The State of Lobbies in GT7

[Voodoovaj]

This is such an obviously good idea, It never occurred to me before but they could replicate the world circuits championships as multiplayer events. The endurance ones especially would be epic and get a lot of engagement I’m sure.

The worst part? You can actually SEE that they read the idea and somewhat talked about it.

In the races, the cars at the front have the names of the GT star drivers while the cars at the back are, in essence, bots because they have no name. It is a blatant representation of what the SP races would look like if the game filled out the ranks with bots to provide a full field.

Put the races on a timer so that something is starting every 5 minutes. Have 1 event per track every day, and change the events every week. Some races are stock car, some tuned, some with comfort tires, some with sport, some with race...you get the idea.

Instead of a "meeting place" just rotate which event is MP that week. let the people that want to have meets or custom races go make a lobby.

 

[NikNakTobasco]

I think this is complete and utter B.S. If PD didnt care about online racing in GT7 why would they change GTSport to a 4 week/monthly schedule for new races? They specifically changed GTS right after GT7 release to "encourage" the online racers to move to GT7.

They do care about online racing. They just suck at fixing their product.

But why did they actively make lobbies worse? They didn’t need to do anything other than transplant it wholesale from Sport, but a group of people must have sat down and decided to remove a bunch of basic features. Something so obvious like telling us whether the lobby is in race or practice. Most the lobbies I enter have already started racing. This puts people off trying to enter nearly full rooms and they never get filled as a result. And where is qualifying!

 

[sixty4half]

While I do agree it should not be in this state, it isn't as simple as transporting it wholesale over from GTS or whatever you think those words mean.

Maybe that's where some of the frustration comes from. People think it should be a copy/paste job but it is far more complicated

 

[Veinz]

The previous lobby system in GTS had a lot of problems, I’m thinking the one in GT7 is new and they just didn’t have time to finish it before launch.

 

[bons1981]

Still not 'fixed'...? Thats the reason i don't play lobbies yet. I want to adjust/finetune/switch after a race with some friends.

And yes, save the frickin' lobbies as defaults, too bad!

 

[Voodoovaj]

While I do agree it should not be in this state, it isn't as simple as transporting it wholesale over from GTS or whatever you think those words mean.

Maybe that's where some of the frustration comes from. People think it should be a copy/paste job but it is far more complicated

Kind of...sort of.

You can go all the way back to Prologue to take stock in the features of the lobbies. The most valid reason/excuse I can see for removing features is the cost of testing the various server settings. Still, it doesn't justify the lack of adding the features back in over time.

And the reason I say "kind of" is because there is a lot of inheritance on the server side. No, it's not just a simple copy/paste, but it's not a complete rewrite either. I would say that the least used features were removed, but that doesn't mean that those were bad features. I think there is a lot of evidence that the folks at PD don't actually interact with the world at large, so they go into their data sets with blinders on.

The timer for instance. That's a great feature. It was used less than no timer, but that's because of incompetent hosts and people who could not get their stuff together in time to race. I don't have time to wait for some dude to decide whether he wants to use a blue civic or a yellow one (yes, that's sarcasm).

Prologue added online play and it was a HUGE addition to the game. Since then, the biggest online addition has been the penalty/driver rating system. The lobbies have simply been pared back with each iteration, and I don't understand it. Is there a massive group of people who just play the single player, over and over, for years and years????

 

[Yekouri]

Kind of...sort of.

You can go all the way back to Prologue to take stock in the features of the lobbies. The most valid reason/excuse I can see for removing features is the cost of testing the various server settings. Still, it doesn't justify the lack of adding the features back in over time.

And the reason I say "kind of" is because there is a lot of inheritance on the server side. No, it's not just a simple copy/paste, but it's not a complete rewrite either. I would say that the least used features were removed, but that doesn't mean that those were bad features. I think there is a lot of evidence that the folks at PD don't actually interact with the world at large, so they go into their data sets with blinders on.

The timer for instance. That's a great feature. It was used less than no timer, but that's because of incompetent hosts and people who could not get their stuff together in time to race. I don't have time to wait for some dude to decide whether he wants to use a blue civic or a yellow one (yes, that's sarcasm).

Prologue added online play and it was a HUGE addition to the game. Since then, the biggest online addition has been the penalty/driver rating system. The lobbies have simply been pared back with each iteration, and I don't understand it. Is there a massive group of people who just play the single player, over and over, for years and years????

The are very few people who uses the online lobby system in the first place. Would personally never join a random online lobby, that is just crazy. Meanwhile the group of people who organized anything in the online lobby are like a 0.001% of the entire player base. Since GT5 it is such a small part of the game, and Sports Mode has almost fully taken over the online space since GT Sport.

Lobbies is where you have races with your friends instead of the split-screen mode. And do your friends even own Gran Turismo as well?
League racing is such a minority community that it is not larger than the people who do singleplayer races in the Fiat 500 or similar very low performing cars just to mess around.

"
　・Increase the reward payout of limited-time events as we develop as a live service;
　・Addition of more World Circuits events;
　・Addition of more Endurance Races to Missions, including 24-hour races;
　・Addition of online Time Trials with rewards based on the player’s position in the online rankings;
　・Being able to sell cars.
"
Those are the main focus points, outside of the E-sport events in Sports Mode that gives them a self-inflicted need to add more content for, one of the cars for the announced Toyota Gazoo Racing E-Sport tournament is still missing for example.
Those are the priorities, since that is what people are mostly doing in the game.

 

[Supaboost]

I think this is complete and utter B.S. If PD didnt care about online racing in GT7 why would they change GTSport to a 4 week/monthly schedule for new races? They specifically changed GTS right after GT7 release to "encourage" the online racers to move to GT7.

They do care about online racing. They just suck at fixing their product.

Read it agian bud, no where do i say PD cares or does not.

im saying the fan base cares a hell of a lot more for offline content then online.

 

[sixty4half]

Yep

 

[Voodoovaj]

The are very few people who uses the online lobby system in the first place. Would personally never join a random online lobby, that is just crazy. Meanwhile the group of people who organized anything in the online lobby are like a 0.001% of the entire player base. Since GT5 it is such a small part of the game, and Sports Mode has almost fully taken over the online space since GT Sport.

Lobbies is where you have races with your friends instead of the split-screen mode. And do your friends even own Gran Turismo as well?
League racing is such a minority community that it is not larger than the people who do singleplayer races in the Fiat 500 or similar very low performing cars just to mess around.

"
　・Increase the reward payout of limited-time events as we develop as a live service;
　・Addition of more World Circuits events;
　・Addition of more Endurance Races to Missions, including 24-hour races;
　・Addition of online Time Trials with rewards based on the player’s position in the online rankings;
　・Being able to sell cars.
"
Those are the main focus points, outside of the E-sport events in Sports Mode that gives them a self-inflicted need to add more content for, one of the cars for the announced Toyota Gazoo Racing E-Sport tournament is still missing for example.
Those are the priorities, since that is what people are mostly doing in the game.

Read it agian bud, no where do i say PD cares or does not.

im saying the fan base cares a hell of a lot more for offline content then online.

I'm going to disagree with both of you. A game without an online component dies a rapid death. GT Sport could have continued on it's merry way with far fewer single player events.

People want to fire up the game and race, and they want to know what the constraints will be. If I had a multiplayer option, I would take it.

Gt Sport still has nearly 200,000 daily active users. The bulk of those people are playing Sport Mode.

@Yekouri You say that "League racing is such a minority community that it is not larger than the people who do singleplayer races in the Fiat 500 or similar very low performing cars just to mess around." My counter to that is there is NO option otherwise. A player must either (A) join a league that, at some point of their choosing, has a race that may or may not fit into that person's schedule, or (B) go mess around in single player. Show me, right now, the multiplayer fiat 500 event. When can I play it? It doesn't exist. It may never be featured in Sport Mode, if it ever is, it might happen once in the next 5 years.

@Supaboost you say "im saying the fan base cares a hell of a lot more for offline content then online." Same thing as above, what "online content" are you speaking of? There is no online content. There is ONLY Sport Mode. You can't say that there is a measurable lack of care when there is nothing to measure against.

I totally adore my little Abarth 695. It's SUPER cool. If I want to use it, my choices are single player or time trial. If that event were made multiplayer once every few weeks, I'd be SUPER happy. I suspect most players would be super happy.

Let's shift this to food, for a moment. Let's say I want Pizza for lunch today, but my choices are (A) I have to join a "Pizza League" that has a "pizza night" once a week featuring a pizza that I don't really want to eat, or (B) I eat corn flakes. In choice A, yes, I get what I want, but not how and when I want it, and in choice B, I get to eat, but it's not what I really want. Based on my behavioural data in the above case, one could deduce that I absolutely love corn flakes. I must hate pizza. I don't participate in the pizza events, but I eat corn flakes everyday. The truth is, I hate corn flakes, but I am hungry, and I can't wait until some arbitrary evening in the middle of the week to eat, not to mention that if I miss that event, I can't eat again for another week.

That is the current state of the game. The players are hungry (they want to play the game), so they have no real option other than to play single player. You can't say they don't want a better option since there is no better option.

I do it....I totally hate the SP, but I play it more than Sport Mode. Why? because I like the driving, It's a bite sized amount of game time, and it fits into my schedule. I can literally play for 10 minutes while the wife showers, or I can play while I wait for a client call back. Sport Mode is too repetitive, not to mention I have to devote a considerable amount of time to my qualifying position.

The championship seasons are simply not for me because, as a middle aged man, I have other things to do when the events are scheduled, and I am not really concerned with my world ranking (anymore). And, again, the time commitment is rather large.

But absolutely, 100%, without question, if I could play any of the SP events as MP instead, I would do that every time. Random shuffle the starting positions, do a grid start, and go. Start races every five minutes. You sit down, go to the track you want, and enter the next event OR enter the event starting in within the next five minutes. Maybe you start first, maybe you start last, but it's fast and it's fun. I suspect that the bulk of the players would do that, especially if the payouts were equal. Not only that, I bet they would play more.

 

[LPlates]

The are very few people who uses the online lobby system in the first place. Would personally never join a random online lobby, that is just crazy. Meanwhile the group of people who organized anything in the online lobby are like a 0.001% of the entire player base. Since GT5 it is such a small part of the game, and Sports Mode has almost fully taken over the online space since GT Sport.

Lobbies is where you have races with your friends instead of the split-screen mode. And do your friends even own Gran Turismo as well?
League racing is such a minority community that it is not larger than the people who do singleplayer races in the Fiat 500 or similar very low performing cars just to mess around.

"
　・Increase the reward payout of limited-time events as we develop as a live service;
　・Addition of more World Circuits events;
　・Addition of more Endurance Races to Missions, including 24-hour races;
　・Addition of online Time Trials with rewards based on the player’s position in the online rankings;
　・Being able to sell cars.
"
Those are the main focus points, outside of the E-sport events in Sports Mode that gives them a self-inflicted need to add more content for, one of the cars for the announced Toyota Gazoo Racing E-Sport tournament is still missing for example.
Those are the priorities, since that is what people are mostly doing in the game.

Totally disagree with this, as I am sure do all of the league organisers out there, including tons on this site alone.

Lobby Mode is where we go to decide our own rules, car/circuit combinations and play with the group of friends we choose, where sport is limited to the races available and random match making.

Each has its merit and both are equally important in modern gaming.

Single Player is the bit I play to prepare for the other two, as I suspect do many others. You only have to look at the initial reaction to GT:Sport to see that removing SP was a mistake that Kaz has essentially admitted to and GT7 along with tons of GT:Sport updates quickly rectified.

 

[sixty4half]

I rarely use the system other than to search for lobbies imitating the current Constructor Cup Series races for practice. However; when I do use it there are always a ton of lobbies available so it does appear as if quite a few people use that function.

The offline ONLY community is small. We dont live in 2004 anymore.

 

[Yekouri]

I'm going to disagree with both of you. A game without an online component dies a rapid death. GT Sport could have continued on it's merry way with far fewer single player events.

People want to fire up the game and race, and they want to know what the constraints will be. If I had a multiplayer option, I would take it.

Gt Sport still has nearly 200,000 daily active users. The bulk of those people are playing Sport Mode.

@Yekouri You say that "League racing is such a minority community that it is not larger than the people who do singleplayer races in the Fiat 500 or similar very low performing cars just to mess around." My counter to that is there is NO option otherwise. A player must either (A) join a league that, at some point of their choosing, has a race that may or may not fit into that person's schedule, or (B) go mess around in single player. Show me, right now, the multiplayer fiat 500 event. When can I play it? It doesn't exist. It may never be featured in Sport Mode, if it ever is, it might happen once in the next 5 years.

@Supaboost you say "im saying the fan base cares a hell of a lot more for offline content then online." Same thing as above, what "online content" are you speaking of? There is no online content. There is ONLY Sport Mode. You can't say that there is a measurable lack of care when there is nothing to measure against.

I totally adore my little Abarth 695. It's SUPER cool. If I want to use it, my choices are single player or time trial. If that event were made multiplayer once every few weeks, I'd be SUPER happy. I suspect most players would be super happy.

Let's shift this to food, for a moment. Let's say I want Pizza for lunch today, but my choices are (A) I have to join a "Pizza League" that has a "pizza night" once a week featuring a pizza that I don't really want to eat, or (B) I eat corn flakes. In choice A, yes, I get what I want, but not how and when I want it, and in choice B, I get to eat, but it's not what I really want. Based on my behavioural data in the above case, one could deduce that I absolutely love corn flakes. I must hate pizza. I don't participate in the pizza events, but I eat corn flakes everyday. The truth is, I hate corn flakes, but I am hungry, and I can't wait until some arbitrary evening in the middle of the week to eat, not to mention that if I miss that event, I can't eat again for another week.

That is the current state of the game. The players are hungry (they want to play the game), so they have no real option other than to play single player. You can't say they don't want a better option since there is no better option.

I do it....I totally hate the SP, but I play it more than Sport Mode. Why? because I like the driving, It's a bite sized amount of game time, and it fits into my schedule. I can literally play for 10 minutes while the wife showers, or I can play while I wait for a client call back. Sport Mode is too repetitive, not to mention I have to devote a considerable amount of time to my qualifying position.

The championship seasons are simply not for me because, as a middle aged man, I have other things to do when the events are scheduled, and I am not really concerned with my world ranking (anymore). And, again, the time commitment is rather large.

But absolutely, 100%, without question, if I could play any of the SP events as MP instead, I would do that every time. Random shuffle the starting positions, do a grid start, and go. Start races every five minutes. You sit down, go to the track you want, and enter the next event OR enter the event starting in within the next five minutes. Maybe you start first, maybe you start last, but it's fast and it's fun. I suspect that the bulk of the players would do that, especially if the payouts were equal. Not only that, I bet they would play more.

Totally disagree with this, as I am sure do all of the league organisers out there, including tons on this site alone.

Lobby Mode is where we go to decide our own rules, car/circuit combinations and play with the group of friends we choose, where sport is limited to the races available and random match making.

Each has its merit and both are equally important in modern gaming.

Single Player is the bit I play to prepare for the other two, as I suspect do many others. You only have to look at the initial reaction to GT:Sport to see that removing SP was a mistake that Kaz has essentially admitted to and GT7 along with tons of GT:Sport updates quickly rectified.

@Voodoovaj Show me anyone who would succesfully make random multiplayer lobbies with weird cars that would get more than like 1 other player joining. It is just not what people search to do. There is a reason why the few random lobbies that runs are almost all Gr4/Gr3/Gr2/Gr1 race cars.

@LPlates It does have it's merit, but it is very understandable that it is not a top priority to mmake a ton of different features for it. The GT5 and GT6 lobby system was probably the most advanced in terms of how many options it had of any racing sim open lobby system.
There are very few league racers in general, but they are amongst the most dedicated players.

It is quite an arrogant statement that Single Player should somehow prepare you for Multiplayer. Singleplayer is the core mechanic of Gran Turismo, which is why GT Sport for the first long period had quite low sales until it got updated a ton and players returned to it. The biggest letdown of GT7 is the lack of Singleplayer races compared to previous main titles, it is why the entire pipeline they announced has to do with singleplayer.
While it sucks for the few people who use the lobby system, the floor is not on fire like it is for the singleplayer part.

@sixty4half The offline community is larger than the Sports Mode, which is in turn larger than the lobby's.

 

[sixty4half]

For someone who knows so much about the distribution of the playerbase you haven't shown any proof to support what you say.

 

[Yekouri]

For someone who knows so much about the distribution of the playerbase you haven't shown any proof to support what you say.

There are like 70 multiplayer lobbies running, for a total of less than 1000 players, meanwhile there are well over 1 million copies sold, and a ton of people are doing the offline races? They are gonna continue adding more World Circuit races and Missions, because no one uses it and multiplayer is so superior? or?

 

[Voodoovaj]

@Voodoovaj Show me anyone who would succesfully make random multiplayer lobbies with weird cars that would get more than like 1 other player joining. It is just not what people search to do. There is a reason why the few random lobbies that runs are almost all Gr4/Gr3/Gr2/Gr1 race cars.

@LPlates It does have it's merit, but it is very understandable that it is not a top priority to mmake a ton of different features for it. The GT5 and GT6 lobby system was probably the most advanced in terms of how many options it had of any racing sim open lobby system.
There are very few league racers in general, but they are amongst the most dedicated players.

It is quite an arrogant statement that Single Player should somehow prepare you for Multiplayer. Singleplayer is the core mechanic of Gran Turismo, which is why GT Sport for the first long period had quite low sales until it got updated a ton and players returned to it. The biggest letdown of GT7 is the lack of Singleplayer races compared to previous main titles, it is why the entire pipeline they announced has to do with singleplayer.
While it sucks for the few people who use the lobby system, the floor is not on fire like it is for the singleplayer part.

@sixty4half The offline community is larger than the Sports Mode, which is in turn larger than the lobby's.

Before GTSport, it was pretty common. The N classes killed it. But either way, that still is not curated content. That is the point. It should not be left to the community at large to provide content. It is up to the developers to provide the content.

Not to mention, the credits issue is still a real thing. If I want certain cars, I need to grind to get credits. The earning rate for credits in MP is dismal compared to SP, so, of course, everyone plays SP. I'm guilty as well. Why spend an hour in Sport Mode to earn 100,000 credits, when I can earn 10X that in SP?

"It is quite an arrogant statement that Single Player should somehow prepare you for Multiplayer." ???????? The ONLY reason there is a single player is because multiplayer technology didn't exist back for the first 4 iterations of the game. The entire single player experience is a simulation of a multiplayer event...that is literally in the name of the game. "The Real Driving Simulator". It's even more evident now given that the names of the GTWS stars are in the race. It is a simulation of a multiplayer event. It's not an arrogant statement at all. It's a statement of fact.

As for the "offline" community being larger, well, the game is always online now so, by that metric, the entire community is online. If you mean SP versus MP, well, yes, that's the current issue. There is no true alternative to the SP, or Sport Mode for that matter. It's either/or. Either I go play with the Radical, the GR4 race, or the GR2 race, OR I go play SP. But, as with every iteration, the bulk will fall by the wayside when they are done with SP. Many already have (that's just normal dynamics in games, it's not a GT criticism). So, it's about the long tail. The evangelists are going to be the MP people. If you lose them, you lose everything.


As for why they add more to the SP, as in my food analogy, the data is misleading. Since people NEED to play SP, the data says it's popular. If they implemented an option, things would change drastically. If there's no one playing MP, this game is going to become a ghost town.

 

[llNovall]

Lol...I had GTSport since launch and didn't complete 35 % of the single player. 80% my racing was online lobby, league races in online lobby, and Sport Mode. Racing against uncompetitive robot cars over and over and over and over again is about as boring and monotonous as it gets. Online functionality and options is what keeps racers coming back for more and the racing community going. Even with adding new single player events, most drivers will run them a few times and then move on....lets be honest. Guess maybe I'm getting old and do not have the time for the grind anymore, and what time I do have, I want to spend it racing my peers in a competitive arena. It truly is unfortunate if PD is moving the title in a direction that does not include open lobbies and the community aspect that it affords.

 

[sixty4half]

There are like 70 multiplayer lobbies running, for a total of less than 1000 players, meanwhile there are well over 1 million copies sold, and a ton of people are doing the offline races? They are gonna continue adding more World Circuit races and Missions, because no one uses it and multiplayer is so superior? or?

So all million people are on at the same time? That's the only way that you saying 70 lobbies running (when you look) at a certain time means anything at all. So, you have a (very questionable) way of telling (guessing) who is playing online, which btw ignores Sport Mode, but where are you gathering your "data" about offline players?

You were joking, right?

 

[dabz343]

Lobby Mode is where we go to decide our own rules, car/circuit combinations and play with the group of friends we choose

Sounds like the ultimate single player to me...total freedom.

It does have it's merit, but it is very understandable that it is not a top priority to mmake a ton of different features for it.

Fine, if that's what PD wants...but the curious thing is why would they remove features that were already developed in previous GTs. No one here is saying online lobbies should be the priority over everything else, but removing functionality that pretty much kills the experience is just strange...

And I'm not buying the tradeoff scenario. Why can't this community of diverse players support each other. I supported SP, even though it's not my focus. I supported an inclusive physics, because it helps others to enjoy through a lower learning curve. I say the more people play -- for their own preferred reason -- the better for GT/PD. So support one another in these improvements that make the game better, and save the battling for the track -- clean and respectful of course.

 

[lolofantic]

There are like 70 multiplayer lobbies running, for a total of less than 1000 players, meanwhile there are well over 1 million copies sold, and a ton of people are doing the offline races? They are gonna continue adding more World Circuit races and Missions, because no one uses it and multiplayer is so superior? or?

very true, but players offline are casual gamer, we and those who play in sport mode are the most active player of the game

 

[Streeto]

very true, but players offline are casual gamer, we and those who play in sport mode are the most active player of the game

He's talking about lobbies, not sport mode. It's quite hard to calculate how many people use Sport mode, it's obviously easier with lobbies because it literally tells you. Casual players also use the lobbies, as you can do what you want, it's not as competitive as sport mode.

 

[mattikake]

I did a summary in a video that could do with getting to PD. There are more issues than listed but these are so easy to capture i did it in a morning.

 

[TwIsTeD_83]

Please don't come here trying to underestimate the importance of lobbies.

Lobbies offer great freedom and the ability to race online in a relaxed enviroment.

And let me tell you a secret because I play online since GT5 prologue.

The so called "slow car" E.G. (450pp CS tyre) lobbies some offer the best racing outside Sport mode because : 95% of the bad gr3 drivers won't even bother to join them and the rest 5% will spin out in the first corner and quit.

Also how is PD is trying to push Sport mode in it's current state with bad penalties and BOP?
I simply don't buy it.
Like some other guy posted I hope PD has a completely new lobby system in the works and they didn't have the time to implement at launch.

 

[NikNakTobasco]

The so called "slow car" E.G. (450pp CS tyre) lobbies some offer the best racing outeside sport mode

I’d like to get into the road car races. But they’re all open tuning which makes sense but I haven’t got a clue what to do so would be turning up in stock cars at a presumed large disadvantage

 

[TwIsTeD_83]

I’d like to get into the road car races. But they’re all open tuning which makes sense but I haven’t got a clue what to do so would be turning up in stock cars at a presumed large disadvantage

It's definately worth it, I mean variety never hurt anyone, but I would say wait and see what happens because it's not worth it to get into it right now with this mess of a system.
Because I'm mainly an online player I stopped playing for now but I'm jumping in the moment they make improvements in lobbies or Sport.

 

[RedRockValley]

So many great memories of lobbies from GT5 all the way through to Sport, such a shame to see it in this state in GT7.

I hope PD has a brand new lobby system in the works too, but I wouldn't count on it. Still, I'd be satisfied if it goes back to how it was in Sport.

 

[LightVelocity]

I race in leagues, which is what kept me playing GT Sport right up until the release of GT7. I cannot fathom how lobbies have regressed this severely. The communities I am part of are disappointed & I know some of these people will start leaving the game if lobbies do not receive the attention they require.

It is unacceptable that a great deal of the features we used in GT Sport have not been reinstated in GT7. A host cannot edit the lobby settings once it is open, settings cannot be saved or copied from others, a host cannot run a qualifying session, use reverse grids, or even manually set a starting grid.

Other small details are frustrating, like the lobby map not displaying the active players on track, the option of preset chat messages being absent, or the irritating bug (?) with lobby menu music continuing to play while spectating. Not to mention the horrific connection issues & latency, which is simply pathetic. Leagues that stream events have taken a hit as well, with the keyboard spectating options being removed for no valid reason.

I remember on GT Sport as GT7's launch date approached, league communities were speculating how the lobbies might improve. How we wished we could have 20 player lobbies and more. This game could have easily been amazing. But that would seemingly be expecting too much from PD.

 

[Silver Arrows]

The thing that gets me about the people who try to seriously posit that pub lobbies (and by extension, league lobbies) don't matter compared to Sport Mode lobbies is that I have seen, and had it said to me, by people on this forum, that multiplayer lobbies should be the next step up for people and should be the antidote to those who are actually wanting a decent racing experience outside of the horrific AI experience in the single player portion of the game. (Forgetting that some people, myself included, aren't exactly that keen on playing within online, and it doesn't take away from the fact that Polyphony has ignored this elephant in the room for years while other games have actually made decent to very good AI in a single player setting, but I digress)

If we take those people at face value, then the issues with the public lobbies in this game are actively neutering that potential 'step up' in competition, because there's no point in trying to build a lobby because settings don't save, and connection issues are rife. Leagues find that there's no point because of this, and go back to playing GT Sport (that is, until Polyphony decides to kill that game) so we're back at square one. Why would I bother going online then if this is the catch 22 I'm dealing with as a player?

The fact of the matter is that as long as Polyphony believes that online is a major part of the GT experience (and specifically, public/private lobbies) then it behooves them to fix this problem right away, alongside the myriad of other issues that this game still faces, which they seem content on ignoring in order to drip feed content to salve the wound that was this game's launch.

You simply cannot have it both ways in this instance. To say that online lobbies are the next step up in competition yet at the same time accept that actively chopping down the abilities and ways for pub and private lobbies to do their thing is somehow a good thing because more people play single player. Sure, that's true, otherwise Polyphony wouldn't have cynically pivoted GT Sport to become a single player game after creating a reactionary online focused title, and then subsequently trumpet a return to the old ways in the next game. But at the same time, you can very easily provide a good enough experience for both single and online players, but Polyphony, in their infinite wisdom, has not provided that at all in either regard at this very moment in time, and it's actively killing both ends of the game.

 

[Monkey Man]

Well-said brother.

I can only speculate that PD prioritised getting Sport Mode and championships sorted, with conventional lobbies to follow shortly afterward.

Fingers crossed...

 

[mattikake]

What bothers me is the total lack of acknowledgement from PD that the lobby system is a problem or that it has been released in a cut down state to meet the launch deadlines. There's been nothing. No apology, no hints that it will be fixed in any future updates, nothing.

If leagues can't run because of the public lobby system, GT7 won't survive.