Dang it,
Vic, it looks like you're running a casual lap alone in the daytime on a sunny morning.
I won't be able to get that time running a flying lap alone at noon.
I'm going to close down the last round of Seasonal Challenges presently - PD has now taken them offline, and presented their fresh round of Seasonals (with lots for us to do!).
Meanwhile the Career Mode Challenges will be left open till the weekend. We'll slam some new ones down on the table over the weekend - I want to bring Osterhagen back - for some serious racing. Fingers crossed that PD has received the vibe on a NASCAR Seasonal as well as bringing another Ringer-rounder back - DTMs would be good.
Trophies!
Guys - you Experts - esp
@Vic Reign93 and
@WhoosierGirl . . . you get to pick and choose, eh?
Drop me a line here (or PM me if you're the shy type when it comes to type) and let me know what trophies you're looking for. I see stupendously close times in both Expert and Intermediate with wins on both levels. So you may pick as many as wish, as long as the trophies are all for that level. We have till the weekend for this - because it is only when this entire round closes will the Class-type events be closed and the top-performances in each class be reviewed.
So compare all the times here where you are on top, and pick the class-award you want to have, over the weekend, and let me know by then. Once you've picked your slice of cake, well, the rest get to divi-up the balance as the trophies will fall to the next level, and so on.
The Board will be wiped clean end of Sunday, and we'll be ready by then for another round of Seasonal challenges, as well as some
Open Career Mode Challenges giving
all classes a chance to grab some extra awards.
MTM still leads the trophy count.
Thanks all for the great participation - and this too to everybody who took part (like me
) ) but never bagged any bragging rights. It was still fun competing with the some of the fastest runners in our community, and makes us proud to hang with such proficient gamers, no doubt who must be wizard drivers IRL, and great sporting personalities, too.
Edit:
I did the following test many times with several cars. Those who wish may duplicate the test.
First Round:
All Driver Aids (no Tuning at all, all Steering Inputs off, Manual trans for all Rounds)
at default - SRF on, ABS 1, TCS 5:
Second Round:
SRF off, TCS 1, ABS 1:
Third Round:
SRF off, TCS off, ABS off (no Tuning - i.e. B/B at default.)
What do we see? We see that I'm a loser. Well, there are some other things we may see - there is also the possibility of me winning those races if I kept at it; the rabbits are pacing me. So they are pacing me, encouraging me to improve my lap-times. A close look at their lap-times will confirm this.
I cripple myself, so do they.
The jump in times between the first two settings and the third setting is phenomenal (keeping in mind this was a 5 lap race.)
Additional notes:
ABS off gives greater stopping power if one knows how to prevent the wheel-lock up that initiates fish-tailing and possible blow-outs. (IRL I would have blown my tyres.) The brakes also tend to fade and mashing the pedal is easier as the race goes on.
In other words - more work braking, but quicker stops and power-rotations may help increase speed.
ABS 1 takes away a huge percentage of the lock-up.
Wheel-spin without TCS is increased, but if throttle control is mastered and power laid down precisely to the contact patches, one may be faster. However - no TCS means tyres get chewed up quicker because of excessive wheelspin (mini burnouts). A little TCS may be advantageous in enduros. TCS 1, overall, was the best setting at getting the best of both worlds.
SRF keeps the car from going unnecessarily (in the way 'gaming-cars' usually do) off track, and actually adds to the realism. With SRF off the car is 'twitchy' more so than real cars are.
The AI seems to use SRF (taking corners faster, getting more aggressive, faster top-speeds) when the player uses SRF. When the player knocks off SRF, the AI slows down at corners, drive slower, and take less chances at using 'technical racing tactics' to make the player lose.
The differences between SRF off and on can be diluted by one's personal skill.
However fast one may go with SRF off, though, SRF
on runs the Rabbits faster, and keeps their cars on the road as well as stabilising the players car from sudden spins merely because the player nipped a few centimeters of grass. (Almost as if the 'secret penalties' have been knocked off.) With SRF off the Rabbit cars would lose control a lot more easily than real drivers would do in a real race.
When all aids are removed the AI turn into turtles.
They run extremely slow, almost waiting for the player to catch up, and even when they're winning they try to fall back and give the player a chance.
Next test?
I get out of the car and race them on foot. All right, I'm kidding.
But the timesheets above speak for themselves. Please try similar tests for better understanding on how the 'driver' settings work.
Keep in mind that Tuner settings can nullify all this. Tuned cars run to the driver's specific driving style, and a properly match-tuned car can give a driver much faster times even with all off.
Edit 2: Off to work now - had a run with Osterhagen and bunch. Quite an interesting race; I looked in my garage and found 17 eligible cars right off the bat. So back to the console only much later tonight for further racing and testing.
