F1 2013

[Zeppo]

I'd love to do a race or two tonight if anyone else is up for it. I can start probably as early as 9:00 EDT but our usual 10:00 EDT start time would be fine.

I noticed that unfortunately for all 80s car races, you can only choose "one-shot qualifying" even online. To me this fits in the "wtf is so different about classic cars that you can't have the 15 minute quali session?" but there it is. I will assume this will also be true for all classic cars.

Otherwise, everything will set up the same online as we are used to, but to bounce back and forth from classic cars to 2013 cars we'd have to start a fresh session. It does look like all tracks would be accessible in any session.

[FifaInspected]

A human needs to fill a place towards the back of the pack. Might as well be me. 16% downloaded.

[Zeppo]

So, no one wants to race tonight? Or no one can make it this evening? Any response, affirmative or negative to the prospect of running a race or two tonight, would be appreciated. I'm itching for some DSP F1 action.

If not tonight, I don't know when I will be able to race in the near future. Possibly tomorrow, but Saturday is out, Sunday and Monday are football nights for me, and the World Series starts next Tuesday.

[dbdynsty25]

Unfortunately I'm probably going to be relegated to doing the time trial things offline. Just too much crap going on prior to 8pm PST to get online. Sucks being on the west coast in this regard.

[FifaInspected]

So, no one wants to race tonight? Or no one can make it this evening? Any response, affirmative or negative to the prospect of running a race or two tonight, would be appreciated. I'm itching for some DSP F1 action.

If not tonight, I don't know when I will be able to race in the near future. Possibly tomorrow, but Saturday is out, Sunday and Monday are football nights for me, and the World Series starts next Tuesday.

Zep. I'll turn some laps with you. My form will be rubbish until it slowly increases to mediocre at best. I bought the 90's pack as well.

[DChaps]

I'm in for tonight, but it will be 10:00pm EDT or later. I should be good for a few hours.

[GB_Simo]

I will try, but I've had all kinds of damp proofing work done to the house today and it looks like scenes from Lawrence Of Arabia have been filmed in my living room. I'm just back from the hospital (busy day, all told...) so the clean-up hasn't started yet, but I can hopefully get it done in time to race.

[pk500]

I think I can race at 10 p.m. Hope to make it.

[FifaInspected]

That pretty much sucked that I couldn't join your session last night fellas. I bought the game only for the online nights speed, crashes and cursing. I ended up buying the track pack (as I already had the 90's pack) hoping that was the problem. Guess not.

I did however have a good bit of fun playing the scenario mode. Hopefully this will get sorted out.


How were the online races?

[Zeppo]

Despite the fact that last night was pretty much a disaster, I still had fun chatting with you guys and doing some laps.

It's very odd that FIFA couldn't join the session. Adam is the only one of us who has all the DLC; PK and I only have the 90s cars, not the extra tracks. And in any case, the first session was modern cars at Suzuka! So it makes no sense.

Classic races are a bit odd to me. Only the one- shot quali allowed, which is ok but deprives us of the chance to get a few exploratory and warmup laps before the race. Setups are limited to the bulk, quick setup choices, which as pk pointed out is probably a good thing in a lot of ways, but still I find an odd choice because full setup tweaks are available for classic cars in offline modes. There are still prime and option tires, but we can't tell what those designations really mean, and as far as I could tell there is still a regulatory requirement to use both types in a race. There's no refueling, which, correct me if I'm wrong, was necessary in the 80s. And with only five 80s car choices available, there are only ten cars on the grid. Also the 1976 Ferrari we all had from the RaceNet signp isn't available for online play.

So it's a weird mishmash of the old cars, which sure as hell feel different and are insanely fun and challenging, and some of the modern rules. I can't tell what cars are better than others, but I'm sure we will get a handle on that as we mess around more.

Despite all that, and even though our night ended when both PK and then Adam destroyed their vehicles by flying over curbs and into trees or concrete walls, it's pretty crazy awesome fun. Somehow when I was t-boned and flipped trying too late to traverse the track and enter the pits to serve my well deserved penalty, I sustained zero damage, although as I sat upside down my race engineer was kind enough to inform me I had debris on my tires.

Ultimately I do feel that the classic cars, both the 80s and the 90s which I've yet to touch, will be amazing fun for us if we can get some decent size groups together.

But they will be just a change of pace to the more robust and realistic regular 2013 mode, where the real meat of the game truly is. I'm just as excited about being able to race the 2013 cars on the four classc tracks as I am about running around in the classic cars.

I would love to try again tonight but I know PK can't join us. Three is the bare minimum for it to be worthwhile. As I metioned yesterday, I probably won't have much opportunity to race online again for a couple weeks.

[pk500]

My epic crash at Brands in that 1986 Williams made last night worthwhile, along with fun talk with Zeppo and Adam. I didn't clip a curb during my crash. The curb was the 90-meter ski jump at Kitzbuehl. I LAUNCHED 5 feet off the ground and became an Exocet missile heading for an Argentine ship in the Falklands, spearing a concrete wall and obliterating the car.

That was one of the most violent legitimate crashes I can remember in virtual racing. Sure, I've seen crazier wrecks in Tag mode in Forza Horizon and Midtown Madness 3. But this was legitimate, honest racing, and my car was mauled.

Hopefully the Codies can iron the few wrinkles in the online modes. Then F1 2013 will be incredible. It's still gnarly as hell.

[GB_Simo]

Zep, refuelling was briefly used by Brabham in 82, a couple of other teams in 83 and then banned for the rest of the decade, so they're OK historically there. Tyre-wise, I should be able to put a different compound on each corner of the car if I really, really want to, but I don't think there's a control pad big enough to facilitate that one. I still don't get why they picked those exact cars for the classics pack, mind - 88 was a McLaren whitewash, that year's Williams was the only Williams that decade to fail to win a race (Mansell only finished 2 races all season) and so on - but I'm dealing with it and I don't think anyone else gives a toss, so hey ho.

If you catch the very beginning of the kerb on the outside of Paddock Hill Bend at a certain angle, you can pull a wheelie in the run-off area and carry on. So I'm told...

I absolutely sucked last night, those few laps at Suzuka excepted, and don't think I said that much either - yesterday was a long, long day and I was pretty much beat by the end of it - but it was a blast all the same. Zep, if there's enough take-up for tonight (and I stare in the general direction of XXXIV, who must surely bow to the inevitable) I'll be there for the A-main.

[FifaInspected]

I posted our online connectivity issue over at Codie's forum. They responded by saying they are aware of the problem and it will be addressed in the next patch. (within a couple of weeks)

[DChaps]

Sorry I missed last night. I was all logged in and ready to go but it wasn't to be.

With less than 19 hours to go, the "Tribute to RUSH" RaceNet challenge is heating up.

POS NAME TIME
1 bigsim - 01:04.821
2 Zeppo - 01:07.524
3 dave2eleven - 01:07.587
4 dbdynsty25 - 01:07.657
5 pk500 - 01:08.236
6 DChaps - 01:08.691

Come on XXXIV and Fifa, post your times so that I am not last.

https://racenet.codemasters.com/f12013/event/6738

[FifaInspected]

Fired up the game just now and my save file was corrupt. Odd.

[XXXIV]

Come on XXXIV and Fifa, post your times so that I am not last.

I would love to

I do need to download the game first but as Adam pointed out, I will break soon. Probably download it during NFL sunday.

[dbdynsty25]

You f*ckers aren't taking my podium finish away from me. Better update those times DC.

[FifaInspected]

Sorry I missed last night. I was all logged in and ready to go but it wasn't to be.

With less than 19 hours to go, the "Tribute to RUSH" RaceNet challenge is heating up.

POS NAME TIME
1 bigsim - 01:04.821
2 Zeppo - 01:07.524
3 dave2eleven - 01:07.587
4 dbdynsty25 - 01:07.657
5 pk500 - 01:08.236
6 DChaps - 01:08.691

Come on XXXIV and Fifa, post your times so that I am not last.

https://racenet.codemasters.com/f12013/event/6738

Just sent you a friends request on Racenet.

[dbdynsty25]

Damn Don...how many laps did you run to finally turn that 1:04? Good work buddy! No way I'm getting under 1:06, so I concede 2nd.

[pk500]

Wonky Racenet infrastructure f*cked me. I ran a 1:06.6, and Racenet didn't save it. Scout's honor.

[DChaps]

Damn Don...how many laps did you run to finally turn that 1:04? Good work buddy! No way I'm getting under 1:06, so I concede 2nd.

Wonky Racenet infrastructure f*cked me. I ran a 1:06.6, and Racenet didn't save it. Scout's honor.

Yes, unfortunately, the half-assed nature of RaceNet implementation seems to have carried over from F1 2012. F1 2012's RaceNet implmentation was broken from the get-go, and Codemasters never admitted to any problems, not did they ever fix them. It's too bad, because this kind of online web based stat tracking functionality should be a given for racing games by now. All I want to do is see the same results data that I can see in game, on the web as well. It seems like it should not be that hard, but maybe I am missing something because no console racing game has done it properly to date. Even Forza 4's web leaderboards got wonky at some point.

Anyway, just as Paul got screwed by RaceNet, I seem to have gotten the benefit of the glitch. While I did run many laps trying to catch db's time, the best I could do was 1:07.070, but apparently when it uploaded to RaceNet it gave the 1:04, which I promise I can never do in a million years. When I log onto RaceNet within the game, it actually has the correct time of 1:07.070, so I don't understand the issue. My last apptempt I could never come close to my best, and I was hitting 1:08's, but when I logged out, within the game it showed that I had set a new time of 1:06.862. It did not post that to the RaceNet results, and then when I came back to it within the game it was back to saying my fastest time was 1:07.070, which I believe to be my legitimate best time based on what I was epxeriencing on screen.

Oh well, I really enjoyed running these laps. Brands in the classic cars are really fun and you feel so much on the ragged edge, it really gives an appreciation for what these guys did in real life back then, Crazy. I tried my best to post some "official" results of this contest, as I trust everyone at DSP.

"Tribute to RUSH" RaceNet Challenge - Final Corrected Results
Brands Hatch - Ferrari 312 T2 - Dry conditions

POS NAME TIME
1 bigsim 1:04.169
2 dbdynsty25 1:06.606
3 pk500 1:06.699 **
4 DChaps 1:07.070 **
5 Zeppo 1:07.524
6 dave2eleven 1:07.587

** Corrected times due to RaceNet posting/or not posting the correct times.

[pk500]

I was 1:06.6 high, so that placement is correct for me, Don. Thanks.

Good fun. Hope to do more of these!

[GB_Simo]

Don, I ran a few extra laps this afternoon just in case you found those few thousandths you needed to jump into P1. They were bloody infuriating...should have ran mid 1:03 but I muffed the first sector on my best lap and when I sorted that sector out, the middle of the lap went away instead.

Damn, this is fun.

[DChaps]

Ok, even though Racenet was glitchy, it was still fun as hell, so I will try again for this week.

Tribute to Senna at Jerez - DSP RaceNet Challenge

https://racenet.codemasters.com/f12013/event/6999

Circuit: Jerez
Car: 1986 Team Lotus 98T (As driven by Ayrton Senna and Johnny Dumfries)
Weather: Dry
Expires: Saturday Oct. 26, 2013 6:18pm EDT (26 Oct 22:18 GMT)

Granted, it is Senna in a McLaren in 1990, but here is a pretty amazing pole lap by Ayrton at Jerez to get you motivated.

[Zeppo]

Don you are a treasure. Awesome challenge.

I finally got in a full, one-off Grand Prix race, and I really enjoyed it. I ran in the Sauber at Nurburg against Pro, and while I was worried when I topped the leader board after practice, I wound up qualifying 9th just ahead of my teammate and frankly struggled to finish 10th. I really, really love the new rumble feedback for the tires. It adds so much more feel to the car, and I clearly understood what the way I was driving was doing the tires. To me it's a huge add, and I'm very happy for it.

Glancing at my friends list from time to time, it does appear we have a much bigger group who have 13 than last year. J Cauthen maybe has his wheel issues sorted, finally. Dave2eleven has the game. Toper has the game. Of course we know FIFA is excited about the game. It seems a lot of guys are jumping in with the easy download and the $50 price.

I'd love to hear all you guys sound off on what night would work well for DSP Grand Prix racing. It's time to get back to some big room DSP racing action. For me, it can't be Saturdays at all, and it can't be Sundays or Mondays until football season is over. Otherwise, if we can pick a night, I will try my best to set it all up.