News About Development 2011-06-14

First race for testers is done!!! That is the first thing I want to let you know today, but not the last one!

Yesterday in the evening the first testing race was finished. It does not matter who won, the most important thing is, it is done! Testers can see their results now and check all the data to see if everything is okay. There are testing races planned for next 4 days.
If everything goes well, we will erase all the testing data and let you go inside the racer account. Of course there are still many things to do, so many pages will still be under construction with some necessary functionality available. But it will be possible to race, and to build your driver rating (based on the results).
Today I want to also explain basics how the race calculation works. It will help you understand how to setup your car better to make fast laps. Look at the following image:

The track is divided into 11 sections with different characteristics. For example section 11 is main straight, section 1 is the first corner of the track. The base characteristics of every section can be described as importance of basic car attributes like maximum speed, acceleration, braking and handling. Let's start in section 10, that is a tight hairpin, where good braking is important when entering section and good acceleration on exit. Then there is section 11, a long straight, where good maximum speed and some acceleration at the beginning is important. Then there is section 1, another hairpin, where good braking and acceleration is needed, and then there is section 2, a short straight, where acceleration is most important and of course some maximum speed. Then there are sections 6 and 8, fast curves, where handling and downforce is also very important. The system calculates all sections separately, so you can be faster in one section than other drivers, but slower in another section. This makes every track unique, although there can be some similarities found.
Next time I will explain more about how championships here will work.

by DebiK
Translator: Sullivangate

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