MoR137

Thanks for the meeting Johno and Kev, and well done to Dave who cleaned up from white. You were were uncatachable - on the 3 races were I managed to get to the front, you were always miles ahead, esspecially in the final where you had the best part of half a lap from me, Johno and Tosh who were running together 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

Despite the lower-than-average numbers, I thought it was a really good night; I don't know whether half the reason is because of how exciting it is to drive around this track, but there never seems to be a dull moment. Getting the power on around turns 2 and 3 is extremely rewarding as you fight the car as the bumps throw it around and you try to get as close as possible to the tyres on the exit to avoid over-running into the grass on the home straight. Had a solid first heat, working up through the positions with Dazza close behind, before getting held up and then pushing into 6th. With one lap to go, I got behind Mike who was pulling out of the gravel trap and put in a big hit the next bend for 5th, only to find the leading pack were spinning out on the home straight, to sneak in and take 3rd. The 2nd heat was a bit more straight forward, just managing to get through the pack and chase Dave, who, as I mentioned, was uncatchable. The final was more of the same, settling into 3rd for the majority of the race chasing Johno (who had tapped me into the gravel trap earlier) with Tosh keeping the pressure on to. Johno got unlucky on the prenultimate lap, handing me the 2nd place, with Dave somewhere in the distance lol. The GN didn't go so well; charging down the backstraight with Dazza and Mike, I found myself with nowhere to go with a spun car on the hairpin bend. After recovering, I got up to 8th, which also included a great battle with Mike where we were side by side for a whole lap, before getting split up by another car.

Great stuff.

See you in a few weeks time!

Happy Birthday Aub!

Certainly an interesting meeting! Was extremely enjoyable with some good racing all around. As I grumbled during the meeting, it's a shame I couldn't find that solitary post for Tom in heat 2 lol.

Was really really disappointed with the final - it leaves quite a bitter taste to go from 1st to nowhere in the last bend of the race. Was a corker of a race though - I managed to get a nice break from the reds and attempted to reel in Davey who had built up a good lead. The backmarkers weren't overly kind to him and bit by bit, I managed to get near him. With 2 to go, he had a slight hold up allowing me to get past. A bend later, he landed a monster of hit which was such a pig to hold that it allowed 3rd place Mike to get right up there. Going down the last straight, there was a backmarker who didn't give much room going into the bend, forcing me into the tyre as Davey and Mike went for the big last bend shot. Unfortunately for me, all that momentum turned just a standard tyre clip into a wheel-ripping disaster, leaving me pretty much stranded. Unfortunate, but that's racing!

Had some frustration in the GN - still seeing red from the previous race, I was quite determined to bag the win on this one. I was lucky enough to get a break from the first bend carnage that Skeet mentioned and pushed really hard all race. With 2 to go, I managed to catch the leaders 172 and 107, put in a big hit, only to find a nice hefty track blockage had occurred as we came out of the bend. Unfortunately wasn't close enough to contemplate a hit on JanHarm last bend, but a decent result nonetheless.

Well done to all race winners and Mike for the final/top scoring. Thanks for a slick meeting Mike and Kev.

Should be out for the WQR at Knockhill mid-June. See you all then!

I'd definitely be up for it...... and both local too, so even better!

Thanks guys

For a future update to the F1 mod (which is miles away, so thought I'd post some piccies!), the real life skin of Chris Cowley 37

Great issue as usual guys!

Thanks all for the kind comments! Really, really pleased to finally get another championship, and my first on rFactor F1s. The GNC I won was way back in 2006 and I've only ever won two meetings finals in UKDirt F1s since I start waaaaay back in 2003, so this win is really special! Was really shocked with how the race played out - I qualified pole red, which was nice, but was quite slow off the start, with Matthew just managing to get in front from the outside before the first bend. When the inevitable pile-up happened, I somehow managed to keep it nice and tight; I went almost stationary as I hit a car facing the opposite direction, went back down to the first gear, and just seemed to get out nice and clean and ready to chase Lew, who had already got a pretty nice lead. I think I took the lead about lap 10 and then just tried to keep it steady and smooth, without looking my mirrors too much. Thanks to all who moved over for me! Had a little scare with 2 to go with Al sideways accross the track on turns 3 and 4 which allowed Tosh to close to a more even-uncomfortable distance, but luckily I managed to keep it going til the chequered!

As for the rest of my night, I had a good set of heats with some decent races with Savage and Spike

Good stuff anyway, and see you all in a few weeks time! Thanks for the meetings admin, really good job with the build up and general running! Well done Davey on your final win!

MoR

Hmmmmm...... I'm going to go for......... fantastic!! Skegness produces the goods most meetings as long as you don't get your knickers in a twist if you get spun or get caught up in the usual track blockages.

From a personal POV, I survived two TomD last bend attempts and got caught in both the final and GN track blockages, meaning I had to work really hard to get points in both.

Looking forward to some more tomorrow

Great read guys - I love this sort of stuff, really gets the anticipation going! Things like this, combined with the regular dirter, breathe a lot of life into the league. Keep it up!

MoR137 - Red please

Hi all,

It's just occurred to me that it was always the intention to upload the new high-res ukdirt logo used on the new ukdirt website for use on skins.

Thanks to Demonstone for making this great new high resolution version of the classic logo!

Cheers,

MoR

ukdirt_logo.zip

Hello Guys,

 

The latest issue of the F1 Dirter can be found at the top of the forum (again saves uploading it twice).

 

This issue includes the recent grade changes.

Great read Kev, all the statistics are very interesting. Well done to all those that received an upgrade!

Thanks for the meeting Mike and Kev, really enjoyable. Didn't initially plan to race, but fancied a pop when I ran out of things to do in the evening.

Had a great start to the evening with a win in the heat, with some pressure on an open track for the last 6 laps from Mike, which helped build some more shale confidence which took a knock at the end of last season and the beginning of this one. The second heat was going equally as well for me until I clipped a tyre, but I managed to get back up to 3rd so can't grumble..... well I can, it would been better if Dazza big last bender on johno had held them up more haha! I think having Johno spectating during my first heat left behind some of his good-heats/bad-final luck; was making really good progress in the final, had a minor hold up with Wardy who fancied a pop at me (good stock car hit though, not complaining) which let Mike through, and then I tried to settle about the chase. Unfortunately it was a case of wrong place, wrong time for me, as a half spinning big al clipped my outside rear on the exit of turn 2, spinning me towards the fence and into one of those horrible positions where you're facing the fence, need to reverse but can't cause the field is streaming past. I ended up rejoining in about 20th, where I spent the race working my way back up to 10th. I think I could've got a couple of more places had Mike have not lapped me with 1 lap to go...... it was hard to resist not putting him wide last bend, but I didn't know how close 2nd was! Despite the bad luck, there's something very rewarding about getting set back, and then seeing red and charging through the field, so not an unejoyable race at all. The GN was almost exactly the same, having made good progress at the start, only to have marco spin in front of me on turn 2, with the rest of the pack piling in and juggling me down the back straight, and then having a charge to get some points.

Should be out at birmingham next week! See you all then!

Can I have a late booking please Mike. Thanks

Thanks for a great meeting Johno and Kev, really enjoyed the meeting.

One thing that did mar the night a little was the start of the final... not Kev's fault at all. I really don't understand what the problem is with the starts at the moment. Wouldn't need all these reminders about grade gaps if everyone just rolled the speed they should in the first place, without pointless speeding up and slowing down, warming of tires and all that other pointless stuff. Don't mean to sound funny about it, but I can't understand why something so simple (i.e. finding 20mph on your pedals and keeping your foot still) is such an issue atm.

That aside, has some fantastic races last night with the likes of Skeet, Leech and Mike. Was weird starting from blue after a few seasons at red!

Hopefully get another meeting in soon

MoR

MoR137 Blue please

Great pics Walker, definitely your best yet!

Finished the story earlier today, excellent ending (if a little short by FF standards) but absolutely epic! I agree about the difficulty, the second of three last bosses was extremely tough, managed it on my third attempt after taking a slightly more conservative approach! Was a crazy battle, don't know if you found it the same, but I could reduce its HP by around 50% in the first stagger, then he'd change his attack rhythm and frequency dramatically and tear me to bits lol!

Excellent stuff anyway, got a few weeks until splinter cell so might do a few marks, although I won't do them all!

Finished the story this morning, took me 73ish hours, but alot of that is training up and doing missions, the final boss is probs one of the hardesr final boss's in the series in my opinion.

 

Now im just trying to do all missions and try get the full achivements which is going to be difficult.

 

If it wasnt for all the training and doing missions i would say that it took me 40ish hours for the story as i was training etc in gran pulse for a good 30 hours.

Ace, don't think I will bother with the achievements but good luck with that lol!

Got to chapter 13 this morning so probably going to do some levelling up for a week or so to get me up to scratch for the final chapter. Actually found the enemies around Eden a lot harder than the boss fights lol! Really looking forward to seeing how the story concludes.... defiantly a highlight of the series this one!

It's going really well, I'm on the final Chapter now, I couldnt upgrade the crystaurium that well so thought I would just get onto the story and start to level everyone when the story is done.

 

Got a bit stuck lastnight on a boss, you will see when you get to it, was pretty tough for my first attempted but switched a few people round and was rather easy.

 

I'm now in the Orphans cradle trying to move forward, think I may get through the story either this afternoon and tonight.

 

What HP do your main characters have?

 

My 3 main people are

 

Lightening - 9000 HP

 

Snow - 10,190

 

Vanille - mid 8000

 

I only have vanille in my team has she is best for healing, think after the story I will switch back it being Lightning, Snow and Fang.

 

Now been on it for almost 72 hours...defienatly getting my moneys worth out of it

Crikey, you're a bit more advanced than me, around 6000 for most atm and feel just on the difficulty curve going through Eden. Probably stop for some power-levelling soon to get me prepared for the final battles. I personally use Lightning, Hope and Fang but it's the same concept as yours really, just different characters. Fangs great for Sentinel and is super powerful which is great for a final push.

You've doubled me hours-wise then as I'm only on 36. Aiming to complete it before the easter holidays I think!

Hows your playthrough going Davey?

Just got to Chapter 12, the story is getting really epic and the cutscene at the beginning of the chapter is mind-boggling. Think I'm going to push through the story now (no doubt with the odd break to level-up!) and attack the side quests properly once I complete it!

Still on Chapter 11 at the moment, been on it now for 52 hours....sad I know lol

 

Ive done at least 20 sidequests with only a few not with 5 stars.

 

Continued the story yesterday and would say im half way through Chapter 11, still enjoying the story but starting to get a little sad that it will all end soon lol

 

Will you been getting Final Fantasy XIII Versus Craig? I have heard that it will also be linear as again has a story to tell

Just got to chapter 11 today and it's just opened up finally, so going to have a look at what's available before I carry on. 26 hours now lol. Still really enjoying it. Splinter Cell is out in 4 weeks so that's a rough deadline for me to get this done for!

Not sure about versus yet, seems to have dropped off the radar for the time being. Judging from the stuff they've shown it looks pretty cool but I'll wait and see what it turns out to be - square have got into a nasty habit of releasing pretty second-rate spin offs (anything final fantasy 7 related minus advent children was rubbish). X-2 wasn't bad though, so here's hoping for versus!

I'm going for all the achivements on the game, only one i think will be difficult is to do all sidequest but get 5 stars on every one, so ive gone back on some ive already done and got 5 stars for them lol

 

Must say its probs one of the best games in the series in my opinion.

 

Did it take him 49 hours just doing the story or did he do stuff along the way like some of the sidequests?

From what I gather he only did a handful of the quests, with the intention of going back after completed the story, so I think 49 hours is reasonably accurate. That looks like the hardest achievement to get looking at the list, although there will be a lot of grinding involved for maxing out all the characters and stuff too. Doubt I'll commit lol.

Just got onto chapter 10 tonight, pretty epic boss battle prior to that lol!

I agree, its definitely up there with my favourites at the moment. Shame it probably won't be remembered as that though - currently sitting as the lowest rated 'numbered' final fantasy release on metacritic I don't think the fact it takes so long to get going helps, and a lot are split on the linearity (although I don't see why, the way the story shifts between parties really cushioned the blow for me, and I don't see how they could've done it any other way with how the story develops!).

Haha cool.

A friend at work has just completed it, took him 49 hours. Apparently during the credits it asks you to save, and when you load that save it starts you before the final boss, so you can do a lot of the side quests once you've completed the main story if need be. Was looking at the trophies list in his guide today, not easy some of them! Don't think I'll bother lol.....