Ranked Race - Practice length excessive?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Nick Thorn, Nov 25, 2022.

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Do you prefer the current practice lengths?

  1. leave things alone everything is fine

    4 vote(s)
    44.4%
  2. I would prefer shorter sessions or no practice sessions

    5 vote(s)
    55.6%
  1. Nick Thorn

    Nick Thorn Member

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2019
    Ratings:
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    Just a quick poll to gauge other Drivers thoughts.

    For what it is worth from my perspective the current practice lengths seem excessive given I can practice in single player.
    I sometimes find myself in a session with a couple of drivers who for reasons unknown to me simply quit.
    However, as soon as the practice length comes near to its end sometimes there's a quick flurry of drivers who suddenly appear, presumably to get straight into the Race.
    It would seem most who join rank races feel more compelled to join when the session fills up a bit.

    Obviously if there are hundreds of servers dedicated with a large user base like iRacing I could see the point in long practice sessions, but currently Raceroom participation seems less than optimal.

    Just to be clear, its not like I don't need to practice, but sometimes I find myself alt-tabbing to view ACC sessions or generally scanning the net which often leads me to lose interest. Moreover, since most Ranked Races last a week or so, it is not like there isn't time to get up to speed on any given track.

    I am coming from a GT Sport mentality where I can pack in 3 races in an hour, which is sometimes all the time I have. Time is precious.

    Would appreciate your thoughts.
     
  2. FeltHλt

    FeltHλt Moderator Beta tester

    Joined:
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    Ratings:
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    Why there's no option in poll for longer practice?
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
  3. Nick Thorn

    Nick Thorn Member

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    hehe
    Point taken but I wanted to keep the poll simple.
    Hey I have an idea, see the 'Post New Thread option' ?
    Feel free to create your own poll, I am fairly new here and managed to create this one.
    Please be my guest :)
     
  4. FeltHλt

    FeltHλt Moderator Beta tester

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    question of the poll asks what i prefer, but answers dont cover the case of users who want even longer practices
     
  5. Nico Kunze

    Nico Kunze Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 1, 2018
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    I certainly dont use the practice sessions to really practice, maybe a couple laps just to get in the flow but no more so ill usually join within the last 5 minutes of practice. Since combos last for 2 whole weeks im just not in the mood to drive a given combo even more when it serves no real purpose. I personally definitely wouldnt want practice sessions completely gone tho. Im not gonna join a server early in a quali session if theres just a couple drivers on there and by the time thered be enough drivers on there for me to wanna join there wouldnt be enough time left in quali for me to have time to put in a few laps. So 10-15 minutes of practice so people can join is definitely my preferred option, any more than that (like how it currently is for the feature races) feels unneccessary to me but there might also be people who feel different about that
     
    • Informative Informative x 1
  6. Nick Thorn

    Nick Thorn Member

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    I didn't make this poll specifically for moderators or employees of kw studios.
    It is a general poll to gauge things in a non-granular manner.
    Thanks for the snark though when it is completely unnecessary given that this thread was meant to be neutral.
    Cheers.
     
  7. FeltHλt

    FeltHλt Moderator Beta tester

    Joined:
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    Im not sure how poll which only covers either current state or state you want is relevant
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
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  8. Nick Thorn

    Nick Thorn Member

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    Then please delete the thread ....you are a moderator, you have that power ....that would be preferable to me than you derailing the whole thing.
    I am sorry I didn't think of every scenario that would meet your requirements.
    Anyway, It isn't possible to change the poll after its creation.
    Either live with it or delete it. Your choice man :)
     
  9. Maskerader

    Maskerader Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2019
    Ratings:
    +352 / 0 / -0
    I can understand why longer practice can hurt unscheduled servers: one race is finished, the next one will only start after practice and quali end. Which means reducing the practice duration will increase how many races you can take part in in a given period.

    But for scheduled servers? If it's set up to run each hour, shorter practice won't change anything. In some sense, practice also serves as a notification that a race is coming in X minutes.

    Why people sometimes join only in the last few minutes I don't know, there can be a number of reasons. But for me, if I'm committed to take part in a race the only thing that would stop me from joining it right away is that nVidia's "Adaptive sync" option* doesn't work for the game in background and it runs at uncapped FPS thus loading up my PC to the max. If people decide on-the-fly by looking at participation numbers then I suspect practice duration won't have any effect, you would need something like in iRacing (or so I was told) where you sign up for the race beforehand and other drivers see how populated the race is going to be.

    * - This option works as vSync if your FPS exceed your monitor's refresh rate, but if FPS is below that, no sync is used.
     
    • Informative Informative x 1
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2022
  10. Nick Thorn

    Nick Thorn Member

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    Thanks for the informative replies, guys.
    It would appear that the majority are happy with the current system.
    Democracy suits me.

    One thing that could spice things up a bit is to extend the Racetime by 5 mins and clip 5 mins from practice. As that wouldn't hurt the schedule and would add a small but not insignificant element of strategy, especially on Races with tyre wear.
    I've noticed some very fast drivers spin off on the last lap or 2 as their tyres start to die.

    But that is not to be, so that is that then :)