How does the GT community really feel about catch the rabbit races?

[Crazy Taylor]

With so much emphasis on online, it wasn't even supposed to have single player rabbit chasing events. Except or a big 'ol backlash we wouldn't see them. Also I wont miss GT League as I never use it now so I fine with it.

 

[Solocapers]

Im gonna guess its because of the AI being so bad that this is their only solution - the amount of times in single player you get swiped or knocked straight off the track as the AI just doesn't realise you are in its path and makes no attempt to stop for you/ move racing line if you are running at the side of it.

 

[MatskiMonk]

The AI could be better, more grid starts would be nice in GT League, and qualifying could help to balance the scenario up - with only 3-5 laps for many GTL races it's not really feasible to have a highly competitive pack, which you start towards the back of, so if the AI gets good I think qualifying is a must. Grid start vs rolling start should just be more varied - I don't want all of one or the other. I'd be okay with the 3 arcade mode difficulty levels being implemented in GTL, with then less rubber banding being required within each bracket, though rubber banding is probably inevitable and I'm not against it to some degree.

I've still had some entertaining races in GT League despite some of its shortcomings. At the end of the day, it's the kind of gameplay structure I expect from GT, I've never considered it to be a motorsport RPG/Simulator, so I don't have a problem with "chase the rabbit" in little 3-5 lap events, but there's definitely things that could be put in around it to make it more enjoyable.

I think it's easy for people on this site to forget that some people (i.e. most of the people that bought the game) are not srs bsnss elitist sim racers. My experience of sport mode is that it is slow paced, essentially unrewarding and doesn't really offer an improved racing experience over the AI. I know this isn't true for everybody of course, but there's been nothing to entice me back other than a few half arsed attempts at getting to the achievement goals to level up my XP! So, it's important to me that other aspects of the game are as rewarding as they can be.

I didn't vote in the poll as neither option really reflects my position.

 

[graveltrap]

With so much emphasis on online, it wasn't even supposed to have single player rabbit chasing events. Except or a big 'ol backlash we wouldn't see them. Also I wont miss GT League as I never use it now so I fine with it.

The so called online emphasis has failed to engage the vast majority of GT sport players, more than half hadn't even bothered to watch the required video to enter a sport mode race (last time I looked at the achievement stat) and out of those that have entered a sport mode race few go on to complete more than ten races (recorded by the stats sites).

I do think it is a catch 22 situation, adding more choice to sport mode may draw players in or it could simply spread those that are playing now thinner.

 

[VFOURMAX1]

I generally prefer to run all my offline custom races with the BoP applied so that the practice time spent will transfer to using that car on that track to Sport Mode where BoP is always employed.

I do not want to have to change my car as far as power or weight or even tires used as then the time spent will not really be a useful session to learning the car for Sport mode use.

I would like to see a slider as far as being able to increase the pace of the AI in the custom race mode at least. Many times for me it is not about winning in offline but pushing myself harder to get better.

Hotlapping in time trials does not help in learning different lines in dirty air and where the limits at a certain place may be but it is also easy to not stay at maximum pace offline with the current AI pace available.

We surely could benefit in my opinion to being able to make the AI a more difficult opponent and should be able to crank them up to run the same pace as the real human Aliens run to really make offline a true tool to getting better for online competition.

 

[dabz343]

As it stands the 'offline' portion of the game acts as the only real tutorial in how to play the game and get players accustomed to the many different types of cars and tracks in the game.

It would indeed be valuable to leverage the offline races to continue the driver progression found in Driving School/Mission Challenge/Circuit Exp. There could be a natural link here, offering huge potential for an offline single player experience.

I'd love to see this feature make it into any future title.

 

[Bogie 19th]

Does anyone have the link to the PD developer that said there is no rubber banding in the game? I saw it before but my search is coming up empty handed.

 

[ShiftingGears]

It's a wet fart on the bedsheets of racing game history.

 

[Veinz]

They are garbage, they are just dumbed down races with slow AI.

No idea how anyone can actually like it this way, it could be so much better. Why settle for something so mediocre? just lol.

 

[iCyCo]

Another issue is car classes, I do a lot of custom races, recently I was trying some 1 vs 1 races, selected a N300 car and the AI always shows up in a N400. Selected a N600 and they show up in the N1000 Ferrari. That leads to thinking they know their AI is so poor they have to give them the better car to make it seem like any competition at all.

I still enjoy most of the races though mainly because I feel I fit exactly who PD aimed the game towards, I'm not that fast so more times than most I get a competitive race.

Some challenges I am doing now.

• 5 lap race on St Croix C
• AI at N300, I in GR2
• Grid start, start last
• Wait until all AI complete a lap
• Set off and see if you can win.

 

[Ofuscor]

The AI is horrible. Yesterday I tried a custom race on professional gr 2 cars bop in dragon trail garden. I spun and was overtaken by half the field. I could catch them easly but I had problems overtaking them despite being 2 or 3 seconds faster.

Why? I could not predict their horrible braking points and race line. They braked so hard mid corner that in any league it would be considered brake checking. They constantly ruined my exit speed because of that. Basically to race them I had to learn their racing line and predict the turns where they were going to slow down massively. That is no fun.

When it comes to gtleague it is like they want the player to feel good by making them do some incredible comebacks. The problem is this loses it's charm when it is like this every race. Everything is setup so you can achieve this. Also sometimes you get this one car that is so much faster than the rest of the grid that you just fly by everyone to catch one car.

It would be nice if we could go side by side into corners battling with the AI. As it is we have to chose cars that are much slower to make it more challenging just because the AI sucks on almost every turn.

 

[Vader86]

I've never been happy with it, some races are so short and on certain tracks that you can't make up the gap, and others its so easy to make up the gap that its laughable. It leads to bumper car racing a lot more too, since I have to knock the AI out of the way for being an idiot.

 

[Venymous]

Worst aspect of the game by far. Makes playing offline 100% pointless for me other than killing time or practicing a new track. Essentially my method of getting through single player is not to give a **** about racing at all (drive like an idiot, push the AI out of way) and just win and move on. On one hand, I think this game seriously needs an "expert" mode that ramps up the AI. On the other, I wish offline would mostly go away so more people play Sport to where it could support a greater variety of events.

 

[StirlingMoose]

Most of the time they are complete garbage. You're actually only racing one, maybe two cars that start 30s ahead. The rest are just a rolling road block to be disposed of as quickly as possible so you might get some competition for the last lap or so.
But I can remember one particular league race that left me with the feeling I could do a hundred sports races and not have such an exciting race. The difference was that the rabbit started just in front of me on the grid. We fought each other through the pack, racing wheel to wheel and swapping position several times. It's not that the AI aren't capable of providing a good race, it's just the awful design of the races.

 

[05XR8]

Another issue is car classes, I do a lot of custom races, recently I was trying some 1 vs 1 races, selected a N300 car and the AI always shows up in a N400. Selected a N600 and they show up in the N1000 Ferrari. That leads to thinking they know their AI is so poor they have to give them the better car to make it seem like any competition at all.

I still enjoy most of the races though mainly because I feel I fit exactly who PD aimed the game towards, I'm not that fast so more times than most I get a competitive race.

Some challenges I am doing now.

• 5 lap race on St Croix C
• AI at N300, I in GR2
• Grid start, start last
• Wait until all AI complete a lap
• Set off and see if you can win.

It's a shame when using an N100 car, an RX-7 and RCZ are the competition.

 

[Nielsen]

I'd prefer true racing, but I can enjoy the way it currently works when I look at the events as momentum / overtaking challenges rather than races.

 

[ImaRobot]

The AI could be better, more grid starts would be nice in GT League, and qualifying could help to balance the scenario up - with only 3-5 laps for many GTL races it's not really feasible to have a highly competitive pack, which you start towards the back of, so if the AI gets good I think qualifying is a must. Grid start vs rolling start should just be more varied - I don't want all of one or the other. I'd be okay with the 3 arcade mode difficulty levels being implemented in GTL, with then less rubber banding being required within each bracket, though rubber banding is probably inevitable and I'm not against it to some degree.

I think this is an aspect that they can certainly learn from other games, in my opinion. What would be cool is if they let you alter the structure of the single-player races, allowing you to change the amount of laps - Maybe even the weather, if it gets implemented in the future, and the TOD.

As for rubberbanding, I dont think it belongs in any game with a competent-enough physics engine. I can understand it in games like NFS and the crew, but the least, the better, with these types of games.

 

[coryclifford]

I'd prefer true racing, but I can enjoy the way it currently works when I look at the events as momentum / overtaking challenges rather than races.

Yes, this is exactly how I see it.

And as Stirlingmoose said (hey, buddy), the big part of the field are just rolling roadblocks. To learn to pass clean at the proper time is a skill to learn. If it's too easy for you, drop the car performance level down and try again.

They give extra credit for that, and clean races... :tup:

 

[spacecowboy73]

I don't think the AI has improved much since GT2. I'm still waiting patiently, maybe by GT8 or 9?

 

[PzR Slim]

The current setup is indefensible. Still plenty of people trying though!

 

[twitcher]

The whole single player aspect of the game is the worst of any driving game, on any platform.

• the AI is terrible

• the chase the rabbit format encourages unrealistic driving and dive bombing

• this is supposed to be the real driving simulator, but we can’t simulate anything close to a real race
- can’t manually select a custom grid so all the cars on the grid are realistic (ie no Samba busses!)
- can’t set up a complete race weekend, with practice, quali, and a race.

I’m crawling my way through career, but it’s absolutely a chore. I’m just doing it because I’m a completionist (and I want the free cars). The races aren’t races, they’re just terrible. The license tests and circuit experience are waaay to easy to get gold on. Haven’t tried the missions yet, but I’m just expecting more chase the rabbit.

 

[DCheesy]

I do like that there is always a fast guy midpack that chases the rabbit with you. Other than that it might as well be a time trial. I would prefer to start dead last rather than middle of the pack. Or have starting places on the grid vary by the difficulty chosen.

 

[MatskiMonk]

The current setup is indefensible. Still plenty of people trying though!

It's acceptable given certain criteria, these criteria may not be yours but you made no counter argument and simply used it as an excuse to throw shade at other users as though you're somehow demonstrably right.

 

[PzR Slim]

It's acceptable given certain criteria, these criteria may not be yours but you made no counter argument and simply used it as an excuse to throw shade at other users as though you're somehow demonstrably right.

It's completely unacceptable and should be called for what it is. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would say otherwise other than some unfathomable need to defend the game.

 

[MisterWaffles]

I wish people would stop treating Gran Turismo 4 as this Citizen Kane of driving games and everything surrounding it is ass by comparison. You do realise that without the rose-tinted nostalgia goggles those PS2 games are the exact same as what we have today: rolling start, chase the rabbit, become first by the end of the second lap. Yes, I have played those games, the AI hasn't mysteriously gotten "worse" over the course of the series. The custom race BMW M6s on Expert are probably the fastest the AI's ever been, and those are easy to beat.

I don't understand how the PS2 games get so much praise despite being single-player only games with the same trash AI as the rest of the series.

These are the same people who complained that GT Sport was a "bad" or "wasn't a true" Gran Turismo game because it didn't have a traditional career mode back in October, but once they get one they start complaining that the AI hasn't changed since the early days of the franchise and it's still unwanted. TF do you want then?

What they need with GT7 is something like Forza's single player or Project CARS with different career paths or progression through leagues or something like that, with proper penalties, flags, multi-class racing and mechanical damage at least. It needs faster AI that can keep up with skilled players and it needs to prepare people for online racing unlike Sport Mode's video things.

 

[adb]

Wonder why they couldn't add more competitive AI but with a difficulty slider like in PCars

 

[twitcher]

It's acceptable given certain criteria, these criteria may not be yours but you made no counter argument and simply used it as an excuse to throw shade at other users as though you're somehow demonstrably right.

The Real Driving Simulator is the criteria. The AI are no where close to a realistic simulation.

...
Snip
...

TF do you want then?

A decent career mode with good AI. Not so sure why that’s too much to ask of a game franchise that is nearly 20 years old, and claims to be “The Real Driving Simulator”

 

[MatskiMonk]

I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would say otherwise other than some unfathomable need to defend the game.

So what your saying is that you can't accept other peoples opinions. Yeah, that sounds like PD's fault.

The Real Driving Simulator is the criteria. The AI are no where close to a realistic simulation.

You are conflating driving with racing. But aside from that, if that's your criteria, then fine. It's not mine, to me it's just a tag line - I'm not about to get pissy at Red Bull because I never grew wings.

 

[ImaRobot]

You are conflating driving with racing

Considering the focal point of the game, I would think that some wouldn't take the term so literal. Lets not try to fool ourselves, these are racing simulators, regardless of the title slapped on it. The two terms are completely interchangeable here in my opinion, and this point always perplexed me. If you're racing, you're driving a vehicle, so why separate it like that?

 

[twitcher]

So what your saying is that you can't accept other peoples opinions. Yeah, that sounds like PD's fault.



You are conflating driving with racing. But aside from that, if that's your criteria, then fine. It's not mine, to me it's just a tag line - I'm not about to get pissy at Red Bull because I never grew wings.

I’m only conflating them because this a “real driving simulator” that happens to be almost entirely focused around racing, so much so that it has official association with the FIA. That FIA association is because of racing, node a nod to the FIAs road safety program (if it was, I’d be making the same arguement, because the AI in GT wouldn’t even be a realistic representation of safe road driving...GTA does a better job of that )