GRID AS suggestions (with like function!)

[Imari]

That said, I could see autokhana working. Stuff like navigating an obstacle course above a certain speed for as long as possible. Once you drop below that speed for too long or hit an obstacle, you're out, and the next round sets a higher minimum speed.

Or maybe races like Time Attack, where you set a qualifying lap that becomes your base lap time, and in the race, you have to get as consistently close to that lap as possible. Points are awarded for going too fast or too slow, and the winner is the person with the lowest score.

Autokhana could work, but my thought was that it lacked an upper tier to move into. You can have faster cars and all, but on little courses a Miata is about as good as a Corvette. It would seem difficult to build in the progression that the other disciplines have.

A kind of track based regularity rally could be quite interesting. All sorts of things that could be done with that idea.

What's wrong with drift? How is it not a sport?

There's nothing wrong with it, it's just quite divorced from track racing. There's not really much of a connection at all between drifting and grip racing, whereas someone who likes, say, open wheel racing will probably be interested enough to at least give touring cars a go.

It's a completely different skill set and mind set to how the game is approached, and while it's cool and all it seems a bit out of place. Drifting really deserves it's own game, but the problem is it's such a small market that it'll never get one. Yet it continues to be shoehorned into other driving games because of it's perceived "cool" factor.

 

[GTracer98]

There's nothing wrong with it, it's just quite divorced from track racing. There's not really much of a connection at all between drifting and grip racing, whereas someone who likes, say, open wheel racing will probably be interested enough to at least give touring cars a go.

It's a completely different skill set and mind set to how the game is approached, and while it's cool and all it seems a bit out of place. Drifting really deserves it's own game, but the problem is it's such a small market that it'll never get one. Yet it continues to be shoehorned into other driving games because of it's perceived "cool" factor.

Maybe the solution to that would be to make drift events completely optional, not necessary for unlocking the Grid Grand Slam and what not. But leave it in the game because I sometimes enjoy a bit of drifting.

 

[Speedster911]

What's wrong with drift? How is it not a sport?

Despite several folks jumping to it's defense, even in an open discussion (with mates), I would never categorize it as a sport. However, it is fun, and offers a nice change of pace from circuit precision driving.

I spend maybe 5% of my time drifting in GAS!

 

[GTracer98]

Despite several folks jumping to it's defense, even in an open discussion (with mates), I would never categorize it as a sport. However, it is fun, and offers a nice change of pace from circuit precision driving.

I spend maybe 5% of my time drifting in GAS!

Even though I'm not a drift fan either, it is a sport in my eyes. It's hard, it requires skill and it is competitive. Think of it as figure skating. It's more about style than speed and going fast, beating others on pace.

It's a special motorsport category.

 

[bluemoon_19]

Add an XP bonus for setting a longer race distance.

Adjusting almost everything else in the difficulty changes the bonus but this doesn't. The way I see it is doing a race twice as long or more gives more chance for error. Winning or doing well should surely be reward with a small XP bonus?

 

[Speedster911]

Hmm.. I'm surprised there isn't one in place already.

Good suggestion. 👍

 

[Awong124]

It would. Ideally, each stage would be 3-10 minutes long and no stage ever be reused, so that at least through career the stages were all unique. It's a really big ask.

Then again, there's techniques of procedural generation and such that could make it not nearly such a big deal. Tough to develop, but who knows what Codies have up their sleeves. I figure it was worth a mention. I wouldn't do it unless it could be done right, which may not be any time soon.

It would be nice to replace Tuner with something that keeps the TT aspect but isn't quite so brosome though. I was struggling to think of a racing discipline that was significantly different from Touring/Enduro/Open/Street. Those four cover a LOT of ground.

Maybe they could just reuse all the tarmac stages from Dirt.

Maybe the solution to that would be to make drift events completely optional, not necessary for unlocking the Grid Grand Slam and what not. But leave it in the game because I sometimes enjoy a bit of drifting.

They should just put it in the Party Mode like Destruction Derby.

Add an XP bonus for setting a longer race distance.

Adjusting almost everything else in the difficulty changes the bonus but this doesn't. The way I see it is doing a race twice as long or more gives more chance for error. Winning or doing well should surely be reward with a small XP bonus?

I totally agree, and this exact thing has crossed my mind as well. I play longer races sometimes currently because it's more immersive, but other than that, there's almost no incentive to do so. And 5 flashbacks for a 4 lap race is much easier than 5 flashbacks for a 20 lap race.

 

[bluemoon_19]

I totally agree, and this exact thing has crossed my mind as well. I play longer races sometimes currently because it's more immersive, but other than that, there's almost no incentive to do so. And 5 flashbacks for a 4 lap race is much easier than 5 flashbacks for a 20 lap race.

Yeah I didn't really think about the flashback thing but yeah good point. I probably would do longer races if I felt like I was being rewarded for it. If say someone did a 5 times race distance event in the same time someone might be able to do 2 or 3 standard length races but get 2 or 3 times as much XP.

 

[Imari]

I totally agree, and this exact thing has crossed my mind as well. I play longer races sometimes currently because it's more immersive, but other than that, there's almost no incentive to do so. And 5 flashbacks for a 4 lap race is much easier than 5 flashbacks for a 20 lap race.

I disagree with the idea of making longer races give any different rewards.

@bluemoon_19 is exactly the reason. They would do longer races if the rewards were better, instead of choosing the race length that suited them.

I think it's much more valuable for the player to be able to choose their race length without any interference with trying to metagame the XP system. You choose the length that gives you the most pleasure, and then play.

There's also the problem that having highly variable rewards makes it much more difficult to design a stepped progression around the XP. You're likely to either have some people need to grind, or some people skipping over content entirely, or both. There's some skipping over now, but I suspect it's intentional in order to give people a certain amount of choice as to how they progress. With variable XP it becomes much harder to control that.

 

[Awong124]

I disagree with the idea of making longer races give any different rewards.

@bluemoon_19 is exactly the reason. They would do longer races if the rewards were better, instead of choosing the race length that suited them.

I think it's much more valuable for the player to be able to choose their race length without any interference with trying to metagame the XP system. You choose the length that gives you the most pleasure, and then play.

There's also the problem that having highly variable rewards makes it much more difficult to design a stepped progression around the XP. You're likely to either have some people need to grind, or some people skipping over content entirely, or both. There's some skipping over now, but I suspect it's intentional in order to give people a certain amount of choice as to how they progress. With variable XP it becomes much harder to control that.

Currently, XP increases with supposed difficulty. Longer races are more difficult because it's more difficult to keep consistent for a longer period of time, so XP should be higher. Also, XP stands for experience points, so a longer race is obviously a longer experience and you gain more experience because you played more, so you should get more XP. To me that's kind of common sense.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Eh, I prefer to limit the XP bonus. I had it at 32%, but I've cut it down to 20% by giving myself unlimited flashbacks (and then mapping them to an awkward button).

 

[Imari]

Currently, XP increases with supposed difficulty. Longer races are more difficult because it's more difficult to keep consistent for a longer period of time, so XP should be higher. Also, XP stands for experience points, so a longer race is obviously a longer experience and you gain more experience because you played more, so you should get more XP. To me that's kind of common sense.

You notice that even with all the XP increases on, the bonus isn't huge. What sort of a bonus are you looking at for the longer races?

For example, I don't think a x2 race should be double XP. Maybe 5~10% for a full x5, and working down from there? Otherwise I think you start to run into the career design problems that I outlined earlier.

I think having XP bonuses tied to assists is a mistake as well, if you're relying on XP to gate progression, but that's a different thing. Codies have sort of tied their own hands in giving themselves only one type of "currency".

I could make the suggestion that we have two kinds of "currency": XP to gate progression and "something else" to provide incentives.

Let's call the "something else" Pokepoints, because it appeals to the need for people to be rewarded for things.

The Pokepoints could unlock additional teams for contract, special liveries, bonus non-XP earning events, whatever. The usual non-gameplay altering stuff, and Pokepoints are what gets affected by the players choice of race lengths and difficulties. That allows the developers to design the career progression much more tightly around pure results, and allows the player to feel like they're being rewarded for taking on harder racing without messing with that progression.

 

[Awong124]

You notice that even with all the XP increases on, the bonus isn't huge. What sort of a bonus are you looking at for the longer races?

For example, I don't think a x2 race should be double XP. Maybe 5~10% for a full x5, and working down from there? Otherwise I think you start to run into the career design problems that I outlined earlier.

I think having XP bonuses tied to assists is a mistake as well, if you're relying on XP to gate progression, but that's a different thing. Codies have sort of tied their own hands in giving themselves only one type of "currency".

I could make the suggestion that we have two kinds of "currency": XP to gate progression and "something else" to provide incentives.

Let's call the "something else" Pokepoints, because it appeals to the need for people to be rewarded for things.

The Pokepoints could unlock additional teams for contract, special liveries, bonus non-XP earning events, whatever. The usual non-gameplay altering stuff, and Pokepoints are what gets affected by the players choice of race lengths and difficulties. That allows the developers to design the career progression much more tightly around pure results, and allows the player to feel like they're being rewarded for taking on harder racing without messing with that progression.

Well, not double for a 2x length race, but say, 4% for 2x, 6% for 3x, and 10% for 5x would seem reasonable. Using unlimited flashbacks reduces XP by 10% already, so 10% for doing a 5x race seems fair.

I like the Pokepoints idea though.

 

[bluemoon_19]

When I said it I didn't want double XP or anything but maybe the same amount of bonus as changing the AI difficulty does. I realize if its huge it will totally break game progression.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

- A Kimi button

Let's be honest: Sherman says some bloody stupid things sometimes. It's not that he's not helpful; he just picks the worst possible time to tell you something completely useless. Like when you're trying to out-brake Nathan McKane into the first corner at Mont-Tremblant South. The Kimi button would amount to "shut up and let me drive", silencing Sherman until you press it again and he goes back to talking at you.

 

[Awong124]

- A Kimi button

Let's be honest: Sherman says some bloody stupid things sometimes. It's not that he's not helpful; he just picks the worst possible time to tell you something completely useless. Like when you're trying to out-brake Nathan McKane into the first corner at Mont-Tremblant South. The Kimi button would amount to "shut up and let me drive", silencing Sherman until you press it again and he goes back to talking at you.

The devs already said that for this game they tried to cut down the race engineer comments. That's why they gave us buttons to request information from him. But he still says some pretty stupid things. Like telling us how much time is remaining in practice every single minute.

 

[Speedster911]

The devs already said that for this game they tried to cut down the race engineer comments. That's why they gave us buttons to request information from him. But he still says some pretty stupid things. Like telling us how much time is remaining in practice every single minute.

 

[bluemoon_19]

He really annoyed me once in time trial. Every Sector of every lap he was telling how slow I was going basically I had to turn voice down to 0% just so I could focus.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

He shuts up once you set sector and lap times that are on average pace, unless you're suddenly very fast or very slow.

 

[Imari]

- A Kimi button

Let's be honest: Sherman says some bloody stupid things sometimes. It's not that he's not helpful; he just picks the worst possible time to tell you something completely useless. Like when you're trying to out-brake Nathan McKane into the first corner at Mont-Tremblant South. The Kimi button would amount to "shut up and let me drive", silencing Sherman until you press it again and he goes back to talking at you.

Very like.

I do think there should be a menu option to control his verbosity, with the lowest option being "nothing except for accidents and flags".

 

[Spitfire77]

I have a simple one ..

A shift light

does not need to be a progressive light system (though that would not be bad).. just a light that comes on shortly before the rev limiter or at the ideal shift RPM. Something felt like it was missing that was not obvious (like mirrors) and I just realized it this morning.

I even have one in my Spit.. it does wonders for new drivers and for when you can't hear our roaring 1500 over BMW straight 6s, Geos with motorcycle motors, and the snowmobile motor powered Miata.

 

[GTracer98]

Wider angle in-car camera lenses.

The in-car view has telephoto lenses which makes everything appear smaller, slower and closer to you. Wider lenses would definitely help with the correct distance judgement and sense of speed.

 

[Speedster911]

I have a simple one ..

A shift light

does not need to be a progressive light system (though that would not be bad).. just a light that comes on shortly before the rev limiter or at the ideal shift RPM. Something felt like it was missing that was not obvious (like mirrors) and I just realized it this morning.

I even have one in my Spit.. it does wonders for new drivers and for when you can't hear our roaring 1500 over BMW straight 6s, Geos with motorcycle motors, and the snowmobile motor powered Miata.

That is a great suggestion. Having tachos and speedos of the actual car would look great. Just like S2.

Wider angle in-car camera lenses.

The in-car view has telephoto lenses which makes everything appear smaller, slower and closer to you. Wider lenses would definitely help with the correct distance judgement and sense of speed.

It's like that with practically every sim and racing game cockpit view. IRL it feels fast because you're eyes have 180 deg peripheral vision. Objects zooming past you appear much faster as opposed to objects approaching you directly from the front. Then of course, there's gravity and innertia IRL, so you don't get that edge of the seat feel in games. This is why I almost always prefer using a bumper or hood cam.

Although good suggestion; Codies could use some form of camera trickery to give a better sense of speed, as it's almost non-existent from the cockpit views. I personally think the game generally could use a better sense of speed. Maybe it's because of 30 fps. I'm sure PC users have no complaints whatsoever!

 

[mister dog]

Shorten loading times for the car images on the car selection screen.

Currently it takes too long to load the image from one vehicle to the next, i timed it at 8 seconds to load the next car.

 

[Speedster911]

8 secs??? That's wierd. Mine takes under 3 or 2 secs I think. Which version you on? Got the game installed?

 

[mister dog]

8 secs??? That's wierd. Mine takes under 3 or 2 secs I think. Which version you on? Got the game installed?

Yup it's the digital PS3 version so i don't think my console is to blame, you have it on the 360 no? Disc version?
Others also have it that it takes that long on PS3 or is it me?

 

[Speedster911]

Maybe it's the PS3 load times. I got mine installed on the 360's HDD. Takes about 3 secs, timed it today.

 

[Imari]

Wider angle in-car camera lenses.

The in-car view has telephoto lenses which makes everything appear smaller, slower and closer to you. Wider lenses would definitely help with the correct distance judgement and sense of speed.

Actually, the in-game FOV is generally closer to what is optically correct for the sort of average distances people sit from their screens and the sizes of those screens. If you drive cars in real life, it can be more helpful that rely on your already established sense of speed and distance perception instead of adjusting to a new game.

Most racing games have FOVs that are way too high for any reasonable single screen setup, simply for the extra peripheral vision and sense of speed that it produces.

But they should just make it variable within a certain range, and then people can adjust as suitable. Bonus points if they include a calculator where you enter the size of your screen and the distance you sit from it and it auto-adjusts to the correct FOV.

 

[Awong124]

Yup it's the digital PS3 version so i don't think my console is to blame, you have it on the 360 no? Disc version?
Others also have it that it takes that long on PS3 or is it me?

I have it on PS3, and it doesn't take nearly as long as 8 seconds. I haven't timed it, but 3 seconds seems about right. But 3 seconds is still pretty ridiculously long to wait for a picture to load.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Even though I'm not a drift fan either, it is a sport in my eyes. It's hard, it requires skill and it is competitive. Think of it as figure skating. It's more about style than speed and going fast, beating others on pace.

Drifting goes against my every racing instinct - namely, that sideways motion is to be avoided, as it is unnecessarily slow. Even (though I would be more inclined to say "especially") in disciplines like rallying, where that sideways motion is used to carry more speed through corners. I remember once when I was at uni, where a group of drift fans entered in a local rally; they couldn't understand why they were so slow.

If you want an example of why drifting isn't a sport, go down to my local car club (which my dad and his brothers literally built). They're one of the biggest in the country, and they run just about every event imaginable. But they don't do drift events. They're fully certified by the national motorsports body (our FIA WMSC representative is good friends with my uncle), which is in turn certified by the FIA. And of all the motorsport disciplines out there, there is no accreditation for drifting. The car club doesn't run drift events because they can't (though I doubt they would if they could; there's no room to expand into, so building a drift circuit would mean destroying stuff that has existed for fifty years).

It's a special motorsport category.

That's like calling Pastor Maldonado a special racing driver.