One of the big features in
DiRT Rally 2.0 is the inclusion of Stage Degradation, where the surface of the road performs differently based on how many cars have driven a Stage before you in an Event. There’s been a few questions recently about what the different settings for Stage Degradation mean, given that more people are creating their own Championships in Clubs.
Here’s some comments straight from our Principal Games Designer, Andy Stewart, giving great insight into how this part of the game functions:
Authentic
- Provides track degradation similar to real life. The change in degradation between any two places in the running order is quite slight, but accumulates with each place.
- In a Custom Event of 20 entrants, you therefore only get to see the early stages of degradation.
- By contrast in a Career Event, where there may be 150 entrants across multiple Classes, those running late in the order would see much more degradation.
Full
- Provides the full range of track degradation regardless of how many entrants there are. It allocates the full range of effects, proportionally, to the number of entrants in the running order.
- This means that in a Custom Event of 20 entrants, the entrant running first experiences the untouched track, and the entrant running last experiences the most complete track degradation. For the latter, it’s as if 150 entrants had raced the Stage ahead of them instead of 19.
- This is unrealistic given the number of entrants; but it means that running order has a more pronounced effect on the race result than with the Authentic setting.
Optimum
- Ensures all entrants experience the same track degradation, similar to running 6th in the Authentic setting.
- This is considered the best for racing performance, for most players. This is the “sweet spot” after the road has been swept of loose material and before ruts and bumps have started to form on the racing line.
- This setting is great if you want a level playing field; everyone gets the same, yet authentic, experience.
Off
- Disables the degradation effects altogether. All players get the same experience, regardless of where they are in the running order.
- This also provides a level playing field, like “Optimum”, but it’s as if no-one has raced along the track.
- Pace may not be as good as with the Optimum setting, depending on the track.
