Idea: Online Rooms to Require Certain Licenses to Join?

[CarCzar]

I think a great, and much needed, feature for Gran Turismo 5 would be a setting in online lobbies that excludes players that are not licensed with higher licenses. For example, a driver with an S License creates a shuffle room. He wants to follow GTP OLR, and have a mainly contact-free room. Normally, this is extremely difficult to moderate in GT5's current online state. If the room host has a setting to exclude those with anything below an A License from entering, he or she may have an easier time keeping cleaner racing on the track.

This is something that I have seen used in NASCAR or Spec racing lobbies over my couple years racing online. Player's licenses are checked by the host, and are moved out of the room if they do not meet the standard that the host wants. To make this easier, and less confusing to the people kicked, a system to forbid entry to lower licenses should be implemented.

 

[Crispy]

That seems like a good idea. While not a 100% fool proof method for clean racing, it certainly will help weed out worse drivers.

And to those that will say "But I don't want to do the licenses cause I've already done them all the time!" Well then do them again! You get free stuff.

 

[ShiftingGears]

The S-License is the worst possible example you could use in support for your argument. GT5 AI does not reflect how racing drivers would race one another online, at all. It does not prepare players for proper online racing, so it is worthless. People who get all gold on the S-License might be led to believe that passing online only requires getting within 10 car lengths and doing an enormous divebomb under braking to pass half the field.

As it stands with GT at the moment, the only thing that really forces the player to be a good, clean racer is experience at racing online, and the willingness to be a good, clean racer.

I don't think A-Spec level or Licenses acquired is a great filter, to be honest. I would prefer statistics about online performance such as number of wins, average finish position, average finish position to number of entrants ratio, as well as some metric that considers amount of contact that a driver gets involved in.

 

[ShiftingGears]

And to those that will say "But I don't want to do the licenses cause I've already done them all the time!" Well then do them again! You get free stuff.

Isn't rewards for any event undertaken in GT5 "free stuff"? In GT4 and GT5, the rewards for golding all the licenses were quite meagre anyway. The rewards don't really justify doing the licenses when winning a single seasonal event would generate enough credits to buy much more desirable cars.

The problem is that the license tests are really quite dull, as is reflected by you mentioning people's dislike of them. Excusing dull gameplay isn't going to improve the game. Online time trials are much more engaging, because there is at least an element of competition involved.

 

[Cosbuster]

I don't see how a licence proves that one can drive neatly in an online environment. Even assuming it does, I've noticed that the majority of people driving dirty to do because they want to and can often get away with rather than because they are newbies that can't do any better.

 

[Dean]

I don't see how a licence proves that one can drive neatly in an online environment. Even assuming it does, I've noticed that the majority of people driving dirty to do because they want to and can often get away with rather than because they are newbies that can't do any better.

I agree, licenses can't "block out" dirty/bad drivers, as they, too, can obtain all of the licenses. It might be able to minimize the amounts of such drivers, but we can't, of course, be sure about that.

 

[Johnnypenso]

Completing any license offline has absolutely no bearing on your ability to race clean. A driver rating system on the other hand, while imperfect, would be a far better solution.

 

[mcfizzle]

The title is misleading as it makes it sound like it is an announced official feature. I understand what you are wanting but really having all the licenses doesn't show you are a clean driver and has nothing to do with following OLR. Not having a license also doesn't make you a bad driver. On my GTP profile I only have A and B. I would have no problem if it were implemented though.

 

[C_Raccoon23]

I don't why people keep thinking this is a good idea when all you need to obtain a license is to beat the easily passable bronze time, which allows people to be passive during these tests and not learn anything beneficial from them.

 

[TokoTurismo]

You need a certain license to join an online room? Um, no thanks... :l

 

[Imari]

I think a great, and much needed, feature for Gran Turismo 5 would be a setting in online lobbies that excludes players that are not licensed with higher licenses. For example, a driver with an S License creates a shuffle room. He wants to follow GTP OLR, and have a mainly contact-free room. Normally, this is extremely difficult to moderate in GT5's current online state. If the room host has a setting to exclude those with anything below an A License from entering, he or she may have an easier time keeping cleaner racing on the track.

This is something that I have seen used in NASCAR or Spec racing lobbies over my couple years racing online. Player's licenses are checked by the host, and are moved out of the room if they do not meet the standard that the host wants. To make this easier, and less confusing to the people kicked, a system to forbid entry to lower licenses should be implemented.

Would be a great idea if there was any correlation at all between ability to complete the licenses and ability to race like a human being.

Unfortunately, it's not the case. I'd support some sort of online licensing that is actually based on how cleanly people race.

 

[Jav]

Would be a great idea if there was any correlation at all between ability to complete the licenses and ability to race like a human being.

Unfortunately, it's not the case. I'd support some sort of online licensing that is actually based on how cleanly people race.

x2 license tests in GT have always been a stupid and a waste of time, we need a live stat system to keep track of how clean a player is kinda' like... You know!
;-)

 

[The guy who did]

I applaud you on your thinking, but I don't personally think its the best idea for online. I didn't even start my liscenes tests at least until a year after I got GT5. I think you may need to think of a more reliable way of determining the level a person is at. Like, lets say, A-spec maybe, but I do think you're on to something.👍

 

[MatskiMonk]

There could be a way of not just limiting room entrants, but trying to offer better matches in open lobbies.

Out of the few times I've ventured online, and the even fewer times ive found a sensible room, and the even fewer times, I've had a car remotely competitive, I'm normally pretty out classed. I don't mind this so much on its own, but it would be better to have a closer races.

Ignoring whether you like the license tests or not, something like them could be used to determine your overall average speed. Like for instance calculating how far over or under the gold license times you are overall. You might be a cumulative 8 seconds off all gold pace, or a few seconds under... If you were bracketed with people of a similar time then you've at least got a good chance of racing with people at a similar level - although it's no guarantee that it'll be a clean race.

I don't get that much time to play GT at all, let alone trawling online trying to find something worth racing.. So anything that can be done to make the system slicker I would be interested to see.

 

[Sasek]

Nah, reputation system or something like that for clear driving would be better than licence to join.

 

[HuskyGT]

As much as I want License Tests to play a strong role in GT6, this would be a bit too much. By the time I start playing online, I would've gold everything in the game already anyway.

 

[CarCzar]

The S-License is the worst possible example you could use in support for your argument. GT5 AI does not reflect how racing drivers would race one another online, at all. It does not prepare players for proper online racing, so it is worthless. People who get all gold on the S-License might be led to believe that passing online only requires getting within 10 car lengths and doing an enormous divebomb under braking to pass half the field.

As it stands with GT at the moment, the only thing that really forces the player to be a good, clean racer is experience at racing online, and the willingness to be a good, clean racer.

I don't think A-Spec level or Licenses acquired is a great filter, to be honest. I would prefer statistics about online performance such as number of wins, average finish position, average finish position to number of entrants ratio, as well as some metric that considers amount of contact that a driver gets involved in.

I would agree that leaderboards/stats are long overdue. Maybe have something with an average finish (although skewed by # of drivers per race), number of races quit, wins, etc. All of this could be a part of a formula to give something like... an online rating class? This would probably apply the best, because you're right... just about anyone could get an S License.

 

[Felix]

To be frank, if someone like me can get all the licences, it's not going to be too hard for someone who is a poor driver to gain them as well.

The only thing they are good for is helping you get use to the games physics and teaching you the tracks.

I believe the system iRacing has in place, where it shows a more in depth numerical value to some ones racing ability, which can be filtered out in online races is a much better system to have in place.

 

[humpus]

I for one think it is a good idea. Yes, a bad crash-happy driver can get all the licenses as well, but generally they don't want to go through all the trouble of obtaining them. They're just not interested.

Until a true reputation system comes along or some other big solution, this could definitely keep some bad drivers away from a licensed room. In the long run we will need something more solid, but this could work for now.

 

[eran0004]

All slow drivers are not dirty drivers, and all dirty drivers are not slow drivers. So a license requirement wouldn't really do anything, other than making sure that the dirty drivers you face will be able to match your pace and have more chances of running you off the road.

And in most cases I've seen, dirty driving is nothing more than someone losing his temper and deciding it's time for some payback. License tests can't detect such behavior. Dirty driving cause by someone who doesn't have the skills to drive the car properly is more rare, because those guys tend to lose positions really fast and end up in the back of the field where they can't really cause any incidents anyway.

 

[05XR8]

I'm sure some of us think this is one of reasons why the XP system is no more. The best way to judge offline performance are, percentage of Clean Laps. It's a simple system. For someone who will NEVER play offline, their percentage could be by way of Seasonals. AND if someone only plays on weekends and doesn't play offline or seasonals or only races in leagues, their percentage of clean laps tallies from there.

 

[Snaeper]

If the licenses actually focused on teaching drivers clean habits for racing and were less about simply obtaining a time, then I'd be more for this idea.

But the "Gotta be the fastest" mentality of the Licenses would only make bad drivers worst and mediocre drivers bad since they'd be so focused on running the fastest line that they'd forget about racing with other people and get mad when someone slower is in their way.

 

[NeuroticVows]

Nah, reputation system or something like that for clear driving would be better than licence to join.

If a player's reputation is bad enough they should be forced to fully redo the online license test XD maybe if they get sent to that enough times it will deter them from driving like that or going online after a while

 

[CJSpencer77]

The idea of a license to get into a room means nothing other than the guy joining understands racing line/apex etc principles, Maldonardo or Grosjean understand racing principles they race in F1 after all , but it doesnt seem to stop them smashing the hell out of other cars.

You would need a license that guages a drivers character and im not sure how that would ever work.

Get a bunch of online friends that enjoy the same thing as you and kick any dirty guys who join your room only leaving the cream and thus growing your clean friend base, or join a good league where this has been done for you already.

I for one would ignore any licenses or the lack of them and make my mind up on my own.

 

[Johnnypenso]

I'm sure some of us think this is one of reasons why the XP system is no more. The best way to judge offline performance are, percentage of Clean Laps. It's a simple system. For someone who will NEVER play offline, their percentage could be by way of Seasonals. AND if someone only plays on weekends and doesn't play offline or seasonals or only races in leagues, their percentage of clean laps tallies from there.

A driver rating system is the key. One for online, one for offline. And of course, it should be available to the host in any open lobby or lounge and should be able to be flagged as a reason for kicking someone so they know why they got kicked and have a chance to improve.

If a player's reputation is bad enough they should be forced to fully redo the online license test XD maybe if they get sent to that enough times it will deter them from driving like that or going online after a while

That'll never happen with a 10 million unit selling videogame. Excluding people from certain activities or forcing them into others as punishment, just won't fly in the marketing department.

 

[CJSpencer77]

A driver rating system is the key. One for online, one for offline. And of course, it should be available to the host in any open lobby or lounge and should be able to be flagged as a reason for kicking someone so they know why they got kicked and have a chance to improve.

I like the premise, but would hate the reality of it,

First of all there is no AI system yet that can work out who was at fault in racing incidents, hence the dodgy penalty system in GT5, you get rammed and you get the penalty, or you get knocked off the track and you get a cutting penalty for the trouble, etc. etc., So when this happens regardless if it was your fault your rating goes down?

So your rating would only be good if you never encounter a dirty driver, if you race in open rooms with strangers who dont care about thier rating then yours would disapeer, etc etc, it would be chaos, and lead to arguments as even an inocent accident with a friend would drop his rating.

Theres a system like this in Iracing, and for Iracing it works because Iracing costs a fortune and only has guys intent on racing the right way to start with, GT5 has a huge amount people who are intent on racing the "wrong way" who will go the wrong way round the track, cause accidents etc. etc., so those of us who want to race "correctly" will have thier rating subject to those who want to see who can cause the biggest accident in open lobbies.

 

[MatskiMonk]

^ Good points.

I can't help but think the reality is there's no feasible way to keep things clean unless you are only racing against friends.

It's fine when we have communities like GTP to organise things on - especially if only 1 of your real life friends ever plays GT, and that's only in passing! - but in practice, it's not always possible to co-ordinate to get in some good online sessions, and virtually impossible to commit to racing leagues, if you have a busy schedule in your personal life. It's why GT Life mode is important to me, I don't know when I'll be able to give it a few hours, so I don't want to have to rely on online to get a good gaming experience.

 

[Imari]

I can't help but think the reality is there's no feasible way to keep things clean unless you are only racing against friends.

The ways to keep things clean is to motivate and reward people for being clean. Too many systems are based on punishing the bad drivers instead of rewarding the good.

There will always be douches that drive badly on purpose, but those people exist regardless. They exist even on stuff like iRacing, and they just have to be tolerated.

Having a simple number that logs how "clean" your driving is would be a massive start. See achievements. They mean nothing, give you nothing, and yet people push to collect them. Simply putting a number on something means that most people will at least attempt to increase it.

Then having rewards like additional seasonal events or unicorns or whatever else for people who maintain a certain level of clean license would be even better. People would complain about being locked out of "content", but that's the choice you make as a dev.

Realistically, everyone can drive clean if they want. It's driving clean AND fast that's difficult. Frankly, I think it makes the race more interesting when you're having to judge whether it's worth pushing harder to win but with the added risk of tanking your license.

 

[tinram]

I think a great, and much needed, feature for Gran Turismo 5 would be a setting in online lobbies that excludes players that are not licensed with higher licenses. For example, a driver with an S License creates a shuffle room. He wants to follow GTP OLR, and have a mainly contact-free room. Normally, this is extremely difficult to moderate in GT5's current online state. If the room host has a setting to exclude those with anything below an A License from entering, he or she may have an easier time keeping cleaner racing on the track.

This is something that I have seen used in NASCAR or Spec racing lobbies over my couple years racing online. Player's licenses are checked by the host, and are moved out of the room if they do not meet the standard that the host wants. To make this easier, and less confusing to the people kicked, a system to forbid entry to lower licenses should be implemented.

Licenses should be an option for creating online lobbies/events. And another option would be the driver rating whether its based on punishing the bad, rewarding the good or both.

 

[humpus]

All slow drivers are not dirty drivers, and all dirty drivers are not slow drivers.

True, but most dirty drivers are slow drivers. That's why his idea will keep a lot of dirty drivers out of licensed races. Not all of them, but it'll work to some extent.

I'm not saying there are no other options though.