Daily, weekly and monthly rivals

[LordDeimos]

The Lotus in the rain was indeed tricky, but I managed a 1:35:5xx average and I'm still in the top 100 on PC, so I'm happy enough with that. Didn't use SC though, just a dash of TC.

Today's Daily is a Pace Setter in the desert again (but dry this time), at Monument Canyon Array Peak with the Group C Sauber C9 Mercedes. These normal road circuits are always tricky with a track-tuned race car, with all the bumps and undulations. A lot of the corners on this circuit are more open and faster than they seem, but on those long slow ones you really need to be careful and control the wheelspin to get the best drive off into those long full-speed sections. A little too much steering input while you're getting on the gas or breaking the rear tyres loose with too much trail braking will absolutely kill your corner exit. On the hairpins, brake early, roll through the corner, and get lined up properly before mashing the gas (and watch out for those sneaky bumps!). Also, don't try to follow the corner markers; they're not great on this course and will often put you off the ideal line for maintaining maximum speed in this car.

 

[MarcoM]

Well today's pace setter certainly does show where the rev limit is.

It is so in your face. This must be patched.

 

[LordDeimos]

That's just Mercedes' patented reality-warping redline indicator. It's meant for use in their street cars, since Mercedes drivers on the road rarely bother to do anything except gaze smugly at their own hood ornaments while driving.

 

[half_sourly]

Today's Daily is a Pace Setter in the desert again

That was good fun. I'm sure I will slip down, but very happy with the outcome; getting close to within a second of @jammy21 is always n indicator you've done okay.

 

[jammy21]

Well done @half_sourly
I was little disapointed my laps as i did my runs little hurry on morning.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today's Daily is a Hot Lap at Shanghai Henan Loop in the BMW M6 GT3. Hadn't run this particular layout before (or driven that particular GT3 car; it's surprisingly sedate and even a little understeery for a BMW), so I spent my first few attempts being completely lost and occasionally trying to turn the wrong direction, but once I got it sorted, it was pretty fun. Just watch out for the bumps, especially in that second-to-last complex with the pavement transition; if you try to hit that last apex with too much speed it'll just fling you straight into the wall on exit.

New Weekly event is a Hot Lap at Oschlersleben B. Again I think it was intended to be in a specific car, the Mitsubishi Lancer (and it puts you in one by default if you own one, which everyone probably does), but it's open to any Road E car from your garage or otherwise. The Lancer's a bit slippery for my tastes (never have understood how a slow 4WD car can have so little grip), but I did pretty well in a souped-up GT86 with some motorsport tyres; it's a bit slower than some on the straights, but gets around all those medium sweepers very well, and has a solid advantage on a couple of the sections where understeering 4WD cars get caught out. Folks have been doing pretty well with the Skyline as well, going by the leaderboards.

The Oschlersleben B layout isn't my favourite track, though, as it's rather dull, especially in a slower car. PC3 even uses the motorcycle layout for some reason, so you don't even have the sharp 90-degree corner at the end of the main straight to make things interesting. (Maybe it's because the AI would positively **** itself trying to get around that corner?)

 

[MarcoM]

My weekly on Oschersleben ended with a CTD at the Finish line. It happens too often .

 

[half_sourly]

Do you play on PC Marco?

 

[MarcoM]

Do you play on PC Marco?

I am on ps4pro.

 

[half_sourly]

I'm on base PS4. Where I play is a couple of floors above my router. WiFi signal is fine, but I've installed a cheap WiFi extender to get a slightly better signal with the hypothesis that my crashes are caused by an inferior signal when the game tries to save data or communicate in some way with its server, because crashes are almost always at what are likely to be such points, for example crossing the line in a race or at the end of a breakout event or on a restart of an event.

it has only been a couple of days but no crashes so far. That includes some rivals events, some quick online races, some career, including a breakout event. UsuallyI get a crash at least every second day.

 

[LordDeimos]

Don't have a PS4, but on PC I have a wired Ethernet connection and my game has never crashed as far as I can remember.

 

[IfAndOr]

Something like these would be ideal @half_sourly. Nearly as good as a direct wired connection. i use them to stream to my TV a couple of rooms away. Sick did use some and they improved his connection no end (not sure why he's not using them now).

I've installed a cheap WiFi extender

Strangely I noticed your signal was on red to low orange during our races yesterday. I can't remember seeing that before. I didn't see any lag though.


Anyway, back to Rivals. Quite enjoyed the BMW. I got to gold 3 but it was getting late so didn't progress beyond that. I haven't tried Oschlersleben yet. The Escort RS1600 seems popular for that event on the PS4.

 

[Toblerone]

I really enjoyed the M6 at Henan Loop today, nice car/track combo tbh. Managed 1:21.544, so happy enough with that... ish.

The weekly looks like it will be fun as well, another good combination... just need to suss out the quickest build for my wee Escort... I'm a good bit off the pace in practice though.

 

[Toblerone]

P.S. Sorry for going off topic... but if anyone on PSN fancies some pC3 online racing, my GT is Savoury69. I'm itching for some proper racing on this game.

 

[half_sourly]

Something like these would be ideal

Thanks @IfAndOr. I had a look at those, but the sockets on which your router and adapter are need to be on the same circuit; in my place there are two circuits and the ground floor sockets, where the router is (and has to be) is a different circuit from the top floor where the PS4 is.

I noticed your signal was on red to low orange

I too noticed everyone else was red, which raised some suspicion; I guessed it was more likely me than everyone else. This will have been due to me moving the extender to a more convenient socket yesterday. I've moved it again today, where it seems to be picking up the best signal yet, so will test it tonight to see if that better signal still reaches the PS4 in good state.

 

[IfAndOr]

You need a good length of network cable and a long drill then @half_sourly

my GT is Savoury69, I'm itching for some proper racing on this game

Ah! I often see that name pop up somewhere near near the top of the lists.

I run a series with PC2 at the moment but I'm thinking of perhaps trying to do something in PC3 sometime. Probably more of a fun type thing which I think would suit the game's style more. It would need to be stable though, these blue screen crashes are troubling.

 

[LordDeimos]

On PC, most of the weekly Platinum folks are actually in Lancers, amusingly enough. There's also a few Skylines, a GT-86 or two (though one is probably a cheater), and one mad lad in a Mustang. Only one guy in an Escort is up there. Maybe PC folks are too lazy to try to change cars...

Today's event is a Hot Lap at Porsche Leipzig Full Circuit in a Mercedes-AMG GT-R. Interesting experience trying to throw a fat overpowered Merc around a track expressly designed to make a Porsche cry, but once you get into the rhythm, it's pretty fun.

 

[IfAndOr]

(though one is probably a cheater)

Is it possible to take advantage of a tweak or two on PC?

It's still a sea of Escorts on the PlayStation. There's only 2 different cars in the top 30. And one of those is a Mustang too!

 

[LordDeimos]

Cheats do seem to be possible on the PC, though I've no idea what they entail. Every event there's usually a couple folks with impossibly fast times on the top of the board; like, not "I couldn't do that!" fast, but "No one could do that!" fast, often multiple seconds ahead of the next folks on the list. SMS sometimes remove 'em before the end of the event, but not always; there's still one on the P3 Ginetta weekly event at Algarve with a 1:23.931, for instance (with the #2 time being a fast but still realistic 1:36.768...). In this weekly event there's one GT86 with a 1:08.002, well over a second ahead of any of the other Platimum drivers; don't know that it's a cheat for certain, or just a driver who is really good and has managed to find the absolute edge of the track limits on one crazy lap to shave off that much time, but it's definitely a bit suspicious.

 

[AlexWilmot]

The Lotus in the rain was indeed tricky, but I managed a 1:35:5xx average and I'm still in the top 100 on PC, so I'm happy enough with that. Didn't use SC though, just a dash of TC.

Today's Daily is a Pace Setter in the desert again (but dry this time), at Monument Canyon Array Peak with the Group C Sauber C9 Mercedes. These normal road circuits are always tricky with a track-tuned race car, with all the bumps and undulations. A lot of the corners on this circuit are more open and faster than they seem, but on those long slow ones you really need to be careful and control the wheelspin to get the best drive off into those long full-speed sections. A little too much steering input while you're getting on the gas or breaking the rear tyres loose with too much trail braking will absolutely kill your corner exit. On the hairpins, brake early, roll through the corner, and get lined up properly before mashing the gas (and watch out for those sneaky bumps!). Also, don't try to follow the corner markers; they're not great on this course and will often put you off the ideal line for maintaining maximum speed in this car.

I've got a 1:34.476 average and 149th on PS4 at the moment for the Lotus event

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Breakout at Monza in the Lambo Huracan GT3. Meh.

 

[half_sourly]

In this weekly event there's one GT86 with a 1:08.002, well over a second ahead of any of the other Platimum drivers

When I had my last few attempts at this last night (ended at over 1:10.0xx) I noticed there were two PS4 players under 1:08. Maybe the variance is caused by different types of cars and then different types of upgrades to get to the max PIR allowed.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today is a Hot Lap at the short Havana Malecon Loop in the Alpine A110S road car. A fun little sports car, nice and nimble. Doesn't like any trail braking, though; make sure to be off the brakes completely before you start your turn-in, or it will do its best to become a front-engine car. If you need a little adjustment mid-corner, breathing the throttle a touch will settle the front nicely without breaking the rear loose, though.

 

[IfAndOr]

different types of upgrades to get to the max PIR allowed.

I think that's why the Escort is popular. Because it's at the lower PIR end of the class it can be upgraded to near the upper end, beating the normally faster cars.

I did a few runs in a unmodified Merc which seemed quite good. The Megane also felt good but would need some power tweaks to make it competitive.

 

[LordDeimos]

I tried the weekly again in an Escort with a few different combinations of upgrades, and managed to shave several tenths off my previous best time in the end. I found the medium tyre upgrade (track tyres?) plus some power upgrades to hit 299 worked the best for me; it's a bit too slippery with only power upgrades on the standard tyres, and while motorsport tyres basically made it drive like a slot car through all the corners, it was just a bit too slow on the straights.

 

[LordDeimos]

Today's event is a Pace Setter at Zhuhai International in the Aston Martin Vulcan AMR Pro. This car's a bit of a pig, and wrestling it around Zhuhai's oddly sharp corners can be pretty tricky. That last turn especially was tough for me for some reason; don't think I really got it right on any of my many laps.

 

[IfAndOr]

That last turn especially was tough for me for some reason;

That corner is very deceptive isn't it. It looks easy but is far from it. Satisfying when you get it right, which isn't very often!

 

[half_sourly]

Pace Setter at Zhuhai International in the Aston Martin Vulcan AMR Pro

Man this game frustrates me. So it gives me a great car and track, but then does its random time recording thing again. I've done averages of 1:29.4 and 1:29:3, with a best single lap of 1:29.0; not exactly page 1 times, but good enough for top of Gold 3. Instead it insists on keeping my earlier 1:29.9, leaving me somewhere in Gold 2. Why even bother trying to improve if you won't get the credit for it?

 

[MattJXN]

Man this game frustrates me. So it gives me a great car and track, but then does its random time recording thing again. I've done averages of 1:29.4 and 1:29:3, with a best single lap of 1:29.0; not exactly page 1 times, but good enough for top of Gold 3. Instead it insists on keeping my earlier 1:29.9, leaving me somewhere in Gold 2. Why even bother trying to improve if you won't get the credit for it?

I've heard this issue affecting others and SMS hasn't spoken to it. One question, are you setting a faster time and going back to the Rivals screen or are you restarting the session immediately? Only other thing I know that might help is to periodically clear your cache in your advanced network settings (if you are on XBOX)

 

[half_sourly]

Thanks for the tips, but it is not a specific sequence of actions that causes it. I clear the ghost files daily.

I usually do rivals all in one go, stepping via the"continue" button to the final screen where"restart" is still an option, then restart. That way the ghosts don't get in the way. 19 days out of 20 that works fine and the best time is captured to the leader board.

Then 1 in 20 it doesn't. How I know that it doesn't without going out completely and checking the leader board is by keeping an eye on the screen where it shows time, section (bronze, silver, gold, platinum) and percentile. A disconnect between the latter two indicates an issue.

For example today on the first run I did a slow one at 1:32 for silver 3 (top 50%). Then 1:29.9 for gold 2 (top 30%). Then 1:29.3, but now it showed gold 2 and top 20%. It should be gold 3. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and went again, did a 1:29.4 for again gold 2 and top 20%.

That made me go out all the way and sure enough, my time on the leader board is 1:29.9.

I logged it when it first happened, both on the official website and on the official forum.

Edit: By the way, I went back later and did one more, at 1:29.6 and that did register.