Is it really that unnecessary though? Keep in mind that Gran Turismo is targeting not only veterans of the genre but also absolute newcomers. My first GT game was GT4 and I still remember doing the licenses for the very first time. Now I don't know how much these brake tests have helped me develop my skills but I'd wager that for the average Joe, who is neither involved in real motorracing nor has played any reasonably realistic racing games before, getting a concept of braking distances is crucial. And the fact that there are two tests actually helps to convey this lesson because it illustrates just how much of a difference the initial speed makes. It's the same for licenses B-3 and B-4. They take place on the exact same stretch of road but one has you using a small lightweight car while the other puts you at the wheel of a larger, heavier vehicle that will get carried to the outside if you get on the power too early. It is these small but important lessons every new player needs to learn in order to get the most out of the game.
The concept of getting a feel for braking distances from different speeds is also fine. Is the best way to do that a stop/go test like those in every GT Licence test so far? It's also taught in any subsequent test that involves slowing the car, and the concept of "fast thing take longer to slow down" is so intuitive for anyone over the age of 2 that teaching it explicitly all by itself like this just seems like talking down to the player.
Let me put it this way - if you removed those two tests do you think it would take players longer to learn the concept through the cornering and hotlap tests that they'd be doing anyway? I rather think that the first time they tried to brake for the corner and flew off the road the automatic assumption would be that they might need to slow down more. If a developer really wanted to be sure that the player got the correct idea, it doesn't seem like it would be hard to put a trigger that if the player runs wide off the track above a certain speed during the test it plays an audio clip telling the player that they might want to try braking earlier.
It's about having respect for the player and their time.
"I don't like these tests so they shouldn't exist"
It's OK, you don't have to gold these tests to get the license if they're too hard for you
In all seriousness, I think these tests are as important as all others, even more so with two very different cars, as the screen cap is showing
Lol, sick burn bro. Why is it important to specifically teach braking to a stop? And why can this not be taught any other way or incorporated into any other test?
I think you are subestimated (or overstimated lol) the people, is so dumb. Even the press play GT or any sim so badly, they do not know how to brake... I even wish I took my eyes off when I watch them play.
The GT players are not the user of this forum
They're bad at braking, but they know how to brake. GT kind of encourages not braking with the lack of damage and how speed gets carried when you bounce off walls, which is why you'll see a lot of players happily playing like that even with substantial game experience. I don't fault new players for driving in a way that the game allows to be quick. If GT made it so that braking for the corner was always faster than bouncing off the walls or your opponents maybe you'd see more people trying it.
Has it crossed your mind that you're not the only person who will play this game? For a lot of people, young and old, this will be their first Gran Turismo. It might even be their first introduction to driving.
It
has crossed my mind.
Has it crossed your mind that anyone who plays the game will likely be a human, and therefore familiar with basic physics? Anyone who will play this game has been in a real car - it's basically unavoidable in modern society. They can probably walk and even run, and so have some concept of how speed and turning works. Should you also teach them the difference between up and down? How gravity works? At what level of fundamental concepts do we assume that the player is familiar enough that they can reasonably figure it out for themselves?
My argument is that these tests are so simplistic that they're unnecessary. If I want to teach someone to make toast, I assume that either they're already capable of picking up and holding a slice of bread or that they're at least smart enough to figure it out on their own without my input. A tutorial on how to place your fingers under the slice and clamp it between your thumb and forefinger would be asinine.
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Let me show you all an example of what an improved tutorial might look like.
The player is actually having to perform the skills that you're trying to teach, but they've got loads of guidance in the form of the racing line and loads of feedback from Tiff. This idea could absolutely be done better, some of Tiff's advice is pretty ropey, the timings can be waaay off and the overall build of the tutorial leaves a lot to be desired. This is from Ferrari Challenge which is 13 years old, made by Eutechnyx who are far from the greatest racing developers ever.
But you see the concept - instead of having players do arbitrary tasks with little relation to real racing, put them on a race track and give them guidance and feedback so that they can learn. Experienced players will do one lap and be done. New players can take as long as they like and will be getting timely feedback as to where they're going wrong and how to correct it. That's how you would teach someone to drive a track in real life.
This is far from the only way this could be accomplished, but I think it serves to show that there are other ways of imparting the same information that are far more fun for everyone as well as being more useful for the new or inexperienced players who are the real target audience.
If you still disagree then fine, but at least explain why you think that a stop/go test is the
best way to teach new players. "People are dumb so they need dumb lessons" is not a strong argument.
