This story was inspired by staying awake all night and the following thread.
Spot Races and Lap Time Comparisons
Feedback on race setup.
by
Nuvolari
New Member
Location:
Woodstock, Georgia, USA
-----------------------------------------
and
-----------------------------------------
SimRaceDriver
Bronze Member
SimRaceDriver's Avatar
Location:
California, USA
-----------------------------------------
another related thread:
==========================================
Arcade Mode
Tsukuba Circuit 30laps
Castrol Tom's Supra (JGTC) '00 - 427 - 1056 - R2
power = -9
weight = -4
assist = off
tires = R2
tire damage = harsh
opponent = +10
gearbox = 360km
Competition:
Viper GTS-R Team Oreca '00 - 596ps - 1150kg - R2
Ford GTLM Race Car '02 - 615ps - 1140kg - R2
Fort GTLM Race Car Spec II '04 - 615ps - 1130kg - R2
Nissan Fairlady Z Concept Race Car - 617 - 1120 - R2
Nissan GTR Concept R.C. '02 - 625 - 1100 - R2
The race started out fine enough. I was, of course in last place to start, but quickly joined the rest of the field. There was a brief forray into the grass under the Firestone bridge on lap 3, but I was in 2nd place by lap 4 and knocking on Team Oreca's back door. I squeezed by the Ford's on the first left turn between the mild S and the Firestone bridge, then past the the Nissans under the bridge and at the hairpin before the back straight. The Viper just had too much pwer on the straight and not so slowly pulled away from me as soon as we entered. All I could do was try to catch his slipstream and hold on for the ride. I really felt the extra weight in the last sweeper coming on to the start/finish . The Supra was easy to keep on the road, despite it's obvious desire to park in the grass next to the grandstand.
On lap 8 the GTR came out of nowhere to take 2nd. Really! Where WAS that guy? I was staying with him and the Viper through the next lap where I saw the GTR make a really scary pass coming off the back straight, about a quarter of the way through the sweeping last turn. It was one of the boldest AI moves I've seen. Right where both cars were supposed to be making their second brake 'correction' the GTR unceremoniously dove to the inside, surprisingly not hitting Team Oreca (I guess the AI reserves that kind of stuff for passing players), but certainly knocking him off his line. This shudder in Team Oreca's composure allowed me to take 2nd on the ensuing lap, but I couldn't hold him off on that long back straight. It's not really so long, but when you're flooring it and the other car is just bearing down on you it seems like an eternity. He pulled past on the last turn. The Supra was still feeling heavy here. I was able to stay right with the Viper the whole race up to this point and could pass when there was room. If I could just get enough ahead of him to thwart that power move on the last turn I'd be in good shape... for second. Meanwhile in just the last two laps the GTR seemed to have no limit to how far he could extend his lead as he just pulled further and further away.
I got a little overzealous, however, trying to make a pass under the Firestone bridge and ended up letting the Team Oreca car pull away after giving him a slightly discourteous tap. Again, on the next lap I was forcing the issue. With more than half the race to go it seems a little hot headed, but the GTR was quickly driving out of sight and the Viper was starting to feel like a moving road block. I found my self suddenly slung to the right and staring at the orange barrier at the side of the road. The Viper was gone.
This was essentially the end of my race with both the slower traffic and the first two positions bookending me by several seconds, both ends practically out of sight. I did catch brief views of the Viper on slow turns, but of course he was gone by the time I got there. The GTR was making a mockery of the whole proceeding, leading me by 19.134 only 7 laps after overtaking me AND the Oreca Viper.
I decided my only hope was to keep moving. I didn't seem to be making any ground on the Viper and the Fords and the Z weren't making any progress on me, especially with the Gulf GT 40 pitting on lap 16. I though if I had any luck at all the Ai would pull their classic strategy of pitting on the last lap.
By lap 18 my tires were starting to look pretty sunny. The Viper was still 5 and a half seconds away, but the Fairlady Z was more than 6 behind, so I wasn't too nervous. I got a little squirrelly coming onto the back straight on the 21st lap. A sign of things to come, I thought, but the GTR was pitting in ahead of me, though he was now 28 seconds ahead of even Team Oreca who, to my delight, pitted right behind. When I came across start/finish the split time read 14 seconds, 11 by the first marker, but back up to 13 at the next. The Z pit in on lap 23 and left nearly half the course both in front and behind me by lap 25. At this point I was fish-tailing around about every bend and realized I'd never keep the Supra on the road for five more laps with my left side tires bright red. I pit in.
Back out in third, over 7 seconds behind Team Oreca and more than 42 to go for the GTR Concept LM. I had only one comfort and that was that I'd be gauranteed a trip to the podium in 3rd, but my A-spec points were out the window. Front suspensions don't give out in GT4 afterall. Third place doesn't count in single races either.
I was outclassed by the legendary GTR Concept LM, but this 'handicap' provided a close race between the Supra and the Viper at least. This was run just as a one off test of a system described by Nuvolari and refined with some testing by SimRaceDriver as mentioned above. I'm only 35 and half percent through the game, so I don't have the European touring cars their system has been set up for. I just picked Tsukuba because the margin for error is not very high an didn't really have the motivation to do a full 100miler as was being suggested. I just wanted to get a feel for their system. I also haven't done any Arcade racing yet, so I was unaware of the quick tune and race options that could be manipulated for variation. It's more complicated, but also more useful than 'Easy' 'Normal' and 'Hard'.
I lost, but I had a fun little race and learned something new about the game.
Thanks to everyone else writing cool stories and documenting their races. It's a lot of fun to read when I can't be racing myself.
Spot Races and Lap Time Comparisons
Feedback on race setup.
by
Nuvolari
New Member
Location:
Woodstock, Georgia, USA
-----------------------------------------
and
-----------------------------------------
SimRaceDriver
Bronze Member
SimRaceDriver's Avatar
Location:
California, USA
-----------------------------------------
another related thread:
==========================================
Arcade Mode
Tsukuba Circuit 30laps
Castrol Tom's Supra (JGTC) '00 - 427 - 1056 - R2
power = -9
weight = -4
assist = off
tires = R2
tire damage = harsh
opponent = +10
gearbox = 360km
Competition:
Viper GTS-R Team Oreca '00 - 596ps - 1150kg - R2
Ford GTLM Race Car '02 - 615ps - 1140kg - R2
Fort GTLM Race Car Spec II '04 - 615ps - 1130kg - R2
Nissan Fairlady Z Concept Race Car - 617 - 1120 - R2
Nissan GTR Concept R.C. '02 - 625 - 1100 - R2
The race started out fine enough. I was, of course in last place to start, but quickly joined the rest of the field. There was a brief forray into the grass under the Firestone bridge on lap 3, but I was in 2nd place by lap 4 and knocking on Team Oreca's back door. I squeezed by the Ford's on the first left turn between the mild S and the Firestone bridge, then past the the Nissans under the bridge and at the hairpin before the back straight. The Viper just had too much pwer on the straight and not so slowly pulled away from me as soon as we entered. All I could do was try to catch his slipstream and hold on for the ride. I really felt the extra weight in the last sweeper coming on to the start/finish . The Supra was easy to keep on the road, despite it's obvious desire to park in the grass next to the grandstand.
On lap 8 the GTR came out of nowhere to take 2nd. Really! Where WAS that guy? I was staying with him and the Viper through the next lap where I saw the GTR make a really scary pass coming off the back straight, about a quarter of the way through the sweeping last turn. It was one of the boldest AI moves I've seen. Right where both cars were supposed to be making their second brake 'correction' the GTR unceremoniously dove to the inside, surprisingly not hitting Team Oreca (I guess the AI reserves that kind of stuff for passing players), but certainly knocking him off his line. This shudder in Team Oreca's composure allowed me to take 2nd on the ensuing lap, but I couldn't hold him off on that long back straight. It's not really so long, but when you're flooring it and the other car is just bearing down on you it seems like an eternity. He pulled past on the last turn. The Supra was still feeling heavy here. I was able to stay right with the Viper the whole race up to this point and could pass when there was room. If I could just get enough ahead of him to thwart that power move on the last turn I'd be in good shape... for second. Meanwhile in just the last two laps the GTR seemed to have no limit to how far he could extend his lead as he just pulled further and further away.
I got a little overzealous, however, trying to make a pass under the Firestone bridge and ended up letting the Team Oreca car pull away after giving him a slightly discourteous tap. Again, on the next lap I was forcing the issue. With more than half the race to go it seems a little hot headed, but the GTR was quickly driving out of sight and the Viper was starting to feel like a moving road block. I found my self suddenly slung to the right and staring at the orange barrier at the side of the road. The Viper was gone.
This was essentially the end of my race with both the slower traffic and the first two positions bookending me by several seconds, both ends practically out of sight. I did catch brief views of the Viper on slow turns, but of course he was gone by the time I got there. The GTR was making a mockery of the whole proceeding, leading me by 19.134 only 7 laps after overtaking me AND the Oreca Viper.
I decided my only hope was to keep moving. I didn't seem to be making any ground on the Viper and the Fords and the Z weren't making any progress on me, especially with the Gulf GT 40 pitting on lap 16. I though if I had any luck at all the Ai would pull their classic strategy of pitting on the last lap.
By lap 18 my tires were starting to look pretty sunny. The Viper was still 5 and a half seconds away, but the Fairlady Z was more than 6 behind, so I wasn't too nervous. I got a little squirrelly coming onto the back straight on the 21st lap. A sign of things to come, I thought, but the GTR was pitting in ahead of me, though he was now 28 seconds ahead of even Team Oreca who, to my delight, pitted right behind. When I came across start/finish the split time read 14 seconds, 11 by the first marker, but back up to 13 at the next. The Z pit in on lap 23 and left nearly half the course both in front and behind me by lap 25. At this point I was fish-tailing around about every bend and realized I'd never keep the Supra on the road for five more laps with my left side tires bright red. I pit in.
Back out in third, over 7 seconds behind Team Oreca and more than 42 to go for the GTR Concept LM. I had only one comfort and that was that I'd be gauranteed a trip to the podium in 3rd, but my A-spec points were out the window. Front suspensions don't give out in GT4 afterall. Third place doesn't count in single races either.
I was outclassed by the legendary GTR Concept LM, but this 'handicap' provided a close race between the Supra and the Viper at least. This was run just as a one off test of a system described by Nuvolari and refined with some testing by SimRaceDriver as mentioned above. I'm only 35 and half percent through the game, so I don't have the European touring cars their system has been set up for. I just picked Tsukuba because the margin for error is not very high an didn't really have the motivation to do a full 100miler as was being suggested. I just wanted to get a feel for their system. I also haven't done any Arcade racing yet, so I was unaware of the quick tune and race options that could be manipulated for variation. It's more complicated, but also more useful than 'Easy' 'Normal' and 'Hard'.
I lost, but I had a fun little race and learned something new about the game.
Thanks to everyone else writing cool stories and documenting their races. It's a lot of fun to read when I can't be racing myself.
