Dirt Track Racing 2

[aZuidema]

Hey All,

I was wondering if the supposed patches for the multiplayer engine of DTR2 have been shelved, the community for this game is tremdous, there is Add-On sites, getting over 500 hits a day, and one of the largest DTR2 only sites just hit 1 million page views. Is this not enough to drop some time and effort into making this game More enjoyable? The lag and warp of multiplayer racing is getting to a point where people just cant handle being stuffed by a car flying around in the air, or dissapearing reappearing cars, cars stuck in the track, cars doing donuts and flying around backwards???? As far as this being a connection issue, that it is not, because whether we race in a dial up server or a t1 server, there is not much difference, granted t1 is a little better, its not enough to make leasing t1 space, or securing outside servers worth the while. Any reply would be appreciated...

Thank You,

Adam Zuidema
www.zrfmotorsports.com

[Shadow32]

I second that Adam.

The Dirt Track Racing 2 game needs patched. I attempted to contact Ratbag on this and they told me that the next version of the game would address the problem. That was quite frankily a lame answer. I asked them to fix the way the servers report the cars. All because some lazy coders decided not to make each class of car unique in the naming scheme. For instance in the results logs a Campala chassis could be a ProStock racecar or even a Modified racecar. The actual chassis' are quite different in appearance, performance, and their name. However, there is noway to tell that in the results log! The cars are unique enough within the game, I just dont see why they made this decision!?!?! I would like to see the accuracy of the results logs addressed in the patch.

Also I know of several people who report numerous problems running the game with Windows XP. There should be a fix added to the patch to make the game more compatible with the latest OS that the majority of gamers are running today.

There also appears to be problems with some video cards. This should also be addressed in the patch.

I'm certain that with the number of multi-player gamers out there running the sim, there is justifiable reason to code a few simple fixes into a patch! They did it for the first release - Dirt Track Racing 1 and also Dirt Track Racing Sprint Cars.

[Danno]

I agree, we love this game, but online has become very frustrating. If there were a patch and we didn't have the warpping and lag like we do, I'd buy all my games from Ratbag aka Infgrames.
We all just want to have fun, and yes we've made this game into an online sport, that's why it gets so frustraiting, we've made a ton of new race freinds, and enjoy racing DTR2 with em, but then the problems start, we need a patch for better servers, nothing else will do, we just want to ENJOY racing, not get so mad we consider buyin and racing something else!

[P2BG]

I Agree with you all. A patch is needed and soon!!!! People are getting tired of racing and having warp and lag take them out.Soon there may not be a need to bother coming out with a new game nobodys going to buy it after the lame way this company treats its consumers. I have purchased every Ratbag-Infogrames Dirt sim they've came out with. But if this problem isnt addessed My money wont be going to purchase anymore. A little support to your followers would go a long way in keeping those followers. I'm sure Sierra or Hasbro or EA Sports would love the chance to do a dirt sim if and take your buisness away if you dont care about your consumers needs.

[Cowtipper]

As I also agree with the guys above, something serious needs to be done to fix these wierd and unusual deals that online racers are getting. As Adam said before "There is Add-On sites, getting over 500 hits a day, and one of the largest DTR2 only sites just hit 1 million page views." I mean seriously, can nothing be done to save or help the consumers of this product enjoy it. Lets pray for something to be done. Because I'm sure that Ratbag won't do anything.

[WOW_Sky]

As an ADM of a Sim Racing site for DTR2, I can tell you the DTR2 game would explode if we had a patch to help with (1)lag
/warp, and (2)one to address the multi shift/ hyper shift maual transmission cheat/problem.

I rented T1 servers for WOW Leagues last season. Although it did improve the racing envirnment, it is not cost effecient when results are not that much improved.

The Hyper shift fix/patch would enable those running auto to compete. Right now auto transmission is at least .2-.3 seconds slower than manual.

Thanks for any help.

Dave Coombs
WOW Race Director
http://www.racewow.homestead.com/

[DRT_TN_TORNADO]

Agreed! every post above is right on the money...lack of support is all i have seen from Ratbag and Inforgrams. its like... make it ,sell it, and forget it... customer satifaction doesn't seem like a concern anymore.....

[SIBS69]

Yes something needs to be done about this. It would be great ot actualy get the game supported after the purchase.

[aZuidema]

bump...

[Gatler]

Hmm,, a patch? dtrsc has a patch and it still warps and lags ,Its dial up ,thats the problem. It would be nice if you could come up with a way to fix the way this game crashes dedicated servers. That way we could get back on OLR(www.onlineracin.com)Being on OLR took this game to a whole new level,but they refuse to support it because ratbag and Infogrames won't work with them on a "fix" for the dedicated server crashes. What I would like to see personally is for you to use the engine from World of Outlaw sprint cars,but this time include Concept modifeids ,late models ,and prostocks,fix the horrible problems with the multi player in that game,and give us a pf extract so we can input are own data ,skins,tracks,ect.

[hoohamotorsport]

I definatley agree I doesnt matter if im in a room by my slef or with 10 others i still lag out you guys definatley need a patch before alot of people stop playing the game

HooHa
http://hoohamotorsports.cjb.net

[KKania7s]

Dirt Track Racing 2 online series can only run about 6 cars to make it HALFWAY DECENT. Thats pretty crappy, its not even fun with 6 cars. If you have Nascar Racing: 2003 Season, you can run 30+ cars with very little lag/warp. How come Ratbag/Atari cant figure that out? That would be great running A-Mains with 30 cars..... would definatly make it more realistic.
thats just my $.02

[David Walter]

I agree with everything said here. I was just wondering since there was a patch started for this problem is there a way to make it a beta test version and have some people sign up to get it. Then some people can have some input on what to fix. Then have some people sign up to work on it since its not being done there. I'm sure there are some people that would be willing to try to get the patch finished. There is alot of people that race DTR2 are smarter than you think they are. This game really needs something done to fix this online problem. Other companies can make there racing games race online with no problems or very few problems at all. And just think what it would be like racing online with a bunch of friends that are not complaining about the lag in the race. Now they say you took me out and there excuse is always" well it's lag or warp". Wouldn't it be nice not have any excuse's for your driving or others driving skills. Then you would not have that excuse anymore if this patch was done. Thanks for your time, MRT_Modracer

[Shadow32]

Good question KKania7s!

If Papyrus can build a great online racing sim that permits over 30 cars to race online side-by-side warp free then why is it that Ratbag decides to stray away from developing the same multiplayer environment in the Dirt Track Racing Sims?

[skooby8o5]

I have just recently started racing online I was in the evracing league I agree with what adam an shadow 32 are saying a patch does need to be made to fix the problems of lag and warp. I recently was told to get cable that would help the lag and warp to me it really does'nt. I have about had it with the game its not fun to be racing see people go flying in the air past you at impossible speeds and see the cars flipping down the track. If nothing gets done about this I will never buy another game from you guys. I have already started playing nascar heat and I might not play dirt track racing 2 again .


skooby8o5

[Shadow32]

Any News? Or input on how to get feedback concerning this?

Thanks,

[__BIG_BURD]

Well most of these people that are voicing their concerns know who I am as well as a few people from Ratbag. I've been running Ratbag's games since DTR1 just came out and have been active in the DTR community since. There was a time when Chris Bevens of Ratbag used to hang out in a news group and communicate with the community through it. At one time ratbag actually acted liek they cared about the community that brought in their paychecks, then they up and disappeared. fact is since DTR1 Ratbag has notoriously avoided the problems with their games. I've bought every game they made and the only on i felt like I got my money's worth was DTR1. DTR-SC was great but their patch was a futile attempt at the warp/lag problems. ratbag's 3D modeling and de2 editing has always been less than third rate, the black flag markers on the tracks and "invisible" walls sticking out in straights as well as cheatable STOCK tracks have taken a game that was destined to be historical and truned it into somethign we deal with because there isn't anything else. I remember when the DTR community was waiting forever for leadfoot to come out only to find themselves checking the crappy gamespy arcade for a patch in order to play it in a public venue. Go look at what gamespy says about it. ratbag has already lost any of my money because I got well over $150 in games I have bought from them and none are at any kind of quality worth talking about sans DTR1. DTR2 is great but instead of ratbag taking the community under their arms and listening to what they see as major flaws in their workmanshipm they just bloated the thing worse with 32 bit graphics and flashes in the exhaust pipes. And they still remain hidden and refuse to support anything they produce in any way. It's liek the local band that makes it big, they sell one good record and they develope a rock star attitude. I would imagine Chris Bevens and his crew made out really well with Dirt Track Racing and are driving nice expensive cars and living in nice expensive homes and resting on the laurels of a game they destroyed with their ignorant attitudes towards mods and customization and cheats. Seems funny i have been playing Delta Force Land Warrior for almost four years now and Novalogic patched their game every time they found a cheat they could stop. ratbag would NEVER take the time to do this because they are too busy getting fat off the shrimp on the barby. then you will hear"We have deadlines to meet, we are working on DTR3, we have new games we are working on and don't have time." GREAT then I will know when "DTR3" comes out to just get a burned copy to try long before I EVER buy the thing. ratbag has used been the largest hamper on one of the largest and tightest communities sim racing has. They have mislead us so many times I couldn't begin to count. So here is my list of questions to the barby boys that i would love answered.

1. Why is it that you can run a DTR server on the same host with the same connection as the DTR2 server and the pings are almost double in the DTR server?

2. Why is it you can play games like N2k3 with so many drivers and you cannot build something that runs clean with only 10 drivers? BTW I would be happier to keep the 10 drivers and see the connections get cleaned up than see more cars.

3. Why is it Ratbag's games are the only games I own which have KNOWN issues and no patches? I paid for a game that plays properly and i expect some support. This reminds me of when everyone found out the Masked Chicken Utility ate their DTR1 setups and he refused to fix it for us. Difference is, we PAID for DTR2 and the setup utility was free for the public to use.

4. Why after a few YEARS now can I NOT play Leadfoot ONLINE AT GAMESPY like the cover of the box promised? If I had resources and time i think I would start a class action suit that would get THOUSANDS of copies of Leadfoot bought back by Ratbag. Just to mention that game was the best work ratbag has ever done and they destroyed it by removing the ability to have a public place to race online.

5. Why after all this time has Ratbag refused to realize they could have TRIPLED their sales with ALL of their games by releasing utilities to create tracks and cars as well as patches over time? Don't you guys realize thats what makes them nascar games so popular? You don't have to like NASCAR racing to play that game, there are tons of types of cars available and that makes it bigger and badder than all of Ratbag's Games combined. Ratbag seems to have this shallow and narrow field of thinking and it will be their demise I am sure.

6. How much longer does Ratbag expect to be in business with the track record they have developed with their games? I would bet they are hurting real bad financially as we speak and it is only going to get worse because they have turned their backs on the community that made them what they are.

I hate to rant for so long but this has been a thorn in my side for quite some time now. Ratbag's crappy support has all but destroyed the possibilities they had with these games. Their narrow minded and selfish attitudes are detrimental to themselves, the community that pays their checks and the COMPANIES THAT PUBLISH THEM. It's really too bad that such a first rate concept had to dwindle into third rate quality.

As a personal note to Chris Bevens if he even works at Ratbag still:
You blew it with ALOT of folks Chris, all we wanted you to do was work with the community to improve YOUR PRODUCT and we were confident we could HELP YOU create something bigger than you could ever have dreamed of. Al you ever had to do was listen to our concerns. You wanted to build games and make money and we see that now. Too bad you couldn't have seen the big picture.

[goatman]

i'm feel the same way as burd does i still run a dtr 1 league and have a 37 member team i want to go to the other ratbag games but i can't just because not everyone on the net got the money to buy the high dollor vid cards or the faster procisser but they got the money to buy games that do work like i turn on some of my team members and other to delta force game and in the pass 2 weeks over 20 of them went and got it the thing is all ratbag got to do is just work with us and everyone would be happy ratbag would becuase we would spend the money to buy there games and we be happy because we got a kick ass game to play with out lag,cheats
well i said what i wanted
GMR
P.S just open your eyes and see what u got

[slamnpit]

I agree dtr2 multiplayer problems are a game issue not the servers themselves.I know because of tests my friends and I have done making servers with cable and dsl still getting some warp with only 6 people.Yet on Nascar 2003 same peoples servers we can run up to 25 people with no warp at all!!! So its a game issue that Atari has ignored to do anything about or cares enough to make a patch for us.Wow what would it take them like 15 minutes for a 3.5 mb patch to fix it? I love this game and it is just sad when companies let stuff out thats so problem infested (windows :P) and there patch is usaulyy a reply about your vid card drivers not updated or my internet connection speed must have a glitch crap.But Atari if you ever read this start sending your guys or go talk to the makers of nascar 2003 (SIERRA/PAPYRUS) so they can teach you how to do it right without all the lag we would all appreciatte it and end your guys emberassing sad attempt at it that failed.

[RimRider35]

Hi Guys, I'm new to the board and have been racing video games for years--just have not yet gotten into online racing.

Anywho--I love the dirt racing games-DTR 1 & 2, Sprints for the PC & PS2, Dirt to Daytona and Saturday Night Speedway------

Allthough I play by myself----(Stop laughing! I said by myself--not with ! ) HE!HE! I have this problem with the dirt games by RatBag-Infogrames--------mainly lately with DTR 2---------

At the start of a race--my car would go uncontroled into and over the gaurdrail! This was fixed when I vastly inproved my PC for gaming, but I still have the problem--(just to the point of becoming annoying ) of the on track cars freezing for a split second-------and broken up audio-----this throws my concentration off-and as the real race car drivers call it--tends to make me "miss my marks".

Also--I have wondered for years--are there add-on patches available for racing games--that would provide more cars or tracks-as well as race types and performance upgrades for the cars? Thanks for listening, Keith