How to make A-spec enjoyable

[mu22stang]

Obviously, but how can someone dare drive an F40 ON TIRES THAT RESEMBLE Comfort Soft tires. The F40 doesn't have any driver aids so that makes it a good example. This can't be the only exception, either. Supercars need sports tires.

Just because a car is hard for you to drive, doesn't mean the in-game tires are misrepresenting the grip and traction available on the real car.

 

[GTHO]

Think it is sad you are forced to handicap yourself in a lot of ways to be able to have a descent battle with the AI.

Like you say lowering the PP (in much cases -20 to -50), makes it better but you still drive around them and bump into them because of their damned braking as they halt to a stop almost each time they go into a corner. Then the trick would be lower grip tyres but thats struggling again in the corners wich (for me) leads to more fustration again as your car is a handfull the whole time.

For example i'm doing the latest 650PP seasonal at the ring, you start in 12th place and have to get past 10 of those moving obstacles, and as the BMW mclaren is already in the front from the start, by the time you clear the 10 you are too far behind to have a shot at him, wich makes me putting on the grippiest tyres just to be able to do so...

Who came up with this stupid formula?

The AI should be braking less like grandmothers, and adjusting themselves to your setup and your car... pray to god PD will fix this for GT6, so we can have a descent racing formula with fixed starts and ditch the whole "catchup" thing.

Good grip for everyone, and everyone at it's sharpest.

The dreaded BMW Mclaren, i just keep exiting and restarting to get a more "even" field.

 

[Vegard]

Check out my new thread if you like extreme lowgrip racing: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=256

 

[Apmaddock]

When I restarted my game I went with the following formula:

-All cars are fully stock and unmodified except for tires and brake balance.
-PP at 90% or less of what the top opponent will be carrying.
-Tires at Comfort Soft for 500PP or less, Sport Medium 500PP-650PP, and Race Hard over 650PP. Tires in endurance races are open to any of the tires in their perspective category (So a 475 PP car could use any comfort tire.)
-The GTP OLR must be followed at all times with self-imposed penalties for contact or short cuts.

This has made for some very good races for the most part, though some have still been runaways. It depends in part on what the field is comprised of that day and what kind of car you happen to choose. It's amazing to find how much quicker one car of a certain PP can be than another of the same.

 

[Bluntified]

What I like doing is drifting the track. Tune the cars you need for the event to drift a little (not too much or it might be hard to keep up) and you'll notice a bit more of a challenge. I've done the first two event series drifting (except for on or two events with extreme low hp cars) and the first 3 races of the endurance series. Good luck.

 

[lemans2005]

Well, I used different stock cars with no aids (except moderns cars has ABS 1) to retry the correspond race event, as I want to experience the stock handling and powers of different cars and enjoy the joy of driving.

 

[another_jakhole]

I used to think comfort tires were too slippery compared to real life.

But with David coulthard at the wheels of Mercedes sls Amg turning in similar time to top gt5 players in comfort soft on tgtt (despite cutting corners) plus evidence from lap times record plus an editor driving r8 in laguna seca in gt5 and real life, it is clear comfort soft are top of the line street performance tires or street legal semi slicks. I would equate for eg. a conti csc3 to be comfort medium. I do take my csc3 or fk452 to limit and speedo seems to suggest low speed before some slip occurs.
As such, driving non race cars in comfort medium or soft is spot on.
A lower grade tire also helps to give Ai a chance to match our cornering better. A lower pp car on similar tires allows more excitement by being overtaken on straights and
overtaking AI on corners. I am redoing most of the a spec now in either lower pp car or poorer tires just to have some re experience what is intended.
Almost a year ago, I had trouble winning in race soft tires in cars way superior to Ai. So I 'cheated' my way thru a spec (all aids on, race soft, 100-200 hp higher).
So far, it's been great.
Also,

Good points with the R8 and SLS AMG. IIIT's interesting.

Not trying to fully contradict what you said, but tire grip has been reduced since Spec 2, which is after those dates took place. But did Coulthard actually use GT5 for that lap time? I thought he did it on the track. Edit- It was a real lap.

To level the playing field we’ve all had to select road tyres for our virtual versions of the Mercedes SLS, just as Coulthard has on his real one. Traction control is turned down and the racing line indicator switched off.

And then we’re off, Brundle dropping the flag at Dunsfold and us pressing the start button, our efforts over the next 15 minutes live on the internet for all to see. Like a complete amateur I’m off the track left, right and centre, taking more than half of the session to put in a clean lap. It turns out to be my best too at 1min21.123, half a second quicker than the Stig managed (albeit with a rolling start). Today, though, it’s a long way from being good enough.

It couldn't have been rolling start, right? Edit - Just checked and it was a rolling start for everybody. ehh Doesn't make sense.

Stig's Time was 1'21", by the way. I don't know what Coulthard's was. Edit - 1'16.320 was his first and best lap. The best GT player lap was 1'16.8ish

Over at the Top Gear test track his tactic has paid off. One gentle warm-up lap and then exploit the fresh tyres for one all-out, qualifying-style attempt. It was high risk: make a mistake and the tyres would be too hot to put in another really quick lap, handing victory to the gamers. Only F1 drivers don’t get paid millions because they make mistakes. Sure enough, on his first hot lap DC nails a 1min16.320. It’s more than a second quicker than he’s gone all morning. Astonishing doesn’t even come close. The real world, for now at least, still beats the virtual one.

Just because a car is hard for you to drive, doesn't mean the in-game tires are misrepresenting the grip and traction available on the real car.

That's not what I meant.

I went back to try driving the F40 on CS tires and it wasn't as difficult as I remembered about a month ago. Still, for a street legal race car, it needs SH tires at the very least. The turbo lag is the real problem when trying to keep full control 100% of the time. It's too "twitchy" and uncontrollable around some corners when you're trying to keep a constant, steady speed.

It could be the acceleration "input" in GT5. It's too difficult to stay at a precise speed. So glad it's been improved, but still not the best. It could, also, be the fault of the LSD. I've heard that the part itself isn't correct in GT5. It doesn't function the way it should.

When I restarted my game I went with the following formula:

-All cars are fully stock and unmodified except for tires and brake balance.
-PP at 90% or less of what the top opponent will be carrying.
-Tires at Comfort Soft for 500PP or less, Sport Medium 500PP-650PP, and Race Hard over 650PP. Tires in endurance races are open to any of the tires in their perspective category (So a 475 PP car could use any comfort tire.)
-The GTP OLR must be followed at all times with self-imposed penalties for contact or short cuts.

This has made for some very good races for the most part, though some have still been runaways. It depends in part on what the field is comprised of that day and what kind of car you happen to choose. It's amazing to find how much quicker one car of a certain PP can be than another of the same.

In Arcade Mode, choosing a grippier tire before you enter a race will give tougher opponents (I only remember checking this months ago). You choose a Sports tire, then choose a Comfort tire when you're on the track for a greater challenge (obviously). If you choose a Comfort tire before entering a race, you'll get weak opponents.

 

[Tired Tyres]

I'm finding Practice Mode single make races good when you drop your tyres two levels, which means Comfort Mediums for most road cars.

 

[mu22stang]

That's not what I meant.

It isn't?...

I went back to try driving the F40 on CS tires and it wasn't as difficult as I remembered about a month ago. Still, for a street legal race car, it needs SH tires at the very least. The turbo lag is the real problem when trying to keep full control 100% of the time. It's too "twitchy" and uncontrollable around some corners when you're trying to keep a constant, steady speed.

It could be the acceleration "input" in GT5. It's too difficult to stay at a precise speed. So glad it's been improved, but still not the best. It could, also, be the fault of the LSD. I've heard that the part itself isn't correct in GT5. It doesn't function the way it should.

I'm not questioning your skill, let's make that clear. From what I gather, the F40 isn't a real peach to drive. It's lightweight, raw, unaided, and comes packed with gobs of turbo lag. It's a racecar in street trim yes... from the late '80's. It's also fast. Fast doesn't equal easy. Hard to drive doesn't equal unrealistic.