How to make our GT life easier?

[Deemzke]

Because We love to collect cars and love to modify them all, We need to travel trough all the menu's and loading screens a lot.

1.GT Life -> Garage
2.Select Car
3.Garage->GT Auto
4.GT Auto -> Garage
5. Car configuration
6. Garage -> GT Life
7.GT Life -> Test Lap
...

I tune my cars untill they have a nice round prestationpoint value
(400,450,500,550pp,...)
It's taking soooo much time to travel trough all the menu's all the time and stop your test lap for few times to do another change on your car because it's not behaving as it should. You need to stop the race.

Shouldn't it be possible/nice to have shortcuts in the game?
Like:
1.GT auto shortcut when viewing your car in the garage.
2.Practice shortcut when viewing your car in the garage.
3.Getting the option to finetune your car when pitting during a lap.
4. Option to export LSD / Suspension tunes and import to other cars?
...

Would PD able to do this or am I dreaming?

What do you think of the idea?

 

[teth75]

Because We love to collect cars and love to modify them all, We need to travel trough all the menu's and loading screens a lot.

1.GT Life -> Garage
2.Select Car
3.Garage->GT Auto
4.GT Auto -> Garage
5. Car configuration
6. Garage -> GT Life
7.GT Life -> Test Lap
...

I tune my cars untill they have a nice round prestationpoint value
(400,450,500,550pp,...)
It's taking soooo much time to travel trough all the menu's all the time and stop your test lap for few times to do another change on your car because it's not behaving as it should. You need to stop the race.

Shouldn't it be possible/nice to have shortcuts in the game?
Like:
1.GT auto shortcut when viewing your car in the garage.
2.Practice shortcut when viewing your car in the garage.
3.Getting the option to finetune your car when pitting during a lap.
4. Option to export LSD / Suspension tunes and import to other cars?
...

Would PD able to do this or am I dreaming?

What do you think of the idea?

👍 Definitely

 

[Deko Wolf-GTPT]

I disagree 👎 ...the game has already way too many short cuts. Did you know that in previous GT games you had to...
garage > load > select view cars > load > select desired car > load > select confirmation to use the car. *New screen pops up to let you that you are currently driving that car!*...now go back the same way you came in...

Shouldn't it be possible/nice to have shortcuts in the game?
Like:
1.GT auto shortcut when viewing your car in the garage.

Well...not really. It's just there, you know...there.

2.Practice shortcut when viewing your car in the garage.

This wouldn't be a new feature, but a "comeback" feature. It was already possible to do this in GT3. You have a selection of tracks ready for you to test your car at any time.

3.Getting the option to finetune your car when pitting during a lap.

Apart from gearbox, I don't see why this is necessary.

4. Option to export LSD / Suspension tunes and import to other cars?

We had something similar available in GT3. You could save your car settings as a separated file in your memory card. It would then, work on the same car on your friends GT3 save for example.

But if eventually those short cuts were to be available in an updade, I hope they keep the old fashion way open.

 

[Damon Hill]

Because We love to collect cars and love to modify them all, We need to travel trough all the menu's and loading screens a lot.

1.GT Life -> Garage
2.Select Car
3.Garage->GT Auto
4.GT Auto -> Garage
5. Car configuration
6. Garage -> GT Life
7.GT Life -> Test Lap
...

I tune my cars untill they have a nice round prestationpoint value
(400,450,500,550pp,...)
It's taking soooo much time to travel trough all the menu's all the time and stop your test lap for few times to do another change on your car because it's not behaving as it should. You need to stop the race.

Shouldn't it be possible/nice to have shortcuts in the game?
Like:
1.GT auto shortcut when viewing your car in the garage.
2.Practice shortcut when viewing your car in the garage.
3.Getting the option to finetune your car when pitting during a lap.
4. Option to export LSD / Suspension tunes and import to other cars?
...

Would PD able to do this or am I dreaming?

What do you think of the idea?

👍

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Compared to earlier GTs, GT5 actually does have a lot more shortcuts. Being able to select a car (and tune it) just before entering the race menus is a Godsend for me.

I was always just about to start a race...damn wrong car! Now I gotta go all the way back thru 4 or 5 or 6 menus just to get the car I need. :facepalm:

I disagree 👎 ...the game has already way too many short cuts. Did you know that in previous GT games you had to...
garage > load > select view cars > load > select desired car > load > select confirmation to use the car. *New screen pops up to let you that you are currently driving that car!*...now go back the same way you came in...

Yup. What Deko Wolf says.

I do think the option of "exporting tunes" would be a cool feature, but even I'm not that lazy.

If PD incorporates a new shortcut, what is desperately needed is a option to practice driving once we're in the race-screen. This is something we were able to do in past GTs. The way it is now, once we're on the race screen, we can't do any practice laps anymore.

 

[Deemzke]

I disagree 👎 ...the game has already way too many short cuts. Did you know that in previous GT games you had to...
garage > load > select view cars > load > select desired car > load > select confirmation to use the car. *New screen pops up to let you that you are currently driving that car!*...now go back the same way you came in...



Well...not really. It's just there, you know...there.



This wouldn't be a new feature, but a "comeback" feature. It was already possible to do this in GT3. You have a selection of tracks ready for you to test your car at any time.



Apart from gearbox, I don't see why this is necessary.



We had something similar available in GT3. You could save your car settings as a separated file in your memory card. It would then, work on the same car on your friends GT3 save for example.

But if eventually those short cuts were to be available in an updade, I hope they keep the old fashion way open.

Well I am 22 so I was a little boy when playing GT1 ,GT2, GT3 and GT4.
GT5 is actually the first GT where I'm that busy with upgrading cars and finetune the settings. I always think about how to make things easier, I'm an IT specialist so it's my job. (Why would we do 5 clicks when it's possible with 2 ? )

Change your Suspension/LSD settings in the pitlane would be handy because when you feel like changing some settings you don't have to quit the session and start again. When you do that you will have a new entry in the timetable of the same car ( Which I don't like, we can only delete the full list and not one single entry ) I'm sorry , it's just me

Just some ideas were I was playing with in my mind

 

[Tornado]

I disagree 👎 ...the game has already way too many short cuts.

How can you have way too many things that simplify a confusing UI?

 

[Deemzke]

Compared to earlier GTs, GT5 actually does have a lot more shortcuts. Being able to select a car (and tune it) just before entering the race menus is a Godsend for me.

I was always just about to start a race...damn wrong car! Now I gotta go all the way back thru 4 or 5 or 6 menus just to get the car I need. :facepalm:



Yup. What Deko Wolf says.

I do think the option of "exporting tunes" would be a cool feature, but even I'm not that lazy.

If PD incorporates a new shortcut, what is desperately needed is a option to practice driving once we're in the race-screen. This is something we were able to do in past GTs. The way it is now, once we're on the race screen, we can't do any practice laps anymore.

True Story!
The option to pick a car on the race screen is great.
I think I'm not the only one but I actually spend a lot of time with 'testing and tuning' cars to their limits and keep laptimes and documentation in excel sheets to compare them later on. I know kinda geeky but yeah it's what I like.
Some extra 'tuning friendly shortcuts' should be very nice for me

 

[dudeondacouch]

All these problems could be fixed with two simple patches.

1. Garage selectable from any event menu. ANY event, practice included.

2. All car mods selectable/deselectable from the garage. ALL mods, except wheels/paint. Oil changes, chassis/engine restore, engine upgrades, weight reduction, aero, etc.

 

[Deemzke]

All these problems could be fixed with two simple patches.

1. Garage selectable from any event menu. ANY event, practice included.

2. All car mods selectable/deselectable from the garage. ALL mods, except wheels/paint. Oil changes, chassis/engine restore, engine upgrades, weight reduction, aero, etc.

The question is , will they ever do this?
Is this on the wishlist on many GT drivers?

 

[dudeondacouch]

The question is , will they ever do this?
Is this on the wishlist on many GT drivers?

I assume it's on the wishlist of most anyone who plays the game with any frequency and is frustrated with how poor the user interface is, and how long it takes to set up a car even if you know exactly what you want to do to it.

As for the liklihood of PD actually implementing changes that address this, my bet is somewhere between "never" and "half past never" 👎

You're forever doomed to watching a sprite wheel itself under your car for 30 seconds to change virtual oil, and having to go to a different menu to do a weight reduction and then not be able to undo it even though it's a video game.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

True Story!
The option to pick a car on the race screen is great.
I think I'm not the only one but I actually spend a lot of time with 'testing and tuning' cars to their limits and keep laptimes and documentation in excel sheets to compare them later on. I know kinda geeky but yeah it's what I like.
Some extra 'tuning friendly shortcuts' should be very nice for me

Hey, I'm geeky, too. You should see my book full of spec pages, I've kept a seperate 3-ring binder for GT2, GT3, GT4, and GT5. Every car I drive in GT gets fully tested, and I write up all the test results. I also keep a record of the real-life car's specs, so I can compare reality to what's going on in the game.

 

[madeye]

Yeah id love to be able to select a car online while looking at the pic of the car and not just the name. I like driving cars that i think look nice and not just depending on the power. MAYBE we'll see something done in todays maintenance but i doubt it.

 

[GuerillaBlack]

Yeah id love to be able to select a car online while looking at the pic of the car and not just the name. I like driving cars that i think look nice and not just depending on the power. MAYBE we'll see something done in todays maintenance but i doubt it.

This^^ + Id love to be able to select a car online and change the oil, no not only online but every where. Ive got round 100 cars that needs an oil change

 

[sesselpupser]

I've always thought this, almost every screen in the game would benefit from a garage shortcut. I think PD could've (well, they still could) implemented a sort of dock type thing where you press a button and a list of shortcuts pop up, so if you're about to press X to start an A-spec race but realise you need more tuning, you could press L2 (for example) to bring up a list with shortcuts to the Garage, GT Auto, Tuning Shop, Photo Mode, B-Spec, UCD, OCD, Seasonals and Online screens. I understand that the reason they didn't include all this is because it would be too cluttered, but if you could show and hide the shortcuts with a button I don't see the problem.

That's just how I'd do it, though. The addition of the ability to buy parts from the tuning setup screen was a great move, though, but I don't understand why weight reduction and engine stages are removed. I suppose that's good in a way, though, because it stops me from building ludicrously fast cars every time I just want to upgrade a little bit or buy some tyres. I have very little self control when there's no real life consequences, you see.

Edit: That's another one; why oh why can't we change the oil/rebuild the engine/straighten the chassis of a car from the garage menu?

 

[smrtb0mb]

Consider the way Polyphony has updated how online works since the game was released. With a few more features, I think this is how the whole game interface should work.

What I mean is, the game engine (the main "rendering engine") should be always loaded. Notice how quickly you can switch from track to track when online - even including the extra wait time to sync player connections!

Then simply add one more icon (like the tuning wrench icon) for GT Auto options. Then from there, click "oil change". Done! Click "engine rebuild". Done! etc.

You should be able to switch to a different car while the track is still loaded without exiting, un-loading the track and game engine, re-loading the GT Life interface, going through menus, then un-loading the menu interface and finally re-loading the track. All that should need to happen is unload the current car from memory and load a new one. This already happens in online mode! It's fast and elegant, as opposed to the clunky and dated feeling of the GT Life interface.

Even if you switch from an A-spec even to, say, time trials, IF you're staying on the same track, there's no need to unload the whole thing just to re-load it all in another mode!

With regards to the overall aesthetic - rather than having that static GT Life screen, you'd have views of the current track in the background. Polyphony, your track and car rendering are great, your character animations and menu designs... not so much. Focus on what you're good at and let that shine through at all times.

IMO, this isn't just how GT should work, it's how I think pretty much all racing games should work. Almost all of them suffer from the same time-wasting issues of unloading the entire game engine and all its assets after Every. Single. Race. Stop wasting our time. For a genre catering to speed freaks, it's an inexplicably odd (lazy?) design decision.

(Disclaimer: GT5 is my first Gran Turismo, so I've got absolutely zero nostalgia for whatever the interface used to be in previous iterations.)

 

[bs13]

Shouldn't it be possible/nice to have shortcuts in the game?
Like:
1.GT auto shortcut when viewing your car in the garage.
2.Practice shortcut when viewing your car in the garage.
3.Getting the option to finetune your car when pitting during a lap.
4. Option to export LSD / Suspension tunes and import to other cars?

That's just how I'd do it, though. The addition of the ability to buy parts from the tuning setup screen was a great move, though, but I don't understand why weight reduction and engine stages are removed. I suppose that's good in a way, though, because it stops me from building ludicrously fast cars every time I just want to upgrade a little bit or buy some tyres. I have very little self control when there's no real life consequences, you see.

Edit: That's another one; why oh why can't we change the oil/rebuild the engine/straighten the chassis of a car from the garage menu?

I love these ideas. No need to import export tunes when we just need the ability to copy and paste a tune from one car to another. This should be simple to implement and it would be very handy. These ideas would save so much time that is wasted doing the menial daily tasks that are needed just to play the game. The ideas may even save wear and tear on the game disk and hardware.

I've had the game a year and I hate to think how much time I have wasted daily going to GT Auto (do the math). The little details of the game are cool at first but after a while you just want to get things done quickly and race/drive.

 

[striderx]

IMO, this isn't just how GT should work, it's how I think pretty much all racing games should work. Almost all of them suffer from the same time-wasting issues of unloading the entire game engine and all its assets after Every. Single. Race. Stop wasting our time. For a genre catering to speed freaks, it's an inexplicably odd (lazy?) design decision.

(Disclaimer: GT5 is my first Gran Turismo, so I've got absolutely zero nostalgia for whatever the interface used to be in previous iterations.)

I'm with you smrtb0mb.

• How about an option to completely disable the canned animations in the GT Auto? While they're at it, mix up the BGM in EVERY menu. I used to enjoy ragtime music. Now after hours of listening to the GT Auto menu. Not so much anymore.
• How about eliminating the the need to perform an oil change on every car you buy to get maximum HP/PP? Is this supposed to be a penalty for users too ignorant to know that this is necessary? Don't most real used car dealers change the oil on cars they resell?
• In the UCD, make one of the views, sort by 'own/don't own?
• During purchase, let me control the camera angle using the joysticks (like the Forza series allows), especially in the new car dealership. The initial view when selecting a car is okay, but when you select a color, the view zooms in to an awkward perspective and starts rotating the camera angle making color selection terrible (try to distinguish some of the similar colors of the Red Bull X2010).
• When my current car exceeds the requirements for an event and go to the garage, only cars eligible for the event are listed. However, if my current car is eligible for the event and I go to the garage, ALL cars are listed whether eligible or not, even if my current car is woefully underspec'ed for the event. Always show only eligible cars or perhaps toggle a view within the garage view to do that.
• When I go to the Tuning Shop to make modifications, let me choose to install from my item list first before dipping into my credits. To install an item I already own, I must go to the item list to do that. Stupid...
• I know this has been mentioned before, but let me see exactly what my car will look like after repainting rather than showing some abstract Pinewood Derby miniature hovering in the corner. Lame...
• Let me export lists of my game assets to use outside the game. Such as cars, paints, items, etc... Essentially provide in-game equivalent of the mygranturismo.net website. Come on, the car list remained a secret for about twenty minutes after the game hit the street. PD watches and interacts with this site. Don't pretend the players don't already know this information.

All of the suggestions and complaints in this thread are just pointing out that there's stuff in there that simply gets in the way of driving and enjoying the GAME. In a similar thread, one poster commented to the effect, "I've already got a job, I don't need another one" regarding the tedium of waiting through oil changes, buying cars, etc... It was fun and mildly amusing on the first 20 or 30 cars. A thousand cars in and I've got better ways to spend my time.

striderx

PSN: striderx2005

6 cars from a complete garage!

1. Honda HSC '03
2. Honda NSX-R Prototype LM Road Car
3. Mitsubishi CZ-3 Tarmac '01
4. Nissan 370Z Tuned Car (GT Academy Version) '08
5. Nissan XANAVI HIROTO GT-R '01
6. Toyota FT-86 II Concept '11

 

[Deemzke]

Consider the way Polyphony has updated how online works since the game was released. With a few more features, I think this is how the whole game interface should work.

What I mean is, the game engine (the main "rendering engine") should be always loaded. Notice how quickly you can switch from track to track when online - even including the extra wait time to sync player connections!

Then simply add one more icon (like the tuning wrench icon) for GT Auto options. Then from there, click "oil change". Done! Click "engine rebuild". Done! etc.

You should be able to switch to a different car while the track is still loaded without exiting, un-loading the track and game engine, re-loading the GT Life interface, going through menus, then un-loading the menu interface and finally re-loading the track. All that should need to happen is unload the current car from memory and load a new one. This already happens in online mode! It's fast and elegant, as opposed to the clunky and dated feeling of the GT Life interface.

Even if you switch from an A-spec even to, say, time trials, IF you're staying on the same track, there's no need to unload the whole thing just to re-load it all in another mode!

With regards to the overall aesthetic - rather than having that static GT Life screen, you'd have views of the current track in the background. Polyphony, your track and car rendering are great, your character animations and menu designs... not so much. Focus on what you're good at and let that shine through at all times.

IMO, this isn't just how GT should work, it's how I think pretty much all racing games should work. Almost all of them suffer from the same time-wasting issues of unloading the entire game engine and all its assets after Every. Single. Race. Stop wasting our time. For a genre catering to speed freaks, it's an inexplicably odd (lazy?) design decision.

(Disclaimer: GT5 is my first Gran Turismo, so I've got absolutely zero nostalgia for whatever the interface used to be in previous iterations.)

👍 Well explained mate! I was not able to explain it like you.. You know exactly what I mean.
When playing in the evening , I almost fall asleep when going trough all the menu's and loading times
I hope PD reads your post and the full thread