The return of sticky grass

[Aftrbrnr]

I know opinions will be mixed on this issue, for those of you that haven't played F5 the usual "sticky grass" has returned, that is venturing off the track results in your car being halted to an incredibly slow pace, almost as if brakes were applied involuntarily or a parachute was opened (The effect isn't limited to just grass, but sometimes asphalt areas that are off track are affected).

For me, this is a realism braking moment which is kind of sad for me seeing as how many seem to tout Forza addressing GT's physics deficiencies, for me this ranks up there with how some people think about GT's engine sound effects.

This is just as bad as using invisible barriers, as running into sticky grass will result in the pack passing you. Some areas are more sensitive then others, it seems in some places even just one tire barely going off course results in the tell tale loss of speed. Although it affects the recreation of real-life courses, I propose that putting barriers in places where people would cut across (what sticky grass tries to address) as a solution even if on the real-life course such barriers don't exist. I am not sure, but I believe GT did this possibly on certain tracks such as Le Mans, Monza, and certain configurations of Nurburgring (once again, I am not 100% certain). Ultimately, that trade-off in track realism for me is a much better solution to the very unrealistic if almost magical sticky grass.

 

[somebodysb2]

What a shame. Sticky grass = Not being able to run wide; severely impairing the immersion, thrill and freedom of driving a car fast/too fast

Ruined many of FM4's tracks, namely Tsukuba.

 

[Imari]

I know opinions will be mixed on this issue, for those of you that haven't played F5 the usual "sticky grass" has returned, that is venturing off the track results in your car being halted to an incredibly slow pace, almost as if brakes were applied involuntarily or a parachute was opened (The effect isn't limited to just grass, but sometimes asphalt areas that are off track are affected).

For me, this is a realism braking moment which is kind of sad for me seeing as how many seem to tout Forza addressing GT's physics deficiencies, for me this ranks up there with how some people think about GT's engine sound effects.

This is just as bad as using invisible barriers, as running into sticky grass will result in the pack passing you. Some areas are more sensitive then others, it seems in some places even just one tire barely going off course results in the tell tale loss of speed. Although it affects the recreation of real-life courses, I propose that putting barriers in places where people would cut across (what sticky grass tries to address) as a solution even if on the real-life course such barriers don't exist. I am not sure, but I believe GT did this possibly on certain tracks such as Le Mans, Monza, and certain configurations of Nurburgring (once again, I am not 100% certain). Ultimately, that trade-off in track realism for me is a much better solution to the very unrealistic if almost magical sticky grass.

So barriers that you would hit and stop you dead are better than sticky grass? I suppose maybe so from a realism viewpoint, but the result is basically the same.

I'd rather have flags, but with races of the length that FM5s seem to be a drivethrough would be an automatic last place finish. Time penalties per cut might work, but they'd have to be huge to cover any possible advantage so probably end up as automatic last places again.

With the way FM races are set up (ie. short) I'm not sure there's actually a good solution. Real racing simply doesn't have the ability to give out small penalties.

What a shame. Sticky grass = Not being able to run wide; severely impairing the immersion, thrill and freedom of driving a car fast/too fast

Ruined many of FM4's tracks, namely Tsukuba.

Barriers instead of sticky grass has the same problems. No penalty at all has serious issues online when it's faster for people to cut instead of following the track. It ends up offline as well because of leaderboards probably, otherwise I imagine we'd have been able to just switch it off for single player.

 

[jakenj9]

I was bummed about this to...

 

[somebodysb2]

Barriers instead of sticky grass has the same problems. No penalty at all has serious issues online when it's faster for people to cut instead of following the track. It ends up offline as well because of leaderboards probably, otherwise I imagine we'd have been able to just switch it off for single player.

They just need to rethink the boundaries and add a penalty. If you go on the grass for X, X gets added to your race time. Invisible cars with power cut works great as well.

 

[Aftrbrnr]

So barriers that you would hit and stop you dead are better than sticky grass? I suppose maybe so from a realism viewpoint, but the result is basically the same.

I'd rather have flags, but with races of the length that FM5s seem to be a drivethrough would be an automatic last place finish. Time penalties per cut might work, but they'd have to be huge to cover any possible advantage so probably end up as automatic last places again.

With the way FM races are set up (ie. short) I'm not sure there's actually a good solution. Real racing simply doesn't have the ability to give out small penalties.



Barriers instead of sticky grass has the same problems. No penalty at all has serious issues online when it's faster for people to cut instead of following the track. It ends up offline as well because of leaderboards probably, otherwise I imagine we'd have been able to just switch it off for single player.

I suppose I didn't take into account the issue of damage being off for some players, but IMO for me a barrier seems more passable in terms of acceptability, but that's just me. For players that play with damage on, it brings a whole new issue as you now risk damaging your car against the barriers. I do agree, the issue of cheating by cutting the track is a tough issue to address.

 

[BoneSawTX]

Sticky grass is okay with me, the point of the game is to be fast on the track not the run off

 

[thelvynau]

I'm fine with the sticky grass I think i have only hit it once

 

[Imari]

They just need to rethink the boundaries and add a penalty. If you go on the grass for X, X gets added to your race time. Invisible cars with power cut works great as well.

Invisible cars with power cut is OK, but it needs a lot more work to balance. Severe chicanes for example you can fly through at top speed, ride out the power cut and still come out ahead if it's not tuned right. Sticky grass is always slower, so it's a simple solution.

Actually, now that I think of it iRacing has a variation of this which is even better. If you cut a corner then you have the next few corners to "give back" a certain amount of time or you get black flagged. Has the same problems with needing to work out which corners and how much time, but it's certainly one of the most realistic feeling solutions I've come across.

 

[IceMan PJN]

I'm not a fan of sticky grass, entirely because of the unrealism, but I understand why they do it. However, as I've often said, I would prefer a more realistic method of penalizing folks - time penalty. Okay, you crossed the line first, but you earned yourself fifteen seconds of time penalty, so enjoy your demotion to eighth place.

I had criticized many aspects of GT5, and some folks complained about the complaints, but, as I said before with GT5, we need to continue vocalizing criticisms of things we want changed or else we have no business expecting things to be improved. In Forza's case, sticky grass needs replaced, so this dead horse needs beaten and beaten some more.

 

[RC45]

Sticky grass is an idiotic solution settled on by idiots.

If the grass was actually made slicker and dirtier than the track surface, the way it is in real life on real tracks and roads, then the 'penalty' of cutting through the grass would be having dirty/wet/slick tires if you manage to settle car down enough to rejoin the track under control.

Add to this a time penalty if ahead and a black flag if you make a pass while cutting and the problem will be solved.

This sticky grass is simply a hat tip to the kids that buy/play these games.

A barrier is a far better compromise than sticky grass.

 

[VXR]

Apart from a session ending smash if you hit the barriers or you have your lap invalidated and have to do a drive through, what other options are realistic?

 

[Fezz_ST]

They've worked on the grass, you can tell, the 'sticky' parts aren't in the most idiotic of places for example (Run off at T1 Catalunya and the last corner at Indianapolis) they're better thought out and the actual grass itself? Wow, try putting the power down on that and you're gonna have a bad time, you basically loose all input once you put all your wheels on it, the second last corner at Bathurst always catches me out

 

[BoneSawTX]

Sticky grass is an idiotic solution settled on by idiots.

If the grass was actually made slicker and dirtier than the track surface, the way it is in real life on real tracks and roads, then the 'penalty' of cutting through the grass would be having dirty/wet/slick tires if you manage to settle car down enough to rejoin the track under control.

Add to this a time penalty if ahead and a black flag if you make a pass while cutting and the problem will be solved.

This sticky grass is simply a hat tip to the kids that buy/play these games.

A barrier is a far better compromise than sticky grass.

If you're dumb enough to try and go through the sticky grass you deserve it. If it was slicker and dirty then you have created the chance for the the idiot cutting the corner to come across traffic out of control wiping you and anyone else out in his path. slick grass would be great for places where the grass isn't sticky at the present like the long back straight at Sebring.

Adding barriers where there are none, they aren't there for a reason by design. You get bumped off track by an idiot would you rather hit sticky grass or a barrier while in full damage mode? I've played a game with barriers put in the chicanes at Monza. There was nothing more irritating than getting bumped enough to catch one and bring you to a complete stop or spinning you around across traffic and waiting for any traffic to clear so you can get back on track.

A flag system would be nice, problem is there are so many variables into what caused a collision or someone to run off track that it would be a coding nightmare that will most definitely screw you at some point.

Then there is the question of where is all this sticky grass thats reaking havoc on the game? I have only come across it once and i don't even remember what track but i know i was way offline to be there.

 

[HAL20XX]

Then there is the question of where is all this sticky grass thats reaking havoc on the game? I have only come across it once and i don't even remember what track but i know i was way offline to be there.

Ditto. I encountered it once. Yesterday. After having been in over 100 races.

 

[FordGTGuy]

Man you guys are making it sound like sticky grass is as bad as it was in Forza 4, if you have all the assists off and try to drive high speed into the grass it will kill your traction(even without hitting sticky grass).

Sticky grass seems to have been toned down quite a lot from previous titles.

 

[RC45]

If you're dumb enough to try and go through the sticky grass you deserve it. If it was slicker and dirty then you have created the chance for the the idiot cutting the corner to come across traffic out of control wiping you and anyone else out in his path. slick grass would be great for places where the grass isn't sticky at the present like the long back straight at Sebring.

Adding barriers where there are none, they aren't there for a reason by design. You get bumped off track by an idiot would you rather hit sticky grass or a barrier while in full damage mode? I've played a game with barriers put in the chicanes at Monza. There was nothing more irritating than getting bumped enough to catch one and bring you to a complete stop or spinning you around across traffic and waiting for any traffic to clear so you can get back on track.

A flag system would be nice, problem is there are so many variables into what caused a collision or someone to run off track that it would be a coding nightmare that will most definitely screw you at some point.

Then there is the question of where is all this sticky grass thats reaking havoc on the game? I have only come across it once and i don't even remember what track but i know i was way offline to be there.

Monza has a sand traps.

Sand traps are by their nature 'sticky'.

If a track has grass in real life, then the virtual in game track should have grass.

'Some idiot' overshooting a chicane and taking everyone out is simply bad luck and 'that is racing'.

Don't race public lobbies if you don't want to rub tits with wankers.

Just like real life, I chose carefully whom I share a track with.

 

[Aftrbrnr]

I'm not sure if it's much of a "solution", but given the Top Gear license and comedy associated with it, I suppose you can get the cast of the show to explain a device has been installed in all cars in the game that automatically cuts throttle if you go off track to prevent cheating.

But in all seriousness, if they choose to keep sticky grass what would be a compromise I would say if sticky grass had a slight time delay before it kicked in, there have been times I've found in certain places where even if one tire goes off track, I get slowed down by it. (The worst part is some of these places aren't even areas that you can cut a corner to be faster).

 

[Imari]

Monza has a sand traps.

Sand traps are by their nature 'sticky'.

If a track has grass in real life, then the virtual in game track should have grass.

'Some idiot' overshooting a chicane and taking everyone out is simply bad luck and 'that is racing'.

Don't race public lobbies if you don't want to rub tits with wankers.

Just like real life, I chose carefully whom I share a track with.

Maybe so, but it is nice sometimes to just be able to drop into an online race. I don't think it's unreasonable for T10 to take some steps to make sure that the public lobbies restrict asshattery. Otherwise it sort of just means that you can't use public lobbies if you like to race without cheating.

It would be nice if there was an option for private rooms to switch it off and moderate themselves by whatever method they deem fit though. I don't think methods that are appropriate for public rooms are necessarily suited to private ones.

 

[I'm Motarded]

Sticky grass is an idiotic solution settled on by idiots.

If the grass was actually made slicker and dirtier than the track surface, the way it is in real life on real tracks and roads, then the 'penalty' of cutting through the grass would be having dirty/wet/slick tires if you manage to settle car down enough to rejoin the track under control.

Wouldn't work in all cases. You would just see kids cutting in AWD cars with street tyres instead.

 

[BoneSawTX]

Monza has a sand traps.

Sand traps are by their nature 'sticky'.

Like i said, the game i played had barriers some where they aren't in real life what is what you suggested above since it's more realistic than sticky grass. It was an example of barriers gone wrong. It was a cluster **** going in to the chicanes with one other person trying to make a move.

I think people need to step back and realize this isn't a full on sim and neither is GT, it's a game and there has to be something to keep cheaters in check. They wouldn't care if the grass was just dirtier, they would take the chance that as long as they keep their path straight through it they have a decent chance of coming out in control.

I've driven 900 miles in game and have only hit sticky grass once because i came in way to fast to a turn. Trust me I've ran off plenty getting use to the new physics. If anyone is encountering sticky grass enough that it's ruining their races they need to turn on the driving line, they're line is obviously way off.

 

[Fezz_ST]

The only bit that annoys me is they've gone and stickied the drifting loop at Road Atlanta

 

[Wolfe]

They've worked on the grass, you can tell, the 'sticky' parts aren't in the most idiotic of places...they're better thought out...

I've driven 900 miles in game and have only hit sticky grass once because i came in way to fast to a turn. Trust me I've ran off plenty the getting use to the new physics. If anyone is encountering sticky grass enough that it's ruining their races they need to turn on the driving line, they're line is obviously way off.

Idiotic placement of the sticky surfaces was my only issue with it in FM4. If they've addressed that, then 👍 .