Damage! Pros, Cons & Paradoxes

[Tarmac Terrorist]

This thread is for the general discussion of the Article Damage! Pros, Cons & Paradoxes. Please add to the discussion here.

 

[jgf]

The main issue with dmg has been whether, other than contact dmg, it is based on how you drive or is just random. True in RL there are random failures, but all too often in a sim you can abuse the engine and gearbox all day with no problems, yet suffer a suspension failure; or vice versa, bounce over the kerbs endlessly but have a fuel pump failure. And body dmg should always affect aerodynamics, but in proportion; many sims feature this but merely apply a set drag increase to any body dmg, whether a dented fender or loss of the entire front end. Plus this increase in drag will have the same effect at any track, from Lemans to Roskilde.

Add to this that the fragility of a car and effect of dmg is often at the whim of a sim/mod creator so there are no standards.

For these reasons many leagues do not require enabling dmg/failures since there is little to no dependence on driving style nor set conventions for dmg.

 

[Durge Driven]

rFactor2 most league servers are 50% damage, auto gears, auto clutch which means you can get away with rubbing door handles and small impacts but not much else.
Actually it is braking you must be good at, vibrations from flat spot
are intense to say the least

 

[jgf]

....
Actually it is braking you must be good at, vibrations from flat spot
are intense to say the least

Something sorely lacking in the vast majority of sims. RL racing tires are so soft you lock the wheels half a second and they'll rattle your hemorrhoids out by the time you get back to the pits; but most sims you can lock all four wheels and disappear in a cloud of tire smoke, and unless you slide into something will drive away unscathed.

 

[Durge Driven]

Another thing most all sims have canned FFB levels for damage
rF2 the harder you hit something the more you feel it

Same with flat spot the bigger the lockup the more you feel it in hands
Do a few little lockups minor vibration in race and by end less vibration
because as the tyre wears it smooths the flat spot edges

and that is basically a 20 year old engine lol

 

[Tnadz]

Yes when it comes to online racing with others on track, it's generally better when the overall damage effects are reduced at least a little to avoid race ending incidents that may come from tunneling or other network-related issues. But there's still plenty of opportunity to destroy yourself.

But I much prefer damage on, visually and mechanically. Otherwise, what's the point? Suffer the consequences!