VGR MotoGP Championship League

[ThaMaskedGamer]

I would like to officially start what is tentatively being called the VGR MOTOGP Championship League. For VGR members new and old, this thread kinda supercedes any of the previous threads, which may be a little confusing. In this thread I would like to recap the purpose of the league, how the league will be ran, and the current riders/teams.
PURPOSE: To create an official racing league that resembles the true MotoGP Series, but at the same time make the league convenient, competitive, but also friendly.

THE LEAGUE: All is not set in stone, but thus far this is what we have agreed upon. The league will be a full 16 race season, with each race being held on Sunday Evenings. The times have not been set as of yet. The races will be ten lap races. There will be a 10 minute qualifying session, followed by the race. The hope is to complete an event in less than an hour. The league will field a maximum of 8 teams, though we will begin this first season with a minimum of 5 teams. A team is comprised of a minimum of 2 riders and a maximum of 3 riders, however only two riders from one team can enter a given race. The purpose of the third rider is to allow a bit of redundancy for a team, in case a member can't race a particular even. It is up to the team to decide on their own which two members will represent their team each week.
The bikes, to capture the true spirit of the MotoGP, we are allowing only two teams to use the same bike. Thus only two teams could choose the Honda NSR 500. During the first season it will basically be first come, first serve. The first teams to officially sign up can choose their bikes, as other teams sign up they will have to choose from what is left. The seasons that follow will be different, we will figure another way to determine who gets what ride, it could be random, it could be based on reverse standings at the end of the first season. We will see. The teams will be expected to come up with a team name, team bike and leather colors, and logos.
Race conditions, 10 laps, 100% OffRoadSims, 100%Physics, 50%CollisionSim, Collisions:Forward Only, Weathers(is not agreed upon yet). We expect every one to race sensibly, we won't post any rules on conduct. This league really is not open to just anyone, the founding members if you will(Darwin-MethadoneMan, Glockstar-MrUnLucky, Massy-StillFastAsleep, me-PhazeVelocity) all race a certain way, tough but fair. And we are inviting people from LIVE that we have raced against that we feel race the same way. In the end, it is not about who finishes first, but about fun, fair, real competition. I don't expect there will be any problems in our group.
Members so far: Some have different VGR names than our LIVE gamertags, because we have been here longer than we were on LIVE. Here are all the members so far by VGR name and Gamertag:
Glockstar-MrUnLucky Massy-stillfastasleep Darwin-MethadoneMan ThaMaskedGamer-PHAZE VELOCITY.
So far, we have only one official team and as soon as they choose a bike it is theirs as a reward for being first. That team is Glockstar and Darwin. So we welcome any riders that we have invited from LIVE to sign up for a VGR account and introduce yourself to the league. Once you get a teammate(you can find your own too) hurry up and declare your team and choose from the bikes left. We still have to decide on a time to race, the weather conditions, and administrative things(hosting the site, result recording, etc.).
Welcome to the official start of the VGR league, gentlemen, MOUNT UP!

[KennyD]

Phase Velocity -- I'm in, let's do it. Racing with sim's up is a lot more fun in my opinion than "arcade" (unrealistic) mode. It's also much more challenging.

I race the Honda RC, Soft Tires, Normal Gears, 5 on front & rear suspension. I'm currently ranked in the 2800's.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

Nice to see you made it Kenny, welcome to the site. Everybody add KennyD to your friends list on LIVE if you haven't raced with him already. I know Meth and MrUnlucky have raced with you last week. I guess we have a second team now as last night I asked KennyD to be on my team.

So 1st team is Darwin & Glockstar, 2nd team is myself and KennyD, now we need three more teams. I also invited SAS Violator and Phazor to take a look at the site, so hopefully they will sign up also.

For the two teams we do have now, lets get started choosing team names and choosing which bike we want to run with. I will be online tonight late probably around 12am or 1am racing, so i'll try and get others to sign up too. Hopefully I can catch up with Massy.

[Darwin]

First of all, Glockstar, if turn on your ability to receive private posts, it'll make it easier for us to communicate with you. Glockstar is on logged onto VGR right now, so hopefully he will see this. Glock, let me know if you want to choose something else.

In a show of curtousy to our newcoming VGR members, I'd like to leave the Honda bikes for them to choose.

-Glockstar and I will choose the Yamaha M1F (4-stroke).
-We will call ourselves the MUFFler Kings.
Glockstar, if you have any objections or other suggestions, go right ahead.
(Please note that Yamaha has two 4-stroke bikes, the M1 and the M1F. We are choosing the M1F.)

ThaMaskedGamer: Just so you know, one of the guys I remembered who was interested in joining is named TapouT???? (a few numbers that follow his name that I can't remember off the top of my head). That way you'll know if you happen to see him on Live tonight.

Hey, KennyD. How's it going? Sorry I wasn't able to accept your invite this Sunday, I had to logoff soon 'cause my friend was coming over.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

Are u gonna be racing tonite? This is my night off so I'll be online after I get in. So you guys are gonna run the Yamaha M1F, cool, very cool. I look forward to giving you MUFFler kings exactly what you guys deserve, a good view of my mufflers :mad: .
Hey man, soon or later, I guess later would be better after we get more members, we will have to see about putting a time down in stone. And also the weather, i've raced in weather and no longer have a problem. But, when I was using the analog sticks to shift, I had a big problem with wheel spin. Don't know if you recall the time we wuz online racing in the rain and I kept complaining. But, now with my new setup I race like my bike has hydro-foils baby, smooth sailing :D But, I can go either way with this, I never really race with the weather on, but I figure we want to make it challenging and give people who may run relatively better or have a slower bike, an area they can master, like Kenny Roberts the wet specialist. We can see what the majority want to do once we get 5 teams. I can't wait i'm ready to do this. I redesigned my bike's paint scheme and logo, don't know if Kenny will want to use it, but I had a HardRock Cafe mug as my inspiration, so my bike is now white, with white, yellow, and maroon leathers, and the HardRock Cafe logo on the side of my bike.
Nice to see you were able to win some races on Legendary. I still can't figure out how I maxed out my bike(well, i still have 1 training point to get) without having to do Legendary, yet you must. :confused:

So, Tapout, don't recall racing against him. Is he a west coast guy, I know u race late. I'll keep an eye for him tonight.

[Glockstar]

<div class=\"smallfont\">First of all, Glockstar, if turn on your ability to receive private posts, it'll make it easier for us to communicate with you. Glockstar is on logged onto VGR right now, so hopefully he will see this. Glock, let me know if you want to choose something else.</div>

Soorry. My bad.
What's really stupid is that I was just about to suggest this very thing - but then I got hung up on the SWs. (Stupid board.)

Well... it looks like you're on it. LOL! I had some ideas... but, I'm easy. You picked the name and the bike though, so that means I get to pick the look and design the colors. :eek:

I've got a FFL draft this evening, but I should still be able to make it on later. (Though I can't (and I won't, dammit!) stay up past 1:30 tonite!) I'll look for you around midnite, TMG - though I might be on sooner than that.

Oh btw, I also made "friends" with a couple of guys that Dw and I were racing with last nite: SlipperyRC51 and b7stream [had to run downstairs to check it, then ended up racing one with Darwin]. These two guys were racing on my level (the three of us were constantly battling it out), but I get the feeling they might also be interested in joining. We'll look for them tonite as well.

(And sorry I didn't accept your invite last nite TMG; but I knew that my game was about to interrupted - so that's why I didn't bother joining you.)

[Darwin]

<div class=\"smallfont\">Are u gonna be racing tonite?</div>

I will be on tonight around 1 am Eastern time.

The guy's name that I was mentioning before is named TapouT911. If you host a game tonight, MaskedGamer, then Glockstar and I can try to invite some guys who were interested in joining so they can meet you.

In regards to the racing in the rain. I can do it, but it hurts my hands since I am using the right analogue stick. I will vote to use no rain, but if majority of the people want random weather then I will go along with that. Perhaps we ought to try a 10 lapper in the rain tonight just to see how tolerable these conditions are to everyone.

BTW, I PM'd Mass to invite him to join our league. I see him posting on System Wars but haven't heard from him on the Xbox forum yet.

Glockstar: You can PM (Private Message) me exact rider design specs and initials on our shirt that you decide on. In the coming week or so, we can PM each other suggestions for bike setups on certain tracks.

[mass]

I'm too lazy to bother forming a team, recruiting a teammate, or whatever. If someone wants to list me as an alternate for their team, that's fine, but frankly without some consideration of balancing out rankings of team members, you're not going to have competitive races, defeating the whole purpose of the exercise.

[Darwin]

<div class=\"smallfont\">I'm too lazy to bother forming a team, recruiting a teammate, or whatever. If someone wants to list me as an alternate for their team, that's fine, but frankly without some consideration of balancing out rankings of team members, you're not going to have competitive races, defeating the whole purpose of the exercise.</div>

O, ye of little faith. :-) just kidding.

The race will be more competative by the nature of using 100% sim physics. Naturally, there is going to be a spread of different skill levels and rider stats and whatnot. That's just the reality of racing. I don't personally put any kind of "value" on a person based on their performance. The main purpose is to have fun and to see personal improvement over time. I think the biggest competition will be with ourself.

Take a look at what really happens in real racing leagues. Most of the world racing leagues are dominated by one or two manufacturers. In F1, there's Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes, and everyone else. In World Rally there's Pugeou, and everyone else. So, there isn't a bell-shaped curve of performance in the real world. Likewise, there are probably going to be one or two teams that will win a lot more than the others in our League. That's fine, and I expect that to happen. That is the nature of racing. In fact, the only racing league that I know of that doesn't have this domination, i.e. that is more "closely competative", is Nascar .. and that is because the Nascar officials keep placing artificial barriers to prevent the natural domination from happening ... like restricter plates. And that is one of the reasons I don't like Nascar as much. It's not as pure as other forms of racing.

But teams will probably need a third member. You are welcome to join Glockstar and myself. Or maybe we'll get someone interested who doesn't have a teamate and you can join them.

Question: are you able to race on Sunday evenings around 7 or 8 pm Eastern time?

Anyway, whatever you choose is fine by me.

[KennyD]

<div class=\"smallfont\">Hey, KennyD. How's it going? Sorry I wasn't able to accept your invite this Sunday, I had to logoff soon 'cause my friend was coming over.</div>

No worries! They were racing zero sims anyway -- but it was a good fast group.

Sorry I missed everyone last eve. I fell asleep on the couch watching Discovery channel! LOL.

FYI, I started playing with my tires a bit today -- working with Hard tires rather than soft. Changed the suspension and wheelbase also. Trying to find the right settings for various situations.

[KennyD]

<div class=\"smallfont\">I'm too lazy to bother forming a team, recruiting a teammate, or whatever. If someone wants to list me as an alternate for their team, that's fine, ...</div>

What bike(s) do you prefer? That may help you end up on a team a little easier.

[KennyD]

<div class=\"smallfont\">So 1st team is Darwin & Glockstar, 2nd team is myself and KennyD, now we need three more teams. I also invited SAS Violator and Phazor to take a look at the site, so hopefully they will sign up also.

For the two teams we do have now, lets get started choosing team names and choosing which bike we want to run with. I will be online tonight late probably around 12am or 1am racing, so i'll try and get others to sign up too. Hopefully I can catch up with Massy.</div>

Phazor was great and he sounded like he really like sim-racing. He's ranked around 1100, so he'll be a formidable challenger.
:mad:
Team names -- hmmm :confused: . Hard Rock was the inspiration...something to do with "rock"...rock and roll...too cliche...rock solid...sims rock...do or die (I don't know where that came from)...reality racing rocks (triple "r" for short)...fast rock...rock on...2hard2catch...rock a bye-bye...okay...those are some ideas...thoughts? :D

I definitely want to stick with the Honda RC. I'm changing up my settings now to see if I can make some drastic ranking improvements (I've been mid to high 2,000's for a long time)....

[ThaMaskedGamer]

But I was in Costa Rica ;) And when I got back I just went to sleep, but tonite, I will be online for sure.
Okay, its official then, KennyD and myself are the second team, and we will be using the Honda RC211. Kenny I will PM you and we can talk about team name and bike colors.

Okay, about Massy, I was worried about you cause you are on the left coast. What time can you race on Sundays? You gotta race man, it wouldn't be a VGR race without one of the old dawgs of VGR. And about competition, it gonna be about having fun, not trying to dominate. But I think the league is going to be very competitive. For example, i'm not great at all the tracks, Jerez and Estoril kill me, as well as Catalunya and Rio. I know Darwin is great at some of the tracks. Plus, I know Glockstar said he has improved since he has experimented with a few bikes, and increased his stats. The biggest thing about racing sims is just not falling, racing conservatively could easily land anyone a podium position.
Anyway, forming this whole thing, we really had you in mind also. So just come and race with us some more, i'm sure it would be easy to find someone who will want to join. That's how I found KennyD.
Darwin, caught your posts about legendary, congrats man, though now i may be regretting giving u those hints, it may come back to bite me :(
Well, who is racing tonight? I'll be on starting around 12am fa realz this time. Catch u guys.

[Glockstar]

KennyD said...
>>"Team names -- hmmm. Hard Rock was the inspiration...something to do with "rock"...rock and roll...too cliche...rock solid...sims rock...do or die (I don't know where that came from)...reality racing rocks (triple "r" for short)...fast rock...rock on...2hard2catch...rock a bye-bye...okay...those are some ideas...thoughts?"

Howabout... "Rocket Rollers" ?
Anyways... welcome aboard Kenny.


Darwin said...
>>"Naturally, there is going to be a spread of different skill levels and rider stats and whatnot. That's just the reality of racing. I don't personally put any kind of "value" on a person based on their performance. The main purpose is to have fun and to see personal improvement over time. I think the biggest competition will be with ourself."

Amen to that. (Oh wait, that was a different post that you asked for an amen to, wasn't it?) Seriously though, I have no pretentions of winning any races in this league, or any other, right now. I just hope to be able to ride with a high degree of respectability and to not let my teammates down. And that's going to be a big challenge for me, as this game (even though I love it so) does not come to me easily. But I'm all about the competition, man. So I'm :cool: !

[Darwin]

Had the opportunity to race again with these two guys, b7stream and TapouT911, the same guys that Glockstar (a.k.a. Mister Unlucky) and I spoke with the previous night about this site. Both sounded very interested and they know how to find our posts here. BTW, TapouT911 said he was interested in the Suzuki. (I just wanted to give a head's up to Phaze Velocity and KennyD if you see their posts.) I believe they know each other, so they might become teamates. Anyway, welcome new guys if you happen to see this post.

Hey, Phaze Velocity and KennyD could be "The Crotch Rockets".

My ranking is going up as I am progressing through Legendary mode. However, it's kind of deceptive as my times are based on no sims. (I race on no sims in single player so I can get stat points easier.) Without MaskedGamer's tips and encouragement, I would not be winning on Legendary. It's opened up a new dimension to me.

I will likely be on tonight at my usual time of 1 am Eastern. And BTW, Glockstar, what was all this talk about you going to bed at 1:30? As sure as my name is Darwin, he was still online around 3 am when I came online. Hope MotoGP 2 hasn't overtaken your life :-)

[MatrixArchitect]

Hey everyone, finally got "Live" going last night and you guys were right, "Live" is worth it! MatrixArchitect is my gamertag, so I made a new account to match my tag. Anyways, I played the MotoGP demo for an hour last night and had a blast, so I will definately be getting into MotoGP 2 soon enough! Thanks for the advice!

[Darwin]

<div class=\"smallfont\">Hey everyone, finally got "Live" going last night and you guys were right, "Live" is worth it! MatrixArchitect is my gamertag, so I made a new account to match my tag. Anyways, I played the MotoGP demo for an hour last night and had a blast, so I will definately be getting into MotoGP 2 soon enough! Thanks for the advice!</div>

Nice. And our VGR Live group grows even more. When you get MotoGP 2 let us know so you can race with us. We can give you tips and whatnot. Also, keep in mind that most people online race with no sims, but our group usually races with 100% simulation physics.

If I go online on a weekday, it's usually 1am - 3 am Eastern Time. On weekends, I can be online any time.

[mass]

Masked, racing on Sunday is not a problem. Stupid question, but are we going to be racing with pre-made bikes? I race with the Honda NSR, but I'll try out one of the 1000cc monsters to see if I can handle them.

If TapouT911 accepts me as a partner, that's cool, I'll give the big suzuki bike a whirl. We're both west coast boys as well.

[Darwin]

<div class=\"smallfont\">Masked, racing on Sunday is not a problem. Stupid question, but are we going to be racing with pre-made bikes? </div>

So far, we've talked about using our own custom riders so that each team could customize their look as the same look. I hadn't thought of using on of the pre-fab riders. I personally wouldn't have a problem with you or anyone using a pre-fab rider.

You know, that might be something to consider, MaskedGamer. Letting people choose a premade rider, as long as it's the bike that their team uses. Some of those premade riders have better stats than some people's custom guys. It could be a big disadvantage to those guys whose custom riders have significantly lower stats. But then they wouldn't be able to make the premade rider look like their teamate's bike.

Mass, how are the stats of your custom rider?

What are everyone's thoughts on using premade riders as a substitute for a custom rider? I personally am going to be using my custom rider, but I don't mind if others use premade guys.

[bitstream]

i appreciate your invite into the league and hope i will be able to give you all some good races. i am not ranked very high yet (@ 8000) but have only been playing for a few weeks so I hope things improve with time. i have been racing the proton almost exclusively just because nobody else seems to use it. if anyone else would like to team up with me and use this bike then that would be great. otherwise i have no bike preference and actually like the idea of requiring that different teams use different manufacturer's bikes. i dont have a teammate and really haven't gotten to know many racers online as of yet so if someone else is in this position, let me know and maybe we can team-up. I wouldnt mind being on a three person team but sunday nights will rarely be a problem for me. i look forward to hearing more and hope to participate. thanks for the invite, i prefer sim racing.

b7stream (commonly referred to as "stream", "b-stream" or "b-7")

[MatrixArchitect]

After a heavy dose of ass whoopin' last night I would appreciate some advice on tips, setups and strategies!

If you don't want to post it here, please send me a private message.

Thanks!

What time does everyone hook up on Sunday nights?

[ThaMaskedGamer]

In particular B7Stream and MatrixArchitect, oh and how can I forget Tapout! Nice to have u guys aboard the league and also VGR, though I must caution you, be wary if you venture into the system wars forum, lol.
Okay, Massy asked if I'd mind people using pre-made riders. I really don't mind that, obviously a lot of guys here are new and don't have maxed out bikes, so if that can help guys out I don't mind. Just remember though, you still have to abide by the restriction that only two teams can use the same type of bike. So far there are only 2 official teams, the MUFFler Kings(Darwin&Glockstar) and myself and KennyD(don't have a name yet, though CrotchRockets is interesting. So, I encourage you guys to hurry up and form teams so you can get the bike you want. My team is using the RC211 and MUFFKings are using the M1-F, so that means we can only field one more RC211 team and one more M1-F team.
Here is a list of riders that don't have a team yet, MASSY(stillfastasleep), MatrixArchitect, B7Stream, and Tapout. And if I recall I heard mention the Suzuki and the Proton as possible sleds, that's cool guys. You guys are making me feel like a chump for picking something easy, like the RC. But next season, I think I may go with a Proton :D
Someone one was asking about tips to get better. I would say obviously trying to max out your bike, why? Because not only does it improve your stats, but it forces you to learn the tracks and the little tricks, like bike setups. Going all the way through the game is really important. Controls, your controls should be smooth as butter, if you are getting hung up switching gears or doing something else, think about experimenting with diff. control schemes. Also, never use linked braking, only use independent braking, and only use the front brake, use the rear brake sparingly, and never in a turn. Aside from that, during a race take the corners close as possible, and try and stay up. Not falling down is a good way to get a podium position.
So guys, we are almost there, I really didn't think this whole league would take off, but it looks like we can do this. We have two teams now, but we have 4 more riders so that is possibly 4 teams. Once we get a fifth team, we can start racing. So we still need to keep recruiting people. Hopefully CoolGForce, Raven, SASViolator will all come through.

[MatrixArchitect]

Not to sound less enthusiastic, because the reality is I'm excited about this game, but I'm pretty new to the game and I don't know a whole lot about the game itself. So my time frame to becoming competitive might be longer than desired by some of you would like. However, I am looking forward to being on a team/league and I have always excelled at racing once I learn the tracks and the game itself. So if someone wants to team up with me, I'll give it my best shot, however I might need my hand held so to speak at first. It sounds like a lot of fun, and everyone here seems really cool.

[Darwin]

<div class=\"smallfont\">Not to sound less enthusiastic, because the reality is I'm excited about this game, but I'm pretty new to the game and I don't know a whole lot about the game itself. So my time frame to becoming competitive might be longer than desired by some of you would like. However, I am looking forward to being on a team/league and I have always excelled at racing once I learn the tracks and the game itself. So if someone wants to team up with me, I'll give it my best shot, however I might need my hand held so to speak at first. It sounds like a lot of fun, and everyone here seems really cool.</div>

Let me tell you about a quick way to get a faster bike. The premade riders have stats that are pretty high. Eventually, you can make your own rider with stats that exceed the pre-made riders, but that will take a while. If you're interested in getting a fast bike quickly, choose a premade rider. Many of the premade riders are already unlocked at the start of your game.

To unlock the fastest premade riders, you'll need to go through Stunt mode in single player. I was able to get all the way through stunt mode in an hour and a half and unlock the fastest premade riders. Even if you can't get all the guys unlocked, getting a few unlocked still means fast riders available to you. In stunt mode, simply set your number of laps to one. Do a burnout at the beginning of every lap. The key to racking up lots of points in stunt mode is to do consecutive peices of the track without going off-road. You are awarded points for sections of the track done perfectly (i.e. not going offroad). The points go up exponentially every consecutive piece of track you run perfectly.

However, if you don't know the tracks fairly well, then this still may not be that easy for you. MaskedPoster gave you the best overall advice: start going through single player career mode on your own. Even if you don't wind up with a really fast bike by the first race, you've at least gone through the courses and learned the basics. Oh ... and we all went through the single player with 0% sims. Do your single player career mode with no sims so that it'll make it easier for you to adjust to the tracks and build up your custom rider. 100% sims is for when we race online.

What you must realize is that some of us, including myself, have been racing Moto GP 1 and 2 for months. I personally have put in over 250 hours into both games (maybe more). That is the reason we are doing well. It just takes time, that's all.

I don't want to give you too much advice on controller setup, because I think it's best for each person to find their own way that suits them. Unlike MaskedGamer, I do use combination braking and I do fairly well. There is one tip that I will give, however, and that is you use either a trigger button or an analogue stick for acceleration. Using a face button for acceleration will cause loads of trouble for 100% sims racing. You'll have to be able to input variable acceleration to prevent wheel spin.

The first season of our league will be a learning experience for everyone. Don't worry about rankings or your personaly abilities right now. It's all about having fun and personal improvement. Remember, your greatest competitor will be yourself.

[bitstream]

I would be happy to team up with you matrixarchitect. we may not be the best but we could share tips as we learn and maybe even pull a surprise upset on some occasion. email me or find online this weekend and we can talk it out if you are interested.

i'm psyched even though my chances of winning are slim. this will be a good way to gain skills. i have found that even though i dont always get pb's on sims i have been able at times to keep up with riders half my rank or better. woohoo. thx for the tips to those of you who have shared them. i restarted my rider today (racing pro series first) and hope to have gained as many credits as possible for me right now over the weekend...for a sunday practice match maybe??

[Darwin]

<div class=\"smallfont\">i restarted my rider today (racing pro series first) and hope to ...</div>

I would highly recommend going through each difficulty level sequentially. I.e. in career mode, do your first season as Rookie. Then next season go up one difficulty level and so on. It might seem at first that you'd get points faster for starting on a higher difficulty, however your bike's stats will be low and thus it will become frustrating to even win a race. The two higher difficulty levels are quite competative and you'll need to get many stat points before you attempt these higher level difficulties.

Hey, do a Quick Race with your current rider and put the difficulty on pro difficulty to see just how well you fair against the AI.

[KennyD]

<div class=\"smallfont\"><div class=\"smallfont\"></div>
What are everyone's thoughts on using premade riders as a substitute for a custom rider? I personally am going to be using my custom rider, but I don't mind if others use premade guys.</div>

I think that's fine. At the end of the day it's going to come down to 80% skill anyway ... though when that is "equal" the extra bike does help.

I will be using my custom. I worked really hard to build it up.

[KennyD]

<div class=\"smallfont\">i have been racing the proton almost exclusively just because nobody else seems to use it. ... thanks for the invite, i prefer sim racing.

</div>

that's cool...like phase said, it's about staying up on the bike. I raced some guys for a while today with 5 to 10 laps. We were generally of equal skill (anywhere from 1500-3000 in ranking, the difference in speeds is seconds in this range) so it really came down to who made less mistakes. I've found that the best racers are the consistent ones. The proton isn't going to beat anyone in a drag race, but if it has strenghts that if you learn and execute well, you will be giving everyone else a run for it.

[KennyD]

<div class=\"smallfont\"><div class=\"smallfont\"></div>

I would highly recommend going through each difficulty level sequentially. I.e. in career mode, do your first season as Rookie. Then next season go up one difficulty level and so on.

Hey, do a Quick Race with your current rider and put the difficulty on pro difficulty to see just how well you fair against the AI.</div>

I agree 100% with both of these recommendations. Start with the rookie level. It's still somewhat competative due to your "new" bike, even though later you will dust those guys in reverse. This is the quickest way to build up your bike. You need to win every race, if at all possible. This will be virtually impossible with a new bike at higher levels.

Quick races are a good thermometer of your skill. I routinely beat legendary AI now, but before I had the most trouble :mad: -- you wouldn't believe it. :rolleyes:

[KennyD]

<div class=\"smallfont\">So far there are only 2 official teams, the MUFFler Kings(Darwin&Glockstar) and myself and KennyD(don't have a name yet, though CrotchRockets is interesting. ... MUFFKings are using the M1-F...

Controls, your controls should be smooth as butter, if you are getting hung up switching gears or doing something else, think about experimenting with diff. control schemes. Also, never use linked braking, only use independent braking, and only use the front brake, use the rear brake sparingly, and never in a turn. Aside from that, during a race take the corners close as possible, and try and stay up. Not falling down is a good way to get a podium position.

So guys, we are almost there, I really didn't think this whole league would take off, but it looks like we can do this...Once we get a fifth team, we can start racing.</div>

Dude, I'm not sure about CrotchRockets -- I'll reply to your PM (LOL)!

MuffKings -- hey that's pretty good, I wish I'd a thought of that.

I totally agree with controls. It's fascinating how unique everyone's controls are! Here's what I use -- you will use something totally different -- but I show you this just so you can see how much we change the controller around, and that you shouldn't be afraid to do it either;
Left Trigger: Front Break
Right Trigger: Lean Forward
Left Stick: Steer, Lean Forward, Lean Backward
Right Stick: Accelerate
White,Yellow,Blue: Downshift
Black, Red, Grean: Upshift

See -- wierd eh? But that's "comfortable" for me. I've tried a lot of other setup's, and that's the one I've grown acustomed to.

Not falling down is way important. As I said in another post, when you are racing guys close to your skill level, the key is not making mistakes.

Maybe we could race together this weekend, as a sort of "dry-run"?

[bitstream]

well, i ended up playing through pro before i got your message. i have won every pro race and completed all but two of the track challenges and all but three of the training challenges. it took me about 5 hrs! but now its done and i have more pips than before (138 to be exact) and i went online for a bit and reduced my overall ranking to 7500. not bad for an evening of fun. champion is now putting me back in my place but i will beat it.
consistency definitely seems to be the key. what bothers me is that my rider always seems to be the slowest to get up from a wreck and that when others wreck they seem to be able to catch up to and pass me whereas when i wreck i rarely am able to catch up to anyone, go figure. anyway, more practice today

[Darwin]

My friend sat along side of me tonight as I completed the last challenge and the last race of Legendary mode. I had even said before that I wouldn't bother with the "Perfect Lap" challenge, but on a whim I decided to see how close I could come .. and then it happened. Maxed out rider. I was stunned.

Had some good racing tonight with KennyD in the room. Added the host to my friend's list. Maybe we'll catch him online when we're in a game and can invite him and let him know of the league. There seems to be a lot more sims racers online these days so the opportunity to enlist racers into our league is definitely there.

Let me tell ya, there is a difference between running timed laps verses racing against others with collisions on. I learned a lot in tonight's game about how to avoid collisions. In 20 or so races, I think I only knocked one guy off. It would be good for us to run some races together before the season starts, just so we can learn some "group dynamics". The first lap is by far the most critical. Braking points and lines change when there's a guy in front of you and the only way to learn this is by hands-on practice.

Hope to see some of ya'll online tomorrow afternoon/evening.

[Darwin]

<div class=\"smallfont\">well, i ended up playing through pro before i got your message. i have won every pro race and completed all but two of the track challenges and all but three of the training challenges. it took me about 5 hrs! but now its done and i have more pips than before (138 to be exact) and i went online for a bit and reduced my overall ranking to 7500. not bad for an evening of fun. </div>


You did all that in 5 hours?!! Damn. You're progressing faster than I did. Seriously, to accomplish that much in one evening means you've got some impressive driving skills.

To quote the character Bishop in Aliens: "Not bad, for a human."

[bitstream]

i beat champion and the first two legend races last night. now all i have left are two training challenges (obstacles and perfect lap), "luckey heights" track challenge, and the rest of legend. woohoo. my rank shot into the 6000's.

[TapouT]

This is TapouT911. I am officially in with team Suzuki and as I understand we need a team name, and that will be......................
........"TEAM PUNISHMENT" I haven't heard a word about my teammate
but I did talk to someone by the name B7STREAM. H e said he was willing to learn to ride the Suzuki GSV-R. I haven't heard a thing since. The only thing I require from my teammate is a vow of silence when asked about SPECs we run for all tracks. I will be willing to team up with anyone as long as thier not to much of a newbie. I will be on later tonight. 9/03/2003




P.S. Team Punishment colors are Black bike w/orange and yellow flame decals. my bike # is 01

[Darwin]

Hey, good to see B7stream, TapouT911, Mister Unlucky, and myself all in the same room tonight.

Tonight I saw a guy I used to race a bit with in the old Moto GP1 days (well, last year, not that old), a guy named "TR". I told TR about this site. I also invited a guy with the gamertag of "friendly" to check out VGR and see if he wants to join up. So if you guys see either one of these fellas online or posting here, say hi.

You can definitely see the progression of Mister Unlucky and B7stream ... they are becoming more of a force on the race track. The racing is getting tighter than it was several weeks ago.

BTW, TapouT911 has a really good connection. Haven't had any problems running in Phaze Velocity's or TapouT's rooms. I suspect they would be the best candidates for hosting the official races on Sundays.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

Okay guys, we need everyone pitching the league, so put on your salesmen hats. We need two more teams, it looks like MatrixArchitect and Massy are still hesitant. Right now we have the MUFFler Kings, Team RRR Racing, and TEAM PUNISHMENT. We need two more teams before we can start, so it doesn't look like its gonna be this weekend :(

I have been asking people to take a look at the site, I know Darwin has too. Now we need everyone out there humping to make this thing a reality. So far the bikes the teams are using the Yamaha M1-F, the RC211 Honda, and the Suzuki GSV-R. If things don't work out by this weekend, I will put up a post in the motogpxbl website, but I am hesitant to do that because I don't want a bunch of dirty lappers joining our league. I was racing with some of those guys yesterday afternoon, and while they are good, they don't hesitate to knock you off your bike to get around u, then they always apologize as if it was an accident, that is their M.O. and if we race like that it will just build up resentment and make the whole league not any fun.

So lets go guys 2 more teams, that is only 4 more people. Congrats to the new guys maxing out their bikes and improving your times. By the middle of the season I suspect everyone will be racing neck and neck. Well, don't think I will be online this evening or tomorrow evening bein a pimp ain't easy. But i'll see u guys on the track, oh I may be on at around 4pm EST to 5pm EST today and tomorrow though.

[Darwin]

I've thought about it, but haven't actually done this. The gamefaqs message boards get a lot of traffic. Check out the MotoGP 2 page message boards. Those tend to be a little more serious than the other pages like the Vice City page. We may be able to get a few people who post there to come look at our site here. However, we gotta be careful as the gamefaqs boards are littered with trolls. The gamefaqs site makes System Wars look like a peace movement, I kid you not.

I'll take a look and see if I can recognize anyone we've raced with before. And then maybe I can make a rather inconspicuous reply to a post of theirs to personally invite them to VGR. Hopefully I won't get in trouble for "Spamming" on the gamefaqs site. As long as I don't overdo it and do it inconspicuously, I think I can get away with it. BTW, I post on gamefaqs under the name of "Darwin Fish".

[TapouT]

METHADONE MAN youre right about the last comment regarding the gamefaqs messege boards it's crawling with ps2 diehard trolls. I got banned from that site for spamming about a year ago, it's actually pretty funny, you know how I'm a big fan of the UFC, they practically sponser my Suzuki, but i spammed the next fight details for the UFC a year ago and got banned. But thats beside the point. The thing I want to know is if it's gonna be b7stream on my team, if so I would like to arrange a meeting tonight with whoever's gonna be my teammate, so that we can cordinate our efforts, and or bike logo's and stuff. I want to arrange the practice time @ about 8:00pm PST. Whoever it's gonna be please look for me I will create the room, so please look for it. Thanx! :D

[TapouT]

My bad I forgot the room will be "TapouT911" that's my xbox live gamertag just in case. :p

[Darwin]

Because of work, the earliest I can be on will be 1 am eastern. Let's see, subtract 3 hours and that'll be 10 pm Pacific time. I'll most likely be on tonight.

[TapouT]

But METH I still don't know who my official teammate is. Need feedback on that please. I'll be on till the break of dawn! :o

[Darwin]

<div class=\"smallfont\">But METH I still don't know who my official teammate is. Need feedback on that please. I'll be on till the break of dawn! :o</div>

Your teamate is whoever you want it to be. I think b7stream would be a good teamate for you. Next time you see him, just ask him. If I see him online, I'll tell him you're looking for a teamate and to post here.

[Darwin]

Was on again tonight. Met some of the coolest mother ****ers I've raced with in a long time. I tell ya, the guys who race 100% sims are generally the coolest guys to race with online.

First off, if "The DarknighT", "CoolG Force", or "TR" are reading this ... welcome. You have reached our beloved videogamereview site. Well, we don't own it, but some of us have been posting here so long we feel like we own it. :-)

You can expect to see me, Methadone Man, on Live tomorrow at the same general time, around 1 am Eastern. Hey, TapouT911, is there anyway your brother can get a seperate account and join us? Your bro was kicking some ass out there and we need more riders like him in our league.

And so, hopefully we can get 2 or 3 more guys in the League. "Diablo's minions grow stronger" :-)

[Darwin]

Some people have had technical problems initially signing up for this site, for some reason. It's even happened to several of the VGR vetrans.

So, if you are one of the guys I spoke with online and want to join up, but can't get an account for some reason, feel free to email me. I cannot help you with any technical problems, but at least you'll be able to comminicate with us in some way. I am Methadone Man:

derobake@yahoo.com