"FIRIN' MAH LAZERS!" On chasing GT6 Fireflies and other Friendly Ghosts.

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photonrider

photonrider

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photonrider
Seasonals became a lot more interesting. Chasing my friends around a track in the current Time Trials is an online race . . . and yet not. They aren't around. Yet we still race each other. Brilliant. I chase them, following their lines, or cutting across their paths without ramming or blocking, bumping or grinding, a fight to the finish in a pack, as visible as ghosts, yet as invisible as neutrinos, merging, parting, spreading out, lining up . . . any line available, fighting together on the same track in the same space in the same split second. Mind-boggling. And extremely absorbing.

We compete with each other in Licence tests, too, keeping each other company as we strive for Gold. While actually not being around at all. Time warp.

I can go in anytime, find an event to compete with them . . . and they are right there . . . ready, willing and able to race me. What has Kaz got up his sleeve next?

What do you think? Are you enjoying the laser show? And the battle with your friends?
 
Monatsende
Yes, I do.
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I'm finding it addictive. Good thing is my friends are fairly closely matched with me - so we're fighting tooth and nail for split seconds.

Strange thing is - it comes off that we're better at some things, and not so good at others. I might be beaten at one event, but would come up on top in another. All very exciting and at the moment, as I said, very addictive.

Got to have some good friends, though.

Feels strange to be, in a sense, 'racing', yet not in an 'online room'.

I have a German friend who was lagging in some events, then blew us all to bits in the AMG. :crazy:
 
It's great. Win a Gold....... not good enough if your friends have done it quicker, so back at it until you beat them or admit you can't. It is the little things.
 
photonrider
Chasing my friends around a track in the current Time Trials is an online race . . . and yet not. They aren't around. Yet we still race each other. Brilliant. I chase them, following their lines, or cutting across their paths without ramming or blocking, bumping or grinding, a fight to the finish in a pack, as visible as ghosts, yet as invisible as neutrinos, merging, parting, spreading out, lining up . . . any line available, fighting together on the same track in the same space in the same split second. Mind-boggling. And extremely absorbing.
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It`s like magic. :)
I very liked your "neutrinos" comparison.
 
Ah! I see some of you are already doing it. :D

Yes . . . a lot of fun. And more to come. When you hunt down those lasers and overtake them - when there is no firefly dancing ahead of you . . there's no rush quite like it. Night racing turns into a light show, and a thrilling chase. Plus you get to see and analyse your friends' lines. Intriguing.

Can't wait to go back and smash the 🤬 out of my friends. :lol:
But the actual racing with the lasers is fun, too - because they . . . are . . . actually people! Not AI!
 
funny how much flak SSX got for this exact feature and people enjoy it here.
im in the same boat. i love it tremendously, allready loved it in SSX.
 
jacnob
In the time trials (and licenses to) if you're online, it'll pull down those on your friends list's lines for you to see race against.
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solidboss07
It's great. Win a Gold....... not good enough if your friends have done it quicker, so back at it until you beat them or admit you can't. It is the little things.
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This is what I'm talking about. I'm enthralled by the many features built into the game now - it has come a long way.
Having a good set of friends (and ones that actually do the Licence test and Seasonals) is a huge plus to the online A-Spec (if we could even call it that.) No more are the Licence tests that lonely business that brings out that mocking voice and that raspberry music that jeers when you fail a test. At least you have your friends for company; they always start off with you. Plus they give you lines to work with, as well as a 'if they can do it, I can' feel to the missions. Sometimes getting Gold is enough - at least you stayed with the group. At other times, you know you can knock the lead dog off the Board, so you try and do it. Come back the next day, lead dog is back on top. Back to the drawing board (or rather steering wheel :D) Got to catch them by surprise - knock them off when they ain't looking - so when they check later, they see you've grabbed another spot. Threatening PMs are sent. :lol:
Sometimes you're better than some, at other times someone may surprise everybody with a stunning time that nobody can beat. It's all good fun. It's all about finding the right friends. I have four friends who are very close in their timings, and we all religiously do the Seasonals and Licences, as well as couple slower, and two who are very much faster and battle at the top of my Board all the time.
(You have to remember that each person's 'Friend' leader board is personal, and different; they may not have the same friends as you - unless you are some kind of cult/club :D )

We obviously learn from each other - I know I do from keeping up with my laser friends - and I'm grateful for their Online friendship.

You know who you are - THANKS! :lol:

(That doesn't mean I'm going to stop firin' my lasers!)

Monatsende
It`s like magic. :)
I very liked your "neutrinos" comparison.
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Glad you got that - since chasing photons are hard enough.

I know the disappearing wiggly 'tails' look awfully reminiscent of spermatozoa, but I guess these symbols are irrepressible in human nature - we got to get to the egg first. :) Nothing like beating all the lines and there is no ghost ahead of you, except the one in one's rear view mirror.

______________________________________

My advice to you folks out there playing alone - gather a half-dozen friends that are of similar caliber, keep them close, and do the events - and there's lots of fun doing the Licences - and loads of fun (for quite some time to come) via the constant flow of Seasonals.

:cheers:
Harry.
 
The fury that wells up inside me, when trailing friend's and brother's ghost lines by mere seconds, has driven me ( no pun intended ) to gold tests and seasonal events that I would have otherwise given up and settled for less, on. :cheers: I'm loving the lazurlinze. Much better than stuffy old ghost, in the way all the time.
 
I think it's a great addition. I loved Autolog in the Need For Speed series, that allows you to compete against your friends at basically anything, so there's always something for you to do, even when they're offline at the moment. Glad that PD found a way to do the same, but doing it completely differently. 👍 I would like an Autolog like screen though, that informs you of the records you set and your friends broke, or records that are within reach, so you can return the favor. :D
 
Would be awesome if they were different colors. At least make the name more transparent. Sometimes they get in the way and throw you off your game....
 
Yup, loving this feature. I only wish there were more areas of the game that supported it right now. Like TT's in arcade mode or something would be great (although I'm not too sure how you would regulate cars and tuning differences).

Sort of like OutspokenFlunky said the lines can get pretty cluttered sometimes. Personally I find it easiest to just stay in front of them all lol :lol: or like I have begun to do at times... simply remember the time you need to beat and turn them off for awhile. I have missed some braking points and lines because I couldn't see around all the lines and names on screen. Would be nice if you could "choose" one or two lines to chase and remove the names on screen to be less distracting.
 
I also like this. I was surprised to find I was actually faster in some license tests than some of my friends who are waaaaaay better drivers than me.
 
crowhop
After reading this I realize I need more friends...

Please add GTP_crowhop
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adding you to my list now brother. going to add smsketter23 as well. The more the better you are in the long run. I just wish it was more useful. PLZ add this feature to more things in GT6 PD.................
 
OutspokenFlunky
adding you to my list now brother. going to add smsketter23 as well. The more the better you are in the long run. I just wish it was more useful. PLZ add this feature to more things in GT6 PD.................
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I'll add you as well (#167). If you want me to remove you let me know ;)
 
I didn't have any gt6 friends when doing the licence tests but after doing the most recent seasonals I found them and thought they were really cool and made it more enjoyable for sure
 
It was distracting at first. I didn't like it. I don't need to know how other people did their tests. What annoyed me is that I couldn't turn it off without turning the racing line off.

But I got used to it. It doesn't bother me now really.
 
HuskyGT
It was distracting at first. I didn't like it. I don't need to know how other people did their tests. What annoyed me is that I couldn't turn it off without turning the racing line off.

But I got used to it. It doesn't bother me now really.
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You can turn it off by turning ghosts off. I'd be surprised if that also kills the racing line (but I don't know for sure because I don't use the racing line).
 
MrWednesday
You can turn it off by turning ghosts off. I'd be surprised if that also kills the racing line (but I don't know for sure because I don't use the racing line).
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I rarely use racing line. This only applies whenever I'm in a new track or while doing a test so I can get it as quick as possible. I don't like to loose time repeating tests to get gold while I learn the track.
 
steiner
funny how much flak SSX got for this exact feature and people enjoy it here.
im in the same boat. i love it tremendously, allready loved it in SSX.
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RR3 uses your friends cars instead of AI. FM5 is copying this with their Drive-a-turd system.
 
MrWednesday
You can turn it off by turning ghosts off.
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Yes, there is this option. In fact it can even be a problem in open lobbies (been racing for hours in there testing out all sorts of lobbies) and sometimes some of the names are so long, complex, or full of hieroglyphics, that it obscures everything. But, I believe you can boost the transparency of the ghosts as well as the line IIRC I saw that Menu, maybe in the Options via the Start menu.

Ghosts are a very important and complex issue - in fact the 'penalty ghosting' in Online lobbies takes some getting used to.

Ghosts in the Time Trials are sometime else. Choice of car colour can be something to think about. OTOT, the laser-blue (or is it 'GT BLue' ? :D ) lines that are laid down so we can have fun competing with our friends is a great idea for its time. Right now while I play the Seasonals, the fact that more and more of my friends lines are being added makes it interesting.

It's interesting when a game can be this absorbing. Or is it the other way around? :lol:

Well - I have to beat the Top Dog on my Board by 5 seconds. He's a maniac.
 
I can't relate, this is me when I do tests.
2199184.jpg
 
I can relate to that, too, since I never played online in GT5 and felt terribly isolated. Having plunged right into GT6 from day one, I am now overwhelmed.

Send me an FR, if you wish - I still have some spots.

There are other 'friend' leader boards, too, that I have discovered:

Here is an example - when you make a 'Track Day Sim' room (a room where everybody simulates 'track day' behaviour, either for practise towards the real thing or just for fun) then the lap times you do are recorded and can be compared; the leader is at the top of the Board as usual and others follow.
The game in that room would be to line up the cars, admire everyone's work, compare tunes, then start lapping, and we continue to lap and see who keeps getting knocked out of first spot.
If you have a mic, and if it is permitted, even more 'friend' fun. If not, a keyboard serves as well. Keyboarding in a room specially helps because you can get into longer conversations - and this helps project your personality and that will help others make up their minds whether they want to keep you as a friend or not.

Another example:

Last night I ended up in a room where everybody had left after about an hour of racing, except for the guy in just before me - he became the host by rote and switched the room over by reconfiguring the title and the filter specs to a 'Track Day Sim' at Laguna Seca. He was running the Nur LFA and getting some fast times, but I was running the '09 V-Spec and getting equally fast times, so we parked at the pits and chatted about tuning, swapped tunes, he brought his '09 out and ran it but was slower than me so he grabbed my tune. I then brought my LFA out and we started laps again, and I ended up on the top again, then he grabs another car . . . .and so on.

Having played GT5 offline for several years alone (with only the great company at GTPlanet to keep me going) I have realised that online play is the baws . . . or whatever word you younger folk use to say something is totally awesome.

Friends, online, are just ghosts, but they can be very friendly ghosts. Make some.

More about ghosts:

Do you know that you can get the AI to run your car around the track online, while others are practising? Meanwhile you can text while they drive. LOL. FTW.

And admire the scenary and everybody else's cars at the same time. Maybe even comment as they pass. It's the baws. Whatever. This game rocks as a social networking tool. Nuff said.

More about that later.

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Special note to Admin:
Thanks! ;) 👍

:cheers:
 

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