While at first I was a bit skeptical of this board, and didn't find any value in the "lets dream up cool features and hope they get included" threads, I must admit that there is some re-assurance when one discovers that others feel the same way. Perhaps it suggests a greater chance that a certain feature will find its way into the game.
The biggest issue to me in the GT series is the vast spread in vehicle performance in each race, which was made painfully exagerated by the small field. There was always one or two cars that lapped the whole field, as well as one or two back markers that slunk around the track as a moving chicane. GT2 tried to make up for this by giving all the cars handicaps, so they were always jumbled together, but watching a SVT cobra mustang and a integra type R running door-to-door down a straightway always made me doubt the effectiveness of this system.
Tip-toeing into the world of regional club racing, (in real life) I have discovered that a huge amount of effort and research is required to build a competitive car that falls within the rules of the series. Although each car has its own minimum weight, because of allowed modifications certain cars just are not as competitive as others. If one wishes to run in several different series, (such as, in my case: Honda Challenge, Improved Touring, United States Touring Car Championship, and Regional Pro-Compact classes) all in the same car, it takes a LOT of effort to put together the best package, that fits the rules of all the series. I could build a car to the extreme limit of the rules, but chances are, I'd have to build 4 different cars. Instead, I choose a car that I know a lot about and that I feel I can make competitive, and try to make it fit across 4 rule books.
I feel this is one area that GT3 SORELY missed. GT2 hit the mark a little better, with so many different classes of cars to run in. But it still is no where near the parameters required to create the level playing field that today's sanctioning bodies operate, from the most grass-roots spec miata series, up to JGTC or World Challenge.
I think a proper structure would be to develop a series, and then have several classes within that series. This is employeed in real life as well. If GT4 was able to have 20-30 cars on the track, then having 2 - 3 classes on the track at once would increase realism, but A) I don't think that will happen, and B) even if you could get 30 cars on the track, it may be more desirable to have a 30-car field in one class.
The way the series/class normally works, is that you have a ruleset for modications, and then different classes for different vehicles and weight limits. I'm not sure how true-to-life it would be, but possibily one would be able to over-prepare a car for one class and bump it up to the next class, but not race in a lower class.
How do you do this effectively, and keep it challenging? The second part of this strugle has to do with the car's modications. Being able to select individual engine components, rather then N/A STAGE 2 or whatever, would A) make the game more fun, B) making tuning a car more challenging and C) create the availability more more classes then: RACE CARS and NON RACE CARS, with a few one-make-only's thrown in. Hell, even the one MODEL-only races put cars in the same race with HP spreads in the hundreds.
thoughts?
The biggest issue to me in the GT series is the vast spread in vehicle performance in each race, which was made painfully exagerated by the small field. There was always one or two cars that lapped the whole field, as well as one or two back markers that slunk around the track as a moving chicane. GT2 tried to make up for this by giving all the cars handicaps, so they were always jumbled together, but watching a SVT cobra mustang and a integra type R running door-to-door down a straightway always made me doubt the effectiveness of this system.
Tip-toeing into the world of regional club racing, (in real life) I have discovered that a huge amount of effort and research is required to build a competitive car that falls within the rules of the series. Although each car has its own minimum weight, because of allowed modifications certain cars just are not as competitive as others. If one wishes to run in several different series, (such as, in my case: Honda Challenge, Improved Touring, United States Touring Car Championship, and Regional Pro-Compact classes) all in the same car, it takes a LOT of effort to put together the best package, that fits the rules of all the series. I could build a car to the extreme limit of the rules, but chances are, I'd have to build 4 different cars. Instead, I choose a car that I know a lot about and that I feel I can make competitive, and try to make it fit across 4 rule books.
I feel this is one area that GT3 SORELY missed. GT2 hit the mark a little better, with so many different classes of cars to run in. But it still is no where near the parameters required to create the level playing field that today's sanctioning bodies operate, from the most grass-roots spec miata series, up to JGTC or World Challenge.
I think a proper structure would be to develop a series, and then have several classes within that series. This is employeed in real life as well. If GT4 was able to have 20-30 cars on the track, then having 2 - 3 classes on the track at once would increase realism, but A) I don't think that will happen, and B) even if you could get 30 cars on the track, it may be more desirable to have a 30-car field in one class.
The way the series/class normally works, is that you have a ruleset for modications, and then different classes for different vehicles and weight limits. I'm not sure how true-to-life it would be, but possibily one would be able to over-prepare a car for one class and bump it up to the next class, but not race in a lower class.
How do you do this effectively, and keep it challenging? The second part of this strugle has to do with the car's modications. Being able to select individual engine components, rather then N/A STAGE 2 or whatever, would A) make the game more fun, B) making tuning a car more challenging and C) create the availability more more classes then: RACE CARS and NON RACE CARS, with a few one-make-only's thrown in. Hell, even the one MODEL-only races put cars in the same race with HP spreads in the hundreds.
thoughts?
