Event Synthesizer = fun!

[jeffgoddin]

I recently had the notion that I could use the Event Synthesizer to test the quality of cars run completely stock. And I ended up having a lot more fun than I expected!

First of all, I don't ever play Arcade mode, so I have practically zero experience with backwards tracks and Rome Night. This makes things interesting.

So here's my rules. I take a car and run the events in order of increasing difficulty. Once I don't win twice, the car's Event Synthesizer career is over, and I record the results in my massive spreadsheet next to 400m and 1000m times, etc. To give the car a break, a loss on a backwards track or Rome Night only counts as half a loss. Also, I drive AT. Here's what I've got so far:

RX-7 Infini III '90: suffered a single loss at a backwards track before getting into the Expert 5 race series, where it battled it out at every event, finally winning by 1 point. Conclusion: a bit soft and drifty, but nice powerband.

Alfa 145 2.0 Cloverleaf: quickly lost 2 races at the easiest level. Conclusion: rubbish car. Stock gearing revs way too high and the car wallows all over the place.

Mustang SVT Cobra '99: had to quit at normal level. Conclusion: rubbish car. Too heavy and sits too high so corning is awful. Prone to spins. Gearing too tall so never in 5th and frequently out of powerband.

CR-X VTEC '91: loss in expert by 3 points to RX-7 GT-X '90 entirely due to gearing. Conclusion: stock gearing too tall, drops way below powerband on upshift. but corners well, sporty springs, watch overspeed induced understeer of course, but can be nicely oversteery at high speed!

MR-S Show Version '97: win in expert by 2 points. Conclusion: tidy little car, great powerband, a little understeery is only fault

one thing to note, don't bother bringing Race Modified cars to the Event Synthesizer, that's one thing that won't be copied, so you'll just end up thrashing all regular cars with your awesome cornering, no fun at all.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

The Event Generator is one of the coolest things about GT2. I didn't spend as much time with it as I would have liked back in the day (GT3 was urging me) but I thought it was a neat idea. Results vary, and as you've noted, race-modified cars are a no-no, since the game won't provide any race-modified cars of its own.

I wish its races were longer than 2 laps apiece, though. But this sort of technology (the game calling up what it thinks are sufficient cars to race against) has been duplicated in GT3, GT4, and GT5's Arcade modes to some extent, all except the random tracks bit.

 

[jeffgoddin]

2 lap sprints are generally sufficient to prove superiority since we're not as finely tuned as say the SuperGT or FIA GT1 and there's no way in Gran Turismo to test reliability of build... and in the 5 race expert series you do finally get a bit of a finer comparison over 10 laps total in varying circumstances.

But not if you take the S2000 to the track. Demolished the competition, which included the Chimaera 4.0, Infini III, and GT-R 4 Door. Won every event, and finished 12 points ahead of the Chimaera. Decent powerband (awesome, really, considering the 2L engine putting out 120bhp/L) captured well by the 6 speed gearbox. Balanced weight distribution means good acceleration and handling. Just a tad drifty, especially while braking and then cutting in too soon, and don't expect casual countersteer to get you out of your mess, as the front will grab and fling you into the opposite wall if you're not careful. But overall, a brilliant car if you can handle it!

Edit:

okay, one more. Alfa 156 V6 2.5, supposedly one of the best engines ever. Except at least in GT2 with this gearbox, you only get full power towards the top of the rev range, and when upshifting AT in 2nd and 3rd especially, power is painfully lacking. So, broke my rule and pushed on to expert despite suffering two losses ahead of that (but with wins at easy, normal, and hard) since every track was reverse except for Stupor Speedway which I got twice in a row (won once). Finally got to expert, and damn! How the heck is that Logo tuned?!? Got 3 reverse tracks in a row and botched them all, and then won the last two at Tahiti and Trial Mountain. Lost to the Logo by 6 points, with the Demio Special 3 points behind me and the Civic Type R 5 points back. Close competition for sure. Yes, the Alfa lacked power at crucial moments, and yes, it tended to be heavy and understeery, but really it wasn't that bad.

Edit 2:

yet another one. NSX '90. Heavy, understeery, gearing waaaaay too tall. yet good acceleration and works well as a battering ram. Won up to hard then get a couple of dud test that it failed, Rome short and then Seattle short, dang S4. Does fine for itself on tracks with more speed and not so many twisty bits, though.

 

[karelpipa]

Event synthesizer would have become a legendary if they would continue it in simulation modes in later GTs. a few improvements (RM cars for instance) and it would be a great fun in GT5.
imagine that you can choose tracks, choose difficulty, choose number of laps (or driven distance) or let everything on computer except for choice of your car apparently.
im not playing arcade mode since GT2, so i missed that point parnelli said

dont get it why they canceled it.