[Edward James Grey]

Hi Guys..

Just did the F3 Dallara race at Red Bull Ring, and watching some of the other drivers in front of me, some were taking there car fully off the track, entire chassis on the other side of the kirbing, and then back on again when going through the turn...
I see this as an outright exploit of the game, as i'm sure in real life racing that would be seen as gaining an unfair advantage.

I have video and photo's of this if needed. But honestly, i was being gained on by 1/2 a second through just that turn alone when the culprit was doing this.

Thoughts?

[Igor Relja]

If it's not a "real" cut like going straight through the chicane, and the game doesn't say it's a cut, it's not an exploit IMO. Opening the corner is something even real drivers do all the time and sometimes it's sanctioned, and sometimes it's not. I don't think there's a practical way to police if everybody's staying in the limits so it's best to let the game/server handle it, at least on official Kunos tracks.

But good thread. I'd like to see other people's opinions about it.

[Andrea Papasodaro]

I would like to have a map to be able to see the real track limits.
To me, at least in AC, I don't consider it as exploiting.
I call exploiting some cases like F1 2018 where people were driving at Paul Ricard outside the track and making laps 10 seconds faster than what was possible when driving on track

[Jim C Russell]

Hi Guys..

Just did the F3 Dallara race at Red Bull Ring, and watching some of the other drivers in front of me, some were taking there car fully off the track, entire chassis on the other side of the kirbing, and then back on again when going through the turn...
I see this as an outright exploit of the game, as i'm sure in real life racing that would be seen as gaining an unfair advantage.

I have video and photo's of this if needed. But honestly, i was being gained on by 1/2 a second through just that turn alone when the culprit was doing this.

Thoughts?

I suppose you could protest it and let SRS set a precedent one way or the other.

[Filip Stoyanovich]

From what I've seen, track builders can define the track limits which are then used by the sim. The server owner sets the server as either two wheels, all four wheels or no wheels allowed off those track limits - beyond the line. I think two wheels is pretty much realistic and most widespread in what we could see so far from real racing stewards judging and I think that's what is used here in SRS.

However, if this worries you, the best you can do is use some practice time and learn these track limits yourself before the actual event, what is tolerated and what isn't. And then try and do your best within that frame. Whatever the sim tells you, run like that. I'm pretty sure those people you've seen go off limits and using exploits in your opinion, have done that too. So then, compare your findings in an official practice/qualifying session and then roll with it and use it in the race itself. On some tracks like Chang for example, what I've seen is that the timing sessions are pretty rigorous and won't count your lap. But in the race it shows to be more forgiving and not giving people an actual slow down penalty.

Many new run off areas where grass used to be have been added in real life on tracks for safety reasons. Now there's no real use in sims, but it is what it is. We know this safety area adding to have become a trend in the last few decades, and is often tried to be exploited ever since in real life racing too. The problem is that in real racing you have live stewards to prevent and control this but the sim mostly just has preset automatic standards and that's it. This can become pretty frustrating at first. The speeds at which you exit the track and also rejoin have an effect on the sim's decision. But sometimes you can get into an incident, run off track and cut the chicane. Fairly recently I had a situation like this. I just regained control, did not accelerate through the grass, tried to keep it under control and rejoined the track at the chicane exit just in front of the guy I was battling with. But wasn't penalized by the sim because it registered it as not an advantage. I had a worse laptime. Probably also registered an incident prior to that, as being all wheels locked up and sliding out of control.

[Russell Sobie]

AC's penalty system is schizophrenic at best. Sometimes it'll let you go wide because it (correctly) sees no actual advantage to it, and likely you are out there because you overshot an exit or, more likely for me, dodging a wreck. Other times, like all over Monza, you can "cut the chicane" because you were trampled over, or pushed out, or are simply dodging a 10 car pile up... and it gives you not one but TWO slow down penalties, the second one sometimes just requires 25 seconds and won't be satiated by getting under 35kph to clear it immediately.

It's dumb and I wish there were a better solution that was not server/client setup intensive (read: so dirt simple that SRS would jump at the chance to implement it instead of AC's nightmare).

So sadly you just have to allow other racers to exploit little gaps in the penalty construction on particular tracks like RB's turn 1. If it makes you feel any better, a few aliens have been on these forums saying that going super wide at T1 at Red Bull wasn't something that resulted in faster lap times for them. Granted, that might have been for particular cars; the Dallara F3 with a default setup really gets squirrely there if you take a tight line... so it might actually be somewhat beneficial to take a laughably wide line there.

I'll never know because I'm stubborn and insist on keeping two wheels in instead of looking like an imbecile, but unless SRS posts a rule on their regulations page that says you can't gain advantage by going out of bounds even if AC doesn't penalize, then I can't very well see it proper to bother filing a protest on it. And even if someone does file a protest, coming on the forums and saying "I filed a protest against Joe Bob Racer who was going wide and he got a warning/suspension/ban! It must be against the rules!" you'd be breaking the rules for discussing incidents.