Hi Guys,
There has been such a wealth of information but I can't exactly find what I am looking for so I hope a few of the experts can help me out?
1. Do I need to use setups to advance in the career? I find it rather scary with all the options that are available and I prefer to leave them alone as much as I can, specially in the beginning.
2. When starting a career, can one set damage, qualifying laps, race length, opponents and weather?
3. Am I free to start in whatever class I like in the career?
4. How do weather slots work?
5. Say for example I want to race 10 lap races, can I set according pitstop strategies for that?
6. When choosing pro within difficulty settings and I set aids to real for cars, are they applied automatically?
7. Any advice to get not overwelmed?
The GOTY addition will arrive somewhere this week or beginning next week and I tend to race mostly touringcars and GT4 cars.
Regards,
doblo
Not to imply that the other answers are wrong, but here's my take on your questions.
1. Overall, I would probably say no, you don't need to tune for the career. That said, it depends how you approach the game. If you are content to turn down the AI level, have them race at your speed, then you don't really need to tune. However, if your approach is to set the AI to a higher setting, and then challenge yourself to try to keep up with them, then yes, you will probably want to adjust some settings.
I too play on PS4 with a DS4, and when I started the game with the Renault Clio TC1 car, I found it nearly undrivable, and I had to start messing with settings. In hindsight, I probably needed to adjust my driving style more than anything, but that's the route I took.
2. Yes. You can mess with all those options at any time. You can change difficulty levels mid career, mid season, no problem.
3. As far as I'm aware, no. When you start a career, you have a few options as to which path you would like to take, but you can't just jump into whatever car or series you like. You must work your way up from the bottom.
You can do a single race event...so all practice sessions, qualifying, warm up, and a full race in any car or series you like, right out of the box - but specifically in career, you must follow the options available to you.
I actually haven't done too much career stuff myself, most of my time is spent online. However if memory serves, the 3 starting options for a career are to start in karting, GT5, or TC1. Keep in mind that once you chose your "path", you aren't stuck on that path for good. After a given season ends, you may get contract offers from teams in other series, other diciplines, and you can change paths as you please.
5. Yes and No. You have control over pit strategy, but it can be a little suspect at times. You have the ability to pick how much fuel you start the race with, you can chose how much to add during a pit stop, you can chose whether or not to switch tires, you can chose what compounds to switch to, and you can make adjustments to tire pressures for new tires going on the car.
When you do a race which includes a mandatory pit stop, you will get a message flash on your screen every time you start the final sector that you need to pit. However, you do not have to pit when the game tells you to (it will start telling you on lap 1). You can pit on whatever lap you like, as long as you pit before the final lap of the race.
Something to be careful of is if you are doing a career race where you have a teamate with whom you share a pit box. You will get a message telling you when the box is occupied, but it isn't always accurate. If you enter the pits while your teamate is in the box, the game will not stack you, rather it will make you just drive through the pits and you will have to re-enter the pits on the next lap.
Also, finding the balance between whether or not it's actually beneficial to run a lighter fuel load, and then add fuel in the pits (which makes the stop longer), or just putting in enough fuel to get to the finish without adding more, and therefore shortening your time in the pit box, is a rather tricky thing. Same thing on whether or not to change tires.
Like I said, I do most racing online, and most races are short sprint races (5-10 laps). However, sometimes people pit mandatory pit stops in these races to add another element, and also to help spread out the field (less bumping and banging). In these type of races, I do not change tires, and very little fuel, if any at all. The performance benefits from trying to be cunning with pit strategy do not make up for the amount of time actually doing stuff in the pits. My car enters the box, sits for 2 seconds, and I'm back on the road.
One last note about pit stops. In a race with mandatory stops, it is not necessary to make a call to the pit wall that you will be pitting. The crew is expecting you, and you can pit on any lap without consequence. However, in races without a manditory stop, but where you may still want to stop (for damage, or a lonnger race that causes enough tire wear to warrant a change), it is very recommended that you have a button assigned to be able to call for a pit stop. I haven't seen any hard facts, but just going off experience, and reading other people's experience, if you enter the pits without first calling to the pit wall, chances are you will have a slower stop, and things may go wrong ("we've lost a wheel nut, just hang on").
A sound piece of advice I was given was to get myself a cheap $25 USB keyboard so I have all the buttons I need to able to assign some of the less frequently used options, such as calling the pits, changing display information on the screen, adjusting roll bars from in the car, etc (I have brake bias adjustments right on the controller as I am trying to learn how to make multiple brake adjustments per lap).
7. Take it slow, and try to keep smiling
Here's a few resources which you may find helpful.
The pCARS tuning database:
http://projectcarssetups.eu/#/bycar
If you really struggle with a particular car, check this out. Try a few different setups and see if you can find something you like better.
If you want to learn more about how to understand tuning, and how to be a better driver, check out
@dyr_gl's YouTube channel
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCGaI_TAqZN_RbD7FLyNGThg
Full of incredible useful info, great presentation, and some good baseline setups as well.
Finally, know that pCARS does a pretty good job of punishing bad habits. You can't throw the cars around like you can in Forza or Gran Turismo. You have to be very patient and smooth with your technique compared to those other games.
