GRM - Gran Turismo 5 Racing League - Series 4

Last night:

Started out bad, couldn't get room setup right, doh, and even still forget to set the end timer higher (I suspect most didn't want more time on the track anyway).

GT: The start was full of suck in a variety of ways! I of course could not get a good launch and ended up having GTP blast by me into the chicane. The worst though was that I was totally disoriented! I didn't know where I was!! I think the major issue was that I had been practicing launches at the pit exit, and got used to that. So when we started I thought we were on the straight AFTER the chicane!! This made the chicane a bit of a surprise!

At least I did a pretty good job of not hitting GTP, but as Grea noted, as he cleared the chicane, and I couldn't see it, or had much awareness of it, I clipped the edge and took damage. Sorry for drawing you into that Grae, it was my stupidity all the way.

I pitted on the first lap with Grae. I thought I was done for, but soon noticed the track was taking its tole on the trailing drivers, eventually putting me in 3rd about a 1/2 lap behind F40. My plan was to conserve tires and try to make the full race, assuming F40 would pit. This was all fine and good, until while going down the front straight I was looking at my lap times (a pretty consistent 1:27 ish) I scraped the right side wall, then caught a part of the barrier sticking out!!!

This DESTROYED my car and I had to limp around another lap to the pits. I may have messed up Mini at one point in that lap also, I think he was assuming I was going a lot faster then I was, sorry, there is not a lot of room to pull over on that track.

At that point I was pretty done, but did still have Grea pretty close (I was pretty good at out pacing him though). Then of course F40 gets BONED, kicked while in second. I was a good lap and a half behind him, there is NO way I was going to catch him.

Saloon: This was a bit more interesting for me. Got a decent start. Setup in the rear of a good 3 car run of GTP, Grea and me. GTP got a taste of the problem of the kink on the back straight with reduced traction (he apparently was running SH by mistake) and kissed the wall at let us by. That corner was tough without full traction! (basically a jump and landing sideways skidding at 150 mph!). I later discovered that tapping the brakes just before it made is much nicer.

Grea and I did a very nice two car parade for about 8 laps. I already knew that passing was almost impossible if he didn't make a mistake, so I was not going to risk it. I could tell though that the controller was causing him to do a bit of drifting and that was going to kill his tires. He eventually drifted enough to let me pass, and that was that.

Have to say though, GTP charged VERY hard and was right behind me at the finish. He was a lap down, but was clearly making faster laps (a bit of that was fresher tires, but he is clearly a force to be reckoned with)

NickF40 wrote: ...the reason I said about the people joining is it messes with the connection with us that have lesser internet, that's why some of us get kicked, notice sometime it's when people join...

I suspect that might have been when ScrotumBag (or whatever his ID was) left. I noticed his car sitting on the front straight backwards at one one point.

One possible solution to this would be to set the maximum participant in the room to the number entered. The problem with this of course is we need to know exactly how many will show up, and it makes it impossible for those who just want to see what is going on (e.g. Concealer last night) to watch.

One way to do that might be to do a room for qualifying, decide the number of participant, kill that room and start another with that number as the limit. We would then have to have participants enter the course in their qualifying order and not run before starting the race.

Air: no worries, mate. I had enough problems if my own, you had nothing to do with.

Regarding Nicks connection issues, and the seeming effect of people joining/leaving: would it be worth a try to have him host?

Run the races in your lounge. No unwanted visitors. Easy. I have wondered why we don't do it that way since I first started. I think we can all be trusted to not go in and change the room settings/regulations.

Thanks for the compliments, guys.

The GT race, after I made it through the chicane, and noticed everyone dropping back quickly, I figured there was an incident. Once I was up by a decent margin, I went into tire conservation mode and pit around lap 16. On the first flying lap out, I hit the chicane, and had to come back in to fix it. I could not believe I did that. Just wasn't concentrating.

In Sal, I had a good start, and made a little head room going onto the back straight. However, I hit the left wall at the point that sticks out, which threw me into the right wall as well. Car was fubared. I was on Street softs, but when I pit, it put me on Street hards. So, tried a few laps that way, hit something again, and decided to pit. Switched back to softs, but knew I had my work cut out for me. Ended up having to pit 2 more times, IIRC. I knew 1st was gone, but was shooting to catch 2nd.

Looking forward to next week!

Oh, and a friend of mine might be joining in, as well. He is my co-driver in auto-x. I mentioned this to him, and he seemed interested.

Oh, and I will try to make room on the friends list. I agree on using someone's lounge.

Air, no problem at all on that T1 GT deal. Man, that's just the stuff that happens in any form of racing. I must have had a premonition about that because I couldn't get it out of my head for 2 days. The race would have been more interesting to see if you could have dealt with GTP. I already knew from practicing with you that you were faster in both classes. I just hope we can figure out what "time zone" GTP is in. I think he must know someone at the BMW factory because he got really good ones., the ones with the warp drive feature.

Nick, after reading your post I think we do need to start running the races on the host's lounge instead of an open room. The opening entry for Series 4 can be changed to state that anyone who chooses to enter MUST have the hosts and as many of the other entrants as possibe on his friends list. That would solve any related problem. A Series 2 post was the reason I joined the GRM Forum in the first place. I was really excited to finally have an opportunity to be able to enter an on-line race.

HunterJP wrote: Oh, and a friend of mine might be joining in, as well. He is my co-driver in auto-x. I mentioned this to him, and he seemed interested.

That would be me. SAL sounds like a blast. I will try and make at least one race. my PSN id is verlumpt

verlumpt wrote:

HunterJP wrote: Oh, and a friend of mine might be joining in, as well. He is my co-driver in auto-x. I mentioned this to him, and he seemed interested.

That would be me. SAL sounds like a blast. I will try and make at least one race. my PSN id is verlumpt

First chance you get send a friend request to allaircooled. He is currently hosting the races. My i.d. is graefin10. I'll let the other regulars give you their PSN names because I may not recall them correctly. Also, if you have any practice time during the week look for us and come join us.

HunterJP wrote: I agree on using someone's lounge.

Yes, lets give that a try. Can you send a friend request just to an ID? Hunter JP can just go on his Recently played with list and find me.

The only disadvantage I see is that I tend to have to drop out right after the race, and I don't think the room will transfer. In that case Grea or someone else can just open up a room for practice time.

I am not sure how the lounges work. Is it the person who started it's lounge, or is it just sort of a communal lounge? It seems like (and maybe I am wrong) that when two people are in a lounge that are both on my friends list, I can see the lounge in either of their pages. So maybe it's everyone's lounge... I don't know.

I think as long as Hunter has me as a friend (and maybe Grea as a backup) he should be fine. The only reason he would need to add everyone is so he can practice with them easily at other times. (I don't want Hunter to have to sacrifice too many of his social obligations)

So, lets just say HunterJP is my friend, so he gets into the lounge that way, but verlumpt isn't. What does he see when he goes to Hunter's page? Does it show him in a lounge? Can he enter that lounge? Can you go into non-friends lounges by association?

I don't think I have every seen anyone drop in a lounge though, so it seems like a good idea.

I do think I should just randomly kick F40 at some point for the hell of it though... you know... because he's used to it.

aircooled wrote: Usually, at worst, the stick until the realize how had the cars are to drive then leave, but that one guy just stuck! He did mess me up at least once and made qualifying rather difficult for me (answering questions kills a lap, at least). I guess I need to get more aggressive, but hopefully that won't be necessary. I certainly don't have a problem encouraging people to participate, but a total newbie to the series can really cause havok in a race.

If they didn't come in and immediately ask the rules, I would kick them just before I started the race.

If they would come in, ask the rules and do their best to abide by them, they are probably pretty decent drivers and they could stay...

... my rule of thumb.

Yes, that is what made it hard, he seemed to be trying. He got a car, but it wasn't a saloon, I think he eventually got a saloon, but was very low on practice obviously. It was just a lot of communicating when you are trying to qualify. Thankfully Grea took care of a lot of it.

aircooled wrote:

HunterJP wrote: I agree on using someone's lounge.

Yes, lets give that a try. Can you send a friend request just to an ID? Hunter JP can just go on his Recently played with list and find me. The only disadvantage I see is that I tend to have to drop out right after the race, and I don't think the room will transfer. In that case Grea or someone else can just open up a room for practice time. I am not sure how the lounges work. Is it the person who started it's lounge, or is it just sort of a communal lounge? It seems like (and maybe I am wrong) that when two people are in a lounge that are both on my friends list, I can see the lounge in either of their pages. So maybe it's everyone's lounge... I don't know. I think as long as Hunter has me as a friend (and maybe Grea as a backup) he should be fine. The only reason he would need to add everyone is so he can practice with them easily at other times. (I don't want Hunter to have to sacrifice too many of his social obligations) So, lets just say HunterJP is my friend, so he gets into the lounge that way, but verlumpt isn't. What does he see when he goes to Hunter's page? Does it show him in a lounge? Can he enter that lounge? Can you go into non-friends lounges by association? I don't think I have every seen anyone drop in a lounge though, so it seems like a good idea. I do think I should just randomly kick F40 at some point for the hell of it though... you know... because he's used to it.

Last night it assigned me as the host after you left. However, it took a long time before the track icon lit up so I could change it to Autumn Ring.

The person that opens the lounge can quit but the lounge remains open for anyone else in the room.

Yes, verlumpt sees that Hunter is on-line in a room and he can click on it and join.

Yes, if F40 is ahead of me please feel free to give him the old heave ho.

Graefin10 wrote: Grizz, I noticed that there was a guy who entered the room right at the beginning who said something to the order of indicating he didn't know it was a private series and used Grizzzzzzz I thought as a way to get your attention. You were busy qualifying at the time an might not have noticed it. If you're like me, you've tried to train your eyes to ignore the posts if you're qualifying or during the race.

Yeah, it was a friend of mine, I had two join the race before as well. He's actually a member of the forum and showed interest in the second series I think, but he doesn't post much anymore from what I've seen.

aircooled wrote: Yes, that is what made it hard, he seemed to be trying. He got a car, but it wasn't a saloon, I think he eventually got a saloon, but was very low on practice obviously. It was just a lot of communicating when you are trying to qualify. Thankfully Grea took care of a lot of it.

Yeah, the ones who try to go with what you're doing aren't bad, although getting a penalty because he went backwards to go into the pits and you ram into him IN the pits is kinda annoying. The ones that should be kicked immedieatly are like the other numbnut who joined. First thing he did was demand we make the next race 450hp or less, then started bitching about us making him waste money on a car he was gonna sell, then complaining about the saloon specs and taking forever to get into a 4 door. Plus he made the start take forever when he tried to leave the room, so berkeley that guy.

aircooled wrote: So, lets just say HunterJP is my friend, so he gets into the lounge that way, but verlumpt isn't. What does he see when he goes to Hunter's page? Does it show him in a lounge? Can he enter that lounge? Can you go into non-friends lounges by association?

No, you can only join a friends lounge. When a friend is in the lounge of a person you don't know, it doesn't show that they're in a room at all.

you guys always make me chuckle

GT Standings

23 pts: Aircooled (AllAirCooled) : RX8 Type S 07'

22 pts: Greafin10: BMW M3 Coupe '07

18 pts: NickF40: Ford Mustang Mach 1 '71

17 pts: GTP_Spyhunter (HunterJP): BMW M3 Coupe '07

16 pts: Baelwerker: Auston Martin DB9 Coupe '06

10 pts: 92CelicaHalfTrac (concealer404): Toyota Supra 3.0 GT Turbo A '86

9 pts: RealMiniDriver: BMW 135i

Why are the last two Astons as well?

Saloon / Estate Standings

26 pts: Greafin10: BMW M5 08

26 pts: Aircooled (AllAirCooled): BMW M5 08

19 pts: Baelwerker: Holden Commodore SS 04

11 pts: 92CelicaHalfTrac (concealer404): Lotus Carlton '90

10 pts: RealMiniDriver: Audi RS 6 Avant '08

7 pts: NickF40: Jaguar S-Type R 02

7 pts: GTP_Spyhunter (HunterJP): BMW M5 08

Air, i have a Poopra, not an Aston.

Just some standings presentations I am messing with. Might make it easy to tell who is who. If this board supported tables it would be a bit nicer. I might try another angle also.

OK, its a bit of a pain to setup, but making mods will be easy.

I don't have a pic of the Carlton (so the color is probably wrong). Not sure if he is going to run it again, but when he does, I will update the pic.

In reply to aircooled:

I like the way you did the standings. I know that took some time but it sure is cool.

Yep, i'll run it again, no worries. I may pull a couple pics off of it for you before then, though.

Nick, for better or worse you've got to try to run the Mustang @ Aut. Ring. You were really looking good there in practice. I think that course suits your love for drifting.

My M3 may not be all that fast at that track but it's easy to get into a rhythm with it. Understandably, it's a bit harder with the M5. It's 1 sec. slower than the M3 so far. I tried to find the speed that I lost by changing the oil in the M3 this morning. It's now exactly 1 sec. slower than it was. Wow, that's 27sec. by the end of the race. Oh well, you works with what you've got.

Just curious - has everyone else's hp stayed the same since the start of the series? The M5 has lost 1hp. The M3 had stayed the same. It's oil was black as coal. So is the M5 but I'm not going to change it. I think it's @ 646 now. Apparently as the hp increases due to break-in the oil causes it to stay relatively even. So you don't see the gain until you change oil.

We'll probably have to move the next race to another date or week.

Server work is scheduled for Wednesday sept 21st, supposedly starts at 10ish pm, but the last one started early from what I heard.