Grip Reduction - What's the point?

  • Thread starter sinbad
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sinbad

sinbad

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For starters I'd like an option to set: "Grip Reduction on Wet Road/Track Edge" to ALWAYS REAL. So I don't have to do it every time myself.

But secondly, why does this option even exist?

Do people want to drive on a wet road, but not have to worry about the wet part?

Not going off the road, or not putting a wheel off at the wrong moment, is a big part of driving a car fast. There shouldn't be anything to diminish that imo. The grass in GT5 is already too smooth and forgiving, and the kerbs beg you to cut cut cut, so on top of that, not setting it to "Real" is as pointless as using Skid Recovery Force. It can make a real difference to dry lap times, too.

Rally is equally affected. The line which has been swept clean has noticeably more grip than the off-track parts when you have it set to "Real", where there would be more loose gravel, which is as it should be. But if you don't set it to Real, the whole area from barrier to barrier has a much more even level of grip, so you can drive silly lines and shortcuts and it's faster.

I just don't understand why it's there. There are enough aids to help people stay on the track without this one too. Maybe it should switch itself on and off in tandem with SRF, so if you want the Arcade experience, you get both. When people say they turn all the aids off, I always assume they mean the grip-reduction is set to "real" also, but I'm not sure it's always the case.

Anyway, give me a "Real = Always" option and I'll forget about it.
 
Play with your friends and set 'assists' to make the racing better.

Some will use the assists, while those who dont need them wont. Infact stick in some 'boost' for more fun.

I'm all for better racing, than just simply the best always win.
 
I don't think you can have it set individually, neither online or split screen, if that's what you mean. And as I said, there are enough driver aids to serve that purpose already, should you wish.
 
I usually turn it off for online racing. I barely notice offline because I don't go off track that often.

One thing that can be annoying with it off is getting stuck in a sand trap. It will take forever to get out with it set to real. In real life, you'd need a tow to get out though.
 
I think Sony told Kaz to make GT5 easy for "new" gamers ?
No ? (In the AMG special event SLS in the rain u have more grip on grass than on some parts of the track :) )
Also the AI cars are to easy to beat.
Skid Recovery ? SHOULDNT BE IN THIS GAME

Gran Turismo the Arcade Driving Simulator ??? :P (Still love gt5)
 
TeamOrecaViper
I think Sony told Kaz to make GT5 easy for "new" gamers ?
No ? (In the AMG special event SLS in the rain u have more grip on grass than on some parts of the track :) )
Also the AI cars are to easy to beat.
Skid Recovery ? SHOULDNT BE IN THIS GAME

Gran Turismo the Arcade Driving Simulator ??? :P (Still love gt5)
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If I had my way there'd be abs and tcs, and that would be enough.

What I don't get is why they dropped the simple arcade/simulation option in favour of the SRF nonsense, which is just the same thing.


Anyway, we digress.

Grip reduction should be "Real" by default, but I still don't know why any option other than "Real" even exists. The track is the track, it should be the way it is.
 
In order to market a game for a large audience, you need to make the game work for the X and O game controller crowd as well as the racing wheel crowd. These options allow you to choose your difficulty level.

The only flaw I see is that you cannot turn them off with a global setting.
 
chuyler1
In order to market a game for a large audience, you need to make the game work for the X and O game controller crowd as well as the racing wheel crowd. These options allow you to choose your difficulty level.

The only flaw I see is that you cannot turn them off with a global setting.
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I drive DS3 couse i have no room for a wheel. And Prefer real grip and no skid recovery couse its more like a arcade game then when turned on.
Since the update that brought the sensetivety setting (i set it on max. 7) i realy like electronice off.
 
My comment wasn't under the assumption that all controller users need those settings. I am simply stating that for a game to be successful it has to cater toward a large audience of gamers at various skill levels. There is no difficulty selector in the game. These settings are in place of that. You can learn your way around the track with something like skid recovery on. When you are comfortable, you can turn it off and try it again. Players will turn the aids off one by one as they become more confident.

Making a blanket statement that aids shouldn't be in the game is like saying automatic transmissions shouldn't be in the game. Its there if you want it, you can disable it if you don't. As I stated before, the only failure on PD's part is to not offer a global setting for it so you could keep it off.
 
chuyler1
My comment wasn't under the assumption that all controller users need those settings. I am simply stating that for a game to be successful it has to cater toward a large audience of gamers at various skill levels. There is no difficulty selector in the game. These settings are in place of that. You can learn your way around the track with something like skid recovery on. When you are comfortable, you can turn it off and try it again. Players will turn the aids off one by one as they become more confident.

Making a blanket statement that aids shouldn't be in the game is like saying automatic transmissions shouldn't be in the game. Its there if you want it, you can disable it if you don't. As I stated before, the only failure on PD's part is to not offer a global setting for it so you could keep it off.
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^ This.
 
chuyler1
My comment wasn't under the assumption that all controller users need those settings. I am simply stating that for a game to be successful it has to cater toward a large audience of gamers at various skill levels. There is no difficulty selector in the game. These settings are in place of that. You can learn your way around the track with something like skid recovery on. When you are comfortable, you can turn it off and try it again. Players will turn the aids off one by one as they become more confident.

Making a blanket statement that aids shouldn't be in the game is like saying automatic transmissions shouldn't be in the game. Its there if you want it, you can disable it if you don't. As I stated before, the only failure on PD's part is to not offer a global setting for it so you could keep it off.
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Yes, I'd agree with that, driver aids are sometimes good ways to make difficult to play car games that bit more accessible. I suppose it's not dissimilar to a damage on/off option really. One forgives offs, the other forgives crashes.

I still don't think it should be there, though. I wonder how many people even really pay attention to it. It's just one of many options. Perhaps more could be done to make it clear to the player that they have it (and Skid Recovery for that matter) turned on, or else the player progression you mention is less likely.

"Grip Reduction" is not a great name, and setting it to Real is weird because it suggests you're reducing grip from its "normal" pre-determined default level rather than what you're actually doing, which is returning it to its correct level- it works backwards.

It should be called something like "Off-track/Wet-Track Grip Booster" and should be off by default.
 
The average gamer may go through the entire game not realizing they can/should change these settings so I agree with you there. I've had people join my online races and claim it was the first time they had raced without the driving line.

I will agree that "Grip Reduction" is a weird name. The options of "low" and "real" are pretty straight forward though. One can assume that "real" is more realistic than "low". If you stay on the track, the option doesn't have much affect.

The only times I notice it are when I get stuck in a sand trap (it takes longer to get out) or occasionally I run a little wide on the sweeping hairpin at Trial Mountain. There is a very narrow patch of dirt on the outside of the straight section as you exit the banked turn. If you touch it under full throttle in a RWD car it will spin you instantly. Every place else that you might go off-track is generally covered with penalties in online mode.

When it comes to offline A-spec, it doesn't really matter. There are numerous ways to cheat the system and run faster than the A.I. opponents. Whether you run better tires, add horsepower, or enable aids, A-spec simply isn't a challenge unless you want it to be.
 
chuyler1
The average gamer may go through the entire game not realizing they can/should change these settings so I agree with you there. I've had people join my online races and claim it was the first time they had raced without the driving line.

I will agree that "Grip Reduction" is a weird name. The options of "low" and "real" are pretty straight forward though. One can assume that "real" is more realistic than "low". If you stay on the track, the option doesn't have much affect.

The only times I notice it are when I get stuck in a sand trap (it takes longer to get out) or occasionally I run a little wide on the sweeping hairpin at Trial Mountain. There is a very narrow patch of dirt on the outside of the straight section as you exit the banked turn. If you touch it under full throttle in a RWD car it will spin you instantly. Every place else that you might go off-track is generally covered with penalties in online mode.

When it comes to offline A-spec, it doesn't really matter. There are numerous ways to cheat the system and run faster than the A.I. opponents. Whether you run better tires, add horsepower, or enable aids, A-spec simply isn't a challenge unless you want it to be.
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You'd notice it all the time on a wet track ;)

For me it's the difference it makes when you drop that one outside wheel off on the way through a fast corner on the 'Ring. With it set to "Low" you get away with it pretty much every time, but with it set to "Real" it's as big a problem as it actually would be, and you'll need to do something about it :)

When I talk about "Offline" I really only think about Time Attack/Hotlapping. So to that end it only makes a difference to me if I want to compare my laptimes with others'. Even if I'm not competitive, I like to know everyone is on the same level playing field, and "Grip Reduction" does slip under the radar a bit.
 
Ahh yes, i forgot how obvious it can be on the 'ring. You can generally tell on that track if someone has it on though. As you mentioned, if an outside wheel even thinks about touching the grass you will spin instantly.
 
chuyler1
Ahh yes, i forgot how obvious it can be on the 'ring. You can generally tell on that track if someone has it on though. As you mentioned, if an outside wheel even thinks about touching the grass you will spin instantly.
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Maybe not as extreme as that, but a mistake like that is definitely something to be avoided. :)
 
TeamOrecaViper
I think Sony told Kaz to make GT5 easy for "new" gamers ?
Also the AI cars are to easy to beat.
Skid Recovery ? SHOULDNT BE IN THIS GAME
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Players don't have to be new to need help. I know people that have been gaming for well over two decades that still don't have the skill to jump into GT5 (or FM3, for that matter) without help from the game (aids, including perhaps even the really unrealistic ones). Not everyone has a bit of Ayrton Senna in them.

Also, I should note that the players that complain about the ease of the AI are normally not average players but represent the top five or ten percent, so there's heaps upon heaps of players with less skill that may not find the AI to be so simple. It would not only be unfair to alienate those players by catering just to the top five or ten percent, but it would also be just plain stupid from a business standpoint because 90% of players being frustrated by their games would be bad for future sales.
 

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