Pro Endurance VLN: Feedback and a Thank You!

My fellow endurance racers,

As president of F4H Motorsport, I want to thank each and everyone of you for participating in the 1st ever 24 hour Forza 5 endurance event! This was an incredible challenge but also an incredible opportunity to put this concept to the test. We saw great events come from the TEC on Forza 3 and Forza 4, and this was no different. The racing was intense and I think most everyone can take away that these type events are INDEED possible on the Xbox One. 

The Green Hell had it's share of victims, as did lag spikes. I want to take the time out and apologize for those affected. These things we know can happen, but we pushed the issue with the amount of drivers when we combined rooms together. We tried to help the racing, to be more interesting, but it ended up costing some teams big time. On that note, we began to ponder the possibility of a makeup stint. However, as an organizing staff, it was decided that we would not be doing this. I'll take this time to explain why:

If we were to do a make up, it would require ALL the participants from the particular stint to get together and race. This was a highly unlikely proposition. If even one person did not participate, this could skew the results for one team over another. This wouldn't be fair. Unfortunately, things happen in endurance racing. Look at Le Mans from this past year- The sudden downpour took out a few lead drivers in multiple classes. Things like this are unpredictable and beyond anyone's control. For the next event, room size will be maxed out at 12, to try and prevent this from happening again. If you look at it my way, it was an added layer of "realism" 


And now, a time for thank you's:
 
This event would not have been possible without the TORA staff and everyone of you who hosted, reported stints, helped organize... You have no idea how much you helped. To only finish 45 minutes late and to have the results done already is a huge step in the right direction. I can't say for certain if/when the next event will be, but the wheels are already turning, so stay tuned!

That being said, I would like to use this thread to receive feedback on the event. What worked? What didn't? What should we do differently? All suggestions are welcome. We want to provide the best experience and we can only do that with your feedback. Thanks again everyone, we'll see you next time.

PS: The prizes thread will be made tonight.

F4H Diablo wrote: The racing was intense and I think most everyone can take away that these type events are INDEED impossible on the Xbox One. 

That's a typo right?

Anyway, In terms of feedback. The race was pretty solid as a whole, And extremely well organised. Although it would of been a bit easier if we'd had a heads up in terms of hosting. I was PM'd before stint 2 and asked to host (Which was fine), But I only found out I was down to host stints 10&12 for lobby B when I checked the website when I woke up, 20 minutes before stint 10 was due to start. In the end it wasn't an issue, But I would of got up earlier had I known.

Thanks again for hosting the event and I look forward to the next one.

That was a typo. I had not impossible before hahahaha

I think the event ran smoothly as a whole. A few issues arose that I think could be stopped by keeping the cars in the same lobbies as they qualified in. The problem of "who's hosting" could be sorted out at the beginning of the event and keep it that way as the cars don't hop lobbies.

I really liked the new idea of doing it this way and changing the cars up so that it kept the racing a bit more interesting during the event, but ti turned out to be a little too confusing demonstrated by stint 11 (and unforeseen forza 5 silliness)

All in all a great event run very well happily sign up for the next one!

Can't even begin to imagine how much work this took to organise, the fact it ran as smoothly as it did most of the time is a testament to how well you guys did. Oh and if you plan any more GT events I'm told you should definitely post again on our forum as it's got a number of people there quite enthusiastic for this kind of racing.

Regards the stint rerun, as one of the worst effected by stints 7s epic spike, I feel not re-runing it was the right call. I'll admit to being hopeful when rumours of one was circulating as I felt bad that it was my stint that took out team out of podium contention (which if honest was beyond our original expectations), but I agree that things happen in endurance racing and the lag calculation is possibly the fairest way to at least keep the effected in the race. Also it's 24 hours, you never know what will happen to others.

Also Mr Driv3s suggestion regarding keeping in qualifying lobbies has pro and cons, pros, easy to sort out and you can get a little rivalry going. Cons, on of our drivers Roadrunner is inconsistent, particularly on the ring, but he is very fast. This meant even though he could run top times on the track he really isn't very clean at lapping, much lawn is mowed by that man in a two hour stint. The rest of our team is not on the same level, so we were in lobby B because it was my Q4 time that stood for the team, but after one stint we led the race because he started it for us and didn't have to race the other fast men. He also had to cover stint two as Takum1 was late getting home from work, if he'd stayed in lobby B we might of been further ahead instead of dropping back to second. Staying in qualifying lobby thus could be seen as a strategic exercise to get into a favourable lobby rather than just as fast as you can as the top people will be racing together anyway.

That was longer than I expected when I started, once agin thanks for a great race, I look forward to the next one.

Big thumbs up to all those running this past event.

Items that I think will help running these types of events on the XBOX1 platform:

I think having schedule of Hosts - but further more  have scheduled hosts that do not race running the lobbies. They load up in equal or greater car but sit somewhere off track. This way you won't have trouble of a scheduled host not being in the lobby he is scheduled for (ie Mr Driv3 needed in to race A and Host B). The added benefit to this is the host would be able to be online and could give updates - running order/ mileages/ incidents etc... like a running commentary of real race. They could travel to sections and do DVRs of racers going by- that way you could get some more of the spectator type viewing of FM4 (least as much as FM5 and the Xbox1 will allow) spreadsheets being updated while stint is running. With hosts not driving the events results could be much closer to real time so running order and lobby moves are closer to real time.

I heard a lot of talk by some racers in the event of the lobby moves from A to B etc... Most not very favorable as it was different and it added a wrinkle to logistics. I think the host idea above make the logistics of that better and personally think that it was a great idea and I hope it doesn't go away. It allows the leaders to run with each other and stops the qualifying turning into a strategy session of which lobby would I rather run in for the elite teams. It also will help younger or new teams run with each other even if the top names are not among them, creating new rivalries and possibly some bragging rights... HY/ L classifications... (We all expect the top teams to do what the top teams do - but how is Rebellion running against Strakka... kind of thing).

With running tab of results during race and toward the end the teams drivers would have the ability to see ahead of time after waking up from naps to see looks like im lobby b and Mr Drive is my host...

Lobbies should be limited to 8-10 racers one host - maybe test out numbers in controlled setting to find the correct number ( though the way the Xbox1 works who knows if it can be narrowed down scientifically).

I totally agreed with the Lag bomb stint 7 decision - [Censored] happens in racing. Downpours take out leaders, electrical gremlins... it sucks but unless you could get LMR Blue Dragon and Gripteck (separated by 9 miles P2 and P3) and PTG  and the two FF teams 3 teams separated by less then 10 miles... in P4,5,6) I think you made the right call leaving it as is. Racing is real time... except for tech testing at the end. no run off needed.

***You guys put on a great event!! I'd love to join and run in any of the upcoming one. 12 hours Sebring, 24 heures du Mans, 6hours of Spa ( or more). You guys proved racers/ hosts/ administrators that it is possible and it was my pleasure to be apart of. Thank you  F4H for the Event, and all the Hosts and racers and PTG for the spot.