Beginner Quick-Reference Guide

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While Athena (my driver) does some B-spec for me, I thought I'd jot down some things that I wish I knew when I first moved from GT3 to GT4. Most of it is well known by old GT4 hands, but it will - by definition - be news to a beginner. If you are an old pro, feel free to add your 2 cents. I make no firm promises, but I'll try to organize all info received and keep this top posting of the thread up to date.

The following suggestions should help keep frustration to a minimum, and make the game more enjoyable.

BASIC PRINCIPLES:
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1) Upgrade your cars as little as is necessary to win a race. The least upgraded your car, the better the points you get (important for B-spec). Transmission, shocks and brakes give you good performance improvements with not-so-much impact to points. Tires can have a big handling impact, with better results than you'd expect.

2) Win every championship twice. Once in A-spec, and once in B-spec.

3) The rallies can be a pain due to the penalty system (it only applies to humans) and an AI that will gladly slam you into a wall if you let it. Read the forum for techniques. The following "key cars" may make you life a bit easier (at different points in the game): Toyota RSC Rally Car, the "super Evo" Mitsubishi Lancer Rally Car (not sure of exact name), the Suzuki Escudo, and the Dodge RAM (yes the pickup truck!). Settings are critical for some of these cars. Read the forum, read the forum, read the forum... you get the idea.

4) Still got bad handling, even after upgrades? Adding a spoiler (same place you get oil change) and setting the downforce to maximum will help. And of course, finding good settings (in the forum of course!) for the car you are using will do miracles.

5) Good car settings can help you beat seemingly impossible races. The 206 race is a good example. Or if you have extra cash, you can usually also win them by buying the best car available.

6) Change oil on all newly purchased cars, whether new or used.

PRIORITIES:
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You will not be able to do all of this exactly in this order, but just trying to do them in order will keep you in the right track.

1) Get as many licenses out of the way as early as possible. If (correction "when") you get thoroughly stuck (probably late in the IA licenses) borrow a wheel to pass the tests. Even a PS2 controller junkie like myself will admit that a wheel gives you better control, which might be critical for some tests.

2) Make a lot of cash fast, then keep a "nest egg" always handy... you never know when you'll need it. Make sure that by day 694 (I think) you have at least 10 million to buy the black beasts from the used car lots. This is not so hard. Early on you can make some decent money by racing (multiple times) one of the early rallys (Costa D'Amalfi, I think) and selling the victory car. Once you get to 25% and are able to do endurance races you can buy the Chrysler Crossfire, upgrade a bit, and win the Crossfire race. You get a Viper, that when fully upgraded will easily beat the El Capitan 200 Mile Endurance race in B-spec. With that you get the Toyota "Minolta" that will beat just about anything in b-spec. Repeat races of El Capitan, selling the car won, will net you between 1 and 1.5 million. Cash problem gone.

3) Make yourself (or get) a list of all the races, showing the license and car requirements. Most of the single-brand races have low license requirements, and some of the Professional races have lower requirements than beginner races (go figure!).

4) As early as possible, make a list of used cars that you might need for races, and when they will show up, and buy those cars as you play. A lot of the single-brand races require specific cars. Some cars are only available used, some from victories, and some new. Remember than inexpensive cars may be cheaper if bought new than if you pay for the $50,000 "rigidity refresher".

HINTS:
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(my thanks to the contributors)

- The Dodge RAM is good when you want to win 200-point races.
- Get a spare memory card and backup every 2-3 days... cards do not last forever.
- Read the thread below. Lots of good comments that go into more depth than this quick summary.

Short and sweet. I think those are the major points - for now. Enjoy.
 
I wish I had this when I started.
Great tips so far, but maybe put links to the lists and stuff.
 
Most important.
You should get a back up memory card and make back ups once a week from your main mem card using the PS2 browser.

The 4 black race cars are not important so there is no need make 10 million before day 694. You can win a better car. See Minolta above.

You have to complete 25% before you can enter the endurance races.

Easy 200 point machine : Dodge Ram Truck.

The Opel Speedster race is hard, fully mod your car.
The 206 race is hard even in a fully modded road car. Buy the 206 rally car.(spend all that cash for this one)
Races that say limited to unmodified cars only means you can not enter race cars. Modified road cars are allowed in.
 
Must agree with the 200pts Dodge Ram truck.

I used this in as many of the Beginner races as I could. I even added many mods to it and annihilated the other cars (even lapped them) and each time I go 200pts.

Another cheap upgrade, that improves handling is a Wing (can not be added to every car though). Use the 25% front/75% rear setting.
 
There is NO "Magic" car needed to win the GTWC! :trouble: It's easily Winable in a JGTC Ride so if you can't Win with any LMP or GrpC Ride...what you need more PRACTICE! ...O.G. :D
 
Old Geezer
There is NO "Magic" car needed to win the GTWC! :trouble: It's easily Winable in a JGTC Ride so if you can't Win with any LMP or GrpC Ride...what you need more PRACTICE! ...O.G. :D
Click to expand...
If you're going to use a stock JGTC car, tell me how you are going to win against the Chaparral 2J in Hong Kong or Paris?
 
Greycap
If you're going to use a stock JGTC car, tell me how you are going to win against the Chaparral 2J in Hong Kong or Paris?
Click to expand...
Did you see the word "STOCK" anywhere in my post! :confused:...O.G. :D
 
OK, then I understand... you can get over 900 BHP from them too :dopey:
 
Greycap
OK, then I understand... you can get over 900 BHP from them too :dopey:
Click to expand...
Yes but you don't need that much. The second time I did it with a JGTC Ride I used the Xanavi Skyline with 888 HP I believe. I had to add ballast to make some of the races closer. My only regret is that I can NOT make a DTM Ride competitive. :indiff: I've only tested at Hong Kong but my AUDI TT just couldn't keep up! :guilty: ...O.G. :D
 
I am now just over 60% completion of GT4. I wish I had started noting down from the beginning what races I have completed, A and B spec, noted the winnings and more importantly how many Aspecs I obtained in each race. I have started this list in Excel and had to ‘rerun quite a few races’ to improve on A specs. In some races I’d already maxxed out the points so it was a bit pointless running these again. (Except for more practice / fun)

There are some great lists out there that all have their different uses.

Once your garage starts to grow and you want to run a ‘dirttrack’ it’s handy to know which cars has ‘dirttyres’. Also if you want to start out maxxing A points it’s helpful if you noted down in which races you obtained xx points. To my knowlegde the only way to find that out again is to enter the race.

At the moment my excel race file looks something like this.
Japanse hall
Japanese Championship
completed | #races | prize $$ | prize car | points | car used | tyres | chip |etc
13-08-05 | 5 | 37500 | Nissan Z | 5*172 | Suzuki GSX-R | S2 | yes | etc
Japanese 80’s Festival
Repeat above details

I have another excel sheet that lists all my cars and all the mods i have bought for each car.
This quickly allows me to find the “dirt” car or “snow” car without having to buy new tyres.
It seems a bit over the top at first but you’ll appreciate the effort later on in the game and maintaining these lists from the start is less work than having to do all this ‘admin’ work later on in 1 go.

Wise words from Uncle Harry, buy a backup memory card. I did that before I installed my PS2. I save every 2 - 3 days worth of playing. The more you play the more frequent your backup should be. It is worth its price. I’ve only been playing this game since June 2005 and have already heard and read to many horror stories of corrupt disks.

Go out now and buy another memory card.

AMG_SLK
 
About the memory cards... One of my friends accidentally deleted my GT3 game save with all golds, nearly complete and so on. NO BACKUP! Well, now it's all golds and complete.
 
What car do I use for [insert name of series]? :dopey:

Every series can be previewed (using the icon next to enter race). Previewing a race will allow you to:
i. see up to 6 eligible cars;
ii. see what tyres and engine mods are being used (for one of the cars hp and tyre type are given at the beginning of the race); and
iii. see how those cars perform relative to each other (by watching for a while).

This could be treated as a day at the races, go and watch an event to find out what goes on there.

Previewing a race will take a lot less time than creating a thread and waiting for answers half of which will be flaming you (quite legitimately) for not using the search function.

Secondary advice - have fun, don't get all uptight about little things that, in the greater scheme of things, are not really that important - just enjoy al those things that are good about the game.
 
Change your oil on every car, bought or won, before you drive it. 50 credits.

New cars get +5% horsepower from the virgin oil change on prize cars or new cars, and used cars come with sludge in the sump.
 
Duke
Change your oil on every car, bought or won, before you drive it. 50 credits.

New cars get +5% horsepower from the virgin oil change on prize cars or new cars, and used cars come with sludge in the sump.
Click to expand...

I would strongly advise AGAINST this tactic if you are trying to obtain maximum A-spec points, especially in manufacturer events.

On that note - I cannot recommend route_66's thread enough - 200 A-spec Points Thread
 
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