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NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
Posts: 7810
Joined: 08 Apr 2002, 9:45 am

Post 26 Feb 2021, 9:56 am

Please post comments here.
User avatar
NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
Posts: 7810
Joined: 08 Apr 2002, 9:45 am

Post 26 Feb 2021, 11:49 am

Ok, that was just fun. My mis-plot was frustrating but I got back into contention in the end and had I not spun in the final corner (thanks, Tim), I might've made 2nd place.

I really liked this track, Doug. The feature with the split corner worked really well. I think we did it right by making them separate for the purposes of crashes, although it did cost me. If that had been a 3-wide, I would've passed that crash avoidance test at the end (I rolled an 8).

I thought about maybe narrowing the track in some places but after talking with a few of the others and, based on your comments, I've backed off of that. I generally don't like tracks that run 3-wide throughout but this one worked well and still provided plenty of knife-fighting in the corners.

Given we were done in under 30 turns, three laps is not a problem. I'm glad we didn't do three laps, though. We would've been racing past midnight!

It was great seeing you, Tim & Jim - it's been too long. If you want to get involved in some more TTS races, the Winter Storm league has openings in both the Saturday & Sunday afternoon groups. The Thursday night group (most of the drivers last night) is at capacity. We race once a month. Just drop me a note.

A huge thanks to Chris for assisting in the RM duties!
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Indy Car Driver (Pro IV)
 
Posts: 23
Joined: 26 Aug 2015, 8:57 am

Post 26 Feb 2021, 2:13 pm

Some follow-up from last night.

First off, thanks to all for your time. This testing put my mind at ease that this was a good track. I find big wide-open older tracks are bit challenging because the game system can break down if there are too many really long straights with few meaningful choices on the player's part.

For instance, my original take on Reims was perhaps more true to life but did not feel interesting to race. First off the track was 120 spaces long. And there was only 1 corner between Muizon and Thellois. I ended up cutting the track down 25% and effectively making up 2nd corner down the back straight.

The track width is a bit of a liberty as well. I've heard commentary of cars running 3-wide down the straights (in a rolling road block no less) but I doubt there would be many cars 3-wide in the corners. I think the run from Calvaire to Muizon is probably narrower in theory.

However, the outside line in most of these corners is almost always the wrong the choice... it just might be the only choice you have. So the penalty for trying to be 3 wide in most of the corners is this sub-optimal line not a late brake.

I also heard some commentary from actual races at Reims that cars either took advantage of their raw speed down the back straight and braking into Thillois or they took advantage of speed through the corners between Calvaire and Muizon. If the track is narrowed in that later section, it reduces the ability of cars shooting for a wear strategy to be effective.

We actually saw this last night. I was running a high wear strategy and exited Theillois in first at the end of lap 1, but was the 4th car to enter Calvaire as 3 top speed people passed me on the front straight. I repassed them by the time I exited Muizon a full turn ahead of anyone else and then had them all close in down that back straight. 2 wear less and it could have been a very different finish for me.

Some notes on the corners:

First off -- Thillois. https://youtu.be/B2RrFkO8kek?t=344

I mentioned that Annie Bousquet was named for a famous female race driver. https://www.historicracingnews.com/Arti ... squet/1960

I mentioned that some of the corner names are real and some aren't. Bratelle Nord was sinply the stretch of track between Annie Bousquet and Muizon. As far as I can tell the corner in the middle of that section did not have a name so I conflated those two.

La Garenne is the only real "corner" on the back straight of Reims and it was more of a kink. Rn 31 is the name of the road that part of the track ran on. So when I decided to make a second corner there I called it Rn 31.