Be Excellent To Each Other

No problem. Even ten players would have been an improvement, eh?

I'm currently trying to work out the scoring based on eight players, does 10pts for first going down to 2pts for eighth work out?

You should score them using letters and, at the end, whoever makes teh best word is the winnerer.

Having played this last night with my wheel and all assists off I'm not sure I want to play this tournament - the cars are close to undriveable. I'll try playing with the assists on this one, but the cars are nearly impossible to keep in a straight line when you come off the banking and if you do lose the rear end it's close to impossible to stop or control it which invariably leads to spin. Every lap. Which is the antithesis of fun, like most of the racing in this.

You can use as many of the assists as you like, that's not a problem.

This does seem like it's going to be very difficult to recreate proper stock car races using just eight players. We did a 10 lap race last night and I spent 8 of those laps trundling around on my own due to others and me crashing into the barriers/each other).

I'm still willing to give it a go, though.

That and for me the cars were really frustratingly unpredictable and when you lost control you really did lose it spectacularly with no chance of catching it. I think I was nearly two laps down by the end of the ten as I seemed to be pirouetting every bloody time I exited the banking by about three laps in.

Were you braking at all? The trick on that track was to just ease off the accelerator slightly as you approached the bend, and then jam it back on again for most of the corner.

That isn't the major problem I have with it, it's just that stock car racing involves a lot of close pack driving and drafting. If you're on your own for most of it, it's really boring. NASCAR 09 isn't as good a game physics-wise, but you get 43 cars on track in the single player, and you can play up to 16 cars online. It's just a shame really as they've missed a trick here.

-edit- Also! Commodores and Falcons from the Australian V8 Supercar championship, but no Aussie tracks.

I don't recall braking at all, no. I just seemed to have a point on each lap where I would back off and then would quickly lose control not long after and it was just so binary - once you lost it you were a passenger until the car decided to stop spinning.



Yeah, I agree, it felt a little lonely out there after the first couple of laps.

That final bend on Sunset? Be really high on the outside and then use as much of the track as possible to make the bend as gentle as possible. Don't be afraid to ease off or indeed let go of the accelerator gently to bleed some speed and retain maximum grip. If you get it perfect you can just stay full throttle but it's very difficult to do so.

While it might be a bit lonely, I'm hoping the varying skill levels plus the length of the race (we should all need at least one pit stop) will keep things interesting. Not to mention BezzieBanter^TM

I think the best plan is to team up with someone unofficially at the start and help each other slingshot around the track. If we can race as close as possible to each other without trying to take people out (like Dowling was last night), then it could be fun.

I think we were doing Sedona raceway last night.

That's something I was thinking of for the future - race teams. Again, with only eight players we'd only have four teams so it might not be quite as cool.

What do people think? Are we happy to do this solo or do you want teammates?

That would be a good way for Forza to handle 16 players. Teams of two, with one player spectating. You change drivers when the car pits. I'm sure there's some strategy stuff you could give the spectating player to do too, like pit stop planning, monitoring the driver's telemetry and preparing tuning tweaks on the car, stuff like that. Throw in something like dynamic weather too, to give the strategy aspect a bit more depth.

That would be a much better idea if applied to Le Mans. I was thinking about organising an 8 hour race where you and your team mate are physically at the same house. After each hour of driving you swap over. I then realised that only Meaty and I would want to do it, so binned the idea.

Meaty PMd me to say pretty much the same thing, funnily enough. The problem (apart from the fact that both drivers have to be on the same Xbox) is that the spectating player doesn't have enough to do. You'd have to make this a game feature, and give them stuff to keep them involved, I think.

Or we do a full 24 hours and the off driver uses the two hours to grab some sleep.

Would you piss in your pants for authenticity?

Sure. Don't forget to wear fireproof overalls and a crash helmet. You and Meaty tell us how it worked out.

You've got a small head, right myp? Kate's bike helmet should fit you. I don't think she'll let you piss in her bike trousers, though.

"..."

Of course.

Just to go back to the "we can't have more than 8" problem... why not allow qualifying races if more than 8 want to enter any given race? So if 10 want to play then have 2 short 5-man races where the first 4 qualify, or summat?

Or if you manage to get 12, have 6 race each week and swap it around a bit for the next week until everyone has raced the same number of races. Then have a grand final.

Are you going to go make your own racing championship, with blackjack and hookers?

I'm just going to set up the Le Mans race for me to drive around by myself.

Proper Dreamcast Le Mans game ftw.

We tried the full 24 hours when I bought Grid & made it 3 hours in before we totalled the car. Obviously it doesn't work as well with the lack of pitting

Playing GRID for 24 minutes is bad enough, to be fair.

It's quite a good game as long as you don't use the wheel

Seems almost pointless, then.

Is that the game where you lie on the floor and /\|ß1ñø pisses on you?

Yeah, surely you'd either have to stop or just crash into the first corner.

I don't remember playing that game

*bump*

Any pics of your cars yet, fellas?

I know you've got 8 people but can I be a stand-in incase someone doesnt turn up?

If someone doesn't turn up then yes, I suppose any empty slots can go to seat-fillers. Wullie is first in the queue at the moment.

I haven't even got enough money to buy a stock car yet.

I got one all painted, it isn't very good though. I'll post a pic later.

I'm formally dropping out - I posted to that effect last week, didn't I? So you have a spare slot.

Wullie takes DrG's slot.

how much is a stock car, is it freely available from the dealerships?

About 150,000cr, yeah, freely available. Pick any of the three that you like, leave it stock.

I has teh monez, just need to pick the car and decide how to decorate it. Oh, who am I kidding, it'll be a pink Ford.

PLEASE put a Hello Kitty kitty on it. kthxbai

Oh yes.

I have to say that I find the painting fiddly as fuck, so um, sorry it's shit:

Geddoutahere, that's excellent!

Thanks man but it really isn't. I'll try and do some more work on it.

When you say leave it stock - I assume that you mean no upgrade parts but we're free to tinker with settings?

Pics of the EggWagon going up over the weekend!

I've done mine, I picked the charger, then I made it orange then I looked at the first post then I made it black. Pic in a second.

00 stand-in car. vroom