Too many lapped cars

[labontefanboy]

I've recently been having a problem when running 100% length races simulated on NR2K3. There are absolutely way too many lapped cars. Through 13 races of a season, only one race (Daytona) has seen more than 10 cars on the lead lap at the finish. Does anyone know how to fix this? Is it something with the ratings? Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[LarryFoyt50]

It depends the percent of ratings and AI Difficultly. How many cars with good ratings? Sometimes they get spread due to the AI Difficultly. I have seen the AI wreck with 110%. I ran that race in about 14 laps and finished about 3 laps down in 17th. That could be the issue.

 

[chefblaise]

Take a look at your engine & reliability settings in the lapped cars they are probably far off the range from the up-front running cars, this will tighten up the field

 

[Reno62793]

Yeah I've been testing out the engine reliability along with mechanical failure chances in the papyai to make start and parking more realistic. I have all the S&P cars with a 20-40 range in engines and such and all the other cars 90-100. The cars get lapped fairly soon but are usually out of the race with engine troubles in no time.

 

[Markfan]

How many cautions are there per race, and how long are the races?

 

[labontefanboy]

How many cautions are there per race, and how long are the races?

I'm running 100% length races (I'm doing a 2005 Nextel Cup season), and 6.3 cautions per race. Here's the cautions breakdown:

Daytona: 3 cautions (18 lead lap cars)
California: 7 cautions (10 lead lap cars)
Las Vegas: 1 caution (5 lead lap cars)
Atlanta: 9 cautions (6 lead lap cars)
Bristol: 18 cautions (4 lead lap cars)
Martinsville: 10 cautions (5 lead lap cars)
Texas: 4 cautions (3 lead lap cars)
Phoenix: 3 cautions (9 lead lap cars)
Talladega: 3 cautions (8 lead lap cars)
Darlington: 6 cautions (7 lead lap cars)
Richmond: 12 cautions (9 lead lap cars)
Charlotte: 1 caution (3 lead lap cars)
Dover: 5 cautions (2 lead lap cars)

Only 3 drivers have completed more than 90% of the laps: Brian Vickers (93.2%, 13th in points), Tony Stewart (93.3%, 1st in points), and Rusty Wallace (97.9%, 2nd in points).

 

[Markfan]

Bristol: 18 cautions (4 lead lap cars)

I was going to say before that it might have been due to prolonged green flag runs . . . . . but there is no way that could be the case with this many cautions. The cars that you are using must have wildly varying ratings. If you are using cars from multiple painting sites, the ratings will not match up.

 

[8dalejr.fan]

Use NRatings and apply the 2005 Season ratings. You probably won't run into the issue anymore.

 

[labontefanboy]

I was going to say before that it might have been due to prolonged green flag runs . . . . . but there is no way that could be the case with this many cautions. The cars that you are using must have wildly varying ratings. If you are using cars from multiple painting sites, the ratings will not match up.

Use NRatings and apply the 2005 Season ratings. You probably won't run into the issue anymore.

I've been using the 2005 Season ratings the whole season....

 

[8dalejr.fan]

What ratings formula are you using? What version of the tracks?

 

[labontefanboy]

What ratings formula are you using? What version of the tracks?

Masgrafx Cup and original versions, except for a couple tracks where I needed 43 cars (Martinsville Revamped '09 and Dover Revamped '09).

 

[Kharvick29]

As i think it was stated before...has a lot to do with the driver ratings that you have...and the opponent stregnth % as well... I just did a Darlington nationwide race last night (along side the real race), had it set at 50% (which is roughly 100% nationwide)... and had 24 cars on the lead lap...had 7 cars DNF... and Bayne won by 1.7 seconds (had 4 cautions).

 

[Reno62793]

What does opponent strength have to do with how they run? If they have a higher strength %, do you get closer racing? Some of my seasons i run the easy 70% and other times I do 85%. Do the opponents run differently compared to the other cars?

 

[Markfan]

What does opponent strength have to do with how they run? If they have a higher strength %, do you get closer racing? Some of my seasons i run the easy 70% and other times I do 85%. Do the opponents run differently compared to the other cars?

Yes. The opponent strength greatly affects how they run. They run closer together and are more prone to wrecking the closer that the percentage is to 110%. On the opposite extreme, they sometimes fail to brake properly if the percentage is too low. (Try Riverside Rally at 70%, they'll all wreck in the exact same turn.)

 

[labontefanboy]

As i think it was stated before...has a lot to do with the driver ratings that you have...and the opponent stregnth % as well... I just did a Darlington nationwide race last night (along side the real race), had it set at 50% (which is roughly 100% nationwide)... and had 24 cars on the lead lap...had 7 cars DNF... and Bayne won by 1.7 seconds (had 4 cautions).

Yes. The opponent strength greatly affects how they run. They run closer together and are more prone to wrecking the closer that the percentage is to 110%. On the opposite extreme, they sometimes fail to brake properly if the percentage is too low. (Try Riverside Rally at 70%, they'll all wreck in the exact same turn.)

Thanks guys. I think that I'll go with 110% for the future, and I'll mess around with ratings.

 

[Henderson]

I was going to say before that it might have been due to prolonged green flag runs . . . . . but there is no way that could be the case with this many cautions. The cars that you are using must have wildly varying ratings. If you are using cars from multiple painting sites, the ratings will not match up.

The reason for Bristol is mostly the wrecks. You get the damaged cars that slow down the rest of the pack. Nine out of ten times, I only get about fifteen cars that finish a race there (with high AI%). So, after most of the cars get taken out, you likely only have about five or six fast cars, and the rest go a lap down or more. Also, with Bristol, the cars don't like to exit the pits. I have the track .ini setup default, and the lead cars almost always go a lap down during pit stops, because they refuse to pull out of their box and go two wide down pit road.

You then have the fast cars get lapped because they get held up behind slow cars, thus giving you five cars on the lead lap, with 18 cautions. Bristol in NR2003, is a mess. You either edit the .ini until you get something useful, or deal with it.

Just letting you know what I have noticed.