Blue Flag Discussion

[dynofiend]

Yeah was good fun but quite frustrating for me.

LFS randomly minimized in race 1 and I crashed and had to reset.

Race 2 went really well ended up in first with 4 laps to go. Wildboy was closing fast! But in the last few laps I got caught behind R33 for a few corners which allowed Wildboy to catch right up and even put a move on. I was definately slower than him but its so hard to pass that I was still in 1st up to the last corner. Wildboy put a wild move on from 2 car lengths back, locked up his rear tyres and slid into the corner. I had seen and heard him skidding from way back up the inside so gave room otherwise we both would have been out the race, but the slide took him into the side of me nevertheless, and gave me a minor nudge and helped him brake. He could get the power on earlier, and so the drag to the last flat out corner under the bridge was eventually won by Wildboy. Just a bit of touring car racing I guess

I should still be happy with 2nd, but just annoyed that I was so close to 1st

[Wildboy99]

dyno i do apologise for that, was heat of the moment and i watched replay and it definatly looks worse sitting inside your car but tbh i didnt think it was that bad and we had a few get togethers in the lap before aswell which leads me to a question of rules. What are the rules you guys have on blocking cause its getting rather bad imo. Numerous times i was going to pass and someone just moved over in front of me but anyway if people care or not im quite happy for dyno to be deemed the winner as he did deserve it. other then that race 1 was great once it got underway properly :S had a really fun battle with sly, pressuring him till he made a small but critical error

[dynofiend]

Nah look im not too worried, its not like im battling for the top of the table or anything, Ill just win the next round instead

I agree also there was one point on the back straight where I made a move left to block you then moved back to the line on the right and we touched. It was actually unintentional as I had no idea your car would be fast enough to get any overlap when I moved right If I hadnt blocked you, you would have probably got the inside line on the next two turns and made a clean pass.

IMO the blue flag needs to be really respected more by all. Moving to one side and keeping your foot flat to the floor is not good enough. Trying to drive really quickly in case you can increase your lap times and get the blue flag to go away is not the way either. Even if you are a faster driver. RD3 and RD4 ive been compromised by blue flag situations, granted, not enough on their own to knock me down a place, but not exactly helpful If LFS had coded into it the same rules as the FIA, there would have a been a few drivers black flagged out the races so far

Blocking is a hard one. In F1 youre allowed one move to defend, and then can return to your line. I try and use the same rule in my head when I race, but only because it means less crashes, and more passes!

[Krayy]

...
IMO the blue flag needs to be really respected more by all. Moving to one side and keeping your foot flat to the floor is not good enough. Trying to drive really quickly in case you can increase your lap times and get the blue flag to go away is not the way either. Even if you are a faster driver. RD3 and RD4 ive been compromised by blue flag situations, granted, not enough on their own to knock me down a place, but not exactly helpful If LFS had coded into it the same rules as the FIA, there would have a been a few drivers black flagged out the races so far
...

I for one have been guilty of this, although not too often I hope. I do try to let faster racers pass, and in the case where it was you behind me, each time an opportunity to let you go came up, you had dropped back again. I do apologise for not letting you through in a timely manner and I will, in the future, be more courteous.

Now on that score, we do in Lapper have the ability to determine when a Blue flag situation is occurring, and have a number of options as to what we can do.

Firstly, we can display a message centre screen to the driver to let others pass, and in dire circumstances make it large enough that it affects his viewscreen. This could cause issues in that the driver might then crash and take others out.

A more prefereable situation would be to start a counter when a blue flag is in effect. If the driver has not let the lapping driver past in say 5 sectors, or a number of laps, then the driver could be given a drive through penalty. If the drive through is not taken within 3 laps, then the driver is kicked/specced. of course the driver will be given a number of warnings before either of these penalties is applied, but if he ignores them, then non est mea culpa.

Thoughts or ideas on this kind of system?

P.S. We would institute the 3 laps limit on penalty serving as a matter of course given this type of system, whether gained via a car reset, blue flag, pit speeding etc.

[kumarakid]

Great ideas on this one Krayy and big upz on your humbling reply to Dyno's comments. I for one am more in favour of the voluntary but courteous approach to such situations myself as it has served me so well and when I do give way to a blue flag I certainly dont pull to the side and floor it not that this is implied toward me. I could though be swayed toward an alternative message to the "Blue Flag" a few seconds later to encourage courtesy as long as it is not intrusive to the drivers peripheral view. The 1 blocking move is also not my cup of earl grey either but either way I'm all for the democratic approach

[Wildboy99]

personally im not a fan of the built in blueflag nor the idea that you could incur a penalty cause wat if your clearly faster and pass them but that puts you under the blueflag so then you have to let them go again or get a penalty which would suck and potentially prevent you from doing any real racing.

Im sure everyone is prob guilty of it at some stage whether deliberatly or not but without a "race control team" i dont think theres anything that can be done to solve the current problems as pulling over to get out of the way could wreck your race, but not getting out of the way could wreck the faster guys race too or even both peoples races.

The only thing im really a fan of is the keybind to give the blueflag when your ready to overtake which lets the other guy know your going to be throwing it down the inside or watever and to be careful but again that has issues to which if i recall correctly was brought up in the fbm series at the start of the year.

Also ive noticed and this could be were lapper might solve some probelms but lfs in the event of both a yellow and blue flag only displays one of them which would cause confusion too.

Anyway back on topic:
is the race schedule still the same with 10 and 25 lapper for Aston North and is this the last round?

[dynofiend]

Krayy, youre an officer and a gentleman!

On the note of auto penalties and wotnot, I dont really like the sound of that. As Wildboy points out, you can have a situation where a driver allows a faster driver to unlap themselves.

NOTE to all super alien fast drivers, there must be a CLEAR indication from the car infront that they are willing to let you pass and unlap yourself. You CANNOT just attack and throw a move up the inside. If you cannot unlap yourself without compromising the other drivers line... Tough There is of course nothing in the rules that stops the faster driver from hanging off the rear bumper of the slower car filling their rear view mirror and putting them off. It is then up to the car infront whether to let the clearly faster car through, or to put up with being harassed for the rest of the race!

I really think it would be nice to have text reminder for both the blue flagged driver, and the driver for whom the blue flag would benefit (is that even possible?) that way its a gentle reminder of the rules and allows the two drivers to talk it out if further reinforcement is needed. Perhaps it could be built in that a more stern reminder is sent if the blue flag is displayed for three sectors? If you are getting the blue flag displayed to you, it is unlikely that incurring an extra second on that lap by pulling over is going to ruin your race. Even if youre battling, you can time it the same way they do in F1 when the backmarkers are dicing for position, but still manage to let the leaders through almost instantly.

Other than that, its all down to the driver. I really do try and emulate what I know and see in real life. Avoiding dangerous moves that would see a real car put out the race. Imagining there are race stewards who would look on infractions after the race, and just trying to behave in the way I would expect others to behave towards me. Amen

[KR0NIK]

Other than that, its all down to the driver. I really do try and emulate what I know and see in real life. Avoiding dangerous moves that would see a real car put out the race. Imagining there are race stewards who would look on infractions after the race, and just trying to behave in the way I would expect others to behave towards me. Amen

same here bro

[Swivel]

The only thing im really a fan of is the keybind to give the blueflag when your ready to overtake which lets the other guy know your going to be throwing it down the inside or watever and to be careful but again that has issues to which if i recall correctly was brought up in the fbm series at the start of the year.

Blue Flags via hot keys are band on LFSNZ.

[Swivel]

There is of course nothing in the rules that stops the faster driver from hanging off the rear bumper of the slower car filling their rear view mirror and putting them off. It is then up to the car infront whether to let the clearly faster car through, or to put up with being harassed for the rest of the race!

If a driver did that, then he would be a poor sport and shouldn't be aloud to race.