Hey
@Theufcveteran !
Thx for your answer! I know you're trying to help and I really appreciate your commitment towards this topic! You're always trying to help and explain things. You're basically doing PDs work here. And that's the point that bugs me for quite some time. You shouldn't have to do this, we shouldn't have to do this.
So, no criticism about you or anybody else here. But since this is a discussion forum, let's discuss.
In my opinion, providing difficulty levels that do not work at all if you don't adjust another setting, is really bad game design. The player shouldn't have to do this. If I set highest difficulty, I expect a challenge. If it's necessary to set boost for this, then that should be done by the game, not by the player.
I'd say that most ppl who play this game don't have any idea what "boost" even means. And since it's off by default it shouldn't be a mandatory option to use to get a good race.
Also, if boost does what you say (and I trust you on this!) then the official documentation is just wrong:
"Set the strength of the boost function, which allows for a closer contest by increasing the speed of cars trailing behind."
Gran Turismo Official Website
www.gran-turismo.com
So after reading this, why should I activate this setting unless I want an artificial boost to the cars I already passed? I don't care about those, I care about those in front of me.
In it's core, GT7 is such a great game and custom races could be such an amazing feature if there weren't so many things that don't work/don't make sense.
I always get the feeling that PD just doesn't care about this game/series anymore because it still sells, no matter what. And that's kinda sad IMO.
Hi Crash, you're totally right, we shouldn't have to do this kind of thing. And Boost Off should mean no rubberbanding at all. Unfortunately PD work in strange ways and to get the most out of it, you have to set things up a specific way. It's not ideal that you get the boost to other cars when you don't want it, but it does have the benefit of keeping the racing closer since GT's AI is a bit on the slower side.
For what it's worth though, the way the AI is set up, from my experience, those at the back of the grid don't have the same pace as those at the front. So unless they have a car advantage, the drivers at the back will often not move up the grid much. And even with different cars, one AI car can get caught up with another AI car in a battle, allowing you to break free ahead.
Setting Mechanical Damage to Heavy, and also using tyre wear and fuel multipliers if you like, probably you would have these more in race car events or dedicated endurance races, but doing this can cause the grid to shake up more than it normally would if it is for example a one-make race.
But even in a one-make, with Boost Weak it provides a decent challenge. It's definitely not ideal that you need to keep boost on but it does remove quite a lot of that in built rubber banding specifically for where they slow down a lot when they're ahead.
Yeah, the description is technically correct but it doesn't mention the hidden rubber band removal. Between this, the AI car tyre issue, and the throttle issue (which is apparently for balance... I feel strongly about that), they don't seem to give the most attention to custom race, that's for sure.
It could be so much for the game as well, for example if we could share races or championships, PD could just sit back, add a curated list of events and boom. They barely have to do any work if they don't want to put that time towards it or aren't able to spend the resources creating a classic style career at this juncture of the game's life.
Custom races still clear anything the base game has to offer in my experience, simply because of a grid start or close rolling start. Boost Weak fixes the slow down when they're ahead, not ideal because it does artificially keep things close, but you can still outrun them if you're fast enough, so they're not glued to you no matter what. So it still feels a good bit immersive/realistic in that sense.
You shouldn't have to make compromises, but with how it's set up, you do have to in order to get the best experience out of it. But the good thing is it isn't a big negative impact overall on the experience. Especially because as you get faster as a driver, it helps give the AI a little more spice to keep things interesting, with a competitive field there's decent racing almost all of the time.
I'm low DR C, so not the best for sure. On pure pace I tend to be around my DR B friends in time trials, and I find some good fun with custom races with the specific setup of Boost Weak with 96% ECU/power restrictor. Often if I start in the field, I don't make it to first or even the top 3 within a 3 lap race.
If you put an emphasis on avoiding contact it helps as well, because it does slow you down a little in battles, which gives the AI a little extra help as well. If you barge past them (not saying you're doing this btw!) and go full time trial then yes even with all of this in play I think it would get relatively easy.
But I don't feel like I'm ever deliberately slowing down. I just try to avoid contact as much as possible while having close battles. It helps a bit with racecraft also, especially if you're overtaking on the inside or giving space around the outside. The AI can be a bit ham-fisted sometimes when it goes for an overtake but if you feel like you gave enough space, you can check the replay to see if you gave them ample room to where a real player would've made the pass, even if the AI was a bit sloppy and didn't turn in tight enough. If you play online of course and want to analyse your racecraft, if not then there's no need to ever check unless you're just curious.
Random question regarding custom race payouts. I know so far that circuit experience and collector level affect potential winnings from custom races. Is there anything else outside of the custom race settings and PP-ratings of the cars that affects pay? Like cafe menu progression? Will your payouts be lower if you haven't completed menu book 39 for example?
I can't say for sure about pre-menu book 39, but officially the payouts are only affected by PP differentials between your car and the AI cars, as well as the circuit experience completion and collector level like you mentioned.