Getting my butt stomped in career modePC

[cbrown119]

Hi,
As the title says, I’m not having a good career and looking for help.

I'm in the Ginetta and average about 8 seconds behind the pack.

I tried using the race engineer and another tune from here, but No matter what I try, nothing seems to help. I even lowered the AI down.

I was somewhat successful in PC1, and I understand that they’re two different games, but I don’t think I’m that bad - I’m just outclassed in every race.

Btw, I’m using a controller, if that matters.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[crowhop]

Practice. Make sure the car handles well and you are consistent with it. Then tune to add more speed and stability.

Then turn the AI down until you can run about mid pack and practice more to get fast enough to win.

Or don't. And just bottom out the AI.

 

[paulpg87]

Hi,
As the title says, I’m not having a good career and looking for help.

I'm in the Ginetta and average about 8 seconds behind the pack.

I tried using the race engineer and another tune from here, but No matter what I try, nothing seems to help. I even lowered the AI down.

I was somewhat successful in PC1, and I understand that they’re two different games, but I don’t think I’m that bad - I’m just outclassed in every race.

Btw, I’m using a controller, if that matters.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Which Ginetta? Junior or gt5?

Cause GT5 is bugged. The tyres do not heat up leading to huge gaps. The same goes for Ginetta junior but is less evident overall expect for brand hatch uk2 race.

From my point of view at the moment career is unplayable due to bugs.

 

[cbrown119]

Which Ginetta? Junior or gt5?

Cause GT5 is bugged. The tyres do not heat up leading to huge gaps. The same goes for Ginetta junior but is less evident overall expect for brand hatch uk2 race.

From my point of view at the moment career is unplayable due to bugs.

It’s the gt5 that I’ve been running with. Two “official” races (many restarts and practice sessions) to try to bring up my speed.

I rely on the car engineer or other peoples tunes because I wouldn’t know the first thing about trying to tune a car myself.

 

[paulpg87]

It’s the gt5 that I’ve been running with. Two “official” races (many restarts and practice sessions) to try to bring up my speed.

I rely on the car engineer or other peoples tunes because I wouldn’t know the first thing about trying to tune a car myself.

Keep an eye on tyres temperature. You will notice tyres Will stay "blue" and thus cold all day long. With "Green" tyres you will be able to improve by 4-5 seconds per lap (i tried only the First race oulton). It's a bug in many Cars. While IA seems not to be affected.

To verify you can take the same car on the same track in free practice setting summer Sunny. Hot temps Will help you heating up tyres and you will be able to verify yourself the difference. Tuning pretty useless. Moreover It bugged in ps4 and doesn't Save or apply.

 

[cbrown119]

Keep an eye on tyres temperature. You will notice tyres Will stay "blue" and thus cold all day long. With "Green" tyres you will be able to improve by 4-5 seconds per lap (i tried only the First race oulton). It's a bug in many Cars. While IA seems not to be affected.

To verify you can take the same car on the same track in free practice setting summer Sunny. Hot temps Will help you heating up tyres and you will be able to verify yourself the difference. Tuning pretty useless. Moreover It bugged in ps4 and doesn't Save or apply.

Good suggestion! I’ll try that when I get home. Good way to see if it is me or the game.

 

[paulpg87]

Good suggestion! I’ll try that when I get home. Good way to see if it is me or the game.

You have to put at least 6-7 laps in a row anyway to heat-up tyres even in Summer. Off course it's a problem of the game that Will be fixed soon i hope.

 

[MowTin]

Hi,
As the title says, I’m not having a good career and looking for help.

I'm in the Ginetta and average about 8 seconds behind the pack.

I had the same problem. I even lowered the Ai to 50 and still lost.

I fixed it by watching some videos which revealed to me that I was doing trail braking all wrong. I was riding the brakes all the way into the apex.

I am a horrible sim racer but I'm beginning to learn that you're so much better off being slow going into corners and getting a nice apex and acceleration coming out. The big time killer is when you don't take the corner before a long straight well. Find the longest straights and look at the corner before it.

Finally, go to time trial and race against a ghost from the leaderboard in your car/track. You'll see where the ghost pulls away from you and at least know that it's where you're losing time. Skip practice and go straight to qualifying. I only wish I could load ghosts in practice.

 

[cbrown119]

I had the same problem. I even lowered the Ai to 50 and still lost.

I fixed it by watching some videos which revealed to me that I was doing trail braking all wrong. I was riding the brakes all the way into the apex.

I am a horrible sim racer but I'm beginning to learn that you're so much better off being slow going into corners and getting a nice apex and acceleration coming out. The big time killer is when you don't take the corner before a long straight well. Find the longest straights and look at the corner before it.

Finally, go to time trial and race against a ghost from the leaderboard in your car/track. You'll see where the ghost pulls away from you and at least know that it's where you're losing time. Skip practice and go straight to qualifying. I only wish I could load ghosts in practice.

A lot of good information for me to digest....

I think that I fall into the same category that you did before you corrected it.

My technique must be poor because I brake just before a curve until the trackline color changes from red to green (sometimes blue, but I haven’t figured out what that color signifies) then accellerate.

I try to duplicate what the cars ahead of me are doing, but as the race goes on, they get further away from me, so it becomes harder.

I’ll have to check out some videos on what you mean by trail braking and such.

Thank you for your input/help

 

[NLxAROSA]

My technique must be poor because I brake just before a curve until the trackline color changes from red to green (sometimes blue, but I haven’t figured out what that color signifies) then accellerate.

Get rid of the driving line and use markers along the track to determine braking instead. Then go into TT mode and do a few laps. Once you have reached a pace that feel comfortable to you (however slow or fast, doesn't matter), load up a ghost thats 1-2 seconds faster than you. Try to follow it, observe where it is on track, where it brakes, etc. Just work from there. Your driving skills will improve greatly if you learn from actual people driving.

 

[breyzipp]

It’s the gt5 that I’ve been running with. Two “official” races (many restarts and practice sessions) to try to bring up my speed.

I rely on the car engineer or other peoples tunes because I wouldn’t know the first thing about trying to tune a car myself.

I stopped playing career at Ginetta GT5 as well, tire temps and/or it’s (lack of) effect on AI needs to be fixed first. Will pick up career again after the patch since it was incredibly fun.

 

[MowTin]

My technique must be poor because I brake just before a curve until the trackline color changes from red to green (sometimes blue, but I haven’t figured out what that color signifies) then accellerate.

I try to duplicate what the cars ahead of me are doing, but as the race goes on, they get further away from me, so it becomes harder.

I’ll have to check out some videos on what you mean by trail braking and such.

Thank you for your input/help

After you watch the first video in this series you won't need the racing line anymore. At this point you only need to watch the first two videos then chase ghost cars in time trial.



At first I was struggling like you. I moved AI down to 50 and watched some of those videos. I got better beat the ai at 50 easy.
I moved it to 60 but last night I blew away the AI by over 10 seconds so I'll have to bump up again.

Once you're pushing the car to the grip limit at corners it's so exhilarating.

 

[MowTin]

Well the Ginetta invitational is killing me. Caldwell is a brutal track for me.

I practiced against the record board leader and placed 7th on the record board but the Ai at 60 is killing me.

 

[FuriousDemon]

Well the Ginetta invitational is killing me. Caldwell is a brutal track for me.

I practiced against the record board leader and placed 7th on the record board but the Ai at 60 is killing me.

Yeah, it’s not easy. I haven’t beaten it yet. I also play around 60-65% AI. I think not enough people tested career mode (maybe?) because some of these things would be easy to spot as issues (just like snow gt3).

 

[MowTin]

Yeah, it’s not easy. I haven’t beaten it yet. I also play around 60-65% AI. I think not enough people tested career mode (maybe?) because some of these things would be easy to spot as issues (just like snow gt3).

I'm not sure why they offer you such a tough race so early. The track is narrow and bumpy and hilly. The Ai puts up solid times up front.

I found a video of someone wining it. It will help a lot next time I try this. I doubt I'll win it though as I don't think I can overtake as well as he does.

 

[mattikake]

^ I woudn't get too depressed. There's no way that is on 100% difficulty. This guy is taking corners slower than me - sometimes a full gear lower, excl setup - and is the same speed on the straights. Probably why he's hidden his lap times but counting by the YT seconds on the replay it looks like 1:34s 2nd lap, 1:34 3rd lap and 1:34 final lap...

You need to be lapping sub 1:30s. I just tried a quick race for fun at 100% and the AI is lapping 1:28-1:29 at the front. I'm consistently into the low 1:31s and completely unable to keep up in some sections (although potential says 1:29.9). They just drive away on the straights and muller me through Chris and Gooseneck, as in they can just about drive up the inside while I'm fighting to stay on the track. I can keep up everywhere else and good fun trying though.

Default setup and only tried a few times though.

 

[MowTin]

^ I woudn't get too depressed. There's no way that is on 100% difficulty. This guy is taking corners slower than me - sometimes a full gear lower, excl setup - and is the same speed on the straights. Probably why he's hidden his lap times but counting by the YT seconds on the replay it looks like 1:34s 2nd lap, 1:34 3rd lap and 1:34 final lap...

You need to be lapping sub 1:30s. I just tried a quick race for fun at 100% and the AI is lapping 1:28-1:29 at the front. I'm consistently into the low 1:31s and completely unable to keep up in some sections (although potential says 1:29.9). They just drive away on the straights and muller me through Chris and Gooseneck, as in they can just about drive up the inside while I'm fighting to stay on the track. I can keep up everywhere else and good fun trying though.

Default setup and only tried a few times though.

I've been obsessing over this. I have the AI set to 60 and they're still pulling 1:31's. I can get up front with a good start but I always always mess up somewhere. The pace requires you to drive on the very edge and I always mess up. I think I had the lead into lap 4 when the car just surprised me by failing to grip an easy turn.

It's hard to deal with overtaking and this tough track at the same time.

 

[MowTin]

So, I was doing the Ginetta juniors. I have the difficulty set at 60. I won two races at that setting.

I still haven't won the Proving Grounds. No problem. Maybe Proving Grounds is supposed to be a tough challenge.

My next race was Silverstone. I practiced against the leader board ghost. Copied his setup. Got to within 2 seconds of his time. I figured, that should be plenty good enough to beat the Ai at 60.

Well, I was wrong. I qualified last.

Ok, I race and a good start gets me to second place. The only reason I can hold second place is because the Ai cars are not aggressive enough to pass me. I'm fine with that because they also don't ram me. But I can never catch 1st place.

If I lower the ai back to 50 for this race, I'll be racing up front by myself. It seems like the leaderboard types can get a good race with Ai but for people like me it's a real pain to find a good setting where you're neither first or last.

I'm going to stick to time trials and online racing. Maybe one day I'll be good enough to race the Ai.

 

[twitcher]

I gave up on the career mode a while back, because of how inconsistent the AI was. It's not that I couldn't beat them, it's that on any given setting, I would go from being in last place by several seconds per lap, to first place by several seconds per lap, from one event to the next. It "worked", it just wasn't enjoyable or realistic.

Yesterday, I was in an online lobby where the host had some AI opponents turned on. We were in TC cars, and from track to track, those of us in the lobby would all fluctuate, front to back, depending on the circuit.

Most circuits, we would end up finishing miles ahead of the AI, especially on "bigger" tracks. However, if we did smaller tracks, like Brands Hatch Indy, or Ruapuna, or Oulton, everyone in the lobby would struggle to keep up.

It seems that on tight, twisty, bumpy tracks, the AI is really fast, while on high speed flowing tracks, they're on the sluggish side. Certain types of corners in particular, tricky, curved, off camber braking zones, the AI seems unaffected by physics. Examples would be Paddock Hill at Brands, T1 at Ruapuna, T4 at Snetterton 200.

 

[C_Raccoon23]

Glad I'm not the only one was struggling with the Ginetta Invitational. I tried it yesterday and man, was it frustrating. The track it takes place on isn't exactly easy either.

I've decided to just drop rhe career mode for now, especially since FM7 is here. I think I'll enjoy PCARS 2 more if I just do races for fun without any pressure of winning and at the same time, gain more experience with the game.

 

[MowTin]

I gave up on the career mode a while back, because of how inconsistent the AI was. It's not that I couldn't beat them, it's that on any given setting, I would go from being in last place by several seconds per lap, to first place by several seconds per lap, from one event to the next. It "worked", it just wasn't enjoyable or realistic.

That's the issue I'm having with career mode. That's why I wish the spread in skill of the ai from first place to last were larger so you wouldn't fall behind if you're not a leaderboard level player. I wouldn't mind if the first play ai ran leaderboard lap times but the problem is the last place ai is only a couple of seconds behind.

 

[Wolfe]

If the career mode wasn't stuck in the racing game rut of "1st/podium or nothing", I would gladly take hard-fought finishes wherever I end up against the AI on a given setting. If we could be rewarded for our performance instead of the results, like in Enthusia Professional Racing, there'd be more incentive to take things seriously and roll with setbacks.

Solo mode allows you to lose a race without feeling like it was a waste of time, but it lacks structure/context without custom championships.