GT League needs a lot of work

[OJT6627]

Hi there

Bought GT Sport in March, didn't play often at first, but i got quite involved in later months. I pretty much don't play Sport mode due to glitchy experience (but that's another story), so i spend most of the time in GT League and less of it in Open Lobbies. I tried pretty much every race in GT League (except for Endurance) with decent variety in cars, i spent a lot of time grinding and managed to buy one 20 mil car after all. And after all of this i can say that GT League has potential, but is far from being good due to issues and imperfections. I'm gonna address those below

1) Car classes
Car class system is very raw. It doesn't take in the car weight, just the power the car makes. Example: R34 GT-R and detuned F40 can both be in N400 class, but F40 will be much faster due to much less weight. It also doesn't take in the aerodymanics the car has, which can be huge advantage in twistier circuits. Example: SF-R Racing Concept being quite OP in N300 and below. GT5 had decent Performance Rating system which could balance the field more evenly.

2) "Unbalanced event planning"
This is especially prominent in Professional events. Example: Midship Challenge series. Recommended class is N600, but top 4 AI drivers are driving Veyrons, LaFerraris and such.
Lamborghini-exclusive series. N600 recommended, but Venenos and Aventadors are among the AI drivers.
Ferrari-exclusive event is even dumber: Recommended class is again N600, while only 2 Ferraris are eligible for that event stock (512BB and 458 Italia). But the field conatins LaFerrari, Enzo, immensely rubberbanding 458 and sometimes even 330 P4, which is Gr.X car!
Some of you might say "Nothing prevents you from using more powerful cars", which brings us to next issue

3) Rewards
Two things:
First: Some of the events have absurdly low rewards (17k for GT4 race? Give me a break)
Second: You get the full rewards only if you use the recommended class car. You can get Handicap bonus if you're using lower rated car, but it works both ways: as in, if you use higher class car, you get less money. It is not a problem in Rookie or Amateur level races, but in Professional, where 1/3 of events require N600 car while pitching you against N800+, this makes winning the races and earning a lot of money quite difficult, especially considering the next problem...

4) AI drivers
While being somewhat slow, AI is trying to make the race as much AIDS as possible: they are randomly braking mid-corner (sometimes it even looks like a deliberate brake-check, but i doubt it), trying to shrug you off the road when you try to pass them on a straight (especially prominent when you overtake a slow car with much faster one), divebomb into you when you are braking (AI Veyron on BMB, i hate you) and other crimes against motorsport. And even when you do manage to pass everyone cleanly and get to first place, AI brings out their trump card: rubberbanding. Rubberbanding in this game is real. And on some events AI seems to rubberband harder than in others: you can quite easily maintain the 1st place in Mercedes F1 event and build up a huge gap, but in Ferrari-exclusive series it is the opposite (for me at least): this red 458 Italia always manages to keep up with you, reach insane speeds and keep the gap less than 1.5 seconds constantly (even if you're driving LaFerrari or tuned Enzo)

I like GT Sport, i really do: the graphics are eye-candy while keeping good FPS. Physics are decent. Sounds are very good (finally, after 7 years of waiting) and the game has one of the best and most friendliest communities in racing game genre (altho GT series were always known for that). But the single-player part of the game needs some serious overhaul if you ask me. Especially considering that PD has big plans for GT Sport (~500 cars at the end of the support and so on so forth)

 

[kilesa4568]

Bugger. Pressed the wrong vote option.

Not a career mode fan. It's dull and lifeless.

 

[05XR8]

I've used the Gr. 4 Huracan in the Lamborghini races. Tyre downgrade doesn't help, but it's more like a Lamborghini fest anyway.

Ive been experiencing the speed of said 458 in the Midship races. At Big Willow, I followed it around in my NSX V but with 2 laps to go, it kicks into "ludicrous speed" and I finish 2nd each time.

Gr. 4 is a Beginner event. So, low payout is expected. I figure they'll add Amateur, PROFESSIONAL Endurance races throughout the updates.

We all know AI doesn't need to rubberband. The newer events(I haven't run the Nostalgic Race car Cup, yet) seem to address this. It is the one thing that PD still need help with.

I also bought the game in March and it's come a long way, for me, as a majority offline player.

 

[machine1121]

In addition to everything in the OP, I would also like to see a Championship League included. This league would have 5-10 race championships for Gr.1, Gr.2, Gr.3, Gr.4, and Gr.B. There could also be a series on one-make championships for things like the F1500T-A, the Standard Red Bull, some VGTs, and others. Other ideas could include championships limited to the Group C cars, or the 330/MkIV/XJ13 trio.

These should be treated like real racing series and qualifying should be included (optional if players want to skip it). The AI difficulty should be scaled to your qualifying pace (most difficult if you skip qualifying), and there should be no rubber-banding.

The races should be on the longer side and should require at least one pit stop. The individual race payouts should be high, and there should also be huge payouts for the championship bonus. BoP should be used to make it more realistic, but that means quality AI is required to make the races interesting. Since BoP would limit the ability to earn more credits by using a lower power car, payout bonuses could be added if you turn damage on, turn penalties on, or turn off the various driving assists.

I doubt it will happen, but it would be a great addition.

 

[Dan]

The biggest issue I have with GT League (besides the prizes) is the completely broken AI. They seem unable to control any car in the game and are constantly making dangerous mistakes. Spinning out on turns, hard contact with other cars, braking in the middle of a turn, and carrying way too much speed into a turn. The latter of which has resulted in multiple incidents where I get t-boned on sharp turns. I can’t stand the rubber banding either. Having a car drive at a reasonable pace and then suddenly drive at unnatural speeds on the second to last lap is extremely frustrating.

 

[ste.sully]

The greatest shame about GT Sport is the lack of single player "World Tour" mode to complement the online career mode. If it had that and a greater variety tracks at launch it wouldn't be far off the complete Gran Turismo game and reviewers would have looked upon the game far more favourably.

The online races are immersive (although the penalty system, limited choice of races & frequency of them is a big problem), the livery editor is fantastic and the photo mode is incredible.

The problem with Polyphony is they get distracted on stupid ideas that impede into time that could otherwise be better spent developing more important parts of the game. B-Spec mode in GT5 was one example. Why they spent time on the Museum in GT Sport and not on a single player "World Tour" mode like GT4 I don't know...

 

[ShiftingGears]

The problem with Polyphony is they get distracted on stupid ideas that impede into time that could otherwise be better spent developing more important parts of the game.

Agreed 100%

 

[Stephan]

And this is why I don't do GT League at all except only when I'm going to grind some cash and maybe when I feel like doing it.

I feel like GT League was just designed for money grinding. If I wanted a good race without having to do Sport Mode, I could just settle with Custom Race mode instead. May not be perfect but it's enough to keep me entertained.

 

[TonyJZX]

Yeah there wont be any changes.

They probably have some custom tools in the background that they can easily add new events into the 4 league categories.

All we will see is more canned events into existing series or they will add new categories like the Dr. Wankel Passions.

 

[Epic B]

I'm glad we have GT League but it just doesn't feel as substantial as on earlier games. None of the races feel particularly difficult, and there aren't any cool prizes or championship events. Just a bunch of single races. At the very least I wish they would enforce BoP where applicable.

 

[JakeMR2]

They've added some races within updates, but I don't even think that's enough for me either, and I completely understand the OP here. After the online direction the game has they probably won't focus on this part of the game. I didn't even find the Sunday Cup races to be entertaining, and I never got car rewards at all. I know, they are striving to be a ESports game, but there are certain things that just don't make it a GT to me, and this is one of them.

 

[JTB10000]

I'm a broken record about GT League here but whatever. The races are so scripted they don't even feel like real races. You can easily get past the leader within the first quarter of the race then a select couple of cars suddenly start to catch and keep up. It's set up in a way that has you win but have to defend from speed-boosted opponents everytime. I feel absolutely no satisfaction from winning.

Watch the replay with the speedometer and stuff on. You can actually see the opponent cars' speed start to glitch out when your car gets near them and when you pass them, like they're adjusting to you. This especially happens with the fastest cars. The most extreme example of this artificial "racing" is when the leader who I passed early on in the race but was on my butt the rest of the way literally slingshotted past me after crossing the finish line, like some force that was holding it back from passing me so the finish was close suddenly let go.

It's just not fun doing these races knowing this is happening in the background. Please PD, make A.I. your priority some day so you don't have to resort to these cheap tactics to produce difficulty.

 

[FoRiZon]

The biggest issue I have with GT League (besides the prizes) is the completely broken AI. They seem unable to control any car in the game and are constantly making dangerous mistakes. Spinning out on turns, hard contact with other cars, braking in the middle of a turn, and carrying way too much speed into a turn. The latter of which has resulted in multiple incidents where I get t-boned on sharp turns. I can’t stand the rubber banding either. Having a car drive at a reasonable pace and then suddenly drive at unnatural speeds on the second to last lap is extremely frustrating.

This is weird because the Custom Races can prove the AI can be miles better.

Set full grid with you on 15th starting place. Then choose "Standing Start" and choose the difficulty to "Profesional". Keep the Opponents Category or change to One Make if you want to. Turn off Boost for much more natural experience.

And dont upgrade the Horsepower and lower the weight for your car for obvious reasons. Keep it at 100 on both.

There you go, a races I believe most would welcome on GT Career Mode.

Why PD keep the "Chase the rabbit" thing boggles me by miles when the solution is in the damn game itself.