Gran Turismo 7 “Power Pack” Paid DLC Now Available: New Races Including Endurance Events, Qualifying, and “Sophy 3.0”

[Fezzik]

do you need to win or finish in a minimum position in the races to be able to claim the prize cars?

No you don't need to win any of the races (and maybe that was the point of the PP, to show that winning isn't everything).
Looks like the most expensive of the prize cars to unlock is the Mustang at 120 stars. You'll get that many very easily just by completing events.

 

[Andrew Dunbar]

Miyazono is stupidly fast in some of the challenges like the FF at Willow, he is in another league compared to the rest, I accidentely ( seriously by accident though ) did a "Pursuit Immobilization Technique" and tailswept him into the shadow realm at the start what got me the win eventually because, he was second fairly quick again

Did the same on Sardegna DTM. Was sandwiched by the two 155's on the start/finish straight and pitted them both. Whoops sorry.

 

[mynameis66]

@Fezzik Thanks.Reading through some of the posts,I may struggle with some of the sophy races so its good you dont need the win.If its a case of having enough stars i`ll just run them again. 👍

 

[Met Entso]

They were different levels because they had different cars.

I see.. must be difficult then to have different "core" strengths in Sophy.

 

[Ryan81]

Helpful as ever 👍

 

[eran0004]

I see.. must be difficult then to have different "core" strengths in Sophy.

I suppose so. The best way to train a "slow" AI is probably to train it to be as fast as possible while at the same time reducing the accuracy of its sensors so that it for example doesn't know the exact position on the track or its exact speed. That way it would still try to be as fast as possible, but it would take a little messier lines and be less precise with its braking points.

 

[Met Entso]

Would it be safe to say that winning with 2 peppers is A+ level, with 1 pepper is A level, and with no pepper is B level?

 

[KAlex122]

Not sure if you can say that. Somebody here compared A+ to golding everything in the game. I'm an average B at best and also golded every mission, license, race, circuit experience. I get gold in about 2/3 of the online TTs.

Just to say the definition is difficult. I don't think you have to be A+ but i don't have the powerpack yet.

 

[Fezzik]

Would it be safe to say that winning with 2 peppers is A+ level, with 1 pepper is A level, and with no pepper is B level?

One lower, I'd say as a B-level online driver. I can win 1 pepper races, some quite easily.

 

[Famine]

Helpful as ever 👍

That's PD for you.

We put all the instructions and info we know in our article. Upshot is the game just does it. There's no way to know if it's done it, and no way to know how far back it's saved.

 

[TheCracker]

Oh would you look at that, the qualifier session countdown ends and we are now on our final lap and it just so happens that that Mazda gained 300 hp and shed 600 lbs.

I am still drafting him and getting dusted. Not that it makes a lick of a difference because this race is literally brain dead; the AI don't understand the concept of the title of the race series... bump drafting. If they actually did, it would make for some honest to God fun.

Sophys been watching too many Tom Cruise films and realised they had another gear they could have used all along.

 

[Greycap]

It's absurd. A clean race at Willow Springs is just a massively defensive race. You have to constantly keep him on the outside. I've only won that race in the Mazda Gr.4. The Dragon Trail I was able to win in the Honda because the AI can't navigate the chicane properly.

[...]

I am a self-proclaimed Semi-Alien. I used to hang with the fastest drivers in Canada and I was on controller. When I got my wheel it went downhill because I had to relearn evrrything, but nonetheless. This DLC is a cakewalk but it has moments of unparalleled frustration due to fabricated difficulty, and that's a slap to the players' faces.

And here I was thinking my experiences here were caused by my FF driving sucking. Apparently not after all because it was just the same - Miyazono coming back in half a lap after being several seconds behind, and not being able to be dropped no matter what. From the replay the Elantra looks like it's on racing softs instead of hards, no sign of grip shortage at any point, while my front tyres were probably worn down to canvas after the race. Still managed to keep him behind from pole to finish and somehow get the CRB too.

 

[Met Entso]

One lower, I'd say as a B-level online driver. I can win 1 pepper races, some quite easily.

There are very fast B drivers, you can find a B driver almost anywhere in the rankings, but as a general idea.

 

[BradleyLove]

I really don’t like how the PP’s idea of making it harder is by putting you in a lower-powered car. I could be the best driver in the world but if I can’t keep up on a straight then I’m immediately at a huge disadvantage. For me, a harder race should have the AI taking better lines and making less mistakes—not put me in a slower car.

 

[Obizzz]

Right. Let's talk about Polyphony's incessant need to fabricate difficulty instead of just making their AI drivers actually give you a close contest.


Oh would you look at that, the qualifier session countdown ends and we are now on our final lap and it just so happens that that Mazda gained 300 hp and shed 600 lbs.

LOL!

So it’s not just me imagining things.

In the races they also have a habit of dive bombing you in a way that SHOULD massively compromise their exit yet they magically accelerate away from you.

 

[Voodoovaj]

If you skip the practice and qualifying the game only gets easier not harder. Give it everything in practice in qualifying and you'll find the AI adapts and becomes faster with you. No doubt in my mind they can make this AI faster than any human, they just dial it down and add some ruberbanding to keep folks interested. Otherwise we'd get a lot of depressed humans after spending $30.

Oh really? So you didn't try a race, did you? Because I have, and none of what you are claiming has occurred. If you start last, you'll be hard pressed to pull off a win (it may even be impossible), while winning from last is the core of the base game.

 

[Arkseven]

Cross-posting here from the Power Pack thread:

 

[GTRedman]

I really don’t like how the PP’s idea of making it harder is by putting you in a lower-powered car. I could be the best driver in the world but if I can’t keep up on a straight then I’m immediately at a huge disadvantage. For me, a harder race should have the AI taking better lines and making less mistakes—not put me in a slower car.

"At the 1960 Daytona 500, Junior Johnson entered the race as a long shot. His ’59 Chevy was under-powered, with lap times well behind the top contenders. But during practice, Johnson discovered the “slipstream” effect: by drafting in the air wake of the faster cars, not only could he keep up with them, he could actually use the added momentum to slingshot past them. Johnson rode the air (and a bit of luck) to victory and showed that it wasn’t just speed that wins races—but also the driver’s skills."

source

 

[Voodoovaj]

So, how do you know when you've reached the point in the endurance race where you can safely shut down the console without having to restart right from the beginning again? Is there some kind of image that gives you a clue or what? It all seems rather convoluted. Why not just have a save feature after a specified number of laps?

So, to answer the question in tech terms, GT7 uses the autosave function. USUALLY, this happens in between events (including leaving GT Auto for the main page).

For the endurance races, there is no such event, so it looks like it's a time trigger to avoid an A+ class bug. In game terms, if you have a "Showstopper"(an A+ class bug), a bug that prevents the progress of the game, then the product cannot ship. With the endurance events, if something cuts power to the console, you would get a "Showstopper". It appears they put a timer in there to trigger an autosave. Keep your eyes open for some type of on screen indicator (because those are usually required).

The safe bet is that it's time based, not laps. So, 15-30 minutes SHOULD do it, but we'll need to keep tabs on this.

I really don’t like how the PP’s idea of making it harder is by putting you in a lower-powered car.

The Power Pack? The entire series, from day one 28 years ago, has been designed this way.

I could be the best driver in the world but if I can’t keep up on a straight then I’m immediately at a huge disadvantage. For me, a harder race should have the AI taking better lines and making less mistakes—not put me in a slower car.

How is that different? If you're the better driver, then you'll take better lines and beat the posted times. If you try the different difficulty levels, you'll see that the AI is consistent. You are the one that needs to do better without the advantage of a boosted car.

Your suggestion is that the player maintain the same car and the AI changes. What the implemented was a consistent AI (which is better, because then you know what your goal is), while you get less capable cars.

Remember, some tester (not one of the world's best) beat each of these events on 2 pepper.

 

[sonnyboychris]

Yes, it’s perhaps one of the most underrated features of this entire update. I’m on an old school DD1, and it was the very first thing I noticed when I took my first laps. I would stop short of calling it ACC or AC good, but I WOULD call GT7’s new FFB implementation, a good poor-man’s version of the aforementioned titles

I've been begging for this game to feel similar to ACC and I whole heartedly agree with your assessment. I'm very happy with what PD has done with the FFB.

 

[Lomic]

I have say one very positive thing about PD and UI of the power pack.

The zoomed out version of the tree gives you an excellent overview of your progression :

• The paths you are doing get colored following what events you have opened
• Each path has his own color
• Each race you've done shows your best placing, so if there are stars to find you know immediately on which race you left some
• Each reward get checked after you claimed it.

Visual, efficient, simple, great !

[Insert rant about having to go to each track in the game, enter CE mode, to know if you did it or not and if you have golded it or not]

 

[hawkeyez]

I didn’t even like credits being part of my preorder bonus, it kinda ruined the opening stretch where you’re tight on cash and have to scrounge with economy cars and lower end tuning parts.

That all said, I’m really happy to see that PD is at least still capable of creating authentic, creative, and vibrant curated races for single player. I wish this amount of care went into the base game of GT7. As it stands, I would be very happy if GT8s campaign is structured a lot like this, but with maybe 120-200 races and/or championships, more branching paths in the progression layout, and every event (or at least a vast majority, like 90%+) having you pull from your garage and have specific entry requirements, and have cool special tuned cars as rewards for certain milestones or races.

IMO, that’d be one of the ultimate ways to take the old school Gran Turismo formula to the modern era. If nothing more I have hope.

Hate starting with a Yaris or whatever it was. Bleh!!

GT8 should do more of a progression. GT7 felt like take this car, now take this car, what about this car now? Worked its way up in performance but didn’t feel themed at all.

Here’s a thought for single player. What if they had the player progress through the years? 40’s racing, 50’s racing, etc. and different levels within that or PP ranges. So you’d have trans am racing but also can am roughly at the same progression time in game. If that makes sense. So you essentially work your way through time to the new stuff. Don’t want to give us bonafide trans am cars, give more street style racing for the muscle cars then.

I despise the vision cars but it could be a way to make it feel like there’s a purpose to include them. Although imo they could drop them altogether or perhaps make some original futuristic tracks. 🤮

Would be nice to have that progression through the history of racing rather than just Willy Nilly drive this now how ‘bout this….

And as you beat each decade you unlock those cars to buy. (Obviously make the game way less of a grind, love the game hate that part of it)

I’d have to look at the dlc web of events there but it almost still seems like, go here and drive some front wheel drive cars. Now go here and drive these. Just randomness.

 

[art3mis]

Right. Let's talk about Polyphony's incessant need to fabricate difficulty instead of just making their AI drivers actually give you a close contest.

After about the third time of having to do this tedious qualifier because the AI spins themselves and me out and absolutely panic when you try and bump draft them, I decided to see what is actually going on because Inostroza is getting the exact same lap times in that Mazda VGT which is slow in a straight line to begin with.


So I decided to get my quickest lap in by forcing Bonelli to the front of the pack and basically using him as my personal shopping cart to the front of the line. After that I skipped the session til we had just over 1 min left and sure enough Inostroza comes out.

So I hang back and we have the following video, just click the image and it should start playing it.

19b01b22b277-master_playlist by Automotive Buff, on Flickr


Alternate YouTube link because it's more intuitive:






Oh would you look at that, the qualifier session countdown ends and we are now on our final lap and it just so happens that that Mazda gained 300 hp and shed 600 lbs.

I am still drafting him and getting dusted. Not that it makes a lick of a difference because this race is literally brain dead; the AI don't understand the concept of the title of the race series... bump drafting. If they actually did, it would make for some honest to God fun.


And this is the theme of this DLC. Choosing what pepper your car is doesnt make a difference. The AI cheats, drives unorthodox lines, and will divebomb you any chance it gets.


Thank you, Polyphony. At least I got 5mil credits and some new cars for the price of just 5mil credits from the PS Store, but let's not open that can of worms now 🙃.

That is a damning indictment of PD and I 100% agree with your experience. I have had multiple qualifying experiences where I set what I believed to be an unbeatable time, several seconds ahead of the fastest car there and the AI driving the 2 chilli car sets a time a full second faster than I went with zero time left in the session.

I have yet to replay a single event in the Pack to test this but it is my impression that every single thing about the PP races is scripted OTHER than what you the player does.
If you take no actions qualifying plays out exactly the same. If you ride around the back finishing order is exactly the same.

I did a couple of the Group C Classics last night. There is NO WAY with a fair AI that I should qualify a full 40 seconds faster than the slowest AI at Watkins Glen in the Nissan R92CP.
There's no way I should qualify at Spa, same car a full MINUTE AND A HALF ahead of the slowest AI car.

Meanwhile the fastest AI car is a literal rabbit again. Does anyone remember the Nurburgring 4 hour from GT5? Sometimes you got matched with the Audi R8 GT car and the Honda S2000 Turbo monster who would lap seconds faster than the others. This PP is the exact same.
There's always a rabbit who's seconds faster than the other AI and that rabbit is almost never driving the actual "fast car" in the race.

 

[foxdylan]

Had 2nd place Ai punt me off the last corner last lap !

They have finally got Ai the same as real players

 

[NTGSruler]

This is my personal opinion on the PP Pack.

To get it out of the way:

I feel the price of the DLC is justified based on the hours it takes to just complete all the races alone. Now, content for the sake of content is not always the best option. But some of these races are just magnificent. And i only did about 3/4 of the Yellow theme.
However, i do have the feeling that these races SHOULD have been in the main game when it launched. The vibe i'm getting from these, is what i expected when GT7 launched.

1. The way the races are lined up in this roster, yeah i like it. I just hope GT8 is going to be something similar. Or at the very least like it was in GT4/5.

2. Sarah is very cute, but i sincerely hope she is not that annoying IRL. PD give us an option to skip these comments during the race. I don't need to hear i am the race leader when i'm lapping number 16 and 15 in the race.

3. The presentation of the grid just before you start the race is fantastic! The first 2-3 times. After that i want an option to skip this scene and just start my race please. Sidenote: the same for the weekly One Lap Magic race with the Corvette VGT. Don't let me wait a full minute to see every car starting their race. Let me skip it and do the usual 3 2 1 countdown. Time is valuable here!

4. Apparantly the historic races are the easiest, so yeah. I have yet to try a 2 chili pepper race, because i first want to try the races as they are. I did a couple of 1 chili pepper races and i feel for my skill these are also a tad to easy. But we will see what the rest of the themes/races bring.

5. Endurance races. Never thought this ever was going to be a huge issue for me with the GT franchise. But why is it so hard for PD to include these type of races like we had with previous titles? It took them almost 4 years AND we have to pay for them to have a mere 4 endurance races in the game and only 2 of them are 24hr races. And yes i will be doing those races and yes with the resume option and probably not in 1 go. It's just part of the nostalgia for the game in my head and it's a shame we didn't get those proper endurance races in the main game.

6. I actually like the fact you only have 3 options initially to do your race. And very important, you can choose the difficulty of the race which is very welcome for people who like these sort of games but are maybe less skilled in playing them. I can imagine the frustration if they would only include the option for the 2 chili pepper races. Another feature i hope to see returning in GT8. However: the option to be able to redo these races with cars from your garage would be a very welcome addition. It would severely lengthen the playtime for this DLC. Maybe it would be nice if this option unlocked once you came 1st to 3th in a race. That way as i read here before (many of the races based on very expensive cars) it would mitigate the fact you don't have the proper car to enter certain races. But you could still redo these races later when you have the proper car.

7. What is the added value of me paying an entry fee to participate in a race? If someone could explain this to me, you would be very welcome. Unnecessary to put this in the DLC. Also let me see the credits i can earn before i do a race with the appropriate percentages (10 and 20%). Don't know why this is not in the DLC.

8. I feel the DLC is very engaging for me personally and it keeps me playing and wanting to continue doing races and unlocking price cars/tickets/new races. A feeling i almost never had with the menu system from the main game.

9. There doesn't seem to be races on Yas Marina or Jacques Villeneuve which is kinda a bummer. Yes their are races added with Spec III in the main game, but i feel these circuits should have been represented in the DLC.

10. As i said before, when you buy the PP Pack it says: Power Pack 1. So i'd very much be happy with a Power Pack II in the future or just before GT8 launches. We could have themes for VGT cars, Open racing and maybe manufacturer races only. Plenty of things they can do with it.

Overall you can say what you want but this game is almost 4 years out and still receiving something like this is very rare in the gaming space these days. The only thing i truly hope is that PD keeps building on the things they have realised with GT7. The gameplay is fantastic, the free and paid content is very welcome and as i said before, i hope the single player races in GT8 are set up the way they are now in the DLC or atleast in a similar way. And of course a whole lot more races please!

Some additions after playing some more:

1. Being able to skip the practice session as a whole would be welcome. Now i have to start the session to then be able to quit. Kinda weird.

2. Give us the option for a "one lap" qualification instead of being forced to do an outlap first all the time. Would save me alot of time.

3. I experienced the "frustration" with the PP pack regarding Sophy 3.0. The AI nearly always having a perfect start setting me back to 4th of 5th place means i mostly have to "chase" the opponents in front of me. Going back to gameplay-mechanic we all know: chasing a rabbit. Only this time it's because we are forced to race cars with lower power. I have yet to go back to certain races but for example the Porsche race on Monza i don't know how i'm going to be able to win that race with the oldest Porsche vs the newest one. Simply unfair. Also: when i have a better exit speed than my opponent, i should have a faster top speed on the straight, yet Sophy just pulls away on me everytime even if they don't take corners fairly well. It becomes tedious very fast that way knowing your are actually faster than the AI, but because they are programmed with an advantage you can't really close the gap. Unless you spin them off, which i admit have done several times just out of frustration.

 

[appu]

Just did the first DTM challenge at Sardegna B and yikes, P1 and P2 do not mess around.

Did the same on Sardegna DTM. Was sandwiched by the two 155's on the start/finish straight and pitted them both. Whoops sorry.

I dislike fictional tracks and just run no-pepper cars to finish them quickly, but this race was incredible. My favorite event in this PP so far. If you want and can, practice it enough to keep up with the top two cars. I had a blast in the constant three-way fight with the 155s. The late-race tire wear forcing new lines and traffic management made it even better.

Have you done the Lambo at Deep Forest yet?....I did it earlier today and it's by far my least favorite race,finished 2nd .....there's no way i'm winning it. I'll eventually go back and try the pepper races later just to see what there like.

Have not done that yet but I am not really looking to win races. I just want Sport like experience but with offline AI.

 

[Fezzik]

Have not done that yet but I am not really looking to win races. I just want Sport like experience but with offline AI.

 

[GlamFM]

Have not done that yet but I am not really looking to win races. I just want Sport like experience but with offline AI.

Yeah, exactly. I’m not looking to win all the time - I just want good racing without the stress that online racing puts me through.

What I liked about ACC when I used to play it is that it lets you tune the difficulty in tiny increments until you find the exact setting that works for you.

And the result was always a coherent field of cars, not one or two at the front who were quick while the rest were pushovers.

If Kunos could pull that off with a dozen devs, I’m sure PD can get that one right too.

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Did anyone tested if the base game difficulty have a effect on the power pack races ? Because what I read here is different from the experience I get.

 

[Gingerale]

I dislike fictional tracks and just run no-pepper cars to finish them quickly, but this race was incredible. My favorite event in this PP so far. If you want and can, practice it enough to keep up with the top two cars. I had a blast in the constant three-way fight with the 155s. The late-race tire wear forcing new lines and traffic management made it even better.

Have not done that yet but I am not really looking to win races. I just want Sport like experience but with offline AI.

Yes the Sardegna DTM was by far my favorite so far. Really enjoyable to race 2 opponents which race wheel to wheel.