Nascar League will be moving to Wednesday nights for Season 3

[AaronWebb85]

More details will become available in the fall.

 

[Hootius]

With some of the information starting to come in about the game, I want to keep everyone in the loop on how the league may be looking come Season 3.

As stated above, the league will be moving to Wednesday nights. Aaron will not be able to race on that night, so Hootius will be taking over the main leadership role for the league. As of now, I plan on keeping the start time of 9pm qualifying (unless we vote on an earlier time, but it would have to be a pretty solid majority to win), with the race immediately after.

- Due to the week day schedule, the races will be dropped to 25% length with x4 wear and keeping the current 1 Segment format with bonus points as we currently run. Still waiting on more information to be released if the # of Segments and how many laps are customizable. If the presets do not fit the League's preferred settings, we will just turn cautions off and do manual cautions and segments like we currently do. (August, part 2) It appears that the options are either no segments, or having 3 segments if the caution system is turned on. As it appeared in the stream, we saw a car flip and the caution did not come out. We will do more testing, but based on those 2 points, looks like we will be either using game chat, or breaking into groups and using Leader communication through Discord again and just do cautions and the 1 stage break manually (August, part 3)

- As of this moment, we plan on staying with pit road adjustments only. We will look into this further once we have more information on the game. Hearing the feedback from the league, we will stay with Pit Road adjustments only. (August) **CONFIRMED**

-If there is an option for a 1-shot qualifying, we will use that method. If not, we will keep with the current 4% qualifying race. There once again is no dedicated qualifying settings for online races. We will still have to use the 4% races as our qualifying method (August, part 2) **CONFIRMED**

-Roster will be maxed out at 16 cars, with 2 car teams vying for the team championship. Teammates need to run at least the same manufacturer, and not necessarily the real life teams as we did in S2. All full-time drivers will have a spot in the race, and reserves or waiting list drivers will only fill in if there is a spot open. After speaking with the current top points drivers in this current season, we are going to limit a number of top point finishers from teaming together for the next season. The reason we went to 4 man teams was to promote teamwork and spreading setup knowledge across more drivers. That backfired. So in the spirit of competition for the league, all current point leaders agreed and support this change. We will determine what the cutoff number will be when we get closer to the start of the next season (August)

- Seasons will be dropped to 10 races each, running a variety of track styles, including 1 road course. That will allow us to run at least 1 season in each type of car the game offers as long as the different cars provide us with unique racing oppritunuities (Cup x2, Xfinity and Trucks x1/ or possible rotating Cup and Trucks if there is not much interest in Xfinity). The Series Champion and Team Champions will be whomever accumulates the most points at the end of all 10 races. For bragging rights, I will also keep track of how we run in a 10-race, playoff format like the Cup cars run to help spice up the final race for even more drivers. Just to touch back with the rotation of series. That will only happen if each vehicle provides us with a unique racing experience. If they all act the same, we will just stay in the Cup cars (August, part 2)

- We will be running 2 preseason races to test out the game and it's options. For instance, if we will use the game's built in caution system, or if we will use manual cautions as we do now. Also, we will verify how we will use voice chat once we hear about if the game will have a built in system or if it will 2 parties w/ Discord how it is now. I have tracks in mind, but if someone wishes to purchase a track through the website, we will test there. Sounds like we will be getting in game voice chat which will help with clear leader communication to everyone. There will be rules in place for people being too talkative and becoming a distraction if we use game chat over parties/Discord like we currently use. (July)

- Damage will be on and there will be stiffer penalties in Season 3 for those at fault in wrecks that take out innocent cars. Unfortunately there will not be online damage again in Heat 2. There will be a set penalty system in place for repeat offenders who create cautions. Penalty System: 1st at fault accident in a race will not be penalized points, however that driver must start in the rear of the field on the ensuing restart. 2nd at fault in a race is a 2 point penalty and starting in the rear of the field on the restart. 3rd at fault in a race is a 5 point penalty and suspended for the next race. Accumulating 8 at faults during the season is a 1 race suspension. An at fault is declared when a driver clearly initiated contact that leads to a caution [ex: catching the apron and spinning in front of another car, bouncing off of the wall on turn exit and into another car, not holding a proper line and creating contact with another car, ect.]. A singular lag spike will not be declared an at fault accident, however that driver must start in the back of the field on the ensuing restart. Multiple lag spikes from a driver will result in that driver being asked to leave the race if it is deemed unsafe to drive around that car. Anything deemed a racing deal between 2 drivers will not count as an at fault. However, too many racing accidents by 1 driver can lead to a warning, and possible 1 race suspension if it keeps happening (August, part 2) **CONFIRMED**

- I'm just updating it on this post since it was discussed in PSN chat. Heat 2 will give the option to run AI cars in multiplayer lobbies. Even if we don't have a full field of 16, we will not be using AI cars in our league races. 

- In regards to customized cars, we will start the league off using the real cars themselves. If the game and the online servers show that they can handle running custom cars without any weird glitches, it may be considered for seasons moving forward. The car customizer will be very limited and there will be only 5 car numbers to choose from. Unless this changes in the future to where anyone who would want a custom car could have that option, we will just stick with using real cars (July) **CONFIRMED REAL CARS ONLY IN SEASON 3 **

- Black flags are available for online races and will be turned on. The game will penalize any drivers caught speeding into pit road. (August, part 2) **CONFIRMED**

- Heat 2 will offer stability assists, however it is still inline with current Normal vs Simulation setting in Heat Evolution. That balance provides a very big advantage to the assist users when contact is made with non-assist users. This will be tested out, and if it continues to be the case in Heat 2, the league will continue to be a no-assist league. (August, part 2) To be aligned with the changes happening in the new F1 leagues as well, this league will continue to be a no-assist league as we currently are. **CONFRIMED**


This thread will be an ongoing update as more information comes out about the game. We are in the midst of a long and frustrating season, so I wanted to start the conversion now to help keep the excitement up for the future of this league. Feel free to message me and let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions on how we can make the races more fun come Season 3.

 

[jeromef1]

I'm glad you are replacing Aaron on the lead of the series! I'm sure you'll do an excellent job!!

 

[Meattyloaf]

I definitely like the idea of a shorter season and smaller fields. However, I feel like this should be the "superior series" of the PRL Nascar championship. Therefore, I would like to see this series stay strictly cup cars. I have this idea of doing like a rookie series with the trucks to introduce people into the Nascar realm of PRL. We would use similar rules maybe a change here and there and these guys could be pulled up into the cup series when a spot opens, plus it allows more to run on a regular basis. This could potentially keep everyone competitve and help those that struggle week in and week out to learn how to better deal with setups and car handling. I have this grand idea of a series like this, that's just a short paraphrase of the idea. If anyone is interested in hearing more about this series idea I don't mind sharing more about it.

 

[Hootius]

I like the idea in theory Meatty, the only opposition that I would have for it would be how viable the attendance would be on a secondary night. For example, I'll be racing in a GT3 Series, and Indycar series, and this Nascar series, so adding a forth night on my schedule might be a little rough to just help mentor, when i can do that already during practice lobbies. I've seen other cases in other leagues that try to have a feeder system, and then it would end up being maybe like 3 cars who would run that race.

One thing we can look at is if we get a lot of attention for the league and we have way more than 16 sign up, maybe doing a secondary race while the primary race is going on to help get people used to racing around one another in a league format. While that may not help with a primary driver being there to give guidance, at least would keep people engaged and give them the ever so important track time. We could also assign a small points value to that race and it's participants to help motivate others to race.

As for keeping the primary in the league the Cup cars, that's something we can look at when the game comes out. Really it should be about what's most fun, and what gives us the best showing. Maybe all three series are great, maybe just the trucks are great and the cars suck, maybe the trucks suck and we don't want them. We won't know something like that until the game comes out.

But hey, if there is enough interest in it and you want to run it on a different night, you'll have my support for something like that.

 

[Hootius]

Updated my original post now that a few things have come to light about the new game.

 

[Hootius]

Made a few more updates. Feel free to give your feedback and opinions.

 

[jeromef1]

Made a few more updates. Feel free to give your feedback and opinions.

Can you highlight those new updates or maybe add a date beside?!

 

[Hootius]

Made a few more updates. Feel free to give your feedback and opinions.

Can you highlight those new updates or maybe add a date beside?!

Done and sooooo needy!! 

 

[vWardude]

Is there a lot of interest to run truck and xfinity? I'm not too interested in that as I feel like it's similar to going from playing in the majors to the minors lol

 

[Hootius]

That's definitely why we are starting with the Cup series. It'll give us time to see if swapping series would really be worth it when the time comes. If they really all are just the same, I doubt we will swap and just stay at the Cup. Maybe just do Trucks at Eldora for a special event or something.

 

[Hootius]

Added a few more updates

 

[vWardude]

I like the black flags. My question is, are they available to be turned on alone or paired up with yellows like it is in this game

 

[Hootius]

In the current Heat, you can have Black Flags only with Yellows off, or both combined. The one screenshot that they have of the multi-player menu, it has a Flags option (notice the plural). I took that as it'll probably be the same setup that Heat has, and we can have Black Flags on while running our manual cautions. Then again, the way 704 is releasing information, we probably won't know for sure until the game actually comes out and we try to ourselves.

Also, I added the proposed Penalty system moving forward in Season 3. Feel free to give your feedback on that.

 

[jeromef1]

Lag spike may be solved by the new rule we have added today! Look at the homepage

 

[Hootius]

Lag spike may be solved by the new rule we have added today! Look at the homepage

Since everyone in the league is American, I am not so sure it is as much ping as much as some people using wifi and having occasional spikes, or something else of that nature.

 

[AaronWebb85]

Plus the games servers are trash

 

[Hootius]

Plus the games servers are trash

That's putting it incredibly politely lol

 

[jeromef1]

Since it's hard to monitor who is using wifi and who's not, I would say that Wifi is not tolerated here.... You cannot play online on a Wifi connection, especially with racing game. Maybe with Call of Duty but not in a racing competition. If we would have had the ability to monitor who's on wifi and who's not, we will have add the rule that all drivers who are using wifi are not eligible.

 

[Hootius]

Since it's hard to monitor who is using wifi and who's not, I would say that Wifi is not tolerated here.... You cannot play online on a Wifi connection, especially with racing game. Maybe with Call of Duty but not in a racing competition. If we would have had the ability to monitor who's on wifi and who's not, we will have add the rule that all drivers who are using wifi are not eligible.

To that note, one thing I take into account is that this is more of an arcade than a sim, and also consoles attract a younger audience than PC. Not only that, this game series is in it's infancy also, so your more experienced racers (IE, old guys like Aaron and I who can rearrange our houses to make sure we have proper connections, lol) have not taken to this series like say how there is a bigger mature following for the F1 series. And by that, I am referring to the living situations were half of the current field might just be stuck with wifi and really can't address that issue due to school dorms or still living at home. That's why instead of a hard rule, I would rather give someone a warning and then just park them if that is the case instead of parking them completely from the league. For the first season, I was on Wifi, but my router was also very close to the console, and I never had a lag spike issue.