Further notes about locating PV-1, and how the AI reacts to the player.
As was stated in the analysis in the previous post about PV-1, having a vehicle to take to a particular race for which it is classed as a PV-1 will guarantee close racing with the AI; opponents that battle you on the way to the leaders and leaders that flex their racing speeds to pace the race for you up to the line.
The game is broken if a player takes, say, a PV-5 to the race, since this means the player has clipped off a huge amount of time, and this final time, of which only the player is capable, may be beyond the maximum 'racing window' (or so-called 'rubberband') of the AI.
A PV-5 would be obviously a good vehicle for farming credits a.k.a. 'grinding'.
If the player takes a car that is classed PV-1 for a particular race and reduces its potential for winning by lowering tyre compounds, stripping HP, or adding weight (keeping in mind that sometimes lowering a car's power or making it heavier can be advantageous for some cars on certain tracks) then the PV level goes down. The only thing that can bring that PV up is the development of the players own skill level, so that PS increases and therefore further multiplies the level of V:
PS X V = PV
In this way, even PV-1 in time becomes a PV-2 or -3 (for the particular race it was classed originally as PV-1) in the hands of the same player if kept maintained with the attendant rigidity fixes, oil changes, car-washes, etc, because the PS increases with repetition.
All this should be fairly self-evident for those who have explored the game sufficiently to observe this phenomenon surface.
As analysed in the previous post on 'PV-1' and engineering close races, the game usually offers up a field, player uses PV-1 and has close racing, then the game starts to increase the pace of that field until the field is maxed out, but PV-1 is now almost PV-2 because the player has taken the 50/50 odds to the point where they can win almost 100% of the time - so the race now becomes stale.
Then the player calls for another field in the same race, and the new field 'ups' the difficulty level - either by increasing the speeds of the 'racing window' by bringing in faster AI driver/car combos or by setting the field so that it becomes difficult for the player to catch the leaders - in effect, the game is reducing the V level of the Player's PV-1, and the only way they may win with this new field is to improve the level of their PS.
If they do this and win, then the game will offer an even more complex field - back-markers that consistently block, mid-packers that clump up and do not let the player pass, and leaders that get boosted via programmer cheats, to bring down the V level and force the player to drive the PS level up in order to win again; the race becomes harder, the player becomes better.
In effect, the game is simulating opportunities for players to improve their driving and racing skills as they repeat the same race in the same PV-1 car with different fields in repetitive racing.
Remember while the game's objective is to defeat you in racing, its primary objective is to keep the player playing - the primary objective of the programmer's themselves.
Can the game 'play' the game successfully enough to keep the player's interest?
Let's take a scenario and watch an average player pick up GT, select a race, get themselves a suitable vehicle for it and go racing.
Here is an actual experience - I log on after several days inactivity (promising myself myself an hour at the console between other pressing engagements) and head to the Garage and looking for something new, pick the SVT 150 Lightning '03.
And this is where the programming borders on genius:
My first race - full PP, all off except TC1, ABS1, manual - my usual settings for a more 'fun' feel of the vehicle - and to check out the difficulty of the race. I hit the wall on the first left, nearly spin out, remember quickly that we're racing the track in Reverse, and settle down to feel out the SVT.
Traffic's getting in my way, but with the settings I'm on I'm drifting and sliding and swinging the truck around like it was a Gallardo with a load of bodies. I'm liking the ride, the pep in the pedal, the sheer muscle lounging under the hood. I catch the leaders up at the last corner and we hightail it together to the line - I'm almost sure I'm going to win.
I didn't.
The fact that i
almost did instinctively makes me retry the race.
This time I'm a second slower trying to race a little more clean, but even while the leader slowed a second, too, I lost the race:
Now I'm fuming.
I'm still running the SVT stock, but I know i have serendipitously selected a vehicle that is borderline PV-1 as is. I try again:
A win!
Third time lucky.
So far I've actually enjoyed the three races, and the game is keeping me playing; I repeat the same race just to be sure I can ace this event in this truck.
And again, racing much cleaner now, observing all the various tactics that the AI are indulging in to stop me i realise that that are now aware of the line i was using and somehow, mysteriously
, seem to get in my way - in fact to the millisecond.
The cleaner I try to race, confident in my ability to win with this truck, the more truculent the AI become.
I have to control my road rage and somehow get into the surgical mindset of Senna. I lose it, and the race:
Some deep breathing now takes place and I'm subconsciously aware that Hotchkiss has drifted into the Pits and is grinning at me wolfishly. He gives me the impression he could ace this race driving in reverse and blindfolded. I ignore his macho signals and try again:
Good. I can do a 3:40 which is good enough to beat Ballesteros. This race is in the bag.
Just to be sure I try a few more times with similar results:
I know i can successfully beat this field - as long as i raced well and wasn't careless .
The game could keep me playing like this, but not for long - i needed a new challenge. I have to add here that another part of the game now pulled me away - not directly A-Spec/B-Spec, but an important part of the game - customising. So before I call for a new field I sneak off to GTAuto and give my new ride a splash of Inca Gold and some snazzy steels; must reward this baby before i take her out again:
Then I call for a new field:
As a consistent A-Spec player, these names are not strange to me.
I know immediately as i look at the new line-up that the game has brought out one of the fastest fields it can offer in the way of Beginner Level Rabbits.
Harvey,
Chapman,
Brooks . . . all I need in here was
Vitale, and
Monroe to totally screw things up.
I'm breathing hard now but ready to take up the cudgels. I wondered if the new colour was faster.
I start off the race and let fly like a maniac, no holds barred, banging my way through the field, to no avail:
Hotchkiss is having a fit in the Pits - his paroxysms of derisive mirth have doubled. I strongly suspect he is half-rabbit, though still to get proof of this. I give him the finger and scoot off to GTAuto to finally get some upgrades done.
After a huge bunch of hemming and hawing with the zombies at GTAuto I get the truck stripped off of all weight possible including windows, fixed up with new clutch-plates and a carbon shaft, and PP limited to fit, and went back to attack this new super-fast field.
Everything else stayed default - LSD, suspension, etc - this truck was good to go really right out of the dealer. To keep the power reduction minimal I avoided an oil change but did a rigidity fix.
Now that I had got rid of the bodies the truck was a lot more agile, and i managed to get through the mid-packers quicker - which resulted in:
As you can imagine it gave me everything a racing game using production vehicles on a short-track street course could give me.
Could i leave the console now?
There was faint yelling around me to hurry up that there was a bar-be-que on and that the royal presence was required and that i promised to play for only an hour. I had chewed up over an hour of real time somehow.
To hell with them RL bods. They could wait. Time could wait. Life could wait. In here -
inside the core game that Gran Turismo offers, in fact,
the game of Gran Turismo itself, was where I was a nobody.
I was a lonely racer trying to make my mark, the only buddies i had were rabbits who would do their best to make me a better racer, and the only people watching me a bunch of pixelated spectators.
But the real competition was with myself.
The real competition was to prove to myself that I was better than the best the rabbits could do - and as far as the game was concerned it was ready to simulate for me the best that particular cars would do on a track, giving me the opportunity to max out my skills.
The bar-be-que could wait.
I couldn't let go this field. I
had to win.
Back to the races, and i gave it all I could, racing cleanly, driving swiftly, focused and zoned in for a full three and half minutes:
And, yes. Third time was the charm.
At this point, as a player, i could keep on playing this field till I could ace it at will, and then call for another field.
I could do this all day - or at least till i was sick of all the fields, and decided to take another vehicle against them - there were hundreds of possible vehicles to use in this event.
Or I could now go on to the Intermediate and do this all over again . . ..
The objective of the game had been fulfilled; it was keeping me glued to the game.
Or i could have the console shut off forcibly and have myself dragged off to a bar-b-que. Which latter, to my mental dismay, is what happened. RL gets in the way of the virtual.
Hey . . . did I ever tell you about this game I play, a game called Gran Turismo?
Edit: will update OP later tonight with any new times.
They don't like to be beaten by dwarf car. 
) we've seen that Chapman in the Elise usually is the fastest Beginner Level rabbit. Others surface depending on the track (and how fast the player runs) but the Elsie quite significantly is at the top of the boards when a fast player is getting at them.
Hope to get some done tomorrow.
I figured I was going to run out of time..... And lose out again. 
