Kevin
I agree non setup cars are an issue, but many leagues have rules around this, inactive accounts in the Elite tier are removed if they fail to set up for "X" races in a season or "Y" consecutive races..
Although the concept of excluding cars that haven't set a practice lap does indeed appear to be a simple solution, as with many suggestions on this forum, the devil is in the detail and what at first appears simple is anything but. Also some of these ideas, when implemented are often undermined by a tiny minority who take delight in proving they can beat the system and overcome any controls that are put in place to benefit the majority.
What do you do about the managers who want their cars to race to harvest sponsor rewards and Manager XP, so log on, click on practice lap, then immediately log off without setting up the cars or setting a decent strategy/push level for AI to work with? They will continue to be a menace to those that have set up.
Late in the season, when the championship has already been decided, in many leagues a higher proportion of lower placed teams will save engines. Even if they do a practice lap and set up they'll still be very slow.
What about two car leagues? Is the logic going to check practice laps for both cars in a team and if necessary only exclude one of the two cars? I don't imagine this would be as simple as excluding a team of one.
How about manager rep? Is this calculation going to be based on the number of cars in the league/tier or the number of cars that actually race on any given day?
What do we do with bot accounts that some leagues place in the lower two tiers to trigger promotion/relegation. Some leagues the lower tiers only have one or two active managers. Would the race still run if only one car sets a practice lap?
We've already seen QRs ruined by people who exploit them to gain driver XP. I fear there will be exploits we haven't even considered that would undermine an apparently simple solution.
I don't disagree with the concept, I too dislike cars that are not set up and encourage managers in the league I host to at least do this. I am just playing devil's advocate and suggesting that what at first appears to be a "simple solution" is often anything but.
Yea, I understand on some of those points. But unfortunately in a lot of leagues. The appearance of a "full league" can be more important than the notion of # of active managers. And at the end of the day, people have lives and crap happens and you get busy. It's perfectly understandable to miss a setup or two....but those cars should just get DQ'd from racing.
-If you DNF due to fuel or tyre rule or...I believe you still get XP and sponsor money...but you probably miss your sponsor goal. This should be treated the same I think. So there wouldn't be an incentive to login for a practice lap without setup. d
-I'm ok with the naturally slow cars that at least setup. I don't have anything against backmarkers in general cause I think it can be a strategic element of variability to the game. But it's just the non-setup ones. There's also plenty of managers who join late in the season and have a slow car...but as long as they setup and are active, i'm cool with it.
-Honestly I've never raced in a two car league, so I have no idea how I'd treat it there.
-Manager rep...just treated as it would for a DSQ for tyre rule or Suspension for Engine/parts.
-Yea the simulator starts if there's only one car with a practice lap. If no cars setup...then it starts and ends immediately after all cars DQ'd. But not sure how that works on the programming end.
-Yea there could be exploits...im' not sure. But if treated like a tyre rule DSQ, or suspension due to engine failure...im not sure what exploits there could be.
But yea, it's all good for discussion.