Ok, first of all, disclaimer : trying to make the game fair for people who don't own a shifter is good. Even shifter users like me were asking for this. The solution was very simple : make the paddle / pad users shifts as fast as the H pattern shifters, and let everyone have fun in VR or lobbies with H shifters. Look, that's what even Assetto Corsa on PC, a hardcore super realistic sim, already does with its autoclutch and autoblip options. Never once I felt slower because I didn't have a clutch on my DFGT when I was still using that. They could also had just forced custom transmissions when BoP is turned on, so everyone gets a sequential gearbox. Just like they did in Paris, just like they do for the Sambabus / Fiat 500 daily races.
But NO, why be smart, Polyphony decided to just break the shifters completely and make them work the opposite way manual clutches work in real life.
Now, in the game, with cars like the Skyline R32, you have to lift the throttle more than a full second before you can even touch the pedal. Yes, in game you're grinding your gears and stay locked in neutral when you're PRESSING the clutch pedal. This is not how real life works : you get stuck in neutral when you RELEASE the clutch pedal too early.
So now H shifters are completely unusable in the game. That's going to be great for those who have a Thrustmaster or Fanatec system and threw 100+ $/€/£ in a shifter to have fun, not caring for a time advantage. Now you can't do that, you can't have try to have a more realistic experience in VR, because using a shifter has just become pure frustration.
The worst thing ? You can still downshift like a madman, 3 gears down in half a second and over-revving 6000 rpm over the revlimiter is just fine for the game, even using the clutch. But upshifting ? Don't even dare touching that clutch pedal with 0% throttle if you haven't waited 2 seconds in one of the best sportscar of the 90s - because we didn't have synchronised gearboxes in the 90s, you know.
The joke in that is they released that update the day after the FIA race it mattered for, when they could have just swapped it with another Nations round in stage 1 so that the N300 race would come after the update. The N500 meta will probably be cars that do not have a manual H pattern shifter anyway so that update probably won't change anything in FIA Stage 1.
It's a shame Polyphony can't just think for a couple minutes and just use the simple solution that doesn't actually break things. Also, that gear grinbding sound is just hilariously bad. So yeah, either they just rushed in something they didn't even tested properly (again), or they have no understanding of how cars work and need to stop trying making realistic stuff.
EDIT : here's a video from
@khkenni capturing the stupidity of this whole thing.
