Dragon Trail International Raceway-Seaside and Blue Moon Bay Speedway Showcase

I was going to post in the new track thread but this one seems more aproppriate. Mini-review after four laps before I sleep.

Layout:
- Fun!
- Seems Gr. 1 ready.

Aesthetics and choices:
- Early. Not a negative, just an observation. I'd say empty bleachers is the giveaway but there's more.
If some were complaining about a section of trees at Brands Hatch, steer away from this track. Lots of trees without scattering treatment, two parts with tree walls uncovered unlike Nurb/Brands. Yet there's a really hi-res mossy rocks before the villa.

- Seaside layout yet you barely see the sea from the car! There's a curve where you barely see an yacht in the ocean and then you have a glimpse to your left in that tunnel. The coastal portion is so tall your car is riding along the crown of the palms. You are a good 8 meters above the marina looking at the yachts.
Were it a bit lower you could enjoy a brand new Costa di Amalfi or something.

- The villa. Seems like a fortification turned into village but it looks lost there. Maybe it's because you see no hints of it until you drive in front of it, or maybe it's the other tiny spread out villas near the mountain base, but it looks weird.
They look much taller than the walls with watchtowers, and that's already way above sea level as well. The houses look early as well. The gas station is by the main straight though.

- Early mountain range, looks stretched like it just used World Machine. I assume the region is based on a real geographic location since the forest-y green patches near the base look like satellite imaging.

- Stands only on the main straight and two curves.

- Vegetation too sparse. I know that place has been modified by man, but it could use some more lush for such an isolated villa for the rich.

- Right now the things that draw the most attention are the huge cranes down the straights.

---

I know this is a bit of crazy rambling on something early but since we are getting tracks like Nutb, Brands, Willow (and Tokyo) that are incredibly faithful representations of reality and they shine so, having a track that can't escape the manufactured look would be a bummer knowing that they are artistically capable.
 
I was going to post in the new track thread but this one seems more aproppriate. Mini-review after four laps before I sleep.

Layout:
- Fun!
- Seems Gr. 1 ready.

Aesthetics and choices:
- Early. Not a negative, just an observation. I'd say empty bleachers is the giveaway but there's more.
If some were complaining about a section of trees at Brands Hatch, steer away from this track. Lots of trees without scattering treatment, two parts with tree walls uncovered unlike Nurb/Brands. Yet there's a really hi-res mossy rocks before the villa.

- Seaside layout yet you barely see the sea from the car! There's a curve where you barely see an yacht in the ocean and then you have a glimpse to your left in that tunnel. The coastal portion is so tall your car is riding along the crown of the palms. You are a good 8 meters above the marina looking at the yachts.
Were it a bit lower you could enjoy a brand new Costa di Amalfi or something.

- The villa. Seems like a fortification turned into village but it looks lost there. Maybe it's because you see no hints of it until you drive in front of it, or maybe it's the other tiny spread out villas near the mountain base, but it looks weird.
They look much taller than the walls with watchtowers, and that's already way above sea level as well. The houses look early as well. The gas station is by the main straight though.

- Early mountain range, looks stretched like it just used World Machine. I assume the region is based on a real geographic location since the forest-y green patches near the base look like satellite imaging.

- Stands only on the main straight and two curves.

- Vegetation too sparse. I know that place has been modified by man, but it could use some more lush for such an isolated villa for the rich.

- Right now the things that draw the most attention are the huge cranes down the straights.

---

I know this is a bit of crazy rambling on something early but since we are getting tracks like Nutb, Brands, Willow (and Tokyo) that are incredibly faithful representations of reality and they shine so, having a track that can't escape the manufactured look would be a bummer knowing that they are artistically capable.
:P should have let you do the thread, your explanation is way better than mine. I just wanted to put the layout of the track out there, so people know what to expect.

If I had to describe it, I will say that it is a combo or Circuit of the Americas and Monaco. Near the sea is similar to Monaco and on the top (the mountain area) it reminds me of Circuit of the Americas.

Yes, the track does looks empty on the outside, but the layout itself is pretty solid. I can see myself and some friends having some great bumper to bumper battles on this track when the game releases. The track is open with a good balance of corners and just about the right amount of straight lines for such a short track.
 
It's literally a steeper banked Pocono Raceway


It's literally not actually. Just going by the track maps the two tightest turns on the GTS version are much tighter, but when you take into account the size difference (assuming Pocono is a much larger track) they are much tighter still.
 
It's literally not actually. Just going by the track maps the two tightest turns on the GTS version are much tighter, but when you take into account the size difference (assuming Pocono is a much larger track) they are much tighter still.

Pocono is half a mile longer than BMB; Pocono is 2.5 miles long, whereas BMB was 1.99 miles long, last I checked.
 
Only watched oval video and IMO it's a terrible layout for a medium sized tri-oval. Corners are way too tight.

The single worst rendition of an oval, tri-oval not really an oval speedway in all of sim-racing games. Add in the fun to be had with a standing start drag race right into the super tight corner of turn one, that wall is going to be littered with cars and dropping SR's. :D
 
Translator-san at BMB?

IMG_8445.jpg
 
at Dragon Trail .... the two concrete structures you go through along the waterfront ....

... they are stupid and dumb, and i hate 'em
 
Dragon Tail International is awesome. The layout is simple yet tricky, you have to get the racing line just right through the esses, and the hard braking points should be great overtaking areas. Scenery is nice too, but could use some additions.

Blue Moon Bay Speedway is also awesome. Looks beautiful, and you have to nail the corners to get a quick time. High line in turns 1 and 3 and the low line in turn 2 is the quickest way around. However, turn 1 will be a bit tight come the start of the racing tomorrow. Gotta take it easy and hope no one pulls any bonehead moves (which we all know they will probably do :lol:).
 
Dragon Trail International Raceway looks like a very enjoyable circuit. I can see sections or turns from several real circuits in there.

If I was to make any changes I would drop or greatly reduce some of the very wide kerbs. A couple of them can be excessively straight-lined.

Blue Moon Bay Speedway looks gorgeous but doesn't interest me. I prefer traditional more technical circuits.
 
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Dragon trial looks amazing with good old proper corners around the track. Good stuff PD.

A bit disappointing to see unnecessarily wide kerbs on a good layout....unfortunately PD is still having difficulty escaping from this culture of making everything suitable for those that give up easily. I hope PD have sorted the track limits penalty system finally in spite of this.
 
Absolutely love the Dragon- hopefully we'll get GT4-GT3 events there, and soon! I can do without the ovals- if I wanted a NASCAR game, I'd buy one.
PD would not have included "ovals" if they weren't relevant to many gamers, and it doesn't have to be NASCAR to have ovals. It brings balance to the game, PCars made the mistake or promising them for both indy cars and stock cars and never releasing them.
 
A bit disappointing to see unnecessarily wide kerbs on a good layout....unfortunately PD is still having difficulty escaping from this culture of making everything suitable for those that give up easily. I hope PD have sorted the track limits penalty system finally in spite of this.

Agreed the kerbs are far too wide but the layout seems good with plenty overtaking chances espicially compared to Tokyo Express which is a very dissapointing track.
 
The layout of DragonTail is ok. Nothing exciting or unusual but I have two problems with it. One is it's butter smooth, completely devoid of character and nuance in the track surface. None of the bumps and dips/dives/bumps and other track imperfections that make a track, and your FFB wheel, come alive. Yet another track that looks like it just opened and hasn't had a wheel turned on it yet.

Second is, in a game with a driver rating system, why make a non-city fantasy track that doesn't have decent size runoff areas all around the track and is instead surrounded by concrete and metal barriers?:banghead::banghead:. They can make any style of track they like so they choose to make another one that has no room for error once you're off the racing surface. Brilliant.
 
PD would not have included "ovals" if they weren't relevant to many gamers, and it doesn't have to be NASCAR to have ovals. It brings balance to the game, PCars made the mistake or promising them for both indy cars and stock cars and never releasing them.

I get it. They can be fun- I got to do 17 laps at Richmond in a DEI-built Impala. It was riot. [avatar...] I just much prefer road courses. I do think that having nearly a third of the beta events on ovals is overkill, though. Lets have the GT3 event at Dragon?
 
Agreed the kerbs are far too wide but the layout seems good with plenty overtaking chances espicially compared to Tokyo Express which is a very dissapointing track.

Racing will be close here since the corners aren't very demanding on setup or driving style unlike the old classics such as Deep forest or Trial Mountain with their long corners that produce lots of understeer which has to be got rid of. Not sure what the Expressway is all about though as it isn't in PD's or Kaz's nature to make things easy if you look at GT's history, so they must be being kicked by someone else to do it...
 
Second is, in a game with a driver rating system, why make a non-city fantasy track that doesn't have decent size runoff areas all around the track and is instead surrounded by concrete and metal barriers?:banghead::banghead:. They can make any style of track they like so they choose to make another one that has no room for error once you're off the racing surface. Brilliant.

I had this thought as well. The ribbon layout is pretty sweet, but there are some big stops that by modern FIA standards should have BIG gravel pits or tarmac runoff. They have a bit, more than is usual for Polyphony, but nowhere near enough that the track would ever receive any sort of certification in real life. People would die.

Unfortunately, this is going to be to everyone's detriment once the damage system gets turned on. I feel like Polyphony haven't actually spent much time racing online with a real damage system, they're still designing around the traditional bumper cars philosophy. At this rate the game may actually be better off with no damage system at all, although that kind of shoots down any claim to realistic motorsport simulation that it might have.
 
This track is so nice, turn are just perfects and graphics are awesome. I've just played my first online race (that of course i've won:dunce:) on this track with the Hyundai Genesis and i loved these turns !!
 
I've only hotlapped it so far(cant connect to servers yet), but Dragon Trail is a great track. Great mix of corners, fast, flowing, what should be some nice overtaking spots, quite nice scenery even though you cant actually see the sea at any point.

Bit worried about corner cutting. You can really fly over the curbs and they dont spit you out wide like they should when doing so. A few corners here will probably be a case of 'how much can you straightline the corner without trigger an off-track warning', which is kind of lousy. These things should be easily defined by the actual track limits.
 
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