EA Sports WRC: General Discussion

[SPhilli911]

While playing this game earlier I realized there are stages I've never driven in certain seasons, so it always feels like a surprise. I wondered how many unique combinations I can play if I used each car for each rally if the season/stage/weather/time were different each time.

I came up with ~6,915,600 combinations.*

*Super rough and quick math here, I realize locations such as Sweden only have one season and I don't think the weather conditions or time of day are consistent across all seasons. Also, some rallies have 18 stages rather than 12 so I did my best to factor this all in.

It seems high! I am not a math guy (and this post can certainly show that), but even if you took the same number of seasons and stages across all rallies you get near that number, assuming I do the math right. Bottom line, there are lots of ways to experience the game.

 

[UKMikey]

While playing this game earlier I realized there are stages I've never driven in certain seasons, so it always feels like a surprise. I wondered how many unique combinations I can play if I used one car for one rally if the season/stage/weather/time were different each time.

I came up with ~6,915,600 combinations.*

*Super rough and quick math here, I realize locations such as Sweden only have one season and I don't think the weather conditions or time of day are consistent across all seasons. Also, some rallies have 18 stages rather than 12 so I did my best to factor this all in.

It seems high! I am not a math guy (and this post can certainly show that), but even if you took the same number of seasons and stages across all rallies you get near that number, assuming I do the math right. Bottom line, there are lots of ways to experience the game.

Codies choosing not to randomise stages during the official career mode seems like a missed opportunity to me, as is the lack of option for having different career saves. The latter would help eliminate the "blind alleys" of choosing the wrong tyres or teammate.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Codies choosing randomise stages during the official career mode seems like a missed opportunity to me, as is the lack of option for having different career saves. The latter would help eliminate the "blind alleys" of choosing the wrong tyres or teammate.

As long as the randomising didn't take season in to consideration as it should still be realistic to when the rally is run on the calendar.

I think I'd actually rather see a 'realistic' calendar option for career and championship modes. Like what WRC Generations had, with 15+ stages per event. But done properly, like they run the Umea sprint 3 times in the dark in Sweden within the 18 stages run. Would make it much more immersive in my opinion if they followed the real rally itineraries in a realistic or immersive career option.

They'd have to fix the tyre allocations as well.

 

[m355y]

While playing this game earlier I realized there are stages I've never driven in certain seasons, so it always feels like a surprise. I wondered how many unique combinations I can play if I used one car for one rally if the season/stage/weather/time were different each time.

I came up with ~6,915,600 combinations.*

*Super rough and quick math here, I realize locations such as Sweden only have one season and I don't think the weather conditions or time of day are consistent across all seasons. Also, some rallies have 18 stages rather than 12 so I did my best to factor this all in.

It seems high! I am not a math guy (and this post can certainly show that), but even if you took the same number of seasons and stages across all rallies you get near that number, assuming I do the math right. Bottom line, there are lots of ways to experience the game.

I would absolutely love to be able to play Sweden and Scandia in summer months without snow. Scandia especially, because its such a technical event - narrow, twisty...being able to play that without snow would go some way to making up for the continued lack of Rally GB.

 

[UKMikey]

As long as the randomising didn't take season in to consideration as it should still be realistic to when the rally is run on the calendar.

I think I'd actually rather see a 'realistic' calendar option for career and championship modes. Like what WRC Generations had, with 15+ stages per event. But done properly, like they run the Umea sprint 3 times in the dark in Sweden within the 18 stages run. Would make it much more immersive in my opinion if they followed the real rally itineraries in a realistic or immersive career option.

They'd have to fix the tyre allocations as well.

I currently run medium length rallies in career. I know tyre strategy is a large part of management in real life but juggling three sets of tyres between seven or more mammoth stages gets a little fraught. I can't imagine what an eighteen stage rally would be like. A calendar grid view would be pretty helpful but a more generous allotment of tyres would also make things easier on the player. Not sure how well this'd fit in with WRC requirements though.

 

[MagpieRacer]

I currently run medium length rallies in career. I know tyre strategy is a large part of magement in real life but juggling three sets of tyres between twelve stages gets a little fraught. I can't imagine what an eighteen stage rally would be like. A grid view would be pretty helpful but a more generous allotment of tyres would also make things easier on the player. Not sure how well this'd fit in with WRC requirements though.

Rally Finland last year gave the crews 28 prime tyres (the softer) and 8 options (harder), over 20 stages. So 9 sets total. So id expect 4 sets for a 12 stage rally.

The other thing is WRC doesn't operate on sets in real life, it operates on individual tyres, as crews can cross mount tyres and such. Something we could do in the KT games but obviously not in EA. Something for the future hopefully.

 

[UKMikey]

I blasted through a couple of stages in DiRT Rally 2.0 this morning for nostalgia purposes. Huge mistake as the second I clipped a roadside fence or rocky crag the car went into endless pirouettes. Boy, was the difficulty rock hard for me. I went running back to the EA game with tears in my eyes.

Those graphics sure are pretty though.

 

[Dreadmed]

I've been in the process of running a hardcore/long length career over the past 5-odd months, the tyre situation in that is pretty cheesable because the AI swaps their ones out at every opportunity... which, Sweden aside, means they run the same set for 5 consecutive stages. Naturally they have a bit more of an advantage over stage 3+4 (typically I go for 2 harder compounds 1-4/5-8 and the softer for the PS) but then they massively drop off in pace due to running on tyres that have fallen off a cliff, so any victories I do pick up feel a bit hollow.

I'd say the current career stage count is fine, considering what we have to play with (the real rallies have a lot more unique road to utilise). If it ever got to the point where every rally had another stage or 2 to feed into the rotation then a "realistic" length option (12-14 stages) could be worth a look.

 

[UKMikey]

After a gruelling auto-generated stage in Scandia it looks like the graphics have been cleaned up for this location somewhat.

I can't find the option for saving championship templates in Quick Play but it seems to base the format on the last rally you create and only picks the car class and locations at random.

Just about the only thing I miss from career is the Keith commentaries so I've taken to making up things he could have said at service intervals. "inhales sharply through teeth So... me and the team have given your car a good look over and we think the best course of action is to replace the driver. We can fix the car...

"...

"...

"... but we can't fix you so don't bang the door on the way out, son."

 

[sirjim73]

If anyone still doesn't have the game, it's £8.99 on X Box in the Spring sale.
Bargain!!

 

[UKMikey]

If anyone still doesn't have the game, it's £8.99 on X Box in the Spring sale.
Bargain!!

As I usually like to say at this point... all those hours of enjoyment I've had out of this game are more than worth the extra money I spent buying it at launch to me. It's a wealth of content, at any price.

 

[RYAN]

As I usually like to say at this point... all those hours of enjoyment I've had out of this game are more than worth the extra money I spent buying it at launch to me. It's a wealth of content, at any price.

Hear, hear.

I'm pleased to say that I also feel that I have gotten more than my moneys worth out of the game at release price. The wealth of content even at release was really impressive. Fairly priced DLC also is worth applauding.

The only negative thing with the game was the performance issues right at the start of the game but that was rectified pretty sharpish.

As a first attempt for an EA/Codies WRX game with UE5 I think its fair to say it's been a success. Roll on some news about the successor! 😄

 

[tbtstt]

I bought a PS5 because of EA Rally and I have no regrets (apart from the annoyance that the pre-order bonuses only went to digital, not physical, copies).

Agree that the game isn't perfect, but I have got a lot of hours of play out of it and I am sure I have many more to come.

 

[rich m]

it's been very quiet on the possibility of getting the latest 2 DLC's integrated to Career Mode (something which i assumed would be a given). If they can't be bothered to add the new stages and car classes, at least add the new liveries to existing cars (C4, 2008 Focus etc), and add the DLC cars that fit into existing classes (i.e. Xsara F2, 206 F2 etc), that isn't much to ask, and wouldn't require them to create a new season structure.

 

[sirjim73]

As I usually like to say at this point... all those hours of enjoyment I've had out of this game are more than worth the extra money I spent buying it at launch to me. It's a wealth of content, at any price.

Agreed. The only game I've preordered in the last 5 years and it was well worth it (it was reasonably priced at launch too, none of this £100 "Ultimate edition" nonsense, so it was a no-brainer).

Even though I dont have "the skills" to get trophies in many of the Moments (those with multiple requirements mainly), I've had plenty of fun in Career mode.

I'll be on board for the next DLC or follow up game too 👍

 

[UKMikey]

it's been very quiet on the possibility of getting the latest 2 DLC's integrated to Career Mode (something which i assumed would be a given). If they can't be bothered to add the new stages and car classes, at least add the new liveries to existing cars (C4, 2008 Focus etc), and add the DLC cars that fit into existing classes (i.e. Xsara F2, 206 F2 etc), that isn't much to ask, and wouldn't require them to create a new season structure.

It's not that they "can't be bothered", just that it's technically a lot of work as @PJTierney said earlier. I suspect EA Sports are thinking of changing their slogan to "It's technically in the game, but not in the career mode", though.

 

[Tool1312]

I bought it early access, the price was very good compared to some other top titles ( F1 is way too expensive ) and it's pretty much all I play atm. I've got a lot of time spent on it lol
I did play ACC all the time beforehand from release but I was heavily involved in a large ACC discord and raced most nights in several leagues, that's tailed off a lot now but I dip in and out cos it's still a very good game.

But EA WRC is as immersive in a different way and the satisfaction in getting sections right is immense, added to the wide variety of cars and locations and the physics is spot on, I would say it's the best we have out there for it's genre especially on console.

I know on PC there's RBR ( but that's on life support through modders ), Beam Ng and AC but they're not as completely well packaged.

 

[sirjim73]

I bought it early access, the price was very good compared to some other top titles ( F1 is way too expensive ) and it's pretty much all I play atm. I've got a lot of time spent on it lol
I did play ACC all the time beforehand from release but I was heavily involved in a large ACC discord and raced most nights in several leagues, that's tailed off a lot now but I dip in and out cos it's still a very good game.

But EA WRC is as immersive in a different way and the satisfaction in getting sections right is immense, added to the wide variety of cars and locations and the physics is spot on, I would say it's the best we have out there for it's genre especially on console.

I know on PC there's RBR ( but that's on life support through modders ), Beam Ng and AC but they're not as completely well packaged.View attachment 1442994

Pah, says he's played the game but still has 11 achievements left to do...!

 

[Tool1312]

Pah, says he's played the game but still has 11 achievements left to do...!

That's cos I have never done the championship or career mode

 

[UKMikey]

For now I'm hoping to get my fill of non-career stages via the randomised quick play championships.

Latvian stage Ķirsīts should maybe have been named "Curse-its" as there are a number of tricky bends that are hard to spot at night in the rain with the sun pouring in through my bedroom window. I may have been turning the air blue with a few choice epithets for the course designers as I repeatedly hammered the restart button, I can tell ya.

---

I sometimes wish the game gave the player a warning before commencing a stage if they forget to change to a fresh set of mediums or rains as appropriate.

People who are more switched on than me could always opt to turn it off and not show it again, but it might save me a bit of hassle when I stupidly rush through and hit start without thinking.

In my ideal game I'd even include an audio notification from my trusty chief engineer...

Keith: talking on mobile Hellfire, Max, what do you mean "he's back on the team"? Best put the champagne back in the fridge, lads. Bloody car-wrecker... quickly hides phone Oh hello, mate, didn't see you walk in. Rest assured me and the boys are behind you 110%. 110%.

Now... you've forgot to swap out the tyres for the third stage in a row so your treads are currently balder than Kojak's granny but they should be mostly alright, provided you don't intend to run into any sharp turns or need to stop the car suddenly.

Now go out there and show us what yer made of, kidda. The crew'll just get the chainsaws ready to dig the tree trunks out of yer front grill when you coom in. We'll soon have yer back on the road in no time. under breath Or probably more like off of it, in your case...

 

[Jtheripper]

I've been trying out the h2 rwd class, and from the feel, sound, challenge, my favs are the alpine, great feel, the kadett, very smooth, the hillman avenger, light and responsive, the mk2, performing, all cool sounds.

I tried out the different degradation levels on Estonia gravel.
Big difference between heavy and max, at max, road is very rugged, the light old cars move around, skidding on bumps, love it.

It seems if choose the dynamic degradation, like it is i guess in career and championships, most times, you will rarely experience the max degradation.

I wish we could set degradation levels for each stage in custom championships, to vary things ftom one end to the other.
In dr2, you can set it for each rally event at least, but it seems you can only set it at the beginning for the whole championship in wrc24..

You sure feel it in the ffb, when at max, and even just at the launch off the start, the car jiggles around, cool.
You can soften the suspension of course.
I like the added thrill, feel, challenge, and physics of it at max.

But i tried it at pacifico i think it's called, must be new zealand i guess.., and it seems mostly sand, and there is barely any degradation i can notice, a bit dull of a surface that one, for now..
I did only try that one with newer current r1, r2 cars though. Many of the newer cars dont sound that great to me, and seem easy.

At Estonia, at max especially, you get grooves on driving line, bumps on the middle, and sides, less gravel on the line, but more on the edges, and overall feels very rugged, tricky, on old rwd, love that.
And on tarmac, you get edge of road dirt dips, grooves.

Optimization wise, had no issues, even 31km long stage.
I wish we could set menu effects audio off, i have to off my sound on my headphones each time, gets on your nerve, the loud click, click each you move one set the cursor..

One bug i noticed is, if you restart many times a stage, sometimes a part of it will change physics and sound, as if on gravel, when it's a tarmac stage.
Happened at croatia, and monte carlo, if ever they want details, i can say where more exactly.
I thought at 1st that it was dirt on the road from degradation, or season etc. But if i go back out, and restart the trial mode, or championship, it fixes it.

Oh and, with degradation, it helps have a challenge with ai i think, because i didn't notice ai times slowing from it, but it sure slows your own times, in a good way of course.
I was checking that since at some point i had set a pretty good run, but not amazing, and i tested ai, and had to be at 100% to match that time, made me worry of lack of challenge of ai once experienced with the game more.

Ofc, you can set just one run for yourself, no restarts, that surely makes much harder.
But i love retrying, improving, etc.

The steam from busted radiator isn't such a big deal often, but when sun is low, it lights it up,,and blocks your view pretty much sometimes.
In dr2, it dissipates as soon as you move, as it should.

 

[MagpieRacer]

I've been trying out the h2 rwd class, and from the feel, sound, challenge, my favs are the alpine, great feel, the kadett, very smooth, the hillman avenger, light and responsive, the mk2, performing, all cool sounds.

I tried out the different degradation levels on Estonia gravel.
Big difference between heavy and max, at max, road is very rugged, the light old cars move around, skidding on bumps, love it.

It seems if choose the dynamic degradation, like it is i guess in career and championships, most times, you will rarely experience the max degradation.

I wish we could set degradation levels for each stage in custom championships, to vary things ftom one end to the other.
In dr2, you can set it for each rally event at least, but it seems you can only set it at the beginning for the whole championship in wrc24..

You sure feel it in the ffb, when at max, and even just at the launch off the start, the car jiggles around, cool.
You can soften the suspension of course.
I like the added thrill, feel, challenge, and physics of it at max.

But i tried it at pacifico i think it's called, must be new zealand i guess.., and it seems mostly sand, and there is barely any degradation i can notice, a bit dull of a surface that one, for now..
I did only try that one with newer current r1, r2 cars though. Many of the newer cars dont sound that great to me, and seem easy.

At Estonia, at max especially, you get grooves on driving line, bumps on the middle, and sides, less gravel on the line, but more on the edges, and overall feels very rugged, tricky, on old rwd, love that.
And on tarmac, you get edge of road dirt dips, grooves.

Optimization wise, had no issues, even 31km long stage.
I wish we could set menu effects audio off, i have to off my sound on my headphones each time, gets on your nerve, the loud click, click each you move one set the cursor..

One bug i noticed is, if you restart many times a stage, sometimes a part of it will change physics and sound, as if on gravel, when it's a tarmac stage.
Happened at croatia, and monte carlo, if ever they want details, i can say where more exactly.
I thought at 1st that it was dirt on the road from degradation, or season etc. But if i go back out, and restart the trial mode, or championship, it fixes it.

Oh and, with degradation, it helps have a challenge with ai i think, because i didn't notice ai times slowing from it, but it sure slows your own times, in a good way of course.
I was checking that since at some point i had set a pretty good run, but not amazing, and i tested ai, and had to be at 100% to match that time, made me worry of lack of challenge of ai once experienced with the game more.

Ofc, you can set just one run for yourself, no restarts, that surely makes much harder.
But i love retrying, improving, etc.

The steam from busted radiator isn't such a big deal often, but when sun is low, it lights it up,,and blocks your view pretty much sometimes.
In dr2, it dissipates as soon as you move, as it should.

Yeah definitely some more that can be done with degradation. Glad it's there though, amazing it took until Dirt Rally 2.0 for a game to offer any kind of Deg. Would love to see stage specific Deg in custom modes though. Poland is another great one on max deg, especially in the wet, one of the stages, I forget the name, has a fast sections into a 90 right junction and that bit gets the full rutted, slippy treatment, fantastic.

Pacifico = Indonesia by the way 😊
Oceania = New Zealand
Iberia = Spain
Scandia = Norway
Mediteranneo = Corsica

 

[Tool1312]

Hi all. Back from some more experiments. I know I'll be preaching to the converted and I can hear some shouting ' should have done it in first place '
In an earlier post I shared a setup for the MK1 Escort which I found to be brilliant for me. Then I discovered that after playing F1, my wheel had set itself to 360°. Once I reset to 900 I went back in and now the handling wasn't as good cos I couldn't catch any slides.

So ( and obviously this highlights my noobness lol ) I changed the wheel saturation in-game to 60, thus creating a 540° setting and hey presto, this combined with the previous setup has now pretty turned much any RWD car from a snappy beast that wants to kill me into a lovely chuckable smooth handling friend. I tested the aforementioned setup on a number of cars and locations and can see that it works on all gravel surfaces.
I tried most RWD cars that previously had been a bit of a handful before such as the Lancia 037, Stratos and Porsche 911. All were brilliant to drive and I had a massive grin on my face.
The Escorts were great as was the Talbot Sunbeam and the Opel Manta.

The Manta was especially smooth and also to take the MK1 Escort through Bio Bio was a complete joy.

The only one that I didn't get on with so much was the Sierra but mainly cos it bogged down in first gear, I don't have a clutch pedal anymore.

I do now realise I should have been using 540 all the time doh.

 

[sirjim73]

Yeah definitely some more that can be done with degradation. Glad it's there though, amazing it took until Dirt Rally 2.0 for a game to offer any kind of Deg. Would love to see stage specific Deg in custom modes though. Poland is another great one on max deg, especially in the wet, one of the stages, I forget the name, has a fast sections into a 90 right junction and that bit gets the full rutted, slippy treatment, fantastic.

Pacifico = Indonesia by the way 😊
Oceania = New Zealand
Iberia = Spain
Scandia = Norway
Mediteranneo = Corsica

cough Motorstorm cough ...

 

[MagpieRacer]

cough Motorstorm cough ...

I meant rally game 😅

 

[SharkyOB]

Glad it's there though, amazing it took until Dirt Rally 2.0 for a game to offer any kind of Deg.

That's definitely not the case! RBR had surface level deg in 2004 and Sega Rally Revo is probably still the king in that area; the stage deg in that game is great.

 

[MagpieRacer]

That's definitely not the case! RBR had surface level deg in 2004 and Sega Rally Revo is probably still the king in that area; the stage deg in that game is great.

I definitely don't recall RBR having it, I know they had 3D surfaces and were the first game to do that but I'm pretty certain there was no deg in the game.

You're right about Sega Rally though, forgot about that one on the Xbox 360.

 

[UKMikey]

That's definitely not the case! RBR had surface level deg in 2004 and Sega Rally Revo is probably still the king in that area; the stage deg in that game is great.

I completely missed this on the seventh gen consoles (too busy playing FM4, ha ha) but the developers certainly broke out of the rut with this game from the looks of things if you'll pardon the pun. Too bad it was the swansong of the Sega Rally series if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Jtheripper]

There's mxgp pro from milestone, has even real-time deformation, depending on where bikes go.

Pretty cool really, great motocross sim style game. I was surprised at the time of that, old ps4 game, ran smooth, looked good.
Good physics, tracks, ai, sounds.

I suppose also mudrunner game, not a racing game though.

Yeah definitely some more that can be done with degradation. Glad it's there though, amazing it took until Dirt Rally 2.0 for a game to offer any kind of Deg. Would love to see stage specific Deg in custom modes though. Poland is another great one on max deg, especially in the wet, one of the stages, I forget the name, has a fast sections into a 90 right junction and that bit gets the full rutted, slippy treatment, fantastic.

Pacifico = Indonesia by the way 😊
Oceania = New Zealand
Iberia = Spain
Scandia = Norway
Mediteranneo = Corsica

Thanks for info, yeah makes more sense to be indonesia, and oceania being new zealand, from the looks of them.

 

[Ken134]

We need more dirt effects on the car and replays. No mud only dust on cars when finished the stage. In replays there should be mud flicked up from wheels in wet conditions.