As I said earlier, they don't make the cars any faster in absolute terms, they just make the cars a bit easier to drive - Given how many players seem to be having a poor on-line experience, I think anything that makes it easier for them to compete and enjoy the game is a good thing.
Interestingly, I don't think I've ever heard anyone properly fast complain about others using aids.
However, for some reason it does seem to be a semi-regular discussion topic for a group of middling level drivers who like to talk a lot about 'car control' and 'driving ability'... the same driver that are leaving multiple seconds of their cars potential on the track every time they run a lap... why does it bother this group so much that others use the aids?
They'd be far better off using their energy to practice and get better
It could be a worthwhile discussion, if only it wasn't always seen as 'complainers' requiring 'anti-complainers' to put them straight.
You keep saying it doesn't make the car faster, when that's not the point. In practise, it does tend to make drivers faster over a race distance, even up to quite a high level. And it's notable that you've stopped short of saying it's slower to use it, at any driver level. That's not a complaint, just an observation. Pretty much everybody just turns CSA on and away we go - it is at least a level playing field.
So I think the two of us agree on
what it
is.
And I agree that aids should exist, to help learning players enjoy the game, and to be less of a liability to those around them. TC succeeds in some ways and fails in others - it's good that leaning on it less makes you faster, so it's a good training aid, but for a middling driver it probably takes too much time away, so they risk races without it. CSA just doesn't seem to have any downside, so there's no reason for anyone to train themselves out of relying on it.
Personally I'd prefer not to use it, just because it feels better not to, and I'm quite capable of turning reasonable laps without it. Yet I gain a couple of tenths by using it. So, why shouldn't there be some level at which it stops being a benefit to use? High enough that most players are faster and have more competetive and more incident-free races, but at some (relatively high) point of gaining ability it becomes better to switch it off.
PS. I know very well that I'm no alien, despite the name, but I'm definitely above 'middling'
It's hard to say from the
stats how many players are really active players, but by discounting DR E drivers then DR B drivers and above are roughly the top 10% - we could say they are all above average. We may have different definitions of 'middling'
Maybe it's different for controller users but with a wheel, if I know the car and track well, I'm nearly always quicker without CSA. And I'm nowhere near being top 10. It may help with consistency, covering up mistakes, but in absolute terms it's slower for me.
How far outside the top ten, say, at yesterday's Gr3 at Nurburgring? And how much time do you think it costs you?
I imagine it feels a lot more unnatural with a wheel than it does on DS4, so could that be throwing you out of your rhythm when you try it?