Your Driving Mission, Should You Choose to Accept...

[JohnBM01]

Driving Missions are the scenarios you raced with 250 A-Spec points and a specialized objective. Some of you may remember in the Gran Turismo 4 forums that I made a thread on driving missions and specialized scenarios. Many of you came up with interesting objectives (example: "after spinning out early in the race, bounce back from past mistakes to win the race), to borderlining ideas (example: "a tornado blew away a pack of 24 cars, and only six left), to pretty damn weird (example: "in your Mitsubishi 3000GT, kill as many zombies as possible with your mounted machine guns!"). This time around, let's talk about the possibilities for the potential next wave of driving objectives.

Driving Missions have shown to be basically scenarios involving you, some other cars, and a specialized objective. I only cleared one set of Driving Missions, getting a lowly DeLorean for my efforts (I'm sorry. Never liked the car). If this trend continues, missions will likely be much easier for the inexperienced, but become completely challenging later on. The toughest ones I've done were the "One Lap Magic!" missions. This was when you had a certain car matched up against several others. You were on the starting line for a long while. But then, you had to haul ass to win the race. If there were missions I'd like to do, I'd do things more in terms of scenarios. I bring up the "F1 World Championship" missions which ranged from Offense, to Defense, and to Trouble based on the 1997 F1 Championship. Offense meant that you had to work your way up the pack. Defense meant that you had to either defend your position or help your teammate get points. Trouble meant that- there is a problem with your car, and you have to clear a certain objective or make the most out of nothing. If I wanted to come up with a specialized category, I'd come up with "Fight to the Finish," in which you must either beat your opponent to the line, make a big overtake, or defend your position after the final Intermediate.

Driving Missions now. How do you like them, and what you want out of driving missions or racing scenarios? What changes would you suggest to the current formula? Let's collaborate with our ideas, shall we?

 

[arsenal]

I think the "Trouble" idea can be used quite well when damage is implemented for the next Gran Turismo. Trying to win a race without busting your suspension on the last lap (like a certain F1 driver), or like in the WRC they often have to race with bumpers hanging off there car, shredded tires, stuck in third gear, or hood/bonnet is blocking your view. I think that in a more realistic driving simulator, these types of situations can be the true test of a driver's skill, and would be fun to try.

 

[faeringen]

Thats a brilliant idea!

 

[Dave A]

You could have missions where your cars is damagedand you have to match certain times and positions ect. You can combine ideas, like the mission is your winning a JGTC GT500 race with a nice lead and 2 laps to go, suddenly your gearbox goes tits up and your left with no 4th or 6th gears, if you drive the line well enough fast enough the other cars won't catch you till a bit into the last lap because of the lead you had, but they will catch you. You then have to race as defensive as you can and hold them off for the rest of the race.

 

[Specialized]

You could have missions where your cars is damagedand you have to match certain times and positions ect. You can combine ideas, like the mission is your winning a JGTC GT500 race with a nice lead and 2 laps to go, suddenly your gearbox goes tits up and your left with no 4th or 6th gears, if you drive the line well enough fast enough the other cars won't catch you till a bit into the last lap because of the lead you had, but they will catch you. You then have to race as defensive as you can and hold them off for the rest of the race.

That is a great idea! and hopefully if PD do make the AI alot stonger and the race regulations stricter, to ensure close racing, in the next edition of the GT series these missions will be vital training for keeping ahead and making the game alot more challenging. Another idea could be if the do implement damage into gt5 that you have to follow a pace car buy a certain distance and not touch it or it would cause damadge to your car slowing you down making you have to drive faster to keep up or you fail. The idea could be polished a little but it could be a good start

 

[chinko]

or a threaten mission, where you have to get as close as possible to the rear of the other car for as long as possible without touching them, to intimidate them into making a mistake

 

[Aus Rotten]

I say do away with the missions! my 2 cents. I cant even get past 11.

 

[arsenal]

No don't do away with them! If you don't enjoy them, then just forget about them, but I found them as a great challenge because often in the regular races you can effectively "buy" a win just by spending some money to tune your car or buy a much faster car than your competition.

BTW, live4speed, I thought your idea was great 👍

 

[JohnBM01]

Threaten Missions? You know, that sounds pretty clever, Chinko. Wasn't it "R: Racing Evolution" that had pressure you can inflict to drivers ahead to force them into making mistakes? That's actually a clever idea. How it should be implemented in GT is the only question mark on this deal.

I did pretty well with the Slipstream Battles, only doing horrible with the Skyline Slipstream battle. Had it not been for the final Slipstream Battle, I wouldn't have seen just how amazing the Amuse S2000 GT1 is. It's like a freaking street-legal race car. I can't really do the 3 Lap Magics, much less that God-forsaken Mission 34 (Mercedes One-Lap Magic at Nürburgring Nordschleife). I would like more mission-based missions rather than making rare miracles in racing.

 

[James2097]

They need to pull real events from motorsport (or change them slightly to be more interesting) so that what they're doing is still within the bounds of "the real driving simulator". Helicopters shooting you with machine guns etc isn't exactly what Kaz has in mind I don't think

What about really drastic things like a wheel coming clean off and you still have to win? If I remember correctly a while back when that boxy Skyline won Bathurst it went through the finish line without a front wheel in the rain to claim victory. That would be pretty cool! (hint hint PD, INCLUDE MOUNT PANORAMA OR ELSE EVERYONE WILL HAVE TO PLAY CRAPPY CODEMASTERS GAMES!!!)

Of course they promptly banned 4WDs entering Bathurst after that. Aussies won't stand for reliable and technologically superior japanese cars thrashing our sputtering old V8s

 

[Jay]

What about really drastic things like a wheel coming clean off and you still have to win? If I remember correctly a while back when that boxy Skyline won Bathurst it went through the finish line without a front wheel in the rain to claim victory. That would be pretty cool! (hint hint PD, INCLUDE MOUNT PANORAMA OR ELSE EVERYONE WILL HAVE TO PLAY CRAPPY CODEMASTERS GAMES!!!)

Of course they promptly banned 4WDs entering Bathurst after that. Aussies won't stand for reliable and technologically superior japanese cars thrashing our sputtering old V8s

Lol

Almost everything is banned these days


and please PD we need Mount Panorama!

 

[3-Wheel Drive]

I'd like to see better thought-out missons in GT5, not ones like Mission 26, which was:
"You will begin 90 seconds after the lead Honda S400, and, with out touching any cars or grain of sand, carefully pull a win out of your ass."

And don't even get me started on M29... 🤬 🤬

 

[prisonermonkeys]

There's endless scenarios for this sort of thing - I remember John himself created another one quite like it for GT4. Whirlwinds and zombies aside though, you can do just about anything, like:

- A botched pit call means you've just arrived in the pits ... only to find your team-mate is already in the bay. Low on fuel and with tyres in poor condition, you've been forced to wait your turn and now it's up to you to come from behind, nearly a minute down and just eight laps to go.

- A tense battle for the championship has led to the final round with three cars within striking distance and you're in a prime position to take the cup ... provided you can finish ahead of your rivals. The beauty of this mission is that it doesn't matter if you finish first or fourth, provided you beat the two cars, you win and the penalty should stop cheating.

- An short exhibition race around SSR5 (or even better for this one, SSR11) has gone terribly bad for you: the lights of your JGTC/LMP/Other high-powered racer have died early on. Black-flagged and forced to get them fixed, try and salvage something witha podium finish. This mission would of course include you racing around in the dark. Mind those walls now (especially on SSR11) ...

This message and anything else within a three-mile radius will self-destruct in five seconds ...

 

[Clutchman83]

I'd like to see changing weather conditions for one thing. You have to run 4-laps with an impending thunderstorm. At the beginning of lap 3 the rain starts to fall and your on slicks! Provided of course they decide to apply seperate rain tires, unlike the current version. You have to navigate the last laps with the track getting worse and worse!

 

[Uncle Harry]

Missions Hall 1. Recreate Famous scenes from car chase movies.
Driving mission 1.
Outrun Fiat Police cars in 1960 Mini.
Driving mission 2.
Outrun Alfa Police cars in 2000 Mini.
Driving mission 3.
Outrun Chevy Caprice police cars in Orange Dodge Charger.
Driving Mission 4.
Outrun Mercedes 230 E with Citroen 2CV.
Driving Mission 5.
Win Drag race in Eclipse against Skyline, Lancer and Civic.
Driving Mission 6.
Win street race between Mustang and Charger.
Price car would be a famous car featured from the movies or TV.
Mission Halls 2. Recreate 5 or 6 Famous race car Victories.
Racing Mission 1.
Replicate famous Ford Falcon GT 1 2 finish at Bathurst 1970,s. (History experts please correct year?)
Racing Mission 2.
Ford GT40 at Le Mans
Racing Mission 3 & 4.
Famous finishes in F1. Ideas welcome.
Racing Missions 5 & 6.
Classic road races from the past.
A suitable prize car to be awarded such as the Silver Arrow Mercedes Grand Prix car.
This would give a small bit of history to the game which was supposed to be a feature of GT4.
Also to open this special hall a certain milestone would need to be passed.
Lets say (in GT4 speak) 80,000 A spec points. It would give merrit to the A spec system.
Or it is a reward for completing the previous game (but this can be abused with cheats or borrowed game saves).
I still would like to see Johns name on the 100% complete GT4 thread.

 

[JohnBM01]

I appreciate the flattering, Uncle Harry. I just haven't been playing it a lot. Doing school and stuff. You do have some pretty nice ideas. I'm sure that if PD could really make something happen, it may be possible to have something like what you've mentioned.

My only concern is, I don't think these driving missions should be like... you know, complete miracles. To me, I think there are two types of Driving Missions- specialized scenarios to test your driving/racing skills and give you more experience, and then racing scenarios in which real and ficticious race events are re-enacted for you to play. I think if PD went further, I'd want to go easy with this. The learning curve from GT3 to GT4 was moderately high for me. So for beginner's sake, I'd like maybe the first two or four missions to be easily acheivable under any skill level. Then for maybe the first two objectives of a certain category (for example, Slipstream Battle, The Pass, etc.), make them pretty easy, but gets progressively tougher as you move along. Only thing is, making the challenge so that it doesn't get completely frustrating. I'd keep miracle-type missions at a minimum in the next GT. Because let's face it. Miracles don't happen every day in racing. I'd look for realistic and maybe even inventive objectives to race with.

Call me crazy, but I aactually thought of a Driving Mission in which you are in a Nissan 180SX with a drift setup going down twisty mountain roads ("Initial D," anyone?), and your job is to basically complete the course without having you or your car OWNED. And to be fair, the roads would be blocked off, so you have your downhill mountain touge. A much less radical idea would be one in which you CANNOT win the race. I was thinking of maybe a One Lap Magic deal in which instead of passing everyone in one lap, you are trying to get your lap back, and try to hold off the leader all the way to the Start/Finish line.

That's the beauty of this issue. So many possiblities for this. Only as long as your ideas aren't outlandish, insane, or insanely difficult, then they would be pretty good ideas. Anyone care to continue?

 

[arsenal]

Racing Mission 3 & 4.
Famous finishes in F1. Ideas welcome.

Kimi's win last week.

 

[gt_masta]

Little scenario: you're in the lead, but you slide off track and you crash into the wall.(assuming there is damage in gt5) Your car is running only at 80%, and the guys behind are coming fast! Try to make quick laps to keep your lead and block them. that would be nice

 

[Danny]

Using a MINI One, beat a Pescarolo around 6 laps of the nurburgring.

Or maybe, the last place car is eliminated until one remains, providing AI picks up.

 

[JohnBM01]

I don't think you read me right. REALISTIC objectives. You want to be able to WIN races, not get your ass whooped to where you have to GameShark to win. Come on now. I don't see a Mini One beating a Pescarolo around the Nordschleife. And you already know I have a natual hatred of racing anything more than maybe three laps of Nurburgring Nordschleife. So that wouldn't be me.

I was kind of thinking of something I'd probably call "The Buick That Could." You race that Buick Grand National against much more powerful muscle cars, and say you have to pull off a monumental upset against those big dogs. Some of the tuner crowd would want some nice races catered to their interests. So how about a Tuner scenario where you race Seattle Circuit against a pack of Tuner grade cars. For example, let's say you are racing the HPA Motorsports R32 Golf against pure tuner cars in a three-lap shootout, and your job is to upset the Japanese tuners with your German power.

The possibilities are endless. I'd kind of prefer some to be not really long. I'd really want to think about some Le Mans scenarios with street cars and pure race cars, but none come to mind right about now. Care to help, maybe?

 

[Danny]

How about a free-entry slipstream race where you should pick the best drafting car you can?

Maybe starting just before Mulsanne, or one lap of test track?

 

[nitro_2005]

They need to pull real events from motorsport (or change them slightly to be more interesting) so that what they're doing is still within the bounds of "the real driving simulator". Helicopters shooting you with machine guns etc isn't exactly what Kaz has in mind I don't think

What about really drastic things like a wheel coming clean off and you still have to win? If I remember correctly a while back when that boxy Skyline won Bathurst it went through the finish line without a front wheel in the rain to claim victory. That would be pretty cool! (hint hint PD, INCLUDE MOUNT PANORAMA OR ELSE EVERYONE WILL HAVE TO PLAY CRAPPY CODEMASTERS GAMES!!!)

Of course they promptly banned 4WDs entering Bathurst after that. Aussies won't stand for reliable and technologically superior japanese cars thrashing our sputtering old V8s

if i remember correctly i think that car finished the race on the back of a salvage truck!!! Jimmy Richards still won though. that was 1992, when the car was sponsored by winfield. i have a little clip on the 1998 bathurst video of richards going through the esses and the dipper in the pouring rain with a bent wheel, and then it cuts to him coming out or forest's elbow, sliding into a pile of wrecked cars!!!