- 65
- United Kingdom
So, what was good and what was bad about this season?
The good:
1) No difference between GT1 and GT2/3 race lengths
I’ve gone on in the past about how GT2 and 3 runners like an enduro now and then just as much as their GT1 counterparts, and I was very glad to see that all leagues had the same race length this time around. Admittedly, there weren’t any races that could really be called “endurance” here – NC Rd1 was the nearest, and that only came in at about 45 minutes – but I’ve never really seen the issue with giving everyone the same length – I don’t think GT2/3 drivers are any more or less likely to quit out than GT1 runners, and I don’t think the races take much longer in the lower leagues – from lap times I was seeing a mid-B race in NC Rd1 at Dragons Trail Seaside was about a minute or so longer than an all-A+ race would be.
2) Races in Nations’ Cup using cars other than Gr3 and Gr4
It was nice to see something different in use for Nations cup, away from Gr3 and Gr4 cars – that’s what MC is for – even though none of the cars used were new to Nations’ with them all having at least one outing in the last 12 months. Personally the only thing I would have changed was ditching Gr3 from Rd4 and replacing it with a Kei-car race (like the Cappuccinos at Road Atlanta or the JImnys at Lake Louise), but I might be biased because I always do well at those
. I know that the car choices might have put people off and that’s maybe why Round 4 was a Daily C style of a race, to get more people interested in the series, but I suppose I like NC being a bit different.
3) Saturday-only timetable
In the past I’ve been an apologist for the Wednesday-Saturday cycle, that’s because I can generally arrange things so I can race on a Wednesday if given a bit of notice, so it gives me a jump on the field a bit – but at the moment I’m too busy to prepare properly for more than one race a week so the schedule used here was a lot more comfortable. It’s probably too much to ask for the “proper” Online GTWS season to go to one-a-week as there are simply too many races to squeeze in, but if more Exhibitions could be run to this timetable that’d be great.
4) Strategy
I liked that most races had a strategic element to them, whether that be through changing track conditions (Tokyo) or when to pit for tyres, or even what tyres to use for a no-stop (Autopolis). A straight sprint (Eiger Nordwald) is good now and again, but I do like to see strategy rounds most of the time.
The Bad:
1) Still no GT1 races for morning racers
I do understand why GT1 has only 3 slots per day, due to the need to corral a limited player base into fewer slots to ensure a reasonable turnout in each slot, but if you are only having races on a Saturday, why concentrate them all in the late afternoon / early evening? To me that actually limits your player base further – many people are unavailable Saturday afternoon or evening, perhaps socialising, shopping, spending time with family, out watching live sport, being used as a free taxi service by their kids etc – so perhaps having one slot late morning or lunch, one slot afternoon (same time as current slot 1) and one in the evening (same time as current slot 3, or 1 hour later) would open the series up to more players who can get into A but not race GT1 (myself included – I do have accounts in A but limited opportunities to race GT1). I will admit this has downsides – It would be really annoying to get hit at T1, have a race ruined by heavy damage then have to wait 4 hours for the next slot, so I will understand people who would object strongly to this – but maybe in that case an additional morning slot might be considered in the future.
2) Gr4 Missing In Action
One side-effect of all leagues having GT1 rules (with the exception of damage and tyre wear in qualifying) is that Group 4 was absent from the schedule, which was a shame as I like a bit of mildly-modified racing. I understand that the Gr4 BoP needs a kick up the backside at present – but that seems to be the case with Gr3 post-1.49, so not much difference there now really. Having a “group” race in NC was an opportunity to add a bit of Gr4 into the schedule, but for whatever reason Gr3 was chosen instead.
3)The start at Monza
Excuse me while I put on my best AVGN shirt for this one – The most notorious T1 in Formula One, perhaps in all of racing. A corner where shenanigans can get so bad in real life that it directly contributed to a high-profile single-seater race being abandoned and the Clerk of the Course dragging the entire field into his office for a telling-off. And they designed an on-line race there to have a massed grid start a few hundred yards before this corner – all together now – “What were they thinking?”
(Apologies to James Rolfe, who is is borrowing my hairline these days, so it seems only fair that I borrow his lines.)
In all seriousness, if I could think of a scenario in GT7 online racing where I wouldn’t use a grid start, this car-track combo would be close to the top of the list. I can think of very few other race design choices that could cause me to gain 7 positions in one corner and I’d still think it was utter rubbish. And this was in GT2 – if I’d raced it in GT1 I think I’d definitely have used the strat of simply pulling over before T1 and only proceeding through the corner once the rest had gone through, then simply picking up many places by driving past slow damaged cars and passing all those who had to pit after L1 to fix damage. I’d have been practising the 1S-19M in Custom Race to get experience with running RM for 19 laps, that’s for sure. If there was a real need to add a grid start to this NC, then Watkins’ Glen would have been far better, even Dragons Trail wouldn’t have been as bad (chicane isn’t quite as tight and the run to it is much longer).
The Others (General Observations):
I believe that the new tyre wear model introduced in 1.49 is designed to make trye management and strategy a much larger part of the game. Tyres drop off sooner in the wear bar as well as wearing faster, and whereas before it was possible to run round for a lap on a fully red tyre – you’d be a fair bit slower but could do it, forget that now – in a lobby practice run for the NC round at Watkins’ Glen which was set up to mirror the real race as closely as possible – I know because I set up the lobby using GT-Engine as a guide – I managed to catch up a 17 second deficit on an A+ driver in 2 laps (18 and 19), cross the line to start the last lap level with them then go on to win by twelve seconds. Unfortunately, my tyre management skills are pants in terms of driving style – at the moment I’m resorting to using a harder tyre for longer – but I’m changing from pad (motion sensor steering) to wheel so hopefully I can use the opportunity to learn to drive differently.
After seeing some qualifying-session lengths deviate away from the standard 5 minutes in the last season to allow for everyone to get the same number of flying laps regardless of where they started in pit lane, here again there were a couple of rounds where the difference between 2 or 3 flying laps meant everyone had to leave at once and only those nearer pit exit were comfortable getting a 3rd lap. Admittedly this doesn’t really apply to me as I always wait and sacrifice any chance of the extra lap to gain a clear track, and I know that this could be considered a strategic choice of leave early or wait, but I thought that increasing the quali session a bit in the “proper” season was a good move so a shame to see a reversion to old ways here.
There has to be a way of publicising the “You can use any compounds, but you have to use more than one in the course of the race” rule that’s better than having “Required tyre type change = On” hidden deep in the bowels of the rules. Even people on this thread – including me – were asking about it initially, and I’d like to think that we here are more au fait with the GTWS than most folk. I’ve put this as a general rather than good or bad because although I thought it was a poor way of communicating the rule it did gain me some places which is always fun. FOUR minute penalty, though? Bit harsh – although I think the intention is to move them behind all other cars finishing on the same lap, so fair enough. I’d hate to see what the penalty would be at Nürburgring 24 though.
The good:
1) No difference between GT1 and GT2/3 race lengths
I’ve gone on in the past about how GT2 and 3 runners like an enduro now and then just as much as their GT1 counterparts, and I was very glad to see that all leagues had the same race length this time around. Admittedly, there weren’t any races that could really be called “endurance” here – NC Rd1 was the nearest, and that only came in at about 45 minutes – but I’ve never really seen the issue with giving everyone the same length – I don’t think GT2/3 drivers are any more or less likely to quit out than GT1 runners, and I don’t think the races take much longer in the lower leagues – from lap times I was seeing a mid-B race in NC Rd1 at Dragons Trail Seaside was about a minute or so longer than an all-A+ race would be.
2) Races in Nations’ Cup using cars other than Gr3 and Gr4
It was nice to see something different in use for Nations cup, away from Gr3 and Gr4 cars – that’s what MC is for – even though none of the cars used were new to Nations’ with them all having at least one outing in the last 12 months. Personally the only thing I would have changed was ditching Gr3 from Rd4 and replacing it with a Kei-car race (like the Cappuccinos at Road Atlanta or the JImnys at Lake Louise), but I might be biased because I always do well at those
. I know that the car choices might have put people off and that’s maybe why Round 4 was a Daily C style of a race, to get more people interested in the series, but I suppose I like NC being a bit different.3) Saturday-only timetable
In the past I’ve been an apologist for the Wednesday-Saturday cycle, that’s because I can generally arrange things so I can race on a Wednesday if given a bit of notice, so it gives me a jump on the field a bit – but at the moment I’m too busy to prepare properly for more than one race a week so the schedule used here was a lot more comfortable. It’s probably too much to ask for the “proper” Online GTWS season to go to one-a-week as there are simply too many races to squeeze in, but if more Exhibitions could be run to this timetable that’d be great.
4) Strategy
I liked that most races had a strategic element to them, whether that be through changing track conditions (Tokyo) or when to pit for tyres, or even what tyres to use for a no-stop (Autopolis). A straight sprint (Eiger Nordwald) is good now and again, but I do like to see strategy rounds most of the time.
The Bad:
1) Still no GT1 races for morning racers
I do understand why GT1 has only 3 slots per day, due to the need to corral a limited player base into fewer slots to ensure a reasonable turnout in each slot, but if you are only having races on a Saturday, why concentrate them all in the late afternoon / early evening? To me that actually limits your player base further – many people are unavailable Saturday afternoon or evening, perhaps socialising, shopping, spending time with family, out watching live sport, being used as a free taxi service by their kids etc – so perhaps having one slot late morning or lunch, one slot afternoon (same time as current slot 1) and one in the evening (same time as current slot 3, or 1 hour later) would open the series up to more players who can get into A but not race GT1 (myself included – I do have accounts in A but limited opportunities to race GT1). I will admit this has downsides – It would be really annoying to get hit at T1, have a race ruined by heavy damage then have to wait 4 hours for the next slot, so I will understand people who would object strongly to this – but maybe in that case an additional morning slot might be considered in the future.
2) Gr4 Missing In Action
One side-effect of all leagues having GT1 rules (with the exception of damage and tyre wear in qualifying) is that Group 4 was absent from the schedule, which was a shame as I like a bit of mildly-modified racing. I understand that the Gr4 BoP needs a kick up the backside at present – but that seems to be the case with Gr3 post-1.49, so not much difference there now really. Having a “group” race in NC was an opportunity to add a bit of Gr4 into the schedule, but for whatever reason Gr3 was chosen instead.
3)The start at Monza
Excuse me while I put on my best AVGN shirt for this one – The most notorious T1 in Formula One, perhaps in all of racing. A corner where shenanigans can get so bad in real life that it directly contributed to a high-profile single-seater race being abandoned and the Clerk of the Course dragging the entire field into his office for a telling-off. And they designed an on-line race there to have a massed grid start a few hundred yards before this corner – all together now – “What were they thinking?”
(Apologies to James Rolfe, who is is borrowing my hairline these days, so it seems only fair that I borrow his lines.)
In all seriousness, if I could think of a scenario in GT7 online racing where I wouldn’t use a grid start, this car-track combo would be close to the top of the list. I can think of very few other race design choices that could cause me to gain 7 positions in one corner and I’d still think it was utter rubbish. And this was in GT2 – if I’d raced it in GT1 I think I’d definitely have used the strat of simply pulling over before T1 and only proceeding through the corner once the rest had gone through, then simply picking up many places by driving past slow damaged cars and passing all those who had to pit after L1 to fix damage. I’d have been practising the 1S-19M in Custom Race to get experience with running RM for 19 laps, that’s for sure. If there was a real need to add a grid start to this NC, then Watkins’ Glen would have been far better, even Dragons Trail wouldn’t have been as bad (chicane isn’t quite as tight and the run to it is much longer).
The Others (General Observations):
I believe that the new tyre wear model introduced in 1.49 is designed to make trye management and strategy a much larger part of the game. Tyres drop off sooner in the wear bar as well as wearing faster, and whereas before it was possible to run round for a lap on a fully red tyre – you’d be a fair bit slower but could do it, forget that now – in a lobby practice run for the NC round at Watkins’ Glen which was set up to mirror the real race as closely as possible – I know because I set up the lobby using GT-Engine as a guide – I managed to catch up a 17 second deficit on an A+ driver in 2 laps (18 and 19), cross the line to start the last lap level with them then go on to win by twelve seconds. Unfortunately, my tyre management skills are pants in terms of driving style – at the moment I’m resorting to using a harder tyre for longer – but I’m changing from pad (motion sensor steering) to wheel so hopefully I can use the opportunity to learn to drive differently.
After seeing some qualifying-session lengths deviate away from the standard 5 minutes in the last season to allow for everyone to get the same number of flying laps regardless of where they started in pit lane, here again there were a couple of rounds where the difference between 2 or 3 flying laps meant everyone had to leave at once and only those nearer pit exit were comfortable getting a 3rd lap. Admittedly this doesn’t really apply to me as I always wait and sacrifice any chance of the extra lap to gain a clear track, and I know that this could be considered a strategic choice of leave early or wait, but I thought that increasing the quali session a bit in the “proper” season was a good move so a shame to see a reversion to old ways here.
There has to be a way of publicising the “You can use any compounds, but you have to use more than one in the course of the race” rule that’s better than having “Required tyre type change = On” hidden deep in the bowels of the rules. Even people on this thread – including me – were asking about it initially, and I’d like to think that we here are more au fait with the GTWS than most folk. I’ve put this as a general rather than good or bad because although I thought it was a poor way of communicating the rule it did gain me some places which is always fun. FOUR minute penalty, though? Bit harsh – although I think the intention is to move them behind all other cars finishing on the same lap, so fair enough. I’d hate to see what the penalty would be at Nürburgring 24 though.
