[Matthias Rudolph]

Just watch the current Split 1 race.
I'm watching youtube, friend of mine is driving.
Top 5, 4 of them are driving like total idiots.
Totally offtrack on purpose.
Those cheaters should be banned in my opinion.

[Russell Sobie]

I wouldn't go that far, but unfortunately since the track doesn't penalize so people are going to do whatever they can. Protests could certainly be filed but I don't know how much traction (pardon the pun) that would get since it's obviously how some of these times are getting set and that would be a logistical problem with warning/suspending people for essentially track cutting.

1:00.1 lap times out there going all the way off at turn 1 during this last race. I keep it on the track and barely scratch 1:00.9 with a super lucky lap (got to draft on straight for a bit).

[Alexander Irish]

At least now i know how the sub 1min time was possible. Wasn't aware that t1 cutting is so lucrative.

This race could not have been fun to participate in (with p1&p2 constantly cutting). This sucks.

[Matthias Rudolph]

I just don´t get it.
obviously leaving the track in front of Corners? just ridiculous. just because it is valid in AC, doesn´t mean you should do it.
well, did a 1.00.2 without this bs. and I doubt it is that much of an Advantage anyway.
It´s just against anything I´ve done in many years^^

Edit: guess you´ll see what I mean. embarrassing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlfzayDW...e=youtu.be

[Max Gripp]

https://youtu.be/kLPaobr5ZX0
https://youtu.be/_wnVPFn74lQ
https://youtu.be/MlfzayDWS6w

fun to race against 

[Fr.dr.k S.d.rst.dt]

It's so dumb that you can cut so much, I dont blame people for doing it. If you dont get a penalty for it someone is gonna do it and if they gain an advantage by doing it why shouldnt you?
Meanwhile if you go a smidge to deep into T4-5 at monza you get hit with a penalty even if you dont cut the chicane but at RBR you can go as wide as you want without even having the time invalidated? Its so dumb.

[Andy Riches]

I have no issues with saying I use all the track available, including run off... I'm guessing SRS servercfg is set to 3 wheels out. If you don't drive to the limits allowed then you are shooting yourself in the foot for no reason, anything below the limits as allowed ingame is just your own arbitrary idea of track limits and you cant expect others to conform to them. There is only one very precise very tangible limit we can all drive to and that is the valid lap limit ingame which is set in the servercfg by the SRS admin.

They may have the wheels_out= line set to 2 already. If it is set at 3 they should change it to 2. If they do already have it at 2 then this is the best you can hope for limits wise as wheels out = 1 is basically a penalty if you go over a curb with one wheel, we tried that on our old server because we dont particularly want to be using such run off but 2 is the best compromise.

[Russell Sobie]

If "wheels_out" lists the number of wheels you CAN have out BEFORE penalty, then I'm pretty sure it is set to two for SRS servers, as going more than 2 wheels is what causes qualifying lap invalidation. If you are saying that 2 wheels out should incur a penalty, then that's a different discussion entirely.

However, that doesn't really matter here, as you can go all 4 wheels out of bounds here and get no penalty and your lap counts in Q, so that leads me to believe it is the track's data and not the server settings that allow people to look like they can't see where the paint ends on this track.

You are tip-towing into "scrub/anti-scrub" territory insofar as the rules of the game are concerned. While I agree with you for games like fighting games or FPS or what have you, sim racing is a bit of a different monster, especially given that AC doesn't have the best penalty system in the whole world.

If you don't drive to the limits allowed then you are shooting yourself in the foot for no reason, anything below the limits as allowed ingame is just your own arbitrary idea of track limits and you cant expect others to conform to them.

That's backwards. What is arbitrary is the actual limits allowed because they don't match the painted white lines. What I expect others to do is just stay between the white lines (2 wheels on at least) and what I don't expect people to HAVE to do is do a bunch of experimentation to find out where the level designer happened to draw the lines "under the hood" that will cause a time penalty or not. 

The "reason" people are shooting them selves in the foot is because, by most accounts, keeping 2 wheels in bounds is supposed to be required, otherwise you are out of bounds and would normally get some sort of penalty in a real race. Since we are left with the horrible "slow down below 35kph or for 10 seconds in the middle of the racing line and cause a giant pile up" version of live penalties in AC it is not surprising that level designers are pretty lenient in their drawing where the penalties are enforced. 

Imagine the nightmare that lap 1 turn 1 would be at RBR if everyone that had to go a bit off track to avoid first turn wrecking and were all given AC's "slow down" penalty. Every race would be a lap 1 pile up... not just every other one like it is now.

Edit: Something I just remembered is that on tracks like Donington where they are notorious for having out of bounds borders drastically different from the painted lines, would you argue that you should be "driving the limit" there as well? Because that would mean turing right at the chicane and skipping the entire last part of the track since the track allows it.

[Andy Riches]

Yeah you are right on the first part, the RBR run off must be counted as track (up to the point they are not.) You have a wheels out option in the cfg and also a race penalty/gas cut option so you can set it to have qualifying disqualification without the annoying race throttle cut which is what we used to do.

I disagree on the other points, there is plenty of track cutting in real racing. IIRC they even added those larger sausage curbs at this very track to try and stop F1 drivers (so at the highest level of motorsport) using so much run off at RBR. The last BTCC race they did the same at Thruxton by placing a tyre stack at the last chicane because drivers were cutting it too much.

I used to have the same opinion as you and refused to go beyond the grey stuff but could see it often in MP where I was putting myself at a disadvantage and then you set an RSR time and wonder if your competitors are using more track or you are driving in a race and spend half your thought process analyzing if the bit of curb you took is too much curb or not enough and oh wait that guy is taking a bit more here or a bit less there so should I be doing the same... in the end I said balls to it I will just drive to the limits set by the game settings/RSR as that is a tangible limit for everybody.

At the end of the day I'm happy to race to any limit as long as it is the same for everybody. To race to strictly 2 wheels outside the actual track SRS would need tp police every race though. Until then you can either be left wondering if other people are using more road than you and whether you are using enough, or just race to the valid track limit and be satisfied it is the same for all. IMO.

[Russell Sobie]

Right, and one of the pluses of SRS is that it is mostly a self sufficient system: people sign up, join the server at the right time, race, and points appear on a website, all automatically.

The only thing that isn't 100% automatic is the policing of bad behavior. I'm pretty sure that there have been cases where protest videos have been made for people cutting the track (like in my Donington example). I don't know what the end result of those protests were. If people got warnings and/or suspensions for cutting the track, especially in a dangerous way, then it seems like one could make the argument that everyone blatantly going 4 wheels out of bounds to get the optimal apex at turn 1 at RBR would be reportable as well.

Perhaps administration can chime in here and tell us if we should even bother sending in videos of people exploiting the track. If it isn't something that is ever going to be policed, then essentially those of us complaining about racing like this don't really have any legs to stand on and will either have stick to their guns and remain scrubs, or join the folks at the top of the fastest lap leaderboards and graze their left wheels on the wall at turn 1 here and anywhere else it is "technically allowed".

Oh, and as far as I know, the "plenty of track cutting" in professional motorsport is typically penalized with time penalties and such, is it not? They add the sausages to dissuade people from trying in the first place, not to say that it is okay to go there but your front wings will suffer.