This is a long one, sorry, but I had to get it out. Sometimes, the old game designer in me has to have his say (it actually the only reason I come to the forum
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I'd like to address your points, if I may.
1 - Early on, almost any rear end collision resulted in the culprit getting 10 second penalty. One of the first updates reduced that tendency, presumably because it was being abused by people brake checking others. As I've said, and we all know to be true, the game knows when you are slowing down in a location where you should not be. It is, in fact, how penalties are scrubbed. I recommend returning to the old method and penalizing rear end collisions, maybe not 10 seconds, but at least with the sensitivity of old. If a player has a rear end collision while braking in a non-braking zone, the penalty should be shared.
2 & 3 - The penalty severity should be inverted and consistent across a broader range. This forces lower ranks to learn that contact is not acceptable, where as now, contact is the way to achieve a higher rank where you THEN learn that it's not acceptable at the cost of others.
I address this below.
This idea of "scrubbing off penalties" was misguided from the beginning. You should carry your penalties until the end just like real racing. In real racing, the marshals assess penalties after the fact. It's great to know what penalty you have, but scrubbing off is bad.
That said, the system created to allow scrubbing off penalties should be employed to determine blame. The system knows where drivers should be braking, and when they should be accelerating, and by how much. That can be used to put a player in a game state of "fault" and if a collision occurs while a player is in a fault state, give them a penalty. It won't be perfect, but it should be better.
This ship has sailed. They could put this system in place in GT League, but with little to play for in GT League, it will just reduce participation in that feature (if there is any to speak of). I feel strongly that an inverse ramp of penalty severity will be the only way to help this.
There needs to be a four pronged attack here. If I were hired to fix this problem, this is exactly what I would suggest. (full disclosure, I actually used to do this for a living. I would review pre-release games and give recommendations. I was also the lead designer on several versions of Battlefield..you might have heard of it
..there, now y'all know the truth..you can actually google my GTPlanet name and find old interviews if you think I'm making this up)
1 - Better game design - The emotional reward is not enough. There needs to be an increased tangible reward. In the FIA races, there's a top 24 where you get 3X points, etc. In GT6, there is a reward multiplier for daily login. Add a multiplier for race participation (max 3X or 5X per day) and point out to the player the extra bonus they are getting for improving their position. Players need to have a play space where there isn't only 1 winner. If a player can use Sport Mode in the same way they currently use GT League (to gain XP and credits) then, there will be more desire to participate. I would even go so far as tying the bonus to clean racing, but the clean race bonus needs to be less stringent. I have had clean races, no contact, no off tracks, etc, and still not received a bonus. It should be a simple check of penalty or no penalty.
2 - Tuning - For 20 years, GT has been about tuning. Tuning, from a game design perspective, creates a sense of ownership to a car. You could say that tuning makes the play field uneven, but it also makes the play field more realistic and equally uneven. It creates a sense of community and it connects the lobbies to sport mode even more.
3 - Better matchmaking. In the GT6 dailies, it states that there are often nearly 10,000 races in any one race at any one time. I find it EXTREMELY difficult to believe that there isn't enough players of one class to allow them to all be in the same room. Also, you can see a distinct attempt to create a replica of single player with hot-shoes up front, mid-pack drivers, and back markers. That may be fine when trying to create the illusion of participation, but in the real world, there needs to be an even skill base in each race. I believe the matchmaking is intentionally mismatched, and that needs to stop.
4 - More sport mode for the masses - In GT6, there are several races for road cars. The GTS approach is just too limiting. Sport Mode should be more like GT League with daily events that are more inclusive of the N class cars. Race A, Race B, Race C should really be Daily beginner, Daily intermediate, and Daily Advanced with three races per tier. Beginner is N100-N300. Intermediate is N400-N700 and Gr4. Advance is N700+, GR 3, and GR1. Race length increases with 3-4 laps on beginner, tire wear and fuel use at 1X. Intermediate has laps of 5-8 with tire wear and fuel use at 4X, basically not enough to require stops. Advanced has 10-15 lap races with tire wear and fuel use requiring pit strategy, including tire choice at race start. As a side note, BoP should restore a car to it's natural N level to maintain diversity (or we'll get everyone in a Porsche, all the time).
Then again, what do I know
btw, my afternoon appointment was cancelled so I had some time to kill...sorry for the novella.
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