Q&A with Slightly Mad Studios: Ian Bell [Read OP]

[CorvetteConquer]

Ok then, I suppose my favourite car from the original game has been relegated to the dustbin. Oh well.

Any word on GT1X returning?

Car class discussions have been VERY quiet. How do I know? I asked about road cars a few times to no avail lol

I am sure they'll have many new classes, for both road and race cars. If they do not wish to use a performance point system, then their original road car classes need to be reworked completely to maintain any sense of competition or balance. But I have faith.

 

[The_American]

But I fear I will not be competitive against the AI if I don't tune. Will the car at least adapt to certain types of circuits?

Lower the AI difficulty? Even 65 is now pretty hard in this game currently.

Good news is this for console also?

Yes, game feature. Not a "technology" thing. So setup sharing for all platforms.

This is great news! Do you have any info on how this sharing exactly works? Do we just make it public for friends to find? Or do we upload them to a server? And is the sharing cross-platform? Will this sharing be general or per track?

Yes, share/download from your friends. tbh, I forget how it works exactly. I need to try it out or chat with The_Owl about it.

 

[warp9engage]

Lower the AI difficulty? Even 65 is now pretty hard in this game currently.

Well, for just above average, maybe you should tone it down just a bit ?

 

[The_American]

I am sure they'll have many new classes, for both road and race cars. If they do not wish to use a performance point system, then their original road car classes need to be reworked completely to maintain any sense of competition or balance. But I have faith.

We're not done assigning them yet.

The test for Road Cars is Nordschleife timings (did I mention we laser-scanned that now?). We have a couple pretty good testers (ran in sim leagues) and they run the road cars at Nords. FWIW, they were not happy with the pC1 road categorizations either. So we hired them to fix it

There's no points system or performance rating. We go with laptimes to keep things competitive within a class.

 

[CorvetteConquer]

We're not done assigning them yet.

The test for Road Cars is Nordschleife timings (did I mention we laser-scanned that now?). We have a couple pretty good testers (ran in sim leagues) and they run the road cars at Nords. FWIW, they were not happy with the pC1 road categorizations either. So we hired them to fix it

There's no points system or performance rating. We go with laptimes to keep things competitive within a class.

I love you (too soon?)

Thanks for the response. The community CANNOT wait to see car list.

Agreed @ the classes were bad. Moving ahead, though!

 

[VBR]

@IanBell - Hi Ian, I have a few questions regarding FFB.



1) Are the "Rocket Science" options still exactly the same, or have they been simplified?

2) Even though the FFB shouldn't need to be tailored per car, do we still have the options to do so?

3) P CARS had 2 preset FFB options, P CARS 2 has 3; is this the only improvement that's been made regarding FFB options?

4) Have you made an effort to optimize each supported wheel, or are we going to be left to our own devices again fiddling endlessly with the Rocket Science options?

5) Seeing as you are playing the game exclusively on a pad during development this time around, how are you able to keep an eye on proper FFB development for wheels?


It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the way that you guys develop P CARS, but I'm not much of a masochist! As such, I was never able to get into the first game as the FFB options were so bewilideringly complex & I couldn't be bothered to print settings off the net & spend ages inputting all the data. That & all the bugs put me off entirely



Ideas;

1) It would be nice to have a "Share FFB Settings" option so that players could send FFB settings to each other, &/or upload/download them from an online library.

2) It would also be nice to have a similar option for tuning cars.

What do you reckon?

@IanBell - 3rd time lucky?

 

[DesertPenguin09]

@The_American Going by lap times at one track (Norschleife) is certainly NOT the way to make car classes. For one thing, oh I don't know, there is EVERY OTHER TRACK in the game. Secondly, power to weight ratio should be more important, as should real life car categories (sports car > super car > hyper car, etc.). You should do more testing at multiple tracks to see what cars are evenly matched.

 

[jake2013guy]

@The_American Going by lap times at one track (Norschleife) is certainly NOT the way to make car classes. For one thing, oh I don't know, there is EVERY OTHER TRACK in the game. Secondly, power to weight ratio should be more important, as should real life car categories (sports car > super car > hyper car, etc.). You should do more testing at multiple tracks to see what cars are evenly matched.

Just to clarify, they've realised it was a mistake and they've gone down a different route by allowing people to test the road cars to get a good competitive set of classes. Plus, the Nordschleife has everything ranging from technical corners to a long straight.

 

[DesertPenguin09]

I don't care what it has to test, we're talking about lap times and lap times at the Norschleife are meaningless. There are so many factors you can never get a perfect lap. Even in a game where there's no actual risk, you're not gonna be able to get every last bit out of every last corner like you would on a track that has say 10 turns. It's just wrong to make classifications based on that track.

Why do you think Formula 1 tests at Catalunya? It has such a variety of corners that almost all in some form are seen throughout the season. But it really doesn't matter what track and specifically lap times are meaningless. You need straight up experimenting and testing. Choose a smaller track with a mix of twists and straights (Catalunya) and do a race with the select cars you want to be in a certain class. Set the AI to 100 and spectate. Watch the cars you think will be competitive and see what happens.

 

[JC_Dude]

Why do you think Formula 1 tests at Catalunya?

Because it's fairly close to the factories and they can be pretty sure the weather is going to be ok.

 

[jake2013guy]

I don't care what it has to test, we're talking about lap times and lap times at the Norschleife are meaningless. There are so many factors you can never get a perfect lap. Even in a game where there's no actual risk, you're not gonna be able to get every last bit out of every last corner like you would on a track that has say 10 turns. It's just wrong to make classifications based on that track.

Why do you think Formula 1 tests at Catalunya? It has such a variety of corners that almost all in some form are seen throughout the season. But it really doesn't matter what track and specifically lap times are meaningless. You need straight up experimenting and testing. Choose a smaller track with a mix of twists and straights (Catalunya) and do a race with the select cars you want to be in a certain class. Set the AI to 100 and spectate. Watch the cars you think will be competitive and see what happens.

Wait. So you kick and cry about how it's a bad idea. What would you prefer? People to test every car at every circuit? No. That's unreasonable. Doing something like this costs time and money. You want to have a circuit that has a large variety of corners that talented sim races will get the maximum out of the car.
This isn't your everyday newspaper game reviewer, these are people who have been proven to be able to drive a car. You can easily judge a car from a lap of the Nordschleife. You can tell where a car is lacking to another. You drive one car and it's faster in the corners but slower on the straight, you can feel that. Also, people are playing the game as well so what's better than getting actual people to test your game to see if the classes are fair?

 

[The_American]

@IanBell - 3rd time lucky?

1. 4 controls now, "rocket science" gone...kind of
2. Rocket science still running in background and available to read config files (for you nerds)
3. Not exactly sure this question, more info on physics/ffb in future articles
4. We have almost every wheel in the office, plus WMD community. Want to minimize rocket surgery
5. Plus partnerships with wheel manufacturers

All this does not guarantee a perfect experience day1 but much less rocket surgery.

Yes, can share FFB since you can share vehicle setups

 

[DesertPenguin09]

Yes, can share FFB since you can share vehicle setups

This is nice as it will be quick to switch from one to another. I think it was already revealed but can you confirm there will be better preset FFB settings with a clearer understanding of how they differ?

 

[The_American]

I would say Nurburgring/Nordschleife is still the #1 internationally recognized proving ground for road cars.

When Cadillac wanted to show the world what the CTS-V could reallly do, they went to Nords



If we had a lot of time/money we would test every car on every track on every tire compound with multiple test drivers

 

[The_American]

I'll also add that we picked couple guys directly from the community to solve the vehicle classes. It's not just some math formula. Real guys just like you (and me 12 months ago before i got hired by SMS) who love to just drive and compete are setting up the classes. And we're open to community feedback, it's all "in flight" still. Lot of testing still to go.

edit: finally, these guys are doing mutliple runs and taking average lap time. No one is going for a 'perfect lap' in these situations. Also, they are testing these road cars on the fastest compounds and I _think_ the compounds will be the same for the road cars (well within a class anyway).

 

[DesertPenguin09]

I wasn't saying every track. I like the idea of one track, just that that one is too long. Never mentioned tire compound either. I would assume they're on the same regardless of which one it is.

 

[DesertPenguin09]

Maybe cars can belong to more than one class? First thing I thought of was a "Track Day Specialist" class for cars built for track days. Y'know, the BAC Mono, Caterham Superlight, Ariel Atom, those cars. Those cars should also be in another class with other sports cars to mix things up right?

 

[The_American]

Set the AI to 100 and spectate. Watch the cars you think will be competitive and see what happens.

Nah, AI uses simplified physics. Not the "high definition" player physics. This test would prove nothing.

 

[DesertPenguin09]

Gotcha

 

[CorvetteConquer]

I'll also add that we picked couple guys directly from the community to solve the vehicle classes. It's not just some math formula. Real guys just like you (and me 12 months ago before i got hired by SMS) who love to just drive and compete are setting up the classes. And we're open to community feedback, it's all "in flight" still. Lot of testing still to go.

I created a post a few pages back that suggested new classes (based on the cars we have seen so far). Please seek us out if you want some feedback. Two way streets rock

 

[SGETI]

For players "not into" tuning, we're doing in-game tuning setup sharing/download. You can share tuning setups with each other...no more webpages and Excel sheets or screenshots. Those days are in the past (well, will be later this year!)

We all have item which we want to see in this game. The above has been on my wish list. Thanks for the update.

 

[Eh Team]

@The_American I don't know if this has been asked before, but has the way cut/extension of track penalties get handed out changed? If not I have a hypothesized way to change it because in PCars as long as the outside wheels are still touching kerb you're still technically legal. Could it be changed to if the centre point of the car crosses the white line/asphalt boundary and hold more than 50-75% throttle that you will garner yourself a PLP/time penalty? It just bothers me that there's so much time to be gained by exploiting the rather lack of enforcement in the first game, I'll admit I've very much used it to my advantage but it is rather unrealistic to place nearly a whole car to the inside of a kerb and not receive a penalty of some sort.

 

[SGETI]

@The_American I don't know if this has been asked before, but has the way cut/extension of track penalties get handed out changed?

Penalties.

We've gotten rid of the 5-sec engine power cut.

In pC2 the penalties are real world penalties including: warnigs, time penalties, position "give backs", drive-throughs and black flag (DQ)

We don't mess with your car physics anymore.

 

[Eh Team]

I meant it more as what you have to do to get a penalty and not what the penalty itself is, because you can go so far over the inside kerbs and not get a penalty that it's just ridiculous.

 

[TexasTyme214]

I'll also add that we picked couple guys directly from the community to solve the vehicle classes. It's not just some math formula. Real guys just like you (and me 12 months ago before i got hired by SMS) who love to just drive and compete are setting up the classes. And we're open to community feedback, it's all "in flight" still. Lot of testing still to go.

edit: finally, these guys are doing mutliple runs and taking average lap time. No one is going for a 'perfect lap' in these situations. Also, they are testing these road cars on the fastest compounds and I _think_ the compounds will be the same for the road cars (well within a class anyway).

Are similar tests done for other classes?

 

[The_American]

I meant it more as what you have to do to get a penalty and not what the penalty itself is, because you can go so far over the inside kerbs and not get a penalty that it's just ridiculous.

Detection.

You can drive on the lines and have a wheel over. We are monitoring the vehicle midpoint. If anything right now the community is telling it is a little too forgiving but we have time to tune it.

 

[The_American]

Are similar tests done for other classes?

Yes. Good thing here is that the homologated classes seem to be quite competitive when we plug in the real world numbers. But we also do internal and community tests to make sure no GT3 car "works best" in all cases for example.

 

[TexasTyme214]

Yes. Good thing here is that the homologated classes seem to be quite competitive when we plug in the real world numbers. But we also do internal and community tests to make sure no GT3 car "works best" in all cases for example.

Excellent! I really disliked the Z4 for this sort of thing.

 

[breyzipp]

Will the game support HDR?

 

[Corsa]

@The_American
When does season 2 of The Grand Tour start?
That's what the people really want to know