DiRT Rally 2.0 General Discussion

[Jtheripper]

Yes it must be either a rare bug or something on my install, not that big a deal as I mainly do dailies and it’s a rare enough occurrence to not bother me too much.
I drive more for the immersion and enjoyment rather than the actual results.

Yeah im the same, i enjoy so much just choosing a car for the day and a stage, and trying get better each run on it, not to boast or be high on leaderboards or beat ai on highest setting or get a trophy, just for the enjoyment of going thru a stage as thrillingly as i can pushing the car, physics, the road itself and my driving a little more each run.
And i just giggle when i crash, it's part of the fun in a game, and reminds me that im pushing and trying as i like, just a little the wrong way.

Next time i start the game up i choose another car and stage, keeps it fresh, even after a long time if i go back to a same stage with a different car, i re-learn it.
Also ill try different tires, setups or conditions etc.
Doesn't mean i don't enjoy doing championships or career, i love it too, but need feel to engage in a longer, more grueling stressing session hehe.

Same with motgp19, love doing that in it too. And pcars2, AC, etc.
Ill set all to max feel and handling challenge, as long as i find it fair and believable, and even use lesser tires sometimes or setup, i don't care if i need put ai on easier or have slow time compared to anything, just enjoy pushing myself on the game session setup i chose on that day.

In motogp19 im pushing it alot lol, making it hard for myself but i love the challenging feel as long as i feel im the one who goofed when something happens, and not the game.

There's always limitations in a game but if it's consistent and you can feel it well enough that you know you can try handle it, it's still fun, until i find it too silly or unfair or unbelievable.

Maybe ill post my settings here for my wheel but i doubt it will fix things for any other, each is different i guess in expectations etc.
Plus all the other settings and setup differences could be also affect this.

When i tried dr1 again, in Greece, i liked the ffb, so i tried a little more to better it in dr2 too, not to be same, but just to try make it even more enjoyable, plus there's so many things better in dr2, it doesn't change my enjoyment.

Also a few little other things i liked in dr1 but it's not the end if the world.

God i tend to ramble on..

Oups forgot to say, i never connected my g29 to a pc to change any settings by the way, just saying in case it affects anyone's results.
I can say each car i try in dr2, i soon love it and it's different feel and challenge, and sound, apart from very few exceptions.
Not so many games that i can say the same.

 

[FrankieStail]

No I never connected wheel to pc either, I don’t believe it makes any difference on console anyway.
I have to say I’m very happy with the force feedback in dr2 although in saying that I love the force feedback in pc2 as well and it seems to have a fair few complaints thrown it’s way!

Have to say the only thing I miss from dr1 is vr. (And pikes peak)
VR with a rally title and a buttkicker battering away under the rig is close enough for me without going crazy on full motion rig.
I really hope with the power of next gen that vr will be a given on ps5 sim titles that have it on pc.
I’d gladly pay extra for VR if it was only way to get it as was the case with dr1.

Another point I wish dr2 had was fov adjustment as I’m used to perfect settings in ac and pc2, but I’d hope they’ve the sense to put it in any follow up title.

I’m with you on the realism aspect, all assists off in dr and authentic on pc2 and ac.
Always cockpit view with no hud or any of the arrows nonsense to distract me.
Don’t care if it’s any slower but I suspect there’s little in it anyway, as I said it’s all about immersion and enjoyment for me.

 

[Stotty]

You can adjust the seat position in DR2... isn’t that the equivalent of FOV?

 

[FrankieStail]

No field of view is more like zoom lens magnification, although seat adjustment helps it’s no substitute for proper fov.

 

[lancia delta hf]

You can adjust the seat position in DR2... isn’t that the equivalent of FOV?

Nope, most annoying thing about the game for me, I have to use bonnet or dash cam.

 

[Jtheripper]

No I never connected wheel to pc either, I don’t believe it makes any difference on console anyway.
I have to say I’m very happy with the force feedback in dr2 although in saying that I love the force feedback in pc2 as well and it seems to have a fair few complaints thrown it’s way!

Have to say the only thing I miss from dr1 is vr. (And pikes peak)
VR with a rally title and a buttkicker battering away under the rig is close enough for me without going crazy on full motion rig.
I really hope with the power of next gen that vr will be a given on ps5 sim titles that have it on pc.
I’d gladly pay extra for VR if it was only way to get it as was the case with dr1.

Another point I wish dr2 had was fov adjustment as I’m used to perfect settings in ac and pc2, but I’d hope they’ve the sense to put it in any follow up title.

I’m with you on the realism aspect, all assists off in dr and authentic on pc2 and ac.
Always cockpit view with no hud or any of the arrows nonsense to distract me.
Don’t care if it’s any slower but I suspect there’s little in it anyway, as I said it’s all about immersion and enjoyment for me.

Yeah same, except in pc2 i don't even use authentic, i find it messes the feel with aids for me, i don't like them in pc2. Even in each car setup, i always off all, with rare exceptions. But i do in Ac, seems to fit more, especially on really difficult modern cars.
Yh even in motogp19, ride3, mxgppro i use helmet cam etc.
Yes i wish they got pikes peak back.

You can adjust the seat position in DR2... isn’t that the equivalent of FOV?

Fov changes the width of your view in degrees angle like a cone, or fisheye lense effect, to make it narrower or wider like a lense.
The seat just makes you a little forward or back in the car.

Not sure if was you who said you get understeer on the off throttle, but i noticed in aids menu, they have an 'off throttle braking' option, if its not off, it brakes whenever you let go of the throttle.
And can easily cause this, i have all off but i just tried it at max 5 setting, and it brakes like full braking as soon as you're off the throttle.
Too bad its not engine braking, i would have set it a little on at least.
---
About tarmac, in Germany, there's 3 surfaces, that switch a few times in a stage.
And if you're on concrete and cobblestone i think it is, it's way dustier.
And slippery, you can see the trail of dust behind you too. And on asphalt it's pretty clean, unless inside corners where some cut in, and you see the grass is worn off and brown dirt on the track.
I dont remember much noticing it before, but there's a clear edge when changing from asphalt to concrete.
Just in case anyone else hasn't noticed too..
The degradation affects this also, making deeper ruts on the cut corners, rubber set in on track, and not sure about general dust on track though.

Plus if you have damage, and worn tires, will be worse handling too of course.

Haven't much tested this in Argentina.

Hard tires are easier for sure with more gradual slip, in case it helps anyone..
But it does slip more.

It's true sometimes you get snap oversteer with not much feel, but maybe the dust can justify this a little...

 

[cjr3559]

On the subject of camera views, any insight on why there’s two cockpit cams? There’s fixed cockpit and adjustable.

I usually use adjustable, but sometimes certain cars feel better in fixed. Wonder why CM would offer the fixed though.

 

[Jtheripper]

Just tested Argentine EDIT**meant Spain**, and can easily see rubber in on the whole track, especially on curves and start and spots where it's expected, if you're in the later ones to start.

And it grips alot more if you race on the darker skid marks, regains grip more too. Pretty cool, i never noticed that, too bad track changes can easily be missed if you're always in the same general rank in an event or if you just do 1 stage, it be cool if you could choose the track conditions.

Not sure if the inside corners degrade there, but there is rubble. But since you can't cut in much there cause of the fences i guess the inside curves don't change much there.

So the track changes even when it says no degradation.

And in Germany there's rubber in aswell, but less so a little, visually at least looks less dark, i guess cause of the dusty track.
But it affects alot your grip too, i even did a 2 wheel turn on a curve that never did this before, with same car, tires, setup and other conditions.

All this was in dry sunny condition. I wonder the effects in wet, etc.

I never had any problems with the escort in Argentina EDIT**Meant Spain** and its a charm as usual to control the skidding.

If you have diffficulty maybe set the front springs stiffer, it will help prevent the rear to oversteer on braking. But you will have some understeer on throttle. Unless you stiffen also the rear but then you will get snappier oversteer again.
I don't know, for me it's nice and fun on default, needing stabilize it under braking with the steering. It skids on every turn smootly as butter.

You need set degradation to full to get these changes in custom championships or rallies to have a noticeable change, cause you only have 20 or so racers in them.

Cool when you get a puncture on braking hard haha, i was wondering why i lost it. Or blow out.

EDIT*****: i meant Spain not Argentine at beginning of my post and middle, hay my god hehe sorry was too tired i guess. Of course it's tarmac i was talking about.
The setup part was in part to address concerns of braking oversteer from @John G .

Also this was for @John G :Not sure if was you who said you get understeer on the off throttle, but i noticed in aids menu, they have an 'off throttle braking' option, if its not off, it brakes whenever you let go of the throttle.
And can easily cause this, i have all off but i just tried it at max 5 setting, and it brakes like full braking as soon as you're throttle.

Was from my other post before and i mentioned the wrong person there.

 

[Groundfish]

On PS4 I run cockpit with wheel showing...
I was just going to make a comment the other day about how it captures so well what I would call the edge.
What I mean is it’s very easy to know when you are being safe vs taking risk from the way the view is in car.
It just looks natural.

 

[sems4arsenal]

Any G29 settings? pS4

 

[SPhilli911]

Some thoughts I had whilst playing this morning: I wish the game's menus were tweaked a little. I don't particularly like how hard it is to see the livery you are selecting for your car, but I suppose it's better than it was in the original Dirt Rally where it was a side view of the car only.

I do also wish they would add the name of the location to daily/weekly/monthly events or at the very least a country flag. Even after playing the game for countless hours, I still mix up stages by the picture alone on the menu. Also more details at a glance like stage length and time of day/ weather would be great.

 

[John G]

Is there any way to remove the background sounds at the service stages?
I like the atmosphere but i get really annoyed hearing about the "very strong Toyota" every 6 seconds over the tannoy when I'm trying to tune my car or change tyres. Probably doesn't help that the rest of the audio is quiet and difficult to make out. But could they not have used a longer audio loop? And what Toyota is it, maybe i should try it

 

[cjr3559]

Is there any way to remove the background sounds at the service stages?
I like the atmosphere but i get really annoyed hearing about the "very quick Toyota" every 6 seconds over the tannoy when I'm trying to tune my car or change tyres. Probably doesn't help that the rest of the audio is quiet and difficult to make out. But could they not have used a longer audio loop? And what Toyota is it, maybe i should try it

The only word from the announcer at the service park I can understand is “Safari”. Wouldn’t that be nice...

I’m more or less not startled by the ‘unexpected moments’ after playing this so much, but first time I saw a deer at Germany today. That was a little shocking compared to the smaller rodents that used to run across the road.

And why no more night stages in ‘My Team’ anymore? Are they reserved for the Masters level or something?

 

[BKGlover]

I came back to this after going as far as I could in DR1. I'm liking the rally side much more than 1, I'm not sure about regular rallycross but once I'm dug in I can run with it.

However...I hated cross karts in Dirt 4, and thought maybe it was just that version of the engine. To put it bluntly, after 10 minutes, three attempts, and spinning at max speed due to a surface transition, What the 🤬 is the deal with this? Is it me, is it the engine, is it in the game just for those with wheels, what?

 

[Stotty]

It’s equally as sketchy on surface transitions with a wheel... you need to ease the throttle to avoid the snap oversteer.

 

[Jtheripper]

I was checking m3 e30 rally videos, thinking grip is way high in dr2, especially on tarmac, but i was pleasantly surprised to see how the real ones hold on pretty damn good, on tarmac and on dirt.
Also the sound omg, spot on. And the movement of the car suspension etc.
They must use pretty good tires jeez, never thought it be so stable too under power, seems relatively speaking, easy car to push in real life too.
Respect to devs.. Some make me doubt dr2 but i cant fault it up to now much.
Going to check more cars to see..

 

[Pearl Jam]

There is something off with g29 on PS4 with rally 2.0, I forgot all about it it’s that long since I installed it and I think it may transform the steering.
To fix set steering saturation to 60.


Hope this helps someone out there.

just tried this the other day and WOW, it’s totally transformed how my G29 feels now, can’t believe such a small change can make such a huge difference , I’m absolutely loving this game now and having a blast playing through the career mode now..cheers

 

[John G]

I've been progressing through the career mode rally championship, using H1 FWD for the open and H2 RWD for the clubman levels and as long as I'm getting through a stage clean, i was finishing 1st or 2nd, and I'm top 3 overall in the championship pretty easily.

So i moved up to professional, and went to group B as its my favourite class with my favourite cars. Using the RS200 fully upgraded. And immediately I'm struggling to get top 20, and I'm winning less credits than it costs to repair my car at the end of each event.

Anyone else found these huge leaps in difficulty? As i understand it, I'll be bumped back down to clubman if i do poorly.
So am i destined forever now to go through a loop of winning clubman and then coming last in professional? That would be a serious drag.

Can you alter difficulty or it is just set by which level you're competing in?

 

[cjr3559]

I've been progressing through the career mode rally championship, using H1 FWD for the open and H2 RWD for the clubman levels and as long as I'm getting through a stage clean, i was finishing 1st or 2nd, and I'm top 3 overall in the championship pretty easily.

So i moved up to professional, and went to group B as its my favourite class with my favourite cars. Using the RS200 fully upgraded. And immediately I'm struggling to get top 20, and I'm winning less credits than it costs to repair my car at the end of each event.

Anyone else found these huge leaps in difficulty? As i understand it, I'll be bumped back down to clubman if i do poorly.
So am i destined forever now to go through a loop of winning clubman and then coming last in professional? That would be a serious drag.

Can you alter difficulty or it is just set by which level you're competing in?

I believe the My Team difficulty is based upon the community times. Changing the overall difficulty slider only works on the offline custom and preset historical events. Could be wrong though, but this belief seems accurate.

I’m stuck finishing in the middle to bottom third of Elite difficuly regularly, and my times are usually at the bottom of the top 25% compared to my online peers. Getting to Masters isn’t likely, so I agree the leap from one level to the next is brutal. But then again, I would say I’m far from mastering this game, if ever.

 

[MagpieRacer]

I've been progressing through the career mode rally championship, using H1 FWD for the open and H2 RWD for the clubman levels and as long as I'm getting through a stage clean, i was finishing 1st or 2nd, and I'm top 3 overall in the championship pretty easily.

So i moved up to professional, and went to group B as its my favourite class with my favourite cars. Using the RS200 fully upgraded. And immediately I'm struggling to get top 20, and I'm winning less credits than it costs to repair my car at the end of each event.

Anyone else found these huge leaps in difficulty? As i understand it, I'll be bumped back down to clubman if i do poorly.
So am i destined forever now to go through a loop of winning clubman and then coming last in professional? That would be a serious drag.

Can you alter difficulty or it is just set by which level you're competing in?

Cant adjust it. Just a case of practice makes perfect or finding a car class that suits you in terms of your speed to progress.

 

[Jtheripper]

Just tried the r-gt division, the porsche is really nice to slide around corners, was on the last stage of germany with hard tires. Really fun and well done to me. Did lower the brake power, seemed pretty easy to lock, and set bias back a little more. Superb handling for me, interesting, just challenging enough, believable, fun, intuitive.

The modelling looks pretty damn nice too, i set livery white. Can see inside the front vents, and all so smooth curves. Uhmm sounds naughty a little haha, ook.
Even the backview from the cockpit is well done.

 

[PJTierney]

I believe the My Team difficulty is based upon the community times.

This is incorrect.

AI times do not dynamically change based on human performance.

How they work is that a real driver (usually Jon Armstrong) sets a benchmark time for a Stage, which is around the 100 Difficulty level. That is then scaled for the various difficulty levels. 100 AI is like Top 1% pace in Time Trial.

On top of this each individual AI driver has a set of modifiers applied, depending on what car they're in, weather, damage, whether they're expected to be the "stronger" AI drivers who typically show up at the top of the timesheets etc. That gives some slight variance so that not all 30 drivers set the same time.

You can get a rough gauge for AI times at each level by looking up a Scenario in the Colin McRae mode and tweaking the slider, as difficulty requirements can change in the menus.

For example, the final Scenario (MG Metro 6R4 at Scotland): To beat it on 100 difficulty you need to set a time around 6:43, but to beat it at 1 difficulty it's around 9:30.

 

[cjr3559]

Thanks for the clarification. While I’ve got your attention, there other DR2.0 ‘unknowns’ like what’s the difference between the two cockpit settings. One is fixed the other is customizable. Why two?

And while on this topic, do the people setting the times use the default controller/wheel settings and stock tunes/suggested tires?

Another thing I noticed and it’s kind of humorous, is if you set a 12 stage event with little or no services stages except on stage 1 all the AI usually crash out or become severely disabled. Meanwhile I can cleanly run a moderate pace and win. Not the case in My Team events.

@fernandito FYI below:

This is incorrect.

AI times do not dynamically change based on human performance.

How they work is that a real driver (usually Jon Armstrong) sets a benchmark time for a Stage, which is around the 100 Difficulty level. That is then scaled for the various difficulty levels. 100 AI is like Top 1% pace in Time Trial.

On top of this each individual AI driver has a set of modifiers applied, depending on what car they're in, weather, damage, whether they're expected to be the "stronger" AI drivers who typically show up at the top of the timesheets etc. That gives some slight variance so that not all 30 drivers set the same time.

You can get a rough gauge for AI times at each level by looking up a Scenario in the Colin McRae mode and tweaking the slider, as difficulty requirements can change in the menus.

For example, the final Scenario (MG Metro 6R4 at Scotland): To beat it on 100 difficulty you need to set a time around 6:43, but to beat it at 1 difficulty it's around 9:30.

 

[fernandito]

Masters difficulty is still stupid though. Developers should be able to discern the line that is between what is actually challenging and the aforementioned, with the superior degree on clairvoyance that is expected to emanating from their .., enhanced perception of reality, isn't it?, dr1 didn't have this issue in masters, as once you got truly fast over time ai times then adjusted to your reality more accurately.

I find masters difficulty on my team mode and in general a waste of time, for the simple reason that it makes you believe it is impossible. Usually finishing 20th+ and sometimes 13th-14th as the highest in the table at the end of a rally is laughable to say the least.

I think this is my first rant about difficulty in a vide-game ever, so go figure. AI times in this game in masters make your eyes roll, period.

 

[PJTierney]

Thanks for the clarification. While I’ve got your attention, there other DR2.0 ‘unknowns’ like what’s the difference between the two cockpit settings. One is fixed the other is customizable. Why two?

And while on this topic, do the people setting the times use the default controller/wheel settings and stock tunes/suggested tires?

Another thing I noticed and it’s kind of humorous, is if you set a 12 stage event with little or no services stages except on stage 1 all the AI usually crash out or become severely disabled. Meanwhile I can cleanly run a moderate pace and win. Not the case in My Team events.

@fernandito FYI below:

After demand from players we brought back the original dashboard camera from DiRT Rally. Some people liked the new one, some didn’t, so we kept both.

AI benchmarking. All done by Jon Armstrong and another top driver. They probably have their preferred wheel settings but I presume tunes are stock.

 

[Jtheripper]

Really loving Waldabstieg stage in germany, pretty thrilling, challenging.
Been using the older 911 sc rs, on dry, pretty much perfect, just tinker a little with setup.
Only thing i can say is it seems all happens a little too fast compared to reality maybe. Especially see it in replay, i dont know. But it feels great and is alot of fun. Was using medium tires, i should try hard see if slows down things a little more believably for me.

 

[PJTierney]

I made a new Beginner's Guide:



Also, a guide for people struggling with this 80s beast:

 

[MagpieRacer]

This is incorrect.

AI times do not dynamically change based on human performance.

How they work is that a real driver (usually Jon Armstrong) sets a benchmark time for a Stage, which is around the 100 Difficulty level. That is then scaled for the various difficulty levels. 100 AI is like Top 1% pace in Time Trial.

On top of this each individual AI driver has a set of modifiers applied, depending on what car they're in, weather, damage, whether they're expected to be the "stronger" AI drivers who typically show up at the top of the timesheets etc. That gives some slight variance so that not all 30 drivers set the same time.

You can get a rough gauge for AI times at each level by looking up a Scenario in the Colin McRae mode and tweaking the slider, as difficulty requirements can change in the menus.

For example, the final Scenario (MG Metro 6R4 at Scotland): To beat it on 100 difficulty you need to set a time around 6:43, but to beat it at 1 difficulty it's around 9:30.

This is awesome insightful information!

 

[cjr3559]

Came to the closest ever to getting promoted to Masters level today finishing 4th. I ran the VW Golf which is one of the easier cars to manage but it’s one of my favorites. Also had a good selection of events where I’m kind of decent and luckily didn’t draw Scotland.

Before starting I randomly select a car from all 12 classes and try my best, but so many times I finish way off the pace maybe picking up 10 championship points because of unfamiliarity with the car and lack of engine upgrades.

I have to say this particular championship was pretty fun and exciting, not only because of the good results, but the outcome really came down to the final rally at Argentina. I was gunning for a rally victory that would have given me enough points to finish third in the overall championship, but I made one costly error where I lost 10 seconds and finished 2nd dropping me to 4th.

It doesn’t happen very often where I’m actually watching the AI times and determining who I’ve got to beat in order to get enough points to win. Thumbs up on this occasion. Sure beats finishing 13th.

 

[Jtheripper]

I like that in setups screen, they show on a diagram the way the suspension is changing, makes it clear which way negative camber is, etc.
Good they put text too to explain them somewhat at least.

I hope the next dr will be even more a genuine sim all around, although dr2 is crazy fun often, maybe still lacking a little toward full sim.