EA Sports WRC: General Discussion

[MagpieRacer]

I don’t like the idea of annual games, but maybe that’s just me. A year to enjoy a game is way too short IMO.

I prefer a new game every three years or so. This is why, again, I was never a fan of the EA deal.

Comes with the territory of WRC licensed games though I guess. In all the time a studio has held the WRC license, only 1 ever skipped a year, 2018, WRC8 got a 2 year gap between it and WRC7 (admittedly during which time KT released the dreadful V-Rally 4).

 

[m355y]

Totally - games shouldn't be obsolete after a few months. I'll champion the ACC/Snowrunner/Wreckfest model till i'm blue in the face. Make your money off expanding the base game, not repackaging the whole game every year and making people rebuy it.

 

[FrankieStail]

Keeping a game running over multiple years with add on dlcs is much better for building a larger community and player retention.

As shown by likes of acc and the like.

 

[Whitestar]

Worth testing. For some the graphical downgrade won't be worth it though. (I haven't tested myself.)

 

[UKMikey]

Worrying news...

EA confirms layoffs at F1 developer Codemasters

EA has confirmed layoffs at UK developer Codemasters, the developer behind recent racing games F1 23 and EA Sports WRC.

www.eurogamer.net

 

[Tool1312]

Have you noticed that if you start a club event with a custom livery, if you quit and return to it later, the car is in the default grey from the editor instead of the created livery

 

[Pfei]

Have you noticed that if you start a club event with a custom livery, if you quit and return to it later, the car is in the default grey from the editor instead of the created livery

Yes, and it's been reported on the bug forum.

 

[Tool1312]

AHH, didn't realise it had already been reported so i made a report as well

 

[Pfei]

AHH, didn't realise it had already been reported so i made a report as well

It never hurts to report again. My report from weeks ago on the hybrid map resetting to Cautious after every stage has gotten zero acknowledgement even though it's probably the easiest to replicate and fix.

 

[SestoScudo]

Worrying news...

EA confirms layoffs at F1 developer Codemasters

EA has confirmed layoffs at UK developer Codemasters, the developer behind recent racing games F1 23 and EA Sports WRC.

www.eurogamer.net

Now it begins another developer will be buried.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Worrying news...

EA confirms layoffs at F1 developer Codemasters

EA has confirmed layoffs at UK developer Codemasters, the developer behind recent racing games F1 23 and EA Sports WRC.

www.eurogamer.net

Apparently mostly QA testers. Pretty normal after games launch, EA do this pretty regularly, I imagine they’ll restructure Codemasters QA into their own system now.

 

[RYAN]

Apparently mostly QA testers. Pretty normal after games launch, EA do this pretty regularly, I imagine they’ll restructure Codemasters QA into their own system now.

Hopefully that's the case. My heart sank for a minute when I first read that! 🥺

 

[UKMikey]

Apparently mostly QA testers. Pretty normal after games launch, EA do this pretty regularly, I imagine they’ll restructure Codemasters QA into their own system now.

I fell for another sensationalist headline. At least it sounds like @PJ'll be okay.

 

[bluemoon_19]

I just got a really annoying bug and I'm not happy about it. I had a benefactor challenge to beat a privater in the WRC2 class, I won the championship and my team won the constructors championship too. But I failed the challenge and lost a lot on my benefactor status which meant I'm unable to move to WRC and have another year in WRC2. It says team competition but my team scored over 200 points and beat everyone else by a mile.

 

[UKMikey]

I just got a really annoying bug and I'm not happy about it. I had a benefactor challenge to beat a privater in the WRC2 class, I won the championship and my team won the constructors championship too. But I failed the challenge and lost a lot on my benefactor status which meant I'm unable to move to WRC and have another year in WRC2. It says team competition but my team scored over 200 points and beat everyone else by a mile.

The double booking of calendar events is a bit of a problem with the career for me. I'm glad I made the choice to finish my secondary championship since I was ahead in the main one. I went for the generous and lenient Max option instead of grumpy and finicky Max though.

Still have the problem that the budget achievement crashes the game if his ecstasy scale is "max"-ed out unless you spam the continue button before it registers, though. It's the only semi-major bug I've encountered so far and I'll have to get around to reporting it sometime if it's not already on the list.

 

[MagpieRacer]

I fell for another sensationalist headline. At least it sounds like @PJ'll be okay.

The only people who love attacking EA more than the players are the media. That said, there’s no official confirmation of that so my comment is still just hearsay until someone says something officially.

The double booking of calendar events is a bit of a problem with the career for me. I'm glad I made the choice to finish my secondary championship since I was ahead in the main one. I went for the generous and lenient Max option instead of grumpy and finicky Max though.

Still have the problem that the budget achievement crashes the game if his ecstasy scale is "max"-ed out unless you spam the continue button before it registers, though. It's the only semi-major bug I've encountered so far and I'll have to get around to reporting it sometime if it's not already on the list.

Definitely on the list to fix, I think that’s been a bug since release.

Also I’ve been thinking about the AI issues and have come to the conclusion that there are a few issues which overlap each other rather than one issue.

One of the big ones being that AI pace drop off, which seems to be triggered by leaving an event midway through and coming back to it. But I also think there’s some balancing issues, for example in JWRC I have had events where I’ve won by 30 seconds (Croatia) but then done a Group B event on Oceania and been beaten by nearly 2 minutes. So I think there’s a general inconsistency that is also running under the issues.

Add in the possibility of a AI tyre bug (not always taking fresh tyres) and I think each problem stacks occasionally to make it a bit of a pain.

On Xbox at least I have found that the exit and go back AI drop off bug can be somewhat circumvented by using quick resume instead of quitting the event, if it’s just a case of running out of time to play this is a good way to leave the game without triggering that bug.

But just a theory I had that the AI issue seems worse because there’s multiple issues that occasionally stack.

 

[bluemoon_19]

The double booking of calendar events is a bit of a problem with the career for me. I'm glad I made the choice to finish my secondary championship since I was ahead in the main one. I went for the generous and lenient Max option instead of grumpy and finicky Max though.

Still have the problem that the budget achievement crashes the game if his ecstasy scale is "max"-ed out unless you spam the continue button before it registers, though. It's the only semi-major bug I've encountered so far and I'll have to get around to reporting it sometime if it's not already on the list.

I am not keen on the way the calendar works either, I much preferred WRC Generations where you were given a selection of things to do on a date and nothing really clashed. Well apart from the fact I couldn't fix the condition on my car for half a season once lol.

I haven't got far enough up the meter to encounter the bug you mentioned but I will keep an eye out for it once I get that far.

 

[MagpieRacer]

I am not keen on the way the calendar works either, I much preferred WRC Generations where you were given a selection of things to do on a date and nothing really clashed. Well apart from the fact I couldn't fix the condition on my car for half a season once lol.

I haven't got far enough up the meter to encounter the bug you mentioned but I will keep an eye out for it once I get that far.

I think because the extra events in Generations were just one off stages usually, probably a lot easier to avoid clashes than trying to squeeze in entire extra championships.

I think it would be better if for the next iteration/major update/game whatever they do, to scrap to calendar idea and just let us choose our team members with a budget, have 2/3 slots for championships and occasional one off invitationals that we can do. So rather than having to fit everything into a linear calendar that can clash with everything, just let us enter what we want to enter at the start of the season, and then do it so we could have, Event 1, then WRC, Event 1-2, WRC, Event 1-3, WRC, Invitational, WRC, Event 1-4 etc. Then when WRC ends, have a 3rd championship in the off season. Just as an example.

And ditch the benefactor, cool idea, kinda pointless, split career into 2 paths like the F1 games, driver career and team career. Driver career you drive for real teams and what not, team career you have your own team like it is currently.

 

[PolarClaw]

It never hurts to report again. My report from weeks ago on the hybrid map resetting to Cautious after every stage has gotten zero acknowledgement even though it's probably the easiest to replicate and fix.

Bug reports needing likes or upvotes to get reviewed is a joke.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Bug reports needing likes or upvotes to get reviewed is a joke.

Also a good way for the devs to figure out which bugs are actually widespread versus ones which are affecting 1 person.

Ultimately if people don’t report/upvote bugs then they can’t really complain about it.

 

[cjr3559]

I am not keen on the way the calendar works either, I much preferred WRC Generations where you were given a selection of things to do on a date and nothing really clashed. Well apart from the fact I couldn't fix the condition on my car for half a season once lol.

I haven't got far enough up the meter to encounter the bug you mentioned but I will keep an eye out for it once I get that far.

I’ll take the ‘learn to prioritize’ career aspect in EA WRC.

In addition to the untimely and unrealistic car maintenance sessions, there was also the baffling tire restriction requirements in the KT series.

And career goals that were impossible to accomplish because they weren’t available.

Fun times in that half baked career mode.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Patch v1.4.0 releases Thursday 14th December.

Information from @PJTierney on the Discord.

"Hello drivers, Our upcoming v1.4.0 patch will release on 14 December 2023, and contain several bug fixes and improvements across EA SPORTS™ WRC.

One fix relates to some tuning setups potentially breaking when a player tunes multiple cars and one fix relates to steering wheel and controller input bindings not working correctly across certain device configurations.

In order to fix these issue, a complete wipe of all tuning setups and custom input bindings is required, for all players.

We know that many of you have spent a lot of time refining your tuning setups and you controller, wheel and pedal setups, so in order to provide the least disruption possible, we are sending this warning ahead of time. If you wish to keep any tuning setups after the v1.4.0 update releases, we recommend you screenshot or write down the tuning values for those setups now, and then re-apply them after the patch is released.

Thank you for your support and understanding."

 

[UKMikey]

I'm glad the only custom binding I have is to put the handbrake on the A button instead of B.

 

[MagpieRacer]

I'm glad the only custom binding I have is to put the handbrake on the A button instead of B.

Same, shift up on B?

 

[UKMikey]

Same, shift up on B?

There's nowhere else to put it. I drive auto anyway but I need that parking brake within easy reach so I don't drive off the cliff at hairpins.

 

[Pfei]

PJ mentioned on Reddit that they are still working on the AI issues so it looks like that won't make it into the patch next week.

 

[MagpieRacer]

PJ mentioned on Reddit that they are still working on the AI issues so it looks like that won't make it into the patch next week.

Expected this after the forum post, looks like they're struggling to find the cause of the difficulty drop off.

He has also mentioned that the fixed car bug when you exit is potentially fixed as well, so that's a massive boost for club competition.

 

[Pfei]

Just a heads up for those who don't have the game: it's 40% off on Xbox right now.

 

[m355y]

A month after release? Doesn't suggest massive sales figures so far.

 

[PolarClaw]

A month after release? Doesn't suggest massive sales figures so far.

EA has a lot of % on games at XBOX atm e.g. Dead Space Deluxe 90% / Immortals of Aveum Deluxe 90% / Assassins Creed Valhalla Complete 90% maybe a little YE ramp up of sales figures. The Deluxe Editions only so I think they all will come to GP.

WRC is definitely a disappointment for me. I bought it at full price at launch but stopped playing it, WRC 23 has just too many bugs. So let's see if the next patch fixes anything meaningful.
I also wait for the VR release and hope that until then Codemasters fixed most of the issues. If not it's my last game from Codemasters.