Clubs - Feature Additions/Improvements
Hey all. It's great to see clubs in from launch for the first time. However, there are definite improvements needed for clubs to get them to surpass or even just back to the level of where they were ...
Forum Discussion
Agree with OP, npiipo, and the others above on all the points. I felt that the way clubs were in DiRT Rally 2.0 needed improvement, but right now I wish we had that old system back compared to what we have.
Specifics:
1. Event Setup (improved user experience) [i]:
Ideally we would have the ability to set up custom championships and clubs from BOTH the website and in-game. Several people have commented that it is inconvenient to set up club events because you have to fire up your racing rig to do so... or use remote desktop, or install a ~100GB game on another computer for a single purpose. Spending extra time on the gaming rig, even to set up an event can be seen as problematic in the spousal acceptance department for some!
2. Mixed Classes/Event Cloning (wish):
Very much as a wish - the ability to have mixed classes in a single event in the same club. If that is never going to be possible, the ability to clone a stage/event/championship and then tweak something like having a different car class.
3. Club Start time and Duration (improved user experience):
The current system is very confusing. The duration in days, hours, minutes in DR 2.0 was fine. The start time based on date and time in your time zone was perfect too. Right now, it seems very hard/unintuitive/maybe impossible to start an event later the same day, unless it is NOW. It could be fixed by having a 0 day option meaning today until midnight, but better yet a calendar-based system like DR2.
4. Scoring system (wish):
Busata's Four-Left bot is amazing, but how excellent would it be if we could customise the club scoring system to any extent. I was hoping the days of spreadsheets and customised websites would be close to being over.
5. Ability to see the degradation level of a stage (improved user experience):
It would be nice to be able to see the level of degradation in upcoming stages, so we can plan for tuning etc. Ideally, the event organisers could turn this on/off or disclosed/undisclosed
6. Event Setup (improved user experience) [ii]:
A bit of a user interface issue with the whole game actually. When setting up an event, or in general, the selected "box/window/pane" is not highlighted enough - it's hard to tell unless you waste time comparing box outlines. Also boxes with parameters that can be changed and those that are "read-only" need to be differentiated a bit more obviously.
7. Quit Club and Return (bug):
I think this has not been mentioned. It appears that if you quit a club event after a stage, and then return, your car is fully repaired... and punctured tyre(s) replaced. The latter was a bug in DR 2.0, but it seems to have escalated to fixing the whole car in WRC. Of course, this makes a level playing field unenforceable.
8. Split times/in-race standings (wish/user experience):
It looks like split times and in-race standings are disabled, perhaps only if the level playing field option for running order is selected. It's more realistic that you can't see where you stand if you are running as the first drivers, but it would be nice if that is for degradation only. I know not everyone wants to see split times etc., but some do.
9. Queuing multiple championships (improved user experience):
This cannot be done. We cannot create multiple championships to run back to back. This feature, present in DR2.0, allowed creators to queue up a few championships and have them seamlessly start when the previous one finished. This was very useful.
Overall, the clubs scene would be a much better experience if it simply recreated the functionality present in DR 2.0. As it is, it does seem a big step backwards in multiple aspects. I was expecting more than parity with DR2.0.
In order of importance, here are the issues that we are having within our league with clubs:
1. Quitting the club, and returning with no damage
If you quit a club event after a stage and then return, your car is fully repaired and punctured tyres are replaced.
2. Event standings not showing after each stage
You can't view the overall standings after a specific stage on the game, or on the Racenet website and app. In quick play and other single-player modes, the overall standings are displayed straight after the stage times. Not knowing where you are overall throughout a rally is pretty rubbish, and you only found out once you've completed the entire event so are having to add up numbers in your head throughout the X stage event.
3 Times for retired drivers / DNF drivers showing in the event standings
Retired drivers are not showing in the stage results or overall event standings, which makes it very confusing when trying to work out who finished where in the lower places - especially when you can only view individual stage times on the app, and not an overall standings after each stage like you could on DR2. Like the last game, it would be great if retired drivers had times of 15 and 30 minutes (depending on the stage lengths) and that they would show in all leaderboards.
4. Setting up the start time and duration:
We currently have the option to either start an event now, or in 1 day + time. Please allow a '0 day' option when setting up the time until an event start, so if it's 17:25 my time, I could set the event to open at 19:00 of the same day. This is how it was for DR2, but appears to have been removed for EA WRC.
Requests:
In clubs, the stage ends at the finish line like in time trial, but it would be great if drivers had to drive to the marshal like in DR2. This is how it is in other game modes such as career mode and quick play in EA WRC.
If I'm busy but need to set up an event, in the past I could jump on my phone and set the event up there, but now I have to wait until I get home and set it up through the game - which is going to delay the start time for some our events. It would be nice to have the ability to create events through the browser.
Could the 'reset to track' option be only selectable when a car is stopped at 0mph? Currently drivers can begin to fall down a cliff in clubs at somewhere like Greece and Corcisa, so they will quickly pause their game and select 'reset to track' meaning they only get a 5 second time penalty instead of an instant terminal damage which of course is not fair.
There doesn't appear to be any split times in clubs anymore - I quite liked this on DR2, but I suppose not everyone will be against this change! Maybe the option could be available to include split times so that you can see where you rank compared to the fastest time so far? We make the fastest drivers in our league run first, so it was always a good indicator for drivers running after to see where they place against the big runners.
Thank you for listening to our suggestions EA / PJ!
@Dom93iom You can view the overall standings of a club by going to "Event Overview", clicking on the current event and showing the leaderboard via the prompt in the bottom right corner
@Irish_Fox74 yes, if you back out to the main menu after each stage, which as we know gives drivers automatic repairs. We also make all our drivers compete their stages in one go anyway.
Not sure why the event standings can't just be shown after the stage results in clubs
@Dom93iom You misunderstand me. After a stage, there is the option to look at event overview. You can see the current standings through there. You do not have to return to the main menu to see them.
@Dom93iombrought out very good points, I was going to make almost the same post.
* Event standings not showing after each stage - The most important part of clubs is the overall time, what's the point if I can't keep track of overall diffs in standings after each stage. This is not time trial. This in not only true in-game, but I also want to see the standings after each stage in racenet. DR2 had a somewhat working solution, although not the best. The official WRC live timing has a good view with two parallel tables, one for stage and one for standings after that stage.
* Times for retired drivers / DNF drivers showing in the event standings - Good point! I have already seen this problem in my small club with friends where we have to ask separately why didn't they finish the event or when are they going to do it, only to find out that they had actually retired in a ditch already.
* 'reset to track' option be only selectable when a car is stopped at 0mph - Also a good point I hadn't thought of. Resetting shouldn't be available unless the car is stationary or should have a much bigger penalty (if the stationary detection is hard to implement for getting stuck on a rock or something)
* Create events through the browser - very important for bigger clubs
New request:
A separate request is to make the service area/event details view more compact during an event. When I'm in a service and want to see the upcoming stages and the weather, I have to open the "event details", then see all events, then open the current event and only then can I see the relevant info. I don't need to see the whole championship in a service area. At least not as the default view.
But as a response to @Dom93iom, you kind of can see the split times in racenet if you open another player on a stage, but you can only compare the splits to your own time.
i think clubs needs a filter by friends option in the leaderboards. Was in previously.
