Join In On The Action "Register Here" To View The Forums

Already a Member Login Here

Board index Forum Index
User avatar
NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
Posts: 7810
Joined: 08 Apr 2002, 9:45 am

Post 11 May 2016, 6:58 am

Please post comments on the race here. I'll get to mine soon...
User avatar
Administrator
 
Posts: 7374
Joined: 26 Jun 2000, 1:13 pm

Post 11 May 2016, 8:30 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHpzPtlu1xY

Brad pulls into the pits and this video clip is taken.

I made a couple of mistakes in this race that cost me. One minor, and one major. The minor one was in Gallery lap 2. I believe I am at fault for not pursuing Chris to the end. I played it too safe by trying to clog Gallery and causing more chaos. In the last couple of turn of lap 3, I did not use my emergency braking to come into the last corner first, this allowed Kal initiative. I could not regain it. It was my error in orders...

Darn, darn, darn, darny darn!!!!

Congrats to all on a good race, and thanks to Mike for running the RFR. One positive thing is that I get to have the better graphics for another season with Mike's stewardship!
User avatar
NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
Posts: 7810
Joined: 08 Apr 2002, 9:45 am

Post 11 May 2016, 9:19 am

bbauska wrote:Congrats to all on a good race, and thanks to Mike for running the RFR. One positive thing is that I get to have the better graphics for another season with Mike's stewardship!

Sorry pal, I'm running the newbies in C3. You're going to miss your stock car, aren't you?
User avatar
NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
Posts: 405
Joined: 11 Apr 2014, 6:13 am

Post 11 May 2016, 9:42 am

Chris here...

So the last time I raced this track was at the finals of WBC just last year, so I was very familiar with Marina Bay. In that race, the best finishers all had 60/60 cars and max wear. Now, that was possible based on the way the cars get built in the finals for that tourney, and its not really applicable to us. So I was unsure of how successful a 60/60 car could ultimately be. Furthermore, the last time I raced this track online I ran a 40/40 car and felt it had a lot of potential.

So I chose to run the 40/40 again and set out to prove that it was the right car for the track. Even though I didn't win in the end, I feel that I *mostly* achieved my goals. I proved that a race-from-the-front car has some big strengths on this track. And ultimately, I only needed two more wear in order to stay a full turn ahead of Rando. So perhaps I should have fought less? Would Fabio and I both be in better place if one of us had dropped back earlier? Hard to say.

What I do know is that my plot was designed very specifically to be a race-from-the-front and I had planned to spend lots of wear earlier in order to try to jump out to a full-turn lead on the rest of the cars. Where you do that specifically is in the Sling/Fullerton combo. Moving through both of those in one turn for 2W total is hugely helpful, but also requires you to continue spending lots of wear to really take advantage of it. You not only need clean air to pull that off, but you've also committed yourself to spending in every other corner too.

Now, on the plus side, Fabio pretty much let me have my line for the whole race. In the first lap, he jumped out ahead of me in turn 7 and didn't try to block off Esplanada or Raffles later either, which allowed me to mostly run my line with clean air. In the second lap, Fabio made the calculation to just let me take the lead in turn 23 instead of continuing to fight each other. And again, it afforded me clean air to execute the Sling unimpeded.

Where I really lost the wear that would have handed me the win, was in the lead up to Memorial Corner. On turn 6 I lost a wear being forced to go inside without the line. Then on turn 18 when I caught up to Fabio again, I lost another wear going outside in Boulevard. Then again Memorial Corner bit me in the butt on turn 21 by forcing me to spend the skill chips I was saving for some rolls in lap three. So that's where my carefully planned resources disappeared to.

Based on my fewer remaining resources, I decided to revise the plot I had set up before the race started. Originally, I was going to spend two wear on turn 28 to run hot into the Gallery. But that was when I still had 2 wear left for the final lap. With those resources gone, I had to reconsider. So instead I slowed down, which cost me a full turn on the back chase pack.

More than that though, it changed my whole final lap. Originally, I was planning to be 2 turns ahead of everyone else going into lap 3. If that's the case, then I lose a turn between Sheares and Boulevard, but never actually spend wear until the end of the course, on Esplanada and Raffles. But because I was only one turn ahead of everyone at this point, I couldn't afford to lose that turn lead. So instead I replotted where my wear got spent, this time on Sheares and Stamford instead to run a line closer to what I did in lap 1 and 2.

This allowed me to maintain my lead until Esplanada, where I was forced to slow down without even making it into the corner. My hope was that everyone would have run out of wear by this point and wouldn't have been able to catch me anyway. But man oh man, if I had that 2W I lost earlier and could spend one in each of Esplanada and Raffles? It would have been sweet.

And isn't that how it goes? The best laid plans of mice and men... a plan only survives its first contact with the enemy... etc.

Heading into that third lap, there were a bunch of people that all had a lot of remaining wear and was starting to make me sweat. Tim B looked like a legitimate threat, and Rando, Cody, and Kal all seemed like they could do some damage if they were able to get around enough people.

But now we come to it... the end of lap 2 and what Brad did to the rest of the pack. When Brad slowed down it forced everyone into Gallery more slowly than they wanted, but also forced them to spend precious wear on braking, which is just about the last thing you want to do. This event ended up being really pivotal to the whole race. It destroyed Tim B.'s chances of winning (which at the time I felt were good), but it really killed the other leader's chances of placing. Suddenly, they had all lost position and the chase pack with wear would soon be in charge.

If you take notice, the only person unscathed by Brad's move was Rando.

The next big moment came at turn 33-34. Sheares Corner became a meat grinder where people lost wear all over either through braking or trying to maintain position. Again, the only one really unaffected by all this was Rando who (very smartly) chose to play it slow. At this point in the race, Rando really was in charge. When you line up ahead of a corner next to someone, the person with more wear is going to win. So with everyone but Kal effectively having no wear at all, all Rando had to do was play smart and spend his wear at the correct spots.

And that is exactly what he did. I was really hoping that he would get held up in Raffles a little more effectively by Brad and Kal, but it was not meant to be. And though I had a turn lead on everyone, that only really meant a lead on people without wear. Because when you plot 60 5 turns in a row (like I did) then it really doesn't take much wear to make that fake turn lead evaporate.

So congrats to Rando! He ran an oppurtunistic race and succeeded admirably. He sat and went slow when he saw the way blocked, and bided his time never trying to force his way through. This kept him from spending resourced unnecessarily, and eventually allowed him to just gracefully pass everyone.
User avatar
Truck Series Driver (Pro II)
 
Posts: 895
Joined: 29 Dec 2010, 1:02 pm

Post 11 May 2016, 10:33 am

SLOTerp wrote:
bbauska wrote:Congrats to all on a good race, and thanks to Mike for running the RFR. One positive thing is that I get to have the better graphics for another season with Mike's stewardship!

Sorry pal, I'm running the newbies in C3. You're going to miss your stock car, aren't you?

Surely I did bad enough to go down to newbies and can keep my car. :laugh:
User avatar
NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
Posts: 2982
Joined: 22 Nov 2014, 4:13 pm

Post 11 May 2016, 3:06 pm

The final numbers didn't just fall off, they fell off a cliff! Everyone except Rando and Mike were under 80mph through the final sector.
MarinaBayC1Summary.png
User avatar
NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
Posts: 2982
Joined: 22 Nov 2014, 4:13 pm

Post 11 May 2016, 3:09 pm

I can see I'll be feelin' the love in C2 :winkgrin:
User avatar
Indy Car Driver (Pro IV)
 
Posts: 140
Joined: 09 Sep 2014, 9:06 am

Post 11 May 2016, 6:30 pm

radynski wrote:Chris here...

So the last time I raced this track was at the finals of WBC just last year, so I was very familiar with Marina Bay. In that race, the best finishers all had 60/60 cars and max wear. Now, that was possible based on the way the cars get built in the finals for that tourney, and its not really applicable to us. So I was unsure of how successful a 60/60 car could ultimately be. Furthermore, the last time I raced this track online I ran a 40/40 car and felt it had a lot of potential.

So I chose to run the 40/40 again and set out to prove that it was the right car for the track. Even though I didn't win in the end, I feel that I *mostly* achieved my goals. I proved that a race-from-the-front car has some big strengths on this track. And ultimately, I only needed two more wear in order to stay a full turn ahead of Rando. So perhaps I should have fought less? Would Fabio and I both be in better place if one of us had dropped back earlier? Hard to say.

What I do know is that my plot was designed very specifically to be a race-from-the-front and I had planned to spend lots of wear earlier in order to try to jump out to a full-turn lead on the rest of the cars. Where you do that specifically is in the Sling/Fullerton combo. Moving through both of those in one turn for 2W total is hugely helpful, but also requires you to continue spending lots of wear to really take advantage of it. You not only need clean air to pull that off, but you've also committed yourself to spending in every other corner too.

Now, on the plus side, Fabio pretty much let me have my line for the whole race. In the first lap, he jumped out ahead of me in turn 7 and didn't try to block off Esplanada or Raffles later either, which allowed me to mostly run my line with clean air. In the second lap, Fabio made the calculation to just let me take the lead in turn 23 instead of continuing to fight each other. And again, it afforded me clean air to execute the Sling unimpeded.

Where I really lost the wear that would have handed me the win, was in the lead up to Memorial Corner. On turn 6 I lost a wear being forced to go inside without the line. Then on turn 18 when I caught up to Fabio again, I lost another wear going outside in Boulevard. Then again Memorial Corner bit me in the butt on turn 21 by forcing me to spend the skill chips I was saving for some rolls in lap three. So that's where my carefully planned resources disappeared to.

Based on my fewer remaining resources, I decided to revise the plot I had set up before the race started. Originally, I was going to spend two wear on turn 28 to run hot into the Gallery. But that was when I still had 2 wear left for the final lap. With those resources gone, I had to reconsider. So instead I slowed down, which cost me a full turn on the back chase pack.

More than that though, it changed my whole final lap. Originally, I was planning to be 2 turns ahead of everyone else going into lap 3. If that's the case, then I lose a turn between Sheares and Boulevard, but never actually spend wear until the end of the course, on Esplanada and Raffles. But because I was only one turn ahead of everyone at this point, I couldn't afford to lose that turn lead. So instead I replotted where my wear got spent, this time on Sheares and Stamford instead to run a line closer to what I did in lap 1 and 2.

This allowed me to maintain my lead until Esplanada, where I was forced to slow down without even making it into the corner. My hope was that everyone would have run out of wear by this point and wouldn't have been able to catch me anyway. But man oh man, if I had that 2W I lost earlier and could spend one in each of Esplanada and Raffles? It would have been sweet.

And isn't that how it goes? The best laid plans of mice and men... a plan only survives its first contact with the enemy... etc.

Heading into that third lap, there were a bunch of people that all had a lot of remaining wear and was starting to make me sweat. Tim B looked like a legitimate threat, and Rando, Cody, and Kal all seemed like they could do some damage if they were able to get around enough people.

But now we come to it... the end of lap 2 and what Brad did to the rest of the pack. When Brad slowed down it forced everyone into Gallery more slowly than they wanted, but also forced them to spend precious wear on braking, which is just about the last thing you want to do. This event ended up being really pivotal to the whole race. It destroyed Tim B.'s chances of winning (which at the time I felt were good), but it really killed the other leader's chances of placing. Suddenly, they had all lost position and the chase pack with wear would soon be in charge.

If you take notice, the only person unscathed by Brad's move was Rando.

The next big moment came at turn 33-34. Sheares Corner became a meat grinder where people lost wear all over either through braking or trying to maintain position. Again, the only one really unaffected by all this was Rando who (very smartly) chose to play it slow. At this point in the race, Rando really was in charge. When you line up ahead of a corner next to someone, the person with more wear is going to win. So with everyone but Kal effectively having no wear at all, all Rando had to do was play smart and spend his wear at the correct spots.

And that is exactly what he did. I was really hoping that he would get held up in Raffles a little more effectively by Brad and Kal, but it was not meant to be. And though I had a turn lead on everyone, that only really meant a lead on people without wear. Because when you plot 60 5 turns in a row (like I did) then it really doesn't take much wear to make that fake turn lead evaporate.

So congrats to Rando! He ran an opportunistic race and succeeded admirably. He sat and went slow when he saw the way blocked, and bided his time never trying to force his way through. This kept him from spending resourced unnecessarily, and eventually allowed him to just gracefully pass everyone.


Chris, thanks for writing 80% of my after action report. You captured my actions very accurately. I will add some thoughts, opinions, and motivations.

First thought (and I will copy track creator / game savior Doug with this comment) -- I dislike this track. I dislike it because I think that the winning car design envelope is too narrow. None of the cars which finished well have a top speed higher than 140. To me, that narrows the design envelope too much. I hope I don't sound assholishly ungrateful to the guy who has transitioned this racing game I love so much to the internet and also to successful face-to-face racing.

Second, I also saw that WBC final race. I saw how Mike A crushed it coming from the back. He won fairly decisively.

I chose not to go 40 - 40. With 60 - 60, I didn't have enough stuff to bid to the front. As Chris described, I employed as much patience as I was able. I hoped that a small fraction of the field would off themselves in front of me and the remainder would be crippled by lack of wear on the last lap. It turned out pretty much that way. I rolled relatively few dice (I think?), and when I did it was with many skill chips.

Brad did me (and Chris) a big favor near end lap 2. Tim B and I emailed about that yesterday. I rejoiced at the time!

Nobody made it easy to pass on the final lap -- I gained the use of very few racing lines. But with a huge wear lead and as Chris described a long slow section, I wended to the front. Then at the very end my 60 accel beat his 40.

Thanks Mike (Steward), Chris (for the kind comments), and all my competitors. See most of you pretty soon.
User avatar
NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
Posts: 7810
Joined: 08 Apr 2002, 9:45 am

Post 13 May 2016, 5:33 pm

Congratulations to Rando in running a masterful race. Kudos!

Other than to win the race, my secondary goal was to win the GP. That meant two things: staying within a few places of Tim B. and avoiding a DNF.

My race started poorly with the mis-shift on the start. How I responded to that misfortune was all wrong. Instead of playing a 'from the back' strategy, I burned through a tremendous amount of wear just to move up to the middle. Unlike Rando, I don't seem to have the patience to run from the rear.

I could not get a good read on this track and used my wear very inefficiently. I used too much in the Memorial/Stamford/RecCenter sequence to very little advantage. Regards the chance roll resulting in a spin as the 3rd lap started, I'm ok with that decision. I thought Baker had a real chance for a 2nd place finish, meaning I needed to end in a better position to win the GP. As it turns out, it was a non-factor.

This track was quite challenging. Not my favorite track but I appreciated the different way you had to think about strategy (though not so much car builds). I had the right build, and my intended come from behind strategy could have worked (as demonstrated by Rando), but I guess I didn't have the discipline to pull if off.

Regards winning the Grand Prix. I won because Tim B. missed a single dice roll at Istanbul, allowing me to sneak into first place. Ah well, I'll take it. :grin:

See y'all in Mexico!
User avatar
NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
Posts: 7810
Joined: 08 Apr 2002, 9:45 am

Post 13 May 2016, 5:39 pm

p.s. Thank you Kal, for just missing the cut for C1. I am so happy to not have to submit RM plots for season 3.
User avatar
Ambassador
 
Posts: 1629
Joined: 12 Jul 2001, 3:11 pm

Post 17 May 2016, 5:25 am

SLOTerp wrote:p.s. Thank you Kal, for just missing the cut for C1. I am so happy to not have to submit RM plots for season 3.


I aim to please.

In general, I am happy with the race I ran. Made a lot of progress coming from the back, but squandered my wear/skill in lap 3 through Memorial Corner and Stamford trying to be just a little too clever. I think, had I plotted 80 instead of 100, the extra wear and 2 skill would have given me a run at first, or at least not require a chance roll later on to try to stay in it. This could have looked a lot different.

And then the miss of the block on Rando was a kick to the gut. Even after all of the above, that would have kept me in it with his (then) failed pass.
User avatar
NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
Posts: 2982
Joined: 22 Nov 2014, 4:13 pm

Post 19 May 2016, 3:10 pm

The composite 24 car field for Marina Bay.
FullField.png
User avatar
NASCAR Driver (Pro V)
 
Posts: 2982
Joined: 22 Nov 2014, 4:13 pm

Post 19 May 2016, 4:13 pm

This is the points finish taking points from the 24 car fields.
Final Field.png