KOTY race, tips for next year

[Jumbone1]

I had my first KOTY race last night at end of the first year of this terrific driving game. No idea how I missed this one 20 odd years ago, it's a gem.

Anyway I was running a Class B R32 skyline in the final month of the year, and couldn't change cars as I would have been outside the top 6 for the KOTY. The 2nd to last RS race at Lowenseering I won and beat a NSX fairly comfortably, but on the grid for KOTY was the Class A RX7, which I found out in free race is a strong opponent on A Class in similar machinery on Expert difficulty. The race started well at The Ring and I was leading thanks to 4WD launch but RX7 gained and was close behind, a small mistake and the RX7 was past and pulled out 11 second gap by end of the two laps and I finished 2nd place. Both laps were under 8 minutes but no way could I find 11 seconds with my limited ability. I thought the R32 was a strong B Class car from facing it in races against the AI, as it's usually the front runner.


Does anyone know what determines the grid for the KOTY? the RX7 wasn't the only A Class car, there was an R33 and NSX . I'm thinking of trying A class cars for the next KOTY but I run the risk of facing the RUFs. If I use an A class car can R class cars turn up on the grid?

I've now started Year 2, I've not used any Save States or reloaded memory card saves in my playthrough and don't plan to. I will also practice The Ring more.

Another question if I may, I got a bit confused with some of the RS championships events with 4 races over a month, as there are no championship points awarded after each race and appear to be 4x single races. Also is there any point/incentive in winning them all, as I don't think they all offer a prize car, some did but others did not.

 

[TumeK5]

Another question if I may, I got a bit confused with some of the RS championships events with 4 races over a month, as there are no championship points awarded after each race and appear to be 4x single races. Also is there any point/incentive in winning them all, as I don't think they all offer a prize car, some did but others did not.

I can answer this bit.

No, there is no particular incentive in doing the championships. And as you said, they are not actually championships, but just individual races presented as a championship as you do them within the month with the same car.

The RS races in general are the key to unlocking race cars, however.

 

[Jumbone1]

I can answer this bit.

No, there is no particular incentive in doing the championships. And as you said, they are not actually championships, but just individual races presented as a championship as you do them within the month with the same car.

The RS races in general are the key to unlocking race cars, however.

Thanks for confirming, I will have to keep an eye out on the upcoming RS races to get the race cars I missed in the first year. I've already cleared the January races and started levelling up a C55 AMG with a mixture of R1 and RS events, seems pretty decent.

 

[Jumbone1]

I'm on Year 5 now of life mode, I have completed 4x KOTY races, and come 2nd every time as
I have faced unbeatable 1st place cars every year. 1st year my B class R32 Skyline faced the A class RX7 Spirit, 2nd year then I took an NSX type zero but a Ford GT turned up. 3rd year I ran a B Class Silvia and faced a Caterham. Then in my last KOTY I took Viper GTS, and this time faced a rocket ship CTR.

In my desperation I found a patch released, so when you change cars you don't lose a game week. I've been trying to find out what triggers certain opponents to appear and if there is any repeatable logic/pattern to it. Well no there isn't, it appears random and the grid is loosely based on your car and odds at that track. If you click join race and a grid of opponents is generated, that is then set, even if you go back to the screen with your spinning car where you can select Join Race - Change Car - Rest etc the grid will stay the same if you click Join Race again. But if you Change Car and select another car the grid of opponents will change again based on that car. But if you change cars again and go back to the previous car the grid resets again, but the opponent cars are usually not the same compared to the first time you went to Join Race, despite being in an identical car. Basically there is built in randomness at play here, and if you are unlucky like me can face unbeatable opponents 4x years running at KOTY, on the other hand you can get lucky and have the lowest odds on the grid.

Something else I have overlooked which is why I've had a tough time at KOTY is I've sometimes used a level 1 car. I've now realised this is a mistake, the Al opponent cars in the RS events are running fully upgraded or Level 10 cars, at least for A Class down, not sure about R Class. After doing some Time Attacks at Tsukuba in Level 1 A Class RX7 Spirit A, I decided to race a grid of the same car on Expert difficulty in Free Race, the AIs best laps were low 1.06s or high 1.05s. Just by chance I then faced an RX7 at Tsukuba in an RS event in my low level Viper GTS, well the RX7 was now lapping in the low 1.02s!! So can only assume is fully upgraded Level 10.

I repeated the same with a RS event at Rev City race. The winning CTR was doing 1.08s, I reran the same race in Free Race with Expert difficulty and CTR's were much slower in the 1.12s. So it seems in Free Race the opponent AI even on Expert in Free Race are running Level 1 cars, I've done some one make races with a level 1 player car and the acceleration and grip appears about the same.

Some RS events in Life mode is a different story, expect the AI opponents to be running full level 10 upgrades this includes KOTY. Some RS events though the AI can be slow, slower than Free Race Expert mode which is odd, I experienced this a few times at Löwenseering.

Regarding the patch, the best thing about it is that you can enter every RS event in one game year as you don't lose a week for changing cars which is required for some events. It also makes randomiser or prize car selection playthroughs possible now in Life mode.