers at Kiwi Sim Racing (http://www.kiwisimracing.net.nz). As a community we have been operating for close to 20 years now, from the great days of Grand Prix Legends and NR2K3 through to rFactor 2. We all enjoy the great experience rFactor 2 delivers us but one constant issue we are fighting these days is the smaller field sizes - partly due to the variety available in Sim Racing titles, partly due to people not having time to race multiple times a week anymore.

What I and a few others have discussed is the possibility of running a combined series in a joint effort between some of the best communities in Australasia. This would help in several ways, obviously the first being it would provide us with a much larger field size; it would allow drivers to race against new racers from other communities; and also allow communities to showcase their drivers and racecraft which could also help attract other drivers to their community.

There is obviously quite a few logistics to work around to making this happen, but before we start working on that we need to agree on a common ground as to whether or not you and your community wish to be involved in this or not. Ideally, in my view, we would need to run a 'test series' first to ensure all our basis are covered - server hosting, race day and time schedules, direction of series etc.

I propose if you are interested in being involved in this series, we organise a time on Discord/Teamspeak to get together between our communities and start drafting some ideas. I'd like to consider all communties have an equal input into the series, what cars we run, tracks, night and time we race at, so be sure to ask around and bring any and all ideas to the table to discuss. Obviously our biggest hurdle will be the time difference between Australia and New Zealand so we will need to take that into our considerations.

I have a brief draft on what I suggest would be a good plan moving forward, which I will post below:

" Race Nights: Sunday
Race Time: Qualifying Starting at ~8:30pm NZ Time/6:30pm AEST
Racing to take place of up to 2 hours with an ETA finish time around 10:30pm NZT/8:30pm AEST

Series: 2018 Test Series
Mod: V8 Utes, Aussie Legends, Touring Car Revival, or one of the several GT3 mods available
Tracks: Familiar tracks around Australasia
Rounds every Sunday.

Series: 2019 Australasia V8 Supercar Series
Mod: FVR (unless a better mod is released before then)
Tracks: Following calendar when able, will find replacement tracks for rounds that aren't in game
Rounds to take place every Sunday following the real life calendar.

Numbers: This depends a lot on our server capability, but I feel around 32 is the max number before we may start having issues on server-side (this number could also change based on grid spots/pit stalls on each track). I feel each community will get an x amount of reserved driver spots (obviously depends on how many wish to be involved), but for example if there is 4 communities, each community has 6 reserved spots for drivers (making 24), then the remaining 8 spots can be open to anyone. How we delegate those whether its through qualifying times, first come first served basis, to be discussed.

Rules: All racing etiquette and rules to be discussed and agree on between communities"

Obviously only a rough draft at this stage, but is some food for thought, and something we can use as a foundation to build something on.

I have high hopes of what could be a great experience for all involved, and look forward to discussing further with you all. Please let us know if you are interested, and when would suit for a 'meeting' on discord to discuss further details,

Thanks,
Matt
Just a follow up to my previous post I sent to you all.

I have had great positive feedback from numerous people, which is a great starting point for this series. I feel the next step we should take is have a bit of a get-together on Discord and discuss what we all have in mind and share ideas etc between us all. Any and all are welcome to the meeting, not just admin - anyone who has an interest in this series is welcome to come along

I propose next Saturday (1st September) would be a good opportunity to do this. I thought around 10:00pm NZST would work best but we can work around this - please let us know ASAP if a different time would suit you.

Please get back to us if you are able to attend this meeting. Things to bring along for discussion would be:
- Mod/s to use
- Race Formats
- Preferred Day/Time
- Preferred Methods of communications (combined messageboard, facebook group etc)
- Track/s
- Driver Entries/Qualification to race criteria
- Anything else of importance

Our Discord Channel - https://discord.gg/5J6VMMd

I look forward to seeing you all,

Regards,
Matt

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Sat Sep 01, 2018 10:48 am

Reminder, this meeting is tonight. Any and all are welcome!

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Erik » Sun Sep 02, 2018 11:23 am

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend last night, also having to look after one of my kids who got sick. But I'm eager to hear to outcome and/or suggestions for this!

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Growler » Sun Sep 02, 2018 12:28 pm

Yeah...how did it go?

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Sun Sep 02, 2018 12:36 pm

I will be typing everything discussed this afternoon

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Sun Sep 02, 2018 5:35 pm

Summary Of Discussions:

-----------------------------

Thanks to those who attended, or those who were unable to attend but forwarded myself their thoughts and suggestions for us to discuss. I've collated everything together below for everyone to read over, and if there is anything further to discuss or changes you'd like made this would be the best time to do so. Moving on from here we will look towards finalising the series and start working on promoting the series and getting a formal sign-up, series post etc underway.

Day Of Race: Sunday
Time: 9pm Qualifying, 9:30pm Race Start (NZST), 7pm Qualifying, 7:30pm Race Start (AEST)
Mod: GT3 - Simtek or if Apex's new GT3 mod is released in time we will look at using this.
Dates: Practise Night 14th October, Round 1 21st October
Rounds: 6-8
Tracks: Popular GT3 circuits in Australasia - Phillip Island, Suzuka, etc. Any suggestions please include links as there is often more than one version of a track out there!
Voice Comms: There was discussion of some having issues with Discord, so we will use TS3 for our Voice Comm's.
Official Board/Forum: For this series all official matter will get posted on a open Sub-Forum at https://www.kiwisimracing.net.nz/forum/ ... m.php?f=64
I will also look at creating a Facebook group for those who use Facebook, and of course each community can discuss their own matters etc around the series on their own respective message boards.
Driver Entries: We feel around 32-36 is a safe number for majority of circuits. This is really going to be a wait-and-see kind of situation as to whether or not we end up with more people than that wanting to race. If we get an over-subscribed field, we will look at having a set amount of drivers auto-qualify from each community, then the last 4-6 positions will be open to a qualifying session held before the main qualifying session.
Race Format: 1x Sprint Race and 1x Feature Race which will incorporate a CPS (Compulsory Pit Stop)
Points: Obviously Individual Driver points will be accumulated, but we will also have a fun inter-community points table, where the first 4 drivers of each community to cross the line will achieve points for their community tally.
Skins: Custom skins will be allowed, with a Community Logo or Strip to be applied to each drivers car to represent the community they are a part of
Rules: I refer to - https://www.kiwisimracing.net.nz/forum/ ... 49&t=18354 to use as a base-line for rules. Anything you feel needs to be added, removed or modified, please bring this up for discussion
Crash/Protest Committee: To ensure fairness to all on the track, we will have a post-race committee comprising of one elected member of each community, and one back-up member in the instance that member is involved in the incident.
Server: RobZee has kindly offered his community server (to confirm) for this series. We decided with the possibility of Asian drivers attending, and with the majority of racers from Australia, that an Australian based server would be best for this series.

So there we have it - the basis of our joint venture moving forward. If there is anything you want to clarify, discuss, suggest or add in feel free to post your thoughts or send them in via a message. I look forward to your responses and over the next couple of weeks I am hoping to finalise all the details and get the ball rolling.

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Murphy's Law » Tue Sep 11, 2018 8:10 pm

Do the tracks need to be Asia - Pacific or can the bloody good new version of Watkins Glen be used? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1508582012

I haven't tested it yet but this could be good for a Japanese track, Okayama https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... earchtext=
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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Wed Sep 26, 2018 8:14 pm

Hey Guys,

So I know our proposed date to kick off is fast approaching, so I have created a shortlist of tracks I feel suitable. Ive included links to them all below. If there is any in particular you WANT or DON'T WANT please post below - ESPECIALLY if there is any known problems with the tracks, eg causing PC crashes, pit lane doesn't work correctly, cut track warning doesn't work correctly etc etc. Also if you know of any later, or better, versions of the track posted please share the link.

Ill finalise the tracks based on any feedback received over the next week.

I have been in touch with APEX again about their APEX GT3 mod update - it is very near release. They found a couple of small problems in their final testing which they are fixing up. I will leave it until after next weekend (Bathurst Weekend). If it hasn't been released by then we will look at using the SimTek GT3 mod instead.

---------------------------

Tracks:

Monza - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =755839736

Dijon Prenois - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =865745371

HockenheimRing GP - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1430926955

Suzuka GP - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =705367165

Hidden Valley - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =822608499

Mid Ohio - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =553365002

Oschersleben - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =553365002

Phillip Island - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1103368574

Road Atlanta 2017 - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1227712083

Watkins Glen - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1508582012

Zandvoort - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1107038453

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bill Kilowatts » Fri Sep 28, 2018 2:36 pm

Drop one of the Euro's and add Highlands Park haven't tried it but would be proper in my mind
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... lands+park

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Fri Sep 28, 2018 3:00 pm

Bill Kilowatts wrote:Drop one of the Euro's and add Highlands Park haven't tried it but would be proper in my mind
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... lands+park
Thanks Bill. Highlands isnt a bad track but it hasn't been updated to DX11 as yet so some of the textures are a little out of whack. Unless it's been updated since I last tested it.

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Murphy's Law » Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:37 pm

We know Dijon, Monza, Suzuka, Mid Ohio and Hidden Valley all work as we have run them before with no issues. Phillip Island I would need run again but there was a reason I didn't run it in the v8s, I just can't recall why but unless I there is an update then I would say its a no. I will try to test a couple of the others. The Glen and Road Atlanta peak my interest.

I haven't tested this yet but it could be a starter if its good. Singapore Grand Prix AKA Marina Bay Street Circuit could be good if you wanted a street Circuit. Its wide and fast and If it works I could be a good track for GT3s. https://www.facebook.com/notes/senormen ... 196246543/
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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Fri Sep 28, 2018 6:00 pm

Marina Bay has to be ran at night, so we will need to test lights etc work adequately in the GT3 mod we use.

Seca has informed me that Highlands Park has been updated to DX11 - we will give that another test.

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Murphy's Law » Fri Sep 28, 2018 6:42 pm

Bull wrote:Marina Bay has to be ran at night, so we will need to test lights etc work adequately in the GT3 mod we use.

Seca has informed me that Highlands Park has been updated to DX11 - we will give that another test.
Just tested Marina Bay it looks amazing, couldn't see any issues in day or night, The cars are probably a little slow for it to be fun for me personally but others would love it. The issue i found is there was no cut tracks and with this track unless we want to rely on a protest system its unable from that stand point.
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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Mike » Fri Sep 28, 2018 7:07 pm

Murphy's Law wrote:...
We know Dijon, Monza, Suzuka, Mid Ohio and Hidden Valley all work as we have run them before with no issues. Phillip Island I would need run again but there was a reason I didn't run it in the v8s, I just can't recall why but unless I there is an update then I would say its a no. ...
Suzuka caused microstutters for people, it is quite heavy on performance. Which is a shame, because it's one of the best racetracks in the world.

Phillip Island is very ugly (mostly textures). The rF1 version looked a lot better.

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Fri Sep 28, 2018 7:51 pm

Mike wrote:
Murphy's Law wrote:...
We know Dijon, Monza, Suzuka, Mid Ohio and Hidden Valley all work as we have run them before with no issues. Phillip Island I would need run again but there was a reason I didn't run it in the v8s, I just can't recall why but unless I there is an update then I would say its a no. ...
Suzuka caused microstutters for people, it is quite heavy on performance. Which is a shame, because it's one of the best racetracks in the world.

Phillip Island is very ugly (mostly textures). The rF1 version looked a lot better.
The stutters at Suzuka was during the series we had stutters every round. I don't believe it was track related

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Murphy's Law » Fri Sep 28, 2018 8:35 pm

I have tried the following but just for layout and look, i haven't tested clearing black flags or anything like that yet.

Scratch the following tracks off the list imo.

Suzuka GP - Would suit these all types of cars but is performance hungry and had the issues with stutters before but could just be mod related
Phillip Island - Layout feels off, looks average at best compared to some of the other tracks
Dijon Prenois - Didn't enjoy driving around here in GT3s, feel it would suit ether high Downforce cars or high BHP cars, Track limits could be an issue.


Too Consider

Monza - Great track but all power cars will fly here. Would work if we had a slow track to offset the fast cars advantages here
HockenheimRing GP - Also looks good, not sure it would suit any car which is good.
Hidden Valley - maybe lacking in the looks department compared to some of the others on the list but good enough to race, Would suit cars with good top end with such a long straight.
Mid Ohio - We know what its like, dispit the long straight it should suit the nimble cars as well as powerful
Oschersleben - Good tight little track, looks good as well, would suit nimble cars and cars with good power down. We would want to use the MC version to avoid the first turn that John Cleland utted the quote of "The guy who designed that corner should be taken into a dark room and be beaten"
Watkins Glen - Looks good, would recommend trying the Boot version but with out the Chicane. But Any version would be good, Would suit powerful cars or cars with good downforce.

Must haves

Road Atlanta 2017 - Must have for the league. Has something to suit all cars and looks the part and looks good
Zandvoort - Big thumbs up from me. Looks great, suits these cars and is challenging. Would suit nimble cars as there is bugger all straight. Could work to offset Monza

What about Adelaide for an Aussie track plus street track and Highlands for a Kiwi (yet to try it)
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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Murphy's Law » Fri Sep 28, 2018 8:40 pm

A couple of things It thought about that we need to consider, Do want any wet races?

Also start time for each race. Default for most tracks is around 2pm but I found after testing for the V8 races that the immersion levels go up for me if the races are later, around 4pm to 5pm in game. Just with the shadows and reflections the game just looks better and has a more immersive feel
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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Fri Sep 28, 2018 9:13 pm

I was going to use the real weather plug-in for the series, so long as wipers, wet tyres etc all work correctly.

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Sun Sep 30, 2018 5:22 pm

I have posted below a draft for the series. This is being circulated around to make sure there is no errors, suggestions etc from people. Please have a read over, if there is anything you are unsure of, or would like to suggest, let us know.
Australasia GT3 Series

Date: 14th October Practise, 21st October Round 1

Time: Qualifying Starts 7:00pm AEST, 9:00pm NZST

Mod: Apex GT3** - Pending release within the next week, if not released we will use the Simtek GT3 mod

Registrations: Registrations will be open upon finalising mod and tracklist. We have set a limit of 36 drivers - if we hit 36, we will first delegate entries based on communities - eg each community will get 'x' guaranteed entries. The remaining spots will then get decided on week to week via a Qualifying heat for the remaining spots.

Points: Points will be awarded individually; points will also get assigned to the top 3 finishers of each community to count towards the community team points tally. (NOTE: A driver doesn't HAVE to be from a designated community to take part in the series, however to be a part of a community team they will have to be)

Tracklist: We have narrowed it down to the following tracks - feedback on tracklist is welcome from everyone, so if there is any particular track in the list you DO or DO NOT want to be in the series please let us know, and if you have any other suggestions they are also welcome. Please list the reason why/why not share that opinion for a track, eg if it has a bug or a glitch in it that information would be much appreciated. The series will be between 6-8 rounds so we do need to cull some of the below tracks, based on everyones feedback.
Adelaide - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =774360484
Dijon Prenois - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =865745371
HockenheimRing GP - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1430926955
Hidden Valley - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =822608499
Highlands Motorsport Park - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =591500875
Mid Ohio - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =553365002
Monza - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =755839736
Oschersleben - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =553365002
Phillip Island - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1103368574
Road Atlanta 2017 - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1227712083
Watkins Glen - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1508582012
Zandvoort - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1107038453

Race Night Format: Race nights will consist of a 15 minute, open qualifying session to determine grids for Race 1. Race 1 will be a sprint race with no compulsory pit stops (CPS), and will aim to be around the ~20min mark for length. Race 2 will then grid up from the finishing results of Race 1, and will be a longer length, including 1x compulsory pit stop (CPS). This race we will aim to be around ~40min in length.

Server: Xfactor have kindly offered their server to be used for the series

Weather: We will be using the real-weather plug-in for the series.

Communications: Xfactor have offered their TeamSpeak server for use of the series. TeamSpeak was decided upon over Discord as some users had expressed issues with using Discord whilst racing.

Points: Drivers will be required to sign up to our Points System - http://points.kiwisimracing.net.nz - sign ups will be opened when the series registrations go live.

Rules: We will be using the Driver Etiquette from - https://www.kiwisimracing.net.nz/forum/ ... 49&t=18354 for this series

Protests: Each community, if they wish, can nominate a member to be a part of the "Protest Committee." This way each community can be fairly represented regarding any incidents that arise during the racing. If one of the nominated members is involved in the incident, that community can choose to nominate another representative for that incident.

-----------------------

Please feel free to share any thoughts, ask any questions, put forward any ideas as you see fit. We are hoping to get the official post and series info out there within the next week or two and have registrations open around that time as well.

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Murphy's Law » Sun Sep 30, 2018 10:52 pm

looks good. I would have left Phillip Island off the list unless you find a better version.

If you are going to do based on laps rather then time. for the V8s 50km and 100km seem to be just over 20 and 40 mins if thats a guide for how race length will be.
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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bill Kilowatts » Tue Oct 02, 2018 12:54 pm

Do we want to include pitstops? Does the mod include an option tyre? IE: compulsory pitstop , minimum fuel, change tyre compound off you go, or long enough races that a pitstop is inevitable?

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:49 pm

Bill Kilowatts wrote:Do we want to include pitstops? Does the mod include an option tyre? IE: compulsory pitstop , minimum fuel, change tyre compound off you go, or long enough races that a pitstop is inevitable?
Race 2 features a compulsory pitstop. Depending on how mod does tyres in pit stops, we will decide whether you will have to take 2 or all 4 as a minimum. Compounds etc can be changed as you wish.

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bill Kilowatts » Thu Oct 04, 2018 3:20 pm

Thanks Bull I lost track of the format in all the debate

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Fri Oct 05, 2018 7:50 pm

Hey Guys,

The latest Apex GT3 mod has been released. If you were subscribed to the old version on Steam, it will have auto-updated for you. If not, here is the link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =570027793

We will be testing the tracks over the weekend to make a final list, before getting the official race posts, registrations, track list schedule etc, all up hopefully start of the next week. You are all more than welcome to come along and help test and offer any feedback.

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Re: Australasia Joint Series

Post by Bull » Sun Oct 07, 2018 11:17 am

I have found a DX11 version of Spa to test as well - if anyone would like to turn some laps there and let me know what they think?

https://mega.nz/#!4LAWVAzI!6l329_A7EXpV ... ILa0-18ZkE

League details are almost finalised, look for post/s over the next couple of days.

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