FIA Sport Races - Practice in the Race Environment or Practice Environment?

[Z Crazy]

Personally, I've always hated the way the FIA races have a completely different environment for practice opposed to the races. As a workaround, I've used the arcade mode's custom race to get an idea of the race feel, but that's a little annoying to me.

As the poll suggests, how many of you would prefer the FIA races to practice as they will be raced?

Cons:

• Practice... interrupting a hotlap for new tires will make it more difficult to get into a rhythm
• Slower times on the chart

Pros:

• No more inconsistent grip levels when practicing ahead of time
• Better understanding of tire wear and fuel consumption for strategy
• More realistic

I'm sure there are tons of other reasons in both categories and feel free to chime in with them.

 

[watto79]

I've often thought this. It seems weird that to actually practice an FIA event you have to create or join an online lobby to replicate the conditions so you can work out how you need to drive and a pit strategy.

Practising with no tyre wear and a no fuel seems pretty pointless and counterproductive as it doesn't show how the car will handle come race day.

It would be nice to see this implemented, but also can't imagine it's all that high on the priority list.

 

[FoRiZon]

We need casual unranked matchmaking, please!!!! Many competitive games have one so why not GTSport?

 

[Z Crazy]

We need casual unranked matchmaking, please!!!! Many competitive games have one so why not GTSport?

I have to MASSIVELY restrain myself from retaliating against those that don't care about their rank level. The last thing I want is to be matched with people who don't care. No offense, but those that don't care, can continue to race with others that don't care.

 

[Pigems]

We need casual unranked matchmaking, please!!!! Many competitive games have one so why not GTSport?

That’s what lobbies are for.

 

[mobilmasher]

I like it the way it is, I can see what my best lap can be while setting my rank in the race. I practice in lobbies with all the race settings to determine my strategy.

 

[Z Crazy]

I like it the way it is, I can see what my best lap can be while setting my rank in the race. I practice in lobbies with all the race settings to determine my strategy.

Absolutely nothing wrong with the way you like it. However, I'm on the other side, for me the low number doesn't mean much as I know we are going to race under different settings. For me, its more important to see consistency in my practice time versus my race laps. Without the confirmation that I am getting the lap time, its hard to know if I got everything out of it.

On a side note, I'd love to see a predictive in-race lap timing tool. We have that in practice, but not in the race. In real life, I make substantial gains by knowing where I stand second by second. I bought a baby VBox and it shaved 1.5 seconds off my times just from seeing the predictive timing. Granted, anytime you're shaving seconds off a time, you still have a way to go with pace, but it made shaving that time easier.

 

[mobilmasher]

On a side note, I'd love to see a predictive in-race lap timing tool. We have that in practice, but not in the race.

In the race I'm not interested in my lap times, I'm interested in the gaps with the competitors ahead and behind me and we have that. Monitoring my lap times as I race is just another distraction to keep me from paying attention to my radar.

 

[breeminator]

I have to MASSIVELY restrain myself from retaliating against those that don't care about their rank level. The last thing I want is to be matched with people who don't care. No offense, but those that don't care, can continue to race with others that don't care.

That is how it would work, you'd be able to choose. I think FoRiZon is talking about it having something like FH4 where you can play the exact same game mode, but either ranked or unranked. It would be like each daily race in GTS having two options - ranked and unranked. Ranked would be the scheduled time slots where you are matched against people of similar rank, and the outcome affects your rank. Unranked would be "on demand" where you just get matched against the other people trying to race at that time, and the outcome of the race would have no impact on anything. So those that don't care would only race against others that don't care.

What I find in FH4 is that the two end up largely the same. In ranked, you get rammed because there are ranking points at stake. In unranked you get rammed because people still want to win at all costs. You get rammed by a better standard of driver in ranked than unranked.

Sorry, none of that is related to what the thread is about. I voted yes, the current situation is just silly. The game should also have an option to do an offline practice race against AI that is set up identically to the real race, as well. Edit: there would be a problem with free practice having fuel use and tyre wear, and that is that the best times would need to be done by burning all the fuel off first, and this would make it quite tedious having multiple attempts at a fast lap against a ghost, as you'd have to keep having in laps and out laps to top up the fuel tank and change the tyres. One way to make free practice closer to race conditions would be to give the car a full fuel tank, not an empty fuel tank. So they could make that change for the free practice where you have a leaderboard and drive against ghosts, but have a new button to access driving with fuel use and tyre wear, but where times don't go on the leaderboard.

 

[JCH8r]

You get rammed by a better standard of driver in ranked than unranked.

Best quote in a long time.

If I have time I like to have the practice with no fuel consumption or tire wear to learn the course. After that, I try to run simulated races in arcade mode, but why is there higher tire wear and fuel consumption in GTSport than there is in Arcade Mode? The whole thing is piecemeal right now, so I guess we're lucky that we are pioneering the future of VR racing.

 

[Z Crazy]

In the race I'm not interested in my lap times, I'm interested in the gaps with the competitors ahead and behind me and we have that. Monitoring my lap times as I race is just another distraction to keep me from paying attention to my radar.

That's a change that wouldn't be for everyone. I can process that info no problem and its no distraction to me because it fits in my workflow. The ability to see, lap to lap, where I'm being inconsistent is very valuable. Sectors times can be very misleading, where you could gain a half a second in one area, but give it back in 2 or 3 others within the same sector. That would make you think, "hey... that was fast", but not really knowing you were bleeding time through the remaining turns. I know for certain, it makes me a better driver so its a no-brain'er for me. Again, I know its not for everyone.

Best quote in a long time.

If I have time I like to have the practice with no fuel consumption or tire wear to learn the course. After that, I try to run simulated races in arcade mode, but why is there higher tire wear and fuel consumption in GTSport than there is in Arcade Mode? The whole thing is piecemeal right now, so I guess we're lucky that we are pioneering the future of VR racing.

My guess is Polyphony is trying to throw a curve-ball that "No One" can simulate to test the driver's ability to change strategies on the fly or setup strategies that account for unknowns. Which I do like, but its easy to get bit by an overly aggressive strategy.

 

[HERE4BEER3]

There are usually plenty of lobbies to practice on, and not so hard to make your own.

That said I wouldn't mind if they leave it the way it is, even though the free practice doesn't help much for the actual race.

I tend to use free practice to do some laps and find my absolute limit pushing as hard as possible lap after lap without worrying about degradation.

Then I open a lobby mimicking race settings then use that to work out tyre/fuel strategy and see how hard I can push the car with those settings.

So I do like the option of the free practice right now.

 

[wiggs75]

(Long time lurker, first time commenting)

I use the FIA event practice for my first time to get a feel, download a top 10 player ghost for reference.

Later I use the single player with appropriate settings for advanced practice, throw in some hard A.I. Opponents for good measure.

Then if time allows I got to the lobbies.
I usually do this the day before the race.

 

[MIE1992]

We need casual unranked matchmaking, please!!!! Many competitive games have one so why not GTSport?

Yeah, I think that bringing back Quick Match from GT6 would suffice in this regard. But I also think that also may be better to have in the next game. GTS, as its name implies, seems largely focused on the ranked matchmaking part of things.

 

[Veinz]

There are always FIA practice lobbies open, I would just join those since you can test yourself against other people.