Sage Ages
(Banned)
- 12,817
- Antarctica
Posting this as a way to get some general thoughts and discussions about the game down that aren't gonna get buried in the wave of complaints and ****-posting about MTXs.
Payouts and Grinding
Honestly, I'm not too fussed about the general payouts themselves. At launch, this game was one of the more generous Gran Turismo titles that I can remember (not including the seasonal events from GT5/6) and I've been content with what I've been able to get just by playing the game naturally. However, there is a very present grinding problem and PD has enacted a flawed non-solution to this by nerfing the majority of the race payouts.
Rather I believe the issue lies in the imbalance of the payouts for races. Longer events in the game simply don't pay enough for the amount of time they take, which drives players towards stuff like Fisherman's Ranch. Obviously it doesn't need to be said that this is a ridiculous and draining way to be playing the game. It makes sense to nerf FR, but reducing the payouts for other events when they should be doing the opposite has only reinforced the grinding issue. There's simply no decent selection of events in the game that pay even close to the same rate as Dirt Champions, even post-update.
Used/Legendary Car Dealers:
Somehow their dealership model is too fast and too slow at the same time. 24 hours for the game to rotate 1-3 cars is ridiculously slow and time-locks the majority of the content in the game, whilst also creating an element of FOMO whenever one of the more pricier cars shows up, which I believe also contributes to players wanting to focus on grinding for credits rather than playing the game naturally. No one knows when cars are going to show up again and it's going to take forever for them to cycle everything through.
GT5 had the system nailed down: You had a Used Dealership that rotated every race, and a global Online Dealership that rotated on a weekly basis. It was the best of both worlds and you hardly felt like you were missing out on anything. Why they decided to change from this is beyond me.
Car Prices:
I get the idea, higher car prices to reflect the increasing rarity and demand for older classic cars. It makes logical sense, even if it's maybe not the greatest idea from a game perspective. However, I do feel it's a bit ill-suited in GT7 given the limited scope of the cars in this game and I feel as though it would've been much more fitting to something with a similar scope to older GT games, where the cars where available in numerous differing trims and submodels.
Let's say you wanted to buy an R34 Skyline in GT7. The only option for you to buy in this game is a V-Spec II Nur, a $400,000 car. For anyone who's familiar with these cars, you'll know that this is one of the rarer and arguably "best" model of the R34 GT-R, and that it naturally commands a premium over other models. However, this can be frustrating for anyone who isn't a nerdy collector because the "best" option is the only one that's actually available in the game. This same scenario applies to a lot of the older cars in the game.
Of course, there are exceptions that do negate this issue somewhat - you can spend $450k on a Porsche 993 Clubsport RS, or settle with the nearly identical $200k 993 RS - but for the majority of cars like this in the game, there is no cheaper or less desirable alternatives available. The priority towards rare and super nerdy models in this game's car selection has come to bite everyone in the ass, and there isn't exactly an easy way around it if they wish to keep this pricing model in tact. The scope of the game is simply too small to really support it.
Roulette Tickets and Rare Upgrades:
Once again another example of this game's ridiculously slow and tedious pacing. One ticket per day, with a seemingly random chance for what level ticket you get is frustrating as hell. I don't mind having hidden rewards or keeping rare things rare (it adds a little more depth to the game than say, GT6), but the drop rate is absurd when you consider the amount of possible prizes. Assuming that you get a 4-star or better ticket (which isn't guaranteed), you're looking at something like a 1/4000 chance (it's probably not that small, this is just a guestimate) of getting an engine or rare part for a car that you actually want, and that's if you don't win cash or a prize car.
What I would like to suggest is at least having rare parts and engines be available in some sort of rotating marketplace. Maybe in GT Auto, maybe in the Tuning Shop, you get the idea. Gives people something to look forward to but isn't too frustrating to deal with.
TL;DR: The pacing of this game sucks. Everything feels too slow, too unobtainable, but somehow a bit too FOMOish.
...and no, I do not expect PD to do anything that I ask them do. Game development is a pain in the ass and I know they don't have time to care about what some entitled brat thinks they should be doing with their game. I'm just throwing ideas out there for the sake of discussion/boredom.
Payouts and Grinding
Honestly, I'm not too fussed about the general payouts themselves. At launch, this game was one of the more generous Gran Turismo titles that I can remember (not including the seasonal events from GT5/6) and I've been content with what I've been able to get just by playing the game naturally. However, there is a very present grinding problem and PD has enacted a flawed non-solution to this by nerfing the majority of the race payouts.
Rather I believe the issue lies in the imbalance of the payouts for races. Longer events in the game simply don't pay enough for the amount of time they take, which drives players towards stuff like Fisherman's Ranch. Obviously it doesn't need to be said that this is a ridiculous and draining way to be playing the game. It makes sense to nerf FR, but reducing the payouts for other events when they should be doing the opposite has only reinforced the grinding issue. There's simply no decent selection of events in the game that pay even close to the same rate as Dirt Champions, even post-update.
Used/Legendary Car Dealers:
Somehow their dealership model is too fast and too slow at the same time. 24 hours for the game to rotate 1-3 cars is ridiculously slow and time-locks the majority of the content in the game, whilst also creating an element of FOMO whenever one of the more pricier cars shows up, which I believe also contributes to players wanting to focus on grinding for credits rather than playing the game naturally. No one knows when cars are going to show up again and it's going to take forever for them to cycle everything through.
GT5 had the system nailed down: You had a Used Dealership that rotated every race, and a global Online Dealership that rotated on a weekly basis. It was the best of both worlds and you hardly felt like you were missing out on anything. Why they decided to change from this is beyond me.
Car Prices:
I get the idea, higher car prices to reflect the increasing rarity and demand for older classic cars. It makes logical sense, even if it's maybe not the greatest idea from a game perspective. However, I do feel it's a bit ill-suited in GT7 given the limited scope of the cars in this game and I feel as though it would've been much more fitting to something with a similar scope to older GT games, where the cars where available in numerous differing trims and submodels.
Let's say you wanted to buy an R34 Skyline in GT7. The only option for you to buy in this game is a V-Spec II Nur, a $400,000 car. For anyone who's familiar with these cars, you'll know that this is one of the rarer and arguably "best" model of the R34 GT-R, and that it naturally commands a premium over other models. However, this can be frustrating for anyone who isn't a nerdy collector because the "best" option is the only one that's actually available in the game. This same scenario applies to a lot of the older cars in the game.
Of course, there are exceptions that do negate this issue somewhat - you can spend $450k on a Porsche 993 Clubsport RS, or settle with the nearly identical $200k 993 RS - but for the majority of cars like this in the game, there is no cheaper or less desirable alternatives available. The priority towards rare and super nerdy models in this game's car selection has come to bite everyone in the ass, and there isn't exactly an easy way around it if they wish to keep this pricing model in tact. The scope of the game is simply too small to really support it.
Roulette Tickets and Rare Upgrades:
Once again another example of this game's ridiculously slow and tedious pacing. One ticket per day, with a seemingly random chance for what level ticket you get is frustrating as hell. I don't mind having hidden rewards or keeping rare things rare (it adds a little more depth to the game than say, GT6), but the drop rate is absurd when you consider the amount of possible prizes. Assuming that you get a 4-star or better ticket (which isn't guaranteed), you're looking at something like a 1/4000 chance (it's probably not that small, this is just a guestimate) of getting an engine or rare part for a car that you actually want, and that's if you don't win cash or a prize car.
What I would like to suggest is at least having rare parts and engines be available in some sort of rotating marketplace. Maybe in GT Auto, maybe in the Tuning Shop, you get the idea. Gives people something to look forward to but isn't too frustrating to deal with.
TL;DR: The pacing of this game sucks. Everything feels too slow, too unobtainable, but somehow a bit too FOMOish.
...and no, I do not expect PD to do anything that I ask them do. Game development is a pain in the ass and I know they don't have time to care about what some entitled brat thinks they should be doing with their game. I'm just throwing ideas out there for the sake of discussion/boredom.
