rFactor NASCAR - NSS Style - Operation Sports

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rFactor NASCAR - NSS Style

Submitted on: 03/07/2008 by Robert Nielsen

Last week, I talked about the two major mods for rFactor that bring NASCAR racing into the game -- the NASCAR Simulation Series and Stock Car Evolution. Over the next two weeks, I'll evaluate both mods, starting tonight with NSS.

As stated last week, the NSS mod comes in a single installer, weighing in at around 343 MB. This download usually takes about 15-20 minutes on a DSL line, and I'm sure the download will be shorter on cable Internet. Once your download completes, just click the executable file, and you're off!

Installation takes just a few minutes, and everything is included -- skins, tracks, etc. Once the install is completed, start rFactor as usual, and, voila. After the opening animations, you're presented with the default NASCAR COT on the spinner floor, and you can "buy" whatever car you desire. Some of the cars include Dale Jr.'s #88 and Carl Edwards' #99.

In order to start a career, or a quick race, you're required to select a team, and a car to drive. All the Sprint Cup 2008 teams are modeled, from Hendrick Motorsports to Richard Childress Racing (RCR). Once you choose which team you'll drive under, you have to select a car. Pictures of the cars and drivers are available, so just find the combo you want then just press the "Buy Car" icon to select your chosen ride. There are also "track-specific" tire packages, and it's recommended to add all of these to your car's toolkit, as well as the general setups for Speedways, SuperSpeedways, and the other tracks you'll run.

The NSS installer includes all the tracks the Sprint Cup runs -- from Atlanta to Talladega -- and models them all extremely well. Even the famed yard of bricks at Indy is visible.

The spotter's voice is the same as Papyrus used in the old NASCAR Racing series, and, when the green flag drops, DW himself, Darrell Waltrip, starts the race with his familiar cry of "Boogity, Boogity, Boogity!! Let's go racin', boys!!" All it needs is Larry McRenyolds' admonition, "All right, DW...reach up there and pull those belts tight one more time!!"

If I've got any gripes about this mod, it's the damage modeling -- like I said last week, it's not as good as Papyrus' games -- but, that's more related to rFactor in general, and the mod doesn't really help in that regard. One thing that does make this mod a whole lot more enjoyable is the season mode. You are actually given an opportunity to run the same schedule that the Sprint Cup drivers run.

Of course, you can easily tweak several options for the races, such as race length, number of opponents, AI aggression, and whatever else drivers decide to change. I haven't actually ran a full season, so I don't know if there's a visual reward (trophy or something of that nature) if you run to the series championship.

rFactor is one of two contenders for the NASCAR crown with rFactor. Next week, I will look at the SCE (Stock Car Revolution) mod, and offer my opinions on that package.

Member Comments

# 1 TCrouch @ 03/07/08 08:32 PM

I'd actually have quite a bit of fun with this mod if the default setups didn't push like pigs at 75% of the tracks. You can't get the car to turn into the corner without slowing to a crawl, while the AI sticks to the apron like glue. I've yet to find a really solid base setup to mess with, and oddly enough, not many setups are posted around the web. Even after spending an hour tweaking a car to try to really create a loose ride, it would STILL push like crazy. I managed to get a car that would turn, but I have yet to see setups that feel half as good as NR2003 out of the box. For this reason alone, NSS is still on the back burner for me. I don't think you should be required to have an engineering degree to find a baseline setup that you can use...the ones that come with the mod are absolute junk on anything other than a superspeedway.

# 2 catcatch22 @ 03/07/08 09:52 PM

I've stuck with NR2003 so long it might be time for me to try rFactor. I'm glad someone posted some info about the mods. Can't wait till the next article.

# 3 ramenite @ 03/08/08 12:40 AM

From talking to various people that have run both mods, I've noticed a pattern. People that have run NRS 2003 for years, tend to like NSS. People that haven't tend to like SCE.

I think they are both excellent mods, and which one you'll run for the majority of your Sprint Cup racing will come down to personal preference, and what your league decides to run. People will have opinions one way or the other, but it's like picking if you want to have dinner with the Queen in the palace or the castle. Any way you look at it, you're having filet mignon.

# 4 pk500 @ 03/08/08 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TCrouch


	I'd actually have quite a bit of fun with this mod if the default setups didn't push like pigs at 75% of the tracks. You can't get the car to turn into the corner without slowing to a crawl, while the AI sticks to the apron like glue. I've yet to find a really solid base setup to mess with, and oddly enough, not many setups are posted around the web. Even after spending an hour tweaking a car to try to really create a loose ride, it would STILL push like crazy. I managed to get a car that would turn, but I have yet to see setups that feel half as good as NR2003 out of the box. For this reason alone, NSS is still on the back burner for me. I don't think you should be required to have an engineering degree to find a baseline setup that you can use...the ones that come with the mod are absolute junk on anything other than a superspeedway.

Agreed! Terry and I shared our thoughts about this via IM this week, and it was like sitting in an echo chamber.

What's even more odd about the baseline setups is that the car suffers from unreal snap oversteer on hard acceleration exiting corners at Bristol. So the car pushes like a cement truck on 1.5-mile ovals yet has tremendous oversteer at Bristol. Odd.

Hopefully some raceable setups for offline play will emerge. I imagine this mod would be quite fun online in a fixed setup league because everyone would need to deal with the "push like a dump truck" physics.

That said, I still think the racing and physics model of NSS is better than any other rFactor NASCAR mod, including the overrated TPSCC. That mod gets a free pass because Brian Ring of NR 2003 physics and track upgrades fame works on it. It's not that good -- at least last year's version. The 2008 COT beta version wasn't great, either, as the grip model was a bit too loose and the racing AI was odd.

Face it, fellas: rFactor is a game built on road racing code. People can mash and mangle that code all they want to try and convert it into an oval racing game, but it's not going to be as good as a game built on oval racing code, such as NR 2003 or ARCA Sim Racing.

Take care,
PK

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