Racing With The New v2.1 Damage Model

[Mike Tyler]

Racing With The New v2.1 Damage Model

I just wanted to share some thoughts about the changes that we’ve made to the damage modeling of the ILMS mod. First let me start by saying that both Tim and I are firmly entrenched in our opinions of clean driving. We both really like and enjoy hard racing and even trading a little paint door-to-door or bumper-to-bumper is a great thing, but driving with reckless abandon is something neither one of us can stand. Now that’s not to say that we don’t make mistakes, everyone does, it’s inevitable, but there’s a big difference between an honest mistake and driving without care or regard for the other drivers on the track or the potential race-ending consequences of your actions.

We’ve always felt that part of the challenge for any successful drive is in having the maturity and wherewithal to run a clean and “un-shunted” race. At times this means you will be forced to make a decision to choose not to do something just because you can. From our point of view this is the mark of a driver who competes with respect, as opposed to a driver who competes with more self-centered approach to his or her driving, as though the rest of the drivers on the track are merely there for his or her personal pleasure. So the question becomes, how can you separate and punish the driver who drives with this sort of self-centered approach to competition, treating everyone else as though they’re just another AI driver, from the driver who drives and competes with respect for everyone else regardless of where they may or may not finish the race?

Ultimately and unfortunately you can’t, expect by introducing heavy penalties for overly aggressive driving. But what you can do is implement a common or universal standard that can help keep everyone honest. In effect this is the type of action that will typically affect the self-centered driver more than the respectful driver. For the respectful driver nothing really changes because this type of driver already drives and competes with regard to those around him or her and he or she already knows when and more importantly where not to make a risky move. For the self-centered driver however the typical first response will be, “I don’t like the changes because this could adversely affect my race.” Now for the sake of political correctness they may wrap their comments within a nice pretty bow and use phrases like, “This could or might adversely affect ‘someone else’s’ race,” but the reality is that most of us are already well aware of who the clean drivers are and aren’t, new drivers notwithstanding of course. Yes, there will inevitably be clean drivers who will be adversely affected by these changes, but again it comes down to the difference between a genuine and honest mistake as opposed to a shunt resulting from carelessness.

The revised damage modeling is just such a universal standard. On the surface and for that matter in reality it can and will affect everyone equally. No matter what type of driver you are if you damage your car you will now suffer a more pronounced lack of aerodynamic balance and increased drag, and you will be more likely to sheer off something important such as a wing or front splitter if you take a hard hit. However what you did and how you drove that got you to that point is where the real difference is and this is why the new damage model effectively places an emphasis on clean driving. And keep in mind; it’s not just the new damage modeling that comes into play, but the new pit stop modeling too that will affect the outcome of your race after a shunt.

From here on out, just as they are in real racing, repairs will be costly. You will loose a lot more time in the pits waiting for your repairs to be completed, because they will now be done after your car is refueled and your tires are changed. Can you still skip the repairs? Yes, of course you can, but given the increased performance degradation that comes from damaging your car in version 2.1 you’ll have to decide whether or not this is really a choice you want to make.

There’s also a significant difference between the GT cars and the LMP cars now. For example the front of GT cars tend to be more robust than the front of the LMP cars, unfortunately though the front ends and splitters on the GT cars are not as easily repaired as they are on an LMP car. Consequently any front end repairs made to a GT car will take a lot longer in the pits than it does for an LMP car. However…. like I said, the front ends of the GT cars are also more robust and this means that the front ends of the LMP cars are more susceptible to damage than the front ends of the GT cars. Consequently for the LMP driver this means that running into or over a GT car during the race will now be a very costly affair.

If you damage the front of an LMP car you will find that the handling will suck, big time, you will also be far more likely to loose the front splitter and as a result, no matter what, once you loose the splitter your one and only choice will be to pit and make repairs. So like it or not, if you’re competing in one of the LMP classes it will pay to be a lot more cautious when you’re overtaking a GT car than it was before because bulldozing your way through traffic will ultimately prove to be the worst choice you could possibly make.

For you GT drivers though... lol! Even though you’re now armed with this knowledge of the more fragile LMP front ends, you definitely should not take to the track thinking you’re driving a tank. Yes, the front ends of the GT cars are more robust, which means it takes a greater impact to dislodge the front bumper of a GT car. However that doesn’t mean a GT driver won’t suffer an increase in drag or won’t suffer any sort of aerodynamic imbalance as a result of contact. You may not suffer these things as much or as dramatically as the LMP driver will, but your bumper will still be attached and your speed and performance will be off until you pit for repairs, and remember, the front end repairs for a GT car will take much longer than it does for an LMP car. It’s a fair enough trade off to help ensure that the GT drivers won’t try muscling their way through traffic either.

Aside from the increased life span of the qualifying tires nothing about the tires was changed. They’re exactly the same as before, as long as you treat them nice and they will treat you nice. But what has changed is the fact that changing your tires in the pits takes more time now. Just as it is in the real ALMS and Le Mans series, tire and refueling will be taking place as separate events from now on. So if you need a full tank of fuel and four tires you should plan to spend a lot more time in the pits than you did before with version 2.0. Just how much time you spend in the pits however, under the normal circumstances of refueling and changing tires, is strictly up to you because the option of double-stinting your tires is still there. In fact you can save about fourteen seconds per stop by double or maybe even triple stinting your tires. – Remember, in most cases one set of hard tires will last an entire race. – Therefore if you suffer a first lap incident for example, and need to pit to make repairs, which you will, you may want to consider loading up with fuel and switching over to hard tires because in the long run you will save a lot of time on your subsequent pit stop(s).

BTW the one thing people have frequently overlooked is that there actually comes a point during the life of the hard compound tires when they can and will be faster than medium tires. The hard compound tires actually hold up much better under wear than the medium compound tires do. For example a hard compound tire that has been worn 50% still retains nearly 95% of it’s original grip where as a medium compound tire with 50% wear retains only about 90% of it’s original grip potential and the grip roll-off from there is much steeper for the medium tires than it is for the hard compound tires. So when it comes to racing with the new damage model and endurance races especially, there’s a serious tortoise verses hare thought that you’ll need to consider for your pit strategy.

Despite all of the changes it still all comes down to one thing, drive a clean race and you won’t have any problems. Naturally no one can guarantee that something bad won’t happen to you or that you won’t be the innocent victim of someone else’s mistake. However everyone can help reduce the potential of those incidents by simply arming themselves with the knowledge and understanding that overly aggressive driving from here forward will be a very costly affair, far more so than before. Just what price you pay or just what price your actions cause others to pay is up to you and your right foot.

Drive safe and have fun!

[davidan]

I experienced the new damage model first hand tonight while I did some practice at Sebring and WOW I am impressed! Thanks for the article Mike, very helpful. And thanks for making us an ultra cool racing simulation with ILMS!