Gran Turismo 7 Custom Race thread

[XSquareStickIt]

as for Sophy I did up a quick 2lap custom race at my favourite track (Le Mans) with boost weak and the basics of starting in 20, same group cars, and beginner rated and I got my P6 at the end.
Sophy is not kidding around, I am going to have to work on this...

Apparently, Sophy with Boost set to Weak doesn't meaningfully respond to difficulty changes. Beginner, Intermediate, and Professional all result in roughly the same pace from the AI.

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So yeah, don't feel too bad if you can't beat Sophy on Boost Weak, even on Beginner.

Custom Races are a heap of broken functionalities. It's just that the way Boost Weak is broken is very beneficial to the few of us who are at the skill level where we find it a good challenge. Sad, but it is what it is.

 

[05XR8]

10 minute race driving bumper cam. Showing how much battling is going on.


Replay doesn’t look as dramatic.


I’d love the car list to get to the point of twenty muscle and pony cars. Played with the Maverick and Road Shop Camaro.



https://youtu.be/_tJUa3f1jWc?si=FPr2XKMsgbW5UMCQ

 

[Voodoovaj]

for non tire wear custom races on tracks where rain is a possibility i swap over to sport softs and road cars up to 700 pp except for bop gr and use the 850 pp limit for VGT custom races.

It doesn't do anything. I know, I was fooled for a while as well. It's only base tires, or RH, and they will change to rain tires if needed.

Ok that makes sense on the name "Reggie", as for Sophy I did up a quick 2lap custom race at my favourite track (Le Mans) with boost weak and the basics of starting in 20, same group cars, and beginner rated and I got my P6 at the end.
Sophy is not kidding around, I am going to have to work on this...

The difficulty settings (beginner, intermediate, professional) are largely irrelevant. Sophy will change it's pace based on your pace within some degree of reasonability. For example, if you take a Mini into a race full of Sophy Group C cars, Sophy will leave you in the dust, and vice versa. That's why mixed classes works. That's why I set it an forget it and just tune the cars to be as close to the same PP/weight/power as possible, and then balance from there as needed.

(for instance, in Group C, the Mazda needs to be somewhat nerfed and the Merc needs to be somewhat boosted)

I’d love the car list to get to the point of twenty muscle and pony cars. Played with the Maverick and Road Shop Camaro.

I tried for a long time but I found the cars are too different and the changes from track to track is too great. That's why I dropped it down to the pony cars only (Z/28, Challenger, 429 Mustang). I found 650pp was the right level of sketchy to make it interesting.

I think a group of the other muscle cars might work (Charger, GTO, Chevelle, Superbird, Super Bee)

 

[pritchyTim]

Cheers...
So pretty much the same as with Reggie...
I have thousands of miles of custom races expertise and am reading this thread, but didn't pay attention the necessary attention to the Sophy related content so far...but that is good news!

So I am in a dilemma with my 911turbo cup...complete it on Reggie or do the outstanding 13 races with Sophy...

Does Sophy touch the AI-throttle situation in any way, or is it still recommended to reduce the ECU of the car you use after balancing the grid ?

I don’t downtune for Sophy, personally, but I try to knock about 10% BHP off for Reggy races. No throttle issue in the former. Same “default or RH tire” convention. No wet weather, simplifies some of those rules..

Where you see similar issues is once you reach 1st place. Both AI will artificially increase their pace to keep up with you but will seldom attempt a pass unless you’re making mistakes. This is where the runaway leader “rabbit” can be helpful. As you’ll never actually be in 1st, you can continue to outperform the drivers behind you and create a gap. Similarly, AI will attempt to pass you if you’re not quick enough!

I have 99% of my experience in single-stint races, but I think the rabbit may also solve (or partially alleviate?) where AI slows way down when you pit out of sequence. @suomi1 usually has a fair critique on this — seemed like the 4-6hr endurance races went well enough?

 

[Voodoovaj]

Where you see similar issues is once you reach 1st place. Both AI will artificially increase their pace to keep up with you but will seldom attempt a pass unless you’re making mistakes. This is where the runaway leader “rabbit” can be helpful. As you’ll never actually be in 1st, you can continue to outperform the drivers behind you and create a gap. Similarly, AI will attempt to pass you if you’re not quick enough!

See, this is why I wonder. (I'm talking Sophy with boost). I think a rabbit is already built in because I have seen the lead car take off. At the same time, take that same car and move it to last on the grid, and it will be a snail. I'm, of course, ignoring the pitstop races because the boost is just stupid when you get more a than 2 seconds lead.

Either way you slice it, neither Reggie nor Sophy actually "race" you or each other. They lap and they will overtake if there is something in their way while pathfinding. What I do is try to keep the cars mixed all the way through the grid, so it looks like there's racing for the lead, the middle, and the back of the pack.



ALSO - in case no one noticed, Sketchy cars results in WAY better racing. The most fun set up I have is a 600pp Fiat 500 Abarth cup race. They get tail happy under braking and it makes things unpredictable.

 

[suomi1]

I don’t downtune for Sophy, personally, but I try to knock about 10% BHP off for Reggy races. No throttle issue in the former. Same “default or RH tire” convention. No wet weather, simplifies some of those rules..

Where you see similar issues is once you reach 1st place. Both AI will artificially increase their pace to keep up with you but will seldom attempt a pass unless you’re making mistakes. This is where the runaway leader “rabbit” can be helpful. As you’ll never actually be in 1st, you can continue to outperform the drivers behind you and create a gap. Similarly, AI will attempt to pass you if you’re not quick enough!

I have 99% of my experience in single-stint races, but I think the rabbit may also solve (or partially alleviate?) where AI slows way down when you pit out of sequence. @suomi1 usually has a fair critique on this — seemed like the 4-6hr endurance races went well enough?

Indeed, I had no problems regarding AI's pace depending on my pit stops on my 6H race. Its pace remained constant throughout the race no matter where I was. On the other hand, you have to accept that the race will be run at a slower pace.

The only problem I encountered was the fuel consumption of some cars, which were doing about two more laps than the rest of the field. Same issue for the GTs. But my BoP was perfect, to the tenth.

I stopped playing after the last update in September, but I remember being close to find the solution to my fuel problem. I won't mess with it again before 1.64 is out, I have the feeling phisics might change few things and make my efforts futile.

By the way, Reggie and Sophy have both an advantage over the player on fuel consumption (less for Sophy though), the fact you have to reduce the performances of your car helps in reducing this unfair issue. As an example It seemed to me that at Le Mans, the AI was able to do 22/23 laps with the TS020 before having to stop, whereas it was something like 14/17 laps for me.

 

[Voodoovaj]

The only problem I encountered was the fuel consumption of some cars, which were doing about two more laps than the rest of the field. Same issue for the GTs. But my BoP was perfect, to the tenth.

Oh Ya, for those who don't know, this is important BEFORE you use engine swapped cars.

The street cars are about the same, but if you do a GR3 engine swap OR you have GR3 cars, they'll go a few laps further on their fuel. If you do the 787B swap, or the XJR swap, they'll go REALLY far on fuel, like REALLY FAR.

 

[suomi1]

Oh Ya, for those who don't know, this is important BEFORE you use engine swapped cars.

The street cars are about the same, but if you do a GR3 engine swap OR you have GR3 cars, they'll go a few laps further on their fuel. If you do the 787B swap, or the XJR swap, they'll go REALLY far on fuel, like REALLY FAR.

They were all LMP1 and Gr.3 cars, so not engine swapped. The TS050 is just better on fuel, and the Corvette the worst in Gr.3 as far as I remember.

 

[Batschisane52]

Ok that makes sense on the name "Reggie", as for Sophy I did up a quick 2lap custom race at my favourite track (Le Mans) with boost weak and the basics of starting in 20, same group cars, and beginner rated and I got my P6 at the end.
Sophy is not kidding around, I am going to have to work on this...View attachment 1494630View attachment 1494631

Same here...my first custom races with a full Sophy grid were inspiring and frustrating at the same time, because they are so quick...well, the very first race with Sophy on professional level was just frustrating
But even on beginner level all but 4 cars were quicker than me (and still way faster than Reggie AI on professional level)

Biggest suprise: Sophy does pit for tire change before they tires are completely dead and gone !
Did a 13 lap race in Laguna Seca with my Porsche 911 Turbo Cup grid(everybody on stock CS), and all cars pitted btw lap 8 and 10, when both rear tires were more than 50% worn just to get new ones...never saw that kind of behavior from Reggie!

But most important thing: I must get better!

 

[05XR8]

It doesn't do anything. I know, I was fooled for a while as well. It's only base tires, or RH, and they will change to rain tires if needed.

The difficulty settings (beginner, intermediate, professional) are largely irrelevant. Sophy will change it's pace based on your pace within some degree of reasonability. For example, if you take a Mini into a race full of Sophy Group C cars, Sophy will leave you in the dust, and vice versa. That's why mixed classes works. That's why I set it an forget it and just tune the cars to be as close to the same PP/weight/power as possible, and then balance from there as needed.

(for instance, in Group C, the Mazda needs to be somewhat nerfed and the Merc needs to be somewhat boosted)

I tried for a long time but I found the cars are too different and the changes from track to track is too great. That's why I dropped it down to the pony cars only (Z/28, Challenger, 429 Mustang). I found 650pp was the right level of sketchy to make it interesting.

I think a group of the other muscle cars might work (Charger, GTO, Chevelle, Superbird, Super Bee)

I used the SEMA cars mainly for the Touring Cars Masters grid, as those muscle and pony cars have 700hp. Dropping them to the Trans-Am specs of 440-460bhp/1315kg-1451kg keeps them in that PP600-630 range. The Maverick is down to about 620-630bhp and I've raised the weight to 1700kg.
Limiting factor is keeping the SEMA cars to around 265kmh-270kmh top speed. The Trans-Am, Camaro, Challenger and Boss 429 are around 275kmh-285kmh with their four speed transmissions. Keeps the SEMA cars from running away.

Regarding the fuel differences between Reggie and SOPHY. Reggie programming is like an on/off switch. I've noticed since SOPHY takes more care for avoiding and setting up passing and defending, SOPHY actually accelerates smoother and coasts much better, resulting in better fuel saving. That's with SOPHY having access to full throttle!

Can't wait to see SOPHY 3.0 in action.