- 2,621
- Upstate SC, USA
- GTP_crowhop
So, after all of the updates and DLC to this point, what is left? I do not mean "more stuff" (cars, tracks, etc). I mean, what else needs to be tweaked that is, basically, already within the game? Please note this is not a wishlist. Hopefully this will be at least a little entertaining and a little different from the normal complaint threads.
As far as "stuff" goes, if you purchased the DLC, you got a very, very nice Test Track and the best track in the game. And it seems we will continue to get rounds of DLC. Some of the DLC content is better than others, but still, it is all relatively nice. Besides, no one here will ever be perfectly satisfied until PD comes to model and laser scan their personal car, route to work and allows them to "free roam" the dog down the road.
The Seasonal Events and Time/Drift Trials keep us coming back practically every week. While they in no way make up for the dearth of A-Spec and B-Spec events, they are better than nothing and provide a better challenge than most of the A-Spec and B-Spec career events; especially since PD has decided to give us an incredible disadvantage by starting us last, single file, 30+ seconds behind the leader who is already full speed...but I digress.
I do feel sorry for those without an internet connection or a way to update the game. I know I wouldn't be playing GT5 any longer if all I had was what came in the box. This thread/poll about creating your own A-Spec Events comes to mind. Some of those ideas are great while others are too far flung, but just about any of them would be better than what is currently available. With the lack of things to do, Online Racing is the only way to find competitive racing for many people. But that comes with a whole other set of issues.
There are many who find online racing to be great. But, if you have read this forum for the past year, you know there are also many who do not. In fact, in a quick search, I couldn't find a single thread with more than 20+ replies that was complementary of the GT5 Online experience. However, if you search, you will find various threads throughout the forum containing lists as long as your arm of suggestions to improve Online Play, but little has been changed. Finding a race of more than 3 people you do not know in an online lounge is a futile endeavor. Finding a race for your 533 HP Lexus IS F RM is impossible. From my own experience, unless you want to race 550PP or 650PP street cars, you are just about out of luck.
But the "lag bug" (described here) is, perhaps, the greatest flaw in GT5 Online Racing to date. It has suspended many online racing leagues and series. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the difference in physics between online and offline tuning or the actual driving etiquette of most of the general online lounge driving population. There are several factors PD cannot help, but there are some they can. If there is one area for major improvement, the Online experience is it.
Note: If you are wasting your time waiting for an online lounge to suit you, GTPlanet has an entire forum section devoted to Online Racing Leagues, Series, Spot Races and Time Trials. If you can't find at least some good racing, you aren't looking in the right places. This thread has several good tips as well.
Since it closely relates to Online Racing and was added in an update to help better create Online Racing matches, let's talk about the Performance Points system of determining racing fairness. If you have done any testing at all you know that 625PP is not the same for every car. You can pick any number, really, as there are cars that are simply faster than other cars with the same PP number. In other words, a troll car. Never get into a 500PP race with an Elise. You will lose. Badly. It is simply a fact of life.
But should it be? Shouldn't the Performance Points actually tell you what a car is fully capable of? Shouldn't the initials actually be PC for Performance Capability?
To be honest, with the external variables of track type, driving skill and car diversity, we will never get a "perfect" PP system. That kind of computer programming would cost millions and billion dollar Racing Organizations struggle with this in the real world, so it makes sense it also translates into the world of GT5. Here's hoping one day we can truly get a fair race. But, in fairness (pun intended) to PD and the PP system, it is better than the old HP/kg way of doing things.
It seems that with each Online Car Dealership refresh, PD updates and refreshes some "Standards" with slight tweaks; making them look better and better as time goes. With update 2.02, they allowed us to change the wheels on Standard cars and, in conjunction with a standard cockpit view, there are a few Standard cars that could pass as Premiums. In fact, save for a couple of glitches, the entire game has become even more visually impressive with time. This is all amazing when considering just how ancient the PS3 is from a graphics and technological perspective. You can buy a laptop at Wal-Mart for under $500 that has more processing and graphical capabilities than the PS3 has. The improvements have been a pleasant surprise to me and has opened up an entire section of my dusty garage. The only thing left to to say here is "Thank you, sir, may I have another?".
Speaking of a dusty garage, if yours is anything like mine, it is a jumbled mess of new and used cars with very little organization. I don't know which cars need an oil change, which ones are brand new and 0/0/0, which ones were purchased "new" from the OCD, which ones have been max tuned, which ones are stock, which ones have been broken in, which ones I've lightly tuned, etc, etc, etc. And my Favorites list isn't much better. The sortable menu tabs are okay and it could certainly be worse, but it could be much, much better as well.
I know, this is my own fault. And I would guess there are some here who have their garage perfectly organized and tidy. But I would also guess the majority here has a garage much like mine. And this thread has a great idea for making it a lot better.
Since Garage organization is (probably) possible and (definitely) needed, why not Paint Chip organization? According to my item list at the moment I have 2484 paint chips. If I sort by hue, descending, the first color on the list is Guardsman Blue. If I sort by hue, ascending, the first color on the list is Midnight Blue. You following me here? Supposedly, descending should go lightest to darkest and ascending should go darkest to lightest. It seems I have a problem. I have to scroll through several hundred chips just to get to the light colors. And that isn't the only problem. For instance, Jaguar Carnival Metallic. I have a total of 6 of these paint chips I can use. This is a good thing since Jaguar Carnival Metallic is a great color. I like Jaguar Carnival Metallic. I purchased several expensive Jaguars simply for this color. They are all the same exact hue on the sample paint car, but one of the sample paint swatches is a slightly different hue from the others. And they are spread across 4 different chips, so I actually have 4 different chips of the same Jaguar Carnival Metallic color. Why? From reading some threads, I know that trading paints throws off the paint organization programming, but I haven't traded paints in a while and I haven't traded very many. And I could probably list 25 examples just like this one.
Basically, the Paint Chips could use a good reset. And why isn't the manufacturer listed in the Paint Chip Description?
Side note: If you want to use the "Select Multiple" to delete your excess chips, be careful. The game mysteriously deleted every picture I had ever taken on GT5 (200+ pictures) when I simply "Selected All". I had planned to move them all to the PS3 XMB, but the game froze and 2 minutes later, they were gone. So, you've been warned. It could happen to your chips or pictures too.
Well, that's all for now. Part II, if wanted, will come later as there's a lot more to cover.
As far as "stuff" goes, if you purchased the DLC, you got a very, very nice Test Track and the best track in the game. And it seems we will continue to get rounds of DLC. Some of the DLC content is better than others, but still, it is all relatively nice. Besides, no one here will ever be perfectly satisfied until PD comes to model and laser scan their personal car, route to work and allows them to "free roam" the dog down the road.
The Seasonal Events and Time/Drift Trials keep us coming back practically every week. While they in no way make up for the dearth of A-Spec and B-Spec events, they are better than nothing and provide a better challenge than most of the A-Spec and B-Spec career events; especially since PD has decided to give us an incredible disadvantage by starting us last, single file, 30+ seconds behind the leader who is already full speed...but I digress.
I do feel sorry for those without an internet connection or a way to update the game. I know I wouldn't be playing GT5 any longer if all I had was what came in the box. This thread/poll about creating your own A-Spec Events comes to mind. Some of those ideas are great while others are too far flung, but just about any of them would be better than what is currently available. With the lack of things to do, Online Racing is the only way to find competitive racing for many people. But that comes with a whole other set of issues.
There are many who find online racing to be great. But, if you have read this forum for the past year, you know there are also many who do not. In fact, in a quick search, I couldn't find a single thread with more than 20+ replies that was complementary of the GT5 Online experience. However, if you search, you will find various threads throughout the forum containing lists as long as your arm of suggestions to improve Online Play, but little has been changed. Finding a race of more than 3 people you do not know in an online lounge is a futile endeavor. Finding a race for your 533 HP Lexus IS F RM is impossible. From my own experience, unless you want to race 550PP or 650PP street cars, you are just about out of luck.
But the "lag bug" (described here) is, perhaps, the greatest flaw in GT5 Online Racing to date. It has suspended many online racing leagues and series. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the difference in physics between online and offline tuning or the actual driving etiquette of most of the general online lounge driving population. There are several factors PD cannot help, but there are some they can. If there is one area for major improvement, the Online experience is it.
Note: If you are wasting your time waiting for an online lounge to suit you, GTPlanet has an entire forum section devoted to Online Racing Leagues, Series, Spot Races and Time Trials. If you can't find at least some good racing, you aren't looking in the right places. This thread has several good tips as well.
Since it closely relates to Online Racing and was added in an update to help better create Online Racing matches, let's talk about the Performance Points system of determining racing fairness. If you have done any testing at all you know that 625PP is not the same for every car. You can pick any number, really, as there are cars that are simply faster than other cars with the same PP number. In other words, a troll car. Never get into a 500PP race with an Elise. You will lose. Badly. It is simply a fact of life.
But should it be? Shouldn't the Performance Points actually tell you what a car is fully capable of? Shouldn't the initials actually be PC for Performance Capability?
To be honest, with the external variables of track type, driving skill and car diversity, we will never get a "perfect" PP system. That kind of computer programming would cost millions and billion dollar Racing Organizations struggle with this in the real world, so it makes sense it also translates into the world of GT5. Here's hoping one day we can truly get a fair race. But, in fairness (pun intended) to PD and the PP system, it is better than the old HP/kg way of doing things.
It seems that with each Online Car Dealership refresh, PD updates and refreshes some "Standards" with slight tweaks; making them look better and better as time goes. With update 2.02, they allowed us to change the wheels on Standard cars and, in conjunction with a standard cockpit view, there are a few Standard cars that could pass as Premiums. In fact, save for a couple of glitches, the entire game has become even more visually impressive with time. This is all amazing when considering just how ancient the PS3 is from a graphics and technological perspective. You can buy a laptop at Wal-Mart for under $500 that has more processing and graphical capabilities than the PS3 has. The improvements have been a pleasant surprise to me and has opened up an entire section of my dusty garage. The only thing left to to say here is "Thank you, sir, may I have another?".
Speaking of a dusty garage, if yours is anything like mine, it is a jumbled mess of new and used cars with very little organization. I don't know which cars need an oil change, which ones are brand new and 0/0/0, which ones were purchased "new" from the OCD, which ones have been max tuned, which ones are stock, which ones have been broken in, which ones I've lightly tuned, etc, etc, etc. And my Favorites list isn't much better. The sortable menu tabs are okay and it could certainly be worse, but it could be much, much better as well.
I know, this is my own fault. And I would guess there are some here who have their garage perfectly organized and tidy. But I would also guess the majority here has a garage much like mine. And this thread has a great idea for making it a lot better.
Since Garage organization is (probably) possible and (definitely) needed, why not Paint Chip organization? According to my item list at the moment I have 2484 paint chips. If I sort by hue, descending, the first color on the list is Guardsman Blue. If I sort by hue, ascending, the first color on the list is Midnight Blue. You following me here? Supposedly, descending should go lightest to darkest and ascending should go darkest to lightest. It seems I have a problem. I have to scroll through several hundred chips just to get to the light colors. And that isn't the only problem. For instance, Jaguar Carnival Metallic. I have a total of 6 of these paint chips I can use. This is a good thing since Jaguar Carnival Metallic is a great color. I like Jaguar Carnival Metallic. I purchased several expensive Jaguars simply for this color. They are all the same exact hue on the sample paint car, but one of the sample paint swatches is a slightly different hue from the others. And they are spread across 4 different chips, so I actually have 4 different chips of the same Jaguar Carnival Metallic color. Why? From reading some threads, I know that trading paints throws off the paint organization programming, but I haven't traded paints in a while and I haven't traded very many. And I could probably list 25 examples just like this one.
Basically, the Paint Chips could use a good reset. And why isn't the manufacturer listed in the Paint Chip Description?
Side note: If you want to use the "Select Multiple" to delete your excess chips, be careful. The game mysteriously deleted every picture I had ever taken on GT5 (200+ pictures) when I simply "Selected All". I had planned to move them all to the PS3 XMB, but the game froze and 2 minutes later, they were gone. So, you've been warned. It could happen to your chips or pictures too.
Well, that's all for now. Part II, if wanted, will come later as there's a lot more to cover.
