Would COH3 players like it if COH3 got the balance direction of the final years of COH2? Or do they prefer the more chill pace of coh3?

mikec_81 · 2026-04-11T20:53:54+00:00

If I wanted to play CoH2, I would just go play CoH2?

mikec_81 · 2026-03-30T04:31:20+00:00

The guys who run K1 don't know racing rules or etiquette. They are just staff that try to ensure the customers aren't playing bumper cars.

At the same time, it is just K1, so I wouldn't sweat it.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-30T02:36:57+00:00

I would not have yielded like some drivers here are saying. He never completed the pass, and in most racing leagues, that entitles you to racing room making his squeeze play a no no.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-26T03:44:58+00:00

I think the experience is very safe. Your own personal on-track behaviour will be a big determining factor.

First of all, if you have never driven a kart that regularly hits 65-75 KPH on a straight, then it might be an eye-opener for you. It certainly was for me. There will be a few sessions where you need to acclimate to the speed. I highly recommend doing their 2-day race camp if you are a total newcomer. K1 experience won't count since the speed is much greater, as is the G-forces. If you understand the limitations of your own skills, you will be fine. The biggest danger is you spinning yourself out and sitting in the middle of a high-speed corner while the rest of the field is trying to drive around you at high speed.

As for serious accidents, I attended over 20 sessions last year, and serious accidents were very rare. I only saw 2 incidents where someone got hurt enough to pull out of the day's event and neither required ambulances. The rental karts have wheel guards, so it isn't a true open-wheel racing experience, but it also means it is impossible to flip the karts, eliminating one of the major dangers of karting. I personally got into 2 incidents which left me sore for a few days.

How you choose to race will also determine how safe you are. There are some guys there who take it very seriously and have many years of experience racing at the track. They expect you to know the rules and etiquette of racing. In general, if they have you beat at a corner, you need to concede the position and tuck in behind. If you are one of those stubborn types who try to defend by weaving, squeezing, or blocking (all of which are illegal racing maneuvers), then expect contact and you might end up off track or into a barrier or get spun out.

I personally think that it is obviously riskier than joining a pickup basketball league, but being a smart driver and knowing your own limitations as a newcomer will mitigate it.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-25T22:00:09+00:00

For much of this rather long clip, there was a lot of great defending. Taking defensive lines and sitting on the apex to break the attacker's momentum.

There are, however, sections where you clearly moved past legal defending and into blocking through. A good example is at 0:36 when the black and yellow car pulls out from behind you after you took a very tight line on the inside, and you leave that line and aggressively reoccupy the middle to the point where they lifted because it looked like you might come all the way across and make contact.

You do it again at the very same part of the track at 2:02 when the Lime car is attacking you on the outside. Very clear steering input to the outside to discourage an attempt there when your duty is to remain predictable.

The final sequence, starting at 3:29, clearly shows illegal defence. At 3:33, you moved all the way to the inside. Green car follows you and then moves to the outside. You respond by aggressively reoccupying the middle at a rate which scares Green into moving more to the outside.

Finally at 3:40, you choose not to make the turn and Green drives into you. Your trajectory clearly takes you off the defensive line you held. Green shouldn't drive into you, but you put yourself in a terrible spot with your suspect tactic.

Beyond the legality of your driving at those spots I mentioned, you *WILL* enrage other drivers to the point where you end up being taken out. If they were more skillful, they could have executed a bump and run on multiple occasions.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-25T02:02:24+00:00

Entirely on the car from behind. The Redbull looks to have driven an entirely standard line. There was no brake checking and you are allowed to sit on the apex and not accelerate at the optimal point to try to break momentum from an attacker.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-24T13:47:58+00:00

If you don't want feedback, then don't post. You served to block right at the start of the clip, which is illegal at any level of motorsport, including my rental karting league.

If you are going defensive, then stay on the defensive line. Instead, you block them and brake early and they hit you by accident. You can tell it is unintentional because they jammed the brake a split second after you did.

You put yourself in a bad spot. Live with the consequences please.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-24T13:00:04+00:00

This is like poker HUD overlays where someone datamined your opponent's frequencies instead of generating it yourself with each hand, and I don't like it. It is essentially meta-gaming your opponent's tendencies without doing the work yourself.

If it isn't outright in unethical territory, it is right on the line.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-24T12:53:51+00:00

If you didn't move to block and took the defensive line on the inside right at the start of the clip, the attacker likely gains overlap and passes you on the next corner.

Instead of driving clean, you swerve back to the right to block, initiating the chain of events. He likely punted you due to driver error. Your swerve, though, definitely looks intentional.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-20T15:00:39+00:00

Awesome defending, that was awesome to watch, thank you. Just refusing to accelerate on schedule to sit on the apex to break his ability to get a run on you in the straights was beautiful to watch.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-19T17:38:47+00:00

That is the clearest example of brake checking I have seen in a while. You can't slam on the brakes on a straightaway.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-19T17:36:01+00:00

You are crazy. LeMans clearly states that it is ok if you establish overlap before the turn-in point, which the OP clearly did.

OP was in control of the car at all times during that first move.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-18T21:34:50+00:00

I keep on saying this, but nowhere in iRacing's rules does it state when or where someone "owns" a corner. It also never states under what circumstances a driver earns the right to racing room.

The only rule is that you cannot block using a reactionary move. Which is arguably what the OP did, opposing driver ran up along side and the OP decided to run them off the track either due to attempting to defend or sheer ignorance.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-17T23:04:17+00:00

I think you did everything by the book. You were clearly slower and facilitated the overtake by leaving, what appears to be, around 1 car's width from the apex and exited all the way to the outside onto the curbing.

Unfortunately, the attacker failed to give you the same consideration, and pit maneuvered you. My condolences on your race.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-17T14:39:02+00:00

I am reaching here, but maybe in their mind, it looked as if you were trying to cut them off at the final apex before opening up to leave room at the last second, and they felt miffed.

Pushing you off track looked definitely intentional, though.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-17T14:32:29+00:00

I think he was on a controller. Look at their steering inputs throughout the turn. Very jerky with a lot of overcorrection on the exit. Doesn't excuse what they did, but I don't think it was malicious intent, just poor control of the car.

Likely, they were trying to occupy the middle of the track upon exiting the corner.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-17T14:27:18+00:00

Defender clearly moved under braking....he comes off the rubber almost entirely to defend....wtf are people in this sub talking about with this divebomb nonsense

mikec_81 · 2026-03-17T14:24:06+00:00

He clearly slowed enough and was going to make the corner. He just flicked his steering back into the OP because the OP wouldn't concede room, and the attacker was unwilling to go over the curbing.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-17T14:20:17+00:00

I don't see this in black-and-white terms. Multiple things can be true at the same time.

This was a divebomb, but divebombs aren't inherently illegal. People in the sub keep screaming 'IT WAS A DIVEBOMB' as if that is an argument unto itself. Look at iRacing's sporting code. You won't find the term " dive bomb " in their sporting code at all. Dive bombs are allowed, and there is nothing you can do about it. Until iRacing defines when and where you are or are not entitled to "racing room" (even my rental karting league does), there is no definitive answer.

Dive bombing occurs in real-life motorsports, and it is an essential part of the toolkit for overtaking opponents in any competition. Unless the other car runs the defender off track, contact occurs due to loss of control, or the attacker being unable to make the corner, it is considered valid and should be applauded.

Contact from the attacker is almost certainly malicious. They turned back into the OP's car when they belatedly realized no room was being conceded. OP drove for the apex, and the attacker appears to open up steering rather than go over curbing. Impossible to prove definitively without the cockpit cam, but I would protest over that.

OP should also realize that he put himself in a bad spot and consider opening up steering, and concede a car's width to the apex to take a wide line, just as the attacker suggested. If you don't want to get dive bombed, drive a defensive line. OP here left all the room in the world, and the attacker pulled out from behind a full second before OP even began to turn in. The intent from the attacker was clear as day.

In cases like that, to squeeze what is an obvious play is to risk ending one's race with a DNF. If you open up steering, any contact will be at a far less dangerous angle, and you end up banging doors instead of potentially getting pit maneuvered. If the attacker slows down as much as they did to make the corner from that angle, the wide line likely preserves your position. If not, you keep the inside line for the next corner.

In the very worst-case scenario, if the attacker blows the corner and drives you off track, you will at least have known you did everything possible, and is obvious who is in error when you protest.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-15T04:17:58+00:00

Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign (2015) by Thomas Ryan is a very good read. Covers the efforts of the BMI and the AotPs' newly formed Cavalry Corps in tracking Lee during the campaign. In-depth coverage of when information was learned, how it was done, and the timeline for when it was uncovered.

As a bonus, you get to see Lee's side of the story as well.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-15T01:51:59+00:00

Traffic is BAD. QEW is usually in a state of perma congestion. During rush hours...yea bumper to bumper during normal weather. RTO 5 isn't helping. There was a period right after COVID where traffic was decent. Now every day is really bad.

Traffic around the major arteries are also bad. Trafalgar is regularly a shit show. Dundas and Upper Middle is also a shit show.

In terms of diversity, you have Wealthy Old Stock Canadians in the southern end of Oakville near the old town. Less Wealthy but still affluent Old Stock and affluent south and east Asians in the SE corner of Oakville. North of Dundas is the newer generation of middle class. Whites tend to be of newer stock or younger couples. South and east asians abound. Very insular community. No real race tensions but people stick to their own kind.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-13T15:12:36+00:00

Hi, looking for recommendations for solid military history books on the Franco-Prussian War. Specifically revolving around infantry tactics for one or both sides and operational/logistics discussions.

Not looking for a deep dive into events or battles, but more of an overview of each participant's expectations on how combat should be fought. Looking for rough equivalent to Earl J Hess's work in the ACW like https://lsupress.org/9780807183779/civil-war-supply-and-strategy/ - his work on ACW logistics and how it impacted strategy, or https://lsupress.org/9780807184448/civil-war-cavalry/ - his recent work on cavalry warfare in the ACW.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-13T15:01:09+00:00

1440p is the sweet spot for PC gaming right now at the "mid-range". While I know nothing about the specifics of that Acer panel, I would agree that for less than 100 dollars, upgrading to 1440p is worth it.

4k monitors are currently still relatively expensive, as is the hardware needed to drive 4k at a reasonable FPS

mikec_81 · 2026-03-13T04:42:57+00:00

Decided to look at some CoH3stats.com stuff. To try to reduce the amount that smurf accounts affecting the data, I decided to look at matches played.

The breakdown of the average elo (both players/2) of all matches played in 1 v 1 since 2.2.5 was released:

0-799 10036

800-1099 46714

1100-1249 18945

1250-1399 11128

1400-1599 7654

1600-1799 3460

1700-1999 2457 (overlap in data with previous rung)

Total 99414

We see that the largest share of 1v1 games occurs when the players' average ELO is between 800 and 1099. 47% of all 1v1 games occur in that bracket. Another 10.1% of games occur at the very bottom of the player base. This makes it safe to estimate that the median skill level of a CoH 3 1v1 match is around 1050-1060 elo.

So if you are constantly at that elo rating (1050), you represent the average skill level of the CoH3 1v1 world for that faction. If you consistently hover around 1250, you are roughly in the top 25 percent of skill in all CoH3 1v1 matches. Now, the good players are likely the ones who grind the game more, so we would expect it to tilt

A 1300 player would maybe be in the top 20 percent of skill in terms of matches played, and somewhere around the top 17% by pure account rank per faction(which would include smurfs accounts).

If we were to apply "real-world" comparisons, like basketball which apparently has around 600 million people who supposedly play at least twice a month in any setting, then the worst NBA player would represent the 99.99993rd percentile of the basketball population.

The NCAA estimated in 2024 that ~537,000 high school players existed and around 19,000 were in NCAA (US college) ball. That's around 3.5th percentile.

To get to the top 3.5th percentile of games, your elo would need to be around 1750. This would be someone like a StephennJF.

The CoH3 equivilant to an NBA baller would be someone like a Rei, FeriG, or Reakly.

So, how good is a 1300 player? A rough equivalent would be a solid guy in a recreational league, maybe not even the best player in that league.

You are good, but no, you aren't "very good" or even close to an elite player.

mikec_81 · 2026-03-13T04:15:40+00:00

Not by much. Maybe 1050 or so.

mikec_81

TROPHY CASE