Last night’s session was great; 4 hours of endurance racing with plenty of exciting and dramatic moments. Mesasphere streamed the whole thing, so have a look at some of it here.
Next Monday we’re racing Mazda MX-5 Cup Spec. This is a great series for introducing people to online play. New racers always welcome.
Tomorrow we are racing Vintage Sport Coupe (C/450). As always, anybody reading this is welcome to join in the fun; the Discord is the best place to go.
Here are the results from Monday’s action. These cars were tough to drive and tougher (but more rewarding) to race.
Below is an announcement I made today on the Discord server. Please excuse the broken code, it’s a straight copy/paste.
Hello @everyone, I have some announcements to make.
While :CRM: has been a great experience for many and increased peoples’ enjoyment of :forza: :fm7:, there are some things which need to be addressed. The racing, while generally much better than what you will experience in the Public Multiplayer Hoppers, has started to decline in quality. I have received a lot of feedback over the past few weeks (which I am always grateful for), both privately and publicly, and after much thought I have decided to make some changes to the structure of :CRM:.
Explaining the Issue
The racing standards are very hit-and-miss at the moment, and it varies throughout the field. While the stronger players are having great, clean, high-speed battles at the front, those in the lower half of the field are struggling. Some are pushing themselves too hard, some are driving cars beyond their skill level, some have not raced with us for very long, some treat these sessions like “just another Hopper race” and some are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. While nobody here is intentionally causing trouble for others accidents and pileups are still happening, and it’s gotten to the point where their frequency is hurting the overall experience.
It’s easy for me as one of the faster drivers to sit behind a keyboard and say “you need to do better” but that is not the right thing to do. Having driven virtual racing cars for 20 years I know how hard it is to race online with any degree of competence. I know that it takes a long time learn how to drive confidently, and a longer time still to gain the composure required for “clean racing” in an online environment. I can post #racing_tips, give words of wisdom and input on what I see on the track but ultimately it comes down to each of us to be the best drivers we can be. Improvement takes time and on top of that a driver must actively want to reach the next level of play. We are all at separate stages in our journey towards improvement, and that’s okay. If you want to improve the resources are there, and this community is more than willing to lend you a helping hand.
With all that said, it is time I got to the point was trying to make. I cannot wait and expect people to “get good enough” to race in the sessions the way they’re set up right now, so I am announcing some changes to :crm: that will affect how we race each week.
**Discarding “points” and #results **
When :CRM: first started in December 2017 (as a humble thread on the GTPlanet forum) it was very simplistic. 10-12 drivers racing for the fun of it, having great on-track battles without much concern for their finishing position. As the club grew and began to attract players of all skill levels things started to change. Players started caring more about where they lied on the “Tier list” of drivers, started tracking their results and we ultimately had a @Scorekeeper and weekly championships.
While competition is fun and can be a great motivator, it started to affect how people approached the weekly sessions. I for example started putting more effort into pre-event activity, hotlapping more, testing Tunes, examining leaderboards. Discussions about certain Divisions lead to the rise of the “TryHard Mondays” meme, and it was clear that we were beginning to take out “Casual Racing” a bit too seriously. Towards the back of the pack, the subconscious desire for points may have lead to players fighting more for positions, making riskier moves in order to rise through the field. if a faster driver had a bad race and started at the back, they could get impatient, or simply cause trouble by braking at their “normal” points, which are further ahead of those with less confidence. Some drivers started to enjoy the sessions less, others drove less often and a few quit the club entirely.
As one member put it, we can’t call ourselves “Casual Racing Mondays” while hosting Championships every week, and he’s right.
Effective immediately, we will no longer be tracking points or running Championships alongside our sessions.
I will keep #results up for a few more days, incase anybody wants to save a local copy or take a look at how well they’ve been doing these past few months. Come the weekend however, the #results channel will be deleted.
**New race format: 15 minute races with 1 Quickstop **
Besides the “rush for points”, a rush in general may be a contributing factor to the number of on-track incidents. With races as short as 3 laps in come cases, there is a sense that “if you’re not in the lead pack early, you won’t make up ground at all”. Some drivers may be making daring overtakes because they feel they’ll be held up if they don’t pass somebody now, which can cause trouble.
To that effect, we will be running longer races in the :CRM: sessions. The races will be around 15 minutes long on average, with a mandatory pitstop (known in :fm7: as a Quickstop).
The idea is that with more time to run a race, drivers will become more patient in their attempts to overtake or defend, and closely-fought battles can last for a greater amount of time. If a driver feels “held up” they could try taking their Quickstop early to find some “free air”, or a driver who’s on their own can “run long” and hope to gain places through sheer pace rather than battling.
These 2 changes are just the start of :CRM:'s future. The club will evolve over time, and I have some other ideas that are in their early stages or need ironing out. As always, keep an eye on #announcements for future updates.
I would like to take a moment to thank you all for your #feedback, and to @Race Control for your input. More importantly however I would like to thank you all for being a part of this club, for racing each week, and for being a part of this community. We are all here to have enjoyable, sportsmanlike racing with one another, so let’s keep pushing to make that a reality.
If you would like to discuss today’s announcements feel free to do so in #casual_racing_mondays, and once you’ve tried out the new format next week give input in #feedback too. @Race Control, you know where to leave your comments if you have any.
Now, let’s put the Casual back into Casual Racing Mondays then. See you all on the track
Following the announcements made last week the Forza P1 races went well. Players were more patient in their driving and the number of incidents was relatively low considering how fast these things drive. Everybody seemed to have a good time and the “casual racing” felt more in line with the club’s name and ethos.
Casual Racing Mondays Special Event (August 13): Sportscar Racing Reborn
2 Classes:
[P/985] Early Prototype Racers
[R/825] GT Racing Reborn
Suzuka GP: 11 Laps
Bathurst: 10 Laps
Sebring Full: 11 Laps
Le Mans Old Mulsanne 5 Laps
Road America Full: 10 Laps
Nurburgring Full: 3 Laps
You are on the Forza 7 forum, this game has been out almost 1 year. On top of the page you will find a navigation bar, there you can choose which games forum you want to visit. Forza Horizon 4 is the second button.
Explaining the Issue
**Discarding “points” and 
