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

[Gingerale]

Reflecting on the Power Pack brought me to 2 ideas.

First idea : to me Power Pack is like custom races, but prepared by PD, with a nice selection of tuned and livered cars, only caveat is I have to use also one of three tuned and livered cars, not any car of my garage that is compliant with event rules. (And I don't mind too much that point)

Second idea : if PD can build custom races with a selection of tuned and livered cars, that I mostly don't have (the cars with those liveries and tunes, and even sometimes the cars themself), what is preventing custom races from other players to be shared ??

The argument I've read the most was : "if you don't possess those exact cars and tunes, how do you want to be able to play a custom race made by someone else ?"

Well the PP nullifies that argument, IMHO.

Nothing prevents custom races to be shared, and seeing how some people dedicate hours to build great custom races (replicating historical racing events, or other deeply themed races), I really would love that the possibility of sharing custom race would exist.

Plus I don't have time nor want to spend it carefully crafting a custom races, buying all the cars needed to be able to apply different liveries, setup tunes for every car, test many parameters, in order to create a great custom race. And I am not even talking about a custom race with 20 cars having a high value (which is hard to do credit wise).

I've said thst before, I'd rather pay 30 euros for being able to use other custom races in Showcase than PP. Hell Id even pay 30 euros for being able to use 1 car with different tunes and liveries in a custom race.

 

[Lomic]

I've said thst before, I'd rather pay 30 euros for being able to use other custom races in Showcase than PP. Also means no one would ever buy a new powerpack dlc

Me too.

But on your second point, a powerpack DLC could contain other things that can't be done with custom races, it is already doing it with this tree of progression, containing special rewards and so on.

 

[05XR8]

PD could have allowed players to enter their cars ala Styles upgrades. Part of the five million could be used to have cars built to specs.

The Tuned cars could have been part of the Update and still being able to buy multiples exclusive to the DLC.

 

[Kedmasterz]

Got a weird bug, just ended a quali at the end of time then the game showed me the map with my car running around and looped forever, unable to go through for the race. Lost my progress of the event of course.

 

[ozzy4605]

Literally says at the bottom of the trailer footage it’s for PS5 only.
View attachment 1496776

Then why have it show up in the PS4 version of the game?

 

[MMX]

Then why have it show up in the PS4 version of the game?

Probably because they are intertwined. I have both, and you can go back and forth, between the two versions, and progress is saved. Minus the PP of course. I read you can use the PP cars, once acquired on ps4, but haven't tried that myself.

 

[ChuckP49]

I am thinking of getting this pack, but would like to know if the difficulty level is adjustable (easy, normal, pro)?

 

[Famine]

I am thinking of getting this pack, but would like to know if the difficulty level is adjustable (easy, normal, pro)?

You pick from one of three pre-tuned cars for each race. They represent easy, medium, and hard difficulties.

 

[jrbabbitt]

Probably because they are intertwined. I have both, and you can go back and forth, between the two versions, and progress is saved. Minus the PP of course. I read you can use the PP cars, once acquired on ps4, but haven't tried that myself.

Yes, if you win and purchase PeePee cars on your ps5 and save in garage, when you start up the ps4 in same account the PeePee cars will be there.

 

[appu]

There has been a bug-fix from the hotfix:
- Qualifying now ends right away once the time is up and no one is setting a fast lap. Before the bug-fix, we needed to wait all way to end of the overtime, which was annoying.

The following bug is still not fixed:
- During endurance races, the clock shows random time. For example, sometimes 1:37 hours behind actual time, sometimes 2 minutes ahead actual time, all during the same race!

---------------

There was also one time when I noticed this weird bug:

 

[CTRL Garage]

Then why have it show up in the PS4 version of the game?

Marketing

 

[art3mis]

There has been a bug-fix from the hotfix:
- Qualifying now ends right away once the time is up and no one is setting a fast lap. Before the bug-fix, we needed to wait all way to end of the overtime, which was annoying.

The following bug is still not fixed:
- During endurance races, the clock shows random time. For example, sometimes 1:37 hours behind actual time, sometimes 2 minutes ahead actual time, all during the same race!

---------------

There was also one time when I noticed this weird bug:
View attachment 1500152

I've also noticed at Le Mans Group C 24 that often the Lapped indication triggers long before the car is actually lapped. I have seen several times cars 20 or more seconds away from being lapped showing as a lap down, then flashing back to +3:10, then flashing back to lap down again.

It makes zero sense to me that the code wouldn't know exactly how far away that car is from being lapped and wouldn't trigger the lap down indicator until a flag of "been lapped" is set. Like that shouldn't be difficult and I dunno why it is.

Feels like PD takes two steps forward and three steps backwards and none of the forwards OR backwards are ever in the same directions as the previous release.

 

[Pie O My]

Haven't started it yet in the hope that they patch it to a better state so I can enjoy it unspoilt.

No matter, having fun with the custom races and Sophy 2.whatever.

 

[Yellow Tabby]

A close observation of Sophy 3.0’s performance across all tracks suggests that PD’s real objective was to intentionally slow Sophy down. If Sophy truly followed authentic human racing lines, 90% of casual single-player players would not be able to keep up.On tracks where precision, optimal racing lines, and aggressive kerb usage are essential, Sophy often performs worse than even a basic AI driver.That said, Sophy 3.0 does show clear improvements in offensive and defensive awareness, racecraft, strategic thinking, and wet-weather performance. These are the core upgrades in version 3.0.Additional behavior tuning is visible through the so-called power pack customization. For example, if a player blocks Sophy’s racing line more than twice, Sophy will back off instead of forcing an overtake.Moreover, on every track there is usually one critical section, often a corner that demands the highest level of precision and skill. In these sections, Sophy deliberately slows down, allowing the player to close the gap.

However, it is also reasonable to question whether this Sophy 3.0 is really Sophy at all.The Sophy originally presented by PD had a name, an identity, a personality, a racing suit, and even facial expressions. That was the Sophy shown in PD’s marketing.

If, after GTWS, there is no breakthrough demonstration or major public showcase of Sophy, then this power pack may simply be a financial compromise, a collaboration between Sony and PD to help recover development costs.

Of course, one could argue that the value of the power pack lies in six special cars, millions of credits, attractive liveries, and a wide variety of race formats.But none of that is the most important part.The most important thing is the racing itself, real racing.Every Sophy-powered race should be individually tuned, at least well enough to convince 80% of players that Sophy is not an artificial idiot.
This is especially critical in endurance races, where Sophy should never show obvious strategic mistakes or bugs, because all of these issues could have been avoided with proper tuning.

 

[05XR8]

Jumped in one of my alt accounts. Going to see how many Credits I’ll total before the enduros.

 

[cvjoint]

A close observation of Sophy 3.0’s performance across all tracks suggests that PD’s real objective was to intentionally slow Sophy down. If Sophy truly followed authentic human racing lines, 90% of casual single-player players would not be able to keep up.On tracks where precision, optimal racing lines, and aggressive kerb usage are essential, Sophy often performs worse than even a basic AI driver.That said, Sophy 3.0 does show clear improvements in offensive and defensive awareness, racecraft, strategic thinking, and wet-weather performance. These are the core upgrades in version 3.0.Additional behavior tuning is visible through the so-called power pack customization. For example, if a player blocks Sophy’s racing line more than twice, Sophy will back off instead of forcing an overtake.Moreover, on every track there is usually one critical section, often a corner that demands the highest level of precision and skill. In these sections, Sophy deliberately slows down, allowing the player to close the gap.

However, it is also reasonable to question whether this Sophy 3.0 is really Sophy at all.The Sophy originally presented by PD had a name, an identity, a personality, a racing suit, and even facial expressions. That was the Sophy shown in PD’s marketing.

If, after GTWS, there is no breakthrough demonstration or major public showcase of Sophy, then this power pack may simply be a financial compromise, a collaboration between Sony and PD to help recover development costs.

Of course, one could argue that the value of the power pack lies in six special cars, millions of credits, attractive liveries, and a wide variety of race formats.But none of that is the most important part.The most important thing is the racing itself, real racing.Every Sophy-powered race should be individually tuned, at least well enough to convince 80% of players that Sophy is not an artificial idiot.
This is especially critical in endurance races, where Sophy should never show obvious strategic mistakes or bugs, because all of these issues could have been avoided with proper tuning.

That's a good digestion of the inner workings of this 3.0 version. A DLC has to make money above all, no reason to make it unattainable from a difficulty point of view. By sucking at sectors where you have to sacrifice a turn to make another before the the straight 3.0 rewards smart driving and makes everyone feel like a superior driver and an underdog (when you win despite being slower on the straights).

I wish I could conclude by saying PD always had a good pulse on these things. But my rigging the lottery they made GT7 a bit twisted. I'm all for the DLC, I think they should release more and be a bit more creative too. Maybe another lunar mission or different type of challenge.

 

[mynameis66]

Maybe it would have been better if PD had just nerfed the lowest level,and left the 2 and 3 chilli alone.That way newcomers and crap drivers,like myself,still have a shot at winning,when they get better move onto the next level.
Im struggling with the rally event at Windmills,no matter what car I choose.😄

 

[05XR8]

A close observation of Sophy 3.0’s performance across all tracks suggests that PD’s real objective was to intentionally slow Sophy down. If Sophy truly followed authentic human racing lines, 90% of casual single-player players would not be able to keep up.On tracks where precision, optimal racing lines, and aggressive kerb usage are essential, Sophy often performs worse than even a basic AI driver.That said, Sophy 3.0 does show clear improvements in offensive and defensive awareness, racecraft, strategic thinking, and wet-weather performance. These are the core upgrades in version 3.0.Additional behavior tuning is visible through the so-called power pack customization. For example, if a player blocks Sophy’s racing line more than twice, Sophy will back off instead of forcing an overtake.Moreover, on every track there is usually one critical section, often a corner that demands the highest level of precision and skill. In these sections, Sophy deliberately slows down, allowing the player to close the gap.

However, it is also reasonable to question whether this Sophy 3.0 is really Sophy at all.The Sophy originally presented by PD had a name, an identity, a personality, a racing suit, and even facial expressions. That was the Sophy shown in PD’s marketing.

If, after GTWS, there is no breakthrough demonstration or major public showcase of Sophy, then this power pack may simply be a financial compromise, a collaboration between Sony and PD to help recover development costs.

Of course, one could argue that the value of the power pack lies in six special cars, millions of credits, attractive liveries, and a wide variety of race formats.But none of that is the most important part.The most important thing is the racing itself, real racing.Every Sophy-powered race should be individually tuned, at least well enough to convince 80% of players that Sophy is not an artificial idiot.
This is especially critical in endurance races, where Sophy should never show obvious strategic mistakes or bugs, because all of these issues could have been avoided with proper tuning.

I don’t know what data was gathered by players, but it seems like PD have implemented what Custom Race players do to balance SOPHY performance.

We have PD tuning cars as they would the World Tour Route X and Daily Race Route X races with adding turbos for power and weight reduction. The difficulty isn’t based on the agent. It’s what car the user chooses.
Custom Race builders will detune the user car to even performance based on skill level.

The 3.0 are driving more new cars on various road and off-road surfaces. Not knowing exact development times, that’s a quick leap from SOPHY 2.0 that was updated in March of this year. The previous SOPHY 2.0 was updated two years ago!

So many players play differently and have different skills, PD wouldn’t have known how to tune the agent until they gathered data once it went live. Obviously, they’ve again gone the casual player route as you mentioned. Adjusting the agent for all players to at least win a race with not much competition. Pretty ironic when it’s suggested to the player try not to concentrate on winning, but the racing itself.

 

[benjoi84]

I had my most challenging/fun race in the PP today, the Nurburgring Tourist event, using the 2-pepper BMW.

I want to preface this by saying that I am absolutely not quick enough to beat the leading AMGs, and i was naively hoping they would battle each other and allow me to catch up.

I actually enjoyed the event just because throughout the default, and the 1-pepper variation I felt really in tune with the combo and driving on the limit in these cars was just great fun. I had a couple of challenges from the F8 behind me, but my cornering ability allowed me to quickly regain the positions. It was simply a thrill!

All in all, I'm happy with 2 out of 3 wins!

 

[A_Higher_Place]

For those of you who have gotten to the GT1 races, are fuel tanks equal between all cars?

 

[GTvsForza]

When I ran the normal races, there weren't any pit stops that I saw. I want to assume that the tuned road cars still have their normal fuel. I would have to see once I do the endurance.

 

[ScottPuss20]

Last night I entered the FF Tuning Battle race on Willow Springs and was able to qualify first. Unfortunately, I didn't stay there for long and was once again swamped at the start. Pol Urra made a move on me as I left the door open at turn 3, dropping me to 4th. in my attempt to regain spots, I stuffed up the last corner, going off the track and into the pit wall. Then I prseed the pause button and that's when I realised I couldn't restart the race. Oops. I had to retire and enter the event again. I skipped practice, qualified first again and then waited for the game to advance to the race... but it didn't. I had to quit again so I entered the race for a third time and decided not to qualify, but it didn't stop me from winning. However the way in which I won was quite funny.

This is me entering the last corner on the last lap. Miyazono and Gallo are battling up ahead but they're running a much tigher line than me, and I know that I can get a faster exit.

When I got out of the turn, I was right with Miyazono and Gallo, who graciously opened the door for me to come through and steal the win.

 

[Tired Tyres]

I did the last race in the blue section at the truly horrific version of grand valley (GT3 had the best version of that track by far.) I thought I'd done everything only to find the entire grey section hadn't been done. I was so unhappy about having to race a fake grand valley that I couldn't bring myself to play the game anymore.

 

[Lischynski]

I'm currently 9 hours into the 24h Le Mans endurance. While I'm having a good time, I don't think I'll be touching the Nurburgring 24h race unless they patch in B-spec. Hats off to you animals that have already finished all 50 PP races.

 

[man_801]

When I got out of the turn, I was right with Miyazono and Gallo, who graciously opened the door for me to come through and steal the win.

Yeah that's pretty much the only way to win that stupid race.. At least it feels good to be done with.

 

[CTznOfTime]

No one here is wrong about their wishes and desires, because deep down it is for the goodness and improvement to the game.

And so everyone is correct for:
you want the game to be better for all of us... Despite all your moaning and ranting, it is all positive.

Having said that, we should be looking at this (first) PP DLC as the Omakase from Kaz the Chef in the PD kitchen.

He has indeed been cooking for us.

I think if everyone has gotten some fun and good races out of this PP, then it is encouragement for them to give us what we want down the line... It will take time, and it has to go step by step.... In the corporate world, just like within a family, you as a child don't necessarily get everything you want, you give hints, you yell, but ultimately the parents decide when and where and how, if any, to give you want you want...

Patience my friends, they are reading us...

Stay positive.


Edit: it's funny that i bought the PeePee, and to this day, I still have NOT played it once. lol 🤣 so I have no idea what I am talking about....

Spoiler: What is Omakase

 

[Vitesh Patel]

I really just want to talk to the team who play tested this and thought this was balanced.

I'm not mad, just really disappointed. This is me trying the Honda NSX at the 6 hours of Suzuka.

It's one thing to have a detuned race car, but why did you leave the gear ratios so long, that even when you're hustling through the corners, you have little to no acceleration or top end speed.

And this is after they supposedly balanced and made a bunch of fixes.

Who signed this off? These are supposed to be your flagship events of your paid DLC...

 

[Lebowski]

I've completed all standard events and have also done the 6 and 8 hour endurance events. Suzuka was quite good, but ultimately was far too easy.
As for Spa, what a joke. After an initial 2 hour stint, I exited and saved. Upon coming back I slowly noticed my opponents were pitting in at an alarmingly regular rate. Monitoring how much fuel they were taking on soon revealed why. Barely enough for 1 lap, 5 litres. This kept happening for the remaining 6 hours through a few saves. The result was I ended up 15 laps ahead of Lopez in 2nd. Ridiculous.
I've now started LM24 and yep, it's already happening again. Just 3 hours into it, I've lapped everyone, many of them multiple times.
This is far from the advertised challenge. It's quite frankly pathetic. I now have 21 hours of essentially just driving against the clock. 😒

 

[vcx]

I've completed all standard events and have also done the 6 and 8 hour endurance events. Suzuka was quite good, but ultimately was far too easy.
As for Spa, what a joke. After an initial 2 hour stint, I exited and saved. Upon coming back I slowly noticed my opponents were pitting in at an alarmingly regular rate. Monitoring how much fuel they were taking on soon revealed why. Barely enough for 1 lap, 5 litres. This kept happening for the remaining 6 hours through a few saves. The result was I ended up 15 laps ahead of Lopez in 2nd. Ridiculous.
I've now started LM24 and yep, it's already happening again. Just 3 hours into it, I've lapped everyone, many of them multiple times.
This is far from the advertised challenge. It's quite frankly pathetic. I now have 21 hours of essentially just driving against the clock. 😒

Are you using sudden-quit system for the save your progress? or Pausing the game and then setting your PS5 sleep mode and come back later and go? Because 6 and 8 hours races I did second. Paused the game and let my PS5 sleep mode and then go where I stopped.

 

[Famine]

Upon coming back I slowly noticed my opponents were pitting in at an alarmingly regular rate. Monitoring how much fuel they were taking on soon revealed why. Barely enough for 1 lap, 5 litres. This kept happening for the remaining 6 hours through a few saves.

Yep, this is a known bug with the quit/resume auto-save feature.