Are you using Developer Mode or made changes in it?
No
Not so brief description of the issue:
The goal of this topic is to officially request the restriction of the Active Pause feature prior to the first lap in both Time Trials and Group Racing qualification. After the lap timer starts I do not believe there is any harm in retaining this feature for administrative purposes like camera adjustments etc. as I believe this was the developers intended use. The use of Active Pause should always invalidate the ensuing Time Trial results due to the potential to improve the “best lap” anytime in the trial run. (Please correct me if my logic for retaining this function is not sound). Full disclosure, I am one of the worst offenders of this practice in Time Trials but I did not discover it, I simply employ it. The best example comes to mind of one really fast player that does not utilize this feature/exploit in Time Trials, he is usually ranked in the top 10 and is an absolute beast, however he will never be first on the Time Trials leaderboard without some performance enhancing practices. The fastest players using active pause now will still be ranked similarly after its restriction, the resulting times will just be much closer and reflective of reality.
To further illustrate the Active Pause exploit, I present to you an extreme example of a Time Trial attempt with many performance enhancing features present. Aircraft in the image is actively paused.
The performance enhancements displayed above are as follows:
- The aircraft is paused at a downward pitch resulting in a starting airspeed of 470 kts.
- The fuel capacity has been reduced significantly over the duration of the pause, resulting in a reduction in aircraft weight (and a beautiful sunset).
- The aircraft is paused at an advantageous angle towards pylon 1.
(Fun fact) the air brakes automatically deploy at 473 kts.
I think it fair to assume that this is not the intended use of this feature.
I have recently used this strategy to achieve a 1st place result in both race time and best lap on the time trial leaderboard [ at the time of this posting ]. A reset of the leaderboards would be most appropriate following the resolution of this exploit.
In my vast experience of vehicular competition over the last 40 years there is one constant among all racers (sim racers are no exception). Competitors will attempt to exploit every factor available to them to gain an advantage if allowed to do so.
This exploit has been mentioned in previous posts, my apologies for creating a new topic. My logic in doing this is so that the specific issue is listed in the topic title and can be referenced easier in the future. [Reno Racing] followed by the specific issue will be my format for addressing additional issues.
To the MSFS team: Voicing acknowledgement of the issue and consideration of the proposed solution would do wonders for overall morale in the Reno Racing community.
Thank you for your consideration., we look forward to hearing from you.