Quick start guide to racing in the World division

[baristabrian]

Hello and welcome to the CMS World Division! As we have been having more and more new members joining lately, I thought it might be a good idea to compile a "quick start" guide to racing in the World Division that covers some of the basic essentials one needs to help prepare you for that 1st race. Things that you might have missed in the forums, or that are not prominently displayed elswhere. As I think of additional items, or other items are brought to my attention that would be useful I will update the list.

However this is only a quick start guide and I can not stress enough that before you run your 1st race with us you should have already gone thru and read the CMS rules and regs, and the World Division Master Post. THis guide is only a "cheat sheet" and not intended as a substitute for either of the above.

1. Installs and connections.

Before you try to race make sure that you have installed all required files such as the mod, skins, any patches, the track, ect... and have tested that they are all working properly. Then BEFORE the race weekend starts join the server and make sure you have no connection or mismatch issues. The best thing to do is join the server earlier in the week. THis way if you do find an issue you will have plenty of time to get help and fix it before race day. Once the race weekend has started there will not be enough time to address it, nor anyone available to help you as they will be busy preparing for their own race.

2. Essential button assigments

Before attempting to race you need to make sure you have "autochat" enabled and there are 4 essential functions you need to have buttons assigned to.

1. Pit out
2. Pit in
3. Headlights on/off
4. Engine on/off (you can over heat your engine while stationary in the pits)

Durring Q and race "pit in" and pit out" are the only chatting that you should use. Anything more is a distraction to other drivers and also against the rules. Things like "sorry' and "thank you" can wait till after the race or be placed in a PM as this is a friendly community and it should be assumed that any incident was not deliberate.

The headlight use applies to the occasional night race we might have, and most importantly are used for a faster class driver to signal a slower class that he intends to overtake, or for the slower class driver to signal he is ready for you to over take. A couple of quick flashes is all you need and constant flashing is a violation of the rules.

3. Pit stall sharing

Do to the limitations of some tracks, when there is a large field we may sometimes wind up sharing a pit stall with another driver. This can be problomatic should they both need to pit at the same time. One thing you can do is sometime durring the warm up period, pull into your pit and try to see if and who your sharing with and thru chat, teamspeak, ect...work out an arrangment with them. However, if you for whatever reason are unable to do so, another safety measure is to whenever you pit, make sure you pull to the left or right of your pit box so that if the driver your sharing with comes in before you leave he will be able to obtain service as well.

4. Joining and leaving the servers.

Unless you are absolutely unable to do so we ask that on race day you join the server before Q starts, and not leave untill the race is over, or your race has ended. Please do not come and go repeatedly as this can cause stuttering, freezing, and other server instabilities that are very distracting to the drivers. So unless you have been disconnected, or have had a major technical issue of some sort, join before Q starts and stay put. If the admins observe you coming and going be prepared to explain why.

Again, it all comes down to testing your install and your connection way before race day. Our practice servers are up and running 24/7 so you can test anytime.

5. Driver briefings

Just like the rules and regs, driver briefings are REQUIRED reading. We will post driver briefings for each race a minimum of 5 days before each race (normaly much sooner) and we strongly recomend that you get in the habit of checking them frequently thru out the week right up till the day of the race, as occasionaly there will be important changes made (track change, rule change, skin pack update, ect...) at the last min. So this is a good habit to get into.

Driver briefings always contain DL links to the most current version of the mod, skins, and track. ALWAYS DL the track from the driver briefing, as this is the version that will be loaded on the server. THis way you will have no mismatch issues.

6. How to respond to rFactor penalties

On occasion we will all receive an rFactor penalty for things such as jumping a start or speeding in pit lane, ect... When this happens we often get confused on how to respond to and "clear" the penalty. There are 2 main types of penalties rFactor normaly will dish out, and they will be displayed by 2 different icons which will appear in the upper left corner of your screen. Learn to know the difference between the 2 as the procedure for serving them is quite different.

A) Drive thru

To serve a drive thru you simply head for the pits, and drive thru the pits at pit speed.

B) Stop and go

To serve a stop and go you will need to head for the pits. As you cross the pit entry line your pit menu will pop up. using which ever button you have assigned to scroll thru your pit menu, scroll to the top and you will see an option for "stop and go". Select this and when you arrive at your pit box pull in. THis will clear the penalty and you will be sent back out. Be sure to observe pit speed on your way in and out or your troubles will get worse The key to serving the stop and go (and the thing we most often forget) is to select stop and go in our pit menu before entering our pit box. If you do not, the crew will change your tires and fill your gas tank but the stop and go will NOT be cleared!

I Hope you found this helpfull and if you think of something I left out just let me know and I will add it.

Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoy your experience racing with us in the CMS World Division!

Brian

[baristabrian]

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