I just want a competitive offline race!

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Mubble

Mubble

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Rant alert!

The other day, my internet went down, so I couldn't race online. I wanted a 30min race, so I decided to set up a 20 lap offline race against the AI using Japanese Super GT cars.

So I went in to Arcade mode and selected single race, Advanced difficulty.

Race starts. I'm in last place. Why? Why can't I start up front? Why does it always have to be a last-to-first race?!

Anyway, after just one and a half laps, I was in first. How pointless. So I quit out, adjust my car down from 500bhp to 380bhp. I still finish first.

Why oh why can't I have a competitive race, where I start among the top 3 or 4 cars, and have a close 20 lap race with the AI?!

Why do I always have to start in last place and pass 15 other cars to victory? That's not a race. Plus it shows how crap the AI is, if with 120bhp less, I can still overtake every car on the track.

To me it seems GT5 is missing the most fundamental aspects of a racing game.

Rant over. Back to racing online 👎
 
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Just imagine, starting in 3rd place, actually RACING intently for 20 laps (more realistic) and still coming out in 3rd where you started because it involved actual competition against you. That would be a lot of fun in some of the great cars on this game. Unfortunately though, that's just not what the game is.
 
Rant justified. Sadly online is the only hope of competition. I've even gone so far as to drift race the AI offline. lol. Pathetic it is.
 
Corpsey
Do the professional level arcade mode.. advanced is a walk in the park for some reason.
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I think he does mean the highest level.

Here's what I do.

Take a race car, nothing too super powerful, a SuperGT car or a touring car and add your weight as a ballast to the car. Run the race with tyre wear and heavy damage on. No aides preferably although I know many like to use ABS as I sometimes do.

You'll end up on a grid of LMPs and Group C cars in your touring. Now do 20 laps without crashing and still win the race. That's how I manage to still keep GT AI competitive.

I do this often and in all honesty I only win one in every five races.
 
Corpsey
Do the professional level arcade mode.. advanced is a walk in the park for some reason.
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Sorry. I did mean professional :dunce:

Bye Ya
Just imagine, starting in 3rd place, actually RACING intently for 20 laps (more realistic) and still coming out in 3rd where you started because it involved actual competition against you. That would be a lot of fun in some of the great cars on this game. Unfortunately though, that's just not what the game is.
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That's exactly what I mean. After watching the Monza gp last weekend, and Hamilton's battle with Schumacher for about 10 laps, I loaded up GT5 wanting the same experience - that lap after lap of tight racing where you're biding your time waiting to make that overtake.

shem
Here's what I do.

Take a race car, nothing too super powerful, a SuperGT car or a touring car and add your weight as a ballast to the car. Run the race with tyre wear and heavy damage on. No aides preferably although I know many like to use ABS as I sometimes do.

You'll end up on a grid of LMPs and Group C cars in your touring. Now do 20 laps without crashing and still win the race. That's how I manage to still keep GT AI competitive.

I do this often and in all honesty I only win one in every five races.
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Hmm, might look in to that 👍
 
I was going to suggest something along the lines of what Shem posted. 👍

I manage to make races competitive in Arcade Mode like that, either by ballasting or selecting underpowered cars, or changing to more difficult tire compounds in the setup screen. I tried for a few hours to get the Cappucchino racer to beat race tuned S2000s. The Opera is uncatchable, but I managed to pull it off by using chase cam to very carefully navigate through the pack of losers and whittle down the seconds separating me from the lead cars. Sure, it's not quite the same as having a tightly packed field, but don't tell me it's not fun shaving off tenths of a second to finally lunge past the leader and cross that line first, whether it's a bot or human.
 
Offline arcade is better then online. Online is always with little kids who can't do anything and create rooms like ''FRANCE ONLY OMGGGGGGGCHH'' which fill up everything so you can't find a good free run or race. I've had just two good online games played.
 
I hate to say this, but I've had no good online races yet. Hopefully with my late fall vacation, I'll have some time to splurge on GT5, including online shenanigans.
 
1. formula gt @ monaco, in a-spec extreme. (if you are familiar with that track, tune down the tires)
2. a pp550 car w/ sport soft/medium tire @ nurburgring, in a-spec endurance series. (make sure no audiR8 as opponent), tire management and speed both required here.
 
nicholasxuu
a pp550 car w/ sport soft/medium tire @ nurburgring, in a-spec endurance series. (make sure no audiR8 as opponent), tire management and speed both required here.
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Well said. For me the 'Ring 4 hour is the best race in the game if you use the right car/tyre set up.

I've even ran it in cars that you would not even think to use as they're not exactly race cars. Haven't always finished first due to strategic errors but always an enjoyable even. If you feel that 4 hours is too long then invite a friend to team up with you and do an hour / half an hour each. ;)
 
Well it turns out that adjusting the ballast is the key to making it competitive 👍

I got in my stock Petronas Lexus CS430, adjusted the ballast up by 85kg and started a 20 lap race of Monza. I turned off all aids (except ABS), turned on damage and tyre wear and had a great race! Really enjoyable.

I finished 2nd (was 15s behind the Citroen GT Race Car though :grumpy:), but had some epic battles with the Nomad Lambo in 2nd and an XJ220 Race Car in 3rd 👍

For about 4 laps I was glued to the back of the Lambo, waiting for my chance to undertake.

Much better.

Now to try 30 laps (to force a pit stop) and reduce the amount I up the ballast by (in order to tackle 1st place).
 
Mubble
Well it turns out that adjusting the ballast is the key to making it competitive 👍

I got in my stock Petronas Lexus CS430, adjusted the ballast up by 85kg and started a 20 lap race of Monza. I turned off all aids (except ABS), turned on damage and tyre wear and had a great race! Really enjoyable.
Click to expand...

It's a very overlooked factor but the ballast really helps improve game play for those of use who use arcade mode. I recommend this style of play to everyone who claims that GT has a short life span.

In fact I've just started a new game and will be using only premiums, no tuning at all, relevant tyres and my weight added to each car. It took me hours last night to get through the first three competitions in the beginner series in a Yaris on CM.
Any paints, gears or standard cars get deleted right away and I'm not bothering with licences, special events or any kind of trading. It's just pure racing how Kaz may have wanted it.
 
noisiaturismo
offline arcade is better then online. online is always with little kids who can't do anything and create rooms like ''france only omgggggggchh'' which fill up everything so you can't find a good free run or race. I've had just two good online games played.
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No!
 
shem
Depends on ones experiences of on-line, the internet connection and who you've played with. It's a matter of opinion, not fact. ;)
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I agree. The only good online races I've had is with my car club friends. Can't recall a good online race against random people. But that's not the same for everyone.
 
Yeah, I try to avoid random online races. They're full of ignorant drivers who've never watched a single race in their lives and don't know a thing about clean overtaking or conceding position.
 
shem
It's a very overlooked factor but the ballast really helps improve game play for those of use who use arcade mode. I recommend this style of play to everyone who claims that GT has a short life span.

In fact I've just started a new game and will be using only premiums, no tuning at all, relevant tyres and my weight added to each car. It took me hours last night to get through the first three competitions in the beginner series in a Yaris on CM.
Any paints, gears or standard cars get deleted right away and I'm not bothering with licences, special events or any kind of trading. It's just pure racing how Kaz may have wanted it.
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The point is you shouldn't have to greatly handicap yourself to get a competitive race. That by definition isn't "pure" racing.
 
It's what they do in touring car racing all around the world. Would you call touring car racing 'un-pure'?
 
shem
It's what they do in touring car racing all around the world. Would you call touring car racing 'un-pure'?
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That isn't the same. Success ballast is used to slow drivers slightly for a race or two to make sure nobody runs away with the championship and different drivers are winning races, the cars and drivers are still pretty evenly matched when they're all running without ballast though. Nobody is several seconds a lap faster without ballast.
 
SimonK
That isn't the same. Success ballast is used to slow drivers slightly for a race or two to make sure nobody runs away with the championship and different drivers are winning races, the cars and drivers are still pretty evenly matched when they're all running without ballast though. Nobody is several seconds a lap faster without ballast.
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You are right, however, I don't think DP take into account the weight of a driver when plumbing in the car data therefore the cars we use are actually lacking a fair bit of weight.

It may even be the case that if DP used factory specs to produce the cars they may even be using the car's dry weight.

Adding one's own weight to a car to add to the realism is something that everyone can do without complaining that it's an extra effort just to level the field because in a real world situation the drivers weight would effect the speed and handling of a car.

I do agree that the AI could have been made more competitive and equally matched with cars that would rival what we take to the race but this is what we have and, God knows, there have been complaints about this since release. It seems DP do not acknowledge the AI weakness unfortunately.
 
shem
You are right, however, I don't think DP take into account the weight of a driver when plumbing in the car data therefore the cars we use are actually lacking a fair bit of weight.

It may even be the case that if DP used factory specs to produce the cars they may even be using the car's dry weight.

Adding one's own weight to a car to add to the realism is something that everyone can do without complaining that it's an extra effort just to level the field because in a real world situation the drivers weight would effect the speed and handling of a car.

I do agree that the AI could have been made more competitive and equally matched with cars that would rival what we take to the race but this is what we have and, God knows, there have been complaints about this since release. It seems DP do not acknowledge the AI weakness unfortunately.
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I don't think it's anything to do with weight, it's just simply the AI don't attack corners quickly enough. All racing games suffer the same problems but I've not known any quite as bad as GT5. For example F1 2010 wasn't amazing, the AI were good on some tracks and average on others but generally they moved around the tracks quickly.

On the other hand take the F2010 or F2007 into a one series race on GT5 and you'll spend most of the race slamming straight into the back of the AI cars as they brake far too early, slow down too much in corners and generally crawl around the track. That for me highlights the poor AI more than anything. I remember even adding ballast up to 605kg to include driver weight as in real life but it was still the same.
 
Today I took a stock amemaiya rx7 into the a spec extreme super gt and beat all the races

i was down almost 150 hp

I forgot how easy a-spec is
 
GT is like a toolbox. It won't give you competitive races automatically, but it gives you tools to "build" them.
All you have to do is choose the car and tyres in a way that with your skills beating the AI is hard. Once you're fine with that, do it with only clean overtaking. Don't let them touch you, whatever they do. Do only realistic passings, like one would do in real life. Now if that's still not enough for you: Do it in cockpit perspective with the HUD completely off.

Edit: If you think the AI is too slow in the corners, use tyres with less grip.
 
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Z1-AV69
GT is like a toolbox. It won't give you competitive races automatically, but it gives you tools to "build" them.
All you have to do is choose the car and tyres in a way that with your skills beating the AI is hard. Once you're fine with that, do it with only clean overtaking. Don't let them touch you, whatever they do. Do only realistic passings, like one would do in real life. Now if that's still not enough for you: Do it in cockpit perspective with the HUD completely off.
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This is what I've been trying to get across for months. Well said. 👍

Why anyone would not use cockpit view and have the HUD on is completely beyond me. I stopped driving standards because of it.
 
I think the FGT championship is pretty hard.
But I'm not that good a driver, to you it could be easier.
 
Your best chance of finding good competition is online in either shuffle mode racing or same car racing.

And even then you have to hope the host is kicking out the dirty racers.
 

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