And I have gotten better, to the point that I actually have enough control over the bike that I can battle with someone. Riding predictable lines and not colliding.
The latter part is the most fun I ever had in a game, going bar to bar with other riders of my own level that know how to battle and have fun.
But, that is where the biggest problem lies, these riders that know how to control the bike and how to stay out of collisions only account for about 10-20% of all riders that are online.
4 out of 5 times you are going to come across someone that rides all over the place and either tries in a very bold move to pass, resulting in a huge crash 99% of the time, or in his "panic" to keep his spot, starts waving all over the pace to block any approach.
The latter can be argued about where the border lies between trying to protect your lines and just being plain out of control.
My point is that at this point I treat everyone like the "goons" these days unless i personally know the rider to be good and knows what he's doing. this does not help my online experience at all, it forces me to be always worrying about everyone else on the track while i should be focusing on my riding.
I realize that this is a problem that can't be solved easily, maybe it can't be solved at all. MXS is a hard game, VERY hard, especially online.
It does not matter that you can ride faster than some people, it still doesn't make you a good and fair rider online.
These people are also the people that don't pay attention to the track when they make a mistake. They get off track, slow down considerably, and then just barge back onto the track without thinking about other riders that might be riding there.
I can't count the amount of times I have been hit by bikes and riders flying crisscross over the track because someone hit someone and that someone hit someone else who then in turn hits me.
then when everyone gets back up, everyone just turns the throttle open 110% and it's chaos all over again.
I realize that in the heat of the race there is a lot going on, everyone wants to do as good as he possibly can, but there are no restrictions.
When you crash you get back up in 10 seconds, real life it depends on how severe the crash was.
fell over a berm, MXS: 10 seconds, IRL: longer than that.
cased a triple, MXS: 10 seconds IRL: if your lucky just a real big slam to your body, if your unlucky MUCH MUCH worse.
smacked into the side of a stadium at full speed, MXS: 10 seconds, IRL: a bunch of broken bones.
rammed into 2 other riders in a 180 turn, MXS: 3x10 seconds, IRL: probably disqualification and a good chance of a large injury.
WFO at the start, no brakes, MXS: 75% of all riders 10 seconds, IRL: Red flag, and a whole bunch of carnage.
The punishment for a slight tap can be just as bad as riding like a lunatic WFO around the track.
There is no such thing as peripheral vision in MXS, you are not as aware of your surroundings in MXS as you would be IRL.
So keep that in mind when you have your throttle open at the start. or when you are riding behind someone.
The ease at which a rider can make a mistake in MXS is also much higher than IRL. this is mostly because there is no real penalty for riding faster than you really are able to.
people just go as fast as they can and that makes them crash.
I myself find it hard to ride a full race without crashing, it's normal to crash once a race, maybe even twice. I have races where i crash every lap. and I'm sure this is the case for a lot of other MXS players out there.
when you come up to a triple you don't think "Can I really make this jump?" no, you just try and it works out 50% of the time, in MXS 50% isn't a bad deal.
In real life.. 50% over a triple, I think you would have to come up with a million dollars to find and idiot that will try.
yes this applies to single player as much as it does in multiplayer. the only difference is that you can take someone else with you in the process when online.
In a crowded race (15 or more people) 90% of my crashes are due to other players, sometimes it's their fault and sometimes they just crash in an unfortunate place.
The other 10% it's me that makes a mistake and 90% of those times other riders crash into me.
The one and only way you can avoid most of this carnage is if you get a top 3 start. a bad start and you can just log off since there is no point in trying.
as an example, I can ride 54, 55 second lap times on 2011 phoenix quite consistently. In the heat race of the euro sx series. I got 1 lap time of 55, the rest was above 1 minute.
A race that I take extra care, where I try my very best to ride good and consistent to get into the main and still I crash every lap except for 1 lap.
I know these problems are difficult to remedy from a programming point of view.
It is near impossible for the game to identify certain situations and then assign penalties to the ones responsible.
I also know it is near impossible to create a game that is both realistic and easy to control.
There are a bunch of things that the game has problems with that relate to the things I mentioned, like the fact that crashing into someone gives the same penalty as accidentally bumping into someone that's on the ground.
Some of those things just aren't fair, but again hard to fix from a programming point.
So I would like to put a request out there to everyone that sees the same problems as I do(and that took the time to read this entire thing
):Try and tame your enthusiasm to a point where you are able to ride clean and consistent laps.
Don't make rash decisions on passes that you know will most likely result in a crash for the both of you.
Keep a line, don't go jumping triples from left to right, especially right after the start.
Don't try to make that difficult jump with a bunch of riders around you, it's not worth it.
If you cannot do these things then you should consider practicing some more, since obviously you don't have the necessary control of the bike where you can ride close to someone without hitting the other rider.
For now I will be taking a brake from competitive online racing, it only serves to frustrate and enrage me. I consider myself a reasonable and calm guy but in races like that I have a hard time riding the full 6 laps (Which I find a damn shame).
All i hope is that some people read this post and start thinking to themselves that maybe the game would be much more enjoyable if we all tried a little less to hit and crash our way into a position.
Consistency wins races!
Let the flaming commence
