03-16-2021, 02:27 PM
I have several comments: some are crazy, some are sensible. Let me tell you.
Very sensible idea: stop rating old races (or weigh them less)
The suggestion about the last 20 races is similar to an old proposal of mine: older results should count less, or even be completely disregarded.
I guess any serious driver's incident points average is becoming generally lower: it still happens to have that 8-IP race, but usually you've gone from 3-4 IP/race to 2-3 IP/race and now you're usually lower than 1. But after 100 races this means that a perfect, clean race brings your average down by 0.02 or 0.03. Personally, it will take me another 30 perfectly clean races to get below 3.00, and before then I'll have an incident that sends me spinning into the packed midfield (which means four IP at least in less than two seconds).
I propose that older races get weighed out after a while. However, this requires recomputing all the user ratings every now and then (possibly daily, or even weekly), which may or may not be feasible. I'm a programmer and I'd like to lend a hand with this if some help is needed.
Impractical idea: human race stewards
Let's face it: automation is cool and close to free, but it can't compete with the analysis capacity of a human steward. However, of course, you can't expect people to give up their free time to marshal online races without any compensation. Paying them would mean putting an entry fee to races, something which SRS is adamant to avoid.
Maybe possible idea: let's help with more Protest stewards
Removing the IP-penalty can only work if human-inquired protests become the common way to punish bad behaviour. However, generating more protests is not sustainable if protests have to be processed by a single person. Maybe Henrique could accept some help, and invite people to judge on the protests he receives. This would give a quicker turnover and enable SRS to process a larger volume of protests.
Hard to implement idea: easier submission of protests
Since I got a fiber internet connection, I can have my video document up on Youtube within five minutes from the end of the race (start the replay, watch the incident, record it, upload the video). However, with the ADSL connection I had before it would take me half an hour just to upload the video, and a slower connection means I might decide not to file a protest because I can't be bothered to upload a video for hours. Simracing requires a stable and fast internet connection, it's true, but not one that has a large throughput, and it may not be enough to upload videos at a decent quality.
Of course, having a replay is crucial for resolving a protest, but maybe providing it can be made easier. Maybe the server could automatically store the replays, and the player would only need to give coordinates (who's involved, at which lap, what happened). Maybe an app could record the cars' positions, and a data log could be sent to SRS instead, with the steward(s) "rendering" it to analyze it.
Opinable idea: reducing the IP penalty points
Currently, it's better (you get more points) to give up a position rather than fighting for it: you may end up winning and gaining two points, but you could make a contact and lose three. Or touch twice, and get less points than the driver twenty seconds behind you. But:
- competitive racers want to fight in the standings; they may end up choosing to have dull races for the sake of points - and don't forget they're pretty much Internet Pointz™, and there's usually no real prize involved;
- casual players don't care if they get less points; they have no deterrent to try and see if they can unlap whatever it takes.
Then why not punish incidents by subtracting one point, instead of three?
Want to have a good fight for the podium? Be respectful and show sportsmanship, but don't get sweaty about "maybe possibly getting too close and maybe he brakes ten meters earlier and we touch and it's a ruined race for the standings".
Want to just watch the world burn and see if you can navigate your way through the pack by lunging into a fast-ish corner and going three-wide into Eau Rouge? Well, maybe you won't get negative points, but you might get banned for causing too many incidents.
Over-our-heads-but-maybe-not idea: AI-powered race analysis
A full log of the car positions and rotations may be enough for an AI to analyze. Of course, training would require quite some data, with relevant events (incidents, cuts, close racing, a driver gaining an unfair advantage, a driver giving back an unfair advantage he had gained...) labelled as such. Eventually, a well-trained AI might correctly identify most racing situations, and it could possibly forward a dubious incident to a human steward. Does someone know about any project like this?
Very sensible idea: stop rating old races (or weigh them less)
The suggestion about the last 20 races is similar to an old proposal of mine: older results should count less, or even be completely disregarded.
I guess any serious driver's incident points average is becoming generally lower: it still happens to have that 8-IP race, but usually you've gone from 3-4 IP/race to 2-3 IP/race and now you're usually lower than 1. But after 100 races this means that a perfect, clean race brings your average down by 0.02 or 0.03. Personally, it will take me another 30 perfectly clean races to get below 3.00, and before then I'll have an incident that sends me spinning into the packed midfield (which means four IP at least in less than two seconds).
I propose that older races get weighed out after a while. However, this requires recomputing all the user ratings every now and then (possibly daily, or even weekly), which may or may not be feasible. I'm a programmer and I'd like to lend a hand with this if some help is needed.
Impractical idea: human race stewards
Let's face it: automation is cool and close to free, but it can't compete with the analysis capacity of a human steward. However, of course, you can't expect people to give up their free time to marshal online races without any compensation. Paying them would mean putting an entry fee to races, something which SRS is adamant to avoid.
Maybe possible idea: let's help with more Protest stewards
Removing the IP-penalty can only work if human-inquired protests become the common way to punish bad behaviour. However, generating more protests is not sustainable if protests have to be processed by a single person. Maybe Henrique could accept some help, and invite people to judge on the protests he receives. This would give a quicker turnover and enable SRS to process a larger volume of protests.
Hard to implement idea: easier submission of protests
Since I got a fiber internet connection, I can have my video document up on Youtube within five minutes from the end of the race (start the replay, watch the incident, record it, upload the video). However, with the ADSL connection I had before it would take me half an hour just to upload the video, and a slower connection means I might decide not to file a protest because I can't be bothered to upload a video for hours. Simracing requires a stable and fast internet connection, it's true, but not one that has a large throughput, and it may not be enough to upload videos at a decent quality.
Of course, having a replay is crucial for resolving a protest, but maybe providing it can be made easier. Maybe the server could automatically store the replays, and the player would only need to give coordinates (who's involved, at which lap, what happened). Maybe an app could record the cars' positions, and a data log could be sent to SRS instead, with the steward(s) "rendering" it to analyze it.
Opinable idea: reducing the IP penalty points
Currently, it's better (you get more points) to give up a position rather than fighting for it: you may end up winning and gaining two points, but you could make a contact and lose three. Or touch twice, and get less points than the driver twenty seconds behind you. But:
- competitive racers want to fight in the standings; they may end up choosing to have dull races for the sake of points - and don't forget they're pretty much Internet Pointz™, and there's usually no real prize involved;
- casual players don't care if they get less points; they have no deterrent to try and see if they can unlap whatever it takes.
Then why not punish incidents by subtracting one point, instead of three?
Want to have a good fight for the podium? Be respectful and show sportsmanship, but don't get sweaty about "maybe possibly getting too close and maybe he brakes ten meters earlier and we touch and it's a ruined race for the standings".
Want to just watch the world burn and see if you can navigate your way through the pack by lunging into a fast-ish corner and going three-wide into Eau Rouge? Well, maybe you won't get negative points, but you might get banned for causing too many incidents.
Over-our-heads-but-maybe-not idea: AI-powered race analysis
A full log of the car positions and rotations may be enough for an AI to analyze. Of course, training would require quite some data, with relevant events (incidents, cuts, close racing, a driver gaining an unfair advantage, a driver giving back an unfair advantage he had gained...) labelled as such. Eventually, a well-trained AI might correctly identify most racing situations, and it could possibly forward a dubious incident to a human steward. Does someone know about any project like this?