DiRT Rally Thread

[prisonermonkeys]

This car is absolutely neutered in its current state without any upgrades. Two stages into Finland and I'm already 42 seconds behind.

Buy as many perks as you can for the car. Especially if you unlock the second and third tiers, which offer bigger development bonuses. Then, go into Custom Championship and run a six-stage rally. Your crew will develop your car for you over the course of the event. You should be able to figure out how many stages you need to do for the car to be developed, although higher tiers of car have longer development windows; it took my crew considerably longer to fully upgrade to Seat Ibiza Kit Car than it did the Escort Mk. II, even with a 25% development bonus for the Ibiza. I am currently using this method to develop the Peugeot 205 T16 E2 because it's under-powered, completely insane, and requires a completely different driving style to everything else (right now it's "hold on for dear life around the corners").

 

[TheElbows]

I'm not the smart guy, we both have TheElbows to thank

Hey don't thank me, I saw some other folks do it! But yes, that's how I work my handbrake as well. Same TH8A --- though it does work with the standard G25 shifter, it isn't as weighty or clunky feeling.

I use three heavy rubber bands, attached in a slightly different fashion --- I don't use the TH8A in its sequential mode because you have to re-set the whole thing with a small tool and if I'm honest, the sequential mode of the TH8A is pretty mediocre (not very positive click etc.). With the rubber bands I just undo them when I want to use the H-pattern for the game or other games --- no fiddling about changing out face plates etc.

It's a simple ghetto fix but works quite well. Mine will occasionally bounce up to 3rd gear but it's rare and not a big deal when I grab the ebrake to use it.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Is it just me, or do hillclimb cars feel much more settled on gravel than they do tarmac?

 

[BionicDerp]

Is it just me, or do hillclimb cars feel much more settled on gravel than they do tarmac?

They do indeed.

 

[MXH]

Buy as many perks as you can for the car. Especially if you unlock the second and third tiers, which offer bigger development bonuses. Then, go into Custom Championship and run a six-stage rally. Your crew will develop your car for you over the course of the event. You should be able to figure out how many stages you need to do for the car to be developed, although higher tiers of car have longer development windows; it took my crew considerably longer to fully upgrade to Seat Ibiza Kit Car than it did the Escort Mk. II, even with a 25% development bonus for the Ibiza. I am currently using this method to develop the Peugeot 205 T16 E2 because it's under-powered, completely insane, and requires a completely different driving style to everything else (right now it's "hold on for dear life around the corners").

Yeah, will definitely do that after realizing the perks I had just weren't enough to get it to it's original ''fully upgraded'' state fast enough. Still amazed by what 70-80 horsepower less and 200-ish extra kilos can do to your car.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I have to admit that I am feeling a little bit frustrated with the game at the moment. I feel like I should be able to compete for stage wins - if not rally wins - on a regular basis, but even when I string together a perfect run through a stage, I find that I am still fifteen to twenty seconds down on the fastest time, even when I am driving fully-developed cars that I have a lot of experience with, running on stages that I know reasonably well.

 

[Ettick]

I have to admit that I am feeling a little bit frustrated with the game at the moment. I feel like I should be able to compete for stage wins - if not rally wins - on a regular basis, but even when I string together a perfect run through a stage, I find that I am still fifteen to twenty seconds down on the fastest time, even when I am driving fully-developed cars that I have a lot of experience with, running on stages that I know reasonably well.

The AI is quite fast on the highest difficulty. I find I'm maybe 5-10 seconds faster than them per stage when I really push, but it's hard to keep that pace consistent throughout the rally without issues.

 

[MXH]

I have to admit that I am feeling a little bit frustrated with the game at the moment. I feel like I should be able to compete for stage wins - if not rally wins - on a regular basis, but even when I string together a perfect run through a stage, I find that I am still fifteen to twenty seconds down on the fastest time, even when I am driving fully-developed cars that I have a lot of experience with, running on stages that I know reasonably well.

I did a custom event on one of Swedens stages and slaughtered the AI by 13+ seconds on master difficulty with the Audi Quattro. Tried to do the same in Wales (Pant Mawr Reverse) but completely in vain. Overall, I can manage a 2nd or 3rd position with some effort, but there's always an alien) AI opponent ahead of me by anything between 3-12 seconds, depending on stage. It doesn't frustrate me, but it definitely makes me scratch my head.

 

[dopedog]

Well starting to get a feel for what the FFB is conveying in each country having completed first career rally and back at Greece I get it.
Greece is the rally that takes the most FFB out of all pf them, Greece has the mega bumps and the dust which I imagine would be a bit like sand, your car will lock into the burms and tram-line and bog in the dust gravel, makes sense totally. I'd would say set FFB on Greece, it will feel its heaviest there.

Monte Carlo is trying to tell you its slippy..very slippy, you will pretty much float on top of the ice and wet, its not nice its a technical rally with not much chance for let up.. yes it will feel alien after Greece but its pretty much feels as it should.. hey we've all driven on icy roads right in real life? Its fun but any feeling of connection with the road is not there as your connected to ice!

Those 2 rallies are the polar opposites, even to the point that to be fair you could indeed run higher forces for Monte and lower forces for Greece.

From there you have Germany, like Monte but with no ice so feeling is there but it's not going to feel like driving on a gravel dust track like Greece.

Finland and Wales are stand out for me, perfect stages just utterly incredible to drive, but you have the feeling of Greece but with the give of the slippy mud and dirt, its just nirvana.

Sweden, well its Monte but with the bumpy FFB of Greece...its a wonderful test with possibly the best environment to drive in.

What they are trying to convey here is incredible, the different feels of each rally are to be applauded IMO. Clearly Monte and to feel very floaty, its ice on smooth tarmac, its not nice feeling but then its not in real life. Germany they had to describe that its not a bumpy gravel road, its a lot of tarmac. It works for me. Worst case is just set SAT at different levels per rally.
But yes.... this is gaming gold for me, frankly I've never played a driving game quite like this, its simply for me the best driving game I've ever played and will be a go to game for a long time to come.
Its very clever and very subtle in places the little nuances of each stage and rally, its incredible to play, as soon as you stop trying to make Monte and Germany feel like how say Greece feels then your free to just get on with it...
Hey at least we aren't having to mess about with FFB settings per car!!

 

[doblocruiser]

@doblocruiser Just incase it helps there is a camera shake reduction and not as bad as any other game in motion to me (shame mate)

Could you upload a vid with shaking on and shaking turned back ?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Well, the catch is in the way you get promoted if you finish in the top three - I get pushed up to the next tier just as I start getting comfortable in my current tier.

And since the game keeps giving me Sweden and Wales in custom championships, I get very little experience on the other rallies. I really struggle with Greece, simply because I never get to race there.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Yes, i read somewhere else of PC players saying patch 1.1. watered it all down and the graphics reduced. Sounds like sour grapes from a few hardcore console haters... S.O.D. 'em.

Well the patch notes for 1.1 doesn't even say any physics tweaks, so clearly those people are just blindly hating on consoles for no rhyme or reason.

The issues we have all been discussing (suboptimal FFB, especially on tarmac) has been present from the start of the game's early access. It has been revised a few times, but the problem is still there because there's only so many things you can do without changing out the whole EGO engine. Everyone on PC got used to it, then with console release bringing a whole slew of new players the issue resurfaced again...and so does the discussion.

 

[ScottPuss20]

 

[PzR Slim]

I have to admit that I am feeling a little bit frustrated with the game at the moment. I feel like I should be able to compete for stage wins - if not rally wins - on a regular basis, but even when I string together a perfect run through a stage, I find that I am still fifteen to twenty seconds down on the fastest time, even when I am driving fully-developed cars that I have a lot of experience with, running on stages that I know reasonably well.

That's odd. I have won every rally I have competed in so far and only finished second or third on a stage a handful of times. How do your times compare on the overall leaderboard you can access at the end of a stage? I'm normally in the top 100 and if I nail a stage I can get into the top 20. I played it a little bit on early access on PC, although my platform of choice is PS4 now, but I found that what I thought was fast when I first played the game wasn't really that fast when you develop the speed over time.

Here's a vid in the Alpine in Wales. I managed to stick it 25th on the leaderboard with this run. How does that compare to you?

 

[torque99]

Could you upload a vid with shaking on and shaking turned back ?

PM sent re: Video or Share play mate so you can try it 👍

 

[paulpg87]

I have to admit that I am feeling a little bit frustrated with the game at the moment. I feel like I should be able to compete for stage wins - if not rally wins - on a regular basis, but even when I string together a perfect run through a stage, I find that I am still fifteen to twenty seconds down on the fastest time, even when I am driving fully-developed cars that I have a lot of experience with, running on stages that I know reasonably well.

Is the hardest game i've played in ages. The difficulty is so hard immediatly from the start. In fact i wrote few posts above that i'm worried i will never get past professional (not tried yet but won 60 and 70s). However i found that assists in this game are conterproductive. I can go way faster with no traction or stability control. I'm also able to take harpins now. The only One i'm using is ABS.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Just fell victim to the traditional corrupted save bug. Had to start over. But at least I can sample some of the cars I haven't experienced without a financial penalty, and undo some of the mistakes from my previous game (like picking the Renault 5 Turbo over the BMW M3).

 

[dopedog]

Well playing this and still playing PCars i can say it actually helped a great deal in working out PCars FFB. the SAT in DiRT is pretty much Tire Force in PCars globals (if you ignore you have FFB per car in PCars), that oppressive twisting of the wheel against you as you drive on say Sonoma in PCars is the same oppressive feeling you get with DiRT with ramped up SAT (at least on xbox with TX)...
So having felt DiRT with their good explanations not to mention the fact you can just simply pause and change settings on the fly, going back to PCars has been great. In fact i'd say DiRT over all helps the whole range of driving, much the in the way i imagine real rallying does, certainly never get to learn car control quite the way rallying does..
I really am impressed, I sat there this morning and had a blast on PCars before work and last night I was playing DiRT for few hours and I'm just so happy we have these games!
Lets see what Assetto Corsa brings...

 

[prisonermonkeys]

How do your times compare on the overall leaderboard you can access at the end of a stage?

Generally pretty okay - I was routinely in the top 100 for weekly events before the corrupt save bug hit me. I just often find that I don't have the confidence in the car to do anything more than 90km/h, particularly in Sweden and Wales.

 

[PzR Slim]

Generally pretty okay - I was routinely in the top 100 for weekly events before the corrupt save bug hit me. I just often find that I don't have the confidence in the car to do anything more than 90km/h, particularly in Sweden and Wales.

Then I'd just say keep at it, it'll come. I actually see it as a good thing. A proper rally game that is very hard to master. I've only driven a couple of absolutely perfect stages and the buzz you get when you do is like no other racing game I have played for a long time. Too long, particularly on console, we have had to put up with games that are generally too easy and make you feel like a driving god from the get go. Dirt Rally, for me at least, was a proper slap in the face and said 'so you think you're good at driving games, we'll see about that!'. It is fair though, every time a I make a mess of it I know exactly why, and it's never a quirk of the game, it's always me pushing too hard or not concentrating enough on the pace notes. Really is a stonking game.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

It's the low-grip surfaces that get me. I'm fine with Germany and Monte Carlo, and I'm getting better at Finland. I don't get much experience of Greece, but it's so busy that the lack of confidence generally works in my favour. In Sweden, there's no margin for error, and grazing a snow bank usually pitches you into a spin. As for Wales, I keep getting caught out by crown of the road, so I wind up going around four- and five-grade corners at about 70km/h.

 

[banditvw16]

Just fell victim to the traditional corrupted save bug. Had to start over. But at least I can sample some of the cars I haven't experienced without a financial penalty, and undo some of the mistakes from my previous game (like picking the Renault 5 Turbo over the BMW M3).

I have just had an error ce-36329-3 happen to be, is this what you got when you say corrupt save bug. If so how did you rectify the problem, chreers

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I have just had an error ce-36329-3 happen to be, is this what you got when you say corrupt save bug. If so how did you rectify the problem, chreers

I don't know if that was the error message that I got. All I know is that Codemasters is notorious for this sort of thing - corrupt save bugs also cropped up in Grid Autosport.

You have two options: 1) start over or 2) wait for a patch.

 

[banditvw16]

I don't know if that was the error message that I got. All I know is that Codemasters is notorious for this sort of thing - corrupt save bugs also cropped up in Grid Autosport.

You have two options: 1) start over or 2) wait for a patch.

Thanks for that the game froze then my ps shut down .i reboited it but after the message appeared i can only do half a stage beforr it happens again. I think i will try deleting and reinstalling the game again.gutted as I have just maxed my mk2. Thanks

 

[PzR Slim]

It's the low-grip surfaces that get me. I'm fine with Germany and Monte Carlo, and I'm getting better at Finland. I don't get much experience of Greece, but it's so busy that the lack of confidence generally works in my favour. In Sweden, there's no margin for error, and grazing a snow bank usually pitches you into a spin. As for Wales, I keep getting caught out by crown of the road, so I wind up going around four- and five-grade corners at about 70km/h.

I love the fact that each surface requires a completely different driving style. I think that was the most difficult thing to get into my head when I first started playing the game.

 

[dopedog]

I love the fact that each surface requires a completely different driving style. I think that was the most difficult thing to get into my head when I first started playing the game.

That and also the fact of how different those surfaces feel and how tricky it is to convey that. Take PCars (I'm on console so this is really the only comparable game right now) that has to try to convey the difference between driving on wet road / dry road / cold tyres / warm tyres / hot tyres / worn tyres , it does this well on the whole.
Then its about the difference between surface of say Oulton Park and then Silverstone.

DiRT is doing everything but the tyre wear and heat cycle plus ice, dust, gravel, tarmac, snow, rocks, cobbles, grass... icy tarmac / icy gravel ... its mental.

 

[Accro2008]

Got my package for winning the official DiRT rally design T-Shirt contest :



Once again thank you gt planet for the support.

The shirt is available on sale here : https://store.codemasters.com/uk/

 

[TheElbows]

That's pretty awesome. Well done bossman.

 

[PJTierney]

@The Stig Farmer Can we rename this thread to something along the lines of "DiRt Rally - Relaxed General Chat"? The platform/news info in the title seems redundant now that we have an entire subforum for DiRT

 

[dopedog]

The way as you approach a hairpin and as you brake you can unsettle the car and the rear tries to overtake you and the nose points away from the way your turning but as you get towards the hairpin you pivot back towards it with your nose and your rear follows like an obedient dog... and then you power out away.....