Mid-Race save feature for endurances?

[Jujubean]

I know there are several threads that address this in some regard, but I didn't find anything other than people just saying they were hoping it would be in GT5. Has anyone heard or read any info on the possiblity of this being a reality?

There is just no way I am doing a 24 hour race in one sitting, and I really dislike B-spec Bob. In the past I had just left my PS2 on for a few days, but I always felt like that was probably bad for it. Does anyone know if it is bad to leave a PS2/3 on for like 4 days straight?

Thanks, and sorry if this has been addressed already.

 

[SrRd RacinG]

Seems unlikely. For some reason I expect less endurance races with the sheer amount of different racing styles in GT5. I think the focus of GT5 won't be on how long can you race on a certain track (endurance), but rather, how many different styles of racing can you master?

 

[Jujubean]

That might be cool. I hope there aren't just a bunch of 2-3 lap races. Those always seemed too much like an exhibition race or something. I think hour long races would be a good length. Enough time to really feel out the competition, but not so long that your eyes start to o bloodshot...

 

[Smallhorses]

In the past I had just left my PS2 on for a few days, but I always felt like that was probably bad for it. Does anyone know if it is bad to leave a PS2/3 on for like 4 days straight?

Not at all, as has been discussed elsewhere before, leaving an electrical item such as a PC, PS2/3, laptop on for a prolongued period is unlikely to do any damage at all provided it's in a well ventilated environment.
Electrical items are much more likely to suffer damage by being switched on and off a lot.

I've left my old fat PS2 switched on for 21 days when I made one running of a GT4 24hr race (got sent away on business for a week while I was about 8hrs into the race, and didn't want to sacrifice the race!) and it's never had any difficulties with that.

 

[MTC0316]

This idea is a great one, so people don't have to use a PS3 for 24 hours still on.

But as soon as I got the cars I want, I gonna start a 24 hours race with friends......

 

[Rivanov]

I hope they don't remove the 24 hours races!

 

[SuperShouden]

I expect to see a couple more endurance races, actually. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 24 Hour Daytona race at least. If Sebring appears in the game I'd expect to see a 12 Hour Sebring race. But, I really like the real races like the 24 Hours of Nurburgring and 24Hours of LeMans. They'll be even better with more cars.

But as to the mid-race save feature, I would like to see that as well. I would like to see it maybe even instead of the B-spec guy...Or maybe in addition to it. Speaking of B-spec Bob, how about having an actual co-driver. It's a little unrealistic when you switch drivers in the middle of a race and the car stops for a second and takes off. I would like to see a driver get out and another one get in.

 

[Metfanant]

But as to the mid-race save feature, I would like to see that as well. I would like to see it maybe even instead of the B-spec guy...Or maybe in addition to it. Speaking of B-spec Bob, how about having an actual co-driver. It's a little unrealistic when you switch drivers in the middle of a race and the car stops for a second and takes off. I would like to see a driver get out and another one get in.

I like it...

I think there should certainly be a save feature for mid races. Lots of people are going to want to complete those races, but at the same time not be able to devote an actual 24 hours to their video games. I also like the idea of allowing co-drivers where you can switch off at certain intervals and allow B-spec Bob, as well as C-spec Carl (cheesy i know) to drive, as having 2 co-drivers in a 24hour race is actually a more proper simulation than you, a single driver completing the entire 24 hour race

Also...Regarding the whole idea that leaving a PS3 on for 24 hours should not cause it harm as long as its well ventilated, because electronic devices suffer from being turned on and off....

While what you say is mostly true, there are so many other things to take into account. You do have moving parts within the PS3 such as cooling fans that can fail with extended use. PS3's tend to be dust magnets, Simply cleaning off the vents on it does not keep the insides clean. As the PS3 continually works, it will continually produce heat. If the air flow inside the console is obstructed by dust inside the buildup of heat will continue to increase over the length of time that the console is running.

Not to mention that things like HDTV's (regardless of panel technology:LCD, Plasma, DLP etc) all have components that wear out over time.

 

[Seismica]

Yes we want it, we've been asking for this for a while. We don't want to remove the long endurance races from GT because they can be fun, but we don't want to have to sit night after night playing a few hours at a time in fear of power cuts and/or environmentalist family members.

I don't really see any other solution... B-spec is ok but its not brilliant to be honest.

 

[Heath_1]

This feature would come in quite handy when It comes to 24 hr races. That way I can play for 2 or so hrs at a time and actually complete 24 hr races. I never bothered in GT4 because that's bad for your health, plus who's got the time?

 

[DRambo]

It would be totally irresponsible of PD to include endurance races that encourage people to leave their console running needlessly. I of course refer to climate change. Apart from that, I have my own electricity bill to think of. For these reasons, I expect to see a game save option.

 

[N155AN]

i hope the save option works so like when you pit in, it gives you the option to save, and it will save the grid order from that point, i see it a bit random saving the race while your actually on a lap

 

[JetStar]

Whether it's safe or not, I wouldn't want to leave my ps3 on for more than a day.

 

[OnlyMe]

It's realy high time that PD puts in a save option while pitting in endurances. The game 'Le Mans 24hr' offered this possibility years and years ago, so it is technically possible.

 

[paulpg87]

Whether it's safe or not, I wouldn't want to leave my ps3 on for more than a day.

👍. .. and however make an endurance race of 24h will take me like 20 days.

 

[Hypo_Pylon]

Much rather have an option to save progress each time you pit in than have B-spec Bob drive.

 

[JetStar]

Perhaps the save feature should only be introduced for the longer endurance races, like the 8, 12 and 24hr ones? And maybe it should only be available after a certain amount of race time e.g. 2-3 hours, maybe more. No one can be expected to drive 8 hours in one sitting, but I would hardly call racing half an hour a day of a 3 hour race endurance racing.

 

[WolfRacer543]

I've left my old fat PS2 switched on for 21 days when I made one running of a GT4 24hr race (got sent away on business for a week while I was about 8hrs into the race, and didn't want to sacrifice the race!) and it's never had any difficulties with that.

That isn't a brilliant option, given a non-slim PS3 consumes around 180W even when idling, to run for 21 days straight it'd consume around 91kWh of energy. Not sure what electricity pricing is out there, but here I'm paying around 15c/kWh, so thats around $15AUD worth of electricity

 

[Metfanant]

Perhaps the save feature should only be introduced for the longer endurance races, like the 8, 12 and 24hr ones? And maybe it should only be available after a certain amount of race time e.g. 2-3 hours, maybe more. No one can be expected to drive 8 hours in one sitting, but I would hardly call racing half an hour a day of a 3 hour race endurance racing.

so you're saying that someone with a full time job and family that may only have maybe an hour or so of enough free time to devote entirely to a video game should not have the ability to complete the game to its fullest?

 

[Jujubean]

i hope the save option works so like when you pit in, it gives you the option to save, and it will save the grid order from that point, i see it a bit random saving therace while your actually on a lap

I agree. It would be stupid to do it any other way.

so you're saying that someone with a full time job and family that may only have maybe an hour or so of enough free time to devote entirely to a video game should not have the ability to complete the game to its fullest?

I think an hour or so between saves would be good? Maybe even you can save it whenever you want. I think there should be a limit to how many times you can load from a save though, so you can just save every pit, then have a really bad lap, lose your lead entirely and just reload to try again.

 

[Smallhorses]

That isn't a brilliant option, given a non-slim PS3 consumes around 180W even when idling, to run for 21 days straight it'd consume around 91kWh of energy. Not sure what electricity pricing is out there, but here I'm paying around 15c/kWh, so thats around $15AUD worth of electricity

Meh.

When you've run one of these:

(10 x PS2, 10 x DFP/G25/DFGT, 2 network switches & 10 x TVs for about 8hr per day for 2 days)
then you can start worrying about electricity bills!!!
Having said that, our July bill only spiked by $20 (USD) and our usage was a little under 100kWh more than a normal month.

 

[The_Hate_U_Gave]

B-Spec, with the ability to save while in B-spec mode or in the pits. That could work.

 

[Zimmerd]

I think we had already 3 threads or more about this topic...

 

[Dessy182]

In real 24 hour races there are driver changes every few hours.

I feel we should have the option to save when a driver change is made - OR - skip the next few drivers' stints until your one again. A good way to balance this would be to have higher rewards if you actually drive the whole thing - and if you skip many hours you get a reduced reward (prize money?).

But yes a save of some description should be introduced. It's madness and unrealistic if you think of one person going for 24 hours without stopping. You can pause and play the next day - but saving and turning on again the next day would be much more logical.

 

[JetStar]

so you're saying that someone with a full time job and family that may only have maybe an hour or so of enough free time to devote entirely to a video game should not have the ability to complete the game to its fullest?

That's a valid point, but being able to stop 5 minutes into the race kind of depletes the idea of endurance racing.

I think an hour or so between saves would be good?

👍

I think there should be a limit to how many times you can load from a save though, so you can just save every pit, then have a really bad lap, lose your lead entirely and just reload to try again.

Only once. That would be as bad as rewind.

 

[Seismica]

It shouldn't really be limited in any way other than you have to pit in in order to save. There shouldn't be any time limits load limits etc. because they're stupid to be honest with you. Plus it just makes it harder to implement.

One thing i will say, is endurance races/events only. Any race under an hour in my opinion can't really be counted as an endurance.

 

[Northstar]

It shouldn't really be limited in any way other than you have to pit in in order to save. There shouldn't be any time limits load limits etc. because they're stupid to be honest with you. Plus it just makes it harder to implement.

One thing i will say, is endurance races/events only. Any race under an hour in my opinion can't really be counted as an endurance.

Couldn't have said it better.

I'm surprised the "It's not realistic" argument hasn't popped up yet.

 

[cletus 669]

I think we had already 3 threads or more about this topic...

As with every other topic. I think people forgot how to use the search function (located at the top of the page people!)

 

[Spagetti69]

No saves, no pauses, sit on a kamode.

 

[FoolKiller]

That's a valid point, but being able to stop 5 minutes into the race kind of depletes the idea of endurance racing.

But it also ruins your race too, as a pit in GT4 took, I believe 13 seconds at its fastest. So, if someone could only put in 5 minutes every day they would basically be adding 3-5 seconds to each lap (depending on the track). Let them do it, because they will never show up on a leaderboard or affect your game in any way by doing it too often.

And you can make it even less friendly by adding something like a 5 second delay to any pit that involves save and loading (just once per pit), as if to account for a driver change. Heck, even have a driver change animation when they do it so the time cost is apparent.

Only once. That would be as bad as rewind.

I can't see it being that abused if it is just an endurance race thing. Doing it frequently could easily turn a 24hr race into a 48 hr race.

And I think one thing to keep people honest would be an addition to the stats page. Have a stat for pit saves, and pit loads. Less loads than saves show that it wasn't used in this way enough to matter. A 1/1 ratio means that on average it was purely a save and exit and load to restart choice. More loads than saves makes it blatantly obvious that they used it in this way at least once. Also have a number for endurance races completed, or maybe just pit stops, so that you can see how often people save during their pits.

I'm surprised the "It's not realistic" argument hasn't popped up yet.

I've seen a few that are hinting at it as close as possible without actually saying it.

All I know is that I played Le Mans 24 Hours on the PS2 and it was not some abused system, that felt like an unrealistic cheat.