I've noticed there is only one mechanism to serve a time penalty regardless what car or class you drive in this moment. And i think, thats not a very fair system. I did 2 ranked races yesterday, the NSU in Zolder and GT3 on the Hockenheim ring. 2 almost identical situations, got a ~0.25 sec time penalty in the NSU for cutting the first chicane, and a ~ 0.25 sec penalty in the Corvette for leaving track in T1 in Hockenheim. In the Corvette it's enough to break a little bit earlier for T2 and running through T2 a little bit slower, and your time penalty is served. Lost ~0.4 seconds in this lap, but i think it's ok. You can manage this without loosing a position and the guy behind me was'nt get much closer. And thats what i think is ok for a penalty that little. In the NSU it's quite a different story. You need literally spoken ages to serve the penalty. Breaking a little earlier does'nt even start the timer to drop, you have to get off the gas big way and roll around the track for a very long time to serve the penalty. To let the timer start to sink at all, you almost have to "stop" on the track, which is a problem in those tiny, low powered cars. In that case a ~0.25 sec penalty results in laptime almost 3 seconds slower, and the car, that was far behind me before, overtook me on S/F line. I think if you get a time penalty, you should be able to serve this penalty without ruin your complete race. Half a second slower is ok for a 0.25sec penalty, but 3 seconds and loosing positions is not. Is it possible to include some kind of BOP in the mechanism for this penalty system, so the timer starts faster to drop in low powered cars? I think many of us here had such a situation before and would support my suggestion.
Isn't it the same for everyone in the same class though? So if it takes longer in the NSU to serve a penalty, it does for all NSU's. Is it really worth a load of coding and for what, no one gains anything.
I've experienced differences in giving back the time gained with the same car, depending on the track. I believe this is track, not car class, dependent.
It looks like it's not really an issue, but if it was, I disagree with the argument you have here. Just because everyone's affected the same way doesn't mean it's fine then. Fair? Yes. Fine? Not necessary.
It does matter. If you are the only on who gets a penalty it a big difference if you're loosing half a second or 3 seconds a lap. GT3 - 0.25sec penalty = 0.4 seconds slower in this lap wich is nothing in GT3 NSU - 0.25sec penalty = 3 seconds slower in this lap wich is A WORLD in the NSU. The penalty might be the same, but the consequences are much harder in the NSU. The game engine does'nt realize fast enough that you are driving slower and does'nt reduce the time penalty. Thats my problem.
I think CaptainCoffee is talking 'bout the 0.25 seconds. And if not, that brings up the question how it's been calculated in your first lap without previous laptimes?
So that means the 0.25 seconds are calculated either by my previous laps or the predicted AI laptime. That is ok, but thats not my problem.
Could it be that your best valid lap at that point was a pretty slow one? Stuck in traffic or whatever. That would explain both why you had to give up so much and why generally it's not seen as an issue.
Nope. Started 4th and was in 4th place (halfway home) and allready reducing the distance to #3, but no traffic right infront of me, could run my laptimes without problems. 5th was ~ 5 or 6 seconds behind me, as i slightly cut the first chicane an got a 0.25 seconds penalty. Immediately after that i tried to serve the penalty and did not accelerate 100% up to the second chicane, but the game did not reduce the time penalty at all. So i "crawled" through the second chicane with #5 allready getting bigger in my mirror. Penalty starts to drop, but stops immediately after i hit the throttle again. So with ~80% gas up to chicane#3 nothing happend, except #5 is right in my back. It's a fact that in slower cars the game engine sucks to detect if you try to serve your penalty or not. The same is mentioned before by others (Tattuus/Suzuka/ranked race).