Progress

[Vule]

I don't know if a new topic is a good idea or not, but I have so many things on my mind regarding this game and racing games in general, mainly from a standpoint of a casual racer, not a pro. And I hope this will help some of you "slower" players out there that want to improve. And sorry for the possibly very long post

First of all - I'm 37 years old so I had my share of playing racing games as a kid, from the first Gran Turismo, up to the GT4, which was the last racing game I played before selling all my gear and putting gaming to rest. But, last year I had a chance to buy almost brand new Logi G29 from a friend, my wife had her PS4 Pro which was collecting dust somewhere, and I said OK, let's try again, let's see how it is now. GT Sport was still around, so I bought it for like 7$ and connected everything. Oh boy, the happiness, the feeling, the graphics, I was amazed. And then I read that the GT7 is coming, and actually went out and bought a cockpit for the wheel, I rearanged the living room to fit it, and I was on my way.

My main "issue" here is that I have a 9-5 job, a 11 month old daughter, and those things take like 90% of my awake time. So when I say I'm a casual player, I really mean it

So, GT7 came, I purchased it right away and started with the licences and cafe menus. Slowly, I improved my driving, but I was still using traction control and stability management. Later I was only left with the TC1, and I was feeling good, up until a point where I decided to go online. Aaand only then I realised how slow I actually was. I watched many tips and tricks videos, but I was not able to replicate that in my laptimes and skills. But I didn't give up, I tried and failed, tried again, until I was satisfied with my skill.

In the meantime, I upgraded my setup, I got a PS5 and I got a great offer to buy a T300RS GT with T3PM pedals, and went for it. Oh my, what a difference it was, the feeling, the feedback, the belt driven wheel, it was amazing and I feel like I improved even more, I had better car control, felt the understeer much better and earlier than with the Logi wheel. And as the time went by, I was getting better, my rating quickly went to B/S where I spent most of my time. I was able to win some races, made a lot of top 5 finishes.

So, 6-7 months later, I'm currently at a low A rating with S sportsmanship, I don't use traction control anymore, I started using the bumper cam instead of bonnet cam because I feel like it's more responsive and precise somehow, I think I can catch the oversteer more quickly. I don't do many online races because of lack of time and daily life stuff, but I try to do at least couple of races each week, mainly on weekends. And I still feel like I'm improving with each one. I actually went back to all the licence tests and ran all of them again, just to see what the improvement was, and I was amazed, some tests I beat my time for almost a second, some even more, and I went on top of the friends leaderboard for almost all of them (I have made some friends here, 20-ish of them, so I have some reference). I now run for gold on each time trial, where before I was happy if I can beat the silver time.

Next step for me will definitiely be a T-LCM pedals, because I feel this is the main issue for me now, very soft brake pedal on the T3PM without any real feedback, so the consistency in races is not very good, I know my braking points but I fail to brake at the same "rate" every time. I think this will improve my feeling and laptimes even more.

So, to conclude this first post and make a point (if I haven't already), practice makes "perfect", like in all other segments of life, you just need to be patient, do your research (watch some great GT7 youtube streamers, watch where they brake, how they turn, how they trailbrake, how they push the accelerator), never give up, even if you don't have the spare time, you can still be faster if you focus on it, and the reward will be big, you will feel the great satisfaction when you succeed in your "mission" - wheather that is to jump to C rating, B rating, A rating, whatever. Just drive, drive out of your comfort zone, turn the TC off, spin for 100 times if neccesary, but you will make it the 101st and everything will be easier then.

I hope that some of you will also share your progress experience, what helped you the most, where are you now, what do you want to achieve etc.

And have a great day

 

[jimihemmy]

First, thank you for the post!

Second, I am not trying to rain on your parade but going back and redoing some items is not all due to your improvements but also due to changing physics over the life of the title. I too have done the same thing. In fact, I could not gold some circuit experiences in the earlier days and still have not golded all of them. I know some of it is due to improving driving skill but I also know that the physics and tire model has changed over time. Again, I am not knocking your progression, just pointing out that there is more to it. You obviously have gotten better as you have reached A/S levels even as a casual driver.

I myself have flirted with A/S on GT Sport but could never stay there long (dang Ring races!!) but I know I am a natural B/S driver and I am ok with that. I have limited time also. Adulting just takes over everything!

I have played on all of the GT titles so I consider myself a veteran but I know my limitations.

As far as online racing, just do it! I was not a fan of multiplayer anything before but it was the only way to play Gt Sport (originally) so I had to get used to it. And it was great! You can only get better by racing better competition. The AI is ok but is no match for real life opponents.

And to anyone reading...practice does make perfect (or at least better)!

 

[platocplx]

This makes sense. Im in a similar boat as you OP, been playing some more got a whole wheel setup, I feel like my biggest issue is worrying when I brake and I feel like I correct the wheel too late or Turn in too slow def wanna get more into practicing been trying to get 1st on the million dollar race on spa recently its def a trip esp when you have to deal with weather.

 

[shenfrey]

First, thank you for the post!

Second, I am not trying to rain on your parade but going back and redoing some items is not all due to your improvements but also due to changing physics over the life of the title. I too have done the same thing. In fact, I could not gold some circuit experiences in the earlier days and still have not golded all of them. I know some of it is due to improving driving skill but I also know that the physics and tire model has changed over time. Again, I am not knocking your progression, just pointing out that there is more to it. You obviously have gotten better as you have reached A/S levels even as a casual driver.

I myself have flirted with A/S on GT Sport but could never stay there long (dang Ring races!!) but I know I am a natural B/S driver and I am ok with that. I have limited time also. Adulting just takes over everything!

I have played on all of the GT titles so I consider myself a veteran but I know my limitations.

As far as online racing, just do it! I was not a fan of multiplayer anything before but it was the only way to play Gt Sport (originally) so I had to get used to it. And it was great! You can only get better by racing better competition. The AI is ok but is no match for real life opponents.

And to anyone reading...practice does make perfect (or at least better)!

I dunno. Sometimes I find even the AI to be absolutely brutal in some events, and if I can’t even beat them then the last thing I’m going to do is go online.

 

[sartori]

You could say I started my racing in GT7, my first time in the GT series and really the first time in probably 20 years. Life got in the way of gaming a long time ago. I got a PS5 for the kids and added GT7 just in case they or I would like to play.

It happened that I got addicted to GT7 instantly. I was terrible of course, and I used every assist available and drove the Auto in Easy mode. My nephews showed me how to play and what great driving looked like. So within the first two weeks I rushed out and got a Logitech G923 set and basic stand to put it on using the dining room chair. I switched to Manual and turned down the assists - TCS:1, ABS:Weak, ASM: On. My driving improved leaps and bounds. I also found this forum and the great tunes the masters here share. I couldn't believe how much easier some of the cars I was trying to drive became. I still don't understand how PD can release cars that are practically un-drivable out of the shop, mostly the mid engined European cars. As a novice this was a huge disappointment and impediment to the enjoyment of the game. This was my first big breakthrough.

Fast forward a couple months and I had plateaued in progress, but I was still addicted. I was still using TCS, ABS and ASM but had stopped using driving lines and where I knew the track the braking markers. I decided to upgrade my basic stand to a proper seat and boy did that make a huge difference. To the tune of 3-5 seconds depending on car and track. I think the stability of the rig and the proper seating position count for a lot and shouldn't be underestimated. That was my second breakthrough.

Feeling like a champ, I decided to upgrade my wheel and peddles and went for the Logitech G Pro. Whilst that hasn't improved my PBs as much, it has completely turned the experience into something so much more realistic, immersive and more consistent. The direct drive and load cell brakes make a big difference to consistency and precision. Whilst I feel I'm a better driver now, my times haven't improved as much just from that alone.

Racing my nephews online I'm still too slow, sometimes I can keep up for a bit but they invariably leave me for dead. I can easily win races in Normal mode now but find Expert a challenge. Silvers are easy and sometimes Golds but mostly they are just out of reach for me.

I'm not sure how to improve but will take the suggestion to watch others on youtube to learn more. It seems my assist crutches are also not helping and I need to try turning TCS off as you suggest. It sounds like ABS on Weak doesn't hurt so much but what about ASM?

I'm also curious about the player ranking works, is it based on your online gaming only or in-game progress?

Thanks for the post, was a great read, great tips and very helpful.