Having a hard time winning seasonals...

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RTDude1981

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Hey guys,
I just started doing the seasonals to grind for some credits but can't win half of them. What is the key to getting 1st in some of them? The seasonals are loads of fun though with the ones I can actually finish. The ones I did win I played over for hours and hours. I want to try to do them all. Only thing I don't like about them is usually the last track, if it's something like the Eifel course. I don't know why they couldn't put a regular track in there. They are the only courses I find annoying.

I am HORRIBLE at tuning a car and don't know where to begin when I want to starting tinkering with the settings on a car. I am pretty sure a good tune is the key to winning a majority of these races. The Mini and Ferrari seasonals, for example, I cannot win for the life of me even though my car has upgrades on it. I am not doing something right. I can never catch up to the first place car.

I am a newbie to the tuning aspect of the game so I am asking for you guys to kinda take it easy on me =).

Can you guys point me to a FAQ or some info that has an easy to understand guide to tuning...I checked the tuning boards but can't find something that is easy for a beginner to understand. I am absolutely clueless as to where to start when tuning. I don't know what to change first, how much to change the parameters, etc. Thanks in advance for the help...
 
Warm welcome to gt5. I was much in similar straits months ago. For mini challenge and ferrari seasonal, u can tone down the difficulty significantly by using better tires than what is indicated. Racing soft is the best. If that remains tough use driving line to guide u and skid recovery force to reduce spinning for any rwd seasonal. Check where u r losing time. Whether it is too conservative driving or u spin all over. Traction control 1-3 can help but it may slow u a little on the limits. If spinning is a problem try asm. Again it can slow u but not as much as a single spin. I generally do not go into tuning of car when playing seasonals. Stock car or minor hp upgrades and if absolutely needed, better tires, can usually do the job. I use driving line and abs 1 nowadays. Not bragging or anything. Just to indicate that tuning is not absolutely necessary to win seasonals and I am admittedly way below what many good gtp members can drive with or without tuning.
 
Hey and welcome!

I got started off with the 'World Compact Car Race' seasonal events and bought myself MR2 Spyder '02, also equppied it with the little money I had left (20.000 cr). I didn't finish in first place in the begginning but once I got some cash I tuned the car near the 450PP restriction. From there on it was a walk in the park. All aids off. Easy money.

For the Ferrari seasonal I used my 458, fully tuned, racing soft tires, full downforce and some tweaking with the transmission (max speed only) and suspension settings (ride height only). Also easy as cake.
 
My beginning tuners guide may help you. See the link in my signature.
 
Tuning doesn't really help if you can't figure out the correct racing lines and braking points in the different circuits.

Take your time to learn the tracks, then worry about tuning and setup.

PS. Many of the car settings provided in the tuning forum are for people using a wheel instead of a controller, and don't always work for those people driving with a DS3.
 
I drive and tune with a DS3. Plus I believe that tuning can be all the difference. It's just annoying that most cars in GT5 are programmed with bad understeer. Tune some of that out so that you can actually get the car to roll through the corner and lap times will drastically improve.
 
iamjajo
Tuning doesn't really help if you can't figure out the correct racing lines and braking points in the different circuits.

Take your time to learn the tracks, then worry about tuning and setup.

PS. Many of the car settings provided in the tuning forum are for people using a wheel instead of a controller, and don't always work for those people driving with a DS3.
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Track knowledge/craft and a decent setup go hand in hand. One is fine, but both are better.

Whilst there are wheel specific tunes, I suspect that there are as many, if not more for controllers. Everything I've published has been build using a manky old SixAxis controller, that has a habit of turning left after minor steering corrections, if in doubt, just ask the author...

{Cy}
 
All my tunes are done with a controller. Many of them are tunes I have done to use with the various seasonal races.
 
Hey thanks for the replies guys!

I have a DFGT and have been playing the game for a while now so I have decent knowledge about the tracks. I just had a hard time winning because you start off in last place and the 1st place car is so far ahead. By the time I am nearing the final lap in some races I am in second place but cannot pass the 1st place car.

I drive with no driving line, TC off, and ABS off. I might turn the ABS on to 1.
I have golded all the licenses (took me a good month with hundreds of restarts, will never do it again).

Thanks for the welcome and for pointing me in the right direction!
 
Motor City Hami
My beginning tuners guide may help you. See the link in my signature.
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I tried your tuning guide last night and it worked great.

I am driving a lot of different cars in the Japanese 90's Seasonal. I was driving a Acura NSX with only fixed sports suspension, close ratio 5 speed and sports hard tires. The car does not handle well in particular it was prone to spin out with power application coming out of corners.

I decided to tune the suspension and added the tunable suspension. I then decided to see if you had a tune for an Acura NSX, you didn't but you had some tunes for high performance NSX's and I applied the suspension elements.

The Acura breezed through the five races with this tune tuning at 429pp on sports hard tires. Thanks for the help
 
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Wow! U gold all the licenses already?! Loads of respect for that. U definitely don't lack the skills. Probably just need to know the tracks better. Given ur skills u should breeze past the seasonals. Strangely, in many seasonals, I could even lap the AI in race soft and max pp but I can't even silver many of the licenses!! :ouch: Try a slightly better tires than AI, I think u can easily win. Think I should get some mentor for licenses and special events. Good luck!
 
gtnoobie
Wow! U gold all the licenses already?! Loads of respect for that. U definitely don't lack the skills. Probably just need to know the tracks better. Given ur skills u should breeze past the seasonals. Strangely, in many seasonals, I could even lap the AI in race soft and max pp but I can't even silver many of the licenses!! :ouch: Try a slightly better tires than AI, I think u can easily win. Think I should get some mentor for licenses and special events. Good luck!
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Yeah, I have had the game for a while. The licenses were the first thing I started doing. Some of them were a nightmare, like IC-10. Took me a week of straight playing, grinding out 2-3 hours sometimes a day and couldn't get it. As soon as I golded S-10 I backed up my save to a USB flash drive so I will never have to do them again. A lot of determination and a "no giving up" mindset goes into the tests. You will eventually get them if you keep trying. There were some I must have restarted more than a hundred times or more.

I am not having a problem with A-spec or B-spec modes, they are pretty straightforward and I don't overpower the cars I use either so the race will be close. I even use the power limiter and dropped the HP of the car to make it a little slower sometimes. I am just having trouble with the seasonals for some reason. I try to stay as close to stock as possible, usually tires, transmission, brake balancing, and suspension I will change as soon as I get the car, I try not to touch anything else. I am still trying to improve my game though, practicing a little every night.
 
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Tip to All Seasonal Drivers: The AI cars are scripted to be adaptive to the car, and PP you choose. If you drive the best car, at maximum allowed PP, the AI is going to give you a run for your money. If you choose older cars, limit the tuning made on them, perhaps even limit the engine output, do modest upgrades, don't fully tune it, then the AI will drive slower.

Case in Point: Nostalgia Challenge: If I drive with a Corvette '69 on Sport Softs, the AI (I refer to only top 3 cars) will drive slowe. If I choose the same car as lead AI, in this case a Lambo Miura, and upgrade it silly, the AI will be more difficult to catch.

I think PD does this to every seasonal out there, I could be wrong though, as I only play them on occasion now, most of my time is now spent online on the Green Hell. 550pp races.
 
Lambob
Tip to All Seasonal Drivers: The AI cars are scripted to be adaptive to the car, and PP you choose. If you drive the best car, at maximum allowed PP, the AI is going to give you a run for your money. If you choose older cars, limit the tuning made on them, perhaps even limit the engine output, do modest upgrades, don't fully tune it, then the AI will drive slower.

Case in Point: Nostalgia Challenge: If I drive with a Corvette '69 on Sport Softs, the AI (I refer to only top 3 cars) will drive slowe. If I choose the same car as lead AI, in this case a Lambo Miura, and upgrade it silly, the AI will be more difficult to catch.

I think PD does this to every seasonal out there, I could be wrong though, as I only play them on occasion now, most of my time is now spent online on the Green Hell. 550pp races.
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THIS is probably what I am assuming but didn't know how to put it into words. I have the exact same feeling about what you just said.
 
RTDude1981, if you golded all the licences, the Seasonal Events should be a piece of cake.
Some, named Expert Challenges are a little harder.
In the first place, you don't need to race hardcore like for golding the licences, you can win it taking easy, not risking spins or going off track. Some cars settings could be largelly improved from default, but shouldn't be too hard in almost default settings (ok, Expert Challenges require top notch setups)
One question: Nascar Seasonal, the cars are "owned by PD" , you can't tweek the setup and are very easy, you should start there, to realize if it's a setup problem or a lack of track knowledge situation.
But I think much of GTP members can gold seasonal but haven't golded all the licences, me included (the damn slaloms :D).
 
pedrocor
RTDude1981, if you golded all the licences, the Seasonal Events should be a piece of cake.
Some, named Expert Challenges are a little harder.
In the first place, you don't need to race hardcore like for golding the licences, you can win it taking easy, not risking spins or going off track. Some cars settings could be largelly improved from default, but shouldn't be too hard in almost default settings (ok, Expert Challenges require top notch setups)
One question: Nascar Seasonal, the cars are "owned by PD" , you can't tweek the setup and are very easy, you should start there, to realize if it's a setup problem or a lack of track knowledge situation.
But I think much of GTP members can gold seasonal but haven't golded all the licences, me included (the damn slaloms :D).
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LOL yeah the slaloms were a pain too. The one in the FT-86 drove me nuts. Another one was with the NSX on the Tokyo track taking a left turn into the bend. Kept running into the wall, made my blood boil, nearly close to a rage quit. The full lap tests weren't that bad, they were actually the most fun, especially the Lambo on the Grand Valley track, with the exception of IC-10 which was hands down for me the worst, but was able to do it with all assists off.
 
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RTDude1981
I try to stay as close to stock as possible, usually tires, transmission, brake balancing, and suspension I will change as soon as I get the car, I try not to touch anything else. I am still trying to improve my game though, practicing a little every night.
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You really need to start getting near the PP/HP/weight limits of the seasonal restrictions. Start off with the max allowable performance on Racing Softs. When that gets easy, downgrade the tyres until you are on the same as the AI. Then you can start removing tuning parts.
 
The easy answer is to get as close to the PP limit as you can and fit SS tyres. Do this and you'll walk all over the seasonals.
 
I have to agree, most of the races are pretty forgiving regarding PP limits and tyre choices, etc. It's only things like the Expert seasonals where you're severely restricted as to what you can use. Beef up the car with better tyres etc and you shouldn't have too many problems, the only tricky bit is finding out how much is too much. You don't want to make it too easy. Thats one of the things I find frustrating about GT in general I wish it were more of a level playing field as regards performance, I'm never entirely sure if it's my driving or my tuning that actually wins the race. Also lineups will vary, admitedly less so with the seasonals but in general if you're struggling with one particular lineup reload that particular race and a different lineup will give you a different challenge, one lineup that you struggle to keep up with will be replaced by another thats easy to beat, another inconsistency I find frustrating. I try to use similar PP and tyres to the AI but often you have no choice but to have better because starting as you do at the back of the grid trying to make up 12 places in just a few laps can be a real struggle, GT4 had qualifying laps so why remove them from GT5? It would make it more realistic and les reliant on out-PP'ing the AI.
 
Lambob
Tip to All Seasonal Drivers: The AI cars are scripted to be adaptive to the car, and PP you choose. If you drive the best car, at maximum allowed PP, the AI is going to give you a run for your money. If you choose older cars, limit the tuning made on them, perhaps even limit the engine output, do modest upgrades, don't fully tune it, then the AI will drive slower.
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Is that the case, really? I'm only asking since I never noticed it. I almost nearly lap the car in the last place in the seasonals. But then again, I tune my cars as close as possible to the PP restriction.

RTDude1981
LOL yeah the slaloms were a pain too. The one in the FT-86 drove me nuts. Another one was with the NSX on the Tokyo track taking a left turn into the bend. Kept running into the wall, made my blood boil, nearly close to a rage quit. The full lap tests weren't that bad, they were actually the most fun, especially the Lambo on the Grand Valley track, with the exception of IC-10 which was hands down for me the worst, but was able to do it with all assists off.
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Golded those two last night, along with the rest of them. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown due to the FT-86 slalom license, before I put the controller sensitivity to 7.
 
Look at the tuning advise given to you in this thread(they have some great places to start) -- to win only -- upgrade as close to max PP as you can, use racing soft tires where allowed, downforce on cars you can, suspension at lowest max, learn basic braking marks with driving line, drive from third person view to see what your car is doing, use skid force recovery and set traction control to 1 or 2. this should begin to get you close and help you win. Once you have that down then you can adjust PP and tires for more competition. Begin to adjust your braking points for your driving style(those red marks aren't necessarily the best guide) Watch your times with different suspension settings. Use the practice tracks and analyzer to see where you can improve.
 
Racin-Rev
Look at the tuning advise given to you in this thread(they have some great places to start) -- to win only -- upgrade as close to max PP as you can, use racing soft tires where allowed, downforce on cars you can, suspension at lowest max, learn basic braking marks with driving line, drive from third person view to see what your car is doing, use skid force recovery and set traction control to 1 or 2. this should begin to get you close and help you win. Once you have that down then you can adjust PP and tires for more competition. Begin to adjust your braking points for your driving style(those red marks aren't necessarily the best guide) Watch your times with different suspension settings. Use the practice tracks and analyzer to see where you can improve.
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YES...some of the links you guys have given have helped. Many thanks for that. Easy for a beginner to understand. My biggest problem with tuning is where to begin. I haven't really gotten hardcore and in depth with this game, but I am starting to get there. With this new update coming out, I anticipate that this game will live in my PS3 for a while, with Dark Souls probably being the only other game I will pop in once in a while until next year.
 
I have found that setting brake bias to substantially favor the front brakes is the biggest single assist for someone early in the game. Almost every car becomes much easier to drive. As you get better at tuning other things fall into place and it becomes intuitive. But again, wish I new about the brakes a long time ago.
 
You need to decide what you are trying to achieve - if you just want to earn some easy credits tune up and racing softs makes it easy to win (and I have only been "playing" for a bit over a month). But GT5 is more than that - I think a lot of the satisfaction is in entering races on a level playing field from a car perspective and seeing what difference your skill can make.
 
chug-a-bug
... one of the things I find frustrating about GT in general I wish it were more of a level playing field as regards performance, I'm never entirely sure if it's my driving or my tuning that actually wins the race.
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I'm going off topic now, but try online shuffle races, it's awesome for testing your driving skills :)
 
RTDude1981
Hey guys,
I just started doing the seasonals to grind for some credits but can't win half of them. What is the key to getting 1st in some of them?
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I only started playing GT5 on Sat night, raced in my first seasonal event yesterday (Civic Race) won three of the races first time and the fourth (on the go-kart track) second time of asking.

Using a '97 Civic Type-R, its tuned but only in that I've added the mods, I've not adjusted gear ratios or ballast etc.

Finished with the car now, add me and you can have it if you want?
 
You should be able to win most seasonals on standard suspension and recommended tyres. A bit more power is usually all that it takes if you're struggling.

As has been mentioned the easiest short cut to wins is racing soft tyres.
 
mekonrider
As has been mentioned the easiest short cut to wins is racing soft tyres.
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Yup, to win the final Civic event on the kart track I added Soft Race tyers and was in the lead with a lap and a half to spare.
 
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