Is sixteen cars on track a good thing?

[Stevisiov]

Uh-oh another poll thread from me.

When I first started playing the original Gran Turismo series, 6 cars on track never seemed an issue. The races offered plenty of excitement, even as the series progressed, 6 cars seemed like a good number. It wasn't until GT4 when I started thinking - Is 5 opponents really enough? - for most races it was fine, but GT4 brought 2 brand new things to the table.

Firstly the introduction of real endurance races, 9 hours of Motegi, 24 hours of La Sarthe I, 24 hours of La Sarthe II, 24 hours of the Nurburgring etc. Keeping endurance races interesting for that long can be a challenge.

Secondly, the introduction of La Sarther and the Nordchliefe possed another problem - The tracks are huge! To keep myself interested in endurance races I set would my sights on the lapped car in the distance and on focus chasing them down, on the huge tracks this takes forever. With only 5 opponents your lucky if you see another car once every half hour at the nurburgring, for me, I loose focus and become disinterested.

I hoped we would see more cars in GT5 for the sake of endurance races, so when I saw the screenshots of GT5P with 16 cars on track, I was ecstatic. After seeing the way this was implemented in GT5P my enthusiasm has dwindled somewhat. There are too many cars to fight few in just a few laps, it makes overtaking scrappy and forces you to drive like a lunatic. This wouldn't be a problem on long races, but on short races its a big problem, especially if there is a rabbit car at the front of the pack.

So my question is, how do you feel about 16 cars? - I am putting in a multichoice poll, so tick as many boxes you agree with.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

The way I see it is the more cars the better. 16 cars is great, it might not be 20-40 cars, but it's still much better than 6. I think it's going to add a whole new dimension to the endurances races, seeing more cars out on track might give me motivation rather than handing the controls over to Mr. B-Spec for 90% of the race.

I hoped we would see more cars in GT5 for the sake of endurance races, so when I saw the screenshots of GT5P with 16 cars on track, I was ecstatic. After seeing the way this was implemented in GT5P my enthusiasm has dwindled somewhat. There are too many cars to fight few in just a few laps, it makes overtaking scrappy and forces you to drive like a lunatic. This wouldn't be a problem on long races, but on short races its a big problem, especially if there is a rabbit car at the front of the pack.

I think this problem will disappear once we're able to qualify for races.

 

[G.T.Ace]

I cant vote because i like 2 options:

16 cars is fine for the longer races, but begginer races with a few laps should have less cars.

(like in Prologue btw.)
and

16 cars on track is fine for all races, as long as you have the option of qualifying.

Qualifying should be in any race (as option) but beginner races should have less cars on track to give later races (especially endurance) a bigger impact and importance.

 

[frank-jaeger]

I think they should give us the choice to reduce or increase or decrease the numbers of cars on a track (with a minimum number (8) and a maximum which would logically be 16)

 

[Stevisiov]

I cant vote because i like 2 options:
(like in Prologue btw.)
and

Qualifying should be in any race (as option) but beginner races should have less cars on track to give later races (especially endurance) a bigger impact and importance.

You can vote for more than one

I think it would be good, to step the number of opponents up as you progress through the game. So you start with 8 in the beginner events and work up to a 16 car field in the expert events. This would work well because generally the length of the races increase, as do the size of the tracks, as you progress in the game, at least thats the way it has worked in previous Gran Turismo's.

 

[G.T.Ace]

Ah okay.

 

[Dijital Majik]

I think it would be good, to step the number of opponents up as you progress through the game. So you start with 8 in the beginner events and work up to a 16 car field in the expert events. This would work well because generally the length of the races increase, as do the size of the tracks, as you progress in the game, at least thats the way it has worked in previous Gran Turismo's.

To be honest I would be very surprised if that didn't turn out to be the case.

 

[andrewyhy]

16 cars is fine for the longer races, but beginner races with a few laps should have less cars.

16 cars on track is fine for all races, as long as you have the option of qualifying.

I voted for the two above.
I agree with the point that mentioned earlier, which I don't like to race like lunatic just to overtake all cars in front of me in say, 5 laps. I'd like to enjoy the process of racing. In an event of 5-lap race, if there's an option to qualify, that's okay for me, as you won't be starting every race at the very back of the grid. If not, it's not realistic to overtake 15 cars in 5 laps' time, it's simply impossible in real life (unless the other cars on track are not in the same class of my car ).

 

[boiltheocean]

I want races with 30+ cars that have a varing class of cars.

Le Mans Style I suppose.

 

[EERS4YEARS]

This is irrelevant, only time there are more than 6 cars is when you get stuck in a race full of under tuned cars from Tuners Pit or another website. We need more racers, or less races, or only one physics class, or best of all... all world competitions, then we can worry about bigger races.
When we get all world competitions, I think 16-30 cars would be ideal, with qualifying of course.

 

[Nicksfix]

16 is fine.Just last night at HSR 650 expert,there were several full field races.It was very interesting to say the least (in a good manner of speaking),challenging to get up front when you start P12,P14,etc... and end up in P2.P3,and even victory lane.With the 10 lap races you've got some time to work with ,you just got to make the best of it.It doesn't always yield great finishes (that happened also last night),but overall it is a challenge to get around a lot of cars.

 

[Clark]

Sixteen is very good, I'd be unhappy with anything less. 16 players means that for two class racing each class would still have 8 players (the same as one fm). Still though, Toca Race Driver had 21 and it's cars were no less detailed than any contemporary games. We can only dream of iracing numbers though, they're up to fifty!

 

[Stevisiov]

To be honest I would be very surprised if that didn't turn out to be the case.

I really hope that turns out to be the case.

I want races with 30+ cars that have a varing class of cars.

I would love the big endurance races to have fields with different categories of cars, sadly I don't see it happening.

Le Mans Style I suppose.

I would love the big endurance races to have fields with different categories of cars, sadly I don't see it happening.

This is irrelevant, only time there are more than 6 cars is when you get stuck in a race full of under tuned cars from Tuners Pit or another website. We need more racers, or less races, or only one physics class, or best of all... all world competitions, then we can worry about bigger races.
When we get all world competitions, I think 16-30 cars would be ideal, with qualifying of course.

I was talking about Gran Turismo mode in GT5, not online mode. So its actually rather relevant.

 

[Watevaman]

I only voted for more than 16 on certain races because I feel that when I'm racing with JGTC or LeMans cars, I want to have the whole possible field on the track.

 

[Max_DC]

I actually don't even need 10 cars on 90% of the tracks. Nuerburgring, Le Mans, ok, but apart from these huge tracks I'd prefer animated backgrounds, weather and more detailed surroundings.

I mean let's face it : Most races are between 5 and 15 minutes, how many intense battles with opponents can you have during that time ?

16 cars means overtaking 10 cars without having to concentrate and then fighting 5 strong cars. So having 5-10 opponents, who are strong from the beginning does it for me.

 

[Northstar]

I voted for 16 cars for all races as long as there's qualifying. I think it's something crucial for a sim game to have as close to a realistic amount of cars in a field as possible(when was the last time you saw 8 cars in a race). Now all they have to do is make the field more competitive in races(24 hours at Nurburgring was pretty bad, I think the closest to losing that race was around 4 laps)I would like to see the type of battles the real cars have where the normal car wins by a matter of a few minutes.

 

[z06fun]

I like your option of 16 cars for longer races and less for shorter races, but for me I would prefer to set the number of cars in a way that will never have the frame rates drop, first and foremost! Honestly in any race against the AI, you are only driving against the cars upfront anyway.

 

[Hun200kmh]

Different people like different things, so I think it should be up to the player to decide.

I like large grids, and I don't like 3 lap races. And I think the best number of cars in race should be about 20. It is true that if you're good yuo only fight2 or 3 cars in a race. But even then, if you crash ... you'll have a lot more work if a field of 10 cars passed by while you were getting back to the track.


I never did the 24 hour races in GT4, there was no point in doing them really. But I did several 24 hour races in the old Le Mans game, and even with 24 cars split in two very different classes, after the first few hours of the race you could do full laps without seing any car of your own class.

 

[Tenacious D]

16 cars means overtaking 10 cars without having to concentrate and then fighting 5 strong cars. So having 5-10 opponents, who are strong from the beginning does it for me.

Actually, you begin in the middle of the pack, so you only fight half the cars, unless you mess up a turn.

After doing a bunch of Arcade races and the Ford GT event to farm credits, I'm too spoiled to want less than 16 car races. Online is a different matter. But there is one thing: even though I voted for 16 cars regardless, I can see that to get good weather effects, it would make sense to have 12 cars or so.

 

[FLASH48]

I voted for the sixteen car field and qualifying! And make the AI not give up after you pass them! Or make them unpassable, if you happen to go off course!

 

[DaddyVDUB]

I am not a big fan of 16 car grids with a rolling start. Would prefer standing starts double file,WITH qualifying. It is really nothing short of impossible even for those who are really quick to start in 16th with a rolling start,and by luck of the draw really really fast guys starting in the top 4 or 5. By the time you start in 16th the first car(s) are already almost through T1!! that means in 10 laps you have to be about 1.5 to 2 sec a lap faster at HSR . Last night we had full grids and some really fast guys started at the back with me and the best they did was say about 12th, once or twice some had good finishes ANFD started 16th one race made it up to 3rd b4 a shunt sent him back to me in 6th. He still beat me.

 

[-ultraflow-]

I voted for the sixteen car field and qualifying!

+1 👍

 

[amar212]

There should be less cars on track so more processing power can be used making the surroundings look amazing.

I thought that surroundings already looks amazing, despite the cardboard trees which I do not give a damn about

 

[mr_VOLCANO]

I thought that surroundings already looks amazing, despite the cardboard trees which I do not give a damn about

Surroundings looks amazing, but im sure it will look much better in full version Only thing i have to say negative about gt5p graphic is the colors. It reminds me of sega rally and its not realistic colors at all. I have not even recognize that its cardboard trees

 

[TheCracker]

Surroundings looks amazing, but im sure it will look much better in full version I have not even recognize that its cardboard trees

Wasn't GT4 slightly better graphics-wise than GT4?

 

[mr_VOLCANO]

Never tried gt4p so i dont know, but why should they make it worse....

About poll I think 16 cars is good if its qualifying. If i get in a full gtp grid, then i think 8 cars is good, its soo close anyway, and few laps..

 

[Groundking]

Personaly I think there should be some sort of formula for example 3 lap race of 8 good cars on HSR is all i need to keep happy. However if you increased the laps to 10, 12-14 good cars (not over 14 though, track gets too cramped, seeing as it's a short track). But then a 3 lap race of Grand Valley should automaticaly have 10-16 cars, but if it was and endurance race 20+ cars would be good for that track. As for Nurhburgring (sp) it should have 20+ on a 1 lap race and then for the endurance race it should have 30+ (please).

Also Qualifying please.

-GK

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Wasn't GT4 slightly better graphics-wise than GT4?

Yeah, it was. I remember someone here compared screenshots of the New York circuit from both GT4P and GT4. From what I can remember, the graphical difference wasn't huge, but there were some details in the scenery which were much clearer.

 

[mr_VOLCANO]

Yeah, it was. I remember someone here compared screenshots of the New York circuit from both GT4P and GT4. From what I can remember, the graphical difference wasn't huge, but there were some details in the scenery which were much clearer.

I still dont think PD has pushed ps3 max out for graphic.. And i really hope they fix the colors. Why not have realistic colors in a driving SIM? look at the color of the grass and then look out your window... turning down color on TV helps a bit.

 

[amar212]

Only thing i have to say negative about gt5p graphic is the colors. It reminds me of sega rally and its not realistic colors at all.

That is the main reason why I turned down the colour for more than 80%, all untill the grass looked naturally green. However, I did the same with all previous GT games so solution for that is actualy very simple.